Highlander Highlights: Week of September 2, 2024

Inaugural We Are Radford employee recognition winner announced

The new We Are Radford employee recognition program is a monthly honor recognizing someone whose daily interactions with students and colleagues represent the best of the Radford University experience. During University Convocation on Aug. 23, President Bret Danilowicz announced the inaugural winner: Cindy Whitehead, office manager for the School of Social Work in Waldron College of Health and Human Services.

"This individual is an adept problem solver: for students, for new hires, and for anyone in the greater community who has a question," the president said, building suspense before announcing Whitehead's name. "She works until their problem is solved - she doesn't say no, say 'the software won't let me' or pass them on; she solves their problems.

In addition, Whitehead serves in a front-facing ambassador role for the School of Social Work during special events "with an inclusive and welcoming approach that leaves everyone with a warm feeling," Danilowicz said.

Employees who have served at least one year at Radford are eligible to be recognized for upholding the university's core values.

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Faculty study cycling event's impact on NRV communities

Professor of Recreation, Parks and Tourism Joshua Carroll and Associate Professor of Economics Thomas K. Duncan have had their paper "An Importance-Performance Analysis of the Bike Virginia Event" accepted for publication in the Journal of Tourism Insights. The paper is the second of a joint project analyzing data the authors collected through a survey during the Bike Virginia Tour's last trip to the New River Valley. In June 2018, nearly 1,700 visitors spent six days bicycling through Radford and Dublin, Virginia.

The recent publication examines how the participants evaluated the area as they cycled, providing valuable information for future event planning and tourism in the region. In 2020, Carroll and Duncan published a piece looking at the economic impact the six-day event had on Radford and Pulaski, illustrating the importance of tourism for the NRV.

When Carroll learned the cycling event was coming to Virginia, he knew it would be a terrific opportunity to "collect data on this unique recreation segment," he said. Knowing Duncan could look into the economic impacts on the communities of Radford and Dublin, Carroll added his expertise in recreation planning and management to develop an importance performance analysis (IPA) aspect of the paper.

IPA, Carroll explained, "is an interesting way to take multi-dimensional attributes of a location or recreation site and measure how important people think certain attributes are and then simultaneously weight them on how they fulfill their needs - essentially a satisfaction measure."

It allows managers, event planners or recreation site personnel "to quickly identify what attributes and resources their visitors find important, which are less important, and, of the important ones, which ones are not fulfilling their needs," Carroll said. "This helps them focus limited resources on those aspects."

Collier's book wins APEX Award

The e-book version of "Cybersecurity for Entrepreneurs," co-written by Radford University Professor of Management Zachary Collier, recently received a 2024 APEX Award of Excellence in the Electronic Media - Electronic Publications category.

"It is an honor to receive the APEX Award of Excellence," Collier said. "I am glad that the book is having an impact, and I hope it is a useful resource to entrepreneurs who are launching new startups.

Collier got the idea for the book while co-author Gloria D'Anna, a product development engineer at Ford Motor Company, was guest speaking in his Entrepreneurship 250 course at Radford.

"As she was talking with the class about cybersecurity, I recognized a gap in the entrepreneurship literature," Collier explained. "Traditionally, entrepreneurship teaches about how the entrepreneur within a startup is in charge of all of the major functional roles, such as marketing, finance, accounting, human resources, etc. But, the entrepreneur is also in charge of cybersecurity, especially in today's modern economy, but this is not traditionally highlighted in entrepreneurship books."

Many cybersecurity books focus on larger organizations, "but the startup environment is unique because there are very limited resources, and the entrepreneur may not be an expert in cybersecurity," he said. "So, we decided that "Cybersecurity for Entrepreneurs" was an important topic for a book."

Peter the Salesman is a fictional yet important character in the book. He appears in each chapter "in short vignettes and cartoon illustrations that describe how he makes the wrong cybersecurity decisions which end up costing him lots of money and headaches," Collier said. "The goal was to make the book more fun to read than a regular book on cybersecurity."

Professor's paper on machine learning appears in prestigious journal

Associate Professor of Management Jaehwan Jeong recently published the article "Data-Driven Mean-Variance Sparse Portfolio Selection under Leverage Control" in the Journal of Portfolio Management, one of the most prestigious research journals in the field of finance. His study was supported by the SEED grant from the Sponsored Programs and Grants Management (SPGM) at Radford University.

The article appears in a special issue dedicated to Harry Markowitz, the Nobel laureate who died in 2023 at the age of 95. Markowitz revolutionized finance with his 1952 publication "Portfolio Selection" in The Journal of Finance, Jeong noted. "His work is often considered a Big Bang moment for introducing scientific methods into finance. Markowitz's model, commonly known as the mean-variance model, seeks an optimal portfolio selection that maximizes financial returns while minimizing risk." However, the model has faced criticisms over the past seven decades, Jeong said, particularly regarding data estimation errors, fragmented solutions and leverage risks. Jeong's article addresses these concerns by developing an innovative machine-learning technique that probabilistically guarantees a target level of portfolio performance," he said, "effectively resolving these issues."

More particularly, Jeong's research presents a novel method that tunes parameter sets of a machine-learning technique. Its statistical approach ensures that the selected parameters maintain reliability at a designated confidence level while effectively avoiding overfitting. Additionally, his study develops a technique to identify the parameter ranges where the optimal parameters must exist.

"This innovative approach is applied to the mean-variance model to control data estimation errors, manage solution sparsity and regulate leverage levels," he explained. "The results demonstrate impressive robustness in parameter selection across new datasets."

Looking ahead, Jeong views his article as a foundational study for a series of new papers with various applications where parameter tuning is required in machine learning and, more broadly, in artificial intelligence. The article is available on the Journal of Portfolio Management website.

Retired geology faculty member granted emeritus status

Retired faculty member Jonathan L. Tso has been granted associate professor emeritus status in the Department of Geology.

Criteria for emeritus status include a minimum of 10 years of service to Radford University, evidence of effective teaching and significant professional contributions. The privileges and responsibilities attached to emeritus status include the use of McConnell Library, a university computer account, the use of athletics facilities available to the university's current faculty, a Radford University ID card and special events discounts and attendance at university functions that are open to all current faculty.

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