Volume 5 - Issue 2 - Home Page

Featured MSU Engaged Scholars

Paving Michigan with Quality, Sustainable Roadways

Paving Michigan with Quality, Sustainable Roadways

Sometimes dubbed "pot-hole season," winter can be hard on Michigan's roadways, as well as costly, in terms of both dollars and environmental impact.

Seeking a quality, sustainable and cost-effective solution to this problem, Dr. M. Emin Kutay, of MSU's Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, has been working on a collaborative project to develop guidelines for increasing the use of crumb rubber in asphalt pavements constructed in Michigan. The project is sponsored by MSU, the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ), and the Ingham County Department of Transportation and Roads (ICDTR).

Obtained from scrap tires destined for landfills, crumb rubber is repurposed for use in modified asphalt mixes. The crumb rubber is supplied by a Michigan company that grinds up the old tires and ... read more


Cultural Adaptation of Parent Management Training for Michigan Latinos

Cultural Adaptation of Parent Management Training for Michigan Latinos

Rubén Parra-Cardona has participated in numerous research projects that benefit from community support and cooperation. As an associate professor in the Marriage and Family Therapy Program within the Department of Human Development and Family Studies, he has devoted a significant amount of time and attention to the cultural adaptation of community-based interventions for Latinos.

Parra-Cardona firmly believes in mixed-methods approaches in community-based research. He has learned that recruiting and working with research participants is most successful when he collaborates with trusted local leaders from key community organizations such as those that encompass health, mental health, and religious practices of local residents.

His work is informed by the strengths of the Latino culture, one of which is a tendency to establish strong family connections, including extended relatives and friends. Despite the close-knit family social structure ... read more

MSU Priorities

Community and Economic Development in the 21st Century

Promising New Commercial Technology Applications for Oxygen Sensor Prototype

Promising New Commercial Technology Applications for Oxygen Sensor Prototype

Developing new technology takes curiosity, patience, creativity, intellect, and tenacity. After discovery, researchers often confront the challenges of scaling up their products or applications for introduction into useful, marketable, and profitable ventures.

Ruby Ghosh, associate professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy, thrives on the intellectual challenge of basic physics and how it applies in everyday concepts. She has developed a groundbreaking oxygen sensor that has the potential to advance the work of those involved with aquaculture and beyond, and is now facing the next challenge of moving this technology into the market.

It has been a fifteen year pursuit for Ghosh. At first it was a scientific curiosity: Could the properties of inorganic optical indicators be ... read more


Looking for Community Partners

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 community partnership, University Outreach and Engagement may be able to help you. Our staff and researchers have connections across the state in areas such as education, mental health, human services, business, and government. For more information, contact Burton Bargerstock, Executive Director of the Office for Public Engagement and Scholarship, at (517) 353-8977 or bb@msu.edu.


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: engaged.scholar@msu.edu.

Resources

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

Community Engagement Toolkits
Designed by the Center for Community Engaged Learning to guide and support MSU faculty, students, staff, and community partners.

Transformations in Higher Education: The Scholarship of Engagement Series
Available from Michigan State University Press

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