COLLEGE NEWS
- Convocation canceled; honorees recognized in fall
- Feb. 21 breakfast for college FFA students
- Register for successful grantsmanship workshop
- Spanish/Latin American culture class offered
- In-country coordinator sought for Ukraine
- Growing percentage of female ag undergrads
- Sustainable agriculture seminar series
- Deadlines & Reminders
COMMUNICATIONS KIOSK
- Transformation of the Web coming
INFOGRAZING
- Problem solvers taking cues from nature
EXTERNAL VOICES
- Reach the high-water mark each day
MARGINALIA
- Something fishy
C O L L E G E N E W S
CONVOCATION CANCELED; HONOREES RECOGNIZED IN FALL
The College of Agriculture spring convocation, which was canceled
last month due to a snowstorm, will not be rescheduled. Awards
that would have been announced at the convocation will be presented
during an Ag Cabinet meeting. Recognition of others who received
awards or honors during the year will be made at the fall convocation.
FEB. 21 BREAKFAST FOR COLLEGE FFA STUDENTS
National FFA Week is Feb. 17-24. To recognize the College of Agriculture's
FFA students, faculty and staff are invited to the FFA Breakfast
at 7:30 a.m., Wednesday, Feb. 21, second floor of Curtiss Hall.
REGISTER FOR SUCCESSFUL GRANTSMANSHIP WORKSHOP
Register by Feb. 21 for the "From Theory to Measurement:
Hypothesis Development and Research Design" workshop, scheduled
for Feb. 26, 7-9 p.m. in the Campanile Room, Memorial Union. Space
is limited. To register, contact Carla Persaud (cpersaud@iastate.edu
or 4-9376) or Kathy Kuehl (kkuehl@iastate.edu or 4-1242). The
workshop is part of the Successful Grantsmanship Series sponsored
by the Iowa Agriculture and Home Economics Experiment Station
and the College of Veterinary Medicine.
SPANISH/LATIN AMERICAN CULTURE CLASS OFFERED
ISU's colleges of agriculture and veterinary medicine and the
Institute for International Cooperation on Animal Biologics are
offering a Spanish language and Latin American culture class for
their faculty and staff. The beginning-level class will be held
4:30-6 p.m. every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, March 19 -
May 9, at the College of Veterinary Medicine. For an application
and more information, contact Mary de Baca, 4-1851 or mmdb@iastate.edu.
Application deadline is Feb. 29.
IN-COUNTRY COORDINATOR SOUGHT FOR UKRAINE
International Agriculture Programs is seeking a graduate student
or faculty member to be the in-country coordinator for the ISU/National
Agriculture University of Ukraine Linkage Project in Ukraine.
The position will run 3-6 months. For more information, contact
Mary de Baca, 4-1851.
GROWING PERCENTAGE OF FEMALE AG UNDERGRADS
Of the College of Agriculture undergraduates enrolled last fall,
36 percent were women -- 963 of 2,654. (For all of ISU, 43 percent
were women.) Ten years ago, women made up about 19 percent of
college undergrads. Since 1988 there has been a cumulative increase
of 759 undergraduates in the college; 542 of them have been women,
according to Agriculture Student Services.
SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE SEMINAR SERIES
The College of Agriculture and the Leopold Center for Sustainable
Agriculture are presenting a semester-long seminar series on Iowa's
role in food production in the year 2020. See "Deadlines
& Reminders" for upcoming topics. For more information,
contact Jim Russell, 4-4631.
DEADLINES & REMINDERS
Feb. 15: National Food Production Concerns: Stable Food and Stable
Agriculture - Dennis Keeney, Leopold Center, 4:10 p.m., 2050 Agronomy
(sustainable agriculture seminar)
Feb. 21: FFA Breakfast, second floor, Curtiss Hall, 7:30 a.m.
Feb. 22: What Does the Iowa Public Want from the State's Agricultural
Industries in 2020? - Paul Lasley, sociology, 4:10 p.m., 2050
Agronomy (sustainable agriculture seminar)
Feb. 26: From Theory to Measurement: Hypothesis Development and
Experimental Design, a Successful Grantsmanship workshop, 7-9
p.m., Campanile Room
C O M M U N I C A T I O N S K I O S K
TRANSFORMATION OF THE WEB COMING
Futurist Paul Saffo predicts the transformation of the Web in
the next 12 months: "The Web as we know it today is dead.
It's dead in two ways: because it's going to mutate into something
else very quickly and be unrecognizable within 12 months, and
secondly, it's dead because all it's got on it is dead information
. . . Sure, there are links, but the links just lead to more dead
information. It's a big information mausoleum . . . If you think
about it, it's really quite bizarre. You dial into a Web page.
There may be a thousand other people at that page. But the only
way you even know anyone else is there is that the server is slow.
The next big change is going to be finding ways to put qualities
that we associate with MUDs (interactive computer games) today
into Web pages so that you can interact with people." (Upside,
February)
I N F O G R A Z I N G
PROBLEM SOLVERS TAKING CUES FROM NATURE
Scientists are looking to nature-based models for new ideas on
problem-solving. An example: most computer virus detection programs
do their virus-scouting by checking against a database of known
viruses, but new viruses are being created all the time. A University
of New Mexico computer scientist decided to take a lesson from
the human immune system, which uses a process to develop T-cells
that are highly sensitive to foreign cells invading the system.
The computer program does the same thing, resulting in strings
of computer code that are ultra-vigilant against the introduction
of "foreign" code. When the software encounters something
unfamiliar, a window pops up on the screen that says, "A
change has been detected." The software then identifies the
file where the suspected virus is located. "I really believe
that our computer systems are so complicated, we can't use them
effectively till we make them look more like biological systems,"
says the program's creator. (Wall Street Journal, Jan. 16)
E X T E R N A L V O I C E S
REACH THE HIGH-WATER MARK EACH DAY
"I believe that any man's life will be filled with constant
and unexpected encouragements if he makes up his mind to do his
level best each day of his life; that is, if he tries to make
each day reach as nearly as possible the high-water mark of pure,
unselfish, useful living." Booker T. Washington. (From the
winter issue of the USDA's Office of Small-Scale Agriculture newsletter.)
M A R G I N A L I A
SOMETHING FISHY
A new mind-soothing concept from Japan: laser disc images of goldfish
that glide around a high-definition screen, while a thin water
tank and air pump attached to the front and sides of the monitor
provide the illusion of reality. NEC will market the system to
hotels, hospitals and other facilities. (Popular Science, January)