Seventh time a charm by Brian Parker Editor-in-Chief On October 20th, the space shuttle C olum bia took off, after a record six scrubs, taking Professor Al Sacco and the best wishes o f his friends and fam ily along. The astronauts had all come out, ready for this seventh “ inning” with their baseball caps on backwards, hoping to rally their way to a launch. The baseball analogy was carried far ther when the crew of STS-73 threw the ball out for the fifth game o f the W orld Series. If one had a well-trained eye, the WPI pennant could be seen over the shoulders o f the crew during the toss. Although it was som ewhat disheart ening to see the mission scrubbed so many times, few could say that it was not better to play it safe and the m edia’s talk of the expense o f scrubbing soon sw itched to a "better safe than sorry” tone. The mission itself takes one of the largest crew s on one o f the longest missions of the entire shuttle program. The ambitious schedule includes sev-
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eral experim ents and four interactive teaching sessions with high schools across the country, including South High in W orcester. Professor Sacco will be dem onstrat ing a fluid experim ent for the South High students, who attend the sam e school that Robert G oddard graduated from in 1904. This dem onstration will take place on N ovem ber 2nd at 1:10pm and several members o f the WPI com m unity will go out to the school to take part, including Zeolite Crystal G row th team m em b ers Ipek G u ray , Jac k Ferraro, Terri S acco and M ichelle M arceau. One o f the people who were lucky enough to see the actual liftoff was Professor Looft o f the Electrical and C om puter Engineering D epartm ent. Professor Looft has been involved in W Pl’s space program since 1982, when WPI and MITRE reached an agree ment for students to work on projects for space. As co-chair o f the program with Dean Durgin, he oversaw the work of more than two hundred undergradu a te Sacco, continued on page 2
Columbia clears the launch tower on its way up to its orbit, 172 miles above the earth.
The Student Newspaper of Worcester Polytechnic Institute
N e w sp e a k Tuesday, October 31, 1995
Volume Twenty-three, Number Twenty-two
Faculty approves changes to undergraduate curriculum by Brian Parker Editor-in-Chief On October 12th, the faculty met in Kinnicutt Hall to listen to a few short remarks from the president and the provost as well as to vote on several changes in the curriculum. This in cluded the addition of concentrations and minor programs to the undergradu ate program o f studies. It was also mentioned that WPI will open a day care center in the near future, perhaps by next fall and that the WPI budget finished in the black for 1995, but was currently operating with a small, but manageable, deficit for 1996. President Parrish noted that it was
the first WPI faculty meeting that he had been able to attend and he stated that he w as proud to be a member o f the EE faculty himself. “ You have a really neat program here. . .but 1 don’t think that the faculty as a whole realizes how good a place this is. We have to leam to appreciate ourselves. . .to be proud o f what we have here— a very creative and marvelous product. WPI has found its niche in the market and we have to work to make people aware o f what we have to offer.” The changes to the curriculum in cluded a change in the distribution re quirements forthe Department o f Biol ogy and Biotechnology, so that it now in clu d es tw o advanced laborato ry
classes. Currently the advanced labo ratory classes have not been approved by the faculty, but the departm ent is preparing curricula for eight modular classes in a variety o f areas. These changes will only apply to students who matriculate next year and after. T he Department o f Biology and Bio technology also dropped nine classes and added eleven. Dropped classes include: General Biology I and II, En vironmental Biology, Physiology I and II, C ell Culture, Fermentation Biology, Protein Purification and Downstream Processing, and Recombinant DNA and Biochemistry. The courses which will replace them are: Introduction to Bio logical Macromolecules, Principles o f
Ernie Ansah helped carry WPI to a win over UMass Lowell last Saturday. For more WPI varsity sports information, see page 3.
Special Feature: D iversity r
See pages 10 & 11
Ecology, M icrobial Physiology, Ani mal Physiology, Plant Physiology and Cell Culture, Anatomy, Cell Culture T heory and Applications, Virology, Separation o f Biological Molecules, Im m unology, and Recombinant DNA Principles and Applications. These changes w ere made to keep up with changes in the field and the department felt that they were either improving on the old courses or providing a greater breadth of topics for students. The Department of Humanities and Arts formalized what had previously been offered as independent study projects. These Theatre ISP’s will be given the designation “T H " and a project num ber and will be listed in the undergraduate catalog. They include: Theatre Production Practicum, Acting, A dvanced Acting, Advanced Theatre Production Practicum, Directing, Ad vanced Directing, Dramaturgy, The atre Technology Design, A dvanced Theatre Technology Design, and Ad vanced Dramaturgy. These projects will count for one sixth of a unit and only tw o projects may be applied towards the Sufficiency. It is expected that the annual enrollment for these projects will be from one to fifteen students. The D epartm ent o f Electrical and C om puter Engineering deleted three classes (Signals and System s, Signals and C om m unications, and C om m uni cations Laboratory). Three n ew dasses were added to the curriculum to re place them, C ontinuous-Tim e Signal and System Analysis, Discrete-Time Signal and System Analysis, and Prin ciples o f Comm unication. The Department of Mechanical En gineering rem oved two classes from the undergraduate catalog: M echani cal Properties o f Materials and M e chanical Behavior and Modeling Prop erties o f Engineering Materials (ME 3824/3524). This was done because another class, M E 3023 Mechanical Behavior and M odeling Properties of Engineering M aterials, encompasses the same material as the other two. indeed ME 3824/3524 has the same
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course description. All changes in courses are for the ‘96-’97 academ ic year. The Department o f Electrical and C om puter Engineering received ap proval to offer a degree in Electrical E ngineering w ith C oncentration in C om puter Engineering. This involves taking six computer engineering re lated EE or CS courses and completing an M Q P in the computer engineering area. The Department o f Chemical Engi neering received approval to offer con centrations for Chemical Engineering majors in Biochemical, Biom edical, Environmental and Materials. These require two units of study in the con centration, including up to one unit from the IQP, portions o f the Suffi ciency or the Social Science require ment. The Management Information Sys tems (M IS) Minor was also approved. This involves taking three m anagement courses, tw o computer science courses and a capstone, project oriented, m an agement course (Systems Analysis and Design). The Minor in Law and Technology was approved and it requires two units o f study. Two classes in legal fundamen tals, two classes w hich integrate law and technology, one course in professional communication and one capstone course arc required for the minor. The Computer Science Department established a Minor in C om puter Sci ence. Again, two units o f study are required, including at least one class from a list of courses “each of which provides an integrating capstone expe rience,” any graduate-level CS course (except for CS 501, 505, 507, 552 or 590) and one-third o f a unit of another activity, such as an ISP which is vali dated by a CS faculty member. Concentration and minor program s will be available to undergraduates immediately. For more complete in formation about the minor program requirements, it is suggested that you talk to your academic advisor.
C ontents Counseling and Student D evelopm ent C enter ........................ 7 Club C o rn e r ........................................................................................ S Greek C o rn e r ......................................................................................y Special F eature ........................................................................ 10, II C la ssified s ......................................................................................... I! Police L o g ......................................................................................... 12