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Industry
Salesforce Pours $6M Into SF Schools, Computer Science Education (TechCrunch)
Salesforce.com, one of the most visibly involved tech companies in San Francisco local politics and community, said it�s gifting $5 million to the city�s public schools and $1 million to Code.org for computer science education. �We�re really doubling down on what we learned in our first year of creating digital classrooms and we�re really focusing on computer science,� said Salesforce.com Foundation President Suzanne DiBianca. Last year, the company�s foundation donated $2.7 million to the city�s middle schools. With this program, they�re setting aside 5,000 employee hours for volunteership in the city�s middle schools through tutoring, mentorship or field trip chaperoning and they�re packing 2,000 backpacks for children.
Oculus co-founders donate $35 million to erect computer science wing at University of Maryland (engadget)
The University of Maryland, for instance, is getting a $35 million computer science wing from two of Oculus VR's co-founders. And what's it named? "The Brendan Iribe Center for Computer Science and Innovation," apparently, after Oculus VR CEO Brendan Iribe. Oculus chief software architect (and co-founder) Michael Antonov is footing another $4 million. The new facility is planned to "feature state-of-the-art maker spaces," says UMD's Jayanth Banavar. Iribe describes it as, "designed for hackers, makers and engineers, which will help give rise to future breakthroughs, products and startups that will transform the way we live and interact with the world around us."
One year after takeoff, Boeing-sponsored engineering capstone project expands (Inside Higher Ed)
To get five universities to collaborate on closing the skills gap in aerospace engineering, all it took was the attention of a global multibillion-dollar corporation: Boeing. It�s a partnership known as AerosPACE, short for Aerospace Partners for the Advancement of Collaborative Engineering. This fall, students at the Georgia Institute of Technology, Brigham Young, Purdue, Tuskegee and Embry-Riddle Aeronautical Universities can choose a yearlong capstone project in which they design, build and test fly an unmanned aerial vehicle (or, in less technical terms, a drone). 
Higher Education
Gregory Ferenstein: Intro to Computer Science is now the most popular freshman class at Harvard. Here why that matters. (VentureBeat)
The educational aspirations of the nation�s elite students are shifting towards Silicon Valley: Introduction to Computer Science is now the most popular class for Harvard freshman. The Harvard Crimson reports that nearly 12% of first year students enroll in CS 50, making it more popular than the finance-track intro course, Principles of Economics. Likewise, the number of Computer Science majors at Harvard has nearly doubled, from 86 in 2008 to 153 in 2013, according to The Crimson. There are a few reasons why this matters: It signals a shift in the market. Harvard has a habit of producing political and business leaders for the next generation.
Robo Expo builds interest [VIDEO] (The Daily Aztec)
San Diego State engineering students along with robotics enthusiasts and industry professionals gathered at the San Diego Hall of Champions on Saturday for the Robo Expo. Several booths featured many types of interactive technology, from small remote controlled cars to 7-foot tall bomb-diffusing robots. The event was hosted in part through a collaboration between SDSU�s Exploring STEM Careers Initiative and the San Diego Science Alliance. The goal was to introduce students of all ages to [STEM]. SDSU grad student Gene Rayford is one of the engineers who helped set up some of the hands-on projects for younger students.
Diversity in STEM
Megan Smith (U.S. Chief Technology Officer) & Mary Grove (Director of Global Entrepreneurship Outreach, Google): Women Are Thriving in Tech -- Why Are They Still Invisible? (HuffPost ImpactX)
With nearly 16 million programmers in the world, at 10 to 15 percent women, there are more than two million female programmers -- but we never see them. Technical women remain largely invisible and behind the scenes despite important and often elite contributions. In tech, we are standing on the shoulders of giants -- men and women who have innovated and collaborated to bring us to where we are today. So many entrepreneurs, computer scientists, heroes, and creators have come before us -- and yet we are critically challenged by the lack of visibility innovators of those days.
Reshma Saujani created Girls Who Code to help girls get computer savvy (Christian Science Monitor)
In 2010 while campaigning unsuccessfully for a seat in Congress from New York State, Reshma Saujani visited a lot of schools. That gave her a chance to observe the gender gap in technology education. At one school she saw dozens of boys in a robotics classroom, as well as a lone girl in a makeshift computer lab. �I really saw the technology divide, up close and personal,� says Ms. Saujani, a former deputy public advocate for New York City. Galvanized by a newfound drive to increase opportunities for girls in computer science, she went to work to find a solution. Two years later Saujani founded Girls Who Code.
STEM Jobs
Aerospace industry decries lack of graduates, diversity (REUTERS)
There is an urgent need to attract home-grown and more diverse engineering talent to the U.S. aerospace and defense industry, the head of the sector's main trade association said on Thursday. "We do not have a robust pipeline of young people with the right skills and training coming into the workforce," said Aerospace Industries Association Chief Executive Officer Marion Blakey. [STEM] disciplines "are still really less than what we need in terms of young people, both in junior high and high school as well as in college," Blakey told the Reuters Aerospace and Defense Summit.
America�s top execs seem ready to give up on U.S. workers (Washington Post)
Three years ago, Harvard Business School asked thousands of its graduates, many of whom are leaders of America�s top companies, where their firms had decided to locate jobs in the previous year. The responses led the researchers to declare a �competitiveness problem� at home: HBS Alumni reported 56 separate instances where they moved 1,000 or more U.S. jobs to foreign countries, zero cases of moving that many jobs in one block to America from abroad, and just four cases of creating that many new jobs in the United States. Three in four respondents said American competitiveness was falling.
Skills Gap Bumps Up Against Vocational Taboo (Wall Street Journal)
The Obama administration and governors from Michigan to North Carolina have a solution for some of the U.S. manufacturing sector's woes: German-style apprenticeship programs. But their success is proving to be unusually one-sided, mostly drawing firms based in Germany and other non-U.S. countries. In North Carolina, "Apprenticeship 2000," a program combining classroom work and on-the-job training, has drawn numerous German companies but so far only two U.S. firms, Ameritech Die & Mold Inc. and Timken Co. "Vocational training is a well-recognized career in Germany that offers good income opportunities, whereas in the U.S. it is often associated with people who did poor at high school," said Robert Lerman, an American University economics professor who studies apprenticeships.
Viewpoints
Mayim Bialik (Actress, Big Bang Theory): How 'cool' would it be if more kids were psyched about STEM? (CNBC)
Part of the difficulty of getting kids into [STEM] is the common misconception that it's reserved for geeks or only the "smartest "kids in class. What if we could replace those images with real, relatable people, who kids have access to from an early age? While most people know me as an actress on "The Big Bang Theory," I also have a Ph.D. in neuroscience from UCLA. I am a science geek and I embrace it! In high school and college, I spent hours upon hours with my graphing calculator in order to gain a deeper understanding of abstract concepts in science and mathematics. Today, many kids spend hours upon hours with their cell phones and tablets, which honestly worries me.
K-12 Education
Fundraising goal for Norwin STEM center set at $3.5 million (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)
Norwin school board Monday heard an update on the fundraising campaign for the district�s proposed [STEM] Center and discussed whether local taxes should pay for part of it. Jeff Curry of Bob Carter Cos. LLC �- a Sarasota, Fla., firm the district hired in February �- said the campaign has gained momentum, with a number of fundraising campaign volunteers believing in the project. The district should not lose that momentum, he said. One of the next tasks in the campaign is to create a list of 30 potential donors for the $3.5 million fundraising campaign. He said if the district opens the STEM Center to students from other areas, fundraisers would also be able to solicit donations from industrialists in other communities.
STEM Innovation
This $1 foldable microscope could change science education (Digital Trends)
 Microscope kits may invoke a sweet nostalgia for many adults today, but future generations of children in science classes may enjoy an entirely different microscopy experience. A research team at Stanford University has created a foldable paper microscope to help democratize science education for less than a dollar. The origami-based paper microscope, Foldscope, comprises a simple list of parts: a sheet of plastic-coated paper (6 cents), a ball lens (17 cents for low magnification, 56 cents for high magnification), a 3-volt battery (6 cents), an LED light (21 cents), a switch (5 cents) and some copper tape (3 cents). Don�t pull out your calculator � that�s 58 cents for the low-magnification version of the Foldscope and 97 cents for the high-magnification version, based on a 10,000-unit production. |
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Detroit Lions & Tata Technologies Launch STEM Programs in 2 Detroit Schools
 Athletes for Charity, Tata Technologies and the Detroit Lions have joined forces to expose Detroit Public School students to embrace [STEM], while also developing their skills in reading and writing. �The demand for skilled workers in [STEM] is on the rise while the availability of qualified applicants is on the decline because students are not pursuing degrees and careers within the sector,� said Alisa Harewood of Tata Technologies, a global engineering services company with North American headquarters located in Novi. The curriculum will include monthly book distributions by various Detroit Lions players, coordinated by Don Carey of the Lions, to deliver age-appropriate STEM-related titles to students. Introductions to STEM literature and careers will be a recurring theme throughout the 10-month long program. Tata Technologies staff and various Detroit Lions players will volunteer their time to serve as STEM Readers.
Verizon Innovative App Challenge
 Student teams across the nation are now invited to create novel ideas for the mobile app marketplace in the Verizon Innovative App Challenge. The competition offers middle and high school students the opportunity to apply their STEM knowledge and submit an idea for a mobile technology application that can be used to solve a societal or community problem. Registration for this contest is now open, and eight teams will win �Best in Nation� honors, each earning a $20,000 cash grant for their school.
Robotics Education & Competition Foundation and Northrop Grumman Foundation Announce New Dates & Location for the 2015 VEX Robotics World Championship
 The Robotics Education & Competition (REC) Foundation and the Northrop Grumman Foundation today announced that the 2015 VEX Robotics World Championship will take place on April 15 � 18, 2015 at the Kentucky Exposition Center in Louisville, Ky. This intense four-day annual robotics-engineering tournament will attract more than 800 teams and 15,000 students from over 25 countries to celebrate their accomplishments and further inspire their interest in STEM. �The VEX Robotics World Championship has grown significantly in the past few years and we are excited to move the event to the Kentucky Exposition Center, where the larger venue and new amenities will provide an incredible world class experience to the students, teachers, mentors, and parents who join us each year,� said Jason Morrella, president, REC Foundation.
MIND Research Institute Hires Former Superintendent as Chief Academic Officer
 The education nonprofit MIND Research Institute is bringing aboard Art McCoy, Ph.D., to serve in a new position of Chief Academic Officer and Superintendent-in-Residence. McCoy is an educator, school administrator, author and consultant who most recently served as the first African-American superintendent of Ferguson-Florissant School District in Missouri. In this new role, McCoy will be based in Missouri and serve nationally as an ambassador and advisor for MIND�s programs with a focus on student achievement and educator efficiency. E |
