Digital Commons Network^™

Dei: Exploring Academic Reflections Using Natural Language Processing To Create A Roadmap Of Student Success And Foster Inclusive Engineering Education, Rajvir H. Vyas, Nidhi Raviprasad

College of Engineering Summer Undergraduate Research Program

Every year, the College of Engineering (CENG) students and faculty reach out to admitted students through “Text-a-Thon” programs to answer their questions about being a student at Cal Poly. In order to improve CENG outreach efforts, we analyzed these text conversations to predict the likelihood of an admitted student accepting an offer of admission from Cal Poly. Through our research, we discovered key factors that play a role in a student committing to Cal Poly through data-based insights. Additionally, we successfully used a human-on-the-loop system to help create Machine Learning (ML) models that predict satisfaction of response by way of …

Sociotechnical Thinking In Statics And Dynamics, Raul Espinoza

College of Engineering Summer Undergraduate Research Program

This project introduced Canvas modules to instill a sociotechnical mindset in engineering students. By emphasizing the synergy between social and technical systems, the modules aim to produce engineers capable of crafting solutions that are technically adept and socially responsible.

Time-Lapse Imaging Of Colorectal Cancer Tumors, Jasmeet Sandhu

College of Engineering Summer Undergraduate Research Program

This project was aimed to test and validate a newly constructed live-cell imaging system that allows for imaging and live cells and tissues. This system is comprised of an incubation chamber that controls that temperature and pH of live cell culture while on a microscope.

Upper Limb Tensegrity Exoskeleton, Emily Mendyke, Sha'anan Levy, Alan Zhang

College of Engineering Summer Undergraduate Research Program

Tensegrity structures are composed of stiff rods and elastic cables suspended in a flexible tension network. Their inherent properties have several key advantages when used in assistive medical devices such as supportive braces or rehabilitation exoskeletons: 1) the lightweight and natural compliance reduces the power consumption required to operate the system; 2) the system stiffness and pretension can be individually tuned to accommodate the user’s needs; and 3) the impact-resistant properties can protect users in the event of collisions and falls. This project explores the design space of assistive tensegrity devices to augment human dexterity in the upper limb. Suitable …

Ai For Search And Rescue - Locating A Missing Person, David Hernandez, Sai Rama Balakrishnan, Timmy Chin, Aditya Manikonda, Vasanth Pugalenthi

College of Engineering Summer Undergraduate Research Program

Building on the work done initially as a SURP 2021 project and continued through 2021-23, the focus for this summer project will be on the use of computer technology for locating a missing person. Over the last year, we developed the digital equivalents of about 30 paper-based S&R forms and the infrastructure to collect the respective information. In their current use, these paper forms are filled out by search teams, collected in a command post, and reviewed by search coordinators. This process is time-consuming, prone to errors and loss of information, and relies heavily on the experience, skills, and mental …

Trustguard: Containment Architecture, Michael Hu, Sophie Russ, Stephen Beard

College of Engineering Summer Undergraduate Research Program

All software security relies on proper execution at the hardware level. This research extends work on containment architectures, which ensure that any ill effects of malicious or buggy hardware are contained within the system. This is accomplished by a small, security hardware component, called the Sentry, validating communication before it leaves the system. This research assesses the advantages and disadvantages of using the CHISEL hardware language, from a security and verification standpoint. Further, this research investigates more efficient Merkle trees to optimization caching within the Sentry chip to improve performance and power utilization.

Disaster Movies And The Perception Of Human Behavior Myths In Disasters, John Carr

Dissertations

This study explored if disaster movies change the perceptions viewers hold regarding human behavior in disasters, and if so, whether these effects are observable six weeks after watching the disaster movie. The study documented the anticipation of disaster myths in human behavior for 121 respondents, providing data that can better inform the discussion of disaster myths and realities. The study found changes to anticipation of disaster myths in human behavior and realities across multiple categories, with statistically significant results related to the factor of Looting Myth. Limitations for this study include a small sample size, and the external influence of …

Itihas Vol. 23 Issue No. 4, Sastra Univ

ITIHAS

NEWSLETTER FROM SASTRA DEEMED UNIVERSITY

Sound Energy Could Change The World, Tyler Bugiel

Op-Eds from ENSC230 Energy and the Environment: Economics and Policies

The energy crisis is a problem that has been growing more concerning for many years, and yet there has not seemed to be a good solution to the problem. That being said, I think that there is a solution that has not been explored thoroughly enough, that solution being sound energy. Solar and wind are both energy systems that use natural resources and things that occur on a day to day basis to convert those things into energy, but sound has not been explored as much.

Contact Point Autumn 2023, Arthur A. Dugoni School Of Dentistry

Contact Point

No abstract provided.

Impulse, Fall 2023, Jill Fier, Micayla Standish, Jerome J. Lohr College Of Engineering

Impulse (Jerome J. Lohr College of Engineering Publication)

2 | Students Thank Sung Shin
4 | Norma Nusz Chandler Never Says Never
6 | Gary Anderson Retires
8 | Three New Endowed Positions
9 | Muthu Endowed Department Head
10 | New Faculty and Staff
14 | Concrete Industry Management Program Online
16 | College Hosts Engineering Conference
17 | Viaflex Supports Research
18 | Lunar Exhibit at Children’s Museum
20 | Break the Ice Challenges
22 | Quarter-Scale Tractor Champions
24 | Nasa Contest Success
26 | Student Compete at Nationals
28 | Culver A Model of Consistency
30 | Engineering Gridders Honored
32 | Liam Murray …

Does Management Education Need A Facelift? The Intersection Of Managing, Leading, And Coaching. Part Iv, Maureen L. Mackenzie Ph.D.

Business: Faculty Presentations

This paper is the fourth in a series of five papers that collectively explore management education and its value to workplace preparation. It is part of a multi-phase research study that was introduced in 2021 and is laser-focused on the growing profession of executive coaching. As business educators who are committed to preparing future leaders for the complexity of the workplace, we must ensure that the curriculum remains cutting-edge and satisfies the professional goals of our students and the needs of the leaders that will become their employers. The premise of integrating coaching as a component of management education, supports …

The Importance Of Humor As A Leadership Skill, Bruce Haller

Business: Faculty Presentations

Humor is an important skill for leaders. This paper examines the underappreciation and underutilization of humor as a tool that studies conclude can improve relationships, decrease stress, and enhance productivity in the workplace. While inappropriate humor such as aggressive humor can have a negative effect, effective use of humor by leaders, supervisors, and subordinates can have multiple positive changes on organizational culture. Understanding what humor is and how it can be implemented as an impactful organizational and leadership tool is the purpose of this scholarship. Leadership is as important for the success of an organization as it is misunderstood and …

Expanding Respite Care Services To Meet Demand And Increase Organizational Competitiveness, Donna M. Iucolano Ph.D., Christopher Mallozzi, Kaylee Fernandez, Robert Mongitore

Business: Faculty Presentations

This paper presents the results of student efforts in an undergraduate Capstone course at Molloy University’s School of Business. During the 14-week Spring 2023 semester, these 12 students worked in small teams to address an opportunity presented by a senior executive of The Viscardi Center, a highly regarded 70-year old nonprofit organization based in Albertson (Long Island), New York. To help executives evaluate whether Viscardi could expand its respite care services, students were asked to conduct: (1) research about competitive respite care services/programs; (2) market research with key stakeholders; and, (3) an analysis of financial viability. Students gave Viscardi the …

Tip Your Hat To Your New Teammate, Gayle O'Keefe, Micah Minarik

Business: Faculty Presentations

As the evolution of human-AI teams (HATs) progresses, it will cause a paradigm shift of previously accepted group dynamic and social exchange principles. Though the broad context of HAT development encompasses three dimensions: job displacement, job augmentation, and job creation, we focus on job augmentation, where AI (Artificial Intelligence) and humans will work best in collaboration. We investigate the impact on theory and implications to practice as the unique challenges and opportunities presented by these new collaborative interactions and exchange dynamics arise.

The Euroweek Experience: Supporting Sustainable Development Through Academic Programs Promoting Student Research, Technology Innovation And The Commercialization Process, Meryl Rosenblatt, Ishita Sharma, Mya Ferreiro

Business: Faculty Presentations

University-based research continues to rely on industry partnerships to help support the innovation, exchange and application of new technologies. At the same time, University R&D has increasingly focused on technologies that support a wide range of environmental, societal and economic Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) launched by the United Nations in 2015. This has put a spotlight on the need to address technology transfer from the university to industry, where the university often lacks the resources needed to assess the feasibility of market adoption of new technologies. Recent literature indicates that there is a role for the international academic community to …

Cultivating Capacity With A Mentoring Guild: Constellations Continued, Tracy W. Smith, Jennifer R. Luetkemeyer, Rachel Wilson, Aftynne E. Cheek, Denise Brewer

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

This article describes the rationale, development process, and initial activities and outcomes of a faculty mentoring guild that engages experienced faculty volunteers in supporting their near peers in navigating their teaching, research, service, and life expectations and obligations. The purposes of this article are to (1) describe the mentoring guild model; (2) provide a research-based rationale for a craft model of faculty support; (3) detail examples of mentoring guild activities, including the benefits and challenges; (4) recount explicit and implicit personal and professional outcomes for mentoring guild members; and (5) offer activities and lessons learned that faculty developers and institutions …

The Role Of Feedback Within Scrum For Engineering Department Operations, Massood Towhidnejad, Omar Ochoa, James J. Pembridge, Radu Babiceanu

Posters

The Scrum framework is built on the principles of inspection and adaptation. Feedback drives the inspection process, and the team adapts based on that feedback to optimize its performance and outcomes. Within engineering departments, Scrum requires departments to examine how and when feedback is obtained to ensure that the department is remaining agile. This poster illustrates the role of feedback within two Scrum teams, one focused on student success and the other focused on faculty rewards and incentives. The two cases emphasize the need for continuous introspection at team and department levels.

Designing For Impact: The Center For Teaching And Learning As A Cultivator Of A Faculty Learner-Leader Praxis, Monica Stitt-Bergh, Debra Fowler, Jonan Phillip Donaldson, Ra'sheedah Richardson, Truth Hunter, Clinton A. Patterson

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

Centers for teaching and learning (CTLs) address external and internal factors that influence teaching and learning. To accomplish this, often without additional resources, CTLs need an efficient and effective solution. By combining evidence-based practices in faculty development and a distillation of effective practices at three different institutions, the authors developed a sustainable, generative, learner-leader model for CTLs and others in faculty development to employ. The model emerged from an analysis of the authors’ collective and independent professional experiences, is grounded in a community of practice framework, and innovatively addresses the need for faculty leadership development. The authors describe the components …

Developing Critical Literacy: An Urgent Goal, Victoria Appatova, Alice Horning

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

Due to the recent changes in higher education, including a major shift to online learning and the reform of education, critical literacy skills of today’s generation of college students face the peril of an increasing decline. All students, developmental and non-developmental in online and face-to-face environments, need the well-organized, systemic effort of college educators to enhance students’ critical literacy, including critical thinking, reading, writing, and research skills taught in an integrated manner. To promote postsecondary critical literacy, the Professional and Organizational Development (POD) Network and centers for teaching and learning (CTLs) can expand collaborations with existing “writing across the curriculum …

Exploring The Impact Of Student-Faculty Partnership Program At A Hispanic Serving Institution, Alyssa Guadalupe Cavazos, Lesley Chapa, Javier Cavazos-Vela

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

Guided by a strength-based framework and counter-storying lens, we use a qualitative case study approach (Cook-Sather, 2020; Cook-Sather and Motz-Storey, 2016; Lechuga-Peña and Lechuga, 2018) to explore students’ and instructors’ experiences with a students as learners and teachers (SaLT) partnership program at a Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI). This study includes five students and five faculty members who participated in the student-faculty partnership program. Data collection involved student partners’ self-assessment reflections and faculty members’ pre- and post-program reflections on their experiences. Several themes were identified following a phenomenological analysis of students’ and faculty partners’ self-reflections. Themes emerging from student participants included …

Designing Programs To Prepare Future Faculty For Academic Careers: Insights From A Longitudinal Case Study Of A Multidisciplinary Cohort-Based Program Model For Doctoral Students, Laura A. Lukes, Lamis M. Ibrahim, Laurence Bray

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

Many universities offer some version of centrally offered professional development opportunities for graduate students seeking academic careers. Less is known about what impact these programs have on student career preparation and success and which design elements are most beneficial to each learner (Diggs et al., 2017; Schram et al., 2017). This article reports on a mixed methods decadal review (2011–2021) of one large, research-intensive institution’s multidisciplinary cohort-based year-long program, Preparing for Academic Careers, for graduate students near the end of their doctoral or master’s of fine arts (MFA) degree. Results from a systematic employment status search using publicly available records …

Correction Notice For "Practical Guidelines For Development Of A University-Wide Faculty Mentorship Program Using A Multimodal Mentoring Network Model" By Matthew G. Schwartz (To Improve The Academy, 2023, Vol. 42, No. 1), Michael S. Palmer, Lindsay Wheeler

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

This corrects the article with doi 10.3998/tia.1370.

Microstructure-Modulated Antibacterial Performance Of Chemically Precipitated Sno2 Nanoparticles, Shatha Batros, Mohammed Ali, Ali Addie

Journal of Applied Sciences and Nanotechnology

Tin oxide (SnO2) nanoparticles were synthesized via a facile chemical precipitation route using tin chloride (SnCl2•2H2O) as precursor and ammonia as precipitant. The as-synthesized nanoparticles were subjected to post-calcination at 300°C, 400°C and 500°C and thoroughly characterized by advanced techniques including X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive x-ray spectroscopy (EDS) and Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy. XRD patterns revealed the formation of a tetragonal SnO2 crystalline phase with average crystallite sizes of 11.9 nm, 13.9 nm, and 17.2 nm for the samples calcined at 300°C, 400°C and 500°C respectively. SEM micrographs demonstrated agglomerated and irregular morphology of …

The Shape Of Consumer Contracts, Andrea J. Boyack

Denver Law Review

Modern consumer contracts are the bane of contract law and theory. Freedom of contract justifications are premised on party autonomy and transactional efficiency, but theories justifying contract enforcement fail to explain why the law should treat company-crafted terms as presumptively binding on consumers. Consumer protection advocates point out that lower thresholds for manifesting assent endorsed by the recent Restatement of the Law of Consumer Contracts may result in consumers being bound to terms of which they were reasonably unaware. Other scholars point out that mere knowledge of company terms and conditions does almost nothing to protect consumers in any case …

Vol. 101, No. 1: Full Issue, Denver Law Review

Denver Law Review

No abstract provided.

Fish & Wildlife News: Fall 2023

Fish and Wildlife News

No abstract provided.

Illuminated Magazine, School Of Graduate Studies, East Tennessee State University

Illuminated: Graduate Student Research Magazine

From The Graduate School; Symptom Clusters in Individual Adults Seeking Treatment for Gambling Disorders, [Blaine Stiglets, PhD, Psychology]; Where are They Now? [Featuring: Morgan Scott]; Predictive Modeling of Heart Disease Using Machine Learning Models, [Aishat Olatunji, MS, Computer Science]; Where are They Now? [Featuring: Jarrett McGill]; Fostering a Community for Graduate Students: Graduate and Professional Student Association (GPSA), [GPSA]; Where are They Now? [Featuring: Keri Blair]; Where are They Now? [Featuring: Cory Howard]; Using EEG To Differentiate Brain Activity for Familiar Stimuli, [Jordan Razzak, PhD, Psychology]; Where are They Now? [Featuring: Brandon Merrit]; Examining Word Recognition Score (WRS) Testing as …

Ex Libris, Fall 2023, West Virginia University Libraries

Ex Libris: The WVU Libraries Magazine

The West Virginia University Libraries magazine, Ex Libris, is produced and printed once a year through the support of library donors.

HUMANITIES CENTER JOINS WVU LIBRARIES Read about the Humanities Center’s highlights during its inaugural year as part of the Libraries.

VAL NIEMAN VISITS HOME The author, retired editor and WVU alumna reminisces about learning journalism from the Old Guard in Martin Hall and working the trade at the Daily Athenaeum. Her story also includes meeting governors and senators, reporting on a prison riot and writing novels.

KITTIE BLAKEMORE PORTRAIT WVU Libraries unveiled a portrait of Virginia “Kittie” Blakemore, the …

Beyond 365 Days: A Retrospective Evaluation Of Trekkers, Sarah Krichels Goan Mpp, Madison Burke

Publications

The Trekkers program in Rockland, ME is a non-profit outdoor-based mentoring program that has served young people in mid-coast Maine since 1994. Its unique long-term mentoring model supports students over six years that begins when they are in 7th grade and continues until they graduate high school. Trekkers’ model focuses on building social, emotional and intellectual resiliency in young people through one-to-one peer mentoring, as well as the use of expeditionary learning, community service and adventure-based education. Trekkers’ programs are designed to provide an ongoing supportive network for young people in the community by connecting them with caring adults while …