West Shore team wins Hyland Software Competition

[Edward Favre]

A team from West Shore Career-Tech, housed in Lakewood High School, captured the 1st annual Software Innovation Showdown: High School Edition presented by Hyland Software held April 27 at the software company’s Westlake headquarters. Congratulations to Sydney Ward, Kyle Kasper, Matt Kerrigan, and Liam O’Donnell, who made up the Happy Feet Team.

Hyland Software, voted one of the Best Places to Work in the U.S., sponsored the Innovation Showdown to encourage students to learn how to create a business plan, prototype, and presentation to answer the question: “How can you use technology to solve a business problem?” The Happy Feet Team’s presentation included a video and web site and 30-plus page PowerPoint presentation on its product, feet warmers that insert into shoes and charge kinetically from walking.

High school students on four different teams spent a week working with industry professionals on-site at Hyland Software and independently after school. In addition to working with the business professionals, students also received meals, prizes, and had a rewarding, hands-on, professional experience.

“It was really cool how the project actually all came together,” said junior Matt Kerrigan. “It actually felt like a professional setting. West Shore is great at giving us these kind of opportunities.”

Innovation ideas ranged from the winning team’s feet warmers, a medical app that ran on smart phones to aid nurses treating patients, another app that locates lost keys by giving you a map or alert, and a web-based product that could help plan a vacation by merging sites such as MapQuest, Cheap Gas, and Facebook.