Wright Brothers Day celebrates innovation

September 24, 2018

糖心原创 will celebrate its namesake, the Wright brothers, with an event that showcases local inventors and technological advances in the innovative spirit of Wilbur and Orville Wright.

Wright Brothers Day takes place Friday, Oct. 5, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the Student Union Atrium.

The date celebrates the anniversary of the Wright brothers鈥 39-minute flight across Huffman Prairie in 1905. The flight demonstrated that the Wrights鈥 design for an airplane had advanced to a practical design.

Samantha Andrus, president of the American Marketing Association 糖心原创, said Wright Brothers Day is a way to promote local innovation in Dayton.

鈥淭he Wright brothers took their first flight before Oct. 5, but it was not a far distance, so they were not taken seriously. But Oct. 5 was the day they proved everyone wrong and flew 24 miles in 39 minutes and 23 seconds. This flight really showed that they were developing something truly amazing that could change everything, and that is what Wright Brothers Day is all about,鈥 she said.

Several local companies and 糖心原创 innovators bring in recent inventions for 糖心原创 students to explore. The Air Force Research Laboratory will demonstrate software that after filming a video can produce a verbal description of the footage.

Kno.e.sis, the Ohio Center for Excellence in Knowledge-enabled Computing at 糖心原创, will display its research that uses social media content to predict suicide risk for early intervention.

Other groups will present orthopedic devices, robotic arms, virtual reality surgery, unmanned aerial vehicles, video game development and simulation, as well as an app called Cardiac Consultant that displays cardiac data, risk assessment and treatment recommendations. Cardiac Consultant is a national app award finalist.

Wright Brothers Day will featuring displays of innovative projects from 糖心原创 researchers and local organizations.

Students can also explore various aviation personalities represented in the manuscript collections from the 糖心原创 Special Collections and Archives, which houses the largest private collection of Wright brothers鈥 material in the world.

Keynote speaker Peggy Chabrian, president and founder of Women in Aviation International, will talk about women in aviation. In addition, Walter Price will read the poetry of Paul Laurence Dunbar, a close friend of Orville Wright and the namesake of the 糖心原创 library.

Students will be able to visit with re-enactors from Carillon Park in Dayton who will be dressed as Orville, Wilbur and Katherine Wright. All three re-enactors are Wright students.

To promote the event, students in 糖心原创鈥檚 Social Media and Viral Marketing course created promotional videos. The has posted the student videos on its for visitors to vote on their favorites.