RemSense hopes to engage students in STEM disciplines

With her extensive background in teaching students with disabilities, Gina Anderson recognized that it is more effective for people to learn when the lesson is tied to situations to which they can relate.

“Math and science become relevant to students,” Gina explains, “when they see it move out of the abstract and become a tool for solving real-world problems … that’s when the light goes on.”

An engineer with a Ph.D. and a natural gift for math, Scott Anderson observed that Gina’s designs of online learning experiences were far more effective in conveying complex subjects than are traditional classroom methods.

“Math is a tool that allows you to be creative,” he says. “If I could show everybody in the world just one thing, it would be that if they could see how they can use math, they can do and create really great things.”

Together, over many dinner conversations, Scott and Gina came up with an idea. What if they could develop an interactive tool that would attract students to science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) disciplines by challenging them to find innovative solutions to real-world problems? At the same time, what if this system could connect students to potential employers, or even colleges and scholarships?

Scott and Gina Anderson

The result is STEM City, a web-based tool that is currently under development at Innovation Park at Notre Dame.

Scott and Gina began development of STEM City through RemSense Inc., which Scott formed in 2008 to create optical and radio remote sensing technologies for the scientific and “tactical communities” — that is, industries concerned with using remote sensing information to make tactical decisions. Such industries would include the military, airport logistics and smart-cars (enabling automatic braking, for example).

While Scott has pursued the development of engineering systems through RemSense, the company has also served as a starting point for Gina and Scott to combine their expertise to build transformative products for STEM education. Soon, the Andersons will spin STEM City off into a separate South Bend company.

Here’s how STEM City works. Companies submit actual problems to the STEM City website, and they identify the skills that likely will be required to find a solution. Next, students log in and take on the challenge of solving these problems, in the fun, online gaming environment of STEM City.

Upon completion of a STEM City exercise, a student will have demonstrated a broad range of skills in creating an innovative solution. Companies, for their part, get their problems solved, and they also can connect with these problem-solving students, whom they may end up hiring.

It’s the proverbial “win-win” scenario.

To get their promising idea off the ground, the Andersons had their pick of locations. But for them, this was an obvious choice.

“We’re not from South Bend and we have no ties to Notre Dame,” Gina says. “One of the main reasons we moved here is because we knew the Innovation Park business accelerator was here.”
From the start of their relationship with Innovation Park, Gina and Scott were immersed in an atmosphere that has presented them with a wealth of business resources they would not have gotten elsewhere.

“We came here with just the concept for our product,” Gina says. “We immediately got input from the Innovation Park team that extended our concept even further. We can now articulate what STEM City is, and why the market needs it, in a much clearer way.

“Our dialogue with the Innovation Park team has also introduced us to potential clients and given us a lot of confidence — enough to begin making sales calls,” adds Scott.

“Our experience at the Park has been overwhelmingly positive for us,” Gina says. “The Innovation Park staff really wants to help you succeed. Special attention is given to you as a client here that you just wouldn’t have in an office building. We’ve had coaching on every aspect of running a business. We even learned of numerous grant applications we never would have considered.

“Just to be exposed to this whole culture of entrepreneurship has been tremendously motivating,” she continues. “It’s been so great and timely for us to be able to talk to people at Innovation Park who have ‘been there, done that,’ and learn how successful entrepreneurs look at and solve the many challenges of entering the market with a new idea.”

Scott and Gina hope to have a working prototype by early 2011. If all goes as planned, they expect STEM City will attract more students — especially under-represented populations such as women and minorities — to the STEM disciplines by showing that they can make a real difference in the world.

“If you’ve ever watched a Russian film, it’s usually the scientist who gets the girl in the end,” Scott says. “He’s the hero. In American movies, scientists are portrayed as socially awkward. We want to show kids that being a scientist or engineer is exciting. It lets you do things that have never been done before. You can be the hero and change the world!”