Highlights from BYU Colleges

Family Home and Social Sciences

• The Mary Lou Fulton Endowed Chair hosted the 13th annual Mentored Student Research Conference on April 13. The conference featured hundreds of student research presentations on different topics relating to neuroscience, sociology, social work, psychology, family life, geography, anthropology, history, political science and economics.

Ira A. Fulton College of Engineering and Technology

• On April 14, BYU research group DivergeConverge.org hosted an innovation competition for elementary, junior high and high school students. First place winners took home $1,000 in prize money in each category. Mia Carlos and Grace Neves won the elementary category, William Jesperson the junior high category and Connor Widtfeldt won the high school category.

  

• BYU Engineering Capstone students created a bike-pedal adapter for Andrew Mills, a 9-year-old Provo native with a condition that makes his right leg grow faster than his left. The bike compensates for his difference in leg length and allows him to ride smoothly. The students are in the process of creating a website where anyone can enter their dimensions to receive instructions on how to make their own bike-pedal adapter.
• Ashworth Leininger Group chief financial officer Bart Leininger spoke to BYU students about leadership in a lecture on March 30. He emphasized the three V’s of leadership: values, vision and voice.

Marriott School of Management

• Ten MBA candidates were named Hawes Scholars on April 12 by the Marriott School of Management. Christopher Barnes, Chace Jones, Rodrigo Ortigoza, Kyle Ahrendsen, Jordan Roper, Angela Hui, Andrea Houchens, Carolyn Sands, Melanie Sander and Autumn Wagner all received $10,000 for the award.

David O. McKay School of Education

• McKay School graduate student Stephanie Skiba was named the Student of the Year at the Utah Association of School Psychologists annual conference. Skiba was nominated by a professor for the award, given to one student across the state of Utah.

• BYU professors Blake Hansen and Barbara Smith received this year’s Benjamin Cluff Jr. Awards, along with Wasatch County District member James Judd.

College of Humanities

• Students presented their research on topics including comparative studies, classics, art history and literature at the Humanities Symposium on March 24. Department chair Carl Sederholm opened the symposium.
• Humanities professor Allen Christenson introduced the Guatemalan civil war film “Ixcanul” at its International Cinema screening on March 28. The film highlights the contrasting struggles of Guatemala’s Mayan culture with modern culture.
• Japanese professor Van C. Gessel introduced the International Cinema screening of “Silence,” a film about Christianity in Japan. The film, screened on March 21, is an adaptation of a novel about the struggles of being Christian in early Japanese culture.

College of Life Sciences

• Biology professor Jamie Jensen will speak at a public panel discussion at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C. on April 30. She will speak about faith and science in the undergraduate classroom.

College of Physical and Mathematical Sciences

• Olympian and BYU statistics professor Jared Ward combined efforts with exercise science professor Iain Hunter to gather data and research the best way to run a marathon. Ward was a top-10 finisher in the Boston Marathon last week.

  

•  Chemistry Ph.D. student Mukul Sonker and BYU chemistry professor Adam Woolley invented a microchip that detects the risk for future preterm births for women. They hope to reduce the risk of preterm births, focusing on prevention as a solution.

J. Reuben Clark Law School

• Law school students Luke Bell and Andee DeVore were featured on the Law School website for their academic performance. Bell and DeVore graduate in April and will continue work in the private sector. Bell will move to Austin, Texas to clerk for a judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit and DeVore will work for a mediation firm in Provo.

  

• Law professor Gladriel Shobe presented her article “Supercharged IPOs and the Up-C” at the University of Colorado in March.

Library

• The Harold B. Lee Library will feature a digital illustration art gallery based on “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire” from April 12-26 on the level one Atrium Gallery.
• The art gallery “Systems of Material Inquiry” will continue on the level two North Gallery until April 30.

Campus News

• Women’s Conference will be held on the BYU campus on May 4-5. The conference is the largest two-day gathering of women of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and will feature various speakers and forums. The year’s theme is “Converted Unto the Lord.”
• Nathan Hatch was named the new assistant vice president of Information Technology in the Office of Information Technology on campus. He began his role as assistant vice president on April 3.