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WEDNESDAY March 18, 2015
THE DAILY ILLINI 5he independent student newspaper at the University of Illinois since 1871
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UIUC first in funding of CS research UI outranks other top ten CS programs BY FARAZ MIRZA STAFF WRITER
KEVIN VONGNAPHONE THE DAILY ILLINI
Bill Rosemann, creative director at Marvel Comics, discusses Marvel’s superheroes and how they’re connected to people’s lives at the Illini Union I-Rooms on Tuesday.
Marvel creative director visits UI Bill Rosemann gives lecture as part of ‘Black Geek Week’ BY SAMUEL J. COX CONTRIBUTING WRITER
The latest in a long line of free guest lectures, from Nick Offerman to Stephen J. Nesbitt, the Illini Union Board brought Marvel Creative Director Bill Rosemann to campus Tuesday night. H av i ng prev iously worked for Marvel in marketing and editing, Rosemann charted Marvel’s development from the 1930s, ‘40s and ‘60s to
its feverish new heights. He suggested the company’s success could be attributed to the fact that their superheroes are both inspirational and relatable. “(They) have these powers (and a) moral code ...but they are really about what it’s like to come of age, to grow up and be asked to make decisions you aren’t ready to make, or don’t want to make,” Rosemann said. The lecture was crosspromoted by the Bruce D. Nesbitt African American Cultural Center’s “Black Geek Week.” Rory James, director of the center and self-professed horror film geek, said that in an increasingly multicultural and diverse
society DC Comics and Marvel “needed to showcase more African and African American, Latina and Latino, Asian and Asian American superheroes so that readers can see themselves reflected in comic books.” Jeffrey Tsai, Illini Union Board Vice President for Policy and sophomore in LAS, said the lecture series was focused on the educational awareness about different aspects of life, rather than on student entertainment. = In his lecture, Rosemann emphasized the educational benefits of studying superheroes. “You should never just sit back and passively absorb the pop culture
that you are given,” Rosemann said. “Some people turn their nose up at pop culture, (but) any type of story that reaches millions and millions of people is worth examining, studying and thinking about.” He c oncluded by expressing that Marvel’s fictional heroes should inspire regular heroes. Rosemann singled out college students as capable of accomplishing remarkable feats, even if they couldn’t vault buildings. “It’s great to watch movies and play video games where the hero saves the day,” Rosemann said. “You can be the hero, you can change the world.”
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University improving helium systems Attempts made to provide essential element for lower cost BY ELYSSA KAUFMAN STAFF WRITER
Each year, the University spends more than $211,000 on helium. The liquid form is vital in cooling magnets. After a summer of not having access to helium gas, student and faculty research was put on hold. To counter this, the Department of Physics allocated $600,000 to buy two helium recovery compressors, additional storage tanks and facility infrastructure to move the helium, said Jerry Cook, facilities manager with the Department of Physics. The helium recycling program is recovering about 60 percent of the helium on average and the goal is to recover around 95 percent, he added. For a long time, helium was controlled by the government and was very cheap to buy, Cook said. In the ‘80s, when helium was deregulated, it became a commodity and the prices skyrocketed. This program will help reduce the price, said Eric Thorsland, senior research
engineer. “If we go the route we plan, we will reduce the cost of liquid helium from $15 a liter to somewhere in the $8 to $9 a liter range,” Thorsland said. “Which means that money can then be spent on other components of research.” Currently, 52 individuals use helium for their research, Cook said. Professors set accounts up and student researchers purchase the helium. The helium recycling program, originally installed in 1961 when Loomis Laboratory of Physics was built, is working to conserve liquid helium. Thorsland said helium gas is finite and every bit lost is that much less researchers can use. A semi-trailer brings clean gas to the Loomis Laboratory basement while the compressor supplies pressure to the liquefier. The helium is then taken to different laboratories in the physics and chemistry departments. Because it is impossible to send the gas back into the building, Thorsland built a contained system to capture the gas in a bag to compress the gas into transportable cylinders. Program developers installed an underground pipe that goes from the Chemistry and Life Science Laboratory to the basement
INSIDE
SEE RESEARCH | 5A
NSF Research Funding of Top 10 Computer Science Programs The University receives the highest amount of researching funding for computer science from the National Science Foundation. The following rankings show the top computer science programs ranked by QS World University Rankings.
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (No. 9) $169,787,260 Cornell (No. 8) $117,321,744 UC Berkeley (No. 5) $113,803,204 California Instiute of Technology (No. 10) $92,679,779 MIT (No. 1) $89,815,705 Stanford (No. 2) $86,158,117 UCLA (No. 7) $78,776,107 Harvard (No. 4) $72,351,921 Carnegie Mellon University (No. 3) $70,890,260 Princeton (No. 6) $60,771,633
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The Daily Illini
QS World University Rankings
Students work to keep adjudicating SONNY AN THE DAILY ILLINI
Dean Olson, director of the Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) Lab, prepares to insert a liquid helium filler into a superconducting magnet apparatus at the Chemical and Life Sciences Laboratory A on Feb. 10. of Loomis Lab. Thorsland said this system has been in place for many years, but improvements have been made to ensure efficiency. “Without the gas, we lose the expensive equipment
used for research and we would have to stop many avenues of research used in chemistry and physics,” Thorsland said.
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Walk on makes championship
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Become more informed, a better communicator.
UK students share their thoughts on life on campus.
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The National Science Foundation ranked the University No. 1 in research funding for computer science in fiscal year 2014, ahead of many other academically higher ranked computer science programs, such as those at Harvard University and Stanford University. Leading with roughly $170 million in funding, the University has consistently appeared as NSF’s top-funded CS program in the country since 2010. According to the QS World University 2014 rankings, the University is also among the top 10 Computer Science programs in the nation, ranked at No. 9. Rob Rutenbar, department head of Computer Science, said the NSF’s ranking shows the University is successful in raising funds for larger research divisions, and noted particular advantages of the University’s program. “We’re kind of a big department with almost 60 faculty, which puts us on the way
higher end of size for a computer science department,” Rutenbar said. “But we’ve also been successful in having some of our faculty have foundational or leadership roles in some really big project-kinds of efforts.” Rutenbar cited several examples, including the University’s contract with Blue Waters, the super-computer platform run by the National Center for Supercomputing Applications. William Kramer, research professor in computer science and director of the Blue Waters Project, said the University also has 50 years of history and accomplishments that prove it a more “robust” program than other leading computer science programs. A number of companies developed at the University include: YouTube, PayPal, Yelp, Match.com and Mosaic, which was later developed into Netscape Navigator. Mosaic is known for popularizing the World Wide Web. “That type of innovation is particularly innovation on a large scale. It’s not found many other places, if any,” Kramer said. Rutenbar believes the size and success of the program accounts for it having a high tuition compared to other
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Students want to remain on Title IX panels BY CHARLOTTE COLLINS STAFF WRITER
Student Body President Mitch Dickey is one of many student body presidents invited to the White House to discuss a recommendation regarding Title IX conduct hearings with the Office of Civil Rights officials in April. Title IX is a federal civil right, which serves to counter sexual discrimination in education and addresses acts of sexual violence. Dickey and other student body presidents signed a letter, written by the student body president of Ohio State University, in support of student adjudicators on Title IX conduct hearing panels. In 2014, the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights suggested stu-
dents be removed as adjudicators in sexual assault hearings at universities. The current system allows students, along with faculty, to serve on the panels after undergoing training. In April, the University’s Office of Student Conflict Resolution will present a proposal to the Academic Senate’s Committee on Student Discipline about how to change Title IX’s conduct hearing procedures to comply with recommendations from the Department of Education, said Matt Hill, vice president-external. “We’ve spoken with the Office of Student Conflict Resolution, but they could not provide us with details about whether or not we’ll be removing students or faculty from that process,” Hill said. Dickey and Hill said they fear the recommendation will result in the removal of students from the hearings.
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