People, papers and presentations

Two Rice graduate students won “Best Paper” awards at the 2014 Transnational Asia Graduate Student (TAGS) conference, organized by graduate students affiliated with the Rice School of Humanities’ Chao Center for Asian Studies. Lisa Jeon, a linguistics graduate student, won for her paper, “‘Hello Kitty Cute’ to ‘Angry Bird Angry’: Mapping Perceptions of Language Variation in South Korea,” and Jing Wang, an anthropology graduate student, won for her paper, “The Missing Voice of the Underrepresented: An Ethnographic Approach to Understanding the Limitations of Representation in Social Media.” The conference was held at Rice Feb. 20-21 and attracted participants from collaborating universities in Houston, Austin and Dallas and from across the nation.

Rice Emergency Medical Services (REMS) earned the Collegiate EMS Website of the Year Award and three REMS members were recognized with honors at the National Collegiate EMS conference in Boston Feb. 28-March 2. Ian Feldman ’09, an active REMS member who is also the central regional coordinator of the National Collegiate EMS Foundation, was presented the Dr. George J. Koenig Jr. Foundation Service Award. REMS members Teresa Lin, a Brown College senior, and Mollie Ahn, Brown College junior, were recognized for performing CPR to save a patient’s life. Those who attended the conference were Mark Escott ’96, REMS medical director and founder of REMS; Noah Reiter ’00, REMS co-founder; Shane Jenks, REMS assistant medical director; Lisa Basgall, director of REMS; Feldman; and undergraduate REMS members Lin, Ahn, Muhammad Shamim, Patrick McCarthy, Radina Khalid, Carissa Livingston and Iman Kassir.

Rice’s Center for Technology in Teaching and Learning has earned an Interactive Media Award Outstanding Achievement Award for its free, online science game “Virtual Clinical Trials.” The game challenges players to use scientific methods and skills as they learn the process for designing and conducting a clinical trial, the underlying neuroscience behind the medical advances being tested and the related careers involved. The Interactive Media Awards recognize the highest standards of excellence in website design and development and honor individuals and organizations for their outstanding achievement.

Renata Ramos, lecturer of bioengineering, has been selected for the 2014 American Society for Engineering Education’s Biomedical Engineering Division Teaching Award for her significant contributions and approaches to undergraduate biomedical engineering education.

Duncan College senior Lydia Smith, a double major in visual and dramatic arts and anthropology, was selected to participate in the seventh annual “Rising Eyes of Texas,” a group exhibition that showcases emerging artists from colleges and universities across the state. The exhibition will be held at Rockport Center for the Arts in Rockport, Texas, from March 8 to April 5. For more information, visit www.rockportartcenter.com.