Advancing the university: President's Awards recognize movers and shakers

ASU faculty and staff have re-imagined their roles and developed creative and inspiring programs that promote innovation, sustainability and social embeddedness to advance their university and Arizona communities and schools.

In recognition of their achievements, ASU President Michael M. Crow hosted an awards ceremony and reception April 2 to present:

• the President’s Award for Innovation

• the President’s Award for Sustainability

• the President’s Medal for Social Embeddedness

• the Top Multiple SUN Award for Individual Excellence

The Office of Human Resources coordinated the event.
 

President's Award for Innovation

ASU values innovative contributions and recognizes ASU faculty and staff who have developed creative and inspiring projects and programs that address one or more of the challenges before us. This award provides formal recognition to ASU teams that have made significant contributions to ASU and higher education through the creation, development and implementation of innovative projects, programs, initiatives, services and techniques.

Empowering Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief with Social Media and Data Analytics
The Data Mining and Machine Learning lab has created systems employing social media since 2010 to connect first responders to actionable information in massive crowd-sourced data. This use-inspired innovative solution addresses the challenge of focusing information and technology to produce meaningful change by creating new kinds of value and a real impact in the critically important area of humanitarian assistance and disaster relief.


Quest2Teach
Quest2Teach is a series of game-infused 3D virtual learning curricula, unified by a social-professional network, designed for teacher education. These immersive experiences provide authentic and individualized practice for future teachers, while bridging between theory and practice. Quest2Teach is the first of its kind in teacher education.

read more

President's Award for Sustainability

Sustainability is a balance of environmental, social and economic concerns. ASU staff and faculty are advancing sustainability by demonstrating exemplary practices, leading by example and sharing solutions to catalyze change. This award recognizes ASU teams that have demonstrated excellence in fostering the successful development, implementation and promotion of sustainability principles, solutions, programs and services in the teaching, learning, research and business missions of the university.
 

ASU Green Labs
In 2011, Environmental Health and Safety (EH&S) implemented a program designed to promote an enhanced awareness of sustainability in the university’s laboratories that would result in a decrease in ASU’s overall carbon footprint. 

B99 Biodiesel Fueling Station Project
A collaborative project involving ASU Facilities Management and Maintenance Stores, ASU students, REVbiodiesel, Brown Evans Distributing and Aramark has resulted in the construction of a biodiesel fuel tank and dispensing system. The system dispenses B99; a biodiesel fuel that is made from 99 percent used vegetable oil.

Salt River Project Waste Diversion Program
In mid-2013, Salt River Project (SRP) engaged the Sustainability Solutions Services (S3) of the Walton Sustainability Solutions Initiatives to help them understand how to maximize waste diversion potential, increase the amount of materials recycled and reduce the environmental impact caused by their landfill.




ASU Solarization Program
What began as a pair of humble student demonstration projects at the Tempe campus has blossomed into a $160 million investment in the largest system of installations at a U.S. university. ASU is now the leader in harnessing solar energy among U.S. institutions of higher learning. The program has added 22.8 megawatts (MWdc) of clean, renewable energy, which totals 23.5 MWdc of electrical power produced at ASU.

read more

President's Medal for Social Embeddedness

For ASU, social embeddedness is a university-wide, interactive and mutually-supportive partnership with the communities of Arizona. This award recognizes ASU teams that have demonstrated excellence in fostering mutually-beneficial partnerships with community leaders to identify a community need and to co-create and implement a solution that leads to positive social change in the community and in the research, teaching and service practices of ASU.
 

Nursing Performance Evaluation
Safe and high-quality health care is critically important to individuals, families and communities. A team from ASU’s College of Nursing and Health Innovation, Scottsdale Community College’s Nursing Program and the Arizona State Board of Nursing has developed a testing process to support health care patient safety through assessing the continued competence of registered nurses.

read more

SUN Award for Individual Excellence

Four employees are singled out for this extraordinary honor based on the quality of their work as recorded in the SUN Awards they received from ASU faculty and staff during calendar year 2013, and by their managers’ commendation of their exceptional performance.

• Randall Dalbey, Department of Animal Care and Technologies, Office of Knowledge Enterprise Development

• Sue Lafond, School of Mathematical and Natural Sciences, the New College of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences

• Jill Lockhart, Learning Resources Center, College of Nursing and Health Innovation

• Carolyn Starr, Student Recruitment, College of Technology and Innovation

Contact:
Linda Uhley
Office of Human Resources
linda.uhley@asu.edu