Maroon MEMO: Employee News (Mississippi State University)

Head coach Joe Moorhead speaks last week during SEC Media Days in Atlanta. Mississippi State opens the 2018 football season at 6:30 p.m. on Sept. 1 in Davis Wade Stadium against Stephen F. Austin University. Read more at HailState.com. PHOTO: Kelly Donoho | MSU Athletics

State, industry leaders to converge at Data Summit
Registration is now open for the third annual Data Summit, hosted by Mississippi State University’s National Strategic Planning and Analysis Research Center (NSPARC). Discussions and activities at the two-day event, held at The Mill Conference Center on 600 Russell St. in Starkville on September 13-14, will focus on data science and the growing emergence of “smart cities.” “Opening a dialogue on improving the smart city framework is important because it will help us understand how data science can help towns and cities modernize and compete in the growing data economy,” said NSPARC Executive Director Mimmo Parisi.

New faculty orientation, welcome reception, teaching academy, Canvas training set for August
Mississippi State University is announcing a variety of programs to officially welcome new faculty to the Bulldog family this fall. The Office of the Provost and Executive Vice President is sponsoring an Aug. 14 orientation program at The Mill at MSU in Starkville. MSU President Mark E. Keenum and First Lady Rhonda Keenum also are hosting a welcome reception at The Mill for new faculty and their spouses or significant others. MSU's Center for Teaching and Learning also is offering a New Faculty Teaching Academy on Aug. 15 from 8 a.m.-2 p.m. in the third-floor John Grisham Room at Mitchell Memorial Library. The program is intended for new faculty who will begin teaching in the fall or spring semesters.

‘Godmother of Soul’ Patti LaBelle headlines 2018-19 Lyceum Series
Musical treasure Patti LaBelle will fill Lee Hall’s Bettersworth Auditorium with her legendary rhythm and blues when she headlines the upcoming season of Mississippi State’s Lyceum Series. Known as the “Godmother of Soul” and ranked by Rolling Stone as one of the “Top 100 Singers of All Time,” the Grammy Award winner will perform Nov. 15 at 7 p.m. Doors open approximately 30 minutes before the curtain rises on all shows scheduled for the 2018-19 Lyceum Series, the university’s long-running performing arts program.

ITAR, export control briefing set for September
The Office of Research Security at Mississippi State will host an ITAR and export control briefing open to all faculty and staff on Sept. 5 at 1 p.m. in Conference Room 20 at the High Performance Computing Collaboratory. Jonathan Barnes, a special agent with the Bureau of Industry and Security’s Office of Export Enforcement, will lead the one-hour session. He will provide an introduction and overview of U.S. export control laws regulating academic and private sector R&D projects. He also will discuss how academic research may be pursued within the context of this legal environment.

Reminder: University policy addresses employee political activity
With political campaigning for Congress and other races currently underway, Mississippi State's Office of General Counsel offers the following reminder of the university’s policy on political activities. There are several guidelines that employees of the university should keep in mind when engaging in any form of political activity. The Office of General Counsel encourages each employee to review this policy in its entirety to make certain you are fully aware of your rights and responsibilities.

Institute for the Humanities issues call for papers
Mississippi State’s Institute for the Humanities invites faculty members to submit individual paper proposals for the 2018-2019 Interdisciplinary Forum Workshop Series to be held in the upcoming academic year. The Interdisciplinary Forum Workshop Series will consist of six gatherings anchored around the theme of “Examining Governance from an Interdisciplinary Perspective.”

Faculty, staff volunteers needed for Heifer Ranch trip
Mississippi State faculty and staff volunteers/chaperones are needed for the annual trip to Heifer Ranch, Arkansas, for the Global Village educational experience Oct. 12-14, 2018. Heifer International is an Arkansas-based non-profit organization focused on community development to resolve poverty and hunger around the world. The Global Village is a hands-on educational experience where students are challenged to live in modeled developing world conditions.

The Office of Public Affairs provides Maroon MEMO as a general information
resource for Mississippi State University employees.

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Three-peat: Mississippi State employees say university a ‘Great College to Work For’
For the third year in a row, positive feedback from Mississippi State employees has helped designate the university as a “Great College to Work For” by The Chronicle of Higher Education. “It’s deeply gratifying to know that our employees feel a strong connection to MSU and believe their contributions are valued and appreciated,” said MSU President Mark E. Keenum. “We’ll continue working to build a supportive work environment where faculty, administrators and staff can experience enriching careers and make a meaningful impact at MSU as teachers, leaders and mentors.”

Zhao wins grant to study what happens when robots meet the poultry industry
What do you get when you mix a chicken with a robot? While that might sound like the start of a “dad joke,” one Mississippi State University researcher plans to study the practical applications of robotics in the poultry industry. Yang Zhao, an assistant professor of agricultural and biological engineering in Mississippi State’s Bagley College of Engineering, was recently awarded an $86,605 research grant from the Egg Industry Center at Iowa State University to study the use of robots in the collection of floor eggs and to determine the effect of the robot’s presence on the behavior of the birds.

10 awarded SEC visiting faculty travel grants
Achievements of the Southeastern Conference’s student-athletes are well known, but many fans may not know that the SEC’s 14 member institutions pack an equally potent academic punch. Thanks to an innovative grant program funded by the conference, 10 Mississippi State faculty members now are better equipped to collaborate with SEC colleagues from across the region. Reuben Burch, Harish Chander, Hilary DeShong, Thu Dinh, Hyungsuk Lim, Mohammad Marufuzzaman, Saeed Rokooei, Colleen Scott, Andrea Strzelec and Gregg Twietmeyer are recipients of 2018-19 SEC Visiting Faculty Travel Grants.

Horse park lands first state economic grant
The Mississippi Horse Park, which grew from 23 events in 1999 to 100 in 2017, is a Mississippi State University facility operated in partnership with the city of Starkville and Oktibbeha County. Bricklee Miller, horse park director, said the facility recently received its first grant from the Mississippi Development Authority to advance its activities. “The MDA grant will support a barrel racing event on Memorial Day weekend,” she said. “Mississippi ranks fourth in the nation in barrel racing members, so it makes sense to host these types of events at the horse park.”