Flashes and Thunder

… that this will be my last post on this blog.

Due to economic conditions, I have been laid off from the Record-Courier effective the end of the work day, Jan. 12, 2009.

Thanks for reading.

- Dave O’Brien

Akron Early College representatives from the University of Akron will visit area high schools this month in search of the next 100 students to participate in Akron Early College High School. The UA program allows students to earn an associate degree or up to two years of credits toward a bachelor’s degree, free of charge.

Akron Early College representatives will present informational meetings about AECHS from 6 to 7 p.m. on Jan. 12 at Buchtel High School; Jan. 13 at Ellet High School; Jan. 14 at Garfield High School; and Jan. 15 at the Barberton YMCA. Interested students can subsequently apply for admission. The program is open to current eighth-grade students and enables them to receive as many as 72 semester hours of college credit while they earn their high school diplomas.

The program is one of only nine such programs in Ohio. Last year, almost 350 students applied for admission to the program, which was first introduced two years ago, according to Thomas Forbes, director of AECHS. He says that eligibility requires students to receive consent from their parents to participate in the program. They also must provide their own transportation, possess a desire to earn an associate degree, adhere to contract requirements and express the potential to make the most of this opportunity.

Akron Early College High School students attend their classes on the UA campus. After four years at AECHS, these students enjoy the possibility of earning their high school diplomas and, at the same time, an associate degree.

For more information about AECHS, call 330-972-6450, or visit this Web site.

Kiplinger’s announced Wednesday its list of the “100 Best Values in Private Colleges for 2008-09.” The list ranks 100 schools that “exemplify excellent academics while keeping their costs to a minimum.” The story appears in Kiplinger’s February issue, as well as online.

Five private institutions from Ohio made the list, including:

No. 11 - Kenyon College, Gambier (Liberal Arts Colleges List)

No. 31 – Denison University, Granville (Liberal Arts Colleges List)

No. 36 – Oberlin College, Oberlin (Liberal Arts Colleges List)

No. 36 - Case Western Reserve, Cleveland (Universities List)

No. 41 - Xavier, Cincinnati (Universities List)

My alma mater, Loyola College in Baltimore, Maryland, also made the Universities List at No. 47. And my father’s alma mater, Gettysburg College in Gettysburg, Pa., also made No. 47, on the Liberal Arts Colleges List.

Three University of Akron faculty members recently were selected as finalists for the NorTech Innovation Awards:

• Dr. Steven Chuang, professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering

• Dr. Joseph Kennedy, distinguished professor of polymer science and chemistry

• Dr. Judit Puskas, professor of polymer science

The three were among the 20 finalists from Northeastern Ohio on the short list for awards. NorTech recognizes “meaningful innovations originating from universities, companies, nonprofit organizations and entrepreneurs throughout the region,” according to UA.

The awards are presented by Crain’s Cleveland Business in half a dozen categories, including  biosciences, instrumentation controls and electronics, advanced materials, information and communications technologies and advanced energy, power and propulsion.

Chuang’s research involved carbon sequestration to reduce greenhouse emissions from existing coal-fired energy plants. Kennedy has been developing an artificial pancreas as a potential  long-term cure for diabetes. And Puskas is working on a carbon nanocomposite based on thermoplastic rubber and silica for next-generation breast implants.

Karen Gross, president of Southern Vermont College and professor of law at New York Law School, wrote this interesting essay in Inside Higher Education. It’s thoughtful and clever, and a good start to the new year.

Happy 2009, everyone. See you in the new year.

The University of Akron has received the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching Community Engagement Classification in Curricular Engagement and Outreach and Partnerships.

This joins UA with Kent State University and more than 100 other colleges and universities across the nation. KSU received the community engagement classification several years ago.

More from UA:

Unlike the foundation’s other classifications that rely on national data, this is an elective classification, meaning institutions such as UA elected to participate by submitting documentation describing the nature and extent of their engagement with the community. The foundation used this approach to address elements of institutional mission and distinctiveness that are not represented in national data on U.S. colleges and universities.

A University of Akron polymer engineering professor, Arkadii Leonov, thinks he has a solution for the problem of hurricanes that sounds more like a solution to an attack by Godzilla than a weather event:

Use the sonic booms generated by supersonic jet fighters to suppress the storm.

Leonov theorizes that by flying at supersonic speed around the eye of a hurricane, the jets might be able to lessen the devastating effects of the storms. Here’s what the university had to say in a release about the research:

Describing hurricanes as huge, stable, natural aerodynamic and thermodynamic machines that rotate counterclockwise, Leonov says that the pressure outside the most active hurricane cylinder, or eye wall, is greater than that in the hurricane center. He also explains that the upward vertical airflow in the eye wall delivers air with humidity to a condensation level of about 1.5 kilometers. This condensation releases heat and significantly increases temperatures, which he says is imperative to overcome the stability threshold for existence of the upper part of a hurricane.

“Our method will hopefully destabilize all three components in stable hurricanes. Although the ultrasonic boom created by the jet fighters is localized, it has overwhelming energy as compared with that of local air masses in the hurricane,” Leonov says. “Choosing slightly descending spiral trajectories flying in a clockwise direction will drastically increase the local pressure inside the hurricane, destabilize the direction of air rotation and stop the upward supply of wet air.”

While the hurricane speeds of about 150 kilometers per hour are not dangerous to fighter jets flying at desired supersonic speeds of up to 1,800 kilometers per hour, the pilots would contend with heavy fog and acceleration, or g-factor, during turns, Leonov explains.

“Skillful pilots can hopefully overcome these challenges,” says Leonov. He points out that a turning radius of about 200 kilometers creates an approximate 4 g-factor, which is less than half of the overloads with which skilled pilots have been trained …

… Leonov says the “stir” made by his discovery might prompt U.S. Air Force tests, which could require several F-4 jet fighters flying at maximum supersonic speeds of about 1,800 kilometers per hour with safety measures and hurricane fog orientation fully in check.

The University of Akron will create a College of Creative and Professional Arts and a College of Health Sciences and Human Services starting in 2009, the university recently announced.

The new College of Creative and Professional Arts will include the university’s schools of Art, Communication, Music and Dance, Theatre and Arts Administration. The College of Health Sciences and Human Services will include the schools of Family and Consumer Sciences, Social Work and Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology.

The Center for Silver Therapeutics Research also was created by the UA Board of Trustees. It will help researchers focus on the advancement of silver-based components as potential cures for a variety of diseases, according to UA. The research work in silver will complement the university’s participation in the recently formed BioInnovation Institute in Akron.

Do you hear that?

There’s something on the wind.

It’s turbines, being considered to power Ohio schools and colleges in the future:

• One Northeastern Ohio school district has stepped into the wind tunnel, according to the Plain Dealer’s Ellen Jan Kleinerman.

• Kent State is seeking ways to go “green,” including researching the potential of wind power. Tom Euclide, director of campus operations and chief in the Office of the University Architect, told me as much here

Some people think it’s all bunk.

Courtesy of http://www.windtruth.org

My previous musings/posts on this issue are located here.

Cleveland’s Fund For Our Economic Future recently awarded more than $1.2 million in grants to Northeastern Ohio businesses and efforts to help spark economic development in the region.

The awards included $250,00 to Team NEO to support Cleveland Plus marketing campaign efforts; $259,000 for the Regional Talent Network, working with the state to prepare residents for high-demand jobs; $284,000 for the TechLift support system for technology-based entrepreneurs; $300,000 to encourage local government collaboration and efficiency; and more than $100,000 to Cleveland State University to produce the 2009 Dashboard of Regional Economic Indicators.

Here’s David Abbott, chairman of the Fund and executive director of The George Gund Foundation:

“It is more important than ever for Northeast Ohio to attract companies, grow existing businesses, prepare talent for present and future jobs, and improve the efficiency and effectiveness of local governments … The grants awarded by the Fund today will help the region achieve those objectives. Philanthropy in Northeast Ohio, acting through the Fund, is committed to working with our partners in the public and private sector to implement the programs and changes needed to help our region’s economy grow as the national economy recovers.”

The Fund for Our Economic Future (www.futurefundneo.org) is a collaboration of more than 100 foundations, organizations and philanthropists from across Northeastern Ohio that strengthens the region’s economic competitiveness through grantmaking, public engagement and research. The Kent State University Foundation is among its members.