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Broadband Innovation Grant Award winners named

August 19, 2015

NIUNet logoNIU’s Division of Information Technology has announced the first set of awards for the Broadband Innovation Grant Opportunity established in February of this year.

The grant offers up to $30,000 in funding per year for three years to NIU students, faculty and staff who can develop applications that help society leverage broadband connectivity for the public good. The Broadband Innovation Grant Opportunity competition builds upon more than a decade of NIU work with community partners to establish what is now a 2,200-mile fiber optic network across the region and state.

The grants, intended to support innovative research and product development and to accelerate the pace of innovation at NIU by placing technology into the hands of entrepreneurial individuals, are awarded in two categories: “Planning/Early Stage” awards and “Implementation/Proof of Concept” awards.

Of the initial round of funding submissions, three were chosen for awards.

Planning/Early Stage

  • Gregory Porumbescu, Division of Public Administration, was awarded $12,600 for the development of a KI A mobile application to help vulnerable populations access information and public services provided by community anchor institutions such as hospitals, schools and libraries.
  • Jennifer Gray, College of Health & Human Sciences, was awarded $7,146 for her bereavement training submission. Her project provides an online bereavement training curriculum targeted to professionals working with individuals impacted by intellectual and developmental disabilities, such as Down syndrome, cerebral palsy and autism.

Implementation/Proof of Concept

  • Shannon Sohl, Center for Governmental Studies, was awarded $20,254 for Next Gen FIT, a prototype system of digital financial reporting that permits all relevant stakeholders to submit and consume information via uniform digital reports.

The next round of funding requests will open in November 2015 for FY16/17. For more information, email tlrogers@niu.edu.