Education 4.13.25 - Flipbook - Page 4
4
The Baltimore Sun | Sunday, April 13, 2025
New programs build fundamental skills
From AI to intergenerational learning, schools stay
ahead of the curve
Goucher College has partnered with Edenwald Senior Living to create the first university retirement community in Maryland.
By Linda L. Esterson, Contributing Writer
rtificial Intelligence is all around us.
It’s evolved our online searching tools,
cash registers in our grocery stores
and even in algorithms on social
media. It’s also become an essential part of
the educational programs of area institutions.
The University of Maryland Clark School
of Engineering soon will offer a new graduate
degree program that pairs artificial intelligence (AI) with engineering. The engineering
artificial intelligence program will provide
rigorous technical education in the analysis
and design of “smart” engineering devices
and systems with both master’s degree and
certificate options. It is open to domestic and
international students who earned a bachelor’s degree in a STEM field with a minimum
3.0 grade point average.
The program will build on fundamental
areas, knowledge and skills related to AI
and apply them to engineering disciplines,
says George Syrmos, Ph.D., assistant dean
for continuing education at the University of
A
Maryland Clark School of Engineering.
“This new program offers an in-depth
curriculum that equips students with both
foundational AI principles and advanced
technical skills in areas such as machine
learning, data analytics and embedded systems,” explains Syrmos. “The program is
really uniquely positioned to combine engineering and AI principles to develop and
support future intelligent systems like robot
learning, generative AI networks, safe and
secure deployment of AI, sustainable AI. The
graduates will be prepared to tackle complex
challenges and lead the next wave of technological innovation.”
The program was developed with input
from every department in the college of
engineering and includes a core of foundational AI coursework like machine learning,
data science, probability and statistics, and
numerical methods. In addition, students
may also delve into more specific disciplines
with coursework related to their background
or profession, like cybersecurity or bioengineering, to build on the engineering princi-
ples they already utilize to improve processes.
“Engineering is the foundation, is the
fundamentals,” Syrmos notes. “You cannot
really walk away from that, but what you can
do [is] use AI in whatever the capacity is to
make the solution of your problem better. It’s
just another tool. It’s an enabler.”
Students at Salisbury University are conducting real world, use-inspired research and
creating AI solutions for local businesses,
nonprofit organizations and agencies. The
effort is underway thanks to a collaboration
between Clifton Griffin, Ph.D., dean of graduate studies and research, Xiaohong “Sophie”
Want, Ph.D., chair of the university’s computer science department, and Michael Jensen,
executive director of entrepreneurship, who
together secured a $380,000, three-year grant
from the National Science Foundation to
lead the project “Rural AI Solutions and
Engagement (RAISE).”
Salisbury, which was recently recognized by the Carnegie Foundation and the
American Council on Education with a
Research Colleges and Universities classifica-
Maiju Lehmijoki Wetzel, Ph.D., B.S.N, R.N., walks with a student at Mercy Medical Center. The school's nursing program engages students in nursing classes in their first year.
Meeting workforce needs
New programs, new opportunities
to the rescue
By E. Rose Scarff, Contributing Writer
A
t Salisbury University a new Bachelor
of Science degree in coastal engineering has just been approved by
the Maryland Higher Education
Commission and the Board of
Regents. “We have had a track in coastal engineering in our physics major for some time,”
says Michael Scott, Ph.D., dean of Richard A.
Henson School of Science and Technology, “so
for us it is the next logical step into its own
degree program.”
Students begin by studying engineering subjects but soon begin to specialize in the components within the coastal zone and it becomes
an interdisciplinary degree. “What's interesting
about the coastal zone, and one of the reasons
that this degree is in such demand,” says Scott,
“is just knowing about basic mechanical or civil
engineering principles is not enough for people
who are working in this very dynamic, very spe-
cific environment.” Another reason is that 78%
of Americans live within 50 miles of a coast.
The need to engineer solutions to protect the
coasts and the people and structures along the
coasts will take engineers with all the foundations of engineering as well as a knowledge of
geoscience. They will need to be able to work
with a multidisciplinary team of biologists, engineers, scientists, planners or architects, depending on the job at hand.
Because of Salisbury’s proximity to both the
Chesapeake Bay and the Atlantic Ocean there
are many opportunities for hands on experience
in the field. Students learn about wave dynamics
in a lab, but they are soon out on the beach or
by the bay, running experiments and doing field
work. Some projects include studying beach erosion or whether salt marshes have been accreting
or eroding over time.
One student who is looking forward to these
opportunities is Maddie Coyne, a first-year physics major who is transferring into the coastal
engineering major when it starts next fall. She is
combining her life-long love of all things beach
with her math and science abilities. Among the
many things she is looking forward to is the field
work along the Bay and on Assateague Island.
All students will do a capstone project where
they work in groups on a current coastal engineering project and share their solutions.
Coming from their long history together
as Catholic institutions with similar goals and
outlook, Loyola University Maryland and Mercy
Hospital are teaming up to offer a Bachelor of
Science in nursing program. “This program is
different because the students are actually going
to start taking nursing courses in the first year,”
says Sharon P. O’Neill, D.N.P., S.D., CRNP, director of nursing at Loyola.
Traditionally nursing students did their first
two years of college taking liberal arts courses
and then were admitted into a nursing program
for their last two years. Beginning in their first
year in this new program, in addition to liberal arts courses, they will also take a nursing
seminar course and a nursing research course.
In their second year they will start their clinical
courses which will amount to about 100 hours,
which will continue into their third and fourth
years.
Not every clinical will be at Mercy Hospital
because there are certain areas such as pediatrics
and psychiatry where a large inpatient unit is not
tion, joins a cohort of universities known as
strong leaders in AI but often are unable to
compete with larger programs based on their
location in rural areas and small size.
The Salisbury program is focusing on
companies in the hospitality, health care,
manufacturing and agriculture sectors,
enabling faculty and students to develop
innovative AI solutions for operational issues
to keep them relevant and productive in the
face of industry advancements.
“We realized a lot of rural communities
are a little behind [in AI incorporation],”
explains Jensen. “A lot of industry people we
talk to don’t know AI. They don’t have someone on staff who knows AI or understands
the changes [that are happening]. We want
to help.”
The grant, Jensen says, is meant to leverage the knowledge base of faculty who specialize in computer science and AI technology to fill the gaps the partner businesses have
and help them utilize AI in their everyday
operations.
One project with Perdue Farms aimed to
enhance hatchery production and handling
processes to increase efficiency and improve
the health of the chicks, Jensen explains. The
university is also working with a Baltimore
company on a job search application, he says.
This semester, there are three additional projects in development with the research work
likely to occur during the summer.
These experiences give students the
opportunity to work on real business challenges and have the potential to create AI
solutions that will be utilized, instead of a
simulated issue created by a professor as a
student exercise.
“This benefits our educational model,”
Jensen notes. “The end for the grant is those
use-inspired undergraduate faculty research
projects leading to new innovation, which
could then lead to new businesses and make
our industries stronger.”
Students participating in the research gain
valuable insight into their future in the workforce. Instead of simply experiencing typical classroom learning with textbooks and
examinations, they are hands-on, working
to solve problems with company staff and
gaining experience with deadlines, soft skills,
communication and collaboration.
“I think the schools that aren't providing these types of types of opportunities are
doing their students real disservice in the in
the long term, because it's much harder for
them to get jobs if they don't have anything
to report other than, ‘hey, I got an A on that
paper,’ or ‘I passed that test,’” Jensen reflects.
“That doesn't matter to them. They need to
be able to cite ‘I had an impact. I did research.
It gives them those practical skills they're
New programs,
continued on page 7
Photo: Alex Brune, ’24
available. These will be held at other locations,
although most clinicals will be at either Mercy
Hospital or Mercy Clinic.
In addition to clinicals, the nursing students
will have access to a simulation lab to learn some
procedures in an environment where “re-dos”
are possible. Another plus for the program is
small class size with a six-to-one student to faculty ratio planned.
Another unique aspect of this program is
that the liberal arts course work is spread out
throughout their college experience. Often students who are doing just nursing courses and
clinicals can get tunnel vision. By taking other
courses at the university at the same time as they
are doing their clinicals they are involved with
other students outside the nursing profession.
This promotes a well-rounded view of the world
for these students.
Because of the way the program is structured, if a student applies and is accepted, they
come directly into the program. Currently, transfer students are not being accepted. Because of
the reputation of both Loyola and Mercy, there
is a great deal of interest in this new program
already. This is great news for help with the
ongoing shortage of qualified nurses everywhere.
Workforce needs,
continued on page 7
