Bloomsburg University Selected to Be Part of U.S. Cyber Command Academic Engagement Network

Bloomsburg, PA (01/28/2022) — Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania and its Department of Mathematics and Digital Sciences has been selected by the U.S. Cyber Command (CYBERCOM) as one of 84 colleges and universities to be part of its newest Academic Engagement Network (AEN).

"Cyber Command's goal for the AEN is to strengthen our relationships and communication with these participating institutions," said CYBERCOM's Executive Director David Frederick. "This will improve and sustain our efforts to meet cyberspace educational requirements and workforce needs."

The command intends to use the AEN to support and enhance four primary lines of effort (LOE): future workforce, applied cyber research, applied analytics, and strategic issues. These LOEs are intended to serve as an investment in creating a robust and accessible pool of qualified cyber professionals. With its academic partners, it can shape the nation's cyber workforce while supporting the command's mission.

"We are honored to be part of this prestigious group of institutions invited to join the U.S. Cyber Command Academic Engagement Network," said BU President Bashar Hanna. "By collaborating with CYBERCOM we can cultivate a strong cyber security workforce to help mitigate and successfully manage the threats to our nation."

Bloomsburg University associate professor Diane Barrett, who will coordinate the partnership, is hopeful this will lead to an increase in students considering a career in cyber defense.

"One of our goals is to engage and inspire students to consider careers in Department of Defense (DoD), both in the military and as civilians," said Barrett. "We want to broaden awareness of some great internship programs that Cyber Command runs, as does the service commands."

"We also hope to expand partnerships with academia to build better relationships and take advantage of the deep expertise in academia about our adversaries' cyber strategies and organizations."

For the AEN, strong partnerships supported by talented and skilled people are vital to remain agile and ready in the cyber domain. The AEN extends partnerships to institutions through collaboration and access to CYBERCOM via scheduled events and engagements with command staff, the Cyber National Mission Force, and our four component commands.

Frederick added that this network will further enable us to shape and enhance cyber-focused innovation with partnerships and support the DoD's ongoing strategic dialogue on cyberspace.

Bloomsburg University is one of 14 universities in Pennsylvania's State System of Higher Education. The university serves approximately 7,800 students, offering comprehensive programs of study in the colleges of Education, Business, Liberal Arts and Science and Technology.

~Retrieved from BU Merit Pages 1/31/22

Dr. Michael Shepard - AAS Interview

Michael Shepard, professor of environmental, geographical and geological sciences, was interviewed by Frank Timmes for the AAS (American Astronomical Society) Journal Author Series on his latest paper on asteroid 16 Psyche, the target of an upcoming NASA mission also named Psyche. Shepard's three-dimensional shape model is being used by the mission team as they plan for the arrival and initial maneuvering and orbital sequences.

 

 

 The interview can be seen here: 

 

 

AAS Journal Author Series: Michael Shepard 

The paper can be downloaded here:

https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/PSJ/abfdba

The shape model and a brief synopsis of the research paper can be seen on my BU faculty webpage here:

https://facstaff.bloomu.edu/mshepard/research/psyche/psyche.html

~Retrieved from The BU Week Ahead 1/24/2022

Bloomsburg Programming Teams Compete in Virginia

Five members of Bloomsburg University’s Association of Computing Machinery (ACM) club programming squad traveled to Marymount University for this year’s programming contest at the 37th Annual Consortium for Computing Sciences in Colleges (CCSC)-Eastern Conference. The contest featured 17 teams representing schools in Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, and Washington, D.C. Team members Ben Vick and Eric Cool of the “Bytesize Houligans” solved six of ten problems and received an honorable mention for getting the only solution to one problem, although the winning team solved seven. Brandon Noecker, William Gallagher, and Karun Mahadevan from team “CompuHuskies” solved three problems during the four-hour contest.

~Retrieved from BU Student News Email - Monday, Nov. 1, 2021

AGREEMENT SIGNED WITH FAIRLEIGH DICKINSON SCHOOL OF PHARMACY

FDU Provost Gillian Small and B U Provost Diana Rogers-Adkinson Sign Pharmacy School Agreement

BU inks agreement to benefit students interested in a career in pharmacy.

Florham Park, NJ—At a signing ceremony on Tuesday, Sept. 28, officials from Bloomsburg University and the Fairleigh Dickinson University (FDU) School of Pharmacy and Health Sciences finalized an agreement to allow qualified students to earn both an undergraduate degree and a Doctor of Pharmacy degree in seven years, saving a full year of time and costs.

FDU Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs Gillian Small offered a welcome to those in attendance. “We are pleased to be able to partner with Bloomsburg University on a program that will benefit students,” said Small. “We hope to have more partnerships in the future with BU.”

Bloomsburg University Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs Diana Rogers-Adkinson offered remarks on behalf of BU President Bashar Hanna. “Agreements such as this are very important and expand our ability to attract quality, highly-driven students,” said Rogers-Adkinson. “We look forward to collaborating with Fairleigh Dickinson University on other programs in the future that will benefit our students.”

The Fairleigh Dickinson University program will allow BU students majoring in chemistry or health sciences into the Fast Track to Pharmacy (PharmD) program at Fairleigh Dickinson following their junior year. BU students will then complete their final year enrolled in pharmacy coursework at the Fairleigh Dickinson School of Pharmacy and Health Sciences. That year will also serve to complete both their first year of study within the Doctor of Pharmacy program and concurrently to complete the final credits to receive their B.A. degree in chemistry or B.S. degree in health sciences from Bloomsburg University.

Candidates for admission must have a 3.3 or higher overall GPA at BU and complete all prerequisite courses with a grade of B- or better. Reserved admission is limited to a maximum of five BU students each year.

The agreement is effective immediately, allowing current Bloomsburg University students to apply for admission.

“Access to such accelerated pathways to professional programs are very attractive opportunities to students, and we are excited to partner with FDU’s School of Pharmacy to provide this opportunity to our current and future students in the College of Science and Technology, said Latha Ramakrishnan, dean of the Bloomsburg University College of Science and Technology. “Our faculty are dedicated to support student success and I am delighted to note the collaboration between faculty in chemistry and biology and allied health departments to create such pathways for success to our students.”

Taking part in the signing ceremony were Small, Rogers-Adkinson, Dr. Latha Ramakrishnan, Dr. Michael Avaltroni, dean of the School of Pharmacy and Health Sciences at FDU; Dr. Anastasia Rivkin, executive associate dean of the School of Pharmacy and Health Sciences; and Dr. Chadwin Sandifer, associate dean for Student Affairs and Administrative Operations.

About Fairleigh Dickinson University School of Pharmacy
As a fully accredited program by the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE), FDU’s PharmD program meets the academic requirements for licensure in all 50 states. Separate from educational requirements, state licensure boards may require applicants to complete other requirements.

Professional licensure and certification requirements may vary state to state, and are also subject to change. Students should contact the appropriate licensing agency in each home state to obtain the most up-to-date information.

About Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania
Bloomsburg University is one of 14 universities in Pennsylvania’s State System of Higher Education. The university serves approximately 7,800 students, offering comprehensive programs of study in five distinct colleges: College of Education, Zeigler College of Business, College of Liberal Arts, College of Science and Technology, and new Honors College.

Front row (L to R)--FDU Provost Gillian Small, BU Provost Diana Rogers-Adkinson
Back row (L to R)--Dr. Chadwin Sandifer, FDU associate dean for Student Affairs and Administrative Operations; Dr. Michael Avaltroni, FDU dean of the School of Pharmacy and Health Sciences; Dr. Anastasia Rivkin, FDU executive associate dean of the School of Pharmacy and Health Sciences; Dr. Latha Ramakrishnan, BU dean of the College of Science and Technology.

~Retrieved from BU News 9.28.21- https://www.bloomu.edu/news/agreement-signed-fairleigh-dickinson-school-pharmacy

BU MATHEMATICS GRADUATE PURSUING PH.D.

Chase Sakitis '18 takes love of research and mathematics from BU to important work on fMRI image reconstruction.

To the average person, mathematics is a mystery. But its application to everyday life is very important. It’s what has driven Bloomsburg University graduate Chase Sakitis to spend the past year pursuing his doctorate at Marquette University. 

 

After taking a year and a half off after finishing his degree in mathematics at BU, Sakitis decided to begin his post-graduate studies at Marquette University in Milwaukee with a Master of Applied Statistics. Shortly after finishing his master’s degree, Sakitis was asked to stay for his Ph.D. and join his advisor, Dr. Daniel Rowe’s, and Clemson professor Dr. Andrew Brown’s research project. “I was a little surprised that he asked me to join the project,” Sakitis said, “It was just great that he thought highly of me enough to be joining this project.”  

 

Sakitis said that his time at BU helped prepare him for where he is today in his studies. “The math department did very well with preparing me," said Sakitis.”The classes that Bloomsburg had to offer gave me a very strong background in what I was studying here.”  

 

“Bloomsburg professors were very helpful,” said Sakitis, “especially Dr. (Mehdi) Razzaghi, giving me an opportunity to work on an independent study with him.” Even though they didn’t finish the work they did together at BU, it gave Sakitis the opportunity to know what it was like to work on research. 

 

Currently, Sakitis is working on research in Bayesian statistics and fMRI image reconstruction. His research involves converting subsampled spatial frequencies, which are collected during the imaging process, into images using a mathematical process called Fourier transformations to show brain activity. 

 

“With MRI machines, when they take these images, it's not actually a giant camera that takes a picture, and that's what comes up on the screen,” Sakitis explained. “There's a lot of physics behind it, and magnetization. Basically, the physicist collects these frequencies, or as they're called, spatial frequencies. As a statistician, or from the mathematical part, we turn these spatial frequencies into images. You can, for example, if you're trying to look at someone's brain, which is what I'm working on, turn the frequencies into an image through mathematical processes called Fourier transformations. 

 

“I’m trying to work on a new method to turn those frequencies into actual images in a quicker fashion, because MRIs, they could take anywhere from 45 minutes to two hours,” explained Sakitis. 

 

Sakitis is projected to finish his Ph.D. in 2024. After finishing his doctorate, Sakitis is considering either continuing in academia and becoming a professor or pursuing research at a medical school to continue his work in neuroscience. 

~Retrieved from BU News 9.20.21: https://www.bloomu.edu/news/bu-mathematics-graduate-pursuing-phd 

BLOOMSBURG UNIVERSITY'S DEPARTMENT OF NURSING RANKED SIXTH IN PENNSYLVANIA

                       

BLOOMSBURG — The Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania Department of Nursing is ranked sixth of 76 schools in Pennsylvania according to RNCareers.org. In addition, BU is ranked 67th in the Mid-Atlantic region by NursingSchoolAlmanac.com.

The sixth annual RNCareers.org ranking of 96.99% is based on each institution's first-time NCLEX-RN passing rates, the number of students taking the test, the program nursing accreditation, and more. The results were then compared against other nursing programs in Pennsylvania to provide the state rankings.

"I congratulate our nursing faculty and students on this well-deserved recognition," said BU President Bashar Hanna. "The ongoing Covid-19 pandemic has accentuated the criticality of the nursing profession in our health care system. Our world desperately needs well-educated and well-prepared nurses, and thanks to the faculty and staff in our nursing program, we at BU are doing our part to prepare our nursing students to be the very best in their field."

"We are very proud of this ranking which demonstrates the rigor and strength of our nursing program at Bloomsburg University," said Lori Metzger, chair of the Department of Nursing. "This is a testament to our dedicated faculty who have real-life experience which they bring to our nursing program, and our hard-working students put the necessary effort into their work to achieve this recognition."

Bloomsburg University offers multiple quality nursing degree programs, including a Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN), Master of Science in Nursing (MSN), and the Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP). Bloomsburg also offers RN to BSN and RN to BSN to MSN programs, allowing registered nurses to obtain the BSN and MSN online in a condensed timeframe.

~Retrieved from BU News website 9.14.21

Congratulations: COST 2021-22 Promotion and Tenure

We want to send a special congratulations to all COST faculty who have achieved promotion and tenure. 

Promoted to Associate Professor

• Barry Minemyer, Mathematical & Digital Sciences 
• Jennifer Haney, Environmental, Geographical, & Geological Sciences 
• Debra Minzola, Nursing 
• Luke Haile, Exercise Science 

Promoted to Professor

• Jennifer Venditti, Biological & Allied Health Sciences
• Eric Hawrelak, Chemistry & Biochemistry

Awarded Tenure

• Melinda Barrett, Nursing
• Heather Ervin, Mathematical & Digital Sciences 
• Barry Minemyer, Mathematical & Digital Sciences 
• Mohsin Shaikh, Communication Sciences and Disorders
• Cara Tolan, Communication Sciences and Disorders

~Retrieved from The Week Ahead 9.13.2021