Changing Demographics Threaten Decline in Educational Level of U.S. Workforce

"Given the changing demographics of the nation’s workforce over the next two decades, the current educational disparities among racial/ethnic groups are projected to lead to a decline in the educational level of the U.S. workforce as a whole."

This alarming statement from the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education should be a wake-up call for colleges and universities.

Between 1980 and 2020 in the United States the working age white population is expected to decline from 82 percent to 63 percent—a 19 percentage point decline over 40 years; the minority segment is expected to increase from 18% in 1980 to 37% in 2020. The greatest increase in population will be among the least well-educated. In 2000, whites between the ages of 25 and 64 were twice as likely as African-Americans in the same age range to have a bachelor’s degree, and three times as likely as Hispanics. Almost 50 percent of Hispanic and African-American 9th graders do not complete high school.

These issues of access and success for non-white students are further exacerbated by the impact of income on access to higher education. The Education Trust provides a disappointing picture for those with low incomes: "By age 24, 75 percent of students from the top income quartile receive [a bachelor’s degree]" For students growing up in low income families, fewer than 9 percent earn a bachelor’s degree by age 24. The challenge is exacerbated by recent changes to need- and merit-based student aid: Universities and states have shifted aid away from need aid to merit aid. A Pell grant covers little more than a third of the average cost of a public university today.

What is the impact? Since low-income students have differential expectations about the labor market, they worry that their investment in higher education may not pay off as price rises. Thus, low-income students choose not to go to college, and of course, the effect is excessively felt among non-white students who disproportionately make up the ranks of lower-income families.

New Mentorship Program Takes on Challenge of Growing Knowledge Workforce

As one of many innovative approaches to addressing changing workforce demographics, Colorado State University campuses in Pueblo and Fort Collins have partnered to create a new mentorship program to help minority students achieve advanced science degrees at both the master’s and doctorate levels. The Bridges to the Doctorate mentoring program will directly address the need to produce a larger pool of qualified minority applicants for doctoral level research programs in biomedical science fields.

The program is funded through a three-year, $595,700 grant from the National Institutes of Health. The Bridges to the Doctorate program will recruit under-represented minority students who have the potential to become independent research scientists into the Applied Natural Science master’s program at Colorado State-Pueblo. Faculty from both schools will mentor the students with the goal of providing a successful transition from the master's program in Pueblo to the doctoral program in Fort Collins.

Bridges to the Doctorate will provide exceptional students the support they need to make a critical transition in their development into well-trained members of tomorrow’s workforce.

CSU College of Business Earns Top Ranking

The Princeton Review named the Colorado State University College of Business one of the best business schools in the nation and the best administered in its 2007 annual guide.

"Business for a Competitive Colorado"

The Business for a Competitive Colorado report from the Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce is a must-read for those concerned with statewide economic development. The report makes a strong case for the role of higher education, particularly research universities, in ensuring Colorado’s competitiveness.

Business Leader Spearheads Tech-Transfer Program

Mark S. Wdowik is the new vice president of technology transfer for the Colorado State University Research Foundation, a private, non-profit foundation that supports the university in getting research to the marketplace. His experience managing two technology-based businesses in Colorado, including a multi-million dollar advanced materials and optoelectronics company, will continue to help top Colorado scientists build relationships with industry and commercialize discoveries that are changing the world and saving lives. CSU’s annual research expenditures total more than a quarter of a billion dollars, and the university ranks second in federal funding for U.S. universities without a medical school.

Top EPA Official to Head CSU Research

Bill Farland, the highest ranking career scientist at the Environmental Protection Agency, is Colorado State University’s new vice president for research. Farland was the former deputy assistant administrator for science in the EPA's Office of Research and Development and directed the EPA's Office of the Science Advisor, which serves as the authority on integrating sound science in regulatory decisions. He served as Acting Agency Science Advisor throughout 2005.

Farland's 27-year federal career focused on the development of national and international approaches to interdisciplinary research, testing and assessment of the fate and effects of environmental agents. He has been in the national spotlight on such topics as the environmental impacts of Hurricane Katrina, assessment guidelines on cancer-causing chemicals, dioxin health effects, environmental tobacco smoke, mercury levels in fish and ecological damage from the Vietnam War.

Waskom Takes Lead State Water Research Post

CSU Professor Reagan Waskom has been named the new director of the Colorado Water Resources Research Institute, replacing retiring Robert Ward. The institute, authorized by the Colorado Legislature to serve as an unbiased resource on Colorado water issues and policy, provides a critical link between water researchers, users and managers across the state.

Penley Honored for Focus on Regional Economic Development

The Northern Colorado Economic Development Corp. awarded Colorado State University President Larry Edward Penley its first Regional Economic Development Excellence Award for his work to focus University resources on promoting economic prosperity and quality of life.

CSU Scientist Dubbed “Brilliant” by Popular Science

David Thompson, an atmospheric science assistant professor at Colorado State, was named by Popular Science magazine in October as one of the "brilliant 10" young scientists to watch. Thompson studies patterns in climate change and trends in climate data. In 2005, Time magazine named Thompson one of the leading innovators in the science community.

‘Intrapreneurship’ at CSU --
The Case of the Outreach and Strategic Partnerships Organization

Last spring, Colorado State University announced an ambitious plan to reconnect with its traditional land-grant mission and dramatically grow its outreach capability. Dr. Louis Swanson was hired as the first vice provost for outreach and strategic partnerships and the seven organizations that report to him started down the path of unified outreach planning.

In their classic book Built to Last, based on six years of exhaustive research, Jim Collins and Jerry Porras identified key drivers for long-term success. They concluded that in managing the yin and yang of an organization, in their words, ‘Preserve the core / Stimulate progress’ is a requirement. The challenge, as individuals and organizations, is to make sure we uphold our beliefs, values and core mandates while assuring we are growing and changing to accommodate the changing needs of customers.

When stimulating progress, great companies embraced what Collins and Porras termed ‘BHAGs,’ or Big Hairy Audacious Goals. The difference between a good BHAG and a bad BHAG (discovered in the 5-year ‘Good to Great’ research project) is that a good BHAG is one you might really be able to do. It does not contain bragging or ego. It is built on base capability not bravado. That means it is consistent with core values and that the resource base required to succeed is in place, even if it is not yet complete. As an example, this was the case when Boeing successfully moved from military jets into commercial jets.

CSU has a BHAG that preserves our outstanding core of teaching, research and service while leveraging the resource base into new areas. The BHAG is talked about as becoming the model 21st-century land grant institution. In this BHAG, students have unprecedented access to CSU and our programs; they participate in internships and work study and graduate with hands-on experience from labs; technologies are made easily available to industry; and startups and the people of Colorado look to CSU for lifelong education. CSU moves from being a great public research university to the leading partner in the overall economic health and competitiveness of the state of Colorado. The formation of the Outreach and Strategic Partnerships organization is a key step to allowing that BHAG to be realized and deliver benefits to our constituents across the state and around the world.

Our team sees an environment where undergraduate education, graduate programs, continuing education, cooperative extension (including 4-H), entrepreneurship, technology, access to experts, public policy, water issues, K-14 partnerships and international programs come together at the local level to help our communities grow and thrive. This starts by evolving the cooperative extension offices to become the front door to the university and concludes when integrated lifelong learning and entrepreneurship centers are built in each community. These lifelong learning centers integrate across the base of local and CSU partners, including the community colleges, to assure each community can maximize the value of its economy in the context of its social goals. To help us move in that direction, CSU has organized Cooperative Extension, Continuing Education, K-14 Outreach, International Programs, the Office of Economic Development, the Public Policy Institute and the Water Resources Institute under the new Vice Provost for Outreach and Strategic Partnerships. This unifies the group that can help lead CSU toward its BHAG.

We will start by continuing the excellent work of the individual organizations while assembling the partners needed to understand what a lifelong learning and entrepreneurship center would look like in rural, suburban and urban markets. We will then make the first few goals come true as soon as possible. As we perfect the model and partnership structures, we will roll out the new extension offices in partnership with the communities that want them. This is what great ‘intrapreneurship’ looks like at CSU, and we look forward to the opportunity to serve the needs of our students and communities even better every day.

Hunt Lambert is Director of the Office of Economic Development at Colorado State University. He can be reached at hunt.lambert@business.colostate.edu.

We’re Green and Gold…With an Emphasis on Green

Colorado State University was awarded a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design commercial interiors silver certification—the first university in the nation to be recognized as LEED-CI—from the U.S. Green Building Council. LEED is a national rating program that recognizes buildings that achieve a high level of energy and environmentally suitable practices. Projects that remodel a building's interior are classified as commercial interior.

CSU Works With Space Research Agency in India

Colorado State University has partnered with India's national space agency to collaborate on the study of remote sensing of precipitation. Provost and Senior Vice President Tony Frank in November visited India with a small contingent from Colorado State to finalize the agreement with the Indian Space Research Organization and to further develop relationships with Indian industry and government partners.

The collaboration addresses the work of CSU electrical and computer engineering professors V. 'Chandra' Chandrasekar and V.N. Bringi, who study polarimetric radar, which measures atmospheric particles at specific polarizations. The research is a key component of global mapping of precipitation and water resources.

Colorado State’s collaborations in India can help ensure that the United States continues to be globally competitive. The University’s research includes an alliance with the National Science Foundation and NASA, which has also signed agreements with the Indian Space Research Organization.

USDA Grant Promotes Socially Responsible Advertising for Kids, Teens

A new study will address the effects of advertising on the most vulnerable targets of persuasive media messages: children. The project, funded by a $449,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, will look at the influence of advertising on such social problems as body image, obesity, violence, sexual activity, and alcohol and tobacco use among adolescents.

Researchers from Colorado State University, Ohio State University and the University of North Carolina will develop a curriculum for students across the nation that will instill social responsibility in how products such as food and fashion goods are marketed. Their goal is to rectify the lack of academic preparation related to the social impact of marketing messages.

The research team will interview industry stakeholders about the practices, roles and responsibilities of businesses in promoting social responsibility and achieving change in advertising and promotion. The group also will build partnerships with companies recognized for socially responsible promotion and work with advertising and media organizations that support research and education in social marketing.

Food and fiber products account for more than 20 percent of an average U.S. household's annual expenditures, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, and companies are beginning to modify their messages to lessen the potentially harmful impact. Last year, Kraft Foods implemented a plan to promote healthier snacks and halted the advertising of some unhealthy snacks during children's television programming. McDonalds introduced a campaign to promote new healthy menu items and exercise, and Nike ads promoted appreciation of diverse body shapes among women.

Colorado Scientists Devise Better Systems for Tracking Avian Flu

Colorado researchers are taking the lead on investigating how interactions between humans and birds may lead to more widespread transmission of avian influenza—tracking how birds enter Western states and how humans interact with them in an effort to strengthen our ability to prevent an outbreak of the virus in poultry and humans.

Biomedical scientists at Colorado State and partner organizations, including the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center, received $2.6 million from the Centers for Disease Control to focus on Western states where H5N1 avian influenza has not been detected. The three-year study will also look at central Indonesia where the virus has been detected in both birds and humans.

Many small, non-commercial or semi-commercial flocks of poultry are kept by individuals in the Western United States and are poorly monitored for health. Scientists believe that these birds represent the most significant interface between humans and avians that could carry H5N1, such as chickens and ducks.

By learning more about these flocks, the researchers hope to help officials better monitor the health of the birds, track potential risks, develop a system to track the spread of the disease if an outbreak occurs and provide education to flock owners about biosecurity and avian influenza.

Program Helps Farmers and Ranchers Deal with Work-Related Injuries

In Colorado six out of 100 farmers and ranchers are likely to have work-related injuries this year, with the leading external causes of death likely to be suicide, animal incidents and tractor rollovers. The Colorado AgrAbility Project, a CSU Cooperative Extension program aiming to keep farmers and ranchers healthy and able to continue their agricultural operations, has received a four-year, $800,000 grant from the USDA's Cooperative State Research, Education and Extension Service. The grant will provide information, service and workshops to help assist farm and ranch families facing disabilities.

The grant will help assist more farm and ranch families with physical challenges and disabilities related to back, knee, hip, and joint problems, multiple sclerosis, visual problems, arthritis, amputations, hearing difficulties and more. Cooperative Extension and Easter Seals Colorado work together on the Colorado AgrAbility Project, the only program in Colorado that provides free on-site evaluations, information and workshops directly to farm and ranch families for equipment modification and assistive technology.

CSU Student One of 4 Americans in Elite Computing Contest

A 19-year-old CSU student has earned a spot among the top 48 contestants in a prestigious international programming competition and is heading to the final rounds, which will determine this year's world champion. Ben Joeris is one of only four Americans advancing to the last level of the Algorithm Competition of the 2006 TopCoder Collegiate Challenge Nov. 15–17 in San Diego. More than 3,300 graduate and undergraduate students from 92 countries began online elimination rounds in August.

At the TopCoder competition, Joeris and the other contestants compete for over $60,000 in cash prizes. They will have one hour and 25 minutes to code three computer programs to solve three problems of increasing difficulty. Algorithms are the heart of these programs.

Last year, as a member of Colorado State's winning team in the Putnam Mathematics Competition (described by Time magazine as 'the toughest math test in the world'), Joeris had the highest individual score in Colorado.

Mathematical Modeling of Fusion is Focus of $11 Million Grant

The Department of Energy believes fusion energy has the potential to help meet future U.S. energy needs and is supporting ITER, a joint international research and development project that aims to demonstrate the scientific and technical feasibility of a full-scale fusion power reactor. But before ITER can be constructed at a cost of $10 billion, researchers need to fully understand the potential behavior of the device, such as the way heat and particles are lost. Such understanding can be gained only through mathematical models and computer simulations because of the prohibitive cost of conducting physical experiments.

In a major coup for the technological community along the Front Range, Boulder-based Tech X is leading an $11 million project called Framework Application for Core-Edge Transport Simulations, or FACETS. FACETS will enable the modeling infrastructure needed to develop ITER.

As a partner on the project, CSU—with its world-leading reputation in the solution of multiscale, multiphysics problems—just received a $500,000 grant from the DOE to provide the mathematical tools to enable whole-device modeling for the U.S. fusion program.

CSU Demonstrates X-Ray Vision: School Issues License for Laser Technology to San Diego firm

The following story by reporter Kristen S. Bastian is reprinted with permission from The Northern Colorado Business Report

After less than three years in existence, the Engineering Research Center for Extreme Ultraviolet Science and Technology at Colorado State University has already licensed a promising technology. San Diego-based JMAR Technologies Inc. finalized a deal in February with the Colorado State University Research Foundation for use of soft x-ray laser technology developed at the center.

"This is the first official licensing of a product," according to Sheila Davis, the administrative director for the center. The license is the first for the Engineering Research Center and the technology could have a broad range of industry applications.

"The CSU soft x-ray laser enhances JMAR's ability to create an entirely new class of analytical instruments and nanostructure characterization tools," said Ronald Walrod, CEO of JMAR. According to CSU, JMAR sought the soft X-ray laser technology to be the light source for a high-resolution analytical chemistry instrument.

JMAR develops laser-based equipment for imaging, analysis and fabrication at the extremely small or nano scale. Walrod said the CSU laser could be used in a broad range of applications including geolocation for nuclear forensics, molecular uptake imaging for cancer therapy, cellular uptake of carcinogens and repairs for the semiconductor industry.

In 2003, the National Science Foundation announced it would invest $68 million over the following five years to fund the creation of four new Engineering Research Centers. CSU - in partnership with the University of Colorado and the University of California - was charged with developing short-wavelength optical measurement instrumentation with the goal of furthering nanotechnology research. Thus, the Engineering Research Center for Extreme Ultraviolet Science and Technology was formed.

The goal for the National Science Foundation is to have each of the Engineering Research Centers self-sufficient by the end of a 10-year cooperative agreement, with the organization providing $17 million to each center. The centers also receive funding from a number of industry partners.

JMAR officially became a partner of the Engineering Research Center in 2004. Also partnering at the CSU center are semiconductor manufacturers Intel, Motorola, Advanced Micro Devices and IBM; Sematech, a consortium of semiconductor manufacturers; laser manufacturer Spectra Physics, and advanced optics manufacturer CDM Optics. Industry partners provide funding in return for benefits such as access to graduates, ongoing research and first claim on the technologies that come out of the center.

In addition to the license, the center has already applied for two patents, Davis said. Member companies will have first access to those as well.

The National Science Foundation requires each Engineering Research Center is to set out a roadmap of milestones, and by that measurement, the Engineering Research Center at CSU is doing well.

"We've actually reached our four-year goals in almost everything," Davis said.

The license isn't good news only for JMAR and the Engineering Research Center. The university has made it clear that it will push to increase technology transfer and research funding from non-government sources.

CSU Research Foundation is the organization that handles the university's technology transfer, patents and licenses. According to Kathleen Henry, president and CEO of CSURF, the fiscal year - which runs from July 1 to June 30 - is shaping up well. "Things are looking good," she said.

As of Dec. 31, CSURF filed eight patents - a little behind fiscal 2005's total of 32 patents filed and fiscal 2004's 31. However, royalty income was at $977,000, on a pace to exceed royalty income that totaled at $1.23 million in fiscal 2005 and already ahead of the $743,000 earned in fiscal 2004. These totals do not count the JMAR license. Henry could not divulge the financial specifics, but the agreement does give JMAR exclusive rights to the x-ray laser technology and generates royalties for CSURF. Additionally, the agreement lasts the life of the patent - 20 years from its approval.

The JMAR license also brings with it some notoriety for the research done at CSU and, more specifically, the Engineering Research Center.

"Due to the laws of physics, it's very hard to build an x-ray laser," said Scott Bloom, general manager of JMAR's research division. "Until fairly recently, they were not available at all."

Bloom explained that the x-ray laser produces light of a very short wavelength. The CSU laser generates light at 46.9 nanometers, which allows users to analyze much smaller materials. There are other x-ray lasers available, according to Bloom. But CSU's laser is comparatively compact and inexpensive.

"The technology that JMAR is licensing, the capillary discharge laser is the most compact soft x-ray laser ever developed," according to Carmen Menoni, CSU's lead researcher on the project. The CSU x-ray laser, excluding the laser power source, is roughly the size of a personal computer.

In addition to being compact and inexpensive, the laser output is very bright. Menoni said it exceeds by five orders of magnitude the brightness of comparable lasers sources other than x-rays at the same wavelength.

Menoni and the rest of her team at the ERC are continuing their work with soft x-ray lasers. They are working with shorter light wavelengths and higher resolutions. "Our research is in the forefront of optics," said Menoni. "All of the applications of these lasers are tailored to nanoscience and nanotechnology."

Congratulations to CSU alumnus Bill Ritter on his election as the next Governor of the great State of Colorado!

Congratulations also to Dick Robinson, distinguished CSU Alum and former head of the State Board of Agriculture (now the CSU System Board of Governors), on his receipt of the regional Anti-Defamation League Distinguished Community Service Award Nov. 14.