News 02-14-2001
Syllabus Conference to Address Web Technologies
Track 4 of the Syllabus Spring2001 conference, to be held in Cincinnati, Ohio
April 5-8, will deal with "Web Technologies: Portals, Resources, and Development."
The Web may be "the killer app" that technologists have predicted for years.
In a short time, the World Wide Web has affected education and the world in
ways unimagined just five years ago. In that time, educators have discovered
much about what's possible using the Web, what works and d'esn't work, and how
best to select resources for students to use. Web tools can help educators explore
resources and content, organize courses and projects, share work, and communicate
with others. Campus portals provide a quick way for prospective students anywhere
to learn about a campus; enrolled students can track their academic progress;
and faculty can coordinate student advising with student mentors, writing centers,
or deans' offices.
The Web Technologies: Portals, Resources, and Development track is rich with
exciting sessions in which many faculty presenters share their experiences using
and teaching on the Web. Sessions topics include visualization on the Web, a
step-by-step process for setting up a Web course, managing classes more efficiently
using the Web, navigating the Web and finding the right "content," and human
communication in the Web sphere.
For detailed session descriptions and online registration, visit www.syllabus.com.
Also, be sure to check out the conference brochure in the January issue of Syllabus
magazine.
NASA Opens Space Station Science Command Post
The command and control center for scientific research onboard the International
Space Station is open for business. The science command post linking Earth-bound
researchers with their experiments and astronauts in orbit was commissioned
recently at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala.
The Payload Operations Center will provide support for Space Station science
operations, the most ambitious research endeavor ever undertaken in space. The
new 13,300 square-foot facility is housed in a section of the Huntsville Operations
Support Center, a historic two-story complex that provided engineering support
for Apollo, Skylab, and Space Shuttle launches, as well as Hubble Space Telescope
and Chandra X-ray Observatory operations. The complex also houses the Spacelab
Mission Operations Control Center from which more than 25 Shuttle-based science
missions were controlled.
Throughout the life of the Space Station, the operations center will integrate
research requirements, plan its science missions, and ensure that they are safely
executed. It will integrate crew and ground team training and research mission
timelines. It will also manage use of Space Station payload resources, handle
science communications with the crew, and manage commanding and data transmissions
to and from the orbiting research center.
To take a virtual tour of the science command post and get more information,
visit http://scipoc.msfc.nasa.gov.
Students Abandon Technology
Students at Seattle Pacific University declared this "Technology Sabbath"
week at the Christian liberal arts university, temporarily abandoning technology
so they can concentrate on friendships and faith. About 300 students who live
in the Marston/Watson and Moyer residence halls volunteered to use technology
only for classwork, and to spend their free time talking with friends or attending
worship services. The intent of the experiment is to encourage students to use
the time being with friends that they ordinarily would be using for e-mailing,
surfing the Internet, or watching TV.
Steelcase and MIT Media Lab Showcase Collaborative Project
Steelcase, a designer and manufacturer of products used to create high performance
work environments, recently announced its collaboration with the MIT Media Lab
on a design project that is featured as part of the Museum of Modern Art's "Workspheres''
exhibition. The interactive 'Atmosphere' exhibit addresses the complexity of
information management in the modern workplace. The exhibit consists of six
projects that examine the changing nature of the workplace and the role of design
in creating effective solutions to accommodate those changes. In the exhibit,
users can navigate a large wide screen that represents an ''organic'' cloud
of information. Up to three people can navigate through the information simultaneously
by using one of three handheld devices, each representing a different level
of detail--macro, medium, and micro. As information is seamlessly integrated,
users can intuitively navigate financial, management, operational and administrative
processes to better manage complex projects and multiple ideas.
The "Workspheres" exhibit will be open to the public at MoMA through
April 22, 2001. For more information, visit www.moma.org/workspheres.
NASA Equipment Aids Study of Galapagos Spill
The recent spill in the Galapagos, caused when a fuel delivery ran aground
near Shipwreck Bay, is under scrutiny using NASA's SeaWiFS (Sea-viewing Wide
Field-of-view Sensor). While containment efforts and favorable ocean currents
reduced the severity of the disaster, some ecologists say that the low mortality
of birds and other large animals might not fully reflect the extent of the damage.
Because phytoplankton, along with other photosynthetic organisms like aquatic
plants, occupy "square one" in the ecosystem's food chain, life in the Galapagos
depends heavily on these smallest of life forms. Consequently, monitoring the
health of marine bugs and plankton will be necessary for understanding the full
impact of the spill. A combination of data from NASA's SeaWiFS satellite and
direct measurements at spots around the islands will give scientists a good
idea of how these tiny organisms respond to the spill.
SeaWiFS can measure phytoplankton levels in the entire Galapagos ecosystem.
The satellite's sensors, which have a resolution of about 1 square kilometer,
measure the color of the water, which varies with the concentration of chlorophyll
and other plant pigments. Water with more phytoplankton simply looks greener
than water in plankton-poor regions.
A primary goal of SeaWiFs is to monitor worldwide populations of aquatic microbes.
They might be small individually, but taken together the diminutive life forms
play an important role in the global carbon cycle. NASA scientists are using
SeaWiFS data to discover how marine plankton numbers vary throughout the year.
For more information, visit http://science.nasa.gov.
Technology Entrepreneur Gives UCSF $5.4 Million
A $5.4 million gift to support the human genetics program at the University
of California, San Francisco's new Mission Bay campus and promote promising
studies of young investigators in cardiovascular research was announced recently
by high-tech entrepreneur Eric Greenberg and UCSF. The gift will fund the Carmel
and Eric Greenberg Human Genetics Laboratory at UCSF Mission Bay and will establish
the Greenberg Young Investigator/Opportunity Awards in Cardiovascular Genetics.
The new laboratories will enable UCSF to expand its program in human genetics,
which concentrates on identifying the genetic contributions to common diseases,
understanding how genes determine response to drugs (pharmacogenomics), and
developing new strategies for discovering the function of human genes. The laboratories
will be part of a new genetics, neuroscience, and developmental biology research
building soon to be under construction at UCSF Mission Bay. The campus plans
to begin construction of the building later this year with completion scheduled
for 2003.
Greenberg's gift supports the new site's focus on innovative collaborations
and new technologies. UCSF Mission Bay will be home to basic scientists working
in new programs in human genetics, brain development, and advanced technology
-- areas expected to yield valuable insights into how cells communicate, how
the brain learns, and methods for creating personally tailored drugs for a variety
of diseases and conditions.
