Carlow University has received a $205,000 grant commitment from the Claude Worthington Benedum Foundation to establish a satellite on its campus of Carnegie Mellon University’s CREATE Lab. 

The satellite will join three previously established CREATE Lab satellites at Marshall University, West Virginia University and West Liberty University in West Virginia.

This latest satellite is being established collaboratively with Carlow’s School of Education and The Campus School of Carlow University, and will focus on interdisciplinary practices in education and high performance learning.  The Campus School will implement two CREATE Lab projects, Arts & Bots and GigaPan.  The School of Education will serve as the lead for another CREATE Lab project, The Children’s Innovation Project (CIP), and will be implementing it at Pittsburgh Allegheny K-5.

“The CREATE Lab Satellite model is a great approach to innovation in learning,” said James Denova, vice president of the Claude Worthington Benedum Foundation.  “We have learned in West Virginia that combining CMU’s robotics and computer science talent with progressive centers of professional development leads to measurable advances in the classroom.”

The CREATE (Community Robotics, Education and Technology Empowerment) Lab is part of Carnegie Mellon’s Robotics Institute and is directed by Illah Nourbakhsh, professor of robotics. Collaboration and sustained involvement with the community are significant components of the mission of the CREATE Lab, which is both a technology breeding ground and a community partner. 

 “The CREATE Lab is pleased to partner with Carlow to help future teachers prepare their students to become technologically fluent,” said Dror Yaron, the lab’s outreach director. “The next generation of students should look at technology as a raw material – something that can be used to achieve community and/or personal goals. We envision the four schools of education – three in West Virginia and Carlow – in partnership with CREATE Lab and ASSET STEM Education, to work together as a network to develop, validate, and share best practices. That has already begun to happen.” 

“We believe having a CREATE Lab satellite at the Campus School will benefit the Campus School students and faculty, and also Carlow’s School of Education faculty and students,” said Suzanne Mellon, president of Carlow University.  “We thank the Benedum Foundation for recognizing the potential in this unique opportunity for both students and faculty to learn and excel.”