DAILY LOBO new mexico
October 14, 2009
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Pretty In Ink
wednesday The Independent Voice of UNM since 1895
All photos by Ryan Garcia / Daily Lobo Professional Mixed Martial Arts fighter Gerald Lovato shows off his NM Personal Defense teacher Josh Ortega tattoos H.B. Garcia at Independent Ink, near Fourth Street and UNM math professor Precious Andrew displays her custom tattoos in front of the Frontier on Monday. Montano Boulevard. Ortega will be tattooing at the Rock the Ink Tattoo & Music Festival this weekend. sleeve tattoo in front of her office on Monday. Manuel Vega The convention is at the Albuquerque Convention Center Oct. 16 - 18. tattooed Andrew at his shop, Custom Tattoo Company, on Central Avenue.
Award-winning robotic Coach locked out of next game research flies stateside by Isaac Avilucea Daily Lobo
by Tricia Remark Daily Lobo
A pilot’s job might soon be a thing of the past, according to a UNM graduate student’s research. Ivana Palunko, a second year Ph.D. student, is studying smallscale unmanned helicopters and other vehicles. Palunko, a native of Croatia, recently won an award from the National Foundation for Science, Higher Education and Technological Development of the Republic of Croatia. Palunko said Croatia developed the award to encourage the kind of technical research she is doing with unmanned helicopters. “I was in my fourth year and I was choosing what my thesis would be for my masters,” Palunko said. “Then one of the assistants — he got a small helicopter as a toy — and he was like, ‘Do you want to do this?’ I was like, ‘Why not?’ It seemed interesting.” She said her award included $4,000, a laptop and a cell phone. Palunko decided to further the research she began in Croatia at UNM. She works with the Multi-Agent, Robotics, Hybrid, and Embedded Systems Laboratory research group at UNM. Research with quad-rotors — helicopters with four rotors — are Palunko’s main focus. “Usually you have those toys that you can fly around and have a remote control. People can do that,”
Inside the
Daily Lobo volume 114
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she said. “So, my part in that is that you don’t have to have a remote, you have your laptop and an interface. You can say, ‘Oh, I want you to go someplace like Sandia, and measure the temperature in five places and come back.’ That’s everything that you need to do and it will do the rest.” Chaouki Abdallah, department chair of Electrical and Computer Engineering, said research on unmanned aircrafts isn’t new and most planes and jets are already controlled by computers. Pilots are only needed as supervisors and to take over if the autopilot controls malfunction, Abdallah said. “Every airplane you fly in is really flown by an autopilot and the real pilot comes in only periodically to do certain things,” he said. “A lot of the space vehicles, for example, are not really being flown by people — automatic controllers are really taking care of everything. In fact, a modern jet plane cannot be controlled by a human.” Senior Priscilla Padilla said she would fly in an unmanned aircraft if it were tested for safety. “I would prefer a pilot in a plane to go somewhere like New York, but if they came up with a way where we wouldn’t need one, I’d trust it as long as I wasn’t the first person to try it,” she said. Abdallah said robotics is
Grab the remote to that high-definition, big-screen TV and pull out the recliner, Mike Locksley. The only college football you’ll be watching on Saturday, Oct. 24, will be from the couch. Locksley split the lip of Jonathan “J.B.” Gerald, wide receivers coach, in an altercation on Sept. 20, according to an APD police report. Now the University is going to hit the Lobo head football coach where it hurts — with a swift kick in the pocketbook. Thirteen days after UNM Human Resources launched an investigation into a Sept. 20 altercation between
Locksley and Gerald, Athletics Director Paul Krebs announced that Locksley will be suspended for one game — UNM’s homecoming game against UNLV — after Human Resources determined UNM policies were violated. Locksley will be docked 10 days of pay, which is “in the neighborhood of $29,000,” Krebs said. Krebs said the money will remain in the Athletics Department’s operating budget. The suspension includes Oct. 1316 and Oct. 19-25. Locksley is free to return to work on Oct. 25, but he can’t participate in any team-related activities until then. George Barlow, assistant head coach and defensive backs coach,
will take the helm during Locksley’s suspension. Barlow said he will try to keep Locksley’s plans in place for the sake of continuity. “I think we’ll get by,” Barlow said. “What we’re going to do is pretty much man-up and make sure everyone’s handling their responsibilities. We just need to focus on what’s important — and that’s the kids.” Locksley said he’s learned some harsh lessons during the weeks since the altercation. “I accept the punishment that the University and Paul (Krebs) has rendered on me with no bitterness,” he
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Athletics Director Paul Krebs, left, and head football coach Mike Locksley arrive at the Tow Diehm Facility for a press conference Tuesday. Krebs announced that Locksley is on a 10-day suspension after the Sept. 20 physical altercation involving Locksley and wide receivers coach J.B. Gerald. Junfu Han / Daily Lobo
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