From Sophie Gairo:
The School of Natural Sciences has been allocated 5 co-working spaces available to current St. Edward’s University undergraduates for the project period 1 May – 31 August 2016. You may apply using the Google Form here. For more information, write to comp.sci@stedwards.edu. The competition is open through 5 pm on Friday, 22 April, with project selections to be completed by 29 April.
St. Edward’s has been selected as one of 13 winners in the 2016 competition (which included >800 submissions for a success rate of 1.6%!) to create an active learning center using Steelcase classroom furniture, with the classroom transformation (JBWN 206) facilitated by the Steelcase Education Active Learning Center award.
Execution of this grant will be led by Dr. Tricia Shepherd (Chair of Chemistry) and Dean Gary A. Morris of the School of Natural Sciences.
Look for a more detailed press release from St. Edward’s in the near future. In the meantime, you can find the press release from Steelcase on the PR Newswire here. You also can find the announcement of this year’s winners on the Steelcase website as well.
Congratulations to the entire proposal team!
You can now with find our air quality data from JBWS as reported to TCEQ. While we’re not “on the map” yet, you can retrieve all of our data from CAMS1605 – St. Edward’s University at:
http://www.tceq.state.tx.us/cgi-bin/compliance/monops/daily_summary.pl?cams=1605
The met station on the roof of JBWS reports to TCEQ — these are high quality measurements.
We’re also now on Weather Underground – St. Edward’s University Station – KTXAUSTI815:
https://www.wunderground.com/cgi-bin/findweather/getForecast?query=pws:KTXAUSTI815
The meteorological measurements from the WU site are from the cheaper instrument deployed at the ozone garden.
These go along with our live weather cameras:
http://ir.stedwards.edu/images/downtown_current.jpg
http://ir.stedwards.edu/images/sky_current.jpg
and archive at:
http://ir.stedwards.edu/camera/
Thought you might like to know! Please share with others who might have an interest!
Dr. Laura Baker has taught at St. Edward’s University in the Department of Computer Science since 1989 and has been Department Head or Chair from 1997 – 2002 and again continuously since 2008. Dr. Baker was tenured in 2000 and promoted to full professor in 2005. She has twice been selected for the School of Natural Sciences Outstanding Teacher Award (1992 – 1993 and 2000 – 2001) and once as the winner of the St. Edward’s University Excellence in Teaching Award (2001 – 2002).
A published textbook author and active in her professional society, Dr. Baker has supervised more than 60 undergraduate student research projects over her career at St. Edward’s.
Remarkably, since her arrival in 1989, she has been the instructor of record for more than 600 sections sections of courses (Fall, Spring, and Summer) that have enrolled more than 4700 students.
Please join me in congratulating Dr. Laura Baker, this year’s St. Edward’s University Distinguished Career Award winner.
Sincerely,
Gary A. Morris
Dean of Natural Sciences
From Bilal Shebaro:
Gage Martin, Sophie Gairo, and Maria Bisaga with their 1st Place Prize from the AppleTV Hackathon
After nearly completing the Mobile Apps course (COSC 3325) here at St. Edward’s University during the Fall 2015 semester, three computer Science students (Sophie Gairo, Gage Martin, and Maria Bisaga) felt excited to explore different opportunities that would allow them to take the knowledge they learned in class and expand it to new areas of mobile programming. As such, the three students attended the Apple TV Hackathon held at Capital Factory on November 22nd, 2015. This all-day programming event consisted of 11 hours where teams competed to build the best application for the brand new Apple TV. The applications that were built were judged based on their innovative design and how well they were executed.
Sophie, Gage, and Maria decided to create an Apple TV application that would act as a second screen in business establishments, offices, or social settings. To do this, they laid down a framework that would act as a client for WordPress. This framework allowed them to use the WordPress API in order to connect template pages from live WordPress sites. The app interface was very customizable and user friendly.
The students’ intention to participate in the Apple TV Hackathon was purely to increase their skillset and apply knowledge that they gained from their Mobile Apps course they took at St. Edward’s, but in the end they also won the first place for Creativity and Innovation. “As the instructor of this course, I am really proud of the students who took the initiative to go beyond the classroom and applied their knowledge in the most recent trends of mobile computing”, stated Dr. Shebaro. As the winners, the students walked away with a brand-new Apple TV as their prize.
Bioinformatics junior Isavannah Reyes received notification of her acceptance into the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) EXceptional Research Opportunities Program (EXROP). She will work in the Protein Design Lab with Dr. David Baker (University of Washington, Seattle), one of 125 scientist mentors in the program, on a research project this summer as well as visit HHMI headquarters in Chevy Chase, MD (suburban Washington, DC) to present the results of her project.
Last summer, Isavannah participated in the McNair Scholars Program working with Dr. Charles Hauser (Assoc. Prof. of Bioinformatics) on a project she presented at the Texas Academy of Science: RNA-seq Analysis of Phosphate-stressed C. reinhardtii Cells.
Congratulations, Isavannah!
Over the next two days, we’ll have reviewers on campus to evaluate our academic programs in Biology and Chemistry. If you see them around, please make them feel welcome.
Here’s the list of reviewers:
Biology: Robert Swanson (Valparaiso University) and Paula Dehn (Kentucky Weslayan College)
Chemistry: Sunghee Lee (Iona College) and Graham Peaslee (Hope College)
Open forums for all faculty and staff occur as follows:
Biology: Monday, 7 March from 4:30 – 5:30 pm in JBWS 384
Chemistry: Tuesday, 8 March from 9:00 – 10:00 am in JBWS 288
For more information, please contact the NSCI Dean’s Office.
From Jason DeLaRosa:
Join us at 5:15pm for a meet and greet with Larry Shattuck, Director of Admission. You will get to hear all about the School of Pharmacy and any opportunities specifically for St. Edward’s University students, directly from the Director of Admissions! This is a great opportunity for anyone that is still open to Pharmacy as a potential career path!
For more info, contact Jason DeLaRosa.
Please note that this opportunity does not come with any endorsement from the School of Natural Sciences at St. Edward’s University. Feel free to contact nscidean with questions.
From the AESS Listserve:
Announcing two extraordinary summer field courses in Wyoming taught by faculty from the University of Pittsburgh, the University of Wyoming, the Carnegie Museum of Natural History, and The National Aviary. The courses are open to all majors and have no prerequisites. One course is headquartered adjacent to Yellowstone National Park and provides one month of studies (four credits) of geology, ecology, and environmental politics of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem on spectacular daily hikes in the park and Beartooth Mountains: http://www.honorscollege.pitt.edu/yellowstone-field-study/more-information The other course is situated in the Laramie Basin on the Allen L. Cook Spring Creek Preserve, a tract of land that is rich in dinosaur fossils, intact prairie ecology, Native American artifacts spanning 9,000 years, and American history including a section of the original grade of the 1869 Transcontinental Railroad. Its six weeks of studies (six credits) focus on geology, paleontology, and ecology, with small sections in archaeology and Western history: http://www.honorscollege.pitt.edu/wyoming-field-studies A cost of approximately $4,500 for each course covers all expenses including tuition, food, lodging, transportation, camping, hiking, and multiple faculty experts. Admission is on a rolling basis, and time is short. All interested students should please contact me.
—
Edward L. McCord, Ph.D., J.D.
Director of Special Programs and Senior Lecturer
University Honors College
University of Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh, PA 15260
412-624-6886 (office)
Congratulations to Dr. Tricia Shepherd, Professor and Chair of Chemistry, on her selection as one of the inaugural winners of the Early Career Teaching Award from the POGIL Project! You can find the details of the story here. We’re proud of our NSCI faculty and their dedication to undergraduate education!