• Irene Walters, executive director of IPFW's office of university relations and communications, HAS announced that an official commemorative book highlighting the Mastodons on Parade project will be published. "We began thinking about doing a book right after the community party held on May 1, because people seemed to be so interested. Since that time, I've received many calls asking if we were going to do a book and urging us to do so." Walters says the book is being edited by Dana Wichern, who also put together the special mastodon curriculum for the schools in Allen County.

http://www.homepages.indiana.edu/051305/text/mastodon.shtml

• Irwin Mallin, communication, has been named Outstanding Faculty Advisor by the Indiana Academic Advisors Network (IAAN). Comprised of professionals from colleges and universities across the state of Indiana, IAAN was formed to foster the personal and professional development of its members. The selection committee for the award evaluated nominations on the evidence of effective advising qualities and practices that distinguished the nominees. "Research has suggested that advising is central to a successful college experience," Mallin said, "so I'm honored to be recognized in this manner and proud to be part of IPFW's tradition of excellence in facilitating the best possible experience for our students." Mallin received the honor at IAAN's annual conference May 13. IPFW will host the 2006 conference on May 12. Kathleen O'Connell, associate dean of the School of Health Sciences, will be the conference chair.

• A new course offered for the first time this spring by the Department of Computer Science has won high praise from IPFW. Computer Science 460, Capstone Design Course culminated in May with a presentation by a student team to its clients, Judith Violette, director of library services, and Carl Drummond, associate vice chancellor for research and external support.

• The QSoft (Quality Software) team, made up of students Lindsay Motts, Atanas (Nas) Vanchel and Brad Stinson, gave a report and demonstration of the "iBidX" system for the online reporting and searching of IPFW faculty scholarly accomplishments. Previously, the more than 350 publications and scholarly works done by faculty members every year had to be hand collected. The system has been transferred to Information Technology Services for deployment and maintenance, which will allow the entire community to see the outstanding scholarship performed by IPFW faculty. That information will be available on the IPFW Web site later this year.

In the course, students work in teams to develop real software for real clients using principles of software engineering. The prerequisite course, CS 360--Software Engineering--also requires student teams to develop a real software application. Both CS 360 and CS 460 will continue such real-life experiences in the future, developing applications for the local community as well as IPFW offices.

For more information, including the possibility of becoming a client for either CS 360 or CS 460, call Ken Modesitt at 260-481-6237 or modesittk@ipfw.edu.