Obama Department of Energy appointee
is SPSU alumna
President Barack Obama announced last week that he has appointed SPSU alumna Dot Harris (’91, Master of Science in technology management) as director of the Office of Minority Economic Impact in the Department of Energy.

Harris is currently president and CEO of Jabo Industries, LLC, a minority woman-owned management consulting firm concentrated primarily in the energy, information technology and healthcare industries. Previously, Harris was an executive at General Electric Company (GE) and held a number of leadership positions in GE’s energy and industrial systems businesses, including global marketing leader for GE's industrial services business.

Harris currently serves as the national secretary for the American Association of Blacks in Energy. She also holds a Bachelor of Science in electrical engineering from the University of South Carolina in Columbia, S.C.

SPSU faculty recognized by ABET
Several SPSU administrators and faculty members were saluted for their contributions to ABET Inc. in the professional technical-education accreditation organization’s recently published Annual Report for Fiscal Year 2009-2010.

Dr. Venu Dasigi, chair of the Department of Computer Science and Software Engineering, and Dr. Han Reichgelt, dean of the School of Computing and Software Engineering, are members of ABET’s Computing Accreditation Commission, which evaluated 113 computing programs at 91 institutions while transitioning to new accreditation criteria during FY 2010. Dr. Dasigi and Dr. Reichgelt represent the Computing Sciences Accreditation Board (CSAB) on the commission. ABET also paid tribute to Dr. Dasigi and Dr. Reichgelt for serving as 2009-2010 team chairs, which are experienced program evaluators who lead campus visits and interact with institutional representatives.

Prof. Tim Zeigler, chair of the Department of Civil Engineering Technology (CET), serves as a member-at-large on the Executive Committee of the Technology Accreditation Commission, which evaluated 171 programs at 69 universities, including 17 programs at four non-U.S. institutions, during FY 2010.

The organization also thanked Prof. Zeigler, Dr. Carlos Ortiz in CET and Dr. Thomas Currin, associate dean of the Division of Engineering, for having served as 2009-2010 program evaluators for the American Society of Civil Engineers, and Dr. Jon Preston, associate professor of Computer Science and coordinator of SPSU’s Computer Game Design and Development Program, and Dr. Becky Rutherfoord, program coordinator of SPSU’s bachelor’s programs in information technology programs, for having served as program evaluators for CSAB.

Watch Atlanta Forward program
To watch the WSB-TV program Atlanta Forward in which SPSU President Lisa A. Rossbacher joined with other Atlanta-area leaders in a discussion of problems and solutions related to education, transportation and water, click on the links below. The segment on education begins about seven minutes into Part II with a look at the Atlanta Public Schools cheating scandal.

Atlanta Forward Part I
Atlanta Forward Part II
Atlanta Forward Part III

Covington student is SPSU’s 1st SunTrust Scholar
The SPSU Foundation has awarded its first SunTrust Scholarship to incoming freshman Brian K. Adams of Covington.

This need-based scholarship made possible by a grant from the SunTrust Foundation through the University System of Georgia Foundation will provide Adams with full tuition plus a stipend to cover additional expenses such as books and fees for the 2011-12 school year.

Adams, who graduated in May from Newton County High School, told Kit Trensch, director of development, that among his reasons for choosing SPSU were the friendly people he met and impressive new facilities he observed during an open house. He plans to study computer engineering at SPSU.

Recent faculty publications
• Dr. Khalid Siddiqi, chair of Construction Management, and graduate student Ezenwa Uzoho had a joint paper published in the Conference Proceedings of Construction in the Twenty-First Century: Construction Challenges in the New Decade. The paper was titled, “Indoor Air Quality Impact on HVAC Costs.” This international conference was jointly organized by the Department of Construction Management at East Carolina University in Greenville, N.C., the faculty of architecture, surveying and planning at the Universiti Technologi Mara in Selangor, Malaysia, and the Department of Construction Management at Florida International University in Miami.

• Dr. Kai Qian, professor of Computer Science, and Daniel Moreau, a graduate student, had a book, “Java Web Development with NetBeans IDE,” published by Linus Publishing in May.

• Dr. Beth Stutzmann, SPSU band director, was featured in the Atlanta Jewish Times in June. The article, “Stutzmann revolutionizes Jewish day school music ed,” highlighted her dissertation work on Jewish day school music education – a topic that has not been researched for 20 years, according to the publication. The article noted that Dr. Stutzmann’s work led to the development of a possible curriculum that existing Jewish day schools could use for the first and fifth grades. Dr. Stutzmann said she will continue to work on curriculum for other grade levels.

• Dr. Gerald J. Pierce, a part-time faculty member in the Department of Social and International Studies, organized a panel presentation for the annual meeting of the Society for Military History, held in Lisle, Ill., in June. Dr. Pierce and two other scholars presented papers on various aspects of military medical history related to the Spanish-American and Philippine-American wars. Dr. Pierce’s topic was a typhoid fever outbreak at Camp George Thomas in Chickamauga, Ga., during the mobilization of U.S. volunteer units for the Spanish-American War. The typhoid outbreak was responsible for about 47 percent of all deaths from typhoid fever in the U.S. Army during the war.

Have news to share?
If your department has an upcoming event or other news to share with the campus community, please send an e-mail with all the pertinent information to Diane Payne (dpayne@spsu.edu). To be considered for use in a specific issue of the SPSU Hornet’s Nest, a news item must be submitted no less than four weeks before the date of the issue.

Volume 4, Issue 29
August 3, 2011