Student Achievement
Goldwater scholarships
In 2010, four Clemson students received the prestigious Barry M. Goldwater scholarship:
- Benjamin Cousins of Columbia, a sophomore in mathematical sciences and computer science
- Kemper Talley of Easley, a junior physics major
- Chelsea Woodworth of York, a sophomore biology major
- Ann Guggisberg of Warne, N.C., a junior majoring in genetics
Learn more
World Model United Nations
Two of our students were recognized for diplomacy at the 2010 World Model United Nations conference in Taipei, Taiwan. Layton Williamson from Blythewood, SC, and Jillian Traver from Hilton Head, SC, both French and international trade majors, received the Diplomacy Award on the Special Political and Decolonization committee, which consisted of nearly 250 delegates debating the issue of cyber warfare.
NCEES Award
Developing a device that allows third-graders to "feel" their interaction with a computer won a national award for a team of our engineering students. They participated in a design competition sponsored by the National Council of Examiners for Engineering and Surveying (NCEES).
Learn more
Creative Inquiry
Our unique Creative Inquiry program continues to grow and thrive. The work of our students is being noticed and making a difference:
Clemson marketing students earn Honda recognition
A Creative Inquiry team of marketing students developed a six-week public relations campaign for the Honda Sport Hybrid CR-Z. Honda selected the students' campaign theme “What does your car say about you?” as one of 10 campaigns to move forward in a public relations competition.
Learn more
Clemson students create new campus tour ‘app’
Prospective students and their parents can now tour Clemson University’s campus with an iPhone as their guide. The new application developed by students as a Creative Inquiry project offers an interactive way to learn more about buildings and landmarks on Clemson’s campus, watch video clips and get directions through GPS navigation.
Learn more
I Belong to South Carolina
Professor Susanna Ashton’s 2007-2008 Creative Inquiry project sought to collect and publish slave narratives of South Carolina. Now their hard work is being rewarded. I Belong to South Carolina: South Carolina Slave Narratives was published by the University of South Carolina Press in 2010.
In January 2011, it was selected by the American Library Association’s Choice magazine as an Outstanding Academic Title (OAT). Only three percent of the 25,000 titles submitted annually to Choice for review consideration are selected for the OAT designation. It’s a “best of the best” achievement highlighted in the magazine and at displays with the American Library Association’s conferences.
Learn more
Unintended anchors: Building rating systems and energy performance goals for U.S. buildings
A team of civil engineering, chemical engineering, and psychology students looked at how designers make decisions to reduce energy consumption in buildings. This is important because buildings use 40% of the energy in the U.S., more than road and air transportation combined. Their findings were published in Energy Policy, a widely read journal.
Learn more
Camp Read-A-Rama
Led by education professor Rachelle Washington and English professor Michelle Martin, students majoring in elementary and secondary education, landscape architecture, psychology and English had the unique opportunity to teach children analytical reading skills through weekly one-on-one work and an extended summer program. Each child left the program with sharpened reading skills and his or her own book. Clemson students took away the invaluable experience of teaching.
Finding technological solutions to stressors in the workplace
In the age of cell phones, MP3 players and laptops, saying that the average college student is “plugged in” is an understatement. It’s normal to see students taking notes on laptops or checking the time on a cell phone in any given classroom. With all of this technology at students’ fingertips, the potential for distraction is high. Professors of management Jason Thatcher and Varun Grover lead ongoing research by a team of computer science, finance and management students. Their goal: conduct a multiphase experiment evaluating the role of technology in the classroom. Their exploration of ways to use technology to engage students has made its way into the national dialogue at the American Conference on Information Systems.
“SPIRIT” — Student Projects in Rocket Investigation Techniques
Building rockets and launching them into the atmosphere might sound like a child’s daydream or the kind of activity reserved for NASA scientists, but it’s also a part of an ongoing Creative Inquiry. Students studying physics, astronomy, industrial engineering and computer science make up the team know as “SPIRIT.” Together with physics and astronomy professors Miguel Larsen and Gerald Lehmacher, the students build and launch rockets from the auroral zones, including Alaska and Norway, to investigate the atmosphere and how it affects weather and climate. The measurements gathered of ionospheric dynamics and electrodynamics tell the team how the sun is affecting the earth, and help address questions about global warming.
Green energy and biodiesel
Students in this ongoing Creative Inquiry group know the original diesel engine ran on peanut oil and that many original Ford vehicles on ethanol. They are witnesses to the wild fluctuation of gas prices and rapid draining of the planetary oil barrel. So they set out to find and refine sustainable, renewable transportation fuels. Working with bioengineering professor Terry Walker, this team of agricultural, biological, mechanical and biosystems engineering students examines various fuel options, including ethanol derived from switchgrass and biodiesel from algae.
Functional tissue engineering of heart valves
More than 100,000 people receive artificial heart valves every year, and many patients face risks associated with the replacement valves. For the biological science, bioengineering, health science, genetics and biochemistry students on this team, finding a better heart valve is not only an exciting challenge, it’s one with life-saving potential. Led by bioengineering professors Jiro Nagatomi and Dan Simionescu, the team has adopted unique tissue engineering tools, including scaffolds and bioreactors, to create valves that will neither induce blood clots nor degrade. Eventually, their efforts will help numerous patients suffering from heart valve diseases.