TTU to open virtual reality, prototyping and design lab

Cookeville, Tennessee - Some of the books once housed in Tennessee Tech University’s Angelo and Jennette Volpe Library have made way for a different kind of learning environment.

Behind a glass door on the third floor is a technology lab that allows anyone to step into a human heart, jump into a polluted river, and design, build and test devices and prototypes.

“We are working, as a university, to integrate our respective academic silos and find more ways to combine the curriculum with experiential education,” said Thomas Payne, dean of the TTU College of Business. “iCube was designed to combine engineering and business, to allow students and faculty to collaborate, communicate and create together across disciplines.”

The lab features a 3-D scanner that has already been used to digitize the Derryberry eagle as part of

TTU computer science organizes national women in cybersecurity conference

Cookeville, Tennessee - Cybersecurity is one of the fastest growing fields globally. From 2007 to 2013, cybersecurity job postings increased 74 percent.

While half of the United States' workforce are women, women represent less than 15 percent of the cybersecurity workforce.

To help to meet that need, one Tennessee Tech University computer science associate professor is organizing a conference to bring together industry professionals and higher education faculty and students.

“This conference is to help to recruit and retain aspiring women in cybersecurity, and advance their careers in this field,” said Ambareen Siraj, founder and chair of the Women in Cybersecurity conference. “Cybersecurity is a growing field and increasing the participation of women and minority groups is absolutely critical to bridge existing gaps and help the workforce to perform better.”

By 2022, approximately 300,000 software development and programming jobs will be added to the economy, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Women make up about a quarter of the workforce, and adding diversity is a key goal of many academics and other professionals nationally.

Siraj secured funding from the National Science Foundation to pilot the effort and Facebook has since become a strategic partner. Last year, the response from participants was so strong that Siraj kept registration open until the fire codes of the conference space forced her to stop. An event planned for 100 people ballooned to 350.

This year, the conference will be held March 27-28 in Atlanta. Five hundred representatives from more than 200 organizations will attend, including higher education institutions, governmental and non-governmental organizations.

The conference will include different sessions for higher education, industry and research, as well as technical presentations, student research sessions and panels. Students will be able to attend a career and graduate school fair as well.

Keynote speakers include Jennifer Henley, Facebook’s director of security operations; Phyllis Schneck, the Department of Homeland Security’s deputy under-secretary for cybersecurity; Angela McKay, Microsoft’s director of cybersecurity policy and strategy; and Sherri Ramsay, CEO of CyberPoint.

Tennessee Tech celebrates 100th Charter Day

Cookeville, Tennessee - In honor of 100 years of academics, Tennessee Tech University begins its Centennial Celebration Friday, March 27, with a ”Charter Day” ceremony.

Guests are invited to attend the event, which takes place from 10:30 to 11:15 a.m. in Derryberry Hall Auditorium. The ceremony includes a historical re-enactment of events leading up to the signing of the Tennessee Tech charter and proclamations declaring March 27 “Tennessee Tech University Charter Day” in the state, county and city.

“Hitting our century mark is a huge accomplishment, and we’re commemorating the occasion with more than a year’s worth of special events and activities,” said Laura Clemons, coordinator of the university’s Centennial Celebration. “The fact that we’ve reached this moment in our history is due in large part to the people of the Upper Cumberland, who lobbied successfully for the first public college in our region.”

TTU began as Dixie College in the early 1900s. The school’s primary goal was to increase the

TTU TO HOST JAN. 13 REGIONAL ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT CONFERENCE

Cookeville, Tennessee - The Upper Cumberland is open for business, and regional leaders will host an economic development conference, REDI for Action, Monday, Jan. 13, at Tennessee Tech University.

The daylong conference will include sessions about tourism, grant writing, education, revitalization efforts and business incubation, among other topics.

The conference is open to the public and city and county leadership, chambers of commerce members and community leaders and volunteers are encouraged to attend.

Registration is $35 and reservations are required by Jan. 8. Participants who register through their chambers of commerce will receive a discounted rate. The registration fee includes lunch and the conference will be in TTU’s Roaden University Center, 1000 N. Dixie Ave. To register, visit http://goo.gl/Sc5hKi.

TTU’s Office of Extended Programs and Regional Development, and Cody Huddleston and Rebecca Smith with Economic and Community Development are hosting the conference. The Upper Cumberland Chamber Executive Association, Upper Cumberland Human Resource Agency, Upper Cumberland Development District, Tennessee Valley Authority and the Biz Foundry are event sponsors.

TTU ART FACULTY TO SHOWCASE SOME OF THEIR BEST WORK

Cookeville, Tennessee - For three weeks next year, visitors to Tennessee Tech University will be able to see artwork in a variety of media from the faculty of each of the campus art studios.

The faculty art exhibition will open Jan. 21 in the Roaden University Center’s Joan Derryberry Art Gallery. There will be a public reception with the artists beginning at 5 p.m. Jan. 23. The exhibit closes Feb. 13.

TTU art faculty members are masters of their media, and the show is designed to show their individual artistic
talents and vision. The faculty have received many awards and they exhibit their work across the nation and world.

The show is sponsored by TTU’s Center Stage, which is made possible by the university’s general education fund. All Center Stage events are free and open to the public.

The Derryberry Gallery is on the first floor of the RUC, 1000 N. Dixie Ave. It is open weekdays and from 1 to 3 p.m. on Bryan Symphony Orchestra Sundays.

GUEST FLUTIST TO PERFORM AT TTU, WORK WITH STUDENTS

Cookeville, Tennessee - Flute lovers and students will be able to listen to a performance by flutist and frequent Metropolitan Opera Orchestra performer John McMurtery Jan. 31 and Feb. 1 at Tennessee Tech University.

The concert is sponsored by TTU’s Center Stage series and is free and open to the public. TTU piano accompanist Paul Thurmond will collaborate with McMurtery. The 7:30 p.m. performance will be in TTU’s Wattenbarger Auditorium in the Bryan Fine Arts Building, 1150 N. Dixie Ave.

McMurtery is a professor at Western Illinois University and a former member of the New York City Opera Orchestra. He regularly performs with the New Jersey Symphony and the Oregon Symphony. He has been a featured soloist with the Artemis Chamber Ensemble, the Manhattan Chamber Orchesra and the New York Symphonic Ensemble.

He will also be this year’s guest artist for the university’s Flute Day Feb. 1 in the Bryan Fine Arts Building. Flute Day, an annual event for all flute enthusiasts, consists of master classes with the guest artist, an exhibit of flutes and piccolos by J.L. Smith & Co. of Charlotte, N.C., for all to try, a concert by McMurtery and Thurmond at 1 p.m. and a flute choir reading session in which all participants are invited to play. Registration opens at 8 a.m. A $20 registration fee is to be paid at the door.

Center Stage is funded through the university’s general education fund.

PAGEANT PARTICIPANTS COLLECT HUNDREDS OF TOYS FOR LOCALS IN NEED

Cookeville, Tennessee - Proving that beauty is more than skin-deep, more than 50 girls younger than 18 competed in a “Pageant with a Purpose” earlier this month at Tennessee Tech University.

Together, they donated more than 500 toys to benefit children across the Upper Cumberland. Shelby Beaty, daughter of Charlene Beaty of Jamestown, won the Humanitarian Queen award for bringing the most donated toys to the event.

The 2013 Christmas Queen pageant was the third of its kind held at TTU to benefit agencies in the area. The toys collected in this month’s pageant will reappear in the hands of young children this holiday season.

“With annual giving and donations lower than normal for so many agencies on these things, we feel now is a time these efforts are needed,” said Michelle Huddleston, TTU service coordinator and one of the event organizers.

TTU fashion merchandising major Catherine Fitzpatrick and alumna Shannon Hood-Hayes collaborated with Huddleston to sponsor the pageant. Hood-Hayes owns a company called Nola Blue Productions and Pageants with a Purpose. She and Huddleston studied sociology together at TTU.

In August, the Poppy Queen pageant raised several hundred dollars and collected more than 2,500 items for the campus Blessings in a Backpack program. Blessings in a Backpack provides backpacks of food for hungry children in the Jackson County. In October, the Halloween Queen pageant collected hundreds of dollars for the Putnam County Humane Society’s spay and neuter clinic.

“We believe that your crown comes with responsibility and that our queens and contestants should be role models for their peers,” Hood-Hayes said. “They should give back to the community through various service projects.”

The next TTU-sponsored charity pageant will be the March 8 Mardi Gras Queen pageant. Proceeds will be donated to Genesis House, an organization that helps victims of domestic and sexual violence.

For more information, contact Hood-Hayes at (931) 644-5853.

NEW ENGLAND FURNITURE DESIGNER TO LECTURE AT TTU

Cookeville, Tennessee - New England-based furniture designer Vivian Beer will give a lecture about her work at 4:30 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 30, at Tennessee Tech University.

Beer describes her creative process as “sophisticated daydreaming” and draws from contemporary design, craft and sculpture. She is known as an innovative designer.

Her lecture will be in TTU’s Johnson Hall Auditorium, 1105 N. Peachtree Ave. It is sponsored by TTU’s Center Stage, which is made possible by the university’s general education fund. All Center Stage events are free and open to the public.

JEWELRY ARTIST’S WORK ON DISPLAY AT TTU CRAFT CENTER

Jewelry artist Ken Bova's work will be on display in the Craft Center's North Windows gallery beginning Jan. 6. The galleries are free and open to the public.

Jewelry items combining various media with silver and gold will be on display at Tennessee Tech University’s Appalachian Center for Craft Jan. 6 through Feb. 23.

Artist Ken Bova grew up collecting seeds and threading them into necklaces; he combines that personal history, formal training in jewelry making and metalsmithing with philosophy and religious studies to make jewelry with religious symbolism out of a variety of media.

The exhibition, Mapping Treasure: Sacred Junk, will be in the Craft Center’s North Windows Gallery.

Bova teaches enameling and senior studio courses at East Carolina University in Greenville, N.C. He is also the program’s area graduate coordinator for metal design.

The Craft Center’s three galleries are free and open to the public from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily. The Center will close for the holidays Jan. 23 through Jan. 1, reopening Jan. 2.

The Craft Center is approximately six miles from Interstate 30 at exit 273, Smithville/McMinnville. Go south on state Route 56; turn left immediately after crossing Hurricane Bridge. This drive leads to the Craft Center.