Regional Polytechnic Applies Knowledge and Know-How to National Challenge

The University of Wisconsin – Stout, Wisconsin’s Polytechnic University, is located in the city of Menomonie nestled on the edge of Lake Menomin. The university focuses on offering undergraduate and graduate educations that apply theory and skills learned in the classroom to career-focused projects. Along with classroom learning students and faculty engage in a number of scholastic work that breaks the normal silos of universities.

One such endeavor is the Connect Ability Challenge. Individuals and teams of students at UW-Stout from various majors like vocational rehabilitation, game development and design, and applied math and computer science are seeking to connect and address challenges in the lives of American with disabilities. The Connect Ability Challenge is presented by AT&T NYU and is a three month global software development competition. The competition seeks to address various issues faced by many Americans living with a disability.

A workshop was held entitled “Developer Day” at UW-Stout in May to introduce students to the competition and various resources found throughout the university campus. UW-Stout will be competing against other national university giants; Johns Hopkins University Duke University, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Initial sign-up for the competition ends May 27^th at 5pm with the final decision to be made in July.  One part of the final judging with rely on a popularity vote of semi-finalist products. Stay tuned to the Momentum West Facebook and Twitter for a link with the voting in June.

For more information on the University of Wisconsin – Stout visit http://www.uwstout.edu/

For more information on the Connect Ability Challenge visit http://connectability.challengepost.com/

Story adapted from original posting by Tom Still May 16, 2015.