Rice University’s Student Newspaper — Since 1916

Wednesday, April 24, 2024 — Houston, TX

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McMurtry crest design draws on symbolism, college culture

(02/04/11 12:00am)

McMurtry College's crest committee unveiled its final crest design Tuesday during the college's town hall meeting. The crest design, which prominently features a Scottish and Celtic theme, includes symbols such as swords, a conch shell and a "lion rampant."The crest committee consisted of McMurtry seniors David Sorge and Julia Botev, sophomore Anna Handelman and freshman Colby Sieber. Sorge said the crest committee was commissioned by the McMurtry McMinistry at the beginning of the fall semester. He said that, while Botev, Handelman and Sieber formed the more artistic part of the committee, with Sieber being the main graphic artist, he considered his role as more involved with background research of heraldry and creating a timeline for completion of the crest.


Obama awards professors for research efforts

(01/28/11 12:00am)

In recognition of their research efforts, Assistant Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering Farinaz Koushanfar and Assistant Professor of Chemistry and Physics and Astronomy Emilia Morosan were awarded the Early Presidential Career Awards for Scientists and Engineers.Eighty-five researchers nationwide were honored with the award, which is given to scientists and engineers who are in the early stages of their career, but have already conducted outstanding research.


Duncan crest shows community, individuality

(01/14/11 12:00am)

After two semesters of consultation and discussion among the Duncan College community, Duncan's crest has been finalized. Symbols include an owl, an oak tree, the letter "D", a sun, and a motto reading "Classis et germanita," - a Latin phrase meaning "Class and Brotherhood" - meant to emphasize Duncan's community aspects.A committee of Duncan students, headed by senior Martha Cox and sophomores Estevan Delgado and Priscilla Leung, was formed last Spring to direct Duncan's new crest design. Cox was the main artist for the crest design, and the official crest was first unveiled on Nov. 19 at Duncan's dedication. According to Delgado, members of the college have already begun to decorate items such as T-shirts, coffee mugs and shot glasses with their newly finished crest.


SPAN 101 class reads to children

(12/03/10 12:00am)

Students who signed up for Spanish 101 with lecturer Luziris Turi this semester may have expected to just learn introductory Spanish, but they were also given the opportunity to take their Spanish skills out into the community. On Nov. 23, Turi and several of her students went to Dow Elementary to present six short stories they had written to elementary school children in Houston's Multicultural Education and Counseling through the Arts after-school program."I wanted [the students] to see what they learned in action and, at the same time, to reach out to the community in Houston," Turi said.


Rice in a Box finalized

(11/18/10 12:00am)

Twenty-five, 50, possibly even 100 years from now, with the help of a few boxes of memories, it will be possible to reconstruct the college experiences of Rice students. This is the goal of Rice in a Box, a Student Association initiative designed to collect the history of student experiences at Rice for each graduating class.According to SA Secretary Georgia Lagoudas, the name "Rice in a Box" is intended to be a fun representation of the project premise. She said boxes for collection of memorabilia will be placed at colleges and around campus and will later be stored in the off-campus Fondren Library storage facility. Examples of items for Rice in a Box include brochures, pamphlets, T-shirts, glassware, photos and event programs.


Five student programing teams compete at regional contest

(11/12/10 12:00am)

Where better to find students spending hours in front of the computer coding solutions for programming problems while competing against the clock and other students than at the Association for Computing Machinery International Collegiate Programming Contest? On Oct. 29-30, five Rice teams, consisting of three students each, competed against teams from other colleges such as the University of Texas at Austin, Baylor University, the University of Tulsa, Louisiana State University and Texas A&M University in the 2010 ACM-ICPC - more commonly known as "Battle of the Brains" - South Central USA Regional Scripting Contest. The team "Give a Hoot!" - Lovett College freshman Ryan Dewey, Lovett sophomore Eric Lee and Wiess College freshman Olyver Yau - placed the highest out of all the Rice teams, winning fourth place out of 69 teams.


Kids go to Project Pumpkin

(11/05/10 12:00am)

Children in costume flooded Rice with Halloween spirit last Saturday. Project Pumpkin, which took place in the Central Quadrangle, is a Halloween celebration held annually by Rice clubs and organizations for children from Houston.This year, Project Pumpkin was coordinated by Rice Student Volunteer Program members Elisa Zhao, a Hanszen College sophomore, and Dana Zhao, a Wiess College sophomore. RSVP Children's Committee Chairs Melissa Sheng and Wen Zhang, who are Duncan College juniors, helped coordinate the event as well.


Radio licenses received

(10/29/10 12:00am)

Earlier this month, students of PHYS 401: Physics of Ham Radio passed their amateur radio licensing exams, allowing them to independently broadcast on various frequencies.Three exam levels - technician, general and extra - give increasing orders of permitted access to frequencies. Passing the technician test permits broadcasting at 30 MHz and above; passing the general test permits broadcasting on all frequencies; passing the extra test permits the licensed user to use more modes and access additional band lengths. Eight students in PHYS 401 passed the technician level exam, only one student passed the technician and general levels and one student passed the general level, having taken the technician level several years ago.


Online only: Nobel Prize winner Geim speaks at "Year of Nano" conference

(10/22/10 12:00am)

This year marks the 25th anniversary of the discovery of the buckyball. On Oct. 12, in spirit of the celebration, Buckyball Discovery Conference guest speaker Andre Geim, the 2010 Nobel Prize winner in physics, discussed the importance of research and building on current knowledge to explore the possibilities of science. Geim was awarded the Nobel Prize Oct. 5 for his work on graphene, which has many possible applications in the field of nanotechnology. The conference was held to commemorate the buckyball discovery and discuss the impacts and possibilities of nanotechnology. The three major topics chosen for the conference were buckyballs, nanotubes and graphene.Director of the Smalley Institute Wade Adams said Geim was not able to be at the conference in person because he had been called into a meeting with the British prime minister and minister of finance. Adams said that despite this, Geim was determined to honor his commitment and made his speech through Skype.


Leebron, Ping win

(10/08/10 12:00am)

Rice University is expanding both inside and outside the hedges. While construction has been creating new buildings and facilities to improve the campus, the Rice administration and faculty have been working on increasing the university's international presence. Their efforts have been recognized by the Greater Houston Partnership, who named President David Leebron and University Representative Y. Ping Sun as Houston's International Executives of the Year Sept. 30.



REMS director returns after 15 years

(09/24/10 12:00am)

More than a decade after leaving Rice, Mark Escott (Jones '96) returned to the campus as medical director of the Rice Emergency Medical Services, which he founded as an undergraduate student in 1995. Escott, who previously worked for two years as REMS director after his graduation from Rice, started his new position in July. As medical director, Escott will set and approve the medical protocols followed by REMS. Along with this responsibility, he has taken up a position as a team doctor for the Athletic Department at Rice.Escott is proud of the growth REMS has shown, but said there will be changes and improvements to the organization. He said that an aspect of REMS that has not expanded as much as he would have liked is the participation of faculty and staff as responders. This expansion would reinforce REMS as more than a student organization.


RMC kiosk encourages recycling with incentives

(09/17/10 12:00am)

Going green at Rice is about to get bigger. A recycling kiosk about the size of three vending machines was installed over the Labor Day weekend in the Rice Memorial Center near the entrances of the Rice University Bookstore and 13th Street. The recycling kiosk is part of a pilot project by the Greenopolis Group at Waste Management, a national company that handles Rice's solid waste. The Greenopolis Group is the division of Waste Management focused on developing technologies to increase recycling levels. The kiosk is on a one-year trial at Rice University, according to Director of Sustainability Richard Johnson. It is capable of storing up to 9,000 aluminum cans and 1,700 bottles, roughly corresponding to 300 pounds of aluminum and 170 pounds of plastic.


A sneak peek at the Brockman Hall for Physics

(09/10/10 12:00am)

Brockman Hall for Physics, a new state-of-the-art facility for faculty in the Department of Physics and Astronomy and the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department, is expected to be completed by the end of 2010. The earliest move-in date for faculty, as projected by Project Manager Erik Knezevich, is Jan. 27, 2011. The building will include a classroom, labs, offices for faculty and a lecture hall expected to seat about 255 students, Knezevich said. There will also be a science quadrangle and an outdoor green space with a fountain similar to those near the Brochstein Pavilion. A rooftop observatory will be on the east end of the south wing and will be surrounded by red LED lights to make it easier to view the night sky.


Wiess seeks new master

(09/03/10 12:00am)

At the end of the 2010-2011 academic year, Wiess College Master Mike Gustin, professor of Biochemistry and Cell Biology, and his wife, Denise Klein, will be completing their five-year term as masters. According to Sam Oke, chair of the Master Search Committee, a search committee has been created to begin the process of finding new Wiess masters, which will hopefully be completed by the end of the fall semester.