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| August 2010 | Subscribe |
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In This Issue:
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II. Congressional Hotline |
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SENATORS CHOP FROM PRESIDENT'S SPENDING PLANUnable to prevent a GOP filibuster, Senate Democrats may slice $6 billion from the spending cap adopted by the Senate Appropriations Committee, the AAU reports. Appropriators already came in $4 billion below the Senate Budget Committee cap. The new figure would be $20 billion below the president's budget. The added cuts are being talked about as the Senate appropriations committee has made what some see as surprising progress, sending nine out of 12 bills to the floor. Still outstanding: Defense, Interior and Environment, and Legislative Branch. Democrats also managed to pass an emergency $26 billion measure to fund Medicaid and prevent public school teacher layoffs.
STIMULUS PROJECTS THAT MAKE GOP SENATORS SEE REDRepublican Sens. John McCain of Arizona and Tom Coburn of Oklahoma, have prepared a report skewering 100 stimulus projects that they say "give taxpayers the blues." Among their targets: a Northwestern artificial intelligence project to develop "machine-generated humor;" a Berkeley project to study the global circulation in the atmosphere of Neptune; a Georgia Tech study on how video games can improve mental health among the elderly; and (McCain doesn't spare constituents) a University of Arizona examination of computer simulations to follow the formation of galaxies 1-2 billion years after the Big Bang. The White House has called the report partisan, inaccurate and misleading. A SENATE BID TO FIX FLAWS IN THE NEW GI BILLNew Senate legislation aims to plug gaps and fix problems in the law expanding access to higher education for veterans of Iraq, Afghanistan and other post-9-11 military operations. The 21-page bill would eliminate what Senator Daniel Akaka, D-Hawaii, the proposal's sponsor, calls the "complicated, confusing and in some cases inequitable calculation of state-by-state tuition and fee caps." It would cover National Guardsmen who respond to national disasters as well as reservists, job training at vocational schools, and living allowances for vets involved in distance learning. It would also provide a book stipend for active-duty students. At a July 21 hearing, a University of Illinois financial officer complained of inefficiencies in handling refunds for overpayments, clogged phone lines at the Department of Veterans Affairs, and lack of published guidance, leading to vets' frustration. Akaka's bill still contains flawed and ambiguous wording, according to testimony from the American Council on Education. A representative of the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America urged, among other things, that all vocational students get a book stipend and that public technical-school students get their tuitions covered at the same rates as public college students. NO MORE PIONEERING ENERGY CENTERS -- FOR NOWThe 46 existing Energy Frontier Research Centers are likely all there will be for the time being. The Obama administration wanted to add more, expanding research on energy applications and new materials. But Senate appropriators refused to provide the added $40 million sought by the White House, explaining that the results and benefits of the centers still need to be demonstrated. The centers link academic institutions and government laboratories in tackling energy challenges. Overall, appropriators provided less than the administration wanted for the Office of Science (which gets slightly over $5 billion); Energy Innovation Hubs, and the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy. The Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR) gets $35 million and committee praise for "currently funding energy research that will help reduce our dependence on foreign oil."
OBAMA'S NASA OVERHAUL LOOKS SET TO FLYAfter all the gnashing of teeth that greeted President Obama's space exploration strategy, the AIP's Richard Jones reports that the policy is "on track" in Congress. The House Science and Technology Committee has voted to reauthorize NASA with a bill closely paralleling one adopted by a Senate panel, which generally backed the strategy. Senate appropriators are willing to fund it.
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III. Innovations |
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A TOURIST RIDE FIT FOR HANNIBALWho says engineering must always be serious business? The coolest way to tour the city Nantes in Western France is taking a ride in a 40-foot-tall mechanical elephant. The mobile mammoth is capable of taking 49 passengers on a 45-minute tour of the city. It was cobbled together using 45 tons of reclaimed wood and steel, and is the creation of a group of engineers, artists and artisans. The not-so-baby-elephant walk has been delighting Nanteans and visitors alike since 2007 as part of Machines of the Isle of Nantes, an exhibition of three fantastical creations that link the imaginary world of Jules Verne with the mechanical designs of Leonardo da Vinci. The other two: Marine Worlds Merry-Go-Round, and the Heron Tree. Learn more and view a video of The Great Elephant AN INVENTOR IN THE FLUSH OF YOUTH
Tom Broadbent got his Eureka! moment while watching a tub full of water drain from a hotel bathtub. It was sucked down with so much force and so quickly that it got him to thinking there was an awful lot of energy being dispersed that could be put to use to create green electricity. The result: Broadbent's HighDro Power system, which generates power from toilet, shower and sink waste water in high-rise buildings. It really works the same way as hydroelectric dams that produce electricity from falling water. Waste waters tumbling down the pipes of a tall building turn a turbine that creates electricity. In a seven-story building, the system could generate $1,000 worth of power a year. Not a bad savings. Oh, and Broadbent's still a student, too. He's studying industrial design at England's De Monfort University. His HighDro Power system has been nominated for several awards, including one from the Institution of Engineering Designers. Learn more about Tom Broadbent and the The Power of Flushing
ONE OIL EXEC'S BIG PUSH FOR BIOFUELS FROM ALGAEVanderbilt University chemical engineering graduate Cynthia Warner spent 28 years working in the oil industry, rising to head of BP's global refining business. Though she was one of the highest-ranking women in the industry, she quit, saying she was uncomfortable with efforts to drill for oil in deeper waters. Warner's instincts proved all too prophetic, given the subsequent explosion of BP's Deepwater Horizon rig in the Gulf of Mexico that resulted in 11 deaths and caused America's worst oil spill. Warner opted to start a company that could produce clean biofuels that could be distributed using existing infrastructure. Her Sapphire Energy produces biofuel from algae, the fast-growing aquatic plant whose weight is 50 percent oil. And unlike biofuels produced from corn or sugarcane, oil from algae doesn't affect food production and uses no arable land. Techniques borrowed from pharmaceutical companies mean even faster-growing, oilier algae can now be produced. One hurdle: so far, it's expensive to make. Nevertheless, Warner's company expects to open a 300-acre demonstration plan in New Mexico next year that will produce 100 barrels a day, and she expects it will be producing 10,000 barrels a day by 2018. Hey, it may be pond scum, but it's a lot cleaner than petroleum. Learn more about Cynthia Warner and Sapphire Energy
Find More Innovations in ASEE's eGFI Student Blog
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IV. NEW BOOK RELEASES (Sponsored Section) |
New from McGraw-Hill Photonics and Laser Engineering: Principles, Devices, and Applications
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V. JOBS, JOBS, JOBS |
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Job-hunting? Here are a few current openings:1. Mechanical Engineering -- 4 opportunities 2. Dean -- 2 opportunities 3. Computational Engineering -- 1 opportunity 4. Structural Engineering -- 1 opportunity Visit here for details:
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VI. COMING ATTRACTIONS |
SEPTEMBER PRISM
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VII. The K-12 Report |
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TOP GOLFER PUTS SCIENCE AND MATH TO THE FORE-FRONTThe world's number two professional golfer Phil Mickelson says that some of his success on the links comes from his firm grasp of math and science -- subjects he's loved since grade school. For instance, Mickelson can calculate the odds of sinking a putt from how many feet away the ball is from the hole, he explains to Wall Street Journal columnist William McGurn. That's why his favorite off-course pastime these days is the Mickelson ExxonMobile Teacher Academy in Jersey City, N.J. Third, fourth and fifth grade science teachers spend time there each summer to hone their math and science teaching skills. Mickelson is aware that schools have a tough time finding teachers with the right skills to teach these crucial courses, McGurn writes. Most math and science classes in the U.S. are taught by teachers who didn't study those subjects in college. It's the academy's goal to help bring those instructors up to speed in their topics. Since 2005, around 2,600 teachers have gone through the program, which was designed by experts from Math Solutions and the National Science Teachers Association. Mickelson explains that "we treat them like professionals . . . We hope that by getting them excited about teaching science, we'll have more American kids excited about studying math and science." And as ideas go, that's clearly an ace. Read more about how "Golfer Mickelson Champions Math and Science" in ASEE's eGFI Teachers Blog
SUMMERTIME, AND FORGETTING IS EASYIs the long summer vacation a harmful throwback to an agrarian era that is well past its shelf-life? That's Time magazine's argument in The Case Against Summer Vacation. The article calls the lengthy summer hiatus a "luxury we can't afford." Those three months off result in "summer learning loss," a.k.a, "the summer slide," a malady that disproportionally hits low-income students who typically spend much of the summer bored with few productive things to do. But in a global economy, Time notes, even kids from well-off families are losing ground over summer to their international peers who remain in school an extra four weeks. It cites a recent Johns Hopkins University study that found that the summer-slide effect compounds over time. By the time low-income students reach ninth grade, it found, fully two-thirds of the learning gap that separates richer and poorer students is attributable to summer learning loss. To be sure, a national reworking of the K-12 school calendar seems unlikely. But Time says savvy school districts can mitigate the harm with summer programs aimed at underprivileged students. It points to smart program in districts ranging from Cleveland to Houston to Corbin, KY. Ron Fairchild, head of the Baltimore nonprofit, National Summer Learning Association, tells Time that the term "summer school" gets a bad rap. "We need to push school districts to frame summer school as a good thing, something extra -- not a punishment." In a related article in the Afro-American, William R. Roberts, president of Verizon in Maryland and Washington, D.C., notes that studies find that, on average, students lose around two months of grade-level mathematical computational skills over summer. Roberts suggests that parents type "summer learning resources" into a search engine to find a plethora of online materials that kids will find fun, but will also keep their brains active. Read more about "Summer's Damaging Effect on Learning" in ASEE's eGFI Teachers Blog HIGH SCHOOL SENIORS TAKING A CRACK AT UNIVERSITY RESEARCH
As a graduate student at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Jian Yang recalls how he wished he had been exposed to research much earlier in school. Yang, now an assistant professor of bioengineering at the University of Texas, Arlington, theorizes that if high school students are given a chance to do some university-level research, it will better prepare them to study science and engineering when they finally go to college, according to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. To test that notion, Yang has gotten part of five-year, $500,000 National Science Foundation grant. He's using the funding to develop an educational model that could be duplicated by colleges and high schools nationwide. This summer, Samira Usman, who teaches Advanced Placement chemistry at Arlington's Martin High School, and a few of her seniors, will join Yang in his lab to help with his neuro-tissue engineering research, the paper says. Yang will study how the students react to the lab work -- seeing which concepts intrigue them and which are unsuitable for high schoolers. The teacher, meanwhile, will be able to determine how she might incorporate high-end research into her lessons, the paper explains. Yang's research focuses on concocting biomaterials that can be safely used in human bodies, such as artery-opening stents that eventually dissolve. That's high-end science, to be sure, but it can also teach students the practical applications of the science they're learning. Read more about "High-End Science for High School Students" in ASEE's eGFI Teachers Blog
Find More K-12 Education News in ASEE's eGFI Teachers Blog
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VIII. COMMUNITY ANNOUNCEMENTS |
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THE SCIENCE, MATHEMATICS AND RESEARCH FOR TRANSFORMATION (SMART)
SCHOLARSHIP FOR SERVICE PROGRAM
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