The Connective Corridor is a stage for new technologies, and there’s no better example than the plaza at Syracuse Stage.  Professor Ed Lipson’s company, SenSyr, LLC, focuses on the interaction of humans with computers, and their electronic interfaces are the stars of the captivating “singing sidewalk” and variably illuminated panels at the plaza.  As CEO of SenSyr, the SU physics professor helped bring the project to life, along with a creative team that included SenSyr partner and chief engineer, Paul Gelling; assistant director of UPSTATE (SU’s School of Architecture), Joe Sisko; and managing director of Syracuse Stage, Jeff Woodward. Sisko, who has served as the plaza project manager, says, “When the request was made for something large-impact and interactive I knew Gelling and Lipson from SenSyr were the team to bring into the project.”

The 40 special, red-colored, “singing” pavers, an extension of SenSyr’s prior work with custom pressure sensors, were a technical challenge given the thermal-expansion variations in a four-season environment.  The interactive pavers are complemented by eight innovative high-intensity LED panels containing electromagnetic sensing technology, much like radar, and programmable for color variations based on motion-sensing, all based on coding developed by Gelling, who also designed and implemented the electronics. Gelling was formerly a design engineer with SU’s High Energy Physics Group, and prior to that was a senior biomedical engineer at SUNY Upstate Medical University, as well as a programmer for SU’s Brain Research Laboratory.

 

 

Besides funding the deployment of these technologies, the Connective Corridor also supported “performance art” audio programming for the singing sidewalk, orchestrated by Emmett Van Slyke, a producer/composer/musician, and owner of Black Lagoon Productions.

Sisko says further, “The plaza’s interactive system has been designed to be malleable—to accommodate change in the future, an invitation of sorts to students and faculty to propose new and different ways to use the technology. We want to encourage people to participate in its ongoing development.”

Dr. Lipson completed his Ph.D. at California Institute of Technology (Caltech) in experimental nuclear physics and went on to do postdoctoral research there in biophysics, working with Nobel Laureate Prof. Max Delbrück.  He joined the SU Physics Department in 1976, continuing research he began at Caltech, and then in the 1990s extending his work to include medical imaging, telemedicine, distributed medical intelligence, and Web-based human-computer interface technologies for people with severe disabilities.

It is not accidental that this project combines Lipson’s experience in computer interface technology with his passion for music.  With interests in classical and international (world-beat) music, he plays bongo, conga and djembe drums, and has performed with The Celebration Band, and with Adanfo African Drum and Dance Company.  The “singing sidewalk” has its own unique beat, as anyone who has “played on it” can attest.

 

 

 

Dr.  Lipson is an engaged scholar and an entrepreneur.  He founded SenSyr in 2003 as a spin-off from MindTel LLC, which he had co-founded with David Warner in 1997, in affiliation with the CASE Center (Center for Advanced Systems and Engineering), a New York State Center for Advanced Technology based at Syracuse University.  Through SenSyr, Lipson and Gelling have continued to develop and commercialize interface electronics, sensors, firmware and programming applications, as well as some OEM manufacturing.  SenSyr’s product line includes computer interfaces, relay boards, photocells, pressure sensors, accelerometers, and other devices, with applications for the biomedical and advanced building controls sectors, as well as related industries.

Dr. Lipson twice chaired the physics department at SU.  Since 2007 he has been a Kauffman Professor of Entrepreneurship at SU, and he holds adjunct appointments in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at SU and in Radiology at SUNY Upstate Medical University.  Lipson and Gelling formed a collaboration several years ago with Marek Podgorny and Roman Markowski, principals of CollabWorx, a Tech Garden company.  The four or them they won a series of Technology Application and Demonstration (TAD) awards, funded by the EPA through the Syracuse Center of Excellence (CoE)  These research projects, the last of which was completed in summer 2011, involved web-based, indoor climate control systems to address energy conservation, air quality, and human performance.  The CollabWorx and SenSyr team members, together with CoE leadership, were awarded a U.S. patent in 2011 for their technology, and the foursome then founded IndoorControls LLC, a new venture to develop building control and automation systems to significantly save energy and reduce environmental impact.  IndoorControls is based at The Tech Garden,  a Connective Corridor venue. In 2009, Dr. Lipson, together with three SU faculty co-PI’s, was awarded a 2-year, $200,000 Chancellor’s Leadership Project grant, entitled “Syracuse Entrepreneurial Ecosystem Development (SEED).”