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  Big Data on Campus to Decline Dropout Rates?

  What if colleges could predict whether students would drop out of college before they had a chance to? How helpful would this information be in reducing dropout rates and increasing graduation rates?

  Well, a new system may be able to help do just that.

  "We have identified factors that can be predictors of student success, which gives colleges the ability to flag at-risk students," says Eric Reich of Higher One's Campus Labs platform. "Now, thanks to Higher One's Campus Labs platform, colleges are able to use sophisticated data analysis techniques to understand more about students."

  Clues to how students are doing include how often they participate in campus activities (like sporting events or student organizations), how often they use campus services (such as checking in at the financial aid office, career center or computer labs) and how engaged they are with their own course work (providing course feedback or visiting professors during office hours).

  All of these actions create data that institutions can capture, and all of these actions have been shown to increase the likelihood of a student to graduate. It makes sense, but only in recent years have schools embraced the technology that can gather and analyze these data so the college can really identify at-risk students and "tweak" their programs to help.

  "Using Campus Labs, an advisor can actually detect patterns of students who are not successful and intervene to give them the guidance at the critical time -- before it's too late," says Reich.

  Just look at Northern Arizona University, which recently partnered with Higher One to help the University collect data, collaborate across divisions, embrace student assessment and ultimately guide decisions by administrators.

  "Freshman outreach has been very successful for us," says Erin Grisham, executive director of educational support service at Northern Arizona. "Students we meet with retain at higher rates than those we don't meet with."

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  Engineers as Entrepreneurs

  Engineers have given the world many of the great innovations we live by today -- Thomas Edison, George Westinghouse, the Wright Brothers and Henry Ford, just to mention some household names.

  But did you know what else each of those great engineers did to realize success? They founded great enterprises to support the potential of their engineering innovations.

  The great American tradition of engineers-as-entrepreneurs continues today. Young, ambitious visionaries are still coming forward, stoked with ideas and the savvy to bring these ideas to life by bringing them to market. Sometimes they've conceived a previously undreamt-of way to improve some aspect of life we all face every day. Sometimes they've dreamed of making life just a little bit easier for people in far-flung or disadvantaged parts of the world. Sometimes they're figuring out how to make modern life greener and cleaner for everyone.

  Ecovative Design LLC, Green Island, N.Y., is a great example of this tradition in operation today. Ecovative was founded by Eben Bayer and Gavin McIntyre in 2006. They met at an Inventor's Studio course at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy N.Y., where they created and eventually patented a mushroom-based insulation then called Greensulate, using agricultural waste and the growth properties of mushrooms to grow packing material that functions like traditional Styrofoam but biodegrades harmlessly.

  Another leading engineer-entrepreneur today is Amos Winter, an associate professor of mechanical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Winter is the creator of the Leveraged Freedom Chair, an ingenious improvement on traditional wheelchair design that takes advantage of levers and easily sourced bike parts to overcome the problems that have prevented traditional wheelchairs from succeeding in the unpaved, hilly and muddy regions of the developing world.

  Besides obvious brilliance, ambition and drive, what unites young visionaries like Bayer, McIntyre and Winter?

  One thing they all have in common is that they received an early boost by bringing their visions and plans to the Innovation Showcase, or iShow. Sponsored by ASME, the American Society for Mechanical Engineers, the iShow is a competition for early-career engineer-entrepreneurs from all over the world. Bayer, McIntyre and Winter are not just brilliant -- they're iShow Winners.

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  CES 2014: A Look Into the Future of Technology

  The first International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) took place in New York City in June of 1967. Since then, thousands of products have been announced at the yearly show, including the VCR in 1970, the CD Player in 1981, HDTV in 1998, 3D HDTV in 2009 and Ultra HDTV, Flexible OLED and driverless car technology in 2013.

  Tech expert Brett Larson and KillerApps.TV gave a glimpse of the cutting-edge tech unveiled at the CES 2014:

  TV Tech. Beside the big introduction of the new Ultra HD or 4k TV technology, DISH Network introduced three new ideas. Extending the capabilities of a Hopper, the SuperJoey gives users the ability to watch and record up to eight shows simultaneously. The Wireless Joey system opens up installation options where coaxial or Ethernet wiring is difficult to achieve or undesirable, like above the fireplace or in the kitchen. And Virtual Joey provides a nearly identical experience to the Hopper's hardware-based Joeys within the new Sony PlayStation 4 with a Joey app for the PlayStation 3 system and select smart TVs.

  For the home hobbyist. Brother featured the ScanNCut machine -- a revolutionary new home and hobby cutting machine with a built-in scanner. It's the only home and hobby cutting machine that can take an image, photo or hand drawn sketch, scan it and allow you to precisely cut the shapes or outlines you want to create unique, one-of-a-kind scrapbooks, greeting cards, appliqués, quilts, and crafts.

  Gaming Tech. The Logitech PowerShell Controller + Battery turns the iPhone 5s, iPhone 5, and iPod touch (5th generation) into a mobile gaming console. Just insert the device into the PowerShell like a standard case, and enjoy favorite games on the go, with double the play time, thanks to an onboard battery.

  Wearable Technology. The LG Lifeband Touch is a physical activity-tracking wristband with a full touch OLED display. It offers a convenient way to view key fitness data such as time, distance, speed, number of steps taken, calories burned and projected pace. The device enables data to be easily transmitted to LG's smartphone app for the connected user's convenience and tracking.

  The connected car. Audi presented its newest electronic technologies at CES in Las Vegas for the fourth year in a row. The Audi stand showcased the integration of 4G LTE technology into Audi connect services. This technology allows for a faster transfer of data to the car for info on parking availability, social media, video streaming and more.