www.spsu.edu/thesting TING 2011, Issue 7, October SSouthern Polytechnic State University Marietta, Georgia SPSU has new minor: Aerospace Engineering By Daniel DeBusk eginning with this semester some very With a minor in aerospace, anyone The minor exciting new classes are being offered can find a niche in the aerospace industry, is comprised Bthat you may not have heard about. including majors like Business, EE, EET, of five classes Fall 2011 marks the first semester SPSU Mechanical, or even Physics. Lockheed Mar- totalling fifteen students can take classes toward an Aero- tin, NASA and Boeing are all major names credit hours. Photo by Daniel DeBusk space Engineering minor for their degree. in aerospace. How would you like to work The class rota- This is the first step in a journey that has at any one of those companies? tions are scheduled to begin every fall with major in as early as two years, according to high hopes. As major developments happen I was able to sit down with Dr. Khalid an aerodynamics class. The final class of the Dr. Khalid’s early estimates. SPSU is already in the Engineering Department, Systems and ask plenty of questions about this new ini- series is a senior design project, the first of taking the appropriate steps to get the pro- Engineering professor Dr. Adeel Khalid is tiative and he was more than happy to answer. which Dr. Khalid is hoping his students will gram going. The only question is, are there pushing forward an educational track that Stepping into his office is like stepping into a rebuild a small aircraft and then set it for interested students out there? From just a few has a major local investor’s interest piqued. small air and space museum. Dozens of min- display on the school grounds. of the students I have talked with, it seems Why wouldn’t Lockheed Martin be interested iature aircraft and spacecraft take up an entire If there is enough interest in the Aero- the answer is yes. in only having to cross South Cobb Drive to wall in his office. It is quite apparent that space Engineering minor, then there is a find new potential employees? Dr. Khalid is passionate about aerospace. chance to open an Aerospace Engineering Robot donation to benefit SPSU students By Julie Hill Recently, Southern Polytechnic State was fortu- Dr. Ham stated, “Any gift beneficial for our pro- Teacher nate to have Suncoast Post Tension Ltd., located in gram and students will be greatly appreciated. The Texas, donate $4.5 million worth of new Kawasaki mechatronics program received a $250k cash donation robots. The donation of robots will give students the from Siemens a few years ago, and the money is cur- of the opportunity to use the same equipment used in the rently in our foundation account. As far as I know, the industry. Kawasaki Heavy-Duty Robots will be use- $4 million dollar (equipment) donation is the largest year: ful for students in robotics and mechatronics courses. donation in the school’s history.” Glynn Mitchell, a 1984 graduate of SPSU’s elec- The goats are coming—see page 3 trical engineering technology program, was essential Rotnem in helping the school receive the donation. One of By Elizabeth Smith the robots has been installed in SPSU alumni Dale Heatherington’s mechatronics lab. A local company Dr. Thomas Rotnem, Professor in the Department of Social and will temporarily store the other three robots until SPSU International Studies, has been named SPSU’s Teacher of the Year by can prepare the space on campus for their installation. the Cobb Chamber of Commerce. Each year, the Cobb Chamber of SPSU’s mechatronics engineering degree is Commerce honors Cobb County teachers and recognizes their good unique in Georgia and one of the largest in the nation. work educating students in this region. Post-secondary institutions It had 13 graduates in May 2011, and the program has have been included in this celebration of teachers since 1995. grown to approximately 250 people this fall. According Dr. Rotnem earned a BA and an MA at Ohio State University to Dr. Chan Ham, Mechatronics program director, “The and an MBA at Georgia State University. He has a Ph.D. from Ohio mechatronics program is a multidisciplinary engineer- State University. He also received a graduate certificate in Russian Are you ing of Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Area Studies at Ohio State University. He spent much of last year talking about and Computer Science and produces graduates who living in Latvia as a Fulbright scholar grant award winner teaching me? are able to work effectively in all aspects of robotics, and doing research. This is his eleventh year at SPSU. automated manufacturing, and the design of mechani- Dr. Rotnem will give a public presentation on campus in spring cal devices with embedded intelligence.” Photo by Vicki Nix 2012 as part of his role as Teacher of the Year. Section Page JOB FRONT NEWS A LONG, SHORT STORY SPORTS News 1-2 Events 3 & 16 Victoria Allen continues her Randy Brown Jr. flexes his Find all of our sports Reviews series and tells us about creative juices in the first of a schedules, plus articles about 4 Georgia government jobs. two-part short story. Tell us SPSU sports and NBA, NFL, Features 6-11 what you think. and boxing. Organizations 12 Sports 14-15 Page 2 Page 8-9 Page 11 Page 14-15 2 • The Sting • October 2011 News Editor’s reflection The Sting Staff By Judy Garrard Executive & Layout Editor: Judy Garrard [email protected] Assistant Editor: Vicki Nix Copy Editor: Elizabeth Smith Sports Editor: Robert Barnard This is the first of a new column and a place for new office equipment and furniture. Advertising Manager: Open Position me to fill you in on our accomplishments, and there Speaking of advertising, come talk to me about are a few items to bring you up to speed on. becoming our new advertising manager. It’s a great Faculty Adviser: Jeff Greene When I became Editor-in-Chief of The Sting in way to make some extra money as every ad sold Administrative Adviser: Barry Birckhead February of this year, we were struggling to fill eight brings a commission for you. Letters to the editor may be brought to our office (slid under the door) pages with content. In February we were having to recycle at least in the student center, emailed to [email protected], or mailed to: I have strived to bring in new writers and readers. 500 of 1,200 copies when we would replace with the Editor, The Sting Some of my efforts have been via Ron Lunk’s weekly next issue. Each month since, we have recycled fewer Southern Polytechnic State University email where I have invited all of you to attend our and fewer copies and for August there were only about 1100 South Marietta Parkway Marietta, GA 30060-2896 kickoff meetings. I also included information about 100 copies left over. Letter must be signed by the author. Publication and editing of letters us in the orientation packets this summer—both of That brings me to one of my other goals: more will be at the discretion of the editor. these efforts have been very successful. locations around campus for The Sting. We relocated In August we published our first 12-page issue a newsstand to the Q Building and replaced that stand Contact 678-915-7310 to advertise or for other information. and a lot of the content was information about other with two wall pockets in the Student Center—one student organizations. I wasn’t sure if we could ac- next to our office and most recently one next to The tually fill twelve pages with mostly articles, but in Grill downstairs. More locations are coming soon. November issue articles are due September we did just that. Have you seen our page (http://www.spsu.edu/ Wednesday, October 26, 2011 We are also bringing in new advertisers to The thesting) on the school website? It’s pretty awesome. Sting. In this issue, you will notice we have three full- You can learn a lot about The Sting there, but feel page ads and this has helped to take us up to 16 pages. free to drop me an email and tell me what you’d like Advertising is a very necessary part of running to see us do next. a newspaper. We receive funds from the Student And thank you to everyone that has helped me Government Association, but it takes a lot of money make The Sting well read. to print, especially in color, and we desperately need Military students find SPSU friendly Due to delay in launch date of SPSU’s new polytechnic journal, the By Elizabeth Smith corresponding article will hopefully be in the November issue. SPSU has been included on a list of military-friendly Schools for 2012. This distinction comes from a list provided annually by “G.I. Jobs,” the premier magazine for military personnel transitioning into civilian life. This list honors only the top 20 percent of colleges, universities and trade schools that are doing the most to embrace America’s military service Georgia government careers members and veterans as students. Out of the nearly 8,000 universities and trade schools in the United By Victoria Allen States, 1,518 were included on the list this year. Being on the list of military-friendly schools means military members Being that we live and work that you can expect to find on the will provide you with more de- and veterans will have an easier time choosing schools fitted for their in the state of Georgia, it is im- State Personnel Administration tails about the state, benefits and needs.