Technician
The NCSU Rocketry team will be going to Alabama to debut their original rocket design. Zach Green & Shawn Thompson Staff Writers
N.C. State’s own Rocketry Team, the Tacho Lycos, has been invited to participate in NASA’s University Student Launch Initiative this April. Tacho Lycos, which means “speedy wolf ” in Greek, is a student-run organization that started in 2009. They have competed in NASA’s USLI program for three years. All but a few members this year are new to the team and many of them are freshmen and sophomores. “This team has transformed into a hard competitive group of motivated engineering students,” Garrett Abbott-Frey, senior in mechanical engineering and the team’s design lead, said. “If we keep this momentum going we will be unstoppable.” The project gives university-level students the chance to design, create and launch a reusable rocket one mile above ground level. The rocket must also include a scientific or engineering-oriented payload designed by the team. The program gives students the opportunity to work through real-world engineering processes and scientific research. The annual launch event is held at Bragg Farms in Toney, Ala., and is sponsored by ATK Aerospace Systems. Tacho Lycos began working on their design in August and submitted their proposal to NASA. They were notified of their acceptance and immediately began working on a sub-scale model of their rocket. Some of the other universities accepted are MIT, Florida State, Penn State and Virginia Tech. The design team is composed of 10 members, who also make up the competition team that will be traveling to Alabama this spring. After drawing up and revising several designs, the team built a sub-scale rocket over winter break that was 50 percent of the size of the competition rocket. “We recently launched our sub-scale rocket in Orangeburg, S.C. It was very successful--we reached an altitude of 5,900 feet,” Abbott-Frey said. The competition rocket itself will be 110 inches long and 5.5 inches in diameter. It is hand made by the team out of carbon fiber and weighs 47.4 lbs including the motors and payloads.
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Rocketry team heads to NASA competition
wednesday
Students and faculty break a sweat for cancer As the second annual Miles 4 Kay fundraiser commences, University Rec wants students to rack up miles for cancer research.
logged onto the pink treadmills over the next month, Cybex will donate 10 cents to the Yow Fund. While Kay Yow was a well-loved coach, her commitment to University athletics is not just her legacy, but one continued by her sister, Debbie Yow, our current athletic director. Jessie Halpern “Any initiative that generates awareDeputy News Editor ness or funds for cancer research is an While Carmichael is home to important one,” Yow said. Fitness director at the Carmichael many who are interested in maintaining their own health, this year Gym, Alex Stubbs, is excited to be a will mark the second time students part of the event for the first time. “This year, we’re hoping to log 3,000 and faculty are invited to work out miles and beat last year’s 2,300,” to keep others healthy. University Recreation’s second Stubbs said. While the main goal of the fundannual Miles 4 Kay fundraiser will raiser is to log as many begin today at 11:30 miles as possible, the a.m., when Thomas event also seeks to Stafford and Lisa shed light on breast Zapata of the office cancer awareness and of student conduct prevention, according join Carmichael to Stubbs. Gy m’s d i rec tor, “There will be a moEric Hawkes, to log bile mammography bus the first miles on the parked outside the gym pink treadmills set Wednesday from 9 a.m. aside for the fundAlex Stubbs, Carmichael to 3 p.m. for women raiser. fitness director who meet the requireThe Miles 4 Kay ments,” Stubbs said. fundraiser began In addition to events la st yea r, when University Recreation decided to that will help in breast cancer educacommemorate N.C. State’s for- tion, the fundraiser is paired with mer Women’s Basketball coach, some fun-spirited special events in Kay Yow, by raising money for honor of Yow throughout the month. breast cancer research. Cybex, There will be a “Hoops for Hope” an international workout equip- women’s basketball game in her honor ment company, donated three pink Feb. 12 where everything will be pink treadmills to the Carmichael Gym, for breast cancer awareness. which are set aside specifically for this fundraiser. For every mile CANCER continued page 3
“This year, we’re hoping to log 3,000 miles and beat last year’s 2,300.”
Tim O’Brien/Technician
Kristen Parrott, senior in nutrition science, goes for a run on the Miles 4 Kay treadmill at Carmichael Gymnasium Tuesday.
Performance gives perspective on revolution Poetic Portraits of a Revolution spoke about their inspiration and findings at Stewart Theater last night. Emily Collis Staff Writer
While most students have heard about the uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia through various media outlets, four students went straight to the source to gain perspective on the events. Last night in Stewart Theater, the group Poetic Portraits of a Revolution presented its first public performance of their discoveries while in Egypt and Tunisia. The group includes four young men with a strong purpose to display through art. They spent last summer traveling through Egypt and Tunisia to observe the revolutions and created art based off the experience. Among those who took the journey were University students Mohammad Moussa, who served as translator, and Sameer Abdelkhalek, who served as photog-
Tim O’Brien/Technician
Mohammed Moussa, senior in electrical and computer engineering, performs spoken word poetry about his experience in Egypt and Tunisia for Poetic Portraits of a Revolution in Stewart Theatre, Tuesday.
rapher. Will McInerney and Kane Smego are part of the group as well. The group compiled many forms of media during their trip in hopes of sharing what they saw and felt while in a country experiencing a lot of change. The goal of the project was simple: inform the world about the events
and revolutions occurring in Egypt and Tunisia in a way that would truly capture what the citizens of the countries were experiencing. Unlike the average early morning news reports, Poetic Portraits of a Revolution spoke to average people and presented their findings in a way that is not sensation-
alized. “On one hand you want to make sure that you captured the stories in the right way and on the other hand you want to give the stories justice and portray them in a light that the people who were telling these stories would appreciate and approve of,” Moussa said. Sharing and teaching the audience about their experiences is one of the main goals of the group. They aim to encourage others to change as well, according to Moussa. “The performance is a challenge to the audience, to continue this work. It’s an idea that stories are powerful and human stories can rely understanding and we can use art to help us creatively express that, but at the end of the day it all boils down to human stories,” McInerney said. Josie Miller, freshman in international studies, came to the performance after hearing about its strong message. “I think it’s good to make college kids aware of the outside world because we don’t really travel outside of
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Alum takes reigns of Research Triangle Park Turtle Island follows jazz inspiration
Turtle Island Quartet’s performance celebrates Coltrane and the meaning of music. See page 5.
Bob Geolas, ’87 graduate, returns to North Carolina as CEO of Research Triangle Park. Mark Herring Features Editor
Crew dances Just Cuz it can
Despite being less than a year old, Just Cuz Crew is quickly establishing a reputation. See page 5.
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Bob Geolas did not know exactly what he wanted to do when he entered N.C. State in the 1980s. Like many undecided students, he changed his major and graduated with a political science degree. He is now the CEO of Research Triangle Park. Geolas started a new chapter of his career in research parks when he started at RTP in Nov. 28. After graduating in 1987, Geolas worked in politics and was the youngest
chief of staff of the speaker of house of North Carolina. He spearheaded the Clinton campaign in the state, but after getting married, he left politics to return to the University. Centennial Campus was the first project outside traditional politics that Geolas helped spearhead. Before changing his degree to political science, Geolas was a design student and became friends with the college’s then-dean, Claude McKinney, the mastermind of the research-park campus. “Claude was a very open dean, and I would stop by his office and talk with him a lot, and he would talk about this place he imaged called Centennial Campus,” Geolas said. “He would show me sketches of what he thought, but no one else really got it. But Claude made sure to get this campus built.”
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With the political support of Gov. Jim Hunt, Chancellor Bruce Poulton launched Centennial Campus, and in 1989 the first building on the campus was occupied. “Claude and Governor Hunt really coalesced at a perfect time,” Geolas said. “Claude was a great visionary, but he was enormously patient … I learned a lot from him.” Geolas worked on Centennial Campus in 1995 and worked as the coordinator of partnership development. Michael Harwood, associate vice chancellor of Centennial Campus Development, worked with Geolas on expanding the campus. “I was a project manager for many of the early projects on campus,” Harwood said. “Bob was working with the
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Jordan Moore/Technician
Bob Geolas, an N.C. State alum and a man of humble origins, was recently elected CEO of Research Triangle Park.
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