Innovations All the Time

Cutting-edge college keeps moving in COVID-19 crisis and beyond

MTSU’s College of Basic and Applied Sciences barely skipped a beat when COVID-19 caused most of the world to stop. Whether in normal academic times or in a major pandemic, CBAS programs are always innovating and making an impact.

Soaring in a Storm

One of the hallmarks of MTSU’s Professional Pilot students is their ability to successfully navigate unexpected challenges, including months of turbulence during the pandemic. In a year unlike any other, the Department of Aerospace’s flight school continued operating at Murfreesboro Municipal Airport after establishing daily protocols. Other Aerospace professors and students also continued hands-on education while adapting to more online learning as well.

“In a normal academic year, pilots in training are usually delayed because of poor weather,” Pro Pilot program coordinator Tyler Babb said about facing COVID-19 challenges.

Bill Allen, an associate professor in the Maintenance Management concentration, and other Aerospace faculty even taught unpaid as summer began to ensure their students met rigorous FAA requirements that cannot be circumvented. Over three weeks, Allen’s aircraft maintenance and airframe inspection classes made up labs missed during the spring 2020 shutdown.

While Babb added quizzes from the Kahoot! game-based platform and taught his fall Honors Theory of Flight in person, Technology concentration coordinator Nate Callender had already used a robot to record every class lecture the previous five years. Callender also included synchronous Q&A online sessions and assisted with technology at the Aerospace Mobile Classroom and a classroom at the new airport terminal.

Kevin Corns, an Unmanned Aircraft Systems assistant professor, even sent an aircraft kit to a student’s New Jersey home to build and bring back for a week-long demonstration since it was the student’s only fall in-person course.

In addition, the department received six new Diamond Aircraft 2020 DA 40 XLT airplanes for its student training fleet in 2020 and had 13 existing planes refurbished.

MTSU, boasting one of the nation’s top aviation departments, also is one of only 12 universities selected for Delta Air Lines’ Propel Pilot program for a direct career pathway.

Essential Services

Fifteen student workers at the farm laboratories and MTSU Creamery—and about 50 altogether on campus in various academic departments—were deemed “essential” workers by Provost Mark Byrnes during the spring 2020 pandemic shutdown.

“No matter what, the cows still have to be milked,” said Erin Coleman, 20, an Animal Science major who worked at both the farm and the milk processing plant.

Agribusiness major Brendon Puckett continued bringing milk by tanker truck to the Stark Agricultural Center and delivering bottled milk to several community businesses.

The University additionally donated and delivered 400-plus bottles of the famous MTSU Creamery chocolate milk to Murfreesboro City Schools one morning to help them continue the mobile CHOW Bus breakfast and lunch meals program. In its first venture at the Saturday farmers’ market on the courthouse square in June 2020, the MTSU Creamery also completely sold out of milk.

Virtual Physics

When the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic locked down campus, Professor Daniel Erenso converted his garage into a classroom environment for remote learning for two upper-division Physics courses. He used six 8-by-4-foot dry erase boards, a Swivl robot designed for an iPad, and blue patches to help with glare.

That’s not all he accomplished. A theoretical physicist, Erenso in the summer began writing a textbook for remote learning to open up previously canceled classes. Ron Henderson, department chair of Physics and Astronomy, also asked Erenso to train fellow faculty members with this method.

Real and Virtual Lab for Introductory Physics II was accepted for expedited publication by the Institute of Physics, a popular European publisher, Erenso said. The 400-page book is designed to be used online and has embedded links for students to visit websites for their simulated labs.

Neil Armstrong Award for Rover

Even though in-person competition among an elite international field was canceled, an MTSU Experimental Vehicles Program (EVP) lunar rover team earned the top engineering achievement prize at the 2020 NASA Human Explorer Rover Challenge.

The 14-person MTSU Team No. 2 was awarded the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Neil Armstrong Best Design Award in the university division—MTSU’s second since 2014. Named in memory of the first person to walk on the moon, the award recognizes the team with the rover that has the best ability to take on the punishing elements in the challenge course.

“Our students did an amazing job, considering extremely limited access to the lab following spring break and most of them having to perform their roles remotely,” said Saeed Foroudastan, EVP program director and CBAS associate dean.

Not Just by the Numbers

Mathematical Science faculty are accustomed to innovating with techniques such as flipped classrooms—lectures as homework and assignments completed in class—so the pandemic has been no different.

Ginger Holmes Rowell (pictured) began using new National Science Foundation online statistical games, group work with Zoom breakout rooms, and even project work in the remote setting to help students “think deeply about meaningful statistical concepts.”

While teaching hybrid (rotating which students are online and which are in the classroom), Dovie Kimmins missed being able to walk around the room, but she has utilized Zoom for office hours where students can interact together. Kimmins also changed her research project—interviewing college and K–12 students about a particular mathematical concept—to virtual interviews.

Rebecca Calahan, who previously had taught two courses online, found it helpful that she was already making extensive use of the Desire2Learn (D2L) course shell for pre-calculus. Additionally, she figured out how to integrate external learning tools such as MyMathLab, and a Calculus Remote Tutoring Lab is available.

Students also have responded to more one-on-one interaction during the pandemic, she noted. “In an online course, students who might have been insecure in the classroom are now more comfortable talking math or asking for help,” Calahan said.

Staying on Track

The Computer Science Department’s sixth annual HackMT reverted to a virtual environment for January 2021, but that didn’t deter the talent and creativity of the college students taking part.

Computer Science majors Jacob Cuomo and Emily Nguyen were part of the first-place team that created an app to help family members keep track of chores. And, as a bonus, Cuomo and Nguyen were each chosen later to receive $2,500 scholarships provided by primary sponsor L3Harris.

The yearly 36-hour hackathon brings software developers, visual designers, programmers, and computer science and information systems students from universities together to collaborate while inventing new web platforms, games, mobile apps, and electronic gadgets.

Todd Harris, L3Harris’ human resources manager, said HackMT “is a great event from our point of view because it allows the students to take their classroom learning and put it into practice in developing an actual product or project.”

“Gold Standard” Status

Terrapin Beer Co., owned by Molson Coors Beverage Co., is partnering with MTSU Fermentation Science to offer an annual $10,000 scholarship to underrepresented undergraduate students wanting to pursue a degree in this program.

Molson Coors, which acquired the Athens, Georgia-based brewery in 2016, recently established a $25,000 endowment with MTSU and similar partnerships with Colorado State and Oregon State University.

“Corporate-funded scholarships are the gold standard of academic program endorsement,” said Tony Johnston, director of MTSU’s Fermentation Science undergraduate and graduate programs, which have grown considerably since their launches in 2017 and 2019, respectively.

Worth the Risk

The Casualty Actuarial Society named MTSU’s Actuarial Science program one of four recipients of its international 2020 CAS University Award Program for the innovative and exemplary ways it prepares students for careers in the property and casualty insurance industry.

Cross-Discipline Conservation

MTSU and University of Mississippi faculty and student researchers are collaborating on a U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) grant project involving climate change, conservation practices, and training the next generation of environmental scientists and engineers.

The three-year, $272,555 USDA grant is a research effort for Environmental Science students from MTSU’s Department of Geosciences and engineering majors from Ole Miss to study the role and potential effects of climate change on future 21st century agricultural challenges.

Racha El Kadiri, a Geosciences assistant professor at MTSU, is the project director. She is an environmental scientist who applies machine learning, remote sensing, geographical information systems, and computational methods to address a wide range of hydrological and environmental problems.

RESEARCH FOR ANSWERS

The College of Basic and Applied Sciences is changing the boundaries of scientific endeavor, seeking solutions to some of the world’s greatest challenges, and preparing tomorrow’s STEM educators.

Support from alumni and friends is critical in attracting and retaining exceptional faculty, providing scholarships for our outstanding students, and maintaining a technologically equipped learning environment. Visit mtsu.edu/supportcbas to make an online gift.