Check out the Spring 2012 issue of SPSU Magazine

The SPSU Magazine is the official publication of Southern Polytechnic State University. It is dedicated to providing current university news to alumni, supporters, friends, faculty and staff.

And now it’s greener!

You can read all about SPSU alumnus and race car owner Steve Newey in the Spring 2012 issue of the SPSU Magazine, which is now available online. Also in this issue are articles on the SPSU Rubble House project, the twin brothers who shared top scholar honors at SPSU’s Spring Commencement, newly retired Dean of the School of Architecture and Construction Management Bill Barnes and the first graduates of SPSU’s Bachelor of Science degrees in civil engineering and electrical engineering. So pull up a chair and start turning the pages.

To view the current issue of the magazine, click on the following link: SPSU Magazine Spring 2012

If you would prefer to receive a physical copy of this publication, please e-mail your request to pr@spsu.edu.

Senior capstone project turns robot into bartender
Students in Dr. Chan Ham’s Mechatronics System Design course configured a robot to make and pour mixed drinks as part of their senior capstone project.

Graduating seniors Guy Pouheu and Nickolas Roe, with the help of an intern from Wheeler High School, followed a minimum-success criterion so that the robot bartender made at least two different drinks and served them with no more than 10 percent of the drink lost in transit.

Supervised by lab technician James Hudak, the students used the Mechatronics department’s Kawasaki FS30L robot and designed and built an autonomous liquid dispenser with a sensor that pumped drinks when it detected the glass on the robotic arm.

The students also designed and fabricated a gripper with two jaws that grasped different-shaped bottles. In addition, the students wrote an operating manual for the bartending robot. The project had a final budget of less than $150 and took the entire spring semester to complete.

“The project was very educational and a lot of fun!” said Roe. “It was very beneficial and was one of the main reasons I got the career I have now. In fact, my company is sending me to Detroit to get training in Fanuc robotic arms.”

“Our mechatronics students nicely completed an interesting robotic project where they successfully applied their classroom knowledge to a real industrial robot,” Dr. Ham said.

To see the robot bartender in action, go to YouTube.

Leadership in Department of IT changing hands this summer
Dr. Becky Rutherfoord has been named interim chair of the Department of Information Technology to replace Dr. Ju An (Andy) Wang, who has been named dean of the College of Applied Sciences and Art at Southern Illinois University, Carbondale.

Dr. Wang is the founding director of SPSU’s Center for Information Security Education, which the National Security Agency and the Department of Homeland Security have designated as a national Center for Academic Excellence in Information Assurance Education.

“I would like to thank Andy for his tremendous service to SPSU in general and the School of Computing and Software Engineering in particular,” said Dean Han Reichgelt. “Under his leadership, enrollment in and, more importantly, the number of graduates from our various information technology (IT) programs has grown dramatically. For example, the master’s degree program is now the largest graduate program at SPSU. At the same time, he has also ensured that the quality of our IT programs has further improved, as witnessed by the accreditation of our bachelor’s degree program by the Computing Accreditation Commission of the Accreditation Board for Engineering Technology (ABET).”

Dr. Rutherfoord is SPSU’s associate vice president for Institutional Effectiveness.

The search for a permanent chair will commence in the fall.

Two summer social events planned
President Lisa A. Rossbacher has announced two upcoming events designed to bring SPSU faculty and staff together during the summer, when such opportunities are fewer and farther between.

She has scheduled a Campus Coffee Break (coffee and pastries) for Thurs., July 5, 9-10 a.m. at the Globe in the plaza area between the Student Center and the Administration Building, and an Ice Cream Social on Mon., July 23, 3-4 p.m. in the eXecutive dining room.

Another successful Polytechnic Summit hosted at SPSU
The fourth annual Polytechnic Summit took place at Southern Polytechnic State University June 6-8, bringing together more than 200 students and professors from 18 polytechnic colleges and universities across the United States and beyond (Bahrain, Germany, Mexico and China). 

As part of the conference, projects, reports and presentations on innovations and advancements in technology and polytechnic education were shared. 

“It’s been great to be able to share our experiences, reinforce our polytechnic perspective, and to strengthen both our brand and community,” said SPSU President Dr. Lisa Rossbacher.

The Polytechnic Summit is an event that focuses on the common interests and challenges of polytechnic institutions through various workshops, panel sessions and a poster session.

Next year’s Summit will be held at Wentworth Institute of Technology from June 5-7, 2013 in Boston.

CSE dean to help shape international workshop
Dean of the School of Computing and Software Engineering (CSE) Dr. Han Reichgelt is a member of the Program Committee for the 3rd International Workshop on Combinations of Intelligent Methods and Applications (CIMA). The workshop is being held in conjunction with the 22nd Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers European (IEEE) Conference on Artificial Intelligence from Aug. 27-28 in Montpellier, France.

Dr. Reichgelt is the only U.S. citizen on the Program Committee and among the workshop’s organizers and co-chairs.

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 23
June 20, 2012