YSU Excellence at Work grants and presentations: Engineering prof receives NSF grant

YSU faculty grants and presentations:

Grants

Cory Brozina, assistant professor, Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, and director of the First-Year Engineering Program, has received a $65,930 grant from the National Science Foundation for a project titled “Novel Ethnographic Investigations of Engineering Workplaces to Advance Theory and Research Methods for Preparing the Future Workforce.” The project will undertake innovative approaches to collecting, analyzing and archiving empirical data related to engineering practice and will involve research at multiple field sites representing multiple industry sectors. Brozina joined the YSU faculty in 2016 after earning bachelor’s, master’s and a PhD from Virginia Tech

Presentations

Three YSU faculty members made presentations at the annual conference of the Kenya Scholars and Studies Association in Atlanta: Abel Waithaka, associate professor of Human Ecology; Peter Kimosop, assistant professor of Geography and Urban-Regional Studies; and Priscilla Gitimu, professor of Human Ecology. Waithaka chaired a session on “Perspectives on Family, Financial Services and Reproductive Healthcare” that included a presentation on “Does Quality Multigenerational Interconnectedness Impact Family Quality of Life Among college students?” by Waithaka and Gitimu (the presentation was related to undergraduate capstone research work by Rebecca Rupert, Waithaka's former student). Kimosop made a presentation on the “Likely Causes and Impacts of the 2019 Drought in Kenya.” Waithaka presented the “Challenges and Possibilities of African Diaspora Children, Youth and Families in America,” and Gitimu and Waithaka  presented “Perspectives on Appearance Apprehensions and Disordered Eating Among the Minority: Implications for Kenyans in the Diaspora.”

Rebecca Badawy, associate professor of Management, presented two research papers in Europe: “The role of psychological safety in the integration of creative and organizational identities” at the European Academy of Management in Lisbon, Portugal; and “The effect of Impostor Phenomenon on self-handicapping and performance” at the International Association of Conflict Management annual meeting in Dublin, Ireland. The research examined how male and female students react differently to poor test scores, particularly those who experience the impostor syndrome.

Deepa Iyer, assistant professor of Management, presented a research paper at the 2019 European Conference on Information Systems in Stockholm, Sweden. The paper was titled, “Requirements Engineering Effectiveness in Open Source Software: The Role of Social Network Configurations and Requirements Properties.” Iyer joined YSU’s faculty in 2018.

Carol Lamb, director of the School of Technology, was a featured panelist on a webinar hosted by the National Assessment of Educational Progress. The webinar focused on technology and engineering skills as part of students’ everyday lives and how those skills will be important as they enter the workforce.