IEEExtreme is an annual event organized by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). The IEEEXtreme 17.0 virtual 24-hour hackathon, which was held on October 27-28, involved 7,021 total participants representing 7,091 international teams, 127 of which came from the U.S. 

Representing EMU at this event were the BlackHatHackers, a team that consisted of three undergraduate Computer Science majors, freshmen Chanuth Jayatissa and Karthikeya Thota and sophomore Cameron Jones. The BlackHatHackers made consistent headway throughout the competition, ranking as high as 5th in the U.S. and 92nd worldwide at one point. At the end of the event, the team placed 9th in the U.S. and 521st internationally. 

"Participation in IEEE Xtreme, a premier Hackathon event, hones logical thinking and problem-solving skills, offering a distinct advantage in coding interviews," said Thota. Participants were required to solve a new programming problem every two hours. The BlackHatHackers team had to utilize every second they could to formulate efficient solutions to the various coding problems. 

"It wasn't just about solving the problem, we also had to ensure that each answer was extremely efficient and passed all the test cases," commented Jayatissa. Throughout the competition, team rankings constantly changed as each team tried to produce sufficient codes while solving new problems as they were released. 

"This hackathon was fun and very exciting! It enhanced my technical skills and resume for future job applications," added Jones. 

Read the EMU Today feature.

The American Institute of Professional Geologists (AIPG) Michigan Section Annual Meeting was held in Ann Arbor on Tuesday, December 12th, 2023. Two EMU students won the top prizes in the undergraduate research poster competition. ENVI Environmental Hydrology major Rose Allen won first place ($1,000 cash prize) for her poster, "Identifying the Relative Contribution of Groundwater and Precipitation to Wetland Systems in Lapeer County Michigan." Rose is conducting her research with Dr. Chris Gellasch from Geography and Geology. Professional Geology major Anne Shepherd won second place ($500) for her poster, "Applications of Schmidt Hammer Exposure-Age Dating in the North American Great Lakes Region: An Elusive Endeavor." Anne is conducting her research with Dr. Eric Portenga from Geography and Geology. Rose and Anne won over other students from Central Michigan, Western Michigan, and Michigan Tech.

On November 17, 2023, two Geographic Information Science (GIS) graduate students Christine Calleja and Eric Blossom attended the East Lakes Division of the American Association of Geographers (AAG) 2023 Annual Meeting at the Maumee Bay Resort and Conference Center in Toledo, Ohio. The conference had 128 attendees, including 92 students plus 36 faculty, with a total of 83 presentations on the schedule (20 posters, 63 oral paper presentations) by 46 students and 17 faculty.

Christine Calleja presented her research, supervised by Professor of Geography Dr. Xining Yang, on "Toxic Conditions in Michigan: Using a GIS and Interactive Dashboard to Assess Contaminants for Human Health Risks." GIS and mapping were utilized to show correctional facilities' proximity to superfund sites and the risks associated with the contaminants present at each site that could detrimentally affect the health of this uniquely vulnerable population. The methodology and application were developed to empower and inform citizens who may be subjected to environmental health hazards and give voice to all stakeholders. 

Based on her presentation, Christine was honored to be awarded 1st Place for the Master's Program Student Presentation Award and the sole recipient of the $1000 Graduate Student Travel Award to attend a future national Annual AAG conference.

The American Association of Geographers, founded in 1904, is a nonprofit scientific and educational association of educators, researchers, and practitioners in geography. Their membership spans 60 countries. The AAG strives to be advocates for funding, strengthen institutions and programs, and ensure geographers have equal access to training, resources, and opportunities.

Gianlucas Sherrill, an EMU Physics Research major, participated in the University of Utah’s Physics and Astronomy Research Experience for Undergraduate (REU) Program during the summer of 2023. During this program, which is supported by the National Science Foundation, Gianlucas analyzed gamma ray bursts with his advisor, Dr. Tanmoy Laskar. Gamma ray bursts (GRBs) result from the collision of supermassive objects or the collapse of supermassive stars.  His work involved fitting theoretical models that describe the "afterglow" of the GRB to observations. Specifically, Gianlucas fit models to several sets of time series measurements of intensity in the optical, ultraviolet, and x-ray ranges for GRB 050802. The results he obtained support the idea that this GRB is reasonably described by a "slow-cooling" model in which the afterglow is dissipated in the interstellar medium. 

In addition to his analytical work, Gianlucas had the opportunity to experience the many amenities offered by Salt Lake City as well as a rafting trip near Moab, Utah. The group of REU students visited planetariums, hiked on the many nearby mountains, and visited plenty of boba tea shops. Although summer is over, Gianlucas continues to collaborate with Dr. Laskar with the ultimate aim of co-authoring a paper on this work. Gianlucas also presented a poster of his REU work at the Fall Meeting of the Eastern Great Lakes Section of the American Physical Society, held on Oct. 20 – 21 at Cleveland State University. He is also scheduled to present an updated poster at the 243rd Meeting of the American Astronomical Society in New Orleans this January.    

Gianlucas told us, "I highly recommend fellow students apply to summer REUs.  It was a very rewarding experience both academically and socially. I gained research experience and met tons of wonderful people, it honestly felt more like a vacation than an internship!"

Psychology major Rylee Clairday has been crowned Miss Washtenaw County 2024. Sponsored by the Miss America Organization, Miss Washtenaw County is the first step toward the title of Miss America.

Clairday's community service initiative is "Disability Acceptance: Breaking Barriers and Building Pathways." She states that breaking down social and physical barriers related to different disabilities and helping create opportunities and pathways for a group that does not have them is what she advocates for. "Each person with a disability has a unique experience and it is our job as able-bodied persons to listen to these experiences and learn from them," said Clairday.

Clairday has been granted a $1,200 scholarship from the Miss Washtenaw County Scholarship Program and a $1,000 in-kind scholarship from EMU.

"I am really grateful for this opportunity. Being a volunteer of community service is a big part of my identity and having the opportunity to give back to the county in another capacity is a true honor," said Clairday. "I am just getting started and have big plans for the people of Washtenaw County."

Read the full EMU Today feature.

In anticipation of EMU's 175th anniversary in March 2024, the College of Arts and Sciences and the University Archives are collaborating on a project exploring the historical development of EMU. Entitled "'Far Above Others': The Michigan State Normal School at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition," the project examines an exhibit that the Michigan State Normal School (now EMU) created for the 1893 World's Fair in Chicago. The University Archives holds a remarkable set of photographs that formed the main part of the exhibit; these photos provide a window to the Normal School during the administration of John M. B. Sill (1886-1893), a period when the school was rapidly transforming into a four-year college.

This fall Preservation Studies grad student Finn Vincent-Fix and History grad student Mackenzie Kortes have been the primary researchers for the first phase of the project, which has involved documenting the history of the 1893 exhibit, digitizing the photographs and other exhibit materials, and creating a website. Finn has identified and described the persons and objects shown in each of the photographs and Mackenzie has created a timeline of the development of arts and sciences departments, while CAS Resource Board member Ralph Pasola has photographed the collection.

Mackenzie reports, "I knew next to nothing about the university coming in, but the experience of combing through the archives has brought with it a deep understanding and appreciation for the history of the university, the colleges within, and the faculty and staff that make it a center of learning." Finn says, "The most rewarding part of working on this project for me has been researching the people of color that are connected to EMU's history, specifically in the mid to late 1800s. The Michigan State Normal School did not exclude minorities from receiving an education during a time when many other academic institutions would have. The first known student of color to attend the MSNS was Andrew Jackson Blackbird, an indigenous man from a band of the Odawa tribe who resided near Harbor Springs. He attended the school for around two and a half years between 1856 - 1859. I am a member of the Ottawa Tribe of Oklahoma, and was thrilled to have the opportunity to research a prominent Odawan like Blackbird and his connection to EMU's history."

University Archivist Alexis Braun Marks and CAS Associate Dean Jim Egge plan to launch the project website early in the winter semester. The next phases of the project will involve inviting authors to contribute essays on topics related to the 1893 exhibit, and creating a physical reconstruction of the exhibit to be displayed on campus during the 2024-5 academic year.

A new article by Associate Professor of Earth Surface Processes Eric Portenga published in Geochronology argues for a revised chronology of the most recent Ice Age in the Great Lakes. In "Early Holocene ice retreat from Isle Royale in the Laurentian Great Lakes constrained with 10Be exposure-age dating," Portenga and his co-authors date recessional moraines on Isle Royale to 10,100 years before present, and suggest that "Laurentide ice was in contact with the southern shorelines of Lake Superior later than previously thought."

In 2018, Portenga, Associate Professor of Geoscience at Northland College David Ullman, and EMU student (now alumnus) Stephen Ogden spent three days on Isle Royale looking for rocks left behind after the ice sheet melted, also known as glacial erratics. After hiking Mt. Desor, they discovered 11 suitable rocks to collect samples from. A rare form of the element beryllium was extracted from each sample at the University of Vermont Community Cosmogenic Facility, and the amounts of beryllium were measured at the Purdue Rare Isotope Measurement (PRIME) laboratory. Portenga and his colleagues used these data to determine when each erratic was exposed under melting ice.

"In our study, we interpret the average exposure age of erratics on Isle Royale to suggest that the Laurentide Ice Sheet was still covering parts of the island until about 10.1 thousand years ago, which is hundreds of years later than previous studies thought," said Portenga. "We hope these findings can help scientists learn more about the routes taken by meltwater from the ice sheet through the Great Lakes to reach the oceans."

Read the full EMU Today feature.

Six of the nine EMU faculty members granted Brickley awards in December 2023 are professors in the College of Arts and Sciences. CAS professors receiving awards are Elizabeth Neilson, Psychology; Matthew Cook, Geography and Geology; Renee Lajiness-O'Neill, Psychology; Jin Bo, Psychology; Ruth Ann Armitage, Chemistry; and Steven LoDuca, Geography and Geology. Please see this EMU Today feature for descriptions of the funded proposals. 

Tony and Lois Evans established the James H. Brickley Endowment for Faculty Professional Development and Innovation awards in 2016. The purpose is to facilitate faculty professional development and innovation through a broad range of activities, including research and scholarly/creative work, curriculum development, community service, professional travel, and training. 

Lois Evans is a retired mathematics teacher. Tony Evans served in several administrative positions at Eastern from 1975 to 1982, including executive vice president, interim president, provost, and vice president for academic affairs. From 1974 to 1978 he worked with former President James H. Brickley, for whom the endowment is named. 

The Historical Society of Michigan has bestowed its History Hero Award for 2023 on alum Jim Cameron (Master of Liberal Studies, Social Science and American Culture, 1986). Cameron is a retired teacher at Saline High School, where he taught Michigan and U.S. history for 37 years. He currently serves as president of the Michigan Oral History Association, and his book, Voices Over the Valley: An Oral History of Saline Valley Farms, earned HSM's Award of Merit in 2005. He is a member of the Michigan Council for History Education and served as its executive director for 12 years. At HSM, he has served on the board of trustees, chaired committees, judged at Michigan History Day, and presented numerous workshops. Cameron received the 2010 Gilder Lehrman Teacher of the Year Award for Michigan, and he served as the Social Studies Consultant for the Michigan Department of Education from 2011 to 2019. Cameron has also taught Social Studies Methods at EMU as a Part-time Lecturer.

MLive reporter Martin Slagter tells how Cameron interested his high school students in history by engaging them in oral history research:

Cameron had students conduct oral histories by interviewing family members who would answer a variety of questions the class came up with about events and topics related to living in specific decades.

The idea was that even if students weren't conventionally learning about history through lessons or the textbook, they were an authority on history during classroom discussions about family members' experiences where they were graded by their participation.

"It brought history to life for them, but it's not just history in a book, it's, 'Hey, my dad actually lived through fill in the blank,'" Cameron said.

Read the MLive profile.

Alum and current grad student Brian Dooley (BA, Criminology and Criminal Justice, 2022) has been granted the 2023 Disney Spirit Award.

An offensive lineman for the Eagles football team, Dooley captured national attention earlier this season when he donated his football scholarship to one of his teammates. It was a significant gesture by Dooley given that walk-on Zack Conti had been working multiple jobs and donating blood plasma for money to pay for college. 

"I think it's just the beginning. If people see what I've done they might take it to a whole new level," said Dooley. "I wish I could do more. To me it wasn't that big of a deal what I did. I was just doing it for one of my brothers. So, hopefully I can do a lot more now."

Since 1996 the Disney Spirit Award has been presented every year by Walt Disney World Resort to the most inspirational figures in college football. Dooley is the 28th recipient of the Disney Spirit Award and the first from Eastern Michigan University. 

Read the full Eastern Athletics feature.

Saginaw Valley State University has granted the Stuart D. and Vernice M. Gross Award for Literature to CAS alum Jeff Morrison (BA, History and Art, 1984) for his book Guardians of Michigan: Architectural Sculpture of the Pleasant Peninsulas (University of Michigan Press, 2022). 

Guardians of Michigan profiles the extraordinary architectural sculpture found in both the pleasant peninsulas of the Great Lakes State. Author Jeff Morrison spent years exploring Michigan's largest cities and smallest towns, using telephoto photography to capture the sculptural details hidden from the naked eye, and researching the beautiful historic architecture he encountered. Organized alphabetically by city, each section documents the history and design of an individual building, accompanied by beautiful photos of the building and its unique ornamentation. The Ypsilanti section includes four pages depicting sculptures by the great architectural sculptor Corrado Parducci on the EMU campus.

"I chose to create books about architectural sculpture because seeing buildings with sculpture on them has fired my curiosity since childhood," Morrison said. "I would look at these structures and wonder why the sculpture was there and what it meant. Also, while I feel it is important to document these often-overlooked architectural features for people to see and appreciate, I hope to inspire support for preservation and adaptive reuse of these historic buildings."

Morrison's first book, Guardians of Detroit: Architectural Sculpture in the Motor City, was named a Michigan Notable Book by the Library of Michigan, received a 2020 Midwest Book Award from the Midwest Independent Publishers Association, and received a 2019 State History Award from the Historical Society of Michigan. 

The Women's Literary Club of Holland, Michigan has honored Lida Rogers (Bachelor of Pedagogy, 1913; lived 1877-1963) with a historical marker commemorating her contributions to the city of Holland. A biology teacher at Holland High School from 1913 to 1952, Rogers delivered a speech in 1927 that led to the creation of Tulip Time, the annual festival that made Holland a major tourist destination.

As a child Rogers aspired to become a physician but her parents could not afford to provide her a medical education, so she instead chose to study biology. After graduating from the Michigan State Normal College (now EMU) in 1913 as vice president of her class, she took a teaching position at Holland High School. Impressed by the urban beautification efforts she observed on a 1925 tour of Europe, she proposed in a 1927 address to the Women's Literary Club that Holland plant beds of tulips, as well as native trees and shrubs. As Austin Metz relates in the Holland Sentinel, "Her speech pushed residents to begin planting tulips en masse in the fall of 1927, blooming in the spring of 1928. In the fall of 1928, 100,000 tulips were … planted throughout the city. When they bloomed, so did Tulip Time."

Although Rogers didn't mind the development of the festival, her primary aim was to beautify the city. Her great nephew Bill Rogers related that Rogers "wanted other people who lived in Holland to feel a sense of pride in the way they kept their homes, the way they made sure to beautify their yards, kept flowers growing, and again, it was the naturalness of all of it. Being a biology teacher, she stressed the natural beauty of it, and not the fact that things had to be of any great size."

The EMU Dance Program's recent performance entitled, "Sleeping Beauty and the Magic of Fairy Tales" marks 25 years of an annual ballet collaboration with the EMU Symphony Orchestra. During the concert, the orchestra performed selections from Gioachino Rossini's Cenerentola and Engelbert Humperdinck's Hansel and Gretel as a prelude to combined performances with EMU Dance students on a variety of selections from Pyotr Tchaikovsky's Sleeping Beauty. The dancers' work was choreographed and coached by Prof. Sherry Wilkinson while the orchestra was conducted by Dr. Chad Hutchinson. 

According to Dr. Christopher Barrick, Director of the School of Music and Dance, this year's performance marked an important milestone. "While our Dance Program dates back to the 1960s, the annual ballet performance is a tradition celebrating its 25th year. In addition to important study in modern and other dance styles, ballet is at the core of our students' dance program, which makes this major performance such an important extension of their studies." In addition to the December 7 evening performance for the public, the Dance students and orchestra also presented a morning concert for hundreds of local elementary school students in historic Pease Auditorium. 

PK-12 Spanish majors Liz Hood and Havilyn Young and instructors Dr. Michael Foster, Dr. Marisol Garrido, Dr. Monica Millan-Serna, and Maria-Fernanda Cusick represented the Department of World Languages at the 2023 annual Michigan World Language Association conference in Lansing in October. Instructors presented at the conference and the students, who are student teaching this semester, were able to volunteer at the conference and learn about the professional development opportunities available to them when they become full-time teachers next year. This year's conference theme was "Valuing a Multilingual Society" which allowed the instructors and students to attend a variety of sessions to ensure that pedagogical practices focusing on multiculturalism and linguistic diversity are used in the language classroom. The PK-12 programs in world languages received continuing accreditation at both the state and national levels last year, and the programs regularly stress focusing on the diverse communities of the French- and Spanish-speaking worlds in coursework and field experiences. 

2023-24 McAndless Distinguished Professors the Formosa Quartet have planned an exciting series of events for their January residency, culminating in the January 20 concert, "The American Mirror Project | An Ypsilanti Mirror." All events are free and open to the public.

Meet and Greet with the Formosa Quartet

• Tuesday, January 16, 11:30 am-12:30 pm

• Strong Hall Atrium

• Meet the members of the Formosa Quartet, learn about their "American Mirror Project," and hear them perform a selection of tunes from their upcoming concert on January 20. 

Star Lecture Series Presents "An American Roadmap" by the Formosa Quartet

• Wednesday, January 17, 6:30-8:00 pm

• Honors College Auditorium

• In this lecture presented by Eastern Michigan University's Honors College Star Lecture Series, join the Formosa Quartet on a musical tour of America. From the blues to bluegrass to jazz to Motown, the Formosa Quartet will discuss the historical context behind musical selections as well as the group's own journey in developing the American Mirror Project inspired by Derek Skye's work of the same name. 

Thursday Noon Recital: Open Rehearsal with the Formosa Quartet 

• Thursday, January 18, 12:00-12:50 pm

• Alexander Music Building, Alexander Recital Hall (Room 110)

• Curious how an award-winning chamber music ensemble works behind-the-scenes? How do they dissect a piece of music and prepare for a concert? Come see the Formosa Quartet prepare for their American Mirror Project concert on January 20 followed by a Q&A.

Open Rehearsal with the Formosa Quartet and the EMU Symphony Orchestra

• Thursday, January 18, 1:00-2:50 pm

• The EMU Honors College Auditorium

• Join the Formosa Quartet and EMU Strings as they prepare works by Rhiannon Giddens and Charles Singleton for their American Mirror Project concert on January 20.

Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration Concert

• Thursday, January 18, 7:30 - 9:00 pm

• Pease Auditorium

• The Formosa Quartet is honored to perform in Eastern Michigan University's Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration concert in historic Pease Auditorium. Program will be announced shortly.

Open Rehearsal with the Formosa Quartet and the EMU Choir

• Friday, January 19 1:00-2:50 pm

• The EMU Honors College Auditorium

• Come see the Formosa Quartet and EMU Choir prepare a selection of gospel tunes arranged by the quartet for their American Mirror Project concert on January 20.

The American Mirror Project | An Ypsilanti Mirror

• Saturday, January 20, 7:30-9:00 pm

• The EMU Honors College Auditorium

• In this concert, An Ypsilanti Mirror, the Formosa Quartet will engage the EMU and Ypsilanti communities in their American Mirror Project. The American Mirror Project is a collaborative initiative that holds up mirrors to America and highlights personal reflections of what America means. The concert will include the world premiere of Dana Wilson’s "Mirror" for String Quartet and Narration incorporating personal Mirror statements by EMU community members read by EMU students and faculty. The program will also include performances by the EMU Symphony Orchestra and EMU Choir featuring works by Rhiannon Giddens, Charlton Singleton, Jessie Montgomery, and many more taking listeners through the history of our University and city.