Educating Students for Tomorrow's World Today

THE LATEST NEWS BYTES

SOUTHWESTERN PA NEW ECONOMY COLLABORATIVE

Welcome BioForge CEO

A 185,000 sq ft state-of-the-art biomanufacturing facility is underway in the Greater Hazelwood community. BioForge is the brainchild of the partnership between The University of Pittsburgh and ElevateBio® and will play a key role in stimulating local life sciences activities. Heralded as part of the ‘revitalizing American industry’ initiatives, BioForge is intended to represent how advanced industry can increase economic opportunity for Pittsburgh.

The SWPA New Economy Collaborative BioForge initiative is closely connected to the Richard King Mellon Foundation, Carnegie Mellon University, and Innovation Works’ SWPA economic growth mission.

In March 2024, the newly appointed CEO of BioForge stated, “Hazelwood just might propel Pittsburgh to the forefront of reducing medical costs through gene therapy manufacturing.”

INDUSTRY

Humanistic Side of Tech

In higher education we recognize that it is becoming increasingly important to view “the rich landscape of digitization…as a socioeconomic, sociotechnical, and cultural process”. (Introduction to Digital Humanism. A Textbook Springer, 2024).

Seidor, an SAP technology company with global partners such as Siemens, Adobe, IBM and Microsoft, focuses on the value of what humanizing technology can bring to business and industry. They are concerned about people. Seidor defines technological humanism as “the idea that technology is so integrated into society and the world that it becomes part of our greater intelligence and allows us to live longer and better.”

While it may seem that there is a chasm between higher education and industry on this concept, there is actually much less space between them than thought. In fact, Penn State New Kensington has been working on a model for “Human Conscious Citizenship” so that students and campus communities can learn and understand the opportunities and challenges that technology can bring to the world.

How can you be part of bridging human-conscious citizenship with our industry and business partners?

FACULTY

How Does AI Unlock the Human Potential?

At the Faculty Academy in May 2024, we discussed the perceived problem that AI is displacing human jobs.

Despite anxieties that AI will result in workforce cuts, AI is actually enhancing workforce opportunities.

Not only can implementing GenAI create the need for new skills and roles, but it can also allow employers to reduce training time for new technology because GenAI does the training!

Your students may have an opportunity to learn AI skills in-house while participating in internships. In addition, engaging with on-campus ChatGPT tools and environments may be just the skills needed to secure their role in AI business and industry.

Graphic Credit: Penn State New Kensington model of Human Conscious Citizenship.

OUR REGION'S HIGHER EDUCATION LANDSCAPE IS STRONG

Thanks to support from the Southwestern Pennsylvania New Economy Collaborative for supporting higher education engagement opportunities across the region. Consider being part of the region’s amazing higher education faculty activities.

• At the Future Readiness Academy in May, you may have heard from faculty involved in the Penn State AI Community of Practice. Many of you indicated interest in joining a faculty collaborative of this nature. Visit the CoP website to learn more. If you’re interested in joining, contact Tiffany Petricini, the AICoP Coordinator, at tzr106@psu.edu.

• An extension of the above AICoP is the Educational AI Collaborative (EAIC), which is intended “to foster a transformative educational ecosystem that transcends institutional boundaries.” You are also invited to consider this collaborative and join if you are interested in being part of this exchange.

• Also at the May Future Readiness Academy, you may have met Karen Alexander, Executive Director of XR Women, which is “…a global community that serves as a catalyst for the success of women in the field.” If you are interested in getting involved with XR Women or learning more about immersive learning for your classes, visit her website.

• Take an opportunity to review the Industry 4.0 Technologies Survey Among Faculty at Southwestern Pennsylvania Colleges and Universities 2024 survey results. We are strong now, but there is more work to be done. Your engagement counts!

In spring 2024, higher education faculty from across the Southwestern PA region participated in a survey related to the awareness and usage of Industry 4.0 technologies among full-time faculty at colleges and universities. The purpose of the survey and results was to help the region gain valuable insights into the technologies, ultimately enhancing the understanding of how they are being taught and used in courses. The survey project was led by Rick Harnish, professor of psychology at Penn State New Kensington, and it was supported by the SWPA New Economy Collaborative, which is funded by a Build Back Better Regional Challenge Grant.

THOUGHTS ON THE MAY FUTURE READINESS ACADEMY

Here are some testimonials from attendees at the May Future Readiness Academy:

• “Leverage your skills, but be willing to learn new skills to fit into the environment in which you find yourself. It was good to hear someone tell their story from small-town high school students to marketing gurus working for the Navy. Exciting link between a communications degree and the world of robotics/ engineering.”

• “Great learning about how different areas of study can still be integrated into the tech space.”

• “I really connected with Steve's [CMU FabLab] ideas about the importance of networking and persistence as a potential employer. He also mentioned how he makes it a point to keep learning as he progresses in his career.”

• “The Robotics industry is complex. Pittsburgh is becoming Robotics Row and there's a lot of organizations that support the Robotics Industry. However, we need to prepare students to be proficient in new technologies in order to recruit and retain these companies, a workforce and more.”

• “It was eye-opening to participate in the exercises and learn about people’s various thoughts and feelings regarding diversity and inclusion”

• [DEIB session] “It made me feel closer to the folks taking the workshop by providing a different way of getting to know them.”

The Future Readiness Faculty Academy held at the Penn State New Kensington campus on May 15-17, hosted 75 attendees. 67% of the total attendees were higher education faculty with the additional 33% invited industry speakers, participants, and Penn State technologists. 79% of the 29 invited partner universities in the SWPA region were in attendance. Participants engaged in 16 varying workshops, including 4 off-site locations, over the course of the 3 days of academy activity. Thank you to all participating faculty, industry partners, and staff for a successful event!

Participants in the May 2024 Faculty Readiness Academy focused their TechFusion projects on ways to model, facilitate, inform, assist, and guide students in engagements with high technologies. The TechFusion projects described instructional activities engaging AI, virtual reality, variable data printing, tech fluency, human conscious citizenship, gamification, segmented reality, digital fabrication, blockchain and MakerSpace. Multiple disciplines and topics were addressed in the projects to include: healthcare, microbiology, research writing, communications, information systems, business, graphic design, story-telling and composition, marketing and sales, modern language, chemistry, biochemistry, technology management, data analytics, journalism, and the humanities. Congratulations, faculty, on a job well done!

ARE YOUR STUDENTS FUTURE-READY?

Check out these upcoming events in the Pittsburgh region!

Being future-ready in industry means developing three areas: technical skills, human-conscious citizenship, and leadership skills.

Robotics Sector Skill-Gap Workshop: Assembly Technicians.

The workshop will focus on Assembly Technicians at robotics companies and is an excellent opportunity to see how your curriculum and programs are stacking up to the ever-changing needs of industry. You will also have the opportunity to strategize how we might be able to address specific skill gaps in the region. Sponsored by the Pittsburgh Robotics Network.

Event Details

• Date: June 13th - 12:00 to 4:00PM
• Location: Tech Forge, 113 47th Street, Pittsburgh PA 15201
• RSVP HERE by Wednesday, May 30

Join local associations and build relationships with area employers.

RealLIST Connectors 2024: Meet 20 leaders spreading innovation throughout Pittsburgh here.

IN REVIEW

ARE YOU DOING SOMETHING CREATIVE WITH TECHNOLOGY APPROACHES IN YOUR CLASSROOM OR RESEARCH?

Ann D. Summerall-Jabro, Ph.D., communication and organization leadership professor at Robert Morris University, shared her experience with the Service Learning Model during a workshop at the Future Readiness Faculty Academy. Her SymBioTech© story follows.

Robert Morris University welcomed participants and spectators to the UPMC Events Center for the Amazon Web Services (AWS) DeepRacer Competition. A five-person team from Developing, Coordinating and Executing Events performed an experiential learning task to promote the event and raise funds for the Robert Morris University Colonial Cupboard. AWS DeepRacer is an innovative platform designed to promote development of reinforcement learning. A cloud-based environment enables training of machine learning models to enable AI to drive the race car around a track.

Eleven graduate and undergraduate teams worked tirelessly to use AWS DeepRacer, and the "racers" are trained through machine learning models to autonomously drive a miniature car on a racetrack.

On April 5, 2024 the teams assembled and raced their DeepRacer cars autonomously while Amazon support personnel assisted the faculty and students during the racing event. Infinite Impressions greeted guests, sold raffle tickets for the Colonial Cupboard, explained how the cars moved around the track and interviewed participants, collected digital images and boxed food items for the food pantry.

Ann shared this testimonial from the event: "As I reflect on the past 15 weeks of our event planning course, I am astounded by the amount of knowledge and practical skills I have gained . . . it has been a journey of learning, challenges, and personal development. I am grateful for the experiences shared with my teammates and I look forward to applying these insights to real-world events if needed," shared Kennedi Randolph, researcher for Infinite Impressions.

Thank you, Ann, for sharing this valuable experience and example of creative technology learning approaches! Great job!

“Adjacent Possible: When someone comes up with a new idea, technology or platform of some kind, it makes a whole set of other new ideas imaginable for the first time.”

Stuart Kauffman. Medical doctor, theoretical biologist, and complex systems researcher.

GET READY FOR EVEN MORE CONVERSATION AND COLLABORATION!

SWPA Consortium of Higher Education Professionals

We value your ideas about how we can continue to shape and grow this SWPA Consortium of Higher Education Professionals.

In September 2024, we will host the first event and conversation about a possible SWPA Consortium of Higher Education Professionals to include faculty and administrative leadership. Keep an eye out for details to come!

For now, we want to know what you would want to address and discuss if we were a formalized consortium of 29 SWPA schools. Some questions we might approach could be:

• What is the benefit of having a SWPA Consortium of Higher Education Professionals?
• What goals might we set for a consortium to support the successful achievement of our collective work through the SWPA New Economy Collaborative?
• How do we adequately and strongly address high-tech industry workforce needs while protecting the integrity of higher education values?

What questions would you like to see a consortium discuss and address?

Send your thoughts and ideas to Ginger Shaw at gls5530@psu.edu for the fall kick-off conversation so that we can set common goals and objectives for our region through the Future Readiness Events and our work through the SWPA New Economy Collaborative.

Build Back Better Request for Proposals

The Block Center for Society and Technology, Carnegie-Mellon University is pleased to announce the Build Back Better Request for Proposals (RFP) for grants to support skills-focused training projects to help Southwestern Pennsylvanians secure employment in robotics and advanced manufacturing. We invite community-based educators, non-profit organizations, labor unions, and experts in robotics, computer science, engineering, or learning science to apply. Awardees must be active within the 11-county region of Allegheny, Armstrong, Beaver, Butler, Cambria, Fayette, Greene, Indiana, Lawrence, Washington, and Westmoreland Counties.

Key details of the grant opportunity include:

• Application Deadline: July 16, 2024, at 5 p.m. ET.
• Informational Webinar: June 11, 2024 at 12 p.m. ET. Register HERE.
• Funding Amount: Most award allocations will range between $60,000 and $100,000.
• Project Duration: Projects must be completed within a 12-month timeframe. Priority will be given to initiatives serving covered populations, including BIPOC, women, veterans, individuals with disabilities, and/or individuals facing language barriers.

Please view the RFP document by visiting the website for detailed application guidelines and submit your proposal.

Industry Advisory Board

Penn State New Kensington is organizing an Industry Advisory Board to support the Future Readiness Academy. Representatives from different industry sectors, business technologists, as well as academy faculty from different disciplines will be invited to attend.

If you are interested in sitting on the board, please email Ginger Shaw at gls5530@psu.edu of your interest. The purpose of the board: To collaborate, offer advice and guidance to the Future Readiness Academy and assist in reaching our goals. To equip the Build Back Better organizations with the necessary understanding of future fit skills and technologies needed for a qualified workforce that builds upon the collaborative understanding between higher education faculty, business and industry throughout our region.

The first organizational meeting will kick-off in Fall 2024.

Join our planning team!

We are looking for faculty who want to be part of a team that assists with planning future faculty events. Join our planning team here!

If this email was forwarded to you and you want to sign up for future newsletters and event registration emails, please sign up here.

This resource and the Future Ready Events for Faculty series are made possible thanks to support from the SWPA New Economy Collaborative, an 11-county coalition formed to apply for the Build Back Better Regional Challenge. The educational focus is part of a federal, multi-state investment initiative to help develop local technology workforce and diverse talent pools.