July

What does it mean to be Black? Is Blackness a matter of biology or consciousness? What determines who is Black and who is not? A new book by Dr. Yaba Blay, an assistant professor and co-director of the Africana Studies program in Drexel University’s College of Arts and Sciences, seeks to challenge narrow perceptions of what Blackness is and what it looks like.

Graphic design alumna Krissy Beck traveled to Thailand to help design agricultural tools and techniques for Thai farmers as part of the Drexel Thai Harvest Initiative. Each year, the graphic design program chooses one student to participate in the initiative. Beck, who graduated this past June, said her initial interest in the program came from her friendship with last year's graphic designer for the team, Hannah Olin.

On July 13, the Society of Women Engineers partnered with Comcast Corp. and Tech Girlz to host its first technical workshop. Young attendees learned about podcasts and were introduced to women currently working tech-related jobs.

The Public’s Health is one of the nation’s only blogs dedicated solely to public health—and it’s co-created and regularly contributed to by Jonathan Purtle, a graduate student, and a professor at Drexel University’s School of Public Health.

Digital media student Chelsea Myers helped design the logo for last month's MTV Online Music Awards at her co-op at Happy Cog in Philadelphia.

Donna De Carolis is the founding dean of the Charles D. Close School of Entrepreneurship at Drexel University. Her leisure reading typically strays far from her field of expertise, as she is drawn to suspense in the summer’s hazy days.

The finish line for the Greater Philadelphia Hotel Association’s sixth annual Wonderful Whirl Thru Philly scavenger hunt was Drexel’s Academic Bistro, where hospitality and culinary students prepared a congratulatory reception for the participants.

From a wood and copper sculpture that explores an emotional response to the attacks of September 11, 2001, to drawings on mylar that translate walks through Manhattan into map-inspired shapes, “Spatial Translations” takes visitors on a visual journey through experiences in urban environments. The new exhibition, which features drawings, paintings, sculptures and installations by Pennsylvania and New York-based artists Annette Cords, Brent Crothers, William Cromar and Paul Fabozzi, is a collaboration between Drexel University’s Antoinette Westphal College of Media Arts & Design and Philadelphia nonprofit artist network InLiquid.

Ibrahim Bakir is a mechanical engineering student at Drexel University and an Egyptian national. For the past four months, he has been living with his parents in Cairo while completing a six-month co-op as a trainee in a Johnson & Johnson factory in 6th of October City, a suburb of Cairo.

Greg Yeutter, who has lived in Germany since last September while studying at the Munich University of Applied Sciences, is now working on a co-op in Berlin with cloudControl, a German cloud computing company.

In the court of public opinion, the case against George Zimmerman for killing Trayvon Martin may have centered on race. But in Florida’s 18th Circuit Court at Zimmerman’s trial, race was rarely mentioned. Evidence of a colorblind system? Donald Tibbs doesn’t think so.

Alexa Forney, a junior product design major in the Antoinette Westphal College of Media Arts & Design, and Greg Yeutter, a junior majoring in electrical engineering in the College of Engineering with a minor in product design, recently created a concept for installing wind power solutions in urban settings.

The Africana Studies program in Drexel University’s College of Arts and Sciences will host a candid panel discussion on race, justice and activism onSaturday, July 27. The discussion and question-and-answer session will take place from 2 p.m. – 5:30 p.m.in Room 120 of the Papadakis Integrated Sciences Building (33rd and Chestnut Streets). It is free and open to the public.

Master of public health student Triza Brion is drawn to maternal and child health initiatives. Next month she will travel to Africa for two weeks to assist women and children in need with a group of students in Drexel's Certificate in Global Health program.

Rolling Stone magazine’s Aug. 1 cover photo stirred controversy across the nation when it was released last week. Politicians rebutted. Victims raged. Retailers refused to sell the edition. The face plastered provocatively on the cover like a rock star? Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.

Last week, a mother and her four young sons were crossing Roosevelt Boulevard when a speeding car—driven by an alleged drag racer—crashed into the family. The oldest boy, Saa'yon Griffin, was the only survivor. Paul Thomas Clements says that what young survivors and their caregivers need most after a tragic loss is honest communication.

Health research at Drexel University received a boost from the Pennsylvania Department of Health this week as the school was one of four area recipients of Commonwealth Universal Research Enhancement (CURE) Program grants.

Called one of the “best restaurants in Philadelphia” by Philadelphia magazine, Osteria, the traditional Italian restaurant from Chef Marc Vetri, is renowned for its inventive hand-crafted pastas. On July 16, seven Drexel culinary students had the rare opportunity to go behind-the-scenes at the acclaimed establishment to learn the secrets of pasta-making from the master chef himself.

DrexelNow spoke with Daniela Ascarelli, assistant vice provost for international programs and director of Drexel's Study Abroad program, to find out why studying abroad is such a powerful and important experience for students.

Donna Sabella, assistant clinical professor and director of global studies in the College of Nursing and Health Professions, is creating a new certificate program in human trafficking to improve awareness and support victims.

Clare Sauro, curator of the Drexel Historic Costume Collection, is reading "Gold Digger: The Outrageous Life and Times of Peggy Hopkins Joyce" by Constance Rosenblum.

Shakespeare in Clark Park is back again this summer—with a Drexel twist. Adrienne Mackey, an adjunct professor of voice and diction in the Theatre program in Westphal College of Media Arts & Design, is directing “The Tempest” for SCP, a theater company that showcases free, outdoor productions of Shakespeare’s plays in West Philadelphia.

Biomedical engineering student Josa Hanzlik was one of four Drexel students awarded the Whitaker Fellowship, which will send her abroad for a year. When Hanzlik ventures to the Netherlands in April 2014 to conduct research, she will leave a remarkable path for other aspiring women engineers to follow.

Drexel President John A. Fry will host a breakfast event to welcome more than 60 WorkReady Philadelphia summer interns to the University’s campus. The high school interns will be working in a variety of academic and administrative units across the University.

Drexel Central, a one-stop location for students and families seeking assistance with billing, financial aid or registrar activities, is now open for business in Room 106 in Main Building.

The work of roboticists from 10 institutions who have pooled their efforts to compete as team DRC-HUBO in the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency’s Robotics Challenge has been rewarded with an official thumbs up from the agency. The Drexel-led team passed the first phase of critical design review and will be among the competitors at the DRC head-to-head trials in December.

Drexel University has received a grant for a five-year study of medical marijuana and its impact on drug use and physical and psychological health among young adults in Los Angeles. It is the first large-scale NIH project funded to directly investigate medical marijuana use among young adults aged 18 to 26.

Max Goldberg, a rising senior in the Film & Video Department in Drexel’s Westphal College of Media Arts & Design, works as a production intern for half of the week and as a post-production intern for the other half at CollegeHumor.com.

Ashley Parker-Roman joined the U.S. Navy when she was 17. She spent four years stationed in Norfolk, Va., onboard the SS Bataan LHD-5, and was deployed twice in the Mediterranean. That was nearly 10 years ago—the Annapolis, Md., native hasn’t stopped working hard since.

Nominees for the 2013 Philadelphia Geek Awards are in. Among the field for this year’s recognition of local ingenuity, intellect and innovation are Drexel’s Dr. Frank Lee, an associate professor in the Antoinette Westphal College of Media Arts & Design and director of the Entrepreneurial Game Studio, and undergraduate digital media student Greg Lobanov.

Researchers from the Drexel University School of Public Health say that health care organizations have an untapped opportunity to use data analysis methods on their own administrative data as a “springboard to problem identification” at the leading edge of preventing medical errors.

Drexel’s Dornsife Center for Neighborhood Partnerships was established to be a liaison between the local community and the University. But Drexel knows the city can’t only accommodate for humans—it must remember Philadelphia’s furry friends.

Christina Coleman, a student in Drexel's Television Management program, interned at Cannes International Film Festival in May. Now, she's heading to Los Angeles to work with DreamWorks Animation for the summer.

Lately, College of Engineering Dean Joseph Hughes has been “enthralled” with the notion of what makes an “educated person” in today’s world. He’s looking to old college textbooks for answers. And, for some lighter reading, he’s working his way through (for a third time) The Journey Through Risk and Fear, by Flyers goalie and Hall of Fame icon Bernie Parent.

Drexel University is creating a seed funding, incubation and technology transfer enterprise called “Drexel Ventures,” with the goal of spurring technological advancements with real-world applications. The program, which supports Drexel’s strategic priority of fostering economic development in the area, will make it easier for researchers to enter into partnerships with the private sector and translate their work into the marketplace.

When grad student Mitchell D'Rozario noticed his fellow teaching assistants struggling to be prepared to teach classes, he created workshops to help them strengthen their skills.