University System News:
WTOC
GSU’s interim president saying goodbye, new president taking over Monday
By Dal Canady
Georgia Southern University’s interim president leaves this week after guiding the school for nearly a year. As a new president takes office next week, WTOC sat down with the woman who’s led the school through difficult times and brings us her feelings about the time. Interim president Shelley Nickel hopes she’s done more than just keep the seat warm over the past 10 months. She believes she’s helped guide the university through some difficult times of transition. She says being an interim president alone is not easy, as she served the role elsewhere. As a leader already within the University System of Georgia, she knew plenty about Georgia Southern and Statesboro. However, guiding Georgia Southern as its consolidation with Armstrong State still takes shape meant implementing new policies and plans. She says seeing those state-imposed changes from the other end of the pipeline gave her a new perspective.
Columbus Ledger-Enquirer
CSU violin student hopes winning national award inspires musicians from home country
BY MIKE HASKEY
A Columbus State University music student’s talent and ability, shaped in part by roots grown strong in his native Venezuela, have propelled him to win a national honor. Samuel Vargas, a violin student at CSU’s Schwob School of Music, is one of eleven musicians nationwide selected recently as a winner in the 2019 Yamaha Young Performing Artist Competition. The annual program is conducted by the band and orchestral division of Yamaha Corporation of America and recognizes outstanding young musicians studying in the United States.
WSB
College student out hundreds of dollars over alleged puppy scam
By: Michael Seiden
When a Georgia Tech student lost her father suddenly to a heart attack, she thought getting a new puppy for her and her mother might help them get through the grieving process. “My dad, he died suddenly, like, outside of our home. He was a runner and he had a heart attack,” she said. The student told Channel 2’s Michael Seiden she searched on online for days and finally found a website selling toy poodles. The student, who asked not to be identified, said she spoke to the seller multiple times before finally agreeing to a price. The seller lives in El Paso, Texas. The student agreed to wire him $1,000. An online receipt she gave Channel 2 Action News shows proof of her purchase. She paid the money, but the puppies never arrived.
Athens Banner-Herald
5 UGA faculty as Meigs Professors
By Camie Williams / University of Georgia
Five University of Georgia faculty members have been named Josiah Meigs Distinguished Teaching Professors, the highest university recognition for excellence in instruction. “Our 2019 Meigs Professors represent a range of fields, but they share a commitment to engaging students and challenging them to apply their knowledge in creative and meaningful ways,” said Interim Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost Libby V. Morris, whose office sponsors the award. “They are exemplary educators at a university with a national reputation for offering students extraordinary learning experiences.” …The Meigs Professorship was established to underscore the university’s commitment to excellence in teaching, the value placed on the learning experiences of students and the centrality of instruction to the university’s mission. The award includes a permanent salary increase of $6,000 and a one-year discretionary fund of $1,000.
Claxton Enterprise
Social Media Threat About CHS Prom Initiates Law Enforcement Investigation
A threat, made on Snapchat, was made yesterday concerning the Claxton High School prom. The CHS prom is scheduled for Saturday, March 20, 2019, at Georgia Southern University. The school system is aware of the threat and immediately reported it to the Claxton Police Department. “The Evans County School System has zero tolerance for threatening messages and/or actions,” said Superintendent Marty Waters, “and will seek to prosecute to the fullest extent.” Waters said the following statement was issued through facebook and parent contacts: “The Evans County School System is aware of a recent threat made on social media about prom. An investigation, involving local law enforcement, is underway, and measures have been taken to ensure the safety of all students.” “We have no credible evidence of a threat at this time,” said Claxton Police Chief Dale Kirkland, “but we are treating it as if it were. We are working with the Statesboro and Georgia Southern Police Departments and Snapchat.” Because it is an active investigation, Kirkland did not share specifics about the threat.
WTOC
Multiple agencies investigating threat ahead of Claxton High School’s prom
As Claxton High School prepares for their prom this weekend, they are having to take extra precautions. This week, the school system was notified about a possible prom threat and immediately turned the information over to police to investigate. The Claxton police chief says the threat initially came through Snapchat. It was then screenshot and sent to a student. The screenshot displayed a threat in which the person said would take place at prom this Saturday. “It’s not a joke. Kids do this all the time with copycat and everything else,” said Chief Dale Kirkland, Claxton PD. “It’s not a joke, We take it very seriously, and if we can find out who is doing it, they will be prosecuted.” The police department is investigating the threat and working with Snapchat to try to find out who originally sent the message. The prom is being held on Georgia Southern University’s campus. Chief Kirkland says GSU’s police department and the Statesboro Police Department have been notified about the threat. “We will be there. We will have officers from the Claxton Police Department, Georgia Southern, Statesboro PD will have officers around. …Claxton Police say they will continue to work with the Georgia Southern PD and Statesboro PD to try to get to the bottom of this.
The Chattanoogan
Freightwaves And CO.LAB Announce Selected Schools For Freighttech Innovation Challenge
FreightWaves and CO.LAB have announced the selected teams that will participate in the upcoming FreightTech Innovation Challenge, hosted in Chattanooga, on Friday and Saturday. After receiving 141 individual applications from students representing 24 schools, 51 students from 15 schools were selected. …Students from across the country will represent top supply chain and business programs, including Michigan State University, Purdue University, Georgia Institute of Technology, Iowa State University, University of Georgia, Georgia Southern University, Emory University and University of Puerto Rico at Mayaguez. Regional schools will also be represented, including University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, University of Tennessee at Knoxville, Middle Tennessee State University, Tennessee State University, Dalton State College, Covenant College and Lee University. “The FreightTech Innovation Challenge will be a powerhouse event of innovative thought in our industry that hosts the brightest young minds from across the nation’s most prestigious schools to drive the future of freight,” said Sahej Singh, Business Intelligence & Strategy manager at Reliance Partners, who is one of the sponsors for the event.
MachineDesign
Robot with AR Could Help People with Disabilities
Augmented reality lets people unfamiliar with complex robots make them do complex tasks.
Stephen Mraz
Controls that use augmented reality could help individuals with profound motor impairments operate humanoid robots to feed themselves and perform routine care tasks such as scratching an itch and applying skin lotion, according to researchers at Georgia Institute of Technology. The web-based interface displays a “robot’-eye view” of surroundings to help users interact with the world through the machine and help make sophisticated robots more useful to people without experience operating complex robots. The researchers looked into how “robotic body surrogates” that perform tasks similar to those of humans could improve the quality of life for people with disabilities. “Our results suggest that people with profound motor deficits can improve their quality of life using robotic body surrogates,” says Phillip Grice, a recent Georgia Institute of Technology Ph.D. graduate.
ASME
6 Ways Engineers Heal a Broken Heart
By Nancy S . Giges
To an engineer, the heart is an electromechanical pump that can keep going for 80 or more years without needing a single repair. “I can’t think of any human-made device, be it a valve, a pump or anything, that can do that without breaking down,” said Ajit Yoganathan, associate chair for translational research and director-founder of the Cardiovascular Fluid Mechanics Lab at the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering partnership of Georgia Tech and Emory University. Yoganathan’s work focuses on understanding complex cardiovascular problems using fundamental engineering and science. As he says on his lab’s website: “The main objective of my lab is to provide answers to life-saving clinical questions using engineering approaches.”
Higher Education News:
Forsyth County News
Why some Forsyth County students dread college applications
This article was written by Forsyth Central High School journalism students in partnership with the Forsyth County News.
By Jaeden Amiri-Owens and Baylor Collins
The college application season is regarded by many students as the peak of academic stress. Students compile the various parts of their school careers and gamble on colleges that thousands of others are already vying for. In the words of a Forsyth County student, “I would cry sometimes… I had no one to help me, and there was so much due.” Applying to college has become increasingly competitive and simultaneously more difficult, partially because the process varies by state and college. Although there are certain organizations which attempt to make the process more standardized (such as the Common Application), many students do not choose to use these methods because their target colleges do not accept them or the students feel that they will be valued less.
The Chronicle of Higher Education
What Is the Future of Town-Gown Relations? These Researchers Think They Know
By Lindsay Ellis
Many colleges have boards and initiatives that focus on town-gown relations and research — say, a public-service graduation requirement or a commitment to purchase and hire from neighborhoods around the campus. But few community members actually play roles in leading or shaping those projects, according to a new report analyzing 100 urban college and university partnerships with their cities. That needs to change, argues the “Field Guide for Urban University-Community Partnerships,” published on Wednesday by the University of Virginia’s Thriving Cities Lab. “Despite progress on other fronts, questions of sustaining true community partnership built upon equity, inclusion, and even, in some cases, reparations remain pressing at most institutions and within most communities,” the report says. “It takes more than rhetorical commitments, no matter how well-intended or passionately made.” …There’s a long way to go. Just 16 of the 100 college and universities analyzed include community members on governance boards that guide their community work, the report found. “Repairing broken trust and building reciprocal, local relationships remains a challenge,” it says, “particularly when universities wield significant social and economic power relative to their community partners.” Working with low-income communities, in particular, can become mere “lip service,” Yates said, instead of shared decision making.