Lecture hall temperatures cause sleepiness by Ajay Khanna Newspeak Staff Do you feel that some lecture halls are hotter than others? That you feel sleepy in some, and that some keep you awake? If you do, you’re right! There is quite a variation in the tem peratures of the various lecture halls at WPI. I recorded the differences and talked to Mr. John Miller, Vice Presi dent of the Physical Plant, about the variations. The temperatures taken at approxi mately the same time of the day at the major lecture halls were as follows: Goddard Lecture Hall (GH 227)77 Higgins Hall (H L 109) 75 Milton P Higgins Hall (WB 229)73 Newell Hall (AK 116) 72 Olin Lecture Hall (OH 107) 70 Kinnicut Hall (SL 115) 66 Perrault Hall (Fuller Labs) 63
F F F F F F F
These differences can be explained because every hall has a different heating and cooling system, and every building was built during different periods. Higgins Hall is one of the oldest
lecture halls at WPI. Originally built about 50 years ago, it was renovated in 1978. It has windows on opposite sides, which let natural light into the room, making you more awake during most of the year. In the summer, it would tend to make you sleepy be cause it becomes quite warm. The heating and ventilating system is very old and is based on steam which comes in through pipes, and is con trolled by a valve. Since it has a capacity of about 100 students, it has to have an air flow of about 2000 cubic feet per minute. This air is brought in from outside and then pumped into the room. The radiators at the side of the room near the windows were changed during the renovation, and are there to offset the cooling effect from the windows. Kaven Hall is quite similar. It was built during the same period, and has the same heating and ventilating sys tem as Higgins Hall. It can accomo date about 100 students, and has win dows on one side of the room. Olin Lecture Hall, built in 1957, has a heating system similar to God dard Hall, Salisbury Laboratories, and Atwater Kent. There is a fan
which helps circulate the air. The outside air is mixed with the air from the room, goes through a fan and is heated by hot water, after which it enters the room. There are radiators near the windows to offset the cooling effect caused by the outside tempera ture. Even so, there are minor differ ences in the lecture halls. Olin Hall can hold about 200 students and has no windows at all, so it is a little cooler than the others. Goddard Hall is a little different from the others. It has a steam system, which is quite old. Also, it has, overall, much more air going out than is coming in. This explains why Goddard sucks in as much air as it can, and why it is so difficult to open the doors. The reason there is more air going out than com ing in is that a few exhaust fans were added after it was built, so more air could go out, but nothing to bring in more air was added. The Goddard Lecture Hall, which can accomodate about 100 students, is one of the hot test lecture halls at WPI. Salisbury Labs is heated about the same way as Olin is, though Kinnicut Hall is differ ent. In Atwater Kent, the system is the same as the others. Newell Lecture
Hall, which can hold about 200 stu dents and was built in 1981, is heated similarly. Kinnicut Hall and Fuller Laborato ries, including Perreault Hall, have a different ventilation system from the rest of the college. Basically, they have a fan that brings in air, which is heated or cooled by a mixture of hot and chilled water. There is a device that measures the temperature of the inside air as it sucks it out, and recom mends whether to heat or cool it de pending upon the set temperature. It mixes inside air with outside air be fore cooling or heating it. Kinnicut Hall, which can accomodate about 225 students, has no windows, so it remains cool. It is also air-condi tioned by the above method. Fuller Laboratories has a method that is quite modem. All the temperatures in all the rooms in Fuller are controlled by computer. Thus, there are no temperature dials which can be tam pered with or changed at will, pre venting mischief and damage to the equipment from misuse. There is a very elaborate set-up just above Per rault Hall that enables control of the temperature. It automatically heats or
cools if the room temperature is above or below the set temperature. Washburn Laboratories has a sys tem which is unique at WPI. Basi cally, the Milton P Higgins Hall (WB 229) never has to be heated because it is insulated so well. This means that it only has to be cooled. This is achieved with a fan that mixes inside and outside air, then passes it through cold glycol, an antifreeze, before re leasing it into the room. The system also automatically checks whether it is getting too hot or too cold, and makes adjustments accordingly. The other systems, besides Fuller Labs and Kinnicut Hall, cannot make such adjustments. They are based upon the opening of a valve or diaphragm de pending on the temperature you set them too. Thus, they are less accurate, and, very often, innacurate. They are also technologically much older sys tems than the one installed here. In conclusion, all the lecture halls at WPI are different from the others. Some are hotter, some are colder. Some make you sleepy, especially those wiihout natural light, like the Milton P Higgins Lecture Hall and Kinnicut Hall.
The Student Newspaper of Worcester Polytechnic Institute Volume 18, Number 5
Tiiesday, February 20,1990
W o m e n ’s i s s u e s p r o m o t e d t h r o u g h W P I P r o j e c t s This article is a continuation of an effort to bring attention to the lack of awareness of women and their accom plishments. On the average, only onefifth of W PI’s undergraduate popula tion consists of women. Over the past decade more than a few women stu dents have felt that this ratio causes
enough problems to make it worthy of an IQP or, in at least one case, an MQP. Subjects ranging from women suf fering stress, to women as pioneers in engineering, to women at WPI in general have been researched in depth by WPI women. The following are
Ciao from the WPI Venice Project Center by the members o f the Venice Project Center We have been in Italy for about a month now and we would like to let you know how things are going. There are seven of us here, including one girl, subdivided into two IQPs. Our apartment is in a convenient location on the Lido, an island near Venice. The Lido is the center of activity in Venice during the summer with its casinos, hotels and beaches. However, during the winter months many of these attractions are closed, forcing the group members to come up with creative entertainment. Apartment life has been enhanced with the purchase of two vicious snap ping turtles named Link and Cuff. Socially, the first four weeks of our stay here in Venice have been more interesting. W e’ve met American students from Wake Forest Univer sity and the University of Virginia and we’ve met some Italian students as well. The groups have also found various bars and nightclubs which have provided many memorable esca pades. Members of the groups have been to Rome, Florence, Milan, Pa dova and the enchanting lagoon of Venice. In the future, we also plan a ski trip to the Alps, which are only a couple of hours away. The IQPs are going well here at the Venice Project Center. The two proj ects include a study on the canal sys tem of Venice and a study on the phenomenon of acid fog in Venice. The canals project is being conducted in conjunction with Dr. Zucchetta of the Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR). The CNR is the equiva lent of the National Research Council in the US. The goal of the project is the characterize the behavior of the
flows in the Venetian canals. The group’s experiments have taken them on all night vigils beside their adopted canal in Venice measuring fluctua tions in both tidal flows and heights. The acid fog project is being done in collaboration with Vasco Fassina, director of the Laboratorio Scientifico della Misericordia. The labora tory is one of the most prominent in the world with regards to the restora tion of artistic treasures. The group is using a WPI-designed fogwater col lector to sample the fog and rain in Venice from three different locations, one of which is atop the magnificent Basilica of San Marco. From the preliminary analysis of fogwater al ready collected, the group has found fog in Venice to be considerably more polluted than rain. The data gathered by both groups has been very impressive. In fact, there is a good possibility that both groups will have at least part of their work published. As we are still learning the ins and outs of life in Venice, together the two IQP groups are preparing a compre hensive logistics manual for use by subsequent project groups. In the future, the WPI Venice Project Center is aiming to sponsor MQPs and Suffi ciencies, as well as several IQPs. Both groups are attempting to fin ish their projects soon, hoping to be able to spend at least a portion of the remaining three weeks in Venice just relaxing and experiencing the Vene tian life style. We would like to extend our best wishes to our neighbor and project advisor Fabio Carrera and his bride to be Jacqueline Beaurivage. See ya after spring break! Mike Ciacciarelli, Bill LaPrade, Ryan Marcotte, Brian O ’Connor, Patrise Puleo, Barry Sylvia, Steve Testa.
examples of such projects, all can be examined more closely at Gordon Library. In 1989 Lauren Rowley and Lisa Marie Perry authored an IQP they titled “The Experience of Women at W PI.” Their advisor was Prof. BarOn in the ME Dept. In it they inves tigated the special needs and issues of women studying engineering. In their introductin they mention that they chose the topic due to the many needs they had projected through their own personal experiences at WPI. They interviewed and researched for infor mation on such issues as health, aca demic concerns, sexism, campus safety, athletic facilities, and emo tional support networks. One of their conclusions was that their was a lack of emotional support groups for women on campus at that time. They recommended a group such as the Society of Women Engineers and since then, SWE has reactivated on campus. They also stated that many professors don’t feel the need to ad dress problems faced by women in engineering fields because women are such a minority. Since 1985, there have been at least two IQP’s written on women who
suffer extra stress because of their sex. One, written by Tracey A. Marshall and advised by Prof. Selkow, focuses on stress and college women. In her conclusion she states that college women are under stress for many reasons such as discrimina tion and role pressures. She also states that women attending a college where they are the minority suffer more stress than their male counter parts because of the discrimination of male students, professors, and aca demic advisors. Ms. Marshall dis cusses the repercussions of these kinds of stresses and how they surface as migraines, eating disorders and depression. Another important issue that has been covered in more than one IQP is the modem day “superwoman.” In 1983 Professor Valanz advised an IQP written by Daila L. Blaus and Michelle Bugbee called, “Women, Engineering and Marriage: a Decade of Change.” In their introduction, they state that the reason they are doing an IQP on this topic is because they are both anxious about their own futures. They say, "Both of us are planning to have a career, a husband and possibly children...it has been
'M m ** l m t * 2M M K S W f c W
it
said that a woman can not have both, and if she does, either her family or her career suffers.” They hope to be living proof that the latter is untrue. Laurie Ann Stefanov and Susan Hohlmaier did their IQP on “Women as Pioneers in Engineering.” Pprofessor Wilkes advised it, and their goal was to compare the psychological similarities and differences of the female engineering at various univer sities. They compared W PI with Brown University which has a more equivalent ratio. They concluded that women at WPI have a stronger femi nine self-image than the women who study engineering and computer sci ence fields at Brown. This may be because women who choose WPI are more confidant that they want to be engineers than the women at Brown, who have a more diversified variety of major choices. Its easy to see the variety in women's issues addressed in IQP’s. Its also easy to see the concern these women feel about the issues facing their sex. The new Women’s Issues Committee on campus was formed as a direct result of Lauren Rowley and Lisa Marie Perry’s IQP.
**** NEWSPEAK STAFF PHOTO / JENN SPEROUNIS
W P I senior swimmers followed the end-of-the-year tra d itio n o f a "F in a l L a p " at the last meet against B randeis. 7 * / ,