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Volume 128 Issue 76
Kansan.com
Wednesday, February 11, 2015
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
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The student voice since 1904
JILL STIVERSON/KANSAN
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Local restaurant starts social ping pong club
Restaurant owner Nick Wysong started a ping pong club for locals.
TIM MCGINNIS
@tim_mcginnis
Nick Wysong's love for ping pong first began as an old sibling rivalry between him and his four brothers. As kids, they fiercely competed against each other, but today, Wysong has chosen to share his passion for ping pong in a more relaxed and inclusive atmosphere.
Wysong recently created the Lawrence Ping Pong Social Club, a free league that is open to the public. The league plays every Tuesday and Wednesday night at 8:30 p.m. in Ingrient, 947 Massachusetts St., the restaurant that Wysong owns.
"I love ping pong, I love crowds and I love playing ping pong with crowds," Wysong said.
Wysong said his inspiration to create the league comes from wanting to see others have fun playing the game he loves. He said the club is off to a successful start and he is excited to see where it goes.
Wysong started the league
on Jan. 27 and said there have been about 20 to 30 people who have shown up to play each night.
Jason Wofford, a Lawrence resident who has competed in the league, said he liked how people of all skill levels were able to play.
"I think that the ping pong league is a great idea," Wofford said. "I especially like that it is hosted in a local restaurant. That makes it even better."
Each competitor is able to play at least twice each night, but the league play is a double-elimination tournament. Wysong said although most of the people who attend are there to have fun, there is still a competitive atmosphere.
Wysong said the ping pong players have a great time competing, and his hope is that they will bring their friends the next time they come. He said the restaurant has advertised the league through its social media accounts and through posters,
SEE PING PONG PAGE 5
Graduate student starts drone collision avoidance company
TRAVIS DIESING
@travis_diesing
This story is the second in a Kansan series on student activists at the University. Check tomorrow's Kansan for another story.
TRAVIS DIESING/KANSAN
Imagine you're on a rich friend's private jet heading to Ft. Lauderdale for Spring Break. In the air, you gaze out the window. A small object begins to come into focus on the horizon, progressively getting larger. You eventually make out what appears to be a miniature aircraft. Instead of maneuvering out of the way, it slams into the propeller of your jet. Your gut tightens and the blood drains from your face as the plane propeller ignites, sending your aircraft plummeting into a downward spiral.
Graduate student Lei Shi works on his anti-collision system for commercial drones. Shi is an electrical engineering student and an entrepreneur who started his own business to develop and market collision avoidance systems for commercial drones.
This is the nightmare scenario that Lei Shi, a University graduate student in electrical engineering, is working to prevent. Shi, 32, is one of the University's rising researchers on drone radars and on the cutting edge of creating an anti-collision system for commercial drones.
"Our fear is that someday a drone or a UAV is going to collide with a small general aviation aircraft and bring it down and it's going to cost lives and it's going to probably set back the UAV industry."
CHRIS ALLEN
Engineering professor
Shi's own interest in science and engineering started when he competed in Science
Olympiad in high school constructing balsa wood bridges and Rube Goldberg machines. He went on to earn a degree in electrical engineering from the University and then spent three years working on miniature prototype circuits at the Honeywell plant in Kansas City.
He's also a new entrepreneur and a mentor to high school students interested in engineering.
TRAVIS DIESING/KANSAN
Circuits from the project that graduate student Lei Shi is working on for researching drone radars and preventing drone collisions. After becoming interested in drones, he started his own business for developing and marketing collision avoidance systems for commercial drones.
But Shi wanted more control over the products he was developing and decided to return to the University for graduate school. Now, four years later, he's even running his own business.
"It's so rewarding I got to do it," Shi said. "I have to do it."
In October, Shi became the sole owner and proprietor of UAVradars, a company he started to develop and market collision avoidance systems for commercial drones.
The idea was sparked in 2011 when Shi took a graduate level class that worked on using collision avoidance systems from the automobile industry in UAVs, an acronym for unmanned aerial
vehicle, or drone. Shi and his colleagues realized the commercial drone industry needs ways to prevent the drones from crashing into other aircraft to get off the ground.
"Our fear is that someday a drone or a UAV is going to collide with a small general aviation aircraft and bring it down and it's going to cost lives and it's going to
probably set back the UAV industry," said Chris Allen, a professor in the University's engineering department. "What we're trying to do is anticipate the need for that before something catastrophic happens."
Allen, whom Shi described as his mentor, said it's Shi's
SEE DRONE PAGE 2
Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback speaks at the Kansas Statehouse in Topeka on Jan. 15.
ORLIN WAGNER/ASSOCIATED PRESS
Governor revokes discrimination order
"This Executive Order ensures that state employees enjoy the same civil rights as all Kansans
Brownback's office posted a media release in which Brownback explains his rationale.
Gov. Sam Brownback revoked an executive order from former governor Kathleen Sebelius that protected state employees from discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. He announced his decision on Tuesday.
without creating additional 'protected classes' as the previous order did," Brownback said in the media release. "Any such expansion of 'protected classes' should be done by the legislature and not through unilateral (done by one person) action."
Additionally, he issued an executive order to encourage more employment opportunities for veterans and disabled individuals. That order, according to the release, also "reaffirms the commitment of the State of Kansas to employment practices which do not discriminate based on race.
"Many of these commissions, working groups and task forces have not met for several years or duplicate other ongoing efforts." Brownback said in the media release. "These changes streamline operations and reduce operational costs of maintaining these various committees."
color, gender, religion, national origin, ancestry or age." In addition to rescinding the order regarding discrimination, Brownback rescinded nine previous executive orders.
Kelly Cordingley
Brownback reduces budget allotments for education
OPINION 4
A&F 5
PUZZLES 6
SPORTS 7
Gov. Sam Brownback announced last Thursday he was reducing the allotments to Kansas K-12 education by 1.5 percent, and regents universities by two percent, totaling nearly $44.5 million. The cuts are set to begin March 7.
Kansas Senator Marci Francisco of Lawrence said when she heard the Governor's announcement, she was wary of what the cuts would mean for her district's schools. According to Francisco, the University will be cut $2.7 million, while the University of Kansas Medical Center will be cut $2.1 million and Lawrence public schools will be cut $598,962. These cuts take effect this fiscal year, which ends June 30. The cuts come after the state missed its January revenue expectations by nearly $47 million, according to The Wichita Eagle.
KELLY CORDINGLEY
@kellycordingley
"Lawrence clearly lost the money that had been available the year before."
Index
MARCI FRANCISCO Kansas senator
CLASSIFIEDS 10
DAILY DEBATE 7
Francisco said the most recent cuts are in addition to separate cuts made last year and lack of increased funding. In addition to Brownback's cuts, a bill is working its way through the Senate that would essentially reverse Lawrence voters' decision in January to keep nearly $1.3 million in locally-generated school funding.
"These cuts are particularly difficult because they come at the middle of the school year when second semester is well underway," Francisco said. "So for both K-12 and the University, they've made commitments to courses and to staff. So, even though you say this is just a percentage, this is all happening just a few months into the calendar year."
Mason Owen, a sophomore from Overland Park, said he's noticed that when states cut funding for education, the educational institutions generally have to make up funds in ways that negatively impact students and employees.
"What bothers me, not just as a student, but as a member of a community, is that the costs seem like they're fronted to students and consumers," Owen said. "When a school loses government funding, it means they'll have to fire faculty, increase class sizes and there's a decrease in the quality of education services."
"We just had a mail-in ballot, so that was to keep the
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