SU iSchool associate professor Lee McKnight debuts wireless grids software at 2008 International Consumer Electronics Show

SU iSchool associate professor Lee McKnight debuts wireless grids software at 2008 International Consumer Electronics ShowJanuary 14, 2008Margaret Costello Spillettmcostell@syr.edu

Attendees at the 2008 International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas provided positive feedback on the debut of Innovaticus, the latest wireless software endeavor by Syracuse University School of Information Studies associate professor Lee McKnight’s young company, Wireless Grids Corp. Many expressed interest in becoming customers when the product reaches the market. The new software allows people to collaborate and share files and hardware with themselves or other people using a variety of devices across many different networks, such as Bluetooth, Wimax and Wi-Fi.

“One device will never be smart enough to do everything all by itself, but it can be smart enough to work with stuff that is already out there,” McKnight says. Innovaticus coordinates all available resources and allows them to be accessible from a single device.

His company has partnered with the School of Information Studies’ Wireless Grids Lab and Nokia on the software research and development, presenting early implementations of Innovaticus at research meetings at Syracuse and Stanford universities, and at Nokia Research Center in Palo Alto, Calif. Their initial success has caught the eye of Intel Corp., France Telecom and New Zealand Telecom, to name a few companies.

This semester, the company will launch Innovaticus in the Arts Adventure Learning Community in SU’s Boland Hall and also will test out the new software in residence halls at the University of West Indies in Trinidad. Lehigh University and Moravian College in Pennsylvania are also interested in early adoption of Innovaticus.

“This software will be beneficial for SU, the startup company, and for faculty and students who get involved in it,” McKnight says. “It’s going to be a major change in the way we communicate, the way our devices interact, and the way we interact with the digital world around us. And the best thing is that the change is going to occur here first.”