SPSU to confer degree on first female CE graduate
This Saturday, Jessica Nash will become the first female student at SPSU to earn a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering. The degree program is now three years old.

The 22-year-old HOPE Scholar came to SPSU to study architecture, but switched to civil engineering when she “realized that I wanted to learn about what makes things work more from a structural standpoint than from an architectural view.”

As a result of attending a job fair on campus, she recently secured a position at an Atlanta-based engineering firm.

Design competition to transform Building D
Students of architecture, technical communication and media arts joined forces this spring to compete in a campus collaborative design competition to “reimagine” the Mathematics Building (Building D).

In the project led by Prof. Saleh Uddin of the Architecture department and Leslie Hankey, an English, technical communication and media arts (ETCMA) instructor, students were given a week to propose an interior architectural design that would create an open, well-lit and contemporary environment on the first floor of the structure. Building D is one of the original academic buildings on campus and is showing its age with a patched concrete floor, long brick interior hallway, exposed pipes and worn classroom and faculty office doors.

“This collaborative project offered many facets of a real-world one. In particular, the teams worked toward a common goal with people from different backgrounds, on different schedules, with different agendas and all under a tremendous time constraint,” said Hankey.

Six teams comprised of students from Prof. Uddin’s fourth-year studio class and Hankey’s applied graphics class competed to improve the Building D learning environment. They focused on the building’s entry, walls, display cases, doors, stairwells and lighting fixtures.

Vice President for Academic Affairs Dr. Zvi Szafran and Dean of Arts and Sciences Dr. Tom Nelson contributed the $1,000 prize money that was shared by students on the two winning teams.

Taking first place were architecture majors Julian Quinn and Chad Reineke, new media arts major Addison Wilson, and technical communication majors Ruo Ma and Gay Stahr. Their design opened the east end of the Building D corridor into a two-story atrium with a catwalk.

The second-place team of architecture majors Jennifer Arthur and Quetzalcoatl Sierra and technical communication major Haki Atalov developed a design that added light to the west entrance and a wood design to the interior brick wall, that incorporated SPSU colors.

Dr. Rossbacher rated a ‘Most Influential’ Georgian
The 2012 edition of James magazine’s annual list of the “Most Influential” leaders in Georgia once again put SPSU President Lisa A. Rossbacher in the company of luminaries such as Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed, businessmen and philanthropists Bernie Marcus and Arthur Blank and Home Depot CEO Frank Blake.

Derived via a poll jointly conducted by InsiderAdvantage and Fox 5 News, the “Most Influential” magazine feature includes Georgia’s elected statewide leadership and several “young guns,” including Ben Tarbutton, chair of the Board of Regents.

Both James and Georgia Trend magazines have recognized Dr. Rossbacher as an influential Georgian numerous times in the past.

SIS faculty members recognized for contributions to award-winning essay collection
Dr. Bernice Nuhfer-Halten and Dr. Marianne Holdzkom, professor and assistant professor, respectively, in the Social and International Studies (SIS) department, have been recognized for their contributions to a collection of essays called Learning from Mickey, Donald and Walt: Essays on Disney’s Edutainment Films.

The book, published in 2011 and edited by former SIS adjunct professor Bowdoin Van Riper, won the 2012 Ray and Pat Browne Award for Best Edited Collection at a joint annual meeting of the Popular Culture Association and American Culture Association in mid-April.

The organizations praised the book for its quality of research and scholarship, originality and contribution to popular and American studies scholarship.

Dr. Nuhfer-Halten’s chapter, “Beyond the Ratoncito: Disney’s Idea of Latin America,” and Dr. Holdzkom’s chapter, “A Past to Make Us Proud: U.S. History According to Disney,” are part of this comprehensive collection that explores works from the Disney studios meant to educate as well as entertain.

Baseball team headed to Daytona Beach
for NAIA tournament
The Hornets finished their regular season with a 33-21 overall and 17-13 conference record, leading the team to be ranked No. 5 in the Southern States Athletic Conference (SSAC).

This week, the team heads to Daytona Beach, Fla., for the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) 2012 National Baseball Championship. The five-team double-elimination tournament will be held May 10-14 and will feature 45 teams in nine different locations across the country. This is SPSU’s sixth-straight regional appearance.

The Hornets are the No. 4 seed in the Daytona Beach bracket.

Opening-round winners will advance to the NAIA 56th Annual Baseball World Series scheduled May 25 - June 1 in Lewiston, Idaho.

Ranked No. 1 in NAIA Division 1 in total doubles (117), SPSU was 20-10 at home and 11-9 away. The team’s batting average of 0.308 is currently No. 4 in the SSAC.

Student competitions abound in spring
SPSU students competed at a furious pace far and wide this spring.

• The SPSU student chapter of the Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE) earned second place in the first round of the Southern District Traffic Bowl Competition in Lexington, Ky., in April.

Team members Joshua Conrad, David Peters and Nicholas Mullins of civil engineering and civil engineering technology represented the Georgia Section of ITE in the competition. They were advised by Dr. Sung-Hee (Sonny) Kim, assistant professor of civil and construction engineering and director of the SPSU Center for Georgia Aggregates Research.

• Members of the Southern Polytechnic Information Security Association (SPISA) student competition team took part in the Southeast Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition at Kennesaw State University. In this event, the precursor to a national event, students tested their skills in defending computer and network systems and safeguarded a corporate-style network under a sustained attack.

The team, which is partially funded by the SPSU Alumni Association, included co-captains Ruben Hernandez and Christopher Meinert, Chad Long, Innocent Okoyomon, Sarah Pace, Bhavin Patel, Matthew Powell and Troy Collins. Dr. Svetlana Peltsverger, assistant professor of information technology (IT), and Dr. Susan Vande Ven, a lecturer in the IT department, served as the team’s coaches and advisors.

• Two SPSU juniors took part in an annual Convergence Innovation Competition (CIC) at Georgia Tech on April 18, a Google competition that focuses on innovation in the areas of converged services, media, networks and converged client and server platforms and environments.

Software engineering major Christopher Miller created an Android application for the event called Atlanta Commute. The application is intended to help people travel around the metro-Atlanta area more smoothly with full schedules and alerts for buses, trains and shuttles. Computer science major Josh Berry’s entry was a primarily Web-based application for instantly communicating any public-transportation-related question or concern while in transit.

Miller and Berry were advised by Prof. Patricia Roth Pierce, a senior lecturer in the Computer Science and Software Engineering department.

Larry Cloud to participate in summer institute
Residence Life Coordinator Larry Cloud made it through a highly competitive selection process to participate in an intensive four-day professional development opportunity for new housing and residential life professionals this summer.

Cloud will attend the Southeastern Association of Housing Officers’ 2012 Regional Entry Level Institute June 6-9 at Duke University in Durham, N.C., where he will be mentored by veteran professionals in career development, supervision, crisis management, strategic planning and various other topics.

“We are so proud of Larry for this accomplishment. We cannot wait to see what he brings back from this experience,” said Jenny Brown, assistant director of residence life.

Have you registered for the Polytechnic Summit?
It’s not too late to sign up to attend the fourth annual Polytechnic Summit, which SPSU will host June 6-8. The deadline for early registration at a discounted cost of $275 is Fri., May 25. After that, the fee increases to $300. Students may attend free of charge.

The summit is an annual event that brings together faculty members, administrators and students from polytechnic institutions worldwide to explore the unique role that these institutions play in supporting all aspects of society.

On the evening of Thurs., June 7, conference attendees will convene at the Tellus Science Museum in Cartersville for a buffet dinner, followed by full access to the museum’s exhibits and a planetarium show.

A number of SPSU faculty members have submitted abstracts of papers and posters and will participate in workshops and panel discussions. The Polytechnic Summit website has a listing of the more than 40 papers that have been accepted.

To view the schedule, session descriptions and abstracts as well as to register for the event, please visit the website. For help with general questions about the event, send an e-mail to 2012polytechnicsummit@spsu.edu.

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 18
May 9, 2012