Information Technology

Before sunrise Monday, Kevin and Shelley Taylor set out from their Millersville home to a new employment center for the Maryland Live! Casino, a slots parlor next to the Arundel Mills mall seeking workers for 1,500 jobs. Having tracked the progress of what will be the state's largest casino, the Taylors believe the facility could provide opportunity for their five-member family. Though Kevin Taylor has a job, he wants a better-paying one. And Shelley Taylor has been out of work for several months.

Angry phone calls began pouring into The Sun a few months ago, describing renovations that were taking shape in the Baltimore City school system's information technology department as fit for the executive of a private corporation. Meanwhile, city school officials and advocacy organizations were in the heart of the Maryland General Assembly, passionately pushing a borrowing proposal that would leverage millions for school construction and renovation of the system's decrepit facilities.

The explosive growth of Maryland's high-technology sector should continue this year. However, a shortage of skilled technological workers could be a dark cloud on the industry's otherwise sunny horizon.Vernon Thompson of the state Department of Business and Economic Development (DBED) described high-tech as "the major growth sector for the Maryland economy right now." That growth is fueled largely by information technology companies -- the Internet and software firms that have sprung up over the past decade.

Your article on the "elite" of the Baltimore City school system spending lavishly on their offices at headquarters is really not news ("As school facilities crumble, executive suites get remodeled," April 26). After spending decades as a teacher in BCPSS I watched as not only North Avenue did multiple renovations but as numerous regional offices followed suit. Whenever a new principal arrived at my high school, he got a new paint job and new office furniture. The dance continues.

Aberdeen Proving Ground Federal Credit Union, Harford and Cecil counties' largest credit union, has hired Keith C. O'Neil Jr. the senior vice president of information technology. O'Neil brings more than 14 years of progressive technical and management expertise to APGFCU. As a key member of the executive management team, he will help lead the credit union's information technology efforts to provide world-class member service and drive innovation. He will also be responsible for developing and implementing a strategic technology plan to enable growth consistent with the credit union's mission.

Carol Sholes, director of information systems for Syracuse Newspapers, has been named to head the department that maintains computer technology and software systems at the Baltimore Sun Co. Sholes will take over as vice president of information technology by Jan. 2. She will replace Phil Rugile, who resigned July 28. Sun General Manager John Patinella said Sholes will be in charge of all the computer systems that make the newspaper work, and will take...

Lockheed Martin Corp. will officially open a new office in the Woodlawn area today and is hiring 200 workers to keep up with business from the Social Security Administration, one of its federal clients. The company's expansion of its information technology division has been good for area residents: Most of the 120 people already picked to fill the new jobs - which include database administration and software engineering - just graduated from colleges in Baltimore County. "It's been a very exciting time for us," said Michael Leff, a program director with Lockheed Martin Information Technology.

Lockheed Martin, one of Baltimore County's larger employers, officially opened its sixth facility Monday in Woodlawn and announced plans to add 160 information technology jobs to a work force that exceeds 1,500. The company's Information Systems & Global Services division has refurbished and rewired a nearly 42,000-square-foot brick building on Woodlawn Drive near the Social Security Administration complex. In the past year, the company has hired about 200 employees in its efforts to provide a wide variety of services to SSA, which is continuing modernization efforts.

Sue V. Rosser was aghast earlier this year when, at a private conference she attended with about three dozen others, the president of Harvard University openly questioned the scientific aptitude of women. She was stunned by Lawrence H. Summers' comments. They were based on flawed, 30-year-old data and prepared in advance - not an errant comment made off the cuff, she said. Even more disheartening to her was the effect the publicity, and ensuing controversy, could have on young women thinking of making science, math or engineering their life's work.

Grant Shmelzer knew something had to be done when America Online experienced problems with frustrated customers who had trouble logging on because of the glut of new subscribers this year.Seeing the need for more people trained in cutting-edge computer-based technologies, Shmelzer -- who is executive director of the Odenton-based Independent Electrical Contractors Association-Chesapeake Chapter -- backed an effort by Howard Community College to establish a regional center devoted to information technology training.

A new report being released today calls on the Baltimore region to rethink economic development, pointing to a worrying trend: a mounting share of low-wage jobs shutting more and more residents out of the middle class. The number of jobs in largely low-paying industries such as retail and food service grew more than 60 percent in the region between 1980 and 2007, while jobs increased 36 percent in middle-wage fields and just under 10 percent in high-wage fields, according to the Brookings Institution study.

New furniture, a flat-screen television, decorative light fixtures, interactive white boards — these are among amenities the city school system bought during $500,000 in renovations to the central office, even as administrators decried the state of crumbling school buildings and sought funding to fix them. The biggest project was a $250,000 face lift of an executive suite for the district's chief of information technology, who said the remodeling work was done in part to impress job candidates and repair unsafe conditions.

Steve Poynot , Senior Vice President and Team Leader for Howard Bank, has been selected for the Next Leaders in Banking inaugural roster by the Maryland Bankers Association. Poynot will be honored at the Next Leaders in Banking Awards Breakfast on Oct. 6. The 16 honorees were selected for "demonstrating that they are rising stars in the profession, and whose work helps to put all bankers in a good light. " Lisa Kawata , of Laurel, has joined The Arc of Howard County as Volunteer Coordinator in the Resource Development department.

When Alfred "Freddy" Garner Jr. was growing up, h's father taught him to be the bigger man and walk away from confrontations. That's what relatives and police say the information technology professional from Washington was doing early Sunday when he was followed from a Northeast Baltimore bar and fatally stabbed. "He was getting into his vehicle so he could call his friend, who was still inside," said his sister, Tina Jordan, 45. Garner was one of two people mortally wounded in separate incidents Sunday and pronounced dead Monday, ending a stretch of relative calm in the city, in which only two homicides were recorded over a span of 18 days.

Aberdeen Proving Ground Federal Credit Union, Harford and Cecil counties' largest credit union, has hired Keith C. O'Neil Jr. the senior vice president of information technology. O'Neil brings more than 14 years of progressive technical and management expertise to APGFCU. As a key member of the executive management team, he will help lead the credit union's information technology efforts to provide world-class member service and drive innovation. He will also be responsible for developing and implementing a strategic technology plan to enable growth consistent with the credit union's mission.

  Chris and Stacey Miller   Karen and Wayne Pusey, of Columbia, announce the marriage of their daughter, Stacey Nicole Pusey, to Chris Miller, son of Judith and John Holt, of Edgewater, and Leonard and Lynn Miller, of Brinklow, on May 14, 2011. The bride is a 2003 graduate of Long Reach High School and a 2007 graudate of York College, where she earned a degree in information technology. She is currently employed as an information technology analyst for Constellation Energy in Baltimore.

KnowledgeLink Interactive Inc. of Linthicum is acquiring two of IBM Corp.'s information services. The deal, which will be announced Monday, figures to give year-old KnowledgeLink new prominence in a hot but uncertain field of the information-technology industry.KnowledgeLink is obtaining the assets and licenses of IBM's InfoMarket and Lotus Newsstand.InfoMarket is a research service that scans big commercial databases that are not generally available on the Internet. Newsstand is an online service that offers subscriptions to electronic publications.

Pocket protectors were nowhere to be seen at the Microsoft Skills 2000 job expo yesterday in Baltimore. With about 200 job openings here, and 1,700 from Pittsburgh to Richmond, Va., in Microsoft-related information technology, event organizers stressed that applicants don't have to be an Urkel-like nerd to get the job.Anne Gordon, a program manager at Microsoft, said the company wants to get people excited about information technology and erase industry stereotypes...

Edward Charles "Ned" Wilson III, a retired Aberdeen Proving Ground information technology specialist and former board member of Maryland Life Magazine, died June 17 of prostate cancer at Gilchrist Hospice Care in Towson. He was 64. The son of farmers, Mr. Wilson was born in Baltimore and raised on the family farm in Darlington, where he eventually built a home and spent his entire life. After graduating from McDonogh School in 1964, he earned a bachelor's degree in 1968 in English from Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pa. Drafted into the Army in 1968, Mr. Wilson was sent to Phu Bai, Vietnam, after completing training in preventive medicine at Fort Sam Houston in Texas.