slides: RI Innovation Ideas - Get a Preview of the Innovation Expo

Wednesday, June 20, 2012

Rhode Island Foundation has been working to help foster innovation to improve Rhode Island. Rhode Island needs good ideas and people who are willing to experiment and ready to collaborate.

Throughout the Foundation’s recent Rhode Island Innovation Fellowship initiative, applicants have generated creative and functional idea that could spark RI's economy and quality of life.

On Thursday, June 21, RI Foundation hosts the Innovation Expo, modeled after an old-fashioned poster board session. More than 60 applicants for the Innovation Fellowship have signed up to share their proposals.

Join the conversation and see the innovation

Thursday, June 21, 2012, 5:30-7:00 p.m.
The Rhode Island Foundation, One Union Station, Providence, RI
RSVP by June 18 to innovation@rifoundation.org or (401) 427-4011

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NBA Math Hoops

Khalil Fuller

NBA Math Hoops is an innovative, competitive, fast-paced board game that teaches and applies important fundamental math skills. Students use real-world NBA and WNBA player data to compete against classmates in timed, simulated basketball games. Fuller proposed using funds to produce classroom kits for Rhode Island middle school students and to test and analyze data.

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Tails to Teach

Laura Carlson

Tails To Teach is a RI-based 501(c)(3) nonprofit dedicated to providing humane and animal-assisted education in RI’s under-served urban schools. The primary goal is to help children explore and develop empathy, kindness, and compassion to help reduce bullying and violence. Carlson would like to develop a classroom curriculum for 2^nd, 4^th, and 7^th grades and recruit volunteers for each school.

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Free Lease Program

Lyndsey Daigneault

Rhode Island’s non-profit “Free Lease Program” would foster economic development, bringing small businesses and jobs to Rhode Island. The program aims to incubate a charitable program to solicit donations of commercial leases from property owners in exchange for existing tax deductions and the promise of future rental income when the lease is renewed at market value.

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Financial Reform/Muni Ban

Tom Sgouros

This proposal would establish an association of cities and towns to do their financial business. The association would look a lot like a bank – taking deposits, holding checking accounts. But it would not hold its deposits; it would place them at local banks and credit unions in exchange for enhancing credit to local businesses, or lending to the city and town governments themselves. The result will be a set of stronger local financial institutions and a stronger local economy.

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Thinking Via Music

Martin Gardiner

With a background in brain research and music training, Gardiner proposed developing a statewide program that inserts 10 minutes per day of music skill training into preschool classrooms across the state. His previous research suggested that musical training can boost math and verbal language achievement in elementary school students, especially in those from impoverished homes. Initial pilot work with this program in 11 Head Start and 2 CCRI preschool classrooms has shown feasibility and consistently great enthusiasm from children, teachers and administrators.

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Granny Squibb Company

Robin Squibb

Squibb’s idea is for the Rhode Island-based Granny Squibb Company not only to make “astonishingly delicious” iced tea, but to successfully promote a positive, upbeat image of Rhode Island, similar to what Ben & Jerry’s has done for Vermont.

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You Are Not Alone

Wayne Grover

The mission of You Are Not Alone (YANA) is to eliminate loneliness and to be the catalyst for compassion through one-to-one connections. Using an online community, establishing a YANA Foundation, and creating YANA items and causes, Grover aims to build a Rhode Island-based global organization – through both a for-profit and non-profit structure - to listen, connect, celebrate, and care about others.

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Nalari Health

Mark Treat

Nalari Health is a young Rhode Island company founded with the mission to “bring online healthcare to life.”Treat proposes using Nalari technology to deliver healthcare services online, facilitate live interaction between patients and physicians, and extend healthcare into people’s homes, thus increasing access to care while delivering cost savings.

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Edu Tech Review

Kate Wilson

Wilson wants to bring Rhode Island to the forefront of educational progress through technology, social media, and research by creating a web-based information exchange for Rhode Island educators to review various technologies - the Education Technology Review. The exchange would allow teachers, administrators, and parents to review, comment and compare various technologies, along with effectiveness on a variety of learning types, curriculum alignment, and costs.

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Join the Community

Rob Gallo

“Join the Community” is a program that offers hands-on learning sabbaticals for teachers, youth-serving professionals, and select student leaders who want to develop a holistic, long-term response to social and emotional struggles in and outside of school. Groups would receive training in curriculum implementation at Gallo’s camp in New Hampshire and maintain a support and coaching network in Rhode Island.