We are pleased to share the good news that Environmental Sciences-Biology PhD student Brooke Grubb has received a Smithsonian Fellowship award, and Brooke will be in residence at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC, for the 10-week period from July 1-September 6, 2024. Brooke worked really hard for this award, and we are quite proud of her.
The class toured the Bledsoe Co. Correctional Complex, the main intake facility for the state of TN. Students got to speak with the Warden and correctional staff and toured all areas of the prison. They saw the intake and classification areas, housing of all security levels (from minimum to maximum), the medical facility, cafeteria, and education/programming wings. The highlight of the tour was touring the women’s facility which operates on a nearby “campus” adjacent to the main facility. Throughout the tour, students asked questions pertaining to the daily operation of the prison, what it is like to live in prison, and what it is like to work in prison.
Cory Highway, PhD student, Environmental Science, was awarded the Waterfowl Research Foundation Fellowship from Ducks Unlimited. This prestigious international award recognizes a graduate student who is engaged in research that will provide critical scientific information about waterfowl and wetland conservation. Cory’s research will focus on examining how waterfowl respond to a network of private land rest areas. He works closely with government agencies, private landowners, and NGOs to enhance the impact of his research.
Liezl Laurel, a junior pursuing a double major in Foreign Languages (Spanish) and Computer Science, is the recipient of the 2024 Kurt Eisen Excellence in Liberal Arts Award. This is the highest student award given by the Tennessee Tech College of Arts and Sciences. Ms. Laurel is recognized for her excellence in three vital functions of a liberally educated person: (1) critical thinking; (2) context-consciousness; and (3) communication.
Are you an upcoming SPRING 2024 Graduate who formally participated in the Cooperative Education Program? The Co-op Office is offering a graduation gift to students graduating in the Spring 2024 semester, who were formally enrolled in the Co-op Program, during their entire assignment. If you would like to request your gift, you MUST complete the following form by our May 1 deadline: Spring 2024 Co-op Graduate Gift
You will receive an email notifying you when your gift is ready to be picked up from the Co-op Office.
Congratulations!
Cooperative Education Office
Center for Career Development
The Department of Computer Science welcomes computer science students, alumni and department friends to Celebrate CS April 23, 6:30-8:30 p.m., in Bruner 119. All graduating CS students and alumni present will receive a gift.
“We want to recognize and honor our graduating students as well as reconnect with alumni,” department chair Gerald Gannod, Ph.D., said. “A lot has changed in our growing department over the last few years, and we want to share our successes.”
Highlights include a reception, string quartet, student projects and awards program. Computer science is Tech’s number one undergraduate program by enrollment and has more than 800 students in its undergraduate and graduate programs.
This semester, six Tennessee Tech students interned at the Tennessee General Assembly. Here is what they had to say about the internship: “It was a remarkable experience that I would recommend to anyone to get a first-hand look at how their state government operates.” said Charles Lolas. “My favorite memory was getting to meet Arthur Laffer!” Trudy Langford said, “My time at the Capitol has been a big eyeopener. I’ve realized that you never fully know what to expect. It is something that can’t be replicated in the classroom.” Grace Sloan said, “This has allowed me to connect the information learned in class to real-world situations. It has taught me how impactful state government is.” If you are interested in applying for the Tennessee Legislative Internship Program for spring 2025, email Dr. Harding at lharding@tntech.edu
Dr. Troy Smith of the History Department is the 2024 College of Arts & Sciences Innovative Teaching Award recipient. Dr. Smith is recognized for his Digital Humanities course which is a key part of the Digital Humanities minor. After an introduction to the approaches and tools of digital humanities, students worked as an interdisciplinary team to produce a digital product. They produced an interactive county map of Tennessee that could be used to access statistics and relevant news stories about every death penalty case in the state’s history by location of crime. At the end of the course, the students received Rural Reimagined grant funding to add additional information to the map.
Dr. Brad Cohen of the Biology Department is the recipient of the 2024 College of Arts & Sciences Award for Research and Scholarly Activity. Dr. Cohen is recognized for the paper, “Citizen science reveals waterfowl responses to extreme winter weather” that appeared in the journal Global Change Biology. In that publication, Dr. Cohen’s lab (with his PhD student as lead author) and collaborators from Cornell University, Ducks Unlimited, US Fish and Wildlife Service, and TWRA showed the value of citizen science data for monitoring responses of migratory birds to a polar vortex.
Both undergraduate and graduate students taking Technical Editing this semester collaborated with iFixit as part of a creative-inquiry-enhanced QEP Project. Course professor Dr. Kristin Pickering (kpickering@tntech.edu) guided the students’ participation in the iFixit Project, which involved students in creating and editing replacement guides for a laptop, game controller, and robotic vacuum. These guides contribute to the “right-to-repair” movement and help users repair their own devices, rather than contribute to the growing, global e-waste problem. Students also wrote proposals, troubleshooting guides, and device pages for the Project.