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NYU’s Daily Student Newspaper

WASHINGTON SQUARE NEWS Vol. 40, No. 28

MONDAY, OCTOBER 22, 2012

nyunews.com

NYU-Poly tests the waters with new robot

MTA facilitates travel to LaGuardia

A team of students from the Polytechnic Institute of NYU, led by professors Maurizio Porfiri and Oded Nov, launched a remote-controlled robotic vessel into Brooklyn’s Gowanus Canal last Monday. The team intends to use its robot, Brooklyn Atlantis I, to gather information about the notoriously polluted canal. Brooklyn Atlantis I uses sensors and cameras that will transmit the data back to its public website, brooklynatlantis.poly.edu, every 30 seconds while the robot is in the water. They hope the data they gather will help construct a history of the Gowanus Canal to guide the cleanup process, in addition to providing an opportunity for NYU-Poly undergraduate and graduate students to put their skills into practice. In an article in The New York Times, Porfiri said the project became practical when he moved to

Travels to LaGuardia Airport may become faster starting next year. The city and Metropolitan Transit Authority announced improvement plans earlier this month in an effort to provide faster, more reliable and more affordable public transportation routes to LaGuardia Airport. “LaGuardia Airport is a transportation hub ... that needs a better connection to the transit network and the region’s economy,” New York City Department of Transportation commissioner Janette SadikKhan said in a press release. “These routes will open the terminal doors to new neighborhoods and bring more reliable local service to people across three boroughs.” Queens will offer a new route on the Brooklyn-Queens expressway to shorten the ride to the airport. Those traveling from the Bronx will benefit from a Select Bus Service extension of the Bx41 line from Fordham Plaza

By MARGARET EBY

ROBOT continued on PG. 3

By LESLEY GREENBERG

LAURA ENTIS FOR WSN

Dogs march in costumes at Halloween Parade Dogs re-enacted famous movie moments and political gaffes in Tompkins Square Park for the 22nd annual Halloween Dog Parade on Saturday. The parade attracted more than 3,000 viewers who went to see the costumes.

PHOTO SPREAD ON PAGES 6, 7

Men’s swimming, diving open season victoriously By NICHOLAS NEMEROFF The NYU men’s swimming and diving team competed in their inaugural meet of the 2012-2013 season on Saturday. NYU took down the State University of New York at Cortland 184-110 at Palladium Athletic Facility. Sophomore Jerry Crowley led the Violets on Saturday, reigning supreme in the 100-yard freestyle, 100-yard butterfly and the 200-yard medley relay. In the 100-yard freestyle, Freshman Ray Oo eclipsed his competitors by nearly two seconds — a fine start to his collegiate career. In the longest event in both time and distance, senior Dan

Isaacson won the 1,000-yard freestyle in just over 10 minutes (10:11.62). “It is always great to win your first meet to help build confidence going into the season,” Isaacson said. “This victory will give us confidence going forward, and hopefully we will improve each meet from this point on.” Junior Charlie Wu won both the 100-yard (55.29) and 200yard backstroke events. Matching his teammates’ feats, junior Aleksandr Koukharevitch won both the 100-yard (1:02.79) and 200-yard (2:20.65) breaststroke events.

MSWIMMING continued on PG. 11

LAGUARDIA continued on PG. 3

Reel China film festival shows real China By JENNIFER LU Every two years, the best Chinese documentary filmmakers travel to NYU for the Reel China @NYU Documentary Film Festival. Throughout its 10 years, the festival, which is hosted by the Department of Cinema Studies in conjunction with the Center for Religion and Media at NYU, has featured more than 100 documentary films by aspiring and established Chinese filmmakers. The documentaries typically depict social issues in China, especially issues the government has refused to address. This year, the festival is expanding to include fiction films. “Hosting the festival now for the sixth time, we have seen so many crossovers from docu-

COURTESY OF REEL CHINA

The festival will explore documentaries on contemporary China mentaries to fictional films,” said Zhang Zhen, co-curator of the festival and professor in the Cinema Studies department at the Tisch School of the Arts. “We like the hybridization.”

Ping Jie Zhang, a Chinese filmmaker, started Reel China in 2002. After meeting Zhang in 2004, the two worked together

CHINA continued on PG. 4


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