ROME — “Make your lives extraordinary … be individuals,” John Keating, played by Robin Williams, says to his high-school students in the 1989 movie “Dead Poets Society.” “Carpe Diem,” he continues: “Seize the day.”

Williams’ character inspired his students through unorthodox teaching methods: standing on a desk to look at life differently, ripping out the introduction to a poetry book which rated poetry by means of a mathematical formula, and even inviting students to create their own style of walking.

Motivating U.S. students to understand and explore the power of their potential is a national priority. Last year, President Obama announced a $240 million initiative underwritten by the private sector to encourage youngsters to pursue STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) fields. The initiative included a national competition to create media that inspires young people, a promise by 120 universities to train more than 20,000 engineers, and a CEO commitment to expand effective STEM programs to another 1.5 million students within the year. The president previously inaugurated a program to prepare 100,000 STEM teachers over a decade. To date, his “Educate to Innovate” campaign has generated more than $1 billion in financial and in-kind support for STEM programs.

STEAM
“STEM is very important, but we need to tie science and the arts together,” asserts Andrew (Andy) Drozd, president and chief scientist at ANDRO Computational Solutions, LLC. “Everyone is focused on innovation to transform our economy in the 21st century. To accomplish this, we need to add an ‘A’ to STEM for art, creating the … [acronym] STEAM. I think back on what is the first great period of scientific discovery — the Renaissance (1300-1600). Da Vinci was a painter, scientist, and inventor; Michelangelo was a sculptor, painter, and architect; and Copernicus was a mathematician, astronomer, physician, economist, and jurist, just to name a few. These men all blended science with art and design. Their example is my motivation for launching Project Fibonacci.”

Project Fibonacci STEAM Youth Conference, conceived by Drozd, is scheduled from July 31 to Aug. 6 at the Beeches Professional Campus in Rome.

Drozd has hired Daniel Kostelec as the STEAM outreach coordinator. “This is a first-of-its-kind event in the Mohawk Valley,” says Kostelec. “We’re reaching out to high schools, colleges, universities, government, and business to create a unique opportunity for students to discover their passion, explore a career, and realize their dreams. The program includes a wide variety of topics: the cosmos, neuroscience, the human body, art, graphics, photography, music, math, engineering, and science.”

Kostelec’s goal is to show the students that “Science without art lacks imagination; art without science has no form.” Project Fibonacci’s specific goals include broad community involvement; motivating and enlightening the next generation; creating scholars, musicians, artists, and engineers; making the Mohawk Valley an entrepreneurial hub, and helping to attract local tourism.

“We have established several benchmarks for grading the success of the program. First, will we draw the 250 to 300 attendees projected? Second, how many will return in 2017? Third, did the program generate a [financial] surplus to aid subsequent programs? Fourth, how many local internships were created? Fifth, what was the level of interest from private industry? And sixth, did the program have a positive impact on local college enrollment?” says Kostelec.

For this year’s conference, Drozd and Kostelec are planning on 75 percent of the attendees being 11th and 12th graders, with the other 25 percent college students.

“The tuition for the conference is $1,500,” says Kostelec, “It covers food, lodging, internationally recognized keynote speakers, transportation for offsite tours, and incidentals. The program is not accredited this year, but we are planning on affiliating with a local college in the future to grant credits. Also, this year there is no designated scholarship fund, but any surplus earned this year will go to seed next year’s event, which will include scholarships. I am happy to say that in lieu of a designated 2016 scholarship fund, a number of local school districts and companies have voluntarily provided scholarship assistance.”

Fibonacci
When this reporter asks why the project is named Fibonacci, Drozd smiles. “Leonardo Fibonacci (the son of Bonacci, 1170-1250) was a medieval mathematician who discovered a branch of mathematics that neatly describes emergent patterns in the realms of science, engineering, nature, art, and music,” explains Drozd. “He introduced the decimal system and the use of Arabic numerals into Europe and wrote extensively on business problems, such as how to calculate profit, how to price goods, and how to convert currencies. He is best known for the Fibonacci sequence (each succeeding number is the sum of the two preceding numbers), which appears in many different areas of mathematics and science.” Fibonacci was recognized all across Europe for his innovations, and his hometown of Pisa gave him a salary in recognition of his advising on matters of accounting and teaching the citizens of Pisa.

Drozd’s inspiration to create Project Fibonacci came from personal experience. While in high school, his son attended two Envision programs sponsored by George Mason University in Virginia. The experience had a profound effect on him. “I saw the impact the program had on my son,” notes Drozd. “Students face real challenges in understanding the opportunities available to them and a vision of how to go forward. Academic success is not enough today. In addition to knowledge, they need passion, innovation, and a plan to reach their goals. The Envision program seeks students with high academic achievement, leadership potential, a desire to build a focused career plan, and the maturity and confidence to meet the challenges of the program. The students are nominated by their teachers or are selected by an admissions board. It’s a great model that has worked for decades.”

Project Fibonacci is proceeding apace. “Registration doesn’t formally begin until April,” Kostelec says in a March interview, “but we have already received over 200 nominations just from emails, word-of-mouth, and town-hall events. Most of the nominations have come from the area, but we have received some from Long Island, Rochester, New York City, and even the states of Washington and California. We purposely made the nomination form a simple, one-page document that just asks for basic information and a summary of why the nominee should be considered. To be eligible, an applicant must at least be entering the junior year of high school and have demonstrated or shown the potential for leadership skills and an aptitude or interest in STEAM fields.”

Project Fibonacci is operating on a $500,000 budget this year. While tuition is expected to cover the majority of the cost, the conference has also garnered underwriting support from 22 sponsors (as of April 1). “We already have commitments of more than $100,000, and ANDRO is committed to add at least another $50,000,” stresses Kostelec. “The funds have come from school districts, the Rome [Area] Chamber [of Commerce], area foundations, business, the Oneida County Executive’s Office, colleges, and the Air Force Research Lab/Griffiss Institute. We’re thrilled at the outpouring of the community to support the conference.”

SUNY Polytechnic Institute has also stepped up to the plate by acting as the “conference banker” and by extending its 501(c)(3) designation to contributors. Its role is to receive income and to pay the bills. It bears no fiduciary obligation for the success of the program; that honor goes to Andy Drozd and to ANDRO. The staff at Project Fibonacci includes Kostelec and 10 employees at ANDRO who are offering support. The outreach coordinator says he also has 25 volunteers to help, but he will need another 75 by the time the conference begins.

STEAM campus
The STEAM conference is just the first step in Drozd’s dream to create a theme campus at The Beeches. “Orrie [Destito] (a principal at The Beeches), and I have discussed creating a STEAM campus to attract kids from kindergarten to college,” declares Drozd. “The campus would follow the MURI (multidisciplinary university research initiatives) concept which involves teams of researchers investigating topics and opportunities that intersect more than one technical discipline. I see Syracuse University, Mohawk Valley Community College, Onondaga Community College, Utica College, and other institutions collaborating with the STEAM students and issuing scholastic credits. Also, local businesses play a key role by creating internships and real-world opportunities for the students. This is how we get our kids back on track to be competitive in the global economy and not stuck in the 34th position in international rankings in math and science. In addition to the theme campus, Drozd and Kostelec are also looking at the opportunity to make the Fibonacci program available in different locations around the country and to create a version for younger children.

Drozd
Drozd founded ANDRO in 1994 as a niche-oriented R&D company that did groundbreaking work in electromagnetic effects. The company now specializes in providing simulation tools to analyze co-site and spectrum co-existence issues, offering its customers the ability to perform interactive computer modeling, simulation, and analysis to ensure that co-located communications don’t interfere with each other. ANDRO leases 25,000 square feet of office space on the 55-acre Beeches campus and also has offices in Dayton, Ohio and at the CASE Center in Syracuse. Drozd is considering opening a fourth office in the Washington, D.C. area. ANDRO currently employs 40 people and is in the process of hiring 10 more in order to focus on developing more private-sector business, specifically in the growing unmanned-aerial-systems sector. The company has grown 400 percent in the past four years and posted sales of about $7.5 million in 2015. Drozd is the sole shareholder.

Drozd was born in Belgium and immigrated to America at the age of 1. He attended high school in Rome and graduated from Syracuse University, where he received a bachelor’s degree in physics and math and, in 1982, a master’s degree in electrical engineering. His career included stints at the Rome Air Development Center, IIT Research Institute, General Electric, and Kaman Sciences Corp. Drozd also has taught physics at Utica College.

Drozd is committed to inspiring students and to helping them find their passion. It’s unclear whether he ever stood on his desk or created his own style of walking, but he has adopted an “unorthodox” method of teaching how to marry science and art. Leonardo Fibonacci is remembered for teaching the citizens of Pisa; Andy Drozd will be remembered for teaching the citizens of Rome, New York.

Contact Poltenson at npoltenson@cnybj.com