Kennesaw State University

Kennesaw State University's College of Science and Mathematics (CSM) officially recognized as one of the 10 new Birla Carbon Scholars, during the event's fifth annual symposium.

Student Savannah Bronson, a human services major, was one of seven members of the Kennesaw State University campus community awarded 2018 Presidential Diversity Awards, recognizing their service and contributions toward creating more inclusive and welcoming campus environments.

Kennesaw State University psychology major Olivia Lauzon presented her research to members of Congress, their staffs and other federal officials in Washington, D.C., during the 22nd Annual "Posters on the Hill" competition in April. It is the first time a KSU student has presented at the Capitol Hill event.

Kennesaw State University recently welcomed its newest class of graduates. Nearly 2,300 students earned bachelor's, master's or doctoral degrees during Spring 2018 commencement ceremonies in May.

Kennesaw State University recently named students to the President's List, in recognition of their academic excellence for the Spring 2018 semester. To achieve this honor, each student must have completed at least 9 semester hours with a term grade point average of 4.0.

Kennesaw State University congratulates the more than 5,600 students named to the Spring 2018 Dean's List. Students enrolled at least 9 credit hours and with a grade point average of at least 3.5 were named to the list.

Kennesaw State University seniors Jeremy Collins, Marquis Holmes, Alex Keller and Virginia Wyckoff are heading to Moscow, Russia to cover the 2018 World Cup. For their coursework they will report on eight World Cup games using Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Snapchat. The students will create and post live game tweets and podcasts. They will also be sending information back to Kennesaw State where it will be created as videos on multiple social media platforms for KSU News Now.

To best depict what diversity looks like through art, students in Kennesaw State's College of the Arts created art pieces as part of the inaugural Diversity Arts Competition and Show, sponsored by the Office of Diversity and Inclusion. Student artists competed for votes from the campus community, and six winners - two for first, second and third place - were selected. Their renderings are currently on display and can be viewed through the online gallery: http://diversity.kennesaw.edu/artcompetition.php.

Congratulations to the nine College of Science and Mathematics Outstanding Graduating Student Award recipients! The students and their faculty mentors were honored on Saturday, April 28. The College's 2017-2018 student recipients are Omar Ugarte Trejo, M.S. in Chemical Sciences; Kevin Patel, B.S. in Biochemistry; Reagan Hooper, B.S. in Chemistry; James Thornhill, M.S. in Integrative Biology; Rebecca Webster, B.S. in Environmental Science; Lee Spence, B.S. in Mathematics; David Axford, B.S. in Biology; Matthew Forslund, B.S. in Physics; and Jonathan Boardman, M.S. in Applied Statistics. Each year, department faculty in the College of Science and Mathematics choose one outstanding graduating student per academic degree program. Outstanding students are selected based on notable achievements within their major, including having earned an exceptional GPA, as well as in extracurricular, research or professional activities.

Kennesaw State University's Division of Global Affairs awarded its highest honors at the University's Fifth Annual International Awards Ceremony April 14 at the Marietta Country Club. Kennesaw State students Samantha Rudd and Hazel Lika were recipients of two of the event's six awards, which recognized community leaders and partners, faculty members, alumni and students who have helped advance global education.

Sixteen Kennesaw State students competed in a University-sponsored exercise, The Three Minute Thesis (3MT), a research communication competition developed by the University of Queensland.

Kennesaw State University is being represented by nearly 100 students this week at the 2018 National Conference on Undergraduate Research (NCUR) in Edmond, Oklahoma. More than 4,000 students from 400 colleges and universities are presenting their research April 4-7 at the prestigious annual conference. With 93 students attending, Kennesaw State's number of participants is second only to the host institution, the University of Central Oklahoma.

Kennesaw State's Department of Dance was selected from among 44 adjudicated works presented by collegiate dance programs across the Southeast to perform at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., during the National American College Dance Festival June 6-9. The Festival, regarded as one of the most prestigious venues to present collegiate dance in the country, is held biennially.

Britt Pickering, a Kennesaw State University sociology student, was named a 2018 Newman Civic Fellow by Campus Compact, a Boston-based nonprofit working to advance the public purposes of higher education. Pickering was among 268 college students named this year and the only one from Kennesaw State.

Ida Lee Spence, a first-generation Kennesaw State University senior, has been named a recipient of the Georgia Board of Regents 2018 Academic Recognition Award. The Board bestowed the honor on one student from each of its colleges and universities for classroom academic achievements. Spence of Dallas, Ga., is a math major with a 3.97 grade point average.

Kennesaw State University's Honors College recognized Alice Barry as the top student in its President's Emerging Global Scholars (PEGS) program at a banquet on Feb. 19.

Kennesaw State University's Honors College celebrated its first- and second-year students in the President's Emerging Global Scholars (PEGS) program at a banquet on Feb. 19. PEGS is an elite cohort within the Honors College that challenges its students to grow as leaders and accelerates their personal, professional and academic development. The students were honored for their academic accomplishments and community service, with the second-year students receiving pins recognizing their completion of the program.

Two graduates of Kennesaw State University's College of the Arts have been named to Graphic Design USA's "Students to Watch 2018" list. Audrey Arnold and Katie Vines were among 75 students from universities throughout the U.S. named to GDUSA's annual list. Both women were nominated by faculty in the College's School of Art and Design at Kennesaw State.

Three teams of Kennesaw State graduate students recently competed in a Shark Tank-like competition as part of a collaboration between Southern Company and KSU's Graduate College.

Kennesaw State University recently welcomed its newest class of graduates. Nearly 2,300 students earned bachelor's, master's or doctoral degrees during Fall 2017 commencement ceremonies in December.

The CarMax Auto Finance Analytics Scholarship, established in 2014, provides two-year scholarships for students in business and statistics. The merit-based scholarship has served 36 undergraduate and graduate students with financial support. Each academic year, 12 students - six from the Coles College of Business and six from the College of Science and Mathematics - are awarded the scholarship. Student scholars were recently recognized by CarMax Auto Finance and the University during an on-campus luncheon.

Kennesaw State University congratulates the more than 6,200 students named to the Fall 2017 Dean's List. Students enrolled at least 9 credit hours and with a grade point average of at least 3.5 were named to the list.

Kennesaw State University recently named students to the President's List, in recognition of their academic excellence in the Fall 2017 semester. The Kennesaw State students were honored by President Sam Olens for earning top marks.

Kennesaw State student Sanjoosh Akkineni was recently awarded the Udacity Google Developer Challenge Scholarship. Akkineni, a doctoral student in analytics and data science at Kennesaw State, is one of 50,000 individuals nationally who earned the scholarship. The scholarship provides free access to a rigorous training program and is focused on software development for mobile (Android) and web, which represent a big portion of the open roles in today's job market.

Students in Kennesaw State's College of Computing and Software Engineering recently demonstrated their talent, creativity and ability to put what they've learned in the classroom into practice during the biannual Computing Showcase, also called C-Day. The culminating event, presented at the end of the fall semester, attracted dozens of student projects which were then judged by 18 industry professionals in five categories. Graduating students displayed their posters, video games and prototypes that highlighted their experiences within internships, team projects, research endeavors, and capstone and thesis work. More than 40 undergraduate and graduate students were honored with first, second and third place honors in five categories. A full list of award recipients can be found at http://ccse.kennesaw.edu/computing-showcase/computing-showcase.php

Kennesaw State University hosted a mini-conference as part of its fifth annual KSU R Day, a regional meeting for the analytics and "R" community that links the statistics program at KSU with businesses and organizations that use analytics and statistics. "R" refers to the popular open-source statistical software used by many organizations around the world. More than 240 people, including guests from 45 companies and four other universities, attended the popular event that showcased the projects of 45 undergraduate and graduate statistics students, and honored 11 of those students for academic achievement.

Eight Kennesaw State students were honored recently for their scholarship and research at the 2017 STEM Innovators Conference in Atlanta, hosted by the University. The 12th annual symposium and research conference recognized outstanding Peach State Louis Stokes Alliance Minority Participation (LSAMP) Scholars.

Students in Kennesaw State's Southern Polytechnic College of Engineering and Engineering Techonology have received scholarships from the Atlanta Chapter of Women in Electronics. The Women in Electronics scholarship focuses on students majoring in electronics, engineering, computer science, information technology or other related fields, and is awarded based on financial need, academic achievement, and participation in extracurricular activities.

Congratulations to the 11 CSM Outstanding Graduating Student Award recipients! The students and their faculty mentors were honored on Saturday, April 29, 2017. The 2016-2017 CSM Outstanding Graduating Students are: John Goodwin, MS in Chemical Sciences; Fernando Castellani, BS in Biochemistry; Omar Ugarte Trejo, BS in Chemistry; Michelle Edward, BS in Biology; Ruth Richir, Secondary Mathematics MAT; David Richmond, BS in Mathematics; Margaret Slomkowski, BS in Mathematics Education; Zachery Mielko, MS in Integrative Biology; Wesley Queen, Secondary Science MAT; Johnathon Ard, BS in Physics; and Reuben Hilliard, MS in Applied Statistics. Department faculty in the College of Science and Mathematics selected one outstanding graduating student per degree program. Outstanding students are selected based on notable achievements in the major field, including having earned an exceptional GPA, as well as notable achievements in extracurricular, research or professional activities.

Valerie Washington, a Systems and Industrial Engineering major, has won the Outstanding Honors Senior award. The award recognizes a student from each campus who exemplifies the highest ideals of the University Honors Program. In addition to noteworthy achievement in the classroom, completion of honors coursework and a fully-approved capstone proposal, finalists for the award must have substantive scholarly, creative or service-related accomplishments shared with publics beyond the classroom. From 21 student nominations and applications, one winner is named from each campus. She has plans to attend graduate school after graduation. She has demonstrated her excellence in all the engineering courses by securing good grades throughout her undergraduate career. She has been active within the campus community through membership in the Society of Women Engineers and being the founding president of Student Division of the International Council on Systems Engineering. In 2016, Valerie was named Engineering Student of the Year for the state of Georgia by the Georgia Society of Professional Engineers. Valerie has published two pieces in collaboration with faculty and has presented at at least seven conferences in her academic career. She has been accepted to two PhD programs: Georgia Tech's Industrial Engineering program and the University of Michigan's Industrial and Operations Engineering program. Valerie's capstone supervisor is Dr. Adeel Khalid. Adeel Khlaid had the following to say about Valerie: "Valerie has been my student for over two years and has taken several courses with me. Valerie has shown keen interest in the subject matter from the very beginning. She has demonstrated in the courses that I have taught that she can not only handle the upper level engineering course work efficiently but also excel in any course material presented to her. She shows interest in learning and performing well in class. She demonstrates similar enthusiasm in other advanced courses and projects. In the senior design project, she is optimizing the bus routes for the Kennesaw State transportation system (BOB). She set the bar high and is the student that I compare other students to to determine their performance level. I am impressed by her willingness to work above and beyond what is required from her. I find her ready to take on challenges. She has demonstrated her excellence in all the engineering courses by securing good grades throughout her undergraduate career. Given her strong work ethic and zeal, I am confident that she will do very well in graduate school and be an asset to any organization she becomes a part of."