SOU Academic Stories

Moriah Doepken returns to SOU to direct "Crew Experience" course

SOU Digital Cinema alum directs “Crew Experience”

(Ashland, Ore.) — Los Angeles-based filmmaker Moriah Doepken, a 2020 graduate of Southern Oregon University’s Digital Cinema program, has returned to Ashland this spring to be guest director for the Digital Cinema program’s innovative “Crew Experience” course. “I’m super excited to return to SOU and help make a film back in Ashland,” Doepken said. “Having […]

Climate resilience workshop at SOU Ashland

SOU, PSU collaborate on climate resilience

Southern Oregon University and Portland State University held a joint faculty workshop in Ashland last month that focused around water, fire, climate research, teaching and community engagement. SOU and PSU both are well-known for their dedicated, community-engaged research and education in climate resilience and sustainability. To further develop collaborative opportunities in research and education, faculty […]

SOU Ashland Computer Science presentation to exclusive AI organization

SOU AI work presented to exclusive organization

SOU Computer Science faculty member Bernie Boscoe and two of her students presented information to an exclusive organization of artificial intelligence researchers earlier this month on SOU students’ use of computer vision to glean data from camera traps at the future site of a wildlife crossing over Interstate 5 south of Ashland. The poster presentation […]

SOU Ashland faculty at DECA conference

SOU School of Business faculty engage students at DECA Conference

Faculty members from the Southern Oregon University School of Business recently participated in the Oregon DECA State Career Development Conference, supporting and mentoring high school students preparing for careers in business and entrepreneurship. MBA Program Coordinator Douglas Daley; senior instructor Jeremy Carlton, Ph.D.; and assistant professor Jacob Ongaki, Ph.D., represented SOU at the conference that […]

SOU Ashland's Earl Hills and his soft hammer

Earl Hills, a map forward and the hammer

A middle school teacher, a working class past and the quiet labor of keeping a community together when everything breaks. It was 2020, the year the Rogue Valley felt like it was ending. Earl Hills was in his early forties, sitting alone with a laptop, staring at a grid of middle school faces on Google […]

Civics course by SOU Ashland's Prakash Chenjeri

SOU civics course included on select national list

(Ashland, Ore.) — A Southern Oregon University Course – “Civicus: Advancing Civic Education” – has been recognized as a national resource and included on a select list of such classes by the Hoover Institution’s Alliance for Civics in the Academy at Stanford University. The Civicus course at SOU – created and taught by Philosophy professor Prakash […]

New book for educators by SOU Ashland's Renee Owen

New book suggests transformation of education and educators

(Ashland, Ore.) — A new book by Renee Owen, an associate professor in the SOU School of Education, sold out on Amazon almost immediately after it was published but is now back in stock and getting enthusiastic reviews from educators nationwide. The book, “Becoming a Transformative Leader from the Inside Out,” describes an educational model […]

Open textbook program at SOU Ashland

Open textbook report: 11,000 SOU students, $1.9 million saved

The most recent report from Open Oregon Educational Resources, a statewide initiative that promotes textbook affordability for students at Oregon colleges and universities, shows that a total of 71 different faculty members at SOU have taken part in the program since 2015, enabling more than 11,000 students to save an estimated $1.9 million. The state […]

Design Patterns and AI: Computer Science evolves at SOU

Design Patterns and AI: Computer Science evolves at SOU

(Ashland, Ore.) — A new “Design Patterns” course in Southern Oregon University’s Computer Science program leans on artificial intelligence to perform coding tasks, allowing students to focus on the big picture and serve as architects rather than carpenters. The course – an upper-division elective intended primarily for Computer Science majors – reflects an ongoing shift […]

SOU Ashland's Chandler Campbell and Jacob Nowack present research on artificial intelligence

Graduate and current student present SOU research at national conference

(Ashland, Ore.) — Southern Oregon University computer science graduate Chandler Campbell and current student Jacob Nowack attended a conference of research software engineers in Philadelphia last month to showcase their work on a pair of closely related projects that hinge on the use of artificial intelligence to simplify and organize highly complex research tasks. Campbell […]