Partnerships and Projects: Drexel’s Recent Industry and Civic Engagement Connections

Partnerships and Projects: Drexel's Recent Industry and Civic Engagement Connections

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Last term, Drexel University - through its colleges, schools and other units and programs - created a variety of new opportunities for industry and local partnerships as well as civic engagement. This update offers a snapshot of activity courtesy of the Office of the Provost.

New Key Partnerships

The College of Medicine's longstanding academic medical campus affiliation with Bayhealth Medical Center in Delaware has been expanded. Bayhealth will serve as a new regional medical campus for the College of Medicine beginning with the 2024-2025 academic year. With this new regional designation, Drexel medical students can select Bayhealth as their primary campus for comprehensive training, completing all their required core clinical rotations there during their third- and/or fourth-year clerkships.

AtlantiCare signed an agreement to become a new academic medical campus for the College of Medicine. Third- and fourth-year medical students may elect to complete required clerkship training at AtlantiCare's large health system based in Egg Harbor Township, New Jersey.

Drexel Global is signing several contracts with partners in India for a new transfer program at the master's level called Direct Pathway. Students from high-quality partners will transfer to Drexel in January to complete master's degrees in biomedical engineering, artificial intelligence, machine learning, Internet of Things and other STEM fields. This program includes the new graduate co-op model that will go into effect for the 2024­-2025 academic year.

Drexel Global launched its first study abroad program in South Africa in partnership with CIEE Cape Town. In addition, student exchange agreements are in development with Wits University in Johannesburg and Stellenbosch University. These partnerships diversify Drexel's student mobility offerings to an important region and align with the University's anti-racism commitments.

The School of Biomedical Engineering, Science and Health Systems partnered with Bristol Myers Squibb on a new innovative model for cell and gene therapy education, which resulted in the Philadelphia Business Journal recognizing the Bristol Myers Squibb-Drexel partnership as one of this year's 25 honorees in their "Partners in Philanthropy" annual special publication. Each year, the publication recognizes impactful partnerships between two organizations that are benefiting the Greater Philadelphia community.

Chuck Sacco, vice dean of academic affairs in the Charles D. Close School of Entrepreneurship, in collaboration with experts from the Society of Nurse Scientists, Innovators, Entrepreneurs, and Leaders, led an immersive online experience in March focused on equipping nurses with skills to become innovation influencers from within their own organizations.

Rita Carroll, PhD, assistant clinical professor of nursing and track director of the Complementary and Integrative Health Program in the College of Nursing and Health Professions, engaged with the graduate nursing programs of McMaster University in Ontario, Canada, and Bern University of Applied Sciences in Switzerland to offer Drexel's global exchange for the CIH students addressing healing practices based on traditional medicines. This series will continue and be offered to the graduate nursing division at large in the 2024-2025 academic year.

Stephen and Sandra 11th Street Family Health Services worked in and around the community hosting pop-up clinics, educational events and health fairs throughout the first quarter of 2024. In March, 11th Street outreach and social services team members attended a pop-up clinic at the General George G. Meade School, a historic elementary/middle school located in the North Central neighborhood. They also attended the youth health fair at the Lucien E. Blackwell Community Center where they provided health information and screenings to families with children 0-18 years of age. 11th Street offered 12 different wellness programs to the community and staff including Power Over Pain (open to anyone seeking support for chronic pain) and self-compassion and healthy heart workshops, for a few examples. 11th Street continues to host monthly produce giveaways through a partnership with Sharing Excess.

Yury Gogotsi, PhD, and Michel Barsoum, PhD, both of the College of Engineering, have been selected to receive Agilent Solutions Innovation Research Awards in recognition of their advanced materials research to improve energy storage technologies. The awards are granted by Agilent, a leader in the life sciences, diagnostics, and applied chemicals markets. Through the SIRA initiative, launched in 2023, Agilent partners with academic researchers by providing product loans and other support to stimulate innovative uses of Agilent technology.

The Center for Applied AI and Business Analytics hosted a datathon for graduate students, held in partnership with the Philadelphia Flyers, on April 5. Student teams worked to turn a business problem into a series of statistical questions, design a technical approach and use data analysis and technology skills to develop findings, which they presented to a panel of judges from the Flyers organization and the Bennett S. LeBow College of Business faculty.

The Dornsife Office for Experiential Learning hosted the Disruptor Games, an annual competition exploring disruptive technology, in partnership with Aramark on April 26.

The Drexel University Libraries and the National Liberty Museum (NLM) have partnered to host the joint exhibit, truth* at Drexel, which opened on April 1 in the W.W. Hagerty Library. The exhibit reimagines the NLM's original truth* exhibition for the Drexel community. The Libraries and the NLM plan to expand the exhibition and host related programming and events this the fall.

Michael Kozak, EdD, assistant clinical professor in the School of Education, and Donald McEachron, PhD, teaching professor in the School of Biomedical Engineering, Science and Health Systems, have partnered with K-12 school districts in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Virginia to create a biomedical engineering program for high school seniors that provides students with hands-on experiences, mentorship and access to cutting-edge research. The program is meant to bridge the gap between classroom learning and real-world application.

Through an award by the Department of Education HBCU Clean Energy Education Prize, Drexel's TheEnvironmental and Howard University are developing a cross-university exchange program to train students through experiential learning activities in the areas of building decarbonization, clean energy and smart building resiliency and electrification. The program will bring together students and educators from multiple colleges/institutions with the goal of enhancing their understanding of science and technology needed to devise the next generation of clean energy.

June He, assistant professor of product design in the Antoinette Westphal College of Media Arts & Design, has established a long-term partnership with external firm ClearVision Optical, a New York-based eyewear company with 75 years of history, to explore how to use modern technology and multi-colorway 3D nylon printer to support eyewear prototyping and customized production. The firm since has created a co-op position for product design students and donated a monetary gift to sponsor the course development. Currently, a scholarship is under development for the product design students.

The Department of English and Philosophy in the College of Arts and Sciences, partnered with area high schools to host students on campus to participate in writing workshops on April 12 and 19 as part of the Drexel Writing Festival.

In partnership with Drexel's TheEnvironmental Collaboratory, the Academy of Natural Sciences' Patrick Center and Community Learning Divisions have kicked off the Science Shop, a model for community-based participatory research found widely throughout Europe. The pilot phase of the Science Shop, currently underway with the Overbrook Environmental Education Center, is focusing on understanding and mitigating lead exposure in West Philadelphia.

Per invitation of Drexel University Libraries, the Executive Director of Libraries & Archives Pedro Raposo took on the role of liaison between Drexel University and the Consortium for the History of Science, Technology and Medicine (CHSTM), which provides fellowship opportunities to scholars at all career stages looking to research the collections of member institutions, including Drexel.

The College of Computing & Informatics hosted Philly Codefest, its 11th annual software and hardware hackathon, on April 20 and 21. Attended by more than 400 professionals and students hailing from across the Greater Philadelphia area, this year's hackathon focused on a theme of "Leveraging AI for the Common Good," where competing teams developed artificial intelligence-powered apps and tools aimed at making everyday life easier. Event sponsors included Comcast, Apollo, Chubb, SAP, Lutron, AWS, Monster Energy and Wawa.

New Key Civic Engagements

This past spring term, there were 24 sections of CIVC 101 with approximately 1,100 students enrolled.

This past spring term, there were 13 Community-Engaged Learning (CEL) courses supported by the Lindy Center for Civic Engagement, including "Environmental Activism and Film" (Film Studies department in the Antoinette Westphal College of Media Arts & Design) and "Philadelphia: Garden City" (Pennoni Honors College). The Lindy Center celebrated a Week of CEL and Scholarship in February, highlighting this pedagogy through social media and events.

Three students in the School of Education are making a tremendous impact on students and the school community at Science Leadership Academy-Beeber in Philadelphia: Savannah Gurule, BS in elementary education '24; Michaela Youngblood, BS in elementary education '24; and Raen Johnston, BS in elementary education '24. The students created their own mini courses for students at the middle school. Gurule and Youngblood's course created a robotics team for the school, while Johnston's course focused on knitting. The robotics team led by Gurule and Youngblood won top prize for most innovative robot at its very first citywide robotics tournament.

The Westphal College of Media Arts & Design is offering a new side-by-side learning course, "WEST T480: Design for Playful Learning." In this interdisciplinary studio, design students will collaborate with community members and local experts to create a series of Playful Learning interventions in the East Parkside Community of Philadelphia. Design teams will focus on developing Playful Learning initiatives for multiple sites, fostering intergenerational interaction and enriching children's cognitive and social development in the public spaces they encounter every day. Additionally, grant funding has been secured in partnership with Playful Learning Landscapes Action Network, Watchdog and Drexel University, which will lead to the realization of some of the projects.

The University & Community Partnerships (UCP) outreach team has been building upon established relationships and developing new ones. UCP facilitated Drexel's student athletes' annual Read Across America school outreach event (March 1): 18 student athletes visited Alain Locke School, Blankenburg Elementary School (a new partner addition), Belmont Charter School and Morton McMichael School, reading to more than 250 K-3 students in 18 classes, with faculty/staff from Drexel's School of Education, Action for Early Learning and the Athletics Department.

Lindy Scholars provided afterschool educational programming for 49 middle school students in West Philadelphia in February and March, with 21 Drexel students implementing weekly programs at Science Leadership Academy Middle School (SLA-MS), Morton McMichael School, Belmont Charter Middle School and Alain Locke School. With support from faculty from Drexel's College of Nursing and Health Professions and Westphal College of Media Arts & Design, students from Alain Locke also toured the Simulation Labs in the new Health Sciences Building, and students from SLA-MS toured the URBN Center.

Action for Early Learning (AFEL) partnered with School of Education doctoral student Katie Mathew to conduct research on this five-week summer school-readiness program, published in a book chapter in "Advancing Critical Pedagogy and Praxis Across Educational Settings." Collaborators presented the research at the American Educational Research Association (AERA) Annual Meeting in April (held in Philadelphia). AFEL also presented a paper sharing research conducted on its outreach programming at another AERA roundtable session.

The Consortium of DEI Educators' Second Annual Equity in Medical Education Summit was held on April 2. Numerous College of Medicine faculty members participated in the event. Deborah J. Tuttle, MD, and John P. Piper, MD, Vice Dean for Educational Affairs Leon McCrea II, MD, moderated a roundtable discussion featuring Charles B. Cairns, MD, the Walter H. and Leonore Annenberg Dean, as a panelist. Roshell Muir, PhD, research assistant professor of family, community and preventive medicine and director of the Office of Urban Health Equity, Education and Research, moderated "Navigating Admissions Barriers & Implementing Holistic Strategies Post-SCOTUS," which featured Vanessa Pirrone, PhD, associate professor of microbiology and immunology and associate dean of admissions and enrollment, as a panelist.

Sarah Ulrich, EdD, associate dean for faculty affairs and clinical professor in the School of Education was a special invited speaker by Pennsylvania Senator Vincent Hughes at a press conference on the critical importance for increased investment in the PA teacher stipend program, as well as call for more efforts to support current and future teachers. Several School of Education students attended and appeared on stage at the event at Science Leadership Academy-Beeber in Philadelphia.

The City of Philadelphia in collaboration with Drexel's Juvenile Justice Research and Reform Lab, led by Naomi Goldstein, PhD, professor of psychology, and Amanda NeMoyer, JD, PhD, assistant research professor of psychology, both in the College of Arts and Sciences, received a grant from the U.S. Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention under the "Building Local Continuums of Care to Support Youth Success" funding initiative. This helps states and local communities evaluate their current practices to develop evidence-based prevention and intervention services to prevent young people from entering the juvenile justice system and give them the tools to lead safe and healthy lives.