February 2007 Archives

Some of you may have seen news reports about the arrest of a UMR student on campus early Tuesday morning, Feb. 27, after the student allegedly claimed to have a bomb and anthrax. Classes are now back in session, after investigators determined that the threat was a hoax. For the latest information on this situation, please visit http://news.mst.edu.

The accelerated build of UMR's newest solar home is well underway today, despite the snow flurries and rain.

Construction on the new UMR solar house will begin Monday. Expect to see walls and a roof by Tuesday. Also, the solar house team has a blog. Among other things you'll find on the blog is information on how to get your hands on top secret plans that will allow you to build your very own solar house.

Other random stories of interest this week, which happens to mark the start of Spring Training:

If you don't follow the Red Sox as closely as, say, Chancellor Carney does, then you're probably not familiar with the nickname Dice K. Also, you probably don't know anything about the Gyroball.

Zack Greinke is another talented pitcher who likes to experiment on the mound. But what's in his mind is threatening to derail a promising career.

One in every 166 children born in the U.S. has autism. Raising a child with autism puts a ton of stress on parents. But what does it do to the autistic child's siblings?

We all know that you're now using Wikipedia as your main source of information; just don't admit it. It's kinda like citing Cliffs Notes back in the day.

A friend of mine, an engineer who lives in Atlanta or New York or someplace like that, read the op-ed piece about Engineers Week, and sent me an email: "Disappointed that you didn’t mention one of your best friends is an engineer who broke his wrist in 5 places while riding his Harley 3 weeks ago." Thank goodness he's OK. At any rate, we have yet another example of engineers doing wild and crazy things. (By the way, Dr. Baird informed me that it's really Dr. Worsey who likes to blow up the frozen chickens.)

I got a very important email this morning from my friends at XM Radio. Confidentially, they were letting me know that they are planning a hostile takeover of Sirius. Actually, I think it's more like a friendly merger; but that's no fun. Anyway, both of them are probably broke. What this means to me is that I'll probably start getting access to Howard Stern's show at some point, which might be kinda exciting since he just killed Anna Nicole Smith in order to gain control of her millions and to boost the ratings of his dying program. At least, that's what I'm hearing from my sources.

What else is going on? Well, I wrote an op-ed piece that appeared in Monday's St. Louis Post-Dispatch in which I totally made up all of the facts and purposefully short-changed women engineers. Mindy Limback put me up to it and pitched the idea to the Post-Dispatch, so I am actively blaming the whole mess on her.

P.S. I was kidding about the facts and female engineers, in addition to almost everything else. Maybe I should give this sense-of-humor thing a break. I think I've reached a point of diminishing returns.

It's been a smidge more than a decade since I was in high school and had to answer all of the "what's next for you" questions. The daughter of a college science dean, I was certainly exposed to more biology than I ever cared to know. As a grade school student, I spent countless hours after school waiting in my dad's office and labs, where I saw students conduct experiments on animals and learn human anatomy by putting organs back inside life-sized mannequins. My parents, both trained as teachers, were always showing me how to do things -- from putting shingles on a roof to solving algebra equations.

Still, the thought of having to dissect frogs or other dead animals in a college biology class made me squemish. So, for me, the answer to what was next was any career path that kept me out of having to smell formaldehyde. With biology out of the question, I figured anything health-related was gone too. Don't get me wrong. I enjoyed playing with my Apple IIE, but I never even considered the role computer science plays in the medical field.

Somehow over the past couple of weeks, we Visions bloggers got so busy that we missed an important milestone in this blog's short, sweet life. Visions turned one year old on Feb. 9, 2007. (Visions was an online "zine" back in the day, but on Feb. 9, 2006, it morphed into a blog.)

We apparently got all caught up in talking about architecture that we didn't even notice. Perhaps we should pause to reflect back on how it all started before we get too far into our terrible twos. For those who missed it the first time around, here is the very first Visions entry, posted by Lance Feyh, who has become one of our most prolific bloggers.

A see-thru look at UMR research stuff

The authors and producers of visions are from the UMR communications department, which promotes Missouri’s premier technological university by producing marketing materials -- various publications, news releases, websites, videos, development efforts and whatnot. Hey, we don’t just sit around blogging all day. Anyway, we’d like to take a minute to talk about ourselves -- the vast majority of posts here will be about real techie science stuff and big shot researchers, we promise.

Representatives from our shop recently attended a regional conference for the advancement of higher education in St. Louis, where, among other things, we learned that drinking beer may be good for you. Really. In addition to a bunch of free beers for our health and general well-being, we also got a lot of awards at the conference for our marketing efforts in the past year. UMR video productions manager Tom Shipley -- of “One Toke over the Line" fame -- even took home a grand gold award, which is way better than a gold award, for his “Paradise Found" DVD about student research in biological sciences.

Maybe the most important thing we brought home from the conference was confirmation that modern PR shouldn’t be too phoney, that message control is a myth, that the spirit of Holden Caulfield is alive and well, and that blogs are all the rage.

We hope you've enjoyed the first year or so as much as we have. And we hope you'll join us in celebrating our first year in the blogosphere.

Happy Birthday, us!

What happens when a 26-year-old major, fresh out of Georgetown, is asked to lead a few hundred American soldiers against a massive onslaught of enemy forces?

It's one of many stories told in a new book by UMR historian John McManus. The book gives an account of Dec. 16-20, 1944, before the legendary 101st Airborne Division arrived. "Alamo in the Ardennes: The Untold Story of the American Soldiers Who Made the Defense of Bastogne Possible" hits bookstores March 5.

Pick up the book or read more about the story in World War II magazine here.

Mad scientists at UMR have perfected a formula for fast drying and easy cleaning paint that is very green and comes in vast quantities. The paint is used, of course, to coat Pine Street in anticipation of the annual St. Pat's Parade in downtown Rolla. The paint is also used for other purposes at the discretion of St. Pat's Board members. The theme for this year's parade is "Super Heroes and Super Villains." Details here.

P.S. UMR is pretty good at developing revolutionary paints/primers/coatings.

When it comes to traffic safety research, John F. Carney III is no crash-test dummy.

An intenational expert on impact attenuation devices, the University of Missouri-Rolla chancellor recently received the 2007 Kenneth A. Stonex National Roadside Safety Award from the Transportation Research Board, a part of the National Academy of Sciences.

Carney, who holds 10 patents in the roadside safety research area, accepted the award from the Roadside Safety Features Committee at the Transportation Research Board’s 86th Annual Meeting in Washington D.C.

There's a list out of America's Top 150 architectural structures. The Empire State Building is No. 1. The Gateway Arch is No. 14. Frank Lloyd Wright's Fallingwaters is No. 29. The list is top heavy with popular buildings for tourists to look at (the White House is in the Top 10) and doesn't necessarily include the most aesthetically beautiful or striking structures in America. How could they possibly leave off the Campus Support Facility at UMR?

By the way, UMR's relatively new architectural engineering program is the only program of its kind in Missouri. And the UMR Solar House Team is getting ready to build yet another house to show off on the National Mall in Washington, D.C.

Anyway, what's your favorite building on campus? Norwood Hall? The Rolla Building? Or, if you live elsewhere, what's your favorite building -- architecturally speaking -- in your home town or city, and why? (I favor stadiums: the old Ahearn Field House in Manhattan, Kan.; the still-modern Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City, Mo.; Civic Stadium (now PGE Park) in Portland, Ore; even the new Hammons Field in Springfield, Mo.) Leave your architectural opinions in the comments section.

Flood detection and monitoring have made a leap forward with the Flood Frog, a new device developed by University of Missouri-Rolla researchers.

Most monitoring solutions are expensive and face major challenges, such as maintenance costs, inconsistency and power requirements. UMR researchers hopped to develop a solution and created a novel monitoring system that is less costly, more dependable, and more flexible than what is currently available.

The Flood Frog is an autonomous system that's based on a wireless network and inexpensive sensor nodes. The "frog" provides a dramatic reduction in equipment and installation costs because a variety of embedded sensors can monitor everything from temperature to water tilt. The device then communicates using the GSM/GPRS mobile phone network and can send to a number of recipients through text messages, email, and FTP file.

Inside a waterproof case, the frog is powered by a battery that has a typical, unattended lifespan of three to four years. The battery can last a tad longer with a little fine tuning, too.

** No animals were harmed in the making of these puns (although the groans probably sound a little croakey).

Via the University Transportation Center at UMR (PDF).

How cool will it be if the 2007 St. Pat's Parade turns out to be the best ever? And, by that, I mean that the parade turns out like that parade at the end of the movie Animal House. Well, anyhow, students and members of the Rolla community are invited to join the first-ever St. Pat's Lucky Shamrock Marching Band, which promises to be a rag-tag group of funloving musicians. If you're in the Rolla area and you have any musical inclinations, why not join up with the band? If you're wondering if you still have what it takes, let me just ask you this: Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor? Heck no!

I was thinking, by now, someone probably should have pulled my credentials on general principles. Anyway, I've got some catching up to do. First, there was the news that Albert Gore and Rush Limbaugh have both been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. Then, Prince was the MVP of the Super Bowl. Finally, I read an interesting story this morning about a UMR graduate who says the most important part of the workday is tasting beer. I nominate the Beer Guy for president of these United States, assuming he doesn't have a beard comb over.

Will a win for either Chicago or Indianapolis in tonight's Super Bowl mean an economic boost for the winning city? Perhaps not as much of an impact as a winning season might have on a community.

So says Michael Davis, an assistant professor of economics and finance at UMR. Davis is one of the sports economics experts quoted in a recent news article about the economic impact of a Super Bowl victory. According to the news report, Davis believes that "general team success, as defined by regular-season wins, is just as important as a Super Bowl victory."

Davis, an assistant professor of economics at the University of Missouri-Rolla, said the Bears' 13-3 record this season means a gain in per capita income of $142 for Chicagoans when compared against an 0-16 season.

Davis explains the rationale in more depth in this research paper (PDF) co-authored with former UMR faculty member and sports psychology expert Christian End. For his part, End believes winning teams breed economic returns because fans feel better about themselves -- and more competent -- after a victory. "If I believe I'm a winner and I go out on my sales call, that belief can lead to an increase in confidence and productivity." End said.

After Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans, the National Science Foundation began accepting proposals for small-scale, exploratory, high-risk research. The idea was to support novel projects whose results could help the nation better "mitigate, prepare for, respond to, and recover from catastrophic events."

Jagannathan Sarangapani, professor of electrical and computer engineering at UMR, received one of these grants to create a new, truly mobile communication system. The system uses a network of tiny, wireless devices and a dynamic programming-based protocol to provide first responders with the communication tools they need to plan a coordinated, effective response.

The devices, called motes, are installed with wireless communications and use sensors to detect a myriad of variables from the environment. Developed to be deployed on emergency vehicles, the motes then pass this limited information to other nearby UMR motes in a high-tech version of a children’s telephone game, except the original and final messages are identical.

More about the project here.

Visions gets a mention in the latest issue of University Business magazine. UB columnist Karine Joly (who also blogs at CollegeWebEditor.com) writes in her latest column, PR on the Web 101, that blogs like this one can be important components of a university's public relations strategy.

Joly also quotes Angie Weidinger, a TV reporter at KOLR-10 in Springfield, Mo., who refers to Visions as a source for information. "I generally check several universities' websites and blogs if they have them," Weidinger says. "UMR's research blog is very helpful because it often has stories on it that highlight some of the students' or professors' unusual research projects. It's a great place to go for story ideas."

"Media reporters," Joly writes, "not only visit institutional websites, but they also read the available blogs or RSS feeds."