Smithsonian Magazine hosted an expert
panel discussion on tsunamis, earthquakes
and disaster preparedness and discussed
among other topics, “Could
a tsunami strike the Caribbean and
Atlantic Seaboard? Among those invited
to participate was Dr. George Maul,
Florida Tech head of the Department
of Marine and Environmental Systems.
The magazine reported the panel proceedings.
Following the Southeast Asia tsunami
tragedy in Dec. 2005, Maul was featured
in USA Today and over 100 other publications.
Scientific American investigated
how thunder-storms generate
their charge and how lightning
occurs, including in its report,
research by Florida Tech’s
Dr. Joseph Dwyer, associate professor of physics and space sciences. Dwyer
and his researchers were able
to measure x-rays from lightning
through their instruments. “To
my surprise—and to the surprise of everyone else—we discovered
that triggered lightning produces lots of x-rays nearly every time,” said
Dwyer. Exactly how lightning can generate such large electric fields remains
a mystery,
but further x-ray observation should provide clues.
The Detroit News picked up a
USA TODAY story about the involvement
of Dr. John Deaton, director
of Florida Tech’s College
of Aeronautics’ Human
Factors Laboratory, in the creation of a video game. Called VECTOR, Virtual
Environment Cultural Training
for Operational Readiness,
the game teaches soldiers to
be
culturally sensitive in a variety of circumstances they may encounter. Soldiers
and Deaton’s peers see this training as increasingly necessary as the
nation’s
military is sent to fight in urban settings in distant lands.
Online source, medicalnewstoday.com,
reported on a new patent awarded
Dr. Kunal Mitra, Florida Tech
associate professor of mechanical
and aerospace
engineering,
for his x-ray delivery device. The device-methodology, used for arterial
irradiation following balloon angioplasty, can prevent the frequent re-formation
of plaque
after angioplasty and stent implantation.
|
Dr.
Maurice Kurtz passed away on May
20, 2005. Affectionately known
by his colleagues as Monk, he joined
Florida Tech in 1978 after a distinguished
military career with the U.S. Army
Corps of Engineers. Instrumental
in developing many of the civil
engineering
courses, he designed and developed
the “Apple” Lab, later
known as the “Mac” Lab.
He also developed the graduate program
in Construction Management.
“He was an excellent adviser
to students and I often would comment
that his
advisees always graduated on
time,” said
Dr. Edward Kalajian, professor
of civil engineering.
He retired
from Florida Tech as Professor
Emeritus in 1997.
He will be missed. |
WFIT would like to thank everyone
for the tremendous support of their
30th
Anniversary Celebration ... the sponsors
who supported the event ... the many
musicians and performers who kept the
crowds cheering for more ... WFIT’s
volunteers who worked hard to ensure
that the guests had a great time. And
heartfelt gratitude to all of WFIT’s
family and friends who came out and
showed their support.
By Sandra Holland, senior scientific/technical
communications major
University Park Elementary school
gifted students in grades 4–6
visited FIT Aviation in April. The
children, who had just completed
lessons on longitude and latitude,
toured and observed as flight students
studied flight plans and monitored
the weather. They visited the simulator
area and had their pictures taken
while pretending to fly a Piper Warrior
training plane.
“Many of the children were quite
impressed when they climbed into a
real airplane,
as some had never flown before,” said
Jane Waters, University Park’s
Gifted Program coordinator.
Flight
instructors James Ashbaugh and
Rick Pazmino led the tour and
answered questions. “It’s
hard for kids to get up close
to an airplane with all the airport
security now. This experience
gave
them a chance to look at aviation
up close … The kids are
welcome back any time,” said
Ashbaugh.
Dr. Judith Strother,
professor of humanities and
communication, set
up the visit.
Chris Bonanno, a junior meteorology
major, represented the university to
win first place at the National Collegiate
Weather Forecasting Contest (NCWFC).
His predictions aced out those of 304
competing weather forecasters in the
freshman-
sophomore category.
The 42 participating
institutions, from the United States
and Canada,
included Cornell University, Massachusetts
Institute of Technology, Temple University
and Texas A&M University.
Bonanno
won for his forecast of temperatures
and precipitation at Lander, Wyo.,
over a two-week period this spring.
He has been a member of the Florida
Tech American Meteorological Society
for the past three years and was
recently elected the organization’s
publishing officer.
Following completion
of his bachelor’s
degree, Bonanno hopes to work at
the National Hurricane Center in
Miami,
Fla. His faculty advisor, Dr. Steven
Lazarus, is assistant professor
in the Department of Marine and
Environmental
Systems.
Two doctoral students in biological
sciences took top awards for their
papers at the Florida Academy of Science
meeting at the University of South
Florida in Tampa.
Paola López-Duarte
of La Paz, Bolivia, earned top honors
for Outstanding
Student Paper and Jennifer Hanselman
of Pittsfield, Mass., received second
place in the same category. López-Duarte
also was awarded the Sigma Xi award
for Best Oral Presentation. Sigma
Xi is the scientific research society.
López-Duarte
and Hanselman were also named Outstanding
Graduate Students
in the Department of Biological Sciences
at Florida Tech’s Honors Convocation.
Three Florida Tech faculty earned the
univer-sity’s 2005 Faculty Excellence
Awards for outstanding performance.
They are Dr. Richard Tankersley, Department
of Biological Sciences, the Kerry Bruce
Clark Award for Excellence in Teaching;
Dr. Ming Zhang, Department of Physics
and Space Sciences, the Award for Excellence
in Research; and Dr. Terry Oswalt,
Department of Physics and Space Sciences,
who earned the Andrew W. Revay Jr.
Award for Excellence in Service.
Tankersley
has established the boilerplate for
how laboratory ecology should be
taught to undergraduates. He has
worked with the local K–12 education
administrators and teachers to develop
a new set of learning modules for
high school integrated science students
that use ocean exploration as an
over-arching
theme. To implement this partnership,
he recently secured a 3-year, $1.7
million grant from the National Science
Foundation to start the new
In-STEP
(Integrated Science Teaching Enhancement
Partnership) program.
Physicist Zhang has earned an outstanding
reputation in the community. He
is known internationally for making
important contributions to understanding
cosmic-ray
propagation using the new Markov Stochastic Process Theory, of which he is
a leading expert. He was the winner
of the American Geophysical Union’s
prestigious Scarf Award and has
made contributions to Ulysses and
Voyager missions. His success
is mirrored in his record of obtaining funding—over $1 million—which
includes several large awards from NASA.
Oswalt, an astronomer, has brought
many funding opportunities to the attention of the faculty and has helped
to implement several of them. His workshops
on how to succeed with a National Science Foundation grant proposal also
have
been met with faculty appreciation. Oswalt leads the project to construct
the largest
telescope in Florida on the Florida Tech campus.
A $25,000 grant from an anonymous donor
will help send up to 25 Florida Tech
students to Rome in spring 2006.
“Our aim is to bolster Catholic
students’ commitment
to their religion,” said Fr.
Douglas Bailey, Ph.D., director of
Florida Tech’s Catholic Campus
Ministry and course instructor.
The
curriculum will include a stay
at the Villa Maria, the mother house
of the Salvatorian sisters in Rome,
an audience with the Pope and Mass
in the Catacombs, beneath the city.
“We foresee an excellent academic
and catechetical experience for our
students
and are very grateful to our
benefactor for making this possible,” said
Bailey.
Funded under a Dept. of Labor grant
of over $1.5 million, the National
Center for Small Business Information
(NCSBI) began this spring to fill a
community void in information technology
and government contracting education.
The center offers free hands-on training
in computer technology, courses in
the basics of winning government contracts,
and special interest groups for networking
and lifelong learning. (See ad on page
33.)
The center regularly schedules
guest lectures and short courses
during late
afternoons and lunchtimes, geared
for the working student. For information
visit www.ncsbi.fit.edu or call (321)
674-7011.
Junior entrepreneurs, that is, middle
and high school students, joined Florida
Tech students in the university’s
third Student Design Showcase, an annual
exhibit of culminating engineering
undergraduate projects. About 100 team
efforts filled the Clemente Center
at the end of the academic year. The
Florida Tech teams’ 22.5-foot-long
rocket, steel bridge, mini-baja, formula
car, a variety of wireless and electronic
technologies and other projects were
joined by science fair-winning projects
by a few dozen junior math and science
whizzes.
|
