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THE DAILY COUGAR
T H E
O F F I C I A L
S T U D E N T
N E W S PA P E R
O F
T H E
U N I V E R S I T Y
Thursday, August 29, 2013
Issue 4, Volume 79
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ONLINE EXCLUSIVES AT THEDAILYCOUGAR.COM
PHILANTHROPY
Students’ cross-country journey comes to a close Evelyn Hurtado Staff writer
Two students cycled across the country this summer in support of people with disabilities — of which about 37 to 56 million reside in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Supply chain management senior Matthew Docimo and construction management junior Michael Brooks said their journey was meant to teach others to empathize with people living with disabilities. Their goal was to cover 15 states in 68 days, cycling 3,800 miles in total. On average, the two pedaled 80 miles per day. “We learned empathy as we struggled and made our way through our journey,” Brooks said. “People living with disabilities cannot turn off their disabilities, so we rode every mile we could and faced the weather and harsh climates and spread awareness to people and children.” Both students are members of the Beta Nu chapter of the Pi Kappa Phi fraternity, which organized the ride through its national philanthropy program, “Push America.” Docimo, who joined the fraternity in 2009 and knew that he would volunteer for Push JOURNEY continues on page 3
Supply chain management senior Matthew Docimo and construction management junior Michael Brooks cycled a total of 3,800 miles across 15 states, finishing in Washington, D.C., to spread awareness and empathy or the millions of Americans with disabilities. | Courtesy of Michael Brooks
BAUER
Business meets creativity in class Course causes students to rethink entrepreneurship experiences Nora Olabi Contributing writer
The India Studies program was established in 2011.| Courtesy of Karun Magon
ACADEMICS
India studies program gains financial support Sabrina Lloyd Contributing writer
The India Studies Program teaches the impact of India on a global scale and has received generous donations from Houstonians to ensure its success. The program focuses on the
cultural, political and financial impacts India has made on the world through classes such as anthropology, Hindi language, religion, literature, political science and sociology. INDIAN continues on page 5
Students at the C.T. Bauer College of Business sketched, conceptualized, surveyed and produced user-centric applications during the debut of the User Experience Fundamentals course this summer. Teams of three and four bonded for a single cause: creating streamlined, interactive user experiences, or UX. “The most interesting aspect of the course is the combination of lecture and practical application. If a class is three hours a week of a professor telling us things I can read on my own, I don’t attend,” said management information system senior Andrew Douglass, who has a personal interest in the topic. “When a class engages me on the level that UX did and makes me actually do the work to learn the material, I get excited for every session.” The four-week class condensed the basics of creating web and mobile applications through a
collaborative, hands-on approach. For Jason Wheeler, a graphic design graduate student, the prospect of being exposed to different disciplines outside the fine arts was exciting, and he tapped into his background while working intently with his peers. “I discovered a much clearer way to look at the human aspect of everything from software development to basic interactions in everyday life,” Wheeler said. “My team created a syllabus management application that could graph a student’s workflow across multiple classes and send an array of interactive reminders for things like assignments, tests and papers.” Professor Kelsey Ruger, a user experience consultant for Haliburton, led the students every step of the way. They learned that a good UX was achieved not only by creating visual appeal for a product, but by grasping customer psychology and recognizing complex problems. “Today we are starting to spend more and more time BUSINESS continues on page 3