Under the joint direction of Michael Manojlovich, Instructor in Information Sciences and Technology, and Sara Ahrens, Community Engagement Coordinator at Penn State Greater Allegheny, students in the IST 421: Advanced Enterprise Integration: Technologies and Applications and IST 440W: Information Sciences and Technology Integration and Problem Solving classes have entered into partnerships with two community service organizations.

Joining with The Future is Mine (TFIM), a career awareness initiative of the Consortium for Public Education, Penn State Greater Allegheny IST students will be sponsoring an Information Sciences and Technology Workshop for high school students from the 25 school districts participating in the Consortium's TFIM initiative. As part of the campus's Open House on April 12, IST students will conduct workshp sessions in the following areas:

Careers in technology
New technologies for teachers and students in social networking -- podcasting, blogging, use of Facebook, etc.
Globalization - how technology fits into the global society and the technology of other cultures.
Web design - setting up and maintaining sites

Students attending the workshops are also invited to attend the campus's open house events. www.ga.psu.edu/Admissions/admevents.htm

IST 421 students are partnering with the Good Grief Center for Bereavement Support in an attempt to better organize and index their reference materials. The Center is a non-profit organization which serves the community through grief awareness, education, support and hope.  IST students have joined with the Center's staff in brainstorming to better develop the Center's future technological needs, as well as organizing their reference materials.  Students will also help in the organization's move from Homestead to Squirrel Hill, scheduled for later this spring.

This partnership is one of many the campus faculty and students have undertaken as part of the Civic and Community Engagement Minor currently offered at Penn State Greater Allegheny.  Over 20 classes have been approved as credit towards the minor as students participate in service projects with various non-profit and government agencies throughout the Greater Allegheny service area.

Dean Henry Foley, Dean of the College of Information Systems and Technology (IST), visited Penn State Greater Allegheny on February 21.    Accompanied by the College's Associate Dean, John Yen, and Associate Professor of  IST, Gerald Santoro, Dean Foley met with campus administration, IST students and faculty during his 3 1/2 hr. visit to the campus. 

The purpose of the Dean's visit was to address any questions, concerns or issues that students, faculty or campus administration had about the IST  program, established in 1999,  and to generate discussion among all parties as the College begins its five- year strategic planning process.  

Meeting with Greater Allegheny students in the Student Community Center,  Dean Foley talked about the strength of the IST degree, career opportunities for students and various innovations the College will be instituting to improve the degree in the future.   Discussion also centered on the IST Security and Risk Analysis major currently available, noting that the degree has three difference tracks, one in intelligence analysis, a second in information security and a third in  security and how that security affects society (policies, procedures and rules).

Currently Penn State has 1400 students enrolled in the program statewide, with 49 currently enrolled in the major at Greater Allegheny.   The IST major, according to the Dean, is growing by "leaps and bounds" with the college's biggest challenges being to unify the program at the 19 Penn State locations that offer the degree and to stay on the cutting edge of technology.  The IST curriculum is continuously being changed and upgraded to meet the needs of the corporations and the governmental organizations which employ Penn State graduates, according to Associate Professor Santoro.   In this regard Penn State is instituting a program of Professors of Practice, a network of individuals who stay in touch with the corporate world and bring real time issues in Information Technology to upper level PSU IST majors.   These issues generate classroom discussion so that students can propose and develop solutions for further study.  

Associate Dean Yen described the IST major as different from other information science  majors.  Dean Yen stated that the PSU degree addresses the needs of organizational cultures, providing innovative and simple solutions to problems faced by the people who use the systems daily.     Penn State's aim, according to Dean Foley, is to emphasize the "people" angle rather than the "system" as a whole.

It was noted during the student meeting that the placement rate within IST is 95% during the five month period immediately following graduation.  Students can expect a starting salary in the $45,000 - $55,000 per annum range.  Dean Foley pointed out to the students that a University degree does not "train" but rather "teaches" the individual to think, develop solutions and ultimately manage those solutions.  This, he noted, was  the difference between certifications and a University degree.    Foley, Yen, and Santoro all emphasized the need for Penn State students to continue to stay abreast of what is current in the field and to provide the IST program with a network of graduates in the corporate and government sectors who consistently communicate with the University  in an effort to keep the  degree current and valuable.  When asked by a student "What makes a degree valuable?" Foley stated that a degree is only as valuable as the accomplishments of its graduates.  

The IST contingent ended its visit to the McKeesport area with  a visit to Blue Roof Technologies, a community partner of Penn State Greater Allegheny.  Blue Roof partners with Penn State faculty and students in the development of a "smart house" for seniors.   The house is equipped with devices that allows aging individuals to stay in their own home while monitoring their safety and health.

Penn State McKeesport student, John Harkins, is fulfilling the internship requirements for his major by working at the Blueroof Technologies' Smart House in McKeesport. John, a senior who majors in Information Sciences and Technology (IST), has been a "valuable" asset to Blueroof, according to Penn State Professor of Engineering and Blueroof Director of Technology, Robert Walters.

Maintaining the documentation and the organization of the technology used in the Smart House is just part of the intern's responsibilities.  Recently John took responsibility for setting up a research lab in the basement of the Smart House that Penn State McKeesport engineering and IST students will use. 

Walters indicates that documenting what was installed in the Smart House was lacking until Penn State McKeesport began using student interns over the past 3 - 4 years to help with the process.  Over the course of that time six interns have helped with the facility, taking responsibility for the IT infrastructure's installation, documentation and maintenance.

Maintaining  and upgrading the  Blueroof website, http://www.bluerooftechnologies.com/, is also the responsibility of the current intern.  Training on how the site was developed and what needs to be changed will be part of his job while at Blueroof.  Harkins, like most of the Blueroof interns, was personally recruited by a  member of the Blueroof staff, in this case, Professor Walters. Early this academic year, Walters searched for a good student capable of understanding and working with the Smart House concepts.  Harkins needed an internship for graduation and the match was made.
  
After graduation, Harkins plans on attending graduate school, majoring in network security.  He feels his work at the Blueroof site has given him valuable experience, because security at the house itself and within its network is instrumental in providing the type of safety and peace of mind vital to its senior residents.  Harkins enjoys the autonomy of the job and, according to Walters, possesses the self-motivation and discipline necessary to work on his own for the 20 hours per week required of the internship. 

Work at the Smart House is incorporated into the IST 402 curriculum, Quality of Life Technology.  Students from the IST and the Engineering programs at Penn State McKeesport have used assignments at the Smart House for the laboratory component of their classes. 

The Smart House was designed to allow senior citizens to live in a safe environment which educates, monitors and optimizes their every day lives.  The Smart Living concept of the model cottage includes home networking security, information technology for assisted living, internet appliances, and the Connected Home which allows seniors to connect with their friends and family in a monitoring environment.  All of this technology allows senior occupants of the house to stay in their own home longer while feeling safe and secure.

The Blueroof project is one of many community partnerships in which Penn State McKeesport  participates. The campus's partnership with Blueroof also includes the City of McKeesport, the County of Allegheny, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania,  Leviton, PPG,  local foundations, area businesses and organizations.