Researchers at the Penn State Institute for Computational and Data Sciences, together with collaborators at other institutions within Pennsylvania, have been awarded approximately $1.1 million in funding under the U.S. National Science Foundation Campus Cyberinfrastructure program to develop a commonwealth-wide secure network and related cyberinfrastructure to interconnect Pennsylvania colleges and universities.
The Digital Foundry at New Kensington, a collaborative initiative of Penn State New Kensington and the Economic Growth Connection of Westmoreland County, is slated to open in spring 2022 and has been named one of seven Smart Manufacturing Innovation Centers through the Department of Energy.
"The work we do is essential, and the equipment in my wheelhouse is critical in a time like this [COVID-19 pandemic]," said Mike Shtur, field service engineer with GE Healthcare. In this photo, Shtur tends to medical equipment at Allegheny Health Network's Saint Vincent Hospital in Erie, Pa. Shtur earned a biomedical engineering technology and electrical engineering technology associate degrees from Penn State New Kensington.
Cory Norton, 2017 Penn State alumnus from the New Kensington campus, sits near hospital equipment at Indiana Regional Medical Center in Indiana, PA. Norton is one of three biomedical engineering technologists working through the COVID-19 pandemic at the hospital.
A student examines a patient monitor in a biomedical engineering technology (BET) class at Penn State New Kensington. Students in the specialized, two-year associate degree program learn how to repair and maintain hospital equipment. The ABET-accredited program is the only one in the Penn State system and one of only several in the nation.
Alumni of Penn State Kew Kensington’s biomedical engineering technology program are helping keep vital healthcare equipment working and hospitals running across Pennsylvania and the nation during a critical time. "“Hospitals would not be able to function without us, and it is rewarding work,” said one program alum.
Dalynn Park, pictured left, works on a piece of hospital equipment in the biomedical engineering technology (BET) lab at Penn State New Kensignton with Trey Peters. Park, who is finishing her last year in the BET program, was named the 2020 recipient of the Frederick J. Berger Award from Tau Alpha Pi, the national honor society for engineering technology.
