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Arizona Daily Wildcat
The independent student voice of the University of Arizona since 1899 tuesday, january , dailywildcat.com
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Faculty OKs college mergers Student By Alexandra Newman ARIZONA DAILY WILDCAT The merging of different campus entities into two new schools was approved by the Faculty Senate on Monday. President Robert Shelton was not present at the meeting, so the floor was given to Provost Meredith Hay. Hay said the university’s budget is continuously being discussed with the Arizona Board of Regents, especially regarding tuition increases for the 2012
school year and the reallocation costs. Vice Provost Gail Burd proposed the formation of the School of Mathematical Sciences, which would combine the Department of Mathematics with the Graduate Interdisciplinary Applied Mathematics and Statistics Programs. “The goal is (that) these entities remain intact as separate entities, but come together,” Burd said. Burd added that the combination of programs would be beneficial to national ranking and create greater educational,
grant and service opportunities. The request, which was passed, does not change the structure of any programs within the school, nor will it require any additional resources. Burd then introduced a proposal for the academic re-organization of the Schools of Theatre Arts and Media Arts into one School of Theatre, Film and Television. The merger, which the Faculty Senate also approved, comes as an “effort to save some resources after budget cuts,”
Burd said. “There will be no change to academic programs, but it will possibly facilitate new majors.” The current director of the School of Theatre Arts, Bruce Brockman, will remain the director of this new school. A new set of bylaws will be written this fall to determine how the School of Theatre, Film and Television will function. SENATE, page 3
Photos by Lisa Beth Earle/Arizona Daily Wildcat
Matt Bunting, an electrical engineering senior, displays how his hexapod robot operates. Bunting originally created the robot for a robotics class and now Intel Corp. has ordered two of them, which use Intel processors, for use at industry trade shows.
Student’s robot catches Intel’s eye By Matt Lewis ARIZONA DAILY WILDCAT Matt Bunting, an electrical engineering senior, built a robot that caught the attention of the Intel Corporation. The hexapod robot looks like a spider and has a camera that can tell the robot if it is moving forward, sideways, backward or is tilting. It has the ability to analyze the video and “learn” how to move straight forward. The robot was a class project last spring in Bunting’s cognitive robotics
See photos and video of UA electrical engineering senior Matt Bunting’s robot in action on Stewart Christie’s Twitter page @intel_stewart. class, ECE 596C. “I’ve always wanted to build a hexapod, but I never had the excuse. I never had the time and money to spend on this until I had this class,” Bunting said. “I think the most exciting part of the project was hearing from Intel.”
Bunting’s professor, Tony Lewis, an associate professor of electrical and computer engineering, said if a leg or motor is malfunctioning, the robot can alter its movements so it can continue to move in a straight line. He added that the paradigm on which Bunting is working is a concept that can be
applied to skills beyond just walking. A video of the six-legged robot on YouTube was seen by Stewart Christie, a product marketing engineer with Intel’s Embedded and Communications Group in Chandler, Ariz. Christie asked Bunting to build two more similar robots using Intel’s Atom Z530 1.6 GHz processor or computer chip.
sits with first lady By Jazmine Woodberry ARIZONA DAILY WILDCAT Clayton Armstrong wasn’t always a political buff, but after two internships on Capitol Hill and meeting Barack and Michelle Obama, the UA freshman, who is from Washington, D.C., will be sitting next to the first lady at the State of the Union on Wednesday. As a participant in the D.C. Scholars internship program during the past summer, he got the chance to see the way government runs from an insider’s perspective. A political science major who aspires to work in public service in the Washington, D.C., area, Armstrong is excited to return to his hometown to hear the president’s speech. “I’m really excited to meet Michelle again,”Armstrong said.“To meet the people who are the faces of your country is really exciting. Plus, to hear the speech in person is going to be great,” he said. About a dozen Washington, D.C., public high school graduates got the chance to work in the White House for a summer with Obama in the new internship program. Armstrong was placed in the Office of Intergovernmental Affairs, which works as a liaison between the White House and local governments. In the program, the interns meet with college counterparts, work with a White House mentor and get to meet and greet with White House power players. “It was the most amazing experience of my life,” Armstrong said. “Sometimes, when you are there, you don’t really recognize what you are involved in.” Armstrong noted that some of the most interesting aspects of the job were the people he met while working in the White House. “Your vision of who works in the White House is a bunch of old people. But a lot of them are young and enthusiastic,” he said. “They view you not only as a colleague but as a person.” Armstrong had worked previously with Rep. Chris Van Hollen when he heard about the D.C. Scholars internship program. “I figured I should apply because it sounded like a really great way to get more involved in politics,” he said.“It was rigorous, but I got in.” UNION, page 5
ROBOT, page 5
Sixth Street dorms on schedule, budget By Laura Donovan ARIZONA DAILY WILDCAT dThe new residence halls on Sixth Street are scheduled to start housing students in fall 2011. “The construction progress is excellent,” said Jim Van Arsdel, director of Residence Life. “The project is on time, on budget, (and) those are the two big things that you always want in these situations,” he added. Construction continued during the winter break, so students came back to a change in view. “I would guess a Coronado resident, especially on (the) south side, which faces the
construction, came back to a very different scene after winter break because there has been so much progress to the buildings,” Van Arsdel said. During finals week each semester, workers cannot start construction until 8 a.m. During the rest of the semester, they’re allowed to start much earlier in the morning. Residence Life hasn’t heard of any serious problems or complaints from Coronado Residence Hall residents this year. “The noise can be a factor,” Van Arsdel said. “But the time I
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It’s horrible. I live on the south side, so I face all the construction. There are cranes flying around, it’s quite a lovely view. — Megan Sosnick Coronado resident
fan running, you can’t really hear anything outside.” Coronado resident and family and consumer sciences freshman Megan Sosnick expressed dissatisfaction with the construction behind Coronado. “It’s horrible. I live on the south side, so I face all the construction,”she said.“There are cranes flying around, it’s quite a lovely view.” Sosnick recalls the construction beginning really early in the morning in August. “They started at probably 5 a.m., but the heat was really bad in August, so it’s
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stood in Coronado Hall, looking out the south side window, I felt that as long as the student has a
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understandable.” When asked if the construction impacted her ability to study, Sosnick said that she has adapted to the situation and isn’t bothered by the noise. “It was annoying at first, but I don’t really have any studying issues now,” Sosnick said. Van Arsdel said that Coronado will close down for renovations once the new residence halls open up. Coronado will have • 1,088 spots in new dorms • Coronado to close down for 2011-2012 school year • New halls open in fall 2011
pipe, mechanical system and plumbing replacements because of its age. He said the temporary closing of Coronado will not reduce the amount of on-campus housing. In fact, the residence hall capacity will increase by about 300 students. Some public universities only allow students to live on campus for the first year because there is such a demand. When asked if Residence Life would ever implement this policy, and Van Arsdel said he would prefer to adapt with the growth of the university.
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DORMS, page 3