1780 – The Official Blog of Transylvania University
“At Transylvania, we always had this great history to fall back on, a solid academic foundation to stand on, yet we were encouraged to be innovative, to look at things differently and to take chances.”
Mike Finley ’90 doesn’t wait for the next big thing to happen. He’s too busy anticipating, inventing, marketing and selling it. Have you used an automated gas pump lately? That’s Finley. Wish you had sunglasses that offered polarized peripheral vision? His patent. These are two of what he calls the “less esoteric” of his 14 patents. These days, his primary focus is on artificial intelligence—the biggest technological shift he’s witnessed in his 30-year career. He operates with the knowledge that “in a commercially interesting timeframe, companies will be hiring software as if it were a knowledge worker.” Finley, who balances invention and viable enterprise in the full scale of his work, is able to recognize the need and opportunity, develop the tools to meet it, communicate and market the results and embrace the changes in what’s to come. He creates the vision and has the tools to carry it out. A scientist, innovator of technology, co-founder of companies, author and a volunteer who is committed to education, Finley easily traces the multiple facets of his success to Transylvania: learning to think, innovate, write and communicate, and having the freedom to follow his interests by taking a wide array of classes. The world of technology has changed profoundly since Finley graduated from Transylvania in 1990, yet, three decades later, he continues to thrive, ever on the cutting edge, finding his own tailwind, as he describes it, the difference between leading with
Read “How Transy prepared tech entrepreneur Mike Finley for “what might come””
Transylvania senior Sydney Ellen Gooding, a biology major and chemistry minor, encourages other females to pursue degrees in the traditionally male-dominated subjects of science, technology, engineering and math. She said self-confidence will help them succeed in STEM fields. “You really just have to be assertive and be comfortable and confident in your own self—or you’re going to get passed by,” she said. “Believe in your own ideas as much as your male lab mates would believe in their own.” During an internship at a large research university, she worked with a lot of men in a lab and felt she had to come out and say what she wanted—not just expect to be handed something. At Transylvania labs, however, she feels like males and females are treated equally. “I’ve never felt like more opportunities were given to the male students.” Gooding’s opportunities to excel extend beyond the laboratory. She and about a dozen other Transy students this week showcased their research at the American Chemical Society meeting in Orlando, Florida. Her organic chemistry poster featured research she conducted with Professor of Chemistry Bob Rosenberg on carbon and hydrogen bonding in the presence of fluorines. The meeting included a variety of talks and demonstrations—and it was a chance to meet thousands of chemistry students from across the country—from undergraduates to postdocs. “It was neat to be in that type of environment,” she said.
Three sophomore student leaders are learning about the power of collaboration on Transy’s campus.
As nearby turtle tanks burble, Geoff Roberts pulls a coiled corn snake from an aquarium. Even up close, it’s immediately evident the docile creature with beautiful orange markings is nothing to be afraid of. Roberts explains how encounters in controlled settings like this one in the Salato Wildlife Education Center can help people overcome their snake phobias. That isn’t the main reason Roberts, a conservation educator and 2007 Transylvania University grad, shows animals to visitors. It is, however, an example of how his psychology degree still comes in handy. People often are surprised to learn about his undergraduate major, seeing as how he works for the Kentucky Department of Fish & Wildlife. Roberts even once pursued a master’s degree in mental health counseling at Eastern Kentucky University. But that’s not where his lifelong passion lies—he discovered a love for wildlife as a young boy during excursions with his grandfather in the countryside near Elizabethtown, Kentucky. Thing is, during that time at EKU he felt like he’d already invested a lot of time into psychology, so it would have been a waste to not continue along that path. He changed course, though—maybe in part because of his liberal arts background at Transy, which encourages students not to get stuck in mental ruts, and in part because his mom encouraged him to follow his dream. The turning point was when he switched master’s programs to study recreation and park administration. “I knew
Read “Call of the wild: Transy alum’s passion is no flight of fancy”
