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(06/08/06 12:06am)
Change may be in store as the IU board of trustees gather at IU-Kokomo Thursday and Friday to decide whether to build a new classroom and faculty office building and discuss other University issues. \nThe site, located at 802 E. Third St., is currently occupied by a two-story home built in 1910 that provides office space for mathematics department graduate students. It is also listed as "contributing" on the University's 1996 survey of historic structures.\n"(IU) wants to make the best possible use for the University for that parcel of land," said IU spokesman Larry MacIntyre. He added that officials are looking into moving the building in order to make way for the new $3 million structure.\nThe proposal is for a three-story, 30,000-square-foot building, which will hold classrooms and biology labs on the first floor and mostly offices and conference space above.\nTrustees are asked to authorize a "design-build" approach where the design is part of the bid for the structure.\n"Each builder comes up with a design that is then judged by both aesthetics and price," MacIntyre said. \nUsually the University drafts the plans, but for a smaller project, the "design-build" approach is considered more efficient, he said.\nBecause the new building will be on the north side of the street, MacIntyre said, "the architecture can reflect the fraternity and sorority and other classroom buildings," rather than the monumental limestone buildings on the south side and in the crescent area.\nThe first residents will be from the department of communication and culture, which currently resides in Mottier Hall in Ashton Center -- a building slated to be torn down. The department will eventually move into a new humanities building the University is planning.\nAlso on the agenda, said Lynn Coyne, assistant vice president for University real estate and economic development, is a request for financial assistance for the renovation and rebuilding of the Beta Theta Pi chapter house under a program called the "Indiana Plan."\nRequests of this type were "very common when building fraternities and sororities on the north side of Third Street," Coyne said, but it's more unusual these days.\nCommittee meetings are Thursday and Friday morning and a business meeting will be held Friday afternoon. Topics also include other real estate matters such as an educational addition to the Wylie House Museum and further details on the Henderson-Atwater Parking Garage Project. There will be a presentation on IU's integrated image strategy, planning for IU's 2007-09 state funding request and a discussion of policies associated with the mission differentiation of IU's campuses.
(06/01/06 2:17am)
Standing before a room of middle and high school students in Bloomington for the National Science Olympiad tournament two weeks ago, Karl MacDorman, a new associate professor for Informatics at IU-Purdue Univeristy at Indianapolis, played a video of an android head. The disembodied head's eyes rotate and its mouth chews as the students watching squirmed uncomfortably. \n"What's your impression?" MacDorman asked the students.\n"Eeeeew! Creeepy!" they said.\nThis eerie phenomenon, MacDorman said, is called "the uncanny valley." \nAs more humanlike robots are built, people respond positively because the robots become more and more familiar, he said, as humanlike characteristics stand out. But because of our "strong expectations of what is human," MacDorman said, if the robot becomes "almost human," the response quickly turns negative and we notice the non-human characteristics more clearly.\n"If a robot walks around with knees bent like this," MacDorman said while demonstrating the position, "you think, well this is just a robot. But if something that looks like a human being does it, you think that's odd, that's unnatural."\nMany theories attempt to explain why the effect occurs. For example, MacDorman said, if you see a tree with blight, you don't say "eeeew," but if you see a human being with leprosy, it reminds you of a disease and triggers a negative response. Also, he said some people believe human-like androids resemble corpses.\n"It could be that (very human-like androids) are a reminder of our mortality," MacDorman said. "(It can be) a reminder that we're all going to die, and it can be quite disturbing for that reason."\nRobotics researcher Masahiro Mori first described the "uncanny valley" effect in 1970. Now that androids, as well as computer-generated characters in video games and movies, are becoming more realistic, it is a topic not only for discussion but also for policy for 3-D animation studios like Pixar.\n"Part of the success of 'The Incredibles' was that Pixar made a conscious choice to give the characters a cartoonish style," said Don Strawser, who teaches T160, the History and Social Impact of Video Games, at IU .\nThe "uncanny valley" effect is also a problem in video games, Strawser said, because game makers try to make human characters as realistic as possible without pushing it so far that the users will reject it.\n"This is really hard because you would have to animate every human gesture and it's just not practical," he said. "Yet we don't want our cute and cuddly cartoon world to turn into a soulless, zombie land."\nCompanies like Pixar might have a policy about how to avoid uncanniness, but the effect has not been widely tested experimentally, MacDorman said. That's where his research comes in. \n"Android science is the idea that very human-like androids can be used in experiments to find out what kinds of behavior are perceived as human," MacDorman said.\nEvolution certainly plays a role in our ability to determine humanness, he said, and "we are very sensitive to what is human," particularly in facial and body proportions. \nFor example, a one-millimeter adjustment in eye width can mean the difference between seeing a person as ugly or beautiful, he said. Other studies show that men prefer women with a two to three ratio of waist to hip -- and women who have that ratio tend to be the most fertile.\nHowever, we are probably not as sensitive to humanoid robots, he said. Though humanoid robots may have a head, arms, legs or even eyes and mouth, only androids have human details like skin, eyelashes and teeth.\n"So, does appearance matter?" MacDorman asked as he showed the students a video of a robot moving with and without skin.\n"People have more sympathy for an android than they do for a mechanical-looking robot ... It reminds you of yourself, your personal identity, but at the same time it's a machine," he said. "People will turn off characters they see on the T.V., but not want to turn off the lights in a room with an android."\nHe and his colleagues have also shown that realism is due to "non-conscious movements" -- the breathing patterns and miniscule adjustments people make without realizing it.\n"Even when a person is doing absolutely nothing, they're never perfectly still," he said. "In fact, if you held yourself perfectly still you couldn't see -- everything would go optic-violet. People who are very good at meditating have discovered that. Our whole visual system depends on slight movements of the body."\nTo see if people could be fooled into believing an android was human, MacDorman's research team placed a seated android nine feet away, drew a curtain back for two seconds, then asked participants what they saw.\nOnly 23 percent of people were fooled by the android, and these tended to be older people, MacDorman said. But when the same experiment was run with the android making "non-conscious movements," 70 percent believed the android was human. \n"In a two second period, most people were fooled ... but at least it shows the importance of movement in creating the impression of presence," MacDorman said.\nThe fact that older people have more difficulty telling android from human was a problem for his team when they presented a new android at the 2005 World Expo in Aichi, Japan. \n"Some older people, maybe 70 or 80 years old, were asking where is it? Where's the android? Because they thought it was a person," he said.\nAnd extending that two-second period for the 70 percent of people who were fooled is extremely difficult, MacDorman said, partially because it is difficult to design and create smooth movement. \n"The motion needs to look humanlike, but the joint is not the same and not human underneath," MacDorman said.\nWhereas humans have 244 degrees of movement in their arms, current android prototypes only have 43 degrees. Using air actuators in the joints creates some of the best motion, but requires a compressor and pump connected in another room in order to control the android. \nIt's also a matter of cost. A few companies now make androids with realistic skin and motors with smoother movements and facial expressions for around $400,000, but initial prototypes cost around $1 million to make.\nAnother experimental use for androids is to study the nuances of human interaction. Making the robot appear more human not only gives it a physical presence, but also a social context, he said. In a recent experiment on gaze, MacDorman studied how people respond with their eyes in conversation when they believe the android is autonomous. \nWhereas people in Europe and North America mostly look up and to the right when thinking about what to say to another person, people in Japan usually gaze downward. \n"By world standards, the Japanese make a lot of eye contact, about 30 to 40 percent of the time, although this number is low compared to Europe and Asia," he said.\nIf the person in the experiment believed the android to be self-controlled, the person averted their eyes less often and made more eye contact with the android. If the person in the experiment thought the android was human-controlled, the subject responded more naturally by looking downward while thinking of a response.\n"This is the first time breaking of gaze has been found to be related to what you believe is on the other end -- human or robot," MacDorman said.
(05/22/06 1:43am)
Tossing a marshmallow into his mouth after his teams' LEGO robot went awry, Bloomington High School South senior Cole Skelton shrugged his shoulders and began packing up gear. A National Science Olympiad veteran, Skelton knows how to pick his battles. \n"It worked well when we weren't in the competition," he said. \nSkelton probably scored a minus 180, his teammate, South junior Clive Holbrook said. \n"But at least the robot followed the line," Skelton said, " ... that's the important part," -- well that, and getting back in time for Bloomington High School's senior prom. Skelton explained, because compared to the state competition, the rules are stricter, the competition stronger and "everything is knocked up a notch."\nSkelton and Holbrook were among thousands taking part in Saturday's National Science Olympiad tournament at IU. Across campus Saturday, middle and high school students made last minute adjustments to robots and egg-smashing cars, while others huddled around lab stations solving problems. \nThough the competition was intense, each National Science Olympiad team found ways to keep spirits high. In Bloomington High School South's homeroom, students rank each event with a smiley face for a good result and a frown for when the result wasn't so good. \nOther teams found unity in their apparel. \nAlaska high schoolers attached stuffed toy salmon to baseball caps. The Pembroke Hill team, from Connecticut, sported t-shirts reading "pH (Pembroke Hill) -- Neutralizing the Competition." Others' t-shirts read equally brainy statements such as "Quantum Ducks," "Keeling Kicks Mass," and "Talk Nerdy to Me." \nAnd those who missed seeing the National Science Olympiad events can still dress the part. Team members from Minnesota said their cow-print patterned lab coats can be ordered online at http://www.thelabrat.com. \nAt the bridge and tower building competition in Woodburn Hall 100, each broken toothpick-induced crack was followed by cheers from the audience and flashes from snapping cameras. The competition begins with fifteen kilograms of sand gradually dumped into a bucket attached underneath the bridge or tower. Success was dependent on not so much whether the bridge or tower would break, but rather when it broke and how much the structure weighed. \nOver in the Wildermuth sports center, a judge sprawling on the gym floor carefully measured the distance between an uncooked egg attached to the front of a wheeled vehicle and a large board serving as a wall. In the "Scrambler" competition, a crack is an unwelcome sound. The large, almost-flat vehicle has CDs for wheels and is propelled forward as an attached weight drops and propels it forward, hopefully to just shy of the wall. \nIn Fine Arts 015 at the "Robot Ramble," two students gently placed their robotic vehicle on a mat and untangle wires running to handmade video game controllers. \nThe robot used a little rotating flap to scoop up cork towers, ping-pong balls and then a pink golf ball. Pausing and unfolding an arm like a preying mantis, the robot stuck the end of the arm onto a CD and sucked it inside. The students then backed the robot up to a Plexiglas box containing three balloons and, extending up and over like a dump truck, the robot drops the collected items into the bin with a sharp "pop-pop-pop." Extra credit is given for popping the balloons. \nBut success isn't just about winning competitions. A lot of the benefits come from building the robot or bridge and practicing for the testing events, Susan Williams, Assistant Coach for a high school team from Russell, KY., said. Students spend hours in preparation for the Science Olympiad and they "have a lot more ownership when it's their own design." \n"NSO is a lot of problem solving," Williams said, "And a bit of duct tape." \nStudents begin training for the Science Olympiad in September when the new rules come out, coach Kirk Barnett said. With 24 competitions to choose from, pairing students with events is the first challenge. It's easier to pick students for the testing events, which are more like classroom activities, he said. "Students want to build a robot until they start to build a robot," Barnett said. "Not everyone can build a robot. [Each competition] is a matter of figuring out how to do it -- and that's not always by conventional means." \nWith only 600 students, Russell Independent High School was one of the smallest public schools in the competition, but this is the third year the team has won state and was able to compete in the national tournament. The goal for his team, Barnett said, is to beat the other school from Kentucky and to place in the top half. \n"We found we can be very successful in six or seven events, but to win overall you have to be incredibly good at all twenty-four and we're still working on that." \nBridge-builder Matt Columbus, a Russell high school freshman, said he has a love/hate relationship with his event. \n"I like seeing what I can come up with and with what everyone else has ... it's an intense competition," he said. \nCompetitions may be intense, but each National Science Olympiad team found ways to keep spirits high. In Bloomington High School South's homeroom, students rank each event with a smiley face for a good result and a frown for when the result wasn't so good. \nOther teams found unity in their apparel. \nAlaska high schoolers attached stuffed toy salmon to baseball caps. The Pembroke Hill team, from Connecticut, sported t-shirts reading "pH (Pembroke Hill) -- Neutralizing the Competition." Others' t-shirts read equally brainy statements such as "Quantum Ducks," "Keeling Kicks Mass," and "Talk Nerdy to Me." \nAnd those who missed seeing the National Science Olympiad events can still dress the part. Team members from Minnesota said their cow-print patterned lab coats can be ordered online at http://www.thelabrat.com.
(05/18/06 1:06am)
No hotel room will be left empty as IU and the city of Bloomington roll out the red carpet for the approximate 5,000 people expected to arrive Thursday and Friday. Middle and high school science students, their coaches, parents and volunteers are coming from across the nation to take part in the "Giants of Science" National Science Olympiad tournament on Saturday. \nTours, demonstrations and pizza picnics will run back-to-back with the intent to awe these future scientists. Everything from star gazing at the Kirkwood Observatory and measuring ozone levels in the air to petting hissing cockroaches will be offered. With all the local events it is no wonder Mayor Mark Kruzan declared May 20 to be National Science Olympiad day in Bloomington. \nThree hundred volunteers -- including most of IU's schools and science departments and local organizations such as Downtown Bloomington, Inc. -- have teamed up to provide a "giant" welcome. Co-organizers Tina Gilliland and Jocelyn Bowie said that this year's events and tournament will be unlike anything the campus and community has ever seen.\n"This kind of cooperation couldn't happen anywhere but in Bloomington," Gilliland said. "The bottom line -- lots of surprises are coming."\nIU departments are opening their doors to students with demonstrations, lectures and videos. Wonderlab is giving discounted passes to all NSO participants and city buses and the shops lining Kirkwood Avenue are running special deals for the NSO. \nThursday night, festivities will be held at the Monroe County Courthouse square and a parents' welcome reception from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. at the Monroe County Library will welcome parents of the NSO participants.\nAlso on Thursday night at 6:30 p.m. and again at 7:30 p.m., two speakers will attract space and technology enthusiasts. Androids are the topic of choice for Karl MacDorman from the School of Informatics at IU-Purdue University at Indianapolis, who will be speaking in room 223 of the Kelley School of Business. NASA's own "Man In Black," Planetary Protection Officer Dr. John Rummel, is also speaking in the business school in room 219. Rummel's job with NASA is to look out for extraterrestrial micro-organisms should they ever arrive on Earth by hitching a ride on a meteorite or the suit of an astronaut.\nInterested partipants can also follow along with the bug-collecting journeys of Jim Louderman, a curator for the The Field Museum in Chicago, in "Bugs, Bugs, Bugs!" from 8:30 p.m. to 11 p.m. Thursday.\nFrom 3 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. Friday, at the "Hoosier Jubilee" in the Mellencamp Pavillion, Indiana's entry for the 2005 Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency contest will make an appearance. The 7,000 pound computer-operated, autonomous vehicle, designed by Indiana-based company Indiana Robotic Navigation, was designed to steer itself across rugged terrain to deliver troops with supplies in dangerous territories.\nAmong the sponsors for the weekend is Robert Greenler, emeritus professor of physics from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, who donated $34,000 in order to give each student competitor a copy of his memoir "Chasing the Rainbow: Recurrences in the life of a scientist." \nThe largest donor for the NSO tournament is Sallie Mae, who not only provided money to support the competitions, but also gave a $25,000 scholarship endowment for IU's Science Olympiad summer camp. Mae is also hosting a "Paying for College" informational session Friday, in which one high school student will win $500 for college.\nSupport also comes from IU, Eli Lilly and Co., the IU Credit Union, Texas Instruments, Bloomington's WonderLab and several other companies and local organizations.\nThe public is welcome to attend open houses Thursday and Friday and to view many of the competitions on Saturday.
(05/18/06 1:06am)
Saturday, the IU campus will be filled with the nation's next generation of scientists as 120 state champion teams consisting of thousands of middle and high school students flood into Bloomington to put their science knowledge to the test in the National Science Olympiad Tournament.\nTeams are set to arrive Thursday from as far away as Alaska and as nearby as Bloomington High School South. Coaches, alternates, parents, judges, special guest speakers and volunteers bring the total numbers up to around 5,000 visitors.\nThirty-nine competitions from a range of scientific disciplines -- such as biology, chemistry, genetics, robotics and physics -- will all require quick thinking and careful design to win. Depending on the competition, students may need to know everything from the properties of bottle rockets to the properties of chemical compounds.\nThis is the second time IU has hosted the NSO Tournament, the first time was in 1995. Only two other universities have hosted the tournament twice -- Ohio State University and Michigan State University -- but the state Science Olympiad is frequently hosted here.\nOpening ceremonies are scheduled for 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. Friday night in Assembly Hall. Competitions are all day Saturday with an awards ceremony in the evening.\nOne change this year is the method used to score events. Ian Bobbitt, a computer science major, wrote a new web application to help make the scoring easier and more accurate. Bobbitt says he was inspired to write the program because "every year and in every competition I've seen, there are small scoring errors just because people are scoring by hand."\nAlthough many of the competitions are restricted to only student teams, many favorite competitions like "The Scrambler" will be open to spectators. \n"The Scrambler" requires teams to build a device to transport a Grade A uncooked chicken egg along a straight track for a set distance. In another popular event, "Robot Ramble," students build a robot and the winner is the one whose robot can perform assigned tasks the best or the quickest.\n"Mission Possible" is an additional favorite of many of the participants. In the event, students build a Rube Goldberg-like device demonstrating a series of energy transfers to accomplish a specific task.\nTo be successful in the Science Olympiad, Science Department Chair Beth Wood from Bloomington High School South said, "You need to build a team of students who are knowledgeable, but also flexible, who can compete in both biology and chemistry." \nBeing flexible is also important, Wood said, because even though Bloomington's team begins training in October, there have been times when abrupt schedule changes have forced the team to make last-minute switches.\nDedication is another requirement for the participants to perform well. Students on the Science Olympiad team meet once a week to study and practice. \n"At best, these students get to compete only three times during the year," Wood said. "It takes dedication to work that hard and then only perform three times."\nAnd that decision was made especially hard for South seniors Roxanne Rajii and Caitlin Sengelaub because the school's senior prom is also this Saturday.\n"We're going to leave at 3 p.m. after the competition to get changed," Rajii said. Last year, she said the national tournament was in Illinois and the team left immediately after the competitions to drive back in time to catch the prom.\nBut despite the conflict, Rajii and Sengelaub said they love being involved and being able to apply what they've learned about science at the Science Olympiad competitions. \n"It's a day of anxiety and fun, but it's also really tough," Rajii said. \n"Some events require a lot of studying," Sengelaub said, "but it's more like playing with toys, which is always fun for high school students.\nFor Rajii, who will be attending University of California-Berkeley in the fall for biology, and Sengelaub, who plans to study chemistry at Cornell University, it's also about meeting other students who share their same interests.\n"The people are amazing," Sengelaub said. "And they are all really good at science"
(05/18/06 12:29am)
On May 26 the Information Technology Support Center in the Indiana Memorial Union -- located on the mezzanine level -- will be closed and all its services transferred to the Information Commons in the Herman B Wells Library. Classroom Services, currently down the hall in the IMU, will also be moving to the library. \nWith an ever-tightening budget, the cost of renting space in the IMU and managing multiple locations was "more of a cost resource than we could justify," said Sue Workman, director of User Support for IU. She added that consolidating IT support and training is the "best way to focus face to face resources right now." \n"(The transfer) is something we've looked at since the IC opened," said Dennis Gillespie, manager for the UITS Support Center. "We have limited resources just like everyone else ... We realized we could be a more effective and efficient organization if we could bring these resources together."\nDespite the cutbacks, UITS is hoping that conserving funds now will allow it to enhance the support services that are provided. \n"In the past, when there was an issue with your account, you couldn't fix it over the phone because, well, you could be anybody," Gillespie said. He added to take part in the online password reset service, students need to sign up at http://password.iu.edu. \nBefore the Information Commons opened in the fall of 2003, the Union was the only venue accommodating to a support center.\n"But with the growth of the information commons, the library has become more of a central academic location," Workman said. \nIt is also more convenient for students, Gillespie said, because not only is more parking available at the Wells Library, but the IT Support Center in the Information Commons is open a lot more. \n"Someone is there 24/7, everyday of the year to answer your questions," he said. "And if the support center isn't open, the (Student Technology Center) folks are there."\nSome students may not mind the move. \nJunior Katie Derloshon said that closing the IT Support Center in the IMU wouldn't affect her needs. \n"If I have a problem, I will just call or e-mail," she said. "I don't have time to walk in there."\nDerloshon said she prefers to handle her technical questions online when she can. Once, while searching for the support center, she went into the IMU's computer store instead.\nThis was no surprise to Computer Connection Employee Eric Lorenz. \n"A majority of students don't even know (the IT Support Center) is there," he said. "They come in looking and when they have technical questions we direct them down the hall ... I guess now we'll direct them to the library"
(10/04/04 4:45am)
Emma Lannard is six years old and she already can point out her favorite instrument -- the slide whistle. But she likes all the instruments that cross her path. Lately, her mom said with a sigh, Emma has been eyeing a family friend's drum set. \nAt the second annual "Meet the Instruments" day at WonderLab Sunday, Emma was one of several dozen children gathered to learn about music. The children met members of the Bloomington Symphony Orchestra to learn about their favorite instruments. Each visitor received a card listing the four groups of orchestral instruments -- strings, woodwinds, brass and percussion. Different music stations throughout the exhibit included examples of instruments. For each musical station visited, the children collected a sticker on their card indicating what they had learned. Karen Jepson-Innes, associate executive director of WonderLab, said the event is fun for everyone. \n"(It) enables children to hold real instruments, and talk to real musicians about why they love to play music and about how the instrument works." Jepson-Innes said. "Mostly it's a chance for an early introduction into this wide range of musical possibilities."\nLast year was the first time WonderLab partnered with BSO for this long-running event.\n"We had such a great time, we decided to do it again," Jepson-Innes said.\nHowever, "Meet the Instruments" is not a new event. Sue Hartin, education director for the BSO, said the event started more than 20 years ago in a corner of the basement in the old Monroe County Public Library. Since then, "Meet the Instruments" has traveled all over Bloomington and even to Bedford and Brown Counties.\nThe newest educational effort for BSO, Hartin said, is the instrument recovery program. Donated instruments are put back into playing condition and then loaned to elementary school students. Teachers volunteer to provide the students with lessons.\nGraduate student Katie Dunn, who plays French horn with the BSO, said giving children hands-on experience with musical instruments is important to her. \nDunn has been playing for 14 years, since fifth grade, and originally had trouble deciding between the clarinet and the French horn. Ultimately, the French horn is what captured her affection.\n"It's shiny and round. It makes a lot of beautiful noises and I like making horn sounds," she said. \nThis is Dunn's first year in BSO and her first "Meet the Instruments" day.\n"This is really cool," Dunn said over the sounds of slide whistles, trombones and tubas. "I've always enjoyed, since high school, the programs for the fifth grade beginning bands so they can decide what instrument they want to play. And I have a science background, so being in WonderLab today is just such a natural extension from that."\nIn the afternoon, WonderLab continued the day with a focus on local and youth musicians and more unusual types of instruments. Jepson-Innes said one man brought an interactive electronic instrument that allowed visitors to change its sound, pitch and volume just by moving their bodies near it. Other instruments included a singing saw, a variety of ethnic instruments, harps and a recorder made from the tusk of a narwhal, an Arctic whale with a long, twisted tooth.\nThe next "Meet the Instruments" day will be in Bloomington in March or April. For more information on the BSO, WonderLab, and for a listing of events visit www.bloomington.in.us/~bso and www.wonderlab.org. \n-- Contact staff writer Erika Biga Lee at ebiga@indiana.edu.
(09/28/04 5:50am)
Sunday afternoon, with the help of a giant winch, Charles Beeker and his team of underwater archaeologists and students hoisted a corroded 19th century cannon out of its Rubbermaid tub home. They then gingerly placed it on an ancient Fairbanks scale to be weighed. \n"Okay, everyone come up with a number. 857? Let's write that down," calls out Beeker, program director for IU's Underwater Science Program.\nHauled up from the wreck of the Frolic, an 1850s clipper sunk off the coast of California, the cannon is just one artifact of many to be restored by IU's Underwater Science Program. Without conservation, salt from the ocean water will remain within the artifacts and damage the items when they are exposed to air. In the cannon, sea salts have bonded to the metal causing the exterior to rust, flake and eventually disintegrate. \n"Who else? 956. Anyone else? 775. I'll go 800 for myself. They said 1,100 pounds in California. Anyone want to go over 1,000?"\nAfter the cannon is weighed, Matt Lawrence and Deborah Marx, maritime archaeologists and consultants for the project, will stick a rod down the muzzle of the cannon to check for the presence of a cannonball. Should the rod get stuck part way in, the cannon will be bored out as a safety precaution. If any gunpowder remains inside, it could accidentally set off the cannon once electricity is connected to it. \n"And wouldn't that be a great story?" quips one of Beeker's student assistants. "'New Underwater Archaeology Lab Destroyed by Cannon Fire.'"\nConnecting the cannon to a weak electrical current will help the metal shake off the chlorides, or salts, it acquired while underwater. \n"Iron is a problem," Beeker said. "What happens is you've got the chemical bond between the chloride and the iron -- ferrous chlorides -- and that has to be broken. That's what the electrolytic reduction does, and that takes time."\nFinally, the results are in and the cannon's true weight is revealed -- 884 pounds.\nA student assistant snaps a photograph. Beeker plans on entering the cannon in a contest for the most unusual item weighed by a Fairbanks scale, a challenge set up to celebrate the company's 175th anniversary. \n"Right now the leading unit is a Canadian bobsled team weighing their bobsleds. I think we can beat them," Beeker said. "I think our cannon is about the same age as that scale." \nOnce submerged in fresh water and submitted to the conservation procedures, the cannon will change. Marx said the entire restoration process for the cannon could take up to two years. After that time, the salt will be gone and the cannon stable enough to be put on display in the Point Cabrillo Lighthouse in California. \nAdditionally, Beeker's lab is in the process of setting up a Web cam and a Web Site for those interested in following the cannon's progress.\n-- Contact staff writer Erika Biga Lee at ebiga@indiana.edu.
(09/07/04 5:28am)
Senior Adam Gutwein's college experiences have taken him coast to coast -- and then down to 130 feet underwater. He's a scuba diver earning degrees in underwater science and anthropology -- and though Bloomington's landlocked campus seems like an unlikely location for an Underwater Science program, an interdepartmental effort and the passion of one man have given Gutwein the chance to be involved in one of the nation's top programs. \nThe vision behind IU's Underwater Science program is that of Director Charles Beeker. An archaeologist by training, Beeker joined IU's faculty in the mid-1980s. He expanded IU's basic scuba classes into a collaborative research-focused underwater science program -- one that now compares to similar programs at schools nearer the ocean, like University of California-Berkeley and the University of Florida. \nOnce students receive diving training, they can participate in any number of ongoing projects through the Underwater Science program. To date, students have been involved in building underwater parks, conserving coral reefs and excavating shipwrecks. Since January, Beeker has taken students on dives in northern California, the Dominican Republic and the Florida Keys. \n"Have program, will travel," he said. "People think we're always on vacation, but it's not that way at all."\nA large part of the work involves conservation, research and finding ways for projects to benefit the public, Beeker said.\nReaching into a small red Rubbermaid cooler, he lifts out a plastic bag smelling of seawater. Inside is an artifact from Beeker's most recent dive: a chipped ceramic plate scrawled with Chinese characters. The hand-painted plate is part of a selection of 180 artifacts taken from the excavation of the Frolic, an 1850s clipper. The Frolic sank en route from Hong Kong before reaching its port in San Francisco. \nIn addition to the plate and other artifacts, soon Beeker's new lab space in the basement of the School of Health, Physical Education and Recreation will have an 1,100-pound cannon from the same site to preserve and study.\nJust like in land excavations, each artifact is carefully removed, numbered and placed in a bag for further examination. But this plate's plastic-bag home comes with a buffer of salt water -- and it needs to stay immersed until it can be preserved.\nBecause porcelain is porous, salt from the seawater seeps deep down into the plate. If the plate is exposed to air and allowed to dry out before the salt is removed, the salt will crystallize within the plate and cause damage -- and in the case of the cannon, exposure to air will cause rust. \nIn the next few weeks, the Frolic's artifacts will be placed in a tank containing fresh water and the salt removed through the process of electrolysis. Only then, Beeker said, will the artifacts be ready for student examination outside of the water.\nToday, Beeker's newest students are starting at the beginning -- learning to scuba dive. And with a long list of classes and skills from which students can choose, IU's Underwater Science program is more than just swimming and scuba lessons.\n"We have a lot of collaboration," Beeker emphasized. \nBeginning underwater scientists can assemble their own coursework based on their interests. For example, students can take a tropical biology class from the biology department's curriculum or coral reef ecology from the School of Public and Environmental Affairs.\n"The Underwater Science program is what you make of it," Beeker said. "Everybody thinks you have to be an archaeologist, but that's not true."\nStudents are trained to work on research projects as well as taught how to get involved in state and federal programs. Underwater projects require a team of people and a variety of specialized knowledge to succeed, Beeker said.\nMost students involved in the program opt for the 24-credit hour Underwater Research Management Certificate, but some also complete the Underwater Archaeology degree, offered through the Individualized Major Program in collaboration with the Department of Archaeology.\n"The certificate is more than a minor but less than a degree," Beeker said. "And that's the beauty of it. A student doesn't have to switch majors to add a skill set like underwater research."\nSean Bradley, a junior working toward a degree in informatics, is a prime example. He spent last summer in northern California helping with the Frolic excavation. His main task was not diving, but information management.\nBradley quickly learned how to adapt to the archaeologists and their lingo. Coming from informatics, he "had a lot of numbers, and they had a lot of dates." With all the documentation, archiving and visual image work he did on the project, Bradley said he felt like a detective helping to put a story-line together.\n"It was amazing to have so much technology and potential yet be in so remote a location. It was like being in a National Geographic special," Bradley said. \nIn fact, that's pretty close. Beeker and crew can still be seen on the History Channel in one of last year's episodes of "Deep Sea Detectives."\nThough Bradley only worked temporarily with the program participants, others, like Gutwein, are fully hooked on this underwater hands-on classroom. Gutwein switched majors after getting a taste of the program -- and Beeker's passion for underwater archaeology -- and plans to dive for the rest of his life. \n"I never thought I could have a job working with underwater resources, but it opens up so many opportunities," Gutwein said.\n-- Contact staff writer Erika Biga Lee at ebiga@indiana.edu .
(06/21/04 1:17am)
Many students see summer as a chance to catch up on reading without the worry of pending school assignments hanging over their heads. But finding the right summer book to read proves to be a challenge in itself. Everyone has his or her own opinion about what others should read.\nSteve Wolcott, a graduate student in the English department, did a project on One Book, One Bloomington last year. The program chooses one book each year for the public to read and discuss together. The current selection, "Reading Lolita in Tehran" by Azar Nafisi, is the subject of Wolcott's current independent study course.\n"The book is about an Iranian professor of English literature in the 1970s and '80s who becomes increasingly frustrated by her university classes," Wolcott said.\nThe plot takes place against the backdrop of the Islamic revolution in Iran. Because Nafisi is unsatisfied with her classes, she forms a private reading group outside of the university. Once a week, seven women come to her home to discuss literature.\nThe chapters, named after authors, delve into the women's heated discussions about Western messages in English literature at their meetings. Nafisi also explores the women's lives throughout the book.\n"I'm interested in how literature teaches you to be more empathetic because it is able to put you into someone else's shoes," Wolcott said.\nAmal Altoma, a fiction reference librarian at the Monroe County Public Library, said "Reading Lolita in Tehran" has become popular locally in part because it is the One Book, One Bloomington selection. \n"It's not a mainstream book, but a lot of people are reading it," Altoma said.\nMike Burns of Howard's Bookstore said he recommended "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime" by Mark Haddon because it has such a convincing narrative voice. \n"It was a favorite last year, and it's now in paperback," he said. \nThe story is from the point of view of a teenager with autism whose role model is Sherlock Holmes. Part way through the book, he investigates his first murder case -- a whodunit involving the neighbor's dog.\nFor Harry Potter fans anxious for the arrival of book six in the series, Burns recommended trying science fiction of a related style, particularly Terry Pratchett's "A Hat Full of Sky" or Philip Pullman's "Dark Matter" series.\nThe Pullman novels, which inspired a wildly popular theater production on London's West End soon coming to Broadway, tell a gritty tale of a young girl who grows up in Oxford before discovering she has special abilities and her future lies in an alternate world. \nBurns also recommended "So You Want to be a Wizard" by Diane Duane to Harry Potter lovers. \n"It's very American and pre-dates Harry Potter by 20 years," he said. \nThe book tells the tale of a girl who finds a library book about how to be a wizard. After some experimentation, she learns that the book is a real do-it-yourself guide. There are seven books in the series that Burns said are good for teenagers. \nSometimes, finding the right summer book just involves asking someone who hangs out with books all day. Patrick Boy, a Borders bookstore employee, he listed off the books he loves, like Douglas Adams' "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" and Hunter Thompson's "Kingdom of Fear." \n"Hunter Thompson is not just for summer reading," Boy said. "You can read him whenever. And if you like horror, HP Lovecraft is fun to read in the dark."\nYet another way to get reading is to act like they do in "Reading Lolita in Tehran" -- join a book group. Borders' employee Jaz Williams said book groups do not have to be just about the classics. They exist for all sorts of genres, from mystery to sci-fi to biographies.\nEach second Tuesday of the month at 7:30 p.m., Williams leads a comic book discussion group in the music section at Borders. \nWilliams said attending a book club doesn't require a big commitment and encouraged readers of all types to try one.\n"A lot of people think it's unusual to talk about something they've read in a group, but it's actually a lot of fun," Williams said. "I learn a lot from what others bring to the table, and it helps me read better and think more."\n-- Contact staff writer Erika Biga Lee at ebiga@indiana.edu.
(06/03/04 1:20am)
For theater lovers and playwrights alike, the 2004-05 season of the Bloomington Playwrights Project will be full of drama, as well as a few thrillers and comedies. \nThis year marks the 25th anniversary of the organization what likely will be a pivotal year for the organization's education programs and production teams. \n"This season is one of our more exciting in the last few years," Artistic Director Richard Perez said. "There's a wide variety of material, and we will be working with a lot of people both locally and nationally." \nMarketing Director Candace Decker said the BPP is particularly excited about Reva Shiner Winner, "The New Jersey Book of the Dead." This postmodern tale by Jason Grote opens October 7 and tells the story of Diana, a single mother whose daily life is complicated because of a modern-day surveillance program that tracks her every move. \nThe Reva Shiner award winners receive a $500 cash prize and a production of their play by the BPP. \n"Being a playwright is a difficult profession and, unless you're like Neil Simon, it's a hard field to get into," Decker said.\nShe also said that the award is particularly important because it encourages new playwrights and the production of new plays. \nPerez said variety in people, plots, styles and themes is also important to the BPP's mission.\n"Diversity is an important theme that I always try to look at when selecting a series of plays," Perez said.\nPerez explained the BPP's ultimate goal is to have a mix of people and themes in the plays to address local and global issues.\nThe BPP casts its main stage productions locally and each rehearsal period usually runs five or six weeks. \n"The rehearsal time really depends on the play," Decker said. "The plays are cast from open auditions, and often it's people who are local in the theater here and IU acting students. It just depends on who we can find to play the roles." \nEducation Director Breshaun Joyner said this is a chance for IU students to audition for roles. Opportunities to write, direct, work on sets and props, teach writing workshops or help with the BPP summer camps are also available.\n"There are even lots of opportunities for IU students that perhaps have no interest in theater," Joyner said.\nFor any student interested in working with children, elementary education or writing, it's a great practical experience, Joyner said, and "not the typical internship." The BPP is currently looking for English majors to help teach their students basic writing skills.\nThe BPP also hopes to make local theater more affordable and accessible by reducing season subscription prices for the upcoming season by 20 percent. A season pass will include six main stage performances as well as free admission to the BPP's six Dark Alley Late Night Series productions. \nThese "darker, edgier" plays, Perez said, happen late at night in the BPP's studio theatre and last about an hour.\nBPP's main performances are Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m. and Sundays at 2 p.m. Subscriptions are $72 for general admission and $58 for students and seniors. \nFor more information, call 334-1188 or e-mail bppwrite@newplays.org.\n-- Contact staff writer Erika Biga Lee at ebiga@indiana.edu.
(03/26/04 4:41am)
Elmus Wicker was a new faculty member in the economics department -- he's now a professor emeritus -- when professor Arthur Schweitzer asked him, like he asked all new faculty members, if he played ping-pong.\n"I unwittingly said yes without inquiring at what level," Wicker said. "Before the game was over, I had been thoroughly defeated. I don't think I was ever invited over again."\nSchweitzer, 98, died March 9 at the Hospitality House nursing home in Bloomington. Despite his obvious ping-pong prowess, Schweitzer was best known by the IU community as a leading social economist and a faculty member in the economics department from 1947 until his retirement in 1976.\n"His field was what was then called comparative economic systems," Wicker said, where social and political variables are incorporated into economic theory. "And his specialty was the Nazi economic system. Both he and his wife fled from Nazi Germany very early after Hitler's rise to power. His wife's experience was especially harrowing."\nSchweitzer, born in Germany in 1905, first worked as a skilled laborer in a shoe factory. He later attended the Universities of Frankfurt and Berlin. \n"He originally wanted to be the mayor of a large German city," his son Eric Schweitzer said. \nBut when the Nazis came into power, Eric said he fled to Switzerland and attended the University of Basel, Switzerland in 1937. He became part of the university newspaper, but then the Gestapo came. They shut it down and arrested everyone.\n"He knew then that he couldn't go back to Germany because he thought that the Germans were probably looking for him, too," Eric said. \nSchweitzer's career goals then turned to finishing his Ph.D. and becoming a professor.\nIn 1938, his plan was to travel to the U.S. as a Rockefeller Fellow and return to a position as a professor in Basel. But right after his ship left France for the trip, Germany attacked Austria. Switzerland's politics at the time favored the Austrians, and because Schweitzer was German, he soon discovered his position had disappeared and he could not return to Switzerland. \nInstead, he and his wife needed to find a way to stay in the U.S. The solution was to emigrate from Cuba because the U.S. did not accept political prisoners at the time. In 1938, Cuba's emigration quota was 50 people. Schweitzer and his wife were numbers 48 and 49. \nThe U.S. was still in a depression in the late 1930s, and it was difficult to find jobs, Eric Schweitzer said. That is how his father came to join the faculty of the University of Wyoming in 1939 -- a far cry from Germany and Switzerland. He stayed in Wyoming until his move here to IU in 1947.\n"During the war years," writes Eric, "his first-hand knowledge of the average German citizen, their beliefs, lifestyle and thoughts was in great demand. He participated on panels sponsored by the University and was invited to speak by civic clubs throughout Wyoming. Many of these events were covered by the local press, which provided first-hand knowledge to the general public."\nHis experiences and resulting research made Schweitzer an expert on the Nazi economy. Even after his retirement in 1947, Schweitzer continued his research until he had a stroke at the age of 91. During his career, he published more than 50 articles and wrote three books.\nAlthough his research began with questions about the Nazi regime and who paid for it, Eric said, he also wanted to know how Hitler built up his money and why he was so popular. \nThis led to his interest in the German sociologist Max Weber. Using Weber's theories, Schweitzer compared the charismatic features of world leaders. He often taught classes at IU encompassing economics, sociology and Western European history. \n"His approach to economics was interdisciplinary, on the borderline between economics and sociology," Wicker said. "Art was an iconoclast. He pursued his research interests where ever they led him, even, at times, outside the mainstream."\n-- Contact staff writer Erika Biga Lee at ebiga@indiana.edu.