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

��Vlog��ý Little Rock engineering student using 3D printer to make masks for healthcare workers

John Hill — Wed, 22 Jul 2020 13:52:56 +0000

A University of Arkansas at Little Rock student is putting his engineering skills to good use by printing face masks to protect healthcare workers who are battling COVID-19. “The goal is to be able to supply these masks to hospital and healthcare workers,” said Trigun Maroo, a doctoral student majoring in systems engineering from Surat, India. “They are facing a shortage in masks and other personal protective equipment. This is one way that we get more masks ready for the healthcare workers.” Maroo started the project after being contacted by a friend, Dr. Supriya Jambhekar, an associate professor of pediatrics at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, who asked if Maroo had 3D printing capabilities to speed up the manufacturing of face masks. “These masks are much better for personal safety than a cloth mask,” she said. “This mask will be more effective to protect the wearer from catching an infection from others. Ideally, if all healthcare workers wear these or similar masks, they will be more protective to them.” Maroo is printing face masks that are being tested at Arkansas Children’s Hospital and in Tennessee to see if they can be produced on a large scale.

Trigun Maroo

“Trigun helped a lot by printing out these masks to check the viability and do-ability of the project,” Jambhekar said. “If we need a large number of masks, it will be very helpful if people like Trigun can help to print out these masks.” For Maroo, the beauty of this project is that it provides a way for non-medical personnel to help in the fight against COVID-19. “Projects that impact the community positively and directly have been my interest,” he said. “This special opportunity was no different, and I contacted Dr. Wright immediately. Dr. Wright has been very kind and has supported me a lot in this endeavor. I am very grateful to him.” Dr. Andrew Wright, an associate professor of systems engineering, also serves as Maroo’s mentor on his Signature Experience project and doctoral research. These projects are designed to inspire ��Vlog��ý Little Rock students to conduct research and creative projects to enrich their academic experience. Although Maroo’s initial research project was nearly completed, Wright encouraged his student to switch to the face mask project and offered a 3D printer from the Department of Systems Engineering that Maroo could use to work from his home. Maroo’s project earned first place in the Engineering/Engineering Technology/Construction Management category at ��Vlog��ý Little Rock’s 2020 Student Research and Creative Works Expo.

Three ��Vlog��ý Little Rock teams competing in Arkansas Governor’s Cup finals

John Hill — Tue, 07 Apr 2020 17:15:11 +0000

Three teams of entrepreneurial-minded students from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock are competing in the finals of the Arkansas Governor’s Cup business plan competition and a top prize of $25,000. Winners will be announced Thursday, April 9, during a virtual awards program launching at noon. Members of CloudCare, who are competing in the undergraduate division, include Claire Herman, Philip Plouch, and Justin Priest. Designed to bring parents peace of mind, CloudCare is a smart baby monitoring app that works alongside the parent by generating real-time push notifications based on a baby’s movements and breathing patterns. The Face-to-Face team consists of Joseph Kready and Thomas Marcoux, who are competing in the graduate and innovation divisions. Face-To-Face is an innovative technology that creates Avatar-based chatbots that replace existing text-based chat bot solutions. “With avatars, we can display emotion during the conversation at a level that’s never been done before,” Kready said. The third team, SYMPER, includes Cole Evans, Shibani Lal, Trigun Maroo, Pynshailang Nongsiej, and Shishila Shimray. They will be competing in the graduate and innovation divisions. SYMPER is the first three-in-one, sit-stand-sleep electric wheelchair product with advanced technological innovations to improve health monitoring. “SYMPER, as a product, can notify and alert its user’s emergency contacts via a mobile application installed on the user’s phone and enable hospitals to maximize space by reducing the number of beds,” said Nongsiej. Fifty students representing 18 teams from eight Arkansas universities made virtual presentations to nearly 30 judges during the final round of the 20th annual Arkansas Governor’s Cup competition. Martial Trigeaud, a ��Vlog��ý Little Rock adjunct professor in the College of Business who is mentoring the three ��Vlog��ý Little Rock teams, said one of the biggest challenges for this year’s competition was the quick switch to virtual presentations due to the COVID-19 pandemic. “I am very proud of all of our teams and think they have a great chance of winning the Arkansas Governor’s Cup,” Trigeaud said. “The main challenge with this year’s competition was to switch to an online presentation weeks before the presentation There is a big difference between giving an online and a face-to-face presentation. The students worked very hard to deliver a great presentation. On the plus side, we were able to record ourselves, watch our presentation beforehand, and get feedback.” The distribution of the Governor’s Cup $154,000 cash prize pool includes $25,000 to the winners of the graduate and undergraduate divisions, $15,000 to the second place winners in both divisions, and $10,000 for both third place winners. Faculty advisors for all six winning teams each receive $2,000 in cash. For the Innovation Division, a winning team is chosen in both the graduate and undergraduate divisions. Each team will receive a $5,000 cash prize. The competition does not require teams to launch their businesses; instead, they are rewarded for the rigorous and real-world experience they gain as competitors. They are also exposed to the state’s rich entrepreneurial history and discover the opportunities Arkansas has to offer to entrepreneurs who want to start businesses in the state. “Thanks to videoconferencing technologies and the flexibility of everyone involved in this process, we’ve been able to pull off this competition in the midst of a world turned upside down,” said Rush Deacon, CEO of Arkansas Capital Corporation, which manages the Arkansas Governor’s Cup. “I encourage everyone to log in to the Arkansas Governor’s Cup website at the appointed hour, where you’ll find a link to the live awards presentation.” While many business and entrepreneurial competitions around the country have been canceled, Trigeaud is grateful his students have the invaluable experience of participating in the Arkansas Governor’s Cup. “Arkansas could have just canceled the competition, but they worked very hard to put the event on,” Trigeaud said. “We applied to other entrepreneurial pitch competitions, but they were just canceled. I think it’s great that the Arkansas Governor’s Cup was put online and was still able to provide the students a great business competition experience.”

Student research and creative works winners announced

Janea Snyder — Fri, 04 May 2018 21:47:21 +0000

The winners of the 2018 Student Research and Creative Works Showcase at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock were announced during an awards ceremony May 1 in the Student Services Center. Students presented more than 150 research and creative works April 12 in the Jack Stephens Center. Student projects were judged on the novelty and clarity of their research, the soundness of their methodology, the potential application of their findings, and the student’s ability to explain their project to an expert and lay audience. A complete list of winners and their projects include: Undergraduate Winners Art First Place: Corrie Green, “The New African-American Women:Exploring Intersectionality in Non-traditional Casting” First Place (tie): Thomas Jackson, “Concept Statement for the play Art by Yasmina Reza” Economics First Place: Abigail Resendiz, “The 1920 Merchant Marine Act: An Outdated and Protectionist Law Disturbing Economic Growth” First Place (tie): Logan Vickery and Nick Stevens, “The Cost of Responsibility: Impacts on Rental Prices of the Implied Warrant of Habitability” Education First Place: Madison Christie, “Visual Verse: Translating English Poems into ASL” Second Place: Cameryn Kirkham, “Teaching Charlie May Simon as an Author, Artist, and Arkansan” Engineering First Place: J’von Jackson, “Venturi Scrubber Design for Syngas System” Second Place: Begros Asgeirsdottir, “Utilization of Rainwater for Cooling House Interior” Life & Physical Science First Place: Davonte Hokes, “Investigation of Bio-Inspired Polymeric Coating for Improvement in ORR Activity of Amidomacrocyclic Cobal (III) Catalyst Complexes” Second Place: Emily Anderson and Cordell Gilreath, “Development for Lyme Disease” Third Place: Marina Avram, “Algal Oculata Biotemplated Water-Splitting Nanocatalysts Nickel/Iron Oxides” Social Science First Place: Abigail Resendiz, “Financial Impact of the Jones Act” Second Place: Emily Elam, “500 Fiddle Tunes: Transcriptions of Billy Mathews’ Old-Time Archive” Third Place: Cynthia Wyman, “Intellectual and Hungry: Assessing the State of Campus Food Insecurity” Technology First Place: Deepali Lal, “Are Alcohol Establishments Marketing Crime?” Second Place: Yumeng Ye, “A Project – First Approach to Teaching Entity Resolution and Identity Management” Humanities First Place: El-Noor Ahkter, “The Color of Women” First Place (tie): Michael Caysido, “Aram II’yich Khachaturian and the Use of Folk Songs in His Compositions” Second Place: Emily Junkans, “Phonetic Features of Native Spanish Speakers Learning English” Physical Science First Place: Rebecca Moreira, “Novel Renewable Resource Based Nanocomposites for Removal and Recovery of Phosphorus from Contaminated Wastewaters” Second Place: Nathan Taylor, “Ionizing Radiation Protection by Inhibition of PP2A” Second Place (tie): Samantha Macchi, “Supercapacitor application of phosphorus and nitrogen co-doped carbon materials from renewable precursor materials” Service Work and Professional Application First Place: Rebecca Moreira, “How Spanish Interpreting at the 12th Street Clinic Can Lead to Medical School” GRAD��Vlog��ýTE WINNERS Biology First Place: Diamond McGehee with M. Lahiani, F. Irwin, and M. Green, “Investigation of the Effects of Carbon –Based Nanomaterials on the Metabolomics Level in Plants” Engineering First Place: Trigun Maroo, “A Novel Gripper System for Corrugated Box Grasping and Manipulation for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles” First Place (tie): Ali Abdulhussein, “Facile fabrication of a free-standing superhydrophobic and superoleophilic carbon nanofiber-polymer block that effectively absorbs oils and chemical pollutants from water” Health Science First Place: Asween Marco, Naveen Patil, Jane Voyles, Yan Egbe, and Leonard Mukasa. “The Threat of Tuberculosis Transmission Among the US-born: Lessons from Two Outbreaks, Arkansas” Second Place: Elizabeth Burnham, “The Social (Media) Social Work(er)” Life Science Second Place: Rebekah White, “Toxic Effects of Copper and Nickel on Synechocystis PCC 6803” Life & Physical Science First Place: Amita Nakarmi and Rebecca Moreira, “Phosphate Removal From Contaminated Waters” Second Place: Dane Hudson, “Cylic Electron Flow Prevents Photoinhibition in Solanum habrochaites Under Drought Stress” Physical Science First Place: Busra Ergul, Mahbuba Begum, Nancy Kariuki, and Deborah Myers. “Oxygen Reduction Reaction Activity of Platinum Thin Films with Different Densities” First Place (tie): Daniel Nde, “Algae-Biotemplated Water-splitting Nanocatalysts for Efficient Oxygen Evolution Reaction” Professional Studies First Place: Thu Nguyen, “Do In-house Investor Relations Professionals in Real Estate Management Use PR and Strategic Communications Principles?” Second Place: Raad Alawajji, Zeid A. Nima, Ahmed K. Hashoosh, Karrer M. Alghazali, Emilie Darrigues, Nigel Kelly (undergraduate), Ashley Strohmeyer (undergraduate), and Ali Abdulhussein (presenter). “Fabrication of Transparent Superhydrophobic Polytetrafluoroethylene Coating” Social Science First Place: Jennifer Watkins: “Why don’t they listen to me: A qualitative interpretive meta synthesis of a child’s perception of their sexual abuse” Second Place: Margaret Kealy-Machella, “What’s App: Little Rock AFB Mobile App Communication Plan” Systems Engineering First Place: Rajat Singh, “Flexible Control of Synergistic Group of Muscles” Technology First Place (tie): Tuja Khaund and Samer Al-Khateeb. “Analyzing Social Bots and their Coordination during Crisis Weather Events” Second Place: Evan Xiangwen Liu, “Deep Neutral Networks Self-taught Learning” Second Place: Chen Xu, “Monitoring Traffic through IDS on OpenStack Cloud” In the photo above right, ��Vlog��ý Little Rock student Corrie Green (right) talks about her project, “The New African-American Woman: Exploring Intersectionality in Non-Traditional Casting,” to Jana McAuliffe, who was judging student works at the Student Research and Creative Works Showcase. Photo by Benjamin Krain

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

����Vlog��ý Little Rock engineering student using 3D printer to make masks for healthcare workers

Three ����Vlog��ý Little Rock teams competing in Arkansas Governor’s Cup finals

Student research and creative works winners announced

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

��Vlog��ý Little Rock engineering student using 3D printer to make masks for healthcare workers

Three ��Vlog��ý Little Rock teams competing in Arkansas Governor’s Cup finals