JSU professor nationally recognized with faculty excellence award

Posted by Jean Gordon Cook
601-979-1571
jean.g.cook@jsums.edu

Mohammed Ali

(JACKSON, Miss.) –  Jackson State University professor Mohammed Ali of the Department of Technology has been awarded the Association of Technology, Management and Applied Engineering (ATMAE) Faculty Excellence Award for 2011. ATMAE sets standards for academic program accreditation, personal certification, and professional development for educators and industry professionals involved in integrating technology, leadership and design.

“This rigorous peer-reviewed ATMAE award of high honor is only given to faculty at four-year engineering and technology programs in the country who have demonstrated excellence in teaching, research and service in an academic career,” said John Colonias, JSU’s Department of Technology chair. “Dr. Ali deserves it.”

Ali has been serving on the ATMAE Certified Manufacturing Specialist Exam Commission.

“I am deeply honored to have been selected as the laureate to accept the ATMAE Faculty Excellence Award,” Ali said. “I am sincerely grateful for the recognition from ATMAE, which is the accreditation board of our department’s undergraduate and graduate programs.”

Ali received a B.S. in mechanical engineering from Chittagong University of Engineering & Technology in Bangladesh, an M.B.A. in management of technology from the Asian Institute of Technology in Bangkok, Thailand, an M.S. in computer science from Oklahoma City University and a Ph.D. in manufacturing of biomedical instruments from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. He joined the JSU Department of Technology in 2007 as an assistant professor.

“I feel that achievement of this award came from my hard work and dedication, which could not be possible without my family’s sacrifice, collegiality from departmental colleagues, and JSU administration support,” Ali said.

Jackson State extends Coach Comegy’s contract

Tommiea J. King
601-979-2950
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Coach Rick Comegy's contract has been extended through 2013.

Jackson State University has renewed Rick Comegy’s contract as the Tigers head football coach through 2013. JSU Athletics Director Dr. Vivian L. Fuller made the announcement at an 11 a.m. press conference Wednesday, Nov. 30, in the Sports Hall of Fame Room of the Lee E. Williams Athletics and Assembly Center.

“Coach Comegy and his staff have an excellent track record of on-the-field success at Jackson State,” said Fuller. “Moving forward under his leadership, I expect the JSU Tigers to be champions in sports, in the classroom and in the Jackson community.”

Having just completed his sixth season with the Tigers, Comegy looks forward to his two-year extension.

“I want to thank Dr. Meyers and Dr. Fuller for having confidence in me and my coaches. I’m thankful that they believe in us to continue what we’re building here at JSU,” said Comegy. “I love my job, I love my kids and I love JSU.”

JSU President Carolyn W. Meyers is pleased with the extension.

“We all look forward to Coach Comegy’s continued leadership of Jackson State’s football program,” said Meyers. “I am confident that he will lead our student-athletes to even greater success on the field and in the classroom.”

Comegy, 58, completed his six years at Jackson State with a 41-26 record and ended this last season with a 9-2 record. His teams won a SWAC championship in 2007 and returned for SWAC championship play in 2008.

JSU College of Business to celebrate Five for Five Fund success

Spencer McClenty
spencer.l.mcclenty@jsums.edu
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Michael D. Brown

The Jackson State University College of Business (COB) will culminate its Five for Five Fund campaign with a Recognition Luncheon at 11:30 a.m., Wednesday, Nov. 30 in the JSU Student Center Ballroom, located on the university’s main campus. JSU graduate Michael D. Brown, a renowned author and motivational speaker will be the guest speaker for the luncheon, which is being held to honor individuals, businesses, corporations and foundations that have supported the fund.
         
          Brown, chief results officer for the Michael D. Brown Company, Inc., is a sought after career management consultant and a leading authority on delivering fresh results. He holds a B.B.A. in Management from Jackson State University and a M.B.A. in Global Management. He has spent over 15 years as a consultant and strategist for Fortune 100 companies and small businesses. Brown will sign copies of his book, “Fresh Customer Service,” before and after the luncheon.
         
          The COB, which launched the Five for Five Fund campaign in August 2006 with a goal of raising $5 million in five years, has generated more than $5 million from both private and public entities. The money raised will provide scholarships for students and will afford the COB an opportunity to collaborate and focus on ideas that will strengthen the college and secure its future as one of the premiere business schools in the nation.
         
           Gifts to the Five for Five Fund also will help ensure a superior, affordable education in a strong academic environment with qualified faculty and modern facilities for future generations of students in the COB. For additional information, call Jean Walker at 601-979-2411.

Margaret Walker Center announces the opening of the William D. Lamson Manuscript Collection

(JACKSON, Miss.) – The Margaret Walker Center at Jackson State University announces the opening of its newest archival acquisition, the William D. Lamson Manuscript Collection. The official unveiling will take place on Tuesday, November 22, from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. in Ayer Hall on the Jackson State campus and will feature a reception and exhibit about the collection.

William D. Lamson was a forensic demographer, cartographer, and expert witness who worked on numerous school desegregation, voting rights, judicial redistricting, and housing discrimination cases. The majority of his school desegregation testimony and research was in the Midwestern United States, most extensively in Cincinnati, Ohio. He also was an expert witness for the NAACP in Detroit, Dayton, Cleveland, St. Louis, and several other cities, and he did extensive work for the ACLU on Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka III (1978). His expertise was even used by the U.S Department of Justice in school desegregation and voting rights cases in Florida, Texas, Arizona and Louisiana.

Lamson served as a consultant for the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare and several state commissions of education and human relations. He led several federal workshops on school desegregation suits and worked on Certificate of Need hearings for a number of Mississippi hospitals. William Lamson’s expertise and tireless research provided access to better opportunities for millions of underserved Americans.

Both an archive and museum, the Margaret Walker Center is dedicated to the preservation, interpretation, and dissemination of the African-American experience. Founded by Margaret Walker in 1968, the Center seeks to honor her artistic and academic legacy by expanding and promoting its manuscript holdings and oral history collections, interpreting African-American history and culture through its museum and exhibits, coordinating public programs on campus and throughout the community, preserving historic structures central to the African-American experience, and advocating Black Studies at Jackson State University.

For more information, visit the Center’s website at http://www.jsums.edu/margaretwalker or contact the Center’s staff at 601-979-2055 or mwa@jsums.edu.

– JSU –

About Jackson State University: Challenging Minds, Changing Lives

Jackson State University, founded in 1877, is a historically black, high research activity university located in Jackson, the capital city of the state of Mississippi. Jackson State’s nurturing academic environment challenges individuals to change lives through teaching, research and service. Officially designated as Mississippi’s Urban University, Jackson State continues to enhance the state, nation and world through comprehensive economic development, health-care, technological and educational initiatives. The only public university in the Jackson metropolitan area, Jackson State is located near downtown, with three satellite campuses throughout the city. For more information, visit www.jsums.edu.

 

JSU Volleyball wins first SWAC title

Wesley Peterson
wesley.l.peterson@jsums.edu
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The Jackson State Lady Tigers completed a perfect run through the SWAC Volleyball tournament, beating four-time defending champion Alabama A&M. It was the first ever volleyball Championship for JSU (29-9) who claimed the tournament title and the automatic bid to the NCAA Playoffs.

After dropping the opening set 25-21, JSU (29-9) rallied to take the next three 25-17, 25-21, 25-22. In the fourth set,

A&M looked to be on the way to forcing a fifth and deciding set after jumping out to a 6-0 lead. But, with A&M leading 16-10, JSU went on an 11-3 run to take a 21-19 lead. The Lady Tigers never trailed again.

Chyna Coleman led JSU with 22 kills and nine digs. Christine Edwards andLaToya Clark both had double-doubles. Edwards finished with 17 kills and 14 digs while Clark had 55 assists and 16 digs. Donisha Dunn contributed 11 kills and Angelica Kelley joined Daedra Carline with 14 digs each…………… Read more here.

JSU’s Therriault breaks records, Tigers beat Alcorn 51-7

Wesley Peterson
wesley.l.peterson@jsums.edu
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Jackson, Miss. – The Southwestern Athletic Conference’s top quarterback Casey

TE Renty Rollins, QB Casey Therriault and WR Marcellos Wilder

Therriault shattered three Jackson State records and led the Tigers to a 51-7 blowout in the Capital City Classic Saturday afternoon.

In front of an announced crowd of 31,500, Therriault captured JSU’s single season records for total offense, most completed passes, and passing yards.  Therriault, known for his “Green-Eyed” monster moniker, passed Robert “Superman” Kent for total offense (3911) and passing yards (3808).  The Wyoming, Mich. native broke his own record for single season completion with 272 passes.

Coming off a stellar passing game against Alabama A&M, Therriault threw for a monstrous career-high 539 yards and four touchdowns.  Therriault, the SWAC’s top quarterback, was the conference player of the week, as well as the College Sports Madness Football Championship Subdivision National Player of the Week.

“We wanted to end the season on a high note,” said Therriault.  “We wanted to score a lot of points.”

Therriault said that the records were not his focus for posting career high numbers against arch rival Alcorn State (2-8, 1-8).

“My motivation was Alcorn first and foremost,” said Therriault.  “Also, it was the last game of the year.  It felt good to have the biggest game of my career at Jackson State.  It felt good to score a lot of points.”

Jackson State University head coach Rick Comegy added:  “Casey had a tremendous day.  He gave us an All-American effort out there today.  I hope we get another one like him.”

The Braves defense was no hindrance for the JSU “Air Raid” offense attack, which amassed 687 yards of total offense and scored 51 points.  Jackson State (9-2, 7-2) averaged 34.3 points and 471 yards of total offense entering the contest.

Last week, Therriault passed for a career-high ……………………. Click here for more

JSU master’s graduate publishes book with computer science professor

Posted by Jean Gordon Cook
601-979-1571
jean.g.cook@jsums.edu

(JACKSON, Miss.) – Jackson State University computer science master’s graduate Sugam Sharma and JSU professor Dr. Natarajan Meghanathan recently published the book, “Sink Mobility Models for Sensor Energy Conservation: Exploiting Sink Mobility for Energy Conservation of Sensors in Homogeneous Wireless Sensor Network” (LAP LAMBERT Academic Publishers, 2011). The book, which is an extension of Sharma’s master’s thesis, is a comprehensive text illustrating the effectiveness of using mobile sinks to obtain potential energy savings for the sensor nodes in wireless sensor networks.

During Sharma’s stay at Jackson State, he worked under the supervision of Dr. A. Yerramilli in the Trent Lott Center for Geospatial Research, where he enriched himself with various technologies – GIS, GPS, data collection and modeling. Sharma did his masters thesis in computer science under the mentorship of Meghanathan during 2006-2008. At JSU, Sharma also worked closely with Dr. Hari Cohly and Dr. R. Isokpehi in the Center for Computational Biology and Dr. Tzusheng Pei in the Department of Computer Science with research outcomes that were published.

 

He is currently pursuing his Ph.D. in computer science at Iowa State University and is associated with the school’s Smart Home Laboratory. His research interests are spatial databases, GIS and wireless sensor networks.

 

 

Sharma’s other research work has been published in peer-reviewed conferences and journals. He is editor-in-chief for IJCIB and has worked as a software developer for NAVTEQ, John Deere and the U.S. Department of Energy.

In addition to working with graduate students for research, Meghanathan is actively involved in promoting undergraduate research and education at JSU. He is currently the principal investigator of the NSF-sponsored Research Experiences for Undergraduates program in wireless ad hoc networks and sensor networks as well as the Transforming Undergraduate Education in STEM program to incorporate aspects of systems security and software security in senior capstone projects. Through these programs, Meghanathan mentors several undergraduate students engaging them in quality research and scholarly activities.

Meghanathan is an associate professor in the Department of Computer Science in the JSU College of Science, Engineering and Technology. His main areas of research are wireless ad hoc networks and sensor networks, systems and software security, graph theory and computational biology. He has published more than 120 peer-reviewed articles in leading international journals and conference proceedings. About 35 of these publications involve undergraduate and graduate students as co-authors. He also serves on the editorial boards of international journals as well as in the organizing and technical program committees of several international conferences. For more information, visit http://www.jsums.edu/cms/nmeghanathan

Mississippi Learning Institute receives $700,000 grant from W.K. Kellogg Foundation

(JACKSON, Miss.) – The Mississippi Learning Institute (MLI) at Jackson State University has begun a project to create a high-quality, seamless education system in the Jackson, Miss., community that spans from a child’s educational experience from prenatal to college.

The project is funded by a $700,000 grant from the Battle Creek, Mich.–based W.K. Kellogg Foundation. The foundation supports children, families and communities in their efforts to create conditions that propel vulnerable children to success.

“The W.K. Kellogg Foundation is pleased to partner with the Mississippi Learning Institute,” said William Buster, foundation program officer. “Our commitment to improving the lives of Mississippi’s children through improving education outcomes and engaging parents is in alignment with the purpose of the project and the institute’s mission.”

Over the two-year project, MLI will develop customized curricula and activities that support parents’ roles in promoting school readiness and the healthy development of children. The project will focus on establishing “parents as teachers” programs and joint professional development and training opportunities for local child care instructors and Jackson Public Schools early childhood teachers. Additionally, MLI will engage local businesses and community partners to become active in the early childhood education arena.

“We have an ambitious goal to initiate deliberate and coordinate efforts among parents, child care providers and the public school system, all of whom recognize major responsibility in closing the preparation gap that exists for Jackson’s most vulnerable population — children ages 0 to 8,” said Dr. Nikisha G. Ware, executive director of the Mississippi Learning Institute.  “This work is the missing link to current early childhood initiatives that attempt to address school readiness deficiencies.”

Dr. Felix A. Okojie, vice president of research and federal relations at Jackson State University agrees.  “This grant will expand MLI’s existing work as the state’s only nationally-recognized public school-university partnership,” said Okojie. 

-JSU-

About the Mississippi Learning Institute

MLI, located on the Jackson State University campus, has demonstrated impressive results in improving the performance of public school children on standardized tests such as the Mississippi Curriculum Test (MCT). It accomplished this by creating innovative pedagogies and instructional methods which improved the reading and learning outcomes of minority children from low income families. The model—The MLI Way—is an important contribution to the national challenge of preparing children from underserved populations who depend on the public school system to prepare them in a global, technologically sophisticated society.

 

About Jackson State University: Challenging Minds, Changing Lives

Jackson State University, founded in 1877, is a historically black, high research activity university located in Jackson, the capital city of the state of Mississippi. Jackson State’s nurturing academic environment challenges individuals to change lives through teaching, research and service. Officially designated as Mississippi’s Urban University, Jackson State continues to enhance the state, nation and world through comprehensive economic development, health-care, technological and educational initiatives. The only public university in the Jackson metropolitan area, Jackson State is located near downtown, with three satellite campuses throughout the city. For more information, visit www.jsums.edu.

JSU to co-host Alzheimer’s disease conference

Posted by Jean Gordon Cook
601-979-1571
jean.g.cook@jsums.edu

(JACKSON, Miss.) – The Jackson State University College of Public Service, School of Social Work, the Mississippi Chapter of the Alzheimer’s Association and the Links Inc., Lefleur’s Bluff Chapter, will host the conference, “Strengthening Our Community’s Circle of Care,” from 8 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Nov. 16 at the Mississippi e-Center @ JSU, 1230 Raymond Rd. in Jackson.

Alzheimer’s disease is an epidemic that continues to escalate as Americans are living longer.  Currently, more than half of all Americans know someone living with Alzheimer’s. This conference will help attendees to understand and be able to clearly define dementia and Alzheimer’s disease, as well as understand current treatments and limitations of therapy. The conference will also address risk factors for dementia and Alzheimer’s disease among people of color, as well as issues and concerns faced by caregivers.

The keynote speaker will be Dr. Monica Parker, assistant professor of medicine, Division of Geriatrics and Gerontology, at Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta. There will be sessions by experts providing information on legal and financial matters, nutrition, end-of-life care, spirituality, and personal caregiver perspectives.

The conference is free to caregivers and the general public. There is a $20 fee for 3.5 continuing education hours for social workers.

For more information, contact Sara Murphy of the Alzheimer’s Association, Mississippi Chapter, at 601-987-0020 or info@msalz.org, or Anna Marshall at the JSU School of Social Work at 601-979-3676.

– JSU –

About the Jackson State University School of Social Work
The School of Social Work at Jackson State University was established in 1994. The school offers three degree programs – the baccalaureate, the master’s and the doctorate. For information regarding the three programs within the College of Public Service visit www.jsums.edu or call 601-432-6819.

About the Alzheimer’s Association
The Alzheimer’s Association is the leading voluntary health organization in Alzheimer care, support and research. Our mission is to eliminate Alzheimer’s disease through the advancement of research; to provide and enhance care and support for all affected; and to reduce the risk of dementia through the promotion of brain health.  Our vision is a world without Alzheimer’s. For more information, visit www.alz.org or call the 24/7 Helpline at 1-800-272-3900.

JSU QB named FCS National Player of the Week

Wesley Peterson
welsey.peterson@jsums.edu
601-979-5899
____________________________

Casey Therriault

Following another 400-plus yard performance, Jackson State senior QB Casey Therriault has been named the College Sports Madness FCS National Player of the Week, as well as the organizations Southwestern Athletic Conference Player of the Week.

On Saturday, Therriault came in on the third possession of the game to lead the Tigers to a 34-6 victory over the Alabama A&M Bulldogs at Louis Crews Stadium in Huntsville, AL. Therriault passed for a career high 428 yards, as he completed 23-41 pass attempts and tossed four touchdowns. He completed passes to 10 different receivers. His TD passes were of the following variety – 7 yds to Renty Rollins, 30 yds to E.J. Drewery, 67 yds to Rico Richardson and 15 yds to Renty Rollins.

Also, JSU fans are asked to log on to HSRN.com and vote for Therriault in the HSRN National Player of the Week Fan Poll.

Jackson State will return to action Saturday, Nov. 19 to take on Alcorn State in the Capital City Classic. Kick-off is set for 1 pm.