Annual Report FY 2010-2011 Center for Scholarly and Creative Excellence
www.gvsu.edu/csce
Table of Contents
Page 1 Table of Contents
Page 2 Welcome Letter from Robert Smart,
Executive Director CSCE
Page 3 Office of Sponsored Programs
Page 4 Faculty Profile – Jon Engelsma
Page 5 Staff Profile – Arn Boezaart
Page 6 Internal Support
Page 6-8 Distinguished Scholars
Page 9 Faculty Profile – Susan Carson
Page 10 Office of Undergraduate Research
and Scholarship
Page 11 Student Profile – Jen Torreano Pages 11-13 Research Protections Program 1
Welcome,
The Center for Scholarly and Creative Excellence is proud to highlight some of the work – creative and scholarly – performed by GVSU faculty over the 2010-2011 fiscal year. Over the course of this year, GVSU faculty gave over 440 presentations with the help of internal travel grants; received awards of excellence; and is on track to receive a record amount of external funding. CSCE strives to assist faculty in identifying and incorporating opportunities for the expansion and dissemination of their endeavors. This publication not only explains the multiple roles that CSCE plays in facilitating opportunities for creative and academic engagement for faculty and students, but also highlights some of the work being done by members of the GVSU community. From The Office of Sponsored Programs to The Office for Undergraduate Research and Scholarship, CSCE supports efforts and encourages exploration throughout all disciplines and around the globe. This publication also gives us a chance to reflect on our many successes over the 2010-2011 fiscal year. As GVSU continues to define its role as leader in Sustainability, in Student Engagement, and in Scholarship, CSCE looks forward to helping with the continuing efforts toward excellence. We hope that you enjoy learning about some of the endeavors as much as we enjoyed supporting them. Best Wishes, Robert Smart, Ph. D. Executive Director
Mission Statement of CSCE The Center of Scholarly and Creative Excellence promotes a culture of active, engaged and ethical scholarship through supporting innovative faculty and student research and collaborative partnerships in the broader community. 2
Office of Sponsored Programs The Grand Valley State University community is made up of students, faculty, and staff committed to improving our world. Through their exceptional research and creative activities, our faculty and staff not only perform important scholarship, they also provide outstanding educational experiences for our students. The Office of Sponsored Programs (OSP) provides research support for this integral aspect of GVSU’s contributions to our community and our greater world. It is the central office that supports faculty and staff in identifying, developing, submitting, implementing, and managing externally sponsored agreements for scholarly research and creative activity. Over the past 3 years, the University’s extramural support has risen steadily with increased proposal submissions to agencies and in money received -- from $15.6 million in FY 2008 to $24.9 million in FY 2010. This represents a 20.4 percent increase over the previous year and a 37.3 percent increase since FY 2008. The same upward trend can be seen in the number of proposals submitted by GVSU over the same time period.
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Faculty Profile – Jonathan Engelsma
Dr. Jonathan Engelsma, Associate Professor in the School of Computing, serves as leader of the Mobile Applications and Services Lab. He describes himself as a computer scientist, programmer, teacher, mobile technology enthusiast, inventor, beekeeper and life-long student. His research interests are in distributed and pervasive computing with a focus on mobile applications and services. He earned his Ph.D. in Computer Science from Michigan State University in 1993, and has over two decades of industry experience, including 16 years with Motorola, Inc. in various research and development positions.
to when we interact with native applications installed on our computers. It is these more recent interactive web technologies that have been leveraged to create what is known as social media – media that is designed to be created, distributed and consumed online via social interaction. While traditional media was often one to many, social media is many to many, allowing end users to create and interact socially with each other around and via digital content. This research project, which utilizes GVSU students as a core component of the research team, focuses on the convergence of two powerful mediums – the mobile phone and the internet -- with specific attention on developing understanding of the benefits to both retail shoppers and bricks and mortar retail merchants from the use of networked mobile applications that incorporate social and rich media. While Dr. Engelsma fully acknowledges the literature on utilizing social media in the context of online retail, he and his team of student researchers intend to explore how the evolution of mobile devices has altered the actual in-store retail setting. Therefore while looking back to the research on online merchandizing, he sees the timely need to research the impact on mobile devices and views his research as opportunity in a holistic and balanced way that takes into account both the interests of the consumer as well as the retail merchant. Utilizing pilot studies which utilize experimental retail mobile applications designed specifically for this study -- the application will be made available via mobile application ecosystems such as Apple’s App Store, and Google’s Android MarketPlace – a myriad of data will be collected and analyzed. The ultimate goal is to publish the case studies and the best practices distilled from the pilot studies and enhance the experience of the students involved in this project.
John Engelsma’s Investigation in Mobile, Social & Rich Media Retail Applications received $50,000 from Motorola, Inc. The genesis of Dr. Engelsma’s study is fairly straightforward -- mobile phone and Internet represent two widely embraced modern communication mediums that have up until very recently existed and evolved independently of each other. However, the mobile phone has evolved from being a device dedicated to making voice phone calls, over the publically switched phone network, to a generalpurpose applications platform that has many of the same capabilities of the conventional desktop computer and some additional capabilities as well -- in addition to voice calling, the mobile now supports text messaging, Internet applications, games, and many other user experiences that in the past resided on our personal computers. With the advances of the mobile phone, the Internet also has evolved at a hyper-Darwinian rate. It was the emergence of the World-Wide Web in the mid-nineties that made the Internet more user-friendly thereby making it perhaps one of the greatest advances in information dissemination since the printing press. In less than two decades, the web metamorphosed from primarily a distributed documentation publishing engine to a generalpurpose computing platform; with Web 2.0 technologies giving rise to the existence of Rich Internet Applications -applications that are highly interactive and in many ways resembled the types of interactivity we are accustomed
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Staff Profile – Arn Boezaart
Arn Boezaart, director of the Michigan Alternative and Renewable Energy Center at Grand Valley State University, was named a Thought Leader in Energy by Business Review West Michigan. Since being named the director of MAREC in November 2009, Boezaart has positioned MAREC as a public resource for the region and has led the off-shore wind research study to bring wind energy opportunities to West Michigan.
This offshore research effort will utilize an AXYS WindSentinel™ research buoy equipped with Vindicator™ laser light pulse technology to collect a range of data including offshore wind measurements. The project will measure vertical columns of air at varied heights simultaneously. This innovative and largely untested alternative method of data collection – when compared to more traditional wind measurement readings taken from fixed meteorological (MET) towers with anemometers – should provide more accurate results as it addresses the difficulties and expenses involved in employing traditional methods in an offshore environment. In addition, the project will conduct correlation studies using near-shore fixed MET tower locations and determine the presence of bird and bat species over Lake Michigan. The WindSentinel buoy will be deployed at multiple locations during the project, including near shore and the mid-lake plateau region of Lake Michigan.
Boezaart is a founding member of the Muskegon Area Sustainability Coalition and a member of the Leadership Committee and Muskegon Rotary. He is chair of the North Bank Communities Fund Advisory Committee of the Grand Haven Area Community Foundation, and is part of Muskegon Opportunity, an education initiative. He is also affiliated with United Way and the Muskegon County Environmental Coordinating Council. Arn Boezart and the GVSU Michigan Alternative and Renewable Energy Center (MAREC) are working with a wide range of partners including the University of Michigan, Phoenix Energy Institute, Michigan State University, and Michigan Natural Features Inventory program, and on a Lake Michigan Offshore Wind Assessment project beginning mid-summer 2011. The project, which is scheduled to conclude in December 2013, will provide important baseline data for possible future wind energy development on the Great Lakes.
Arn Boezaart Offshore Wind Development received $1.4 million from the Department of Energy and $1.3 million from Michigan Public Service Commission.
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Internal Support The CSCE supports faculty engagement in activities that promote their work – research and creative – and enhance the profile of GVSU. A critical feature of a productive research program is the ability to disseminate findings and engage in scholarly discourse with colleagues around the world, to learn of and develop future research activities, to develop productive research collaborations, and to support new grant applications. The CSCE Dissemination Grant program is designed to provide faculty members with funds for these important activities be it publication (page and other publication charges), travel to support presentations at professional meetings, or other scholarly dissemination venues. GVSU’s influence continues to grow and span the globe. The world map shows the various locations of scholarly dissemination of our faculty in the last fiscal year.
Distinguished Scholars Gary Stark Distinguished Contribution in the Discipline Over the course of his career, Professor Gary Stark has contributed to the scholarship on modern European history through conference papers, journal articles, co-edited books of historical essays, and two books recognized as important contributions to historical understanding of modern German culture. Dr. Stark’s most recent work, Banned in Berlin - Literacy Censorship in Imperial Germany, 1871-1918, typifies his excellence in scholarship and has solidified his reputation as an expert in German cultural history. GVSU is honored to have such a distinguished scholar as Gary Stark. He is an extraordinarily generous colleague willing to share his expertise with junior faculty as they develop their own careers. 6
Rachel Powers Distinguished Early-Career Scholar Award Dr. Rachel Powers has built a successful research program that integrates undergraduate students throughout the entire scholarly process. Her research involves a cutting edge X-ray crystallography technique, and offers a combined approach to formally map the active sites of the class D beta-lactamases, OXA-1 and OXA-24/40, two highly relevant antibiotic resistance targets. The specific aims of her work are to employ a structure-based consensus overlay approach to identify and characterize the binding sites of OXA-1 and OXA-40. This type of research is not usually available at primarily undergraduate institutions like GVSU. Her work has been recognized nationally by receiving funding both from the National Institute of Health and the Research Corporation. Recently her collaborative work with Dr. David Leonard was highlighted in the journal Biochemistry.
Ryan Thum Distinguished Early-Career Scholar Award At his laboratory at the Annis Water Resources Institute, Dr. Ryan Thum’s research is already making a mark on the national landscape. Specifically, his research program applies the concepts and tools from the basic research field of molecular ecology to the environmental problem of invasive species and management. Dr. Thum has established an impressive record of extramural support from the state, private sector, and federal government, including a Major Research Instrumentation grant from the National Science Foundation to furnish the laboratory with highly advanced equipment that benefits numerous GVSU faculty. Since arriving at GVSU, he has authored or co-authored eight peer-reviewed manuscripts and more than 20 presentations at academic conferences or as an invited seminar speaker. While being a top notch researcher, Dr. Thum is also a teacher, as he has mentored numerous undergraduate and Masters level students through research projects, as well as used his research expertise to develop a brand new course (Molecular Ecology). 7
Steven Schlicker Distinguished Undergraduate Mentoring Award With a consistent record of outstanding undergraduate research at GVSU, Dr. Steven Schlicker is the winner of the Distinguished Undergraduate Mentoring Award. He has directly promoted undergraduate scholarship by being one of the founders of the Summer Undergraduate Research Program (SURP); the predecessor of our Student Summer Scholars (S3) Program. Dr. Schlicker served as a primary investigator on nationally recognized National Science Foundation grants that have involved 80 undergraduate students, which have helped to sustain nationally recognized undergraduate scholarship at GVSU. His collaborative work with students has led to 9 peer-reviewed publications and numerous presentations at national conferences. In addition, seven of his students have won awards for their presentations at national conferences, three students have been awarded prestigious Goldwater Scholarships, and many of his students have gone on to earn graduate degrees.
Deborah Herrington Distinguished Graduate Mentoring Award Dr. Herrington is recognized both nationally and internationally for her research expertise in chemical education. As co-developer of the Target Inquiry Program, Dr. Herrington has designed a nationally revered chemistry education program that has changed the way that high school chemistry is taught. Graduate students who have been mentored by Dr. Herrington through the TI Program have gone on to become successful and award winning teachers. In this way, Dr. Herrington has had direct impact on not only on these high school teachers, but also on their students. Dr. Herrington serves as a collegial, strong role model for others as she continually works to develop her scholarly contributions in her critically important field of science education. Dr. Herrington exemplifies all the qualities of a teacherscholar, she is very deserving of the Graduate Mentoring Award.
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Faculty Profile – Susan Carson Fulbright Award Winner
Associate Professor of Education, Susan Carson, took a few minutes to reflect on her travels to India for her Fulbright Award Winning Research.
communities, and how those principles might be used to construct a shared vision, reduce violence, improve communication, enhance relationships, address issues of gender equity and foster respect. In its broadest application, her research explores how we can empower others to care.
When asked if the trip was what you thought it would be, she said “As Loretta Konecki would say, yes and no. I could not have imagined a more amazing experience. To be able to teach, research, travel and study culture is an incomparable gift.” She found the most rewarding aspect was being with people, experiencing different walks of life, different ways of being, and experiencing the “intersecting life moments with beggars, senior professors, children, shop keepers, women and men sharing our world together, and staying present to have those moments.”
Carson approaches her research with careful consideration to the conjunction between educational opportunities and the social and structural realities that affect women’s participation in education and communities. Understanding the ways in which the principles and practices of caring communities may be integrated into educational institutions and education programs to advance women’s equity is pivotal to her study, as one goal of the research is to create a greater understanding of the relationship these principles and practices have to learning and teaching, with an emphasis on women’s learning.
Award Winning Research Agenda Dr. Carson’s research focuses on principles and practices of caring communities, with an emphasis on equity opportunities for young women and girls in contemporary India; and furthering the understanding of global connections and educational opportunities. She explored ways in which principles and practices of caring communities can be integrated into learning
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Office of Undergraduate Research In 2010, the Office of Undergraduate Research and Scholarship (OURS) was established as part of the Center for Scholarly and Creative Excellence with the mission and intent of establishing comprehensive services and programs which support students in their pursuit of inquiry, creativity, scholarship, and research. OURS offers a variety of opportunities and resources for undergraduates to pursue research and scholarship in a wide range of disciplines and with a faculty mentor. These intensive opportunities enrich students’ academic experiences as they challenge them to strengthen their critical, analytical, and communicative skills.
Some of the hallmark programs of OURS are: Academic Conference Fund
Student Summer Scholars
This program provides opportunities for mentored, student-driven research and reflection on diverse and intersecting disciplines. In 2011, the program fostered twenty-four Student Scholars in disciplines ranging from Music to Chemistry to Latin American Studies. This ten-week intensive summer exploration is individualized as research varies from such topics as the origins and influence of the electric bass on the evolution of jazz and the development of contemporary music, to assessing the degree of inconsistency between expert and novice interpretations of exam questions, to mapping neural stem cell domains in the ventral midbrain of the chick embryo. This program provides valuable experience for the student and valuable research for the university.
This grant program was established to provide travel funds for GVSU students to present/perform at an academic conference. As of May 2011, the ACF travel fund has awarded 140 applications. These students represented 47 majors, and examples of presentation title include:
Student Scholars Day
Academic and Professional Enrichment Fund
• “The Geometry of Compact Sets” • “Taser Deployment: The Role of Departmental Policy and Training in Officer Discretion” • “Refugees Near and Far: What they Need vs. What they Receive” • “The Impact of Land-Use Changes on Carbon Storage in Small Streams, Ottawa County, Michigan” • “Applied Entrepreneurialism in a Communication Program: A Case Study in Green Internships”
This grant program was established to provide travel funds for GVSU students to accompany faculty members to academic conferences. To date, the APEF has awarded 41 applications, which enabled 96 students to travel with faculty to conferences during the 2010-2011 academic year. The faculty represented 23 departments, and examples of conferences they attended include:
In 2011, this year-end discussion and celebration of the academic and creative accomplishments of GVSU students, saw nearly five hundred students present their research to the GVSU community. These students gave 299 student presentations (oral presentations, poster presentations, discussion panels, and exhibits) that represented over 70 majors and graduate programs. Nearly 200 faculty mentors from over 42 departments and programs participated in SSD 2011. It truly is a day to celebrate scholarship and creative excellence in the GVSU community.
• “Society for Music Theory & American Musicoligical Society Joint Annual Meeting” • “Geological Society of America Annual Meeting & Exposition 2010: Reaching New Peaks in the Geosciences” • “71st Midwest Fish and Wildlife Conference” • “Sports, Events, Marketing Experience” • “Conference of the Society for Research on Child Development (SRCD)”
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Undergraduate Student ProďŹ le – Jen Torreano
A 2010 Student Summer scholar, Jen Torreano, pursued a project titled, Designing Spaces, Mapping Disciplines: Toward Better Collaboration Between Writing Centers and Libraries. This project examined the following questions: How can writing center theory and practice, and core principles in libraries, inform each other and push each other toward better collaborative models? Given their similarities and differences, how can libraries and writing centers collaborate in physical and virtual spaces? Through rhetorical analysis, Jen was able
to complete the project and present her work to the East Central Writing Centers Association, as well as GVSU community.
In recognition of her work, Jen was named Leader of the Year from the East Central Writing Centers Association ECWCA serves writing centers in high schools, colleges and universities in six states.
Research Protections Program The Research Protections Program (RPP) coordinates compliance with research ethics standards and federal and state laws and regulations, and provides training and education resources to several GVSU programs to ensure the responsible conduct of research.
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Human Research Protections Program The Human Research Protections Program (RPP) initiated efforts in 2011 to design a comprehensive policy and procedure manual for human subjects research. This manual, when completed, will help ensure clear and consistent communication with our research community and compliance with GVSU research standards. These governing policies will enable Grand Valley to enter into external institutional agreements and reduce existing barriers to collaborative research while maintaining high ethical standards.
Review Turnaraound
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Institutional Animal Care & Use Committee
Responsible Conduct of Research
In Fall 2010, the Research Protections Program (RPP) within CSCE designed a university-wide initiative to develop a comprehensive training program in the Responsible Conduct of Research (RCR) according to national guidelines. Professor Gordon Alderink from Meijer’s Honors College was selected as task force chair, key consultants were assigned from the CSCE and Provost Office, and each College Dean appointed one representative. The task force met for six months and successfully developed a multiyear strategic plan that was submitted to the Provost on June 15, 2011. This plan will serve as the blueprint for developing a formal infrastructure for further research development at GVSU over the next five years.
Inter-Institutional Agreements for Research
The RPP initiated meetings with Spectrum, Trinity-St. Mary’s and Metro hospitals, Michigan State University, and Van Andel Research Institute to develop agreements for conducting collaborative research activities involving human subjects. These agreements will be developed over the coming year to establish consistent and verifiable assurances for maintaining the highest ethics standards in research while streamlining the review and approval processes for multi-site collaborative studies.
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www.gvsu.edu/csce
Gayle Davis Provost
Robert Smart Executive Director CSCE
Research Protections (616) 331-3197
Office of Sponsored Programs (616) 331-6826
Paul Reitemeier, Chair, Human Research Review Committee
Christine Chamberlain
Christina Moord
Shirley Dilworth
Research Protections Coordinator
CSCE Assistant
Office of Undergraduate Research and Scholarship (616) 331-8100
OSP Assistant
Grants and Contracts Specialist
Chair, Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee
Casey Thelenwood Grants and Contracts Specialist
Research and Development (616) 331-2281
Susan Mendoza
Brad Wallar
Director
Chair, Research and Development Committee
Director
Beverly Dickinson Michael Lombardo
Jean Moseler
Shelley Sickrey Office Coordinator