Professor to Teach Wireless Computing in Russia on Fulbright Scholarship

Akron, Ohio, March 7, 2006 — If you see The University of Akron's Dr. Kathy Liszka talking in her car and there's not a cell phone or passenger in sight, she's not talking to herself — she's learning conversational Russian for her trip to Russia as a Fulbright scholar.

Liszka, an associate professor of computer science, leaves May 6 for her Fulbright experience at 55,000-student Southern Ural State University in Chelyabinsk. The city is in southwest Russia near the Ural Mountains and just north of Kazakhstan.

A resident of Randolph, Liszka will teach wireless computing — networks of small electronic devices — to computer and mathematics majors during her two-week stay. Faculty will sit in on the classes because “there are no specialists of particular renown in Russia in this field,” she says. She developed and teaches the course at the university, where she's in her 13th year. An interpreter will translate her lectures.

She'll also conduct academic and scientific seminars for senior students and faculty, meet with research administrators, and discuss her and her hosts' academic and research projects.

Along with the diplomatic/fostering global relationships aspects of the Fulbright program, Liszka says there will be numerous other benefits, including journal articles and empathy with foreign students at The University of Akron. “There are a lot of foreign students in computer science,” she says. “As a mother, I understand their being away from home.

“One way I try to make them feel more comfortable in Akron is to learn and say their names the way they sound in their native languages,” she says. “You'd be surprised how grateful they are. I'll be able to better empathize with them because I will have had the experience of being in the minority.”

There will be at least one American she can talk to in Russia — Anthony Kulig, a 2002 UA graduate working on his master's degree at Southern Ural State. Ironically, he is part of the reason she is headed for Chelyabinsk; Kulig sent a letter last year to UA's computer science department stating the need for Western computer savvy.

Another UA connection is Russian native Dr. Sergei Lyuksyutov, associate professor of physics and polymer engineering. “He's been terrific, teaching me phrases and giving me culture hints,” Liszka says.

As to receiving the Fulbright award, Liszka says, “Someone told me it was a once in a lifetime experience, and my first thought was that I certainly hope not! Since I've joined the university, those ‘once in a lifetimes' keep coming along pretty regularly.”

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