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Monday, May 4, 2015
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UNIVERSITY
CITY
UT incentivizes four-year graduation
Austin Fire Department experiments with robots
By Samantha Ketterer @sam_kett
A new initiative from the provost’s office, the Senior Countdown program, will reward members of the class of 2016 for committing to graduate at the end of the upcoming school year. Students who go to their academic adviser and
confirm they will graduate in four years can sign up for the program. In return, students can get help registering for courses they need to graduate, receive career counseling, earn access to networking events and get free gifts. “This is simply a reminder to the students that there is a path, that they have this … contract with us that says
we’re making sure they get what they need,” said David Laude, senior vice provost for enrollment and graduation management. The program, which debuted last week, is one of a number of efforts to boost four-year graduation rates at the University. Four-year graduation rates have remained above 50 percent
over the past decade, and President William Powers Jr. set a goal for the class of 2017 to leave with a 70 percent four-year graduation rate. Laude said he believes students don’t always graduate in four years because of a culture in which four-year graduation isn’t seen as necessary. Another contributing factor, Laude said, is the
occasional student’s inability to enroll in courses necessary to graduate. “Over and over, I talk to people who give up on trying to find that coursework, because it gets too difficult,” Laude said. “This is something that we really have to work on to fix. I think that
members of the board,” Fenves said. “In my current role as provost, and my previous role as dean, I’ve had a lot of interaction with them through the presidential search process and the
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ROBOTS page 2
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Fenves will address research, affordability By Josh Willis @joshwillis35
Griffin Smith | Daily Texan Staff
In an interview with The Daily Texan, Gregory Fenves, executive vice president and provost, discussed the goals he will have for the University when he takes office as president in June.
the issue. “There’s no single bullet,” Powers said. “We just always keep trying [to operate the University] as efficiently and as high quality as you can.” Fenves said one of his educational goals is to connect undergraduate and
CAMPUS
graduate students to campus research opportunities. “What I feel is the most important theme for education at the University of Texas is how we link our undergraduate education mission with our research mission,” Fenves said. Fenves said his previous
experiences as dean of the Cockrell School of Engineering and as provost have helped him form relationships with the regents and UT administrators. “I can work with almost anybody, and I’ve had good working relationships with
@wynneellyn
Two robots, Wall-E and Eve, are helping the Austin Fire Department incorporate technology into firefighting so that they can ultimately assess situations in advance of their human firefighting counterparts. The two robots are microtechnical ground robots the department obtained from the federal Combating Terrorism Technical Support Office. Wall-E and Eve, named after the Pixar movie and both optimized for use in tunnels, communicate with each other while exploring their surroundings, AFD Lt. Lyzz Donelson said. “When we send our robots down into these tunnels, or perhaps a confined space or a building collapse, it’s possible that we could use these robots to push in further than a firefighter could,” Donelson said. “We can use the cameras on these robots to glean information from the surroundings.” The firefighters started training with the robots by making them do simple tasks, such as moving back and forth. Now, the firefighters can make the robots find mannequins, retrieve pipes from them and place those pipes into buckets. Most officers haven’t had trouble operating the robots, Donelson said. “The controllers are relatively intuitive,” Donelson said. “For some of our team members who have a lot of experience playing video games or operating remotecontrol toys, a lot of it’s really similar.”
UNIVERSITY
As President William Powers Jr. prepares to step down, UT’s next president, Gregory Fenves, said his goals for the University center around addressing persistent issues, such as increasing access to research opportunities and engaging in more productive dialogue with the UT System Board of Regents. In an interview with The Daily Texan, Fenves, executive vice president and provost, also said he hopes to explore issues of accessbility and affordability, closely echoing his predecessor. Fenves said his initial goal will be to manage the cost of education, an issue Powers, UT System Chancellor William McRaven and previous chancellors and regents have acknowledged. “I think the most important issue that’s facing the University is, ‘How do we provide high quality education at a reasonable cost?’” Fenves said. In an interview with The Daily Texan in April, Powers said the solution to affordability is not clear-cut. He said he was sure that future administrations would continue to grapple with
By Wynne Davis
CAMPUS
UT gaming academy Bike to UT highlights benefits of cycling debuts first video game By Joshua Guerra @thedailytexan
By Vinesh Kovelamudi @trippyvinnie3
The one-year-old Denius-Sams Gaming Academy in the Moody College of Communication released its first video game Friday. The academy, composed of 20 video game students from across the country, hosted a release party during which attendees could play the game “The Calm Before.” The game took nearly seven months to develop, according to academy participant Zachary Lubell. “The Calm Before” is a first-person shooter computer game inspired by the games “The Legend of Zelda” and “Deus Ex,” according to the game’s website. Players must
fight beasts and solve puzzles to save an island from an impending storm. The academy focuses on teaching leadership and management skills within the video game industry because the participants already understand the basics of development, according to program coordinator Joshua Howard. “The participants experienced going through the process of concept and pre-production green light, presenting to potential clients or a board of directors, then journeying though the different phases of game production, all while building an actual product for release,” Howard said.
GAME page 2
Campus organizations and students filled Speedway Plaza on Friday for Bike to UT Day, an event for promoting bicycle safety and appreciation on campus. Parking and Transportation Services (PTS) hosted the annual event to connect students with cycling organizations, show appreciation for bike riders and encourage more students to bike to campus, according to Jeremy Hernandez, bike coordinator for PTS. The University benefits in several ways from increased biking to campus, which reduces motor vehicle traffic, Hernandez said. “We care that they are riding their bike on campus,”
Hernandez said. “It decreases the amount of driving traffic on campus and frees up some parking spaces for maybe some commuters who aren’t able to ride their bike.” On Bike to UT Day last year, APD issued 47 tickets to cyclists in North Campus. UTPD officer William Pieper said he was not aware of any increased law enforcement initiatives to issue tickets to cyclists. “We have not heard of any increased enforcement on cycling or step enforcement,” Pieper said. “That being said, if a police officer sees someone violating a traffic law, be a cyclist [or] a motor vehicle driver, they’re probably going to take action.” PTS is tentatively organizing a initiative to have bike-safety educators stand
Joshua Guerra | Daily Texan Staff
Preston Glace, radio-televison-film freshman and first-year representative of Texas Cycling, helps fix bikes during the annual Bike to UT event Friday afternoon.
near stop signs around campus and encourage encourage fellow cyclists to follow road laws, according to Hernandez. “We hope to have some groups, maybe next semester, be near stop signs,”
Hernandez said. “What we hopefully plan to do is to bring more awareness to students near stop signs and things of that nature in an educational way.”
BIKE page 2
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