News 09-06-2002
Sponsor: Improve the Performance of Your Campus Network
Volera's Content Delivery Network software ensures fast and reliable access
to web-based resources for students and faculty. Volera's solutions also enable
the use of e-learning and streaming media applications on your existing network.
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U. Cairo Student Wins Chip Design Contest
Ayman Hassan Abd El Aziz, a student from Ain Shams University in Cairo, Egypt,
won the $5,000 grand prize in a higher education student design contest sponsored
by Mentor Graphics Corp., a semiconductor design company. Ayman, whose project
was titled, "Design and Implementation of an IF Gm-C filter for Bluetooth,"
also took away the top prize in the IC/analog mixed-signal design category.
The other categories were: printed circuit board design, hardware description
language, and system-on-chip design. Category winners, who took away $2,000
each, included a team of five students from the University of Patras, Greece,
and Ryan Henderson, a student at the Oregon Institute of Technology. The contest
was co-sponsored by Sun Microsystems Inc.
For more information, visit: www.mentor.com/partners/hep/
Sponsor: Gerard Hanley of Cal. State to Address Syllabus fall2002
How d'es an institution develop strategies and encourage cooperation across
the academic community to meet the technology needs of students, faculty, staff
and administrators? You'll learn about successful efforts from Gerard Hanley,
Syllabus fall2002 keynote speaker and Senior Director of Academic Technology
Support in the Office of the Chancellor at California State University. Affiliated
with MERLOT since 1997, Hanley has worked to develop learning communities that
foster professional development and cooperation among faculty, staff, students
and administrators. Syllabus fall2002, an education technology conference and
vendor fair, will be held November 3-5 at the Boston Marriott Newton Hotel in
Newton, Mass.
For more information and to register, go to http://www.syllabus.com/fall2002
Online MBA Eases Conflicts For Managers
Lansbridge University and the American Graduate School of Management (AGSM)
announced a dual degree program offering joint degrees in Master of Business
Administration and Master of Management. The program, which also offers specialties
for the automotive and healthcare industries, is designed for working professionals.
Students work online in small groups within a class of about 20, and interact
daily with faculty and peers. A weekly online synchronous interaction is scheduled
for faculty and students. Classes began in August, and will be offered in November,
February and May. John McLaughlin, Provost, Lansbridge University, noted that
the "online format closely parallels the real world environments in which our
students work." AGSM president Richard Oliver, added, "Students from around
the world become teammates in classes that explore today's best management practices."
For more information, visit: http://www.lansbridge.com
McGraw-Hill Offers Online Writing Tool
McGraw-Hill unveiled a web-based classroom writing assessment tool that it
says will give students an method of practicing their writing skills with immediate
feedback. Writing Roadmap will provide teachers analytic information and options
for monitoring student and class progress, the company said. The application
covers descriptive, narrative, persuasive, and informative styles of writing.
Scores are reported on five analytic traits, and users can choose between holistic
or summative scores, which can be downloaded into existing student information
systems. The system, which uses an automated essay scoring engine from Vantage
Learning, allows students to create a portfolio of their essays, which teachers
can review via options that provide personalized guidance.
Michigan Sponsors $9.5M Wireless Grants
The state of Michigan made available five demonstration grants of up to $2
million each that will be awarded to state school districts this fall under
the Learning Without Limits education initiative. (LWL) is designed to help
all Michigan students have one-to-one portable computing technology and Internet
access by 2004. The grants will be administered jointly by Michigan Virtual
University (MVU) and the Michigan Department of Education. "This complements
the State's $110 million teacher laptop program, which delivered more than 88,000
computers to Michigan teachers last year," said MVU president David Spencer
"MVU was selected to assist in this project because of our leadership position
in education technology and experience in coordinating these other statewide
learning initiatives." Grant applications are due by 5 p.m. October 8, 2002;
winners will be announced in late October.
For more information, visit: http://wireless.mivu.org
USC Wins $1 M Energy Incentive Rebate
The University of Southern California was awarded a $1 million rebate from
the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP), which covers installations
for lighting and chillers at USC's main and health science campuses. The efficiency
projects covered by the rebate are part of a five-year $10 million Master Energy
Plan that has realized 10 percent savings in USC's peak power usage. Among the
first improvements were new lighting systems that require less power. A new
state-of-the-art energy control center provided the capability to monitor and
fine-tune energy supply and usage across the campus. Another major investment
was the construction of a 1,500 square foot air conditioning plant, with pipes
running underground to supply chilled water to 30 buildings across campus. The
system replaced the individual chillers that cooled each building.
For more information, visit: http://www.GreenLA.com
