BCDA invites local businesses into the Lion's LAIR
(Left to Right) Arvind Karunakaran, Dr. Brian Cameron, Dr. Sandeep Purao and Bette Slayton (BCDA)
In its continuing effort to open the doors of opportunity, BCDA sponsored an information session with the leaders of Penn State's LAIR Project. An ourteach effort of the College of Information Science and Technology, LAIR stands for Leveraging Advanced IT Research.
On hand to Discuss the advantages of the project were LAIR's Dr. Sandeep Purao, Dr. Brian Cameron and Arvind Karunakaran.
The project's goals are as straightforward as they are vital to Bedford County businesses:
1) The research team, working with small and medium-sized businesses in the county, hopes to devlop a deeper understanding of the risks facing those firms when their growth outstrips their technological capabilities - from networking to software - to deal with it.
2) Develop plans to help those same organizations to assess those risks and develop a plan to deal with them.
"There are a number of key questions that you need to address," said Dr. Brian Cameron, as he offered details of the program. "For examoply, will you need additional personnel to maintain your information technology? What are the on going maintenance costs of a new system? What other risks may be involved?"
Cameron went on to point out that while an IT system may not be that bad at the moment, the real issue is how it will handle future growth.
Cameron pointed out that Penn State will build valuable, useful tools to help Bedford County businesses with their IT risks and help them prepare for any future growth.
Cameron further explained that the LAIR project would model itself after the College of Engineering's Learning Factory, which matches senior students with real-world challenges and important problems to solve as well as hands-on experiences within the businesses.
Companies that are interested in participating in the project should contact BCDA @ 623-4816