3 items found for your search. If no results were found please broaden your search.
(03/06/14 3:05am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>IU was named a partner for the $320 million Chicago-based Digital Lab of Manufacturing. The lab’s building plans were announced by President Barack Obama on Feb. 25.More than 30 academic partners and 40 industrial partners will join IU in the new manufacturing innovation. It also has support from more than 500 companies and organizations. The new research institute is funded by a $70 million Digital Manufacturing and Design Innovation grant from the Department of Defense, with an additional $250 million in funds from private partnerships.The Digital Lab for Manufacturing is part of President Obama’s National Network for Manufacturing.Obama said it is a priority to make the United States a magnet for new jobs and manufacturing, according to the Digital Lab’s website.“IU will be the nation’s flagship research institute in digital manufacturing and design innovation, which will apply cutting-edge mobile, cloud and high-performance computing capabilities to reduce the time and costs of manufacturing,” News and Media Director Ryan Piurek said. “It will accelerate new product development and make the U.S. manufacturing sector more competitive.” Rather than housing a lab itself, IU will be connected to the University of Illinois Digital Labs that run the Digital Lab in Chicago. The lab and IU will also be connected to network manufacturing partners and research sites across the U.S. “IU’s high-performance computing resources, such as our Big Red II supercomputer and our vast expertise in cloud computing and cybersecurity, including faculty and labs in the School of Informatics and Computing and at University Information Technology Services, make the University a strong and ideal match for the Digital Lab,” Piurek said. He said IU’s pre-existing partnerships with Digital Lab’s key partners were also a factor.These partnerships include Microsoft, Rolls-Royce North America, Boeing, Dow, General Electric and Honeywell, among others.Digital Lab partners will have access to IU’s supercomputer, Big Red II.IU-Bloomington houses the supercomputer, but it serves as a community resource for all IU campuses.The supercomputer allows critical new research for IU faculty and researchers, and operates at a processing speed of one petaflop — meaning one thousand trillion floating-point operations per second. Along with access to Big Red II, Digital Lab will use an online software program as a cloud for computing research expertise and technologies, cyberinfrastructure and cybersecurity expertise, as well as large-scale software development. Digital Lab is expected to use an online software program called the Digital Manufacturing Commons. The DMC software will allow Digital Lab partners to share data during the design stages of products. This will enable a real-time collaboration of major data by creating a large online network of people, machines and factories. “We’re very excited about the opportunity to be a part of a nationwide initiative...that has enormous potential to reinvigorate the U.S. manufacturing sector, speed up innovation and create jobs,” Piurek said.IU Vice President for Research Jorge José said IU’s Advanced Visualization Lab, Engineering Design Research Laboratory, Multibody Dynamics Lab and Advanced Engineering and Manufacturing Lab will all participate in research for Digital Lab’s mission, according to a press release.“We’re confident that many of our unmatched research, faculty and technological resources will enable us to be a major player in helping the Digital Lab successfully transform the country’s economic landscape,” Piurek said.
(02/24/14 4:54am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>For the first time, IU has a parliamentary debate team. Junior Colin Landberg and sophomore Mike Blomquist, co-presidents of the Indiana Forensics Team, re-assembled the team from the ground up this year. Landberg said they decided to rebuild the team because they thought it would be able to help all IU students improve their communication skills. “It’s an academic sport,” he said. “We believe that IU has the talent pool to succeed.”Landberg and Blomquist traveled Feb. 15 to the Ivy Tech Community College campus in Indianapolis to compete in the Indiana Speech Tournament.Debate topics are broken into nine sections, and the scores are added up at the end, Landberg said. The only topics the IU team competes in are prose interpretation, after-dinner speaking, dramatic interpretation and poetry interpretation. Landberg’s and Blomquist’s results placed them at sixth in state. But Landberg, a telecommunications major, was named state champion in the prose debate. “It makes me happy that we are able to compete,” Landberg said. Landberg said he gets a little nervous before competing. He said he channels the nervousness to his advantage.“Over the years I have learned to use the nervous energy in a positive way,” he said.Blomquist is double majoring in telecommunications and script writing. He competed in the topics of prose, poetry and after-dinner speaking last weekend.After-dinner speaking consists of writing humorous, original speech, Blomquist said. “You try to make a serious point through humor.” Blomquist said.Blomquist placed sixth in after-dinner speaking and third in poetry interpretation. Landberg said he would encourage students to join the team to improve their communication skills.“Communication skills are beneficial no matter what career path you choose,” he said. “Sharpening those skills is always important.” Blomquist said he agreed.“I think with speech and debate, there is something for everyone.” Blomquist said. “It’s a great resource, and it’s fun to be a part of a team.”An earlier version of this story said IU's speech and debate team was resurrected after a 20-year hiatus. Also, that Indiana Forensics Team has an only 10-member roster, with enough funding to support three competitors. Also, Landberg said the team didn't have a director or buses when traveling to state, and that most teams and their members had discounted food.
(02/21/14 4:06am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Five of IU’s Residential Programs and Services employees were recently honored with the E. Ross Bartley Award for remaking the large, iconic banners that hang in the Musical Arts Center. The E. Ross Bartley Award is the highest award an IU staff member can receive.Kathy Duncan, Adria Boruff, Lucy Cabrera, Connie Ducker and Jenna Salyers work in the RPS sewing room, where they produce many of the furnishings that hang in campus residence halls.The team remade the two 21-by-21 foot banners that hang in the MAC after they had become faded by the sun. This is the third fabrication of the banners due to sun exposure. “It’s not something we normally do,” said Boruff, one of the seamstresses. “When they brought the project to us, nobody knew what to do with it. It was a big deal for everyone to get it back up.” Designed by renowned artist George Earl Ortman, the abstract banners have hung in the MAC since it was dedicated in 1972. The banners comprise blue horizontal and yellow vertical lines, along with red circles and diamonds. The team began remaking the banners in September and finished in mid-December. Seamstress Kathy Duncan said the banners’ size posed a challenge. “We did not have enough room to lay it out, so we had to go to the Hoosier Den to have the room to lay it flat,” she said. “It was originally in the MAC, so it meant a lot to have everything back to how it was before. It took a lot of effort and work, so it meant a lot to us to be recognized.”IU President Michael McRobbie presented the award to the five women during the re-dedication ceremony Feb. 15.“Indiana University is grateful to these five wonderful staff members whose dedication and skill have ensured that these acclaimed and much-loved works of art are once again hanging proudly in the MAC,” McRobbie said in a press release.The E. Ross Bartley award is given to “a member of the administrative or support staff who demonstrates outstanding leadership skills, service and professional accomplishment at the local, state or national level,” according to the IU website. “It’s very special to us,” Boruff said. “It was a very big deal for us. We got to work on it together. It means so much to us, and to me.”Follow reporter Sierra Gardner on Twitter @sierralynng.