STEM 2026: A Vision for Innovation in STEM Education

/
image.png


Building on the priority to support science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM education set by the Obama Administration that is reflected in several of the Administration’s initiatives, the U.S. Department of Education (the Department) is releasing a report outlining a vision to carry on that legacy in the coming decade.

The complexities of today’s world require all people to be equipped with a new set of core knowledge and skills to solve difficult problems, gather and evaluate evidence, and make sense of information they receive from varied print and, increasingly, digital media. The learning and doing of STEM helps develop these skills and prepare students for a workforce where success results not just from what one knows, but what one is able to do with that knowledge.

Source:
American Institutes of Research
Download Report (pdf 1.2MB)

STEMworks superstars join the President at The White House

/

WIT is proud that STEMworks superstars Chistine Alonzo and teacher of the year Jen Suzuki were invited by the President to attend this event! WIT was happy to sponsor their D.C. travel and can’t wait to hear all about it!

Read the letter below from President Barak Obama,  The White House, Washington D.C.

Whenever I hear people make gloomy claims about how America is on the downswing, they’re either out to promote themselves, or talking about some alternate reality. Think about it — if you had to choose any time in the course of human history to be alive, you’d choose this one. Right here, right now, right in America.

New technologies and new innovations are transforming the way we live, opening up incredible opportunities to create, to discover, and to do what we never thought possible.

At the same time, we have to navigate these changes in a smart way. They also can be disruptive, even scary — and sometimes, they leave folks behind.

Our task is to come together and build a future that’s more inclusive, tolerant, and full of opportunity for everybody. And I’ve never been more optimistic that we will.

As President, I’ve spent the last eight years finding the best people to help us meet that challenge. People who reject cynicism. People who turn change into a force for good. People who believe that, no matter who we are, where we come from, who we love, or what God we pray to, we — the people — can create a world that’s worthy of our brightest hopes.

So today, I’m inviting a bunch of these folks to my backyard for South by South Lawn.

Much like the festival I dropped by in Austin earlier this year, SXSL is, at its heart, a call to action. The folks out on the lawn today are artists, creators, entrepreneurs, and innovators who will share how they’ve used their unique skills to engage their communities in making the change they want to see — whether it’s curing cancer, fighting poverty, empowering women, and so much more.

We’ll welcome people like Jukay Hsu, an Iraq War veteran with a Bronze Star for his service to our country who uses technology to build a path out of poverty for people in Queens. Or Oscar Menjivar, who is pushing schools in Los Angeles to bring technology into the classroom so kids can get a head start on coding. Or Dr. Nina Tandon, the founder of the world’s first company growing living human bones to help with reconstruction and recovery.

Those are just a few of the incredible people you’ll see out at South by South Lawn all day today. And believe me — it’s a sight to see.

We’ve got an art installation made entirely of sticky notes where people share how they will make a positive impact where they live. We’ve got a virtual reality exhibit where people can experience what it’s like to live in solitary confinement and learn firsthand why it should be banned from our prisons.

We’ll discuss questions that will define the coming decades: How do we harness technology to solve our most stubborn problems? How will we sustainably feed ourselves in the near future? How do we foster innovation in the heart of our cities? How do we, as citizens, engage to bring about lasting change?

And I’ll join a conversation with Dr. Katherine Hayhoe, a climate scientist, and Leonardo DiCaprio, a longtime ally in the fight against climate change, to explore how we can move forward in our efforts to protect the one planet we’ve got. Leo is also debuting his documentary film on climate change tonight.

Given his day job, I’m betting it’s pretty good.

So join us today on the South Lawn to see how you can lend a hand in building a world we want to live in.

That’s our responsibility as citizens. That doesn’t mean this has be your full-time job. It doesn’t mean you have to run for office or launch a start-up. But it does mean that whatever field you’re in, whatever skill you have, whatever passion you’re pursuing, you can find a way to engage, to participate, and to make a difference.

See you on the lawn,

President Barack Obama

Students Prepare for the Future

/

KIHEI, Maui, Hawaii – September 1, 2016 – STEMworks™ completes 2016 paid Summer Internship program

image.png

Students from across the state were given a unique opportunity to help local companies and organizations with STEM technical and agricultural-related projects during the STEMworks™ Summer Internship program sponsored by Maui Economic Development Board’s Women in Technology (WIT). As of August 31, thirty-three high school and college students successfully completed the dynamic summer program, working with MEDB and Host Company mentors on the islands of Kaua’i, Lāna’i, Maui, Moloka’i, and O’ahu. Interns and companies mutually benefited from the partnership as industry mentors offered invaluable knowledge, advice and career insight to the aspiring young STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) and Agriculture (Ag) students. Simultaneously, companies worked with fresh and innovative talent.

Interns were successfully engaged in a wide variety of high-caliber, hands-on STEM and Ag projects. The students presented their advanced knowledge of the latest technologies and their exposure to new career fields, to a packed audience. The STEMworks™ Internship program matches students with a host company or organization, based on the host’s project needs and the interests and skills of the student.

“This year over 30 companies, organizations and sponsors gave student interns the opportunity to apply their skills and knowledge in the workplace,” said Denissa Andrade, MEDB Intern Coordinator. “Interns worked closely with a designated project while attending weekly WIT webinars to help them develop college preparatory and career readiness skills. Benefits of the program included on-the-job training to develop abilities and protocol necessary for success in the workplace, as well as the opportunity to be a contributing member of a work team.”

Orlino Noneza III, a 2016 Kihei Charter School graduate, interned at A&B Properties’ ArcGIS Web Application and Historical Mapping Project. “My role was a Geographic Information System (GIS) assistant to mentor Jeremy Cabral,” he said. “ArcGIS is mapping software, developed by ESRI, which many government GIS offices use to organize geographical information. I logged historical maps that A&B has collected from the 1800’s to the present. Then I catalogued and digitized the maps into their ArcGIS system to make them easier for anyone in the company to access.”

“During my field work I learned a lot regarding GIS Technologies,” Noneza explained. “On our field trip adventures we discovered Triangulation Stations, small discs put in the ground by the government in the late 1890’s. They were used to measure co-ordinates and elevation.”

“The weekly college readiness webinar assisted all of the interns in the college application process,” Noneza noted. “I’m so grateful to MEDB, WIT and A&B Properties. I learned many new sources of information and new forms of technology that can help me in my future projects, including my career choices.”

image.png

During her astronomy research internship project at the University of Hawai’i’s (UH) Institute for Astronomy (IfA), Kihei Charter School senior Erica Sawczynec studied how to find the age of an open star cluster. “My basic project at IfA was analyzing the magnitude (brightness) of stars in an open cluster,” said Sawczynec. “Using different color filters, I created color magnitude graphs to which I fit isochrones to find their ages.” Isochrones are curves produced by computer-generated models of a group of stars born at the same time but each of which burns at a different temperature.

image.png

Working alongside her mentor, Dr. JD Armstrong, Maui Technology Education and Outreach Specialist at UH IfA, Sawczynec learned how to use photometry, the measurement of light to find the age of the star cluster.

“I thank MEDB and WIT for this amazing experience!” she added. “It helped me realize I want to continue studying astrophysics and astronomy. Additionally, MEDB’s weekly webinar provided me with college readiness and workplace exercises.”

“I am extremely proud of my student this year,” said Dr. Armstrong. “While she was able to determine the age of a young open cluster of stars, I challenged her by giving her some data from a very old star cluster and she figured that out. I always love the moments when the students really catch on to something!”

Ag interns and college students Noelani Reyes, Kealohalani Ka’aikalā and Jade Chihara spent their summer internship at Noho’ana Farm in Waikapū. “We are an organic lo’i kalo and diversified crop farm whose mission is ‘keeping culture in agriculture,’” said Noho’ana Farm Owner and Land Manager, Hōkūao Pellegrino. “Our three interns assisted in running our summer culture and place-based program for students in grades 6-7.”

“Prior to engaging with the younger students, they spent a good amount of time learning how to manage the farm,” Pellegrino explained. “This included traditional irrigation and water resource management, using farm equipment, planting and harvesting crops, and food production. Behind all of this work they learned many cultural values that are in alignment with their day to day responsibilities and an overall appreciation for being food stewards of the ‘āina.”

“Our internship at Noho’ana Farm gave us a more prominent concern for environmental issues,” the interns agreed. “We learned that caring for the land is everyone’s kuleana, responsibility.”

image.png

Colleen Sakuma, a Lāna’i High and Elementary School senior, interned at Lāna’i Community Health Center (LCHC). “During the course of my internship I learned the procedures of managing chronic diseases and how technology fits into that,” said Sakuma.

Sakuma’s LCHC mentor, Olivia Pascual, said, “Sakuma has a better understanding now of why we do certain tests and what the lab results mean. Additionally, she learned about the technologies needed for testing.”

“Our intern at Monsanto quickly learned that farming has moved into the digital age,” said Tim “Pono” Stevens, operations lead at Monsanto. “In addition to her research project and the day-to-day operations on the farm, we were able to teach her about plant breeding, GIS mapping and digital data collection.”

“My Monsanto research project focused on water use on the farm, primarily more sustainable practices for 100% recycled water,” said Karen Taroma, a graduating senior. “I am so grateful for this experience. Thank you MEDB and WIT!”

image.png

Goodfellow Brothers intern, Jaelyn Domingo said, “At the beginning of the summer, my ideas for my future were very vague. “Throughout my internship I studied land surveying, hydraulics, and software programming. I discovered that engineering is something I want to explore when I go to college.”

Goodfellow Brothers mentor Kevin Clarke said, “Domingo has a high aptitude for drafting, plus she learned new concepts quickly to add to her own software experience.”

Hawaiian Commercial and Sugar Company (HC&S) interns, Jett Bolusan and Maya Ooki researched Maui pests and beneficial pollinators. “Our assignment was to help HC&S’s transition from sugarcane to multiple new crops. We researched a variety of pests and their effects on certain potential crops and their surrounding ecosystem,” said Bolusan.

“We started Maui’s very first farmer-centered bug encyclopedia called Maui Bugpedia,” he explained. “Our goal was to provide an easy-to-use bug data base, including integrated pest management information such as the life cycles of pests, plus other helpful facts. We are very grateful to MEDB and WIT for the opportunity to create professional relationships and learn more about agricultural practices on Maui.”

image.png

“The STEM and Ag interns have worked closely with selected mentors to help our company with a high-quality project,” said Mae Nakahata, Director of Agricultural Research and Crop Control at HC&S. “The internship provided us with the means to develop a website to identify pests and control strategies, not only for HC&S but for all farmers.”

WIT’s STEMworks™ Summer Internship program is helping prepare leaders for the future workforce. The industry partnership with the intern program has provided a real-life handbook for students, pointing them to a direction of study in college as well as insights into career choices.

“Mahalo to the following Summer Internship sponsors and industry partners for their support,” said Andrade.

2016 Sponsors: Office of Naval Research; State of Hawai’i Department of Labor and Industrial Relations; County of Maui; Maui County Farm Bureau; MEDB Ke Alahele Fund; Maui High Performance Computing Center; Viking Construction; and Da Kitchen Café.

2016 Host Companies & Organizations: Cellana, Inc,; SSFM International; Charles H. Palumbo—Architect, Inc.; Lāna’i Community Health Center; Pῡlama Lāna’i; A&B Properties; Da Beach House; Da Kitchen Café; Goodfellow Bros.; Hawaiian Commercial & Sugar Company; Maui High Performance Computing Center; Maui Makers; Monsanto; Noho’ana Farm; The Maui Farm; UH Institute for Astronomy; UHMC Maui Food Innovation Center; UHMC Office of Continuing Education & Training; UHMC Rural Hawai’i Project; Viking Construction; Hui o Kuapā/Aloha ‘Āina Academy; and Hawai’i Drone Academy.

Engineering Educators Elect First Black Woman President

/

WIT note: Congratulations to our dear friend Dr. Bev Watford! She is an amazing role model and leader, as well as a personal mentor to our own Maui High superstar, Kyra Vila — 2016 Virginia Tech Engineering graduate.

image.png

Bevlee Watford, associate dean for academic affairs at Virginia Tech’s College of Engineering, has become the first black woman to be president-elect of the American Society for Engineering Education.

Her one-year term as president begins in June 2017. Watford, who also is director of the university’s Center for the Enhancement of Engineering Diversity, has boosted graduation and retention rates of underrepresented groups, says Virginia Tech. With 9,780 total undergraduate and graduate students enrolled in 2015-16, engineering is the university’s largest college.

Bootcamps Are Refactoring Computer Science Education

/

By David Yang Educator, entrepreneur and engineer.  Source: Huffington Post.

The swift rise of coding bootcamps — accelerated vocational schools that prepare students to become professional software developers — has understandably raised concerns about what it means to be a properly trained software engineer. Loyalists to the CS degree believe that these coding newcomers lack the theoretical background to sustain a long-term career in the industry.

They also perceive ‘bootcampers’ to have inferior programming skills when interviewing for developer positions. These claims seem to reflect more on us (programmers) as a culture than on the results that bootcamps are actually achieving — it’s a simplistic way of understanding how many experienced programmers were trained and what approaches will be effective at creating/upgrading the modern technology workforce. Because bootcamps address many of these issues, bootcamp graduates are often better equipped to become lasting developers than CS graduates and will only continue to surpass their CS counterparts.

How Programmers are Made

The idea that university CS programs are taking bright young minds and fashioning them into algorithm and data structure whiz-kids defies the observations of almost any incoming CS student or their instructor. Many CS freshmen enter college already having a passion for computers and likely a privileged amount of access to technology and mentorship. Like myself, they were given computers as children by parents who were themselves close to technology. They have computer usage skills (how to configure your machine, how to fix basic computer problems) and have parents (or tutors) who introduced them to programming.

For those without that background, freshman CS can prove very challenging. Not only are they being introduced to arcane ideas and vocabulary, they’re competing against the curve with that previous group and rarely given the psychological or instructional support they need to catch-up (Harvey Mudd has done some research in this area and found that separating out these two skill levels at first produces much better results down the line).

The bottom line is that we can’t expect to create a scalable and competitive workforce of programmers if we’re limiting our pool to only those who have enough passion to survive the weeding-out process common at many top universities. Bootcamps have proven to be much more effective at closing the education to employment gap in technology because bootcamps provide a more holistic type of training that’s required to be successful in the field.

Bootcamps often focus on group work, pair programming, test-driven development, project-based assignments and empathy/psychology training. Impostor syndrome is a huge problem in the field (even for CS grads), largely driven by the 10x engineer stereotype popular culture has created: The young (male) programming genius writing complex code without needing any help, dropping out of Harvard to build Facebook or Microsoft. How many Intro to CS classes try to address or mitigate imposter syndrome? (Hint: not many)

Theory Versus Practice 

The most frustrating and persistent of all the tropes surrounding CS graduates versus bootcamp graduates is that CS graduates are better theorists than bootcamp graduates. Perhaps more accurately we can say that software engineering as a discipline has finally matured and there needs to be two distinct paths just as there are for physicists and civil engineers.

While I wouldn’t want to traverse a bridge built by a Civil Engineer who didn’t understand any physics, there are clearly topics in physics that have very little use to someone who’s building a bridge. Culturally, I’ve seen little evidence that as an industry we’ve addressed this disparity, and yet many interviews are still two people discussing graph algorithms on a whiteboard.

Another reason I’ve grown cold towards too much theory early-on is that the magic of a programming education is the sense of empowerment it enables through creation. This learning/application/empowerment cycle is what motivates students and makes bootcamps work so well. It’s much more fun for a student to learn a topic like compilers, graph algorithms or database performance when it’s applied toward a problem they’re currently struggling with rather than simply another part of a four-year theoretical education. In short, I think it’s just more fun to place theory onto a scaffold of practice than vice-versa, and computers are the perfect environment for enabling that.

At a meta-level, the most important skill for being an excellent programmer is the ability to learn and adapt to constantly updating technology (the only thing constant in tech is change—and, of course, JavaScript). In attending and completing a bootcamp, graduates of immersive programs have already demonstrated an ability for rapid learning and a willingness to invest in continuing education. As an engineer that worked with six languages in the last decade, I can attest that investment in improving how I learn has been the most important part of managing my career.

Reservations and Further Questions

However, an endorsement of the accelerated learning model must come with a few reservations. Like CS programs, not all bootcamps are created equal. It is important for prospective students to consider a school’s admissions selectivity, the relevance of the curriculum in the industry, and where graduates have successfully secured jobs. Reach out to alumni on LinkedIn and ask them how their classmates are doing in the job search. If you can, visit their campus and see what students are working on. Just because the bootcamp model has been successful for some of the top brands doesn’t mean that it works automatically—students need to be diligent in their research and selection.

Students also should understand that the reason bootcamps work is that they provide the ideal environment in which you can do your hardest and best work. Bootcamps provide an incredible learning environment, a tested industry-focused curriculum, and great instructors, but they are very demanding on student time, energy, and dedication. There are bootcamps exploring more self-guided models but the early results have been mixed. It’s never been a better time to enter the technology field but it also remains extremely demanding and rapidly-changing field.

The Shortage is Real

There are many times more programming jobs to fill than there are programmers to fill them. Admirable strides are being made in K-12 and college CS education to close this gap but those investments will take years to pan out and fill the shortage of qualified candidates. The bootcamp model of education has proven so valuable that many universities are supplementing their CS curricula with credit-awarding, bootcamp-style offerings. Immersive coding bootcamps provide an innovative and sustainable solution to the developer shortage but also the most compelling path into the software engineering industry. Companies like Google, Microsoft and Facebook down to early-stage startups have woken up to this new stream of talent and are modifying their hiring processes to account for people who are passionate and practical.

As someone who’s worked with hundreds of bootcamp students, I’m also incredibly excited by the diversity of background and interests. The next phase of the software revolution will be it’s expansion—how software is fundamentally changing so many industries. We’ll need people with deep knowledge in the fields of law, social work, government and education to understand the technological tools that are available to them. The software engineering field should welcome this new group and recognize the energy, passion, and external knowledge that they’ll infuse into our industry and society.

Follow David Yang on Twitter: www.twitter.com/dyang

Millennials are ushering in a new wave of diversity

/
Millennials are ushering in a new wave of diversity

By William Frey.  Source: Brookings Brief.

Racial diversity will be the most defining and impactful characteristic of the millennial generation. Newly released 2015 Census data points to millennials’ role in transitioning America to the “majority minority” nation it is becoming.

Millennials between ages 18 and 34 are now synonymous with America’s young adults, fully occupying labor force and voting ages. They comprise 23 percent of the total population, 30 percent of the voting age population, and 38 percent of the primary working age population. Among racial minorities their numbers are even more imposing. Millennials make up 27 percent of the total minority population, 38 percent of voting age minorities, and a whopping 43 percent of primary working age minorities.

Read More