Grand Valley State University welcomed Max Peer, the "Around the World Biker," on the 10th stop of his 4 year, 35,000 mile “Share the Knowledge Tour.” The crowd provided a warm welcome to Max as he arrived in Mount Pleasant, Michigan.
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Max’s message resonated with students and professors…that we need a more sustainable culture…that it’s achievable through education…and with free online textbooks and resources from the Interaction Design Foundation on topics like Design Thinking, technology can be simpler and more human-centered, leading to a better run world.
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Dr. Jaideep Motwani, on behalf of Grand Valley State University, welcomed the audience and thanked Max, IDF, and SAP for making it possible for professors and students to benefit from IDF’s free educational resources on improving technology design.
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Max shared his story about his “Around the World” bike journey. His message is that education is the single most powerful way to lift people out of poverty and change lives, and Max is sharing his vision at every stop. And Max shared knowledge about free learning resources available from IDF, including textbooks, videos, and other resources on the topic of improving the design process and customer experience with technology products ranging from software, websites, mobile devices, and consumer products.
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Simha Magal shared with the audience that as a member of the SAP University Alliances program, Grand Valley State University helps develop the talent needed in the SAP ecosystem. The campus is also beginning to participate in co-innovation opportunities to expand students’ experience with analytics, enterprise mobility, and SAP HANA solutions.
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David Voss welcomed Max on behalf of SAP, which is sponsoring the tour. “We are incredibly excited by this amazing journey and we applaud Max’s effort to get the word out about the impact access to education can provide to a young person.” David continued “SAP shares Max’s and IDF’s passion for simplified design to provide a new digital, integrated and delightful consumer experience to our customers and their customers; as well as sustainability, co-innovation, and giving back to the community. That’s why we’re partnering to help Max get his message heard across North America.”
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The Share the Knowledge Tour showcases free educational resources available from Interaction-Design Foundation (IDF) focused on making technology design simpler, more human centered, and sustainable. The tour also introduces audiences to Massive Open Online Courses available from openSAP which enable anyone to freely learn about SAP’s enterprise applications including SAP HANA, the leading platform for “Big Data” analytics and real time applications.
SAP is the leading sponsor of IDF, and SAP University Alliances is arranging for universities across North America to host stops on the Share the Knowledge Tour. The North American leg of the tour reaches the Midwest in July, Vancouver in September, SAP TechEd in October, and ends in California in November. Later legs of the tour will take Max to other regions of the world.
IDF’s Professional Association enables students to receive mentoring and share their resumes among members of the IDF community, enhancing their career opportunities. Max also introduced the audience to SAP’s Massive Open Online Courses available free through openSAP, starting with the SAP HANA Developer course.
During the event, students and professors registered for free membership in IDF.
The audience was invited to follow the “Share the Knowledge Tour” online and to continue to support Max by “liking” the videos, photos, and blog posts at the University Alliances Community and University Alliances on Facebook. And the audience was invited to learn more about Interaction Design Foundation and SAP’s Sponsorship of IDF.
See Max’s other recent stops:
Georgia Southern University May 22, 2013
North Carolina A&T State University, May 31, 2013
Virginia Commonwealth University, June 10, 2013
SAP America, Newtown Square, Pennsylvania June 20, 2013
Rutgers University, June 25, 2013
Pennsylvania State University, July 2, 2013
SAP Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, July 10, 2013
Central Michigan University, July 19, 2013
SAP CONTACT
John Baxter, SAP University Alliances, john.baxter@sap.com
IDF CONTACT
Rikke Friis Dam, Co-Founder and Editor-in-Chief, The Interaction Design Foundation, rikke@interaction-design.org
About SAP University Alliances
SAP University Alliances supports colleges and universities in building the talent needed by SAP and its customers and partners, and channels innovation from universities into the SAP ecosystem. In fulfilling its goal of educating future corporate leaders, SAP University Alliances provides connections between students, customers, partners, and SAP experts. SAP donates licenses to over 1,300 University Alliances member institutions and fully outfits their professors with software and curriculum which provides students with hands-on experience with SAP applications, analytics, mobile, database & technology, cloud, and SAP HANA solutions.
About Interaction Design Foundation
IDF is a ten year old transformative non-profit enterprise focused on educating, informing and stimulating the global technology design community. The organization has created a powerful cloud based publishing model, blending free courses with an immersive web site for thought leaders, students, authors, academia, design professionals, futurists and even tech-challenged consumers.
The Denmark based foundation has self-funded throughout its ten years in existence but is now sponsored by SAP Corporation and partly funded by professionals who become supporting Foundation Members, Corporate Sponsorships and Grants.
Web: www.Interaction-Design.org
Twitter: www.twitter.com/interacting
Facebook: www.facebook.com/interactiondesign.org
