Author: iharrell

NSU Theatre Presents ‘Gruesome Playground Injuries’

The B.A. in Theatre program in the Department of Communication, Media, and the Arts will present “Gruesome Playground Injuries,” a play from dramatist Rajiv Joseph, on Friday, Feb. 16, through Sunday, Feb. 18 at the Black Box Theatre in the Don Taft University Center. The play is free and open to the NSU and local community.

The dark, humorous drama follows the intersecting lives of Kayleen and Doug over a 30-year span, leading the two childhood friends to compare scars and the physical calamities that keep drawing them together.

Each performance features a talk by Adjunct Professor Aimee Sanchez-Zadak, Ed.D., who teaches in the College of Psychology.

Showtimes

  • Friday, Feb. 16, 7:30 p.m.
  • Saturday, Feb. 17, 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.
  • Sunday, Feb. 18, 2 p.m.

For more information, contact Bill Adams at wadams@nova.edu

Posted 02/09/24 

Today Show Visits NSU for 3D Glimpse into the Future

NBC reporter Sam Brock in the Levan Center’s 3D Volumetric Capture Studio

John Wensveen, NSU’s chief innovation officer at the Alan B. Levan/Broward Center of Innovation, was interviewed by reporter Sam Brock of NBC’s Today Show for his recently aired story on Apple’s new product, Vision Pro. Brock came to the center and toured its leading-edge 3D Volumetric Capture Studio, where a person’s physical movements, mannerisms and voice can be captured in 3D and used in various settings.

SEE THE FULL SEGMENT.

Posted 02/06/24

Education Professor Earns Recognition from Guinness World Records

Professor Hui Huang Fang Su

Fischler College of Education and School of Criminal Justice Professor Hui Huang Fang Su has earned a new accolade: recognition from Guinness World Records.

Su was recently named as one of Chapter 23’s Positive Change Makers in the World 2023.

The chapter focuses on 23 influential people from various fields who are making a difference in the world. Su, one of two people selected from the United States, was recognized for her contributions to the field of education.

Learning of the accolade, Su said she was shocked but honored. She traveled to London for a ceremony, where she accepted the award and got to speak at the House of Parliament.

Su was recognized for her work as the creator of Project MIND: Math is Not Difficult, which helps eliminate the fear of math and make learning fun and more accessible.

While in London, Su met professors from other universities, one of the advisers to King Charles II and British politician Bob Blackman.

Posted 02/05/24

Halmos Faculty Member Interviewed for Belgium Podcast

Santanu De, Ph.D.

Santanu De, Ph.D., a faculty member in the Department of Biological Sciences in the Halmos College of Arts and Sciences and the Guy Harvey Oceanographic Research Center, was interviewed for a Belgium podcast dedicated to helping shape today’s budding students, researchers and scientific writers. The podcast series, titled “The Researcher’s Chronicle,” was organized by researchers collaborating from Yale University and the Baden Aniline and Soda Factory in Belgium.

De’s session was published online last Dec. 10 via Paperprimer Book and Periodical Publishing in Maryland.

Click here to access the interview.

De’s research and teaching interests include Interdisciplinary research in reproductive physiology, STEM education and pedagogy, anatomy, cell biology and human biology.

Posted 02/04/24

Upcoming Event Stresses Importance of Saving Early

You’ll learn tips on ways to save, benefits of starting early and various types of saving options at “YOU GOT THIS! Pay Yourself First: Saving Made Easy” on Wednesday, Feb. 28 from 6 to 7:30 p.m.

Candy Coleman, an experienced banking professional with more than 35 years of experience, will be the guest speaker in room 2053 at the Alvin Sherman Library. Coleman manages the Plantation Branch of AmTrust Bank, a Division of Flagstar Bank, and has been there more than 10 years. She also is very knowledgeable in the areas of fraud prevention and financial literacy, and frequently speaks on these topics at financial literacy programs.

Refreshments will be served.

Posted 02/04/24

Professor’s Co-Authored Paper Promotes Marine Biodiversity Strategy

A fundamental challenge to marine biodiversity protection is the relatively poor and patchy understanding of the diversity and distribution of marine life, making it more difficult to strategically designate protective measures and assess their success.

The marine environment presents unique challenges: the world ocean is vast, much of it is distant from human populations, its life is often hidden from view and sampling presents formidable logistical difficulties. As a result, observations of ocean life are a fraction of those on land and are especially sparse in the water column and deep sea. These ecosystems have been the subject of an internationally recognized program led by researchers at Halmos College of Arts and Sciences and the Guy Harvey Oceanographic Research Center (HCAS).

The program, titled “DEEPEND” (www.deependconsortium.org), is led by Professor Tracey Sutton, who was among 28 scientists, economists and marine policy experts worldwide who were invited to assess the U.S. national strategy for marine biodiversity protection. Sutton participated in a series of dialogues and workshops over the past three years, the results of which were recently published.

In this paper, published in One Earth, the task force that included Sutton proposed a scientific framework to assess the distribution and abundance of marine biodiversity in U.S. waters inside and outside existing protections and  applied it to waters from the near coast to the borders of the U.S. Exclusive Economic Zone (200 miles offshore).

Why This Matters

Marine biodiversity globally is in crisis. Climate change, overfishing, habitat destruction and other extractive industries are causing species losses at an alarming rate. Increasingly, scientists, managers and governments are taking steps to protect marine life. But it requires a network of protected areas that are ecologically representative, foster connectivity between habitats and consider the dynamic nature of coastal and marine habitats.

The framework is the basis by which managers and communities can ground regional and local actions with knowledge of marine biodiversity distribution. It’s crucial to fulfilling the president’s commitment to protect 30% of land and waters by 2030, implementing the White House Ocean Climate Action and National Ocean Biodiversity Strategy. It can inform existing mandates that involve area-based management, from the National Marine Sanctuaries Act to the Marine Mammal Protection and the Endangered Species Act.

Posted 02/04/24

Honors Course Leads to Conference Presentations

Members of the protein modeling course

Students in the Farquhar Honors College Intro to Protein Modeling course will present their innovative 3D protein models at the annual American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (ASBMB) conference this March. The models were created using advanced computational tools to predict a protein’s structure.

Understanding the structure of a protein is essential to altering its function. Students used a variety of methods to map out the structure, such as artificial intelligence and metal-binding force fields. Understanding the functions of proteins can give us hints to answer the question “What is life?” since proteins work together in a complicated and coordinated way to support life.

“Each year the creativity, passion and drive of the students results in a rich diversity of not only project ideas but innovative methods of accomplishing their lofty goals,” said course co-instructor Arthur Sikora, Ph.D., associate professor in the Department of Chemistry and Physics in the Halmos College of Arts and Sciences (HCAS). “I am learning and exploring the scientific world right alongside my students every time.”

Emily Schmitt Lavin, Ph.D., professor and chair in the Department of Biological Sciences at HCAS, teaches the course with Sikora. The course gives students experience as scientists, including conducting research, analyzing data and discussing and presenting their findings. At the end of the course, students can present their work at a conference of their choice and return as a mentor for the next cohort of students who take the course. More than 20 honors students have presented at conferences as part of the course.

Saleh’s protein model

The course has been especially influential for honors student Omar Saleh. Based on the work he completed in the course, Saleh was chosen to co-lead a protein modeling workshop at the American Chemical Society’s Biennial Conference on Chemical Education in Kentucky, where he will train and encourage faculty from other universities to create similar courses at their institutions.

“I feel both incredibly honored and privileged to take such a novel step in my undergraduate career,” said Saleh, a junior biology and neuroscience major. “It will be my first time traveling to another state, and the workshop will significantly increase both my leadership and public speaking skills. I am proud to showcase not only our wonderful protein modeling class with other out-of-state instructors, educators and faculty, but also the work my team and the other teams, both past and present, have produced.”

View projects from the honors Intro to Protein Modeling course.

Posted 02/04/24

Professor Teaches Asset Mapping in Rural Alabama

Moya L. Alfonso, Ph.D., MSPH, gave participatory asset mapping training to the Blackbelt Community Foundation in Camden, Ala., as a part of a community-based participatory research project funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

The training was part of the foundation’s Interdisciplinary Research Leaders Program. Alfonso is the program director of the Ph.D. and DHSc doctoral programs in health science and an associate professor of health science in the Dr. Pallavi Patel College of Health Care Sciences. Her expertise includes community-engaged research, program evaluation, addiction and recovery, and adolescent health.

Alfonso was invited to teach coalition members to use asset mapping, which is the mapping of resources in local communities with the intent of building on the assets to create change. Her workshop was a part of a series to educate coalition members on a variety of topics, including racism, decolonizing nutrition, accessing resources and advocacy. Asset mapping is being used to reframe the narrative around childhood obesity – focusing more on health than body size and weight – and identify the structural causes of health problems. Coalition members learned how to use asset mapping with community members to identify local resources that could contribute to addressing obesity and racism in rural Alabama.

You can read more about the project here: https://irleaders.org/team/centering-the-lived-experience-of-head-start-families-to-investigate-intersections-of-structural-racism-rurality-and-childhood-obesity/.

Posted 02/04/24

Halmos Faculty Member Publishes Chapter on Game ‘Monsters’

Melissa Bianchi, Ph.D.

Melissa Bianchi, Ph.D., associate professor in NSU’s Department of Communication, Media, and the Arts, has written “A Field Guide to Monsters: Practices of Wildlife Watching in Video Games,” a chapter appearing in the recently published “Ecogames: Playful Perspectives on the Climate Crisis.”

The collection from Amsterdam University Press brings together established and emerging voices in the scholarly conversation about how video games increasingly participate in the production, circulation and interrogation of environmental assumptions.

In her chapter, Bianchi connects video game analyses to the beliefs and practices that determine how we reproduce animals in visual media. Touching on a variety of games, including “New Pokémon Snap,” “Monster Hunter Rise” and “NUTS,” the chapter demonstrates how gameplay can exemplify troubling aspects of the human-animal divide and support critical perspectives on human ecological agency and responsibility toward animals.

“I am honored to be a part of this valuable resource for scholars, designers and players who see the critical potential of games and are acutely aware of pressing environmental challenges,” Bianchi said.

Learn more about the M.A. in Composition, Rhetoric and Digital Media here.

Posted 02/04/24

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