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Ferguson media coverage discussed
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Daily Egyptian TUESDAY, OCTOBER 28, 2014 VOLUME 98 ISSUE 119
SIU students create first open source 3-D printer Austin Miller Daily Egyptian
Imagine being able to create an object out of thin air. Whether it is a new car, shoes or cell phone, a group of SIU students are working on making that a reality. Six engineering students are working on a senior design project, titled Project Photoresin Additive Manufacturing, or PAM, a one-of-a-kind 3-D printer prototype. Jeff Burdick, project manager and senior from Clifton studying mechanical engineering, said traditional 3-D printing is known as fused deposition modeling machines, or “spaghetti machines.” These printers lay down plastic filaments in layers, like a hot glue gun, following a blueprint from a special computer file, Burdick said. Projects made on spaghetti machines take a long time to produce and are not as high quality. PAM fixes those problems by using a light-curing resin. Jeff Burdick said the resin sits in a vat at the bottom of the stand. One or two high-resolution digital light processing printers, the same kind that would be used in a classroom, sit at the top projecting a laser down on the vat. The resin hardens as it comes in contact with the laser. Daniel Olsen, a senior from Newberg, Ind. studying computer engineering, said PAM is set up to hold two projectors, increasing the possible build size of the final product. “With most DLP printers, your build area is just a couple of inches, most of them use petri dishes,” Olsen said. “Ours is two to three times larger.” Olsen said this method has several benefits compared to spaghetti machines. This machine creates a higher resolution product, with higher build volume––up to nine liters––and their design is cheaper than other DLP printers. There is just one moving part, so the device will not jam, as spaghetti machines are prone to do. 3-D DLP printers are becoming more popular in the world of 3-D printing, but what makes this machine one-of-a-kind is the fact that it is completely open sourced. Olsen said this means the hardware and software used by the group is available for the public to use, edit and improve. Olsen said there are other printer developers that claim to be open source, but do not provide the proper documentation or access to their files. Project PAM follows the guidelines set forth by the Open Source Hardware Association, an organization that seeks to make technological knowledge available to everyone. Being open source means the group will not make any money by patenting its designs, but that was not the goal with the project. Please see PRINTER · 2
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Muriel Berry Daily Egyptian
Citizens expressed their opinions about media coverage of the events in Ferguson, Mo. in the Carbondale Civic Center on Monday night. A panel of media professionals and specialists, varying from radio to photography and cinema, gathered to discuss journalistic practices covering recent events including protests, looting and the death of Michael Brown. William Freivogel, former director of the SIU School of Journalism, said the Michael Brown case was the biggest story he had covered in his 45 years as a reporter. He also said he witnessed the influence of media biases on citizens, and the media’s inaccuracy, which incorporated itself in news. “Many of the crowd on Twitter as well as on the street demanded that Gov. [Jay] Nixon should immediately arrest officer Darren Wilson for murder,” he said. “And that the arrest be done in the name of civil rights, hardly mentioning the fact that officer Wilson has some civil rights too.” The panelists’ dialogue focused on different types of media, and the role social
networking sites such as Twitter and Vine played in educating the general public. Patricia Bynes, a Ferguson resident and citizen journalist, said social web outlets contributed to some of the inconsistencies in information regarding the events in Ferguson. “Being brief and concise and be able to get people’s attention is what you want to be able to do,” she said. “We want information first rather than wanting it to be accurate, and there’s been many instances in which the community reacts to what they see in the media. Sometimes that’s a good thing and sometimes it’s a bad thing.“ Following the panel discussion, Carbondale community members shared their opinions on media coverage and representation, as well as certain factors that could cause news sources to report different versions of information. Sabrina Hardenberg, an independent researcher from Carbondale, said another inconsistency in media reporting could be news sources having agendas. “I’m inclined to think that some reporters are influenced by shareholders or publishers,” she said. “Shareholders of the paper may direct a certain slant of the
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news and what can be published and what can’t be. And that’s perhaps why social media is trying to transcend that limited display of information.” Robert Cohen, a St. Louis Post-Dispatch photographer who photographs the events in Ferguson, said no matter the profession, people come in with bias and predisposition. But as journalists their goal of reporting is to present the most unfiltered version of news. “There’s no person out there that can present something as totally an observer with no life experience,” he said. “If all factions are hating us, we’re doing something right along the lines. People go to sources that validate their opinions on how things may be.” Maurine Pyle, community activist and alumna, said her residence in Alabama, and the discrimination she witnessed early in her life has affected her perception of controversial events involving people of different races. “It’s almost impossible to avoid a racial undertone when events like this take place,” Pyle said. “The possibility that [the Michael Brown case] wasn’t police action, but a racebased murder is my gut reaction, but that might not be true.”
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