- University News Archive - ��Vlog��ý Little Rock

Chan Family Marks Professor’s Legacy with $6.75 Million Gift to Benefit ��Vlog��ý Little Rock Engineering Programs

John Hill — Mon, 17 Oct 2022 15:39:29 +0000

The University of Arkansas at Little Rock has received a $6.75 million gift from the family of a beloved engineering professor who was responsible for establishing some of the university’s first engineering programs. The Yupo and Susan Chan Charitable Trust made the gift to fulfill the expressed vision of Dr. Yupo Chan, the founding chair of the Department of Systems Engineering, who passed away in 2020. The transformational gift will support ��Vlog��ý Little Rock’s new School of Engineering and Engineering Technology and provide scholarships for engineering students for many years to come. This gift represents the fifth largest donation in the university’s history and kicks off an important moment as ��Vlog��ý Little Rock celebrates the public launch of its new capital campaign. The gift was announced Oct. 13 during the official launch celebration of the Centennial Campaign, which commemorates the university’s upcoming centennial anniversary in 2027. “Education was very important to Yupo,” his wife Susan Chan said. “Yupo’s vision boiled down to an interest in helping make ��Vlog��ý Little Rock an important center for engineering and operations research. The two things he most enjoyed about working at ��Vlog��ý Little Rock were mentoring individual students to make a difference in their lives and doing engineering research. He wanted to make a significant difference to ��Vlog��ý Little Rock.” The gift from the Yupo and Susan Chan Charitable Trust, for which Susan Chan and her niece Alexandra Johnson serve as trustees, includes:

$1.5 million to establish the Yupo Chan Director of the School of Engineering Endowment
$2 million to create the Chan Wui and Yunyin Endowed Undergraduate Scholarship
$3.25 million to create the Chan Wui and Yunyin Endowed Graduate Scholarship

“Dr. Chan was an extraordinary leader and mentor,” said Dr. Christina Drale, chancellor of ��Vlog��ý Little Rock. “His accomplishments at this university touched many lives and helped elevate our engineering school to national prominence. This gift will continue the transformational effect on students and programs that he was known for and to which he dedicated his career.”

Dr. Lawrence Whitman, right, dean of the Donaghey College of STEM at ��Vlog��ý Little Rock, is moved as a portrait of the late professor Yupo Chan is unveiled by his niece Alex Johnson, and wife, Susan Chan, who were honored for their family’s $6.75 million gift to benefit the School of Engineering and Engineering Technology.

The Yupo Chan Director of the School of Engineering Endowment will provide funds to benefit the university’s School of Engineering and Engineering Technology, which launched July 1 in the Donaghey College of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM). “Dr. Chan served as the initial chair of systems engineering and brought engineering to our campus,” said Dr. Lawrence Whitman, dean of the Donaghey College of STEM. “Dr. Chan’s legacy will continue to positively impact engineering at our university by strengthening the School of Engineering and Engineering Technology at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. We are grateful to the Chans for the transformational gift that will provide for the future of engineering on our campus.” The endowment will help attract and recruit highly qualified individuals to the position of the director of the School of Engineering, which will be named for Dr. Chan, and provide the director with the resources to further their contributions to teaching, research, and public service. The fund will also supplement university support for outstanding faculty in the school. The scholarships will provide assistance to full- and part-time undergraduate and graduate students studying engineering and engineering technology at ��Vlog��ý Little Rock for education related expenses, including tuition, books, fees, and room and board. Scholarship recipients will be selected based on financial need and/or merit. The scholarships are named in memory of Dr. Chan’s parents to honor their commitment to education. During the Communist takeover of China, the country seized the family’s property, and the Chan family fled to the British colony of Hong Kong in the 1950s.

Susan Chan and Alex Johnson, wife and niece of the late Professor Yupo Chan, are honored at the ��Vlog��ý Little Rock Centennial Campaign Gala for their family’s $6.75 million gift to benefit the School of Engineering and Engineering Technology. Photos by Ben Krain

“Yupo’s parents believed strongly in the value of education, that education was the path toward success in life,” Susan Chan said. “They sent Yupo to a very good Hong Kong Catholic High School that prepared him to be admitted to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.” Dr. Chan received a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering, a master’s degree in transportation systems, and a Ph.D. in operations research, all from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His academic career included positions at the State University of New York at Stoney Brook, Penn State, the University of Washington, and the Air Force Institute of Technology. He joined ��Vlog��ý Little Rock in 2000, where he spent two decades as a leading engineering educator and researcher. Dr. Chan founded the Chan Wui and Yunyin Rising Star Workshop to consider the analytical relationship between mobility and communication and established a chapter of Tau Beta Pi, an honor society for engineering students, at ��Vlog��ý Little Rock. In later years at ��Vlog��ý Little Rock, he worked with a team of scientists to develop a small, cost-effective way to observe atmospheric levels of greenhouse gasses using CubeSats.

Largest NSF Grant Awarded to ��Vlog��ý Little Rock Will Support Ongoing Undergraduate STEM Education Efforts

John Hill — Mon, 12 Sep 2022 13:05:40 +0000

The University of Arkansas at Little Rock has been awarded a nearly $2 million grant from the (NSF) to enhance teaching and learning and to promote student success in undergraduate STEM education. This is the largest grant ��Vlog��ý Little Rock has ever received from the National Science Foundation. The $1,999,986 five-year grant from the NSF will be used to provide support for faculty and students in the Donaghey College of STEM with a specific focus on supporting students from historically underserved groups. The researchers will use the grant, “NSF IUSE Institutional and Community Transformation Level II: Upholding Active Learning Reform in STEM,” to grow the use of evidence-based teaching practices to increase student engagement and retention in undergraduate STEM education. “A strong STEM workforce is critical for our country,” said Dr. Lawrence Whitman, dean of the Donaghey College of STEM. “To build and sustain a strong STEM workforce, we must educate students for next-generation careers. To properly educate these students, we must transform our education. I am beyond pleased to see that this funding will continue the excellent work of our faculty. We are grateful to the National Science Foundation and their support of this transformational project.” The interdisciplinary team led by Dr. Mark Baillie, assistant professor of chemistry, is a collaboration with faculty from the STEM Education Center (Dr. Michael Moore, director of undergraduate research and mentoring), the School of Education (Dr. Lundon Pinneo, assistant professor) and the Office of the Provost (Dr. David Montague, associate vice chancellor for student success). Ronia Kattoum, an advanced instructor of chemistry and Ph.D. student in applied sciences-chemistry, is working as the project’s graduate assistant. “Our main focus is to increase the number of underserved students who successfully complete STEM courses,” Pinneo said. “We want to identify current barriers for faculty and improve support systems so campus-wide we can close the equity gap.” Students from historically underserved populations, first-generation students, and Pell Grant recipients are likely to encounter barriers to their success in their lecture-based STEM courses. Baillie says that traditional teaching methods are often a barrier to students reaching their potential. “People’s journeys through education are very different,” Baillie said. “If you can create a classroom environment that gives everyone the opportunity to engage, then everyone will learn and progress.” To support faculty members as they learn about and adopt more student-centered and inclusive teaching strategies, ��Vlog��ý Little Rock will utilize successful NSF-funded interventions including the expansion of the Mobile Institute on Scientific Teaching (MoSI) and the Learning Assistant Program in the Donaghey College of STEM. Currently, ��Vlog��ý Little Rock is the only higher education institution in Arkansas with these two highly successful programs that focus on faculty and student success. The grant builds upon the previous success of these programs by allowing many more faculty and students within the Donaghey College of STEM to participate in these initiatives.

��Vlog��ý Little Rock teaching assistants and professors participate in the Mobile Institute on Scientific Teaching workshop. Photos by Ben Krain.

“��Vlog��ý Little Rock has a rich history in the STEM area, with innovative programming for faculty as well as major initiatives focused on student success,” Montague said. “This funding will certainly help promote the future of STEM education in Arkansas.” MoSI workshops focus on active learning and other evidence-based teaching practices. Research on teaching and learning shows that students are 1 ½ times more likely to pass classes in active learning classrooms than in traditional lectures. Prior to receiving this grant, about 20 percent of ��Vlog��ý Little Rock faculty completed the weeklong workshop on their own time. The grant will reward future faculty to participate in the workshop by providing a $500 stipend for 75 STEM faculty members to complete the workshop over the next five years. Starting in the spring 2023 semester, faculty will be recruited to join the first cohort of participants. The grant also provides a $975 stipend for 605 students to participate in the Learning Assistant Program. The assistants will provide peer learning support for more than 9,000 of their classmates over the five years of the grant. The stipends will allow greater access for many students who previously couldn’t afford to volunteer for this leadership role. By the end of the project, ��Vlog��ý Little Rock plans to support approximately 250 learning assistants per year. Further opportunities will be provided for faculty who have successfully completed the MoSI workshop to improve their teaching skills. The researchers will form Communities of Practice – small groups of up to five faculty members who will meet bi-weekly to offer peer support and build out their expertise. Faculty who participate will each receive stipends of $1,000. The grant will also fund one graduate student and one postdoctoral researcher for five years, as well as a series of speakers that will focus on implementing student-centered practices. ��Vlog��ý Little Rock will also create a Community of Transformation annually for faculty members who have participated in the Communities of Practice. This group of 10 change agents will discuss and plan efforts to enact policy changes focusing on student success and closing the student equity gap. The grant also provides up to $5,000 a year for five years for faculty and administrators in the Donaghey College of STEM to implement ideas that emerge from the Community of Transformation. “We want to emphasize how the departments and programs are encouraging their own teachers,” Moore said. “This is a multi-prong approach by the whole university on how to support a successful culture of teaching. It speaks to the credibility of the support we have across the university and from our partners. This is a win for ��Vlog��ý Little Rock.” Caption: ��Vlog��ý Little Rock professors, from left, Mark Baillie, Ronia Kattoum, Michael Moore, David Montague, and Lundon Pinneo are working on a National Science Foundation project to improve undergraduate education in the Donaghey College of STEM. Photo by Ben Krain.

��Vlog��ý Little Rock Sees Unprecedented Growth in First-Time Freshmen, Transfer, and Graduate Students for Fall 2022

John Hill — Wed, 07 Sep 2022 19:31:21 +0000

The University of Arkansas at Little Rock exceeded its enrollment predictions and is experiencing record-setting growth for first-time freshmen, transfer, and graduate students for the fall 2022 semester. “This positive enrollment news reflects our commitment to provide an affordable, high-quality education connected to opportunity in Arkansas’ capital city and beyond,” said Chancellor Christina Drale. “I’m really proud of our Trojan family for making this a reality. Everyone has a part to play in the mission of student success and, across the board, I can say that everyone at ��Vlog��ý Little Rock is leaning into this effort. We look forward to working with these new students and helping them reach their full potential. This includes an unprecedented growth of 29 percent for first-time freshmen, while transfer students are up 8 percent and graduate students, 5 percent. “��Vlog��ý Little Rock is experiencing its largest percent increase in first-time freshmen and transfer students in over a decade,” said Dr. Cody Decker, vice chancellor for student affairs and chief data officer. “In addition to new student enrollment growth, student success measures continue to rise, with fall-to-fall retention improving from 65 percent to 75 percent. ��Vlog��ý Little Rock has a highly qualified incoming class of freshmen with an average high school GPA of 3.3 and average ACT score of 22.4.” The positive increase in enrollment is attributed to ��Vlog��ý Little Rock’s focus on college affordability, the university’s investment in the learning and living environment, and a commitment to increasing student success. “We have focused on making sure prospective students are aware of all the opportunities available at ��Vlog��ý Little Rock, including the university’s competitive scholarship portfolio,” said Decker. “For example, one option for our incoming freshmen is a half-off tuition scholarship for eligible students. That scholarship supports our mission of making college accessible to Arkansans and was made possible by the generosity of an anonymous donor who gave the university $25 million dollars in 2020.” ��Vlog��ý Little Rock is also providing opportunities for nontraditional students to fulfill their goals of earning a college education. The university’s new corporate partnerships make it easier for working adults to go to school. Some of the new partnerships include the Amazon Career Choice Program as well as a tuition and fee discount for employees of CHI St. Vincent and Saline Memorial Hospital. ��Vlog��ý Little Rock saw a continued increase in graduate school education. The positive enrollment follows a 45 percent increase in graduate applications and 31 percent increase in admissions. The Department of Information Science saw the highest jump with an increase of 86 percent. Enrollment in history, computer science, art and design, and biology graduate programs were also on the rise.

��Vlog��ý Little Rock students celebrate the first week of fall classes during Food Truck Friday. Photo by Ben Krain.

With the university seeing a rise in enrollment in many programs in the Donaghey College of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics, this is an exciting time for STEM education at ��Vlog��ý Little Rock. The university has exciting things in the works that will pave the way for STEM education for many years to come. “Graduate education continues to be a priority for many baccalaureate prepared students due to the value that a graduate degree brings,” said Dr. Brian Berry, vice provost of research and dean of the Graduate School. “This is particularly true in the fields of cybersecurity, information science, and information quality as evidenced by their significant growth this year. Growth in these areas is critical for developing the workforce needed to meet the demands of our growing, knowledge-based economy here in Arkansas and across the region.” The university has also worked to ensure prospective students know about the social and educational benefits of living on campus. The result has been an increase in housing occupancy by more than 11 percent over last year. “We are excited to welcome so many new and returning students to our beautiful campus,” said Patti Light, director of campus living. “We have seen more students wanting the connection that living on campus brings. They are right where their friends and classes meet.” Compared to the fall 2021 semester, ��Vlog��ý Little Rock’s overall enrollment is down 2.7 percent with a total enrollment of 8,103 for the fall semester. While overall enrollment is still down across many college campuses, ��Vlog��ý Little Rock is outperforming its overall enrollment projections by about 3 percent. “At ��Vlog��ý Little Rock, we have made it our mission to focus on providing the best college experience for our students,” said Kindle Holderby, assistant vice chancellor of enrollment management. “Whether it’s a campus visit, attending orientation, or enrolling with an advisor, ensuring that students and their families have a positive experience will always be our top priority.”

��Vlog��ý Little Rock Creates Four New Schools to Increase Student Success

John Hill — Wed, 31 Aug 2022 14:20:25 +0000

The University of Arkansas at Little Rock has created four new schools to better serve students and meet the needs of Arkansas’s capital city. The academic reorganization combines the leadership and academic programs of several smaller departments into schools that better align with the university’s mission of supporting student success, teaching, collaboration, and research opportunities. The combination of the academic programs into four new schools will improve administrative efficiency and encourage constructive interdisciplinary collaboration in teaching and research among involved faculty. The new schools began operation on July 1, and each school will be headed by a director that will be selected by an academic search committee. The new schools include the School of Engineering and Engineering Technology and the School of Physical Sciences in the Donaghey College of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) as well as the School of Literary and Performing Arts and the School of Human Inquiry in the College of Humanities, Arts, Social Studies, and Education (CHASSE). The School of Engineering and Engineering Technology brings together the departments of systems engineering and engineering technology. The school will include the university’s programs in electronics and computer engineering technology, mechanical engineering technology, mechanical engineering, and electrical and computer engineering. Dr. Srikanth Pidugu, professor of mechanical engineering technology, is serving as interim director of the school. The School of Physical Sciences joins the departments of chemistry, physics and astronomy, and Earth Sciences. The new school will include the bachelor’s degree programs in chemistry, geology, physics, as well as minors in astronomy, chemistry, environmental geology, geology, and physics. Dr. Tansel Karabacak, professor of physics and former chair of the Department of Physics and Astronomy, is the interim director of the school. “To better serve our students, we have reconfigured smaller departments into a school model. This model allows us to modify positions to focus on our programs and ensure that student needs are met,” said Dr. Lawrence Whitman, dean of the Donaghey College of STEM. “The new associate dean is focused on the pre-health programs and lab and classroom improvement. The program coordinators are available to ensure student needs are addressed in a timely manner. The new structure improves our efficiency and ability to serve students.” The School of Literary and Performing Arts combines the Department of Theatre and Dance, the Department of English, and the Department of Music. Dr Kris McAbee, associate professor of English, and Stacy Pendergraft, associate professor of actor training, are serving as interim co-directors of the School of Literary and Performing Arts. The School of Human Inquiry will combine the Department of Philosophy and Interdisciplinary Studies and the Department of Sociology and Anthropology into one academic unit. The school also includes the religious study and gender study minor programs. Dr. Michael Norton, the former chair of the Department of Philosophy and Interdisciplinary Studies and a professor of philosophy, is serving as the interim director. “These new schools allow for greater interdisciplinary collaboration that will benefit students and our community,” said Dr. Sarah Beth Estes, dean of CHASSE. “The programs in the School of Human Inquiry help us visualize and analyze culture and ourselves. Programs in the School of Literary and Performing Arts invite us to experience the human condition through the arts. In this way, both schools help us make sense of and engage in our communities, both large and small. I am impressed and inspired by the school directors and program faculty who are everyday creating new opportunities for students and other stakeholders, and I look forward to sharing school innovations as they emerge.”

Seven ��Vlog��ý Little Rock Students Selected for Acxiom Diversity Scholarship Program

John Hill — Wed, 03 Aug 2022 12:58:45 +0000

Seven students from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock have been selected for this year’s Acxiom Diversity Scholarship program. , the customer intelligence company whose data-driven solutions create business growth by enabling better customer experiences, annually selects 10 college students for the program. The initiative offers $5,000 scholarships to full-time students from diverse backgrounds majoring in computer science, computer information systems, management information systems, information quality, information systems, engineering, mathematics, and statistics or related areas of study. “Acxiom is committed to providing an avenue for students from all backgrounds to pursue their dreams through computer science and information technology careers,” said Mary Ward, chief people officer at Acxiom. “In our increasingly global economy, building a diverse workforce leads to better innovation, culture, and outcomes for everyone.” This year’s Acxiom Diversity Scholarship recipients from ��Vlog��ý Little Rock and their majors include Oluwaseyi Adeliyi, information science; Abiola Sylvester Akinnubi, information science; Dayo Banjo, computer science; Mayor Gurung, information science; John Intifunie Nsaman, business information systems and analytics; Sodiq Oyedotun, business information systems and analytics; and Connice Trimmingham, computer science. “We are very thankful to the opportunities provided to our students by the Acxiom Diversity Scholarship,” said Dr. Elizabeth Pierce, chair of the Department of Information Science at ��Vlog��ý Little Rock. “This program not only helps to increase the diversity in the IT profession, it also helps to recruit and retain the next generation of talented, hard-working individuals who we’ll be counting on to solve critical data challenges.” Mayor Gurung, a graduate student from Kathmandu, Nepal, said she felt honored to be a recipient of the 2022 Acxiom Diversity Scholarship. “It’s an encouragement to do even better as it will finance my educational needs and fund my future research project,” Gurung said. “More importantly, it will push me as well as women in my community to dream big, we just have to take the initiative. I want to thank Acxiom for promoting diversity and making a difference.” Through this scholarship, Acxiom aims to create a more inclusive pipeline of future technology talent and help close the equity gap by providing access to education for individuals underrepresented in the field. Abiola Sylvester Akinnubi, who is pursuing a Ph.D. in computer and information science, said this experience will help him with his plans to mentor and help underprivileged and underrepresented students after he graduates. “I also believe this will motivate me to provide a leadership voice to people and help others continuously,” Akinnubi said. “As I return to the industry, I will be able to contribute using the knowledge and experience from my Ph.D. program in contributing to various technology roles that I find myself in the future. I am sure Acxiom will find me a worthy ambassador now and in the end.” With five of the Acxiom Diversity Scholarship recipients being members of ��Vlog��ý Little Rock’s Collaboratorium for Social Media and Online Behavioral Studies (COSMOS) Research Center, Dr. Nitin Agarwal, Maulden-Entergy chair and distinguished professor of information science and the founding director of COSMOS, expressed pride for his students’ accomplishments. “I am extremely proud of our students for receiving this honor!,” Agarwal said. “The Acxiom Diversity Scholarship program provides unique opportunities for our students to become next-generation leaders in developing data-driven solutions to challenging technical and societal issues.” The Acxiom Diversity Scholarship Program, now in its 10th year, also offers summer internships to willing recipients. Scholarship winners are selected based on their ability to demonstrate academic achievement, field of study, and professional interest related to Acxiom’s business needs. “Supporting the education of the next leaders in our industry is the most direct way we can effect change and encourage diversity within the computer science and information technology fields,” said Chad Engelgau, CEO of Acxiom. “We congratulate this year’s group of exceptional scholarship recipients and look forward to their educational achievements and career contributions in the years ahead.” Sodiq Oyedotun, a native of the Kwara state in Nigeria, said news of the program couldn’t have come at a better time. “It will help me pay my tuition, buy books, and certainly, I get to intern with Acxiom and have the opportunity to hone my skills,” Oyedotun said. “This will go a long way to shape my future career.”

Ghosh Named Interim Associate Dean of Donaghey College of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics

John Hill — Wed, 27 Jul 2022 13:34:49 +0000

Dr. Anindya Ghosh, chair of the Department of Chemistry, has been named the interim associate dean for the Donaghey College of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (DCSTEM) at ��Vlog��ý Little Rock. “I am pleased that Dr. Ghosh has agreed to serve in this important role in the college,” DCSTEM Dean Lawrence Whitman said. “We are fortunate to have a recognized scholar and an experienced leader in STEM as a new associate dean in DCSTEM. I look forward to working with him as the college moves forward.” In his new role, Ghosh will be valuable to DCSTEM’s overall mission and goals. His responsibilities include international agreements, pre-med student coordination, college curricular reviews, and graduation. He also serves as college safety coordinator, K12 STEM teaching coordinator, College Space/Lab coordinator, and STEM Hub supervisor. “In this position, I look forward to working with the College Dean Lawrence Whitman and all other leaders of the college and the university toward the shared mission and goal of supporting students, faculty, and staff,” Ghosh said. His research group at ��Vlog��ý Little Rock focuses on work surrounding green catalysis and synthesis. They use simple materials and renewable resources to develop various functional and smart materials and catalysts that can be used in applications such as small molecule activation, pollution remediation, renewable synthesis, sensor, biomedicine, fuel cell, and supercapacitors. His research has been supported by funding from ��Vlog��ý Little Rock, the Arkansas IDeA Network of Biomedical Research Excellence, private companies, the National Science Foundation, Department of Defense, and Department of Energy. After joining ��Vlog��ý Little Rock as an assistant professor in 2007, Ghosh was promoted to associate professor with tenure in 2012 and to professor in 2017. He has served as chair of the Department of Chemistry since 2019. Additionally, Ghosh has previously served as interim associate dean for research and graduate programs at ��Vlog��ý Little Rock, a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Kansas, and a senior research chemist at Halliburton Energy Services to develop oil-field chemicals. Ghosh obtained his Ph.D. from Carnegie Mellon University, working in designing and synthesizing environmentally benign oxidation catalysts for remediation of hazardous pollutants. He also earned his bachelor’s degree from Calcutta University in Calcutta, India, and his master’s degree from the Indian Institute of Technology in Kanpur, India. Ghosh was the recipient of the university-wide Faculty Excellence Award in Research in 2014 and 2020 and was selected as the Professor of the Year by the Central Arkansas American Chemical Society in 2015. He is the recipient of the Kenneth G. Hancock Memorial Award from the American Chemical Society and the Heinz Scholarship given by the Heinz Foundation. He is also a co-recipient of the Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge Award in 1999 by the Environmental Protection Agency. Additionally, he serves as a member of the editorial board for the journal Frontiers in Molecular Biosciences: Molecular Diagnostics and a guest editor of Vacuum Technology & Coatings.

Scivally Named Outstanding Academic Advisor of the Year

John Hill — Mon, 11 Jul 2022 13:15:55 +0000

Louis Scivally, student development specialist at ��Vlog��ý Little Rock, has been named the 2021-22 Outstanding Academic Advisor of the Year by the Arkansas Academic Advising Network (ArkAAN). “I am very excited to win the award,” Scivally said. “I really want to say that advising and student support intertwines. It’s not just me. I make sure the students know about all the helpful resources on campus. I work with a team of great individuals who are devoted to student success!” Scivally was selected from a wide array of nominees from different institutions across the state. To honor his commitment to the profession, the ArkAAN Executive Board awarded Scivally with a free professional membership to the organization for the 2022-23 year. “I’ve been able to keep in touch with Louis for different things over the years, through email or visiting at conferences, or sharing ideas on best practices,” said Danielle Jolie, president of ArkAAN. “He has always been an amazing colleague for me to bounce ideas off of, and I truly value the skills, personability, and advocacy he brings to the advising profession. I cannot think of anyone more deserving of this award than Louis.” Scivally earned a Bachelor of Science in printing management and a Master of Science in college student personnel services from Arkansas State University in Jonesboro. He is currently an advisor in the Donaghey College of Science, Engineering, Technology, and Mathematics, where he advises around 250 students at a time. “The words that appear most often in his student evaluations are ‘helpful,’ ‘kind,’ and ‘informative,’ and I couldn’t agree more,” said Erin Flowers, director of student services for the Donaghey College of STEM. “Louis always goes above and beyond. He is incredibly knowledgeable and, if he doesn’t know an answer, he will find it! Because of this, he is always learning and he shares what he learns with the students he advises and his colleagues.” He began his ��Vlog��ý Little Rock career in 2012 and has worked as a recruitment coordinator in the Office of Admissions as well as an advisor for the former College of Business, the former College of Social Sciences and Communication, and the College of Humanities, Arts, Social Sciences, and Education before joining the Donaghey College of STEM. In 2019, he was honored as the inaugural winner of the Trojan Outstanding Academic Advisor Award. As an academic advisor, Scivally said his strengths come from working with each student to come up with an individualized plan for their college career and professional goals. “When I started advising, my boss told me to really work and realize not everyone advises the same. Some students are completely different. You have to assess a student and figure out their needs,” Scivally said. “The most important thing I advise for my students is to have a plan and a backup plan because a lot of students change their majors during college. You can’t always plan for the future, but you can have backup plans ready.”

Donaghey College of STEM Selects Ruhl-Whittle, Siraj, Wallace as 2022 Faculty Excellence Winners

John Hill — Wed, 30 Mar 2022 12:47:13 +0000

The ��Vlog��ý Little Rock Donaghey College of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (DCSTEM) has chosen its top professors of the year. DCSTEM is honoring Dr. Laura Ruhl-Whittle, associate professor in the Department of Earth Sciences, for teaching, Dr. Noureen Siraj, assistant professor of chemistry, for research and creative endeavors, and Thomas Wallace, a senior instructor in the Department of Information Science, for public service. They will also be competing for the university-wide Faculty Excellence Awards that will be announced April 7. More information about the winners:

Faculty Excellence Award for Teaching

A popular teacher in the Department of Earth Sciences, Ruhl-Whittle is known as a creative and dedicated teacher who puts her career experience into action in the classroom with in-class activities, service learning, and scaffolded projects. She co-teaches two high-impact courses, Geology and Ecology of the Bahamas and Advanced Bahamian Research, that gives students the chance to learn about and conduct research in the Bahamas. Ruhl-Whittle has actively engaged high school, undergraduate, and graduate students in her research with projects ranging from hydrogeology to medical geology. In her hydrogeology and environmental geology courses, she works with local community partners to facilitate opportunities for students to become involved in solving Arkansas groundwater and environmental issues. Ruhl-Whittle is also an innovative thinker who is not afraid to take risks in her teaching. When the pandemic prevented the annual student research trip to the Bahamas, she developed a new assignment where students used Google Earth to create a virtual field trip of the island to share with their peers. “This exercise was interactive and engaging for the students and bridged the gap between visiting the island and learning about it from afar,” said Dr. René A. Shroat-Lewis, associate professor in the Department of Earth Sciences. Ruhl-Whittle was one of the first volunteers to participate in the Mobile Institute on Scientific Teaching in 2019. The workshops are designed to immerse faculty in an experiential learning environment where they participate as students in a classroom for a week. She then went on to co-lead the workshop in 2021. In addition, she serves as a teaching fellow with the ��Vlog��ý Little Rock Academy for Teaching and Learning Excellence and has taught webinars on teaching during the pandemic. One of her former students, Zach Smith, described Ruhl-Whittle as one of the most impactful scientists in his academic and scientific career. ‘I would not be the scientist I am today had it not been for Dr. Ruhl’s teaching and mentoring,” Smith said. “Dr. Ruhl is an educator and scientist to admire because she is brilliant, working not just to further science, but also further scientific literacy in her students. She provides experiences that make her students competitive, no matter what path they choose to take.”

Faculty Excellence Award for Research and Creative Endeavors

Dr. Noureen Siraj

Siraj has developed a reputation as a prolific researcher in the development of nanomaterials for biomedical applications and solar cell applications. In the past five years, Siraj has received more than $570,000 in funding from federal, state, and local agencies, including a nearly $190,000 grant from the National Science Foundation for the “Synthesis, Characterization, and Application of FRET based Ionic Materials.” Over the past five years, Siraj has published 34 peer-reviewed papers, given 59 conference presentations, mentored six Ph.D. students and 18 undergraduate students, and served on eight Ph.D. committees. Her research has been cited more than 700 times since 2016. In order to promote STEM education, she begins mentoring students in middle school, at a time when some students, especially girls, begin to lose interest in the sciences. She has hosted 19 middle and high school students for their science fair projects. In 2018, Meghana Bollimpalli, one of Siraj’s mentees from Central High School, earned more than $58,000 in scholarships for her science fair project at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair. Meanwhile, Stuti Chaterjee, who worked in Siraj’s lab, won the 2021 Whitbeck Memorial Award, the highest award granted to a graduating student from ��Vlog��ý Little Rock. “Dr. Siraj is an outstanding scientist and one of the best researchers on our campus,” said Dr. Brian Berry, vice provost for research and dean of the Graduate School. “Dr. Siraj has leveraged her expertise in frozen ionic liquids to develop a very active research group. The work of this group is nationally and internationally known. Out of all the faculty members that I have observed since joining ��Vlog��ý Little Rock, she is one of the most promising.”

Faculty Excellence Award for Public Service

Wallace has actively integrated his teaching to encourage his students to become involved with the community. Since 2017, he has supervised students who intern with local organizations like First Orion, Team SI, and Arkansas Times. In the annual capstone project for information technology students, he oversees student teams who develop websites and apps for state agencies, nonprofits, and local companies. Upon deployment of the projects, Wallace works with these organizations to create a long-term maintenance strategy.

Thomas Wallace

In addition, Wallace leads a week-long annual residential coding camp at ��Vlog��ý Little Rock called “GIRL Code.” This camp attracts 16 students every summer and encourages girls in 7th-9th grade to pursue careers in STEM. Now entering its sixth year, the program has attracted the support of large technology companies like Windstream and CJRW. “As I look to the future, I hope to continue to build these bridges between the university and the community and provide more opportunities for students to build their skill set while learning to support their community,” Wallace said. “I appreciate and value the chance to shape their careers and highlight the value of using one’s abilities to build a strong community around them.” He has also served as a front-end web developer for the Center for Arkansas History and Culture since 2019, developing interface elements for a mapping renewal project funded by a National Endowment of the Humanities grant.

��Vlog��ý Little Rock Receives DoD Grant to Research Covert Online Information Campaigns

John Hill — Mon, 31 Jan 2022 16:48:32 +0000

The University of Arkansas at Little Rock’s Collaboratorium for Social Media and Online Behavioral Studies () has received a multi-year grant from a Department of Defense (DoD) initiative to study covert online information campaigns in the Indo-Pacific region. ��Vlog��ý Little Rock is partnering on the five-year project, “Multi-Level Models of Covert Online Information Campaigns,” with Carnegie Mellon University, University of Regina, and The Atlantic Council. Total funding for the project, which is headed by Dr. Kathleen Carley of Carnegie Mellon University (CMU), is about $5 million. , Jerry L. Maulden-Entergy endowed chair, distinguished professor of information science, and the founding director of COSMOS, will serve as principal investigator for ��Vlog��ý Little Rock, which will receive $456,657 to study online information campaigns during elections, protests, and other major events in the Indo-Pacific region. Influence campaigns are becoming more sophisticated as they are often well orchestrated, spread across multiple social media platforms, and conducted by humans, bots, and cyborg-like actors in a flash-mob style coordination manner. Agarwal defines influence campaigns as information designed and shared to sway public opinion or manipulate people’s beliefs and behaviors. “Advanced tactics and maneuvers are used to amplify the messages,” Agarwal said. “For instance, narratives are framed in blogs and YouTube videos, which are then shared on Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp, and other such platforms. Links to blog posts and YouTube videos are massively amplified using bots, which drive traffic to respective blog posts or YouTube videos. Traffic amplification further leads to the content being recommended more, which creates a feeding frenzy. Such a tactic is known as algorithmic manipulation.” In this project, COSMOS is studying similar tactics deployed in online covert influence campaigns concentrated on the Indo-Pacific region. COSMOS will use its programs, VTracker and BTracker, to collect information from YouTube and blogs. The data will be used to track a video or a blog post’s dissemination across multiple media platforms and their influence. Some of the narratives that COSMOS researchers are tracking online include:

Efforts to increase Chinese social, economic, political, and cultural hegemony in the Indo-Pacific region
Efforts to undermine U.S. leadership in the South China Sea and the Indo-Pacific region
U.S. military efforts in the Indo-Pacific region is meant to create a war with China and Russia
Countries in Southeast Asia must rise with China to find alternatives against America’s primacy in Asia.
The Rohingya, a stateless Muslim minority in Myanmar’s Rakhine State, are secretly U.S. proxies or Saudi-backed ISIS militants

COSMOS researchers will use a collective action theory-based model, social network theories, and social influence theory to lay the groundwork for detecting coordination and measuring the power of the online influence campaigns. “This will help in identifying key actors, key groups, coordination strategies, and tactics indicating coordinated content engagement boosting, such as ‘spiked’ views, likes, commenter mobs, etc.,” Agarwal said. “Aside from the social network theory-based analysis, we will study the content captured from YouTube, blogs, Reddit, and other social media platforms to assess inflammatory speech and text that evoke certain emotions using tonality/toxicity assessment.” Coordination behaviors and tactics detected from these social media platforms will be mapped to a framework developed by Dr. Carley at CMU. This will help in characterization of such tactics in covert online influence campaigns and enable further experimentation with countermeasures. “Such a comparison would help develop a characterization of information maneuvers and media platforms, which maneuvers are more prevalent on a particular social media platform, or which platforms are more suited for a particular information maneuver,” Agarwal said. The grant is managed by the Office of Naval Research and awarded under the DoD’s Minerva Research Initiative. Minerva that focuses on topics of particular relevance to U.S. national security. Through its network of faculty investigators, Minerva also strengthens the department’s connections with the social science community and helps DOD better understand and prepare for future challenges, including National Defense Strategy priorities such as great power competition. The Minerva Research Initiative is jointly administered by the Basic Research Office and the Strategy and Force Development Office in the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy in partnership with the Air Force Office of Scientific Research and the Office of Naval Research. ��Vlog��ý Little Rock’s COSMOS is also partnering with Arizona State University and Nanyang Technological University on another DoD Minerva Research Initiative grant, “Fusing Narrative and Social Cyber Forensics to Understand Covert Influence.” COSMOS is conducting social network and cyber forensic analysis to examine online activity and the dissemination of ideas and elements of these narratives. Since 2009, COSMOS has received more than $15 million in funding from the DoD to conduct research. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Office of Naval Research.

��Vlog��ý Little Rock Online Graduate Programs Listed Among Nation’s Best by U.S. News and World Report For Third Year in a Row

John Hill — Tue, 25 Jan 2022 15:24:05 +0000

The University of Arkansas at Little Rock has been recognized as having some of the best online programs in computer information technology in the country. U.S. News & World Report ranked ��Vlog��ý Little Rock 19th in its 2022 ranking of “.” This ranking assesses online master’s degree programs in computer science, computer engineering, software engineering, information systems, and information technology. ��Vlog��ý Little Rock also earned the 19th spot in the 2020 and 2021 lists for U.S. News & World Report. “We are really gratified to make the list for the third year in a row. We know we need to keep improving every year to maintain our position on this very competitive list,” said Dr. Elizabeth Pierce, chair of the Department of Information Science, which houses both programs. “We take very seriously our ongoing efforts with the ��Vlog��ý Little Rock Graduate School, our program faculty, students, and alumni to find ways to make the educational experience associated with our programs as attractive, affordable, and high quality as possible.” At ��Vlog��ý Little Rock, the U.S. News ranking covers the online Master of Science in information quality and Master of Science in information science programs. Both degrees serve as a stepping stone for other advanced graduate degrees, such as ��Vlog��ý Little Rock’s Ph.D. in computer and information science. The online master’s degree in information science is a 33-hour program designed to familiarize individuals with the advanced knowledge, skills, and technologies for working with large amounts of complex data. Students learn how to compete in an industry with an ever-present demand for new innovations in data science and analytics, advanced information systems design and development, and emerging information technologies. “Enrollment in ��Vlog��ý Little Rock’s Master of Science in information science has been increasing as recognition of our program grows,” said Dr. Daniel Berleant, professor of information science and coordinator of the graduate program. “We are grateful to the many people here who have been so helpful. This includes staff members as well as other academic departments and their faculty who teach the great courses that many of our students have been taking as electives. We plan to continue building on our success at bringing in new students and gaining recognition for ��Vlog��ý Little Rock locally, nationally through the distance education option, and internationally.” The online master’s degree in information quality is a 33-hour program that can be completed in as little as 18 months. The program is designed to prepare students for industry and government careers as well as advanced doctoral studies. Developed with support from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Information Quality Program, the curriculum balances information quality theory with industry best practices using state-of-the-art technology. Dr. John Talburt, professor of information science and advisor of the Master of Science in information quality program, said that ��Vlog��ý Little Rock is seeing record enrollment in its information quality degree programs. He credits this success to quality online instruction, career preparation, and student diversity. “Both the information quality and information science programs offer students from diverse educational backgrounds a gateway into successful careers in data science, data analytics, and data management,” Talburt said. “Many entering students with non-technical undergraduate degrees come because they have had on-the-job experience with data and technology and want to be a part of the data revolution. No specific undergraduate degree is required for admission. The program also embraces cultural and gender diversity. While this has been a problem for many computer science and engineering programs, nearly one third of our student body are women and more than half are international students.” For the 2022 rankings edition, U.S. News evaluated schools on five categories, including engagement (25 percent), faculty credentials and training (25 percent), expert opinion (25 percent), service and technologies (12.5 percent), and student excellence (12.5 percent). A program’s score for each ranking indicator is calculated using data that the program reported to U.S. News in a statistical survey.

- University News Archive - ����Vlog��ý Little Rock

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����Vlog��ý Little Rock Sees Unprecedented Growth in First-Time Freshmen, Transfer, and Graduate Students for Fall 2022

����Vlog��ý Little Rock Creates Four New Schools to Increase Student Success

Seven ����Vlog��ý Little Rock Students Selected for Acxiom Diversity Scholarship Program