News Archive
Monday, July 14 2008
News
All systems go for solar car on day two
Iowa State's solar car, Sol Invictus, ran without a hitch Monday, completing the second day of the North American Solar Challenge. The car averaged 40 mph on its 130-mile trip from Eufaula, Okla., to Neosho, Mo. The team has no repair work on tap tonight -- only normal battery charging and maintenance.
RDG Planning and Design selected as architect for Rec Services expansion, renovation
ISU President Gregory Geoffroy has approved a recommendation to hire RDG Planning and Design, Des Moines, for architectural and engineering services for the Recreation Facilities Expansion and Renovation project at ISU.
Animal welfare expert joins faculty at College of Veterinary Medicine
ISU's College of Veterinary Medicine recently hired Suzanne Millman as an animal welfare specialist. Millman will provide continuing education to veterinary practitioners and serve as a resource to livestock and poultry industries.
Iowa State researchers study ground cover to reduce impact of biomass harvest
Iowa State University researchers are looking at ways to use ground cover, a living grass planted between the rows of corn, in production farming.
Iowa State researchers win R&D 100 Award for ethanol project
A research team led by Hans van Leeuwen, an Iowa State University professor of civil, construction and environmental engineering, has been awarded a 2008 R&D 100 Award from R&D Magazine. The researchers are using fungi to clean up and improve the dry-grind ethanol production process. This is the 30th R&D 100 Award presented to researchers affiliated with Iowa State.
Previous floods can provide economic lessons for 2008 recovery, ISU researchers say
Previous research on the 1993 floods by Professor of Sociology Terry Besser and Professor of Economics Dan Otto may provide lessons on what recently flooded communities can expect as they try to recover.
New online help for transfer students
Iowa's Regent universities and public community colleges have launched a new Web site, www.transferiniowa.org, that can help students answer the important question "How will my credits transfer?" Students who are interested in transferring to Iowa State can go directly to the TRANSIT web page to begin planning their journey to ISU.
Regents news release (pdf). | Inside Iowa State story. | TransferinIowa.org | TRANSIT web page
Media advisory: ISU co-hosts international symposium on animal welfare and epidemiology July 14-16
"Welfare and Epidemiology Conference: Across Species, Across Disciplines and Across Borders," will address the need for a balanced, multidisciplinary approach to animal welfare issues.
Ames, ISU RAGBRAI entertainment will benefit disaster relief
Rock legends Styx will entertain RAGBRAI riders in Ames on July 22, along with local favorite band The Nadas. The RAGBRAI CYcling Country Festival will benefit the Embrace Iowa: 2008 Disaster Fund. "The Embrace Iowa: 2008 Disaster Fund gives Iowa State University and Ames a wonderful opportunity to show our support for our fellow Iowans who are suffering from the devastating floods," says ISU President Gregory Geoffroy. "I'm encouraging everyone to join us on July 22 and demonstrate our commitment to help those in great need."
Tree-killing fungus named by scientists at ISU, other institutions
Tom Harrington, ISU plant pathology, led a team that has officially named the fungus responsible for a devastating disease that is killing trees in the coastal plains of Florida, Georgia and South Carolina.
Iowa State students prep $400,000 solar car for cross-continental race
Sol Invictus, Iowa State University's latest student-designed and student-built solar race car, will compete in the North American Solar Challenge July 13-22. The challenge will take 24 university and college teams 2,400 miles from Plano, Texas, to Calgary, Alberta, Canada. The cars will race along Iowa's western border July 15-18.
Iowa State faculty are creating a rural renaissance community index to curb out-migration
A group of 12 Iowa State University researchers is working on a three-year rural renaissance community index project designed to identify some of the greatest attributes found in rural Iowa communities through an interactive database.
Time to race
Team PrISUm, Iowa State University's solar car team, has been in overdrive the past month to prepare its new race car, Sol Invictus, for the 2,400-mile North American Solar Challenge. The students are racing their car from Plano, Texas, to Calgary, Alberta, Canada, July 13-22. "I think we'll do really well," says Sarah Kelly, the team's project director and a senior mechanical engineering major from Rochester, Minn.
Change the world
The summer 2008 issue of VISIONS magazine features alumni, faculty, staff and students who are making a difference and 150 years of Iowa State contributions.
In the news
Bioplastic plant pots
The Guardian, UK
ISU researchers are using proteins from corn and soy plants to make bioplastic plant pots that supply nutrients to the plants as they break down.
Better buffer than levees
Christian Science Monitor
Rather than continue spending massive amounts of government money on haphazard cleanup efforts after disasters, that hit the Midwest and Louisiana, ISU political science professor Steffen Schmidt argues let's take some realistic measures.
Making a Splash
Newsweek
Iowa State physiology professor Rick Sharp, a former collegiate swimmer, wrote two papers questioning Speedo's past performance claims. But rather than taking offense, Speedo was intrigued.
Friction over fractions
Newark Star-Ledger
Rick Sharp is an exercise physiologist at Iowa State University who helped design the revolutionary Speedo LZR Racer bodysuit that has set off a firestorm in the swimming world.
Flooded farmlands may take decades to recover
PBS
Jerry DeWitt, director of the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture at Iowa State, narrates a slide show, demonstrating longterm flood damage to fertile farmland.