COLLEGIATETIMES
wednesday october 31, 2007 blacksburg, va.
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sports MEN’S SOCCER BEATS APPALACHIAN STATE The No.5 Virginia Tech men’s soccer team extended its unbeaten streak to 14 games Tuesday by winning 5-0 at Appalachian State. The Hokies have now, for the first time in program history, gone two full months of the season without suffering a loss. Clarke Bentley scored two goals and Robert Edmans, Scott Dillie and Jonathan Collier each added a goal. Tech led by a score of 1-0 in the first half before pouring it on with four goals in the second. The Hokies return to the Virginia Tech Soccer Stadium Saturday when they take on the NC State Wolfpack at 7 p.m. It will be the final home match of the regular season.
news
SALLY BULL/SPPS
dudes who deliver
USC STUDENTS COPE WITH CONSTANT REMINDERS COLUMBIA, S.C. — News of the deaths of six USC students Sunday has left many seeking support and the university community desperately hoping to provide it. “It’s just one of those scary things,” USC junior Jessica Sainato said. “I think this is kind of opening people’s eyes that we all are affected by tragedy.” Like many others on the USC campus, Sainato didn’t know the six students or the one from Clemson who died in the house fire Sunday morning at Ocean Isle Beach, N.C. But the reality of the deaths was inescapable throughout campus Monday. Individual classes were canceled. Online social networking sites were blanketed with tributes. And many campus hot spots were engulfed by local and national media. For some, the deaths marked a memorable loss in the university’s history. For others, the tragedy struck much closer to home. Tyler Strange, a junior sport and entertainment management major from Northern Virginia, was a friend of one of the young women who died. “I made a few calls and that’s how I found out,” Strange said. “I’m just trying to remember the good times. You can’t really think about the bad. I’m sure there will be some questions and stuff, but you just have to think positively and try and move on as best you can.” — McClatchy newspapers
weather SUNNY high 68, low 43
coming up TOMORROW’S CT Wondering where the student budget board money is going? Check out tomorrow’s CT for the answer.
index News.....................2 Features................3 0pinions................5
Sports....................6 Classifieds..............7 Sudoku..................7
An independent, student-run newspaper serving the Virginia Tech community since 1903 104th year • issue 161
story by andrea woods
n Monday, a new local company, Delivery Dudes, officially opened its phone lines for business. The idea for the company came from seniors Josh Friedman, a finance major and Doug Slenker, a marketing management major, and was first conceived around a month and a half ago. Since then, the idea has become a fully licensed, official company. “There are a bunch of little hurdles with
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starting a business,” Slenker said. Delivery Dudes began as a learning experience for the two roommates. They were tired of the same standard food delivery options and decided to try and start something new. Through the advice of Chris Giles, a Business Law Instructor at Tech, and the Counselors to America’s Small Business (SCORE), an online consulting Web site that offers free and confidential
business advice, Friedman and Slenker were able to begin making their company official. SCORE helped them walk through the process of obtaining a business license and also gave them useful advice on starting their own business. “I’ve got high hopes and they have my best wishes,” Giles said. They also contacted the Health Department to get full approval. The business provides delivery for over 40
restaurants around campus including fast food, Starbucks coffee, Italian, and Chinese. Students living on-campus and off-campus alike can call Delivery Dude’s and they will pick up the food and bring it directly to the customer’s door. In recognition of health issues, the guys are unable to deliver raw meat or sushi. The company also has a method of payment that works best for college students
see DUDES, page two
Computer cluster expands geophysics research LAUREN MORRISON
ct staff writer The future of geoscience technology is expanding as Virginia Tech researchers have been working over the last several months with a computer cluster that simulates the Earth’s surface. Within the Virginia Tech Research Center, 96 Dell Computers make up the cluster that performs tasks at a speed eight times faster than the average computer. “What we’re doing is dividing the Earth into many small pieces,” said Ying Zhou, assistant professor of geophysics. “Each computer then
makes calculations of those small pieces so we can apply it to our research.” He explained that the speed in which these computers work is the most crucial part of the cluster. “The network speed is much faster than DSL or anything like that,” Zhou said. “This is the future.” But before the researchers can actually plan for the future, they have to understand the Earth’s past. This is where Scott King, professor of geophysics, plays a role. “We want to understand why the Earth has gotten to where it is through time,” King said.
“My job is to figure out why it developed the way it has. For example, why there is volcanic activity in some places and not in others.” King also said that by using the technology of the clusters, they have begun to answer the question of why the interior of the earth can shift on its own without anything happening at the surface. “We might be able to predict where the Earth is headed, especially working with Zhou’s research,” King said. “The models work best when we have other information to work with, rather than working on it alone.” King and Zhou’s research complement each
other. Zhou’s research concentrates on what is happening now on the Earth’s surface and King’s research focuses more on what has happened in the past. Kevin Shinpaugh, director of research and cluster computing at Tech, said that the research center is looking for undergraduates with experience in hardware and software maintenance to help with the cluster research. The cluster, which is free for Tech researchers to use, is also open for student researchers undertaking large-scale projects.
see PANEL, page two
Tech competes in ‘Battle Center for Civil War Studies of the Brains’ competition garners grant for production VIRGINIA TECH AIMS TO MAKE ITS SEVENTEENTH STRAIGHT APPEARANCE IN THE COLLEGIATE WORLD FINALS NEXT APRIL, WHERE 90 TEAMS WILL COMPETE IN THE FIVE-DAY EVENT KERRY O’CONNOR
ct news reporter Next spring, IBM will sponsor the 32nd annual Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) International Collegiate Programming Contest (ICPC), where participants will demonstrate their computer programming abilities in a “Battle of the Brains.” On Saturday, a team from Virginia Tech competed in a regional competition against other universities in the area to determine who would move on to the world finals. “Virginia Tech is one of the most competitive universities in the world in the ACM contest,” said William Poucher, ICPC executive director and Baylor University professor. “They are absolutely legendary; I think for 16 consecutive years they had teams at the world finals.” This year, the regional competition included 6,099 university teams from 82 countries on six continents. Only 90 teams will move on to the World Finals, which will commence on April 8, 2008, and last for five days. “It was a tough competition this year; a lot of teams from other schools did really well, including our teams,” said Joseph Gleason, coach of the four teams put together by Tech. “Unfortunately, I don’t think we did well enough to go to world finals this year.” The top team in the regional competition is guaranteed a spot in the World Finals. On Saturday, a Duke University team finished on top. Although it is unlikely that any of Tech’s teams will advance to the World Finals, the VT2 Fighting Vertices finished seventh, completing three problems in 462 minutes.
Each team consists of three students. The students are given a five-hour deadline in which they are asked to solve real-life problems utilizing Information Technology skills. In these five hours, the students will complete a semester’s worth of computer programming work. “We did practices every weekend, pretty much from the beginning of the semester,” Gleason said. “In the practices we would run through the mock contest for four or five hours.” Winners of the World Finals competition will be awarded prizes, scholarships, honors and the “world’s smartest trophy.” Participation in the competition also gives competitors a leg up in graduate school admissions and scholarships. “Often, companies will make offers to every team that competes in the world finals,” Poucher said. “In fact, in Russia, if you advance to the world finals, you get a free ride scholarship to graduate school.” The ACM works to promote resources that advance computing as a science and as a profession. They feel this competition is very important to demonstrate teamwork and hone skills necessary in the field of computer science. “We are looking to help these participants to find out what they can really do by competing with each other,” Poucher said. “The ACM-ICPC contest is the world’s largest, and certainly most prestigious, university competition of its type.” IBM, the world’s largest computer company and the leading employer of IT specialists, sponsors the event to promote innovation and creativity in what could be the next generation of computer specialists.
see BATTLE, page two
of military documentary ANDREA WOODS
ct news reporter On Oct. 12, The Virginia Center for CivilWarStudies(VCCWS)receiveda$350,000 grant from the Virginia Sesquicentennial of the American Civil War Commission to produce a one-of-a-kind three hour documentary on the Civil War. Proposed by James Robertson, director of the Virginia Center for Civil War Studies and executive producer of the documenin a meeting of the Robertson tary, commission, he submitted his proposal for this project. The commission agreed to provide the grant to support the production of the documentary. “It’s a good way for sesquicentennial commemoration,” said Cheryl Jackson, Project Manager and Staff Coordinator. In this documentary the VCCWS will reinvent and improve upon past documentaries on the Civil War. It will be organized into nine different segments that will be twenty minutes each. One section will be on the coming of the war, three on military affairs, one on African Americans and their role, one on prominent leaders, one on common soldiers, and one on the home front. The final section will be on the legacy of the Civil War.
“This is different than we’ve ever done in the past,” said Jim Hammerstrom, film director from Blue Ridge Public Broadcasting Station. “(It’s) more comprehensive than we’ve done.” In order to keep up with current demands and evolving technology, the documentary will be filmed in high definition over the entirety of the Virginia commonwealth. It will
“We hope to spark the interest of students and teachers and (we hope) students will benefit by having a greater appreciation of American history in general, especially the Civil War.” - JAMES ROBERTSON DIRECTOR OF VIRGINIA CENTER FOR CIVIL WAR STUDIES also include aerial views provided by low flying helicopters. Different sections and events will be filmed in corresponding seasons in order to provide more accurate views of the past. “This is a first-class operation,” Robertson said. Along with the different imagery provided by the film crew, “talking heads” will be utilized to provide historical accounts. Historians will also be talking at the different sites around the commonwealth. Hundreds of maps, charts and moving
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see DOCUMENTARY, page two