Faculty/Staff News of Note
August 2003
Dr. Daniel Barnard, director of choral ensembles and the Logan Music Series, has been chosen as an American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP) Award recipient this year. The award includes a grant to assist him in his work as a composer.
Bob Nelson, lecturer in MIS and computer science, attended a four-day workshop conducted by the Rational Software Development Company in Maryland July 28-31. The workshop included a hands-on session using Rational's RequisitePro software.
Dr. Boon W. Ong, lecturer in mathematics, has published an article titled "The Homotopy Type of the Symmetric Products of Bouquets of Circles" in the International Journal of Mathematics, April 2003, Vol. 14, No. 5, p. 1-9.
Shannon Sweeney, assistant professor of engineering, gave a presentation titled "Development of a Mechanical Vibrations Course for Engineering Technologists" at the American Society for Engineering Education's 2003 Annual Conference and Exposition in Nashville, Tennessee June 24.
An interdisciplinary team has developed Visualization Assessment and Training (VIZ), a series of Web-based interactive computer activities that can strengthen spatial visualization skills. The VIZ Web site at Penn State Behrend is the national site for the program. Based on the collaborative model established by PsychExperiments at the University of Mississippi, the site permits free sharing of its resources for teaching and research.
The interdisciplinary team includes Dr. Dawn Blasko, associate professor of psychology, Kathy Holliday-Darr, engineering graphics instructor, Derek Mace, assistant professor of psychology, Carla Torgerson, instructional designer, and other faculty in communications and engineering. Blasko and Holliday-Darr have given workshops on VIZ to students and instructors at the college and K-12 levels.
Dr. Ralph M. Ford, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering, was invited to present a seminar to the computer science and electrical engineering faculty at Bucknell University in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, on August 14. The title of the seminar was "Electrical and Computer Engineering Design, and Capstone Projects."
Ruth Pflueger, director of the Learning Resource Center, and Patty Pasky McMahon, director of the Health and Wellness Center, appeared on the Back to School series on WICU television's 10:00 a.m. news show. Pflueger did a live interview on study and learning habits on Monday, August 11, and McMahon did a live interview on immunizations and staying well at college on Tuesday, August 12.
Dr. Clare Porac, professor of psychology, presented a paper titled "Effect of Writing Hand Switches on Nonwriting Handedness Behaviors at the meetings of the American Psychological Association in Toronto, Ontario, August 7-10. The abstract of the paper is published in the journal, The Clinical Neuropsychologist, 2003 Vol. 17 page 93.
Barbara Power, lecturer in mathematics, attended the Mathematics Association of America Summer Short Course: Mathematics for Humanities Students. The course was held at Allegheny College in Meadville, Pennsylvania, June 16-19.
Dr. Peg Thoms, associate professor of management, gave a presentation titled "Ethics Don't Come From Taking Courses" at the Academy of Management in Seattle, Washington, August 5. Dr. Michael Brown, assistant professor of management, also presented. He spoke on "An Empirical Investigation of Developing Leadership Ethics in the Classroom." Thoms also organized a symposium that included Brown and Jeff Miles, of the University of the Pacific, titled "You Can Lead Students to Class, But Can You Make Them Lead Ethically?"
Dr. Dawn Blasko, associate professor of psychology, alumnus Matthew Stevenson, and undergraduates Holly Blasko Drabik, Joshua Rowe, and Linda Kelso traveled to Las Vegas, Nevada, June 16-21 to the annual conference of the Society for Music Perception and Cognition. They presented a paper titled "A Demonstration of Stroop-like Interference with Instrument Timbres."
Dr. Chis Coulston, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering, gave a poster presentation of his paper, co-authored with Dr. Rob Weissbach, assistant professor of electrical engineering technology, titled "Routing Transmission Lines via Steiner Trees." The poster was presented at the Institute for Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) summer meeting in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, July 12-14.
Dr. Anthony Foyle, assistant professor of geology, was interviewed recently by Jeremy Cook of the Scranton Times-Tribune for an upcoming newspaper story on the Archbald Pothole, the main feature of a state park by the same name in eastern Pennsylvania. At approximately forty feet deep, the Archbald Pothole is one of the largest glacial potholes in the world. There is likely another filled-in mega-pothole in the same state park, and Foyle explained how geophysics, including ground-penetrating radar, can be used to locate such underground structures.
Dr. David Hunnicutt, assistant professor of biology, and Dr. Margaret Voss, assistant professor of biology, attended the Council of Undergraduate Research Proposal Writing Institute at the College of Wooster, Wooster, Ohio, July 25-31.
Dr. Chris McNeil, assistant professor of finance, had his paper "Management Turnover in Subsidiaries of Conglomerates Versus Standalone Firms" accepted for publication by the Journal of Financial Economics. The paper is co-authored with Greg Niehaus and Eric Powers of the University of South Carolina.
Cathy Mester, senior lecturer in speech communication, conducted a Faculty Development workshop for the faculty of Delaware Valley College in Doylestown, Pennsylvania in May. About forty faculty members from programs in humanities, social sciences, business, science and agriculture attended the full-day workshop. Instruction focused on the principles and strategies covered in Acting Lessons for Teachers, the book Mester co-authored with Dr. Robert T. Tauber, professor of education (emeritus).
Dr. Boon Wee Ong, lecturer in mathematics, attended the International Conference on Computer, Communication, and Central Technologies (CCT '03). While there he took part in a workshop on Models and Algorithm and Mathematical Computing.
Analytical Chemistry, a journal of the American Chemical society, will feature current research by Dr. Thomas Spudich, assistant professor of chemistry, in the news section of its September 1 edition. The article will include graphics from his paper titled "Potential for Using a Digital Micromirror Device as a Signal Multiplexer in Visible Spectroscopy."
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