Summer e-newsletter moves to monthly

The college's e-newsletter is published once a month during the summer months (June 9, July 7, and August 4) and will resume normal biweekly distribution on Monday, August 25.

In the News

Bad weather hurts race team

An unexpected delay cost Purdue's Air Race Classic team critical time and eventually the race last week. In the race leg from Frankfort, Ky., to Franklin, Pa., the team had to make an unscheduled stop because of bad weather. While sitting on the ground, the clock kept ticking, costing the team valuable points.

"The time doesn't stop until you get to the final airport of that leg," captain Marie Janus said. "It was the right decision. If we had kept going, it would have been under instrument conditions, which would have been unsafe and illegal.

Lafayette Journal and Courier

Academic Boot Camp gives leg up to college newcomers

Purdue University is sponsoring its third annual Science Technology Engineering and Math (STEM) Academic Boot Camp, which helps incoming freshmen adjust personally, socially and academically to college.

Students who are registered in the colleges of Engineering, Technology or Science are attending through Au. 1. Founded by the Minority Engineering Program, the camp features intensive seminars that provide tools for succeeding in and outside of the classroom.

Students will come from throughout the nation, including the states of Arizona, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, Ohio, Tennessee, Texas and Wisconsin.

Teachers, counselors visiting Purdue to learn ways to attract students to computer careers

A group of teachers, counselors and students will visit Purdue University this month for a program aimed at increasing the number of young people, especially women, pursuing careers in computer-related fields.

Twenty-four teachers, 13 school guidance counselors and 76 high school students, mainly from Indiana, Illinois and Ohio, will participate in Surprising Possibilities Imagined and Realized Through Information Technology (SPIRIT), a $1.26 million, three-year project funded by the National Science Foundation. This marks the first year of the program.

The teacher program begins on July 7, and the student and counselor programs will begin on July 14. All programs finish July 18.

University News Service

CoT student, employee help raise $11,000 for charity

Brian Brinegar, an OLS student and a Web services coordinator at Purdue's Engineering Computer Network, recently coordinated a 57-hour video gaming marathon that raised more than $11,000 for Child's Play charity.

The charity provides toys and games for children's hospitals around the world, including Riley Hospital for Children in Indianapolis.

Among the other participants were John Groth, Purdue alumnus and network administrator for Technology Computer Network, and Purdue alumnus Dan May.

"Three of us played all the major Super Mario Brothers video games and broadcast the event live over the Internet from Friday, June 27, in the afternoon and ended sometime Monday around 12:30 a.m.," Groth said. "On average, we had 2,000 or more people watching the feed at any time and over 600 donors to the charity."

Donors were linked from the Super Mario Marathon Web site at www.mariomarathon.com directly to the Child's Play charity, www.childsplaycharity.org.

"We are exhausted from the event, but very grateful for the overwhelming response from the online and gaming community and their generous donations to Child's Play," Groth said. "We also had lots of support from our friends and family, including our supervisors at work since we needed a day off to catch up on sleep."

Two Purdue professors helping to improve country's air transportation system

Two Purdue aviation technology professors have a voice in shaping a national plan to transform the U.S. air transportation system to increase its capacity and efficiency and ease congestion.

Timothy Ropp, an assistant professor who specializes in aircraft maintenance, and Brian Dillman, an associate professor who teaches flight technology, have been selected to serve as members of the working group on safety for the Next Generation Air Transportation System (known as NextGen).

The central mission of the project, which is being directed by the multi-agency Joint Planning and Development Office and supported by the Federal Aviation Administration, is to modernize the national airspace system. The system will be implemented gradually through 2025.

The NextGen project's goal is to assure that the air transportation system is able to safely and efficiently handle the increasing number of passengers that are projected in the future.

Ropp and Dillman, who have been involved in several projects examining aviation safety worldwide, said the nation is currently experiencing the safest era of air travel in history. However, that record is tenuous with the growth expected in coming decades.

"The air-traffic control system is being updated from its original 1950s and 1960s technology in order to accommodate an increasing number of aircraft, and we have to change the way we do things," Dillman said. "Our role will be to make sure the new plan maximizes efficiency but also maintains — and even improves upon — our system's safety record."

Ropp and Dillman will be looking at ways to implement a business-like approach to safety in conjunction with these advances in order to improve on the way the various players within the air-traffic control system interact.

Workshops helping teachers to lead the way

When Chris Byam started teaching computer-aided design classes at the Kokomo Area Career Center in 2000, he was the first teacher in Indiana teaching Project Lead the Way curriculum.

He's taught the class, the high school entry-level course in the pre-engineering curriculum, since then, and starting this fall, he will teach engineering design and development, which is the senior capstone course in the program.

He was one of more than 100 teachers from around the state participating in Project Lead the Way training at Purdue University College of Technology at Kokomo. The first session started June 15 and ran through June 24. A second session is planned July 6 to 18. More than 180 teachers, most from Indiana, are expected to attend.

In flight: Ron Senesac of the Kokomo Area Career Center watches as a balsa wood model plane takes off with the help of a rubber band launching pad during Project Lead the Way at Indiana University Kokomo. / KT photo by Erik Markov

The Kokomo Tribune

South Bend graduate looks toward future

Ivan Blount did more than earn a degree during his college years. He also discovered his future.

"I definitely want to work in higher education. That's where you can directly change students' lives," says Blount, 29, a May graduate of the Purdue University College of Technology at South Bend who was the first Purdue student to serve as Indiana University – South Bend student body chief. (Photo: South Bend Tribune/JANAR STEWART)

South Bend Tribune

Krug comments on the 'me first' boss

You're bound to run into narcissistic bosses at some point in your career, because they gravitate toward leadership.

Bill Krug, associate professor in the Organizational Leadership Department of Purdue University in West Lafayette, Ind., reports that bosses with impossible performance demands might well be narcissists, endlessly "nitpicking, no matter what you bring. They're never satisfied. After the fifth change, you bring your original" and they accept it.

courant.com

Summer camp weds cheerleading, technology

Katelynn Lemke first started cheerleading in fifth grade and now makes a two-hour drive to practice three days a week. At the Cheering in the Classroom summer camp, Lemke is combining her participation in cheerleading with her interest in technology.

"I'm interested in computer technology, and this has connected two things I love," said Lemke.

(Photo by Jamie Lynn Chevillet/Journal & Courier)

Lafayette Journal Courier

College of Technology at Anderson holding cookout for prospective students

Purdue University's College of Technology at Anderson/Muncie is inviting area high school juniors and seniors and their parents to an informational cookout July 15 at the Anderson University Flagship Center.

The cookout will be from 5-7 p.m. at the site of the Anderson location at 2705 Enterprise Drive off Interstate 69, exit 22.

Jody Pierce, assistant location director in Anderson, said those attending will be able to learn about the various degree programs offered at the Anderson location, and enrollment officials will be on hand to answer questions or sign students up for courses.

Noblesville Daily Times

Stanley: Biofuels could be option for aircraft industry

As the price of automobile gasoline continues to rise, so does the price of jet fuel, translating into higher ticket prices for consumers, but a Purdue University expert says that biofuels may prove to be useful, at least in the short term.

"The interest in biofuels seems to run parallel with the cost of fuel," says David Stanley, an associate professor of aviation technology. "Biofuels for aircraft is always controversial, but as jet fuel is getting more and more expensive and shows no sign of slowing down, it's clear something must be done. It's not the long-term answer, but it may be part of the short-term answer."

Inside Indiana Business

Allegiant finding treasure in clients' trash

Associate professor of MET Rodney Handy was recently quoted in Indianapolis Business Journal article about cost-saving recycling plans for manufacturers:

Indianapolis Business Journal

Project Lead The Way No. 1 in Indiana

"WE'RE NO. 1!" That auspicious ranking is always a source of pride when Hoosiers talk about their favorite sports team. But there's another No. 1 ranking that some Indiana teachers, students and potential employers can take to heart. Indiana has more high schools involved in Project Lead The Way, an innovative, hands-on curriculum to get kids interested in engineering careers, than any other state in the country.

The PLTW approach is called activities-based learning, project-based learning, and problem-based learning - or APPB, which has been shown to increase student motivation, cooperative learning skills, higher-order thinking, and improve student achievement. Because Project Lead The Way is engaging for the students, they are more apt to put in extra work that they think is important.

redOrbit

Kokomo awards more than $60,000 in scholarships

The College of Technology at Kokomo has awarded $60,650 in scholarships to 24 students to study at its location in the 2008-09 academic year.The college recognized the honorees at a banquet May 22 sponsored by the Purdue Kokomo 400 Club.

University News Service