MTSU Mondays: Students 'hack' ingenuity, award-winning guest to lecture on ‘South to America’
Here's the latest news from Middle Tennessee State University.
Creating, networking during 2023 HackMT
Computer Science and Data Science students were not only creating games and dabbling with virtual reality and artificial intelligence at this year’s HackMT event but also networking with potential employers.
Joined by representatives from industry partners, students on 10 teams spent 36 nonstop hours creating apps and more during the annual marathon hackathon in the Science Building on Jan. 29.
The event gathers software developers, visual designers, programmers, and computer/data science students and professionals from local industries to form teams to invent new web platforms, mobile apps, and electronic gadgets during the weekend.
“I’ve been able to participate and make connections,” said Elijah Atkins, 19, a sophomore computer science major from Dickson, involved for the second consecutive year. “From this, I have a new colleague (Blake Stanley, a senior and part-time student who has just become a project analyst with Ingram Content Group in La Vergne).”
Josh Phillips, computer science associate professor and HackMT director, said they were “up in the number of participants and industry partners. All 10 teams stuck it out and everybody worked hard.” One team included 18 data science students from the Data Science Club.
National Book Award winner to lecture on ‘South to America’
National Book Award-winning scholar Imani Perry will discuss how one region’s people and cultures have influenced a nation during her “South to America” visit on Thursday, Feb. 9.
Perry, the Hughes-Rogers Professor of African American Studies at Princeton University and an interdisciplinary scholar of race, law, literature, and African American culture, is set to speak at 11:20 a.m. in the ballroom of the Student Union, 1768 MTSU Blvd.
The free public event is part of the university’s 2023 Black History Month celebration.
Perry’s 2022 book, “South to America: A Journey Below the Mason-Dixon to Understand the Soul of a Nation,” received the National Book Award for Nonfiction last November. It chronicles her visits to more than a dozen cities in the South to examine the region’s history, culture, and people and their impact on all of America.
Education college hosting info session on Ed.D. program
The College of Education will host a free Feb. 9 information session about a special doctorate program that prepares successful candidates to make a lasting impact inside their classrooms and educational institutions.
Kevin Krahenbuhl, who directs the Doctor of Education in Assessment, Learning, and Student Success, calls the program unique in the world of graduate education.
“It helps those education professionals with multiple degrees not simply get more of the same, but rather, challenges them to see things a bit differently,” Krahenbuhl said. “It trains scholar-practitioners who are change agents for improving learning for all.”
Krahenbuhl is hosting an information session about the program for pre-K-12 educational leaders who have a master’s degree and can affect immediate school improvement and gains in student learning — this includes teacher-leaders, administrators, district office personnel, policymakers, policy advisors and staff members of philanthropic and nonprofit agencies focused on school improvement.
The Thursday event will take place from 5 to 6 p.m. in the College of Education building Room 202 and will also be available via Zoom. Those interested can register by contacting the program secretary at 615-898-2995 or EdD@mtsu.edu. For off-campus attendees, an MTSU parking map is available at bit.ly/MTSUParking.
Voter registration drive results in award from state
Last fall, the combined efforts of professor Mary A. Evins and her group of student and community volunteers secured the Blue Raider campus a second win as the top four-year public university in Secretary of State Tre Hargett’s College Voter Registration Competition.
Hargett visited the campus recently and presented the glass plaque award to Student Government Association President Jada Powell in the Student Union Parliamentary Room.
Hargett congratulated and thanked faculty leaders Evins, Assistant Vice President for Student Affairs Danny Kelley, Director of Student Organizations and Service Jackie Victory, and Vice President for Student Affairs and Enrollment Deb Sells along with the volunteers from hundreds of student organizations and the larger Murfreesboro community who worked hard to register 343 students to vote during the competition, defending the university’s number one title.
Evins said even though MTSU participates in multiple student voting challenges each election cycle, the main objective is to get the entire student body to be active citizens in their democracy.
MTSU Mondays content is provided by submissions from MTSU News and Media Relations.
This article originally appeared on Murfreesboro Daily News Journal: HackMT student ingenuity, state award, award-winning guest lecturer
