Panhia Lee

Entrepreneurship at the intersection of diversity and inequality

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Jennifer Nazareno, a post-doctoral research fellow at the Brown School of Public Health, and Danny Warshay, executive director of the Jonathan M. Nelson Center for Entrepreneurship.
Maxwell Simeon, Class of 2017

The Jonathan M. Nelson Center for Entrepreneurship convened a one-day conference on Monday, Dec. 5, on the simultaneity of agency and inequity of power and privilege in entrepreneurial endeavors.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — With the launch of the Jonathan M. Nelson Center for Entrepreneurship this semester and the early 2016 release of the Pathways to Diversity and Inclusion action, both entrepreneurship and diversity and inclusion are major strategic priorities at Brown University.

On Monday, Dec. 5, the entrepreneurship center immersed students, faculty, staff from Brown with local community members and scholars from higher education institutions across the country in both of those priorities for a one-day conference titled Entrepreneurship at the Intersection of Diversity and Inequality.

The conference provided perspectives on how entrepreneurship has served as a potential pathway toward inclusion and socioeconomic mobility, particularly in times of exclusion and marginalization.

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RWU Engineering Expert Partners with PowerDocks to Design Off-Grid Clean-Energy Power Stations for Autonomous Robots

Assistant Professor of Engineering Charles Thangaraj will lead collaborative project funded by an Innovation Voucher from the Rhode Island Commerce Corporation.

BRISTOL, R.I. – The capabilities of autonomous vehicles, both in the air and underwater, is revolutionizing our ability to work in remote locations. Whether it’s capturing data from the ocean floor, collecting photos from high above or delivering supplies to faraway places, autonomous vehicles are increasingly getting the job done. That is, at least, until they run out of power.

Now, that might be changing. A Roger Williams University engineering expert is teaming up with a local renewable-energy solar firm on a project funded by the Rhode Island Commerce Corporation to design a custom wireless charging system to power drones and autonomous underwater vehicles in remote locations.

Assistant Professor of Engineering Charles Thangaraj has been enlisted by PowerDocks of Newport, a builder of floating solar-energy platforms for the marine industry, to engineer a wireless charging system into their off-grid docking stations. The $29,554 Innovation Voucher awarded last month will fund the research and development of wireless renewable-energy charging stations for land, underwater and surface-water uses for unmanned air vehicles and autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs). Researchers will investigate both solar and wind options for generating the electricity that will be stored for charging autonomous vehicles.

“Drones and AUVs run on battery power, and sometimes operate far from civilization, deep in the mountains and forests, or undersea, where it’s not easy to get to them or get them out of the water to plug them in for a charge,” Thangaraj says. “With a wireless charging system, the vehicle can dock and charge itself, allowing for longer periods of continuous operation in the field.”

Thangaraj will lead a team of engineering students to conduct the research and design at HawkWorks, the University’s 5,600-square-foot fabrication facility located in downtown Bristol. The project will begin next year.

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Students complete 365-page ‘Siege of Newport’ analysis for National Park Service

NEWPORT, R.I. (Dec. 6, 2016) – Salve Regina University students working in collaboration with the Middletown Historical Society have completed a 365-page investigative analysis of the Siege of Newport, a 1778 battle fought from opposing hills in Middletown that became one of the largest military operations of the Revolution. The historic effort to retake Newport – known as the Battle of Rhode Island – was the first joint military operation of the newly formed alliance between the French and the Colonials.

Printed at Salve Regina University, “Siege of British Forces in Newport County by Colonial and French in August of 1778” is the first in-depth analysis of the battlefield that could very well have been the site where the Revolutionary War was won.

The document is now available in public libraries and in historical society archives throughout Aquidneck Island, as well as in electronic format via the university’s McKillop Library digital commons repository. The research was commissioned by the National Park Service’s American Battlefield Protection Program, which awarded a $67,200 grant to the Middletown Historical Society in summer 2015.

The Salve Regina students, under the guidance of Cultural and Historic Preservation Assistant Professor Jon Marcoux and History Professor John Quinn, conducted much of the work as part of the collaborative research team. On Monday (Dec. 4), Kenneth Walsh, the Middletown Historical Society Research Team’s Principal Investigator, joined with university faculty, students and alumni to formally present copies of the completed report to Jane Gerety, RSM, Salve Regina president, and Scott Zeman, provost/vice president for academic affairs.

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PwC Challenge tests students’ analytical thinking, decision making, collaboration

At Bryant, case competitions like the PwC Challenge, held on campus Oct. 26, require students to apply analytical thinking, fact-based decision making, and collaboration to actual business scenarios.

This year’s case competition, held on campus Oct. 26, concerned the illegal dumping of hazardous materials by a corporation and ways to restore the company’s public image after the news of environmental harm went public.

As part of the challenge, team members were required to work independently to review the business case, develop a solution, and create a presentation. Each team delivered a solution to a panel of high-level PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) professionals, who offered feedback after each presentation. Team success was measured using three criteria: critical thinking, collaboration, and communication skills.

“Students gained valuable insight into our profession, our firm, and the issues faced by global business leaders,” says PwC Tax Partner and Bryant Trustee Bob Calabro ’88, who served as one of the judges.

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