Diversity & Inclusion

Wilco Electronic Systems partners with Temple Urban Apps and Maps to build mobile applications to benefit PHA community

Wilco Electronic Systems, Inc. and Temple University’s Urban Apps and Maps program are teaming up to improve digital access by building community-focused mobile applications for the Philadelphia Housing Authority residential community. The partnership, announced in February at the Fox School of Business 2012 Design Challenge, brings Wilco, Philadelphia’s largest privately owned black cable service provider, […]

Executive Vice President of Wilco Electronic Systems Brigitte Daniel (right).

Wilco Electronic Systems, Inc. and Temple University’s Urban Apps and Maps program are teaming up to improve digital access by building community-focused mobile applications for the Philadelphia Housing Authority residential community.

The partnership, announced in February at the Fox School of Business 2012 Design Challenge, brings Wilco, Philadelphia’s largest privately owned black cable service provider, together with students at Temple’s new business school department and the PHA residential community to do some digital problem solving for North Philadelphians with limited access to technology.

The five-year goal, Wilco Executive Vice President Brigitte Daniel told Technically Philly, is to create a vibrant urban ecosystem for digital entrepreneurship in the region.

“Essentially, the ideal end result of the program is to stimulate economic development, job creation and business ventures in underserved areas of Philadelphia and across the Northeast,” said Daniel, who Technically Philly has covered previously.

Wilco, the primary cable service provider to the PHA community, will act as an intermediary between the different groups, facilitating the flow of ideas between Temple students and PHA residents. Wilco and Temple will also work together to organize training sessions for PHA residents so that they can more easily adopt the new technologies, which will all be designed to be downloadable to either PHA resident homes or smart phones.

The concept for this partnership developed soon after Wilco led the creation of the Freedom Rings Partnerships, now called Keyspots, Daniel told Technically Philly.

“Wilco began discussions with Temple University in early January 2012 to assist with coming up with innovative ways to engage the communities surrounding Temple’s campuses, implementation of technology ideas that would address community needs, and incorporate and place the community at the center of the development process, within Temple’s new Apps and Maps program,” Daniel said. “So the partnership is very recent.”

Funding for this unique partnership, which a press release dubbed a “private-public-people partnership,” comes from two grants awarded to Temple University. The first, from the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Economic Development Administration (EDA), was a $500,000 grant to help build the Urban Apps and Maps Studio. The National Science Foundation awarded Temple $200,000 to establish a test bed of campus and urban wireless networks as
part of Global Environment for Network Innovations (GENI). Technically Philly covered the receipt of these grants here.

Some of the ideas generated at the Fox Design Challenge are the source of inspiration for what the Urban Apps and Maps students are currently working to create for the PHA residents, Daniel told Technically Philly.

Some of those ideas include, an app that will help residents find fresh vegetables from local farms, an app that helps PHA residents find Temple student tutors based on youth needs, one that connects Temple Hospital’s outreach program to PHA residents, and one that streamlines the process of finding various social services.

The PHA residents aren’t the only beneficiaries of this new partnership. Temple students also have the opportunity to design and build applications that have real world implications, hopefully helping a new generation of students understand the impact of digital access.

Companies: Temple University Urban Apps & Maps Studio / Wilco Electronic Systems
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