Faculty/Staff News of Note
August 2002
Dr. Paul Becker, assistant professor of mathematics, attended the Mathematics Association of America Annual Meeting in Burlington, Vermont, August 1-3.
Terry Blakney, lecturer in statistics, attended the national meeting of the American Statistical Association in New York City August 10-14.
Dr. Michael Campbell, associate professor of biology, attended a meeting of the American Society of Plant Biologists in Denver, Colorado, August 3-7. While there he hosted a panel on teaching opportunities at primarily undergraduate institutions.
Dr. Mary Chisholm, associate professor of chemistry, Tracy Halmi, lecturer in chemistry, Dr. Alan Jircitano, associate professor of chemistry, and Dr. Martin Kociolek, assistant professor of chemistry, attended the American Chemical Society's 224th National Meeting in Boston, Massachusetts, August 18-22.
Ron DelPorto, lecturer in computer science, and George Dudas, instructor of computer science, attended a workshop on connecting, monitoring, and troubleshooting CISCO Network devices July 8-10.
John Ellenberger, administrative systems analyst in the Computer Center, attended Microsoft training June 17-21at Xitech's corporate training center in Carnegie, Pennsylvania. John said the weeklong course titled Implementing and Supporting Microsoft Windows XP "will greatly improve my ability to support our ongoing project of migrating all administrative staff from Windows 2000 to Windows XP Professional."
Dr. Anthony Foyle, assistant professor of geology, attended three-day radar instrumentation workshop at Sensors and Software, held July 9-13 in Mississauga, Ontario.
J. Andrew George, lecturer in mathematics, and Ann Kraus, senior lecturer in mathematics, were readers for the advanced placement calculus exams June 8-15 in Fort Collins, Colorado.
Ron Hoffman, manager of Network and Information Systems, attended the EDUCAUSE Seminars on Academic Computing at Snowmass, Colorado, August 4-7. The seminar titled Reflection and Reinvention: Learning from the Past and Gaining Wisdom covered numerous topics and best practices in support of academic computing services. The seminar also allowed directors of academic computing services to network and discuss mutual challenges they face supporting academic IT services at their colleges. Dr. Graham Spanier, president of Penn State, presented the conference's opening plenary session titled A President's View of the Future of Information Technology.
Dr. Roger Knacke, professor of physics and astronomy, and director of the School of Science, will speak on Thursday, September 26, at 7:00 p.m. in the Admiral Room in the Blasco Library on "Brightness at Midnight, The Problem of Light Pollution in our Skies." The public is welcome.
Robert Nelson, lecturer in MIS and computer science, attended the 2002 national meeting of the Association for Information Systems held in Dallas, Texas, August 7-11. While there he conducted an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) workshop, which would help attendees prepare for teaching an "Introduction to ERP & Business Processes" course. Attendees experienced hands-on lab exercises using ERP software located at Penn State University to introduce how ERP technology supports core business processes.
Kevin Norton, lecturer in geology, attended the GEOSCI 020 Teaching Seminar at Penn State's Delaware campus August 15-17.
Dr. Clare Porac, professor of psychology, and her colleague, Alan Searleman of St. Lawrence University, recently submitted "Lateral Preference Profiles and Right Shift Attempt Histories of Consistent and Inconsistent Left-handers" for publication. The paper is based on their conference presentation at the meetings of the Canadian Psychological Association in May 2002. Porac also attended the meetings of the American Psychological Association in Chicago, Illinois (August 22-25, 2002) where she presented a paper titled, "Lateral preference patterns and switched left-hand writing." The abstract of this paper presentation is published in the May 2002 issue of the journal, The Clinical Neuropsychologist.
Dr. Michelle Previte, assistant professor of mathematics, attended Mathfest in Burlington, Vermont, July 30-August 3. The conference is part of her Project NEXT Fellowship.
Computer Center staff members Todd Say, lab coordinator, Julie Groner, data analyst, and Ron Hoffman, manager of Network and Information Systems, traveled to University Park on May 16 to attend the Quality Expo held at the Penn Stater Conference Center. Approximately forty Penn State offices and their Quality Improvement Teams displayed exhibits that used information technology to streamline their processes. The newly reorganized Information Technology Services Office (ITS) also staffed a booth that introduced the office to the University community. The Computer Center staff hopes to utilize ideas obtained at the Expo to improve processes within the Behrend College Computer Center.
Dr. Kimberly A. Skarupski, director of research at CORE, was awarded a contract in the amount of $67,513 from Mercyhurst College's education department to evaluate their "Links to the Future-Preparing Tomorrow's Teachers to Use Technology" program. This contract is for the second year of a proposed three-year grant. CORE also conducted the evaluation for year one. The CORE research team will be conducting focus groups, interviews, portfolio and syllabi assessments, classroom observations, and a Web-based survey.
Dr. Peg Thoms, associate professor of management, presented two papers at the 2002 Academy of Management in Denver, Colorado August 9-14. Her papers were titled "The Internet in the Supply Chain: Productive Playfulness or Employee Theft?" and "Challenging Assignments as a Leadership Development Strategy." She also co-chaired the symposium on "Developing Leaders: Practice, Debate, Discussion."
Dr. James Turso and Dr. James Sonnenmeier, assistant professors of mechanical engineering, provided a coaching session for a high school student from Pittsburgh in need of a wind tunnel and some expert advice. After placing in the Engineering Category at the Pittsburgh Regional Science and Engineering Fair, the home-schooled student, Sean Conroy, was chosen to go to the International Science and Engineering Fair held in Louisville, Kentucky. With help from the Behrend professors, Conroy won fourth place in the Engineering Category at the International Fair. Congratulations to Dr. James Turso, assistant professor of mechanical engineering, who received notification from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania last June that he passed the Professional Engineer exam and will receive his certificate as a licensed professional mechanical engineer in September. Professional Engineer (P.E.) is a title given by the state to those who show that they have significant design experience and pass two eight-hour exams. The first eight-hour exam, known as the Fundamentals of Engineering (FE) exam, is usually taken just before graduation from an accredited engineering program (many of our students take it). The second and more difficult Principles and Practice of Engineering (PE) exam can only be taken after the candidate has demonstrated several years of significant design experience as verified by former supervisors and has letters of recommendation from other Professional Engineers that he or she has worked with in the past.
Dr. Blair Tuttle, assistant professor of physics, gave an invited presentation, "Theory of Hydrogen in Silicon Materials," at Sandia National Laboratories' Department of Computational Materials and Molecular Biology on July 24 in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
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