, director of student programs, opened the service: “Every day on this campus, there are great people doing great things, big and small gestures, accomplishments made after long-term commitments and one-off unexpected triumphs. Most of these good deeds are never recognized. We all carry on our work and responsibilities, working hard at doing the right thing because we care and we are people of integrity鈥hat鈥檚 what real leadership is all about.鈥�

While no one works solely with hope of recognition as motivation, Sawatzky said recognition is important 鈥渢o pause and honor these individuals 鈥nd to say thank you to the students who are leaders, scholars, athletes, volunteers, dramatists, future nurses, future teachers, tutors, theologians and advocates.”

She also noted that such students 鈥渟et the bar high for students around them鈥� and provide 鈥渕otivation, energy and meaning to us as professional staff 鈥� You are what makes EMU not just a good place to work and learn, but a great place.”

Language and Literature Department

Department chair presented the following awards, which honor former faculty members and current scholars:

Nathan Peters was awarded the Jay B. Landis Award for Excellence in Literary Studies.

Naomi Scoville was given the Omar Eby Writing Award and the James R. Bomberger Award for Excellence in TESOL.

English education major Rebekah Hertzler earned the Carroll Yoder Award for Teaching Excellence.

The Ervie L. Glick Award for Excellence in World Language Study was given to Teresa Garcia-Bautista, who Medley said “has exhibited academic excellence and a clear sense of calling in using her studies in graduate studies and service to the church.”

Kari King, who was the student representative on the faculty search committee, earned The Ray Elvin Horst Award for Excellence in Spanish.

Education Department

Teachers of Promise Institute are Austin Mumaw, Erin Nafziger, Isaac Driver, Malea Gascho and Ruthie Beck.

The “Courage to Teach” Award was presented to Angelica Diaz.

Psychology Department

The Exemplary Achievement in Psychology: Service and Scholarship was awarded to senior Brooke Lacock, co-president of the Psychology Club, for her impact on the and the campus as a whole, said Professor .

Mackenzie Lapp and Rachel Bowman earned the G.R. Lehman Outstanding Achievement in Research award for their “exceptional dedication” to their senior research projects. Koop praised their “intellectual curiousity and dogged persistence” and predicted future graduate school success.

All three students are among nine psychology majors at the Virginia Association for Psychological Science annual conference April 20-22, 2016, in Newport News, Virginia.

Science Department

Outstanding Second-Year Biology Student was awarded to Samantha L. Kauffman by Professor

Eyan P. Roth and Hannah L. Weaver were named Outstanding Senior Biology Students, especially impressive, said Professor , as both are transfer students and “distinguished themselves in the two years they’ve been here.”

Professor recognized three students: senior , for his entry into the Student Research Competition of the Special Interest Group in Computer Science Education; and first-year students Claire J. Waedelich and Carolann G. Wengerd for their poster presentations at Capitol Region Celebration of Women In Computing. Wengerd earned a third-place award at the undergraduate level.

Three students, all absent on their cross-cultural trip this semester, were recognized. was named Outstanding Senior Chemistry Student. Janaya M. Sachs earned an award for excellence in research. Maria R. Yoder was recognized as Outstanding First-Year Chemistry Student.

Nursing Department

Jess Rheinheimer was recognized by Professor for academic excellence in n studies. Recently named , Rheinheimer is a member of the Honors Program and has been inducted into Sigma Theta Tau International Nursing Honors Society.

Ann Marie Bauer was awarded the , which recognizes student-nurses who exemplify EMU’s “sacred covenant” model : service, empathy, agape love, empowerment, and faith.

Recognition for servant leadership went to Louise Krall, co-president of the Student Nurses Association.

Bible and Religion Department

Professor named the winners of the essay contest as Bekah York and Christian Hershey, sharing first place and a $500 cash prize, and Christian Parks, who won $100, for their scholarly work. Haverim is the alumni group of the department.

Theater Department

Professor recognized Clara Bush, MaKayla Baker and Caleb Townsend for their nominations for the Irene Ryan Acting Competition by the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival. All three are members of the cast of “,” currently in its final run on campus.

Multicultural Services

Oksana Kittrell, Tae Dews and Christian Parks聽 were the student leaders for the first that traveled over spring break. Christian Parks and Philip Watson planned and implemented the first on campus. Londen Wheeler, minister of music, and Christian Parks, choir director, provided leadership to the gospel choir. Brittany Williams, Oksana Kittrell, Kendi Mwongo, Tae Dews and Makora Nyagwegwe led efforts in organizing the first President’s Ball.聽 Delight Tigoe and Lynne Cha led the Alpha Omega Dancers for Christ.

Residence Life

Resident director recognized three-year Community Assistants , Andrew Yoder and Sam Stoner, and also senior returning Community Assistants, Valerie Meza-Cooper and Londen Wheeler. Community assistants live and serve in the residence halls.

Academic Success Center

Director presented certificates of thanks to the following student-graduates who provided services in the : Alex Bender (two years, computer science tutor), Tylar Burgdorf (one year, receptionist), Giulio Garner (two years, Spanish tutor), Stephan Goertzen (one year, computer science tutor), Brielle Hoch (four years receptionist), Andrea King (fpur years receptionist and tutor), Jaclyn Kratz (three years, math tutor), Isaac Mast (one year, computer science tutor), Lauren Sauder (one year, writing and economics tutor), and Andrew Yoder (two years, economics tutor).

Kristy Wertz, a two-year nursing tutor, was recognized as Tutor of the Year.

Student Programs

Common Grounds Coffeehouse management team this year was Rachel Schrock, events manager; Abby Dwyer, operations manager; Brianna Kauffman, finance manager; and Valerie Meza-Cooper, catering manager.

Timothy Callahan, Juan Luna and Kegan Yoder served on the Recreation Sports Leadership Council, which oversaw the nearly 500 members of the campus community involved in intermural sports. Terry Dotson and Colton Frey were the Game Room Leadership Council, which helped to set the budget and make decisions regarding programs and offerings for the approximately 2,500 visitors who used the game room this year.

Campus Ministries

, undergraduate campus pastor, recognized ministry assistants in the residence halls:聽 Megan Bishop, Perry Blosser, Sarah Boshart, Heyrin (Lynn) Cha, Dylan Grove, Abe Hartzler, Oksana Kittrell, Keyri Lopez-Godoy, Luis Longo, Jasmine Miller, Lydia Musselman, Da’Jahnea Robinson, Austin Sachs and Janet Spain.

Pastoral assistants, who support the MAs, are Jonathan Augsberger, Amanda Helfrich, Christina Hershey, Jolee Paden, Grayson Mast, Lydia Tissue, Courtney Unruh and Wesley Wilder.

Leadership Effectiveness and Development (LEAD) Series II Certificate of Completion

The following students completed a leadership seminar series: Brittany Williams, Alex Miller, Abby Dwyer, Meg Green, Hannah Heishman, Rachel Schrock, Grantley Showalter, Olga Balthazar, Delight Tigoe, Malachi Bontrager, Cameron White, Rediet Girma, Gillian Zehr, Ben Zook, Kegan Yoder, Tae Dews, Oksana Kittrell, Richard Robinson, Mario Hernandez, Alejandra Tejada Rivera, Jesse Reist, Jonae Guest, Makora Nyagwegwe and Heyrin Cha.

Student Government leaders and athletes in winter and spring sports who had earned honors (see w) were also recognized.

Editor’s Note: The following Visual and Communication Arts students were recognized in a separate ceremony April 22: Styer Scholarship, Azariah Cox; photography, Jonathan Bush; studio, Brooke Lacock; video, Jonathan Bush and Caleb Schlabach; and motion graphics, Rachel Cardwell.

Bender, a senior major from Sarasota, Florida, presented a research poster titled 鈥淎n Evaluation of Cluster 3.0 as a General Tool for Principal Component Analysis.鈥� Professor , who advised Bender on the project, says that he is only one of two students to have work accepted to the prestigious venue since she鈥檚 been at EMU. The other student was Aaron Springer, a 2013 graduate who is currently earning his doctorate at the University of Santa Cruz.

鈥淎aron鈥檚 work was completed during a summer Research Experience for Undergraduates, so this could be the first work that was actually done at EMU to be presented at SIGCSE,鈥� Weikle said.

Developed criteria for choosing software

Principal Component Analysis (PCA), Bender says, is a way for a researcher to take a very large data set and reduce it to a much smaller set of data points that represent the most important parts of the data. That, in turn, makes understanding and drawing analyses or conclusions from the data much simpler.

鈥淢y research led me to discover that in many computer science or computer architecture research papers where PCA is utilized, the reasoning and explanation for how or why PCA was used were inconsistent at best and nonexistent at worst,鈥� Bender says. 鈥淲e also knew that PCA had uses鈥攁nd was being used鈥攐utside the pure mathematical or computer science-related fields.鈥�

If a researcher wanted to utilize PCA for research purposes, Bender concluded that 鈥渋t would be useful to create a general set of criteria for choosing software that implemented PCA well.鈥�

Bender developed six key criteria against which to judge potential software. The criteria included whether it was an open-source program; descriptive, clear documentation; data compatibility to ensure correct processing; built-in assumption testing; built-in graphical tools to allow for clear depictions; and the ability to sufficiently process large amounts of data.

In his tests with the software program Cluster 3.0, Bender found that it passed four of the six criteria and had 鈥渞easonable ways to cope鈥� with the shortcomings in the other two criteria, thus deeming the software viable for PCA implementation in scientific experiments.

Bender鈥檚 presentation at SIGSCE was a big step from last semester鈥檚 , where he鈥檇 presented the PCA-related portion of a research project that he鈥檇 completed with Samuel Miller on the ripening process of noni fruit.

鈥淚t being my first time talking about research聽at all, much less in front of a crowd, I felt reasonably good about our presentation,鈥� Bender says. 鈥淚t definitely helped prepare me to talk to the judges and interested participants at SIGCSE.鈥�

Research began with independent study

Bender鈥檚 intensive work with PCA began during his junior year, when he took an independent study with Weikle based around PCA鈥檚 theory and underlying mathematics along with some computer architecture. After the study ended, Bender says they decided to continue the research to work toward a tangible result. That extended into the summer, when Bender was invited to attend EMU鈥檚 Kairos Place, an annual event where faculty, staff and graduate students can work on research, writing and creative projects.

鈥淚t was a fascinating experience seeing all the different avenues of research, and different people鈥檚 processes in their work, and seeing interactions between scholars and teachers that I may otherwise never have gotten to witness,鈥� Bender says. 鈥淜airos was the point of clarification, where Dee and I worked out more clearly what the goal of our research would be.鈥�

After graduation, Bender says he plans to work for a few years in software development to gain experience and refine his research interests before pursuing graduate school.

Each year, the event grows a little bigger beyond a little gold sticker 鈥� and cupcakes to celebrate the birthday of famous female computer scientist, mathematician and military leader Grace Hopper. This year, Weikle invited students to learn more about computational thinking, a kind of analytical thinking that works across disciplines.

鈥淭he goal with One Hour of Code is get more people thinking about and interested in programming,鈥� Weikle said. 鈥淲e need not only more programmers, but more programmers from a wide variety of disciplines and more programmers who are representative of our diverse world.鈥�

More female programmers, more programmers of color, more programmers from all disciplines鈥攕he says 鈥� will give more and different insight into technological solutions to problems. Weikle doesn鈥檛 just support this agenda one day a year: she is constantly encouraging underrepresented students in the computer sciences to take classes, do well in those classes and in the field.

From penciled squares to Java instructions

The Dec. 11 event drew staff, faculty and administrators in for exploration. Provost and Vice President for Finance had just spent a half hour playing around with a program in 鈥淩鈥� to comprehensively analyze expenses. Bible and religion professor dutifully practiced simple coding with a worksheet, marking in squares to create a happy face, 鈥渏ust like a fax machine works,鈥� Weikle explained, before he grabbed a cupcake and headed back to his office. Admissions counselor pointed proudly to his gold sticker as he cruised through on his way to lunch.

Three computer science students 鈥� seniors Alvin Michael and Isaac Mast and junior Jacob Hertzler 鈥� shared their early experiences with coding. Hertzler says he enjoys 鈥渢he power you have to solve problems.鈥�

Computer Science 120 is the introductory programming class, in which students are introduced to Python and program their own project. 鈥淏y the end of my first class, I could write the code to create the teacup easily,鈥� Hertzler said, pointing to his worksheet. 鈥淎nd by the end of my advanced programming class, I could do this.鈥�

鈥淭his鈥� was a series of commands he鈥檇 hand-written in the programming language Java.

鈥淚 do that with just about everything now,鈥� Hertzler said. 鈥淚 sit there and look at it and think about whether I can write a program to do the work for me 鈥� A fun saying in the computer world is 鈥榓 good programmer is a lazy programmer.鈥欌��

Hooked by gaming

Alvin Michael joins the discussion to somewhat reluctantly admit that back in middle school, he was addicted to the fantasy role-playing game Runescape鈥攕o addicted, in fact, that he logged 180 days (that鈥檚 six months, to spare you the math) of his life 鈥渋n鈥� the game.

鈥淚 lived five miles from anyone else and we had dial-up internet,鈥� he says in defense.

But that game was his entry point into the analytics 鈥� and the fun 鈥� of writing code. Michael wrote one 鈥渟pecifically for woodcutting, an automated script that would find a tree, click on the tree until it filled the inventory, navigate to the nearest place, dump it and go back for more. The script would run all night and I would wake up and have thousands of logs.鈥�

Best of all was that he beat the game at its own game: 鈥淚f you got caught, you鈥檇 get banned, so you had to make it look as human as possible. I never got banned.鈥�

Now Michael is interning at Blue Ridge Mac and looking forward to a career in computers. And he doesn鈥檛 play Runescape anymore.

Senior Isaac Mast interned last semester at VistaShare, a c. VistaShare鈥檚 main product is Outcome Tracker, a software package that helps over 500 non-profit organizations keep track of their clients and outcomes. The organizations they serve fall into three categories 鈭� community and economic development agencies, social-service agencies, and asset-building programs.

Mast says the best part of that internship was working on 鈥減rograms that helped people.鈥� He hopes to use his degree 鈥� and his coding skills 鈥� in that way in the future.

鈥淧rogramming can make our lives better, and make technology more accessible,鈥� Weikle said, 鈥渂ut to do it, we need everyone to contribute.鈥�

Eight presentations were made by 14 biology, , and students that showcased the breadth and depth of research opportunities available at EMU.

The symposium provided an opportunity for students to share their research with an audience of general science majors, said department chair and professor of chemistry . One of the skills of a scientist, she says, is 鈥渢o be able to present technical terminology and processes in accessible language. It鈥檚 great if a scientist can study climate change, for example, but if we can鈥檛 explain the results of a climate change study to someone who doesn鈥檛 have the background, that doesn鈥檛 help us share and discuss our findings.”

The evaluation 鈥� led by , professor of chemistry at James Madison University 鈥� included three criteria: collection of data, thoroughness of research design and analysis, and clarity and accessibility of the oral presentation.

Second place was awarded to junior Hannah Daley for her presentation about her National Science Foundation-sponsored research, in partnership with two professors at James Madison University, on the effects of caffeine on athletes.

Sophomore Kat Lehman and junior Diego Barahona were awarded third place for their research on utilizing radio-tracking to locate coconut rhinoceros beetles鈥� breeding sites, which was conducted under the direction of chemistry professor in Guam. Siderhurst has worked for several years on research projects involving the development of attractants for invasive and agriculturally important pests.

Students find their niche in grant-funded studies

Research projects often pair students with professors engaged in long-term studies. The competition winners, Ferguson and Fernandez, were research assistants to Professor , who earned a $100,000 Jeffress Trust grant to study a multi-year investigation into the causes of hypertension. In Ferguson and Fernandez鈥檚 project, rats were fed a high fructose, high salt, low salt, and no salt diet and measured the activation of genes involved in disease.

The STEM symposium is also offers students like Hannah Daley and Janaya Sachs, who both earned grants to engage research opportunities off campus, to share what they鈥檝e learned. Sachs explored a new ligand for synthesizing copper, a summer project she engaged in through the National Science Foundation Research Experience for Undergraduates. She worked at .

The bioorganic copper project is just one of several research opportunities she鈥檚 been involved in. Her freshman year, she joined , led by , director of the MA in biomedicine program, and supported by a grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. She and Hannah Daley are both currently involved in evaluating the effects of hydrofracking on stream and well water, a project under the direction of and Kishbaugh.

Among the research shared, a unique transdisciplinary project was conducted by biology major Samuel Miller and computer science major Alex Bender, advised by Siderhurst and computer science professor . Miller conducted a chemistry project that involved identification and quantification of volatiles released by the noni fruit during ripening that provided a complex data set that was difficult to analyze. Bender and Miller have both used a mathematical technique called Principal Component Analysis to analyze the results in a simpler manner.聽 Bender is documenting their methodology for PCA usage, simultaneously evaluating software programs Cluster 3.0 and SPSS for their ability to simplify the data set.

Flavenoids, genetics, mold…

Professor , who teaches courses in genetics, cell biology, microbiology and immunology, advised several research projects. Biology major Chris Miller researched the effect of anthocyanins, richly concentrated plant colorants that may have protective effects, on mouse fetal development when the mice are exposed to a significant amount of alcohol.

Derek Harnish and Eli Wenger presented their research on the neuronal basis of aging in flies. Harnish, a biology major, and Wenger, a biology and biochemistry double major, worked with Copeland on his ongoing project to identify specific types of that have the potential to extend lifespan in flies when the mitochrondrial electron transport chain is disrupted.

Biology majors Viktor Kaltenstein and Seth Suttles teamed up to study mold growth in a vacated section of the Suter Science Center campus using the Environmental Relative Moldiness Index (ERMI).

The field as a whole is becoming attuned to ethics in our computer culture, and that discussion also touches a new course about artificial intelligence, taught at 草莓社区 (EMU) by . 鈥淭he course introduces the core algorithms of AI as well as exploring the human impact and ethics of AI,鈥� said Keim.

鈥淔or artificial intelligence, it’s worth thinking about 鈥� how can we direct this to be used for the most positive benefit?鈥� says Keim, an adjunct faculty member.

A human-impact approach permeates as a whole. Weikle, for example, is a member of the y’s Special Interest Group on Computers and Society, which addresses matters such as this: The command 鈥渃ontrol + alt + delete鈥� on a PC requires hand mobility that disabled users may not have. And, an ATM screen that asks in English if one would like options in Spanish is ineffective across language barriers.

Weikle, who has a PhD in computer science from University of Virginia and a BS in electrical engineering from Rice, says EMU鈥檚 computer science program strives to educate young computer scientists to be aware of such issues.

鈥淎 much more complete computer scientist鈥� is likely to emerge from 鈥� with its variety of classes and opportunities 鈥� than from undergraduate programs that exclusively focus on the technical aspects of information technology, she says.

Modeled on UC Berkeley toolkit

Many of the exercises in Keim鈥檚 class use a toolkit from the University of California-Berkeley, which allows students to implement key AI algorithms in the context of the PacMan video game.

First-year Joel Christophel says the course has taught him to employ 鈥渋deas about real, hands-on application of more theoretical concepts in artificial intelligence.鈥�

Keim, who hails from the Harrisonburg area and earned his bachelor鈥檚 degree at Swarthmore, soon after joined the growing language-learning software company . He was the 鈥渟tay-up-all-night coder for the first version,鈥� working there until attending Duke University in 1994. Five years later, Rosetta Stone interrupted again, and Keim returned to the Harrisonburg-based company in lieu of finishing his doctorate. Rosetta Stone 鈥渨as too much work, too much fun.鈥�

As Keim was exiting Duke University’s graduate program in artificial intelligence, the editor of the New York Times crossword puzzles, Will Shortz, declared that no computer could beat even an average human at a Thursday (medium-hard difficulty) crossword puzzle. In response, Keim helped run a seminar at Duke in 1999 to do exactly that 鈥� and succeeded.

Achievements such as this tap into the discussion of ethics. How good is technology at performing humanesque tasks? How good can it be? How does that affect people?

Deep learning

These questions are particularly pertinent in regards to current discussions around the field of 鈥渄eep learning.鈥� Deep learning refers to new techniques that leverage neural networks and machine learning, sub-disciplines within artificial intelligence, which can automatically learn features at different levels of abstraction from data. 鈥淚t’s become the state-of-the-art technique,鈥� says Keim. Techniques like deep learning offer massive potential to the artificial intelligence field, but as with any technological forefront, tapping this for the good of all requires conscientious foresight.

Keim cites the example of an Amazon.com shipping warehouse. An employee stands at a table, and robots bring entire shelves of products to that person, who retrieves an item, and packs it while the robot returns and re-sorts the shelf. Humans are currently better at the complex vision and dexterity tasks associated with picking, inspecting, and packing the items. However, ongoing advances in AI prompt the question, what about the day when they are not? What will the economic effect be and how will our workforce look?

To be well-rounded, Weikle encourages EMU鈥檚 students to double major or minor with computer science. While and are the most common combinations, she challenges those interested to 鈥減ick something that doesn’t use a computer!鈥�

One of those students, among the approximately 18 percent of women who will earn a computer and information science degree in the United States, is Jennifer Fawley, in the process of earning her second bachelor鈥檚 from EMU (her first is in environmental sustainability).

Weikle and Fawley together attended the October 2014 Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing in Phoenix, Arizona, which attracted 7,500 women in STEM-related professions, particularly computer science.

At the convention, Fawley chose from a variety of sessions, workshops, and networking opportunities, from her particular interest of cybersecurity to data science, programming languages, cloud computing, wearable computing, hacking for social justice, and plenary sessions with technology executives from companies such as Google, Microsoft, Symantec, and Mozilla.

鈥淩ight now is a wonderful time for women in this profession,鈥� Weikle said. 鈥淭he field is changing so fast. If you鈥檝e been out of the job market for a while, it鈥檚 OK, because, guess what? Everybody has to learn new things in this field.鈥�

Weikle earned a PhD in computer science at the University of Virginia. She began her career journey with a bachelor鈥檚 of science in electrical engineering from Rice University. She subsequently worked as an engineer at Tracor Aerospace and then Motorola Semiconductor in Austin, Texas. In a mid-career shift, she focused at UVa on computer architecture with an emphasis on memory system analysis and design.

At EMU, she teaches a wide range of subjects, including Introduction to Computer Science, Computer Architecture and Operating Systems, and Analysis of Algorithms. She is currently involved in computer architecture research attempting to characterize parallel programs. In addition, she has conducted research on workload characterization for parallel programs, educational initiatives in computer science, and the effect of computing technology on society.

This article appeared in the , EMU’s alumni magazine.聽

]]> /now/news/2014/professor-student-inspired-at-grace-hopper-celebration-of-women-in-computing/ Mon, 03 Nov 2014 16:34:28 +0000 http://emu.edu/now/news/?p=22417 In the male-dominated field of computer science, is used to being in the minority. The associate professor of at 草莓社区 can name all of her female students majoring in the field on the fingers of one hand.

One of those students, among the approximately in the United States, is , in the process of earning her second bachelor鈥檚 from EMU (her first is in ).

If Fawley had any doubts about joining that minority, a recent weekend at the in Phoenix, Arizona, dispelled them.

鈥淚 am really enjoying the coursework and look forward to future possibilities,鈥� she said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a really exciting field to be in right now.鈥�

鈥淭he tide is changing slowly,鈥� Weikle said, of a growing number of women in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) fields. 鈥淏ut Grace Hopper is special. Just that concept that there are 7,500 other women doing computer science and they鈥檙e all there in one place is amazing.鈥�

Fawley, too, found it 鈥渆nergizing to be around other women鈥� in the field. With Weikle鈥檚 encouragement, she had applied for and was named a Grace Hopper Scholar. The award covered all travel expenses and waived her registration fees.

At the convention, Fawley chose from a variety of sessions, workshops, and networking opportunities, from her particular interest of cybersecurity to data science, programming languages, cloud computing, wearable computing, hacking for social justice, and plenary sessions with technology executives from companies such as Google, Microsoft, Symantec, and Mozilla.

鈥淚 was able to find out what other women in the field liked and what they struggled with as well,鈥� Fawley said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a good chance to learn more about technical fields in computer science that I haven鈥檛 necessarily been exposed to yet.鈥�

EMU professor attended first conference

The conference, which celebrated its 20th anniversary this year, is named for the renowned computer scientist and United States Navy rear admiral. Grace Hopper was one of the first women to earn a doctorate in mathematics in the United States and went on to make significant contributions to computer development, programming languages and data processing. In 1969, Hopper was awarded 鈥� ironically 鈥� the inaugural Computer Sciences Man of the Year award from the Data Processing Management Association.

That same year, 20-year-old Anita Borg began her first processing job. Borg would emerge as one of the foremost promoters of women in technology. The Anita Borg Institute of Technology partners with the largest international society devoted to the field, the Association for Computing Machinery, to host the Grace Hopper Celebration.

Weikle attended the first Grace Hopper Celebration in 1994, when it was 鈥渟mall and intimate,鈥� she says, with only around 500 attendees. Men have always been encouraged to attend 鈥� then and now (in conference parlance, these attendees are called 鈥渕ale allies鈥�). During that first conference, her husband took care of their infant son while Weikle, a doctoral student at University of Virginia, presented a paper. In the audience that night was rising star Maria Klawe, then head of the computer science department at University of British Columbia. She later held baby Ricky at a banquet, a memory that still makes Weikle smile. Now president of Harvey Mudd College, Klawe was listed .

The conference attracts both academicians and tech executives, and often, like Klawe, those with connections to both worlds. Keynote speakers at the 2014 convention included the studio head of the Halo franchise, a lab director at EBay Research Labs, a founding member of Google, and the chief data scientist for Barack Obama鈥檚 2012 campaign.

鈥楪reat time鈥� for women in computing

Weikle says conferences like Grace Hopper help women see that choosing a STEM-related profession doesn鈥檛 require them to change who they are. Nor are women in the field stereotypically 鈥渘erdy,鈥� serious, and incapable of completing domestic tasks.

鈥淚鈥檝e often had people ask me, 鈥楧o female engineers cook?鈥欌�� she said. 鈥淎nd I say, ‘Some do and some don鈥檛.’ I ask them, 鈥楧o male engineers cook?鈥� Some do and some don鈥檛. Technical people are in fact just other people, and Grace Hopper does that for the women who go, and also for the men who go, because there are a lot of men who struggle with some similar stereotypes.鈥�

Grace Hopper also celebrates successful women in a profession that is meeting new needs and creating new applications across the world. This is a message that Weikle especially wants to share with prospective computer science majors and minors, as well as re-entry students.

鈥淭here鈥檚 a big push in the industry to get women into these jobs,鈥� Weikle said, 鈥渁nd very favorable hiring conditions.鈥�

Computer science is one of the fastest growing fields in the United States, with , according to the U.S. Department of Labor. And because of the speed at which the field is changing, Weikle says it鈥檚 one of the most accessible to the recent graduate or the retooling job hunter.

鈥淩ight now is a wonderful time for women in this profession,鈥� Weikle said. 鈥淭he field is changing so fast. If you鈥檝e been on the job market for a while, it鈥檚 OK, because, guess what? Everybody has to learn new things in this field. Being at a conference like this helps women imagine doing that and accomplishing that and not feeling like they need to be different to do that. They can still be who they are and do this work, and that is a wonderful vision.鈥�

鈥淭here’s definitely art in science,鈥� says the third-year major at 草莓社区. Advanced lab work depends more on technique than step-by-step instruction. When recrystallizing a substance, 鈥測ou just have to have the right touch.鈥�

Good honed his scientific touch over the summer of 2014, spending 10 weeks alongside a graduate student at North Dakota State University. Their overall goal was to make organic chemistry more sustainable. Around 96% of current organic chemicals come from a petroleum base.

鈥淭hat’s becoming a big issue for a number of reasons,鈥� said Good. As sources of fossil fuels dwindle, the environment suffers and politicians clash. Seeking petroleum’s replacement, Good experimented with biomass carbohydrates to make chemical building blocks that could be used in polymers like plastic and nylon.

鈥淭he reality of the project, for me, was science doesn’t happen quickly,鈥� said Good. Seven weeks into the program, he still had no results. He and his partner returned to the drawing board, put in 70-hour weeks at the lab, and wrangled a presentation from their data. Good ruefully describes the work as 鈥渄emoralizing! I have no results, but I have to stay here for another 12 and a half hours!鈥�

While in the short-term unsuccessful, their work represented another step towards revolutionizing organic chemistry. Even given the stress, Good recommends summer research programs for a glimpse into graduate school life and valuable research skills.

Upon returning to EMU, Good was invited by chemistry professor to contribute to an interdisciplinary project. In Hawaii, the 鈥渘oni鈥� fruit is revered as a cure-all for ailments, even cancer. Several recently published papers have started identifying the compounds in noni that may substantiate these claims. The method behind identifying noni’s chemical makeup, called running a standard, is Good’s next endeavor. He will create around 10 of the organic molecules suspected to be in noni and analyze them against the fruit. If the synthesized molecules match those found in noni, then those molecules are verifiably present at that stage of the fruit’s ripeness. Other collaborators, including student Alex Bender and , assistant professor of , will use statistical analysis to predict molecular changes throughout the fruit’s ripening.

As ‘s vice president for marketing, Good also marries creation and analysis in web design. He has worked with the director of student programs, , to modernize how organize and attract members. While he has 鈥渄abbled in [visual] design work鈥� with posters and flyers, his primary focus is the online content. Be it helping clubs code websites or creating Facebook pages, Good wants to give the SGA 鈥渟ome way to keep people engaged.鈥�

Playing the tuba is one way Good himself stays engaged. 鈥淲hen I want an escape from science, I go to music,鈥� he says. His flair for originality is present in music, as well: tuba has only been recently recognized as a solo instrument. He is also involved in a newly forming brass quintet on campus.

Good’s myriad talents are the product of imagination as much as practice. 鈥淎t some level,鈥� he says, 鈥減eople stop being able to explain what they do in the lab. . . they have their own style.鈥� This style, for him, generates innovative work in test tubes, for the ear, and on the web.

I鈥檓 big on reading books (no TV at home when growing up) and consider myself decently informed about the university that I鈥檒l be getting a degree from in December, but I had never heard of the Common Read until I was asked to write an EMU news blog about it. Along with the assignment came the 2014-15 Common Read book, The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains.

The book proved to be fascinating and sobering 鈥� ironically, it聽 explains why people of my 18-22 age group and younger would be highly unlikely to actually read all 228 pages of The Shallows. Not unless it was assigned, tested, and graded for credit, or otherwise read under some form of duress.

The idea behind the Common Read 鈥� as gathered from national collegiate news accounts and interviews at EMU 鈥� is a good one. 鈥淐ampus common reading programs rest on a simple idea: that reading the same book brings people closer together as a community by creating common ground for discussion,鈥� at the in 2006.

Breaking out of our narrow circles

Put another way, EMU hopes an interesting book, read by all, can help us to break out of departmental or athletic or musical social circles and meet others. In 2012-13, 309 colleges and universities had common reading programs, with 190 book titles selected, usually centering on themes of social justice, sustainability, diversity, and economic justice, according to .

Here at EMU, for two years in a row, a Common Read book has been selected by our Intellectual Life Committee, consisting of six faculty members from different departments, a couple of student leaders, the campus pastor, a librarian, the provost and the provost鈥檚 assistant.

The inaugural book selection for 2013-14 was The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie. (I somehow missed this announcement, perhaps because I was on a cross-cultural that fall and at the in the spring.) EMU provided all incoming first-year students a free copy of this book, but members of the Intellectual Life Committee interviewed for this article seemed unsure how many students actually read the book.

Several events related to the book were held throughout the year, including Tuesday lunch discussions and sessions, but by all accounts these were not well attended by students.

Students reading books for pleasure?

This may be par for today鈥檚 course. A by the National Endowment for the Arts found that 74% to 80% of college freshmen and seniors read 0鈥�4 books on their own during the school year.

鈥淲e were trying to get people to talk to each other,鈥� said professor , who is on the Intellectual Life Committee. 鈥淲e wanted to encourage people to connect with the mission outside of their classes.鈥�

Ashley Thorne, one of the Common Read researchers at the National Association of Scholars, : 鈥淎cross the campuses, they aren鈥檛 doing the same courses, they鈥檙e not reading the same books. So colleges want to give them something common intellectually鈥�. This is a chance to do that.鈥�

Ironically, this year鈥檚 Common Read book may offer insights for the poor student participation in the program. In The Shallows, Carr argues that the Internet is rewiring our brains to be efficient in filtering through the vast stores of information available at click of a mouse. But being efficient at filtering information quickly is inhibiting our ability to engage in 鈥渄eep reading.鈥�

It鈥檚 not that people aren鈥檛 reading, Carr explains, it is that they are not reading books anymore. People read blogs, online social networks, use newspaper 鈥渁pps鈥� that give highlights or headlines, and visit Wikipedia for research papers. The nature of information cultivation is changing.

Seven events planned for 2014-15

With the advent of the Internet age, and perhaps demise of the reading one, university scholarship will change dramatically. 鈥淭his year鈥檚 book is far more about what the nature of the university is going to be,鈥� Kishbaugh told me, while last year鈥檚 was more about cross-cultural understanding.

Perhaps as the nature of university scholarship shifts, so will the nature of the Common Read until it is a Common Blog or a Common Video Series. If so, I will be among the dinosaur-types who will long for a return to a book, where you can immerse yourself in a well-developed stream of thought and ponder its implications, as I have with The Shallows.

Seven events are planned at EMU for 2014-15 on the themes raised by The Shallows, beginning with a 鈥渇aculty response鈥� over lunch on Oct. 28 featuring Jerry Holsopple, Walt Surratt, and Dee Weikle in the West Dining Room. The other events and more information about the program can be found .