Education Guide 7.26.26 - Flipbook - Page 4
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| Sunday, July 26, 2026
University of Maryland students at a field trip at the Institute for Bioscience and Biotechnology Research.
STEM Education Plays an Important Role
in Workforce Development
How three of Maryland’s colleges are using science, technology and
engineering studies to prepare students for future careers
By Alex Keown, Contributing Writer
A
s demand grows among
employers for talent with strong
STEM (Science, Technology,
Engineering and Mathematics)
skills, Maryland universities are expanding programs designed to equip students
with the education and training needed to
succeed in these fields.
A specialized two-year, junior/
senior-level transfer educational program
at the University of Maryland is equipping
students with the skills to harness workstation GPUs and artificial intelligence to
mine, analyze and visualize vast amounts
of health data – helping address some of
today’s most complex medical challenges. The interdisciplinary biocomputational engineering (BCE) bachelor’s degree
program, established in 2021, combines
bioengineering, quantitative mathematical methodology with computer science,
data science, programming and AI to
provide a platform that solves for important problems in biomedicine and health
care. Students entering the program are
required to have completed prerequisite
courses.
Lan Ma, UMD’s biocomputational
engineering program director and faculty
instructor, says the students learn to pro-
cess bioinformatics and genomics datasets with computer programs like Python,
as well as using quantitative and mathematical modeling to understand diseases
at molecular, organ, and systems levels.
“The importance of big data was one
of the driving reasons for us to establish
this new program,” Ma says. “It’s important to develop efficient ways to handle
and interpret and extract helpful information form the data. That’s one aspect
of what this program teaches students
to do.”
Leonardo Buitrago, a graduate of
the BCE program and current student
assistant while he works on a master’s
degree, touted the degree program and
the pathways for future employment. As
a student, Buitrago collaborated with
federal scientists to develop an AI-driven
computer model that can use thermal
imaging to quickly recognize breast cancer tumors.
That’s just one example some of
the cutting-edge work being done by
students, says program coordinator of
academic affairs and recruitment Sivan
Saravanapavan, who, like Buitrago, is a
graduate of the program.
“The most pressing question is career
prospects. This is something we’re always
talking about. About 30% of our students
are going to get an advanced degree,
and the rest are looking to begin their
careers,” Saravanapavan says. “Some of
our students have landed great jobs with
companies like Booz Allen (Hamilton),
AstraZeneca and Millipore Sigma.”
Cybersecurity continues to be an
industry seeking talent and The University
of Maryland Global Campus is meeting that call. The college’s cybersecurity
competition team is having one of its
strongest years with multiple top finishes
in national and regional competitions.
This year, the team has garnered 10 first
place victories and three second place
finishes.
“That’s more than we got in five years,
and that was by March,” says Jesse
Varsalone, an associate professor in
cybersecurity technology and the coach
of the UMGC cybersecurity team.
Varsalone says these competitions
are a form of experiential learning. The
simulations allow the team members to
practice the skills they’ve gained from
classroom work in a real-world setting.
“The students really have to apply
their knowledge in these spaces. In these
competitions, a lot of the times you’re
coming across things you’re not seeing
in a regular classroom. It really enhances
and expands your skill set and gets people excited about the opportunities in this
field,” Varsalone says. “With cyber there
are multiple ways to solve problems,
so not everyone approaches things the
same way, so it’s cool to see other ways
to do things.”
The competitions typically last three
to four hours. They simulate real world
cyber threats that industries and governments face each day. Varsalone says
the competitions show students how a
hospital, airport, utility company or other
entity uses cybersecurity to protect its
