Dr. Simin Nasseri honored by SME for her role as student chapter faculty advisor
Dr. Simin Nasseri, an associate professor in the Mechanical Engineering Technology department, was one of three educators nationwide honored recently by the Society of Manufacturing Engineers (SME) for their commitment to the next generation of manufacturing professionals.

The honorees are faculty advisors to student chapters of SME. Dr. Nasseri has served in this capacity since the fall of 2006. All three received SME’s Faculty Advisor Professional Development Award for their service to the organization and their chapters and for advancing manufacturing knowledge and education and the organization’s strategic plan. The monetary award provides professional development support to the recipient.

“Each of this year’s awardees has indicated that their winnings will be shared with their students through the acquisition of more tools and hands-on experience to assist them in the challenging real world,” said Cary J. Rosenberg, chair of the SME Student Relations Committee.

Lt. Belanger nominated for Public Safety Employee Award
The university recently nominated SPSU Police Lt. Jennifer Belanger for the Cobb Chamber of Commerce’s Public Safety Employee of the Year Award.

Lt. Belanger has been with SPSU for one year but has 11 years of service in public safety. She has made efforts to recruit qualified applicants for the SPSU Police Department and – outside her regular responsibilities – assisted the command staff in improving SPSU’s emergency dispatch practices.

“During the majority of this nomination period, Lt. Belanger has been the most productive patrol officer in the department,” said SPSU Police Chief John Bauer. “She has led the way in successful DUI enforcement, detecting illegal drug activity and total number of arrests, as compared to any other officer in the Southern Polytechnic State University Police Department.”

Chief Bauer said Lt. Belanger’s intuition and persistence resulted in a missing runaway juvenile being found after she stopped a vehicle on campus last April for brake light and taillight violations.

Residents, government officials, public safety agencies and business and community leaders were given the opportunity to nominate public safety personnel for the awards. This year the Cobb Chamber received 19 nominations.

As part of its annual Public Safety Appreciation Week, the Cobb Chamber will announce the winner of the Public Safety Employee of the Year Award during its First Monday Breakfast on Oct. 1, at 7:30 a.m. at the Cobb Galleria Centre.

CSE to host 8th Georgia Game Jam Sept. 7-9
Georgia’s gaming enthusiasts will gather once more this fall at SPSU for 48 hours of non-stop fun, creativity and chaos known as Game Jam.

Led by the students and faculty of SPSU’s Computer Game Design and Development (CGDD) program, participants will meet at 5 p.m. Fri., Sept. 7, to learn the theme and constraints they will operate under for the weekend. At the same time, they will form teams of artists, designers and programmers that will each develop an appropriate game. From then until 5 p.m. Sun., Sept. 9, participants are free to brainstorm, create, test and sleep or not sleep as they wish. The weekend will end with a showcase of the best results and the awarding of prizes.

SPSU’s Game Jam has grown from 14 attendees in 2009 to 110 in 2011, according to Jon Preston, an associate professor in the School of Computing and Software Engineering (CSE) who is program coordinator for CGDD. He expects to welcome more than 200 participants this year. The university also served as the Georgia site of the 2011 Global Game Jam, a worldwide event that brought more than 150 attendees to the campus.

The 2012 Georgia Game Jam is sponsored by CSE and the technology consulting firm Arke Systems. Founded in 2005, Arke is an Atlanta-based firm that bridges the gap between marketing and technology for businesses that realize information technology is a catalyst to their long-term success. Recognized as a Microsoft Silver Certified Partner and Sitecore Specialized Partner with two Specialization Certifications, Arke works with more than 100 companies across industries, including franchise business, energy, healthcare, retail, associations and more. For more information, visit www.arke.com.

For more information about the event, go to Georgia Game Jam.

Faculty-staff campaign kicks off Sept. 4
Each year the SPSU Office of Advancement conducts the Faculty-Staff Campaign, using the funds raised to impact the campus directly. Once again, it is time for the SPSU community to join together and show its support of campus programs, teams, initiatives, and most importantly, the students.

Your support of the Faculty-Staff Campaign is important not just for the dollars raised, but for the solidarity your participation represents. External funding organizations often look at participation rates in internal campaigns to determine whether or not to support the university.

Beginning Sept. 4 and continuing through Sept. 28, your pledge of support to SPSU can be made by visiting the Faculty-Staff Campaign web page and downloading the pledge form. You’ll also find a list of various campus departments and activities that you can designate as the recipients if you’d like to direct your gift to a particular area.

This year, the Faculty-Staff Campaign will culminate in SPSU’s first annual PolyDay in October. At the event (which will also celebrate community support for SPSU) the Office of Advancement will award prizes for campaign participation, including the department/office with the highest participation rate, the largest amount raised, the first to reach 100 percent participation and more.

We encourage you all to attend this exciting celebration to show your SPSU pride! For more information on the campaign, contact Development Officer Andrew Schmidt at ext. 7313 or aschmidt@spsu.edu.

Welcome, new faculty members!
SPSU welcomes 20 new faculty members to campus this fall, many of whom have impressive credentials. Below is the second of three installments of faculty bios, provided by the Office of the Vice President for Academic Affairs:

School of Architecture and Construction Management

Durham Crout is an associate professor in the Architecture department. He has a Ph.D. in architectural history, theory and criticism from the University of Pennsylvania. He has taught as an adjunct faculty member at SPSU, and has previously been professor in residence at Clemson University’s Charleston Center, as well as an assistant professor at Clemson. He has also been a practicing architect at Griffeth + Crout Architects and is currently in private practice.

John Jambro is an assistant professor in Construction Management. He has an M.S. in construction management from SPSU and has taught here on a part-time basis for several years. He previously taught construction management at Gwinnett Technical College and ITT Technical College. He also has a considerable amount of industry experience, including with Campus Construction Management Group, Campus CMG/ACS Construction, Skanska USA Building Inc., and The Facility Group.

School of Computing and Software Engineering

Jonathan Lartigue is an assistant professor in Computer Science and Software Engineering (specializing in software engineering). Dr. Latrigue is completing his Ph.D. in computer science and software engineering at Auburn University, and holds a Master of Software Engineering from Auburn. He has industrial experience at SwEng L.L.C and at Raytheon.

Lawrence V. Johnson Library

Erin Grant is a catalog/archives/interlibrary loan librarian. She is in the procss of earning an M.A. in art history from Georgia State University and holds an M.S. in library and information studies from Florida State University.

Jersey Day is Fri., Aug. 31
Do you have a sports team that’s near and dear to your heart? Maybe it’s your alma mater, the Atlanta Braves or the team you grew up rooting for in a different part of the country? The Social and Community Building Committee is giving SPSU faculty and staff a chance to declare their loyalties to the team of their choice on Jersey Day on Fri., Aug. 31.

All are encouraged to sport the colors and gear of their favorite teams on Friday, which is the day before the start of the 2012 college football season.

So get your team jersey or T-shirt ready, and don’t forget those ball caps, hair ribbons and other accessories you’d wear to a game. Go team!

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 32
Aug. 29, 2012