Workshop held in Danville teaches basics of mobile development
When his son was in grade school, Franklin County High School teacher Bill Schmachtenberg loved to seek out old educational computers 
games so the two could learn and have fun at the same time.
games so the two could learn and have fun at the same time.
Titles from the 1990s like Math Blaster and Reader Rabbit provided them with hours of fun.
Now, many video games have moved on to smartphones and tablets. Still seeing a need for educational games, Schmachtenberg founded Educational Virtual Worlds, and began creating mobile games with an educational focus.
“Everything is in the app store,” Schmachtenberg said. “There’s lot’s of educational software out there, but I wanted to do 3D educational software.”
Schmachtenberg and fellow instructor Vasili Giannoutsos helped several dozen participants develop their own mobile apps at the “Develop a Game/App in One Day” workshop Tuesday and Wednesday at the Institute for Advanced Learning and Research in Danville.
“We’re teaching participants how to make games and apps for mobile devices,” Schmachtenberg said. “I’ve streamlined the process and I’ve tried to make it as simple as I can.”
Noblis partnership paves way for education engagement
For the past school year, hundreds of Danville middle school students have been learning about career pathways and opportunities with the help of a community partner: the nonprofit research center Noblis, which has invested thousands of dollars and hours into the school system.
“They’ve made an investment with our students,” said Danville Superintendent Stanley Jones.
Officials from Noblis, which moved to the Danville River District in 2011, met with Jones in 2015. Jones and Noblis CEO Amr ElSawy eventually decided a middle school academic and career plan program would be the most successful first step in the partnership, said Jon Horin, senior manager and program coordinator at the Danville site.
“It was really fun working with Danville Public Schools to make this happen,” Horin said.
Finally, the Passport Program was ready to debut in the 2016-17 school year. Serving 450 middle school students at Bonner and Westwood middle schools, the program helps students create a career pathway to post-secondary education.
Institute debuts new Inspiration Lab
Danville’s Institute for Advanced Learning and Research unveiled a new mobile lab Thursday morning, which Don Merricks, chairman of the Institute’s board of trustees, hopes will be a “game changer for the whole region.”
The mobile lab serves eight localities in the Dan River Region encompassing more than 4,000 square miles.
The Inspiration Lab will replace the old mobile lab, which will be used by Patrick Henry Community College, according to Julie Brown, director of advanced learning at the Institute. The mobile lab has travelled more than 60,000 miles over the last seven years, according to Merricks, and served more than 52,000 people.
“IALR provides a great number of opportunities right here at this site, but when it comes to the needs of our school systems, we go to them,” Merricks, a former Virginia delegate, said.
Institute Foundation President Kris Willard thanked sponsors from the Community Foundation of the Dan River Region, Mid-Atlantic Broadband and the Verizon Foundation.
“The Inspiration Lab alleviates the need for school systems to invest thousands of dollars in providing on-site high tech labs,” Willard said. “While the amount of technology and 3D printers are impressive, the wheels are the most important part, because the Inspiration Lab can be anywhere at any time.”
“We wanted the lab to have the same effect as this building does,” Brown said. “We wanted it to have that wow moment.”
It can serve as a mobile computer lab and a natural sciences lab.
“That flexibility was really important to us, and I think you’ll see that reflected in its design,” she said.
The lab was three years in the making, and was completed with $140 leftover in the budget, Brown said jokingly.
An exterior monitor shows what is happening inside the lab and has a tablet attached to it so that visitors can plug in a flash drive and have a design 3D printed and pick it up later.
“We think this might be the first example of ‘Netflix 3D printing’ in the country outside of a research facility,” Brown said. “Think of the access it would give our rural communities. It’s tremendous.”
The lab focuses on additive manufacturing, which is a fancy term for 3D printing. Designing, coding and printing can all be done in the mobile lab.
“We want to bring a one-on-one 3D printing experience to every middle schooler in the region,” Brown said. “That’s our goal.”
Currently in the lab, there is a fuse-deposition modeling printer and a flash forge unit, so users can use the type that is best suited for their design.
Interested users can find out where the lab is on Twitter by following @IALR_Lab. The lab will be travelling all over the region.
