Watch NY Times columnist David Pogue’s talk in the Shaver Theatre at lsureveille.com.
Reveille Several changes made to commuter on-campus parking, p. 3
The Daily
Volume 115, Issue 7
Tigers struggle to find offensive identity, p. 5
www.lsureveille.com
Students use model of Miss. River for research
Matthew Albright Staff Writer
In a steel warehouse on River Road, Josef Hoffmann is controlling the flow of the Mississippi River. It’s not the real thing, but it’s probably the closest the civil engineering master’s student can get to controlling the real river. Hoffmann is working on a sprawling reproduction of a 76-mile length of the Mississippi River Delta that stretches from Myrtle Grove, about 20 to 30 land miles south of New Orleans, to Southwest Pass, where the river reaches the Gulf of Mexico. “Yeah, it’s pretty exciting,” Hoffmann said, pointing to the “headbox,” where the engineering students who work on the model regulate the flow of water into the system. Hoffmann is one of several graduate and undergraduate students who work on the model, which he said provides valuable data for research into preventing coastal erosion. The model itself is a huge, flat tan table covered in a thin film of water. The mini-Mississippi snakes through a landscape of brown gravel, into which various trenches have been carved out like branches from the veiny main river. The entire assembly is ringed with a gutter, and the water flows right back into the system after dripping off of the simulated swamps. MODEL, see page 4
photos by GRANT GUTIERREZ and MELANIE CASCIO / The Daily Reveille
(From left to right) Erol Karadogan, civil engineering Ph.D. student, Josef Hoffmann, civil engineering master’s student, and Angela New, civil engineering Ph.D. student, observe simulated effects of sediment in the Mississippi River.
Tuesday, Aug. 31, 2010
DEVELOPMENT
University purchases land for expansion Sydni Dunn Staff Writer
The University is taking the first step in a $10 million expansion project to purchase nearly 100 acres to develop a research park. The South Campus Land Acquisition is included in House Bill 2, signed by Gov. Bobby Jindal this summer. The bill allocates $1.25 million to purchase a portion of the land while the remaining $8.75 million transfers to a state holding fund. The fund will be available for access if approved during the next legislative session, said Rep. Hunter Greene, R-Baton Rouge, author of the bill. “It looks like a commitment for $10 million, but it’s not,” said Jason Droddy, University assistant vice chancellor of legislative and external affairs. “The state has given us $1.25 million, but it isn’t approved until the Bond Commission meets. The $8.75 million is acknowledgement that it is a $10 million project.” Greene hopes the proposal will be approved at the commission’s LAND, see page 11
ENVIRONMENT
University alumni create skimmer, company to help clean up oil Device glides over grass, protects marshes Frederick Holl Staff Writer
Like many Louisianans, Mark Gabriel and Erik Durr watched news coverage of the oil spill and wondered what they could do. And then they got up and did it. Gabriel, an industrial engineering graduate student, and Durr, a recent University alumnus, built an oil skimmer designed specifically to clean up oil in the marshes without damaging them and started a company called Wetland Skimmers to
produce and market the technology. The Marsh Mop has the ability “We asked, ‘What are they do- to pump out amounts exceeding 300 ing and not doing [to clean up the gallons per minute in tests, accordoil]?’ Cleaning the ing to a Wetland marsh. They were Skimmers news reusing Shop-Vacs ‘We asked, “What lease. But because and paper towels,” of strict access are they doing Gabriel said. standards to the oil The skimmer, spill sites, Wetland and not doing [to nicknamed the Skimmers has not “Marsh Mop,” uses clean up the oil]?” been able to put its an eight-horsepowinto action Cleaning the marsh.’ machine er engine to power where it’s needed two large belt skimmost, Gabriel said. Mark Gabriel mers that act both Normal skimco-creator, Wetland Skimmers as cleaning mechamers are tied behind nisms and propulsion, Gabriel said. a boat and dragged along an area to “We went through a lot of ideas, clean up oil, which can tear up marsh a lot of prototypes, and the idea just kind of came to us,” Durr said. MARSH MOP, see page 11
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SHEILA DE GUZMAN / The Daily Reveille
Mark Gabriel, industrial engineering graduate student, explains the control system on the “Marsh Mop,” a skimmer designed to clean up oil in the marshes.