April 25, 2002
Nebraska company
leads technology in national
higher education software development effort
named Nebraska's 'Technology Guru of the Year'
OMAHA, Nebraska —
Priority Technologies, Inc. (PTI), a
Nebraska-based software engineering firm, has been leading the technological
development of a free, collaborative software program called Meteor for
the national student financial aid industry.
PTI's Tim Bornholtz, who has been the chief architect and lead engineer for the development of the Meteor project, was recognized last Tuesday as Nebraska's "Technology Guru of the Year" by the Applied Information Management Institute.
"Tim has been of incalculable value in bringing the Meteor Project from concept to design to product," said Charlie Miller, the Chief Information Officer at Rhode Island Education Assistance Authority. "His focus and insight have been major driving forces throughout the entire project. There is not a single area of the project that does not, in some fashion, reflect the imprint of his good work."
Meteor is a web-based, non-commercial, universal-access channel to borrower, financial aid information. By using Meteor, students and financial aid professionals across the country will be able to see an aggregated view of all of their aid information, regardless of its original source.
Priority Technologies, Inc. has contributed over 2,500 hours of project planning and system development time as a gift to the financial aid community.
"We were fortunate to find a company like PTI who has extensive experience in developing business applications using the web-based technology in Meteor," said Brett Lief, President of the National Council of Higher Education Loan Programs, Inc. (NCHELP). "Their enthusiasm for the Meteor Project is evident by their commitment to make the Meteor software available by this spring."
The Meteor project incorporates leading-edge, Internet and web-services technology, such as XML, SOAP, JAVA, DOM/SAX, SAML Parsers, JSP, and servlets.
"It is one thing to know these disciplines; it is another to understand and 'Glue' the best use of each to make a good product," said Will Thein, a Technical Consultant at Texas Guaranteed Student Loan Corporation. "Tim exemplifies the excellence needed to work with technologies."
Further developments will expand Meteor to include
access for students/borrowers and may include information on Direct Loans,
Perkins Loans, Pell Grants, state grants, and alternative loans.
NCHELP represents a nationwide network of guaranty agencies, secondary markets, lenders, loan servicers, collection agencies, schools and other organizations involved in the administration of the Federal Family Education Loan Program (FFELP). NCHELP members promote student access and choice for post-secondary education and training. Over the past 35 years, FFELP lenders have provided more than $300 billion in student loans.
Meteor is an open-source software product that is available to participants at no cost. Institutions will be able to download Meteor and run it from their own web site, or they may access it from a servicer, lender, school, or guarantor. Sponsored by nearly forty NCHELP members, Meteor will aggregate student-specific financial aid information from a number of distributed sources on Stafford, PLUS, Consolidation, and Perkins loans.
