08 29 2012 Section A

Page 1

VOLUME 102, ISSUE 3

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AUGUST 29, 2012

A Helping Hand

Texas State researchers are taking an innovative approach to physical therapy using an MIT-developed robotic arm to aid patients. Watch the video at UniversityStar.com.

City Council approves Youth Master Plan

WATERED DOWN

By Karen Zamora News Reporter The San Marcos City Council approved a resolution created to enrich the adolescent community during their Aug. 21 meeting. Several San Marcos High School students attended to push for the approval of the Youth Master Plan, a citywide initiative aimed toward building an educational environment for local adolescents. The plan focuses on strengthening the youth of San Marcos’ education and health, along with family and community relationships. According to an April 17 University Star article, the plan aims to keep adolescents occupied with “out of school time” opportunities and keep them away from potential dangers. High school student Jenny McGinty said students have formed six subcommittees for the plan. She attended the meeting with hopes of persuading the council to approve the resolution. Jim Nuse, city manager, said there is $50,000 set aside from the city’s budget to help develop the plan by funding assessments, surveys and gathering information. When the council visited the agenda item, Councilman John Thomaides, Place 3, questioned the wording of the resolution. Thomaides said he did not agree with a section stating the city council recognizes that “the best way” to ensure the city’s youth grow into contributing members of the community is the development of the plan. Thomaides said he could not support the resolution if it stated the plan was the “best way,” because no one would believe it. He said involvement from parents, not the city, is the best way to ensure student success. City involvement is “a good way, but not the best way,” Thomaides said. Councilman Wayne Becak, Place 4, said parent involvement is key to ensuring the success of students. Mayor Daniel Guerrero said the resolution should include a statement about parent and guardian involvement. City council approved the resolution after the wording of the resolution was changed to read “a way” rather than “the best way.” Guerrero said data has been collected through other organizations helping with

Sara Beth Worcester, Staff Photographer

A group of Dallas natives tube the San Marcos River July 21 near Sewell Park. There are concerns that river-based tourism will drop once the new alcohol ban goes into effect.

San Marcos rivers could see decrease in tourism By Adrian Omar Ramirez News Reporter A city ordinance passed last spring could set San Marcos’ tourism adrift, some residents and officials say. The San Marcos City Council passed an ordinance in May banning the public consumption or display of alcohol in city parks. Drinking alcohol on the river is a pastime enjoyed by some Texas State students, residents and tourists year-round. While alcohol consumption is still legal, drinks will have to be brought into the water at designated access points. The ordinance, which passed with a 4-2 vote, brings to mind a similar alcohol ban

READ CITY COUNCIL, PAGE 3

passed in New Braunfels. The New Braunfels City Council has approved an ordinance to prohibit consumption from disposable containers. This summer, community members saw a noticeable decline in tourism to the Comal River. Local business owners have speculated they could lose up to $20 million this year, and said the can ban keeps away about five percent of New Braunfels’ tubers. Though San Marcos’ ordinance does not go into effect until Jan. 1, many residents are already worrying about a similar decline in tourism along the San Marcos River, which they predict will worsen. Councilman Jude Prather, Place 2, voted against the ordinance, and said he expects

to see a decrease in tourism in San Marcos once the ordinance goes into effect. “It’s going to be an interesting summer,” Prather said. “It’s not going to be as fun as it should be, because there is nothing more fun than enjoying the parks and a cold one on a hot summer day.” His position on the matter is what he calls the “side of personal liberties, instead of government overreach.” Prather denies the existence of a rumored loophole involving pouring alcohol into a cup to skirt the ordinance. “There were talks of a ‘red cup rule,’ but if you read the ordinance it doesn’t men-

READ TOURISM, PAGE 3

Physical therapy department gains innovative machine By Adrian Omar Ramirez News Reporter

Carlos Valdez, Assistant Photo Editor

Dr. Denise Gobert, physical therapy professor, teaches Madison Senne, physical therapy freshman and clinic assistant, how to administer tests on the new InMotion Arm Robot as part of the Balance and Gait Program.

Patients with decreased arm function can now receive treatment at Texas State’s physical therapy department with the help of a new and unusual source. Dr. Denise Gobert, assistant professor in the department of physical therapy, realized there was a need for an arm device in the department’s clinic. She applied for a $100,000 grant to acquire the machine, named the InMotion Arm Robot. The robot was developed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. It takes a patient through a number of repeated motions using exercises and games, and can assist with arm movement if need be. An attachment also allows patients to work on grip as well. For the average game, a patient may have to repeat an exercise 320 times in one sitting. “It’s a very intense thing,” Gobert said. “Because after (a patient) has had a stroke, cerebral

palsy or traumatic brain injury, to just reach out and grab a target is very fatiguing for the brain.” Other patients helped by the device include those with spinal cord injuries and multiple sclerosis patients. Gobert said all of the patients have the same symptoms of decreased limb function. Gobert said the robot is something new being utilized in rehabilitation and is so new that many clinics are unable to provide the service. The device has already shown success with previous patients, with some surprising results, she said. “One of our graduates of the Balance and Gait Program is cycling,” Gobert said. “Another graduate went back to work. Another guy started to talk. He had aphasia, and that’s the interesting part, because starting to verbalize with the hand takes such a large part of the brain. I’m wondering about that stipulation.”

READ PHYSICAL THERAPY, PAGE 3

Texas State receives $150,000 in computer science grants By Megan Carthel News Reporter The National Science Foundation awarded approximately $150,000 in grants to five Texas State professors who proposed a new curriculum of parallel and multicore computer programming concepts. The university was awarded the money April 15. The grant will be given in $50,000 installments for three years. Nearly 157,000 proposals were submitted to the National Science Foundation, and Texas State was one of about 150 institutions that received a grant. The professors who will be working on the project will split the grant. Martin Burtscher, co-principle investigator, said the five professors will each receive about $7,000 per year. The remainder of the mon-

ey will be spent on travel and conventions where the team will present their work. “We have very, very few resources about this topic they proposed,” said Victor Piotrowski, lead program director of education and human resources for the National Science Foundation. “In that sense, it made (Texas State’s proposal) very attractive.” In the past, programs were made for computers and devices with one processor, Piotrowski said. In today’s world, multicore and parallel computing concepts are becoming more common, but the curriculum has not conformed to these advances. “There’s a big shift in computing right now,” Burtscher said. “Everybody has a parallel processor in their laptops and soon in their cell phones.” Apan Qasem, lead principle investigator, estimates in a few years there will not be a

single sequential processor on the market. Because of these developments, the new curriculum will better prepare students for real world programming within their jobs. “There is a big demand for programmers who know how to program this multicore objective,” said Wuxu Peng, co-principle investigator. “Employers are looking for those people.” Burtscher said most programs do not use parallel processors because they were written to use one processor. “In order to take advantage of these multiple processors, you really need to fundamentally change how you program the code,” Burtscher said. “That’s not really in the curriculum yet.” The team will form a module including slides, notes, lectures and homework for the proposed curriculum, which takes two

to three years of research to write. Once the curriculum is written, the professors will implement it into their classes at Texas State. The current curriculum teaches sequential programming throughout introductory courses, and parallel programming and multicore concepts are taught in the senior year of school. Qasem said this curriculum method is a flaw in need of improvement. The proposal will be an extension of the Association for Computing Machinery’s model for undergraduate computer science curriculum. Qasem hopes universities across the country will be able to use this curriculum, and plans to host seminars on how to teach it. The professors have their first meeting to discuss the construction of the new curriculum Aug. 31.


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