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The Honors College kicks off academic year with Honors Convocation
The Honors College at the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh held its Honors Convocation this week on the Oshkosh campus. It’s the first time the usually annual event has been held since the start of the pandemic. Courtney Bauder, director of the social justice program in the College of Letters and Science and an Honors College instructor, delivered the keynote address.
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It’s officially fall: Let’s gaze at beautiful photos of UW Oshkosh campuses in autumn
Although most students, faculty and staff at the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh know summer has at least symbolically been over since the start of the new academic year earlier, today marks the actual first day of fall. The fall season runs Sept. 22 through Dec. 21 and for the next three months the campuses of UW Oshkosh will transform from lush greens to the reds, oranges and yellows of autumn to inevitably the white winter. While each season has its charms, claiming fall to be the most beautiful time of year on campus usually won’t be met with much pushback.
And we have proof. In honor of the start of the new season, here are a collection of photos from recent years at UWO showcasing the natural beauty of fall.
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Titan Fest gets students better introduced to Oshkosh
A sure sign the new school year is upon us: Titan Fest taking over the pedestrian mall on the Oshkosh campus. The event, part of Titan Welcome and featuring representatives from student organizations, University departments, volunteer agencies, off-campus employers and community businesses, packed the outside area between Reeve Union and the Arts and Communication Center Tuesday. Paired with Lunch on the Lawn, the gathering held the day before the start of classes serves as a welcome (or welcome back) to campus and a look at some of what the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh and the surrounding community have to offer.
Along with vendors and a meal, students were treated to a DJ and lawn games with the opportunity to make new connections and socialize before it’s time to hit the books.
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UW Oshkosh is buzzing about student entrepreneurial venture
A team of University of Wisconsin Oshkosh students is preparing to test a product they say will improve survival of delicate honey bee colonies in cold weather climates.
In 2018, the UW Oshkosh Alta Resources Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation (CEI) partnered with WiSys—a nonprofit dedicated to helping inventors protect their intellectual property—to create a unique opportunity for entrepreneurial students.
“We connected with UW Oshkosh’s CEI to create the WiSys Entrepreneur Program with the goal of creating new ventures around WiSys technologies,” said Jennifer Souter, associate director. “The idea was to pair inventors with entrepreneurial students to take a single product to market.”
Three UW Oshkosh business administration majors were selected for the CEI team: senior Jessica Tarter of Sommerset, junior Parker Schmidt of Combined Locks and then-senior (now alumnus) Macall Hill, ‘19 of Darien. The trio was presented with five possible products to take to market.
After conducting market research on all five products the team chose the Bee Shield™, originally invented by UW-Superior biology professor and apiary manager Edward Burkett and friend and colleague Kenn Raihala.
The Bee Shield™
The shield idea came to Burkett in 2016 after all the hives in the UW-Superior bee apiary were lost during the winter months. Raihala, a retired mechanical engineer, helped Burkett design the original prototype as part of a research study on protecting future bee colonies. The patent was almost an afterthought.
While the students knew nothing about bees when they started this process, through their market research they quickly confirmed the product could serve as a very important solution to a very complex problem.
“We learned a lot about bees from Dr. Burkett. One of the biggest challenge beekeepers face is keeping their bees alive. Beekeepers in the United States lose about 30 percent of their hives during the winter months, with areas in the Upper Midwest losing as much as 50 percent and the bee shield has the potential to revolutionize the internal environment to retain more heat and increase the bees’ potential of survival,” Schmidt said.
Burkett and Raihala recently met with the Hive Central team to learn about their product modifications and give feedback on the functionality it will have for the bee colonies.
“Kenn and I are thrilled that the Hive’s shield will be taken to market and are hopeful that it will make a significant impact on the survival of future bee colonies,” Burkett said.
Educational Support
UW Oshkosh Alta Resources Executive Director Colleen Merrill and Director Dan Brosman met weekly with the student team to review their progress and connect advisory mentors (i.e., manufacturers, attorneys, accountants, marketers, etc) who provided intensive 1v1 business consulting to the team. In addition to these weekly meetings, the team also enrolled in the CEI’s spring and summer accelerator programs where they learned lean startup curriculum practices to effectively validate their assumptions of the businesses.
Throughout the process, the students worked towards efficiently dividing up the work but Schmidt admits they came into the process a bit naïve.
“You think that entrepreneurship is ultimately picking a product and selling it,” he said. “It seems like a straight line but the process comes with highs and lows and is a bit all over the place.”
Eventually, the students found their groove and chose different areas to focus on: Schmidt has been managing the $25,000 grant process, Tarter is the head of marketing and Hill has been working with the physical product. Together they put each other in places to succeed. The students say they couldn’t have done it without the support of the CEI leadership, the inventors Burkett and Raihala, WiSys leadership and the engineering department.
“We have received an overwhelming amount of support from everyone,” Tarter said. “Colleen put us in touch with so many mentors and resources that allowed us to be where we are today with our company.”
Merrill said the program has exceeded expectations and truly gave the students a true entrepreneurial startup experience focused on product development and sales. The program will repeat on a yearly basis giving additional student teams real-world entrepreneurial experience with the potential to launch a company and generate revenues.
“We are extremely proud of our students, they jumped in with their whole hearts, learning from and embracing every challenge while staying nimble and receptive to feedback,” Merrill said. “This ultimately helped the students form a very cohesive team. It’s almost unheard of.”
The business and the future
The students formed their company Hive Central around the product and continuing work on developing their website. But the story is far from complete.
This winter, the team will engage bee hobbyists to conduct additional research in cold weather climates before they fully launch an online store and start selling the product to the masses.
Hill says they are eager to get some data on the Bee Shield™ to validate the product’s effectiveness.
“Current winterizing products on the market do not have any research behind them and have even shown to have no effect at all. With over 200,000 hobbyist beekeepers with approximately 1,630,000 hives (in U.S. cold weather climates), we want to make sure our product stands out from the competition,” Hill said.
WiSys has an expansive portfolio of intellectual property and leaders are eager to see what product the next UW Oshkosh CEI student team will bring to market.
“This project is a great example of our vision for this program,” Souter, of WiSys said. “The partnership with UWO has supported a hands-on learning opportunity for the students taking part and we have been pleased with the progress Hive Central has made.”
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UWO education alumna uses love of books to inspire student success
As summer draws to an end many teachers are returning to school to prepare their classrooms for their incoming students. Emmeline Cook second-grade teacher Madeline Knoblock ’18, of Oshkosh, said it is important to create a space that doesn’t intimidate but creates a positive learning environment for her students.
Last year Knoblock’s students won the Readers Roundup Garden Creation contest after they submitted a garden design proposal to the Sheboygan Bookworm Gardens. The students’ design– based on Mossy, Jan Brett’s story about a turtle with a beautiful garden growing on her shell–is on display now at the gardens.
Fueled by a love of books, Knoblock looks forward to the 2019-2020 school year to inspire the next wave of second graders.
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Chemistry student researches new methods for recycling CO2
University of Wisconsin Oshkosh senior Kara Gillette, of Oshkosh, is working with assistant professor of chemistry Sheri Lense to explore methods for converting carbon dioxide into carbon monoxide.
“Carbon dioxide emissions have been on the rise since the Industrial Revolution,” Gillette said. “It’s a huge problem that we need to solve.”
Finding an efficient and cost-effective way to recycle carbon dioxide would have both ecological and economic benefits. “[Carbon monoxide] is more reactive and thus more useful for producing chemicals of use … like synthetic fuels and plastics,” Gillette said.
Lense asked Gillette three summers ago if she would be interested in working on research together. Over the years, the two of them have formed a strong academic partnership that has allowed them to delve even deeper into their research.
“What [Kara] does for an undergraduate, I think, is really exceptional. It’s at the level of a graduate student,” Lense said.
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‘Stellar’ Rob Clancy earns UW Oshkosh November STAR award
Rob Clancy, who works in Information Technology at the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh, has been named the recipient of the November 2022 STAR Award.
Clancy was nominated by biology faculty members Dana Merriman, Shelly Michalski and Sabrina Mueller-Spitz:
“Rob Clancy is a stellar employee. When the campus switched from D2L to Canvas, Rob Clancy and Brian Ledwell ran education sessions to teach us the basics of the new classroom management software.
“Rob was unfailingly patient and informative and he calmly educated faculty of all skill levels, listening patiently to our concerns and invited us to contact him outside of class time with questions and issues.
“Rob’s helpfulness stepped up even more during the COVID-19 pandemic. Rob has met with us in-person, virtually and via e mail to teach us how to post virtual lectures, assignments and quizzes. Again, in every circumstance, Rob was knowledgeable, helpful, and patient.
“Additionally, there have been countless times that Rob has ‘saved’ us in face-to-face classroom situations in which the UWO media equipment consternates us. He shows up quickly and he calmly works through the issue, using the situation as a teaching moment to show frazzled faculty what to do when things don’t work. In every instance he invites us to contact him if there are any more problems. We wish that our campus had 10 Rob Clancys, but since we don’t, we treasure the one Rob Clancy that we do have.”
UW Oshkosh tops statewide energy challenge
The University of Wisconsin Oshkosh placed first in Focus on Energy’s Higher Education Kit Challenge, which provided off-campus students and staff members the opportunity to order free energy-efficient care packages containing LEDs, showerheads, power strips and more.
Each energy-saving pack ordered resulted in points earned for the school. In total, UW Oshkosh students and staff ordered over 240 kits, which reduced their energy use by over 14,000 kWh. This is the equivalent of saving the greenhouse gas emissions from two gasoline-powered cars driven for an entire year.
“Our campus had a great time participating in this challenge,” said Brad Spanbauer, UWO sustainability director. “Any way we can be good stewards of our resources and educate future generations on ways to lower their monthly water and electric bills will go a long way in creating a cultural environment where sustainability is at the forefront.”
In addition to the energy savings UWO received, Focus on Energy is providing the University with a check for $5,000 that will go towards energy efficiency-related projects on campus.
“The goal of this competition was to bring greater awareness to making smart energy choices,” said Bill Plamann, a Focus on Energy energy adviser. “For some, this challenge might be the first step in their energy savings journey. Understanding the charges behind your utility bills will ultimately lay the foundation for better managing future energy consumption.”
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UWO expands MBA offerings to Fox Cities campus
What’s new: The University of Wisconsin Oshkosh College of Business now offers classes that lead to a Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree on the Fox Cities campus.
- The UW Oshkosh MBA program features flexibility for busy adults through a variety of class formats, program offerings and locations. Students can take classes on the Fox Cities and Oshkosh campuses or in a fully online format.
- MBA classes on the Fox Cities campus are on weeknights and classrooms include newly upgraded technology, furniture and artwork donated by the College of Business (COB).
What they’re saying: “We are thrilled that the College of Business is extending its resources to the Fox Cities campus in bringing its highly regarded MBA program to us,” said Martin Rudd, assistant chancellor for access campuses.
Bottom line: The Menasha location, not far from major highway systems running through the heart of the Fox Valley, makes the Fox Cities campus convenient for students seeking an Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business-accredited business education. It’s another example of UWO continuing to explore ways to offer its degrees, certificates and other valuable credentials throughout the region and beyond.
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Digital badges boost UWO engineering students’ resumes
The University of Wisconsin Oshkosh engineering and engineering technology students now can beef up their resumes, showing off specific skills with attractive digital graphics.
The engineers are the first campus department to issue digital badges and one of the first in the UW System, according to Marcel Dijkstra, associate professor of environmental engineering technology.
Students can strengthen their digital resumes by displaying acquired skills with the colorful badges. The badges recognize achievement and establish credibility—a validated indictor of a competency or skill that was acquired.
The department created 12 badges and may add more in future years.
A few of the skills recognized are in computer-aided design, freshwater testing, electronic circuit application and renewable energy.
The badges may be seen here. There is no cost to students. The badges are issued via Credly, a leading digital credential platform. Each badge is linked to metadata that provides context and verification.
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Titan volleyball advances to second round of NCAA III tournament
The No. 4 seeded University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh volleyball team defeated the No. 5 seeded Otterbein Cardinals (Ohio) in five sets Thursday to advance to the second round of the 2022 NCAA Division III volleyball tournament.
Joslyn Wolff led the Titans with 18 kills and a .260 kill percentage, adding four block assists. Kalli Mau was the Titans’ assist leader with 29. Abby Fregien had a team-high 45 digs, outpacing the next Titan by 29.
Oshkosh will face No. 1 Calvin University (Michigan) on Friday at 7 p.m. Calvin entered the NCAA tournament with a 25-3 record, winning the Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association conference tournament final 3-0 over Albion College (Michigan).
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FDL School District superintendent backs UW system admissions bill
WFDL, Feb. 29
UW Oshkosh proposes program shift
Oshkosh Herald, pg. 1, Feb. 28
Simpson: Black History Month centers on voices of its people (pg. 9)
Oshkosh Herald, pg. 9, Feb. 28
Opinion: UWO alumna says car sharing is a win-win for all
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Feb. 28
UW-Oshkosh brainstorming ideas to help grow Fox Cities campus
WLUK, Feb. 26