Forsyth Tech Team Takes First Place in NSF Competition with Energy-Efficient Solar Greenhouse Project

Students Apply Nanotechnology to Innovation

Forsyth Tech’s team of nanotech students placed first in the National Science Foundation’s 2016 Community College Innovation Challenge (CCIC). Team members include (l to r) Jack Landgraf, Philip York, Shannon Coalson, Adam Afifi and nanotechnology instructor, Dr. Mehrdad Tajkarimi.

"(Winston-Salem, NC) – The National Science Foundation (NSF) announced late this afternoon that a panel of expert judges selected Forsyth Technical Community College’s team of nanotechnology students as first place winners in the 2016 Community College Innovation Challenge (CCIC). The students’ innovative approach to applying nanotechnology to maximize the efficiency of greenhouses through solar energy elevated them to the national championship.

Normandale Community College in Minnesota and Virginia Western Community College in Virginia tied for second place.

Forsyth Tech’s team included Shannon Coalson, Adam Afifi, Jack Landgraf and Philip York. They were selected from among 10 finalist teams across the country that participated in a rigorous multi-month process requiring them to develop innovative, research-based solutions to challenges at the nexus of food, energy and water systems.

The 10 teams spent this week attending a four-day innovation “boot camp” in Arlington, VA during which they received feedback on their presentations and met with experts on subjects including team-based design, communicating the value of innovation and transitioning research to commercialization.

The boot camp included a visit to the U.S. Capitol yesterday where teams had the chance to present their projects to members of Congress and legislative staff.

 The Forsyth Tech team’s innovation addressed modernizing today’s greenhouses to fit individual customer needs by incorporating the use of renewable, cost-efficient energy sources through the use of nanotechnology.

“This national distinction places a tremendous shining star on our nanotech students’ résumés,” says Michael Ayers, dean of Math, Science, & Technologies. “It validates the type of innovative programming that Forsyth Tech offers, which few other colleges across the country can match.

“This experience places our students on the bleeding edge of science by encouraging research and innovation that is usually associated with four-year universities. We are so proud of them!”

“The national attention we have received from participation in this Innovation Challenge will open doors to our students and Forsyth Tech,” says Dr. Mehrdad Tajkarimi, the students’ nanotechnology instructor. “It will make it easier for our students to obtain jobs and for the college to gain partners who could potentially help bring this and other innovations to market.”

The NSF, in partnership with the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC), developed the CCIC competition as a way to foster development of crucial innovation skills among students in one of the nation’s most significant academic sectors. Community colleges play an important role in developing America’s technical workforce, in part by involving groups traditionally underrepresented in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education and careers.

“The Community College Innovation Challenge presented these students with real-world questions that the scientific community is working to answer,” said Joan Ferrini-Mundy, NSF assistant director for Education and Human Resources. “It has been gratifying to see how enthusiastically all of this year’s participants have responded to that challenge. These winning teams are emblematic of the kinds of quality entries we received.”

Other winning teams and their projects included:

·       Normandale Community College, Minnesota: Wastewater Hydrokinetic Turbine

·       Virginia Western Community College, Virginia: Efficient Mechanical Collection Method of Recovering Waste Apples

·       Northeast Community College, Nebraska: CROP-IT Solution to Regulate Irrigation Equipment

·       Perimeter College at Georgia State University, Georgia: Autonomous Technology Lake Algae Skimmer

·       Tulsa Community College, Oklahoma: Automated Microfluidic Colorimetry Lab for Aquaponic Monitoring (AMCLAM)

·       Northeast Wisconsin Technical College, Wisconsin: Junk Yard Generator

·       Henry Ford College, Michigan: Rescue Restaurant Food Waste to Address Hunger

·       Red Rocks Community College, Colorado: Cooling Tower Blow Down Water Conservation

·       Bucks County Community College, Pennsylvania: The Wind Catcher Max Wind Tower

About Forsyth Tech

Forsyth Tech provides students with flexible educational pathways to a competitive workforce for the community and global economy. The college offers associate degrees, diplomas, and certificates in more than 200 programs of study, including programs that promote personal and professional development through non-credit courses and seminars, as well as customized training for business and industry.

Forsyth Tech is the fifth largest community college in North Carolina and serves more than 35,000 students with approximately 1,500 full and part-time faculty and staff."

- A Press Release

12 Forsyth Tech Diesel & Heavy Equipment Students Receive Scholarships from NC Transportation Maintenance Council

Twelve Forsyth Tech Diesel and Heavy Equipment students

received scholarships from the North Carolina Transportation Maintenance

Council. Six of the scholarship recipients,  seen here with Forsyth Tech instructors

Allen Doub (far left) and Axel Torres (second from left), are (left to right) Kinley Jones,

Cole Mauldin, Justin Simmons, Ethan Simmons, Dakota Smith, and Christian McHone.

"(Winston-Salem, NC) – Twelve Forsyth Tech students who will receive their Associates degree in Diesel & Heavy Equipment Technology this May have received scholarships from the North Carolina Transportation Maintenance Council (NCTMC), a major sponsor of the college’s diesel program. NCTMC awarded the scholarships based on the students’ GPA and demonstrated ability to be successful in the field upon graduation.

The students each received a $250 Snap-On Tools gift cards that they can use now to purchase tools to build their personal tool set. Through a student discount program and partnership that Forsyth Tech has developed with Snap-On Tools, current students can purchase tools at steep discounts while enrolled in the program.

The 12 students are Justin Summons, Joseph Slate, Will Smith, Corbin Utt, Dakota Smith, Kinley Jones, Cole Maulden, Ethan Simmons, Isaac Brewster, Christian McHone, Tanner Reeves and Dallas Smith.

“We are proud that the NCTMC recognized the quality of these students who will be work-ready from day one when they graduate,” says Allen Doub, program coordinator for the Diesel & Heavy Equipment Technology program. “We are also proud that as our partner, NCTMC considers our program to be one of the best in the country. We’ve worked very hard to get our program the recognition it deserves to ensure our students receive the highest level of education and training available today.”

The NCTMC also recognized two other diesel students, Daniel Hanna, who came in first in the country in the Future Tech Challenge, and Cody Styers who finished sixth in the country in the same Challenge last year. The Challenge is sponsored by the American Trucking Association and the Transportation Maintenance Council each year.

As the first-place finisher, Hanna has the opportunity to attend the 2016 TMC Annual Meeting & Transportation Technology Exhibition in Nashville, TN from February 29 – March 3.

 

The NCTMC Council is an organization of transportation maintenance professionals dedicated to providing a forum for people to share information. The Council’s goal is to promote professional maintenance practices, new technologies, products and processes to improve maintenance practices, and network with suppliers and peers in the industry. The NCTMC also works with local, state and federal agencies to promote safer highways through proper safety and maintenance training. The Council also provides scholarships to students to support the training of new professional maintenance personnel and other developmental programs through North Carolina community colleges."

- A Press Release

Forsyth Tech Welcomes North Carolina Poet Laureate Shelby Stephenson on Oct. 9

Shelby Stephenson, North Carolina’s current

Poet Laureate, will present a lecture at

Forsyth Tech on October 9,

which is free and open to the public.

Forsyth Tech will be hosting North Carolina Poet Laureate, Shelby Stephenson, for a lecture on Friday, October 9 from 11 am – noon, in the Oak Grove Center Auditorium on the college’s Main Campus, 2100 Silas Creek Parkway.   

The lecture is free and open to the public.

Stephenson is the second Poet Laureate who has visited Forsyth Tech as lecturer in the ongoing Humanities Enrichment Series. This series has been in place for three years and is designed to generate an overall awareness of and appreciation for the humanities and arts for Forsyth Tech’s students, faculty, staff and the public.

Lisa Stanley-Smith, an English instructor at Forsyth Tech and coordinator of the event says, “Most people don’t get the opportunity to sit down and listen to someone so inspirational, talented, and entertaining. Having the North Carolina Poet Laureate visit our school is an honor. It is exciting.”

“I was lucky enough to have Shelby Stephenson as a college instructor during my studies, and can remember his simplistic perspective on writing,” Stanley-Smith recalls. “He used to say, ‘There’s no big trick to writing. Sit down in a quiet place, put pen to paper, and something you write will be good.’”

About poetry, Stephenson himself says, “It’s about the sunset, and the shadows changing on the grass in a different way, all the time. I think the poem is already written. It’s all there to begin with, and has got to be put on the page.”

Stephenson grew up on a small farm in Benson, NC, and uses his pastoral upbringing as inspiration for many of his poems. He is a graduate of the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill and continued his studies at the University of Pittsburgh (M.A.) and the University of Wisconsin-Madison (Ph.D.)

Until his retirement in 2010, Stephenson was a professor of English at UNC-Pembroke and editor of Pembroke Magazine.

He has received wide-spread recognition for his work including the Bellday Poetry Prize, the Oscar Arnold Young Award, the Zoe Kincaid-Brockman Award, the Brockman-Campbell Award, the Bright Hill Press Chapbook Prize, and the Playwright’s Fund of North Carolina Chapbook Prize, to name a few.

In 2001, the State of North Carolina presented Stephenson with the North Carolina Award in Literature."

- A Press Release