Author: Anya Rosentreter

Asif Khan to Discuss Mobile Health Initiatives

Asif Khan, from the UN Foundation (UNF), will be making an appearance at Seidenberg on March 27th to introduce the UNF and Mobile Alliance for Maternal Action (MAMA) to anyone interested in learning about the ways in which mobile apps can help solve age-old issues around the world.

“The UNF links the UN’s work with others around the world, mobilizing the energy and expertise of business and non-governmental organizations to help the UN tackle issues including climate change, global health, peace and security, women’s empowerment, poverty eradication, energy access, and US-UN relations.”

Asif, who has been with the UNF since 2011, currently works with the Director of Global Partnerships, based in New York, on sustaining and building corporate and NGO partnerships for the UN Foundation. His previous role was as the Global Coordinator for MAMA, where he oversaw communication, coordination, finances and outreach for MAMA Global in Washington as well as MAMA’s three country programs in Bangladesh, South Africa and India.

Through the MAMA Global Learning program, a team creates tools and resources to strengthen new and existing mobile health programs that provide trusted information to mothers. MAMA has developed free, adaptable messages informed by experts in maternal, newborn, and child health. These evidence-based, culturally sensitive mobile messages are currently in use by 300 organizations in 70 countries around the world.

As MAMA is an innovator in mobile health, which is one of Seidenberg’s top initiatives, Asif will be demonstrating how his work with the alliance can involve you, the students (or whomever else may be interested), in the futures of your careers. The event will be on Thursday, April 3rd, 6pm, at 163 William St (Seidenberg HQ).

Seidenberg and AHRC Are Hosting an International Film Festival

As many of you know, one of Seidenberg’s outreach programs works with AHRC of New York City, an organization for helping individuals with developmental and intellectual disabilities. Together, with Pace’s Dean of Students, Dr. Marijo Russell-O’Grady, they will be hosting an International Film Festival in celebration of Individuals with Disabilities in Film.

This is the second annual film festival to be held at Pace for the occasion. According to an official media release for the festival, “the festival focuses on individuals with disabilities expressing dreams and hopes to be contributing members of society like other individuals without disabilities.”

A discussion of the films will be included, featuring distinguished panelists

  • Alice Elliott (Director, Welcome Change Productions)
  • Dr. Marilyn Jaffe-Ruiz (Member, Board of Directors, AHRC New York City)
  • Maria Hodermarska (Parent and Teacher, NYU)
  • Gary Lind (Executive Director, AHRC New York City, Community Engagement Partner with Pace University)
  • Adil Imran Sanai (Self-Advocate)
  • Issac Zablocki (Co-Founder and Director, ReelAbilities: New York Disability Film Festival)
  •  and Dr. Marijo Russel-O’Grady, Dean of Students, who will act as Moderator.

The festival is free and welcomes all members of the public. For seat reservations and RSVPs, you may email Dr. James P. Lawler, Chair of the International Film Festival and Professor of Service-Learning of the Seidenberg School, at lawlerj@aol.com or at 212-346-1013.

The festival will take place Monday, March 31, 2014, from 6:00 PM to 9:00 PM in the Michael Schimmel Center for the Arts, Pace University, 3 Spruce Street, Manhattan, New York City.

Dean Gupta Owes Everyone on This List a High-5

 

We think it’s healthy to give a quick shout out to all you students (New York campus and Pleasantville) who made it onto the Fall 2013  Dean’s List from your hard work last semester. Congratulations — and thank you for all the hard work you put forth in your studies — you’ve earned this honor!

“This honor is reserved for the highest achieving students at Pace who exemplify excellence in the attainment of their educational goals.”

Dean’s List First Honors
Wassim K Abedrabbo Marc A Kowtko
Ariana N Abramson George M Kulakis
Michael A Ang Stephen A LaVigna
Julien Attick Katherine M Mcguire
Shannon A Bernard Dheer M Mirchandani
Michael F Bloom Cayman C Mitchell
Ryan J Campbell Shannon T Pace
Daniel Celikoyar Joao M Pinto
Kevin Cheng Douglas J Pope
Michael D Conte Francisco J Rojas
Christopher Curanaj Aamir A Shah
Erik F Duran Derek R Slayton
Kyle S Eng Christopher Snow
Kevin Gonzalez Nick F Terrasi
Alfred W Grossklaus Mayrimar A Vega-Vazquez
Joseph M Jacob Robert Wilkinson
Hassan A Joseph Siobhan D Wilmot-Dunbar
Douglas A Kandl Emil A Zahariev
Dean’s List Second Honors
Chrystelle C Atok Kyle O Lue
Crystal D Boatright Matthew J Michael
Anthony T Bonifacio Jesse Rahman
Nida A Butt Chris Sakai
John P Capalbo Patrick Samtani
Rebecca A Cuebas Cynthia Shaw
Matthew P Desimini Joshua P Shor
Aren B Douglass Christopher J St Fleur
Richard M Eng Gary A Stewart
Xing Fang Daniel R Walker
Emilio A Feliciano Donald D Webster
Ethan K Garrison Wayne R Williams
Ali A Hajihaidari Christina M Yamagata
Julian Hernandez Kristopher C Yang
Joel A Lebron Martin A Zahariev
Derek Li Richard Zhao
Dean’s List Third Honors
Sabiya Bacchus Kevin M Ng
Michael A Brown Zachary L Oneal
Xavier C Carlson Nelson V Schoenbrot
Steven D Cassidy Daniel A Schreiber
Malik M Davis Daniel M Sim
Luis H Flores Hana Stanojkovic
Christian T Francisque Chabiraj Sukhu
Shawn C Gross Josue F Vicioso
Stefan G Howansky David J Wallach
Wei Huang Brandon S Weaver
Alexander Mei Brian Wu
Cynthia Mikulecky   

Peta Clarke on the Frontier for Change

Peta Clarke, a Seidenberg graduate student halfway through her MS in Information Systems, also heavily involved in the program Black Girls CODE (BGC – pictured on the right at Google HQ), is also a Senior I.T. Analyst for the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. In this role, she works as Web Developer, Database Programmer, Software Tester, as well as Business Analyst or Project Manager if need be. Her main responsibility is assuring the quality of Fedwire, the premier electronic payments and securities transfer services that banks, businesses, and government agencies rely on for mission-critical, same-day transactions.

Black Girls CODE, the organization that has worked with Pace on many occasions, was founded in 2011 and has already:

  • Held classes and workshops for over 2,000 girls in mobile app development, game design, Web development, robotics, and other computer programming topics
  • Scaled rapidly, building chapters in seven different states in the US and one chapter in Johannesburg, South Africa
  • Has received requests from more than 80 cities worldwide to bring this innovative program to their communities.

BGC works towards empowering girls of color from ages 7 to 17. The early exposure to S.T.E.M. fields, programming languages, technology mentors, and leadership activities will give the girls tools they need to create their own futures, while providing a network of like-minded peers.

Clarke herself, with two BGC students

Clarke’s work at her bank and her work at BGC have both come together for February, in celebration of Black History Month. The Bank has selected BGC as its service project for February, meaning that 25 students from BGC were invited to the Bank and given an overview of the NY Fed and how the Bank uses technology for daily operation. Bank employees then gave valuable career advice to the students. The event was a success, leaving the students with all kinds of ideas and newfound interests in technological careers of banking.

We asked Peta how Pace has helped her in her goals and she brought up Dr. Jonathan Hill’s support. She was working on launching the NY Chapter of BGC, and  through Dr. Hill, Pace played host to BGC’s first Game Design workshop this past August. Since then, four other workshops have been held, and more are scheduled to happen.

As we segue from Black History Month into Women’s History Month — we felt the need to ask Peta about her thoughts on gender in the technological field. She responded with the idea that  “any imbalance places limits on the potential of a community.” She praises the unique perspectives women bring to a group that would be absent among only men. Then, gender aside, Peta states that “we need more people in tech, period!” Computing-related jobs are on a steep incline, and the computing graduates of the U.S. aren’t even filling a third of those jobs.

 

 

A Chat with Seidenberg CS ’13 Alum, Keith McPherson

In keeping in touch with Seidenberg alumni, we’re able to keep track of the success they reap from their Seidenberg education. Now we’d like to share this information with you, to better prepare you for life before, during, and after your Seidenberg Experience. Today we’re sharing with you what we’ve learned from Computer Science alum of ’13, Keith McPherson.

McPherson with Dr. Kline

Keith explained to us that he never decided to study computer sciences but, instead, was called to the degree through his own passions and interests in computing. The same happened in his choice to come to Pace University. He was accepted into 08‘s Seidenberg Summer Scholars Experience and then knew he would study at no place other than Pace after his participation in the program.

Looking back on his experience at Pace, McPherson said, “I don’t believe I could’ve gone to school anywhere else and had a comparable experience. Seidenberg isn’t a school; it’s a family. The people I met and opportunities I had were all amazing and I wouldn’t trade them for the world.”

McPherson now works at a large EMR (Electronic Medical Record) software company that he describes as a “market leader in providing an integrated system to large hospitals.” When we asked if he was able to integrate his knowledge from Seidenberg into his job, he replied, “The fundamentals of CS are something I use everyday, but the languages, frameworks and projects I work on were never even discussed. This is mostly because I work in a very specialized industry with very specialized technology. I had 6 months of training before I was allowed to start actually working on their software.”

Some of the software McPherson works on and owns is used by more than half the doctors in the country. While McPherson is excited that he is helping the medical world, the only downside is that he is occasionally required to write in archaic languages like MUMPS.

Remembering his time at Seidenberg, McPherson gives a nod to Prof. Benjamin, whose classes he enjoyed, and Dr. Kline, with whom he volunteered for FIRST and worked on many research projects. He also recommends the class on Compilers, which he explains verbatim, “turned me into a man.”

McPherson left  his own advice for today’s students of Seidenberg: “You’ve been told this a million times, but get good grades and work on side projects. Every offer I had upon graduating required a good GPA and the awesome projects I had done made me stand out against other applicants. When you’re out of school and in the real world you’ll never say, ‘man I wish I would’ve sat in my dorm playing League of Legends more…’ you’ll say, ‘I wish I would’ve gone to class more.'”

 

Hackathons and a Seidenberg Sweep

Many of our students in Seidenberg enjoy participating in Hackathons, either for learning, the fun of competition, or a range of prizes. Just recently, Seidenberg students Sal Torcivia, Daniel Rings, and Zahid Mahir participated in ‘Hack Upon a Cause,’ a hackathon powered by XO Group, Inc., to develop apps for charities. The three, on two separate teams, placed first in their two different categories.

Sal Torcivia, pictured right, is a junior Computer Science major and ‘Hack Upon a Cause’ was his second hackathon. He mentioned that this was his first time working with strangers, whom he paired up with at the event. Not knowing the people on his team beforehand was an obstacle at first, as they all took time figuring out how they worked best together, but in the end Sal says he enjoyed getting to know other developers.

The hackathons are most often competitive and can last overnight if not longer. ‘Hack Upon a Cause’ was a 24 hour event geared towards creating apps, programs, or websites for four different charities; each charity had multiple teams and would produce separate winners. Sal’s team worked on the website for ‘Wish Upon a Wedding,’ an organization that helps provide weddings or vow renewals for the terminally ill. Sal paired his skills as an experienced WordPress developer with the skills of his other team mates to create a code ad hoc for the charity.

From the other team, Daniel Rings, a senior Computer Science major, spoke of the success he shared with his team mate, Zahid Mahir. The two worked on an app for ‘DayOne,’ an organization that works towards ending abuse in relationships. Daniel worked on the front end and Zahid on back end; the two came as a prepared team, ready to divvy up their work in respect to their fortes. ‘Hack Upon a Cause’ was Daniel’s sixth hackathon. He heard about it through Professor Scharff, who introduced him to the world of hackathon-ing in the first place. Daniel mentions the biggest benefit of competing in hackathons: learning a lot in a concentrated amount of time. All participants leave with new knowledge and a sharper skill set in whatever is what they worked in.

Many of the hackathons around NYC can be found by searching ‘hackathon’ on Eventbrite, or checking in with AlleyNYC.  These hackathons are mostly free and occasionally have an entrance fee, but placing well in a competitive hackathon would be worth a small entry fee.

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