The National Center for Education Research (NCER) supports rigorous research that addresses the nation’s most pressing education needs, from early childhood to adult education.
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IES/SBIR Product Wins Software Competition in New York CityOn November 29, a Massachusetts-based firm Fluidity Software, Inc., won the top prize for the "Most Innovative Technology Product" and was the runner-up for "Most Likely to Succeed" at the Innovation Incubator competition in New York City. Fluidity's software product FluidMath, was funded in part by the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program at the Institute of Education Sciences (IES) within the U.S. Department of Education. For more details on the grant, click here.
The FluidMath software in conjunction with its online professional development website enables teachers and students to create, solve, graph and animate math and physics problems all in their own handwriting on digital-ink enabled devices like Tablet PCs and Interactive Whiteboards. For teachers, it is designed to assist in creating dynamic instructional materials for the classroom and is intended to provide engaging learning experiences. For students, it is designed to help explore and understand concepts in mathematics and science. Click here for a video demonstration of FluidMath.
The Innovation Incubator event was hosted by the Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA) through its Ed-Tech Business Forum. FluidMath won the award among a group of 29 applicants and 11 finalists. At the forum, the project's Principal Investigator, Don Carney, provided a live demo of FluidMath to more than 130 participants in the audience.
The IES SBIR Program provides up to $1,050,000 in funding to firms and partners for the research and development, and evaluation of commercially viable education technology products or tools. Through its annual competition the program funds the development of products to improve student learning or to improve teacher efficiency in education delivery settings, products to improve outcomes among infants or toddlers in early intervention settings or students in special education settings, or tools used by researchers in the field of education. For information on the 2012 program solicitations and for video demos of more than 20 other education technology products supported by the IES SBIR program, click here.
The FluidMath software enables teachers and students to create, solve, graph and animate math and physics problems on digital-ink enabled devices like Tablet PCs and Interactive Whiteboards