New Associate Dean for Undergraduate Education

Charles L. Tucker III, a professor in the Department of Mechanical Science and Engineering, was announced as the new University of Illinois College of Engineering Associate Dean for Undergraduate Education and Programs last week. Professor Umberto Ravaioli has served the College amazingly over the past year. We thank him for all his hard work, and are excited about the future with Dean Tucker.

"Professor Tucker is very well-respected as a teacher, advisor, and researcher, and he has held a similar position administering academic programs at the department-level," remarked Ilesanmi Adesida, dean of the College of Engineering. "His appointment as associate dean comes after a thorough review of both internal and external candidates and I am very pleased that he has accepted my offer to serve all students and faculty in the college."

Tucker chosen as Associate Dean for Undergraduate Education

Vice Chancellor for Research

Our current Vice Chancellor for Research Charles Zukoski will step down this summer. As an amazing teacher, administrator, and professor, he will be missed.

Zukoski said he's leaving with mixed emotions but feels the time is right. The career path for most vice chancellors for research involves taking a job as dean, provost or chancellor of another university, he said, and he is in "no hurry to leave Champaign-Urbana."

The News-Gazette: UI vice chancellor for research will step down

UIUC on Engadget

Very cool to see UIUC on a technology blog ... seems like we don't get as much press as we deserve.

We've already seen a few viruses delivered via hardware, but a group of researchers from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign are now warning that we may not have seen anything yet.

Engadget: Researchers design "malicious circuits," warn of potential risk

Illinois Earthquake

An earthquake shook Illinois last night. It was centered near West Salem, IL.

A 5.4 earthquake early Friday rocked people awake as far away as Indiana, surprising residents unaccustomed to such a large Midwest temblor.

Associated Press: 5.4 earthquake rocks Illinois; also felt in Indiana

"Unaccustomed to such a large Midwest temblor" - That's for sure. What are we even supposed to do during an earthquake? Here are the guidelines from FEMA.

Activites and Recreation Center Almost Finished

Did you know that the Activities and Recreation Center, also known as ARC, will open this summer?

Did you know the ARC will have two pools - a 23,000 square foot indoor pool and a 36,000 square foot outdoor pool?

See these facts, site drawings, and more at the Campus Recreation website.

Activities and Recreation Center

Facebook Chat is Here

In case you were wondering if it's actually coming, Facebook Chat will be rolling out slowly to all users this week.

We'll be rolling [Facebook Chat] out slowly going forward, but fairly soon you'll notice our new Chat bar at the bottom of your browser—no installation or assembly required. From this bar you can view your list of online friends and open conversations with any or all of them. There's no need to setup a "buddy list.

Facebook Blog: Facebook Chat: Now We're Talking

New Illinois.edu Email Addresses

Today in an email to the UIUC Webmasters, Michele Raupp (Project Manager of the Illinois.edu domain name change) announced that netID@illinois.edu email addresses will be enabled on May 13, 2008. This means that sending email TO netID@illinois.edu addresses will work, but the FROM field on messages originating here will still be the netID@uiuc.edu format. The change to fully functional illinois.edu addresses will happen in December 2008.

Will Assembly Hall Fall?

Will our spaceship-looking Assembly Hall be replaced with a better building that can house luxury boxes? That is the big debate happening on campus right now. First it was a small comment by Chancellor Richard Herman about the University either renovating, restoring, or rebuilding the hall. Then the building was placed on the list of Illinois's most endangered historic places. This list is compiled by Landmarks Illinois, a group that has 'saved' buildings like the St. Gelasius Catholic Church (Chicago) and the Culver House (Decatur) in the past.

After weeks of rumors and speculation following Athletic Director Ron Guenther's contract renewal, the Division of Intercollegiate Athletics and the Office of Student Affairs discussed potential plans to renovate Assembly Hall Wednesday night at the Illinois Student Senate meeting.

Daily Illini: Chancellor announces possible Assembly Hall renovations
Chicago Tribune: Will University of Illinois Assembly Hall 'spaceship' survive?
Daily Illini: Assembly Hall may undergo changes

Photo by yuan2003.

Free Legal Movies and TV Shows

Yes, the word that all college students love - free. Hulu.com, an online video site that is a collaboration between NBC and FOX, launched earlier this week. This is indeed a replacement for player that NBC was previously using to stream their TV shows online, but Hulu.com also features free full-length movies. Yes, you heard it right - now you can watch classics like Ice Age, The Big Lebowski, and October Sky in addition to your favorite TV shows House and Conan. Plus, they offer a "high resolution" mode, although it must be enabled manually.

Overall, it's a great service with unobtrusive ads - exactly a service that will attract college students away from the torrents. Way to go NBC.

Andy Ihnatko: No need to jump through hoops to enjoy Hulu

Register for Fall 2008

Information about class registration has just been released. Your personal time ticket is listed on UI Enterprise, but you can see how your time compares to everyone else's on the UIUC Records website.

Expect the online class scheduling apps to be ready for the next semester in the next few days.

The Quad: How-to: UIUC Class Registration

Mail Your Letters with a Physicist

A stamp commemorating the achievements of John Bardeen, the famous University of Illinois Engineering professor, will be unveiled this Thursday, March 6. Bardeen won the Nobel prize twice - once for research on semiconductors and the discovery of the transistor effect, and another time for the theory of superconductivity (Wikipedia).

The campus will host Urbana Postmaster Kathleen J. Burr, regional U.S. Postal Service officials, university administrators, and family and friends of Bardeen (1908-1991) at the ceremony in room 144 of Loomis Laboratory (1110 W. Green St., Urbana). The event begins at 12:15 p.m., and is free and open to the public.

College of Engineering: Bardeen Stamp Celebrated at Campus Ceremony

UIUC Student Elections

This past Tuesday and Wednesday the UIUC students went to the polls to vote for Illinois Student Senate representatives, as well as their opinions on three issues: the Chief, the Cultural Programming Fee, and the Study Abroad Scholarship Fee.

Both of the fees passed. The Chief issue - "Do you support the reinstatement of Chief Illiniwek as the symbol of the University of Illinois?" - was a resounding "Yes" with 79% of the respondents to that question responding positively.

I find it interesting to see how many people didn't vote on each item in order to see who actually cares about the issues. Here are the percentages of total voters who did not respond to each question:

• Chief: 6%
  
• Cultural Programming: 11%
  
• Study Abroad Scholarship Fee: 10%

Obviously the Chief question was answered many more times than the other two issues.

See the unofficial election results on the Student Election Commission website. Check out my graphs here.

EOH Countdown: One Week

Engineering Open House 2008 is just about a week away. The festivities will hit the Bardeen Quad at 9:00 a.m. on Friday, March 7.

"Sparking Curiosity"...Engineering Open House, March 7-8

Unofficial Urban Dictionary Showdown

Unofficial is on many students' minds here at UIUC. Here are some of the recent stories.

First of all, there is an Urban Dictionary Showdown happening on the popular website. For the last few months, the only entry of "Unofficial" was a post detailing the event at UIUC. Early this week, however, a second definition was added to the UD database. The second definition mocks the Unofficial holiday at the University of Illinois. Click the link below to read (and vote) for either of them:

Urban Dictionary: Unofficial


Monday evening, Chancellor Richard Herman called on the cities of Champaign and Urbana to end Unofficial. Nothing will likely come of these pleas, however, as both cities make a large profit from the taxes brought in by this "holiday."

"Many of us are working hard to make Champaign-Urbana a destination for people to come to," Herman said. But Unofficial St. Patrick's Day, a promotion founded by bar owner Scott Cochrane, is giving Champaign a black eye, with busloads of students from other colleges expected to hit campus this Friday and Saturday to drink.

News-Gazette: Chancellor calls for end to Unofficial

Last week, UIUC law professor Francis Boyle asked Illinois State officials to end unofficial.

"The good citizens of Champaign and Urbana will suffer from civil disturbances, large-scale public drunkenness, destruction of property, physical assaults and batteries, rapes and more deaths," Boyle said in his complaint.

News-Gazette: Professor pushes for prevention by state intervention

Vote Tonight!

Student elections will be held on Tuesday and Wednesday. Be sure to vote online:

https://www-s.uiuc.edu/election/vote

SAT Suing Test-Prep Company

In a world where these tests are required to be admitted to a top-ranked university, it's not great to hear that these companies are becoming more and more dishonest. Are these tests good indicators of scholastic aptitude?

[The lawsuit] alleges that company employees were given copies of the PSAT administered last October that were provided by a Plano, Texas, high school principal whose brother works at the company ...

... The College Board maintains that students don't necessarily need an expensive preparation course. It recommends they prepare by taking practice tests, some of which are available for free on its Web site.

However, it also advertises its own online courses for $69.95.

CNN: SAT sues test-prep company over 'live' questions

From the Desk of Richard

Today I got an email from UIUC Chancellor Richard Herman. It was an email advertising the usefulness of Always Illinois, an alumni networking website that the University of Illinois has purchased. The email ended:

I am looking forward to seeing you again on Always Illinois,
Richard Herman, Chancellor
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

So, thinking that Richard wanted to be my friend on Always Illinois, I clicked the link and searched for "Richard Herman." I only found 3 Richard Hermans, one of which had to be the Chancellor, as it had the orange "I" next to his name, designating UIUC Faculty and Staff. To my dismay, though, it seems that our Chancellor has not yet signed up for Always Illinois! How is he praising the site if he doesn't use it? I'm very confused.

Jackpot

The college student's dream - getting a better grade than you were initially given. This just happened to me in my Quantum Physics class. We received an email that ended with:

Upon review (and with the input of a number of you), we realized that one of the exam problems actually had two potentially correct answers ... The bottom line is that we've given credit for all c-choosers. For the rest of you, don't worry, we didn't recurve, so no one *lost* points in the process.

The change improved my grade to the next letter bracket, so this was very good for me. This is the first, and probably the last, time that this has happened to me during my time here at the University of Illinois. For all the students out there, just remember that there is hope.

Engineering Open House

Engineering Open House 2008 is less than a month away. Things are really heating up at EOH headquarters.

For the sake of full disclosure, I'm a board member of the EOH Central Committee, but that does not skew my opinion of EOH and how it's the best engineering event this side of Boneyard Creek. I thought I'd take a few minutes to write about some of the behind-the-scenes action that is going on just north of Green.

EOH Volunteers

The EOH volunteer info nights are coming up next week and the following. Volunteering at EOH is a great experience for UIUC students, and for each hour that you work, you get chances to win a free X-Box 360 or an iPod Shuffle.

http://eoh.ec.uiuc.edu/volunteers

EOH T-Shirts

A question that is always asked is, "What will the T-Shirts look like this year?" Well I can't divulge that information, but what I can say that they will feature our logo and will be based around this year's primary color, green. Plus there will be special T-shirts for volunteers.

Exhibits

I'm told there are over one-hundred exhibits this year. Many of these exhibits will be judged in a new contest, the Spirit of Illini Engineering Contest. This award will go to the College of Engineering Department that best represents the ideals and innovation that is Engineering at Illinois. The winning department, as well as all of the EOH Exhibits winners, will be announced Saturday night at the Knights of St. Patrick Ball.

Writers' Strike Ends

Just minutes ago, the Writers' Strike came to an end. Now Colbert will have some fresh material, although the Conan-Colbert-Huckabee bit was amazing television.

"It's over," Eisner said. "They made the deal, they shook hands on the deal. It's going on Saturday to the writers in general."

Eisner, speaking live on CNBC's "Fast Money," seemed to hesitate initially about whether it was possible that the writers could still reject the agreement, but finally suggested the deal's acceptance was inevitable.

Deal Has Been Reached to End Writers' Strike: Eisner