SPSU soccer’s perfect season ends with regular season title

The SPSU Hornets’ soccer team ended the regular season undefeated, with a record of 12-0-1. A 1-0 victory last month against conference opponent, Southern Wesleyan University, sealed the Southern States Athletic Conference (SSAC) Regular Season Championship for the Hornets.

The team secured their number four ranking on the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics’ Top 25 Coaches' Poll during the last week of October.

The Hornets have been ranked number one in the SSAC the entire season. In addition, the team is on a 17-game winning streak, extending back to last season.

STEM mini-grant awardees
SPSU is pleased to announce the faculty awardees of several mini-grants sponsored by the Board of Regents through the University System of Georgia's STEM Initiative Program for 2009-10.

Awards up to $5,000 were offered to initiate STEM learning communities between SPSU and area K-12 schools. In addition, as a result of the Board of Regents’ MATH + SCIENCE = SUCCESS Initiative, the University of Georgia Office of STEM Education awarded $10,000 in mini-grants to support research projects aimed at improving instruction and enhancing the success of students taking STEM courses.

Twenty-one researchers responded to the RFPs and the award committee was hard pressed to select the best proposals. A few of the proposals were combined to form a collaborative effort. The selections have been made and are as follows:

Grants for Improving Instruction and Enhancing Student Success
Lu Kang, BCP - “Creation of an Interactive Teaching and Learning Environment in Large Enrollment STEM Lectures by Using In-Class Student Response System.” (Total $10,000)

Jennifer Vandenbussche, Math - “Engaging Students in Hybrid Lecture/Workshop Course Offerings in College Algebra and Pre-Calculus” (Total $10,000)

Andy Wang, IT/CSE - “Improve Hands-On Learning Experience for Online IT Courses Through a Remote Lab.” (Total $10,000)

Combined 10K Grants  
Shangrong Deng, Math - “Enhancing Student's Homework Practice in STEM Education with Online WebWork” and Larry Wang, Math - “Integrating Technology in Learning and Teaching Mathematics.” (Total $15,000)

Briana Morrison, CSWE - “In Depth Assessment of Using Games as a Context for Learning Programming,” and Jon Preston, CSWE - “Games for Learning to Improve Instruction to Enhance  Student Success in STEM.” (Total $15,000)

Phase I of 10K award
Wei Zhou, BCP - “Animated Pre-lab Presentation and Pre-lab Self Testing for Entry Level College Chemistry (CHEM 1211 & CHEM 1212).”  (Total $5,000)

Learning Community Grants
Sarah Holliday, Math - “Saturday Math Explorations for High School Students.” Partnership with Osborne High School and Kell High School. (Total  $5,000)

Jon Preston, CSWE - “Oceanography, Economics and Tech Fair.” Partnership with Marietta Center for Advanced Economics. (Total $5,000)

Laura Ritter, Math - “To Develop and Implement Strategies to Increase Student Majors and Baccalaureate degrees in Mathematics, Sciences and Engineering.” Partnership with Pope High School and Lassiter High School. (Total  $5,000)

Consolidated Project Learning Community Grant
Andy Wang, IT/CSWE, CSE - “ Building a Community for Computer Science, Information Technology, Software Engineering, and Mathematics.” Partnership with Walton High School, Pope High School, Wheeler High School and Dickerson Middle School. (Total $15,000)

Peltsverger wins best paper award
Dr. Svetlana Peltsverger, assistant professor in the Information Technology department, won a best paper award for her paper “Incorporating Current Events into Information Assurance Curriculum,” which she co-authored with her student C. Teat. The paper was presented at the Sixth Annual Conference on Information Security Curriculum Development at Kennesaw State University, Sept. 25 - 26.

SPSU professor conducts research in Korea
Dr. Sung-Hee Kim, assistant professor in the Division of Engineering and director of the Civil Engineering program, recently completed consulting work for the Korean Ministry of Construction and Transportation in Gwacheon City, South Korea as part of the ongoing research on the pavement management system. The pavement management system utilizes the condition coding of roadways coupled with the identification of strategies to determine maintenance or re-construction activities.

Dr. Kim’s consulting work focused on finding optimum repair section areas without causing any traffic congestion, resulting in a significant amount of maintenance budget savings.

SPSU professor lectures in China
Prof. Robert Thacker, professor of Business Administration and director of Business and Technology Integration, recently lectured at Guangxi Normal University in China. His lectures focused on the topic of business integration and sustainable energy.

Guangxi’s dean of the School of Economics and Management, Zhi-song Luo, expressed their university’s deep appreciation for Prof. Thacker’s lectures and insights.

Exploring partnerships with central asian universities
Dr. Faruk Gursoy, representative of International Black Sea University (IBSU), Tbilisi, Georgia visited SPSU earlier this month.

Dr. Gursoy's visit, facilitated by Dr. Fatih Oncul, assistant professor in the Civil Engineering Technology department, explored potential collaboration opportunities between the two universities.

IBSU has shown great interest in starting a joint Construction Management program in Tbilisi and would welcome the opportunity to host representatives from SPSU.

This meeting was a follow-up to Dr. Serif Ali Tekalan’s visit to campus in May 2009. Dr. Tekalan is the president of the Association of International Universities, of which IBSU is a member.

Faculty publications
Once again, several faculty and staff members have published and presented their research.

Kuo, B.-C., C.-S. Huang, H.-C. Liu, and C.-C. Hung. “A Fuzzy Fusion Algorithm to Combine Multiple Classifiers.” The 2009 IEEE International Geoscience & Remote Sensing Symposium, Cape Town, South Africa (CD), July 2009.

Kuo, B.-C., C.-H. Chuang, C.-S. Huang, and C. C. Hung. “A Nonparametric Contextual Classification Based on Markov Random Fields.” The First Workshop on Hyperspectral Image and Signal Processing: Evolution in Remote Sensing (Whispers), Aug. 26-28, 2009, Grenoble, France (CD).

Rutherfoord, R and H. Reichgelt. “Creating a 2+2 Information Technology Degree Program: The Bachelor of Applied Science in Information Technology.” Association for Computing Machinery's Special Interest Group for Information Technology Education, Fairfax, Va., Oct. 22-24, 2009.

Construction Management fundraiser brings in over $50,000
Regent Richard Tucker of the University System of Georgia's Board of Regents was the featured guest speaker at the Construction Management Fundraising Dinner last month. The dinner, hosted by the SPSU Construction Advisory Board, raised more than $50,000. The money will be used for helping graduates transition into the industry, supporting student competitions and faculty research, and funding scholarships for construction management students.

Second annual Soup Cook-off
The second annual Soup Cook-off was a huge success. Drs. Zvi Szafran, Ron Dempsey and Alan Gabrielli had their bowls full judging the competition. With over a dozen tasty choices entered in the cook-off, choosing a winner was difficult, but Jennie Vitty-Rogers’ “Fare from the Heartbreak Hotel” took first prize. Bobby Burk’s “Chicken Rock and Roll” and Dr. Rajnish Singh’s “Thai Medley” took second and third place, respectively. Honorable mentions went to Pierrette Maillet, Chantelle McGinness and Dr. Julie Newell.

Volume 2, Issue 22
November 11, 2009