The Near West Intergenerational School (NWIS), a public charter school that aims to serve families on Cleveland's near-west side, will open this fall inside of Ohio City's Garrett Morgan School of Science.

"The location in the heart of Ohio City will draw kids from the neighborhood, and many families will be able to walk to school," says Debbie Fisher, the school's recently hired Principal. "Cleveland has a huge need for quality, high-performing schools, and we really bel... Read more >

Cleveland State University's Factory Theatre is so often booked that students have to schedule rehearsals late at night. While department chair Michael Mauldin bemoans his program's outdated facilities, he realizes that it's a good problem to have.

Before Mauldin was hired in 2006 to breathe new life into the moribund Dramatic Arts Program, the school had only 21 majors. Campus officials had even considered canceling it. Today,CSU's theatre program boasts 85 majors -- an... Read more >

Interim Cleveland Municipal School District (CMSD) CEO Peter Raskind, who is being replaced by Chief Academic Officer Eric Gordon, offered some parting thoughts on improving urban education at a forum last week on underperforming schools.

Introducing himself as "the lamest of lame ducks," Raskind told the audience at Cleveland State University's Levin College of Urban Affairs that quality urban schools are critical to reducing inequality. Then he evaluated two concepts t... Read more >

Recent CWRU mechanical engineering graduates Austin Schmidt and Solomon Alkhasov won the 2011 Idea Competition, sponsored by LaunchHouse and CSU's Accelerated MBA program at Nance College of Business. They created a company called Affinity Algorithms, which develops proprietary computer arbitrage software to facilitate transactions between buyers and sellers in various online marketplaces. The software provides greater liquidity and price transparency in the marketplaces. "We are... Read more >

Researchers at CWRU have invented a polymer coating that can repair itself. Stuart Rowan, CWRU professor of macromolecular science and engineering, along with his team and researchers from the University of Fribourg in Switzerland and the Army Research Laboratory at Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland, has spent the last three years developing a rubber-like protective coating that heals itself when an ultraviolet light is shined on it for just a few seconds.

"The idea was... Read more >

It's a well known fact that institutions such as the Cleveland Clinic, Case Western Reserve University and University Hospitals are growth engines in Cleveland's economy these days. A lesser-known fact is that these institutions and others have emerged as leaders in greening Northeast Ohio's economy.

In recent months, Case, University Hospitals, Cleveland Clinic, Tri-C, Kent State, Oberlin College, Cleveland State University and the Fowler Center for Sustainable Value at... Read more >

The John Carroll University Students in Free Enterprise (SIFE) team recently won the SIFE regional competition for community outreach projects. They then traveled to the national contest in Minneapolis, where the team competed with 100 other teams from around the country.

SIFE is a global, non-profit organization that brings together a diverse network of university students, academic professionals and industry leaders around the shared mission of creating a better, mor... Read more >

As a law student at CSU's Cleveland Marshall College of Law, Art Geigel noticed a flaw in the way he and his fellow students took notes in class. Almost everybody took notes using their laptops and Microsoft Word, compiling seemingly endless documents with no way of organizing the information.

"I kept thinking to myself, 'There's a better way to do this than to keep taking notes in one constantly growing Word document,'" says Geigel.

That "better way," says G... Read more >

Hollywood might be known as the Dream Factory, but it has begun producing something far more real for Cleveland: jobs and economic growth. Thanks to the recently passed Ohio Motion Picture Tax Credit, Cleveland already is experiencing a considerable boost in the quantity and quality of movie productions that film here. And that's only the opening scene, promises Ivan Schwarz, executive director of the Cleveland Film Commission.

MC2 STEM High School was named a regional runner-up in an energy conservation competition sponsored by Alcoa Foundation and the Pew Center on Global Climate Change in Arlington, VA. The competition, called Make an Impact: Change our 2morrow (CO2), awarded STEM High School a $1,000 grant for completing the most calculations on how to reduce the carbon footprint with a carbon calculator.

"It was an opportunity for students, teachers, parents and administrators to have hands... Read more >

John Zitzner became a successful entrepreneur in the 1980s, when his software company made Inc. magazine's list of the 500 fastest growing companies.

After selling his company to Xerox in the late '90s, however, he decided to apply his business skills to a good cause. He created E City, a nonprofit organization that teaches entrepreneurship and life skills to urban youth. Yet after seeing first-hand the educational challenges that his students faced, he decided to start... Read more >

Comprised of local IT execs and university reps, the RITE Board seeks to boost the quality and reputation of Cleveland's IT sector. By encouraging students to pursue careers in IT and improving IT internships, technology companies aim to capture young IT professionals before they leave town.

Making buildings more energy efficient may not sound sexy, but once owners begin to save money on their utility bills, it gets a lot sexier, said Andrew Watterson, Cleveland's Chief of Sustainability, at last week's forum at the Levin College of Urban Affairs at Cleveland State University (CSU).

"Every dollar saved from energy-efficiency measures has an impact not only on the environment but also on your pocketbook," Watterson said at the event, entitled "Sustainable Clev... Read more >

April and May bring out the best in design during the inaugural Cleveland Design Month-and-a-Half, which features two events that show off the talents of local design students as well as regional and national designers.

The Cleveland Institute of Art's annual Spring Design Show, a tradition for more than 20 years, kicks off on Tuesday, April 19, while the Cleveland Furniture Fair, hosted by Cleveland's District of Design, begins May 16.

In the spring show stu... Read more >

When it comes to sustainability, we are all lifelong students. Cleveland's higher education institutions are not excluded from this learning process. In fact, area colleges and universities spent a year reflecting upon on-campus sustainability initiatives and ways to improve current practices.

The Collegiate Sustainable Practices Consortium (CSPC) brought together six local colleges and universities to talk about best practices regarding energy, water, food, building and ... Read more >

When the team at the Lighting Innovations Institute at John Carroll University gets an idea, it's not always the proverbial light bulb that goes on above their heads. More than likely, it's a state-of-the-art light that will make a difference in industry and everyday life.

The Lighting Innovations Institute accepts projects that, according to its website, "involve novel ideas and offer a challenge." Led by veterans in research and development in Northeast Ohio, the instit... Read more >

Part internship, part scholarship, part co-op: The New Pathway program recently launched by Cleveland State University paves the way for students to earn funds for college while teaming up with a local company that may become their employer upon graduation.

New Pathway is part of CSU's "Engaged Learning" endeavor, which seeks to create hands-on approaches toward education and career development. A major goal of New Pathway is to engage area employers in the educational an... Read more >

President Obama came to Cleveland on Tuesday to hear what small business owners say they need to grow their businesses and thus strengthen the U.S. economy. But the President took the time to praise the region for its growth in biotechnology, sustainability and other innovations.

"Cleveland is a city founded on manufacturing," the President said during his closing remarks on the Winning the Future Forum on Small Business, held at Cleveland State University's Wolstein Cent... Read more >