The State of Tech Hiring in Sacramento

The State of Tech Hiring in SacramentoThe State of Tech Hiring in SacramentoTHE STATE OF TECH HIRING IN SACRAMENTOQ3 and Q4 2019TOP SKILLS IN IMMEDIATE DEMAND1. Cybersecurity2. Cloud security3. Cloud architecture4. Business intelligence Cloud computing ERP implementation*5. Database management Network administration*OF TECHNOLOGY LEADERS SURVEYED 62% plan to expand their teams.32% plan to fill only vacant positions.89% say its challenging to find IT talent in their area.95% are confident in their companys prospects for growth.95% will bring on project-based IT employees. Below are the top reasonsConsultants are part of our hiring strategy 62%When theres a sudden vacancy 56%For unplanned, time-sensitive projects 46%For especially busy times 43%When a skill does not exist internally 30%Multiple responses allowed.TOP BUSINESS CONCERNS1. Maintaining security of IT systems2. Innovation or helping grow the business3. Investing in new technologies

Create a Learn-At-Lunch Program for Your Employees

Create a Learn-At-Lunch Program for Your EmployeesCreate a Learn-At-Lunch Program for Your EmployeesMany firms successfully employ a learn-at-lunch approach to supplementemployee training and development activities. Some call them brown bag sessions in honor of the bags in which we used to carry our lunches, and others reverse the phrase, calling them Lunch-and-Learn events. Regardless of the name, the use of an occasional lunch hour for education or training can stimulate employee engagement and extend the companys development program. This article offers ideas on how to start, sustain, and succeed in strengthening employee learning with a Learn-at-Lunch program. Time Is Always Key When youre running a geschftliches miteinander, there never seems to be enough timeto get everything done. The typical training dilemmasuggests you cantspare people to go to training because theresso much work to be done, but you also cant neglect their training and development if you want your busine ss to thrive. While individuals value their lunch periods as an opportunity to reset for the afternoon, an education program that occasionally taps into this period can be interesting and invigorating for everyone involved. What Learn-At-Lunch Is At its simplest, a Learn-at-Lunch program is a training or development event occasionally scheduled during the lunch hour or lunch period.Many firms offer incentives such asfree lunches to encourage attendance and involvement. After all, theyre asking employees to give up personal time. Learn-at-Lunch training is usually less formal and less structured than traditional training events. The topics must be interesting to make the time investment worthwhile for employees, and conducive to short, hour-long sprints delivered over a period of days or weeks. Typical Learn-at-Lunch training programs include Cross-Training A cross-training program can range from teaching customer service reps how to answer the phone correctly to providing leade rship training to first-line managers. Product Training A programcan help all employees better understand product differences and specifications if your company offers many products or services. It is also a good way to introduce new products or services to your employees. Employee-Led Professional Development Give people an opportunity to learn about the responsibilities ofemployeesin other departments.Do you have someone in IT who could teach a course in programming basics or someone in accounting who could explain howfinancial forecasting works? Maybe someone in HR could teach a session on how to interview better. Personal Development A learn-at-lunch program does not have to be strictly business. Some firms use unterstellung opportunities to offer non-work-related learning opportunities in topics ranging fromwood carving to painting or drawing. Diversity Activities Many firms sponsor diversity teams and councils, and the lunch period is a great time to invite guest speakers or s howcase cross-cultural education. Life Skills Other options for leveraging Learn-at-Lunch programs include focusing on important life skills such as retirement planning, budgeting, or physical fitness. What Learn-At-Lunch Is Not Learn-at-Lunch sessions should only be voluntary. This is not the time toperformtraining thats required either by law or by the company. Dont use Learn-at-Lunch programs for anything that requires you tokeep track of who attends. Itsnot a good time to train employees on serious subjects like ethics or harassment. 15 Ideas to Help Start a Learn-At-Lunch Program Learn-at-Lunch programs have many variations. Here are some suggestions to help you get started. Gain support from your boss, executive, and appropriate menschenfreundlich resources personnel, or training and development professionals.Choose interesting, relevant topics.Tailor topics for different audiences in the workplace.Establish learning objectives for each topic andlunchtime training sess ion.Consider offering light, healthy lunch foods, snacks, and beverages as part of the program.Communicate the schedule in advance.Provide light, advance reading or materials whenever appropriate.Invite employees to submit ideas for work or life-related topics. Encourage employees to consider leading these programs by offering their own skills.Measure participant satisfaction with each session and refine the program as needed based on the feedback you receive.Select a location that supports both training and eating.Consider the needs of remote employees who may wantto attend. Offer optional video or audio conferencing support, and if you include a free lunch for local employees, extend a voucher or offer limited reimbursement for those who work away from the office. Record and make the sessions available for those who areunable to attend.Be sensitive to the reality that many employees appreciate their lunch period as an opportunity to decompress. Strike a balance between your eagern ess to schedule these events and the needs of your employees for time away from their daily jobs.Make attendance optional and focus on content that helps individuals improve their professional skills or an ability to navigate lifes challenges.Be sure to promote the event. That means talking about it, posting up flyers around the office, scheduling it into calendars and sending emails. It wont work well if you dont market your event properly, even to your staff. Benefits of Learn-At-Lunch Programs A learn-at-lunch program provides employees with an interesting alternative to a typical lunch break. These events will grow in popularity ifthe topics are carefully selected. An assortment of programs offers an opportunity to improve employee engagement and involvement in the business in an informal manner. By alternating the types of get-togethers you have you will also appeal to a wider group of employees. For the most part, the trainers enjoy the chance to be in the spotlight. Peop le like to share their expertise and interests with others in the company. Also, employees get a chance to spend time with one another in a non-work environment, something they may not otherwise be able to do. Potential Risks and Pitfalls Mandating participation will reduce interest and enjoyment in these learning events.Your goal is to have some of your employees say to others, Oh, you should have been there Not offering a wide variety of subjects risks boring the participants and reducing involvement over time. Dont forget about the employees in the field. You may potentially alienate valuable professionals if you fail to offer a facility for remote employees. Finally, if you schedule too many of these events, yourisk annoying employees who value their lunch period as a time to get away from their desks and decompress, exercise, or run errands. The Bottom Line Successful organizations invest in supporting employee development. Althoughtraining can be expensive and the impa ct sometimes questionable, Learn-at-Lunch programs offer a non-threatening and fun method for extending learning and stimulating the energy and creativity in the workplace. Updated by Art Petty

3D Printing Blooms in Biomedical

3D Printing Blooms in Biomedical 3D Printing Blooms in Biomedical When American engineer Charles Hull invented the first 3D printer over 30 years ago to create concept models, would he have imagined that someday researchers will use 3D printing for constructing organ scaffolds that are way mora complex?Continued innovation has pushed 3D printing into new realms and has proved how far the technology has come since its invention. From dental products to prosthetics and tissue engineering, 3D printing is also helping address some of todays biomedical challenges.Biomedical applications are ideally suited because they are built on this uniqueness of additive manufacturing, which is the ability to make optimized and customized parts that are very complex, says Hod Lipson, associate professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering and computing and information science at Cornell University and co-author of the book Fabricated The New World of 3D Printing.A recent study by Meticulous Resear ch indicates that the global medical 3D printing market is expected to reach $983.2 million by the year 2020, with major drivers being the widening application, government initiatives to promote research activities in 3D printing, and increased investments. So what will be the next stage of innovation?One of Organovos tissue engineers oversees the construction of a vascular tissue construct. Image OrganovoBioprinting in 3DBioprinting is an emerging technology for fabricating artificial tissue and organ constructs. Extensive research is being conducted in bioprinting and its potential as a future source for organ transplants. It is, however, much simpler to print in plastic than living cells.Unlike traditional 3D printing of plastics and metal where after you finish printing you have your part, with bioprinting its just the beginning. Even after you finish printing there is a long road ahead. You have to incubate the part, simulate its environment its much more complicated, says Pro f. Lipson.Although organ printing is still in early stage of development, San Diego-based biotech firm Organovo has been using bioprinting to create 3D printed tissues for preclinical drug discovery testing and will begin selling its 3D printed human liver models this year.The human liver tissue that we just released could be used for toxicology testing, metabolic testing, and drug-drug interactions, says Michael Renard, executive vice president of commercial operations at Organovo. Besides being a functional tissue in shape and size, one of the characteristic is that the tissue lasts for a number of days and weeks. It affords the ability for drug scientists to do longer duration tests, he adds.In addition to drug discovery testing, says Renard, We also have a group thats beginning to work with tissue designs that could be valuable in the clinic as a therapy to be delivered to patients for a specific unmet medical need. According to him, The goal is to continue to advance tissues of higher complexity and closer to the kind of tissues and organs that we see fully formed in people.Ibrahim T. Ozbolat, assistant professor at the University of Iowas Mechanical and Industrial Engineering Department also has been using a 3D printer to print living structures with bio-ink (watch video). The goal is to eventually print a working organ that can be transplanted into a human.A 3D printed ear, heart valve, and kidney are other organs researchers are currently working on but its hard to match the complexities of real-life human organs. The next stage of innovation in bioprinting, says Lipson, will be in multiple heterogeneous tissue to get closer to printing an actual organ. There are a couple of ideas that have been demonstrated related to vascularity that are promising. The question is how big of a tissue can you keep alive using these approaches and thats yet to be demonstrated, he adds.The Case of CartilageIn 2006, Prof. Lipson and his colleagues at Cornells Creative Ma chines Lab printed a meniscus, the C-shaped piece of human cartilage that cushions the knee and other joints and researchers around the globe are now using 3D printing technology to print living cartilage for patients with knee injuries.More recently, a biomedical engineer and trachea specialist from the University of Michigan were able to create a 3D printed splint that saved a babys life who was born with a rare breathing disorder and researchers at the Feinstein Institute for Medical Research also successfully engineered a 3D printed cartilage to repair tissue damage in the trachea.Although further research is required before 3D printed cartilage is actually used in patients with bone injuries, the technology holds immense promise for orthopedic surgery.Children in Sudan fitted with 3D printed prosthetic arms as part of Project Daniel. Image Not Impossible, LLCDo-it-Yourself ProstheticsProsthetics was one of the first biomedical areas to be revolutionized by 3D printing and conti nues to grow as the technology becomes more democratized, making replacing limbs easier and cheaper.Not long ago, ASME.org featured the RoboHand, a device fabricated on a 3D printer, developed by a South African carpenter Richard Van As and Ivan Owen from Bellevue, WA. Now with easily accessible open source designs, people are 3D printing custom prosthetics for children, adults, and even dogs like Derby, who was recently seen at the 2015 White House Science Fair.The impact of 3D printed prosthetics on the developing world is immeasurable, says Elliot Kotek, co-founder of the non-profit organization Not Impossible, LLC, which uses 3D printing for building low-cost prosthetics for populations with no access to an alternative.3D printed options are providing tools for those whove previously lacked access to workable, affordable, timely solutions, says Kotek, adding that The 3D printed mechanical hands and arms are not, of course, anywhere near the standards of bionics being offered in higher socio-economic environs, but in places where lives are on the line, daily, having rapid prototyping options is a game changer.Learn more about the latest technologies in 3D printing at ASMEs AM3D 2015 in India and Boston.Unlike traditional 3D printing of plastics and metal where after you finish printing you have your part, with bioprinting its just the beginning.Prof. Hod Lipson, Cornell University