SSU School of Science & Technology - 08-09 Faculty & Staff Accomplishments

SST 2008-2009 Faculty & Staff Accomplishments

Collaborations Across Schools and Library
Engineering Science:
- Collaborating with Business & Economics to initiate joint graduate and undergraduate programs
- Collaboration with Extended Ed and CSUPERB (programmatic)proposal with Dr. B. Ravikumar, Dept of CS, SSU for development of bioengineering course
- Writing proposal with Dr. Claudia Luke, Director of Preserve, SSU for NSF MRI proposal
Kinesiology:
- Two of Ellen Carlton’s KIN grad students will be the first to be part of the Library's new digital access project
Physics and Astronomy:
- Physics and Astronomy hosted the "From Earth to the Universe" exhibit in the library during March - April 2009, as part of the International Year of Astronomy. NASA/EPO also sponsored a special public lecture by UC Berkeley Alex Filippenko in the Warren Auditorium on April 5, 2009, in partnership with the Department of Physics & Astronomy, as part of the "100 Hours of Astronomy" weekend.
Community Service
Science and Technology:
- Combined the FOP and GWP preserves organizations into the new SSU Field Stations and nature preserves and hired a new Director (Dr. Claudia Luke) to establish research & community education programs at SSU’s preserves
- Launched the second year of the successful STEM Summer High School Internship program, which is a collaborative project between S&T and Sonoma County Office of Education (SCOE)
Biology:
- Michael Cohen hosted college-bound Marin School seniors with tour of Biology Department facilities and Farfield Osborn Preserve
- Michael Cohen’s collaborative project with the City of Santa Rosa earned three community service awards
- Stephanie Thibault (instructional support technician) directed two graduate students at two elementary schools in Sonoma County for a lesson in squid dissection.
Computer Science:
- MESA program established at SSU with the help of the CSU Engineering Academies funds and Dr. Lynn Stauffer (CS Chair) was appointed as the SSU MESA Program Director
Engineering Science:
- Under the leadership of Dr. Jagan Agrawal (ES Chair) an MOU was signed between SSU and Sri Jayachamarajenda College of Engineering (India) with the goal of developing a collaborative and student exchange program.
- Farid Farahmand Started the first Internet Radio for the Department.
- Farid Farahmand Launched a new Lab-on-Demand program – allowing remote users to logon and complete experiments.
- Mohammad Haider initiated CALPERS Outreach program with Dr. Shally Saraf, Dept of ES, SSU in collaboration with the Sonoma County high schools.
- Shally Saraf Organized "Engineers Day" for local high schools to spark interest in pursuing a career in science and technology. Special experimental setups in were designed to allow students to tinker with optics and electronics hardware.
Kinesiology:
- Jody Perry, an instructor in the Kinesiology Department who teaches the KIN 101 activity classes in Self Defense and Beginning Judo, offered a free AWARE 3-hour basic self-defense Program seminar for women.
Nursing:
- Carole Heath (Nursing) volunteered at the Medical Clinic in Honduras at San Pedro Sula, Honduras.
Physics & Astronomy:
- Dr. Hongtao Shi continued to serve on the board of the Asian Scholarship Fund Committee, and is now the Chair of this committee.
- Profs. Shi, Severson and Qualls all participated in mentoring high school summer interns during the Summer 2008. Profs. Shi and Qualls continue to participate in this program during Summer 2009.
- Dr. Severson ran the Public Viewing Nights at the Sonoma State University Observatory, eight scheduled night sky viewings with student and public attendance in the range of 50-100 persons per night. Dr. Severson also presented a night-sky viewing and public talk about SSU student-research at the Michel-Schlumberger winery.
- Dr. Qualls provided a series of six science lectures and demo shows to a local elementary school.
- Education & Public Outreach (EPO) and NASA:
  - Kamal Prasad continued our after-school club at Roseland University Prep, which became an official MESA high school chapter this year. We started two after-school clubs at Cali Calmecac, one for students in grades 1-3, and the other for grades 4-6. Each after-school club met once per week during the academic year. Dr. Ellie Galvez-Hard served as advisor to the clubs at Cali, overseeing the work by student teachers from SSU's School of Education and NASA staff members Kevin John and Logan Hill.
  - SSU's NASA-sponsored robotic telescope ("GORT") was featured at three sessions of Thursday "Nightlife" at the California Academy of Sciences. The first was during the IYA 100 Hours of Astronomy event over April 2 - 5. The second was as part of the Yuri's Night party hosted at the Academy and cosponsored by NASA Ames Research Center. Dr. Kevin McLin also operated GORT at Nightlife on April 30, when the theme at the Academy was robots.
University Service
Science and Technology:
- 36 S&T faculty participate in SSU faculty governance activities
- Wanda Boda (Kinesiology) actively participated on the SOAR planning committee
- Dean Rahimi Chaired the SSU Student Retention Task Force
- Dean Rahimi continued to serve the university as a member of the SSU Foundation Board and its Finance Committee
Kinesiology:
- Wanda Boda:
  - Academic Senator- 1997 to present, including time on the executive committee
  - SAEM Enrollment Management Council- 2009
  - SAEM Strategic Planning Committee-2009
  - Faculty Coordinator Univ 102 (First Year Experience) and Univ 238 Leadership
    - (Serve as Department Chair for these programs) – 2001- present
    Kinesiology Graduate Coordinator-2008-present
  - Grad Council-2008-present
  - Sophomore Year Experience Planning Committee (Fall, 2008)
  - SOAR Planning committee-current
  - SOAR Faculty coordinator-2001-present
  Ellen Carlton:
  - Served on two tenure track search committees
  - Served as chair of School of S&T RTP committee
  - Serve on Faculty Rights Community of the California Faculty Association
Physics & Astronomy:
- Dr. Scott Severson served as a faculty member of the Campus Planning Committee and as a member of the School of Science and Technology Travel Grant committee.
- Dr. Qualls serves on three committees including University Standards Subcommittee, Faculty Hearing Panel, General Education Subcommittee committee. Dr. Qualls served as an advisor during summer orientation (SOAR).
- Dr. Shi served on University committees including the Structure and Functions, Faculty Hearing Panel, and Radiation Safety.
- Education & Public Outreach (EPO) and NASA:
  - Working together with SSU MESA, the NASA E/PO co-hosted an Agilent-funded Robotics Workshop for local high-school students, on May 8-9, 2009. About 50 students attended from Roseland University Prep, Windsor and Healdsburg high schools, hearing keynote lectures by Kamal Prasad and retired Stanford Professor Bob Twiggs, and learning how to build and control VEX robots.
  - NASA/EPO also began a mentoring/tutoring program for Roseland University Prep grads at SSU, in partnership with EOP and LSS. Dr. Galvez-Hard and Kamal Prasad took the lead on organizing this effort, which started during Spring 2009 and is being formalized during the upcoming AY.
  - NASA/EPO also began a mentoring/tutoring program for Roseland University Prep grads at SSU, in partnership with EOP and LSS. Dr. Galvez-Hard and Kamal Prasad took the lead on organizing this effort, which started during Spring 2009 and is being formalized during the upcoming AY.
Conferences
Biology:
- Karina Nielsen (Biology) organized the Intn’l Temperate Reef Symposium, Adelaide, Australia
Chemistry:
- Jon Fukuto (Chemistry) attended the Nitric Oxide Conference in Lucca, Italy
Computer Science:
- Suzanne Rivoire (CS) attended the ISCA/ACM and IEEE conference in Austin, TX
Engineering Science:
- Farid Farahmand (ES) participated in Sustainable Enterprise conference Rohnert Park and attended ASEE conference in June, Austin TX
- Mohammad Haider (ES) attended IEEE Annual Symposium in May, Tampa, FL
- Shally Saraf (ES) attended the LIGO Science Collaborative meeting in Arcadia, CA
Geology:
- Matt James (Geology) participated in the 100th anniversary of the 1908 Galapogos Research Expedition
- Matt Mookerjee (Geology) attended Geol Soc of Am meeting, Houston, TX
Kinesiology:
- Ellen Carlton (Kinesiology) attended Olympic Conference in Beijing, China, and attended West Soc. of PE for College Women, Pacific Grove, CA
- Wanda Boda (Kinesiology) attended the Am College of Sports Medicine in Seattle
- Elaine McHugh (Kinesiology) attended the West Soc PE College Women in Pacific Grove, and also attended the Adapted PE Coordinators meeting in Pacific Grove
- Steven Winter (Kinesiology) attended the Far West Athletic Trainers Symp, San Diego
Mathematics:
- Cora Neal attended Calif Math Council, Pacific Grove, CA
- Scott Nickleach, Jean Bee Chan, and Cora Neal (Mathematics & Statistics) attended Joint Math meeting in Washington DC
- Jean Bee Chan (Math & Stat) attended the Math Fest in Madison WI
Nursing:
- Jeanette Koshar (Nursing) attended the Nat Org Nurs Practitioners in Portland, and attened the Calif Assoc of Nurs Practitioners in Sacramento
Physics & Astronomy:
- Dr. Scott Severson attended two conferences during this period, the New physics and astronomy Faculty Workshop held at the American Center for Physics in College Park, Maryland , and the summer 2009 meeting of the American Astronomical Society held in Pasadena, California.
- Dr, Qualls was a speaker and a program organizer for the Annual Pacific Coast AAAS Summer 2009 conference.
- Education & Public Outreach (EPO) and NASA:
  - The NASA E/PO group also took their exhibit booth to California Science Teacher’s Association meeting in San Jose in October 30- November 1, 2008, and did two workshops for teachers. Other conferences supported by the group included the National After-school Association meeting in New Orleans in April 2009, and the American Astronomical Society meetings in Long Beach in January 2009 and in Pasadena in June 2009.
Grants
Science and Technology:
- More than 20 S&T faculty and their external collaborators are preparing five different major grant proposals requesting more than $4.5 million in a competitive process made available by the Federal stimulus package funds.
- Keck Microanalysis laboratory received new Scanning Electron Microscope through a grant from Medtronic corporation.
Biology:
- Nathan Rank received NSF grant for Collaborative Research: RUI: Ecological and evolutionary responses to environmental change in Sierra Nevada populations of a montane willow beetle - $370,115 for five years.
- Dan Crocker received grant on his Sea Lion physiology studies.
- Biology grad student, Catherine Hare received a Switzer Environmental Fellowship Award.
- Michael Cohen received three grants for the Wastewater to Fuel project and one grant for Strawberry Disease Control studies.
Engineering Science:
- Shally Saraf initiated LIGO (Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory) project funded by NSF "Big Physics" experiment.
Kinesiology:
- Wanda Boda received IRA funding to equip the Kinsiology Fitness Center for disability and aging populations fitness development - $ 25,150.
Mathematics & Statistics:
- ENLIST grant for innovative development of Math 165 Statistics
Nursing:
- Nursing Department received $100K AND grant from Chancellor’s Office
- Nursing department continued receiving Song-Brown grant
Physics & Astronomy:
- Both Profs. Qualls and Severson received RSCAP mini-grants for the summer 2009. Dr. Severson r eceived a School of Science and Technology Travel Grant for his conference attendances. Both Profs. Qualls and Severson received RSCAP mini-grants for the summer 2009. Prof. Qualls transferred $64,295 to SSU during Summer 2008 from NSF grant "NIRT: 3D Hierarchical Nanomanufacturing for Active Photonics-on-chip".
- Education & Public Outreach (EPO) and NASA:
  - With the successful launch of the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope in June 2008, the NASA E/PO group’s funding continued at a level of approximately $1M during this academic year. Other orbiting satellites continuing to support the group included Swift and XMM-Newton. A new addition to our efforts is the Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR) satellite, a hard x-ray focusing mission slated for launch in August 2011.
Presentations
Biology:
- Michael Cohen presented at the California Association of Pest Control Advisers (CAPCA) Fall Continuing Education Meeting.
Computer Science:
- Suzanne Rivoire presented at the USENX work shop in San Diego.
Engineering Science:
- Mohammad Haider presented research paper at ISVLS 109 conference.
Geology:
- Matt James gave a presentation on the Galapagos Islands at the College of Marin.
Mathematics & Statistics:
- Cora Neal, Math, received stipend and plaque for her presentation on Statistical education, Wash DC.
- Jean Bee Chan, with 6 students presented papers on Geometry for the undergraduate research conference.
Nursing:
- Mary Wilkosz gave a poster presentation for the West Institute of Nurs in Salt Lake City.
- Anita Catlin presented at the National Perinatal Assoc, Loma Linda.
- Deb Roberts presented at the Continuums Service Conference, Seattle.
Physics & Astronomy:
- Dr. Severson presented a talk at the Alt-Az Initiative special-session of the American Astronomical Society meeting, as well as co-authoring a poster presentation at the meeting. In March, Dr. Severson and Dr. Shi both presented recent research accomplishments at the SSU Faculty Exposition.
- Prof. Cominsky gave seven public lectures about Fermi science during the past academic year, including the SETI Institute lecture series, CCSF Astronomy lecture series, SSU’s What Physicists Do series, and the Mt. Tamalpais lecture series, as well as several local community organizations and clubs.
Professional Development
Biology:
- Richard Whitkus was selected to be a co-editor for the journal of the California Botanical Society.
Chemstry:
- Meng-Chi Su worked on physical chemistry research in Chicago.
Geology:
- Matt James did field work in British Columbia Canada.
Kinesiology:
- Wanda Boda Manuscript Reviewer for Aviation Space and Environmental Medicine
Nursing:
- Deb Kindy attended a Psych Nursing course in Oakland.
Physics and Astronomy:
- The new physics and astronomy Faculty Workshop held at the American Center for Physics in College Park, Maryland attended by Prof. Severson is a comprehensive professional development experience covering effective teaching techniques as well as grant writing and grant opportunities.
- Bi-annual Astrophysics Educator Ambassadors training took place at SSU during July 28 - August 1, 2008. This week-long intensive professional development workshop included a two-day mini-workshop on the "Dark Universe' as well as a "share-a-thon" by the Ambassadors, and updates from the SSU group about high-energy NASA mission science.
Publications
Biology:
- Phillips, NG, Buckley, TN, Tisrue, DT (2008) The capacity of old growth trees to respond to environmental changes. JIPB in press.
- Adams, MA, Buckley, TN, et al & ACTEN Corp., Regulation of water use in subalpine forests, Australian Research Council, Linkage Grant $785,000 for 4 years (2009-2012).
- Michael Cohen co-authored two papers in 2009 accepted for publication
Engineering Science:
- M. M. Hasan, Farid Farahmand, and Jason P. Jue, "Towards a Greener Optical Network," IEEE Globecom, USA, 2009
- Farid Farahmand, Isabella Cerutti, Ankitkumar N. Patel, Qiong Zhangy, and Jason P. Jue "Relay Node Placement in Vehicular Delay-Tolerant Networks", submitted to IEEE Journal Wireless Communications and Mobile Computing, 2009.
- F. Farahmand, A Low-Cost Approach to Integrate Sensor Technology in Multi-Disciplinary Courses. American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE), Texas, Jun. 2009.
- Vasco N. G. J. Soares, Farid Farahmand, and Joel J. P. C. Rodrigues, "Improving Vehicular Delay-Tolerant Network Performance with Relay Nodes", Next Generation Internet Networks 2009 (NGI 2009) Aveiro, Portugal, July 1-3, 2009.
- Farid Farahmand, 'Improving Radiation Oncology Using a Low-Cost Wireless Accelerometer ' IEEE Globecom, USA, 2009
- Farid Farahmand, "Fault-Tolerant Routing in Vehicular Delay Tolerant Networks," IEEE Globecom, 2009 USA,
- Vasco N. G. J. Soares, Farid Farahmand, and Joel J. P. C. Rodrigues, "A Layered Architecture for Vehicular Delay-Tolerant Networks", IEEE Symposium on Computers and Communications (ISCC'09), Sousse, Tunisia, July 5 - 8, 2009 (accepted for publication).
- Vasco N. G. J. Soares, Joel J. P. C. Rodrigues, and Farid Farahmand, "Impact Analysis of the Shortest Path Movement Model on Routing Strategies for VDTNs in a Rural Region", 7th Conference on Telecommunications (CONFTELE 2009), Santa Maria da Feira, Portugal, May 03 - 05, 2009 (accepted for publication).
- Farid Farahmand, 'Using a Low-Cost Wireless Accelerometer to Improve Radiation Oncology', "5th IEEE International Workshop on Performance and Management of Wireless and Mobile Networks (P2MNET)"
- R. Vijayaraghavan, S. K. Islam, M. R. Haider, and Liang Zuo, "Wideband Injection-Locked Frequency Divider Based on a Process and Temperature Compensated Ring Oscillator," Accepted in IET Circuits, Devices & Systems, paper id: CDS-2008-0362.R1.
Kinesiology:
- Lee, Stuart M C; Schneider, Suzanne M; Boda, WL ;Watenpaugh, DE; Macias, BR; Meyer, RS; Hargens, AR. LBNP exercise protects aerobic capacity and sprint speed of female twins during 30 days of bed rest. J. Appl. Physiol. 106 (3): 919-928. 2009.
Physics and Astronomy:
- "ViLLaGEs: opto-mechanical design of an on-sky visible-light MEMS-based AO system", Grigsby, B., Lockwood, C., Baumann, B., Gavel, D., Johnson, J., Ammons, S. M., Dillon, D., Morzinski, K., Reinig, M., Palmer, D., Severson, S., and Gates, E., Advanced Optical and Mechanical Technologies in Telescopes and Instrumentation. Edited by Atad-Ettedgui, Eli; Lemke, Dietrich. Proceedings of the SPIE, Volume 7018, pp. 701841-701841-12 (2008).
- "Visible light laser guidestar experimental system (Villages): on-sky tests of new technologies for visible wavelength all-sky coverage adaptive optics systems", Gavel, D., Ammons, M., Bauman, B., Dillon, D., Gates, E., Grigsby, B., Johnson, J., Lockwood, C., Morzinski, K., Palmer, D., Reinig, M., and Severson, S., Adaptive Optics Systems. Edited by Hubin, Norbert; Max, Claire E.; Wizinowich, Peter L. Proceedings of the SPIE, Volume 7015, pp. 70150G-70150G-11 (2008).
- "Villages: an on-sky visible wavelength astronomy AO experiment using a MEMS deformable mirror", Gavel, D., Severson, S., Bauman, B., Dillon, D., Reinig, M., Lockwood, C., Palmer, D., Morzinski, K., Ammons, M., Gates, E., and Grigsby, B., MEMS Adaptive Optics II. Edited by Olivier, Scot S.; Bifano, Thomas G.; Kubby, Joel A. Proceedings of the SPIE, Volume 6888, pp. 688804-688804-7 (2008).
- "Antiferromagnetic domain size and exchange bias" M. R. Fitzsimmons, D. Lederman, M. Cheon, Hongtao Shi, J. Olamit, I.V. Roshchin and I. K. Schuller, Phys. Rev. B. 77, 224406 (2008).
- "Field cooling dependence of the anisotropy in exchange-biased FeF2/Co films" A.M. Alsmadi, S.G.E. te Velthius, U. Welp, Hongtao Shi, and D. Lederman, Journal of Applied Physics, 103, 07C114 (2008).
- Conference presentation: "Magnetic Anisotropy of Exchange-Biased Co/FeF2, Ni/FeF2 and Fe/FeF2 Bilayers" submitted to the 53rd Magnetism and Magnetic Materials Conference in November 2008.
- Education & Public Outreach (EPO) and NASA:
School/Program Accreditation
- The Chemistry Department received its annual ACS accreditation
- The Engineering Science is preparing for ABET accreditation
- The Nursing Department received its annual accreditation
Other
Science and Technology
- School of Science & Technology’s Liquid Nitrogen Plant was purchased and installed outside Darwin Hall. The plant produces the liquid nitrogen necessary for cooling various advanced research and teaching instruments in laboratories within Darwin Hall and Salazar Hall.
Biology:
- Two fermentation reactors donated by BioMarin.
Chemistry:
- Carmen Works, Chemistry, received SSU’s Excellence in Teaching Award.
Computer Science:
- George Ledin was featured in Newsweek regarding his Malware Course.
Computer and Engineering Science:
- Computer Science and Engineering Science Departments hosted a Student ROBOTICS Conference.
Engineering Science:
- Farid Farahmand is working with Joel Rodrigaz Universidade da Beira Interior (UBI) Convento de Santo António 6201-001 Covilhã; Dr. Jason Joe; University of Texas at Dallas; Isabella Cerutti, Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna, Pisa, Italy.
Mathematics and Statistics:
- A new Statistics degree was approved by the Chancellor's Office.
Physics and Astronomy:
- Dept of Physics and Astronomy observed the International Year of Astronomy with 100 hours of Astronomy April 2-5 '09.
- Two new telescopes were donated by NASA.
- GORT also had a "first" this past December. On the morning of December 3, 2008, GORT caught its first gamma ray burst (GRB). These elusive objects emit blasts of gamma rays typically lasting only a few tenths of a second, or in some cases a few tens of seconds, after which they are never seen again. Sometimes it is possible to see a rapidly fading optical or x-ray afterglow to the GRB: This is what GORT saw on 12/3/08 - the fading optical counterpart to the burst. And this was quite fortuitous because other telescopes around the world that were positioned so that the GRB was above the horizon were either already in daylight or experiencing stormy weather. If not for GORT, this GRB afterglow would not have been seen at all. We reported this in a Gamma-ray Coordinates Network telegram (8617, J. P. West, K. McLin, T. Brennan, J. Haislip, D. Reichart, L. Cominsky, T. Graves, G. Spear, K. Ivarsen, J. A. Crain, A. Foster, R. Holmes, A. LaCluyze, M. Schubel, J. Styblova, A. Trotter, and E. Weaver, 2008).