Dr. Shahid Alvi, Sociology Department and Dr. Barbara Shank, School of Social Work, were invited to offer ‘communications’ at the International Symposium on Unemployment and Poverty: Causes and Remedies in Rome, Italy, in September.
Dr. Sarah Armstrong, director of the Pre-Doctoral Internship training program in the Personal Counseling Department, gave a presentation at the Association of Counseling Center Training Agencies (ACCTA) annual meeting in Wintergreen, Va. The program, titled "Training Issues in Using Spirituality in Counseling," explored current research on the topic, provided guidelines for training in the use of spiritual and religious issues in counseling, and provided participants with the opportunity to examine case examples.
Dr. Angeline Barretta-Herman, School of Social Work, presented the keynote address, "Fulfilling the Commitment to Competent Social Work Practice Through Supervision," at the International Conference on Supervision in Auckland, New Zealand, in July.
Svenn Borgersen, adjunct faculty member in the Engineering and Technology Management Department, has a new full-time position with the SciMed Division of Boston Scientific effective Oct. 16.
Dr. Stephen Brookfield, Distinguished Professor, School of Education, just published a chapter, "Education and Self-Directed Learning," in a new book, Educational Issues in the Learning Age, edited by Catherine and David Matheson. The book is published by Continuum Publishers in New York and London.
Dr. Carol Bruess and Dr. Thomas Endres, Communication Department, presented workshops at the Communication and Theater Association of Minnesota (CTAM) conference, held Sept. 22-23 in downtown Minneapolis. Bruess delivered a workshop on "Experiential Learning in Family Communication and Intercultural Communication Courses," and Endres presented a session on "Studying Intercultural Communication in Barcelona: An International 'How-To' Guide." Endres, who was also the local arrangements host for the conference, received one of three Outstanding Individual in Communication and Theater awards presented by the state association.
Dr. Joseph C. Fitzharris, History Department, had an article, " 'Our Disgraceful Surrender': The Third Minnesota Infantry's Disintegration and Reconstruction in 1862-1863," published in Military History of the West, Vol. 30, No. 1, spring 2000, pp. 1-20.
Dan Fox, engineering and technology management student, presented a paper on micromanufacturing at the 14th Annual USU Conference on Small Satellites. His talk titled "Micromachining -- Function in a Small Package" was attended by an audience of about 300. Fox's faculty adviser is Dr. Jeff Jalkio of the Engineering and Technology Management Department.
The Rosemount-Apple Valley-Eagan Independent School District 196 with the assistance of Dr. Kendra Garrett, School of Social Work, received a $1.2 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education to implement an Elementary School Counseling Demonstration Program that will place a half-time licensed school social worker in all 18 elementary schools in the district to address issues such as personal responsibility, bullying, truancy and student absenteeism, violence prevention, career awareness, and barriers to academic achievement.
Dr. Michael Hennessey, Engineering and Technology Management Department, recently presented engineering papers at two different engineering conferences (listed below); one a research paper on vehicle kinematics and numerical integration and the other an education paper on computer-aided engineering (CAE). The vehicle kinematics and numerical integration paper was based on the MS thesis of his former graduate student, Nathan Eggleton; Hennessey was also chair of the session in which the paper was presented. The well-received CAE paper described in practical detail the development of an undergraduate course in CAE that emphasized computer graphics and finite element analysis (FAE).
1. Hennessey, M., Plantenberg, K., Hodge, J., and Markus, J., "The Use of Computer-Aided Engineering in Minnesota State University-Mankato's Mechanical Engineering Program," ASEE 2000: North Central Section Annual Conference, University of Minnesota, Sept. 29-Oct. 1.
2. Eggleton, N., and Hennessey, M., "Unconstrained Instantaneous Center Integration (ICI) Algorithms," IASTED Intelligent Systems and Control Conference, Honolulu, Aug. 14-16.
Dr. Randy Herman, Dr. Angie Barretta-Herman, and Dr. Barbara Shank, School of Social Work, presented papers at the August meeting of the International Schools of Social Work in Montreal, Canada.
Several history majors presented papers, first written in the Civil War Era Research Seminar, to the Northern Great Plains History Conference in Mankato, Sept. 28. Nathan Motzko presented "'Defeat and Discomfiture: The Spring Hill Legend' (John Bell Hood's 1864 Tennessee Campaign)" in the session on the Civil War and Postwar Frontier. Fredrick Speltstoser of William Jewell College chaired the session and Thomas B. Colbert of Marshalltown Community College commented. In the Civil War Era session, Ben Petry presented "The Dilemma of the Constitution in 'Bred Scott v. Sandford'"; Audrey Geib presented "Kate Donnelly and Jane Gray Swisshelm: Women on the Minnesota Homefront, 1861-1863"; and Lauren Weinfurt presented "The Union Divided: Dissension by Northern Irish and German Immigrants during the American Civil War." Charles K. Piehl of MSU, Mankato, was the commentator. Dr. Joe Fitzharris, History Department, presented "Assessing Civil War Volunteer Officers: The Third Minnesota as a Case Study," in the session on Minnesotans in the Civil War. Ethan Rafuse of UM-KC commented.
Dr. Lily Hwa, assistant professor, History Department, is a co-author of the book Experiencing World History, which was published by the New York University Press in July 2000. The other authors are Paul Adams, professor at Shippensburg University; Erick Langer, associate professor at Georgetown University; Peter Stearns, provost of George Mason University; and Merry Wiesner-Hanks, professor and chair of the History Department at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. This book adopted a new approach to the study of world history by studying it from five subjects: biological and environmental level,
cultural analysis, state in society, gender history, and work and leisure of the people. It also adopted a comparative approach. Hwa also was the moderator for Professor Anthony C. Yu, Carl Darling Buck Distinguished Service Professor in Humanity of the University of Chicago at the annual conference of the Chinese-American Academic and Professor Association in Minnesota on Sept 16. Yu was elected as a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2000 and he was also elected as the Academician at the Academia Sinica (the equivalent of AAAS in Taiwan). The topic of Professor Yu's presentation was "The Multiculturalism of the Journey to the West." Professor Yu studied and translated this famous Chinese novel into English.
Dr. Mark Neuzil, Department of Journalism and Mass Communication and the Environmental Studies Program, is a curriculum consultant for the International Wolf Center in Ely, Minn. He is reviewing wolf management materials for grade school children. Neuzil has been a member of the Minnesota Wolf Roundtable, the state body that advises the Legislature on wolf management, since 1997.
Perry Parendo, adjunct faculty member in the Engineering and Technology Management Department, has a new job at Medtronic as principle mechanical design engineer in the Battery Development Group.
Lisa Schuweiler, B.S.M.E., was a member of the Line Modeling and Cellular Manufacturing Team of the Cardiac Rhythm Management Division of Medtronic that won the Star of Excellence Award this year. Dr. Sameer Kumar of UST's Engineering and Technology Management Department, was an adviser and Dale Wahlstrom, Medtronic vice president and general manager, a graduate of St. Thomas' master's program, sponsored the project along with Mark Hjelle, also of Medtronic. The award is given to individuals and teams that demonstrate exceptional performance in the areas of creativity, quality and customer focus.
The team developed a series of manufacturing and industrial engineering initiatives geared toward extensive line balancing, work cell layout and use of simulation models to optimize production capacity, productivity and asset management. The innovation of this team effort was showcased in the "Group Technology and Cellular Manufacturing Symposium" in March, which was sponsored by several manufacturing companies such as Intel, Baxter, GE, Hewlett Packard and Avon.
Dr. Barbara Shank, School of Social Work, was awarded the Distinguished Citizen Citation by Macalester College in June 2000. The award is given for unselfish and effective service to the community and for exercising leadership in civic, social and religious activities that are essential to a democracy.
Mari Stensvold, a UST student, and Mark Kotz of the Metropolitan Council presented a paper last week to the Minnesota Geographic Information System (GIS)-Land Information Systems conference in St. Cloud. The paper, "A GIS Procedure to Estimate Developable Land in the Twin Cities Area," was a project to improve the Met Council's estimate of how much land is developable in the Twin Cities area by factoring out wetlands, steep slopes, road right-of-way, and future zoning from the Met Council's estimate. Stensvold, a student of Dr. Robert Werner, Geography Department, received a UST Young Scholars grant for the project.
Dr. Mary Lou Wolsey, associate professor of French in the Department of Modern and Classical Languages, recently has been involved in many activities with the Minnesota Chapter of the American Association of Teachers of French. She edited and produced the summer 2000 and fall 2000 issues of the quarterly newsletter, FEFLETS de l'etoile du nord, in June and September 2000 (her editorship began with the winter 1983 issue).
Wolsey participated in the June and September Mn-AATF board meetings, attended the Sept. 8 workshop on "La Semaine Nationale du Francais" (being held Nov. 4-10 at the Minnesota Humanities Commission building), and a workshop on "Connaissances du Maghreb" Sept. 30 at Macalester College.
In addition, she continues to maintain the MnAATF chapter Web site (recently updated and enhanced) and oversees the electronic message distribution service for the Minnesota chapter of AATF -- both through electronic media systems at St. Thomas.
Dr. Fred Zimmerman, Engineering and Technology Management Department, delivered a keynote address to Minnesota Technology Inc. at its annual retreat Sept. 28 in Alexandria, Minn. His address was on "Changing Manufacturing Technologies to Match Economic Needs." There were more people in the audience who could weld so Zimmerman was quite happy.
