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Education Research & Technology INDUSTRY SPOTLIGHT › 22 Doing Business in Connecticut | 2016 where power outages will happen. "ere's a tremendous amount of buzz and excitement that's happening … As we engage industry. I would say on average we're probably talking to three to five companies a week," Silbart said. UConn is not the only public university bringing its research facilities into the future. Southern Connecticut State University in New Haven recently opened a $49 million state-of-the-art academic and laboratory sci- ence building that will house the Connecti- cut State Colleges and Universities Center for Nanotechnology and the Werth Center for Coastal and Marine Studies. e four-story building also features teaching and research labs for physics, earth science, environmental science, molecular biology and chemistry, and a supercomput- ing lab for research in theoretical physics, bioinformatics and computer science. Engineering talent Other universities are fueling the tal- ent pipeline with new academic programs targeting high-demand fields. Quinnipiac University graduated its first class of engi- neering students in May aer starting the degree program as part of its School of Busi- ness in 2012. It will open a separate School of Engineering this fall offering degrees in four fast-growing specialties: civil, industrial, mechanical and computer soware. e university launched the program in response to U.S. Department of Labor projections showing a high demand for en- gineers over the next decade, said Matthew O'Connor, dean of the business school. With engineering jobs to be had in virtually every field — from health care to cybersecurity — O'Connor said the pro- gram fits nicely with Quinnipiac's mission of career-driven education. He said Connecti- cut's manufacturing sec- tor has a unique need not only for mechanical engineers, but for in- dustrial engineers who search for ways to im- prove efficiency. And as the nation grapples with repairing its crumbling infrastructure, the de- mand for civil engineers is expected to rise by 8 percent between 2014 and 2024, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. ere are also opportunities to partner with other schools within the university. For example, a group of seniors is working with the Frank H. Netter MD School of Medicine to design improved devices used to train medical students. Others have interned with industry giants like Comcast, Electric Boat and Whiting-Turner Construction. "We really are a professionally oriented school that gets students ready to go out and be practicing engineers," said Justin Kile, as- sociate dean of engineering at Quinnipiac. It's not just four-year colleges that are thinking creatively about how to prepare students for employment in the private sec- tor. e state's strong network of community colleges are as well. In the state's Northwest corner, fresh- man biology students at Northwestern Com- munity College honed their high-tech lab skills while hunting for new bacteria during the fall 2015 semester. e 23 NWCC students joined more than 4,100 around the globe taking part in the Yale-led Small World Initiative, which seeks to boost the number of graduates pursuing STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) degrees while "crowdsourcing" solutions to the global health crisis posed by drug-resis- tant bacteria. Students collected soil samples from backyards and parks, then analyzed them for bacteria that produced antibiotic chemicals, using techniques they could easily apply to jobs in the biotech field, according to Sharon Gusky, NWCC biology professor. Yale Uni- versity will be sequencing DNA isolated by the students to determine whether they have Students cheer at the 2015 Yale University commencement ceremony. Yale is one of several world-renowned colleges and universities in Connecticut. > Continued from page 21 ' We feel a critical part of the university's role is to help feed that pipeline. ' — Larry SiLbart, vice provoSt for Strategic initiativeS, UniverSity of connecticUt PHOTO/MICHAEL MARSLAND 120,000 100,000 80,000 60,000 40,000 20,000 967 33,759 40,963 600 Carpentry Electrical HVAC Plumbing & Heating Independent Institutions Community Colleges State Universities University of Connecticut U.S. Coast Guard Academy 2011/2012 2012/2013 2013/2014 2014/2015 500 400 300 200 100 0 85,008 100,625 Higher education in CT CTHSS students trained in green technologies Source: 2015 CT Economic Review