The Workforce Recruitment Program for College Students with Disabilities (WRP) is a recruitment and referral program that connects public and private sector employers nationwide with students and recent graduates with disabilities who are qualified and interview through the program. 

This year they have decided to conduct phone interviews.The deadline to initiate the registration online is September 25, 2013.  Deadline to complete the application is September 30, 2013. Phone interviews will be scheduled sometime between October 1st and October 18th.

To qualify for the program students must have 1) a disability, 2) be a U.S. Citizen, 3) be a current full-time student or have not graduated prior to December 2012 (unless the severity of the disability precludes the student from taking a full-time course load).  

To be eligible to interview the student must follow the steps on the attached flyer.

The possible opportunities are for both full-time and internships for all majors.

The program is run on an annual basis (fall semester).  Students who interviewed with the WRP last semester will need to reapply this semester.

What is Poka-Yoke?

Poka-Yoke is a Japanese term that means “mistake-proofing”. In other words, the goal is to make an object that prevents the user from messing up. We live in a complicated world, but good design concepts like poka-yoke help us navigate everyday experience. Small design features and visual clues can influence the safety and efficiency of everyday objects, even without realizing it. This concept is more prevalent in industrial design, but it applies to software as well.

For completeness, I should mention that poka-yoke is closely related to affordances, but they’re not interchangeable. An affordance is more of a cue that informs how the object should be used, but may not necessarily prevent a mistake.

The Good, The Bad, and The Poka-Yoke

In a typical bathroom there’s a great example and a terrible example of poka-yoke. Here’s a photo for reference:

Image courtesy Flickr user juhansonin.

The good example is the sink. Provided the pipes aren’t clogged, the small hole on the side of the sink should prevent any kind of overflows. The sink itself can only be used in one way; you turn the handle and then water comes out. It’s pretty difficult for the user to mess it up.

The bad example is the shower. There’s usually too many knobs, too many ways to pull and twist them, and too many things that leave the user confused. More than likely, mistakes will be made with undesirable outcomes before the user stumbles into the right settings. If you travel and stay in hotels a lot, you’re probably very familiar with this first world problem.

Poka-Yoke in Software

So what does this have to do with software design? Well, software tends to get pretty complicated pretty quickly. More functionality usually means more opportunities for failure.

Image courtesy Apple Inc.

The fingerprint sensor on the iPhone is a great example of a poka-yoke feature. Apple knew that people should utilize passwords for safety reasons, but few people did. Setting up a password and typing it in everytime can also be tedious, and there’s also a slight chance you can forget your password. The fingerprint sensor is a great solution to this, because it’s faster than typing in a password and even if it’s not 100% secure, it’s much better than nothing.

On the web, it’s almost impossible to make a website 100% foolproof. However, much like security, there are many techniques you can use that will act as deterrents and steer people towards their goals, but there are two big ones to look out for:

Remove And Combine Functions

First, most websites have way too many things that are clickable. Try to eliminate unnecessary functionality, and if you can’t get rid of it, try combining it with something else if it makes sense to do so. For example, many shows will combine temperature and water pressure into 1 knob. This eliminates the user’s ability to create a “hot-but-low-pressure” shower, but most people wouldn’t want that anyway. Minimizing functionality and clickable elements might seem obvious, but if your website is old and has suffered from some feature creep, it might be time to do some spring cleaning with a fresh perspective.

Avoid Failure States

Second, don’t allow the user to do things that could result in a failure state. I’ve seen way too many forms that let me type in lots of invalid input before submitting. It’s only after I click the button I find out that “usernames must be 8 characters long” or that I mistyped my email address or something else stupid (can you sense the frustration?). Real-time form validation is just one example of how failure can be prevented before it happens. Why even allow the form to be submitted if a field is invalid?

If you have any examples of Poka-Yoke design, I’d love to hear about it in the comments! It’s always so delightful when you come across one you haven’t spotted, because the best poka-yoke designs are the ones you’ve seen with your own eyes but haven’t consciously noticed.

The post Poka-Yoke: The Quest for Mistake-Proof Designs appeared first on Treehouse Blog.

Kimberly Moffitt joins panelists on The Marc Steiner Show to continue the ongoing discussion on the mass shooting tragedy at the Washington, D.C. Naval Yard, last Monday.

The panelists, who also include Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, E.R. Shipp, and Dr. Richard Vatz, professor, Towson University, shared thoughts on the speculative and often sensational media reaction to tragic events in the age of the 24-hour news cycle.

“This was a good news day for media because there was so much to talk about, so much to speculate on. I found much of the news coverage to be reactionary and sensational,” said Moffitt. “But, I also felt like it was doing exactly what we have seen about news media for a long time. And that is getting us, as viewers, to feed into the culture of fear.”

Listen to the full segment »

UMBC Plans Energy and Water Conservation Upgrades; Upgrades will be Completed Through a $5.4M Deal with the Maryland Clean Energy Center Financing Program

Contact:
Chelsea Williams
Communications Manager
410-455-6380
chelseah@umbc.edu

The Maryland Clean Energy Center (MCEC) today announced it has closed a $5.4 million Maryland Clean Energy Capital (MCAP) deal to fund lighting, irrigation, and energy management system upgrades at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC). NORESCO will serve as the energy service company (ESCO), designing and installing the upgrades, and the Maryland Clean Energy Center is the bond issuer financing the debt. The end result will be energy savings and greater efficiency on the UMBC campus.

UMBC utilizes a prioritized approach for managing energy and utilities whereby energy projects are selected based upon their cost-effectiveness. After performing a campus-wide energy audit and considering numerous energy conservation measures (ECMs), the project was carefully developed. It includes interior lighting upgrades throughout most campus buildings, LED lighting for three parking garages, web-based/weather-optimized irrigation controls, and demand control ventilation for several lecture halls.

Shawn Blum, UMBC’s Energy Manager said, “This project will generate tremendous savings in energy and water consumption. We predict annual savings will be more than 7,000,000 kWh of electricity and 3,000,000 gallons of water. Within ten years, the project will pay for itself via the associated utility savings. The environmental benefits are impressive as well. UMBC’s greenhouse gas emissions will be reduced by over 3,800 MTeCO2 per year, which represents a 4.3% reduction in UMBC’s carbon footprint versus the baseline.”

“UMBC is pleased to implement these lighting, irrigation, and control systems upgrades,” said Rusty Postlewate, Assistant Vice President of Facilities Management at UMBC. “By working with the Maryland Clean Energy Center through its MCAP program, we have been able to undertake this project for the University.”

The Maryland Clean Energy Center MCAP program is available to all Maryland universities, hospitals, municipalities, and schools (MUSH market). MCAP enables non-profit organizations in Maryland to replace inefficient infrastructure assets and avoid incurring this additional debt.

Jeffrey Eckel, Chairman of the MCEC Board and President & CEO of Hannon Armstrong Sustainable Infrastructure said, “We commend the leaders of UMBC for taking advantage of the new MCAP financing program that was created from the vision of Governor Martin O’Malley, without tax-payer support, and allows MCEC to accelerate otherwise stalled capital projects. Through this program, MCEC can foster savings for Maryland institutions, create jobs, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.”

“It is a win-win-win program and a remarkable model for public-private partnerships. To date, both Coppin State University and UMBC have taken advantage of MCAP financing program,” said Katherine Magruder, Executive Director of the Maryland Clean Energy Center. “Our tax exempt financing capabilities are available to municipalities, hospitals, and not-for- profit entities as well as schools and universities in Maryland.”

Randy Clark, senior vice president, NORESCO, added, “NORESCO is honored to enter into a contract to help UMBC achieve its energy efficiency and cost reduction goals. We are also proud to be among the first to develop an energy performance contract under MCEC’s unique financing approach whereby the University benefits from important upgrades to its facilities.”

MCEC is a self-financing driver of clean energy, economic development, energy innovation, and clean tech jobs in the State of Maryland. Hannon Armstrong Sustainable Infrastructure (NYSE: HASI), an Annapolis-based energy investor, helped create the MCAP structure and arranged the financing for MCEC on a pro bono basis. To learn more about MCEC’s MCAP program and other initiatives of the MCEC visit www.mdcleanenergy.org.

About Maryland Clean Energy CenterThe Maryland Clean Energy Center (MCEC) is an instrumentality of the state, created by the legislature in 2008 to advance adoption of clean energy and energy efficiency technologies and practices as an economic development strategy. MCEC assists consumers, supports businesses and advises policymakers. MCEC operates the Maryland Home Energy Loan Program (MHELP) to assist residential property owners finance energy efficiency measures, and manages the Maryland Clean Energy Capital (MCAP) program to finance projects for municipal, university, school, hospital and other not-for-profit organizations. To learn more, visit www.mdcleanenergy.org. Contact MCEC at 443-949-8505

About UMBC UMBC combines the emphasis on teaching found at the best liberal arts colleges with the innovation of a research university. UMBC’s 13,000 undergraduate and graduate students come from more than 150 countries and take full advantage of the educational, business, cultural, and recreational resources of Baltimore and Washington, D.C. UMBC students work alongside faculty who are leaders in their fields; think about the hard questions of society, science, and creative expression; and then move beyond the classroom to make a difference. UMBC is a member of the University System of Maryland and is accredited by the Middle States Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools. For more information, please visit http://www.umbc.edu.

About Hannon Armstrong Sustainable Infrastructure Hannon Armstrong Sustainable Infrastructure (“Hannon Armstrong”) (NYSE:HASI) makes debt and equity investments in sustainable infrastructure projects. We focus on profitable projects that increase energy efficiency, provide cleaner energy, positively impact the environment, or make more efficient use of natural resources. With over 30 years of experience, Hannon Armstrong works primarily with Global 1000 clients on essential infrastructure projects involving the U.S. federal, state and local governments as well as institutions and private developers. We target projects that have high credit quality obligors, fully contracted revenue streams and inherent economic value. To learn more, visit www.hannonarmstrong.com.

About NORESCOAs one of the largest energy services companies in the U.S., NORESCO utilizes design-build, performance-based contracting vehicles and asset monetization solutions to deliver energy and maintenance savings and significant infrastructure upgrades to existing facilities. NORESCO has guaranteed more than $3 billion in energy and operating cost savings at more than 7,000 facilities throughout the U.S. and abroad. NORESCO also offers a full suite of consulting services to integrate sustainable design strategies into new construction and existing buildings. NORESCO is a part of UTC Climate, Controls & Security, a unit of United Technologies, a leading provider to the aerospace and building systems industries worldwide.