Kelsey

Cyber attacks continue to be a serious and growing threat to our nation’s governments and businesses. In turn, it has become a growing workforce need, especially in the Maryland-D.C. region.  The Maryland Cyber Challenge and Conference hopes to mitigate these threats and develop high school and college students with an interest in computers into cyber security experts. This year’s Conference was held October 21 and 22 at the Baltimore Convention Center. Eight college teams competed in the Cyber Challenge, held on Saturday October 22, but in the end it was TOWSON UNIVERSITY that took home First Place!

However, the road to victory was not an easy one. As Professor Michael O’Leary, team advisor, explains, “the competition between UMCP, UMBC and Towson was extremely close – when the scoreboard was turned off, each of the three teams had roughly 35,000 points, with Towson first and UMCP and UMBC tied and just 300 points behind.”

After two online qualifying competitions and the all-day event on Saturday, Towson University came out ahead. The members of TU’s team are Andrea Mobley (Captain), Brian Cather, Jonathan Fragale, Dustin Hanks, Dennis Hayden, and Roberto Melendez.

In addition to the pride of winning, each student received a $5,000 scholarship from the National Security Administration and will be offered a summer internship with SAIC, a science and engineering firm. These two fantastic prizes will help expand the student’s knowledge and experience in the growing Cyber Security field.

Image credit: jscreationzs

Team captain Andrea Mobley said of the win, “I think our win over two graduate teams (one of which is a University of Maryland team) and the rest of our competitors (Capitol College, University of Maryland Graduate students, University of Maryland Undergraduate students, Goucher, University of Maryland Baltimore County, University of Maryland University College, and a group of collective students) keeps Towson University on the radar for the national competition in February and for employers looking to hire security professionals.”

Be sure to read the Baltimore Sun article to learn more about the event!

Bobbie

The Edward V. Badolato Homeland Security Speaker Series is holding its next FREE event on Monday, August 29, from 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m.  The event will take place in the newly opened College of Liberal Arts room 3150 and the theme is “The Role of Democracy in Homeland Security.”

The event features speakers who are professionals in the homeland security field, as well as a networking reception with faculty from Towson University’s Integrated Homeland Security Masters Program.

College of Liberal Arts

Agenda 

5:00-5:30
Keynote Speaker: Professor Joseph Rudolph  

5:30-5:45
Question and Answer Session

5:45-6:00
Remarks from Darian Scott-Carter, a graduate of the Integrated Homeland Security Masters Program and an Emergency Planner with Baltimore City

6:00-7:00
Networking Reception and Meet and Greet with the Integrated Homeland Security Management Faculty & Students 

Learn more about the event and register here!

Keynote Speaker: Lenora Gant
Deputy Assistant DNI, Intelligence Community Human Capital
Director, ODNI IC Policy and Strategic Mission Outreach

See the full agenda and register for this free event!

Dr. Daraius Irani

Immigration has been a contentious issue since the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock and declared this land their land.  Therefore, it is not unusual that the issue of immigration has been raised recently, most notably with the passage of the law in Arizona requiring police officers to check the immigrant status of individuals.  Many politicians from around the nation have proposed ordinances for their states or localities declaring them a non-sanctuary site or emulating the new law in Arizona.

Arguments against the most recent influx of undocumented immigrants range from jobs being taken away from American workers to undocumented immigrants leeching off the system and/or bringing crime into the area.  In addition, there has been a dramatic increase in the number of births by undocumented immigrants in the U.S., prompting many to question whether the 14^th Amendment, which grants citizenship to those born in the United States, should be altered.

According to a recent Wall Street Journal article, undocumented immigrants accounted for 1 in 12 births in the U.S. in 2008.  While there is room for debate on immigration, a fundamental fact remains; a vast majority of these individuals come to the United States to work.  Moreover, we as a nation have become increasingly dependent on these individuals to ensure that we have low-cost produce year-round, gardening services, house cleaning and other low cost services.

While many of us may criticize these individuals for not speaking English or argue that they are taking jobs away from Americans, English-speaking U.S. citizens are generally not lining up around the block to take these jobs, even in these tough economic times.  I suspect that the United Farm Workers “Take My Job” campaign has resulted in very few current field workers being displaced by unemployed U.S. workers.

Photo Credit: Flickr User Scazon

While the Arizona law was considered to be very reactionary and a vast majority of its statutes were dismissed by a federal judge, Utah has proposed a novel solution.  Rather than try to expel undocumented immigrants, Utah proposes to issue a guest worker visa instead.  This guest visa would be similar to the Bracero Program implemented by the U.S. and Mexico between 1942 and 1964, which allowed individuals from Mexico to work in the U.S. and then return to Mexico.  While the proposed law in Utah would face challenges—mainly that states cannot issue visas—it does offer a practical solution based on the premise that many firms would not be able to function without these workers.

There are numerous studies citing the economic benefits or lack thereof of undocumented immigrant workers.  It is still unclear from these studies whether these immigrants provide more in taxes than they draw in government services.  However, there are a couple of points worth noting regarding immigrants:

• A quarter of engineering and technology companies started in the U.S. between 1995 and 2005 had at least one foreign-born founder.
• In 2005, immigrant-founded companies produced $52 billion in revenue and employed 450,000 workers nationwide.
• Almost 80 percent of immigrant-founded companies were in two industries: software and innovation/manufacturing services.
• In Florida, Hispanics were the leading immigrant group in terms of the number of companies founded.  In Massachusetts, Israelis led.  In New Jersey, the leaders were Indians.

While we may find it easy to blame immigrants for a variety of economic and societal ills, the overall contribution of immigration has been a vastly positive experience for the U.S., both in terms of economics and society.

Photo Credit: Manny Proebster

]]> http://tuoutreach.com/2010/09/13/examining-the-immigration-debate-from-a-workforce-economics-perspective/feed/ 0 daraius1964 daraiusicon daraius blogimage internationalflags http://tuoutreach.com/2010/02/10/what-does-being-snowed-mean-for-cgis-and-mema/ http://tuoutreach.com/2010/02/10/what-does-being-snowed-mean-for-cgis-and-mema/#comments Wed, 10 Feb 2010 18:33:32 +0000 Jeremy Monn http://tuoutreach.com/?p=878 ]]>

Jeremy

At the time of this writing (Tuesday afternoon), many Marylanders are still digging out of last weekend’s blizzard, which dumped at least two feet of snow in most locations.  Maryland is in its fourth day of a State of Emergency with a new snowstorm approaching the region with the possibility of dumping an additional foot or more of snow.  In my Baltimore City neighborhood, the impending snowstorm has residents scrambling back to the grocery store, clearing their flat roofs, and in some cases working with their neighbors to shovel out their block that has yet to be cleared from the last snowstorm.  Once the next storm begins, I along with many other Marylanders will likely hunker down indoors to wait out the storm.

Canton residents removing snow

However, it’s important to remember that there are many people who must work during extreme weather events.  Among others, these include:

• Snow removal personnel
• Utility workers
• Emergency responders
• Emergency management professionals

Towson University’s Center for GIS (CGIS) has supported the Maryland Emergency Management Agency’s (MEMA) State Emergency Operations Center (SEOC) during times of disaster.  In the fall of 2003, CGIS employees provided 24/7 support to the MEMA’s SEOC during Tropical Storm Isabel by fielding ad-hoc map requests and conducting spatial analysis tasks, including providing reasonable estimates of the areas that would be flooded by the storm using storm surge height predictions made by the National Weather Service.  One of the outcomes of this experience was a white paper developed by Dr. Jay Morgan who was then Director of CGIS which outlined lessons learned regarding the use of GIS by the MEMA’s SEOC before and during a disaster.

CGIS continues to support the MEMA’s SEOC during disasters.  Throughout this last blizzard two CGIS employees, Joe Gibson and Matt Miller, provided on-site support to the MEMA’s SEOC by mostly fielding ad-hoc map requests.  With the continuation of Maryland’s State of Emergency and the threat of another major snowstorm, Joe and Matt may be asked to support the MEMA’s SEOC for the second time in a span of one week.

Visit NOAA’s interactive map if you’re interested in local snowfall totals from last week’s storm in Maryland and Northern Virginia.

Jeremy

The recent earthquake in Haiti not only acts as reminder of the vulnerability of communities to disasters caused by natural (earthquakes, hurricanes, tornados, etc.) or man-made (nuclear power plant accidents, toxic material releases, etc.) events but it also reminds us that some disasters are so catastrophic that the demand for emergency response exceeds the local jurisdiction’s supply of emergency response equipment and personnel.

So, what are emergency managers to do when they are overwhelmed by a catastrophic disaster within their jurisdiction? An obvious option is to ask for assistance from surrounding jurisdictions by requesting emergency resources (e.g. search and rescue teams, ambulances, EMTs, etc.).  However, in order for these requests to be processed quickly and efficiently, emergency managers within each jurisdiction need to be:

(1)    using a common language when discussing the availability of emergency resources and

(2)    leveraging resource management systems that can “talk” to other jurisdictions’ resource management systems (i.e. are interoperable).

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) acknowledges this and developed the NIMS 120, which is a list of authoritative definitions for 120 emergency resources that are likely to be shared by jurisdictions during a disaster.  However, there are state-specific emergency resources that jurisdictions share during a disaster that are not explicitly defined by FEMA.  This gap in common definitions has the potential to disrupt or delay the interstate sharing of resources not listed in the NIMS 120.

Through the Regional Catastrophic Preparedness Grant Program (RCPGP), Towson University’s Center for GIS (CGIS) is working with the University of Maryland’s Center for Health and Homeland Security (CHHS) to fill this gap for the six jurisdictions (Delaware, the District of Columbia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and West Virginia) making up the national capital region.  CGIS is developing survey instruments that:

(1)    will identify the non-NIMS 120 emergency resources that each jurisdiction has available for emergency response and

(2)    assess the existing resource management systems of each jurisdiction. 

CGIS will compile the survey results and provide CHHS a list of options and recommendations for definitions for the non-NIMS 120 emergency resources identified by the surveyed jurisdictions.  CGIS will also provide CHHS options and recommendations for enhancing / improving the interoperability of resource management systems across the region.

Sharyn

I’m planning to attend the Maryland National Guard Forum on Veterans Reintegration on January 12, 2010. I thought it would be interesting to hear first hand from Cheryl Mannon, from Towson University’s Academic Affairs division, about her experience planning the event and what attendees can expect. Here’s what she had to say:

Q: The Maryland National Guard is sponsoring a series of forums at Towson University. The first one is coming up on January 12 and the focus is on higher education and business. What can attendees expect?

A:    The first day is designed for post-secondary educators (community colleges, universities and trade schools) and will inform them about the unique challenges that returning veterans face on our campuses.  We have speakers who  have developed programs, MD National Guard experts in educational benefits and student and administrator panels to discuss their experiences on campus.   Educators will work in teams to develop ideas for action plans to  take back and implement on their own campuses.

Q: Who are the featured speakers for the forum on January 12?

A:  We’re very happy to have Dr. John Schupp, from Cleveland State University, who has started a unique veterans program on his campus and Buzz Williams, a Towson alum and author of “Spare Parts:  A Marine Reservist’s Journey from Campus to Combat in 38 Days”, a memoir of his experience as a student being deployed during the Gulf War.  We have reintegration  and benefits experts from the MD National Guard, several behavioral health professionals discussing challenges to the individual and to families and a chaplain to talk about community support for our student vets.

Guest panelists from local schools include representatives from Anne Arundel Community College, Community College of Baltimore County, University of Maryland, University College, Towson University and Montgomery Community College.    Each of the panelists have worked on veterans programming at their institutions and will share their successes and challenges.  Finally, there will be a veteran student panel to talk about their experiences on campus with ideas on improving our support systems.

Q: How did Towson University get selected to host the event?

A:  One of our adjunct professors in the Psychology Department, Dr. Christine  Harnett , works with the MD National Guard on reintegration issues and recommended us to the director of reintegration programs, Lieutenant Colonel Michael Gafney.

Q: What other events are planned as part of this forum series?

A: On January 13, the second day of the series will focus on employing and integrating veterans in the workforce.  There are many government programs available to employers who hire vets and many employers who promote hiring and training of veterans.   We’d like to begin a network for veterans across  the state of educators and employers.

A third conference may be held in June on campus and will focus on medical and behavioral health professionals in the community.

Q: What is the cost to attend the forums and how does someone register? Can anyone attend the forum?

A:    The Maryland National Guard has sponsored this event with the stipulation that it be free to all participants.    Registration is online at www.towson.edu/nationalguardexpo .  The event is open to all registrants (space available) although it is tailored specifically to post-secondary educators.

Jeremy

A few months ago I knew I was going to move, I just didn’t know where.  I knew I wanted to have an easier commute to work but I also wanted to reduce my reliance on my car for regular trips to destinations like the bookstore, coffee shop, park, restaurants, and grocers.  After a month of searching I found a place in Baltimore City’s Canton neighborhood that fit my requirements.  Now I frequent Patterson Perk for coffee and reading, Patterson Park for jogging, a long list of restaurants for dining, and Safeway for groceries all by walking to them.  Even the commute to work has improved since I no longer have to fight against Beltway traffic.  The only major drawback is trying to find a parking spot late at night.  Apparently the later you arrive home, the longer you hunt for a parking spot but I can live with that.

Photo credit - New York Times

All of these experiences made me think of the thousands of Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) employees associated with Aberdeen Proving Ground (APG) that are in the process of relocating to Maryland.

• Where are they going to locate in Maryland?
• Will some of them be moving to Canton for the same reasons I did?
• Does it make sense for them to move to Baltimore City?

There is no doubt that Baltimore City officials and organizations are trying to attract future APG employees, as indicated in a September 16^th article in the Baltimore Sun “City gives Army workers a neighborhoods tour.”

We all know that choosing your neighborhood is about more than restaurants and shops, it’s also about proximity to schools, universities, and services you and your family need! Towson University has made an effort to assist BRAC residents in their moving process by providing valuable information regarding educational and training programs and veteran services.  Additionally, RESI Applied Economics completed the Educational Needs Assessment for the Department of Business and Economic Development associated with BRAC.

To see entire map, click here.

Towson University has also provided BRAC residents with information regarding commuting times to APG from surrounding locations.  A little over a year ago, Towson University’s Center for GIS created two drive time analysis maps for the APG-CSSC Regional BRAC Office using ESRI’s Network Analyst extension.  The maps illustrate drive times from Aberdeen Proving Grounds in Harford County to surrounding areas a different time scales: one map illustrates drive times at a 5-minute interval while the other illustrates drive times at a 15-minute interval.  These maps, along with other information, are available for future APG employees relocating to Maryland during the realignment process.