in brief

Faculty/Staff

Bill Nyman, professor of photography and graphic design, had his black and white photographs of the Eastern State Penitentiary in Philadelphia displayed at Gallery 14 in Hopewell, NJ. His photographs rely on textures and tones as he captured the deteriorating rooms of the gloomy and haunting penitentiary.

Karen Clark and Thomas Hagedorn, assistant and associate professors, respectively, of mathematics and statistics, gave invited talks this summer at the American Institute of Mathematics’ workshop. The workshop, “Enhancing the Problem Authoring Capabilities of WeBWorK,” took place in Palo Alto, CA, August 6-10.

Orlando Hernandez, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering, is the academic principal investigator for a research STTR grant that TCNJ received from the Navy with DSCI from Freehold, NJ. The nature of the work entails the development of control algorithms and models for the precision stabilization of a Ball Joint Gimbaled mirror using non-contact imaging methods. These funds include research-level engineering software tools licenses and 320 hours of paid student research assistantships.

Peter Kinal, who works for the College’s Central Utilities Plant, was named as the new assistant chief engineer. In 1994, Peter joined TCNJ with a long history of steam plant operations experience in the private sector.  Since that time, Peter has increasingly developed his leadership and technical skills. Prior to his current position, Peter was an Operating Engineer in our plant, where he participated in equipment replacement, upgrades, capital construction projects, and start-ups.  He was part of the 1996 start-up team of the original cogeneration plant and the 2000 cogeneration up-rate team.

Mark Kiselica, professor of counselor education, recently finished writing a new book entitled Counseling Troubled Boys, which will be published by Routledge. In addition, his book When Boys Become Parents: Adolescent Fatherhood in America will be published by Rutgers University Press. Kiselica is also the editor for a Routledge series of books on Counseling and Psychotherapy with Boys and Men—the only series of books of their kind in the country.

Matthew Winkel, TCNJ’s Webmaster, became second president of The New Jersey HigherEd Webmasters Association (NJHEWA.) NJHEWA is dedicated to providing exceptional professional development opportunities focused on Web site content, technology, policy, and personnel.

Ursula Wolz and Sudhir Nayak, associate professor of computer science and assistant professor of biology, respectively, were attended the Computational Education for Scientists Workshop presented by Microsoft Research Sept 27-28. Rapid advances in computational technologies have dramatically changed the practice of research in both the computing and scientific domains. The workshop provided a unique opportunity to discuss, learn, and influence the development of an interdisciplinary computational education standard. Each professor prepared a position paper addressing the identification of problems in which computation helps students understand key concepts, computational commonalities in education among science disciplines, and educational approaches that differentiate computational thinking from computing. The papers also included, among other things, case studies of computational thinking that address the conceptual difference between scientific abstraction and computing abstraction, the process of turning science abstraction into computer software, and the transformation from observational science to experimental science.

Students

Jennifer Braverman, a senior art education and women’s and gender studies major, wrote, illustrated, and self-publised a coloring book of internationally famous women. Women Coloring the World presents encapsulated stories and ready-to-color images of 45 women from all cultures, walks of life, and fields of endeavor, including Marie Curie, Jane Goodall, Frida Kahlo, Golda Meir, Nawal El Saadawi, and Valentina Tereshkova. Braverman hopes the book will help educate young girls about women of merit. For more information, visit www.jenniferbraverman.com.

Genevieve Faust, senior communication studies and interactive multimedia major, has been selected to receive the 2007 Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH) John Blassingame Prize for her Web site “Liberia's Angel: The Story of MacDella Cooper” (http://liberiasangel.info). Gloria Dickinson, African-American studies professor and chair of the Blassingame Prize Committee, said “the Web site reflects the 21st-century synthesis of scholarship and new media that we want to showcase, and celebrate, as we honor Professor Blassingame’s legacy of innovative 20th-century scholarship.” Faust was invited to attend the 92nd ASALH annual conference, October 3-7, 2007, in Charlotte, NC, where she received a monetary award and presented her work at one of the conference sessions.

The School of Business is sponsoring five students to attend the 17th annual Statewide Hispanic Chamber of Commerce of New Jersey, to be held October 19 on the NJIT campus. The students, all freshmen, will have the opportunity to network with government officials and business people from across the state as well as attend workshops and seminars on various business-related topics. Traveling to the event will be Melissa Flores, international business; Diana Perez, open options business; Sean Devlin, international business; Kristian Gardner, accounting; and Melany Narvaez, chemistry

Senior communication studies major Andrew Pearson won both the student film competition and the Morris Fierberg Student Film Award given by the Rehoboth Beach Independent Film Festival for his 2nd short film Heart Attack. The short narrative tells the story of a collegiate runner whose greatest talent is his worst enemy. He ignores
people who matter most, and when training and heartbreak become too much,
the attack on his heart could become final. Heart Attack was produced as an independent study for Susan Ryan, communication studies department chair.

Lindsey Riesenberger, junior nursing major, will compete at the Miss New Jersey USA 2008 tournament in Parsippany on October 21-22. The mission of the competition is to encourage self-awareness, self-confidence, individual pride, and greater social awareness. The winner of the pageant will compete for the title of Miss USA in November.

Around Campus

TCNJ Library received a $24,417 competitive grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services’ National Leadership Grants for Libraries program. TCNJ will collaborate with the New Jersey Institute of Technology and William Paterson University to plan for the development of a shared, open source ILS (Integrated Library System) to support shared library services and operations. The project team will develop a report that will be presented to VALE (the Virtual Academic Library Environment of New Jersey) as well as made available to other interested parties via a Creative Common License.