University of Advancing Technology's Official Technology Blog

Dear UAT Students and soon-to-be Graduates,

Summer 2025 is just about here, and many new things are happening at UAT that I want to share as you wind down the current term.

A signature event for UAT is the upcoming commencement on Friday, May 9, to be held at the Scottsdale Center for the Arts. Each year, UAT's commencement celebrates our culture and the accomplishments of our remarkable technology graduates. Commencement begins at 2:00p, and you want to get there early for seats. If you can't attend in person, there will be a live YouTube stream where family and friends can also take part. You can find details for commencement and the stream viewing link at https://www.uat.edu/commencement.

During commencement, two remarkable honorary doctorate recipients will address our community. The first is Serhii Kaminskyi, the CEO and Founder of SorbiForce. This truly innovative company builds 100% sustainable commercial batteries with zero environmental impact and are entirely biodegradable. Sorbiforce batteries are a clean power storage solution with uses ranging from buses to offices to wind and hydroelectric plants. UAT's second honorary doctorate recipient is astronaut Kellie Gerardi, the 90th female astronaut in human history. Gerardi has been a payload specialist on Virgin Galactic research missions and uses her experiences to advocate for all things STEM. She inspires the imagination and brings more women to think about tech as a career. Gerardi's work is a living version of the notion that gathering more perspectives and talents when solving problems leads to better solutions for more people. 

As students, you want to connect with these tech leaders. With this in mind, I hope you will join us for a community lunch meet-and-greet with Serhii Kaminskyi at UAT on Thursday, May 8, from 12:00p to 1:30p. Open to all students, watch for Eventbrite details so you can join in.  

Next, for those on campus, summer months will greet you with rebuilds of the kitchen in Founders Hall and the Computing Commons. There will be a few weeks when the Founder's kitchen will be in demolition and rebuild mode. Once we are on the other side, residents will experience a refreshed cooking space that allows them to cook side-by-side. Renderings of the new kitchen will be on display during construction so you can begin thinking about your future culinary creations. The Computing Commons renovation, set to be complete in July, will bring an updated living/working environment for students to collaborate on projects, solo study, hang out with friends, or all of the above. The technology you're used to will still be there, now with the addition of some new functional (and fun) furniture.

Creating great ways to approach tech learning has always been a part of UAT's culture. Since UAT's beginnings, we have inquired, updated, and evolved our learning model alongside changes in technologies and culture. During the summer of 2025, UAT online students will be introduced to the next step in how learning happens at our university. Starting with the May 2025 semester and continuing fully in June, online students will begin to see a 7.5-week format replace 5-week courses on their schedules. The trigger for this change came from online student feedback asking for more time to work on courses. You also asked for ways to graduate more quickly. Students learning in UAT's new hybrid-online model will have two weekly live class sessions. They can attend them physically on campus, virtually through Microsoft Teams, or by watching the recording at your convenience. Hybrid-online students can take 1-2 classes every 7.5 weeks to accelerate towards graduation. Giving more calendar time to each class while allowing students to study more topics at once, puts you in a better place to absorb and succeed while completing degrees faster. I have taught in all UAT modalities and like the 7.5-week format best. It finds the right balance of time to explore, learn, and create while keeping progress toward the real goal on pace. With the richness of experiences made available with UAT's learning technologies, my experience has been that students in 7.5 weeks learn and complete at very high rates. I am excited for our online students to experience it. Online students have been receiving messages about the change and talking with their student and financial aid advisors to prepare. If you have not yet done so, check in with your advisors to be sure you have worked through all your questions.

For the entire UAT community, the move to online hybrid is the first look at a future of learning that isn't so much defined by your location (on campus or online) but by your learning style and preferred cadence. Let us know what you think. 

To close things out, UAT recently underwent our 10-year evaluation from our accrediting agency, the Higher Learning Commission (HLC). Although final announcements from HLC regarding the visit are a few weeks away, I can share with you that the team was beyond impressed with UAT, its mission, how it is lived daily in our classrooms, and student experiences. Our HLC peers loved interacting with UAT students and described you as creative, engaged, and caring reflections of excellent technology builders. 

Wrap up your final projects, join us at commencement, and enjoy your brief break. We will see you back on May 13 for an excellent summer!  

Dr. David B. Bolman, Provost