UMass Magazine Online

Spring 2004

Departments

Around the Pond

Features

The Wildest Place in Boston

Manhattan's Hottest Property

Setting the Record Straight

Around the Pond

Kudos

Segway, the Next Generation
UMass Amherst researchers are transforming a Segway Human Transporter into an autonomous robot. Federally funded through the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, Computer Science Professor Rob Grupen’s team has mounted a digital camera and laser system on the Segway for guiding it through unknown environments. The government hopes research leads to practical uses such as search and rescue—finding survivors in damaged buildings or other hazardous environments where humans should fear to tread.

Big News, Small Stuff
MassNanoTech, a new interdisciplinary research center in nanotechnology, is devoted to developing advanced materials and devices with extremely small dimensions. Capitalizing on the university’s strengths in nanotechnology innovation, efforts will initially focus on the field of nano-electronics—further reducing the size of microelectronic components. Professors Mark Tuominen, physics, and Jim Watkins ’97G, chemical engineering, will serve as co-directors. For more information, visit www.umass.edu/massnanotech/.

Bright Idea
The Physical Plant has embarked on a huge energy conservation project: capital improvements—$50 to $80 million worth—will be funded by utility savings over two decades. Nearly every campus building will be affected over the next three years. For information on the Energy Performance Project, visit www.facil.umass.edu/.

Tickling the Ivories
Professor Emerita Estela Kersenbaum Olevsky spent part of December 2003 in China, teaching solo and chamber piano music at the Beijing Conservatory. Says Olevsky of the Chinese pianists who focus much energy on besting their peers, “There is no place for competitiveness when one performs chamber music. Becoming part of a collective musical idea is still new to these young musicians.”

Kudos

The Vanishing Snows of Kilimanjaro

Vanishing Snows: more images

The Highest Honor

Highest Honor: larger image

A Feast Fit for a Patriot