CONSTRUKTS Inc. Awarded Competitive Grant From the National Science Foundation
WILMINGTON, N.C., September 17, 2021 (Newswire.com) - CONSTRUKTS Inc. has been awarded a National Science Foundation (NSF) Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant for $256,000 (Award #2110698) to conduct research and development (R&D) work on an EdTech platform to strengthen spatial thinking skills and mathematics competency for middle and high school students. U.S. students, age fifteen, tested below the global average, on the 2018 OECD PISA evaluation, in their ability to interpret, recognize, and without direct instructions understand how a real-world situation can be represented mathematically. CONSTRUKTS combines hands-on learning and learning with computers to address that achievement gap.
The CONSTRUKTS EdTech platform is founded on learner-centered research. CONSTRUKTS incorporates curriculum to support, creative problem solving, spatial thinking, fine motor dexterity, and knowledge transfer to real-world situations. To achieve these goals, the CONSTRUKTS EdTech platform integrates Internet-of-Things (IoT), mixed reality (XR), and artificial intelligence (AI) technologies.
"NSF is proud to support the technology of the future by thinking beyond incremental developments and funding the most creative, impactful ideas across all markets and areas of science and engineering," said Andrea Belz, Division Director of the Division of Industrial Innovation and Partnerships at NSF. "With the support of our research funds, any deep technology startup or small business can guide basic science into meaningful solutions that address tremendous needs."
"We are honored that CONSTRUKTS, Inc. is among the companies selected by the National Science Foundation to develop a product that is founded on a blend of interdisciplinary research including Design, Human Centered Computing, Engineering, and Learning Sciences," said Pamela L. Jennings, Ph.D., CEO of CONSTRUKTS, Inc. "This round of funding, in addition to previous funding from the National Science Foundation CreativeIT and Cyber-Manufacturing programs, will support the pilot launch of the CONSTRUKTS platform for formal and informal learning environments." CONSTRUKTS, Inc. partners have included the Highway1 Hardware Start-up Incubator (a PCH International Company), Microsoft HoloLens for Academic Research initiative, and Wolfram Research.
Pamela L. Jennings, Ph.D., CEO, CONSTRUKTS, Inc., is a former National Science Foundation Program Director in Human Centered Computing. She led the CreativeIT program that funded STEM research that integrated the arts and humanities. She was a committee member for the National Academies of Sciences study "The Integration of the Humanities and Arts with Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine in Higher Education". As an academic she developed programs bridging the arts, design, and human centered computing. Pamela's early career experiences in design research at IBM and SRI International continue to influence her work.
About CONSTRUKTS, Inc. - sparking the aha! in learning
CONSTRUKTS, Inc. aims to prepare a diversity of learners to become future innovators by emphasizing creativity as a catalyst for inquiry and discovery. CONSTRUKTS, Inc. is a consumer electronics company that develops Internet-of-Things (IoT), mixed reality (XR), and artificial intelligence (AI) EdTech applications. CONSTRUKTS, Inc. is a Delaware Corporation.
Contact: Pamela L. Jennings, Ph.D., construktsLearn@gmail.com | www.construkts.com
Source: CONSTRUKTS, Inc.
