PlanetBio Website Enhancement

PlanetBio, a leading company in the biotechnology sector, seeks to enhance its existing website (www.planet.bio) by adding new functionalities. The goal of this project is to provide a more comprehensive and user-friendly experience for visitors. Specifically, the project involves creating additional webpages, integrating job postings, and developing a user-friendly dashboard. These enhancements will help PlanetBio attract top talent and provide valuable information to its stakeholders. The project will allow learners to apply their web development and design skills, as well as gain experience in integrating dynamic content into a live website. Key tasks include: - Designing and developing new webpages to expand the website's content. - Integrating a job posting system that allows for easy updates and management. - Creating a dashboard that provides an overview of key metrics and information for internal use.

Build a Website for The Visionaries

We would like a new website for our organization. We would like to work with students to develop a new website for us. Students should be prepared to: Create a design proposal including wireframes or low-fidelity mockups for our company's review. Build a fully functioning website, with our assistance in providing content and copy. Provide training on updating and maintaining the site.

Advocate for Police Reform

The Black Lives Matter movement has made clear that many elements of policing are in dire need of reform, especially in situations where police employ excessive or lethal force. There are a number of common-sense proposals, from community policing to diversity training and psychological testing. I have attached a document (13-Point Program for Police Reform) that enumerates these proposals. In discussion with a candidate for the Albany County District Attorney's office, it was expressed that many of these reforms are being adopted in different jurisdictions, with varying levels of success. Perhaps the most important of these ideas, however, is obvious, but as yet has occasioned no discussion in the press or among the public. Despite widespread coverage of police shootings of black citizens (and occasional investigations into those shootings), the police involved are never tested for drug and alcohol use immediately following these incidents. Frequently, the use of excessive force is written off as a consequence of an adrenaline “high.” While this may be a factor, in many instances, there are powerful reasons to believe that police involved in incidents of excessive or lethal force were under the influence of drugs and/or alcohol. In order to implement the proposed reforms, I am taking a multi-pronged approach. To support the advancement of the 13-point program, I will need a team of students to perform literature research into each of the proposed reforms. This team will be researching legislation that supports the proposed reforms; looking at communities that have implemented any of these reforms and searching for follow-up studies done in those communities to assess their relative success. One team of students will be tasked with outreach to stakeholders. This would entail developing contact information for representatives of activist groups and other organizations seeking police reform. We will also need contact information for elected representatives; in particular, those who have supported police reform bills in their own districts. We are also seeking contact information for police unions, police officers, and community groups that interact with police. Ideally, this group would set up meetings between elected officials and police officials with the reforming group, for discussion on passing the reform legislation. One team will be tasked with outreach to law enforcement personnel themselves. We wish to avoid the impression of imposing these reforms on police officers, without taking into account their own training and experience. As the body most impacted by the proposed reforms, their own input will be invaluable, and will perhaps allow modification of the language of the reforms to be more acceptable to the police themselves. One team of students will be tasked with grassroots activism. This group will be doing outreach to fellow students (as many as possible), collecting signatures from students and other constituents in support of the reforms. I propose that signers to these petitions also commit to calling their elected representatives on a once or twice daily basis, for 30 to 90 days, to express their desire to see the reforms adopted. I am looking for politically aware and motivated student interns (or a team), to help with advocating for these reforms. I am overjoyed to have this project accepted by the student coordinators at UAlbany. It is hoped that if this proposal passes at a local or state level, then it might be expanded and possibly adopted at the Federal level.

StreetCard: Information Technology to Improve Services for Homeless Persons.

INTRODUCTION I originally formulated the StreetCard program for implementation in the city of New York. New York City, despite being one of the wealthiest cities in the world, has a large population of homeless persons living on the streets. Every year, in February, the city sponsors an overnight HOPE (Homeless Outreach Project Estimate) count; even on the coldest nights of the year, the HOPE count records approximately 3,700 persons sleeping on the streets. If you ask a Homeless persons why it is they prefer not to go to a shelter, you will get a lot of different answers. First, the shelters are difficult to get into, and admission involves a lengthy bureaucratic process which is difficult to navigate, even for persons with above average organizational skills. Second, the shelters are dangerous, and residents frequently report being attacked or stolen from. Third, a street person will tell you that the shelters are a business," and corrupt supervisors get "paid by the head," which leads to a misrepresentation of the number of residents on any given night. Although NYC does offer a number of services for Homeless persons, a thorough examination of the system reveals defined points at which taxpayer money is profligately wasted. The StreetCard program is a is carefully reasoned and comprehensive program that promises to leverage Information Technology to eliminate the "cracks in the system" through which public funds are lost. ORGANIZATION The StreetCard is a photo-ID card with a QR code that will connect the bearers of the card to service providers participating in the StreetCard program. The StreetCard program is a web-based database that holds Homeless Management Information Systems (HMIS) data and Electronic Health Records (EHRs). The StreetCard is intended to be implemented in segments, representing three levels of services. The first level will connect StreetCard clients to Basic Needs Providers (BNPs). The second level is a programming interface (API) to access medical, psychiatric, and rehabilitative electronic health records on an immediate basis, diminishing time spent in hospitals and institutions waiting for those records to be laboriously faxed. The third level of services will allow a comprehensive application for all the benefits a Homeless person might be entitled to from local Departments of Social Services (DSS), in a single visit, from any of several service providers under the "No Wrong Door" approach. CURRENT PROGRESS - First tier At this time, the first tier of services (for BNPs) is completed. CURRENT PROGRESS - Second tier A previous student group has begun work on the second tier of services, designing an API for the Homeless clients' EHRs. They have defined the roles of healthcare personnel who interact with the system, and started work on formatting the fields that will hold the EHR data. The students have created a github account that holds the codes for the StreetCard so far, and also contains comprehensive documentation the students have compiled to assist future groups with the project development. The second tier of services will enable networking of hospital systems to speed the collection of medical records for StreetCard clients, and minimize the amount of time they spend in hospitals and institutions. It is expected that implementation of this level of services will require the development of security solutions to ensure protection of Personal Identifying Information (PII) under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). Additionally, the EHR data will be classed according to HIPAA regulations allowing segregation of data into categories appropriate for the level of access of the health care provider.