Letter from the Dean

We recently updated the mission of the Turner College. Our new mission makes a bold commitment to “create better futures” for our diverse student body by producing a career-ready workforce.” This is not a departure from our most recent mission statement which committed the College to “prepare our students to add value to their employers…” The new mission doubles down on the old one. We strengthen our commitment to both our students and the companies that employ them. This is indeed a bold commitment. We will now develop metrics to measure our performance each year. Our performance will further validate the College’s impact on the stakeholders and communities we serve.

During this pandemic year, we have not only examined our mission and vision, but we’ve been forced to rethink how we teach, how students learn and how best to support student success. The transition to virtual learning was a major adjustment for both students and faculty. The silver lining, however, is that we have all been forced to explore new technologies, new pedagogies, and to reexamine our old practices and expectations. To varying degrees, we have all adapted to living in the virtual space, and we’ve gradually replaced our longing for a return to “normal” with speculation on what a post pandemic world will look like. The Turner College is committed to using the lessons learned during this period as part of our continuous improvement process.

I offer my sincere appreciation to the faculty, staff and students of the Turner College for rising to the challenges of the past year. We are now turning our attention to preparing for the return of the “full” college experience in the fall. We welcome the return of the masses of students and faculty who create and enrich our college community. We look forward to the return of student activities, speaker series, internships, study abroad, and even full parking lots.

We hope that you enjoy this edition of Turner Business. As you will see, the work of the College has continued. This publication highlights the research of some of our business and computer science faculty. The faculty’s engagement in research not only enhances their credentials, it also enhances the profile of the University and demonstrates our commitment as a partner in economic and community development. Dr. Frank Mixon, editor of Turner Business, has selected some of the research that was originally prepared for academic journals and summarized here for our stakeholders.

Thank you for your continued support of the Turner College. It has been my honor to serve the College as Dean.

TSYS School’s Angelopoulou Awarded MegaGrant

Columbus State University assistant professor of Computer Science Anastasia Angelopoulou recently received a $25,000 MegaGrant from Epic Games to support the creation of an educational simulation game prototype that introduces consumers to the concept of peer-topeer energy trading. Peer-to-peer energy trading is a new concept of power operations, where households can generate their own energy using renewable energy resources. This energy can be traded to peers using models similar to those employed by Airbnb and Uber.

“The project would not be possible . . . without Epic Games’ support and funding. It will be a great opportunity for CSU’s computer science students . . . to learn more about renewable . . . energy, simulation modeling and game design,” said Angelopoulou.

News of Angelopoulou’s grant award was included in Mary Ann DeMuth’s feature for the January 28, 2021 issue of GeorgiaTrend magazine.