New England Tech Now Offers Drone, Robotics Degrees

(TNS) — EAST GREENWICH, R.I. – In a reflection of the growing impact of drones and robotics, New England Institute of Technology is now offering a new associate’s degree program in these advanced technologies.

“Graduates from this program will be qualified for a wide range of entry-level positions in robotics, drone-mission programming, automated manufacturing, research and development, new-product design, product testing, field service, controls engineering, installation, marketing, and customer service,” said Douglas H. Sherman, senior vice president and provost.

Successful completion of the program will lead to an Associate in Science Degree in Electronics, Robotics, and Drone Technology, according to the university. Growth in these industries prompted the school to reach into this new educational area.

“Research shows that the increasing use of robots and aerial drones will dramatically change our economy and everyday life in areas ranging from driver-less cars and medical procedures to automated manufacturing processes and aerial-product delivery,” the school said in a media release. “The Federal Aviation Administration anticipates the creation of 100,000 new jobs in the drone technology field. USA Today reports that the use of drones is predicted to boost the U.S. economy by $13.6 billion within the next three years.”

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Liquid Assets

A COUPLE OF MONTHS BACK, Josh Mersfelder ’14 went truck shopping. He returned home with a charcoal-colored puppy instead, and promptly named her after an Australian hops variety.

Mersfelder recounts his story seated on a stool in his brewery’s tap room, gazing fondly at Ella as she smiles back, wagging her tail.

The anecdote reflects Mersfelder’s own journey, which led from his first love of cars to his discovery of hops — and the joy of beer making. As a teenager, he took on kitchen jobs to support his auto obsession. Continuing to JWU, Mersfelder developed a new passion, which brought him back home to upstate New York, where he is director of brewing operations at craft brewery Local 315, tucked into farmland west of Syracuse in a town called Camillus.

“It’s kind of surreal,” Mersfelder muses, holding a pint of his Retribution Double IPA and surveying the room. Bartenders pull from 16 handles to pour beers, sours and cider for visitors who have driven the back road off Interstate 90 in search of a cold custom-made brew on a hot summer’s day. “I told the owner I’d just be here to pick weeds and feed the pigs.” But after sharing his home brews — created using methods learned at JWU — Mersfelder got a call: “You can quit your job,” owner Dan Mathews said. “And start full time tomorrow.”

That was spring 2015. The brewery has taken off since day one, when the line snaked out the door and down to the goat house, and the bartenders couldn’t pour the beers fast enough. “It was like Woodstock,” says Mathews.

Nowadays, Local 315 has a comfortably packed taproom that overflows onto a spacious porch, where enthusiasts lounge in Adirondack chairs that overlook fields and forest. To the side is a beer garden, where area musicians play on a small wooden stage. Out front, food trucks rumble into the parking lot.

The wholesale side has taken off too, growing to more than 30 accounts in the first year. “I just locked down Cheesecake Factory,” Mersfelder shares. When the call to set up that account came, Mersfelder thought it was a wrong number. “This is Local 315,” he clarified, certain that the rep was looking for the mammoth Budweiser brewery the next town over, run by beer giant Anheuser Busch InBev. There was no mistake: Restaurant management wanted to make a local push.

Small-scale beers are now very big business. According to the national Brewers’ Association (BA), while total sales of beer dipped last year, craft breweries — defined by the BA as small, independent beer makers using traditional techniques — made a significant gain, with sales revenue growing by 16% to $22.3 billion, to comprise more than 12% of the nation’s overall beer market.

JWU has responded to student interest by creating a craft brewing curriculum, which kicked off at the Charlotte, Denver and Providence campuses this fall. A minor in craft brewing and a certifcate in professional brewing will be available in fall 2017.

ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR JENNIFER PEREIRA was hired in 2003 as a wine specialist. But after her arrival at Providence, she was drawn to beer, which was given a lab day during freshman year. At that time, she thought, “They only have one day of beer. This has got to change.”

She created the JbreW Student Brewing Club. Hosting its inaugural Ocean State Homebrew Competition in spring 2011, the club saw 180 entries. JbreWers earned medals and more importantly the judges’ rave reviews for their success in organizing the event. “The club was really the only way to get experience and network in the industry,” says Pereira.

This past spring’s 500 entries included homebrews from as far a field as Oregon and California. Also last year, Pereira and students launched Providence’s official brewing team, the Wet Willies, which gives students increased access to off-campus competitions.

Academically, the university’s planned four-course brewing minor builds on its Brewing Arts class, which, says Pereira, “is really popular. Students work in teams and brew batches of beer at home.”

But student brewers, faculty emphasize, do not have an “Animal House” chug-a-lug sensibility. When Associate Professor CharLee Puckett asks his Denver students whether they’d pay the same money to get three craft beers or a mass-produced six-pack, the choice is unanimous: the smaller amount of craft.

The catalyst for today’s market? “You can thank Jimmy Carter,” says Pereira. In 1978, the president approved lifting restrictions on home brewing, and ushered in a re-education of beer drinkers. At that time, says Puckett, “It was whatever was cheapest and recognized.” Echoes Pereira, “Buying beer back then was like shopping for white paint.” Nor did overseas’ suds assuage that lack, she adds: “Most of the imports were spoiled by the time we got them.”

With the door opened for homebrewers, craft beer’s frontiersmen got to work. Now-legends such as Sam Adams founder Jim Koch shouldered the burden, carrying his brew door-to-door to bars and restaurants across Boston. “Look at how much they had to go through,” Puckett observes. “Now, people are willing to experiment.”

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Bryant expands Management program with Leadership and Innovation, Team and Project Management

The world – and the world of business – is changing at an ever-faster pace; technological innovations, globalization, increased diversity, and political upheavals require forward-thinking and agile leaders, managers, and thought leaders.

“To be competitive in such a global environment, we have to be on the cutting edge of doing things innovatively,” said Professor of Management Lori Coakley, Ph.D.

The programs complement Bryant’s distinctive concentrations in Human Resource Management and Global Supply Chain Management

Two new management concentrations – Leadership and Innovation, and Team and Project Management — underscore the University’s commitment to preparing students for the changing workplace. The programs, beginning in September, complement Bryant’s distinctive concentrations in Human Resource Management and Global Supply Chain Management.

Bryant’s Management program is highly ranked – No. 5 in the United States by College Factual/USA Today 2017.  The revisions to the program illustrate Bryant’s agility in responding to global dynamism and commitment to continuous improvement.

Leadership and Innovation

“Our new Leadership and Innovation concentration will prepare students to become successful leaders under conditions of ambiguity and uncertainty,” said Management Department Chair and Associate Professor of Management Diya Das, Ph.D. The robust curriculum, she said, includes classes in design thinking and strategic management of technological innovation as well as a distinctive leadership capstone course.

Coakley, a certified design thinking facilitator, believes that the new concentrations highlight what Bryant does so well: anticipating what skill sets will be in demand in the future, and developing academic programs to meet that need.  “We’re unique in getting students to think differently starting from their freshman year with IDEA. We are giving students tools to be uncomfortable and look at the world differently.”

Project and Team Management

Project management’s interdisciplinary nature makes the Project and Team Management concentration valuable for all students, whether they are studying business or liberal arts, noted Associate Professor of Management Angela Wicks, Ph.D. “When Bryant faculty share their business consulting expertise and experiences into the classrooms – as we all do – it’s invaluable for the students’ learning,” she said.

Students enrolled in the Project and Team Management concentration will complete a full-scale consulting project and report for a company with a business dilemma. They also will prepare to sit for the Certified Associate in Project Management exam, given through Bryant’s Executive Development Center. That allows them to graduate not only with a highly relevant degree, but with a prestigious professional certification, as well.

Das noted that research and lengthy discussions with Bryant’s award-winning Amica Center for Career Education staff established that “in the world of work today, everything is run as projects … and everyone is all set up in teams.” Construction companies, health care systems, and every company in Silicon Valley all use project management, she said.  “Project and team management is a set of skills that is emerging as one with the highest demand.”

Summer programs make for a lively Brown campus in June, July, August

 PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — Each summer, Brown students venture from College Hill to all corners of the world to work, travel, study and research — but even in their absence, campus remains a vibrant community filled with activity, academic and otherwise. Some students do stay, taking summer classes, leading admissions tours and pursuing research opportunities on campus. And summer conferences, events and other happenings bring visitors to Brown from around the globe.

Yet the biggest presence on campus, undoubtedly, is the thousands of young people who come to Brown to participate in learning, leadership and athletics opportunities through the University’s vast array of programs for students not yet in college. This year, more than 8,000 students will journey to campus from all 50 states and 74 countries. Most of them will live on campus for between one and seven weeks.

The majority of participants are high school students who live and learn on Brown’s campus as part of Summer@Brown, choosing from more than 300 non-credit courses that represent the range of the University’s undergraduate curriculum. Adrienne Marcus, associate dean for pre-college and undergraduate programs at the School of Professional Studies (which runs Brown’s pre-college programs) says that outside of class, students experience the independence of college life and participate in a full program of events and activities.

“One of the benefits of having thousands of students on campus is that these same students truly get a feel for what attending college feels like,” Marcus said.

Many aspects of the program mirror the first year of college, offering students the chance to navigate new experiences — from living with a roommate to taking challenging courses with students from varied personal and educational backgrounds — within a safe and supportive environment, Marcus says.

“Participants leave Brown with a sense of self-confidence about their abilities to succeed in new settings by working hard, pushing themselves a bit out of their comfort zone and gaining new experience and knowledge by doing so,” she added.

Increasing access to pre-college programs is central to Summer@Brown’s mission, Marcus says. Last year, students received more than $1.6 million in scholarships; this year, Brown will offer a similar level of scholarship funds. And over the past year, the University has worked closely with the Providence Public School District to enroll more local students, resulting in more than six times the number of participating students from the Providence district compared to last year.

“The pre-college space is one where we can provide incredible opportunities to students who may not know about them or who think that these experiences are not for them,” Marcus said. “Even though we often talk about access in terms of providing opportunities to students who wouldn’t normally be able to take part in them, it’s not a one-way street. It also provides important insight to students who do have easier access to these opportunities, exposing them to many more diverse experiences and perspectives. Having students from a broad range of backgrounds enriches the whole community.”

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