Experiencing the burn of a leather car seat in the heat of the summer or catching a nosy neighbor peering into your kitchen window could soon be things of the past with the new dual-mode liquid crystal smart glass material. Yingfei Jiang, a College of Arts and Science graduate student in the Chemical Physics program and the Advanced Materials and Liquid Crystal Institute (AMLCI) at Kent State University, and his advisor Deng-Ke Yang, Ph.D., a professor in the Department of Physics, have invented the first ever dual-mode smart glass technology that can control both radiant energy flow (he...
Today’s Flashes of Inspiration features David Hassler, director of Kent State’s Wick Poetry Center, who is sharing the poem, “Thank You, Tree.” The poem was written by Fatou M’Baye, a fifth grade student at Holden Elementary School in Kent, in honor of a favorite tree that was on her school playground, where she would gather with her friends. Hassler selected this poem to celebrate spring, Earth Day, and how all can enjoy and celebrate the beauty of nature even during a pandemic. The poem is features on the Wick Poetry Center’s Traveling Stanzas community poetry site, un...
Graduate students in the College of Communication and Information spent the second half of the Spring 2020 semester applying course material in real time as they examined how classrooms were adapting to new ways of learning during COVID-19. In the seminar course Communication in an Information Society (offered in the School of Communication Studies), the students had been reading and discussing literature on the effects of communication and technology in our world. When educational institutions across the country shifted to remote instruction in mid-March, it became clear that technology wa...
Students in the class Communication in a Global Society worked in teams throughout the Spring 2020 semester to educate audiences about one specific aspect of globalization and ecology: fast fashion. The goal, according to Associate Professor Stephanie Danes Smith, was “to look at whether Kent State students can present information about highly relevant issues like fast fashion and get their fellow students to commit to a single, simple behavioral change.” The students were required to create events around fast fashion and its harmful impacts on both the planet and people. “The w...
School of Theatre and Dance
Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, Porthouse Theatre has decided to cancel all of its educational programs for the summer of 2020, including the High School Shadow Program, the Porthouse College Academy, and the Porthouse International Academy. Porthouse Theatre looks forward to resuming its education programs in the summer of 2021. For further information, please visit www.porthousetheatre.com. ### Media Contact: Joni Koneval, jkoneval@kent.edu, 330-672-0116 ...
Dr. Joseph D. Ortiz, a professor in the College of Arts and Sciences’ Department of Geology at Kent State University, was part of an international team of researchers that co-authored an article about a deadly tsunami that occurred about 1,000 years ago in Tanzania. The study suggests that the tsunami risk in East Africa could be higher than previously thought. Ortiz processed and interpreted the grain size data using a multivariate statistical analysis method, demonstrating the deposit was composed of sediment from both terrestrial and marine origin, which supports the tsunami in...
Scientists report that nearly 14,600 years ago marine-based regions of the Eurasian Ice Sheet melted rapidly, contributing to a major sea-level rise. Does this rapid collapse of massive ice give us clues as to the vulnerability of Earth’s remaining ice sheets? Joseph D. Ortiz, Ph.D., professor and assistant chair in the College of Arts and Sciences’ Department of Geology at Kent State University, recently authored a “News and Views” article in Nature Geoscience that discusses research carried out by another research team that reassessed the melt history and timing of the collapse of the Eur...
By Allie Vugrincic, Reporter Tribune Chronicle avugrincic@tribtoday.com Nonprofit Rock4Reason is thinking of local cancer patients during the pandemic and has decided to support them by donating 50 stress-relief bags to the Hope Center for Cancer Care. “People are already stressed out, and for those folks who are going through treatment, it is probably even more stressful for them,” Rock4Reason co-founder Frank Lindsay said. The Rock4Reason team delivered stress-relief bags with candles, tea, socks, stress balls and lotion, among other items, to the Hope Center in Howland. Half...