Board Expertise
The Value of Lifetime Learning for Today's Workforce

"Board Expertise" is a new column in FYI Online that shares the expertise of the members of UMUC's Board of Visitors. In the first of our series, Donald Orkand, president and CEO of The Orkand Corporation, shares his thoughts about lifelong learning being absolutely vital, especially in the wake of the September 11 attacks.

Donald Orkand

By Donald Orkand,
The Orkand Corporation
Special to FYI Online

Lifetime learning is a vital ingredient in meeting today's technology challenges. Never before has the need for highly experienced, technologically literate individuals been greater.

Several trends are in play:

• Advances in technology and the management of technology
• Increasing rates of technological change
• Increasing global competition, and
• The growing likelihood of individuals to postpone retirement and work longer.

The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, make it clear that we are facing unprecedented challenges. Money alone won't resolve our issues; working smarter will. The fact is we live in a world of limited resources. To make the most of those resources, we must leverage our intellectual resources. Intellectual revolution precedes technological revolution.

Every day at The Orkand Corporation we meet real-world technology challenges faced in clinical research, biometrics, geographic information systems, and information assurance, to name only a few areas. Within each challenge, experienced, technologically literate individuals with cutting-edge skills are essential to our success.

For example, at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), we have supported testing and clinical trials since 1975. As those technologies have evolved over the past 27 years, so too have the skills of our staff through continuing education and training to keep pace with evolving client needs.

How significant is this action? In 1975, support for cancer research dominated our work at NIH. Our work in that area continues, but today we're also exploring opportunities to deliver pilot programs there focusing on clinical error reduction and on patient safety using access control systems and two-dimensional barcode technology. By continually educating our staff, we are equipped to meet the new demands of security and data integrity at NIH.

Today's work environment requires highly educated individuals who are continually updating their skills to meet real-world challenges and the demands of technological evolution.

These ever-changing technologies enable us to perform important work for our clients. Take national security issues, for example: Orkand has supported a range of programs at the Department of State for nearly a decade, currently helping to ensure the security of America's borders through the use of biometrics—automated methods of recognizing a person based on physical traits such as facial geometry, fingerprints, and retinal characteristics.

We've developed a card containing digitally encrypted biometric information about the cardholder that can be immediately accessed for authentication by simply passing the card through a scanner. This technology is currently being used to authenticate immigrants to the U.S. at the U.S./Mexico border. Biometrics provides a highly secure authentication tool because it draws on data that is practically impossible to borrow or forge.

We've performed important work at the Department of Interior for more than 12 years, including support of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) there since 1995. The basis of GIS lies in digital aerial images of the Earth's surface taken from altitudes as high as space orbit. By linking these images with data, we can model business, ecological, and other events. As such, GIS is an invaluable tool for emergency planning, disaster relief, security, surveillance, and other beneficial outcomes.

Within the federal government, Orkand is performing risk assessments of critical computer and communications infrastructures in civilian and military organizations.

Each of these endeavors requires experienced, highly educated individuals, and programs such as UMUC's are helping enormously to enhance the expertise of experienced individuals already in the workforce. Individuals of this caliber have been a key to our success at Orkand, continue to be so today, and promise to grow increasingly valuable into the future.

You may be familiar with Donald Orkand from our report in March 2002 on his contribution to the UMUC doctoral program. He founded The Orkand Corporation in 1970 to provide information systems and analytical services to a wide range of public- and private-sector clients from across the United States and overseas. Today, The Orkand Corporation—headquartered in Falls Church, Virginia—is a recognized leader in providing mission-critical information technology solutions to federal government clients. With more than 1,100 employees, Orkand operates in more than 200 overseas locations and in client facilities across 20 states in the U.S. The company is the second largest IT service provider to the U.S. Department of State and the third largest to the U.S. Department of Labor.

For more information about the company, call 703-610-4348 or visit the Web site at www.orkand.com.