HPV vaccinations: Eliminating stigma paves way for better health OPINIONS, 4A
Bucking the trend
Volleyball attempts to break losing streak on the road SPORTS, 1B
The Daily Illini
Wednesday October 10, 2012
www.DailyIllini.com
The independent student newspaper at the University of Illinois since 1871
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Vol. 142 Issue 33
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TESTING THE BLUE WATERS
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Olivia Geiger, freshman in ACES, middle, and Claire Geiger, sophomore in ACES, right, sign up at the Collegiate Farm Bureau kickoff event in the Union on Tuesday.
New RSO aims to unite students in agriculture BY LIZ KOEHLER CONTRIBUTING WRITER
A new student organization aimed at bringing together students interested in agriculture opened for membership Tuesday. The registered student organization Collegiate Farm Bureau, or CFB, is dedicated to educating students about all of the components of agriculture. Members are encouraged to branch out from their specialized majors to learn about the subject as a whole and to build a network with others in the field. CFB will work closely with the Illinois Farm Bureau, or IFB, whose mission is to “improve the economic wellbeing of agriculture and enrich the quality of farm family life,” according to its website. Claire Benjamin, senior in ACES, is the founder and president of the group. She said they plan to expose members to agriculture-related issues that reach outside their majors.
“Sometimes we get so wrapped up in our majors and our individual parts of agriculture that we forget about agriculture as a whole and these larger factors that affect our majors and careers,” she said. Benjamin interned with IFB over the summer, and her main project was to start the organization on campus when she returned to school. Benjamin said joining the RSO will provide students with the ability to establish a connection with IFB, which can continue throughout their careers. Melissa Rhode, director of membership and programs at IFB, spoke to the students Tuesday about the value of joining the group. “If you come from a farm, a rural community or have an interest in agriculture, Collegiate Farm Bureau is for you,” she said. On Oct. 30, CFB will host an Agriculture Policy Fair, during which the
See FARM BUREAU, Page 3A
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Professor Nick Holonyak Jr. laughs during a commemoration of the 50th anniversary of his invention of the first practical light-emitting diode, or LED, in the Union on Tuesday.
Campus celebrates 50 years since LED invention
PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY KELLY HICKEY AND J MICHAEL MIOUX THE DAILY ILLINI
BY AUSTIN KEATING CONTRIBUTING WRITER
The petascale computing project Blue Waters, which has been under construction since November 2008, is almost ready for use. Though the supercomputer is completely installed, it still needs to go through testing. The University’s National Center for Supercomputing Applications, which operates Blue Waters, is working with Cray Inc., the company that built the system, to facilitate performance testing. “(We are) working with Cray to test the performance of the supercomputer ... (and) collecting data to show how it will perform,” center spokeswoman Trish Barker said. The center will have to send the test results to the National Science Foundation, the organization that funded Blue Waters, before being given final approval. Barker said it could take until the end of the year or more for the supercomputer to receive approval. Blue Waters is among the top supercomputers in the world, Barker said. With the ability to make 11.5 quadrillion calculations per second, compared with trillions per second in the past, Blue Waters will give scientists more detailed data for their research than previous supercomputers. “What we’re most excited about is what that system is going to mean for science,” said Cray spokesman Nick Davis. “We’re excited to build a system like Blue Waters and put in the hands of all its users and be able to see the scientific results that will come from that system.”
About 40 researchers are waiting to reach those results. One of those researchers, University physics professor Klaus Schulten, has already used an early version of the system. The Blue Waters Early Science System ran for a few weeks in March and gave Schulten’s team the opportunity to test the system. The team also did research on the HIV capsid, which is important to understanding how HIV infects human cells. “If you take the capsid and put water around it, then you’re ending up with a system of over 60 million atoms,” Schulten said. “Those are systems that were too large to be simulated in the old days ... but with Blue Waters, we can do such simulations.” Schulten modeled many important properties of the capsid, but he is now waiting on Blue Waters to come online to simulate the entire capsid. He said with further experimentation, he hopes to fi gure out how to destabilize the virus and take away its infectivity. “We have a lot of work ahead of us,” Schulten said. “We took the fi rst step right away when Blue Waters came out ... but we still need to complete it, and for that, we need Blue Waters.” The date by which Schulten and other researchers will be able to use Blue Waters depends on when tests are fi nished. But Barker said the supercomputer will likely go into operation before the opening party on March 28.
BY CORINNE RUFF
Holonyak’s star shines brightly
STAFF WRITER
Whether it’s the lighting in a classroom, the brake lights on a car or the backlighting on your television, you’ve probably been exposed to the invention of alumnus and longtime professor Nick Holonyak: LED lighting. The light-emitting diode, or the “ultimate lamp” as Holonyak calls it, is one of the most energy-saving forms of lighting available today. Tuesday marked the 50th birthday of the invention, and that morning, students, faculty and children gathered in the South Lounge at the Illini Union to celebrate. The event was sponsored by the department of electrical and computer engineering. Attendees were offered a slice of birthday cake, and Holonyak signed autographs and answered questions from the audience. The first 100 people in line for autographs also received a complementary copy of “A Brilliant Idea,” a documentary about Holonyak’s work with the LED.
Austin can be reached at news@dailyillini.com.
Nick Holonyak, inventor of LED and engineering professor, researches microelectronics and photonics at the University. Here is a short compilation of his accomplishments: !""1973 Member of U.S. National
Academy of Engineering
!""1989 Edison Medal !""1988 Monie A. Ferst Award
(Sigma Xi) for teaching
!""1993 John Bardeen Chair
Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Physics !""2003 Global Energy International Prize !""2005 The Laureate of the Lincoln Academy of Illinois !""2008 National Inventors Hall of Fame SOURCE: DEPARTMENT OF ELECTRICAL AND COMPUTER ENGINEERING
See LED, Page 3A
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