The SMU community is invited to celebrate the dedication of the transformed visual arts facilities at Meadows School of the Arts Friday, September 16, at 11:30 a.m.
RSVP here.
Category: September 2022
We’re excited for what the new year holds, but it will only be possible with the support of dedicated Mustang donors. We hope you’ll be inspired to support our students, faculty and campus with your gift today.
Homecoming festivities start Thursday, October 20, when we celebrate our Distinguished Alumni Award honorees A. Shonn Evans Brown ’95, ’98; John Cartwright Phelan ’86; and Thear Sy Suzuki ’96; and Emerging Leader Award recipient Emily K. Graham ’07.
DAA recipient C.J. “Don” Donnally ’67, ’68, who passed away in May, will be honored posthumously.
SMU President R. Gerald Turner and the SMU Alumni Board will host the event recognizing extraordinary achievement, outstanding character and good citizenship. The celebration at Armstrong Fieldhouse will open with a reception at 6 p.m. that will be followed by a dinner and awards presentation at 7 p.m.
Read more.
The Josh Abbott Band will perform Saturday, September 10, at 4:30 p.m. on Doak Walker Plaza, on the north side of Ford Stadium, before the Mustangs play Lamar in the home opener, kicking off at 6 p.m. Get entry to both with a previously purchased game ticket or a concert ticket.
Read more.
Come back to where it all began to reconnect with classmates and SMU. With loads of events, there’s something for everyone. Be sure to stop in at the SMU Alumni tent near Clements Hall. Check out the schedule and make your plans now.
Here are some of the highlights:
Thursday, October 20
Distinguished Alumni Awards
6 p.m. Reception
7 p.m. Dinner and presentation
Armstrong Fieldhouse
Registration and information
Friday, October 21
- Enjoy tours of campus landmarks and new additions, and visit the George W. Bush Presidential Center and the Meadows Museum.
- Undergraduate reunion parties at various locations. More information.
Saturday, October 22
The parade, fun on the Boulevard and the SMU vs. Cincinnati football game are just a few of the exciting activities.
Read more.
Latino Alumni of SMU will host a celebration of the academic achievements of their 2022 scholarship recipients Thursday, September 15, at 6 p.m. at the Meadows Museum. Register by September 9.
Welcome back, Mustangs!
The Residential Commons are abuzz, organizations are going full speed and the events calendar is already packed. Students are back and ready for the big year ahead.
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A NASA-funded team led by SMU researchers think that their small, lightweight device developed to measure spaceship velocity will improve the odds of successful landings on Mars and other planets.
Smaller, they say, is better in space.
The optical microresonator built by the team is only 2 millimeters in length, compared to the velocity-monitoring tool most commonly used on spacecraft – the Fabry-Perot interferometer – which can be as long as 500 millimeters. NASA and other space agencies may be able to use the microresonator to get an accurate, quick measurement of how fast a spaceship is moving in a specific direction.
The first proof-of-concept results have been published in AAIA Journal.
“Every gram of a device makes a huge difference in how much fuel I will have to have on a spacecraft and how many other items I can include as payload on that spacecraft,” says SMU’s Volkan Ötügen, one of the creators of the optical microresonator.
Ötügen is senior associate dean of the Mechanical Engineering Department in SMU’s Lyle School of Engineering and director of the SMU MicroSensor Laboratory. The device he and other researchers built uses a phenomenon known as “whispering gallery mode.”
A spacecraft’s velocity is a key measurement during its descent, because the time between when a spaceship enters a planet’s atmosphere and the time it lands is usually only minutes at most. And costly accidents like the crashed European spacecraft Schiaparelli on Mars underscore how quickly a mission can go wrong when the spacecraft is given wrong information.
Just 40 percent of Mars missions – launched by any space agency – actually land there successfully.
Read more at SMU Research.
ICYMI: In Case You Missed It
Check out these quick links to great stories and photos featuring the people, programs, events and more making news on the Hilltop.
- Photos: New students settle in on the Hilltop
- Men’s basketball starts non-conference play November 7
- Rising Scholars Program goes residential
- Math education expert debunks indoctrination claims
- SMU student journalists win top editor, reporter awards
- Mind the gap: Mutual funds often underperform in the long run
- Tiffaney Dale Hunter ’18 named a 2022 Women in Business honoree
- Research shows the role empathy may play in music