Columns:: Digest

since 12/15/98

Columns::October 15, 2001

Digest

NSF grant creates ‘virtual vaudeville’
The university has been awarded a $900,000 grant from the National Science Foundation to create a “virtual vaudeville.”
Assistant Professor David Saltz of the UGA drama and theatre department will head up the three-year project entitled “A Live Performance Simulation System: Virtual Vaudeville.” Scholars from around the country
who will work on the project include computer scientists, 3-D modelers and animators, theater practitioners, and theater and music historians.
Michael Hussey, associate professor of drama who heads the university’s program in 3-D computer animation, will be responsible for the computer modeling and animation. Allen Partridge, assistant professor of drama who specializes in interactive narrative, will help develop strategies for interactive 3-D animation. Other UGA participants include Charles B. Davis, assistant professor in the drama department and a performance scholar specializing in ventriloquism and dance in early American variety theatre, and Scott Shamp, director of the UGA New Media Institute, who will collaborate in the creation of a new state-of-the-art motion capture studio for the project. Researchers at six other universities are contributing to the project.
The group will work together to represent and communicate the phenomenon of live performance using media by recreating historical performances in a virtual reality environment.

ARCS Foundation funds scholarships
The Atlanta chapter of the Achievement Rewards for College Scientists Foundation, Inc., has increased the number of scholarships awarded to UGA doctoral students pursuing studies in the biomedical and health sciences. Seven students will be recognized as 2001 ARCS Scholars at an awards banquet Nov. 1.
The UGA students, who each will receive a $5,000 ARCS scholarship, are Scott Callison, a Ph.D. candidate in medical microbiology in the laboratory of Mark Jackwood; Nathaniel Cosper, a Ph.D. candidate in chemistry in the laboratory of Robert Scott; Gregory Fralish, a Ph.D. candidate in biochemistry and molecular biology in the laboratory of David Puett; Bolyn Hubby Fralish, a Ph.D. candidate in cellular biology in the laboratory of Rick Tarleton; Jarrat Jordon, a Ph.D. candidate
in microbiology in the laboratory of Duncan Krause; Martin Moore, a Ph.D. candidate in genetics in the laboratory of Kathy Spindler; and Julie Stanton, a Ph.D. candidate in cellular biology in the laboratory of Kojo Mensa-Wilmot.
The ARCS Foundation was established in 1958 to accelerate the nation’s development in science and engineering by providing financial awards to academically outstanding students in those fields of study.

Education launches ‘Project Support’
The UGA College of Education launched a model support program this fall to assist 30 Northeast Georgia schoolteachers in attaining National Board Certification, a year-long professional development process widely considered a benchmark for accomplished teachers.
“These National Board Certified Teachers become the change agents in schools. I’ve seen it. I’m sold on it. It’s raising the standards and bringing along others by example,” says Peg Graham, an associate professor of language education and head of the pilot program.
Graham is directing Project Support in assisting 30 schoolteachers from seven different school systems--Clarke (14), Commerce City (2), Gwinnett (3), Jackson (5), Morgan (2), Oconee (3) and Rockdale (1)--to become NBCTs.
The first year of UGA’s Project Support, funded by an Eisenhower grant, will be a pilot study with NBC candidates being co-researchers in the facilitation process, according to Graham. Her goal is to have the UGA support project run entirely by NBCTs in the next several years.

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