Health & Science | In the loop: SU students to test wireless grid technology

Students at Syracuse University were chosen to test a new app that makes sharing resources across different technologies, such as cellphones, computers and iPads, possible.

The new app, called WeJay, is a social radio that connects different technologies using a wireless network, said Lee McKnight, Kauffman Professor of Entrepreneurship and Innovation at the School of Information Studies. This allows for easy resource sharing without the dangers of transferring files.

"WeJay allows you to create a social network where you are collaborating with friends to make a radio station," McKnight said.

The test run at SU will be used to study how people use WeJay and what they will create with it, said Carlos Caicedo, director at the Center for Convergence and Emerging Network Technology.

SU students will begin testing the technology, but they can also invite non-SU students to participate, Caicedo said.

Three thousand SU students are expected to participate in the test run within the first 30 days, McKnight said.

Students began registering for WeJay using their SU email accounts Monday at wejay.fm.

If the test run at SU is a success, it will extend to other universities, including Tufts University, Virginia Tech and the Rochester Institute of Technology, McKnight said.

WeJay provides a fun and safe environment for students to explore the social network environment even though social networking programs, such as Facebook and Twitter, are usually banned from the school premises, said graduate student Sarah Chauncey, whose dissertation is on the use of WeJay and wireless grid technology.

Although SU will be the only one with full access to the system, Rockland County's Board of Cooperative Educational Services, an alternative therapeutic school, will also be participating in the test, Chauncey said.

Students at the high school will be using WeJay as an experimental learning opportunity, Chauncey said.

"I am trying to see if having an audience will motivate students to spend more time on their writing and oral skills," Chauncey said.

Those who are not invited cannot see the product using WeJay, which creates a private network for students, Chauncey said.

This is due to the fact that wireless grid technology does not function over a central server. Instead, the technology creates its own grid, said John Andrews, CEO of Wireless Grids Corporation, which created WeJay.

WeJay can function without a central server or third party, and by doing this, messages are sent directly from one device to another without an intermediary. This makes the apps more secure, Andrews said.

This is done by using a software called Edgeware, which was developed by WiGiT, a virtual organization whose goal is to research, test and develop open specifications for the commercialization of wireless grids, McKnight said.

WeJay is one of 10 products being developed using Edgeware, McKnight said. Other apps include a neighborhood notification system and emergency response test, which will be tested by SU police in summer 2012.

This emergency response system will enable different emergency departments, like the fire, police and EMTs, to communicate on one station rather than each department communicating separately, McKnight said.

Said McKnight: "This product can do fun stuff like WeJay and more serious things like save lives."

hmbehre@syr.edu