With the installation of access points in four additional buildings, wireless coverage has expanded at Penn State New Kensington. Users should notice improvement of Wireless 2.0 signal strength in the Science, Arbuckle Technology Administration and Conference Center buildings.
The conversion to 2.0 from 1.0 began in summer 2012 and included improvements to performance, security and usability when moving from building to building. Focusing on academic areas, the campus initiated its wireless coverage in 2004 to enable laptops to remain portable. Students, faculty and staff can now move within a wireless area from offices to classrooms to meetings, while browsing the web.

Students at Penn State New Kensington will have the opportunity to present their research in a public forum at the seventh annual Research and Creative Exposition on April 9, in the campus Athletics Center.

The exposition provides students, under the guidance of a faculty adviser, with the opportunity to choose a topic, conduct research, draw conclusions and present their information in a public setting. A concurrent job fair in the Athletics Center also gives visitors the chance to speak with potential employers from the region.

The competition is divided into two categories: posters and oral presentations. The poster category is designed to convey the project's significance to scholars in the field and potential significance to the general public. The student's written research is translated into a poster. Participants are judged on content, display and oral defense of their project.

It is not too late to apply to Penn State New Kensington for fall. The campus' admissions office is holding Application Day from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Feb. 18 for high school students and adult learners.

The New Kensington admissions staff will be on-hand to guide prospective students through the application process. Those who complete the application will receive a waiver for the $50 application fee. Additionally, applicants to New Kensington may receive an admissions decision immediately if they bring a high school transcript and their SAT or ACT scores.

Bill Hamilton, assistant professor of biology, and Deborah Sillman, senior instructor in biology, are a team at Penn State New Kensington who oversee the maintenance of the campus Nature Trail that was constructed in 1985.

Each year, they write about the birds, insects, mammals and flowers that herald the arrival of spring. On their blog site, Ecologist's Notebook: Reflections on the Natural World of Western Pennsylvania, they report on their observations around their Apollo house and on local nature trails, as well as the campus trail. This year, the biologists bloggers are getting a mid-winter start.

A talk and exhibit by artist Dan Bolick about his show, "In Your Face," a discussion of diversity by comedian Preacher Moss, and a performance by Mahajibee Blues Band are a part of Penn State New Kensington's celebration of Black History Month.
Bolick's talk is slated for noon on Wednesday, Feb. 6, in the campus art gallery. A question-and-answer session follows the talk
Moss' comedy and lecture tour makes a stop at the New Kensington campus at noon, Wednesday, Feb. 6, in Cafe 780.
At noon on Wednesday, Feb. 20, Mahajibee brings its blues sounds to the Forum Theatre on campus.

Tyler Leatherwood is in his second year working on laser weapons at Penn State's Electro-Optics Center (EOC). He'll be working at the center for at least two more years as he helps design, test and build components for the high-powered defense systems used by the United States military. By the way, he is a full-time sophomore in the engineering program at Penn State New Kensington.

Last year, as a freshman, Leatherwood was selected as the charter member of a new campus program, GREAT (Growing Regional Engineering through Academics and Training). A collaboration of the New Kensington campus, Electro-Optics Center and industries in the region, GREAT establishes internships at local companies for engineering students. Whereas most internships are geared to juniors and seniors, GREAT interns can begin as soon as their first year in college.

Board members of the Alle-Kiski Society of the Penn State Alumni Association volunteered Dec. 11 for a food distribution program at the Valley News Dispatch in Tarentum, Pa. Produce for People, a monthly program for low-income families, provided groceries to 360 local residents during a two-hour period.

Organized by the Allegheny Valley Association of Churches and the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank, the program is held the second Tuesday of the month, from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. at two distribution sites: one for cold weather and one for warm weather. During the winter months, December to April, the distribution site is the newspaper's mailroom. During the spring, summer and fall months, the site is Our Lady of the Most Blessed Sacrament in Harrison, Pa.

Rujirutana Mandhachitara, associate professor of business administration at Penn State New Kensington, was selected to teach a spring course for Penn State's new master of business administration program at the Regional Learning Alliance Center in Cranberry, Pa.

Mandhachitara, known affectionately by her students as "Dr A," is one of three instructors for the course, Demand, Operations and Firm Performance. The course is a part of the second semester curriculum of the program. Administered by Penn State Erie, The Behrend College, the program is a hybrid of 75 percent online instruction and 25 percent in-class instruction, and is geared toward working professionals from the Pittsburgh region. Begun in fall 2012, the MBA is offered in a blended delivery whereby students get classroom instruction once per month and online instruction for the remainder of the course. It is the same curriculum that is offered in the traditional format at The Behrend College.