Local DeVry locations join in national open house for tech jobs

Kelley Taptich, senior director of admissions at DeVry University’s Fort Washington Campus, gave a presentation on career-focused degree programs offered at DeVry University that prepare students for in-demand career fields at the University's National Open House event held in Fort Washington, Pa., on August 7th.

These days, it seems it’s all about those growing career opportunities.

On Saturday, Devry University locations in Fort Washington and Center City were part of a national open house program focused on healthcare technology and information services careers, industries where job growth is projected.

In Fort Washington, the school offered 50 students and adult learners the chance to meet with faculty and staff around its college of engineering and information sciences program, organizers say.

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Timothy Allen talks about education innovation at Wharton

Timothy Allen has to clarify.

Timothy Allen of Wharton

The programmer and analyst with Wharton Research Data Services is something of a community organizer to boot and July is busy enough that Allen has to make sure that the record is set straight.

There are three events — “very exciting events” Allen clarifies — happening at Wharton in the coming weeks. These clusters often happen on campuses when most students are elsewhere.

In addition to the East Coast debut of the famed decade-old Supernova conference that, for full disclosure, Technically Philly is co-sponsoring at the month’s end, in two weeks, Wharton is also home to two events dedicated to innovation in education.

Allen says that has something to say about Wharton and what the relationship of the city’s technology community to education can mean for the region’s future.

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David L. Cohen, Comcast Executive Vice President, talks Comcast, taxes and startups

David L. Cohen doesn’t run Comcast.

He didn’t run the Rendell mayoral administration either, and he doesn’t run the University of Pennsylvania or the Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce, nor does he have any of the titles that put him as the figurehead of any of the organizations that his fingerprints are on.

But he’s always in the conversations.

The Comcast Executive Vice President who spent much of the early 1990s as Ed Rendell’s mayoral chief of staff — as immortalized by Buzz Bissinger’s noted book ‘A Prayer for the City‘ — and before it had a private law career is as well-connected as they come.

So, Cohen, who is also the chairman of both the Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce and the University of Pennsylvania, has a unique vantage point on the region’s technology, political and cultural vanguard. Below, Cohen talks to Technically Philly about bolstering college graduate retention, the true affects of the NBC deal and why that purchase has something to do with Vietnam.

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Wharton MBA program ranked third best in world

The Wharton Business School MBA program at the University of Pennsylvania has been ranked the third best in the world by the Business Insider.

“Wharton is known for delivering talent who provide a strong strategic thinking perspective combined with exemplifying executive communication skills,” a General Electric recruiter told the New York City-based business and technology news blog.

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Science Leadership Academy: A new model for schools

Students walk down the hallway in between classes at the Science Leadership Academy.

In partnership with Temple University’s Multimedia Urban Reporting Lab, the university’s capstone journalism class, students Chelsea Leposa and Jared Pass will cover neighborhood technology issues for Technically Philly and Philadelphia Neighborhoods through May.

At the Science Leadership Academy the students are treated like adults, says junior Cody Nichols.

Built in partnership with the School District of Philadelphia and the Franklin Institute, the Science Leadership Academy (SLA) is a new student-oriented, project-based program. Put away your No. 2 pencil at SLA, there are no standardized tests aside from the state required PSSAs.

Students work closely together and with teachers to create a variety of projects. Student projects even contribute to the school’s daily activities. SLA’s help desk, for instance, is one of the largest student projects, says Chris Alfano, tehe school’s system administrator and computer support specialist.

“We have about 12 students who are assigned to come here, and they pretty much take care of all the school’s repair needs,” Alfano says. All 10th and 11th graders at SLA are required to have an internship that meets once a week.

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Temple University launches ergonomic computing pilot

A wave keyboard and trackball mouse are among the new ergonomic devices that have been installed in the TECH Center. Photo by Kelly and Massa Photography

Computer keyboards can be so much more than flat and cramped.

Temple University, boasting among the city’s largest IT infrastructure, has launched a pilot program to introduce ergonomic computer equipment and accessories to their students, faculty and staff, according to the college.

“Project Ergo” has brought 100 joint-friendly computer pieces, including wave keyboards, trackball mice, arm rests and large monitors, to the school’s sprawling 75,000 square-foot Main Campus TECH Center.

Students, faculty and staff are asked to use the devices through the end of the academic year to provide feedback on what pieces would be most used and liked.

The details of some items being used to make computing a more comfortable affair on North Broad Street, after the jump.

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BarCamp indicates that Philly is ready for next step. But will it happen?

BarCamp's organizers address attendees in the morning. Photo credit: Flickr user MonkoPhoto

In what was an uncharacteristically warm Saturday for mid-November, roughly 250 BarCamp Philly attendees shuffled their way into an auditorium on the 16th floor of 211 South Broad Street in Center City, Philadelphia.

Standing before the packed room complete with attendees spilling out into the hallways, organizers J.P. Toto, Roz Duffy and Kelani Nichole took the microphone to kick off the event they had spent months tirelessly organizing.

“How many people are not from Philly?” asked Toto. Roughly 15 percent of the hands in the packed auditorium went up (most of whom turned out to be from Florida) to the sound of impressed whistles and nods of approval.

Toto continued: “How many people have never been to a BarCamp before?” Slightly less than half of the room raised their hands validating on what many had suspected previously: The Philadelphia tech scene is growing.

But with that growth comes a fresh set of issues for the city’s techies to tackle.

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TNT: Study shows two times as many U.S. science, engineering graduates as needed

A new study co-authored by a Rutgers professor shows a steady number of science, technology, engineering and mathematics graduates, but a plummeting retention rate of highest-performing students. Source: Study "Steady as She Goes," linked below.

It’s a common refrain of politicians, educational advocates and many business leaders. The output of science and technical graduates in the United States is dangerously behind other countries.

But a new study [PDF], led in part by a Rutgers University professor, posits instead that the last 30 years has seen no significant change in the number of U.S. graduates in so-called STEM — science, technology, engineering and mathematics — fields.

However, this new research shows the highest-achieving students in those majors are increasingly fleeing those fields at a higher rate than in the past.

“It’s a mistake to focus solely on boosting the number of science and math students,” says Harold Salzman, the Rutgers sociologist who teamed with B. Lindsay Lowell, a demographer at Georgetown University on the study. “Employers want more employment readiness, not more employees.”

That comes in contrast to a national dialogue in recent years.

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Shop Talk: Notehall, an ABC spot behind them and 65-college growth ahead

Notehall Chief Marketing Officer DJ Stephan and CEO Sean Conway on ABC's "Shark Tank" last night

The dining room is gone in this Manayunk rowhouse.

The living room, too, will soon be taken over by what will serve as desks and workstations for an expanding Web 2.0 startup that relocated from Arizona to the neighborhood in northwest Philadelphia that has attracted a steady stream of 20-something professionals for a decade or more now.

Sean Conway

“This is home,” says Sean Conway, the 25-year-old co-founder and CEO of Notehall, an online marketplace for study exams, class notes and other supplemental academic material that is already at 15 colleges nationwide and is due to expand to as many as 65 more by the end of the academic year — 20 to 25 this semester and 30 to 40 in the spring.

Students upload their own documents and take a 40 percent commission when sold to their peers, who are allowed to peek at a third of the document before purchase.

Notehall now has seven employees, including five in Manayunk and two executive staff in Arizona, and is looking for more — including a PHP developer — most of whom are being financed by their own revenue, though some investment capital remains. Last month, they debuted their Penn State marketplace and, they’re already generating positive revenue there, “it’s just soaring,” Conway says, though he declined to disclose just how high.

But now they go to work, fighting to get attention among the growing crowd of Web-based startups calling for college-aged attention. They’ve had a good start.

Last night, Conway and his chief marketing officer DJ Stephan appeared on ABC’s Shark Tank, which puts entrepreneurs in front of five investors on national, prime time TV to field offers. In fitting reality TV, there was drama, but Notehall came away with another investor.

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Pennsylvania Cyber Charter School expands

The Pennsylvania Cyber Charter School, an online-based school providing K-12 instruction, has announced that its Philadelphia enrollment has nearly doubled from 800 to 1,500.

As a result, the school’s administrative centers will moving into larger offices. The school’s new Philadelphia branch, located in Ridley Park, will be having an open house today, from 4 to 6 p.m.

“In the past two years our office has added 10 professional staff members and 700 students. We now have more than 30 instructional and administrative staff and this year will serve 1,500 PA Cyber students in the Philadelphia region,” said Eric Woelfel, Director of the School’s Eastern Support Center in a press release.

Upon enrollment, students are provided with a laptop, a high-speed connection, a printer, textbooks and a supervising teacher. Though most instruction takes place online, each administrative center offers in-person tutoring and support.

As a graduate of a New Jersey high school, I think I can speak for the entire state in saying: We were gipped.

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