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FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 2012
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
TECHNOLOGY
Google gives engineering students high-tech gift
LUKE RANKER
lranker@kansan.com
Google will provide incoming freshmen in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, EECS, with new Android tablets this fall.
According to an Information and Telecommunication Technology Center press release, Google donated $50,000 to provide students with tablets to use in course work throughout the next two years.
"Google's generous donation gives our students in-depth, hands-on experience in mobile computing, an invaluable skill in today's marketplace," Glenn Prescott, EECS chair, according to the release.
Brian McClendon, vice president of Google Maps and Earth, and his wife, Beth Ellyn, donated $50,000 to provide EECS freshmen with Motorola Xoom tablets in September of last year. McClendon graduated from the University in 1986 with a degree in electrical engineering.
Jason Jones, a junior from Overland Park, received an Android tablet at the beginning of this semester, after passing an introductory engineering class. Jones said he thought the tablets were a good way to get students involved in classes. "It's like giving students a $500 incentive to
pass the classes," he said.
Jones said he has to pass two more classes before he can permanently keep the tablet. According the press release, students must pass EECS classes with at least a C to keep the tablet.
EECS assistant professor Brian Potetz said in the press release that students can lose sight of the possibilities of what they can do with programming in the midst of learning technical concepts. The school has developed simplified exercises to capture students' interest. Potetz and assistant professor Bo Luo use the tablets to teach interactive programming lessons.
"it's good to see what we'll be programming on," Jones said.
Amanda Parks, a freshman in the EECS program from Kansas City, Kan., said in the release that she had not owned a tablet before receiving one last fall from McClendon in her Programming I class.
Jones said he has used the tablet for class and personal work and has already started doing basic programming with it.
"This opportunity has left me thrilled and excited to be a part of such a great program where the possibilities are limitless." Park said.
— Edited by Nadia Imafidon
J
ENVIRONMENT
Oil-drilling protesters take to the sea in effort to save Arctic
ASSOCIATED PRESS
WELLINGTON, New Zealand Television actress Lucy Lawless climbed aboard an oil-drilling ship Friday in New Zealand, joining six Greenpeace activists to try to stop the vessel from setting off for the Arctic.
Speaking from atop a 174-foot drilling tower aboard the Noble Discoverer in Port Taranaki, Lawless told The Associated Press on Friday that wind gusts were making it difficult to stay put but that she and the other protesters planned to stay there for "as long as we posi-
the protesters hung banners from the drilling derrick reading "Stop Shell" and "#SaveTheArctic"
bly can" She said she had a "little bit" of food and some provisions with her.
The ship is chartered by oil company Shell. Shona Geary, the company's New Zealand spokeswoman, said the ship was due to leave over the weekend for a drilling program in the Arctic but that all operations aboard had come to a stop.
Police spokesman Grant Ogilvie
"We are taking a very calm and measured approach to this," she said.
said early Friday afternoon that five police officers boarded the ship. They had made contact with the protesters and were trying to determine their intentions. The port remained open but access was restricted, Ogilvie said.
"The protesters are clearly breaking the law by trespassing on the ship," said Police Inspector Blair Telford in a statement.
Lawless, 43, a native New Zealander, is best known for her title role in "Xena: Warrior Princess." More recently she has starred in "Spartacus: Blood and Sand."
Lawless said she was taking direct protest action for the first time in her life to protest oil drilling and to draw attention to climate change.
"I've got three kids. My sole biological reason for being on this planet is to ensure that they can flourish, and they can't do that in a filth, degraded environment," she said. "We need to stand up while we still can."
Greenpeace spokesman Nathan Argent said the ship was due to drill five exploratory wells during the Arctic summer.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Actress Lucy Lawless, left, joins activists in stopping a Shell-contracted drillship from departing the port of Taranaki, New Zealand on Friday.