Dr. Roger Firestien, an innovation specialist, will deliver the keynote address at the 2025 OSCAR Expo.
The annual student Research and Creativity Exposition (OSCAR) will be presented Thursday, May 1, from 11:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m., in the Williams Center Multipurpose Room. It is free and open to the public.
An “extremely engaging presenter” who has many practical ways in which people working in all disciplines can re-examine challenges they encounter and use creativity to re-imagine a variety of solutions is how Dr. Jill Reese, who is director of OSCAR, describes Firestien.
“His keynote address and the following workshop are going to be meaningful and inspirational for students, faculty, staff and community members alike! Register now before spots fill up,” Reese added. “We are thrilled that Roger Firestien is our keynote speaker for the Expo.”
Firestien helps companies to be more competitive by teaching their staff to be more innovative. It’s not touchy-feely stuff, according to his website. Firestien helped Clorox, a global manufacturer and marketer of consumer and professional products, solve a 77-year-old problem in 15 minutes and helped save General Motors $50,000 per week.
His problem-solving process breaks down tough problems into bite-sized pieces and provides a proven framework for creating spot-on solutions that work.
Firestien has presented programs on innovation to over 600 organizations nationally and internationally that include major Fortune 500 corporations, government agencies, universities, associations and churches.
He’s also written seven books on the creative problem solving process that include “Solve the Real Problem: Because What You Think is the Problem is Usually Not the Problem,” published in 2023. His views have been reported in Fast Company, Forbes, Investor's Business Daily, INC and The New York Times.
Firestien is president of Innovation Resources, a founding member of the Buffalo Society for Creativity in Medical Education, guest lecturer at the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at the State University at Buffalo and Associate Professor Emeritus at the Center for Applied Imagination at SUNY Buffalo State University.
The annual Student Research and Creativity Exposition (also known as the OSCAR Expo) is a spring event that celebrates the research and creative activity of undergraduate and graduate students from all academic disciplines.
Formats for presentations include FREDx talks, oral presentations, poster presentations, a film fest featuring multimedia presentations, literary readings and short performances and extended performances, such as music, theatre.
The expo is sponsored by the Carnahan Jackson Fund for the Humanities Fund through the Fredonia College Foundation and the Faculty Student Association.
