diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 0ede24af00368298a77fbc6ccbaeb3bfc891ac7d..44bd859387edb83bd6ba9d4a2c4a0c5c2c7f797b 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 # Aparapi Changelog
 
-## 1.7.1
+## 1.8.0
+* Updated KernelManager to facilitate class extensions having constructors with non static parameters
 
 ## 1.7.0
 
diff --git a/CONTRIBUTORS.md b/CONTRIBUTORS.md
index 7acd2613c1020e87c7de7846f326eedbb657f8bb..f0959e8c337122f4c6b9d2634b7025db014a94f2 100644
--- a/CONTRIBUTORS.md
+++ b/CONTRIBUTORS.md
@@ -47,4 +47,5 @@ Below are some of the specific details of various contributions.
 * Luis Mendes submited PR for issue #81 - Full OpenCL 1.2 atomics support with AtomicInteger 
 * Luis Mendes submited PR for issue #84 - Fully support OpenCL 1.2 barrier() - localBarrier(),  globalBarrier() and localGlobalBarrier()
 * Luis Mendes with suggestions by Automenta submited PR for issue #62 and implemented new thread-safe API for Kernel profiling
-* Luis Mendes submited PR for issue #101 - Possible deadlock in JTP mode
\ No newline at end of file
+* Luis Mendes submited PR for issue #101 - Possible deadlock in JTP mode
+* Luis Mendes submited PR to facilitate KernelManager class extension with non-static parameters in constructors
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/pom.xml b/pom.xml
index 14b746aaa3aa7d5550b702b67409caaeb7cd6cdd..1d1d5150d7ce15d391baa9b6e28fb806272654bf 100644
--- a/pom.xml
+++ b/pom.xml
@@ -10,7 +10,7 @@
 
     <groupId>com.aparapi</groupId>
     <artifactId>aparapi</artifactId>
-    <version>1.7.1-SNAPSHOT</version>
+    <version>1.8.0-SNAPSHOT</version>
     <packaging>jar</packaging>
 
     <prerequisites>
@@ -87,7 +87,7 @@
         <dependency>
             <groupId>com.aparapi</groupId>
             <artifactId>aparapi-jni</artifactId>
-            <version>1.2.0</version>
+            <version>1.1.2</version>
         </dependency>
         <dependency>
             <groupId>junit</groupId>
diff --git a/src/main/java/com/aparapi/internal/kernel/KernelManager.java b/src/main/java/com/aparapi/internal/kernel/KernelManager.java
index df73b6cac582f07259dafb0f21e8ba82913c6be2..7640a9af9785f383fb0d283f7da6c9c163a236d3 100644
--- a/src/main/java/com/aparapi/internal/kernel/KernelManager.java
+++ b/src/main/java/com/aparapi/internal/kernel/KernelManager.java
@@ -43,9 +43,18 @@ public class KernelManager {
    private KernelPreferences defaultPreferences;
 
    protected KernelManager() {
-      defaultPreferences = createDefaultPreferences();
+      setup();
    }
 
+   /**
+    * Default KernelManager initialization.<br/>
+    * Convenience method for being overriden to an empty implementation, so that derived 
+    * KernelManager classes can provide non static parameters to their constructors.
+    */
+   protected void setup() {
+	   defaultPreferences = createDefaultPreferences(); 
+   }
+   
    public static KernelManager instance() {
       return INSTANCE;
    }