School of Engineering sponsors lively open house on Feb. 21 Competing students will pursue the triumph of mind over matter Friday, Feb. 21, 1986 from 3:00-6:00 pm. as they match their machines and intellect against one another in contests which are part of open house activities at PSU's School of Engineering and Applied Science. Students (rom many local universities, community colleges and high schools will be present with family and friends as well as visiting professional engineers during the series of special events. Held as part of the 36th annual National Engineers Week (Feb. 16-22), PSU's open house offers the public a chance to become better acquainted with the engineering field and the University's engineering programs in particular. PSU faculty and student representatives are available to answer questions, and laboratories and special exhibits will be open for public inspection in Science Building 11 (1719 S.w. Tenth Ave.. Computer-aided Design, Microprocessor and Robotics Laboratories); the Portland Center for Advanced Technology (1800 S.W. Sixth Ave. - Electronics. Computer Science and Very large Scale Integrated Circuit laboratories); and the Bryman Building 1520 S. W. Hall 51. -laser S. Computer and Cornrol Systems Laboratories). Volleyball team wins national honor Senior Lynch Johnson ( ~ b o v e ) was niJmed NCAA Div; ion II pliJyer of the year (or helping lhe PSU Viking women's volleyball leolm fisht its WolY to ol second 51r..ight niltional chdmpionship in 1985. Selected .s (irst t e ~ m AII-AmeriC.Jns were johnson, (or the fourth time, .00 senior U ~ Couch, lor the S«Ottd lime. {»8e 12 I PSU P e r s p e c t . i v ~ . Winter 1986 The Conlests, which begin at 3 p.m., are organized by PSU student chapters of related professional societies and arc open to students across the metropolitan area. Competition includes a mousetraJrpowered car contest, "Core Wars" computer game competition, model bridge stress contest, and competition between three-bit gray code counters designed by electrical engineering students. Additional information on open house activities and contests is available from the Dean's office, (503) 229-4631. Briefly. .. Faculty changes announced Several PSU faculty members recently assumed new administrative responsibilities. Michael Reardon, history professor and director of the University Honors Program, has been named Interim Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs in addition to his other positions. Bernard Ross. Dean of the Graduate School of Social Work-will assume additional duties as Acting Dean of Graduate Studies and Research. The two newly filled positions were vacated by Jim Heath who continues at PSU as professor of history. linda Parshall, professor of German, will become the Acting Associate Dean of the College of liberal Arts and Sciences in place of Frederick Nunn who is on a year's sabbatical. Nunn's position was previously filled by Reardon in his absence. President re-eleded to commission PSU President Joseph C. Blumel has been re-elected to a three-year term on the Commission of Colleges of the Northwest Association of Schools and Colleges. The Association is one of six regional voluntary accrediting bodies in the Umted States. Summer session wins first place last summer's "Tour the World at Home" lecture series, which featured 28 foreign professors in additIon to PSU's year-round faculty, earned PSU's Summer Session first place in excellence from the Western Association of Summer Sessions. Bateson visits PSU Mary C.1therine Bateson, professor of anthropology at Amhersl College, presented "With an Anthropologist's Eye" on January 22 as a speaker in the Visiting Scholars lecture Series at PSU. Bateson is author of A Daughter's Eye, an autobiographical look at her parents, anthropologists Margaret Mead and Gregory Bateson. Cindy Sprague (left) Tedds tex' vid electrical impulse while Hobbs Center coordinator, Alice McPike, monitors screen. PSU's Grace E. Hobbs Center provides innovative services by Katlin Smith Cindy Sprague sits in a campus building reading a poem. She recites Robert Frost's "Fire and Ice" as she reads. It is a common scene, but an uncommon experience. Though blind, Cindy is reading the poem from a typed sheet of paper. She is using the state-of-the-art equipment of the Grace E. Hobbs Center. Since 1980, the Hobbs Center has provided equipment and training to visually impaired students and community members. Tucked away in a small room in the PSU Special Studies of(ice. the center is equipped with the latest innovations. The center was organized with funds left to PSU by retired Portland school teilcher Grace E. Hobbs. At the suggestion of attorney Jack McCann, Hobbs left a trust fund of nearly S150,000 to establish a resource center for the visually impaired. "The need is there," McCann .,aY!I, "and ii's pretty expensive to supply." The trust pays for equipment and tuition for a student coordinator, presenlly Alice MCPike, a PSU graduate student in \pedal education. In one corner of the center, a synthetic voice read!l aloud the contents of a printed page. Slowly converting print into speech, the Kurzweil Reading Machine projects a phonetically-oriented voice. The $31 ,000 machine "is certainly out of the reach of visually impJ.ired people" because of cost. says Sheldon Maron, center advisor ilOd professor of education. "Few are purchased individually." Printed material can also be read through use of the Oplacon. The machine converts print to tactile reading matter. A scanner reads printed material and translates the printed words into electronic impulses which are read with the tip of the user's index finger. Unlike Braille, the actual shapes of the letters are felt by the reader. "The Optacon will allow access to printed information that in the past has been extremely difficult to get," Maron says. Users need approximately 50 hours of training to read effectively with the scanner. Hobbs Center will continue 10 acquire innovative equipment, according to Maron. "It is continually being updated. We are always attending conferences looking for new equipment," he says. The center's inventory presently includes a closed circuit television system that enlarges reading material to 60 times its original size, Bradlewriters. and "talking book" cao;selle tape players. As she trains on the Optacon, Cindy Sprague continues 10 increase her reading speed as she transl':lIcs impulses into lettcrs and words. " It would help me lx..->eause I wouldn't have to put so much 10 Braille," says Sprague, who is a page receptionist at the Portland International Airport. She plan!> to use the Oplacon to jm.rease job skills including the ability to read messages and files. Hobbs Cenler will also increase educational opportunities for visually impaired students at PSU. "Access" is the key \vord. Maron says. "PSU is making way!l to make edutation more accessible." GET CAMPUS CALENDAR Alumn, 8,' n('I,I .. (Jrd l 1 q - ~ q ~ 8
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