June 2, 2008


CAMPUS NEWS AND NEWS & EVENTS HIGHLIGHTS

Eugene Fram's legacy: 'You have to be responsive'
Professor Emeritus Eugene Fram, who has retired from RIT after 51 years of teaching, was presented with the Presidential Medallion during RIT's Academic Convocation on May 23.

'Super road maps' will give planetary details
Technology that could one day "MapQuest" Mars and other bodies in the solar system is under development in RIT's Rochester Imaging Detector Laboratory.

Archeologist uncovers ancient history with satellites
Satellite imagery from NASA is helping RIT archeologist Bill Middleton peer into the ancient Mexican past.

RIT names new college dean
H. Fred Walker, a veteran teacher, scholar and administrator from the University of Southern Maine, has been appointed dean of the College of Applied Science and Technology.

RIT honors distinguished alumni
RIT's Distinguished Alumni for 2008 were recently honored for leadership and community service.

More News & Events

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


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 (May 16-31, 2008):

NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope has found a bizarre ring of material around the magnetic remains of a star that blasted to smithereens. The stellar corpse, called SGR 1900+14, belongs to a class of objects known as magnetars. These are the cores of massive stars that blew up in supernova explosions, but unlike other dead stars, they slowly pulsate with X-rays and have tremendously strong magnetic fields.

"The universe is a big place and weird things can happen," said Stefanie Wachter of NASA's Spitzer Science Center at the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, who found the ring serendipitously.

"I was flipping through archived Spitzer data of the object, and that's when I noticed it was surrounded by a ring we'd never seen before." Wachter is lead author of a paper about the findings in this week's Nature.

Wachter and her colleagues think that the ring, which is unlike anything ever seen before, formed in 1998 when the magnetar erupted in a giant flare.

They believe the crusty surface of the magnetar cracked, sending out a flare, or blast of energy, that excavated a nearby cloud of dust, leaving an outer, dusty ring. This ring is oblong, with dimensions of about seven by three light-years. It appears to be flat, or two-dimensional, but the scientists said they can't rule out the possibility of a three-dimensional shell.

"It's as if the magnetar became a huge flaming torch and obliterated the dust around it, creating a massive cavity," said Chryssa Kouveliotou, senior astrophysicist at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Ala., and a co-author of the paper. "Then the stars nearby lit up a ring of fire around the dead star, marking it for eternity."

The discovery could help scientists figure out if a star's mass influences whether it becomes a magnetar when it dies. Though scientists know that stars above a certain mass will "go supernova," they do not know if mass plays a role in determining whether the star becomes a magnetar or a run-of-the-mill dead star.

According to the science team, the ring demonstrates that SGR 1900+14 belongs to a nearby cluster of young, massive stars. By studying the masses of these nearby stars, the scientists might learn the approximate mass of the original star that exploded and became SGR 1900+14.

"The ring has to be lit up by something, otherwise Spitzer wouldn't have seen it," said Enrico Ramirez-Ruiz of the University of California, Santa Cruz. "The nearby massive stars are most likely what's heating the dust and lighting it up, and this means that the magnetar, which lies at the exact center of the ring, is associated with the massive star-forming region."

Rings and spheres are common in the universe. Young, hot stars blow bubbles in space, carving out dust into spherical shapes. When stars die in supernova explosions, their remains are blasted into space, forming short-lived beautiful orbs called supernova remnants.

Rings can also form around exploded stars whose expanding shells of debris ram into pre-existing dust rings, causing the dust to glow, as is the case with the supernova remnant called 1987A.

But the ring around the magnetar SGR 1900+14 fits into none of these categories. For one thing, supernova remnants and the ring around 1987A cry out with X-rays and radio waves. The ring around SGR 1900+14 only glows at specific infrared wavelengths that Spitzer can see.

At first, the astronomers thought the ring must be what's called an infrared echo. These occur when an object sends out a blast wave that travels outward, heating up dust and causing it to glow with infrared light. But when they went back to observe SGR 1900+14 later, the ring didn't move outward as it should have if it were an infrared echo.

A closer analysis of the pictures later revealed that the ring is most likely a carved-out cavity in a dust cloud -- a phenomenon that must be somewhat rare in the universe since it had not been seen before. The scientists plan to look for more of these rings.

"This magnetar is still alive in many ways," said Ramirez-Ruiz. "It is interacting with its environment, making a big impact on the young star-forming region where it was born."

Magnetars are formed when a giant star ends its life in a supernova explosion, leaving behind a super dense neutron star with an incredibly strong magnetic field. The ring seen by Spitzer could not have formed during the original explosion, as any material as close to the star as the ring would have been disrupted by the supernova shock wave.

Scientists suspect that the ring my actually be the edges of a bubble that was hollowed out by an explosive burst from the magnetar in 1998. The very bright region near the center of the image is a cluster of young stars, which may be illuminating the inner edge of the bubble, making it look like a ring in projection.

Other paper authors include V. Dwarkadas of the University of Chicago, Ill.; J. Granot of the University of Hertfordshire, England; S.K. Patel of the Optical Sciences Corporation, Huntsville, Ala.; and D. Figer of the Rochester Institute of Technology, N.Y.

Copyright © 2008 Space Daily, Distributed by United Press International

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Alfred L. Davis of Brighton, who was known to many as Mr. RIT, died yesterday morning. He was 92.

Mr. Davis worked at the Rochester Institute of Technology, first as an instructor, and later as the universitys first vice-president for development. He was instrumental in raising $65 million to build RITs 1,300-acre campus in Henrietta.

Mr. Davis had an unequalled impact on this university for 70 years, RIT President Bill Destler said in a printed statement. His contributions to RIT have been exceptional and will be felt for generations to come.

An avid music fan, Mr. Davis was also a major supporter of the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, helping to finance its recordings, Steinway concert grand piano and appearances by soloists, including pianist Jon Nakamatsu.

He was someone who truly loved the Orchestra (and) loved music, said RPO Music Director Christopher Seaman in a printed statement. Al was not an attention seeker. He was a real gentleman and a wonderful example of someone whose heart is in the right place. His integrity was matched by his extraordinary generosity.

Mr. Davis also funded several endowment funds that support youth music education advocacy, the Rochester Philharmonic Youth Orchestra and professional development for RPO staff members.

RIT President Emeritus Albert Simone, who worked closely with Mr. Davis for about 15 years, described his late friend as an unselfish, quiet man, who was persistent, passionate and extremely generous.

He was moved by people, Simone said. He would see or experience something and say I can make a difference here, and then he would.

Mr. Davis previously served on the board of directors of the RPO and Rochester General Hospital and as director of the Hillside Childrens Center, the Rochester Chamber of Commerce and the Advertising Council of Rochester. He also enjoyed playing golf.

Mr. Davis was extremely active in the Rochester community and over the years received numerous philanthropic awards for outstanding community service.

Mr. Davis was born in Boulder, Colo. in 1916 and graduated from Salem College in West Virginia and Syracuse University.

He started his career at RIT in 1938 as an economics and psychology instructor. At that time, the school was still known as the Rochester Athenaeum and Mechanics Institute located downtown, in Rochesters central business district. In 1941, he became the chief inspector for the instrument division at Bausch & Lomb. He also served as the president of the Rochester Society for Quality Control and was a founding member of the American Society of Quality Control.

Mr. Davis returned to RIT in 1945 as associate director of the evening school. In 1951, he became RITs public relations director, a position he held until his promotion to vice president for development and public relations in 1960. In 1970, he became administrative secretary to RITs Board of Trustees. He was again named vice president in 1980.

Mr. Davis retired in 1986 but remained actively involved with the university, and advised past university presidents M. Richard Rose and Simone on his own time.

Although Mr. Davis spent much of his career as a fundraiser, at the end of his career he asked people like me for permission to spend his own money on projects, Simone said. You just couldnt say no to him.

In 1996, he donated $650,000 for a new campus child care facility, Margarets House, named in memory of his late wife, Margaret Welcher Davis, Simone said. He could often be found visiting children at the center.

Mr. Davis did not have any children of his own. His first wife, Ruby, died in 1986. His second wife, Margaret, died in 1993.

The RIT flag today is flaying at half-staff in memory of Mr. Davis.

Copyright © 2008 Rochester Democrat & Chronicle

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David Kramer - Guest essayist

Two Rochester Institute of Technology grads are helping to build the world's youngest nation. Yet they have never set foot on the Rochester campus.

Last May, Shpend Kursani and Shqipe Neziri were part of the first-ever graduating class of the American University of Kosovo, one of RIT's overseas satellite campuses.

Kursani and Neziri took the same classes, passed the same exams, and received the same diplomas as their Rochester-area brethren. In this land that has adopted American culture at its best and worst, they consumed the same movies, books and video games.

But there's one big difference. Kursani and Neziri are dedicated and proud citizens of the new Republic of Kosovo that declared its independence from Serbia on Feb. 17.

Kosovo, a small, landlocked country situated in the mountains of the central Balkans, faces daunting challenges. Kursani, who works for a telecommunications company, worries about the fragile economy Kosovo's GDP is one-tenth of the European Union average and its shaky administrative system. Kosovo still lacks the infrastructure and human resources needed to manage its young, bustling and commercially minded population.

Kursani is bothered that better-trained and educated internationals, rather than native Kosovars, fill many top executive jobs. Now employed by a private consulting firm, Neziri worked for two years with the U.S. Agency for International Development but was disappointed by the cumbersome governmental bureaucracy.

Nonetheless, like most Kosovars, the two are buoyantly optimistic about their fledgling nation. Kursani is quick to point out Kosovo's multicultural diversity. Most are Albanian Muslims, but six ethnic groups are represented as six stars on the new flag. Speaking of the Islamic faith, Kursani says, 'Even though 90 percent of the population is Muslim by origin, the society itself is organized such that there are no religious divisions. Actually, it is hard to distinguish who is a Muslim or a Christian. I, myself, have been to churches as often as I have to mosques.'

When asked what he wants Kosovo to stand for, Kursani points to the just-implemented constitution that he believes represents 'the highest level of human rights and freedom.'

Neziri thinks her American-style education allows her 'to serve as a model for Kosovo's future.' In a country whose educational system was severely disrupted during the turbulent post-Yugoslavia era, Neziri views her RIT diploma as a symbol of what can be accomplished. To help promote the American-style system, both are actively involved in RIT's ever-globalizing Alumni Network.

This quarter I am teaching English here at RIT's American University of Kosovo. My first-year students in Pristina are no less passionate than those in Rochester.

A colleague in the public policy department, professor Erin Green says of her students: 'After independence, it has been fascinating to witness them take ownership in tackling Kosovo's many critical policy issues. These include such basics as providing stable electric output, addressing severe air and water pollution, and, of course, stimulating the economy.'

Just a couple of months ago, Green heard her students ask, 'What should they (the international community) do to solve Kosovo's problems?' Now they are asking, 'What will we do?'

It is not easy founding a country. As we look at the eager young men and women in our classes, we are seeing a little bit of history: the future leaders of the world's youngest republic.

Kramer teaches English at RIT's American University of Kosovo.

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While William Shatner helps advertise Internet technology to hotel consumers, many hotels are stuck in the mid-20th century when communicating with each other.

Hotels within the same market are still using phone calls and faxes to communicate with each other, using up hours each day, even as customers could be waiting at the front desk.

Three Rochester Institute of Technology students, recognizing the need for quicker data gathering, have launched a Web site, HotelProxy.com, which they say keeps hotel staff members off the phones and at the front desk.

The students - Breana Sniezek, 22; Chris Geiss, 22; and Marc Baumbach, 23 (all RIT graduates as of last week) - thought hotels should streamline the daily process of keeping up with the local market, which is important if full hotels need to send guests to a competitor.

But most hotels know where to send people only because of those dozens of phone calls made at least twice a day.

The RIT students came across the business idea when Sniezek, who received a bachelor's degree in hotel and resort management, mentioned the problem to Geiss and Baumbach.

Sniezek, who is from Lewisburg, Pa., has worked at hotels while in school and currently works at the Radisson-Rochester Airport on Jefferson Road.

She told her friends about the regular phone calls made in the morning and evening to query other hotels about their rates and availability. And sometimes hectic calls to find a room elsewhere are made with the guest waiting.

Software experts Geiss and Baumbach, both of Syracuse, jumped into the problem. Meanwhile, Sniezek worked on a feasibility study during the fall quarter of 2007, and on Jan. 24 the team presented its beta Web version of Hotel Proxy to the Rochester Hotel Association.

Five hotel units registered, 'and within a month we managed to get to over 30,' said Geiss. 'With no further marketing.

'The Web site has been operating for several months.

'We use it every day, at least three times a day,' said Christina Fuhlbruck, general manager of the Fairfield Inn-Rochester South in Henrietta.

Fuhlbruck said the idea came up 10 years ago at a meeting of Rochester-area hotel managers, but nothing came of it.

Now the Web site is being aggressively pushed by area hotel officials such as Jeff Shutt, general manager of the Courtyard by Marriott in Greece. Shutt, also vice president of the Rochester Hotel Association, said the Web site is a useful tool.

Only a handful of area hotels are not registered, Fuhlbruck said. Most hotels are, making it worthwhile to update and check the database.

Fuhlbruck said the site is even designed to allow selective browsing within a hotel's competitive group in the Rochester area. Or a hotel can view the data throughout the region.

Some hotel officials said they have gone from making 20 calls a day to no more than two. Entering their own data and checking Hotel Proxy suffices, they said.

Geiss said the team learned not to try to introduce the Web site to other regions piecemeal. If only a few hotels in a metropolitan area are using it, they will give up. So for now, Rochester is the only beta-version market, though Geiss said plans are to take the system nationwide.

Geiss and Baumbach are funding it themselves but plan to devise a revenue stream.

Geiss and Baumbach have accepted jobs with IBM in North Carolina. Sniezek is remaining in Rochester to work on a master's degree in business at RIT.

Copyright © 2008 Rochester Democrat & Chronicle

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Dubai, U.A.E. - If you had the will, the resources and the political clout to build a new Silicon Valley from scratch, how would you do it? The answer to that question is springing up out of the sand in the form of the Dubai Silicon Oasis (DSO), a multibillion-dollar project with the objective of establishing Dubai as a leading center for electronics innovation, design and development.

The project is the brainchild of Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, vice president and prime minister of the United Arab Emirates and ruler of Dubai, and is evolving against a backdrop of rapid economic change and development for the emirate as it looks to shift from an oil- and conspicuous-consumption-based economy to one known for educational excellence and technological development. Oil now constitutes only 3 percent of the emirate's GDP-vs. almost 70 percent for neighboring Abu Dhabi, the capital of the U.A.E.-with tourism and real estate claiming the bulk of Dubai's economy. As a result of the massive boom in construction, 43 percent of the world's cranes now reside in Dubai, compared with 37 percent in China.

In his opening remarks here recently for the 17th International Electronics Forum (IEF), Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, chairman of the Dubai Silicon Oasis Authority (DSOA), noted the emirate boasts one of the fastest-growing economies in the world, with an 8.7 percent growth rate that's seen rising to 9 percent by 2010. That growth, he said, is a direct result of Dubai's investments in infrastructure, its policy of zero personal and corporate taxes and its encouragement of a free flow of capital and people. "We have the strength and experience, and we're laying the foundation for sustained growth," he said.

The emirate is now looking to technology to contribute to that growth.

It hasn't been easy. Dubai started with no infrastructure, no track record in electronics R&D, no technical universities to speak of, and no apparent end to its spiraling real-estate costs. Then there's the spotty track record of other would-be tech hubs. At the closing panel of the IEF, the discussion turned to how earlier efforts in Scotland and England had fizzled. In India, Bengaluru has been successful, but its growth has been hampered by political wrangling and poor infrastructure. China, too, is growing fast, but politics and a spotty intellectual-property protection record are nagging concerns.

Dubai's attempt to fly in the face of history started in 2004, with the DSOA's formation. The activity kicked into high gear in April 2007, when the DSOA commenced operations and hired Jihad Kiwan as its chief technology officer (see profile on page 50). Kiwan's mission is to leverage his industry experience and contacts to attract top-quality companies and designers to the region. He said he was attracted by the scope of the project-the largest technology development effort in the world-as well as the chance to help establish the first technology hot spot in an Arab region.

"The first three years we were spent on infrastructure development," Kiwan said, referring largely to the $2 billion-plus spent thus far on constructing a fully self-sufficient "technology city" that the DSOA hopes will become an innovation hotbed but that will also cater to the personal needs of the expatriates-and their families-who will reside there.

"We're not building a technology park, we're building a technology city," said Kiwan. "If you want to attract companies from outside, you have to make their lives the same [as they were at home]."

To that end, the city-literally rising up out of the dunes-will have housing, shopping malls, hospitals, recreation centers, parks and universities.

Kiwan was careful to note that while the Dubai government is behind the project, it's not picking up the full tab. "We sold land to external investors and then reinvested that [money] in infrastructure," he said. The funds went toward what are currently 65 km of roads, as well as a vast optical communications network, a central DSOA building, landscaping, and construction of housing and academic facilities. Eventually, the city will accommodate up to 150,000 people, of whom Kiwan expects 25,000 to be engineers.

The Dubai airport is 20 minutes away and will soon be supplanted by a larger airport that will have up to 11 parallel runways. "It'll be the largest airport in the world," said Khaled Abdulla , senior manager of corporate communications and business development for the DSOA. Putting it in perspective, he noted that London Heathrow "only has three" parallel runways.

The DSOA is aware that buildings and infrastructure alone won't attract high-tech investment. The lack of corporate and personal income taxes helps, as does Dubai's geographical "hub" location with respect to North Africa, Europe and southern Asia; the emirate is within seven hours' flying time of two-thirds of the world. And there are more subtle attractions and support structures being put in place.

For one, Dubai is focused on ensuring IP protection. And since it's hard for a tech hub to get off the ground without a university system to provide fundamental research and a steady supply of highly qualified grads who stay in the region, the DSO is about to sign a partnership deal with the Rochester Institute of Technology to have six masters' degree programs and three certificate courses start in September. A doctorate offering will follow.

"The degree they get from RIT Dubai will be identical to [the degree offered by] RIT in the United States," said Abdulla. "The academic staff coming from RIT are all senior professors-doctorate level-and are coming to start their courses over here."

According to Kiwan, the RIT campus will grow to between 10,000 and 15,000 students over the next 10 years.

RIT will join three universities currently in operation-but those are only the start of what's being called Academic City. "There will be more than 100 universities in the next 10 to 15 years," Kiwan rosily predicted.

To overcome the high cost of real estate, the DSO will offer engineers subsidized housing, to the tune of 60 percent of the cost. For example, a one-bedroom apartment that costs $28,000 per year to rent would "go down to $12,000," said Kiwan. He expects salaries to range from $24,000 to $100,000 per year, depending on skill sets and qualifications.

Low-cost housing, zero taxes and full repatriation of profits make for an attractive proposition at both the personal and the corporate level. "Tech companies willing to invest in research and development here will find a paradise," said Kiwan. "They'll be treated like kings. I mean it!"

Who's ready to reign?

If it is to succeed, the DSO must carefully choose the technology areas on which to focus. The emphasis is on IC design, R&D, software development and, later, semiconductor manufacturing. While there's no plan to build its own wafer fab, said Kiwan, the DSO hopes to attract investment from foundries such as Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd. (TSMC).

Attracting pedigreed companies is difficult, however, when there's no precedent for advanced development. "Decision makers are conservative," said Rich Goldman, vice president of corporate marketing and strategic market development at Synopsys Inc. (Mountain View, Calif.). "They need to design right the first time and so are reluctant to be the first goers. There's risk there."

The answer is to get references on past design projects in Dubai, to break what Goldman called the "zero cycle."

Proof of concept

To that end, the DSOA partnered with Synopsys and put together the Dubai Circuit Design (DCD) center, an advanced IC design team plucked from places such as Morocco, Egypt, India and Tunisia, and from companies such as Texas Instruments, STMicroelectronis and Qualcomm. Led by Ramzi Kuhail, manager of design consulting at Synopsys, and with Kiwan as manager, the team has just virtually taped out its first design: an advanced encryption engine called SMC. The device is designed in a low-power, 65-nanometer TSMC process with 22 million transistors in an area measuring 3.45 x 3.45 mm. It runs at 333 MHz/100 MHz and took four months to develop.

While Kuhail acknowledged that SMC is more of a proof-of-capabilities design than a real-world IC, he said it has served two purposes: "It proved the capabilities of the DCD team, and it helped 'pipe clean' the Pilot design-flow environment."

Pilot is an advanced design flow used internally at Synopsys. According to Kuhail, the Pilot flow had not been proved on relatively complex designs until the SMC project.

"These are proprietary tools no one else has," said Kiwan, who added that the DCD may subcontract its services to Synopsys, a move that would make the EDA vendor its first customer.

For all future customers, the servers at DCD are fully Synopsys compatible, "so teams from around the world can access and update the designs in real time," said Kuhail.

The Pilot program also proves the DCD effort is "not held down by legacy methodologies; it can go to the newer and most innovative" practices, said Goldman of Synopsys.

Copyright © 2008 CMP Media LLC

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Rochester Institute of Technology Provost Stanley D. McKenzie told graduating students at the school's 123rd commencement Friday to reach out to other generations, keep a sense of humor, change jobs if they're unhappy and try to see things from other perspectives.

"Respect generational differences," McKenzie told an audience of about 8,000 people, including about 3,500 graduates, in the Gordon Field House and Activities Center.

"You will always be able to learn much and expand your perspectives from those both older and younger than you, if you are prepared to listen," he said.

McKenzie, who has served in various roles at RIT for 41 years, is stepping down as provost in June and will return to teaching literature next fall.

"In talking with other generations, rather than arguing and trying to pick apart their points, instead try to understand why the other person believes this way and see if you can find some points of agreement upon which to build," he told the crowd.

He cautioned the students not to take themselves too seriously and avoid becoming entrenched in unsatisfying jobs.

"I have seen young professionals become embittered at something early in their careers and maintain grudges against their workplace for decades afterward. If you don't enjoy your job, get out. Change. Do something different. Don't just stay on and whine," he said.

As a result of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the graduates have a monumental task ahead of them, he said.

"At the very time that the technology of travel and communication was making possible interactions between persons all over the globe, an act of terrorism suddenly engendered massive alienation between cultures which cannot be allowed to prevail. Your generation is being handed an incredible responsibility to pull this world together again," he said.

But he said the new RIT grads have the skills to "clean up the mess we are leaving to you, if only you can learn to respect differences of all kinds, including age and culture, to truly embrace a world community of both diversity and oneness."

Some students at RIT, the largest four-year school in the Rochester area, were disappointed that their commencement speaker was a school administrator and not a celebrity. Former President Bill Clinton was last year's speaker.

McKenzie was well aware of the dissatisfaction and joked about it early in the speech. He said one student told him that "being stuck with our own provost for a commencement speaker is as taboo as taking your own sister to the prom."

McKenzie said he would have liked to have taken his sister to the prom. Jeremy DeCausemaker, 23, of Wolcott, Wayne County, who earned a bachelor of science degree in multidisciplinary studies, said he was very pleased with McKenzie as the speaker.

"I think we need to have a lot of pride in our faculty and staff here. Provost McKenzie has been a huge inspiration here at the university.

"I think we're lucky to have him here so long. It's people like him that make this a place worth going to," said DeCausemaker, who agreed with McKenzie's outlook.

Jessica Stalker, 23, of Columbiaville, Columbia County, also appreciated having someone from the school deliver the address.

"I was here last year and it seemed to be more about the speaker than the graduate, so I liked that it was someone who was more in-house," said Stalker, who earned both a bachelor's and master's degrees in industrial engineering through a dual-degree program.

"It was about the graduates and they have a shared experience here at RIT."

Copyright © 2008 Rochester Democrat & Chronicle

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After years of dreaming and discussion, Rochester Institute of Technology opened the doors to the Gordon Field House and Activities Center in May 2004.

The $25 million, 160,000-square-foot, two-story facility has since become an integral part of RIT's wellness program and the center point of the campus. It features a 60,000-square-foot field and event venue, an aquatics center for both competition and recreational use, and a fully equipped, 16,000-square-foot fitness center.

More importantly, according to former RIT President Al Simone, the Gordon Field House has become a gathering place for students and faculty, as well as a "bridge" between RIT and the community.

The man whose last name appears on the building, Lucius "Bob" Gordon, along with his wife, Marie, was one of the most devoted supporters of the project. Along with other faculty at RIT, he saw the importance of having such a facility on campus.
Lucius Gordon died on April 28, 2008. He was 95.

Mr. Gordon's devotion to RIT was evident in both his service as a member of the board of trustees - starting in 1975 - and his generosity to many RIT projects. For Mr. Gordon, the relationship began in 1937 during the Great Depression.

Born in Brockport in 1912, Mr. Gordon was the son of Fred Gordon Sr., who was a member of a pioneer Brockport family. Mr. Gordon graduated from Phillips Andover Academy in Massachusetts and earned a bachelor's degree in industrial engineering from Yale University. After college, he did research work for Eastman Kodak Co. by testing a new film in Africa.

In 1937, Mr. Gordon joined his brother, Fred Jr., to lead the Mixing Equipment Co., also known as MIXCO. Fred Gordon, who predeceased his brother, was a longtime trustee of both Mechanics Institute and RIT.

The Gordons reached out to Mechanics Institute, RIT's forerunner, to provide machinists, lab technicians, chemists and co-op students. Like many Rochester industries at the time, the Gordons' company played a vital role during World War II. The company, with the help of Mechanics Institute, improved aviation fuel for the British and American air forces.

The mixing company remained prosperous after the war and so did its relationship with Mechanics Institute, which officially became RIT in 1944.

Gordon, who retired as MIXCO chairman of the board, continued his affiliation with RIT into the 21st century. His gift to the Student Life Center funded the Marie and Lucius R. Gordon administrative wing, and the Lucius Gordon Drive at the RIT Business and Technology Park recognizes his long-standing advocacy of the development of RIT's land assets.

As an RIT trustee, Mr. Gordon was involved in a number of committees. He held the office of honorary vice chairman, and in 1999 RIT conferred an honorary doctorate of humane letters to him in recognition of his professional success and contributions to RIT.

Yet by 2002, Mr. Gordon still sensed one piece of student life was missing - a field house. The dream became a reality with a $25 million building that has become the focal point of the campus.

"It has been a great experience to have been a small part in this exciting venture," Gordon told the crowd at the groundbreaking ceremony for the field house in 2002. "The field house will become a magnet for students, faculty and staff. It will be a great addition to RIT and the community."

John Tassone, manager of events and operations of the Gordon Field House, said the facility is constantly in use.

"The open swim period in the evening is very popular," said Tassone. "There are usually more than 100 students in the pool at that time."

The field house has hosted concerts and events with such celebrities as Robert Redford, Dane Cook and Kanye West. Former President Bill Clinton spoke at last year's RIT commencement and addressed graduates at a ceremony held in the field house. This year's ceremony will also be held there.

Kyle Henning, a third-year student at RIT, loves the Gordon Field House and uses it several times a week.

"I sometimes run on the indoor track, but I primarily stick to the weight room," said Henning. "Compared to the gyms back home in Pennsylvania, the field house is much, much larger."

On May 3, the day of Mr. Gordon's memorial service, RIT held its first-ever Imagine RIT Innovation and Creativity Festival. The event featured more than 400 interactive exhibits and displays in various locations across campus, but a majority were shown at the field house. The RIT flag was lowered to half staff during the event.

It was a fitting tribute, said RIT President Bill Destler, as thousands visited the RIT campus to enjoy the innovation and creativity festival.

"The Gordon Field House and Activities Center was full of activity and life," said Destler. "This is exactly what Bob intended when he shared a tremendous vision with RIT and made the field house a reality."

Copyright © 2008 GateHouse Media Inc.

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A well-established and innovatively nurtured industry-academia partnership can be a win/win proposition in many dimensions and help both parties retain their leadership positions. The importance of such partnerships has become apparent in the U.S. in recent years. Primary factors attributed to the importance and, in many cases, urgency include global competition, industry outsourcing, inability to meet workforce demands in skilled technology fields, reduced research funding levels, short product and technology lifecycles requiring quick-turnaround/low-cost R&D, and continued decline in technical graduates coming to the U.S. Both the U.S. industry and academia have realized their declining competitive advantage due to the above factors and are reassessing their partnership strategies.

Different areas of collaboration could include curriculum and laboratory development, student recruitment, resource sharing to teach, conducting research, development of new processes and improving process efficiencies, and increasing awareness locally and regionally. This can be achieved only by identifying and sharing the essential components of the partnership such as human capital, equipment capital, and knowledgebase. This article examines several of these strategies put into practice at the Center for Electronics Manufacturing and Assembly (CEMA) at the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT).

The primary role of academia is to turn out multifaceted, highly trained talent that the industry can use to enhance its growth and maintain its competitive edge. This begins by defining a curriculum that embodies strong fundamental knowledge with practice-oriented education. Industry involvement at every stage of this process ensures relevance to the real world. Curriculum development should be a joint effort between faculty experts and a council of industry representatives. The curricular flexibility while being able to maintain its strength and integrity and the ability to respond to industry needs is still unique to the U.S. academic environment. This uniqueness and advantage is unmatched in foreign university settings, which typically can be bogged down with rules and regulations. Collaboration in the U.S. opens new avenues for workforce training and development and possible opportunities for continuing education for many within the industry.

While post-secondary education and the entire public school system (K12) in the U.S. struggle to keep pace with technology advances, technology education is inferior in many developing countries, to which the U.S. industry has been outsourcing. Many foreign universities, excepting a handful of them, have not yet embraced the concept of corporate relationships, industrial advisory councils, cooperative education, and student-supported basic and applied research. The U.S., in spite of declining concentration on technology education, continues to maintain a definite strength and lead in this regard. This strength should be sustained by the U.S. industry and academia in order to maintain leadership in science and technology.

Applied R&D and basic research should become another strong suite for many universities in the U.S., as we've found at the CEMA at RIT. This will help industry retain core competencies within the US, without having to outsource to low-cost geographies. The only way to succeed with applied R&D is to identify industry needs, understand industry's timeline and time-to-market pressures, and price services competitively. Many projects on the industry's priority list suffer lack of resources and time prime candidates that universities can address concurrently with industry, under corporate R&D agreements, in a way that will alleviate the intellectual property (IP) ownership dilemma and provide full rights to industry. According to Dr. Destler, president of RIT, 'Higher education institutions in the U.S. are still without question the finest in the world and graduate students are still the most cost-effective R&D labor force anywhere.' Sustained involvement and participation of industry representative in the project progress is an essential component for the success of applied R&D relationships.

The use of academic facilities and capacity sharing with academia is another area of possible collaboration. Industry and academia can maintain joint ownership of equipment and technical expertise. The major concern from industry in this regard would be the lack of quality standards and systems within academia to match that of industry, which can be easily addressed. This partnership will strengthen grant applications and to a large extent avoid duplication of resources between many universities and industry. Development of complementary capabilities is essential in today's environment. Dr. Destler also contends that the laboratory assets existing within the US universities are prohibitively expensive for most industry to reproduce. This is true especially of many small- and medium-sized U.S. manufacturers and also many foreign universities and industry. This competitive advantage of U.S. universities should be harnessed to its fullest extent.

Industry and academia partnerships can play a major role in student recruitment, retention, and workforce development from within the local economy, through positive promotion of strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities. Industry partnerships with universities, promoted within school systems, will have a major impact on reducing manpower shortages in critical technological areas. There often are misconceptions regarding professions and careers and uninformed advice provided to parents and students. Most of the information is derived from articles in local and national news outlets describing the many negative events happening within the industry. In the same light, many more positive things have happened to the industry, which have practically gone un-noticed and un-reported.

Manufacturing, for example, has a tarnished image that never seems to attract young students except for a dedicated few, primarily due to the gloomy news regarding outsourcing of manufacturing jobs. There have been many instances of jobs returning back to the U.S. from the outsourced destinations for lack of quality, excessive bureaucracy, corruption, lack of applied engineering talent, lack of IP protection, etc. These incidents have never been reported with the same prominence that is placed when the jobs are outsourced. Identifying ways to communicate this will be essential to attract young talent into technological disciplines that are essential for a nation's economic prosperity.

Conclusion

Automated manufacturing, along with a concerted effort to implementing lean principles and six sigma practices thoroughly, definitely have improved the U.S. industry's competitiveness. To develop technological talent locally, industry should offer attractive scholarships in collaboration with academia, and be willing to make commitments to provide co-op experiences and possible long-term employment.

S. Manian Ramkumar, Ph.D., is an SMT Editorial Advisory Board member and faculty professor and director at the Center for Electronics Manufacturing and Assembly (CEMA) at Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT). Ramkumar helped orchestrate SMT and RIT's joint conference 'Implementing Lead-free.' He is involved in applied research; presents technical papers at industry conferences; and teaches SMT and advanced packaging. Contact him at smrmet@rit.edu; smt.rit.edu.

Copyright © 2008 PennWell Corp.

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Head of key House committee has introduced three bills in two months.

May 20, 2008 - Computerworld - Efforts to increase the H-1B cap have been stuck in a legislative swamp, but U.S. Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) has introduced three bills in the past few weeks to help foreign nationals already working in the U.S. obtain permanent residency. She announced her latest legislative effort late Wednesday.

Fixing the permanent residency, or green card employment-based, visa program has been a top legislative goal of high-tech industry proponents, on par with their efforts to raise the H-1B cap.

And Lofgren, who heads the on Immigration, is in the position to move legislation to the head of the class. But it remains to be seen whether she can jump over the legislative stalemate created by lawmakers who want comprehensive immigration reform or nothing at all.

Lofgren's latest bill, HR 6039, which is not yet available online, will exempt graduates of U.S. universities with advanced degrees in science and tech the so called STEM degrees (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) from the annual 140,000 limit on these permanent residency visas. The bill was officially introduced yesterday.

In a statement, Lofgren said that more than 50 percent of graduates with advanced degrees in science and engineering are foreign-born. 'If we want our economy to continue competing in the global market, we have to retain these foreign students so they compete with us instead of against us in other countries. These men and women are the innovators of tomorrow, and we aren't the only ones looking to retain their talents. Increasingly, employers from Europe, Australia, Canada, and even China and India are beating U.S. employers for valuable talent,' said Lofgren.

That bill is closely tied to legislation introduced earlier this month by Lofgren, HR 5921. That bill seeks to eliminate the per-country caps on employment-based visas. The U.S. caps at 7 percent per country the number of employment-based visas issued to would-be visiting workers. 'Because of this cap, a Chinese or Indian post-graduate at the top of his/her class at MIT may have to wait half a decade or more for a green card, much longer than a student from a less-populated country,' said Lofgren, in a statement released when the legislation was announced.

Although much of the focus has been on the H-1B cap and its 85,000-visa quota, which includes the 20,000 set aside for holders of advanced degrees, high-tech industry proponents say the difficulty in getting permanent residency for their employees is as much a problem as getting H-1B visas.

Microsoft Corp. has about 4,000 employees for whom it is trying to gain permanent residency, said Jack Krumholtz, managing director of federal government affairs at Microsoft. They face long waits because of the green card backlog, suffering personal and professional frustrations along the way, testified.

'We only hire people that we think can contribute to our innovation and corporate bottom line over the long haul, so we move immediately to apply for green cards for you and your family members,' said Krumholtz, who said Microsoft is supporting Lofgren's legislative effort.

The typical path for a tech worker is, first, work after graduation on a student visa a period that was recently extended by the Bush administration from a year to 29 months and then an H-1B visa until employment-based permanent residency can be achieved.

Other legislative steps taken by Lofgren include a bill that would take unused employment-based green cards and essentially roll them over for reuse in a subsequent year. That bill is HR 5882. There are Republican co-sponsors for each of these bills.

Lofgren's across-the-aisle backers of these bills include U.S. Reps. Chris Cannon (R-Utah), Jim Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.) and Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.).

Ron Hira, an assistant professor of public policy at the Rochester Institute of Technology, said he believes the U.S. can absorb more highly skilled, permanent immigrants with green cards 'without significantly harming the American workforce. But we have to do it the right way.'

Among the issues, said Hira, is the thorny question of, 'Who are we going to grant employment-based permanent residence to?' Educational level attained (bachelor's, master's or Ph.D.) and the academic area studied by potential residents are apt to be factors in that.

Hira said that one 'significant problem' with the Lofgren bills 'has to do with using exemptions as a way around tackling the decision of how many [to grant],' and he added the plan to 'recapture' was a gimmick to get around the quota issue. Among the questions Congress should look at, said Hira, is the impact of the changes; he indicated, for instance, that the legislation may change incentives, prompting foreign nationals to seek degrees from any U.S. school they can because it will be seen as a path to permanent residency.

© 2007 Computerworld Inc.

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Late last year Philippe Massoud opened Ilili, probably the most ambitious Middle Eastern restaurant, in terms of scale and décor, in New York. He is its chef and principal owner.

Mr. Massoud's experience goes beyond the kitchen. Decades ago he studied at Cornell University's School of Hotel Administration, and he received a degree in food, hotel and travel management from the Rochester Institute of Technology.

Late he worked as a cook in restaurants around the world, including in Lebanon and Spain. He also helped develop Neyla, a popular Mediterranean restaurant in the Georgetown section of Washington, D.C.

He is 37.

Who in your life has influenced your cooking the most?

I grew up in Lebanon until 1985, I was fortunate to be the son of a hotelier. Because of the war in the early seventies, we lost our home in downtown Beirut and ended up by living in our family hotel the Coral Beach. Living in the hotel most of my childhood, I spent most of my time running away from homework in the hotel's kitchen. Chef Iskandar Obegi, executive chef of the hotel influenced me the most. His brigade was great and did miracles under very tough circumstances. I was fortunate to work in every station at a very young age. My first real cooking experience was trying to reproduce a big mac with him at the age of 9, after having travelled for the first time in my life, to England. The second was doing a steak au poivre table side at the restaurant in the Hotel du Cap.

Which book has had the biggest impact?

Spiritually "The Celestine Prophecy" was quite nice, though I always take my best experiences from the present and from my daily life, when you've come from a region that is as messed up as the Middle East you take bigger bites out of life and appreciate every flavor..

Professionally I've enjoyed working and discovering on my own, the one book though that I found very helpful was "Ma Gastronomie" by Fernand Point.

Which foreign country or (region) do you most enjoy eating in?

When in New York, Japanese cuisine is my most favorite followed by Chinese in Chinatown, followed by southern Spanish when eaten in Spain. There is just no substitute to a good meal on the beach with great seafood, a cold beer to start and a sherry to finish.

Which restaurant meal from the past lives most vividly in your memory?

My uncle took me to Le Bernardin in the late 80's. The experience set a standard for me that was motivational, and stayed with me for a long time..

Which three cooking gadgets or tools are your favorites?

Hands, are the best tools ever..
Robot Coupe, mandoline, spoon

What is your favorite music to play in the kitchen?

Classical and opera when I cook at home, dance and disco when I am eager to have fun.

No music played in Ilili's kitchen.

Which are the most overrated -- and underrated - seasonings?

Overrated: there is no overrated ingredient in my book, there are trends with excesses that come and go. Ras-el-hanout seems to be a big wow spice lately but I think people are using it just because it sounds different rather than for what it is..in the end it is a blend of spices..

Underrated: Sumac, I still think that people have not experimented enough with it. I personally think it is a healthy substitute to salt. At ilili our table salt is 50% Sumac.

Is there a guilty secret -- something canned, something hokey - in your arsenal of ingredients?

I use fruit purees but really don't think it's that big of a deal..

Is there a rule of conduct or etiquette in your kitchen that you enforce above all others?

I will give you 150%, and expect 100% back from you. Come work and challenge yourself to be the best that you can be, otherwise don't bother.

What is the most embarrassing thing you have ever done in a restaurant kitchen?

Screamed my lungs out asking for a plate from the line, while it was just in front of me.

Which item in your home refrigerator would you least like to cop to?

Prepackaged Swiss cheese from your grocery store around the block. Just love to have a Croque Monsieur from time to time..

Is there a food you can't bring yourself to eat?

Has not happened yet. I've eaten everything I can think of with the exception of bugs.

What's the best New York City restaurant that no one talks about? (We'll trust you not to plug a friend.)

Il Buco on Bond Street was a favorite, I have not been there in a while so I am not sure if it is the same. It is one of those tucked away restaurants that truly allowed you to disconnect from all the New York noise..especially if you were on a date.

You did something awful and are sentenced to die. Dead Chef Walking! What's your final meal - and we're not talking five or six courses, though you can have dessert - before you go?

I will make sure to commit my crime in the south of Spain:

Ice cold San Miguel (draft) beer to start, followed by a plate of Jamón de Jabugo with a glass of sherry, followed by Pulpo alla Gallega, charcoal grilled carabineros (crevettes royale), a cordero lechal (milk fed baby lamb), finishing with a simple fruit salad.

Copyright 2008 The New York Times Company

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Are you without a summer internship? Here are some alternative ideas for B-school students to round out that résumé

By the end of May, college and graduate students are packing up their dorm rooms and looking ahead to their summer plans. For many students, that means an internship to gain work experience and a valuable résumé item. Most have one lined up by winter or early spring.

But what happens if a student's internship search isn't working?

That was the case for Rich Winslow, a mechanical engineering student at the University of Florida, who in desperation started a Web site called www.richwinslow.com/help in April after he applied for dozens of internships in his field. "I've applied to 50-plus positions since January and had only one callback," he wrote on a Web community forum board, noting he had linked the page to social content Web sites Digg.com and reddit.com. "I'm the first engineer in my family, and no one, not even extended family, knows anyone in my field."

Career counselors agree that in today's tight job market, students may find it harder than in years past to land their dream internship, if any at all. But internship-seekers should not give up hope, even at this point in the school year, says Manny Contomanolis, director of the career-services office at Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) and president-elect of the board of the National Association of Colleges & Employers. Even if students can't find an internship, there are still plenty of options available for them. "It is better to do something, even if it means volunteering or working to earn money, than sitting at home bemoaning you don't have a job," Contomanolis says.

Fortunately, there is still time to salvage your summer, sans internship. Here are some tips:

1. Revisit the career services office.

Most students looking for internships visit the career services office at their college or university in the fall or early winter but don't always go back later in the school year. Career services offices can be a helpful resource for landing a summer internship, even in late May or early June, RIT's Contomanolis says. They are usually the first places companies and small businesses turn to when making the decision to hire an intern, even when it's a last-minute hire. In fact, most career services offices still are getting daily internship listings and posting them on their job boards, says Contomanolis. "Things do pop up late," he points out. "One thing students should do is never give up hope."

Indeed, students can and should continue looking for internships into late May and early June, says Kenneth Keeley, executive director of the Career Opportunities Center at Carnegie Mellon's Tepper School of Business: "We think the internship market stays alive at least into June 1 or the first or second week of June."

2. Volunteer at a nonprofit.

Nonprofits can't always afford to pay for an intern but are frequently looking for extra help. Volunteering over the summer, even for just 10 or 15 hours a week, can provide a résumé-worthy experience, says Diane Crist, director of the career development center at the University of St. Thomas' Opus College of Business in St. Paul, Minn. The experience may also allow the student to demonstrate some initiative and organizational savvy, qualities that will appeal to future employers, Crist notes.

For example, if a student is working for an environmental nonprofit, she can organize a project that gathers a group of people to clean up a local stream. "Anything like that will certainly help to embellish their résumé," Crist says.

3. Reach out to teachers.

Summer can be a busy time for college professors, many of whom use the time to work on research and publishing papers. Often they are looking for an assistant to help them with their work and might even be able to offer a stipend or salary. "Students should go back into their academic settings and talk to faculty about the different possibilities for research and things that need to get done at the university," Crist says.

Even if professors are not looking for a research assistant, they can still be a valuable resource for the job-hunting student. They are likely on top of the job market in their field and may be able to connect the student with people who can help them land a summer internship, she says.

4. Start your own company.

The entrepreneurial-minded student can use the summer as a time to research a business plan and, if they're ambitious enough, start a business, says Mary Banks, director of the business career center at the University of Colorado at Boulder's Leeds School of Business. Students at her school have started businesses ranging from lawn care to babysitting/nanny service during the summer months. "In Boulder, starting a small business is relatively easy," Banks says. "It is remarkable the types of things that students can do. They can be really inventive."

5. Join the family business.

A family business can be a valuable resource to a student who is looking to bolster a résumé. Those students who have connections to one should take advantage, says Ritch Sorenson, the Opus chair in Family Enterprise at St. Thomas University. The savvy student can design his own summer internship at the family business, taking on a project such as upgrading the technology platform or a managerial role that includes supervising employees. "I think sometimes students go and help their families who have small businesses but don't realize it is a project they could put on a résumé," Sorenson says. "It is a great opportunity that gives them far more than just summer employment."

6. Learn a foreign language.

Language skills are becoming increasingly important in today's business world, and students who can speak multiple languages have an edge in the job market, according to career counselors. One productive way students can use their free time is to learn a foreign language that is in demand by businesses and government organizations, such as Mandarin Chinese or Arabic. Students can sign up for language classes at their local community colleges or universities and later add that to their résumé as a skill or qualification.

7. Explore professional organizations.

Students should consider joining the local or national industry association of the field they plan to enter. Many of these groups have student rates and offer industry functions, networking events, and lectures over the summer months. Sometimes the organizations are looking for students to volunteer-a part-time gig students can add to their résumé. A stint could help students land an internship in their field.

That's what happened to Richard Bottner, 22, founder of Acton (Mass.)-based Intern Bridge, a recruiting and consulting firm, who volunteered at the Society for Human Resource Managers the summer in between his junior and senior years of college. He ended up meeting an executive from the Au Bon Pain restaurant company who gave him an internship in the company's training department. "A lot of these local societies want to encourage students to learn about the industry and are also great for networking," Bottner says. "They might be able to help you line up a part-time internship."

No matter what students end up doing over the summer, they should make sure to pay a visit to their career services office in the fall to learn how they can frame their summer experiences to future employers, says RIT's Contomanolis. This is especially important when students have more unconventional summer job experiences that fall outside the realm of a traditional internship. "A lot of times kids don't think about their experiences in a thoughtful and reflective way, and you have to tease it out of them," Contomanolis says. "It is very hard for a student to do on their own, but with a career adviser it is a very easy process."

Most of all, experts say, keep trying. This month, mechanical engineering student Winslow finally heard back from a company that offered him an engineering internship. He took it.

Copyright 2008 by The McGraw-Hill Companies Inc.

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Digital Rochester's monthly networking event featured a breakout session on podcasting led by Mike Saffran, associate director of university news services at Rochester Institute of Technology.

The event: Tribeca in the High Falls district was the space chosen for this month's DR networking social, free to invitees tempted with fresh veggies and dip, deviled eggs, stuffed mushroom caps and local beer from High Falls Brewing.

More than 20 people occupied the low-lit and positively red 'Cherry Lounge,' fairly dizzying for its rotating mirror balls, to participate in a discussion on a widely misread element of new media, the podcast.

'The biggest challenge is education of the older generation,' Saffran said. 'For example, you don't need an iPod' to listen to or produce podcasts.

He has been producing podcasts for RIT for two years. The podcasts are free digital audio files that can be either streamed or downloaded onto a computer or other digital storage device such as an iPod.

Fairport resident Juli Klie, vice president and co-founder of Digital Rochester, told how these special interest discussion groups are being offered at networking events for people trying to stay current with technology.

'General networking is helpful to make business connections, and we are seeing that there is enough interest to hold participant-driven discussion groups,' she said.

The crowd: About 100 affiliates of Digital Rochester, a network of technologically astute individuals interested in enhancing the area's standing as a technology center.

Greg Taylor of Irondequoit, a recruiter with Excelsior Search Partners specializing in information technology, is interested in meeting 'difference-making talent. I'll ask people, 'Who do you know in the room that makes a difference where they work?''

Rochester resident Jon Vallone said the level of communication with Digital Rochester has 'impressed me through their Web site, and turnaround time with e-mails has been great. They take pride in what they do.'

Indeed, DR's leaders say they take pride in local technological talent and expect to grow as more businesses get involved in the field.

Copyright © 2008 Rochester Democrat & Chronicle

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Harry G. Lang: Honeoye Falls resident, a professor at National Technical Institute for the Deaf at Rochester Institute of Technology, received the 2008 Robert F. Panara Award for contributions to deaf education at a statewide conference held in Rochester earlier this month. (Panara, 87, presented the award.)

Most recent books: Moments of Truth - Robert R. Davila, The Story of a Deaf Leader, written with Oscar P. Cohen and Joseph E. Fischgrund (RIT Cary Press, $26 cloth, $18 paperback). Biography of the educator and administrator who was the first deaf chief executive officer at NTID. He is now president of Gallaudet University.

Also, Teaching From the Heart and Soul: The Robert F. Panara Story (Gallaudet University Press, $29.95). Biography of the deaf educator who, after a long career at Gallaudet University, in 1967 helped establish NTID as well as National Theatre of the Deaf. He retired from NTID in 1987 and now lives in Gates.

Backlist: Five books on deaf history and personalities and one on educating deaf students.

Motivation: As an educator, I see great value in historical research, both for developing aspirations in young deaf people and for informing the general public of the significant contributions deaf men and women have made to society throughout history.

Research: There are treasures of information in attics, basements and garages waiting to be found. Two of my published books and one in progress would have been difficult to write had it not been for people who offered me materials from family records or old documents from their work decades ago. As I have completed my works, I have donated these materials to the deaf archives at Gallaudet University and now at RIT's Wallace Memorial Library. Family records, thousands of old books, photographs and documents on the Web can also provide leads for follow-up research in archives and other resources.

It might surprise you to know: Although I have degrees in physics, engineering and education, I have an intense interest in the arts and humanities. I am not a historian by training.

Copyright ©2008 Rochester Democrat & Chronicle

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Technology that could someday "MapQuest" Mars and other bodies in the solar system is under development at Rochester Institute of Technology's Rochester Imaging Detector Laboratory (RIDL), in collaboration with Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Lincoln Laboratory.

Three-Dimensional "super roadmaps" of other planets and moons would provide robots, astronauts and engineers details about atmospheric composition, biohazards, wind speed and temperature. Information like this could help land future spacecraft and more effectively navigate roving cameras across a Martian or lunar terrain.

RIT scientist Donald Figer and his team are developing a new type of detector that uses LIDAR (LIght Detection and Ranging), a technique similar to radar, but which uses light instead of radio waves to measure distances.

The project will deliver a new generation of optical/ultraviolet imaging LIDAR detectors that will significantly extend NASA science capabilities for planetary applications by providing 3-D location information for planetary surfaces and a wider range of coverage than the single-pixel detectors currently combined with LIDAR.

The device will consist of a 2-D continuous array of light sensing elements connected to high-speed circuits. The $547,000 NASA-funded program also includes a potential $589,000 phase for fabrication and testing.

"The imaging LIDAR detector could become a workhorse for a wide range of NASA missions," says Figer, professor in RIT's Chester F. Carlson Center for Imaging Science and director of the RIDL. "It could support NASA's planetary missions like Europa Geophysical Orbiter or a Mars High-resolution Spatial Mapper."

LIDAR works by measuring the time it takes for light to travel from a laser beam to an object and back into a light detector.

The new detector can be used to measure distance, speed and rotation. It will provide high-spatial resolution topography as well as measurements of planetary atmospheric properties-pressure, temperature, chemical composition and ground-layer properties.

The device can also be used to probe the environments of comets, asteroids and moons to determine composition, physical processes and chemical variability.

Working with Figer are Zoran Ninkov and Stefi Baum from RIT and Brian Aull and Robert Reich from Lincoln Laboratory. The team will apply LIDAR techniques to design and fabricate a Geiger-Mode Avalanche Photodiode array detector.

The device will consist of an array of sensors hybridized to a high-speed readout circuit to enable robust performance in space. The radiation-hard detector will capture high-resolution images and consume low amounts of power.

The imaging component of the new detector will capture swaths of entire scenes where the laser beam travels. In contrast, today's LIDAR systems rely upon a single pixel design, limiting how much and how fast information can be captured.

"You would have to move your one pixel across a scene to build up an image," Figer says. "That's the state of the art of LIDAR right now. That's what is flying on spacecraft now, looking down on Earth to get topographical information and on instruments flying around other planets."

The LIDAR imaging detector will be able to distinguish topographical details that differ in height by as little as one centimeter. This is an improvement in a technology that conflates objects less than one meter in relative height. LIDAR used today could confuse a boulder for a pebble, an important detail when landing a spacecraft.

"You can have your pixel correspond to a few feet by a few feet spatial resolution instead of kilometer by kilometer," Figer says. "And now you can take LIDAR pictures at fine resolutions and build up a map in hours instead of taking years at comparable resolution with a single image."

The imaging LIDAR detector will be tested at RIDL in environments that mimic aspects of operations in NASA space missions.

In addition to planetary mapping, imaging LIDAR detectors will have uses on Earth. Other applications include remote sensing of the atmosphere for both climate studies and weather forecasting, topographical mapping, biohazard detection, autonomous vehicle navigation, battlefield friend/foe identification and missile tracking, to name a few.

"There is an increasing demand for highly accurate three-dimensional data to both map and monitor the changing natural and manmade environment," says Ninkov, professor of imaging science at RIT.

"As well as spaceborne applications there are terrestrial applications for LIDAR systems such as determining bridge heights, the condition of highways and mapping coastal erosion as sea heights rise."

Copyright © 2008 Space Daily, Distributed by United Press International

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With much to lose, or gain, Greater Cincinnati manufacturers get creative

Jerry Stenger's local metal-finishing business faced threats from the usual 21st century suspects: off-shoring, oil prices and a struggling domestic auto industry that uses his services. So he turned to something new - biodiesel fuel - to remain viable.

"I wanted something I could rely on," said Stenger, owner of Mechanical Finishing Inc. The 16-year-old firm learned to convert used cooking oil to the eco-friendly fuel and soon will be producing 3 million to 5 million gallons a year at its Elmwood Place plant.

Biodiesel started as a way to save on the costs of running burners and cleaning equipment and operating a fleet of trucks. Now Stenger is banking on renewable energy as a saving grace.

He's not alone. It's been one challenge after another for manufacturers. They've lost work to faster, cheaper overseas facilities. Jobs have been replaced with automation. And they've struggled to find and keep skilled workers.

As oil and raw materials prices rise, local manufacturers must eliminate cost where they can.

So comes the green movement, threatening the biggest upheaval many have seen. With more stringent environmental regulations, mandates from the supply chain and eco-conscious end users, manufacturers must evaluate the environmental impact of nearly every aspect of business and drastically reform.

It's these companies that use the most energy, emit the most pollutant gases and release the most contaminants into our water ways. They also ultimately control how environmentally friendly the products we use actually can be.

"Industry by far has the most impact from consumption to production," said Nabil Nasr, director of the Golisano Institute for Sustainability at the Rochester Institute of Technology in New York. "They are under more pressure than anyone because they do the most damage."

That's particularly true in Cincinnati. There are 1,500 manufacturing companies, employing 100,000 - 7 percent of Ohio's manufacturing and 9 percent of its industrial work force. Cincinnati ranks fifth nationally for the number of manufacturing jobs, according to Manufacturing News Inc.

Higher costs, lower sales

Oil prices have more than doubled in a year, and overseas demand for materials like copper and iron has pushed prices to record highs. Firms also must cut costs to make up for lower sales in a poor economy.

At Cognis Corp.'s oleochemical plant in St. Bernard, energy costs and shipping prices for its chemicals, used in soaps, shampoos and cleaners, have skyrocketed and forced it to pursue eco-conscious measures.

"We're looking for ways to keep the company very profitable," said spokeswoman Kathy Bollmer. Energy efficiency promises long-term savings, so Cognis sped up its equipment maintenance schedule, bought a pricey boiler system and found a way to trap steam and recycle it.

Not even these measures are enough to meet increasingly stringent local rules from the Environmental Protection Agency.

Because Hamilton, Clermont, Butler and Warren counties are out of compliance with EPA standards for ozone and particulate matter (powdered dust, soot) emissions, manufacturers must add environmental controls or change the formulation of products.

"Emissions are a threat to human health - in many cases, the standards we have are not even sufficient," said Brad Miller, permits and enforcement section supervisor for Hamilton County's department of environmental services, which enforces EPA standards. Mandates get tighter as scientists discover more risks with byproducts.

Smaller companies in the paint or coating industry are for the first time being regulated for carcinogen use. The Metropolitan Sewer District is cracking down on Ph reporting.

"Companies are very anxious," said Bonnie Pray, an environmental compliance specialist with the county. "It means a lot of time and money regardless of whether it applies to them."

She expects the EPA to mandate a reporting requirement for carbon dioxide and greenhouse gas emissions by mid-2009.

At companies like NuVo Technologies in Hebron (page 64), new European Union restrictions are forcing reformulation of products using hazardous chemicals. The EU's 2006 RoHS Directive (Restriction of Hazardous Substances) limits levels of substances in electronics made or sold within its borders. California recently adopted them, and other states are considering mandates. The EU's REACH (Registration, Evaluation, Authorization and Restriction of Chemical substances) initiative, begun in June 2007, requires documentation of the quantity of hazardous materials in chemicals.

The Wal-Mart trickle-down

Retailers like Wal-Mart are taking notice. It announced it would grade electronics suppliers on energy efficiency, hazardous substance reduction, ability to recycle and package size. It also set a goal to reduce the carbon footprint of its supply chain by 25 percent over three years. And it plans to reduce packaging used by suppliers by 5 percent between 2008 and 2013.

"Wal-Mart's consumers are us, and we want to live in a nice, safe place free of pollution," said Mary Beth Holley, who leads TechSolve's Environmental Compliance Collaborative. "(This) will force more companies to embrace green."

Wal-Mart's requirements have filtered to Fairfield-based Color Resolutions Inter national (page 64). Because Wal-Mart often requires suppliers to ship in the packaging that goes on shelves, the firm has formulated inks to print messages on those, and it's replacing oil in its inks.

For manufacturers in the construction industry, like gypsum drywall-maker Lafarge in Silver Grove (page 63), the U.S. Green Building Council's Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design standards drive change. Because owners earn LEED points based on the recycled products included and on overall environmental impact, they've put pressure on manufacturers to change the makeup of products. Lafarge uses the byproduct of Duke Energy's coal-burning process to make gypsum, saving the impact of mining the raw material.

"The lifecycle now goes all the way back to material extraction and assembly," said Alan Warner, an architect with GBBN Architects and the chairman-elect of Cincinnati's chapter of the USGBC.

The pressure is on, but going green can be a pricey up-front investment. Some companies hire consultants. Others allocate resources to equipment upgrades. Product development costs money, too, because it requires companies to pay employees to innovate rather than produce for a client. And reformulating products with new materials can add to a budget.

But opportunities abound for firms like Covington-based Atkins & Pearce, the longtime textile manufacturer that has deployed a product development division to create textile solutions to environmental problems (page 63). Entrepreneurs like car racing fan Kevin Brun have been inspired to start businesses. He made a deal with NASCAR to recycle tires after races, selling thousands of beverage coolers made from them.

Not to mention that companies can earn a powerful marketing tool by receiving green certifications like EnergyStar, LEED, Green Seal and EPEAT, by participating in programs like Hamilton County's Go Green Challenge or by competing in EPA's national Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge Awards Program.

Then there's Mark Derrick whose Perry & Derrick Paints collects thousands of gallons of unused paint every year, remixes it and puts it back on the shelf.

"It's a true example of the environmental movement," said Holly Christmann, program manager with Hamilton County's Solid Waste District. "And it's going full circle right in our own back yard."

© 2008 American City Business Journals Inc.

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