Macroscope
Nilupa Gunaratna seems in many ways a typical advanced graduate student. She is quiet, thoughtful, and a bit introspective - until you ask her about Statistics in the Community (STATCOM). Then she lights up. And who could blame her? In only a few short years, STATCOM has gained the attention of peers and has become a model other universities are hoping to follow.
Five years ago, Nels Grevstad (PhD '03) wanted to apply his statistical skills in the local community. Ed Eiler, superintendent of the Lafayette School Corporation, wanted to examine the effects of state funding on schools. Grevstad went to work on the data, and the results led to changes in funding policies.
Another community project followed soon after. Several interested graduate students formed STATCOM to continue this outreach effort. To date, STATCOM has worked with more than 30 clients in the community. Each semester, 35-40 students are active in one or more STATCOM projects, such as assessing the effectiveness of local government services, identifying likely donors for not-for-profit organizations, and examining the success of rehabilitation-center clients in staying off drugs.
The organization is enticing for students because it gives them real-world experience while they're at school, says Cherie Ochsenfeld, associate director of STATCOM. Ochsenfeld wants to do consulting work. "The professional contacts I've made with other students and clients," she adds, "have been great preparation for the work I'll do in my career."
Gunaratna, a former director of STATCOM who now serves as an advisor, adds that she has truly benefited from her involvement in the organization. "I've been called on to do things I wouldn't otherwise have done," she says. "I've had to engage in public speaking - often to people outside the field - on difficult topics. My STATCOM experiences have led to grant writing and conference presentations."
Community groups benefit from the high-quality statistical research and analysis at STATCOM - all provided free of charge. This win-win situation is at the heart of the organization's success. Just as critical, students have also gained valuable experience as leaders. "We learn to work as part of a team," says Ochsenfeld, "then gain experience as project leaders and administrators. It's great professional training."
"It's a big challenge to run this large an organization," notes Gunaratna. "We've had to build an organizational structure to meet our clients' needs." She adds that having former directors such as herself and Alex Lipka stay on as advisors has been key to smooth transitions of responsibility.
Spreading the word is also getting a boost. This spring, STATCOM received a $30,000 grant to show other universities how to create similar programs.
Two students who helped create Merlin's Magic Castle, a language-learning game that has won both accolades and dollars over the last year, have donated part of their prize money to the center where they worked.
Alexei Czeskis, a senior computer science major, and Amicia Elliott, a senior genetics major, gave $1,000 of their prize money to the Lafayette Adult Resource Academy (LARA). The students were part of the Engineering Projects in the Community (EPICS) team that created the project for the center. Merlin won third place in the Burton D. Morgan Entrepreneurial Competition in February.
"LARA helps adults fill in their education gaps with high school math, social studies, and English so they can get their GEDs and become more employable," explains Czeskis. The students say that they wanted to give something back to the organization after working with them.
A research team including Noah Diffenbaugh, assistant professor of earth and atmospheric sciences, predicts that nearly 81 percent of U.S. winegrape-growing regions could be lost to climate warming by the end of the century, including about half of the areas producing high-quality wines.
"This is the first assessment at this detail for the full continental United States," says Diffenbaugh. Winegrowers can expect more very hot days, which are not particularly conducive to grape-growing. The research team suggests that winegrape growing may move to higher elevations, but these areas have increased moisture content in the air.
"This is a snapshot of where things are headed now, but decisions we make as a group and as individuals can alter the course," he says.
Matter, Antimatter- What does it matter?
Physicists have long known that when the universe was born in the Big Bang some 13 billion years ago, equal amounts of matter and antimatter were created. They also know that when matter and antimatter collide, they annihilate each other. So why are we here today? Why is the universe filled with matter - planets, stars, people - and not a complete void?
Researchers have tried to answer the question by reproducing antimatter in linear accelerators and comparing its behavior to matter. From such tests came the now widely accepted theory that shortly after the universe was born, an imbalance rapidly developed between these two states due to a process known as "CP violation." This imbalance led to a universe dominated by matter instead of its antimatter counterpart.
Any good theory must stand up to testing, and Purdue physicists played an important role in a new measurement made at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory that further supports the existence of CP violation.
The Purdue team, led by professors Virgil E. Barnes, Daniela Bortoletto, Arthur F. Garfinkel, and Matthew Jones, designed and built critical components of a detector called the silicon vertex detector, which made it possible to precisely measure oscillations of a certain type of subatomic particle alternating between its matter and antimatter states. Scientists running an experiment called CDF - Collider Detector at Fermilab - were the first to measure this oscillation earlier this year.
The particle continuously switches back and forth between its matter form, called a B-sub-s meson, and its antimatter form, called an anti-B-sub-s meson. This matter-antimatter oscillation occurs at a particular frequency, several trillions of times per second, which has now been measured precisely.
While Jones was a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Pennsylvania, he played a key role in the design and construction of another critical instrument called the "time-of-flight detector," which is used for identifying mesons that are carrying constituents of matter called strange quarks. He now co-leads a team of researchers at Fermilab that operates the time-of-flight detector, which enabled scientists to complete the precise measurement several years sooner than would have otherwise been possible.
The CDF measurement was made at the culmination of a research period that lasted from February 2002 to January 2006 using Fermilab's Tevatron particle accelerator. Within the 700- member CDF collaboration, a team of 80 scientists from 27 institutions performed the data analysis leading to the precision measurement one month after the data-taking was completed.
Other members of the Purdue group include research scientists Gino Bolla, Alvin Laasanen, and Petra Merkel; postdoctoral research associates Gene Flanagan and Else Lytken; graduate students Artur Apresyan, Anadi Canepa, Niharika Ranjan, Alexei Sedov, and Victor Veszpremi; and former doctoral student Kim Giolo.
Jischke announces his departure
Purdue President Martin C. Jischke announced that he will step down as the University's president on June 30, 2007. The timing coincides with both the end of the $1.5 billion Campaign for Purdue and the end of the University's strategic plan - both initiated under Jischke's leadership.
"I have led universities for 23 years, and I consider the Purdue presidency to be the highlight of my career. I have come to think of our students, faculty, and staff as an extended family, and working with this university's Board of Trustees has been the kind of experience every administrator would like to have," he says.
The board has appointed a presidential search committee and is working with an executive search firm. The formal search began in September.
Pilot underway on undergrad curriculum
First-year students in the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences and the Actuarial Science program are part of a pilot curriculum revision in the College of Science this fall.
"It's about preparing students for a changing world," says Chris Sahley, associate dean for undergraduate education, who chaired the College of Science Undergraduate Education Task Force. Today's workplace, studies show, requires not only that workers have a solid understanding of their discipline, but also that they be proficient in critical thinking, oral and written communication, collaboration and team building, multidisciplinary perspectives, ethics, international culture, and diversity.
At the start of the revision process, faculty, students, alumni, and Dean's Leadership Council members weighed in on a list of outcomes they felt were important for a Purdue Science undergraduate education to achieve. The new College of Science core requirements were developed to achieve the top outcomes on that list. The result, says Sahley, is a core that is modern, flexible, gives departments more options, and provides opportunities for non-course-based study.
"Students can use a study-abroad experience to meet requirements in several categories, including language and culture and humanities. Likewise, a student could use an internship experience to meet requirements in technical writing, presenting, and collaboration and team building. The new curriculum proposal allows requirements to be fulfilled in different ways," she says. One interesting element of the current pilot is a modular approach. Three modules, each lasting five weeks and earning a student one credit, have been developed. "They lay the foundation in technical writing, presentation, and team building. That way, when faculty design their courses that build upon these skills, they know that their students will have the foundation," Sahley says.
Science faculty will review the feedback from the pilot and suggest modifications. The new curriculum proposal will then go to a full faculty vote for college-wide implementation.
More information about the proposed curriculum can be found here
Friends, faculty, and students helped dedicate the Richard and Patricia Lawson Computer Science Building on September 15.
"Computers and information technology have permeated all of our lives and will continue to do so, especially as we enter the 'global' world," says lead benefactor Richard Lawson (MS '68). "From entertainment to business to maintaining relationships, the knowledge of computers and information technology is critical. I hope the new building will attract students to study computer science by creating an appealing environment for study."
What goes into creating the next generation of computer science building?
175,431 feet of 10GB data wire
4,304 fiber cable
1,183 10GB port connections
1,000-square-foot data center
12 satellite data closets
106,911 total square feet
660 days to build
323 exterior glass panes
3 ceiling domes
The $20 million facility houses four classrooms, five instructional laboratories, four research laboratories, and additional meeting rooms. The team-project laboratories were developed to enhance interaction between students in a way that mimics the team environment of many companies.
The building houses most of the computer science department, although some faculty will remain in other buildings until the second phase of the building has been completed.
"This facility will allow the Department of Computer Science to concentrate its classrooms, faculty offices, and laboratories into two buildings rather than the five currently used," ays Susanne Hambrusch, department head. "Purdue is second to none in the number of information technology specialists it graduates, and the new building will allow students and faculty to continue with groundbreaking research in computer science, leading to many of the world's most useful tools and systems."
The new Lawson Building comes at just the right time, as the need for training more students is great. There are more computing jobs in the U.S. today than ever before, and sophisticated econometric studies predict 1.4 million net new computing jobs in the U.S. over a ten-year period.
The building formerly known as the Memorial Gymnasium, and then known as the Computer Science Building, has been renamed Felix Haas Hall, in honor of Haas, the Arthur G. Hansen Professor Emeritus of Mathematics. Haas holds the distinction of being the first dean of the School of Science and helping to establish the nation's first computer science department. He was also head of the Division of Mathematical Sciences and served as provost for 12 years. Until last year, he regularly taught math courses at Purdue.
"The fact that Purdue wanted to name a building after me came as quite a surprise, but I am very much honored by this decision," says Haas.
The building was initially renamed the Memorial Gymnasium, and a historical marker was installed to memorialize students who lost their lives in a 1903 train wreck on their way to a Purdue-Indiana University football game. It was renamed in 1985 when it was remodeled for the computer science department. The historical marker will remain in place at Haas Hall.