Student expo shows off the best academic work April 26

Projects, representing a variety of scholarly and creative pursuits undertaken by more than 150 SUNY Fredonia students, will be share the spotlight at the annual Student Research and Creativity Exposition on Thursday, April 26, at the Williams Center. 

Annika Anderson posted the results of her research on the egg-laying behavior of frogs at last year's Expo. Her biology professor, Bill Brown, is at right. Annika's work is among that to be shown again this year.

 

The event, which runs from noon to 7 p.m., will also feature a keynote address by Dr. Paul Gestwicki, a computer science professor at Ball State University, computer game technology guru and 1998 graduate of SUNY Fredonia, at 4 p.m. His talk, “The Importance of Immersion in Research and the Arts,” will follow welcoming remarks by SUNY Fredonia President Dennis L. Hefner and Academic Vice President Virginia Horvath.  Dr. Gestwicki is a native of Dunkirk.

 

Dr. Paul Gestwicki, Fredonia graduate, is guest speaker.

Encompassing the entire range of academic efforts – from natural sciences to social sciences to the arts – these works celebrate successes achieved by SUNY Fredonia students during the past year. “It should be an exciting day,” said Dr. Jack Croxton, director of the Office of Student Creativity and Research.

 

Students will available to talk about their research with visitors and most academic departments will have at least one student participating in the Exposition, now in its ninth year. Some students will display their works on posters, others will give oral presentations. Students from the Theater Department will give demonstrations. Performances by Music and Theater students begin at 3:15 p.m.

 

Dr. Gestwicki’s expertise lies in visualization of object-oriented programs and design patterns, graph drawing algorithms for UML (unified modeling language) diagrams and programming languages. His design team at Ball State investigates relationships among games, design, software and patterns.

 

In addition to his address on Thursday, Dr. Gestwicki will give a presentation, “Design Patterns and Computer Games,” on Friday, April 27, 4 p.m., at 105 Fenton Hall.

 

“Programming a computer game is a significant software engineering challenge,” Dr. Gestwicki said. “Modern games require deep knowledge of programming languages, graphics, human-computer interaction, networking and multimedia processing, as well as professional communication and teamwork skills.”

 

Dr. Gestwicki will show how software engineering techniques are applied to the context of game programming.

 

A member of the faculty in Ball State’s Computer Science Department since 2005, Dr. Gestwicki has written extensively about research in computer science education, design patterns, the science of designs and applications of software engineering on computer game programming. After graduating from SUNY Fredonia with a degree in Computer Science, he enrolled in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at the University of Buffalo, where he earned a master’s degree in 2000 and doctorate degree in 2005.

 

The Exposition at the Williams Center and Dr. Gestwicki’s presentation in Fenton Hall are open to the public.