January 30, 2017

Student Symposium Registration Deadline EXTENDED

Have you registered for the Student Symposium yet? The deadline to register has been extended until Monday, Feb. 6 at midnight.

This event will take place on Tuesday, March 21, 2017, in the Student Center. The Student Symposium is a free, on-campus academic conference exclusively for Ball State students.

All students and majors are eligible to participate and may choose to present a poster of their work or take part in a moderated paper presentation. Participants may enter research projects or creative/design endeavors.

Due to the increased popularity of this event, the first 130 completed registrations for poster presentations and first 50 completed registrations for paper presentations will be accepted.

Visit www.bsu.edu/studentsymposium for guidelines and registration form. Registration will close on Monday, Feb. 6 at midnight.

January 27, 2017

SPA Colloquia: Involving Students in your Projects

Some of the best research projects are the result of student and faculty collaborations. Immersive and entrepreneurial learning projects are designed to equip students with the tools necessary to work with businesses, nonprofits, and government agencies to address community challenges, but they also help faculty members conduct research.

Several faculty members discussed the advantages of involving students in research projects at the Sponsored Projects Administration (SPA) Colloquia session Wednesday. 

Suzanne Plesha, Director of Faculty Support and Assessment for Entrepreneurial Learning, works with partners on campus to create excitement surrounding high-impact practices and activities, including immersive learning, undergraduate research and service learning. 

"We support immersive learning activity on campus and offer faculty support programs," Plesha said. "We also have the Entrepreneurial Learning Academy in the summer where faculty are selected to participate in a syllabus revision." 


Left to Right:Suzanne Plesha, Director of Faculty Support and Assessment for Entrepreneurial Learning, Kelli Huth, Director of Immersive Learning for Entrepreneurial Learning, Sue McDowell, Professor of Biology, and Adam Kuban, Assistant Professor of Journalism, discuss the advantages of involving students in research projects at the SPA Colloquia session Wednesday. 

Kelli Huth, Director of Immersive Learning for Entrepreneurial Learning, often works with faculty members who have ideas about how they want to integrate immersive learning into their courses, but may not necessarily have community contacts or they need help developing project ideas.

"We do one-on-one support with faculty members who have questions or ideas and then throughout the semester we help to support those projects that are in place," she said. "We also help to navigate things like travel, purchasing, and other logistics that come with budget management, although not every immersive learning project is tied to a budget. 

According to Huth, a majority of Ball State students don't actively participate in activities off-campus. 

"Not enough students are getting off campus to explore our community," she said. "We are taking a creative approach to learning with the help of our community partners."


Left to Right:Suzanne Plesha, Director of Faculty Support and Assessment for Entrepreneurial Learning, and Kelli Huth, Director of Immersive Learning for Entrepreneurial Learning, discuss how Ball State helps faculty members plan for immersive and entrepreneurial learning projects. 

Adam Kuban, assistant professor of journalism at Ball State, has completed eight immersive learning projects with his students since being hired in 2011. 

"One thing that I have noticed when I talk to other faculty members about integrating projects into their research and scholarly identity is that there is a lot of discussion and a lot of contemplation of the teaching aspect of it," Kuban said. "Where does all of this time, effort, and energy go in the end?" 

Sue McDowell, professor of biology, said she believes her research lab has helped students find jobs more easily after graduation.

"There is a difference between the students I have in the classroom versus the ones who are in the lab," she said. "The ones in the lab contribute tremendously to the new areas we are working on with infectious disease, but working together towards one goal has been one of the fundamental strengths that has enabled us to become successful in my lab." 

McDowell said she would not have made it through promotion and tenure at Ball State if she didn't have her research lab students.
"They have benefited my career greatly and I try to make sure the work we are doing is benefiting them as well," she said. "About 18 of them have been co-authors on peer-reviewed publications from the lab." 

The next SPA Colloquia session, Managing Large Research Projects, will be held on February 10 at 3 p.m. in Bracken Library Room 104. Please join Scott Trappe, Director of Ball State’s Human Performance Laboratory, as he discusses effective ways to approach the management of larger research projects.


January 23, 2017

Student Symposium - Have you registered yet? 
Registration is now open for the 2017 Student Symposium. This event will take place on Tuesday, March 21, 2017, in the Student Center.

The Student Symposium is a free, on-campus academic conference exclusively for Ball State students. All students and majors are eligible to participate and may choose to present a poster of their work or take part in a moderated paper presentation. Participants may enter research projects or creative/design endeavors.

Due to the increased popularity of this event, the first 130 completed registrations for poster presentations and first 50 completed registrations for paper presentations will be accepted.

Registration is open January 9-30, 2017. Visit www.bsu.edu/studentsymposium for guidelines and registration form.

January 19, 2017

SPA Colloquia: Faculty/Student Collaborations: Involving Students in your Research, Service, and Engagement

Ball State has a long history of faculty members collaborating with students on their projects. Ball State’s Office of Entrepreneurial Learning (OEL) helps facilitate these opportunities, and there are many examples to be found of BSU faculty members who have met with much success in involving students in their work.

On Wednesday, January 25 at 12:00 in the Art & Journalism Building (Atrium Dining Room), come and hear Kelli Huth and Suzanne Plesha from OEL describe the ways in which Ball State can help facilitate faculty/student collaborations. In addition, Sue McDowell (Department of Biology) and Adam Kuban (Department of Journalism) will be on hand to discuss how working with students outside of the classroom has enhanced their overall faculty experience.

We look forward to seeing you on January 25th. For additional information, please contact Stanley Geidel (sgeidel@bsu.edu or 285-2022). Please RSVP

January 18, 2017

SPA Colloquia • Intellectual Property Considerations: Patents, Copyrights, and Commercialization

The partnership between the Ball State Innovation Corporation (BSIC) and the Sponsored Projects Administration (SPA) helps faculty members address the ownership, distribution, and commercial development process of their own ideas and discoveries.

Wil Davis, President of BSIC, and Stephanie Roof, SPA Proposal Manager, discussed the processes and procedures for protecting and commercializing outcomes that arise from faculty research, scholarship, and creative work at the SPA Colloquia session Friday.

BSIC provides guidance for Ball State faculty with several resources throughout the commercialization process, including analyzing commercialization feasibility of intellectual property and assisting innovators in the creation of a business model or plan.

According to Davis, the first step in commercializing these outcomes is to complete an Intellectual Property Disclosure Form for inventors and authors. To ensure that adequate protections may be secured for the inventor or author, this form should be completed prior to any publication or public disclosure of the work.

"This step is very helpful in understanding what it is that you are wanting to commercialize," Davis said. "It will also help you determine what its potential on the market is."



Davis said the six questions listed on the disclosure form are helpful in determining what the inventor is offering and how to create a strategy for further development.

"Together we have to come up with a strategy of how to identify that 'it' with you," he said. "How do I know this is mine and how will I assert others that this is mine?"

The primary strategies commonly used include patents, copyrights and trade secrets.

"Keep in mind that when you patent and copyright, you disclose to the world what you have done," Davis said. "A patent is a set of instructions so that anyone of ordinary skill in the art could create what you have said you created. Once you copyright that idea, you own it and you can do what you want with it."

Generally, the only instance in which Ball State owns the material is when a significant amount (exceeding $500) of the university's resources are used. In those cases, Ball State will receive a majority (70 percent) of the profits generated from those outcomes. If Ball State has not provided an extraordinary amount of resources which result in the outcome, the sole owner is the inventor.

In some cases, instructors and students are faced with the challenge of determining who will have ownership of the work when it is completed.

"Students own their own work and the only exception is when we direct their work using our resources to do so," he said. "We generally have students sign a release form in that case which grants ownership to the instructor and university."

Revisions are being made to the university's current policy on intellectual property and technology transfer. The new policy should be available in the upcoming months.


-The current policy can be found HERE.

-The IP Disclosure Form can be found HERE.





January 12, 2017

Student Symposium Registration Now Open

Registration is now open for the 2017 Student Symposium. This event will take place on Tuesday, March 21, 2017, in the Student Center.

The Student Symposium is a free, on-campus academic conference exclusively for Ball State students. All students and majors are eligible to participate and may choose to present a poster of their work or take part in a moderated paper presentation. Participants may enter research projects or creative/design endeavors.

Due to the increased popularity of this event, the first 130 completed registrations for poster presentations and first 50 completed registrations for paper presentations will be accepted.

Registration is open January 9-30, 2017. Visit www.bsu.edu/studentsymposium for guidelines and registration form.