News from NMTC

STEM Summit XII was held May 8, 2015, at L-3 Communications at Aberdeen Proving Ground, and focused on the topic of Women  In STEM: Progress and Challenges in Closing the Gender Gap.

NMTC prepares to launch it’s newest initiative, targeting aspiring inventors in the community to aid them in bringing their ideas to fruition and commercialization.

The Innovate Connect is a partnership between the NMTC, Harford County Public Library’s Innovation Lab and Harford County Office of Economic Development.

We are pleased to have these two expert speakers provide the point, counter-point to this question and answer questions.

Mark Mortenson
Mr. Mortenson is a co-inventor of the Clean-Surface Nanosuspension™ technology platform, as well as the inventor/co-inventor on 17 other U. S. patents and hundreds of corresponding foreign patents. Mark is a former chief patent counsel responsible for approximately 5,500 patents and patent applications in the United States and 44 foreign countries, and is the former chief operating officer of research, development and manufacturing for an advanced materialsbased company of over 300 employees.

Michael D. Oliver, Esq.
Mr. Oliver is a founding partner of Oliver and Grimsley, a Tier 1 listed Best Law Firm in the 2014 Edition of U. S. News – Best Lawyers “Best Law Firms.” He heads his firm’s Intellectual Property department where he oversees the firm’s general approach to resolving IP issues for clients. His specialty is transactional intellectual property matters – that is, negotiating, resolving issues and concluding transactions between parties that involve IP.

For information, see review our press release, below

Visionary-Awards-Press-Release-February-25-2015.pdf

STEM Nights focus on lighting the spark of science in 4th & 5th graders. Each night is held at the middle school serving the elementary schools of the 4th and 5th graders. Each 2 1/2 hour night, divided into three time slots, offers each student 3 choices of the more than 20 experiments/demonstrations available.

The middle school students assist the experiments, many of which are augmented by junior and senior high school students – the power of this STEM approach is students assisting students who are teaching students

Every three years we rotate back to the original group of 5 middle schools – 3 in Harford County and 2 in Cecil County. John Carroll High School, representing private and home-schooled students is also included in this rotation.

The entire program is financially supported by NMTC; via member dues and fund-raising events during the year (and in-kind support from Cecil College and the respective middle schools involved) and run by volunteers from academia, industry & government who, through this program, are boldly creating new ways to inspire the desire for STEM education, not just for our region, but to strengthen our country’s most pressing national security issue – producing more scientists, engineers, and mathematicians, to put them to work solving our toughest problems in our economy and defense.

The NMTC, at its monthly member’s meeting, featuring Dr Pat Baker – ARL, awarded two teachers $500 each, for use in their classrooms to provide materials to support the units they develop in STEM Education. The members applauded this decision and the dedication of these teachers for adding this multi-year program to their already busy schedule.

The program these teachers will be participating in is Hub, Spoke & Capstone: A Towson University Integrated Elementary STEM Program for Harford/Cecil County Elementary Teachers.

These courses broaden teachers’ practical knowledge of teaching engineering, environmental science, and mathematics, exposing them to innovative teaching practices.

Dr. Pamela S. Lottero-Perdue, is the Project Director and the creator of this program.

John Casner, Executive Director NMTC, serves on the steering committee for the project which includes leaders from both Harford and Cecil Counties School Systems

L to R
Dr. Pamela Lottero-Purdue, Project Director, Towson University
Renee Villareal, Havre de Grace Elementary School Principal,
Alison Baranowski, 4th Grade Teacher Havre de Grace Elementary School
Michael Parker, Chairman of the    Board, NMTC

L to R
Catherine Green, principal, Gilpin Manor Elementary, Cecil County
Principal
Leigh Catterton, Cecil County Public Schools Teacher
Michael Parker, Chairman of the    Board, NMTC
Dr. Pamela Lottero-Purdue, Project Director, Towson University

Today, we were pleased to have John Resta, Director of the USAPHC’s Army Institute of Public Health and Robert Cohen, MD, MPH, Preventive Medicine Physician, Disease Epidemiology Program, Army Institute of Public Health, at APG, present their investigation into, and the in-county support they provide, to fight this deadly disease.

This photo points out the BIG difference with EBOLA – most viruses are round-shape; Ebola is filament shaped. The body tends to an mount an un-welcomed, over-response to this shape/condition.

Dr. Cohen, an excellent presenter, not only gave an in-depth view of the facts, the hypothesis and concerns surrounding this world concern (it’s also in the Philippines as well as west Africa) but shared much information and anecdotes not on this power point. The large audience benefited form his insights, and were glad/relieved to listen first-hand.

His presentation is downloadable here: Ebola-Presentation-to-NMTC-by-US-Army-Medical-Health-Command-14-12-11.pdf

The second phase of the presentation covered the University of Maryland, Upper Chesapeake Heatlhcare excellent planning and preparation for receiving an Ebola patient, no matter how they enter their hospitals (North Harford included). Presenting were Gary Hicks, Amy Myers and Colleen Clay, who all three share presenting:

Training – 230 employees for weeks, as starters. Each employee donning and doffing the encapsulating protective suits and hood, many times over (20 minutes each phase)

Tools for Screening – the questions, observations and knowledge to support both

Tools for patient care – laboratory guidelines for transporting infected blood for analysis through the hallways, infectious waste disposal, and surprisingly, the purchase of music load speakers so all can hear when wearing the noise-muffling protective hoods. Lastly, anyone donning a protective suit, 4 are involved; the caregiver, a person dressing the caregiver, the person reading/checking instructions to both and an oversight person assuring all is correct…and that is before a patient can be seen.

We left confident that Upper Chesapeake is well-prepared. They now practice drills and re-train employees, weekly.