Local officials to join area entrepreneurs to talk with students about STEM success

BUFFALO, N.Y. — High school students from the International Preparatory School at Grover will learn how excellence in STEM fields leads to new companies in Western New York on March 18 as part of BPS STEM Entrepreneur Day.

43 North Director John Gavigan will brief the students on the area’s start-up activity and what it takes to be an entrepreneur, then emcee a panel of entrepreneurs.

• Judith Weiland has experience with two companies, The Randforce Associates and Talking Pictures, LLC. Its marketplace app is PixStori.
• Rob Barber is the co-founder of Ethos Studios, a recent University at Buffalo graduate and client at tenX co-working space, and is developing gaming apps for corporate marketing.
• Entrepreneur Steve Cerne is administrator for AccuTheranostics, a client in UB’s BioSciences Incubator. This company is focused on a technology to facilitate more efficient chemo treatments for cancer patients.

The students will have stories to share as well with their Virtual Enterprise program.

Rep. Brian Higgins, Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown and New York State Assemblyman Sean Ryan will join Buffalo Public Schools Associate Superintendent Jim Weimer, for this closing event, part of a month-long series of programs that celebrate the science, technology, engineering and math fields and are designed to inspire and encourage students to think about pursuing STEM career opportunities.

News media are invited to attend from 9-10 a.m., Friday March 18, at BPS#198, The International Preparatory School at Grover, 110 Fourteenth St.

UB facilitates the public/private alliance, Buffalo Public Schools STEM Experience, which has developed new programs in response to industry and educational trends while also aligning with existing STEM programs. BPS STEM Experience events held in 2015-16 included: Genome Day; Planetarium Day; Advanced Manufacturing Day; Nano at Work; the Science of Hockey; Solar Energy; STEM Read-Aloud and the ISEP Science Summit.

Coordinating partners are the City of Buffalo, Buffalo Public Schools, Interdisciplinary Science and Engineering Partnership, UB, SUNY Buffalo State, Erie Community College, SUNY, the New York State Center of Excellence in Bioinformatics and Life Sciences, New York State Center of Excellence in Materials Informatics, Buffalo & Erie County Public Library, the Buffalo Museum of Science and the Buffalo Sabres.

Other sponsoring partners include National Grid, the Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority and Roswell Park Cancer Institute. Others are Buffalo Manufacturing Works, Praxair, Thermo Fisher Scientific, EverFi, Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus, dig, Lamar Advertising, Science Exploration Day and Tech Savvy.