Purdue News Best Bets
March 21, 1997
JOURNALISTS: Here are some newsworthy Purdue events during the next two weeks.
Research and development summit set for Indy
Charting a research and development strategy to ensure America's continued leadership
in innovation is the purpose of a daylong April 1 summit at the Adam's Mark Hotel
in Indianapolis. More than 100 corporate executives, university leaders and researchers
from the Midwest, plus members of Congress and senior government officials, will participate.
The summit is co-sponsored by Purdue University and the Washington-based Council
on Competitiveness. The keynote speaker will be Randall Tobias, chief executive officer of Eli Lilly and Co. Purdue President Steven C. Beering will moderate the program.
There will be a noon briefing for journalists.
To arrange coverage or for a copy of the agenda, contact Grady Jones, Purdue News
Service, (765) 494-2079; e-mail, grady_jones@purdue.edu
Weightlessness no flight of fancy for Purdue students
In April, four Purdue undergraduates will experience weightlessness aboard a NASA
research jet affectionately known as the "Vomit Comet." The group is one of 24 university
teams chosen to travel to the Johnson Space Center in Houston and fly on the KC-135A, which astronauts use to train for space flight. During a two- to three-hour flight,
the aircraft goes through several steep climbs and descents, causing the occupants
to experience about 25 or 30 seconds of weightlessness on each dip. The April 7-19
adventure is part of a NASA program for college students. The students are building an
experiment that will fly along with them, which will study the sloshing of liquid
fuel in tanks under microgravity conditions. Control of fluid sloshing is important
to controlling the position of satellites in space. The students will be working on their
experiment for the next two weeks at the Aerospace Science Lab near the Purdue Airport.
Flight team members are: Michelle Lucas, Hobart
, sophomore in aeronautical and astronautical engineering; Chetan Kumar, Granger
, senior in mechanical engineering; Scott Schoenherr, Elkhart
, senior in aeronautical and astronautical engineering; and Jason Toschlog, Richmond
, senior in physics; CONTACT: Lucas, (765) 743-4621; or Professor Steven Collicott,
faculty adviser, (765) 494-5131.
Events
Tuesday-Thursday, March 25-27.
Purdue Road School. Stewart Center. More than 1,200 people -- from street commissioners
to mayors to highway engineers -- will learn about what's new and talk about what
could be for Indiana's roads and highways. Sessions run 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesday, 8:30
a.m.-5 p.m. Wednesday, and 9-11 a.m. Thursday. Some highlights:
Lt. Governor Joseph E. Kernan will be the keynote speaker at the opening session,
10 a.m. March 25.
The use of intelligent transportation systems, 1:45 p.m. March 26.
The state's efforts to procure federal funds, 10:30 a.m. March 27.
CONTACT: Kumares Sinha, professor of transportation engineering and director of the
Joint Highway Research Project, (765) 494-2211; e-mail, sinha@ecn.purdue.edu
Friday, April 4.
Press conference for participants in the Holocaust Remembrance Conference, to be
held April 5-6 (see event below). Among those at the press conference will be Chinese
dissident Harry Wu, who was imprisoned in China in 1995, and Patrick Eddington, a
former CIA analyst who investigated the use of chemical weapons during the Gulf War and
is now suing the government for documents about the illnesses of war veterans. 2
p.m. Hillel Foundation 912 W. State St., West Lafayette. CONTACT: Rabbi Gedalyah
Engel, (765) 743-1716.
Saturday and Sunday, April 5 and 6.
The 16th annual Holocaust Remembrance Conference. This year's theme is Collective
Guilt and Individual Responsibility: Image and Reality. Sessions will be held from
1:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. Saturday and from 10:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday. Sessions will
be on campus and at various locations around Greater Lafayette. Highlights will include a
talk on Gulf War Syndrome by a former CIA agent and the signing of a petition to
be sent to President Clinton pleading for sanctions against Nigeria in an effort
to restore its imprisoned president. Sponsored by the Greater Lafayette Holocaust Remembrance
Committee in cooperation with several organizations. CONTACT: Rabbi Gedalyah Engel,
(765) 743-1716.
Saturday, April 5.
American Society of Civil Engineers Concrete Canoe Race. 8 a.m.-4 p.m. Indiana Beach,
Monticello. Part of the ASCE Great Lakes Regional Conference. Students from 17 colleges
in Indiana, Illinois and Wisconsin will have sprint and distance races with the canoes they have designed and built from concrete. CONTACT: Scott Ivany, publicity director
for ASCE, (765) 742-4794, e-mail, ivany@ecn.purdue.edu
Saturday, April 5.
National Rube Goldberg Machine Contest. 11:30 a.m. Elliott Hall of Music. A Purdue
team and teams from six other colleges and universities across the country are challenged
to build a contraption that uses at least 20 steps to load a CD into a CD player
or computer and play it or run a program. CONTACTS: Daniel Colpi, contest chairman,
(765) 743-8135; e-mail, colpi@cernan.ecn.purdue.edu; Amanda Siegfried, (765) 494-4709;
e-mail, amanda_siegfried@purdue.edu
Sunday, April 6.
American Society of Civil Engineers Steel Bridge Competition. 7:15 a.m.-3 p.m. North
and South Ballrooms, Purdue Memorial Union. Part of the ASCE Great Lakes Regional
Conference. Students from 17 colleges in Indiana, Illinois and Wisconsin will present
bridge structures they have built to be judged on their appearance, weight, speed/ease
of assembly, and deflection under load. CONTACT: Scott Ivany, publicity director
for ASCE, (765) 742-4794, e-mail, ivany@ecn.purdue.edu
Purdue News Service: (765) 494-2096; e-mail, purduenews@purdue.edu
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