Penn State’s Woskob Family Gallery is partnering with School of Visual Arts art education graduate students to provide free art-making "make/stuff" workshops during Downtown State College’s First Fridays. The next two workshops are from 5 to 8 p.m. on March 2 and April 6, at the gallery.

Penn State graphic design alumna Kelly Thompson launched and leads a relief effort for her adopted home of Vieques, Puerto Rico, which was devastated by Hurricane Maria. Now a nonprofit group, ViequesLove organized one of the first flights to land on the island runway post-hurricane, armed with much-needed satellite phones that allowed communication within the island and also between the island and the continental U.S.

An interdisciplinary Penn State team led by Stuckeman School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture faculty members Shadi Nazarian and José Duarte earned second place and a $150,000 prize in NASA’s 3D-Printed Habitat Challenge, a Centennial Challenge competition established to develop the technology necessary to create shelters to support the human exploration of Mars.

Downloaded by more than 500,000 people in the first week, the "Hamilton" app was spearheaded by Marathon Live Entertainment, a social media and digital marketing company founded by Penn State alumnus Mike Karns. Penn State students Evan Young, a telecommunications major, and Haley Stipes, a graphic design major, also were involved in creating the app.

A single LED light can produce 16.4 million distinct colors. That’s a whole lotta color. And thanks to a donation from entertainment lighting manufacturer ETC, the Penn State School of Theatre’s Lighting Lab now has more than a dozen state-of-the-art LED fixtures, giving students the opportunity to gain hands-on experience using the same type of equipment they will encounter in their careers.

Sue Haug, director of Penn State's School of Music since 2005, will step down from that role at the end of June, but remain on the School of Music faculty. David Frego, chair of the Department of Music at the University of Texas at San Antonio, will assume the directorship in July.

In recognition of the increasing scope of digital learning, the College of Arts and Architecture’s e-Learning Institute will be renamed the Office of Digital Learning, effective April 1. Gary Chinn, director of the e-Learning Institute, will become assistant dean for digital learning.