By DAVID DUPONT
BG Independent News
Jerry Schnepp reached this stage of his career taking an unusual path. That’s fitting for someone who leads the Collab Lab, an initiative to spark creative thinking.
The rocker by night and innovation initiator by day recently received the Faculty Excellence Award for 2018 from the Association of Technology, Management, and Applied Engineering.
Schnepp, 42, splits his time between teaching courses in visual communications technology and directing the Collab Lab at Bowling Green State University.
The lab opened just over a year ago. “We call the Collab Lab an idea accelerator, not a maker space, not a business incubator, an idea accelerator. It’s a place people can get together with people from other disciplines and develop prototypes. It’s a place we can try things out and not be afraid of failing, and build on that learning experience to develop innovations.”
To date the lab helped launch an opioid teach-in on campus, which was both an academic and a civic endeavor.
The lab also put together an electronic art summer workshop at the Toledo Museum of Art.
Schnepp said the lab has been hosting creative thinking workshops for classes, student organizations and industry partners.
A design team from First Solar did a creative thinking workshop with the lab. “It was really valuable to them,” Schnepp said. “This is something we’ll offer to other industry partners.”
Schnepp was invited to make a presentation at Epic Toledo’s leadership summit. Epic Toledo is an organization of young professionals and young entrepreneurs who are involved in the community.
That invitation, Schnepp said, was gratifying because it recognized that the Collab Lab is viewed as a regional resource, not just a university program.
He expects in the future the lab will be able to tell stories about ideas hatched there that have grown into thriving businesses. “That’s what we envision it to be,” he said. “More importantly it’s helping to create a culture of innovation on campus and in the community.”
Schnepp marched to his own tune to get to this point. He grew up in Chicago, and started playing rock music as a 12 year old. That proved his entry into the digital world. This was a time when multi-track recording software and graphics programs including Photoshop and Illustrator were appearing on the market, and he put them to good use. “I just got interested in using computers to make music and do graphic design for my band and other bands.”
It was the last days of dial-up internet service. “People started using the internet in everything.”
He attended the University of Illinois Chicago in Communications, graduating in 2000. He didn’t find a job to his liking, so he pursued graduate studies in human computer interaction at DePaul University in Chicago. The program combined art, psychology, and computer science to study of how people use computers, Schnepp said. “It was a great fit.”
It allowed him to study computers without the background in computer science and math. He “parlayed” that into a doctoral program.
He was working on a research project, a system to translate spoken English into American Sign Language represented in a 3-D avatar.
The sub-discipline of computer graphics was emerging and that’s what he focused on.
That and playing in a metal band.
Schnepp said he took awhile to complete his doctorate.
In 2012 with his doctorate in hand he brought his talents to BGSU. He was hired to teach visual communications technology in the College of Technology, Architecture, and Applied Engineering.
Students in the program learn about web design, print, video, and photography and that all aligned with his background especially given he worked as a freelance web designer.
He teaches interactive media and has developed a course in the burgeoning field of user experience which studies interfaces.
His musical talents are on display at Stone’s Throw where he’s a regular at the Wednesday night Hump Day Revue. “Yeah, music has always been a huge part of my life.”
The honor from Association of Technology, Management, and Applied Engineering means a lot for the program. “This recognition reinforces the college’s continued efforts to develop curricula that prepare our students for industry jobs,” he stated at the time the honor was announced.
As an individual this award is also significant. “Sometimes recognition is a better motivator than anything,” he said. “Money doesn’t mean as much as just being recognized, especially by people who put their all into their profession and take a lot of pride in it.”
