07-30-2023 EDU - Flipbook - Page 8
8 The Baltimore Sun | Sunday, July 30, 2023
Industry needs, from page 2
High-tech labs, from page 4
Above: Salisbury University robotics enthusiasts
University of Baltimore recognizes the importance of pairing classroom instruction with hands-on experiences.
desk for a clinic, where I performed patient
intake, screening and worked with their insurance,” says Lac, whose career goal is to work in
the administrative side of health care, specifically in operations.
In his internship, Lac assists in researching
institutes of higher education to partner with
the agency and provide caregiver guidance
and technical assistance through a servicelearning opportunity and evaluate caregiver
burden pre- and post-enrollment. Additionally,
he is involved in evaluating data gathered in the
agency’s quality assurance program.
“The internship allows me to expand my
network and my field of view, while building
upon important foundational concepts,” says
Lac. “Without this experience, I would not be
exposed to the different health-related organizations in Maryland. I am able to understand
how the organizations view themselves and how
MDoA views them. Additionally, the process of
working in a professional setting is entirely new
to me. This experience is important because as
a healthcare management major, leadership is a
critical quality.”
According to Weisman, not only are the
partnerships key in fostering professional
development in the students, but community
partners also benefit because they are able to
evaluate talent that complements their mission
and potentially identify individuals who can be
groomed as future leaders within the organization. In addition, there is opportunity for students to collaborate and establish professional
and personal relationships with members of
these organizations.
“Our programs are preparing the next generation of leaders in the health care industry
to identify the remarkable professional and
personal experience of this ever-growing field,”
says Weisman. “Our faculty have both academic
and professional experience in healthcare and
are positioned to guide students in their career
paths.”
Generalist Digital Technology Badge Offered at
University of Maryland
According to Capital CoLAB (Collaborative
of Leaders in Academia and Business), an initiative of the Greater Washington Partnership,
there are 60,000 digital tech jobs available in the
DC/MD/VA (DMV) region and not a sufficient
pipeline of employees to fill them.
In 2018, Capital CoLAB leaders asked college presidents across the region to consider identifying students who demonstrate the
digital knowledge, skills, and abilities that are
most desired by this consortium of employers.
University of Maryland is one of the local universities participating in this joint effort.
Katherine F. Russell, Ph.D., associate dean
for undergraduate education in the college of
behavioral and social sciences, explains that the
Capital CoLAB employers created very specific
lists of the knowledge, skills and abilities for
participating universities to use in badging students with either a generalist digital technology
credential and/or one of the many specialist
digital credentials.
“Each college and university identifies students who have obtained the objectives through
specific coursework or by demonstrating these
skills through out-of-classroom learning,” says
Russell. The badges do not necessarily have to
link to a specific university degree program;
universities just have to confirm that the stu-
SOAR
ABOVE
dents have learned the necessary tools and
skills.
Each participating university issues a badge
that students can add to their electronic resume
or LinkedIn account to identify themselves to
prospective employers as a student who has
acquired these skills. Students are also eligible for specific scholarships and internships
offered by GWP. Among the many participating employers are Amazon, MedStar Health
and Microsoft.
“The digital badge credential may especially
help students who have acquired these digital
tech skills through disciplines that might not
be as recognized by employers,” says Russell.
“Here at University of Maryland, for example,
every student studying government and politics, or geographical sciences acquires considerable data science and data tech skills through
their major coursework. These tools and skills
are transferable, yet employers may not think
to look at students who have earned these particular degrees.”
While many colleges and universities now
award badges to students, Russell notes that
what makes the Capital CoLAB digital badges
unique is the large collective of employers who
have worked together to identify the list of tools
and skills that prospective employees need.
“They then leave it to the individual universities to help identify the students who have these
skills,” she says. “This is much more flexible and
sustainable than asking academic institutions to
create or modify existing academic programs to
meet the short-term needs of employers.”
devices with critical applications in sensing, timing, signal processing, and biomedical diagnostics, and have become omnipresent in wireless
communications, automobiles, aerospace systems, medical devices, and consumer products.
They are commonly found in many aspects of
daily life, in the dishwasher, washer and dryer,
for instance. It’s a component of the product,
that fits on a fingertip, according to Lanju Mei,
Ph.D., assistant professor in the department of
engineering and aviation sciences at UMES.
The lab, which opened within the department of engineering and aviation sciences in
2020, operates as a Class 100 cleanroom with all
who visit covered to prevent particles resident on
the human body from compromising the clean
environment. The lab has state-of-the-art equipment for microfabrication, mask fabrication,
photo-resist development, microscopic electron
scanning, metal electrode fabrication, and more
processes used to develop these microscopic
devices.
The lab is utilized by senior undergraduate mechanical engineering students who enroll
in a micro-electro-mechanical systems course
as well as students who choose to be involved
in research. In the lab, Mei will soon begin
working on research associated with tissue scaffold design and fabrication toward manufacturing techniques for the reconstruction of large
bone defects resulting from trauma, diseases
and tumor resection. It’s a new in collaboration
with two other professors, one at Princeton
University and the other at UMES, that will
develop a small channel to deliver a chemical
that will adhere to bone in an effort to adhere the
bone defect. Funding was awarded through the
Princeton Alliance for Collaborative Research
and Innovation. As more equipment is added
to the lab enabling additional electromechanical processes and the development of additional
activities, future projects will be developed to
provide experiences and showcase the capabilities of the students and researchers in the
lab, Mei says. There is also a plan to develop
undergraduate coursework to enhance the engineering program through the infusion of MEMS
technology and provide hands-on opportunities
to a greater number of students.
AND
BEYOND
Find a fulfilling education at a Top 20 HBCU. Ever since we opened our
doors 137 years ago, University of Maryland Eastern Shore has been welcoming students to
a community that nurtures aspirations, develops potential and celebrates everyone’s passions.
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