Tag Archives: women

UMass Lowell Wins ADVANCE Grant

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With great pride, I want to share that the National Science Foundation has awarded UMass Lowell an ADVANCE-IT grant for its proposal “ADVANCE: Institutional Transformation: Making WAVES: Disrupting Microaggressions to Propagate Institutional Transformation.” According to the proposal’s abstract, the goal is

“to create an academic environment that supports STEM women to achieve to their highest potential by disrupting interpersonal and institutional microaggressions that undercut their productivity and well-being. Despite increasing numbers, women faculty are still underrepresented in academic STEM, predominantly at higher ranks and in leadership. Recent research suggests that microaggressions, as a particular expression of subtle biases, have a powerful, cumulative negative impact on access to research support and advancement.”

The Institutional Transformation program WAVES (Women Academics Valued and Engaged in STEM) proposes to holistically tackle this critical barrier for women in STEM with interventions including surveys, an informational campaign, bystander training, alternative networks for STEM women, and increased transparency and accountability initiatives.

meg-sobcowicz-kline_opt_tcm18-38785Congratulations to the investigator team, including UMass Lowell Chancellor  Jacqueline Moloney, Ed.D.; Julie Chen, Ph.D.; Meg Bond Ph.D.; Marina Ruths, Ph.D.; and Meg Sobkowicz-Kline, Ph.D.

Dr. Sobkowicz-Kline, Plastics Engineering, will serve as Engineering’s liaison for the WAVES program. To date, $1.6 million has been awarded for this effort.

Mechanical Engineering junior shaping minds and changing lives in Boston’s South End

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Samariah (Sammy) Jacobs, a UMass Lowell Mechanical Engineering junior, is doing amazing work getting inner city Boston youth creatively engaged in technology and engineering, as a mentor in the 14 year old Learn 2 Teach, Teach 2 Learn program at the South End Technology Center @ Tent City. 

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Sammy, fellow L2T/T2L college mentors and youth teachers just won an international Google RISE award for their work and the National Science Foundation is studying their work as national best practices in a Digital Literacies research project.  

Each year, 36 teenage youth teachers, who are selected to represent Boston, learn 6 different technology and engineering modules, build projects that solve community issues, then offer free 3-4 week STEAM camps for 700+ Boston elementary and middle school youth at 25 community organizations who would not otherwise offer STEM enrichment.  

SquishaySoccerSamRafaelSammy was a youth teacher when she was in high school and now is in her second year of working as a college mentor in the program.  Last year, Sammy developed a solar energy activity where youth soldered up solar circuits to power the propeller on their own lasercut wood airplane.  She just developed two activities and began teaching them to new youth teachers:  Teh Squish-ay (using conductive dough to teach electricity and circuits with LEDs, motors, tilt switches, photocells) and Blinkie Paper (uses linkages with circuit stickers to create light up cards).  

 

My sincere appreciation to Dr. Susan Klimczak, L2T Director of Special Programs, for calling attention to Sammy’s inspiring community contributions. She is a shining example of just one of the many reasons why I am so proud to be Dean of the College of Engineering. Look for more information on Sammy and her work at Tent City in future posts.

UMass Lowell Welcomes Alumna Cynthia Conde ’87, ’91

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377d8ccToday we are honored to welcome alumna Cynthia (Cindy) Conde ’87, ’91 back to campus as our November Leadership Colloquium speaker!
Cindy will meet with a small group of student leaders and chemical/biomedical engineering faculty for a working lunch, and then host a seminar open to University faculty, staff and students at 3:00 PM in the Perry Atrium (Saab ETIC).

Ms. Conde is currently serving as the Chief Information Officer and Head of Information Solutions for North America at Sanofi, a global healthcare leader with core competencies in Diabetes, Vaccines, Oncology, Animal Health, Rare Diseases and Multiple Sclerosis, and Consumer Healthcare.

Prior to assuming her current position at Sanofi in October 2012, Conde ascended the ranks at Genzyme Corporation, serving in a number of roles with increasing responsibilities over the course of her 16+ year career with the company.

She has held such roles as: Director of Operations for Genzyme’s Diagnostics Products Division. ERP Program Director and IT Business Partner for Corporate Operations. VP of Information Technology for Genzyme Genetics, VP of Information Technology – Enterprise IT; and VP of Information Technology and Genzyme IS Business Partner for Sanofi’s Global Services Division.

In addition, Ms. Conde served as a self-employed project management, IT, and professional training & coaching consultant for a number of years; and was a Principal of Hawkeye Software Systems, a small, privately owned company that provided case/client management software solutions for law offices.

Prior to that, Cindy was employed as the Director of Manufacturing at CR Bard from 1992-1995 and as a Manufacturing Engineer at Polaroid Corporation’s Camera Division from 1987-1992.

Ms. Conde, a member of the College’s Industrial Advisory Board, earned a Bachelor’s degree in Industrial Technology and a Master’s degree in Manufacturing from the University of Lowell in 1987 and 1991, respectively.

We look forward to your time with us today!

Please join us for our Leadership Colloquium – all are welcome!