SPSU student team makes final cut for upcoming national competition
A nine-student team from the Construction Management Department competed against 26 other teams from across the nation and was selected in January as one of four finalists in the Mechanical Contractors Association of America (MCAA) Student Chapter Competition.

SPSU’s team bested students from Purdue University, Northwestern University, Virginia Tech, Colorado State University, Kansas State University, and the Pennsylvania State University to make the finals for the first time. Led by their advisor, Prof. Maureen Weidner, the SPSU students will compete against the Milwaukee School of Engineering, Illinois State University and California State University, Sacramento, for the top prize of $5,000 at the MCAA National Convention on March 19 in Orlando, Fla.

The journey to the final stage of the competition began in early October at the 2011 MCAA Student Chapter Summit in San Francisco, where chapters were invited to prepare and submit a proposal to retrofit a historic San Francisco building into the Asian Art Museum. Teams were also required to prepare a bid for a post-construction service-and-maintenance package on the building.

SPSU students worked diligently in preparing their submission, which was due in mid-December. At a meeting in early January, MCAA judges chose the four best-scoring proposals. The finalists will deliver oral presentations on their submissions at the national convention.  

The members of the SPSU MCAA Competition Team are: Trent Anderson (captain), Sean Barden, Daniel Epps, Billy Hancock, Larnell Jewell, Brian Nelson, Eric Pagan, Tyrone Sheffield and Charles Wall.

For more information about the competition, check the MCAA website

Black History Month events at SPSU
SPSU is proud to be a part of the celebration of Black History Month in February. Antonio Sample, a member of the Talented Tenth and chair of the SPSU chapter of the National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE), said that one of the goals for this year’s student-led celebration was to encourage a “sense of community and inclusion.”

Several student organizations will join with the Black History Month Committee in hosting events throughout the month. All students and faculty and staff members are encouraged to participate. Some of the events include:

• Feb. 1 – a campus visit by the Sankofa African-American Museum on Wheels hosted by the Student Life Office, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., ETC Gallery;
• Feb. 2 – African-American authors readings hosted by the Career and Counseling Center, 10:30 a.m. to 1 p.m., J Building Lobby;
• Feb. 8 – Members of the Talented Tenth will be stationed around campus sharing facts about African-American culture and history, 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.;
• Feb. 9 – Black History Trivia (Jeopardy-style) hosted by the Talented Tenth, 7:30-8:30 p.m., Student Center Theater;
• Feb. 15 – “Painting Our History” an interactive art exhibit hosted by Delta Sigma Theta sorority, all day, Student Center Lobby;
• Feb. 16 – Presentation/discussion on sickle cell anemia by Beverly Sinclair from The Sickle Cell Foundation of Georgia hosted by Phi Beta Sigma fraternity from 12-2 p.m., Student Center;
• Feb. 21 – Morehouse College civil engineering major Isaiah Brown will talk about black engineers and leadership in the technical fields, hosted by NSBE, 7 p.m., Student Center;
• Feb. 22 – “Where has the Civil Rights Movement Gone?” keynote address by activist, poet and author Kevin Powell, 7 p.m., Student Center Theater.

In addition, various other events will be hosted by student organizations such as Kappa Alpha Psi and Omega Psi Phi. NSBE, along with the Society for Women Engineers (SWE), plans to place posters around campus with facts about the six founders of NSBE.

For more information about Black History Month, check the Student Life website.

Siemens invests in SPSU to support production of mechatronics engineers
To support SPSU’s efforts to answer the increasing industry demand for trained mechatronics professionals, Siemens Automation has provided the Mechatronics Engineering Department with a $225,000 grant for undergraduate education and donated approximately $250,000 in laboratory equipment.

The equipment donation includes a plastic injection molding system, nine manufacturing automation training systems and SIMATIC Step7 automation and control software tools for the SPSU Computer-Integrated Manufacturing Laboratory.

Prof. Emeritus Glenn Allen noted that this is the most recent instance in which Siemens has supported high-tech education through SPSU. The company has been a sponsor and booster of the annual Georgia BEST (Boosting Engineering, Science and Technology) high school competitions hosted by SPSU.

“Siemens is the kind of responsible company that recognizes the impact of education in the science and technology fields on our state’s and our nation’s economies,” said Prof. Allen.

Another mechatronics professor, Erhan Ilksoy, noted that, thanks to Siemens’ set-up assistance, in-class presentations and instructor training, the donated lab equipment made a smooth transition into the Engineering Technology Center. “This was a great example of industry-university collaboration,” he said.

SPSU Police launch Civilian Safety Awareness Program
In an effort to improve safety on and off campus, two members of the SPSU Police Department recently were certified as instructors in a Civilian Safety Awareness Program (CSAP) and will be providing the program’s potentially life-saving training for all students, faculty and staff. This personal safety program is designed to raise awareness and reduce participants’ chances of becoming crime victims.

The three-hour training course is $30, which covers the cost of all course materials. The class includes training on how to legally carry and use personal-defensive pepper spray on the SPSU campus.

The first CSAP classes will be held on Mon., Feb. 13. Anyone interested may sign up to attend either the 3-6 p.m. or the 6-9 p.m. class. The size of each class will be limited to 24 participants. In addition to safety tips and self-defense techniques, participants will learn how to protect themselves legally and provide useful information to police when an incident occurs. They’ll leave the program with a training manual and a cannister of pepper spray.

Register now and increase your personal safety awareness with the help of members of the SPSU Police Department. Contact Jennifer Ashman (jashman@spsu.edu, ext. 5555).

Recent faculty publications
• Dr. M.A. Karim, assistant professor of civil and construction engineering, coauthored a paper, “Effect of the Secondary Electrode Configuration in Removing Metal Contaminants from Soils by the CEHIXM Process,” that appeared in the international journal Soil and Sediment Contaminants in late 2011.

SPSU instructor to show work in Marietta gallery
Ava Werner, an SPSU instructor in new media arts, will have mixed-media paintings in an art show that opens on Fri., Feb. 3, at the 2 Rules Fine Art Gallery, 85 Church Street, just off the Marietta Square.

The opening reception for the group show “Love and Commercialism” will be held 6-9 p.m. on Feb. 3, and the exhibit will be on display through Feb. 24.

Men’s basketball team No. 3 in NAIA
The Running Hornets have climbed to No. 3 in the NAIA’s Top 25 Coaches Poll with a 17-3 record as of this week. The team’s only losses have been to Southeastern University (Fla.) and Atlanta’s Carver Bible College in November and No. 1 ranked Shorter University in January.

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 5, Issue 4
Feb. 1, 2012