SPSU hires first university counsel
Alana Kyriakakis will join SPSU this spring as the university’s first in-house counsel. She will start by March 1 and report directly to President Lisa A. Rossbacher.

Kyriakakis is currently a legal advisor at Georgia Regents University (GRU), formerly Georgia Health Sciences University, in Augusta. In this role, she has provided legal advice on the full spectrum of institutional needs, including human resources, faculty and student grievances, policies and procedures, intellectual property, response to allegations of misconduct and discrimination, and contracts. In her new position, she will provide legal support in all areas of instruction and administration at SPSU.

Prior to joining GRU, Kyriakakis had a private practice as an employment litigator, often working with University System of Georgia institutions and other state agencies as a special assistant attorney general (appointed by the attorney general of Georgia).

Kyriakakis earned a bachelor’s degree in communication from the University of Oklahoma in Norman, Okla., with a minor in Greek. She received her law degree from the University of South Carolina in Columbia, S.C., where she earned a number of honors, including serving on the editorial board for the South Carolina Law Review.

Architecture professor saluted for his work by YAF Atlanta
The Young Architects Forum Atlanta (YAF Atlanta), a program of the Atlanta chapter of the American Institute of Architects, has awarded Joseph Choma, an assistant professor at SPSU, the 2013 Emerging Voices Citation for his research and experimentation in architecture.

Choma’s work is on display through March 9 in the Emerging Voices 2013 Exhibition at the Barbara Archer Gallery, 280 Elizabeth Street, NE, Atlanta.

YAF Atlanta awards the Emerging Voices Citation to individuals and firms with a distinct “voice” who demonstrate the potential to influence architecture and design within the Atlanta metropolitan area.

Prof. Choma is the fourth member of the SPSU architecture faculty to have received the Emerging Voices Citation in the last decade; YAF Atlanta recognized Associate Prof. Kathryn Bedette in 2003 and assistant professors Liz Martin and Ed Akins in 2006 and 2008, respectively.

Prof. Choma is a designer and founder of Design Topology Lab, a research platform dedicated to the ontology of space defined by mathematics. He has taught architecture at SPSU since the fall of 2011.

Prof. Choma is writing the first design guide to mathematical transformations, to be published by Laurence King Publishing in early 2014. He completed his graduate studies in design and computation at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and holds a professional degree in architecture from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, N.Y.

SPSU student co-authors paper on network security
Computer science and mathematics major Rashad Tatum co-authored the paper “MHIP: Effective key management for mobile heterogeneous sensor networks” in the January 2013 edition of the International Journal of Network Security.

Tatum was a National Science Foundation participant in the summer 2011 Research Experience for Undergraduates program at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi. His future plans include research in artificial intelligence, computational complexity, quantum computing and algorithms. Tatum is also a student member of the Association of Computing Machinery and the Mathematical Association of America.

The International Journal of Network Security is a major scientific journal composed of original articles, reviews and short communications on scientific technology in networking security.

Recent faculty activities
• Dr. Chih-Chen Hung, professor of computer science, has been named an associate editor in chief for Progress in Intelligent Computing and Applications (PICA), a quarterly journal published by the American and Asian Human and Sciences Research Center.

GEF scholarships awarded to multiple SPSU students
Several SPSU students were awarded scholarships at the Georgia Engineering Foundation (GEF) Scholarship Awards Banquet held recently in Atlanta. The organization awarded 42 scholarships totaling $68,400.

William Nettles, a mechanical engineering major minoring in nuclear engineering, was awarded the GEF Anthony L. Tilmans Memorial Life Member Scholarship.

Joseph A. Andrasko an electrical engineering technology major, was awarded the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Scholarship.

Civil engineering major Peyton Lingle received the Society of American Military Engineers (SAME) Larry Jones Memorial Scholarship and ME major Rachel Stark received the SAME Technology Scholarship.

Additionally, Marian Alicea, civil engineering technology major, was awarded the United Consulting Scholarship.

Chartered in 1971, GEF helps future engineers through philanthropic and educational endeavors related to engineering throughout Georgia. GEF is made up of 14 professional engineering societies and four associate member organizations.

SPSU is Georgia host of Global Game Jam this weekend
SPSU’s Computer Science and Software Engineering department expects to welcome more than 200 people to campus as the Georgia host of a worldwide game design and development event known as Global Game Jam 2013 from 5 p.m., Fri., Jan. 25 through Sun., Jan. 27.

SPSU hosted more than 150 people as the Georgia site of Global Game Jam 2011 (the second largest Global Game Jam site in the United States and eighth largest in the world). The School of Computing and Software Engineering also holds its own gaming events each fall, the most recent of which attracted approximately 250 attendees.

At Game Jam 2013, gaming enthusiasts of various ages and skill levels work around the clock in teams to design and develop games in the space of a weekend. Prizes are awarded for the best and most innovative concepts at the conclusion of the event.

CSE Dean Han Reichgelt said sponsors secured include GreenWave Technology, Area 41 Customs and the Mozilla Foundation.

For more information about Global Game Jam 2013 or to register, click on Global Game Jam

ECET students stage expo of their work
Students in the Electrical and Computer Engineering Technology (ECET) department recently showcased their design-and-build expertise in an Embedded EXPO in the lobby of the Engineering Technology Center.

The expo was part of ECET Prof. Adiamthara Preethy’s undergraduate Embedded Design course. She allowed teams of students to choose between designing an embedded system to aid, monitor or alert disabled or elderly people or designing an automation system to enhance the quality of everyday living.

The products that resulted from this work included:
• the Med-Walker, a vitals monitoring system;
• Smart Vision for the visually disabled;
• a wheelchair-integrated door opener;
• a clothing-integrated vitals monitoring system;
• VAL, a voice-automated lounge; and
• Hot Headz, a vitals monitoring football helmet.

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 6, Issue 3
Jan. 23, 2013