TECHNICIAN
thursday september
12 2013
Raleigh, North Carolina
technicianonline.com
Financial aid could increase cost of college Sasha Afanasieva Staff Writer
Student debt in the United States is increasing faster than the inflation rate. The Student debt is about $1 trillion this year. Various federal aid programs from the Pell Grant to student loans tried to combat the costs by increasing the amount of aid offered. However, some studies suggest that federal aid may be unintentionally causing tuition to increase.
The Bennett hypothesis, which was first introduced by former Secretary of Education William Bennett 26 years ago, states that if federal aid is higher than tuition, colleges will raise their costs in order to capture that money. A 2004 study by University of Rochester’s Michael Rizzo and Cornell’s Ronald Ehrenberg found that increases of in-state tuition were linked to increases in the amounts awarded by the Pell Grant and federal subsidized and unsubsidized loans.
In July, The U.S. Department of Education reported that tuition at four-year state colleges increased faster for in-state students than for students out-of-state. To deal with rising college costs, students get more loans and grants from the federal government. Michael Walden, an economics professor at N.C. State, explained why that aid may indirectly increase college tuition. “Obviously, more financial aid at any point in time would
help students,” Walden said. “But some economists argue the consistent increase in government aid to students has made students less ‘price sensitive’ and has contributed to greater tuition increases, especially if capacity at colleges doesn’t keep up with the number of students desiring to attend college.” American college graduates are earning more than graduates from other countries, which people find college an attractive option. Walter Wessels, from the
Department of Economics at N.C. State, described how demand for education affects the price. “When you see prices go up, it’s usually due to shifts in demand curve. If cost increased, fewer people would go to school. If demand increased, cost would go up and more people would go to school,” Wessels said. Demand for education, fueled by availability of grants, loans and the value of college education, is one likely contributor to rising college
tuition. The Bennett hypothesis offers another theory explaining why college tuition keeps rising more than double than the inflation rate. A study published in 2012 by Lesley Turner from the economics department at Columbia University found colleges capture about 16 percent of Pell Grant money, meaning Pell Grant recipients are charged more through price discrimination.
AID continued page 3
Electric car can charge four times faster than previous models Sasha Afanasieva Staff Writer
ALEX CAO/TECHNICIAN
Electronic cigarettes are becoming the new alternative to traditional cigarettes. Users inhale water vapor instead of smoke, which seems healthier. A recent study has found that electronic cigarettes may have more health problems than advertisers say.
E-cigarette use rises among college students, may lead to health problems Travis Toth Correspondent
Electronic, or e-cigarettes, have been gaining popularity among high school and college students as a safer way for smokers to get their nicotine fix. However, recent studies suggest they may be harmful to your health. Ma rket i ng c a mpa ig ns sometimes claim that e-cigarettes are healthier, but studies, like one from the University of Athens, Greece, last year, claim e-cigarettes can damage the lungs. Currently, there is not a consensus on how severe health problems are, but medical professionals and scientists “generally agree” they are safer than traditional cigarettes, according to Medical News Today.
The World Health Organization said, as of July 2013, said there is “insufficient” evidence to assess the harm of e-cigarettes. “We really don’t know a whole lot about [the effects of e-cigarettes], [because] there has not been a whole lot of research that’s been done on them,” said Cameron Austin, assistant director of health promotion and substance abuse and prevention at the N.C. State Student Health Center. According to a recent article in The New York Daily, the use of e-cigarettes among youth, between sixth and 12th grade, has also increased dramatically in the past year. So far, 20 states have passed laws banning e-cigarettes from being sold to minors.
However, the Food and Drug Administration have yet to regulate this potentially harmful product. As for reasons for the increase among college students, a study published in the Journal of American College Health earlier this year suggests that college students are using e-cigarettes more because they are innovative, socially acceptable and acceptable to use in public. The f luid in e-cigarette cartridges that contains the nicotine may also contain toxic chemicals, according to The New York Daily article. Smoke Rings, a shop on Hillsborough Street, recently opened an e-cigarette bar, perhaps to take advantage of
E-CIG continued page 3
Electric vehicles can now be charged faster than an iPhone—reducing what previously took four hours down to less than one hour. This new fast-charging technology was developed by ABB, an energy engineering SASHA AFANASIEVA /TECHNICIAN company, at N.C. State. This Nissan leaf was developed by ABB and N.C. State. Ewan Pritchard, a professor from the Department of Electrical and Computer Despite being able to charge Comparatively, the same Engineering at N.C. State, a car in less than an hour, the distance of 88 miles would demonstrated how the fast fast charger has some limita- cost $2.20 to power a Nissan charger worked on a Nissan tions. For example, the Chevy Leaf. Leaf. Volt cannot be charged with While the new fast-charg“When the charger was the fast-charger—the Type-2 ing station is quick, there are originally installed last year, charger must be used. methods being developed it was the first one on the Additionally, the fast char- that will speed up the process east coast,” Pritchard said. ger will be more expensive even further. “What this does is it puts di- than the Type-2 charger. “It’s possible to speed up rect current straight into the The fast charger costs the charging time quite a bit batteries at 500 volts. So, by $30,000, whereas the Type- more,” Pritchard said. “Rathdoing a very 2 c h a r - er than sending a current high current ger cost s to the battery as a constant and high volt$2,000. current, you can send it in age, it allows The Nis- as small rapid pulses. Using the electrons s a n L e a f this method, we can get the to get in very t h a t r e - charging time down to under quickly.” searchers 10 minutes.” T he more put f a s tIn addition to pulse-chargEwan Pritchard, professor conventional charging ing technology, further reof electrical and computer chargers are technolsearch is being conducted at engineering k now n as ogy in has N.C. State to expand the ways Type-2 chara range of vehicles can be charged. gers—these take about four 88 miles before it runs out of Later this year, Pritchard hours to charge a vehicle. energy, making it one of the said he plans to take the elecIn a Type-2 charger, the longer range all-electric ve- tric car technology one more fast-charging station converts hicles available today. step by installing a wireless alternating current to direct According to the EPA, pas- charging system on Centencurrent before the current senger vehicles sold in 2012 nial Campus at N.C. State. reaches the car. The alternat- had an average fuel economy “One thing that we are ing current is then converted of 23.8 miles per gallon. Driv- looking at doing is inductive to direct current inside the ing 88 miles would cost about power transfer,” Pritchard battery, making the Type-2 $13 if the gas price were $3.50 CAR continued page 3 chargers less efficient. a gallon.
“It’s possible to speed up the charging time quite a bit more.”
NCSU researchers use 3-D printer to make pizza Martin DeFrancesco Correspondent
Researchers from the N.C. State College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and an engineering company from Texas are trying to use a 3-D printer to make pizza in space. Professor Chris Daubert, head of the N.C. State Department of Food, Bioprocessing and Nutrition Sciences, said his team is working with Systems and Materials Research Corporation, an Austin-based material and technological development company, to discover a process that will allow astronauts to eat pizza and similar hot foods made by a 3-D food printer. The main advantage of a 3-D food printer in space is
its ability to produce dietsufficient food in very large quantities. The printer also provides an added advantage due to the mostly powderedform of ingredients, optimizing storage and reducing waste. However, other ingredients like cheese, sauce, dough, meat and vegetables pose problems for the machine operating in a chamber without gravity. “Flexibility is the key when cooking in zero gravity,” Daubert said. “Getting food to flow out of a 3-D printer and making it appealing to an astronaut is a big challenge.” This process involves not only finding liquid and solid pizza materials with optimal viscosities and consistencies to pass through a 3-D printer
and onto a pan —a task typically not assigned to printer cartridges —but also finding a multi-use nozzle which can apply the right amount of each different ingredient successfully and consistently. Chris Pernell, the N.C. State Food Rheology Lab manager and lab manager for the project, said the collaboration of Daubert’s team and SMRC is the result of a NASA grant. SMRC developed the original proposal to NASA, who wanted to “develop technologies to enable or improve long term space missions,” according to Pernell. “We were contacted as subcontractors due to our laboratory focus on Food Rheology as it relates to food formulation and process design,” Pernell said.
As far as the general practicality of the 3-D printer, Pernell says this technology is emerging everywhere, and that “a working prototype with very limited capacity” could be upon us in the near future. Overall, Pernell said people are starting to realize 3-D printing’s true potential for the world. “This technology is revolutionary and will be as impactful on society as computing has been. With respect to food, I see it having specialized uses,” Pernell said. Accord i ng to SMRC’s original proposal to NASA, 3D Printe d Food System for Long Duration Space Missions, there are even more
PIZZA continued page 2
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