Thomas Bickford, Director
Tom has a bachelors degree in Biology from the University of Maine and a masters
degree in biomedical engineering from the University of North Carolina. He first
began his teaching career in 1984 at a middle school in Maine. Since that time he
has taught at the middle and high school levels and at the college level.
Following his return to UNC in the 1990s, Tom went to work at the University of Texas
Health Science Center in San Antonio as the Assistant Director for Telemedicine.
While there the department grew the number of hospitals and clinics being served in
South Texas by the department to almost 3 times the number in just 3 years. The
department grew from 5 people to 22 people in that time. Tom was responsible for
"pushing the limit of new technology" as the Health Science Center reached to the
area. South Texas is an area the same size as Maine, but with over 6 million
inhabitants, many well below the poverty limit. By implementing telemedicine it was
possible to provide health care to people in areas under served by any medical
system at all.
While at UNC Tom built the world's first ATM (asynchronous transfer mode) based
telemedicine unit in the world. The UNC hospital, Siler City hospital, Duke hospital,
and two other rural hospitals all shared access to a high-speed ATM network for use
with video-over-the-web, digital radiology, and file sharing. All things we take for
granted in 2006, but that were only available at the time by careful design and
integration of specialty equipment in 1995. For more information check out the
website at www.bme.unc.edu/telemed/index.html.
Tom returned to Maine in 2000 to take on the position of Executive Director for the
Agent Institute at the University of Maine. Between 2000 and 2004 he implemented a
number of programs including the educational outreach programs now run by Maine
Robotics as well as organizing the Learners, Laptops, and Powerful Ideas conference
that brought in key players from around the world involved in the
computers-in-the-classroom movement.
Since 2004 Tom has been the President and Director of Maine Robotics, a 501(c)(3)
non-profit corporation designed to foster and promote educational opportunities in
Maine for the sciences, math, and computers.
Tom lives and works in Orono with his family and hopes to finish his Ph.D. one of
these years.
bickford@mainerobotics.org
(updated 09/08/2006)
Tom has a bachelors degree in Biology from the University of Maine and a masters
degree in biomedical engineering from the University of North Carolina. He first
began his teaching career in 1984 at a middle school in Maine. Since that time he
has taught at the middle and high school levels and at the college level.
Following his return to UNC in the 1990s, Tom went to work at the University of Texas
Health Science Center in San Antonio as the Assistant Director for Telemedicine.
While there the department grew the number of hospitals and clinics being served in
South Texas by the department to almost 3 times the number in just 3 years. The
department grew from 5 people to 22 people in that time. Tom was responsible for
"pushing the limit of new technology" as the Health Science Center reached to the
area. South Texas is an area the same size as Maine, but with over 6 million
inhabitants, many well below the poverty limit. By implementing telemedicine it was
possible to provide health care to people in areas under served by any medical
system at all.
While at UNC Tom built the world's first ATM (asynchronous transfer mode) based
telemedicine unit in the world. The UNC hospital, Siler City hospital, Duke hospital,
and two other rural hospitals all shared access to a high-speed ATM network for use
with video-over-the-web, digital radiology, and file sharing. All things we take for
granted in 2006, but that were only available at the time by careful design and
integration of specialty equipment in 1995. For more information check out the
website at www.bme.unc.edu/telemed/index.html.
Tom returned to Maine in 2000 to take on the position of Executive Director for the
Agent Institute at the University of Maine. Between 2000 and 2004 he implemented a
number of programs including the educational outreach programs now run by Maine
Robotics as well as organizing the Learners, Laptops, and Powerful Ideas conference
that brought in key players from around the world involved in the
computers-in-the-classroom movement.
Since 2004 Tom has been the President and Director of Maine Robotics, a 501(c)(3)
non-profit corporation designed to foster and promote educational opportunities in
Maine for the sciences, math, and computers.
Tom lives and works in Orono with his family and hopes to finish his Ph.D. one of
these years.
bickford@mainerobotics.org
(updated 09/08/2006)
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