The University of Alabama

Students at The University of Alabama will compete in the latest national vehicle competition that challenges students to develop a hybrid-electric, autonomous vehicle over the next four years. UA is one of 12 universities across the country selected to participate in the EcoCAR Mobility Challenge sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy, General Motors Co. and MathWorks and managed by the Argonne National Laboratory. This is the second consecutive Advanced Vehicle Technology Competition for UA students after finishing strong in the most recent competition, EcoCAR 3, earlier this year. The team of students has the opportunity to create their version of a 2019 Chevrolet Blazer by applying advanced propulsion systems, electrification, automation and vehicle connectivity to improve its energy efficiency while balancing factors such as emissions, safety, utility and consumer acceptability. The mission of the EcoCAR Mobility Challenge is to develop the next generation of engineers and business leaders who will be prepared to address the nation's future energy and transportation challenges. These students will also accelerate the development and demonstrations of technologies of interest to the Department of Energy and the automotive industry. "This program prepares students to enter the automotive and tech industry by storm," said Dr. Paul Puzinauskas, lead faculty adviser and UA associate professor of mechanical engineering. "The difference between this competition and classes is the extensive, hands-on experience that turns these students into industry leaders." The team consists of a collaboration of engineering with project management, business and communications. This competition provides students with a real-world training ground to gain hands-on experience following a vehicle development process to design, build and refine advanced technology vehicles. Teams will use onboard sensors and wireless communication from the vehicle's surrounding environment to improve overall operation efficiency in the connected urban environment of the future. Specifically, the students are challenged to implement SAE Level 2 automation, which is the ability for the vehicle to combine automated functions, such as acceleration and steering, while the driver remains engaged with the driving task and monitors the environment at all times. Student leaders of UA's team include Easton Davis, project manager; David Barnes, engineering manager; and Bri Roselius, communications manager. Davis, a native of Marion, Arkansas, is a graduate student in aerospace engineering and business administration and earned his bachelor's degree in aerospace engineering from UA. Barnes, from Fairhope, is a graduate student in mechanical engineering and also earned his bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering from UA. Roselius, originally from Houston, Texas, is a senior in public relations and advertising with a minor in computer tech and applications.

The University of Alabama's Capstone Agency has been awarded Best Campaign, Best Tactic and Best Student-Run Firm in the 2018 Public Relations Student Society of America Student-Run Firm Awards. Given annually at the PRSSA National Conference, these awards celebrate outstanding campaigns and tactics used by PRSSA's nationally affiliated, student-run firms across the country. Capstone Agency won Best Tactic and Best Campaign in 2017 and was named Best Student-Run Firm in 2016. The Best Student-Run Firm award cannot be won by the same agency two years in a row. "The awards Capstone Agency received speak not only to our members' dedication, hard work ethic and talent, but also to the quality of the C&IS student experience," said Maret Montanari, firm director, Capstone Agency. "The College, as a whole, provides opportunities, like Capstone Agency, for students to gain hands-on professional experience before graduation. "We are fortunate to have these development opportunities to set our members up for success beyond The University of Alabama." Capstone Agency's submission for Best Campaign featured work completed for Alabama Power, titled "What Powers UA." The winning submission for Best Tactic came from the firm's Valentine's Day promotion for The University of Alabama's club hockey team. Also recognized at the PRSSA National Conference, UA's PRSSA chapter received the Star Chapter award and won the Best PRSA/PRSSA Relationship Award. The Star Chapter Award encourages chapter leadership to provide programming and relationship-building opportunities for students and rewards them for achieving these goals. The PRSSA faculty adviser, Tracy Sims, was also recognized for her commitment and guidance to the chapter. "It was such an honor to have Capstone Agency and PRSSA receive awards at the PRSSA National Conference," said Anna Claire Toxley, vice president, UA PRSSA. "It is because of the continued support of the College of Communication and Information Sciences that both organizations are able to develop strong leaders and produce quality work that earns national recognition." Capstone Agency is a nationally affiliated, student-run, integrated communications firm comprised of communication students at UA. The agency has been a student organization in the College of Communication and Information Sciences since 2008. The University of Alabama PRSSA Chapter is a leading pre-professional organization for students interested in public relations, communications and other related fields.

Five students were selected as members of the 2018 University of Alabama Homecoming Court in the Oct. 9 student election. Members of the court are as follows: Katie Buhai of San Diego, a senior elementary education major, sponsored by Kappa Delta. Baylee Clark of Montgomery, a senior public relations major, sponsored by Kappa Alpha Theta. Virgina Dodenhoff of New Orleans, a senior public relations major, sponsored by the Student Athlete Advisory Committee. Jazmine Hall of Huntsville, a senior communications studies and criminal justice major, sponsored by American Association of University Women. Jordan Watkins of Hoover, a senior accounting major, sponsored by Alpha Kappa Alpha. For more information on the students in the Homecoming Court, go to https://sga.sa.ua.edu/2018-homecoming-queen-candidates/

The University of Alabama Robotics team became the first UA robotics team in school history to win the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers SoutheastCon Hardware Competition. Seven electrical and computer engineering students represented UA at the 2018 regional conference held recently in Tampa, Florida. The UA team competed against 50 teams from across the southeast region. "We were thrilled to hear 'The University of Alabama' when the winner was announced," said Dr. Kenneth Ricks, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering and robotics team faculty adviser. "These students worked very hard and represented UA in a first-class manner. I was very happy they were able to win the championship." Over the past eight years the team from UA has consistently been in the top 10 of this competition. This year's results mark the first time UA has won the entire competition. "The UA team is by far the most consistent team year in and year out, but until we got over the hump it doesn't mean much," Ricks said. "Finally, in 2018 the team was able to break through and win it for the very first time to show the southeast region that UA has an outstanding program and the College of Engineering is capable of winning it all and sustaining that success over a long period of time." The goal of the competition is for each team to build an autonomous robot that is capable of solving a series of tasks. This year's competition was pirate themed. The robots had to navigate their way through a pirate ship while completing tasks like turning a wheel to raise a pirate flag, going down a plank while avoiding water, and loading a treasure chest on the robot and returning it back to the ship. The competition was set up into three rounds with the teams having to complete the tasks in under five minutes. Every team competed in the first two rounds and then the top four teams at the end of round two competed in a final round to decide the winner. The UA team completed each round in under 46 seconds. "I felt an amazing sense of relief and pride when we were announced the winners. Leading up to and at the conference we really pushed ourselves and our robot to the limit," said Tommy Gonsewski, a senior from Eufaula, Alabama. "We competed with the mentality of representing ourselves, Dr. Ricks, and the University in the very best way possible. I really feel lucky to have been a part of this team." The six electrical and computer engineering students that competed along with Gonsewski are: Will Bounds, senior from Delmar, Maryland. Patrick Dunleavy, junior from Western Springs, Illinois. Nick Rodriguez, senior from Atlanta. Hunter Foster, senior from Birmingham. Nick Hohs, senior from Kenosha, Wisconsin. Daniel Zahn, senior from Raleigh, North Carolina.

A new participant in the national Advanced Vehicle Technology Competition Series, The University of Alabama student team finished the four-year program strong, racking up several awards. The UA team in the EcoCAR 3 program, a competition among North American universities to design and construct an advanced, energy-efficient vehicle, placed first in several contest categories including ride quality, communications presentation and the most creative outreach event. To go along with those awards, Haley Loftis, project manager of UA's team and recent STEM MBA graduate from Kansas City, won the Spirit of Project Management award.

Students at The University of Alabama who competed in a NASA robotics contest came away with the top prize again, making it four straight years for the team from UA to win. Alabama Astrobotics took the top prize at the NASA Robotic Mining Competition, besting student teams from more than 50 other institutions in the challenge to build a robot capable of navigating and excavating simulated Martian soil, or regolith. Made up of about 65 students from across eight disciplines including engineering and computer science, Alabama Astrobotics is the only team to win more than once in the nine-year history of the NASA contest, placing first in 2012, 2015, 2016, 2017 and, now, 2018. "Our team is just like a football team, you have seniors who graduate at the end and you have new people coming in at the beginning, so every year it's a completely different team," said team lead and electrical engineering student Max Eastepp. "For us to be successful this year says a lot for this team and says a lot for how we adapt to new challenges each year." Eastepp, a native of New Orleans, Louisiana, said teamwork is critical as students worked from July through the contest this month to design the robot and tackle the new problem NASA presented this year. Contest organizers revised the rules and rubrics this year to reflect the discovery that water ice is prevalent throughout the Red Planet. The challenge is to mine the precious icy regolith, simulated with gravel in the contest, since water ice will provide oxygen, water and fuel for future off-world colonists. What that meant for the contest, though, is no points were awarded to teams for digging the top foot of regolith. Teams earned points for collecting the gravel 12 inches below the surface. The robot built by the UA students mined the most gravel of any team in the contest. UA's robot mined more of the gravel than any other team in the contest, with many teams failing to mine any gravel. Also, Alabama Astrobotics was the only team with a robot that competed entirely autonomously, meaning the robot used computer programming to guide itself, mine and deposit the soil and gravel without any directions from students during the contest. The team placed first in five out of nine categories that included mining, autonomy, systems engineering paper, efficient use of communications power and outreach reports. In all, the students won $11,000 for use on next year's robot. Dr. Kenneth Ricks, team adviser and associate professor of electrical and computer engineering, said the team's consistent success comes from a culture of sticking to a plan - meeting deadlines, testing thoroughly before competition and paying attention to detail. "We know what needs to be done and when it needs to be done," he said. "If our students buy into that process, they know they will have opportunities to be successful." The team received funding from the Alabama Space Grant Consortium, NASA, Dynetics, Fitz-Thors Engineering, Crank N Chrome and the University.

The University of Alabama Association for Information Systems chapter has won chapter of the year. AIS is a student organization intended to further the Information Systems field by means of technology improvement and corporate engagement.

Cadet Trevor M. Hearing received the Air Force Reserve Officer Trainings Corp Silver Valor Award on April 1, 2018. This award is given to a cadet who has portrayed a voluntary act of heroism and is the second highest award the U.S. Air Force gives ROTC Cadets. Only a handful of these awards are given out yearly.

Four students from the Culverhouse College of Commerce at The University of Alabama won first place in the 15th Annual Race & Case competition put on by the University of Denver's Daniels College of Business in February. The winning team received $10,000. Each year, students tackle a complex, real-life business case, presenting a solution to a panel of judges.In addition, each team competed in a ski race held in Breckenridge, Colorado.

A team of University of Alabama MBA students won second place in the recent KeyBank and Fisher College of Business at The Ohio State University's Fourth Annual Minority MBA Student Case Competition in Cleveland. The team was awarded $7,500.

The University of Alabama hosted its first campus-wide Global Health Case Competition for undergraduate students Jan. 27. More than 80 students in interdisciplinary teams of four-to-six members competed for prize money as well as the chance to represent UA in the Statewide Global Health Case Competition at the University of Alabama Birmingham. The students analyzed a scenario involving recovery after a cyclone, in Bangladesh. With only five days to prepare, the teams were challenged to study the situation described in the case and propose short-term and long-term solutions that were culturally appropriate and that fit within the assigned budget. The teams then presented their solutions in 20-minute sessions and were judged by a panel consisting of faculty members from UA, UAB and Auburn University.

University of Alabama advertising and public relations students Katie Bell, Willow Ennen and Arianna Straggas had their advertising campaign selected to air nationally by Fox Sports U. Bell, of Memphis, Ennen, of San Francisco, and Straggas, of Waltham, Massachusetts, worked to develop copy, graphics and creative ideas for their campaign. Their group won and was asked to help produce the ad, which will air through January and the end of the NFL season on three Fox networks. The campaign, "Fox Sports Supports PCA," is a commercial created in conjunction with Fox Sports' and the Positive Coaching Alliance's national campaign to promote positive coaching and a relaxed atmosphere for youth sports.

University of Alabama graduate students recently achieved recognition in the UA Three Minute Thesis competition. Three Minute Thesis is a research communication competition that challenges master's and doctoral students to present a compelling oration on their thesis topic and its significance in just three minutes. The competition develops academic, presentation and research communication skills and supports the development of research students' capacity to effectively explain their research in language appropriate to a nonspecialist audience.

Five students were selected as members of the 2017 University of Alabama Homecoming Court. A total of 11,028 votes were cast in the Oct. 10 student election. Members of the court are as follows: Mackenzie Brannan, a psychology senior from Austin, Texas. Sponsoring organization: Read Bama Read. Abigail Greenberg, a nursing senior from Montgomery. Sponsoring organization: Delta Delta Delta. Greenberg was named Homecoming Queen and was crowned Oct. 14. Lane Griffith, a communication studies senior from La Mesa, California. Sponsoring organization: NSBE and C100. Allison Mollenkamp, a senior English major from Jefferson City, Missouri. Sponsoring organization: College of Engineering Does Amateur Radical Theatre, Alex Smith, a political science and journalism senior from New Market. Sponsoring organization: Society of Professional Journalists. For more information on the court, go to https://sga.sa.ua.edu/elections/candidates-homecoming/.

MBA students in the Manderson Graduate School of Business at The University of Alabama Culverhouse College of Commerce have returned from the recent 2017 National Black MBA Association/FCA US National Graduate Student Case Competition in Philadelphia as big winners. Beating out 41 teams from some of the country's top business schools, they earned the grand prize of $25,000 in scholarships.

A team of students from The University of Alabama's College of Communication and Information Sciences won a Bronze Pencil in the One Club's Young Ones College Competition and were selected for Honorable Mention in the Young Ones Client Pitch Competition. This is UA's first Pencil award. The Young Ones College Competition highlights great student work from around the world, awarding Gold, Silver and Bronze pencils to the top student work in advertising, design and interactive. Of the Young Ones competition's 70 finalists from 16 countries, only 24 finalists won pencils. The students' work is for Flight Plan, a fictional 501(c)3 organization that would work in partnership with the United Nations and Partners Global to turn the estimated 9.7 trillion unused frequent flier miles into physical, donatable items that could aid refugees around the world.

Five University of Alabama computer science seniors and members of the Association for Computing Machinery UA student chapter started a hacking competition this semester that they hope will become a yearly event. CrimsonHacks is a hackathon, or a weekend-long invention challenge. The 24-hour event took place on the third floor of the Ferguson Center, starting at 1 p.m. March 25 and ending at 1 p.m. March 26.

Three University of Alabama students in the Culverhouse College of Commerce were recognized as ambassadors at the SAS Global Forum 2017 in April in Orlando, Florida. A fourth is a student scholarship winner. The SAS Student Ambassador program is a competition designed to recognize students using SAS software to benefit their respective fields of study. SAS provides business analytics software to corporations. In the competition, students submit a data project they completed; SAS judges select those for presentation at the conference. Students receive free travel and lodging at the conference. The ambassadors from UA are: Huan Li, Taylor Larkin and Caroline Bell. In addition, Alexandra DeKinder is a student scholarship winner. Their faculty mentor is Dr. Denise McManus, professor of management information systems and director of UA's Institute of Business Analytics.

UA's Global Health Case Competitionteam B received second place in a Birmingham competition in February. In Global Health Case Competitions, held across the country, teams of students receive a detailed description of a real-world public health challenge. They have about a week to prepare and present solutions to tackle that problem. This year's scenario was titled "Impact of Malnutrition in the First 1,000 Days on a Child's Health in Rural Ethiopia." Each team was asked to take on the identity of a nongovernmental organization working at the community level to address scarcity issues, promote healthy practices, and thus improve infant and early-childhood health.

The University of Alabama recently held the final round of its annual Three Minute Thesis competition, and a graduate student in the department of educational studies in psychology, research, methodology and counseling took home first place honors.