14 CPS Students Won Awards at RISE –  Research, Innovation, Scholarship and Entrepreneurship Exhibition

Students, faculty, staff across Northeastern University and industry leaders came together virtually on April 9, 2020 for the university’s annual RISE (Research, Innovation, Scholarship, Entrepreneurship) to celebrate innovation in multidisciplinary student research projects with a strong showing from College of Professional Studies (CPS) students. Student competitors had the opportunity to showcase their work to a virtual audience that included industry professionals and potential employers or investors. 

This year, a record number of College of Professional Studies undergraduate and graduate students participated (24 students presenting 18 entries) with 14 students winning awards in eight categories, of a possible 23 categories. The students represented five degree programs and a wide range of professions and industries.

New in 2020, RISE included a Northeastern College of Professional Studies Resiliency and Sustainability Focus award specifically for students of the college. This award recognized one undergraduate and one graduate student or team whose project best applied research and communication to an important resiliency and sustainability topic. 

Winners of the CPS prize are:

Following is the list of all CPS RISE award winners in each category, their projects and faculty mentors: 

Computer and Information Sciences 

Social Sciences, Business and Law 

CPS Resiliency and Sustainability 

Data

Grand Impact 

Illuminating Complex Problems 

 
Sharing Economy 

Commenting on how RISE complements coursework learning, Darin Detwiler, assistant dean of academic and faculty affairs and lead for RISE notes, “It’s one more piece to their experience; one more way to show what they have done, and what they’re capable of doing. For these students, this is where the real world begins. They’re really putting themselves out there, showing off what they’ve done. RISE provides opportunities.”

Detwiler commented on the wide range of participation and student topics: “The increase in CPS participation came from the dedication and hard work of many faculty and leaders across all domains and programs. These awards reflect the strong and diverse talent of our students. Our faculty and students exemplify the interdisciplinary nature of computer and information sciences, social sciences, business and law, resiliency and sustainability, data, impact, complex problems, the economy and beyond.” 

Learn more about RISE 2020

Virtual Mindful Monday Event: May 11, 2020

Mindful Monday Series Presents Staying Agile: Early Product Development in a time of Adaptability and Growth

Join us as the RISE Winners of the Grand Impact Award – Mariangela Cardosa Miguel Carmona, Anu Ajaya Kumar, Chia Hsiang Shih, Joyce Liu, Yasha Bhartia, Yingtao Dai – discuss their app, “Give It Here”. Give It Here is an app-based solution for charity donations. They will specifically discuss how to stay agile during early product development.

Date and time: Monday, May 11, 2020
2:00 – 3:00PM EDT

Registration through SAIL is required.

Register here

When Going Back is Really Going Forward

Amanda Nolan was recently honored with an Experiential Excellence at work award, but getting to that point in her life was filled with hurdles, challenges and numerous doubts, which were holding her back in her career. At the same time, she was working full-time and taking care of her 95-year-old father. 

Then there were even more obstacles when she was in the midst of her studies. In 2018 entering her final year of school, Amanda was displaced from her and her family’s home for nearly a year after a damaging storm and flood in the Boston area, known as a Nor’easter. They lost all their personal items and lived for 11 months in a small apartment while their house was being rebuilt. However, Amanda showed remarkable resilience and plowed through these incredible challenges.

Amanda realized in order for her to advance and move forward in her career, she needed to go back to college and pursue a degree in healthcare. This decision came with more than a handful of questions and concerns. She wondered if she was too old at 50 to go back, and what would people think about her regarding this huge potential turning point – in her career and life.
Amanda reports that she feels blessed with an encouraging manager, friends, as well as supportive family – husband Kevin, a niece Ann Marie and her two sons James and Christopher, who were also in college. She realized she was afraid, and one of the many lessons she learned along the way was if you are afraid, just be afraid and still do what you need to do at work, at school or in life. After numerous discussions with academic advisors, she decided that the online bachelor’s degree in health management at the College of Professional Studies would be the perfect fit. 

For 20 years, Amanda has been working in the healthcare IT industry, developing training materials and teaching doctors and clinicians how to use the electronic medical record system.  She is the manager of electronic medical records training in the IT department at Atrius Health – an outpatient multi-specialty healthcare organization. 

For the health management capstone course, Amanda struggled to select a project and subject matter that would make a difference and add value where she worked. She wanted to learn how she and her colleagues’ work impacted the clinicians’ use of electronic medical records. After several brainstorming meetings with Dr. Earlene Avalon, Health Management and Health Science Assistant Teaching Professor and Faculty Lead, they realized an important project would be to research and streamline the numerous workflows for scanning patient information into the electronic medical records system safely including preserving patient confidentiality, ensuring that the records had the correct information and were done in a timely manner. 

Once Amanda decided on the project, her first meeting was with the director of health information management for Atrius.  She learned specifics about current medical records and scanning patient documentation workflow, and how patient care could be improved by cutting the amount of time needed to manually manage paper files. This meeting and many others ahead required that she step out of her comfort zone.

The Difference

As a result of her diligence and determination to complete this project, Amanda found that her colleagues and fellow students learned more about her and her passion for improving patient care. Her persistence and ability to persevere through her fears inspired everyone around her.

“She was consistently encouraging her classmates, who were facing various obstacles in their own internships, and shared various life lessons she learned throughout her project,” Dr. Avalon said in Amanda’s nomination for the Experiential Excellence award. “You could tell in Amanda’s voice and through her weekly postings that she was proud of her work and her project!” 

This project was very beneficial for Amanda at work as well, and she was able to offer optimization sessions to help staff get a better understanding of electronic medical records functionality. She found it took only a few minutes to start up a conversation, and that gave her and her colleagues a new perspective on a variety of topics and subject matter. 

Lessons Learned and Going Forward

“My lessons learned from this experience is first – if I’m afraid, just do it anyway – even afraid,” said Amanda. “Second, be present and take advantage of having face to face conversations with those you work with – even those you haven’t met.”   

Amanda hopes to be in a director’s role in five years and to go back to school once again. This time she wants to get her MBA degree at Northeastern.

All student winners of the Experiential Excellence awards engaged in meaningful professional experience in the form of co-op positions (working full-time for an employer), a sponsored project in their course or capstone, or an experiential project at their current place of work.  Students’ experiences were directly aligned with their academic work, complementing the body of knowledge in their chosen field with an industry-embedded perspective.  

RISE Abstracts due February 20, 2020

At RISE, 2000+ industry leaders, entrepreneurs, investors, researchers and technology enthusiasts from diverse sectors engage more than 400 of Northeastern’s solution-focused innovations. Over 100 esteemed judges from a host of industries (clean energy, computer science, engineering, life science, and finance, for example) come together to measure the ingenuity of Northeastern research and determine the recipients of the prestigious RISE Awards.

This year’s RISE will be held on April 9, 2020. Abstracts are due February 20, 2020. Showcase your innovative project at the RISE Expo!

LEARN MORE

SUBMIT YOUR ABSTRACT

Tech CEO and Investor, Jean Kovacs, Named Graduation Speaker

Alumna Jean Kovacs will bring insights from her career as a Silicon Valley CEO and investor in young companies to the college’s graduation ceremony on August 28, 2019.  More than 500 master’s degree candidates will be awarded graduate degrees in fields ranging from Analytics, Project Management, Digital Media and Global Studies and International Relations.

Kovacs, a 1983 alumna of Northeastern’s University College, the predecessor to the College of Professional Studies, is a technology business leader and early stage investor who has firsthand insight into the growth of the Silicon Valley economy. She was the chief executive officer and co-founder of Comergent Technologies, a company that was sold to a division of AT&T, and she co-founded Qualix Group, which went public in 1997. In addition, Kovacs was an early employee of two technology companies—Sun Microsystems and Frame Technology—which became publicly-traded companies in 1986 and 1992, respectively. 

As a Northeastern student in the early 1980s, Kovacs faced many of the same challenges as students do today—pursuing higher education while working full-time or balancing family responsibilities or both.  Kovacs described her challenges to Encore, the College of Professional Studies alumni magazine in 2007 noting, “What’s great about Northeastern is two things—first, it was flexible. So when I was on the road a lot, I could take Saturday classes.  Second, I could tailor my learning to what I was doing at work. As I progressed in my career at Compugraphic, I tried to match the learning at Northeastern. My knowledge was so much more in-depth, and I could see the direct application to my work. Night-school learning is much deeper and more germane to what you’ll do in life.”

Kovacs is a partner at Hillsven Capital, a venture capital firm focusing on early stage ventures that provide software solutions to enterprises. She is on several company and nonprofit boards and, in addition to her position as CEO of Comergent, has served as an interim CEO for two companies. She is co-president of the Global Board of Harvard Business School Angels Alumni Association, an educational and networking forum for Harvard alumni and others who are interested in researching and investing in early stage companies as individual investors. 

Kovacs has been named to the Silicon Valley Business Journal’s list of Most Influential Women in Business. In 2014, Kovacs was selected as one of a group of Harvard Business School alumni honored by the dean for making an impact through leadership roles. She also has been profiled by influential publications such as Fortune magazine, the Financial Times, Computerworld, Internet World, and InfoWorld. 

Kovacs holds a Bachelor of Science degree in finance from Northeastern’s  University College and a Master of Business Administration from Harvard Business School.  

The Northeastern University College of Professional Studies graduation is on August 28, 2019 at 10:30 am at Matthews Arena on the Northeastern University Boston campus.
 

‘All Progress Scrapes and Claws Before It Glides and Soars’

by Greg St. Martin —

Forty years ago, Billy Starr founded the Pan-Mass Challenge, a charity bike ride across Massachusetts that raises money for cancer research. He said that a 400-mile hike on the Appalachian Trail and a 120-mile bike ride a couple of years earlier had helped him to discover what he wanted to do with his life: build a business that “serves a vast public need.”

On Friday, Starr urged graduates of the College of Professional Studies at Northeastern to find a way to nurture their own most fervent interests in life.

“Find a way somehow, utilizing all the skills and knowledge that you have acquired, to nurture that passion and maintain it as a central driving force in your life,” said Starr, who served as the graduation speaker at a ceremony for students who earned their bachelor’s and master’s degrees this year. “That pursuit does not come with guarantees. But I stand before you as a testament to its uniquely, exhilarating power on the path to success and happiness.”

Starr, who earned his master’s in education from Northeastern in 1978, traced back his job today as the executive director of the Pan-Mass Challenge to the early 1970s, when his mother, uncle, and cousin died of cancer. He also shared how the death of a rider in the fifth year of the event challenged him, recalling how he struggled to cope with the tragedy and pain that it caused the rider’s family.

But Starr said he never doubted the mission of his organization. Over the past 40 years, nearly 200,000 cyclists and volunteers have participated in Pan-Mass Challenge, and $654 million has been donated to the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.

“Triumph and tragedy often walk hand in hand,” Starr said. “To cope efficiently, it is essential that you have a clear grasp of who you are and why you set out on a particular path.”

Starr congratulated the graduates for earning their degrees. He told them to remember that most success is born of failure, and that “all progress scrapes and claws before it glides and soars.”

“That is why having a genuine passion for your work is so vital,” he said. “It is what keeps you going in the face of the inevitable obstacles on the road ahead.”

In opening remarks, Mary Loeffelholz, dean of the College of Professional Studies, told graduates that they represent “Northeastern’s global network of learners.” She said many students had earned their degrees online and through the university’s network of campuses in Charlotte, North Carolina; Seattle; the San Francisco Bay Area; Toronto; Vancouver; and London.

“You graduate already having begun to build a national and global network of your own making,” Loeffelholz said. “You have experienced learning without boundaries.”

Loeffelholz highlighted the diversity and accomplishments of the graduating class. She asked graduates to stand and be recognized if they had studied at Northeastern’s campuses outside of Boston, had come to Northeastern from another country, have served in the military, or attended the Lowell Institute School, through which students with previous college experience finish their bachelor’s degrees in the fields of science, technology, engineering, or business.

The College of Professional Studies offers 95 undergraduate, master’s, graduate certificate, and doctoral programs, many of which are available online or through a combination of online and in-classroom learning. More than 1,600 students from 42 states and 44 countries received bachelor’s, master’s, or doctoral degrees from the College of Professional Studies this year, including over 200 students who were recognized for receiving their doctorates at a ceremony on Thursday.

Philomena Mantella, senior strategic advisor to the president at Northeastern, told the graduates that their education has positioned them well for a “lifetime of growth, discovery, and learning.”

“Learning will never cease, nor will your relationship with your university and those who comprise it,” Mantella said. “As you continue to grow, we are here to remind you that the Northeastern network will always be accessible to you.”

In addition to the graduates, Friday’s ceremony honored professor of the practice Baktybek Beshimov and assistant teaching professor David Hagen for receiving the college’s 2019 Excellence in Teaching Award.

To see more pictures from the college’s 2019 graduation, visit the photo gallery. 

What makes high school students want to study science, technology, engineering, and math?

What makes high school students want to become interested in science, technology, engineering, and math? And what motivates them to pursue careers in these fields?

Three Northeastern University faculty members in the Graduate School of Education have received a grant from the National Science Foundation to answer these questions. They will focus, in particular, on women and underrepresented minorities, which are groups that are disproportionately employed in the fields known collectively as STEM.

READ FULL STORY

A Year In with Year Up

College partnership with national nonprofit founded in Boston helps students thrive

A College of Professional Studies partnership that lets students who are part of the Year Up Greater Boston workforce development program to earn college credits for previous training and internships looks likely to expand. The program strives to move young adults from minimum wage jobs to meaningful careers. 

The agreement, inked in January of 2018, allows Year Up Greater Boston graduates to apply their work in that program toward up to 31 credit hours in one of two degrees at CPS: the Bachelor of Science in Information Technology and the Bachelor of Science in Management.

Mike Jackson, Associate Dean of Academic and Faculty Affairs, says the Boston-based nonprofit is a perfect partner for the college.

“What’s exciting about it,” Jackson says, “is that this gives us an opportunity to help students who have used their time in Year Up to really find their direction, and what interests them, to achieve their goals. We can take the experiences that they have had and translate those into college credit. Basically, they’ll have completed a year’s work of their undergraduate degree when they come to us.”

Founded in 2000, Year Up offers a year-long workforce development program that combines hands-on skills instruction with classes and corporate internships, matching students with professional mentors and offering a network of support that includes a stipend during training and internships. The program’s focus on professional training, Jackson says, is one reason it fits so well in partnership with CPS—an industry-aligned college with numerous faculty leading successful careers in the sectors about which they teach.

“We have folks who work in these industries teaching classes for us,” Jackson says, “so they bring that expertise and day-to-day experience into the classroom. It helps students better understand and appreciate what these jobs and careers will look like.”

The partnership with Year Up isn’t the first of its kind for the college. Agreements with Google, Major League Baseball and other organizations have been helping Northeastern students earn credit toward their degrees for years. 

“At the root, it’s a similar kind of thing,” Jackson says. “We don’t want students to waste time or money taking coursework for material that they’ve already mastered. It’s a little bit different, though, because with Year Up we’re working with a nonprofit organization and we’re building in additional support services for students.”

That support includes a dedicated staff member to help students navigate the application process, their course requirements, problems with technology, and any other issues they might encounter. After a year, students move on to a regular academic advisor. 

With the applicant pool growing, Jackson says CPS is looking at instituting similar collaborations in its master’s degree programs—and at expanding the partnership with Year Up to include the university’s regional campuses in Seattle and in Charlotte. 

“We’re looking to model a program out there that fits the experience of those students,” he says, “which will be similar in some ways and different in others. But we’re looking to scale this. We’d like to reach more students and to provide this opportunity to as many of them as we can.”

Husky Proud

From supportive faculty, to the convenience of online classes. Find out why CPS Students are Husky Proud! 

Brian LaPointe – Leadership

——–
“Being a returning student after a 10+ year gap In my academic career, it was frightening to take my first class back. I have now been back for several semesters and I am happy that all of my professors were caring and assisted in my learning curve. Getting used to the online format and working at the same time wasn’t as difficult as I had thought and having professors that care made a huge difference.”

Magdalena Kawalkowski – Project Management

——–

“I had never taken an online program until I started my journey at Northeastern University. The professors I had so far are experts in the field and extremely accommodating especially since the classes are online. So far the coursework helps my career based on the readings, professors’ knowledge, and discussion from other students. I am happy I chose Northeastern and proud to be a Husky!”

Urja Patel – Project Management

——–

“Being a part of Northeastern University has changed my life for good. I am so proud to be a husky. Northeastern has amazing professors and i would personally want to thank my academic advisor. He has been a very important part of my journey at northeastern. The help and guidance from him has turned my academic journey for good. I would also want to mention the XN projects under CPS. I believe it is an excellent program to expose the students to real work life. Thus, having so much exposure at northeastern has boosted my confidence and made me a better person. Thank you for everything. I am so proud to be a husky.” 

Jacquelyn Collins – Finance and Accounting Management

——–
“Choosing Northeastern CPS to complete my Bachelor’s degree was the best decision I have made in my life so far. The flexibility of the online option has allowed me to embrace being able to work and go to school. My professors are so passionate about what they teach, which can be hard to find sometimes in online classes. I love how involved everyone is. This program has helped me in my line of work. I’ve found a lot of what I learn can be applied directly to my actual job. I’m so proud to be a part of this school, it really has changed my life. Everyone is supportive and encouraging. I can’ wait to finish my degree and maybe even go to grad school here!”

Kara Fulginiti – Global Studies and International Relations, Global Student Mobility Concentration

——–

“I am proud to be a Husky and to have the chance to pursue my educational goals online without sacrificing quality! The online Global Studies and International Relations masters program has really helped to push my career in U.S. Immigration forward. I recently obtained a position as an Immigration Specialist at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, MD. The NIH is the nation’s largest biomedical research institution, inviting scientists and medical doctors from around the world to the United States in order to further critical research in cancer studies and other diseases. I credit a large portion of my obtaining this new position to the skills and education I have gained through Northeastern University, which really help with my intercultural communication in my day to day work. The online format also allows me to take courses at a pace that I can manage while working full-time. I am very excited to graduate with my master’s degree in 2019 as a Northeastern Husky!”

Lisa Bolduc – Corporate & Organizational Communication – Concentration in Human Resource Management

—–

“I am proud to be a Husky! Having graduated with my undergraduate degree over ten years ago, Northeastern made the process of returning to school easy. My program is flexible with both online and on the ground classes. My favorite part of Northeastern is how welcoming and helpful the students, professors and faculty are. Everyone is eager for you to get the most out of your education. Lastly, the campus and online resources are incredibly well organized. Northeastern runs like an efficient ship, that will encourage you to never stop sailing.”

The State of Cyberlearning

The Future of Learning with Technology

Dr. Kemi Jona

The cyberlearning community in the United States brings computer scientists and learning scientists together to design and study innovative learning technologies. The Cyberlearning Community Report: The State of Cyberlearning and the Future of Learning With Technology highlights examples of the work the community is engaged in, integrating the latest innovations in learning science and computer science into new research designs and methods.

Dr. Kemi Jona, a computer scientist, Founding Director of the Lowell Institute School and Associate Dean for Undergraduate programs at Northeastern College of Professional Studies is a co-author of chapter 5: Remote Scientific Labs: Authenticity at a Distance.

The report, organized by the Center for Innovative Research in Cyberlearning (CIRCL) and co-authored by 22 members of the U.S. cyberlearning community, describes six design themes emerging across multiple National Science Foundation-funded cyberlearning projects:

  1. Community Mapping: Moving and Discovering across Contexts
  2. Expressive Construction: Enabling Learners to Represent Powerful Ideas
  3. Classrooms as Digital Performance Spaces
  4. Virtual Peers and Coaches: Social and Cognitive Support for Learning
  5. Remote Scientific Labs: Authenticity at a Distance
  6. Enhancing Collaboration and Learning through Touch Screen Interfaces

For each design theme, the report highlights computer science and learning science innovations, provides examples, and discusses opportunities and challenges. The design themes contrast with today’s common tablet or laptop-based school products by emphasizing context, mobility, physicality, agency, authenticity, and social learning.

The authors also highlight how cyberlearning researchers are advancing methods to study and improve these learning designs, in particular:

  1. Multimodal Analysis
  2. Learning Analytics for Assessment
  3. User- and Community-Centered Design Methods

The report is published by the Center for Innovative Research in Cyberlearning, which is funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) Cyberlearning Program and by other programs across NSF that fund cyberlearning-themed projects. The report was edited by Jeremy Roschelle, Wendy Martin, Juhn Ahn, and Patricia Schank.

Download the report here.