Category: visitors

Bill Gates Visits GSU and CURVE

Bill Gates and representatives from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation visited Georgia State University and CURVE on June 12 to learn more about how Georgia State has leveraged technology and data to eliminate achievement gaps and become a national model for student success. Gates spoke with Dr. Timothy Renick, vice provost and vice president for enrollment management and student success, Dr. Allison Calhoun-Brown, associate vice president for student success, and a group of students and recent graduates who shared their success stories.

Gates in CURVEGates in CURVE 2

More pics here.

CURVE Hosts the WIT Girls for STEM Career Event

On a Thursday evening last week, CURVE hosted a group of exceptional young women interested in STEM fields. The high schoolers are part of an organization called WIT, or Women In Technology, which “passionately supports women at every stage of their STEM careers—from the classroom to the boardroom,” according to the WIT website. The girls participate in activities and tours sponsored by Atlanta universities and businesses that focus on careers in science, technology, engineering, and math.

              

At the “Building Your Professional Toolbox” event, sponsored by GSU’s Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning, the WIT girls rotated through learning stations featuring different technology and career information. Some of the highlights included activities led by GSU librarians in their academic specialties.

Mandy Swygart-Hobaugh, Librarian for Sociology, Gerontology, and Data Services, showcased data science careers by demonstrating how to map and visualize Twitter data with Tableau and NVivo.

Swygart-Hobaugh demonstrates data visualization features in Tableau on the CURVE interactWall

Business Data Services Librarian Ximin Mi took the students on a worldwide vacation through a combination of Google Maps and a Vive virtual reality headset, and discussed the future of virtual reality, computer science, and tech jobs.

Mi shows how to put on the Vive headset using a face mask

Kelsey Jordan, Librarian for Biology, Chemistry, Neuroscience, and Biomedical Sciences, led a “live” drawing workshop on medical illustration and health careers, featuring a real human heart, liver, and kidneys.

Jordan introduces some examples of medical illustration

Welcome Global Partnership for Better Cities

This week, we welcomed international researchers to CURVE as part of the Global Partnership for Better Cities Conference currently wrapping up at our downtown Atlanta campus.  Faculty researchers from international urban universities including City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong Baptist University, University of Cape Town, University of Pretoria, and University of Western Cape are convening in Atlanta this week to explore shared projects and collaborations around research on world cities and to identify strategies to move toward viable and sustainable comparative research projects.

20160327_GPBC_Conference_JB_002bAnother goal of this conference is to better understand Atlanta in an international context, including our city’s own unique history, development, infrastructure, demographics, and challenges.  As a way of sparking conversation on the opening night of the conference, Maps, GIS and Data Services Librarian Joe Hurley, M.S., Geosciences student Karlyn Harris, and Master of Heritage Preservation student David Greenberg used the visualization technology in CURVE, including the large-scale interactWall, to provide conference attendees with visual comparisons of urban development, demographic changes, and urban challenges in four cities: Atlanta, Hong Kong, Cape Town, and Pretoria/Johannesburg.
Cities_skylines_croppedbcc Photo credits: Atlanta – Richard Cawood; Hong Kong – Ben Ward In Hove; Cape Town –Pascal Parent; Johannesburg (cropped) – Photos by Damon

Our One-Year Anniversary!

Report CoverIt was one year ago today that the University Library welcomed distinguished guests including President Mark Becker, Vice President for Research & Economic Development James Weyhenmeyer, numerous student and faculty presenters, and approximately 120 attendees from the University and Atlanta communities to the official opening of CURVE.

What a successful first year we’ve had! We invite you to read our annual report (pdf; 15MB) documenting the many student, faculty, and staff accomplishments that have taken place in CURVE since last fall’s ribbon cutting.