A fungus that spent a week inside a grow tent has taken over the MuseLab. This isn’t the start of a science fiction novel, or an episode of “The Last of Us,” it’s “Party of One: Future Fungal Furniture.” The exhibit is the first publicly shared experiment of Britta Bielak’s research on the potential that mycelium, the root-like structure of a fungus, has as a regenerative and structural building material. Two interior design students, Joseph Byrer and Olivia Mansier, collaborated on the application of the project. “We have not built a piece of furniture before and somehow I was able ...

My name is Shawn Davis – I play video games for scholarship money at Kent State University and honestly, it’s pretty rad. I played “Starcraft” as a kid and watched Koreans like Lim Yo-hwan, aka “BoxeR,” on national television play the same game I did, thinking my sub 50-actions-per-minute playstyle could one day emulate what he was doing. Despite not having a lot of firsts here as a transfer student from South Dakota, I can gladly say that my time at Kent State and playing for the team here has provided me the absolute pleasure of meeting many old and new friends in the Northeast region...

April 22, 2023, marks the 53rd anniversary of Earth Day, and Kent State University is celebrating the whole Earth Month with the theme “Invest in Our Planet.”  The Kent State Earth Month Committee has a plethora of events planned all over campus, all centered on celebrating our planet. Check out a list of all the events here. April 3-21: Draining the Swamp Art Gallery This art gallery, hosted by the Center of Ecology and Natural Resources Sustainability (CENRS), presents students with an environmental history of the wetlands on the Kent Campus. The exhibit is located in the secon...

The Princeton Review’s 2023 rankings of top undergraduate schools for game design have been released, and the Kent State University College of Applied and Technical Studies Bachelor of Science degree in Animation Game Design (AGD) program broke through the top 50 as one of the best programs in game design studies. Colleges were chosen based on a survey the Princeton Review conducted in 2022 of administrators at 150 institutions offering game design coursework and/or degrees both nationally and abroad. The selection and ranking of schools were based on criteria that broadly covered the quali...

Here’s a reminder to the Kent State community that the new distracted driving legislation went into effect this week on April 4. The key takeaway? It is now illegal to use or hold a cellphone or electronic device in your hand, lap or other parts of the body while driving on Ohio roads. If an officer sees a violation, they can pull you over. While drivers over the age of 18 may still legally make phone calls using a hands-free device like an electronic watch or speakerphone, they should be cautious not to handle or hold the phone while driving. The guiding rule seems to be to not hold onto t...

The 2023 Kent State East Liverpool Earth Day Environmental Justice Conference will be held April 22 with the theme “Cleaning Up Toxic Waste and Chemical Spills in Our Communities: Corporate and Government Responsibilities.” The conference will be held from noon to 3 p.m. in Purinton Hall, located at 400 E. Fourth St.  It is open to the public and there will be an option to join the conference virtually. The keynote speaker for the conference is David Emerman, chief of Ohio’s Environmental Protection Agency’s Northeast District Office. The event will highlight student research pro...

TGIF gets a new spin starting Friday, April 7, 2023 when Kent State University at Ashtabula launches its Food Truck Fridays event. From 11 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Mary’s Urban Kitchen will be the first vendor to roll into the Main Hall parking lot to serve up delicious fare to locals. In partnership with the Ashtabula Mobile Food Network, Food Truck Fridays will feature a different food truck on the first Friday of each month through October or November, depending on weather. “The main goal of the Ashtabula Food Truck Network is to provide easy access to resources for existing and potential fo...