SPSU to host Regional Future City Competition this Saturday
The university will once again host the Georgia Regional National Engineers Week Future City Competition for approximately 350 sixth-, seventh- and eighth-grade students in the region this Saturday, Jan. 22. The event will be held in the Student Center Ballroom from 7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

Teams of students from a number of Georgia middle schools will present and defend a city of the future they have designed in Sim City and brought to life via a scale model. Their presentations will be evaluated by a panel of engineers to determine which team will advance to the national competition in Washington, D.C.

The students were also required to submit a well-researched essay of up to 1,000 words on this year's theme: “Providing a reliable and effective health care product that effectively improves the quality of life and comfort for a patient who is either a senior citizen or has a specific disease or is suffering from an illness or physical disability.” They had to specify how their chosen product or technology would be used to improve the lives of residents of their future cities.

Kit Trensch new chair Cobb Executive Women
SPSU Director of Development Kit Trensch began a one-year term as chairwoman of Cobb Executive Women (CEW) this month.

CEW was formed in 1984 and is dedicated to the promotion and encouragement of women in executive leadership. Membership is open to members of the Cobb Chamber of Commerce who are business owners, executive management, elected and appointed officials or executives in professional occupations.

State's Global Game Jam to be held at SPSU
From Jan. 28 to Jan. 30, SPSU will be the host site in Georgia for the Global Game Jam 2011, sponsored by the International Game Developers Association (IGDA). During a game jam, participants have 48 hours to design a digital or non-digital game around a theme provided at the start of the event. Teams work around the clock throughout the weekend, balancing creativity with time management, collaboration and game production skills.

SPSU was one of several Georgia host sites for the Global Game Jam 2010 – which attracted a total of 4,300 game enthusiasts worldwide – and the university regularly hosts local game jams. Thanks to the efforts of Dr. Jon Preston and Dr. Jeff Chastine, associate professors in SPSU’s degree program in computer game design and development, the university has stepped up its efforts by becoming the only host site in Georgia for the Global Game Jam 2011.

The event will take place in SPSU’s Recreation and Wellness Center from 5 p.m. Friday to 5 p.m. Sunday. At the conclusion of the jam, projects from all Global Game Jam host sites will be uploaded to the IGDA Global Game Jam website (www.globalgamejam.org), where they will be archived for anyone to play.

For more information, contact Dr. Han Reichgelt, dean of the School of Computing and Software Engineering, at hreichge@spsu.edu.

SPSU hosts LEGO robotics competition
An estimated 300-400 youths, parents and mentors from metro Atlanta and North Georgia converged on SPSU on Sat., Jan. 8, to participate in the FIRST LEGO League (FLL) Super Regional competition.

Teams of youths spent the day in the SPSU gymnasium, building, testing and programming robots (using LEGO MINDSTORMS robot sets) to create innovative solutions to the designated issue of food safety. School of Engineering Technology and Management Dean Jeff Ray, a member of the Georgia FIRST Executive Advisory Board, was on hand throughout the day as the event's host.

FIRST – an acronym: For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology – is a charitable organization that joined with the educational division of toymaker LEGO 11 years ago to create the FIRST LEGO League, a robotics program designed to excite children aged 9-14 about science and technology and to teach them valuable employment and life skills. The program is now global in scope, with teams from more than 55 countries competing.

SPSU bids fond farewell to Julie Scala
SPSU’s campus nurse, Julie Scala, last week left the campus she has worked at for 17 years to take a job with the WellStar Health System (details to come). Many of her co-workers and campus friends gathered at the Recreation and Wellness Center on Jan. 7 to wish her well in the next phase of her career.

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) and we will consider it for a future issue of the SPSU Hornet's Nest.

Volume 4, Issue 1
January 19, 2011