SPSU maintains top status in annual report
For the fifth year in a row, SPSU has been recognized as the number one school for conferring bachelor’s degrees in engineering technology to African-American males. The ranking comes from a recent report issued by the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE). Also in the report, SPSU was noted for having the second largest engineering technology program in the country. The annual ASEE report profiles engineering and engineering technology colleges across the country.

SPSU co-sponsors Polytechnic Summit
SPSU, along with seven other polytechnic universities, helped coordinate the second national Polytechnic Summit at the University of Wisconsin-Stout earlier this month. The goal of the summit is to help polytechnic universities share information about their strengths and practices. Last year's summit was also held at UW-Stout, where the focus was on making polytechnic universities the model for collaborative research and leading the way for higher education change.

SPSU representatives served on the the Polytechnic Summit steering committee and presented during this year's conference.  
Other polytechnic colleges that partnered  to coordinate the event included UW-Stout, Arizona State University, Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo, Rochester Institute of Technology, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology and USF Polytechnic.

SPSU will host next year's Polytechnic Summit on campus in July 2011.

Professors elected to roles within engineering education society
At the American Society of Engineering Education Southeastern Section Conference (ASEE-SE) held at the Virginia Institute of Technology in April, Prof. Brent Jenkins of Electrical and Computer Engineering Technology (ECET) was selected President-Elect of the ASEE-SE and Dr. Tom Fallon, also of ECET, was elected Secretary of the Research Division. Congratulations to both Prof. Jenkins and Dr. Fallon for representing SPSU in the engineering education community.

2010 Cobb Educational Consortium leadership academy
This fall, Dr. Orlando Karam, Computer Science and Software Engineering Department; Sylvia Carson, Public Relations; and Kellie Blosser, Athletics and Recreation Sports, will join the two-year Cobb Educational Consortium (CEC) Leadership Academy as SPSU’s representatives.

The CEC brings together public educational organizations in Cobb County to improve the educational experience of all students from primary through tertiary education.

This year’s SPSU representatives join Beth Haynie, Computing and Software Engineering; Prof. Glenn Allen, Division of Engineering; and Dr. Terry Carter, English, Technical Communication and Media Arts, who will be completing their second year of the program in 2011.

Faculty attends and presents at annual conference
Drs. Austin Asgill, Walter Thain, Tom Fallon and Prof. Brent Jenkins of Electrical and Computer Engineering Technology attended the 2010 American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) National Conference and Exposition in Louisville, Ky., last month. Dr. Asgill served as paper reviewer and moderator for both the Engineering Technology Division and the Minorities in Engineering Division for the conference.

Dr. Thain moderated a session and presented a paper titled, “On the use of virtualization for router network simulation.” The paper was co-authored by Dr. Tom Fallon and incorporated the results of honors’ student Tianyi Li’s capstone research.

Prof. Jenkins presented two papers at the conference, “Innovative content in a new circuit analysis course,” and “A circuits course for mechatronics engineering.”

SPSU staff works on advisory board and presents in China
David Stone, educational and online learning director, recently served on the editorial advisory board for the book, “Technology integration in higher education: social and organizational aspects,” which will be published by IGI Global in 2010.

Additionally, two of his presentation proposals at Linyi Normal University in the Shandong Province of China for the 2010 Fellowship program were reviewed and selected for inclusion by The Society of International Chinese in Education Technology (SICET). The presentations discuss the challenges of offering online programs at universities in the U.S. and strategies to increase capabilities for online learning.

CSE faculty to teach development courses in Jamaica
Drs. Han Reichgelt, Patrick Bobbie, Venu Dasigi and Orlando Karam from the School of Computing and Software Engineering will be traveling to Jamaica from Aug. 9-20 to teach development courses at the University of Technology in Kingston. The courses will be two weeks long and provide professional information regarding a number of topics such as: Unix and Linux, wireless communication, search engines and SQL/Oracle.

SPSU nuclear power generation director presents at national training seminar
Tony Sideris, director of the SPSU Center for Nuclear Power Generation, attended the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) Nuclear Training Seminar in Bethesda, Md., last month. While there, he gave two presentations, one on preoperational-startup testing and another on nuclear power plant fire protection.

Both topics are addressed in the SPSU-NPG Center construction and startup courses to be offered again in fall 2010. A recent $200,000 grant from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission will make these courses available to qualified students for free.

Volume 3, Issue 15
July 28, 2010