2014-10-30

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Thursday, October 30, 2014

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SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

Students move past satellite explosion By Wes Scarborough @westhemess13

What was meant to be a successful mission to space ended in flames Tuesday night for the Texas Spacecraft Lab. NASA’s unmanned Antares rocket was scheduled to launch Tuesday at 6:22

p.m., but, just seconds after liftoff, the rocket exploded. The spacecraft carries supplies for the International Space Station along with the RACE satellite built by graduate and undergraduate students in the Texas Spacecraft Lab. The satellite was a collaborative project with

NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab. “We were all watching it and expecting it to go smoothly,” aerospace engineering professor Glenn Lightsey said. “But we realized pretty quickly after launch that something was wrong.” Aerospace engineering senior Cody Colley and

his fellow team members watched the launch together via live stream. “What I was most impressed with was how within half an hour [after the launch], everyone in the room said, ‘OK, we’ve got work to do still,’” Colley said. Colley said there are two other projects the lab

is working on. One is the Bevo-2 satellite, a second in a series of missions that were started in 2006. The other is a satellite named the Armadillo, a project sponsored by the U.S. Air Force. “We actually had the

SATELLITE page 2

FRAMES featured photo

Jenna VonHofe | Daily Texan Staff

CITY

New biking app aims to help users avoid traffic By Natalie Sullivan @natsullivan94

The Austin Transportation Department is developing a new phone app that could help students avoid traffic when biking to campus. The app, which is being developed with the KimleyHorn consulting company, can communicate with traffic lights to time them efficiently and make sure a cyclist has the quickest route to travel. Marissa Monroy, senior public information specialist at the Austin Transportation Department, said the app is designed to work with both Android and iOS operating systems. Cyclists start the app before starting to ride, and it communicates their velocity to traffic lights when they enter a detection zone near an intersection. This communication would help time the changing traffic lights with the biker’s movements. The app also provides an audio confirmation for cyclists, so they know the app is tracking them correctly. Monroy said the app is still in the beta phase of testing, but the transportation department plans to do trial runs with it in January. The department hasn’t set up all of the intersections for the app yet, but it plans to focus on Central Austin, where there are the most cyclists, and may include intersections on Guadalupe

Children play a chance rubber duck game at Family Fest hosted by Hyde Park Baptist Church on Wednesday evening.

CITY

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APP page 2 SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

Cole encourages political participation By Jackie Wang

Mayoral candidate, Sheryl Cole, addresses students on the importance of educated voting in Robert Welch Hall on Wednesday evening. One of eight candidates, Cole encourages students to be informed about local politics.

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With Election Day nearing, Sheryl Cole, mayor pro tem and mayoral candidate, encouraged students to research their local government candidates and vote at a talk in Welch Hall on Wednesday. At the event, co-hosted by the Lambda Theta Phi fraternity and the Zeta Phi Beta sorority, Cole said she differs from her opponents in her efforts to get the community’s voice heard, especially in her work to connect with students. “I care about involving the community and especially the student community in the process of making policy so that we can lift all our voices,” Cole said. “I’m happy to report I received The Daily Texan endorsement, and I believe that’s because my office did so much student outreach on issues that affect you guys, like occupancy limits.” The mayoral race

Jenna VonHofe Daily Texan Staff

features eight candidates, including attorney Steve Adler and City Council member Mike Martinez. Lambda Theta Phi President Mario Gonzalez said a fraternity brother and UT alumnus suggested hosting the event. Their organization does not endorse any candidates, Gonzalez said, but wants to educate students on local politics. “Even though most students are here for four years, most students don’t get involved with politics,” Gonzalez

said. “While we might not stay here for life, we’re still part of the Austin community.” Occupancy limits, Cole said, are something that need to be moderated. According to Cole, the further a student lives away from campus, the more points they lose from their grade point average. “I was the one who reached out to the students and said, ‘What do you think of it?’” Cole said. “I voted for occupancy limits, but I made sure it was in a narrow area of the city so that Riverside would

not be impacted, and the supply wouldn’t go down and increase prices in a bigger area.” Cole said she had the most moderate record of anyone in Austin City Council, something that would help her balance decision making as mayor. “When you take your oath of office, you swear to do what is in the best interest of the city as a whole,” Cole said. “I try to come up with a winwin situation for both sides,

COLE page 2

Daulton Venglar | Daily Texan Staff

Luis Sentis, assistant mechanical engineering professor, demonstrates the “Dreamer” robot.

UT engineers dream of robotic potential By Chris Mendez @thedailytexan

In discussing the future of robots Wednesday, Luis Sentis, mechanical engineering assistant professor, said the University will have an important role for research in the area of robotics. “Texas and Austin are a very important hub for technologies, competitions in high-tech

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Students seek for UT to recognize Indigenous Day. PAGE 3

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Offense hopes to rebound against Texas Tech. PAGE 6

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Thousands sign petition to free Omid Kokabee. PAGE 3

Austin offers UT grads creative opportunities. PAGE 4

Volleyball finds positives from exhibition games. PAGE 6

TBT looks at the most haunted sites in Austin. PAGE 8

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and for robotics,” Sentis said. “Dreamer,” a robot developed by Sentis and the University’s Human Centered Robotics lab, held up the “Hook ’em Horns” hand sign and waved hello to attendees of the lecture, held in the Jackson Geological Sciences Building and hosted by UT Libraries as part of its

ROBOT page 2 REASON TO PARTY

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