OREGON STATE UNIVERSITY CORVALLIS, OREGON 97331
The Daily Barometer
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DAILYBAROMETER
WEDNESDAY APRIL 29, 2015 VOL. CXVII, NO. 126
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A passion for math
Justin Frost
| THE DAILY BAROMETER
Mathematics professor Ed Waymire’s passion for math was nurtured by his grandfather. Waymire gave a lecture on math and science Tuesday night for the Gilfillan Lecture Series.
Mathematics serves as lens through which professor Ed Waymire views world
interpret the world around him. This frame of logic extends from Waymire’s early childhood with his grandfather’s influence guiding his sense of the world through mathematical motifs and instilling a passion for the problemsolving framework.
these things together. Ever since then math has University, Waymire’s gaze toward graduate been quite comforting; my brain is just wired school was briefly obstructed by the Vietnam draft. to see problems in terms of math.” “I was set to be drafted in December — I Once enrolled in school, Waymire’s passion By Justin Frost for math began to shine through, spending was number 142, but fortunately my number THE DAILY BAROMETER his study hall periods zipping through multi- was never called. I was fortunate that I could Professor Ed Waymire’s office is filled with study mathematical solely for my desire to do “I remember my grandfather teaching plication tables and manipulating numbers. old mathematics textbooks, their edges fraying so,” Waymire said. me multiplication tables and conversions,” After studying math in college and collecting and pages yellowing as they sit on the shelf. See MATH | page 4 Waymire uses mathematics to solve and Waymire said. “We really enjoyed learning his undergraduate degree from South Illinois n
Sexual Assault Awareness Month continues with Wednesday events THE DAILY BAROMETER
As Sexual Assault Awareness Month comes to a close, there are a few more events to raise awareness and demonstrate support for survivors. All day Wednesday, April 29 is Denim Day, an international event to demonstrate support for survivors by wearing jeans for the day. According to the Denim Day event details on the Oregon State University calendar, the day is in honor of “an Italian court case that was overturned because the justice deemed the victim must have assisted in the removal of her jeans because they were too tight to have been removed by the assailant themselves.” Wednesday night will be the Take Back the Night march in the Memorial Union quad at 6 p.m. Take Back the Night is meant to represent OSU’s commitment to supporting survivors, according to the event page. The Daily Barometer
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OSU club takes on rocket science Gravity and space club appreciates stars, launches rockets n
By Courtnee’ Morin THE DAILY BAROMETER
With more than 400 clubs on campus, there is something for nearly everyone. Those who find their interest piqued by the vast expanse of space can find a place to explore their fascination in a new club on campus: gravity and space club. The gravity and space club formed in fall 2014, put together by co-founders Alexsis Hundley-Kennaday, Sophia Zhang and Cristina Martinez, all friends and engineering majors. The club is geared toward engineering and science majors, but anyone who is interested
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can join. There are currently about seven members in the club and the founders would be happy to welcome in new members. “We talk about space-related events and we’re trying to incorporate more star gazing events,” said Zhang, a senior in electrical and computer engineering. “More group events in general — maybe space movie nights.” Movies mentioned were “Interstellar,” “Gravity” and “Space Jam.” “The goal of GRASP as it expands is to be an umbrella type of organization. So when someone comes up with an idea, we can branch off and do a project,” said Hundley-Kennaday, a sophomore in industrial engineering. GRASP is in the middle of a project funded by the Oregon NASA Space Grant. HundleyKennaday, Zhang and Martinez are currently building a payload that will be launched in a sounding rocket in June for RockSat-C, a program through the University of Colorado Boulder. A payload is the rocket’s cargo. Within the payload, variables — such as the speed of the rocket, the temperature, amount of radiation
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and the axes that the rocket spins on — can be monitored. “For ours, we’re testing how microorganisms will respond to microgravity,” HundleyKennaday said. Martinez, a sophomore in nuclear engineering, said that the group hypothesizes that the microorganisms will exhibit no real changes in their behavior and metabolic activity, but that any changes they do observe can help to understand the environmental cues that cause microorganisms to go into dormancy. “We’re using tardigrades, which are extremophiles; they do very good in the heat and radiation that will form in and around the rocket. Some are even found outside of the international shuttle,” Martinez said. In the past, the group participated in a weeklong RockOn workshop where they built a payload to launch in a rocket. “This was a stepping stone for the current project we’re working on because it shows us the foundation of working on payloads See GRASP | page 2
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