Economic Development
Volume No. 6 is a special edition that draws together a variety of stories from across the university about the ways in which MSU is working to improve the economic well-being of the state and its citizens.

Announcements

Michigan State University Appoints First Director of MSU Detroit Center
Jena Baker-Calloway will be responsible for expanding community connections, identifying opportunities for community-based scholarly work, and overseeing daily operations of the MSU Detroit Center in Detroit.

Call for Manuscripts: Journal of Higher Education Outreach and Engagement
Deadline: February 23, 2012

Call for Manuscripts: Journal of Community Engagement and Scholarship
Deadline: March 31, 2012

Handbook of Engaged Scholarship:
Contemporary Landscapes, Future Directions, Volumes 1 and 2
Now available from MSU Press

For Faculty: Tools of Engagement
Learn about new curriculum modules available to faculty that introduce undergraduate students to the concept of university-community engagement and help instruct the next generation of scholars.

For Graduate Students: MSU Graduate Certification in Community Engagement
The program prepares graduate students for academic careers that integrate scholarship with community engagement. It offers students a transcript notation indicating that they have completed the program.

Like this e-Newsletter?
Subscribe to The Engaged Scholar E-Newsletter

Medical Packaging Design Requires Comprehensive Approach

Most of us have experienced the frustration of trying to open a package that is well sealed and well insulated. If a healthcare professional trying to open a package containing a medical device experiences that same frustration, it can mean a difference in quality of care, or even life or death for a patient.

Laura Bix, associate professor in MSU's School of Packaging, works with a wide range of practitioners, students, and medical professionals to identify the critical issues involved in healthcare packaging.

Cost considerations, ease of opening and handling, maximizing sterility and minimizing contamination, and preventing user error are some of the many factors Bix takes into account when working with industry partners ... read more

Working with the Air Force to Develop Supersonic Engines

The United States Air Force has a "need for speed." Dr. Tonghun Lee, associate professor in MSU's College of Engineering, is working with researchers at the Wright Patterson Air Force Base (WPAFB) in Dayton, Ohio, to develop innovative combustion systems that will allow engines to operate at incredibly high speeds.

Lee has spent three summers at Wright Patterson's Propulsion Directorate within the Aerospace Propulsion Division (Air Force Research Laboratory), funded by their Summer Faculty Fellowship Program. "I use lasers to look at the combustion process in propulsion systems," Lee explains. "I image things like temperature and chemical species in laboratory set-ups which are designed to simulate conditions that show how an engine is running." Because much of his research is on location at WPAFB, Lee travels there frequently to set up lasers and make measurements ... read more

Chemistry Professor's Research Leads to Award Winning InPore Technologies

InPore Technologies is an award-winning, Michigan based, startup company created from the science discoveries of a chemistry professor at Michigan State University.

Dr. Thomas J. Pinnavaia joined MSU's Chemistry Department in 1966, and continues to have considerable enthusiasm for the challenges of chemical research with inorganic materials. He is the lead inventor on more than 80 issued and pending U.S. patents, has served as a member of the editorial boards of nine international scientific journals, and has won several national and international awards.

The current company is the evolution of a company called Claytec, Inc., that represented Pinnavaia's earlier work with inorganic materials.

InPore Technologies produces a product for applications in the plastics industry called Silapore™. The Silapore particles produced have numerous pores comparable in size to polymer molecules, and the way they are structured work synergistically with other chemical agents to improve flame retardancy while making the compounds stronger and/or lighter, and therefore less expensive for manufacturers to produce in a variety of industry capabilities ... read more

The Evaluation Circle Workshops, 2011-2012
A series of workshops on evaluation theory and practice
East Lansing, Michigan
January 20, 2012; February 3, 2012; April 13, 2012

Service-Learning and Civic Engagement Institute 2012
East Lansing, Michigan
January 30-31, 2012

Universities' Third Mission: Indicators and Good Practices
Dublin, Ireland
February 2 – 3, 2012

MSU Awards Convocation
Pasant Theatre, Wharton Center
East Lansing, Michigan
February 14, 2012

Community-Campus Partnerships for Health Conference
Houston, Texas
April 18-21, 2012

2012 National Outreach Scholarship Conference
Tuscaloosa, Alabama
September 30-October 3, 2012

Looking for Project Partners?

University-Community Partnerships

Collaboration and partnership with communities are at the core of engaged scholarship. In all of its work, University Outreach and Engagement emphasizes university-community partnerships that are collaborative, participatory, empowering, systemic, transformative, and anchored in scholarship. If you are a faculty or academic staff member wanting to establish a partnership with community partners to work on a specific research issue, University Outreach and Engagement can help you. Our University-Community Partnerships (UCP) staff, specialists, and researchers have established connections across the state in a number of areas such as education, mental health, human services, business, and government. For more information, contact Bob Brown at (517) 432-1450 or brownr23@msu.edu.

Focus: HOPE, Detroit, MI

Opportunities for partnership exist around the following areas: Service-Learning, Student Internships and Placements, Faculty Research Partnerships, and Development of Innovative Solutions to Pressing Social Problems. For more information, contact Deborah E. Fisher at (313) 494-4306 or fisherd@focushope.edu, or visit http://ucp.msu.edu/partnerships/.

ES 360° Feedback ...

We would like to hear from you. Contact us with comments, suggestions, announcements, or “engaged scholar” project information for future e-newsletters. Send to Carla Hills: engaged.scholar@msu.edu or call (517) 353-8977.