April

Cheers for noteworthy accomplishments

Placing first in a competition, and two grants awarded: one will fund research and the other a student exchange program.

April 4, 2017

First Place

Metropolitan State University of Denver garnered a first-place award recently when David Bechtold, Ph.D., assistant professor of management and four MSU Denver students competed in the recent Arrow Electronics case competition.

The University tied for first with Colorado State University, which was one of three other teams that Arrow hosted at its Denver area global headquarters for a case competition. The students’ challenge was to analyze and recommend an “Arrow Certified” technology campaign that best represented Arrow’s Five Years Out vision.

Joining Colorado State University and MSU Denver were teams from the University of Colorado and the University of Denver.

Each school fielded a team of up to five undergraduate students from diverse backgrounds to participate in the competition. Arrow awarded each student from the two winning teams with a $2,500 scholarship, which equaled a $22,500 total contribution to the students’ educations.

National Science Foundation Grant

The National Science Foundation has awarded a grant of $842,122 to Metropolitan State University of Denver for conducting the project titled: "Inclusive STEM Teaching Preparation at an Urban Commuter University." The award is ultimately expected to total $1,449,970.

Janelle M. Johnson, assistant professor of secondary teacher education, STEM Teaching and Learning, and Hsiu-Ping Liu, Ph.D., director of the Center for Advanced STEM Education, are directing the project.

This award starts Aug., 1, 2017 and ends July 31, 2022.

Innovation Fund Grant

Metropolitan State University of Denver has been awarded an Innovation Fund grant for competition #12: “Promoting Study Abroad in Engineering, Physics, Geology, and Geophysics,” sponsored by the ExxonMobile Corporation.

The grant was awarded for the program: “Promoting Bi-institutional Hemispheric Collaboration Through Study Abroad in Humanitarian Engineering,” and the program directors are Aaron Brown, Ph.D., assistant professor of mechanical engineering technology, and Akbarali Thobhani, Ph.D., executive director of the Office of International Studies.

The program’s objective is to offer an innovative study abroad opportunity to American students to study within the hemisphere and to increase the number of Latin American, specifically Mexican, students studying in the United States.

The program will involve a partnership between MSU Denver and Universidad del Valle de Atemajac in Guadalajara, Mexico, to implement a short-term bilateral student exchange program during summer 2017.