Category: School News

When Alex Wright of the New York Times called New Albany-Plain Local Schools back in March 2012, he was researching the use of robots in theater.  He discovered that New Albany High School was doing pioneering work alongside a handful of college programs.  The resulting story appeared on the New York Times website on July 5th, with a print version planned for Sunday, July 8^th.Click here to view the New York Times article.

Herman made it quite clear that the production would not have been possible without the vision and efforts of Elliott Lemberg, the High School Drama teacher, and the Actor’s Studio students.

Technology Department Chair Arleen Piper devoted several hours of her time to making sure we had quality video footage. As part of their assignment, robotics students – with crucial help from Ms. Anne Blaha in the Digital Eagle Innovation Center – turned that raw footage into finished YouTube videos.  Click here to view the Robot Theater Videos 

Finally, the challenge of bringing all the pieces together was handled this year by student producer Jeannette Newton. She deserves a huge round of applause!

The New Albany High School Robot Theater is known for its pioneering efforts. The theater completed its third season in the 2011-2012 school year.  Herman and Lemberg plan to advance the program next year by adding a new robot capable of speech and a number of other advanced features.

According to teacher David Herman, a few facts didn’t make it into the New York Times article. Click here to view a full cast picture and the names of the entire 2012 student team.

The New Albany High School Symphonic Orchestra (combined band and orchestra) contributed to Memorial Day remembrances during a recent trip to Washington, D.C.

The group left early on Friday, May 25 and traveled to the nation’s capital for a series of holiday performances including: the Lincoln Memorial and the Women in Military Service at Arlington National Cemetery.  While in Washington, the students cruised on the Potomac, toured Arlington National Cemetery, laid a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, watched the Changing of the Guard, toured several memorials including the new MLK Jr. Memorial, and the World War II memorial.  They also visited the Capital Building, the Library of Congress, and several Smithsonian museums.

The Symphonic Orchestra members were thrilled to participate in a music clinic with a world-renowned conductor, Anthony Maiello.  Dr. Maiello is Associate Director for Development, Professor of Music and University Professor at George Washington University.  They attended a Baltimore Symphony Orchestra concert, featuring Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony.  Six chaperones accompanied the students on the whirlwind trip, including Julie Ellis, Orchestra Director, and Band Director Darren Falk.

While some students are reading or swimming, eight New Albany High School students will be worked in highly-technical summer internships involving ElectroScience and Virtual Reality.  The students will benefit from paid summer internships with two of our community education partners.

Dr. John Volakis, Director of The OSU ElectroScience Lab (ESL), has invited graduating seniors Samuel Luther, Michael Zhang and Stephanie Zhong to join them this summer as paid research interns.

ESL is a major “Center-of-Excellence” within the Ohio State University Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and is one of the largest Radio Frequency (RF) research laboratories in the world.  The faculty, research scientists, and students are involved in all aspects of electromagnetic and RF technologies.

NAPLS students will be working on two different projects:  terahertz technology in the Hyperspectral Engine Lab for Integrated Optical Systems (HELIOS), and bio-sensing systems for emerging Body Area Network (BAN) technology.  BAN systems research includes wireless bio-sensors to detect vital signs; wearable antennas to transmit these signals via a cellphone; portable power systems; and smart-phone apps to interpret bio-sensing data.

Dr. Rob Williams, Research Director of the US Air Force Discovery Lab organization at Wright Patterson Air Force Base, has invited rising seniors Davan Pohar, Mayank Ekbote, Lauryn Woodyard and Daniel Lehman, plus rising junior Nathan Lehman, to participate in their annual Summer-At-The-Edge program.

Working remotely from New Albany High School using virtual reality and telepresence tools, the students will collaborate in real-time with high school and college students located at the Tec^Edge Innovation & Collaboration Center, part of the Wright Brothers Institute in Dayton.

The NAPLS’ students project is remote search and rescue.  They will develop tools that might be used by emergency responders to evaluate a remote disaster scene.  They will help design a solution to remotely manipulate a robot located in Dayton, while capturing video and sound from the remote robot’s sensors.