News
News
NEW GRADUATE CERTIFICATES IN FULL STACK DEVELOPMENT, DATA ANALYTICS, AND ADVANCED MANUFACTURING The School of Engineering now offers three new certificates for graduate students. In Full Stack Development , students will gain expertise in front-end and back-end web development, with courses in programming, software engineering basics, and database and server management. Data Analytics students will gain skills in basic Python programming and learn database management as well as data analysis and visualization. Advanced Manufacturing offers hands-on experience with industry software and analytical tools to design and improve manufacturing processes. NEW BIOMEDICAL ENGINEERING MINOR OFFERED A new minor in biomedical engineering is now available at the School of Engineering. Students are given the opportunity to dive into medical device design, manufacturing and various manufacturing processes. This 16-credit minor can be easily added on to an engineering major for students who wish to go into graduate school for the medical device industry or those wanting to gain more expertise in the intersection of science and engineering. Scan the QR code to find out more information on the new minor in biomedical engineering.
GOOGLE GRANT AND HIGH-PROFILE PARTNERSHIPS FOR PLAYFUL LEARNING LAB T he School of Engineering’s Playful Learning Lab (PLL) has Metro Deaf School,” said School of Engineering Professor Dr. AnnMarie Thomas , who is director of the Playful Learning Lab and co-founder of the Center for Engineering Education.
THREE NEW MEMBERS JOIN SCHOOL OF ENGINEERING BOARD OF GOVERNORS
Eileen Youds, Wei Moline and Nnamdi Njoku have joined the School of Engineering’s Board of Governors. “Eileen, Wei and Nnamdi are the leaders in our community who will inspire us to get better at our work to develop a transformative engineering educational experience for our students,” School of Engineering Dean Don Weinkauf said. “We look forward to their insightful leadership to guide us in our mission to develop well-rounded engineers, driven by purpose.” Eileen Youds Eileen Youds, CIO of Global Infrastructure Partners, is a visionary executive leader known for transforming cultures and teams to drive sustainable global growth. She has driven businesses through start-up, turnaround, rapid growth, corporate entrepreneurial shifts, mergers and acquisitions and market tangencies. Wei Moline Wei Moline, president of 3M Closure and Masking, area vice president of Greater China Area, and MD of 3M China, has significant B2B experience in reshaping businesses to accelerate growth through portfolio management, drive-focused innovation, talent development and operational execution. She has extensive experience in industrial material science, consumer, electronics and health care. Nnamdi Njoku Nnamdi Njoku, senior vice president of the Neuromodulation Operating Unit at Medtronic, is passionate about harnessing the power of people and technology to improve health care access and solve unmet medical needs. An experienced business leader with global operating experience at multinational health care and medical technology companies, Njoku currently leads an approximately $2 billion business focused on harnessing the power of neuromodulation to treat conditions like pain and movement disorders.
the Playful Learning Lab through a collaboration for Dass’ book, The Colors We Share , whose story “questions our concepts of race and the limited words we use to describe our skin.” Educational lessons with video content that accompany the book were developed with help from the Playful Learning Lab. Maggie Stout ’22 , who directed filming for the project, stated, “… with Angélica’s curriculum, I hope that it teaches young kids that it’s not race that defines you. It’s all these other aspects, like your culture, your hobbies, your family – there’s just so much more to people than the color of their skin.”
had a busy year. This past summer, the Playful Learning Lab received a $110,000 grant from Google to expand participation in K-12 computer science education. The grant will also provide stipends to teachers at the Metro Deaf School, which is a charter school in St. Paul that is collaborating with the Playful Learning Lab. “Teachers are my heroes, so thanks to this grant we’re able to compensate teachers for the extra work that it takes to train and to learn these different programming languages and robotics tools, and then create custom class exercises and lesson plans that they’ll bring to
The lab was also named a 2022-24 participant in the Scratch Education Collaborative, an initiative that supports worldwide organizations in teaching and use of creative coding. Scratch is a programming language often used as an introduction to coding and is known for being beginner-friendly. More recently, the Playful Learning Lab has been teaching the language with students and teachers at the Metro Deaf School with American Sign Language Scratch tutorials. Photographer Angélica Dass has also partnered with Thomas and
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