Alex Keyes, FCLC ’16, and Peng Tang, GSAS ’16, interned last summer at Adept Technologies, where they designed, built, and tested robotics software in the mobile robots division.

“It was fantastic. We had a lot of autonomy,” said Keyes, who graduated from Fordham last month with a BS in computer science. “I realized the skills I have been cultivating at Fordham can directly translate to having a job—which is something you don’t necessarily experience if you don’t have an internship.”

Keyes and Tang landed the spots at Adept thanks to work they’d been doing in Fordham’s Robotics and Computer Vision Laboratory, directed by Damian Lyons, PhD, the interim chair of the computer and information science department and associate vice president for academic affairs at Fordham.

Detecting Danger

In the lab, Keyes and Tang worked on improving an algorithm that allows a team of mobile robots to communicate and navigate indoor space together, spreading out quickly to explore an unknown area.

Programs like these can be applied to search-and-rescue missions, Lyons said, when robots are sent in to locate victims and determine which areas are safe for first responders.

“It’s a very challenging problem, and we’ve addressed different parts of it at different times,” he said, adding that the lab has received some funding from the Defense Threat Reduction Agency, part of the U.S. Department of Defense, to do similar work writing programs that allow robots to search for biohazards and weapons of mass destruction.

Lyons, who founded the lab in 2002, said working in robotics gives students several unique skills that are becoming more and more relevant.

“Cyberphysical systems are some of the most difficult types of systems to program, and this is exactly what robotics prepares you for,” he said. He also noted that with the increasing prevalence of robotics and cyberphysical systems comes a host of ethical issues that have yet to be worked out.

“You probably can’t buy an expensive car these days without it having a lot of robotic programming in it. … Eventually there won’t even be a steering wheel. But, of course, then who is at fault if that car causes an accident?” he asked.

“With the liberal arts and Jesuit educational background that Fordham provides, our students have a grounding not just in the technology but in the kinds of issues involved when the technology is deployed in society. I feel our students can be effective leaders in this area.”

Keyes and Tang were awarded the internships in spring 2015, when robotics technicians at Adept supervised the work the students were doing in the Fordham lab, which owns several of Adept’s robots for student research. Standing at about a foot and half tall, the bots move on four large all-terrain tires, and come equipped with programmable computers and various sensors that can measure distance. The Adept staff was impressed with the students’ work, and invited them to intern at the company’s research center in New Hampshire last summer.

Internship Supported by Science Council Alumnus

The relationship with Adept (now Omron Adept Technologies) —the largest U.S.-based manufacturer of industrial robots—was forged by Fordham alumnus Richard Juelis, FCRH ’70, an angel investor with a life science and technology background who sat on the company’s board for nine years. Adept provided living expenses and some of the funding for the internship, and Juelis provided the rest through a donation to Fordham.

“Any time you can do something hands-on in the industry, it’s great for students’ career development. When I was in school, there weren’t many internship opportunities, particularly in newer fields like robotics and computer science, ” said Juelis, who is a member of the Fordham Science Council—a group of alumni who support science education at the University. “And it’s a win-win, for Adept too, because they get interns who can help them develop new products.”

Juelis has sought to extend this type of exposure to younger students as well. “We also arranged for a visit to Fordham for students from my high school’s robotics program,” he said, “and hope to continue this in the future. ”

Real Responsibility, Relevant Experience

“Everyone has this idea of a software engineer as a very isolated thing—the nerd in the basement. That couldn’t be further from the truth. Everyone there knew who Peng and I were, and they were very open to talking to us about what they were working on or things we were working on. They made sure we were having a rich experience,” he said. “We had a lot of responsibility.”

The experience at Adept—and in the Robotics and Computer Vision Lab—has provided both students with concrete skills they will take with them into the job market.

Tang—who earned an MS in computer science at Fordham—started work as a systems engineer at Comcast in Philadelphia this month, working with big data sets. Even though the position is not in robotics, he feels he can draw on skills that are transferable.

“There’s a lot of fundamental stuff that I learned in robotics that will definitely be helpful for my job,” said Tang. “A lot of knowledge in computer science is universal.”

Lyons said the relationship with Adept has been very valuable not only in providing students with concrete, hands-on experience but also in allowing them to envision a career in robotics.

“We’d love to see the internship continue,” he said.

The resource is an artificial pond for raising fish, and it’s the inaugural project of Fordham’s chapter of Engineers Without Borders (EWB), founded three years ago. A team of students returned last month from the project site, where locals were abuzz with the possibilities for a better life that the fish farm represented.

“Some of the community members were [saying], ‘We’re just excited,’” said chapter co-president and Fordham College at Rose Hill senior Grace Bolan. “It really comes down to opportunity. Hopefully, it leads to economic development in the region.”

She and three other Fordham students—engineering physics majors all—went to Uganda from March 17 to March 28. Accompanied by a professional engineer who’s a chapter mentor, they oversaw the implementation of designs for the pond that they’d drawn up in the past year.

Designing the pond was just one facet of the project. Students also consulted with a student team from the Gabelli School of Business about funding it; presented the project to potential donors and to the national organization of Engineers Without Borders; and coordinated via telephone and e-mail with those in Uganda who would be doing the digging and building.

Along the way, they’ve learned a lot about applying their academic lessons outside the classroom, said physics professor Stephen Holler, PhD, a mentor for the Fordham EWB chapter.

“They’ve done a phenomenal amount of work in a very short time,” he said.

Fish Farming for Economic Development

The project originated in efforts by a Ugandan nongovernmental organization, the Serere Local Fish Farming Initiative, to promote fish farming for economic development in impoverished areas of eastern Uganda. The group submitted its proposed projects to Engineers Without Borders so that EWB chapters could apply to take them on.

The Fordham chapter picked up the project because it seemed relatively feasible—compared with, say, building a bridge or a dam—and because the community’s description of its needs and goals was appealing, members said.

A team of five students visited the region in the winter of 2014 to assess a few dozen fish farming sites and choose one that seemed the most viable. For the first project, they settled on Omorio Village, where a group of 20 families wanted to build a pond that would generate income to provide for their widows and orphans. The chapter also agreed to see four more pond projects through to completion in the years ahead.

The first trip and a portion of the return trip were funded by John Reddy, FCRH ’76, and his wife, Christa Reddy, in consultation with their daughter, Kathryn Reddy, a 2014 Fordham graduate who studied physics.

In addition to helping the Ugandan families, the Reddys saw a chance to expand opportunities in the engineering physics program and advance the Fordham mission of educating men and women for others, John Reddy said.

“What it came down to was, we believed that this was a great opportunity for the University and for the families that would be benefited by this,” he said.

The return trip was funded by multiple alumni donors–including the Reddys–in response to a challenge gift from George McCartney, FCRH ’68, and his wife, Mary Jane McCartney, TMC ’69, who learned about the project at a meeting of the Fordham University Science Council, an alumni group.

“They hit a home run with us at that meeting, because they described the project that they did in Uganda and we were fired up to help them make it a reality,” Mary Jane McCartney said.

Their presentation to the Engineers Without Borders national organization—which needed to approve the project—was similarly impressive, said Holler, who said he listened to the presentation via telephone. “They had answers for practically everything that was asked of them,” he said.

The donors’ money paid for tools and for materials like piping, bricks, and stone. It also paid for laborers’ wages and food, and for hiring someone to drive, translate, and provide security. Grants obtained through EWB paid for the students’ flights and for materials used in digging and excavating the pond.

A Cross-Cultural Collaboration

The workers in Uganda started excavating the pond in January, said Fordham College at Rose Hill senior John Murray, the project lead who spearheaded the design work with input from other chapter members and the chapter’s professional mentors.

The pond will serve as a model for others in the district who want to build one. The community members had experience with this kind of project; the Fordham team showed them some enhancements, like techniques for fully draining the pond between harvest cycles, Murray said. The pond is stocked with tilapia because they’re relatively easy to take care of, compared to catfish, which would be the other option, he said.

The students found it was enriching to interact with the Ugandans and learn about their culture and way of living. They said the Ugandans marveled at various aspects of American life, like the sunscreen the students were donning—“‘We thought you were putting it on for energy,’” said one of them, according to Bolan.

Said Murray: “It’s just fascinating to come face-to-face with a completely different culture with different ideas of what it means to just live day to day.”

Bolan said she was impressed with how readily the Fordham community rallied to make the trip happen—from the administrators who went out of their way to help to the donors who funded the trip.

“We’re so thankful to our donors,” Bolan said. “This experience is absolutely the most important thing I’ve done at Fordham.”

However, it is crucial to have those conversations, said renowned oncologist and Fordham alumnus Philip A. Pizzo, MD—especially when it comes to palliative care, a specialty of medicine that can help spare patients and their families from needless suffering.

Dr. Pizzo, FCRH ’66, offered the keynote address on Oct. 20 at “Humanizing Medicine: The Achievements and Future of Palliative Care,” sponsored by the Fordham University Science Council. The event, which also featured an interdisciplinary faculty panel discussion and a presentation by Calvary Hospital President Michael J. Brescia, MD, examined the latest discussions about palliative care in America.

Palliative care refers to a type of supportive care that focuses on controlling pain and relieving symptoms for a patient, rather than actively treating an illness, Dr. Pizzo said. Many people balk at this type of care when they or their loved ones are facing a life-threatening illness, because they believe it means eliminating medical treatment altogether.

“They don’t want to give up on active medical treatment,” said Dr. Pizzo, the David and Susan Heckerman Professor of Pediatrics and of Microbiology and Immunology at Stanford University School of Medicine.

“But palliative care is not a ‘handoff.’ I shouldn’t say to a patient, ‘It’s over, there’s nothing more I can do, so I’m handing you over to palliative care’… It’s not the removal of hope, but fusing it together [with active treatment].”

It was his Fordham education, Dr. Pizzo said, that taught him to prioritize human dignity. This humanistic approach stayed with him once he became a pediatric oncologist in the 1970s, a time when very few children survived cancer.

“I witnessed children dying with terrible pain that no medication could reverse despite our very best efforts,” he said. “I was constantly asking myself when these children were suffering: Is this appropriate? Isn’t this something we should help facilitate? Shouldn’t we help individuals to have as much dignity at the time of their death and not to suffer?”

In 2011, Dr. Pizzo co-led the groundbreaking Institute of Medicine report “Relieving Pain in America,” which included several recommendations pertaining to palliative care. One of the first recommendations was to reorganize the health care system so that high-quality end-of-life care was available and accessible to all individuals.

He cited a recent clinical trial published in the New England Journal of Medicine that studied the outcomes of adult lung cancer patients who received a combination of palliative care and active treatment. The study found that patients who received this combination of care lived on average three months longer than those patients who did not receive palliative care. (The patients were also happier, more mobile, and in less pain.)

“It’s important to not make a Faustian bargain between delivery of care and supportive care,” Dr. Pizzo said. “Every individual facing a serious prolonged illness that could lead to end of life would benefit from a palliative care physician working in tandem with their health care provider.”

The first step in these efforts, he said, is to have conversations about end-of-life care. In addition to more communication within families, the health care system needs to improve training for physicians, nurses, social workers, and other specialists so that they can better guide patients through these difficult decisions.

The event was co-sponsored by Fordham’s Global Healthcare Innovation Management Center, with support from Calvary Hospital.