Highlights from BYU Colleges

Family Home and Social Sciences

• A recent study by family life professor Sarah M. Coyne found that children who engage in superhero culture are more likely to be aggressive and less likely to defend others from bullies.

Ira A. Fulton College of Engineering and Technology

• On Jan. 17, associate professor of information Derek Hansen

  

  released “The Tessera,” an online game designed to help teenagers develop skills in computational thinking. The free game was produced by a team of 40 BYU students of various disciplines with Hansen as the project lead.

• Cammy Peterson joined the faculty of the Electrical and Computer Engineering department last December, bringing with her years of experience from working at the applied physics lab of John Hopkins University.

Marriott School of Management

• Last month, a team of four MBA students from BYU won second place in Baylor University’s Business Ethics Case Competition. The team (Autumn Wagner, Chace Jones, Kyle Taylor and Erika Nash) won $1,200 and became the first BYU team to place at the event.
• A study co-authored by Marriott School professor Taylor Nadauld showed that as the amount of available student loans increases, so does the cost of tuition, creating a difficult bridging gap for students. The study has received national attention and was updated in October.

David O. McKay School of Education

• The BYU school of psychology placed first out of 136 other programs in a recent study evaluating faculty research productivity. BYU faculty members Melissa Heath, Timothy Smith and Ellie Young were also listed in the top 25 individual researchers in the nation.

College of Life Sciences

• Professors Julianne Grose and Loreen Allphin of the Life Sciences college were both honored by the BYU Faculty Women’s Association for their contributions to BYU. The mission of the BYU Faculty Women’s Association is to improve the quality of professional life for faculty women.

College of Humanities

• BYU students Alex Harper, Yi Ra Choi and Matthew Sabey placed first in the Business Language Case Competition hosted by the Marriott School of Business. Their presentation was given entirely in Chinese.

College of Fine Arts and Communications

• A recent study by BYU communications master’s students found that most selfie-takers aren’t narcissists. They classified selfie-takers into three groups: communicators, autobiographers and self-publicists.

College of Physical and Mathematical Sciences

• BYU professor Jacob Crandall recently returned to the BYU campus after spending 7 years at the Masdar Institute of Science and Technology in Abu Dhabi. While there, he helped develop the curriculum for the new institute.

J. Reuben Clark Law School

• BYU Law alumnus John Kwarm offered the keynote address at BYU’s Community Outreach Day, an annual service event held to honor the life and legacy of Martin Luther King Jr.

• BYU Law Professor Stephanie Bair presented at the S.J. Quinney College of Law’s colloquium on “Law and Biomedicine” on Wednesday, Jan. 11. She spoke on her article, “Neuroplasticity and Dynamic Rationality: Implications for Advertising Law and Autonomy.”
• BYU Law Dean Gordon Smith presented new theories in leadership at the Association of American Law Schools 2017 Annual Meeting to provide a framework for leaders to navigate conflicts that arise between institution and individuals.
  

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  Library

• Elliott Oring, Professor Emeritus of Anthropology at California State University, will present a lecture on Mormon humor at noon on Wednesday, Jan. 25 in B192 JFSB. Admission is free.