Posted on May 4, 2001

Some days, a student taking “Seward's Trolley” might have to stand out in the rain waiting for it to show up. Those days may be numbered.

Enter the Trolley Tracking Project, a Web-based program that can show users _ and Campus Safety _ where the vehicle is, and where it's headed next.

The program is the senior project for electrical engineers Jeff Morse, Corey Mathis and Corey Allen. They will demonstrate the tracking project at the 11^th annual Steinmetz Symposium on May 11.

Morse describes their work as a “systems-level project” that incorporates the Global Positioning System, computer controls, radio and Web.

A GPS receiver mounted in the trolley feeds data to a microcontroller designed by the team to extract only longitude and latitude data. The data is then converted to analog tones (like a touch-tone key pad) that are transmitted from the trolley to a receiver back on campus. A computer then converts the analog tones to digital data. Finally the position of trolley appears on a map on a Web site.

The project was suggested by David Davenport '93, a scientist at GE Corporate Research and Development. The team's advisor was Prof. Ekram Hassib. They had assistance from Robert Tomeck, campus safety, who supervises the trolley program; David Cossey, computer services, for computer support; and John Sowa, chemistry, who allocated server space for the project.

“This has been a good final project in that it encompasses a lot of different areas of electrical engineering, and allows us to work on problem solving in the real world,” Morse said.

Tomeck, of Campus Safety, sees the tracking project as an important tool in monitoring the activity of the trolley, which he said often gets up to 300 riders on weekend evenings. And of course, says Tomeck, the system will be a boon for the riders: “Instead of calling the driver or `guestimating,' they can look at the Web page and see it.”

The team is to demonstrate their project at the Steinmetz Symposium on Friday, May 11, at 10:50 a.m. (Session II) in Olin 102.

Posted on May 4, 2001

The Committee On Teaching invites faculty and administrators to a discussion on “Setting Expectations: How Does Plagiarism Affect Our Teaching?” on Thursday, May 10, at 12:25 p.m. in Humanities 019.

Presenters will include Kimmo Rosenthal, dean for undergraduate education; Reina Hayaki, philosophy; Doug Klein, economics; and Tom McFadden, Director of Schaffer Library.

Pizza and soda will be available before the session.

For more information click here to see the Web site

Posted on May 4, 2001

Mary D'Amelia joined the College on Monday as the new director of special events and conferences.

She will be responsible for scheduling, planning and coordinating all events and conferences on campus. One of her first tasks will be overseeing the John Hopkins Center for Talented Youth being held on campus this summer.

D'Amelia, a resident of Rexford, holds a bachelor's in business administration from SUNY New Paltz. She was most recently with a pre-IPO IT solutions firm in Albany.

She can be reached at ext. 6085.

Posted on May 4, 2001

The College's bridge team took first place in the aesthetics category, and the concrete canoe team took third in the men's endurance event at the annual American Society of Civil Engineer's annual design contest, held last weekend at West Point.

The bridge builders also took second in lightness, while the canoeists took fourth in both the men's and women's sprints and the women's endurance.

Participating were Marie Maurer `01, Rebecca Terry `01, Jon Nieman '01, Michael Capraro '01, Craig Berard '01, Martin Lin '02, Andy Craighill '02, Elizabeth Brogan '03, Jenny Moon '03 and Raphael Paulino '04.

Advisors were Tom Jewell, Ashraf Ghaly and Christine LaPlante.

Posted on May 4, 2001

Through June 1.
Social Science Faculty Lounge Art Gallery.
“The Photographer's Eye: People, Culture and the Environment,” an exhibition of works by three members of Social Sciences division _ Shelton Schmidt (black and white portraits), George Gmelch (black and white portraits of Irish Travelers) and Deb Ludke (color works of nature and objects). Gallery hours are weekdays 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. For more information, call ext. 6072.

Through May 20.
Mandeville Gallery, Nott Memorial
“Saints, Sinners and Sacred Spaces: Devotional Folk Art in Latin America.” All artwork in the exhibition comes from the collection of curator Beate Echols and Michael Shub. Echols is a collector of Latin American folk art, and a private dealer. She is faculty member of the Folk Art Institute of the Museum of American Folk Art in New York City, where she teaches “Art from the Americas.” She has also taught this subject at the New York City Graduate Center and New York University. A number of related events accompany the show.