Prof. Davyda Hammond, Middle College's Shavanta Hayes honored

Germanna Community College Engineering Prof. Davyda Hammond and Germanna Middle College Program Administrative Assistant Shavanta Hayes were honored with Virginia Community Colleges Association Showcase Awards Oct. 4 at the 31st Annual Conference at the Virginia Beach/Norfolk Hotel and Conference Center.

Prof. Lisa Murphy,  Prof. Davyda Hammond (right) during
 Germanna President's Leadership Academy graduation 

Criteria for faculty awards are:

 Excellence in teaching
 Significant contributions to education in general
 Significant contributions to the community college

DR. DAVYDA HAMMOND, who received a Faculty Showcase Award, was nominated by Prof. Lisa Murphy, who wrote:

“Since her arrival in August of 2011, Davyda Hammond has revitalized the Engineering program at Germanna. She brings practical engineering experiences into her classroom, including frequent use of a 3-D printer to build student designs, and a visit by a local engineering firm to help the students create concrete samples and test their strength.

  “In addition to expanding learning opportunities in her lab, she introduces her students to the world beyond their campus. As the founding sponsor of the Applied Engineering Club, she took a student team to the American Society of Mechanical Engineers Student Professional Development Conference at the University of Virginia, where they competed against junior and senior students from five university engineering programs, and placed in all of the competitions. She also led students in competing in CANstruction, a combination engineering challenge and service project in which students collected canned food for the local food bank and used it to create structural art.
“Dr. Hammond’s leadership extends beyond the lab and classroom. She has created a second track for the Germanna Community College engineering program to include electrical as well as mechanical engineering."
   "…Dr. Hammond is interested in providing practical learning experiences and research opportunities for Germanna engineering students. She is also interested in increasing the involvement of underrepresented groups in STEM careers."
   She received the 2013 Outstanding Faculty Advisor Award for her work with the Germanna Applied Engineering Student Club. She is also a graduate of the Germanna’s President’s Leadership Academy, a year-long program designed to develop rising leaders and she attended the Chair Academy in April 2013.
   In addition to her teaching duties, Dr. Hammond continues to conduct research focused on the health impacts of urban air pollution. Her most recent publication, “Cardiovascular impacts and micro-environmental exposure factors associated with continuous personal PM2.5 monitoring”, is under review by the Journal of Exposure Science and Environmental Epidemiology.
  Dr. Hammond has a Ph.D. in Environmental Health Engineering from the University of Alabama at Birmingham, an M.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of California, Irvine and a B.S.in Mechanical Engineering from Auburn University.
  She is a member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, the International Society of Exposure Science, and the American Public Health Association.
  
Criteria for staff awards are:
Significant contributions to education in general
Significant contributions to the community college

Shavanta Hayes, second from right, was nominated by
 Middle College Director Carolyn Bynum (right)

SHAVANTA HAYES received a Staff Showcase Award.
She is pursuing an associate’s degree in Business Administration at Germanna.
She was nominated by Middle College Director Carolyn Bynum, who wrote:

"Ms. Hayes graduated from GCC’s Middle College Program in 2008 while working full time in retail. Upon completion of Middle College, ,she continued to work full time and pursue an associate’s degree in business.
“In 2010, she applied for the Middle College Administrative Assistant position and was unanimously chosen because of her passion for the program.

“Even though her position as administrative assistant is in itself a full-time job, she serves as a mentor, advisor, role model, and advocate for Middle College students and is able to inspire them in ways that no other staff member can because she has been where they are. She encourages them to strive to be the best that they can be. She sets a shining example to all who are willing to push themselves and strive for a better life."

Upon her graduation from Germanna in May of 2014, Ms. Hayes plans to transfer to Hampton University to pursue her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in business administration. She has served on Germanna’s Black History Month Committee and Commencement Committee. She has been a recipient of the Doris Buffett Sunshine Lady Scholarship for two years and of the Ray and Joyce Zachmann Scholarship.

Silver Linings: Since she was a child, when GCC engineering Prof. Davyda Hammond has seen a need, she's found a way to fix things

Her mother passed away when she was 5.

She says her father couldn’t take care of her, so at age 12, she moved to Birmingham, Ala. to live with her grandmother, Sylvia Branch.

She wasn’t happy about the move, but what seemed to be a storm cloud had a silver lining.

 “It was my teachers in Alabama who really turned me on to math,” she says.



Germanna engineering Prof. Davyda Hammond and students
on green roof of GCC's Science & Engineering Building

“I wasn’t a good student in Detroit,” Germanna Community College Engineering Prof. Davyda Hammond says. “The primary reason was my home life. I lived with my aunt on the weekends and my father on weekdays. I was moving from one bed to another.”

 Her life had taken a turn for the better thanks to her grandmother. So it rankled her when, as a child, she would see shady mechanics take advantage of her grandmother, charging her a lot and refusing to explain what was wrong. “My grandmother always got the short end of the stick,” she says.

She was 12 and her teachers in Alabama were telling her she should become a math teacher. She knew that math was important to engineering. And she says with a smile that she thought to herself back then, “Well, engineers, they learn about cars.”

By the time she was in college, she was doing her own 20-point checks on her car and her grandmother’s.  When she’d take either car to a dealership, she’d confidently and firmly say: “This is what’s wrong. Don’t tell me anything else is wrong with it.”

 As a child, she had seen a need and addressed that need. That’s what engineers do.

 So it should come as no surprise that she’s done the same as a faculty member at Germanna.

  Until now, Germanna’s Associate of Science degree in Engineering program focused on mechanical engineering and engineering science.

  Dr. Hammond said that one of the primary concerned voiced during last year’s Germanna Center for Workforce Advisory Board meeting, was a skills gap that existed when it came to filling electrical engineering jobs.

  Earlier this year she did some research and found that more job openings were listed for electrical engineers across Virginia than for mechanical engineers.

  Seeing a need, she pushed to add a concentration in electrical engineering at Germanna. And she succeeded.

  Dr. Hammond explains that because Germanna has guaranteed admission articulation agreements with both UVa. and Virginia Tech, “If you get at least a ‘B’ in all your engineering and science and math classes at GCC and an overall GPA of 3.2, you’re guaranteed admission into the schools of engineering at  UVa. and Virginia Tech. They get so many applications at Tech that automatically knowing you’re getting in is a real advantage.”

 Things are coming together nicely for the GCC engineering program, which has a beautiful, cutting edge new Science & Engineering Building at Germanna’s Fredericksburg Area Campus in Spotsylvania.

Germanna's new Science & Engineering Building and Information Commons

She earned her bachelor’s degree at Auburn University, her master’s degree at the University of California-Irvine and her Ph.D. at the University of Alabama.

 Her grandmother passed away in 2009, but she lived to see Davyda get her PhD. “For a long time, she didn’t know what I was doing. I was the grandchild who knew how to fix things. A broken radio? ‘Fix this for me.’ The VCR? ‘Fix this for me.’ I was the fix-it child.”

 In a manner of speaking, she has her own “fix it children” now.

Dr. Hammond is the faculty advisor for GCC's Applied Engineering Club. In the spring of 2013, the club built a robot "with the Fukushuma power plant meltdown disaster in mind.” It has the ability to navigate into areas too dangerous and restricting to send personnel.  It uses two onboard cameras that allow both a forward-tilting view and a 310-degree pan and tilt view to “see.” It's able to manipulate instruments from 10 inches away with its probe, drop remote sensors and retrieve sensors. It’s compact, weighing about nine pounds with no dimension greater than 14.25 inches. Club members use an Xbox controller to operate it via a Wi-Fi connection with an indoor range of 230 feet and virtually unlimited range when connected over the Internet. It uses a laser guidance system and has a top speed of 1.56 miles per hour.

Germanna Applied Engineering Club's D.R.O.I.D. robot.

The club and D.R.O.I.D. made a strong showing at this Spring’s ASME Student Professional Development Conference at the University of Virginia, finishing second in student design for D.R.O.I.D., second in Web page design by Tristan Jones, second in Poster Presentation by Andrew Hallet and fourth for an oral presentation by Brian Keefer.

 A Germanna “MeCANical” engineering team led by  Dr. Hammond won the Engineering Ingenuity award during a recent contest sponsored by Stafford County Schools and 99.3 The Vibe. Ten teams collected thousands of cans of food for the Fredericksburg Food Bank, and then built structures at Spotsylvania Towne Center. The Germanna Engineering students came up with an American flag design. Now all the cans go to feed area families in need.

 "Silver Linings" design won an award and helped the hungry.

When the group had to submit a name for their structure, it didn’t know what it was going to build. So Prof. Hammond jotted down “Silver Linings.”   She says that popped into her head because being sent to live with her grandmother led to her becoming a PhD teaching engineering at Germanna and because of the silver colored trim of the cans of food donated for the project.

  Prof. Hammond is justifiably proud of her students.  

 “Engineering is a very difficult degree,” she says. “And if you’re not optimistic and lack confidence in yourself, it’s hard to deal with the stress.”

   Add to that, Prof. Hammond says, the fact that most Germanna engineering students have jobs while trying to master a difficult program, and it’s satisfying to see them succeed.” They’re very serious about their studies. They’re coming into class after a full day of work. Some have retail jobs, but with the knowledge they possess, they’re very close to what you need for a professional job.

   “They’re highly motivated, but at the same time, they know how to have fun,” she says. “They don’t let the stress of the program cause them to give up. They’re very supportive of one another. Engineering is a competitive environment, but it’s not that way here. We want to see everyone do well and get good grades that will allow them to transfer and finish their bachelor’s degrees.”