Aug. 7, 2009


CAMPUS NEWS

Princeton Review ranks RIT among best U.S. colleges
The 2010 edition of The Best 371 Colleges recognizes RIT as one of the nation's best institutions for undergraduate education and ranks the university in the top 20 for best career services based on students' ratings.

RIT grads rank high in salary study
Attractive salaries are among the rewards enjoyed by alumni, according to a study by PayScale Inc. showing the average starting and mid-career salaries for graduates.

RIT earns Campus Technology Innovators Award
The Office of Cooperative Education and Career Services received a Campus Technology Innovators Award for streamlining employer data through a single Web portal.

Four from NTID featured on national radio show
NTID President Alan Hurwitz, along with Robert Panara, retired English professor and NTID's first deaf faculty member, and retirees Paul and Sally Taylor, were interviewed for "StoryCorps," a traveling oral-history project featured on National Public Radio.

Men's hockey announces 2009-2010 schedule
The RIT Tigers men's hockey team will play 34 regular-season games this season, including 15 contests at Ritter Arena and one at Blue Cross Arena in Rochester.

More News & Events

For additional updates, visit the Dateline: RIT Web site, Dateline: RIT Facebook Group, and RIT News Fan Page.


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RIT IN THE NEWS

Highlights of media coverage of RIT news and RIT people in the news. For more RIT In the News, visit the University News Web site.

Click "Text" or scroll down to read story | Click "View Clip" to go to media outlet's Web site

Selected stories (July 16-31, 2009):

SARANAC LAKE -- The last time Suzanne Langelier-Lebeda painted with oil, she was in grad school at the Rochester Institute of Technology.

Her preferences are watercolor and drawing, but she has used the opportunity of her solo show at the Adirondack Artists' Guild to bust out with new Adirondack-themed oil paintings.

Wanting to incorporate the physicality of the environment, she collaborated with Dana LaRue, who created distinctive frames for the paintings.

"Dana was actually building something for a friend of mine," said Langelier-Lebeda, who grew up in the Potsdam area.

She studied with Robert Plume and majored in art education at Buffalo State University. She worked for 25 years as a graphics designer and director of publications at SUNY Potsdam.

"We talked about it, and he was interested. We talked about images. He had wood in different shapes. We coordinated. He would show me wood; I would show him sketches. Between looking at images and wood-framing material, we put together these pieces."

The nine works are oil on panel and mixed media.

"My head is spinning out beyond this," Langelier-Lebeda said. "I still love the idea. I almost wonder if these are the kind of things people like or really do not like. I do have more things planned that take it farther, more refined artwork and the surrounding material."

SMALL THINGS
"Rustic Roots: A Different Look" explores the range of Adirondack seasons.

"I started almost a year before I knew I was having my show," the artist said. "I tried to take things from different scenes -- on a hike, sitting on my deck, watching a heron by the water."

"On Stony Creek Pond" frames a feather. In the painting's backstory, Langelier-Lebeda and a friend were in a canoe on the pond. The artist was snapping photographs. Her friend was paddling. In thick reeds, she saw a feather sitting on top.

"I look for the small things that catch your eye. That's more than just nature. I'm more interested in the little intimacies that happen with the landscape. I like to draw or express those tiny things we walk by. If you're attracted to them like I am, they take on a special kind of significance. They mean more than just what they are. My artwork is about that — make more about the things we see."

And it takes birch bark and twig ornamentation to a different level.

"I can see it becoming more refined Adirondack furniture, more contemporary. The artwork can be more fun and finished. That's where I'm heading with it. That's an idea I'm really compelled to follow through."

She's already talking to other rustic-furniture makers.

"We'll see what happens," Langelier-Lebeda said.

Copyright © 2009 The Press-Republican

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A group of City School District students are spending the summer learning how to build computers at Rochester Institute of Technology.

But the training won't just benefit the 14- and 15-year-olds. The 25 computers they build will be donated to nonprofit organizations, or possibly just one agency, at the end of the six-week summer camp.

"We've done similar programs before where students build computers and keep them. This is the first year where they build computers and donate them," said Kenneth Sayres, director of the program.

The six-week camp that started July 6 is funded by a federal grant administered by RochesterWorks, a nonprofit job development agency that helps workers and employers. Microsoft donated $15,000 in software. The computer kits, worth a total of about $9,000, were donated by Microworx.

In addition to the hands-on technical training, the students also get help with rsum writing, interviewing for jobs, dressing properly for the workplace and general career development.

Anayo Goings, 14, who will be a freshman at Edison Tech in the fall, said she applied for the program because she loves computers.

"I love technology. I like things that have to do with technology. I want to be an engineer for the military," she said.

The students have sent letters to several nonprofit organizations letting them know the 25 computers will be available and asking them for proposals on how the computers might be used by their organization.

"It builds in this whole community service piece where they are giving a part of their work to their community," said Sayres.

The agencies selected by the students to receive the computers, worth about $800 to $1,000, will be notified by about Aug. 7.

"We're not just building the computers and then they're going to be sold. They're going to go to people who really need them," said Whitney Lora, 15, sophomore at the School of the Arts.

Sayres said the students are in complete control of who gets the computers.

"If they want to give them to 25 different organizations, they can. Or if they want to give all 25 of them to one organization, they can. We wanted to give them that power of choice," Sayres said.

Copyright © 2009 Rochester Democrat & Chronicle

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Recent graduates from Rochester Institute of Technology have a bright spot in an otherwise bad economy. A PayScale College Salary report shows the median salary for recent graduates is $51,000, and the mid-career median salary for people with 15 years of work experience and a bachelor's degree is $82,000.

Both figures are the highest among Rochester-area institutions included in this survey, officials said.

“We believe the success of our graduates is a positive reflection on the very high quality of our students, faculty and academic programs,” said Manny Contomanolis, associate vice president of enrollment management and career services and director of RIT's co-op and career services program. “When you add to that the great experience our graduates have through our cooperative education, internship and other experiential education programs, their success should be no surprise.”

PayScale Inc., a Seattle-based compensation analysis firm, surveyed employers in order to incorporate salary information into its data.

Copyright © 2009 Rochester Business Journal

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WYOMING – Who wants to be a millionaire?

Michael Pulcini, a 2001 graduate of Wyoming Area High School, does, and he might have the opportunity to win the big bucks on ABC-TV's “Who Wants To Be A Millionaire 10th Anniversary” show.

Pulcini, 26, is the son of Ray and Chris Pulcini of Harding. Chris Pulcini said her son always loved game shows and dreamed of being a contestant one day.

Celebrating its 10th anniversary, the hit show with host Regis Philbin comes back to television on ABC prime time this summer for a special two-week event. “Who Wants To Be A Millionaire” premiers Sunday, Aug. 9, at 8 p.m. and will air for 11 nights, Sundays through Thursdays, at 8 p.m. The finale airs on Sunday, Aug. 23, at 8 p.m.

Michael Pulcini is one of 10 contestants vying to sit in the hot seat across from Philbin and hopefully answer 15 questions en route to the seven figure prize. His mom said Pulcini will have to have the “fastest fingers” to earn a chance at the $1 million prize. Contestants are given a list of events and must put them in chronological order. The fastest to do it correctly gets a shot at the prize.

Pulcini said her son graduated from the Rochester Institute of Technology and holds a master's degree in computer science. Pulcini got married in June and his wife, Mina, will accompany him to the show taping in New York City.

“He always wanted to be on ‘Jeopardy',” Pulcini said of her son. “When he was young, he loved to watch ‘The Price is Right'. He used to call Bob Barker ‘Bob Bob.' I'm just so happy that he will finally get this experience.”

Chris Pulcini said the show will start taping on Thursday. She said her husband, Ray, is on the phone-a-friend lifeline list.

“We will be sitting home waiting for the phone to ring,” she said. “Hopefully, he will get the chance to go for the million and we'll be ready to help.”

Pulcini said she hopes all of her son's friends and teachers watch and support him.

“He really is very intelligent,” she said. “I know he will do well.”

Copyright © 2009 The Times Leader

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Hint: Grab a pencil, calculator, protractor ... or a drill. Engineering majors snag most of the top spots.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Math majors don't always get much respect on college campuses, but fat post-grad wallets should be enough to give them a boost.

The top 15 highest-earning college degrees all have one thing in common -- math skills. That's according to a recent survey from the National Association of Colleges and Employers, which tracks college graduates' job offers.

"Math is at the crux of who gets paid," said Ed Koc, director of research at NACE. "If you have those skills, you are an extremely valuable asset. We don't generate enough people like that in this country."

This year Rochester Institute of Technology hosted recruiters from defense-industry firms like Lockheed Martin (LMT, Fortune 500) and Northrop Grumman (NOC, Fortune 500), as well as other big companies like Microsoft (MSFT, Fortune 500) and Johnson & Johnson (JNJ, Fortune 500).

"The tech fields are what's driving salaries and offers, and the top students are faring quite well," said Emanuel Contomanolis, who runs RIT's career center.

Specifically, engineering diplomas account for 12 of the 15 the top-paying majors. NACE collects its data by surveying 200 college career centers.

Energy is the key. Petroleum engineering was by far highest-paying degree, with an average starting offer of $83,121, thanks to that resource's growing scarcity. Graduates with these degrees generally find work locating oil and gas reservoirs, or in developing ways to bring those resources to the Earth's surface.

"Exploration for new energy sources is high," Koc said. "The oil and gas industry has done relatively well the past year, even though oil prices are off right now."

Other highly-paid engineering majors include chemical engineers, who employ their skills to make everything from plastics to fuel cells and have an average starting offer of $64,902.

Mining engineers start at $64,404 on average, while computer engineers, who have an expertise in both coding and electrical engineering, pocket roughly $61,738 their first year out of school.

Left behind. Of course, not every student with an engineering degree will score a fat paycheck. RIT's Contomanolis noted that "average" graduates are feeling the pinch of fewer job offers. Still, in a tough job market, graduates with technology degrees have an advantage.

"It's a tech-driven world, and demand [for engineers] is only going to grow," said Farnoosh Torabi, employment expert and Quicken blog editor. "You can't say that about many fields, especially in a recession."

Perhaps that's why more and more college students are picking their majors based on a field's earning power, ultimately "choosing a major that pays," Torabi said.

Top non-engineering fields. Only three of the 15 top paying degrees were outside the field of engineering -- but they each still require math skills.

For computer science majors, who specialize in programming and software, the average salary was $61,407. Graduates with degrees in actuarial science took home about $56,320; and jobs for students in construction management paid about $53,199. Each of these fields has paid well throughout the years, Koc said.

What happened to well-rounded? There are far fewer people graduating with math-based majors, compared to their liberal-arts counterparts, which is why they are paid at such a premium. The fields of engineering and computer science each make up about 4% of all college graduates, while social science and history each comprise 16%, Koc noted.

As a result, salaries for graduates who studied fields like social work command tiny paychecks, somewhere in the vicinity of $29,000. English, foreign language and communications majors make about $35,000, Koc said.

"It's a supply and demand issue," he added. "So few grads offer math skills, and those who can are rewarded."

Copyright © 2009 Cable News Network

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dotSyntax announced today that Digsby has passed 1 million users with over 3 million managed accounts. Digsby, an innovative product that integrates all your instant messaging, e-mail, and social network accounts into one application, has shown explosive growth as users look for an easy way to manage their social connections. Digsby's growth has been fueled by the word-of-mouth efforts of satisfied users. To encourage their users to keep spreading the word, dotSyntax is also announcing the launch of the Digsby Affiliate Program, a first in the IM industry.

Rochester, NY (PRWEB) July 24, 2009 -- dotSyntax, the startup behind Digsby, announced today that Digsby has passed 1 million users with over 3 million managed accounts. Digsby, an innovative product that integrates all your instant messaging, e-mail, and social network accounts into one application, has shown explosive growth as users look for an easy way to manage their social connections.

The year long public development effort has resulted in what dotSyntax is calling a 360º communication tool, designed to facilitate online conversations across all mediums with an intuitive interface and feature-rich options. With the ability to communicate via email, two-way text messaging, IM, Facebook, Twitter, GTalk, and audio/video chat, Digsby eliminates the need to have several browser windows and programs open.

The continuing growth of social networks has made online account management seem like a part-time job as people dedicate more and more time to maintaining those networks. A recent Nielson Online report showed that in the U.S. alone, total minutes spent on Facebook increased nearly 700 percent year-over-year in 2009. Similar trends can be found for other social networks such as Twitter, which saw over a 3700 percent growth in the same year.

"We built Digsby to simplify people's lives so they can focus less on signing in and more on staying connected," said Steve Shapiro, president of dotSyntax, "Our rapid growth shows the utility people find in Digsby and why it's become the preferred platform for high efficiency digital communication."

Digsby's growth has been fueled by the word-of-mouth efforts of satisfied users. To encourage their users to keep spreading the word, dotSyntax is also announcing the launch of the Digsby Affiliate Program. A first in the IM industry, the program will pay affiliates up to $1.00 for every new Digsby user they bring. Affiliates can promote Digsby by placing banners or buttons on their blog or website, or by simply inviting their friends with their affiliate link.

To download this free software or to learn more about Digsby visit http://www.digsby.com.

About dotSyntax:
dotSyntax was founded in December, 2005 with the goal of simplifying online communication through its flagship product, Digsby. Digsby is the first desktop application which allows for simultaneous management of all IM, e-mail, and social network accounts from one easy-to-use application. dotSyntax was founded by Rochester Institute of Technology graduates in RIT's Venture Creations Incubator. For more information, please visit http://www.digsby.com.

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2009/07/prweb2674134.htm.

Copyright © 2009 The Ibtimes Company

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Among Rochester-area institutions of higher learning, a degree from Rochester Institute of Technology pays among the best dividends, according to a new study by PayScale Inc., a Seattle-based compensation analysis firm.

RIT grads have an average starting salary of $51,000 and a mid-career median salary of $82,500, according to the study, which used data from surveyed employers.

Other colleges in the region listed in the study include Alfred University ($44,400 starting salary, $79,400 mid-career median) and the State University College at Geneseo ($41,100 and $76,600).

Colgate University in Madison County topped the PayScale rankings of the New York colleges and universities that were listed, with average starting salaries of $51,900 and mid-career median salaries of $122,000.

For more on the PayScale survey, visit www.payscale.com/best-colleges

Copyright © 2009 Rochester Democrat & Chronicle

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A Rochester pair's intimate documentary about a Calcutta home for deaf or disabled people gets its first screening tonight at The Little Theatre.

David Justice and Christy Smith spent five weeks last year at Shuktara, a residence for 19 children and young adults. The stay was part of an eight-country tour to explore deaf people's education, resources and social status in the Far East and Australia.

"In developing countries, 80 percent of deaf people get no education at all," says Smith, 30, citing a recent study by the World Federation of the Deaf.

"The bigger issue is poverty," says Justice, 30. "All of the deaf kids at Shuktara were abandoned by their parents. Many times, it's because they couldn't deal with the financial burden."

During their yearlong trip, the pair visited more than 100 deaf schools and associations from China to Australia. They brought complementary strengths to this challenging mission.

Smith had instant recognition as a former contestant on CBS Survivor: The Amazon. (She lasted 33 of 39 steamy days.) A deaf woman, she has taught sign language and created a PBS children's show, Christy's Kids.

Justice, a hearing man, is a job developer at the Rochester School for the Deaf. His friendship with Smith began in 2004 while they were working at an Aspen, Colo., camp for deaf youth.

To finance the Asian trip, they sold their cars and dissolved their savings to come up with $20,000. The remaining $13,000 in travel costs was raised from Rochester businesses and private donors along the way.

The new documentary, Discovering: Shuktara, gives frank glimpses into the lives of children and young adults with epilepsy, cerebral palsy and deafness. Shot with a handheld camera, it's alternately sobering and inspiring in the cinematic mold of Slumdog Millionaire (2008) and Born into Brothels: Calcutta's Red Light Kids (2004). Unlike Slumdog Millionaire, the children's stories are true and carry no guarantee of a happy ending.

The narratives typically begin in Calcutta's Howrah Station — a busy railway stop that has become a hub for runaways and abandoned children. One deaf and epileptic Shuktara boy, sleeping on a train, had been deserted there by his father.

"Some kids rummage through the trains to find leftover food," Justice says. "One deaf boy would catch rats by the tracks, kill them and cook them in newspaper over a makeshift stove."

Shuktara, founded in 1999 by British social crusader David Earp, has earned a reputation as a safe haven for such youngsters. Other group homes often refer them to Shuktara when they're found at Howrah Station.

Some show strong intellectual gifts despite desperate circumstances. A silent 14-year-old named Ashok could understand Bengali, Hindi, English and sign language. Yet he only communicated in sign language because of his cerebral palsy.

Once placed at Shuktara, youngsters get room, board and access to local schools. The documentary shows them in a familial atmosphere — flying kites, playing cricket and enjoying each other's company.

Smith and Justice hope to launch a language development program for residents next year. Tonight's screening, a benefit for that project, is expected to draw 300 people and raise at least $15,000 from tickets, sponsors and a raffle.

The event is sponsored by Discovering Deaf Worlds, a three-year-old international deaf advocacy organization. It's run by Justice, Smith and Davin Searls, an English tutor at the National Technical Institute for the Deaf in Henrietta.

"We hope to travel to Chuktara next year to set up the language program," says Searls, 24, who is deaf.

That trip, too, will doubtless be planned on a shoestring budget.

"We're just three people with big dreams," Searls says.

Copyright © 2009 Rochester Democrat & Chronicle

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Comprehensive Overview Cites Tax, Trade and Training Policies.

Washington, DC. A new book provides insights into why the U.S. faces another "jobless recovery" plagued by long-term economic weaknesses, even when the current recession technically ends. Citing numerous shortcomings in tax, trade and workforce training policies, the volume is the most up to date and comprehensive overview of American manufacturing - "one of the only sectors of the economy that creates wealth" - explaining its value, the obstacles it faces, and the danger of its continuing demise in the absence of major policy changes.

Manufacturing a Better Future for America, written by leading academic and industry experts, outlines why manufacturing is vital to the U.S. economy and provides objective information and analysis on a full range of topics - from the current state of U.S.-based producers and industry trends, the history of U.S. trade and industrial policies, and other countries' unfair trade practices to the impact on workers, society, training, research, and defense.

The United States "is broke because it has stopped producing what it consumes" writes the book's editor, Richard McCormack. Even an increase in consumer demand, he notes, "will not put Americans back to work" as the "spending will only help workers making products overseas." Offshoring of production is also of great concern because, "The United States is not generating enough wealth to pay its mounting and massive debts."

"To build a strong economy that works, we must understand what's really happening today," said Scott Paul, Executive Director of the Alliance for American Manufacturing (AAM), the book's publisher. "Much of the conventional wisdom about manufacturing is wrong or out of date. The book provides a fresh look and sets the record straight on myths that skew the economic debate. With its objective analysis, it should spur a more informed national discussion."

About 40,000 U.S. manufacturing plants closed between 2001 and 2008, resulting in the loss of millions of good-paying jobs. From 2001 to 2007, 2.3 million jobs were lost just from the U.S.'s huge trade deficit with China.

"The mindset among America's economic elite - that the country does not need an industrial base - has put the country and the world economy in a ditch," writes McCormack, who is also the editor and publisher of Manufacturing & Technology News. "Only with a revitalized manufacturing base can America assure itself a prosperous and hopeful future." The book, he said, "can help set the foundation for a new economic era based on the necessity of creating millions of good-paying jobs."

The book refutes some widely promoted myths, including that the U.S. economy can thrive with just service industries as good-paying jobs are replaced by other sectors. It also debunks the notion that lost manufacturing plants will not mean lost research and development. It details the unfair trading practices China employs, and explains the social costs of the decline in manufacturing. And it outlines recent trends, not only about trade policies and practices, but also the exporting of innovation, the shift away from job training, and the threat to national security.

International trade has had a major impact on the "hollowing out" of American manufacturing resulting in the loss of millions of jobs and depressed wages. "China stands head and shoulders above all other trading partners as a source of America's chronic trade deficits," writes one of the book's co-authors Peter Navarro of the University of California, Irvine. In 2008, the U.S.-China trade gap was $266 billion, more than one-third of the entire U.S. trade deficit.

With high-level U.S.-China talks convening in Washington this month, Navarro offers a detailed primer on the dozen-plus unfair trade practices employed by China and other competitors. "China is engaging in the most massive campaign of mercantilism and protectionism ever witnessed."

A key chapter on the history of U.S. trade policy shows how a shift in post-World War II policies contributed to the decline in manufacturing. "For the past 60 years, the needs and interests of American manufacturers have taken a back seat to the country's geopolitical interests and the interests of the U.S. financial sector," write Clyde Prestowitz and Kate Heidinger of the Economic Strategy Institute.

One of the biggest myths promoted by those favoring status-quo globalization is that losing manufacturing isn't harmful (and maybe even good) because the U.S. can specialize in technology and innovation. Low-skill jobs would be replaced by high-skilled, well-paid jobs. In fact, writes Ron Hira of the Rochester Institute of Technology, "some high-tech jobs and sectors have already moved to low-cost countries like India and China, and there is even more evidence that this migration will increase."

Hira shows that not only is the U.S. running trade deficits in high-tech products, but research and development facilities are moving overseas as well. Even U.S. universities are moving to train American competitors overseas. At the same time, federal funding for research and development is declining, while most other countries are increasing their R&D investments.

Likewise, the rhetoric of the 1990s promising that "competitiveness" would be enhanced by education and training was replaced by a focus on boosting profits through overseas investments. "The 'high road' strategies of the 1990s . . . were jettisoned in favor of earning tons of money from easily exploitable low-wage workers," writes James Jacobs, the President of Macomb Community College. Corporate and public dollars moved abruptly from training incumbent workers to assessing potential workers. Today, "education and training is shifting from being a responsibility of the employers to being the responsibility of the employees."

All of this offshoring of industries and jobs has a high cost. "Youngstown's [Ohio] story in the 1980s is America's story today," write Youngstown State University professors John Russo and Sherry Lee Linkon. Communities with even once strong high-tech industries are shedding jobs. Russo and Linkon catalogue the social cost of deindustrialization- from loss of jobs and eroding tax bases to decaying cities and rising crime - and how it produces "declining economic security of the entire American middle and working class."

And deindustrialization now poses a threat to national security. Research by Michael Webber of the University of Texas at Austin shows that, "For 13 of the 16 industries that comprise the defense industrial manufacturing support base, significant erosion took place in two or more indicators without any signs of recovery."

Finally, several chapters focus on future prospects. One, by Pennsylvania State University's Irene Petrick outlines opportunities for small- and medium-sized businesses. And David Bourne of Carnegie Mellon University discusses trends and factors - such as energy costs, technology, and environmental regulation - that will shape the future of manufacturing.

AAM's Scott Paul says the book will be valuable for anyone who wants a better understanding of the American economy and its future, especially policymakers, economists, and the media. It will also be used as a textbook in universities throughout the country.

Copyright 2009 Ultio, LLC

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I recently spent a week working with young people in the developing country of Guatemala. I accompanied members and alumni of the Roberts Wesleyan College Students in Free Enterprise (SIFE) team on its sixth annual visit to Santa Cruz, a remote village of about 2,000 in a region called Baja Verapaz.

While our time in the village was limited, I had the opportunity to view first-hand the types of people Muhammad Yunus believes are key pieces to solving the puzzle of world poverty.

Yunus, author of Banker to the Poor: Micro-Lending and the Battle Against World Poverty and Creating a World Without Poverty: Social Business and the Future of Capitalism, founded Grameen Bank based on a model of lending small amounts of money to poor people in Bangladesh. He has proven over the years that teaching people to use the skills they already have to make money and thus create an economy in their community is one of the most successful ways to raise peoples standards of living and lower the poverty rate.

Yunus approach has been duplicated around the world, and in past years the Roberts SIFE team has made loans to those in Santa Cruz for various business ventures. We witnessed the results in progress of one such loan by Julio, a 14-year-old boy who used the money he borrowed to plant crops on the land behind the two-room house where he, his seven siblings and his mother share the same dirt-floor bedroom.

We spent the bulk of our days in Santa Cruz at the villages one school, which serves all grades. We led hands-on activities intended to teach the business concepts of borrowing money, purchasing raw materials, producing goods, marketing products, negotiating with potential buyers and paying back loans, all of which are useful skills regardless of what line of work the students pursue later on. As in Julios case, later on sometimes starts early.

Unfortunately, one does not have to travel outside the United States, let alone Rochester, to see the effects of poverty. To its credit, the Roberts SIFE team does far more in the Rochester community than it does anywhere else to promote entrepreneurship, financial literacy, ethics and, in turn, self-sufficiency.

I have been inspired by the Roberts SIFE team and the people they have impacted, and I know Muhammad Yunus would also be proud.

Peter Rosenthal of Greece is a former adviser of the Students in Free Enterprise team at the Rochester Institute of Technology, where he is an adjunct professor and assistant director at the Saunders College of Business.

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Kids get feel for what real meet is like

As the starter gun fires, eight ambitious runners take off in unison, legs and arms pumping in rhythm as they dash for the finish line.

In the stands surrounding Rochester Institute of Technology's track, parents, family and friends cheer on the runners, providing an encouraging atmosphere that mimics a junior varsity or varsity track meet.

Therein resides the vision of the RIT Summer Track and Field Series, which aims to introduce children to the world of track and field well before they're on school teams.

Every meet detail closely resembles high school competitions, from the cheering spectators and starter's pistol to the automatic timing system and the USA Track & Field officials who oversee the meets.

While she was nervous competing in her first-ever meet, Grace Adams was ready to race in the 200 meters and launch herself forwards as far as she can in the long jump. She traveled with several of her friends, with each athlete sporting purple tie-dyed T-shirts as their uniforms. "It was a lot of fun, you get to win ribbons and race and it's great seeing how fast I can go," said Grace, 7, of Fairport and a third-grader at Dudley Elementary School. "Seeing how fast I can be against other kids my age was cool, and if you do well you get a ribbon. I had a great time."

During last summer's Olympics, Lucas Simpson made sure to watch the running events on television and found himself admiring the blazing speed of world record holder Usain Bolt from Jamaica. So as Lucas darted for the finish line during his 200-meter race, the Fairport resident had one thought on his mind.

"The gun really startled me, so I just took off as fast as I could and didn't stop until I crossed the finish line," said Lucas, 8, a Northside Elementary School fourth-grader who attended the meet with his brother Rorie, 5.

"This is cool because it gives kids experience with running and learning the sport. Some people watch the Olympics and want to become a sprinter, but coming to these races helps you learn what it takes to be a runner."

The short sprint events, such as the 100- and 400-meter dashes are popular, as are the 400- and 800-meter relays. Many of the older participants enjoy challenging themselves with the 1,500 and 3,000 meters and the 100- and 100-meter high hurdles.

The series also gave children a chance to experience field events such as the long jump, hammer/discus throw, shot put, javelin and pole vault.

Nathan Lawler plays football, soccer, basketball and baseball, and uses the lessons he's learned on the track to better himself in his other sports. He attended two of the summer series meets and enjoyed the 800 meters most. His tips for success?

"When you're doing a sprint, run as fast as you can. When doing a longer race, you need to pace yourself," said Nathan, 9, of Pittsford, a Thornell Road Elementary School fifth-grader.

"Here you can always compare your jumps and your times to other people and see how much better you've done. You can always try to get a new record for yourself."

Scores are logged electronically and then posted on the series' Web site, where athletes can check and compare their times and progress over the season. Dave Hillengas is a certified USATF official who has worked youth, high school and college meets for 24 years. He said children enjoy testing their speed on the track, but that most of the kids he's officiated for prefer the thrill of the long and triple jump events.

"This is the perfect introductory track series. It's very professional, with all the equipment you'd ever need," said Hillengas, of Brighton.

"It's a good feeder program, and it gets these kids into an activity they can be doing long after they get out of school."

July 14 was the finale of the six-week series. The RIT River Road Running Club sponsored the series. For more information, visit www.rochestersummertrack.com.

Copyright © 2009 Rochester Democrat & Chronicle

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Oceangoing ships are not the cleanest form of transportation. Their fuels usually have high sulfur content, which leads to high particulate emissions. And air that is high in particulates has been linked to health problems like asthma, heart attacks and lung cancer, particularly among people who live in coastal areas.

As a result, the International Maritime Organization has adopted policies calling for reducing the sulfur content of marine fuels, from an average of about 3 percent currently to 0.5 percent by 2020. A few areas have been created, notably in the Baltic and North seas, that will require use of fuel with even less sulfur.

A study in the journal Environmental Science and Technology suggests that such reductions, if enforced, would cut the number of potential premature deaths due to ship emissions in half in some cases.

James J. Winebrake of the Rochester Institute of Technology and colleagues modeled the impact of reducing sulfur content globally, and within 200 miles of coastal areas, versus maintaining the status quo. They found that by 2012, with no reduction in sulfur content, about 87,000 premature deaths annually could be attributed to ship emissions.

Reducing sulfur content to half of one percent worldwide would cut that number by about 41,000, they said.

Copyright © 2009 The New York Times Company

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Computerworld - WASHINGTON -- U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton finished up her trip to India on Monday with a promise to improve cooperation on high-tech trade between the two countries, but she offered no specifics about how that will be accomplished.

Instead, Clinton left with an agreement that the two countries will continue talking 'with the objective of facilitating smoother trade in high technology between the two economies.'

That statement appears to be an effort to lessen protectionist fears in India triggered by a number of events, including a comment in May, by President Barack Obama that the U.S. has developed a tax code 'that says you should pay lower taxes if you create a job in Bangalore, India, than if you create one in Buffalo, N.Y.'

But what has really drawn the concern of India's tech industry is the threat of action by Congress, namely legislation by Sens. Chuck Grassley, (R-Iowa), and Dick Durbin, (D-Ill.), that would set a number of restrictions on overseas firms that need H-1B visas to deliver their services.

In an interview on NDTV (New Delhi Television Ltd.), Clinton was asked about the concerns of India's business community by reporter Barkha Dutt. (Excerpt begins at the 8:50 minute mark.)

'Outsourcing is such a big issue for the Indian business community. We all remember President Obama's great metaphor of 'say yes to Buffalo, no to Bangalore' -- is this an unavoidable protectionism given the global economic meltdown?' asked Dutt.

'I think it's a friendly competition,' said Clinton, who went on to explain that any country 'is going to want to make sure we have enough jobs for our people. What President Obama has said is we do not want a return to protectionism.'

'So we have to figure out how we are going to work together,' said Clinton. 'Outsourcing is a concern for many communities and businesses in my country, so how we handle that is something that we're very focused on doing in a way that doesn't disrupt the great flow of trade and services that go between our countries.'

The agreement that the U.S. signed in India will be taken up by what is being called the High Technology Cooperation Dialog.

'I think the critical issue is whether all stakeholders have a voice in the policymaking process,' said Ron Hira, an assistant professor of public policy at the Rochester Institute of Technology and author of Outsourcing America. 'To date, U.S. workers, especially American IT workers, have had no official channel with which to promote their interests,' he said.

Hira said that it is clear that both U.S. business interests and Indian business interests are represented in the talks, 'But is there anyone representing the interests of U.S. workers? The answer is no. Since they are absent, or a more accurate description would be 'excluded,' American IT workers' interests can easily be ignored by politicians in the State and Commerce Department(s),' said Hira.

Copyright © 2009 Computerworld Inc.

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Sacramento, California - On the last day of the Green Jobs Waiver public comment period, Growth Energy joined with tens of thousands of Americans in submitting formal comments to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in favor of increasing the amount of ethanol that can be blended with gasoline to 15 percent.

Growth Energy submitted its 37-page analysis which outlines the overwhelming scientific evidence that increasing the blend to 15 percent has no adverse impact on a car's performance, maintenance or emissions.

Included in this analysis is an ongoing Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) study conducted on more than 400 conventional vehicles that used 100,000 gallons of mid-level ethanol blends and were driven 1.5 million miles. It found there were no significant issues and reduced tailpipe emissions. The submission also supports the industry's effort to create jobs here at home, make our nation more energy independent, improve the environment, and move to more homegrown renewable fuels.

“Tens of thousands of Americans spoke loud and clear in favor of increasing the amount of ethanol in our fuel supply to 15 percent. I commend them for standing up for a domestic fuel that helps create jobs and makes our nation more energy independent,” said Tom Buis, Growth Energy CEO. “While many will continue to say more testing is necessary, our waiver request contains the testing and data to support EPA granting the E15 waiver. More testing is just another politically-motivatedbarrier to prevent this nation from reducing its addiction to foreign oil.”

“Forty years ago, America put a man on the moon because of our can-do attitude. As a result, our country is more secure, more prosperous and more technologically advanced. America needs to regain that can-do attitude and move forward in a determined fashion towards energy independence and the significant economic impact and job growth this will create. I urge EPA to act quickly to provide relief to the American farmer and the American consumer.”

Already the ethanol industry has helped create and support half a million jobs across the country. Increasing the blend to 15 percent will create and support more than 136,000 new green-collar jobs.

California's energy policy calls for replacing 20 percent of the state's petroleum fuel with alternative fuels, including ethanol, by 2020. Today, more than 1 billion gallons of ethanol are blended into California's fuel supply. Of those, more than 700 million gallons come from out of state producers, many of them Growth Energy members, displacing nearly 17 million barrels of crude oil, dramatically reducing California's carbon emissions and greenhouse gases.

Growth Energy submitted the waiver request on March 6, 2009, on behalf of its members and an additional 54 ethanol producers. Over the course of the 90 day public comment period, groups and individuals submitted more than 20,000 comments in support of the waiver. EPA has until December 2009 to rule on the waiver.

Copyright © 2009 Imperial Valley News

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Jul. 17--WINSTON-SALEM -- Warren Hammond might've become a world-renowned research virologist, but he was done in by a bug that infected him a long time ago -- the juggling bug.

"The research and lab life just wasn't for me," explains Hammond, who threw out his biology degree and his molecular virology studies in grad school for a life of throwing balls, clubs, rings and anything else that can be juggled.

"The research field is a long, hard road, and it has very little job security and few job prospects. I just said, "OK, I'm not having any fun,' so I quit."

And life as a professional juggler? Well, it's a long, hard road, too, and job prospects can be feast or famine, especially in the current economy.

But is this 28-year-old juggler from Boulder, Colo., having fun? More fun than he had, say, studying molecular virology?

"Oh yeah, this is phenomenal," says Hammond, one of the hundreds of jugglers -- some pros, some just hobbyists -- who have gathered in Winston-Salem this week for the 62nd annual festival of the International Jugglers' Association. "I wish I'd done this years and years and years sooner."

Hammond learned to juggle when he was about 14, when he picked up three of his brother's tennis balls on a whim, just to see if he could juggle them. To his astonishment, he mastered juggling the balls, and within a couple of hours he was performing a show for his mother.

"It was one of the first things in my life that came really naturally for me," Hammond recalls with a chuckle. "I remember playing baseball as a child, and I was hitless for about two years."

Living in Roanoke, Va., at the time, Hammond found a local man to give him lessons, and he's been juggling ever since. He fulfilled his mother's wishes by going to college and getting his degree, but he made sure it was at a school -- the Rochester Institute of Technology in Rochester, N.Y. -- that's a juggling mecca, because of an instructor there who teaches juggling courses.

"I actually included juggling in my application essay," Hammond points out.

After dropping out of grad school, Hammond has spent the past year or so performing with Lazer Vaudeville, an established juggling act that's been touring nationally and internationally for more than 20 years. He's competing in the teams competition at this week's festival with friend Reid Belstock; the team, which they call Smirk, was in second place after preliminary rounds.

"I can juggle just about anything at this point, but I tend to concentrate on clubs mostly, followed by balls, and then some rings and auxiliary props like devil sticks and diablos," Hammond says.

"But my specialty, I would say, is club passing -- throwing clubs back and forth between two people or more. That's why I'm in the teams championship -- that's where I feel the most creative and it's what I enjoy the most."

For good measure, Hammond is even dating a fellow juggler, Bekah Smith, who is also at this week's festival.

More than 500 jugglers -- some from as far away as Japan, China and Taiwan -- are in Winston-Salem this week, according to festival director Mike Sullivan.

"They come here because this is the pinnacle of juggling," he says. "We have shows and competitions four nights this week, and we have over a hundred workshops where they can learn from other great jugglers."

Many hobbyists come to the festival, simply because of their great passion for juggling, Sullivan says.

"And the great thing is they can mingle and learn from professionals and champion medal-winners," he says. "So it's like going to golf camp and sitting there having breakfast with Tiger Woods every morning."

The appeal of juggling, Sullivan says, is that you can learn it at any age, you can do it in so many different forms and with so many different props, and you can pursue it at whatever level of involvement you like.

"And the great thing is that nobody is born knowing how to juggle, but everybody can learn how to juggle in about 10 minutes," he says. "It's a great equalizer. People who may not be good at any other sport might wind up to be a fantastic juggler."

Just ask that former research virologist.

Copyright © 2009 High Point Enterprise, N.C.

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