Wright State students recognized for co-curricular excellence

Wright State University President David R. Hopkins presented Presidential Commendations for Excellence in Co-Curricular Activities to students Wednesday, June 6, at the Rockafield House on campus.

Individual award winners and teams were honored for their exceptionally meritorious achievement in state, regional, national or international academic forums.

Individual winners:

(L-R) Honors Director Susan Carrafiello, Wright State President David R. Hopkins, the award winner for writing excellence, Lara Donnelly and Honors Associate Director Alex Wenning.

Lara Donnelly, Undergraduate English major, College of Liberal Arts (COLA)

Lara earned 3rd runner-up in the international 2012 Dell Magazines Awards for Undergraduate Excellence in Science Fiction and Fantasy Writing. This will be her fourth consecutive Presidential Commendation award for writing excellence.

Andria Fortney, Undergraduate Chemistry major, College of Science and Mathematics (COSM)

Andria was selected to receive a travel award to attend the American Chemical Society’s Division of Polymer Chemistry’s Undergraduate Research in Polymer Science Symposium and present an abstract and Polymer Preprint on her research. She is also the only co-author on a manuscript recently accepted for publication in the journal Polymer (Elsevier Publishers) in June 2012.

Sheila Goins, Undergraduate Organizational Leadership major, Lake Campus

Wright State President David R. Hopkins met with students at the Rockafield House.

Sheila was chosen as the 2011 Post-Secondary Outstanding Business Student in the Nation by the Association for Career and Technical Education. She also serves as the Ohio post-secondary state president for Business Professionals of America.

Jeremy Lear, Undergraduate Chemistry major, COSM

Jeremy earned 2nd place at the University of Kentucky’s Regional Poster Competition for Undergraduate Research in Chemistry.

Julia Paulet, Graduate Anatomy major, CoSM/Boonshoft School of Medicine (BSOM) (Neuroscience, Cell Biology and Physiology)

Julia’s research discoveries resulted in four scientific abstracts and a presentation at the 2012 Experimental Biology Meeting. Those efforts so impressed The American Physiological Society that the organization has dedicated a Featured Topics Symposium to the subject matter at their 2013 meeting.

Xue Li, Graduate Electrical Engineering major, College of Engineering and Computer Sciences (CECS)

One of the top graduate students in the college, Xue’s role in the cognitive radio research group has resulted in the publication of five journal articles and 12 conference papers over the last three years.

Ajith Ranabahu, Graduate Computer Science and Engineering major, CECS

Ajith led the research for the development of The MobiCloud Project, which won the technology award at the Fukuoka Technology Ruby Competition. This selective international competition attracted 82 entries from nine countries, and Wright State was the only academic organization among all of the winners.

Joseph Santin, Graduate Biological Sciences major, COSM

Joe won one of the competitive Caroline tum Suden/Frances Hellebrandt Professional Opportunity Awards for his research abstract presented at the Experimental Biology Meeting. Recipients are first author on submitted abstracts, and include a pool comprised largely of Ph.D., medical and post-doctoral students.

Rehab Talat, Undergraduate Biomedical Engineering major, CECS

A senior honors student, Rehab was selected to participate in the Bioengineering Education Research-Research Experience for Undergraduates (BER-REU) program at Northwestern University. The program, supported by a grant from the National Science Foundation, had more than 100 applicants from which nine were chosen.

Andrea Thurau, Undergraduate Social Work major, COLA

Andrea received the National Association of Social Worker’s Dayton Area Student of the Year Award. She also produced a poster presentation on research she has conducted on the strengths of a home-environment approach to nursing care.

Luke Wortley, Undergraduate Spanish major, COLA

A senior honors student, Luke has had three works of fiction published in the genres of horror, suspense and magical realism. Publishers include Pine Hill, and Static Movement Press. He is working on his first novel and will begin a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing in the fall of 2012.

Brandy Zapata, Undergraduate Mass Communication major, COLA

A senior honors student who aspires to a career in television broadcasting, Brandy was selected as the winner of the Dayton CW Star Competition. Chosen from a pool of more than 100 applicants, Brandy will represent the CW’s Dayton affiliate, WBDT-TV, over the next year.

Team Winners:

A.W.S.U.M.M.O.W (“Autonomous Wright State University Mower Mows Outstandingly and Wonderfully”)
Wright State’s team placed 3rd in the ION Robotic Lawnmower Competition sponsored by the Institute of Navigation in conjunction with the Air Force Research Laboratories. Fifteen teams from the United States and Canada participated in this 8th annual event.

            Nick Baine                                    Brian Roadruck

            Nathan Hodson                           Cory Snyder

            Nicole Kleinhenz                         Ed Velten

Nominated by: Kuldip Rattan, Ph.D., professor of electrical engineering, and Scott Thomas, Ph.D., sssociate professor of mechanical and materials engineering.

Business Professionals of America
Following their success at BPA’s state competition, five Lake Campus students attended the national competition in Chicago and returned with 12 awards ranging from first place to Top 10 rankings in categories that included Advanced Interview Skills, Human Resources Management, Graphic Design Promotion, Desktop Publishing and,   Fundamental and Advanced Word Processing. The Lake Campus Chapter also received the Quality Chapter Award which is given to the top 2 percent in the nation for their outstanding activities.

            Tiffany Bienz                        Sheila Goins

            Amanda Fleck                      Andrea Kittle

            Michelle Fleck

Nominated by: H. Roger Fulk, professor of office information systems, and Bonnie Mathies, Ph.D., dean of the Lake Campus

Institute of Management Accountants (IMA) National Student Case Competition
For the 15th time, Wright State University’s accountancy team has advanced to the Final Four in the IMA’s annual competition which will be held in late June 2012. Teams from Wright State have won this competition five times—more than any other university.

             Jason Bruns                                   Corey Pennington

            Nurbek Kydykeev                           Brent Royer

            Jayme  Overfield

Nominated by: James Greenspan, Ph.D., chair of the Department of Accountancy, and Richard Williams, Ph.D., associate dean of the RSCOB

Deloitte Battle of Ohio Case Competition
In its inaugural Battle of Ohio, the Wright State University team finished 3rd in this competition, ahead of the Ohio State University, Case Western, the University of Cincinnati, the University of Dayton and others.

            Jason Bruns                                    Amanda Geier

            Alex Chuna                                      Jessica Barry

Nominated by: James Greenspan, Ph.D., chair of the Department of Accountancy, and Richard Williams, Ph.D., associate dean of the RSCOB

Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) Student Paper Competition
Wright State’s team of students placed 1st in the annual autonomous lawnmower competition Held in Dayton, 3rd at the Dayton Section of the IEEE Student Paper Competition earlier this year, and followed that accomplishment with a 2nd place award at the national competition held in early May.

            Ronald Dexter                        Brian Roadruck

            Elena McClellan                      Bella Yao

Nominated by: Kuldip Rattan, Ph.D., professor of electrical engineering and computer science and engineering.

High Altitude Balloon Team
The team of three students earned 2nd place for their presentation at the 2012 American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Region III Student Conference, Team Category. Their paper was also accepted and presented at the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Structures, Structural Dynamics and Materials Conference, Gossamer Spacecraft Forum. (This team is the first group of any kind to launch a ballute, or parachute/balloon structure, deploy it in rare earth, and evaluate the free-fall stability characteristics.)

            Michelle Erford

            Emily Henry

            James May

Nominated by: Joseph Slater, Ph.D., professor and associate dean, and S. Narayanan, Ph.D., professor and dean of the CECS

Incubator for the Democratic Republic of the Congo Senior Design Team
This three-member team of Biomedical Engineering students was one of 24 teams chosen from universities across the country to compete in the 2012 Rice University Global Health Technologies Design Competition. The team’s infant incubator prototype is the product of their capstone senior design project, and was developed in response to the medical needs of the refugee, indigent and orphan population of Goma in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The students’ prototype so impressed the physician who directs outreach efforts there that three additional incubators were built for transport to the Congo in June.

            Jacob Durndel

            Jessica Hernandez

            Joanne Newton

Nominated by: David Reynolds, Ph.D., Biomedical Engineer Program director, and Thomas Hangartner, Ph.D., chair of the Department of Biomedical, Industrial and Human Factors.

Society for the Advancement of Management (SAM) Team
Two Wright State SAM teams insured the university’s 10th consecutive awards at their annual case competition. The graduate team placed 1^st and the undergraduate team placed 2nd, outperforming 26 competitors from around the country.

            Graduate Team:                       Undergraduate Team:

            Michael Durant                        Lawrence (Bill) Hawkins

            Brittany Harper                        Michelle Weikert

            Katie Kokoi

Nominated by: Lisa Crawford, lecturer and team advisor, and Bud Baker, Ph.D., professor and interim chair of the Department of Management.

National Model United Nations Team
For the 33rd consecutive year, Wright State University’s MUN Team received an Outstanding Delegation Award. The students were responsible for researching and representing the foreign policy of the United Kingdom and Northern Ireland in 12 different United Nations committees. The team also earned five Outstanding Committee Delegate awards (voted by peers) and eight Outstanding Committee Position Paper awards.

            Emily Anderson                        Jonathan Maze

            Devin Babcock                           Katherine Perry

            Caitlyn Banis                              Jacquelyn Schroeder

            Matthew Conaway                   William Scott

            Kuyer Fazekas, Jr.                    Anthony Stahl

            Tiffany Fridley                            Julia Stidham

            Doriane Gillet                             Hanna Tarbert

            Celia Haro-Ruiz                          Daniel Thomas

            Andrea Jacoby                            Marc Tshimanyika

            Jonas Kiessling                          Adam Verdecchia

            Emily Little                                  Melissa Walker

            Phillip Logan                              Allyn Watts

            Drew Marcy

Nominated by: Vaughn Shannon, Ph.D. associate professor and co-advisor, and Donna Schagheck, Ph.D., professor and chair of Political Science