<< CAMPUS NEWS
COLLEGE OF LIBERAL ARTS AND SCIENCES
COURTESY OF WEN HSIN, Ph.D.
ICS Students are Top Team in Programming Contest Information and computer science junior Nick Kreeger and senior Josh McKinzie raced the clock to take first place in the annual Association for Computing Machinery programming contest Nov. 5 at the University of Missouri-Kansas City.
Nick Kreeger (left) and senior Josh McKinzie
The contest challenged teams to solve nine problems in five hours. Park’s team was the only group to complete a third problem — with 15 minutes to spare. Wen Hsin, Ph.D., associate professor of information and computer science, and John Dean, assistant professor, coached the event. “Despite a last-minute flurry of solution submissions by the other teams, none were able to solve a third problem,” Dean said. Ten colleges and universities participated in the Western Missouri portion of the competition, including teams from the University of Missouri-Kansas City, Northwest Missouri State, Rockhurst and Central Missouri State.
COURTESY OF SAPNA GUPTA, Ph.D.
Chemistry Can Be Fun! Bubbles, silly putty and slime captured the attention of more than 400 kids during National Chemistry Week in October on the Parkville Campus. The C.H.E.M. Club used the popular experiments to entertain Park
students Oct. 26 and neighborhood kids at the annual Fright Night on Oct. 28, then Park chemistry students and Park Hill High School celebrated NCW at Carolyn’s Pumpkin Patch on Oct. 30 and at the Metro North Mall in Kansas City, Mo., on Oct. 31. “We reached more than 400 kids collectively with our most popular silly putty experiment,” said C.H.E.M. Club adviser Sapna Gupta, Ph.D., associate professor of chemistry. “The students also showed bubble science, magic sand and zippy boats, and made bracelets from UV and glow-inthe-dark beads.” The club handed out balloons, toys, candy and chemistry literature. Google Hosts Workshop for Women Engineers Park ICS students Virginia Maikwek and Patricia Kengne attended an invitational workshop for women engineers Jan. 21 at Google headquarters in Mountain View, Calif. Google engineers enlightened the group about the latest trends in computer science and gave the more than 100 students a behind-the-scenes look at Google technology. The students also met with women engineers about their career paths since graduating from college. Lecture Series Honors Women’s History Month Three outstanding women spoke at the 2006 Dr. Jessie Bell Woodside Holt Lecture Series on March 17-18 in McCoy Meetin’ House at the Parkville Campus. Topics were The Challenge of Feminist Biography, by four-time author Elisabeth Perry, Ph.D., from St. Louis University; Nearer My Subject to Thee: Reflections of a Biographer, Historian, and Documentary Editor, by author Candace Falk, Ph.D., from the University of California-Berkeley; and Historians Outside the Classroom: Careers in Public History, by Heather Huyck, former director of the Jamestown 400th project and current regional chief historian of the Northwest region. One of the country’s early female
physicians, Dr. Holt was a member of Park’s second graduating class and was the University’s first medical missionary. She was University physician from 1890-1901.
History Majors Travel to Philadelphia History Assistant Professor Timothy Westcott, Ph.D., and Director of Library Services Ann Schultis escorted 10 history majors to Philadelphia in January. The students attended seminar presentations and lectures, networked with peers from other schools, talked with history and graduate program faculty, and visited publisher exhibits, historical sites and museums. They also explored the idea of a semester exchange program with Gettysburg College.
COURTESY OF TIMOTHY WESTCOT T, PH.D.
Seniors Ryan Duncan, Bethany Fraley, Nathaniel Hanway, Megan Holder, Tammy Parrott and Vincent Smith joined juniors Courtney Cul, Mariette Janning and Christian Stallings and sophomore Brett Ferguson at the Phi Alpha Theta Biennial Conference on Jan. 4-5 and the American Historical Association Annual Meeting on Jan. 6-8.
Spring 2006 ‹‹
13