NKU ready to make voice heard

You might not associate Northern Kentucky University with saving lives, but consider an incident that occurred in May near Portland, Oregon.

Scott Brawner, a firefighter and paramedic, was working out when an application on his smartphone – PulsePoint – alerted him that a citizen nearby had suffered cardiac arrest.

Brawner found the citizen and began CPR until paramedics arrived. The citizen survived, and Brawner is credited with helping save the man's life.

NKU deserves credit, too. The school's Center for Applied Informatics – which is part of the university's College of Informatics – worked with the Pulsepoint Foundation to create the mobile application that uses GPS location-based technology to alert CPR-trained citizens like Brawner when somebody nearby is in trouble.

It's the kind of collaboration and innovation NKU's leaders envisioned when they created the College of Informatics in 2005, and the initiative has quietly delivered on its promise.

Enrollment has doubled to 2,162; information technology is the No. 2 major on campus; and NKU students have helped more than 50 companies, organizations and startups – including Procter & Gamble, E.W. Scripps Co. and Convergys – create new digital tools.

Now, with funding for a new Health Innovations Center secure, local Fortune 500 giants struggling to find IT talent, and the region focused on creating more technology companies, top NKU officials say it's time to more aggressively promote its model that shows what happens when universities embrace innovation.

"NKU is the best-kept secret in this area," said Rodney D'Souza, an assistant professor of entrepreneurship. "We need to stop having it be a secret."

Co-ops link businesseswith college students

Branden Middendorf, a senior who will graduate in December, is the kind of student NKU is using to get the message out.

The media informatics major has supplemented his studies at NKU with real-world experience that includes working with companies going through UpTech, the Northern Kentucky business accelerator. Middendorf's currently creating a virtual tour of Griffin Hall, which houses the College of Informatics, using Oculus Rift, the virtual reality headset.

"I love working with startup companies. I'm building my own personal network, and there's this big boom of startups happening in the Cincinnati area," he said. "The companies you meet through (NKU) are awesome."

The Center for Applied Informatics is working on creating more Middendorfs at a faster rate, and has created an infrastructure to help place those students in high-paying jobs at local companies through different co-op models.

The center's virtual co-op program brings together a cross-disciplinary team of students who work on projects for business and organizations under the supervision of experienced code architects and designers.

Students might then move on to a new project and work out of NKU's Outreach Laboratory in Covington's RiverCenter. Clear Measures helped fund the lab, which opened in September.

From there, the goal is for students to land a more traditional co-op and be in a strong position to secure a job offer upon graduating.

"What we're building for you as a student is a bridge from the ivory tower into the world," said Kevin Kirby, the College of Informatics dean. "By the time you graduate, you've had professional experience."

Next up: HealthInnovations Center

None of this is coincidental. Some 14 years ago, NKU considered starting a college of engineering, then pivoted and pursued what became the College of Informatics. The college houses the departments of communication, computer science and business informatics.

NKU proved to be ahead of the curve, as the explosion of big data and smartphone technology increased the demand for IT workers who can work across departments.

"Nobody wants a person who can write code but can't communicate. Nobody wants a PR person who is totally naïve about technology," Kirby said.

The latest example of NKU's agility is its Health Innovations Center, which secured $97 million from the state's General Assembly this spring. NKU will renovate Founders Hall and add about 125,000-square-feet of new space to house the center.

There are two major goals. The center will further leverage NKU's existing programs to identify best practices in improving health outcomes, and prepare students for high-paying, fast-growing health care jobs. NKU also will continue its community engagement through programs such as the Nursing Advocacy Center for the Underserved, which currently helps low-income residents at sites across Northern Kentucky.

"If we truly want to explore ways in which we improve the health of the population we service, we have to have a better understanding of how we make choices about our health," said president Geoff Mearns. "And we want to do all that we can to ensure health innovations are available to everybody in our community."

As NKU plans the Health Innovations Center, Mearns has embraced the same approach that's made the College of Informatics successful. NKU engaged executives and leaders from across the region to make sure the center aligns with the community's needs.

Mearns said the collaborative approach is part of the 46-year-old university's DNA.

"Being relatively young, we are by nature innovators," Mearns said. "That isn't to say we don't have tradition, but there really is a culture of innovation and experimentation that exists on our campus that I don't think necessarily exists on every other campus." ■