Education

Techstars Spotlight: Startup hopes to bridge teacher-school gap

Matching best-fit teachers to school districts can be challenging, Michael Barnes said. Serving nearly three years as a district talent manager at Austin Achieve public schools, in Austin, Texas, Barnes felt a lot of pressure to make the right decisions for students. “Oftentimes I would stay up until 2 a.m., wishing I had better teachers…

CAPS Network

CAPS put grads on top, alumni say

Education innovation is a growing industry in Kansas City. Leaders say it has grown tremendously within the past two years and will eventually impact the region’s talent pipeline. One of the metro’s trailblazing programs is Blue Valley Center for Advanced Professional Studies, CAPS. The program began in the Blue Valley School District in 2009 as…

Eclipse watch: Drones to help UMKC-led researchers analyze gridlock

With all eyes on the sky for Monday’s rare solar eclipse, the heavens will be watching back. A team of volunteer drone pilots, research specialists and emergency management officials plan to use a fleet of unmanned aerial vehicles to provide real-time observation and analysis of Kansas City-area traffic at two likely congestion points during the…

SXSW

Voting open: KC-based efforts vie for spots among SXSW 2018 panels

SXSW 2018 is still six months away, but members of the Kansas City startup community need supporters’ help now to land a coveted spot on the Austin-based conference’s panel lineup for March. At least three proposals with KC ties are among those being considered during SXSW’s PanelPicker Community Voting process, which runs through Aug. 25….

‘Hybrid’ connections key to healthy entrepreneurial ecosystem, researcher says

Social research shows innovation is budding in Kansas City, Karen Stephenson said. “I think that the heartland is where the innovation of the future is coming from,” Dr. Karen Stephenson, a Harvard-educated anthropologist, said. “It doesn’t come from the coasts. When you look at what drives innovation and where a lot of these Silicon Valley…