Tag: Halmos College of Arts and Sciences

3 Grants Target Students with Innovative Oceanic Solutions

Ocean Exchange™ is looking for undergraduate and graduate students who are adept in developing innovative solutions that have a beneficial impact on the ocean. The organization – which is affiliated with the Guy Harvey Ocean Foundation – is offering three monetary awards this year.

The Ocean Exchange Collegiate Award 2021 will give a $25,000 grant to a solution that advances the decarbonization of the maritime shipping industry, either while underway or while in port. The solution should be globally scalable and applicable to any segment, including commercial ocean carriers, ferries, and coastal transportation, large recreational yachts, towing and barge vessels, the cruise industry, and defense/security maritime sectors.

The Guy Harvey Ocean Foundation Award 2021 will give a $10,000 grant to a solution that advances our understanding of the ocean and that helps minimize our impact on these resources, resulting in more resilient bodies of water including healthy marine life and coastlines.

The Broward College Innovation Award 2021 will give a $10,000 grant to a solution that advances our understanding of the ocean and that helps minimize our impact on these resources, resulting in more resilient bodies of water including healthy marine life and coastlines.

Eligibility requirements

  • Teams or individual innovators are invited to register
  • Applicants must be undergraduate or graduate student with active student status within one year
  • Solution must be student-led.
  • Teams must pitch in person
  • Delegates representing business, academia, government, and non-profits will select winners at the event in Fort Lauderdale

Important Dates

  • Submit registrations by 11:59 p.m. GMT Monday September 20, 2021
  • Finalists will be selected by our Solutions Review Team to travel to Fort Lauderdale (expenses paid) to present at Ocean Exchange Oct 24-26, 2021
  • Collegiate pitches will be conducted Sunday, Oct 24 and Monday Oct 25

Ocean Exchange™ is an international platform for accelerating the adoption of and the transfer of solutions across industries that positively impact environments, economies and health while respecting cultures around the world.

Students can register their solutions here.

NSU Undergraduates Take on Chocolate Bark Challenge

During the Winter 2021 semester, eight undergraduate students from the Halmos College of Arts and Sciences and the H.Wayne Huizenga College of Business and Entrepreneurship were selected to participate in a special topics communications course partnering with Hoffman’s Chocolates and the Guy Harvey Ocean Foundation. The eight-week online course, offered through the Department of Communication, Media, and the Arts, gave students the opportunity to work closely with leadership, chocolatiers, and marketing and design professionals from Hoffman’s Chocolates and the Guy Harvey Ocean Foundation and develop a new chocolate bark product.

Now in its third year, the special topics course partnering with Hoffman’s Chocolates took on a new challenge by also partnering with the Guy Harvey Ocean Foundation to design a new chocolate bark and marketing campaign focused on conservation of Florida’s coastal and Everglades ecosystems. Selected students represented a variety of majors — Art + Design, Communication, Marine Biology and Marketing — and worked in two teams to develop their chocolate bark products, packaging and marketing campaigns featuring paintings by Guy Harvey.

“I’m especially proud of this year’s cohort of dedicated, ambitious students,” said Miriam Ahmed, Ph.D., assistant professor of graphic design for the Department of Communication, Media, and the Arts, who taught the course. “They weren’t afraid to push beyond their comfort zones, and they pursued avenues for achieving the tougher goal of centering sustainability within their communication strategies, marketing, and product packaging.”

An advantage of the course’s online format, Ahmed said, was that it allowed students the chance to collaborate remotely with team members from the Guy Harvey Ocean Foundation who are located in the Cayman Islands.

On April 20, the student teams pitched their proposed flavor profiles to leadership and representatives from Hoffman’s Chocolates, the Guy Harvey Ocean Foundation, NSU and its Department of Communication, Media, and the Arts. During the final presentation, students showcased “Spiced Paradise” featuring a spiced-ginger rum and dark chocolate bark and “Citrus Coast” featuring a Key Lime Bay white chocolate bark. Both flavors were selected for upcoming production by Hoffman’s Chocolates.

The flavors will be paired with the 2020 Orange Blossom chocolate bark developed by students from last year’s special topics course. The product’s launch was postponed because of COVID-19, and the bark is now set to launch this summer along with this year’s winner.

“Hoffman’s and the GHOF were excellent partners, providing students with exciting interdisciplinary experiential learning opportunities,” said Shanti Bruce, Ph.D., chair and professor for the Department of Communication, Media, and the Arts.

For more information about the special topics course and its “Battle of the Barks,” click here.

Halmos Partners with Montachem to Explore Global Plastics

This coming fall, the Department of Humanities and Politics in the Halmos College of Arts and Sciences and Guy Harvey Oceanographic Research Center will launch a new experiential opportunity for students in partnership with Montachem International Inc.  Montachem is a leader in the distribution of thermoplastics and plastic resins to producers around the world. 

The “Global Issues, Student Solutions” initiative will provide an opportunity for undergraduate students at NSU to explore the role of plastics in the modern world, develop an understanding of the challenges posed by plastics pollution, and provide solutions that might be implemented in individual communities around the world.  “Global Issues, Student Solutions” will run as a case competition in a section of Global Issues, the introductory survey course in the B.A. in International Studies program.

Students in this course will have the opportunity to engage in a team research project on plastics as a global issue and the results of this research will be disseminated at the end of the semester.  Montachem International will provide insight and access to resources for the student teams working on this challenge, in addition to making a generous donation to support undergraduate research in the DHP.

“Plastics are essential to everyday life around the world, these materials are used in simple and very complex applications from can liners (trash bags) all the way to interior components in airplanes to medical instruments and even body parts” according to J. C. Avila, Chief Operating Officer of Montachem International.

According to Ransford Edwards, Ph.D., assistant professor in DHP and instructor for Global Issues, the section in which the “Global Issues, Student Solutions” case competition will take place, “tackling global issues often starts with local solutions.”  He notes that “this problem-solving course will tap into the curiosity and ingenuity of our students as we explore aspects of sustainable development. Students will have an opportunity to investigate, get a little hands-on, and collaborate with a variety of stakeholders to address this issue related to our use of plastics.”

Alumna Publishes Article on Human Resources Development

Suzette Henry-Campbell

Suzette Henry-Campbell, Ph.D., doctoral graduate in the Department of Conflict Resolution Studies in the Halmos College of Arts and Sciences and the Guy Harvey Oceanographic Research Center was the co-author of an article published in the journal New Horizons in Adult Development and Human Resources Development. The article, titled “Expatriate Experiences and the Role HRD plays in Cultural Awareness in International Companies,” was co-authored with Selma A. Hadeen.

In addition to her doctoral degree, Henry-Campbell received an M.S. in Conflict Analysis and Resolution and an M.S. in Human Resource Management from NSU. She earned her B.A. in English from the University of the West Indies and is an adjunct lecturer there. She has extensive experience in human resources.

Biology Student Wins Congress Attendance Grant

This July, Halmos College of Arts and Sciences undergraduate biology major Camryn Pajon won a Congress Attendance Grant for the joint American Society of Microbiology and the Federation for European Microbiological Society (FEMS) meeting in July. Her work, which examines how changes in spatial structure affect the ability of bacteria to coexist, is sponsored by the Army Research Office. Her ultimate goal is to understand how to disrupt interactions between coexisting bacteria so as to facilitate their treatment in the clinic.

Pajon works with HCAS faculty member Robert Smith, Ph.D. FEMS provides grants for European and non-European early career scientists to support their attendance at the World Microbe Forum. The American Society of Microbiology, with more than 30,000 members, including researchers, educators and health professionals, is one of the largest life science societies in the world.

Students design social media campaign for Guy Harvey Research Institute

During the Winter 2021 semester, undergraduate Communication students in COMM 4300: Social Media Theory and Practice had the opportunity to put their social skills into action and design a strategic social media campaign for NSU’s Guy Harvey Research Institute. Each winter, the course, offered through the Department of Communication, Media, and the Arts in the Halmos College of Arts and Sciences, partners with a real-world client seeking to solve a problem or take advantage of an opportunity with its social media presence.

“The best way for students to learn how to conduct a bona fide social media campaign is by partnering with a real client with a real need, and we were excited to have the chance to work with Dr. Shivji and the Guy Harvey Research Institute,” said Whitney Lehmann, associate professor of communication for the Department of Communication, Media, the Arts. “Dr. Shivji had a very clear, strategic vision for the GHRI’s social presence, and it was an invaluable learning experience for students to work with him and his team to design a unique and effective campaign tied to their organizational goals.”

Students kicked off the semester by conducting an initial client interview with Mahmood Shivji, Ph.D., professor for the Department of Biological Sciences and director of the Guy Harvey Research Institute and Save Our Seas Foundation Shark Research Center. Following the interview with Shivji and Tyler Plum, the GHRI’s social media manager and a master’s student in the Department of Biological Sciences, the undergraduate students conducted an audit of the GHRI’s social media presence and presented Shivji and Plum with proposed objectives, strategies and tactics tied to priority audiences and organizational goals. Campaign deliverables included new social media branding, a social media manual, targeted Twitter lists for networking with members of the media, and a revamped YouTube channel for archiving and curating GHRI video content.

“Working with Dr. Lehmann and her students was not only tremendously informative for us in terms of learning better strategies for social media platform construction and use, but it was also a pleasure interacting with the impressively creative undergraduates,” Shivji said. “The end result of this campaign is a vastly better social media platform for the GHRI to disseminate our work.”

For more information about the B.A. in Communication program, COMM 4300: Social Media Theory and Practice and other courses offered through the curriculum’s Strategic Communication concentration and minor, click here.

Follow the Guy Harvey Research Institute on social media @nsughri, the Halmos College of Arts and Sciences @nsuhcas, and the Department of Communication, Media, and the Arts @nsu_dcma

Halmos Faculty, Students Publish Article on Bacterial Inhibitors

Growth characteristics of Yersinia pestis wild-type (wt) and ΔyscF strains on MOX agar incubated at room temperature (RT) or 37°C for 48 h. Colonies of the wt are seen growing on MOX agar incubated at RT but not at 37°C, the temperature at which type III secretion is induced (top). Colonies of the ΔyscF strain, which does not have a functional type III secretion system, are seen growing on the MOX agar incubated at RT and at 37°C (bottom).

Several bacteria use needle-like structures called type III secretion systems (T3SS) to avoid our immune systems by injecting toxins into our cells and causing disease. If the T3SS is blocked, then these bacteria cannot cause the infection, making these structures an attractive target for new antibiotics.

Written by undergraduate students and Halmos College of Arts and Sciences biological sciences faculty member Julie Torruellas Garcia, Ph.D., this paper discusses a new method developed in Garcia’s lab to detect inhibition of bacterial type III secretion systems by small molecules. This method may be useful for screening additional small molecules that target bacterial T3SSs to potentially be used as new treatments for antibiotic resistant bacterial infections.

Undergraduate students (now alumni) co-authors on this paper include Sukriti Prashar, Miguel Portales Guemes, Poorandai Shivbaran, Eugenia Jimenez Alvarez, Christopher Soha, Samir Nacer, and Michael McDonough.

The article, titled “Novel Disk Diffusion Assay on Magnesium Oxalate Agar To Evaluate the Susceptibility of Yersinia pestis to Type III Secretion System Inhibitors” was published in June 2021 in the ASM Journal Microbiology Spectrum. Learn more

Halmos Assistant Professor Participates in STEM Education Virtual Workshop

Santanu De

Santanu De, M.Sc., Ph.D., assistant professor in the Department of Biological Sciences in the Halmos College of Arts and Sciences and the Guy Harvey Oceanographic Research Center, was selected among top 20 applicants to participate in a competitive STEM Education Professional Skills Virtual Workshop organized by the Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSI) STEM Resource Hub of the National Science Foundation (NSF).

The workshop was titled “Designing competitive research questions for grant proposals.”  Representing NSU in the team of faculty members from multiple institutions across the U.S., De contributed to the following efforts:

  1. Using a gap analysis to identify the focus for future research grant proposals,
  2. Using a SWOT (strengths/weaknesses/opportunities/threats) analysis to identify the best route for answering research questions for future grant proposals,
  3. Designing specific and answerable research questions,
  4. Identifying potential sources of baseline data, and
  5. Building a research plan around the proposed research questions

De’s research interests include STEM education, pedagogy, reproductive physiology, developmental biology, cell biology, and protein biology. He is a member of  the Human Anatomy & Physiology Society (HAPS), an editorial board member of several journals including The American Journal of BioScience, and faculty adviser of  NSU’s Med-ED student medical organization.

Halmos Event Delves Into Conflict and Assassination in Haiti

Ernst Vincent

Roland Joseph

The Department of Conflict Resolution Studies (DCRS) and the Department of Humanities and Politics (DHP) in the Halmos College of Arts and Sciences and the Guy Harvey Oceanographic Research Center (HCAS) hosted an event titled “Understanding the Conflicting Political Context of the Haitian President’s Assassination.” This event provided the opportunity for information and discussion regarding recent and historical perspectives on the events leading up to the assassination.

The event was coordinated by Elena Bastidas, Ph.D., faculty in DCRS. Bastidas welcomed the speakers and guests. Judith McKay, J.D., Ph.D., faculty in DCRS and Ransford Edwards, Ph.D. faculty in DHP were the facilitators. The speakers were two doctoral candidates in DCRS, Roland Joseph and Ernst Vincent.

Roland Joseph is a member of the Research Committee on Non-killing Security and International Relations at the Center for Global Nonkilling. He worked as a journalist and political analyst in Haiti for radio stations and newspapers such as Radio Evangelique Hosanna FM, Radio Ephphatha FM, and Journal le Matin for more than 15 years. He coordinated and led training sessions on peace, non-violence, nonkilling, and conflict resolution at Centre caribéen pour la non-violence globale et le développement durable (Caribbean Center for Global Non-Violence and Sustainable Development). Roland received his bachelor’s degree in political in Haiti; and his master’s degree in peace and conflict studies at the University of Massachusetts Lowell.

Ernst Vincent is working on his dissertation, which focuses on the conflict between Haiti and the Dominican Republic. He is a pastor and a theologian. He received two master’s degrees from NSU, one in organizational leadership and one in conflict analysis and resolution. His research interests include the defense of human rights, race and ethnic relations and religious studies. Vincent is the current president of the Haitian Pastors Conference.

Halmos Faculty Combine Art, Science in Presentation

For the past four years, Halmos College of faculty have been engaged in interdisciplinary efforts to combine science and art at NSU through a program where undergraduate art students visit the microbiology lab to learn how to use bacteria as “paint” and agar plates as their “canvas” to create agar art.

In June 2021, Julie Torruellas Garcia, Ph.D., and Katie Crump, Ph.D., from the Department of Biological Sciences; Kandy Lopez Moreno, M.F.A., from the Department of Communication, Media, and the Arts; and former NSU visiting professor Veronique Cote, M.F.A., presented their poster titled, “Creating an Interdisciplinary Curriculum within the Undergraduate Arts and Sciences Through Agar Art,” at the 2021 American Society for Microbiology’s Conference for Undergraduate Educators.

In their presentation, they shared the agar art curriculum including learning outcomes and assessment tools and discussed the benefits of integrating science into the arts. They have written a manuscript of their work that was submitted for publication in the Journal of Microbiology and Biology Education and is currently under review.

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