01/14/21
K-State Current - January 14, 2021
K-State Current is a weekly news update for the Kansas Board of Regents to apprise the Regents on a few of the many successes and achievements made by K-State faculty, staff and students.
K-State News
K-State and Hill's combining strengths to end pet obesity
The Hill's Pet Health and Nutrition Center will be located in renovated space in the K-State College of Veterinary Medicine. Rendering by Clark Enersen Partners.
A partnership between the College of Veterinary Medicine at Kansas State University and Hill's Pet Nutrition is providing new resources and facilities that will enhance medical and nutritional care for pets. The Veterinary Health Center serves as the college's teaching hospital and will benefit from a major renovation made possible through the partnership.
"The Veterinary Health Center is expanding in an important way," said Elizabeth Davis, head of the clinical sciences department and interim director for the Veterinary Health Center. "The College of Veterinary Medicine's partnership with Hill's Pet Nutrition has been in place since 2018, and in 2020, an important new part of the partnership will take shape. The Hill's Pet Health and Nutrition Center will open for patient care January 2021."
The new center will provide primary care and nutritional assessment to help maintain optimal pet health.
"An important long-term goal of the Veterinary Health Center Obesity Clinic, a vital service of the center, is to end pet obesity," Davis said. "We feel fortunate to have the opportunity to collaborate with Hill's in this impactful way. Hill's has provided an opportunity for the center to provide state-of-the-art primary care for small animal patients while training extraordinary graduates. We are thrilled to have the opportunity to partner with Hill's Pet Nutrition in this important way."
Jolle Kirpensteijn, chief professional veterinary officer, Hill's Pet Nutrition U.S., said, "We are proud to partner with K-State on this vital work to advance our understanding of and service to companion animals for today and for tomorrow. Collaborations like these incorporating academic institutions and commercial organizations are vital, and we are excited about this work that integrates research, pet care and student engagement — a powerful and rich combination. Obesity is a pervasive disease in our pets and only together can we turn the tide."
Davis said that the new Hill's Pet Health and Nutrition Center will provide service for routine primary care patients, walk-in urgent patient needs and triage to appropriate services as needed — with close proximity to a variety of veterinary medical specialists who work in the Veterinary Health Center. Additional services include animal behavior with Fear-Free® pet care, young pet care for puppies and kittens, annual visits with preventative health care, senior pet care and nutrition for all ages.
Davis said Hill's Pet Nutrition involvement in the Hill's Pet Health and Nutrition Center will provide a home for nutrition consultation, a designated Hill's primary care intern and direct consultation with board-certified veterinary nutritionists.
Taryn Pestalozzi was recently appointed as the Hill's clinical nutrition and primary care intern and consults at least weekly with two American College of Veterinary Nutrition board-certified clinical nutritionists from Hill's Pet Nutrition, who are also adjunct faculty with the clinical sciences department at the College of Veterinary Medicine.
Davis said the goal is to ensure that each patient receives a customized nutrition plan to obtain optimal results.
This summer, Hill's Pet Nutrition hosted a summer internship for third-year K-State veterinary student Jana Gigliotti, Arlington, Texas.
"My time as the Hill's U.S. professional veterinary affairs intern was such a valuable experience in many ways," Gigliotti said. "I was challenged, encouraged and welcomed with open arms into Hill's amazing workplace culture even though I was working remotely. My projects taught me how to better advocate and care for my future patients without me putting my hands on an animal."
Gigliotti said that not only were the projects and material clinically relevant, but organizing and giving presentations, independent thinking and getting a glimpse of the business side of veterinary medicine all contributed to her professional growth this summer.
"I can't thank my manager, Dr. Brandon Stapleton, and the entire Hill's team enough for what this internship has given me," Gigliotti said.
"We loved having Jana Gigliotti as our first summer intern within US Professional and Veterinary Affairs, and she was an outstanding addition to the Education team," said Stapleton, senior manager of education at Hill's. "She performed exceptionally and set a high standard for future interns."
Another aspect of the partnership includes the second annual Clinical Nutrition Symposium, offered for continuing education credit, to be 2-5 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 15, via Hill's Pet Nutrition's "Hill's at Home CE" program. For more information and to register, visit https://hillsathomece.com/. This symposium features experts from the college and professionals from the industry who will be lecturing on small animal nutrition. It will also feature a special live interview with Jordy Nelson, a former K-State and NFL football player. This symposium will include complimentary registration to professionals in the field who are looking to learn more about educating and communicating with pet owners to have healthy animals.
The K-State College of Veterinary Medicine, established in 1905, is dedicated to scholarship through innovation and excellence in teaching, research, and service to promote animal and human health for the public good. The college is committed to creating an environment that is fulfilling and rewarding, being recognized for good communication, productive collaboration, mutual respect, diversity, integrity and honesty. To carry out this mission, the college's nationally recognized instructional and research programs provide the highest standards of professional education.
K-State Faculty Highlights
Gina Scott and Kayla Schmidt recognized as Professional Staff of the Week
Gina Scott, left, and Kayla Schmidt, were recognized as Professional Staff of the Week.
Gina Scott, IT support specialist II in the College of Veterinary Medicine, and Kayla Schmidt, human capital specialist I in the College of Health and Human Sciences, were recognized as Professional Staff of the Week at the Dec. 19 and Dec. 21 men's home basketball games, respectively. Faculty Senate, the Office of the President, K-State Athletics and the Division of Communications and Marketing wish to recognize these individuals' contributions to K-State.
Scott has served the College of Veterinary Medicine community in countless ways for 26 years and is a valued member. As a computer information specialist, she has broad responsibilities, especially in the curriculum, to ensure that the teaching mission of the college is fulfilled. She consistently performs these tasks at the highest levels of expertise, competence and professionalism. Management of curricular resources and content via K-State Canvas is among her most important responsibilities and requires daily interactions with students, staff and faculty, all of whom depend on her for timely and unfettered access to instructional materials and content. Unfailingly, Scott imbues every interaction with enthusiasm, compassion and collegiality.
Schmidt joined the College of Health and Human Sciences in 2018. She was awarded the college's Outstanding Staff Award. Schmidt oversees all human resource business for the college. Though entering a newly created position, Schmidt was able to become an immediate asset to the business office, helping the college move to a shared service for all human resource functions and improve current processes and communications through both supervisors and employees. Schmidt is praised by her colleagues as being a true team player who always finds time to help others.
Pavithra Prabhakar, associate professor and Peggy and Gary Edwards chair in engineering in the computer science department at Kansas State University, has been awarded $450,000 from the National Science Foundation to work on artificial intelligence-based controllers in the three-year project, "Scalable Formal Verification of ANN Controlled Cyber-Physical Systems."
Artificial intelligence-based controllers, increasingly used for modern-day cyber-physical and autonomous systems such as driverless cars, are called on to perform sophisticated functions and operate in highly dynamic environments. Use of such controllers in driverless cars is highly safety-critical, where the vehicle is expected to not only stay in the correct lane but avoid collisions with other vehicles and pedestrians crossings roadways under varying lighting conditions.
The goal of Prabhakar's research is to provide rigorous correctness guarantees of artificial intelligence-based controllers using foundational mathematical analysis techniques known as formal methods. Prahabkar's project will develop efficient algorithms that can analyze these systems by drastically reducing size of the networks and representing them using a novel data structure called an interval neural network.
"The work is expected to lead to new mathematical insights and novel algorithms for rigorous analysis of artificial intelligence-based controllers," Prabhakar said. "The resulting software tools will have the potential to push the boundary of scalability of existing design and analysis algorithms and tools for artificial intelligence-controlled cyber-physical systems to large-scale and complex networks."
Graduate students as well as undergraduates will be involved as Prabhakar will develop new courses at the intersection of artificial intelligence and cyber-physical systems, and expand her outreach activities to teaching robotic programming to K-12 students.
Prabhakar has previously received research support for work in the area of cyber-physical and autonomous systems through an NSF CAREER Award and an Office of Naval Research Young Investigator Award. Her cutting-edge foundational research in this project will continue propelling Kansas State University‘s excellence in these areas.
Shirley Tung receives teaching award from national organization
Shirley Tung, assistant professor of English in the College of Arts and Sciences, has received a 2020-2021 Innovative Course Design award from the American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies.
The society recognized Tung for her undergraduate capstone course, ENGL 698, on The Cult of Celebrity: From the Eighteenth Century to the Present Day, taught in fall 2019.
The annual competition promotes excellence in teaching eighteenth-century studies at the undergraduate level, according to the society, which has been offering the award for 35 years. Recipients share their award-winning course pedagogy at the society's annual conference and on a dedicated website. Tung will be honored at the society's virtual conference in April 2021.
Tung was inspired by the dual goals of the capstone course — expertise in English and professional development — to create a course that, in her words, "interrogates performativity through the lens of celebrity culture."
"During the semester, my students and I traced the evolving concepts of celebrity and fame, using Joseph Roach's book 'It' and its premise that celebrity emerged in the eighteenth century," Tung said. "I built my course around topics such as 'Celebrities as Royalty/Royalty as Celebrities,' 'The Fetishization of the Female Body,' 'Celebrity Feuds,' and 'Popular Media,' comparing the depictions of celebrity and fame in literary works and cultural productions from the eighteenth century to the modern day."
Tung will be offering the course again in the spring 2021 semester. A trailer for the course is available from the department's YouTube channel.
"Shirley Tung is one of our most creative and inspiring instructors in an English department of award-winning teachers," said Karin Westman, department head of English. "We are thrilled to have her innovative and rigorous undergraduate capstone course recognized by a national organization of scholars dedicated to the intersection of teaching and research."
More information about Tung's research is available from Tung's faculty page.
K-State Student News
Veterinary students receive prestigious Lou and Norma Jane Ball scholarship
Lou and Norma Jane Ball Scholarship recipients, front row, from left, are Bailey Wright, Kathryn Ryan and Abby Ostronic. Back row, from left, are Raelene Wouda, assistant professor of oncology, and Bonnie Rush, dean of the College of Veterinary Medicine.
Three fourth-year veterinary students at the Kansas State University College of Veterinary Medicine — Abby Ostronic and Kathryn Ryan, both from Lenexa, and Bailey Wright, Wichita — have received the Lou and Norma Jane Ball Scholarship.
The scholarship is designated for students who are in the top 10 percent of their class, have an interest in small animal medicine and surgery and have an excellent chance of being accepted into a residency program at a renowned institution. The endowed scholarship will pay the students' tuition, fees, books and living expenses for their senior year.
"Prestigious scholarships, such as those provided by the late Lou and Norma Jane Ball, recognize the impressive efforts of some of the college's highest-performing veterinary students and hopefully encourage them to consider pursuing further specialized study," said Raelene Wouda, assistant professor of oncology. "It is a great privilege to present these awards to such a wonderful group of students."
Louis Ball established the scholarship in memory of his wife, Norma Jane. The couple had four cats, lovingly called "the kids," that received lifelong care at the K-State Veterinary Health Center.
Ostronic said she was honored and grateful to receive the Lou and Norma Jane Ball Scholarship.
"With the aid of this scholarship, I can feel more secure in my decision to complete a rotating small animal internship and residency to pursue specialization in either internal medicine or oncology," Ostronic said. "One day I will be able to help cats and dogs that are loved just as much as Lou and Norma adored the cats they brought to K-State over the years."
"I feel extremely lucky to have received this scholarship," Ryan said. "When College of Veterinary Medicine Dean Bonnie Rush shared the history behind the scholarship, I was reminded of how lucky I am to be a part of a profession that strives to foster the relationship between people and their pets. My fourth year of veterinary school at K-State continues to teach me more than I could have asked for."
Wright said receiving the Lou and Norma Jane Ball Scholarship means a great deal to her.
"This award is a tremendous honor and I feel grateful to have so many clinicians and mentors here at the Veterinary Health Center who have motivated me to achieve an award like this," Wright said. "This award is a reminder that my efforts each day to learn how to become a better doctor, provide quality care to my patients, and encourage my peers do not go unnoticed."