February 10, 2005

Around Campus

Ten Straight Wins for Men’s Basketball

Brian Steele scored a season-high 27 points and Ryan Cain added 20 to led the 26th-ranked men’s basketball team to a 71-63 victory over MIT on Jan. 19 in a New England Women’s and Men’s Athletic Conference game. With the win, WPI improved to 19-1 overall (9-0 in conference play).

WPI has now won 10 straight, tying the second-longest winning streak in school history (the 1939-40 team also won 10 straight). The longest winning streak, 12, was recorded just last year. Earlier this season, WPI had a run of 9 straight wins; that will go down as the 4th-longest streak in WPI men’s basketball history. WPI has won 35 of its last 42 games.

More Black History Month Events Planned

WPI’s observance of Black History Month continues with the following programs:

Tuesday, Feb. 15: Lunchtime Concert, Christian saxophonist Courtney Fadlin, Campus Center, Food Court Stage, noon to 1 p.m.; sponsored by the Office of Minority Affairs.

Friday, Feb. 18: The Inventors, Hip Hop Cubana, A documentary about the Cuban hip hop culture, International House, 8 p.m.; sponsored by International Student Council.

In addition, Black History Trivia is being posted weekly on the WPI movie channel. For more information on these events, call ext. 5796.

University Ambassadors Honored

The winners of the 2004-05 University Ambassador Awards were announced at January’s Town Meeting. The awards recognize excellence in representing WPI to the outside world. This year, three winners were selected from among nearly 30 nominees:

Tiffany Carl '05, a management engineering major, has made it her mission to promote the university in every way she can think of. As a Crimson Key tour guide and a student ambassador who volunteers to visit high schools in her home state of New York, she helps introduce WPI to prospective students, parents, and guidance counselors. As an orientation leader and peer advisor, she welcomes new students to WPI and helps them succeed. As a volunteer for the Student Alumni Society, she reaches out to students and alumni. As a Global Ambassador for the IGSD, she promotes WPI’s global projects program. As one of her nominators noted, Tiffany "is an exemplary member of the WPI community. If only we could clone her."

Fabio Carrera, IGSD global program manager and director of the Venice and Boston project centers, has advised more than 100 student projects in Venice (his native country) and more than 30 in Greater Boston that have had a positive impact on the quality of life in these two cities. The projects and Fabio’s tireless efforts to follow up on their recommendations to bring about positive change have helped WPI establish a reputation as an innovative university whose faculty and students work together to solve pressing problems of importance to society. The impact of Fabio’s work has been amplified by national and regional media coverage and his many presentations, in which he always makes a point to highlight the university, its unique curriculum, and the work of its talented students.

Ken Stafford, manager of academic initiatives, was honored along with the award-winning WPI FIRST Robotics Team,, which he manages. Noted for his endless energy and his boundless enthusiasm for young people, Ken is one of WPI’s most active and effective ambassadors. The FIRST team, which includes more than 100 WPI students and staff, has helped build a reputation for WPI as a home for innovation and creativity among more 1,000 other FIRST teams around the world. Through a busy tournament schedule and about one demonstration per week for schools, libraries, and civic groups around the region, Ken and the team help spread the word about the excitement of engineering and science, and about the benefits of a WPI education.

Wellness and Fitness Focus of BWE Lunch

Amy Dean, WPI’s magazine editor and instructor of the popular Body Blast course, will speak on general wellness and fitness at the WPI Business Women’s Exchange luncheon at noon on Thursday, Feb. 17, in the Higgins House Great Hall. The attendance prize will be a gift certificate to Christmas Tree Shops. The menu is tossed garden salad, rolls, chicken picatta, lemon-caper butter, pasta agli-olio, green beans almandine, strawberry shortcake with whipped cream, coffee and tea. Payment ($8.50) should be sent to Judy Shute in Diversity and Women’s Programs by Feb. 14. Checks should be made payable to WPI.

People

Sotak Appointed Deputy Editor

Christopher Sotak, head of the Biomedical Engineering Department and professor of chemistry and biochemistry, was appointed deputy editor of Magnetic Resonance in Medicine, one of the leading scientific journals in the field. His appointed began on Jan. 1.

Ljungquist Named to Editorial Board

Kent Ljungquist, professor of English, has been selected to serve on the editorial board of Gothic Literary Studies, a series of monographs to be published by the University of Wales Press (Wales, UK). The new series will begin publication with monographs on the history of the Gothic genre and then include edited essay collections on Gothic topics. The series aims to be a focal point for Gothic scholarship in the coming years. Ljungquist currently serves on the editorial boards of Poe Studies and Dark Romanticism and the Edgar Allan Poe Review.

Radzicki Receives Two Appointments

Michael J. Radzicki, associate professor of economics, has been elected president of the System Dynamics Society. With members in more than 60 countries, the society is an international, nonprofit organization devoted to encouraging the development and use of systems thinking and system dynamics around the world.

Earlier this month, Radzicki was appointed to the editorial board of the Journal of Economic Issues by the board of directors of the Association for Evolutionary Economics at its annual meeting in Philadelphia. The Journal of Economic Issues is the primary international publishing outlet for scholarly articles in the fields of institutional and evolutionary economics.

Recent Corporate and Foundation Gifts

WPI received more than $1.3 million in cash and gifts-in-kind from corporations and foundations for the first half of FY05:

Report corporate and foundation gifts to Corporate and Foundation Relations at x5010. Report gifts of equipment or materials at www.wpi.edu/Admin/Provost/Forms/gik.html. Use of this form insures compliance with university policy and facilitates the automatic notification of those who needs to know about the arrival of donated items.

Computer Tips

Creating a PDF File

The CCC Helpdesk has found a free solution to create Portable Document Format (PDF) files that will work for most Windows users:

INSTALL THE PDF PRINTER

Go to Start and click on Run.
Ttype \\uniprint\pdf and hit Enter. This will install the printer on your computer.

PRINT TO PDF

Open a file that you want to convert to PDF.
Go to File and click on Print. Select the Print to PDF on Uniprint printer. Click Print.
The PDF file can be located in the My_Documents folder in your personal file share: \\toaster\username\My_Documents.

For additional information, including off-campus instructions, visit www.wpi.edu/+helpdesk/Software/converttopdf.html.

Ask Amy

Can my sons, ages 12 and 14, strength train for sports? Also, what exercises can improve their strength and coordination for football, basketball, baseball, and golf?

-Richard Rogan, Associate Controller

In the early 1970s, youth strength training was thought to be dangerous (lifting weights would affect bone growth) and worthless (youthful muscles weren’t capable of gaining strength). But studies have shown that boys and girls gain muscle strength at about the same rate as adults; in fact, teenage boys bulk up easier than all gender and age groups because their testosterone levels peak at about age 18.

The majority of weightlifting injuries in those aged 15 to 24 (predominantly to the back) result from the lack of supervision or from lifting weights that are too heavy. A personal trainer or knowledgeable adult can demonstrate proper lifting techniques and then provide guidance.

Young people can safely use light dumbbells and machines. Have your child start with four exercises that target different muscle groups, performing three sets of 10 to 15 repetitions per exercise. Increase the weight by one to three pounds when 10 to 15 times 3 repetitions can be accomplished easily. Two or three nonconsecutive days of training per week is ideal.

Plyometric exercises ("jump training") can help build muscles, increase stamina and endurance, improve coordination and conditioning, and decrease the risk of injury while playing sports. They range from low-intensity single leg hops to high-intensity drills such as depth jumps. A training program can use medicine balls (weighted balls to hold while jumping) and cones that designate stations where particular exercises are performed (station one: jump up and down on each leg 10 times; station two: perform 15 jumping jacks; station three: do five depth jumps; etc.). The benefits of such training will not only improve performance in a sport or activity, but also build stronger muscles, bones, tendons, and ligaments; reduce fat; and lead to greater self-confidence.

Do you have a question about exercise, diet, or nutrition? E-mail askamy@wpi.edu.

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Last modified: February 21, 2008 14:00:48