Congratulations, FSU Graduates!

While waiting for the TCC graduation ceremony to begin, I found a copy of the FSU booklet listing all of the Spring 2007 graduates from the FAMU-FSU College of Engineering. There were a number of familiar names in it. Almost 10% of the spring graduates had been in my physics class at TCC! They span several years of students, due to the usual delays due to part-time or full-time jobs, so some may not even know they share a history at TCC.

Congratulations to every one of you!

Your faculty at TCC wish you well as you move on to a career in engineering.

Two deserve special note: Kristin Brown completed a Masters degree. I remember well her growth as a student at TCC, and am pleased to see that she has reached this level of achievement. Her success might help others realize that they can do the same. Ali Hemmati graduated with a double major in ME and mathematics. For those of you who don't know, Ali got the club started as a student chapter of ASME. His initiative laid the groundwork for what we have today. Keep up the good work, Ali!

Now the full list:

Master of Science in Civil Engineering:

• Kristin Brown

Bachelor of Science:

• Tristan Appenfeldt (Electrical Eng)
• Jonathon Davis (Mechanical Eng)
• Jennifer Graham (Industrial Eng)
• Joseph Greene (Computer Eng)
• Ali Hemmati (Mechanical Eng and Mathematics double major, Magna Cum Laude)
• Coby McColgin (Mechanical Eng, Magna Cum Laude)
• Christopher Monzingo (Electrical Eng)
• Tushar Patel (Computer Eng and Electrical Eng double major, Magna Cum Laude)
• Aung-Zaw Sie (Electrical Eng)
• Brian Van Straton (Mechanical Eng, Summa Cum Laude)
  
• Lucas VanSickle (Civil Eng)
  

Congratulations Again!

Although I cross-checked the list with my old grade books, I can't guarantee that I got everyone. I have also heard news of some who graduated in December. I should try to track those down and update this list.

NASA Guest Speaker at North Florida Community College

Subject: NASA guest speaker,
Tues. April 24, 6 pm,
Fine Arts Auditorium (NFCC)


Please share this message with students and friends — Thomas Pentrack, NASA’s deputy director of the International Space Station will speak on “The Vision of Space Exploration,’ 6 p.m., Tuesday, April 24 in the Fine Arts Auditorium.

Mr. Pentrack will share information about current and future plans for the Space Shuttle, International Space Station, robotic exploration of the solar syste, and our travels to the moon…and on to Mars. The presentation promises to be both information and entertaining.

If you have any interest in space exploration…you’ll not want to miss the presentation by someone on the scene.

—This announcement was forwarded to me from Terry Zimmerman.

"STEM Star" $2500 Scholarships

You may have seen this flyer around campus. (It has been posted in many classrooms and some of the display cases around the Science and Math building.) You probably did not realize that it was announcing the availability of $2500 scholarships for current TCC students planning to major in science, technology (specifically including computer science), engineering, or math for the 2007-2008 school year with an application deadline of June 1 July 30.

(Click on the image to see a jpeg rendering of the M$ doc file the faculty got via e-mail.)

The long version of the story is that TCC was awarded a National Science Foundation grant to fund scholarships and additional support (mentoring, internships and placement assistance, study groups - probably within MESA) to students starting college at TCC this fall. Entering students (with demonstrated financial need and a 3.0+ GPA) would get a $2500 per year scholarship for their first two years at TCC. Probably because this is a new program this year, they have not gotten enough applications from high school students, who must apply by May 1. As a result, the program has been opened up to current TCC students who are planning to attend both the Fall 2007 and Spring 2008 semesters.

Updated details:
I learned more at our Monday (4/23) faculty meeting. This scholarship can be used in conjunction with other awards (such as a Bright Futures scholarship), limited only by your financial need as determined from your FAFSA form. [See application details below.] You can work with a financial aid advisor to optimize your use of these funds.

Students must be US Citizens, enrolled full time, have a 3.0 GPA, submit an on-line TCC scholarship application, two letters of recommendation, an essay, and a resume, and demonstrate financial need through a FAFSA application. Contact Wilbert Butler, butlerw@tcc.fl.edu, in office SM223 for more information.

Side comment:
Students who have had me for the physics lab might look at this announcement and begin to realize why I emphasize putting the most important information at the top. The headline of the flyer does not mention that it is for a scholarship, the amount is in fine print, and the application deadline is not mentioned anywhere on the flyer. Worse, the clever use of a "stem" of a rose surrounded by "stars" reflects the name of the program but not its intent. How many of you saw this in a classroom and figured someone was selling roses?

AGENDA for TODAY'S MEETING (4/20/07)

1. Planning for Summer 2007 events.
2. Thanks to all who are Graduates.
3. Words of Encouragement.
4. Policy
5. Graduation
==================
6. Firing of the Potato Cannon!

LAST MEETING of SPRING SEMESTER.

REMINDER....
THE LAST MEETING OF THIS SEMESTER IS THIS Friday AT 3PM IN SM260.

I'LL PROBABLY SEND OUT AN AGENDA TOMORROW. BUT BASICALLY WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT SUMMER ACTIVITIES.

IF ANYONE HAS AN AGENDA ITEM FOR DISCUSSION, PLEASE HIT THE RETURN ICON AND SEND IT TO ME.

THERE WILL BE SNACKS.
(SOMEBODY NEEDS TO GET HERE AT ABOUT 2:30 TO GO GET THE FOOD).

==============================================

SINCERELY,
DOUG JONES
Math Department
Tallahassee Community College
850-201-8120
jonesd@tcc.fl.edu

==============================================
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Today, we are also Hokies

Let us pause to remember the students at Virginia Tech who were murdered on Monday. Many of them were, like our club members, planning to become engineers. In addition, three of the victims were professors of Engineering, one of whom (Prof. Librescu) gave up his life blocking the door to protect his students.


President Law has declared Wednesday, 18 April, to be a day of mourning that will include a ceremony at the flagpole at 1:30 pm, and a minute of silence at 9:15 am. See below for details.

Here I link to the Virginia Tech bio pages for the three deceased professors, each of whom was clearly distinguished in his field:

• Liviu Librescu

• Kevin Granata

• G. V. Loganathan

A virtual memorial, but a memorial nonetheless.


From TCC President Bill Law:

"The Tallahassee Community College family is deeply grieved by the inexpressible tragedy at Virginia Tech, and our hearts and prayers go out to our sister institution. That students, teachers and staff should perish in the life-giving pursuit of learning serves to remind us how noble our work is and how much we treasure our students."

Campus activities for Wednesday, April 18, 2007

* We will wear the Virginia Tech colors, maroon and orange.

* At 9:15 a.m., 48 hours after the tragedy, we will leave our classrooms and go outside for a campus wide moment of silence. [eliminated due to last-week exams]

* At 1:30 p.m., we will meet at the flagpole in the center of campus to mourn, and then move inside to the Student Union Ballroom, where counseling will be available and students, faculty and staff will be able to share their thoughts on the tragedy.

Announcements from FAMU-FSU ASME chapter

George Heller (TCC alumnus and ASME liason between FSU and TCC) forwarded the following information from the FAMU-FSU student chapter:

• Wednesday, 11 April - - student chapter meeting

Time: 5:30 to 6:30 pm
Place: College of Engineering B-135
Topic: Student Design Competition Results and Display; Upcoming year; Guest Speaker.

Comment: Several TCC alumni are involved in this year's competition, which is to build a human-powered water purifier that operates by distilling water. Also, if you come in the front entrance to the college, you have to zig left down a narrow hallway to get to the B building. A display by the front door has a map showing you the way.

• Saturday, 14 April - - Spring Picnic!

Time: noon to 6:00 pm
Place: Dr. Dave's house

Location is on Lake Talquin, on Coe's Landing Road off HWY20. Directions available if needed. Future mechanical engineers from TCC are definitely welcome.

Tour of the Magnet Lab (6 April 2007)

We had about 20 members and guests, including several alumni, at our tour of the Magnet Lab this afternoon. (We even had a few guys who were just visiting and joined our group.) Special thanks to Khalid for getting this all arranged on short notice.

I'll upload some photos here right now, and fill in a few details later.

(As with the other articles, you can click on the image to get a larger version but the pictures have been resized and "saved for web" to keep them in the 100k range.)

Part of the group getting an overview of the lab and its mission:



Our tour guide explaining the features of the 900 MHz NMR magnet:



Resistive magnet construction area



One experimental bay (magnet in background)





Although several students had already left, we too the mandatory Group Photo in the lobby:



And, since no single picture can get everyone looking at the camera, we took another ...



... and a third, to show they can act like college students instead of future professionals



Thanks, Lina, for taking these last pictures!

Belated Stu-Fac Day report

We had a very successful day, distributing information and picking up 19 contacts for the future. Special thanks to Julia (for getting a nice poster display made) and Komlan (who spent most of the day there, actively recruiting new members).