TROY, N.Y. — Burt Swersey, a lecturer in Rensselaer’s department of mechanical, aerospace, and nuclear engineering, has been awarded the 2007 Olympus Lifetime of Educational Innovation Award for his dedication to innovative thinking and his commitment to students and their learning.

Burt Swersey, a lecturer in the Rensselaer’s department of mechanical, aerospace, and nuclear engineering, is the winner of the 2007 Olympus Lifetime of Educational Innovation award. Photo Credit: Rensselaer/Kris Qua

“Burt Swersey’s passion for educating the next generation of innovators is paving the way for these gifted students to change the world,” said Acting Provost Robert Palazzo. “Burt’s award serves as a recognition of our efforts at Rensselaer to teach students how to identify problems and needs and seek creative solutions.”

“Looking at the world today, billions of people are struggling to survive, to maintain a living, or even have fresh drinking water, and the environment faces challenges that affect us all,” Swersey said. “These are real problems, and the solutions will require empathy, strong technical skills, and hard work.”

“The challenge is recognizing these problems and having the courage to say that we’re going to fix them, even before we know how or even if it is possible,” added Swersey. “This is the mind-set that we strive to instill in our students so that they can have a positive impact on people’s lives.”

Prior to joining Rensselaer, Swersey was a successful innovator in the medical field. He developed a number of important inventions, including an extremely accurate scale to weigh patients, together with bed and instrumentation, revolutionizing the treatment of water loss in patients with severe burns. For the past 18 years, Swersey has taught the ideals and methods of innovation and has served as a role model to students. Many of these students have made significant impacts, either as entrepreneurs or as product designers for well-established companies, accumulating patents and business plan competition awards.    

Burt Swersey is pictured with Rensselaer alumnus John Blackburn ’05, president of BullEx Digital Safety, a company that has developed a fire extinguisher training technology that generates flames in clean-burning, propane-fed pans equipped with digital sensors. Founded in 2003, the company’s invention stemmed from the founders’ work in Inventor’s Studio, an engineering course taught by Swersey that is designed to promote innovation and give students hands-on experience with the process of developing a commercially viable product. Photo Credit: Rensselaer/Kris Qua

Olympus announced additional 2007 winners in the Olympus Innovation Award Program, including Deborah Streeter of Cornell University and William Grant of the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB). The program recognizes individuals who have fostered and demonstrated innovative thinking in higher education. 

The winners received their awards March 22 from George Steares, vice president emeritus, Olympus America, in Tampa, Fla., at the 11^th Annual Meeting of the National Collegiate Inventors and Innovators Alliance (NCIIA). 

“Congratulations to the 2007 winners of the Olympus Innovation Award Program,” said Steares. “I was most impressed with their innovative teaching methods and the profound impact they have had on so many students to become successful inventors and entrepreneurs. Fostering innovation and entrepreneurship, a key element of Olympus’ management philosophy, is essential for companies to succeed in the U.S. and even more so internationally.”

Phil Weilerstein, NCIIA executive director, added, “The 2007 winners once again illustrate the essential role that higher education can play in grooming this country’s next generation of innovators and entrepreneurs.

We are pleased about the visibility and the high quality of applications the Olympus Innovation Award Program is enjoying and look forward to continue our partnership with Olympus to make the program even more successful.”

Streeter, the Bruce F. Failing senior associate professor of personal enterprise in Cornell University’s Department of Applied Economics and Management, won the Olympus Innovation Award in recognition for her contributions to Cornell and, more broadly, for being a pioneer in innovation and entrepreneurship education. The judges were particularly impressed with Streeter’s “e-Clips” initiative, a collection of more than 6,000 digital video clips on entrepreneurship, the world’s largest such online collection. 

Grant, program manager of the Technology Management Program at UCSB’s Center for Entrepreneurship & Engineering Management, received the Olympus Emerging Educational Leader Award for his work at UCSB in creating and managing extracurricular activities that enable students to network and share knowledge and experience with successful scientists, entrepreneurs, and other business experts. 

Streeter, Swersey, and Grant were among numerous qualified professionals nominated by colleagues at NCIIA member institutions, including many top colleges and research institutions in the United States. The Olympus Innovation Award Program, now in its third year, represents Olympus’ ongoing commitment to technological innovation and education. For more information about the program, see backgrounder at www.olympuspresspass.com, and contact the NCIIA at info@nciia.org or visit www.nciia.org.

About Olympus
Olympus is a precision technology leader, creating innovative opto-digital solutions in healthcare, life science, and consumer electronics products. Olympus works collaboratively with its customers and its affiliates worldwide to leverage R&D investment in precision technology and manufacturing processes across diverse business lines. These include:

• Gastrointestinal endoscopes, accessories, and minimally invasive surgical products;
• Advanced clinical and research microscopes;
• Lab automation systems, chemistry-immuno and blood bank analyzers and reagents;
• Digital cameras and voice recorders.

Olympus serves healthcare and commercial laboratory markets with integrated product solutions and financial, educational, and consulting services that help customers to efficiently, reliably, and more easily achieve exceptional results.  Olympus develops breakthrough technologies with revolutionary product design and functionality for the consumer and professional photography markets, and also is the leader in gastrointestinal endoscopy and clinical and educational microscopes. For more information, visit www.olympusamerica.com.

About NCIIA
The NCIIA was established in 1995 with support from The Lemelson Foundation. Its mission is to foster invention, innovation, and entrepreneurship in higher education — components of the higher education curriculum that are vital to the nation’s economic future. The NCIIA accomplishes its goals by supporting curricula and programs that encourage the development and the work of E-Teams – multidisciplinary teams of students, faculty, and industry mentors working together to take an idea for a technological innovation and bring it through prototype development to commercialization. The “E” stands for excellence and entrepreneurship.