education : Innovation + Job News

TargetGov, a small business that specializes in federal contracting, is doubling its staff. President Gloria Larkin, who founded the firm in 1997, says she wants to add another five people with expertise in marketing research, data analysis and communications.

The firm helps companies position themselves and win contracts in the $500-billion federal marketplace. It has developed a strategy that analyzes client-companies’ strengths, identifies potential government customers and participates in the RFP (request for proposal) process. The firm works with the US Department of Defense, Department of Homeland Security, Department of Energy and Department of Health and Human Services.
 
Earlier this year, it relocated from the Maryland Center for Entrepreneurship, in Howard County, to the University of Maryland, Baltimore County's CyberIncubator @bwtech. 

Larkin says TargetGov consults with about 100 to 150 clients per year. They range from Fortune 50 companies to large utilities and small -- by government standards -- businesses with 20 to 40 employees. Because of client confidentiality, she declined to name them.

TargetGov also runs classes and webinars that train 1,000 to 2,000 clients per year.

TargetGov is partnering with bwtech@UMBC Research Park on classes for early-stage companies that want to bid on and get contracts with the federal government and agencies. The classes begin January 8 and will be held at the University of Maryland Baltimore County incubator.
 
The classes are being offered through a newly created TargetGov division, the Government Contracting Institute. Half- and full-day classes will be held on topics like the federal contracting sales process, legal requirements, security clearance, proposal writing and pricing strategies, and contract and project management. Classes will cost $450 and up, and are open to all interested companies.
 
Source: Gloria Larkin, TargetGov
Writer: Barbara Pash 
 
 
 
 
 

Sales and marketing firm DoublePositive is hiring as many as 20 within the next six to nine months to work in its Baltimore and Tempe, Ariz., offices.

It seeks expertise in business and marketing analysis, senior network engineering and software development to add to its 60-person staff.

The Canton online marketing firm opened a new sales leads division in August, helping online colleges and universities find new students. The division helps the institutions find students for their certificates and bachelor’s and master’s degree programs and it adheres to recently-enacted federal regulations with regard to new student recruitment. The regulations are aimed at keeping the recruitment process transparent and assuring that the programs are legitimate, according to Jodi Swartz, DoublePositive's director of corporate marketing.
 
The leads division follows on the heels of another new division DoublePositive opened in December. The mobile division focuses on mobile pay per call that links consumers to companies via apps. Swartz says the division has grown by more than 1,000 percent in the first three quarters of 2012, its first revenue producing year.
 
Founded in 2004, DoublePositive moved to its present Canton office in 2008. In January, the company relocated to a larger office in the same Canton building. The new office totals 14,000 square feet, double the size of its previous office.  The company maintains an office in Tempe, Ariz., which also recently doubled in size, to a total 7,000 square feet.
 
Besides the two new divisions, DoublePositive specializes in online display and telephone transfers. Its 125 clients include Comcast, The Home Depot, Rosetta Stone, 21^st Century Auto, Kaplan, Sylvan and Education Management Corp. (EDMC).  The company’s mobile division is located in Tempe, home to EDMC.
 
Last month, DoublePositive started an internship program for college students and recent graduates who want experience in online marketing. Interns are paired with senior-level managers for real-world experience. It's accepting up to 10 interns per semester and the program is offered for college credit or for pay.
 
Source: Jodi Swartz, DoublePositive
Writer: Barbara Pash

India, Pakistan, Zambia and Honduras could get life-saving projects that boost maternal health, improve HIV treatment and reduce the incidence of malaria thanks to a $108-million federal grant to the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health's Center for Communications Programs.

The U.S. Agency for International Development awarded the Center the five-year grant for health communication projects in developing countries. The Center, which manages programs in more than 30 countries and in the US, will evaluate, design and implement projects in partnership with the countries' ministries of health and other local agencies, including advertising agencies.

Center Director Susan Krenn says the goal is to have a "population-level impact" by working across all levels, from government ministries to the health providers and community leaders. The center also wants to increase good health behaviors and to influence the social norms that impact those behaviors. The communications message is built into the campaign using various media, from the internet to radio.

In Uganda, for example, the Center coordinated a campaign about pediatric HIV that set up an online "toolkit" of resources and a National Health Hotline as well as instructions to local health providers via the radio. In the Union of South Africa, for another example, soccer's World Cup finale concert promoted the fight against malaria.

For this grant, Krenn says the projects will be chosen by the U.S. Agency, which has missions in 80 countries worldwide. Each mission can apply for projects. Project approval will determine in what countries the Center works, what it does and how much is spent on each project.

The $108-million Agency grant is one of the largest in the field of health communications. This is not the first time that the Center has won a grant of this size. In 2002, it won a five-year Agency grant for about the same amount of money for similar projects. That grant ended in 2007.

For the previous Agency grant, Krenn says funding went to an array of projects. The Center scripted an award-winning program on HIV prevention in the Union of South Africa; sponsored a game show in Ghana; and developed short films about family planning that were aired on Indian TV. 

For this award, the Center is collaborating with Management Sciences for Health and NetHope as well as specialized communication partners InterNews, Ogilvy Public Relations and Population Services International.

Krenn says that advances in communications technology open up new possibilities for projects. The South African show, for example, had a social media element in the form of a Facebook page and Twitter account. In India, the Center will try a pilot program that downloads the short films onto smart phones for distribution to local educators and community leaders.

“We want to understand what are best practices and how we can use them in our work,” says Krenn.

Source: Susan Krenn, Center for Communications Programs, Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health
Writer: Barbara Pash

Blue Water Baltimore is using a $400,000 federal grant to improve storm water management in Baltimore City. The nonprofit advocacy group intends to contact about 5,000 homeowners and institutional property owners as part of the Water Audit Program. 

Blue Water Baltimore was formed in 2011 from five different nonprofit organizations, all of which shared the same environmental goal, says Dana Puzey, Blue Water’s water audit program manager. The nonprofit will help homeowners pay for green roofs, rain gardens, conservation landscaping and other projects.
 
After doing an initial assessment of storm water on the individual sites, staffers will recommend ways to reduce the volume of water runoff, Puzey says. If the property owner decides to go ahead with the recommendation, he or she can apply for a rebate from Blue Water for the project.
 
Based on previous outreach efforts, Puzey says that many homeowners want to undertake such a project, but it isn't feasible because it’s too expensive or they don’t have a big enough site to make it work.
 
She figures that the 5,000 people they contact will result in 400 projects per year. The number of “in-ground” projects will vary depending on whether Blue Water is able to get matching grants from local government for the federal money.
 
Blue Water’s grant is part of an overall $9.2 million in grants the Chesapeake Bay Program and the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation distributed last month. A total of 41 projects in six states and Washington, D.C., got awards for Chesapeake Bay environmental initiatives.
 
The Baltimore metro area received nearly $750,000. Besides Blue Water’s grant, the Center for Urban Environmental Research and Education at the University of Maryland Baltimore County received $324,000 to work with the Maryland Transit Administration and Highway Administration on adopting pervious concrete and subsoiling. The project includes a demonstration project to replace an existing parking lot at the Maryland Science Center with pervious concrete.
 
Source: Dana Puzey, Blue Water Baltimore
Writer: Barbara Pash
 

The Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation is more than doubling its Baltimore Elementary and Middle School Library Project from the original $2 million commitment to $5 million over the next four years to renovate and/or build libraries at 12 Baltimore City public schools.
 
The international foundation, headquartered in Baltimore County, announced the library project in December 2011. Less than a year later, it is unveiling its expanded initiative at a Sept.12 celebration at Thomas Johnson Elementary/Middle School, one of three schools to receive funding in the project’s first round. The other two schools are Moravia Park Elementary and Southwest Baltimore Charter School.
 
Amy Gross, Weinberg Foundation’s program director for education, children, youth and families, says the library project was expanded because of its early success. It is already partnering with 30 businesses, nonprofits and government entities on the project.
 
Says Gross, “We wanted to extend our commitment now for planning and to get others involved.”
 
At the September celebration, the second round of schools is being announced. This round also involves three schools, one of which is the East Baltimore Community School, due to open in the 2013-2014 academic year, for which a new library is being built. Gross declined to name the other two schools before the event.
 
Gross says that as part of a federal funding process, Baltimore City picks about six schools per year with library needs. The Weinberg Foundation uses that list as a basis for choosing project recipients although it also has its own criteria.
 
“We look for a school with a full-time librarian and strong principal support as to how the library can be utilized through the school, not only for instruction but for community involvement,” she says.
 
In the schools in the first round, Gross says that the existing libraries were gutted and a new design installed. Work included a new layout, new furniture, and additional books, computers and e-readers, aka nooks.

“We pretty much stayed in the footprint of the [existing] libraries but they look nothing like their previous spaces,” says Gross, adding that in new schools, the library space may be expanded. “Basically, it’s what makes sense for the school.”

The cost and size of the library project varies with the school. The spaces average about 2,000 square feet. The total cost of all construction and programmatic activities runs about $980,000 per library.  The foundation contributes, on average, $335,000 per library for capital and operating costs, with a U.S. Department of Education program contributing $360,000 and the city school system $145,000 per library. Partners provide the rest in additional financial and in-kind contributions.

The library project goes beyond the physical.  The foundation’s funding provides for professional development and to hire an additional staffer at each library to assist the librarian. Partners are providing other services, among them:
 
• Barnes and Noble, nooks and instructions to teachers on using them in an educational setting;
 
• Dyslexia Tutoring, teacher training for early identification;
 
• Enoch Pratt Free Library, management of the Parenting Corner that is being set up in each library, with books on parenting  and job search, and access to the Pratt system; and
 
• Wells Fargo, financial literacy training.
 
 
Source: Amy Gross, The Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation
Writer: Barbara Pash

Baltimore BioWorks is in the process of applying for state certification as a Minority Business Enterprise that would allow the life sciences manufacturing and training firm to bid on state contracts that set aside a slice of business for minority- and women-owned companies.

John Powers, president, says the company will bid on contracts for manufacturing and distribution at health-related agencies and systems like the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene and the University of Maryland Medical System.

The company expects to sign a lease for a 14,000-square foot manufacturing and distribution facility at 1100 Wicomico St., Baltimore City next month, after which it will begin to make, sell and ship biomedical products and to offer toxicology testing services. Earlier this month, the life sciences company opened its headquarters in the University of Maryland BioPark, on its downtown campus, and located a few blocks from the distribution facility.

In addition to toxicology testing, BioWorks will manufacture its own line of common biomedical products and buy and sell other lines of supplies like latex gloves, says Powers, who co-founded the privately-owned company this year with Louise Dalton, at a cost of about $1 million, split between the founders and the Abell Foundation.

Besides state agencies, Powers expects BioWorks customers’ in the private sector to range from institutions like Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions to biotechnology companies.

In addition to its own business ventures, BioWorks is providing training for workers in the biotech field. The company has a core staff of eight. Powers intends to add one full-time employee per month, or 12 employees per year, for ongoing, year-long vocational training. Trainees will be paid as they progress through a regimented program that covers all aspects of the field.

“It’s a paid position with benefits. It’s your first real job” in biotechnology, says Powers. “You can put it on your resume.”

Training positions are open to all qualified applicants although Powers is working in particular with the Baltimore City Community College Life Science Institute, which has an office at the UM BioPark. There will be an applicant review process, and graduates of the program will be given help finding a job.

However, the minority-focused training program is intended to be self-sustaining and depends on BioWorks’ sales. The company currently has $350,000 in annual sales but Powers says it is on track to reach the $1 million goal by the end of 2012 or early 2013.

The state Department of Transportation qualifies MBEs applicants; the Governor's Office of Minority Affairs administers the MBE requirements. The current goal is for about 25 percent of contracts in qualifying state agencies go to MBE companies.
 
Source: John Powers, Baltimore BioWorks
Writer: Barbara Pash
 
 
 
 
 

Baltimore City Community College and the Community College of Baltimore County are initiating new scholarship programs this fall semester thanks to grants from The Abell Foundation. The scholarships are open to 75 low-income graduates of Baltimore City public high schools at BCCC and at CCBC each.
 
The Abell Foundation grants of $218,000 to each school establishes the BCCC Aspiring Scholars program and the CCBC Strive For Excellence program, according to Stan Brown, BCCC’s dean of special projects and Hope Davis, CCBC’s director of media relations.
 
Both programs are one-year pilot programs that provide stipends of up to $1,000 per student per semester for a total of 150 qualifying students. The scholarships are performance-based, meaning that students must maintain a minimum 2.0 grade point average each semester.
 
The BCCC and CCBC programs are modeled after similar community college programs in other states, where they have proven successful in encouraging students to stay in school.
 
Over the summer, BCCC actively recruited students for the program via its website, mailings and social media. BCCC has so far awarded scholarships to close to 60 students, with the remainder to be awarded in the spring semester.
 
Brown says students can renew their scholarships each semester, up to three continuous semesters. The program is to full- and part-time students, who may enroll in either a certificate or an associate degree program.
 
Brown says The Abell Foundation approached Dr. Carolane Williams, BCCC president, with the program. Over the past two years, BCCC has increased foundation and corporate funding support by 49 percent, and increased student graduation by 28 percent over the same period.
 
Both BCCC and CCBC have hired a full-time academic advisor to oversee their programs and to mentor the students who receive the scholarships so they can maintain the stipends.
 
Sources: Stan Brown, Baltimore City Community College; Hope Davis, Community College of Baltimore County
Writer: Barbara Pash
 
 
 
 

The Maryland Public Service Commission will hear proposals Aug. 7 on where to spend the $113.5 million fund created to benefit Baltimore Gas and Electric customers following its parent company's sale to a Chicago energy company.

By the June 15 deadline, 19 organizations had submitted 100 proposals, among them Baltimore County, Baltimore City and Baltimore Gas & Electric Co., as well as nonprofit organizations like Baltimore Electric Vehicle Initiative, Fuel Fund of Maryland and The Associated: Jewish Community Federation of Baltimore.

The proposals for the Customer Investment Fund include energy efficiency projects and support for low-income residents. Maryland's Public Service Commission approved Constellation Energy Group Inc.'s $7.9 billion sale to Exelon Corp. on the condition that it pass on some of the cost savings to customers.

PSC spokeswoman Regina Davis said in an e-mail reply to inquiries about the hearing that it doesn't offer comment on the record for matters that are before the PSC. Davis also says that the PSC has not given a deadline for its final decision. 
 
Fuel Fund Executive Director Mary Ellen Vanni calls the PSC initiative “unprecedented.” Says Vanni, “This is the first time within Maryland that the PSC has put out a request on how to spend settlement money.” The Fuel Fund has requested almost $20 million for low-income aid.
 
However, there are several unknowns regarding the PSC hearing. Vanni says the organizations that submitted proposals have not been told if the hearing will go on for more than one day or if the PSC has a timetable to make a decision. Vanni says she does not expect a PSC decision before December 2012, given the number of proposals submitted.
 
The PSC has not indicated how the money will be allocated, she says. “The PSC can do whatever they want,” says Vanni. “They can decide to give all the money to one or two organizations or divide it among several groups. They can also say to us [the Fuel Fund], ‘You asked for $20 million and we’ll give you $10 million.’”

Paula Carmody, People's Counsel of the Maryland Office of People's Counsel, agrees with Vanni. The PSC set up the fund, asked for proposals from the community "and they can do what they like." She expects the PSC to pick a certain nimber of proposals that they like, then ask that further work be done on them to "firm them up." The Office of People's Counsel has requested $36.3 million for multiple programs, including establishing a model for greater rate affordability for low-income customers that can be used throughout the state.
 
Aleeza Oshry, manager of the sustainability initiative of The Associated: Jewish Community Federation of Baltimore, says that most of the proposals are intended to enhance and/or expand existing programs. 
 
That is the case with the two separate proposals Associated submitted. One proposal is from Associated itself for $2.7 million to extend its existing Green Loans Fund Program to northwest Baltimore nonprofits for interest-free financing for energy upgrades. The second is from CHAI: Comprehensive Housing Assistance Inc., an Associated agency, for $2 million for its existing residential weatherization program in northwest Baltimore.
 
“We are the only faith-based organization that has submitted proposals” to the PSC, Oshry says.
 
Other organizations that submitted proposals, some for multiple-year funding, include:
Abundant Power Solutions, $5 million;
American Council for An Energy-Efficient Economy, $111 million, multi-programs;
Baltimore City, $55 million for its Green & Healthy Housing Initiative;
Baltimore Community Lending;
Baltimore County, $20 million to $50 million, multi-programs;
BGE, $54.7 million, multi-programs including small businesses and schools;
Baltimore Electric Vehicle Initiative, $10 million for an e-vehicle workforce;
Community Assistance Network, $1.7 million;
Energy Associates;
Green Renewable Earth Energy Corp;
Maryland Alliance for Fair Competiion;
Maryland Clean Energy Center, $5 million, seniors and veterans;
Maryland Energy Administration/State of Maryland, $113.5 million, multi-programs;
National Housing Trust; and
Public Technology Institute, $3.8 million, nonprofits and counties.
 
 
Sources: Regina Davis, Maryland Public Service Commission; Aleeza Oshry, The Associated: Jewish Community Federation of Baltimore; Mary Ellen Vanni, Fuel Fund of Maryland, Paula Carmody, Maryland Office of People's Counsel

Writer: Barbara Pash
 
 

Baltimore biotech company PathSensors Inc. is hiring a dozen employees in the next 18 months as the company rolls out a new product.

The 12-person company wants to hire new staff who have a biology background and are familiar with lab practices, PathSensors President Ted Olsen says. He says he is also looking for personnel in quality assurance and shipping.

Last year, the company received $200,000 from the Maryland Biotechnology Center to develop a new product that detects harmful bacteria in food products. The environmental and food testing company is working on a product to detect Campylocacter, a genus of bacteria that can cause intestinal infections in humans. It has already developed a product that can detect and test for Salmonella.

Olsen says the company’s agri-food division will expand its products to the food processing industry, with more tests to identify contamination in pork and beef products, for example. The company’s biosecurity division offers products that detect biological threats such as mail screening for Anthrax. “Major high-profile government buildings use our products on a daily basis,” he says.

“In our market segments of food processing, there is a high level of interest in our technology,” Olsen says. He expects the Campylocactor test to be developed this year and available in 2013.
 
Campylocacter is most commonly found in poultry and beef products. Salmonella, another type of bacteria, can cause food poisoning in humans and also is found in poultry products.
 
PathSensors was founded two years ago as an offshoot of Innovative Biosensors, a Rockville company whose focus is clinical diagnostics. Olsen moved PathSensors to the University of Maryland BioPark in Baltimore because of the availability of office and laboratory space and qualified employees who are trained at Baltimore City Community College and the BioTechnical Institute of Maryland.
 
The company’s products are sold to systems that do the collecting and testing, and the products can deliver results in minutes, versus hours for competitors' tests, says Olsen.
 
In its three years, the Maryland Biotechnology Center has awarded $4.5 million to Maryland biotech companies. For the 2012 awards, 90 companies applied; seven, including PathSensors, were chosen.
 
Source: Ted Olsen, PathSensors, Inc.
Writer: Barbara Pash

The Living Marine Resources Cooperative Science Center  is recruiting minority students for careers in marine and environmental science. Scholarships are available for college graduate students this fall for the 2012-2013 school year. In addition, applications for paid internships for high school and college students are available beginning in January.
 
A consortium of college and universities are involved in the program. The University of Maryland Eastern Shore leads the consortium, which partners with the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency on the recruitment program.
 
“We are the pipeline to the program,” says Rose Jagus, associate professor at the Institute of Marine and Enviromental Technology (IMET) at the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science in downtown Baltimore. Jagus is also director of IMET's marine resources center.
 
The mariner resource center's paid summer internships are 10-week-long projects for recent high school and college graduates. The focus is on fisheries, from habitat to aquaculture. The number of interns depends on funding. This summer, there were eight interns, some of whom are engaged in testing the water at the Inner Harbor.

Faculty members oversee interns’ research projects from June to August. Internships are eligible for college credit and applications can be accessed online. There is also one master’s degree student and four doctoral students who are receiving scholarships and stipends. Of these students, four are enrolled in the University System of Maryland although there are other university options.
 
The recruitment program began about 10 years ago, and is intended for African-American, Hispanic and Native American students. Funding is awarded competitively every five years. The institute's marine center's currently gets $2.7 million per year. Since the minority recruitment program began, three doctorates and four master’s degrees have been awarded and more than 100 paid internships have been funded.
 
 
Source: Rose Jagus, University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science
Writer: Barbara Pash

For the second year in a row, the Chesapeake Bay Trust and the state of Maryland received federal grants to further green jobs training and environmental projects such as stormwater management.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Green Streets, Green Jobs, Green Towns initiative awarded $375,000, with more than $100,000 going to projects in Baltimore City.

Last year, the EPA initiative awarded $211,000 to the Chesapeake Bay Trust and the state. The initiative is long-term and ongoing but applicants must apply each year for grants.

The award is open to local governments and nonprofit organizations in urban and suburban watersheds of the Chesapeake Bay region of Maryland, Washington, D.C., Delaware, Pennsylvania, Virginia and West Virginia for infrastructure projects.

For this year's grants, there were 31 applicants, of which 10 were awarded grants, says Dr. Jana Davis, executive director of the Chesapeake Bay Trust, which administers the grants. The grant applications must have a "green," aka environmental, component and to specify training in green jobs. 

Davis says the initiative benefits the Chesapeake Bay for stormwater management, the communities for improvements and companies by providing a supply of employees with green jobs skills and experience. Davis does not have a figure for the number of jobs the 2012 grants will create. It depends on how the projects are handled, she says.

The 2012 Green Streets-Green Jobs-Green Towns grants went to the following projects:
Baltimore City, Belair-Edison Neighborhoods Inc., $34,900 for a green sidewalk infrastructure;
Baltimore City, Southeast Community Development Corp., $67,100 for bioretention areas in Patterson Park and Ellwood Park;
Cecil County, Housing Initiaitve Partnership, $35,000, for stormwater management in North East;
Wicomico County, Town of Delmar, $18,900 for stormwater management;
Prince George's County, Town of Forest Heights, $55,000 for techniques homeowners can use;
Maryland, Water Environment Federation, $10,000 for educational outreach;
Virginia, Town of Ashland, $25,000 for green improvements to municipal buildings;
Virginia, Matthews County, $85,000 for stormwater managment;
West Virginia, City of Romney, $25,000 for stormwater management; and,
Pennsylvania, American Rivers, $20,000 for educational outreach.

Source: Dr. Jana Davis, Chesapeake Bay Trust
Writer: Barbara Pash; [email protected] 

A new program aims to address the soaring unemployment in the Park Heights area of Baltimore City. The New Park Heights Community Development Corp. Inc. is partnering with Sojourner-Douglass College to offer a workforce training program in the fall.
 
Workforce training will help the transitional neighborhood progress. The area has seen a number of new services and  investments in new buildings and a new affordable housing program. 

Will J. Hanna II, president and CEO of the nonprofit, says a fundraising campaign is underway to raise $1.9 million over the three-year period of the agreement with the Baltimore college to train a total of 835 people in the Park Heights community.
 
That financial figure breaks down to $635,000 per year of the agreement. To date, Hanna has raised $95,000 through private donors and grants for 2012. But he says that more grants are coming online soon and that he expects to meet that goal. He also expects to make a "major announcement" in August and for the program to kick off as scheduled in October. Some details of the program have yet to be decided.
 
Hanna says that a nonprofit-commissioned study found that while the national unemployment rate averages 8.2 percent, unemployment in Park Heights is close to 30 percent. Residents were undereducated and/or underskilled, or the skills they had didn’t fit today’s marketplace.
 
The program is geared toward practical skills like construction, electrical, EMT technician, EKG technician and patient care, among others. There will also be classes for people to obtain a high school equivalency certificate, or GED. Entrepreneurship training will be offered as well, with the possibility of opening an incubator to encourage commercialization of products.
 
Hanna says Sojourner-Douglass College was chosen because it has a training program in those fields and it has worked in Park Heights before.
 
“We felt it was important to reach out to an African-American college [for the program]. It was a natural fit for what we wanted to do,” Hanna says. "The idea is, once people complete the training, they can be gainfully employed."
 
Source: Will J. Hanna, The New Park Heights Community Development Corp.
Writer: Barbara Pash

Three Baltimore City public schools saved more than $1,500 on electricity in two months in February and March as the result of a program of the city Office of Sustainability and the U.S. Green Building Council Maryland Chapter.

The chapter received a $24,750 grant from the office to demonstrate to students and school personnel how simple, no-cost conservation measures can reduce the schools’ electricity bills, says Geoff Stack, of Stack Coordination, an independent sustainability consultant and co-chair of the chapter’s Green Schools Committee.

The measures include turning off lights and air conditioners when not in use, shutting down computers and being aware of so-called “vampire” devices that still pull electricity even when they are “off.”

The sustainability office chose three sites for the program:  Curtis Bay Elementary/Middle; Baltimore Leadership School for Young Women, a middle school housed in a building on Franklin Street; and W. E. B. DuBois High School and Reginald F. Lewis High School, both of which are housed in the former Northern High School building.

The program will continue through June. Stack worked with volunteers to teach students energy-saving tips and held a workshop for teachers and administrators on doing an energy audit. He says the chapter hopes the lessons learned in the schools will be used at home, too.

Stack says that in a preliminary evaluation, overall energy usage decreased 3.5 percent in all three buildings for the months of February and March. Put another way, that represented a saving of $1,535 on their electricity bills.

According to Chris Parts, the Maryland Chapter board’s secretary and the board liaison to schools, the program is a partnership between the the U.S. Green Building Council and the Alliance to Save Energy, with the former using the Alliance's process, tools and curriculum. The chapter has been demonstrating the model to multiple school districts since 2008 and to the Baltimore City school system since 2010.

Parts, an architect who is a LEED-certified professional, says the chapter's goal is to develop a program that can be used across school systems in the state.

Sources: Geoff Stark, Chris Parts, U.S. Green Building Council Maryland Chapter
Writer: Barbara Pash
 
 
 

Green Street Academy, a Baltimore City public school, will more than double enrollment and relocate to a new home to accommodate the expanded student population.

That's according to Green Street Co-founder and Chairman David Warnock who calls the academy a "transformation" school. Warnock says that means it operates within the public school system and is funded by the Baltimore City school system, along with $500,000 from corporate sponsors and private donors. The city school system also provides administrative and janitorial services, unlike a charter school that operates totally independent of the school system.

Besides the standard academic studies, the academy focuses on the environment and sustainability. “We use the green economy to inspire kids. We work with our corporate and private partners to create real world skills,” says Warnock.
 
The academy opened in fall of 2011 with 270 middle school students in grades 6, 7 and 8. In fall 2013, it will add a 9^th grade and a 6th grade class, turning it into a combined middle/high school. When fully built out, Warnock expects the school to have about 700 students. Acceptance is by lottery.

“We will follow the students through high school,” Warnock says.

The academy is currently housed in a public school building, the former West Baltimore Middle School, on North Bend Road. To accommodate the increased enrollment, Warnock is searching for a new, larger home, preferably on the city's west side. He expects to move within the next two years. Warnock is raising money for the new home but declined to give a figure.
 
To showcase their skills, academy students are hosting an expo June 6-8 for parents, sponsors and community members. Energy and environmentally focused businesses will give demonstrations, sponsored by Accenture. Chef Spike Gjerde of Woodberry Kitchen will give a cooking demonstration from the academy’s own tilapia farm (in the school basement). Students will race the electric vehicles they’ve built, sponsored by Constellation Energy.
 
Source: David Warnock, Green Street Academy
Writer: Barbara Pash

The incubator at University of Maryland, Baltimore County has gotten an influx of new tenants, the majority of whom are responding to the increased demand for cyber security. 

bwtech@UMBC Research and Technology Park currently hosts 86 incubator and early-stage tenants and 14 affiliated companies and organizations, according to Gregory Simmons, the park's vice president for institutional advancement.

Of the tenants, nearly 20 have joined the park in the past 18 months alone. They include Fearless Solutions, Rogue Technology, AIS (Assured Information Security) Inc., all of which are in the cyber security field.  Simmons says that most of the new tenants are also in that field, often in the area of securing data and networks, in medical, defense and financial services, among others.
 
“They offer a broad array of services," Simmons says.
 
He attributes the interest in cyber security at the park to a number of factors, from the Base Closure and Realignment (BRAC) process going on at nearby Fort Meade to the number of federal agencies in the area.
 
Other factors are the University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC), whose computer science department is well known in the field, and the state of Maryland, which for the past two years has been establishing itself as a cyber-hub for companies and jobs.

"UMBC is excited about supporting the cyber Maryland initiative by preparing the workforce of tomorrow, supporting entrepreneurs and working to strengthen the Maryland economy," says Simons. 
 
Of the new tenants, the few that are not in cyber security are in fields that mirror the strengths of UMBC for life sciences, clean energy and IT.
 
Located on a 71-acre campus in Baltimore County’s Catonsville community, the park consists of eight buildings with 500,000-square feet of office and lab space.
 

Source: Gregory Simmons, bwtech@UMBC Research and Technology Park
Writer: Barbara Pash