POTSDAM -- A Clarkson University professor who found a more effective way to teach his students some difficult topics is turning to Clarkson's Shipley Center for Innovation for help with ways to share technical information with a wide range of industries.

Associate Professor of Mechanical and Aeronautical Engineering Ronald S. LaFleur realized his students weren't fully grasping some topics such as error propagation and uncertainty analysis, but he found a better way of teaching. When it came to sharing that knowledge on a broader scale, he needed some help.

The result of that collaboration -- CertainError -- is just hitting the market. But the remarkable thing about these products, according to a press release from the university, “is that they are useful to everyone, not just rocket scientists or mathematicians or students.”

To help the public better interpret numbers in business and in everyday tasks, his company's products include the CertainError Calculator app for Apple and Android devices, and CertainError software, in three formats.

The company website, CertainError.com, has a calculator help menu and tutorial videos, as well as posts of recent projects that serve industries ranging from engineering, finance, and math, to medicine, science, sports and statistics.

“This is not just a teaching tool,” LaFleur said in a prepared statement from the school. “It could change the way people use numbers and calculate. It really has wide implications so I wanted to start a company to commercialize it and share it. I disclosed my inventions to Clarkson University, asking to partner with them.”

“What I have today is due to the Shipley Center and the people they contract to,” he said in the statement. “This isn't just a place to start a business, it's an incubator. They help you grow. I needed to think like a businessman. They got someone to help with a logo and the website and the app for phones. I can do the math and write software but I didn't know how to make an app and market it.”

LaFleur's CertainError website went up in September and the apps followed two weeks later. He says he has no doubt that partnering with the Shipley Center was his best choice.

To understand how error and uncertainty affect the world we live in, explore the website and tutorials at www.certainerror.com.

To learn more about the Shipley Center for Innovation and other business education at Clarkson, look online at www.clarkson.edu/shipley.