Aerospace engineering program acquires flight simulator
SPSU has acquired a $41,800 flight simulator that students will use to test and modify their designs in the university’s aerospace engineering (AE) minor program, which provides students with the knowledge and skills needed to design and deploy effective aircraft systems and solve engineering problems related to this process.

Equipped with all the usual gauges and levers that control planes, the simulator can mimic a number of different types of aircraft in various weather conditions, day or night. It sits on a motion platform with actuators that give the pilot a sense of being in flight.

The simulator will be part of the curriculum of the AE minor, which now has 45 students enrolled, compared to just 14 last fall. “Students will load their designs into the computer connected to the simulator, test the efficiency of their aircraft, make modifications and retest them to determine how the modifications affect flight,” explained Dr. Adeel Khalid, assistant professor of systems engineering.

The simulator will be a boon to aerospace engineering education at SPSU, Dr. Khalid noted. “It’s one thing to read about all this in a textbook but quite another thing to get a hands-on education.”

Dr. Khalid invites any students and faculty and staff members interested in seeing and trying out the flight simulator to stop by G-176 on Tuesdays and Thursdays between 12-1 p.m.

Military Appreciation Week in full swing at SPSU
SPSU has scheduled a number of different activities this week that are free and open to the public in observance of Military Appreciation Week.

The observance kicked off on Monday with an opening ceremony featuring World War II Pearl Harbor veteran Bob Kerr and an evening presentation by retired U.S. Marine Corps Maj. Gen. Larry Taylor.

On Tuesday, Jerry Pierce, a member of the Social and International Studies faculty, led the campus in creating a display of flags in the Sycamore Grove as a special thank-you to all military personnel, past and present. That night was Military Appreciation Basketball Night at the Gymnasium, with a tailgate cookout, a color guard ceremony and a presentation by Vietnam veteran and local attorney Cary King preceding the men’s and women’s basketball games.

Today, George “Jay” Veith, a former Army captain and author of several books, will give two presentations. From 8-9 a.m. in J-130, he will focus on his first book, “Code-name Bright Light: The untold story of U.S. POW rescue efforts during the Vietnam War” (1998). And from 12-1 p.m. in the Student Center Ballroom, he will talk about and sign copies of his latest book, “Black April, the fall of South Vietnam, 1973-75” (2012). SPSU’s Active Military Personnel and Veterans Organization (AMPVO) will provide a light lunch during this event.

Thursday’s closing ceremony for Military Appreciation Week is a luncheon that will feature the presentation of the 2012 Military Appreciation Memory Plaque, gifts for the military personnel and veterans among SPSU’s faculty, staff and students and the introduction of military scholarship winners. Several SPSU students who are military personnel and retired U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. John B. Commander Jr. will also discuss their experiences on a panel moderated by Dr. Dan Bradham, U.S. Army Reserve. The luncheon (12-1:30 p.m. in the Student Center Ballroom) is free, but reservations are required (e-mail Dawn Ramsey at dramsey@spsu.edu).

For more information on these events, call ext. 3200.

Two at SPSU honored for philanthropy
The Office of Advancement and the SPSU Foundation once again honored noteworthy donors at this year’s 30th annual National Philanthropy Day luncheon.

This program is an Association of Fundraising Professionals event held at the Georgia Aquarium and presented by Kiwanis International to celebrate philanthropy in the Atlanta area. Development officers Cheryl Martinez and Andy Schmidt served on the steering committee for the event.

Honored during the luncheon for their years of service and support for SPSU were Dr. and Mrs. Alan Gabrielli and Dr. and Mrs. Ron Koger.

Dr. Gabrielli, dean of the School of Arts and Sciences from 2002-11, has given generously to the SPSU Foundation for more than 20 years and continues to work as co-director of SPSUTeach.

Dr. Koger, vice president for Student and Enrollment Services, has donated to the Faculty-Staff Campaign since 1997 and served in numerous roles on campus, including heading up SPSU’s participation in the State Charitable Contributions Campaign for more years than anyone can remember.

Thanks to Dr. Gabrielli and Dr. Koger for being models of philanthropy at SPSU.

Mock presidential debate foreshadowed election
Many hours before the residents of tiny Dixville Notch, N.H., weighed in with their midnight votes in last week’s presidential election, the ballots at SPSU had been tallied and the winner announced. Sixty-nine percent of the 86 votes cast by the audience at the Social and International Studies (SIS) department’s Mock Presidential Debate on Nov. 6 chose President Barack Obama as the victor, foreshadowing the results of the actual presidential election on the following day.

SPSU voters thought Team Obama – Patrick Sumner, a junior political science major; Teya Henry, a junior majoring in international studies; and Origen Monsanto, a senior international studies major – did a better job of handling the questions of fellow students regarding everything from the economy, jobs, the U.S.-China trade deficit and disaster aid to relations with Middle-Eastern countries.

Team Romney was comprised of Frederick Roddy, a senior in international studies; Tyler Maran, a junior political science major; and Erin McGehee, a senior political science major.

Moderating the debate was junior international studies major Meredith Shaddix. Political science professors Tom Rotnem and Carl Snook coordinated the event, which was reported in the Marietta Daily Journal (click here to view article) and on WSB-TV (click here to view video).

SPSUTeach students join annual GPEE bus trip
Two students in the SPSUTeach education program participated in the Georgia Partnership for Excellence in Education’s (GPEE’s) 20th Annual Bus Trip Across Georgia in late October.

Wayne Dunn Jr., a senior majoring in mathematics education, and Samuel Parker, a junior physics major, were among 150-plus education students taking part in two two-day trips around Georgia, visiting elementary, middle and high schools as well as technical colleges in Athens, Cumming, Marietta and Winder, among other towns.

With the theme of “Using technology, creating pathways for student success,” the tour offered students and educators an opportunity to get an inside look at the classroom innovations of educators who have raised their students’ achievements and programs to prepare Georgia’s future workforce.

The tour visited the Marietta Center for Advanced Academics (MCAA), a STEM-focused magnet school for students in grades 3-5, which showcased the Games-for-Learning project, a collaboration between MCAA and SPSU’s Center for Applied Gaming and Media Arts (CAGMA) that is now in its fourth year.

MCAA invited SPSU to paint one of its science labs and brand it with the university’s name in preparation for the GPEE bus tour visit. Dr Jon Preston, CAGMA director and coordinator of the computer game design and development (CGDD) program, and his students Noel Lines, Courtney Bortle, Will Owens, and William Craven donned their best old clothes and decorated an entire wall of the lab.

CM banquet raised $57,000 for scholarships
SPSU’s Construction Management (CM) department raised $57,000 during its recent 11th annual Construction Industry Advisory Board Banquet for scholarships and the advancement of Georgia’s largest accredited construction management program.

More than 200 people participated in the event, which included a silent auction, and $12,000 in scholarships were awarded to CM students.

Scholarship recipients were as follows:

Construction Management Industry
Advisory Board Scholarships
Errin Barnett
Samantha Anselmo
Bonita McMullen
Tahereh Hadidi
Guido Reyes

Atlanta Electrical Contractors Association Scholarship
Brandon Cannon

The Joe Dusek Memorial Scholarship
Guido Reyes

Halloween door decorating contest winners
Several SPSU offices and departments sported spooktacular decorations in the weeks leading up to Halloween. Competition was tooth-and-nail for the annual Halloween Door Contest, according to the Social and Community Building Committee, which fielded 15 entries this year.

Judges – Dr. Zvi Szafran, vice president for Academic Affairs; Dr. Sam Conn, chief information officer; and Steve Kitchen, senior director of Facilities Operations – had a devil of a time deciding which decorated doors best represented creativity, teamwork and the use of recycled materials.

And the winners were:

First place: Biology and Chemistry department (entry shown here);

Second place: Physics department;

Third place: English, Technical Communication and Media Arts department;

Honorable mention: Post Office.

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 43
Nov. 14, 2012