Provost's Column

Spring 2013

I am pleased to present another exciting issue of Hofstra Horizons, highlighting the research of our faculty.

The article by Professor Hak Kim, "Challenging the Big Data Tidal Wave in the Cloud and Social Media," traces the development of big data, i.e., large volume, high velocity, varied data that is rapidly growing and is often difficult to analyze. Dr. Kim points to the challenges and potential value of social media-driven big data to business and society as a whole.

"The Hopeful Student: Facilitating Academic Success Through the Will and the Ways," by Professors Holly Seirup and Sage Rose, highlights an alarming statistic: More than a quarter of the nation's first-year students will leave their four-year colleges without completing a degree. This leads to a discussion of levels of hope and the impact of hope on a student's academic success, retention, and graduation, as well as the importance of hope interventions in the overall school environment.

Professor Russell Burke and graduate student Kaetlyn Kerr explore why cases of Lyme disease are much more common in northern parts of the eastern United States than they are in the south. Dr. Burke, whose lab specializes in reptile ecology, and Ms. Kerr, along with a consortium of five other universities, were awarded $2.5 million by the National Science Foundation to investigate this question. The results of their research will help increase our understanding of Lyme disease distribution, and inform the public and public health workers about the potential future risk of the disease in the south.

With "TOPS: A Street Game App for Learning First to Third Grade Math," Professor Roberto Joseph introduces us to an exciting project by Hofstra's educational app development team, a group that unites faculty, graduates, and undergraduates with a range of backgrounds from educational technology to business administration to fine arts. In an effort to strengthen students' abilities in math and science, the team is designing, testing, and marketing a video game app for mobile devices. The app seeks to strengthen a positive "math identity" in students by using culturally relevant learning to form a meaningful connection that is often lacking in arithmetic drills.

"Working to Advance Stuttering Treatment" is both a personal reflection and an informative article by Professor Jason Davidow, who discusses effective treatment techniques to assist children, adolescents and adults who stutter. Specifically, Dr. Davidow details the success of modification of vocal cord vibration intervals in the treatment of stuttering, as well as the connection between rhythm and reductions in stuttering. He also looks forward to greater research into improving treatment techniques that focus on the "naturalness" of speech for persons who stutter.

I hope you enjoy reading about these latest developments in Hofstra faculty research. We look forward to another successful year of exploration and discovery.

Sincerely,
Herman A. Berliner, Ph.D.
Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs