2014-2015 Grant Proposals Now Being Accepted by MSU Office of Regional Outreach

Grant-funding opportunities can arise infrequently yet are important sources of funding for getting an important educational activity started. The Murray State University Office of Regional Outreach helps facilitate education grants and grant-funding.

Murray State University’s (MSU) Office of Regional Outreach has announced its 2014-15 grant funding cycle. Now in its seventh year, the Regional Outreach Grant Program provides seed money for new and innovative educational programming for West Kentucky youth and adults. Applications are accepted for review at any time during the fiscal year (June 1, 2014 through July 31, 2015) as long as funds are available.

Grants are competitive and funding is awarded on a first-come, first-serve basis until funds are depleted. Grant proposal must include a 1:1 match in funding or comparable in-kind support. 

For complete grant details, please visit www.murraystate.edu/outreach.

Examples of internal Murray State University grants funded include: Dr. Renee Fister (mathematics and statistics) and Dr. Dina Byers and Dr. Dana Manley (nursing) for their collaborative “Health in a Box” project; Dr. Pam Matlock and Greg Gierhart (education) for their “Math Out of a Bag” program; and Dr. Aleck Leedy (engineering) for “Mobile Engineering Days.”

Some projects in the greater Murray State service region have also received important funding. Examples include Junior Achievement of West Kentucky, West Kentucky Educational Cooperative for the Prescription Drug Awareness Symposium, the Associated General Contractors of West Kentucky for Construction Career Day, and the Pennyrile Resource and Development Council for their “Building Bridges to Success” series for school children at Jeffers Bend Environmental Center and Botanical Garden.

Complete story by Bentley Utgaard can be found at http://www.roundaboutmurray.com/?p=6627

Nation of Makers

"I am proud to host the first-ever White House Maker Faire. This event celebrates every maker — from students learning STEM skills to entrepreneurs launching new businesses to innovators powering the renaissance in American manufacturing. I am calling on people across the country to join us in sparking creativity and encouraging invention in their communities." President Obama on June 17, 2014

The Maker Movement has gained its most prominent supporter, President Barack Obama. On June 17th, 2014, the White House hosted the first (and I am hoping annual) Maker Faire. From this day forward, June 18th will be known nationally as the "National Day of Making." You can read his proclamation here.

Hundreds of people participated in the White House Maker Faire. David Perry played his 3D printed violin at the White House, Russell the Electric Giraffe made his debut, and 17-year old Darius demonstrated his hand-built 3D printer. Check out the White House Maker Faire website for more details, videos, and a cameo by Bill Nye!

ESRI, the world's leading provider of geographic information systems software, provided a storymap helping illustrate the distribution of participants and provide some background information.

The White House has assumed an important role to help promote innovation and entrepreneurship through the Maker community. Users of Facebook can stay informed by following both Make and Maker Faire Facebook pages. User of Twitter can follow the #NationofMakers hashtag.

In a future post, I'll cover some methods of funding a Maker community, organizing a local Maker Faire, and share some anecdotes of my own experiences.

Dr. Brandi King Presenting LEGO Robotics Workshop to Regional K-12 Educators.

From "Roundabout Murray" for June 12, 2014.

An upcoming opportunity to learn how to integrate LEGO® robotics in the classroom will provide K-12 teachers from Murray State University’s 18-county service region tools to diversify teaching strategies and address Kentucky Common Core STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) standards. The Office of Regional Outreach is partnering with Dr. Brandi King in the College of Education to present a free two-day LEGO® robotics education workshop for K-12 teachers in the region on June 26-27.

According to King, this training opportunity will “prepare teachers to work with students using LEGO® robotics kits. Participants will be expected to use the kits with students in the classroom, in an after-school club setting or coach a First LEGO® League team, which is for students ages 9-14.”

King’s passion for robotics prompted her to direct robotics summer camps for kids on Murray State’s campus and, more recently, to provide teachers with more hands-on instruction options. “The more teachers who have this technology at their fingertips, the more children who can be exposed to it in the classroom since not all kids can attend the camps,” King noted.

All participants will be loaned the use of one LEGO® robotics kit for one school year. Homeschool teachers are encouraged to sign up as well.

To register, contact King at bking11@murraystate.edu or call Regional Outreach at 270.809.5888

And if you have time, check out this LEGO video showcasing how LEGO robotics addresses Common Core Science Standards.

Kickstart a Makerspace

Adapted from "Kickstart A Kid's Makerspace," by James Floyd Kelly; Make Magazine; Vol. 38; April/May 2014.

When I run across a good idea I occasionally take exception to parts of the idea's premise. Take this article by Mr. Kelly. He has an awesome idea. He states, "Young makers grow up to become world-changing engineers and leaders." I agree wholeheartedly. So, why would I take exception to his idea?

Because I don't think it should be limited exclusively to kids.

Many people have great ideas. Some people are late bloomers, and don't get an original idea until later in life, in their 40s, 50s, or 60s. Why should brilliant technology be provided exclusively to the young? Aren't we really interested in fostering ideas, regardless of age, gender, or race, or religion?

Blacktooth laser cutter

 The notion of placing technology in the hands of our youth makes complete sense. After all, we adults want to raise thoughtful adults to take care of us in our old age, after our days of making and creating have been replaced by sipping cool drinks on the beach reading our favorite yarn. But, like I said, placing tech and ideas in the hands of more than our youth seems like a good idea, especially those college-aged youth who never had an opportunity to be creative, and adults back-in-college who may want to be entrepreneurs and create jobs.

Kelly outlines a couple of paths to follow, a low-cost Makerspace valued at about $11,000; and a higher-cost Makerspace, valued at about $24,000.

CNC router

I don't want to re-create Kelly's great article here; we can all read and evaluate. We should all consider the long-term value in investing in such technologies from a variety of perspectives. Nothing bad, and much good can from these experiences.

If you don't read Make magazine, you should.

Also, check out makezine.com for thousands of ideas for making, creating, building, wiring, and programming.





 

Murray State University’s Summer Cyber Academy

The Summer Cyber Academy, a telecommunications technology camp for high school students, will begin its first session on June 8. The mission of Cyber Academy is to expose high school students to computer technologies through hands-on, interactive activities.

The camp is sponsored by the Murray State University’s Program of Distinction in Telecommunications Systems Management (TSM). It gives high school students the opportunity to learn about a variety of technologies while introducing them to the college atmosphere through residential housing, campus dining and other on-campus functions.

Each summer there are two levels of camp offered. The first-year camps are designed for students at any experience level. During first-year camps, students will learn everything from building networks to installing and configuring network applications while earning three hours of college credit at Murray State. The security camp (second-year) is aimed at returning campers and focuses on network and host security. Throughout the security camp, campers will learn network defense techniques, network traffic analysis, how to bridge firewalls and much more.

Students attending camp stay on Murray State’s campus for five days and are supervised by TSM student counselors as well as TSM staff. Although the majority of the time is spent in the lab, several other activities are planned for the students to enjoy during the week. These activities include movie nights, scavenger hunts around campus, and time at the Bauernfeind Student Recreation and Wellness Center.

The 2014 Cyber Academy dates are set for June 8-13 and June 22- 27 (first year), and the Security Academy on July 6-11. Visit the website for more information, the academy application, a promotional video, photos, staff information and other important details about Cyber Academy at www.murraystate.edu/tsm/cybercave. For questions, contact Annie Vandiver at the Center for Telecommunications Systems Management at 270.809.3987.

2014 Kentucky Girls STEM Collaborative Conference

The 2014 Kentucky Girls STEM Collaborative Conference Committee invites you and your female students to come take part in an extremely exciting and hands-on experience!

The "Health Sciences and Other Interesting Careers for Girls Conference" offers a plethora of educational ideas for educators and counselors, as well as several exciting activities for girls in grades 5 - 12 who are interested in the STEM fields.

Dress casually comfortable as Lesha Shumpert gets the day started off with Zumba exercise for everyone!

Pre-registration is required and lunch is included.

Adult registration can be completed on this page. 
For Student Registration, please visit this page.

Deadline: 6/9/2014. $30.00 (adults) (No charge for students - Lockheed Martin provided a generous donation covering student registration fees for the 2014 KGSC Conference).

Date: Friday, June 13, 2014 - 8:30am - 3:45pm
Where: Murray State University Crisp Center, 4430 Sunset Avenue, Paducah, KY 42001
Phone: (270)534-3111 or (800)669-7654
Fax: (270) 534-6292

Websites:
Kentucky Girls STEM Collaborative
National Girls Collaborative Project

Murray State to Host Local "SharkTank"

Murray State University is hosting a SharkTank-type entrepreneurial pitch contest this month. The event is scheduled for Tuesday, June 17, 11:00 a.m., inside Heritage Hall. The competition is sponsored by the Office of Entrepreneurship within the Kentucky Cabinet for Economic Development, along with the Kentucky Angels Network and the Kentucky Innovation Network.

Loretta Daniel, Director of the Innovation and Commercialization Center (ICC) at Heritage Hall, said the competition is open to teams of three-to-four people with the winner in Murray taking home $1,000. The winning team will also advance to a competition this fall in Frankfort, where team members will pitch their idea directly to the entire Kentucky Angel Investors Network (Kentucky Angels).

The competition is open to the public, and will be a good way for local inventors to mingled, meet, and network.

Anyone wishing to enter the pitch competition should visit www.kyinnovation.com or contact Daniel at 270-809-6071.

Capturing Bugs and Measuring Nitrogen with Arduino and RaspberryPi

Professor James Hardin's (JCSET) research interests lie at the "intersection of sensors and engineering design." (Personal website) In pursuit of those interests, James is working on a couple projects integrating his research interests with biology and the natural environment.

One project (left) is a simple nitrogen sensor. Using an optical contact sensor and some Arduino hardware, James and an undergraduate student created a nitrogen sensor for measuring nitrogen within a leaf. Merely lay the leaf atop the sensor (the small, white cylinder), and the microcomputer will measure and report the nitrogen bound within the leaf.

The second project is far more complicated. A field biologist needs to conduct an insect inventory of a test site. Perhaps the field biologist is looking for a collection of diagnostic insects, or perhaps, is looking for a certain insect.

Today, a field biologist would have to spend days upon days in the field, setting traps, shaking bushes, etc., and hope to collect some good samples.

What if ... what if the biologist could set a number of automated traps? These traps would collect an insect, trap the insect long enough to snap a pic, and release the insect back into the wild. The insect snapshot would be processed digitally, a form of facial recognition image processing technique applied, and the insect species would be identified and the pic classified. The pic and info would be transmitted via MMS/SMS to the biologist comfortably sitting in a field office or lab.

Dr. Hardin is working on a prototype of this insect trap. As shown (left), the white PVC Y-joint serves as the basis for mounting trap components. A RaspberryPi controller operates the mechanism for trapping the insect long enough to capture an image. Attached to the trap is an Android phone (right), the brains of the device.

The phone captures the image, processes and classifies the image, and provides a means to geolocate the insect. Once processed, the data is sent via MMS/SMS to the biologist, wherever that person might be stationed.

Dr. Hardin research demonstrates the utility in drawing the disciplines of engineering, biology, and geography together in the analysis of the a biological problem. His device captures an insect, performs non-invasive testing and initial interpretation, the results of which are transmitted back to a researcher who can integrate the data into a geographic database for spatial analysis.

Dr. James Hardin can be reached at jhardin@murraystate.edu (MSU/JCSET).