2018-2019 News Archive
NCSSM Connected Computing class featured in Education NC.
"Connected Computing" IVC students will debut their animal perception coding projects at May 11 NC zoo event
Students in Charlotte Dungan's IVC class "Connected Computing: Solving Global Challenges with Code" have been using their new knowledge of coding to develop projects around animal perception -- a game-based phone app to experience how a red wolf relies upon its keen sense of hearing, a honey bee suit designed to simulate the way that American honey bees dance to communicate the location of food, a turtle bot that highlights the life-threatening dangers faced by snapping turtles due to their low-and-slow locomotion. This Saturday, the students, from five high schools across the state, will present their work at the North Carolina Zoo's Birds, Blooms, Bees, and Butterflies event. Read the story.
Credit: Daily Unicorn
Charlotte Dungan is new AI Program Architect for Ryden AI Program
We are excited to announce that Charlotte Dungan is transitioning from Instructor of Computer Science to her new role as AI Program Architect in The Ryden Program for Innovation and Leadership in Artificial Intelligence. Charlotte was a computer programmer in industry for 10 years before moving into education. She holds an Ed.M. from Harvard University in Learning and Teaching and has developed learning materials in a wide variety of K-12 contexts.
Charlotte has taught in a wide variety of contexts, including alternative schools, twice exceptional programs, and camps, and ran an educational consulting company with STEM classes for K-12 students. She also conducted research with computer science educators at Harvard as part of the Creative Computing group.
Charlotte joined NCSSM in 2018 and has developed innovative and highly-valued IVC computer science courses as part of the STEM Scholars program. She was recently recognized as the Educator Award Winner for NCWIT and has presented at a variety of computer science and teaching conferences, including NCSSS this past November. She currently serves on the AI4K12 working group to create national guidelines for AI education. Charlotte's unique combination of curriculum writing experience, educational background, and AI content knowledge, as well her continuing work in equity and diversity, will be major assets in developing innovative AI programming here at NCSSM.
Credit: Joe LoBuglio
Former NCSSM STEM Scholars Student wins Rising Star Award for NC Western Region of National Center for Women and Information Technology (NCWIT)
Mia Hughes, an NCSSM IVC student from Brevard High School, has just won the 2019 Rising Star Award for the NC western region of the NCWIT Award for Aspirations in Computing. Mia was a student in the 9th grade STEM Scholars program and is taking high level classes to pursue her goals in becoming a computer scientist in biotechnology. Charlotte Dungan, Instructor of Computer Science at NCSSM, was her recommender for this honor. The award ceremony is April 6 in Charlotte, NC. Congratulations to Mia and to everyone who has supported STEM Scholars in giving computing opportunities to rural students. You can read more information about Mia at https://www.aspirations.org/user/133216.
Credit: Charlotte Dungan
Engineering Instructor, Garrett Love, Influences Engineering Instruction Across the Globe
Our very own Garrett Love, Instructor of Engineering, received a note from Daniel Löwenborg, Senior Lecturer in Archaeology, Uppsala University, and Associate Professor II, University of Bergen with some thanks:
"Just wanted to send thanks to you! I have been using your labs with Chi2 analysis in GIS from SpatiaLABS quite a bit in the past few years, teaching archaeology and GIS in Sweden, Norway and China, and I really enjoy the labs you have created, and find them as excellent examples for my teaching! Quantitative methods in largely forgotten in Scandinavian archaeology, so I very much enjoy trying to bring it back to the teaching curriculum here, it is getting increasingly important with all the archaeological data that is becoming available."
Credit: Daily Unicorn and the DEEP Newsletter
Four NCSSM Alum Win Sustainability Contest at NC State
Four NCSSM Alum Jackson Bostian, William Jordan, Tanya Mittal and Nicholas Schwankl received the Make-A-Thon Grand Prize at NC State in a competition of over 30 teams for their work designing smart windows that can adapt to changing levels of sunlight. The Make-a-Thon is an annual sustainability competition at NC State in which student research, design and prototype challenges in sustainability. This year, the competitions was held from Feb. 1 -3 and included a range of submissions including an internet of things connected sensor (2nd place) and an concrete mix integrated with recycled plastic (3rd place). For more information visit, https://sustainability.ncsu.edu/get-involved/events/makeathon/
Photo Credit: https://sustainability.ncsu.edu/blog/2019/02/06/make-a-thon-2019/
CS Instructor Charlotte Dungan Wins 2019 NCWIT Aspirations in Computing Educator Award
Charlotte Dungan, an NCSSM Instructor of Computer Science, has won the 2019 NCWIT Aspirations in Computing Educator Award for North Carolina. She will be recognized for her educational work in challenging and inspiring young women to investigate futures in computing and engineering. The award ceremony is April 13 from 2-4pm at Campbell University.
Credit: Charlotte Dungan
Former NCSSM STEM Scholars Student wins Rising Star Award
Jayden Sansom, an NCSSM IVC student from the Chatham School of Science and Engineering has just won the 2019 Rising Star Award for the NC region of the NCWIT Award for Aspirations in Computing. Jayden was a student in the initial cohort of 9th grade STEM Scholars and has kept in touch as she pursues her goals in becoming a computer scientist. Charlotte Dungan, Instructor of Computer Science at NCSSM, was her recommender for this honor. The award ceremony is April 13 at Campbell University. Congratulations to Jayden and to everyone who has supported STEM Scholars in giving computing opportunities to rural students.
Credit: Charlotte Dungan
The NC Zoo’s New Distance Learning Partnership
The North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics, located in Durham, NC, has a distance education program that teaches rural students across the state using video conferencing for daily classroom interactions. They’ve started a computer science class called Connected Computing: Solving Global Challenges with Code that teaches students to build animal perception experiences using app development, robotics, and web design. The goal is to increase empathy for the natural world using applied technologies. This program is run in partnership with the North Carolina Zoo and Tech to Reconnect, an initiative of San Diego Zoo global. Students say: “This class will teach you how to solve problems by inventing. It mixes a variety of interests, from building and programming to sewing and designing. Building empathy for animals is important because we want people to be able to understand what they are doing to their environment. If we build more empathy for animals, we may be less likely to litter or encourage habitat destruction since we understand what they are feeling and going through. Hopefully, these projects will inspire others to feel empathy towards animals and to change the world for the better.” Students will showcase their new technologies that allow visitors to experience how animals perceive the world at the zoo this May. - News from the North Carolina Zoo’s Conservation, Education and Science Section, December 2018
Zebracorns present at ROSCon 2018 in Spain
A team of current and former members of NCSSM's Zebracorns robotics team traveled to Madrid in September to present at the ROSCon 2018 conference. The team was invited to present on their work bringing the ROS (Robotic Operating System) framework to the FIRST Robotics Competition. Traveling were: two current Zebracorn programming team leaders (Olivia Fugikawa '20 and Niall Mulane '19), two former programming team leaders (Ryan Greenblatt '18, now at Brown University, and Anja Sheppard '18, now at UT Dallas), and three mentors (Marshall Massengill '05, Meg Massengill, and Kevin Jaget '91). Check out the team's presentation video and slides.
Credit: Daily Unicorn
Welcome Shalane
We are excited to announce Shalane Hairston joining our team in support of our physics and fabrication laboratory programs. Shalane earned a Bachelors of Science in Physics from North Carolina Central University and worked closely with the COHERENT project at Triangle Universities Nuclear Laboratories (TUNL), where Shalane was in charge of simulation and calibration of a two ton Sodium Iodide (NaI) detector that was deployed to Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Shalane will be working with our physics faculty and students to ensure course laboratories are a great learning experience and Shalane will also support the NCSSM community’s use of the Peter T. Haughton Fabrication and Innovation Laboratory. Welcome Shalane!
09/05/2018
Welcome Bec Conrad
We are excited to announce that Bec Conrad will be with NCSSM in the role of FabLab manager starting in August first, 2018. An artist and an Engineer, Bec has a bachelor’s and master’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of New Hampshire and a master’s in Fine Arts from the Rhode Island School of Design. As an adjunct professor in the Sculpture + Extended media department at the Virginia Commonwealth University, Bec has recently taught Oxy Acetylene Welding, MIG Welding & Plasma Cutting, Kinetic Mechanisms, and Arduino & Robotics. As a technologist for Tellart, Bec engineered and produced mechanical systems to control and actuate components of interactive installations, such as an acclaimed future vehicle concept released at a global auto show. Bec also claims these accomplishments: building robots to neutralize underwater explosives, programming arena-scale animatronic dragons for Dreamworks, and supporting an FDA approved wheelchair that climbs up stairs. Bec has been with NCSSM in other roles where she provided student instruction and assisted with faculty and student engineering projects in the Fab Lab.
08/01/2018