Sustainability Coordinator Kelly Boulton ‘02 and Assistant Professor of Environmental Science Jennifer DeHart attended the AASHE (Association for Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education) Conference in Raleigh, N.C., in November. DeHart chaired a session on institutional change and presented a co-authored paper, “Green Honchos: How Allegheny College’s Taskforce for Environmental Responsibility Created Eco-minded Administrators.” The co-authors include all members of the College’s Taskforce for Environmental Responsibility.
Professor of Environmental Science Richard Bowden co-authored the presentation “Effects of Plant Litter Input on Lignin Degradation in Forest Soils” at the Eurosoil Conference in Vienna, Austria. The paper described research from experimental sites in Germany and at Allegheny’s Bousson Experimental Forest that examines how alteration of organic matter inputs affects biogeochemical processes controlling soil organic matter content and fertility in forest soils.
Visiting Assistant Professor TJ Eatmon co-authored a conference paper, “Political Feasibility, Environmental Sustainability, and Economic Efficiency Analysis of Conventional and Advanced Biofuels Technologies in the U.S.,” that was presented at the Global Conference on Sustainable Product Development and Life Cycle Engineering at Busan National University in Korea. The co-authors are members of the Sustainable Futures Institute at Michigan Technological University and include Michael Brodeur-Campbell, Jill Jensen, and David Shonnard of the Department of Chemical Engineering and John Sutherland from the Department of Mechanical Engineering-Engineering Mechanics. The paper examines three technologies for producing ethanol, including sugar sources, corn starch, and lignocellulosic biomass along criteria such as the ability of each to meet the Renewable Fuel Standards (RFS) of the United States Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007, greenhouse gas emissions, land use change emissions, fossil energy consumption, land and water usage for each technology to meet the RFS, revenue generated, and the net economic value of investment in an additional ethanol production facility based on each technology.
Assistant Professor of Computer Science Matthew Jadud presented a paper, “Safe Parallelism for Behavioral Control,” written with colleagues at the University of Kent in Canterbury, England, at the first IEEE conference on Technologies for Practical Robotic Applications (TePRA) in Woburn, Massachusetts in November. The paper describes an international collaborative effort that brought parallel programming to the classroom at Olin College in Needham, Massachusetts. Already, students at Allegheny have begun exploring these ideas in CMPSC 190: Virtual Worlds and Real Robots, and more students will dig deeper into languages and robotics in CMPSC 220: Programming Languages.
Jason Jannot ‘93 and Scott Wissinger, professor of biology and environmental science, recently published a research article in the Biological Journal of the Linnean Society titled “Diet and developmental time constraints alter life history tradeoffs in high elevation caddisflies.” The research was conducted at the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory in Colorado, where the authors have collaborated since Jannot was an undergraduate student at Allegheny. Jannot is currently a postdoctoral associate at Illinois State University.
Assistant Professor of Computer Science Gregory M. Kapfhammer and Adam M. Smith ‘08 recently had a paper accepted for publication in the Proceedings of the 24th Annual ACM Symposium on Applied Computing. The paper, “An Empirical Investigation of Incorporating Cost into Test Suite Reduction and Prioritization,” reports on regression testing techniques that use test case execution time and coverage data. The experimental results in the paper highlight new ways to save software testers time by quickly finding faults in real world software applications. Smith continues to pursue research in this area as a Ph.D. student in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Pittsburgh. The Web site http://www.cs.allegheny.edu/~gkapfham/research/papers/ furnishes additional details about the paper and other articles authored by Kapfhammer and students in Allegheny’s Department of Computer Science.
Director of Administrative Information Services Rich Metzger and Jason Ramsey ‘98 (also of AIS) helped organize the second annual Pennsylvania Area Datatel Users Group (PADUG) conference at Susquehanna University in Selinsgrove on Oct. 13 and 14. Ramsey also co-presented a session with Jodi Millin (Financial Services) on Entrinsik Informer as a web-reporting tool for the college administration and co-presented with Jason Andracki (Admissions) on Allegheny’s use of the Common Application in the admissions process. Pete Gifford (AIS) presented a session on his web-based system for submitting and tracking work-study time sheets and co-presented with Keri Fadden (Learning Commons) on Allegheny’s innovative academic standards reports, which provide key contact on student academic issues between the faculty advisor, Dean of Students office, Registrar, Learning Commons, and Athletics.
The work of Assistant Professor of Photography Darren Lee Miller is featured in a new book, The Nude Male: 21st Century Visions, by David Leddick, the popular and acclaimed author of 2001’s Male Nude Now. 21st Century Visions is the latest and most current survey of the male nude form, as seen through the eyes of today’s most important and influential artists. This collection showcases such prominent photographers and illustrators as David Hockney, Sam Taylor-Wood, Clive Barker, Mark Beard, Tom Bianchi, Reed Masengill, Nan Goldin, Bruce La Bruce, and Duane Michals, presenting images ranging from the erotic to fantastic, romantic, dangerous, and funny. The book features the work of more than 120 visual artists. Examples of Miller’s work can be found at http://www.darrenleemiller.com.
Bill Ross, the head coach of the College’s cross country and track and field teams, has been elected for induction into the Thiel College Athletics Hall of Fame. He will be inducted as a member of the Class of 2009 on Feb. 8. Ross coached Thiel’s men’s and women’s track and field teams from 1990 to 1996. He won four Presidents’ Athletic Conference track and field titles — two with the men’s team (1992, 1996) and two with the women (1991, 1996). He was twice named the Mideast Region Coach of the Year (1995, 1996) and was honored as the PAC Coach of the Year three times. Ross also coached two individual NCAA outdoor track and field champions, two ECAC Division III champions, 26 national qualifiers, and 12 NCAA All-Americans.
Instructor Richard Sayer has won several awards for his work as a photojournalist with the Meadville Tribune. In the annual photography contest of the News Photographers Association of Greater Pittsburgh, Sayer was awarded second place in the sports portfolio competition and an honorable mention for a sports action shot of a Saegertown second baseman desperately trying to flip a ball to the shortstop in front of a sliding player. He also won two regional awards in 2008, both sports photographs, in contests that include Washington, D.C., Maryland, Virginia, New Jersey, Delaware, and Pennsylvania. Sayer was also part of the team that won first place for best use of photography in the Pennsylvania Newspaper Association’s annual Newspaper of the Year competition.
People & Places, published monthly during the academic year by the Office of the President, reports on the professional activities of members of the College community and highlights student achievements. Please submit items to people@allegheny.edu. We reserve the right to edit copy for length.
