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Highlights from Higher Ed: Natural Disasters and Increased Focus on AI

RJ Nichol
Jan 4, 2019

Teachable moments from a natural disaster

After Hurricane Florence tore through the Carolinas, the University of North Carolina Wilmington was faced with $150 million in damages and almost a month of canceled classes. But after they were back in session, the university community wanted to learn from the experience, and help the local community. Over 40 professors received a total of $21,000 in recovery grants. Students in the School of Nursing learned about the roles a nurse would have in an emergency situation and how patient care may be different. The earth and ocean science department learned about coastal conservation as they assessed storm damage. And about 70 students worked to understand the impact of the hurricane on impoverished parts of the community.

Source:
The Chronicle of Higher Education

Committing $1B to AI among top moves in 2018

Earlier this year, MIT, with the support of Blackstone CEO Stephen Schwarzman, committed to a $1 billion investment for a new college that focuses on AI. This event was named Education Dive’s Strategic Move of the Year and is likely to push other colleges and universities to change in light of the digital and technological revolution. The college is on track to open in Fall 2019, with the building completed in 2022. MIT will also create 50 new positions and hopes to incorporate the AI curriculum into other fields of study.

Source: Education Dive

Cybersecurity still a focus for 2019

Cybersecurity will remain a buzzword in 2019, especially since the 2018 Education Cybersecurity Report — presented by SecurityScorecard — listed education as the least secure of the 17 industries studied this year. There are three areas where higher education institutions need to focus their cybersecurity efforts, including applications, endpoints and security patching. Knowing where the security issues are, such as in online applications vulnerabilities, will make fixing them that much easier. The full 2018 Education Cybersecurity Report available here.

Source: Ed Tech

RJ Nichol

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