Four members of the Southwestern community were honored with 2026 Mundy Awards while over three dozen employees were recognized for milestone anniversaries with the University.
Loaded with all the latest amenities, the new Dorothy Perry White Welcome Center is ready to serve the current Southwestern community and greet the next generation of Pirates.
As part of the University’s $120 million investment in the student experience, Southwestern officially opened two brand new, state-of-the-art residence halls prior to the start of the Spring 2026 semester.
Glenn will study language and culture in Rome with IES Abroad while Renfro will travel to three countries with the SU European Cultural Explorations program.
After graduating in December, financial economics major Kaleb Knighten ’25 headed to New York City to begin his role in the financial services firm’s Fixed Income Electronic Trading Desk.
The consortium of liberal arts institutions honored Southwestern for its initiative to subsidize fraternity and sorority new member fees for students with financial need.
Using valuable skills learned at Southwestern, Campbell Duffy ’22, Olivia McCain ’22, and Lilly Percifield ’22 have transformed a hobby into a profitable podcast that garners a worldwide audience of up to 25,000 listeners a month.
Kinesiology major Angela Escobar ’27 spent her fall teaching students as an assistant soccer coach through an organization hosted by Austin FC’s nonprofit foundation.
Four members of the Southwestern community were honored with 2026 Mundy Awards while over three dozen employees were recognized for milestone anniversaries with the University.
Loaded with all the latest amenities, the new Dorothy Perry White Welcome Center is ready to serve the current Southwestern community and greet the next generation of Pirates.
As part of the University’s $120 million investment in the student experience, Southwestern officially opened two brand new, state-of-the-art residence halls prior to the start of the Spring 2026 semester.
Glenn will study language and culture in Rome with IES Abroad while Renfro will travel to three countries with the SU European Cultural Explorations program.
After graduating in December, financial economics major Kaleb Knighten ’25 headed to New York City to begin his role in the financial services firm’s Fixed Income Electronic Trading Desk.
The consortium of liberal arts institutions honored Southwestern for its initiative to subsidize fraternity and sorority new member fees for students with financial need.
Using valuable skills learned at Southwestern, Campbell Duffy ’22, Olivia McCain ’22, and Lilly Percifield ’22 have transformed a hobby into a profitable podcast that garners a worldwide audience of up to 25,000 listeners a month.
Kinesiology major Angela Escobar ’27 spent her fall teaching students as an assistant soccer coach through an organization hosted by Austin FC’s nonprofit foundation.
Four members of the Southwestern community were honored with 2026 Mundy Awards while over three dozen employees were recognized for milestone anniversaries with the University.
Loaded with all the latest amenities, the new Dorothy Perry White Welcome Center is ready to serve the current Southwestern community and greet the next generation of Pirates.
As part of the University’s $120 million investment in the student experience, Southwestern officially opened two brand new, state-of-the-art residence halls prior to the start of the Spring 2026 semester.
Glenn will study language and culture in Rome with IES Abroad while Renfro will travel to three countries with the SU European Cultural Explorations program.
After graduating in December, financial economics major Kaleb Knighten ’25 headed to New York City to begin his role in the financial services firm’s Fixed Income Electronic Trading Desk.
The consortium of liberal arts institutions honored Southwestern for its initiative to subsidize fraternity and sorority new member fees for students with financial need.
Using valuable skills learned at Southwestern, Campbell Duffy ’22, Olivia McCain ’22, and Lilly Percifield ’22 have transformed a hobby into a profitable podcast that garners a worldwide audience of up to 25,000 listeners a month.
Kinesiology major Angela Escobar ’27 spent her fall teaching students as an assistant soccer coach through an organization hosted by Austin FC’s nonprofit foundation.
Four members of the Southwestern community were honored with 2026 Mundy Awards while over three dozen employees were recognized for milestone anniversaries with the University.
Loaded with all the latest amenities, the new Dorothy Perry White Welcome Center is ready to serve the current Southwestern community and greet the next generation of Pirates.
Glenn will study language and culture in Rome with IES Abroad while Renfro will travel to three countries with the SU European Cultural Explorations program.
After graduating in December, financial economics major Kaleb Knighten ’25 headed to New York City to begin his role in the financial services firm’s Fixed Income Electronic Trading Desk.
The consortium of liberal arts institutions honored Southwestern for its initiative to subsidize fraternity and sorority new member fees for students with financial need.
Using valuable skills learned at Southwestern, Campbell Duffy ’22, Olivia McCain ’22, and Lilly Percifield ’22 have transformed a hobby into a profitable podcast that garners a worldwide audience of up to 25,000 listeners a month.
Kinesiology major Angela Escobar ’27 spent her fall teaching students as an assistant soccer coach through an organization hosted by Austin FC’s nonprofit foundation.
From produce to packaged products, Pirate Dining’s emphasis on utilizing locally-sourced options highlights Southwestern University’s commitment to sustainability and supporting local businesses.
Southwestern University’s newest student organization aims to help students learn conversational Spanish through watching and discussing popular films.
Four members of the Southwestern community were honored with 2026 Mundy Awards while over three dozen employees were recognized for milestone anniversaries with the University.
Loaded with all the latest amenities, the new Dorothy Perry White Welcome Center is ready to serve the current Southwestern community and greet the next generation of Pirates.
Glenn will study language and culture in Rome with IES Abroad while Renfro will travel to three countries with the SU European Cultural Explorations program.
After graduating in December, financial economics major Kaleb Knighten ’25 headed to New York City to begin his role in the financial services firm’s Fixed Income Electronic Trading Desk.
The consortium of liberal arts institutions honored Southwestern for its initiative to subsidize fraternity and sorority new member fees for students with financial need.
Using valuable skills learned at Southwestern, Campbell Duffy ’22, Olivia McCain ’22, and Lilly Percifield ’22 have transformed a hobby into a profitable podcast that garners a worldwide audience of up to 25,000 listeners a month.
From produce to packaged products, Pirate Dining’s emphasis on utilizing locally-sourced options highlights Southwestern University’s commitment to sustainability and supporting local businesses.
As an Institutional Consulting Analyst, Philip Moffatt ’20 has built a successful career in wealth management on the foundation of his Southwestern Experience.
The names of 1902 graduate and civil rights activist Jessie Daniel Ames and beloved campus icon Ella Sedwick will soon adorn the two new residence halls opening on campus this winter.
Associate Professor of Computer Science Jacob Schrum attended the LEVEL UP AI Workshop in Phoenix, AZ on January 7 and 8, which stands for Launching an Educational Vision to Expand Leadership, Understanding and Progress in Artificial Intelligence. The workshop, supported by the National Science Foundation and organized by the Computing Research Association, focused on ways to enhance and expand undergraduate Artificial Intelligence education to help create an AI-ready workforce.
—January 2026
Associate Professor of Computer Science Jacob Schrum attended the Artificial Intelligence and Interactive Digital Entertainment (AIIDE) conference with SURF research student Olivia Kilday ’28 in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada from November 12–14, to present their peer-reviewed research paper, “Text-to-Level Diffusion Models With Various Text Encoders for Super Mario Bros.” Computer science majors Emilio Salas ’26, Bess Hagan ’25, and Reid Williams ’26 were also co-authors on the paper, and the oral presentation was given by Olivia. The research details the creation of software models that create levels for the original Super Mario Bros. based on text descriptions. The AIIDE conference is a prestigious conference with an acceptance rate under 25%, which is sponsored by the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI).
—November 2025
Computer science and theatre double major Aidan Balakrishnan ’26, computer science and mathematics double major Tanner Klein ’26, and computer science major Matthew Volkin ’26 participated in the Association of Computing Machinery’s South Central USA Regional Programming Contest on November 8, solving seven out of 13 problems. Their team, the pi-rates, placed 4th among the 20 teams in the South Central USA Division. They participated in the competition at the University of Texas at Austin site, but were in competition with teams at other sites throughout the South Central USA Region. Teams in the Mid-Atlantic USA Region and Southeast USA Region competed on the same day, and across the entire conference, the pi-rates placed 17th out of 94 teams. The team was coached by Associate Professor of Computer Science Jacob Schrum.
—November 2025
Associate Professor of Computer Science Jacob Schrum ’06 had his peer-reviewed article, “Text-to-Level Diffusion Models With Various Text Encoders for Super Mario Bros,” accepted for publication and oral presentation at the 21st Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI) Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Interactive Digital Entertainment (AIIDE 2025), to take place in November 2025. The article is co-authored with Dr. Schrum’s SURF students Olivia Kilday ’28, Emilio Salas ’26, Bess Hagan ’25, and Reid Williams ’26. AIIDE is a highly selective venue with an acceptance rate under 25%. Videos and other content associated with the publication are available online here, and a pre-print of the accepted article is on arXiv here.
—September 2025
Associate Professor of Computer Science Jacob Schrum recently attended the Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference in Málaga, Spain to present his peer-reviewed paper, “A Quality Diversity Approach to Evolving Model Rockets,” co-authored with Assistant Professor of Physics Cody Crosby. The article, freely accessible here from the ACM Digital library, describes the use of AI methods inspired by evolution to create designs for model rockets. An informative video about this joint research is also available here.
