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.

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.

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.

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.

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."

Ikia Chalunte Richardson, an industrial engineering technology student, has been awarded the Material Handling Equipment Distributors Association Honor Scholarship in the amount of $5,000 for the 2017/2018 academic year from the Material Handling Education Foundation Inc.

Christopher Roper, a mechanical engineering and physics major, recently earned third place at the National Society of Black Engineers Technical Research Exhibition in Kansas City, Missouri.

The Surface Mount Technology Association (Atlanta Chapter) offers scholarships each year to students at engineering colleges in Georgia. This year they received a record number of 40 applications for scholarships from four different engineering colleges, and they selected three students to each receive a scholarship of $2,000 for academic year 2017-2018. The three students are all from the Southern Polytechnic College of Engineering/Engineering Technology.

Kennesaw State University congratulates the nearly 6,000 students who were named to the Fall 2016 Dean's List. Students named to the Dean's List were enrolled in at least 9 credit hours of courses and earned a grade point average of at least 3.5.

Kennesaw State University recently named students to the President's List, in recognition of their academic excellence in the Fall 2016 semester. The Kennesaw State students were honored by President Samuel S. Olens for earning top marks.

Kennesaw State University National Association of Home Builders Student Chapter recently swept the competition at the International Builders' Show in Orlando, Fla. The team placed first in the nation at the 2017 NAHB Student Chapters Residential Construction Management Competition for four-year programs.

Nine Kennesaw State students were honored recently for their outstanding research at the STEM Innovators Conference in Savannah. The students are Peach State Louis Stokes Alliance Minority Participation (LSAMP) Scholars.

Kennesaw State University's new Dance Theater will open to the public March 24, with the premiere of "Metamorphosis," an original work choreographed by Ivan Pulinkala, founding director of the Department of Dance at KSU.

More than 2,450 students graduated from Kennesaw State University, Dec. 13 - 14, 2016 in three fall commencement ceremonies.

As part of their first-year seminar course, three students did research projects on factors associated with academic success. These research projects included everything from hypothesis creation to literature review to data collection and analysis, and finally, the writing of a formal research paper.

As a biology undergraduate, Reuben Hilliard conducted research in the Paula Jackson lab. He has continued to work with Dr. Jackson during his graduate studies by analyzing data from their research while currently enrolled in the Masters of Science in Applied Statistics program. Reuben presented part of the results from the research at the 2016 SAS Day competition at KSU, where he won top poster award. Hilliard is a 2015 Clendenin Scholar and received the CarMax Academic Scholarship consecutively in spring 2016 and 2015. His research intersects the disciplines of biology and statistics, focusing on environmental sciences. He is also employed as a data analyst at an Atlanta-based health care provider.

The College of Science and Mathematics officially recognized 10 new 2016 Birla Carbon Scholars at the Birla Carbon Symposium. Nearly 100 students, faculty, staff and Birla Carbon executives reviewed posters at the symposium in August 2016. Katerina Slavicinska's research project won the Top Poster Award at the symposium. This year's scholars are: Jonathon Ard, physics; David Axford, biology; Graeme Bettler, chemistry; Soprinye Dappa-Fombo, biology; Rebecca Hyche, biology; Elena Ninova, biology; Katerina Slavicinska, chemistry; Omar Ugarte Trejo, chemistry; Danielle Varljen, biology; and Courtney Willett, biology. The scholars program was developed in April 2014 with a $250,000 pledge from Birla Carbon for a five-year annual gift of $50,000 to support research opportunities for students in Kennesaw State's College of Science and Mathematics. The program has awarded 30 Kennesaw State students each a $4,000 stipend since 2014.

Kennesaw State University Masters in Integrative Biology student Brandy Riekert's passion for conservation biology translated into two major wins recently, which provide a combined $5,000 in grant and award monies. Both reward her research on the Harper's Dodder, a rare and endangered native plant vine known to grow only in Georgia and Alabama. Riekert was awarded a $4,500 Catherine H. Beattie Fellowship award from the Garden Club of America and Center for Plant Conservation, and the Jeane Reeves Research Grant from the Georgia Native Plant Societyfor $500, according to Professor of Biology Susan M. E. Smith, coordinator of the master's program in integrative biology. Full story here.

Kennesaw State University recently named students to the President's List, in recognition of their academic excellence in the Summer 2016 semester. The Kennesaw State students were honored by Interim President Houston D. Davis for earning top marks.