Southern University students part of winning team at engineering competition

June 17, 2009

southernuniversity.GIF(BATON ROUGE) – Four Southern University Electrical Engineering students were part of a three-school team of historically black colleges and universities that placed second in the second annual Lonestar Challenge Design Competition held recently at Texas A&M University.
Southern students Joshua DuBois, Chad Dugas, Ashton Jones and Steffon Wiley, along with students from Tennessee State University and Prairie View A&M University, competed as a team against Texas A&M and the University of Texas in a robotics challenge at College Station.
The challenge required the three teams to design and build a remote-operated and undetectable device that could be used to provide surveillance and reconnaissance information to the Air Force, who sponsored the event. The devices were then put to the test in a simulated hostage situation in an office setting.
The Southern-Prairie View-Tennessee State team finished behind Texas A&M and ahead of last year’s winner, the University of Texas.
“The three days of competition were very exciting and even though the students put in long hours to create a product to meet the design criteria, they became more knowledgeable about engineering design, and they learned a great deal about how to work with others to accomplish a goal,” said Dr. Fred Lacy, associate professor in Southern’s College of Engineering.   
The three HBCUs formed one team because neither school had enough senior capstone design majors for the competition.
The schools also faced other challenges preparing for the competition. The team only met once before the challenge. The HBCU students had to coordinate efforts with teammates in three different states and also had to meet the challenge in considerably less time than the other two schools - about three months compared to nine months by the other schools.
“Needless to say, our students have demonstrated that when they are challenged, they are hard working, innovative and capable of competing with the very best students from two of the top engineering programs in the country,” said Lacy.

Southern University professor to study at Cambridge

June 17, 2009

bambury22.jpg(BATON ROUGE, La.) - Southern University’s Jill Bambury is going to Cambridge, England to get her doctoral degree.
The associate professor in the School of Architecture has been awarded the
Cambridge International Scholarship through the Cambridge Commonwealth Trust to
earn her doctoral degree in Architecture from the University of Cambridge.

Southern partners with IBM for cloud computing technology

April 28, 2009

cloud.jpgBATON ROUGE – Two graduates of Southern University are helping the institution take its technology into the clouds. Dexter Henderson and Elmer Corbin, with technology giant IBM, officially launched the Cloud Computing initiative at Southern on Tuesday morning.
The so-called “Cloud,” they said, will establish the Baton Rouge campus as one of the leaders in education in Louisiana and among historically black colleges and universities across the nation. 

“This is a historic moment at Southern University,” said Henderson, vice president of Systems and Technology Development at IBM. “What we’re putting in place here is a leap over anything that we have instituted at any other HBCU.” 

Corbin and Henderson presented Southern with a $40,000 check Tuesday which they said will be used to train SU personnel on Cloud systems and to set the groundwork for the new technology on the campus.  

Cloud computing is a system in which jobs are assigned to an array of connections, software and service accessed over the Internet. The network of connections and servers is collectively known as “The Cloud.” Computing at the scale of the cloud allows users to access supercomputer-level power. Users are able to access the cloud with technology such as iPhones, Blackberrys or laptops, essentially reaching into the cloud for resources as they need them. 

Corbin, IBM’s director of systems development and university alliances, said the cloud will give Southern students the ability to link to information available at other colleges and universities in the U.S. and around the world. Eventually, other historically black colleges will be included in the cloud.

“There will be one giant cloud for HBCUs here and around the world,” Corbin said. 

Southern University Concert Choir to hold Reunion/Alumni Concert

November 12, 2008

The Southern University Concert Choir will hold a Reunion/Alumni Concert on Sunday, Nov. 23 at 5 p.m. in Southern’s DeBose Recital Hall.

All Southern University alumni who have performed in Southern’s Concert Choir or the University Choir are invited to participate.

The program will feature performances by the 2008-2009 Concert Choir and solos by performing artists who were members of the choir.  The gala event will conclude with the combined voices of the Alumni Choir and the current Southern University Concert Choir.

Admission is $15 for adults and $5 for students.  Children 12 and under will be admitted at no charge.

For additional information about the Reunion/Alumni Concert, contact Professor Charles Lloyd at 225-771-4925 or email at charles_lloyd@subr.edu.