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Friday, 30 May 2008
1. Cal's Haas M.B.A. grads defy economic slowdown
East Bay Business Times
May 30, 2008
A slowing economy notwithstanding, members of the UC-BERKELEY HAAS SCHOOL OF BUSINESS class of 2008 had a 5 percent increase in job opportunities resulting from on-campus interviews this year as compared to 2007, according to preliminary figures released by the school's Career Center.
Starting salaries also increased slightly over last year's median amount of $103,000 a year, according to ABBY SCOTT, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF M.B.A. CAREER SERVICES AT HAAS....
"We're confident that our M.B.A.s are going to get jobs, given the vast HAAS ALUMNI NETWORK and our strong student body," she said in a statement. "The Haas School will continue to assist the students who are looking for jobs, and Career Services has been delighted by the support from alumni." Full Story
2. NASA picks six space mission semifinalists
UPI
May 29, 2008
Washington, May 29 (UPI) -- The U.S. space agency says it has selected six mission proposals for further evaluation as part of its Small Explorer space program.
National Aeronautics and Space Administration officials said the proposals involve exploring the far reaches of the universe, including the Earth's thermosphere and ionosphere, the sun, black holes, the first stars and Earthlike planets around nearby stars.
The space agency is to select two of the proposals next year for full development. NASA said the first mission could launch by 2012 and both will launch by 2015. Mission costs will be capped at $105 million each, excluding the launch vehicle....
Each of the selected proposals will be funded by $750,000 to conduct a six-month implementation feasibility study.
The six proposals were submitted by the Naval Research Laboratory, NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, the Lockheed Martin Space Systems Co., Pennsylvania State University, the UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA-BERKELEY and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Full Story
3. Third party to sort out levee seepage
Engineer, corps cannot agree about problem
The Times-Picayune
May 30, 2008
Water persistently seeping out of the 17th Street Canal near the repaired levee and floodwall indicates serious flaws in the design, not only of that levee section but of much of the multibillion-dollar 100-year hurricane protection for the region, a California engineering expert and outspoken critic of the Army Corps of Engineers has repeatedly charged.
For months, corps engineers have said the water puddling outside the levee near the infamous 17th Street Canal breach does not threaten the levee or repaired floodwalls.
Now, on the eve of the third hurricane season since Katrina, the local levee district wants to know who is right, and it has called in an independent team of engineers to figure it out.
"We've got to get to the bottom of these issues . . . starting with the seepage at the 17th Street Canal," said Southeast Louisiana Flood Protection Authority-East commissioner Tom Jackson of Metairie, a retired civil engineer and a former president of the American Society of Civil Engineers.
"(UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA-BERKELEY CIVIL ENGINEERING PROFESSOR BOB) BEA says one thing, the corps says another and we have an obligation to the public to find out who's right and who's wrong," Jackson said. "If the challenges are valid, the corps needs to address them. And if they're not, they can be dismissed." ...
Bea rests his case against the system on multiple grounds of improper design, dangerous safety margins and flawed assumptions, most of which have been pinpointed by three post-Katrina forensic investigations -- including a Berkeley-based probe that Bea helped co-lead for the National Science Foundation.
But Bea has also opined since late last fall that he has done subsequent analyses using information not previously available. And he says that work proves there are extensive underseepage problems that put many levees and floodwalls at greater risk than previously thought.... Full Story
4. Valued Cal Grants could fall to budget ax
San Francisco Chronicle
May 30, 2008
Sikia Blue had a child right after high school, was periodically homeless and worked dead-end jobs in retail and fast food. She wanted a better life, something more stable, so she enrolled at Contra Costa College to become a social worker. She excelled.
Now the single mother of three plans to transfer to Cal State East Bay in 2009 and eventually earn a master's degree....
California's Cal Grants have given Blue crucial assistance....
But now, the governor has proposed eliminating that portion of the Cal Grant program intended to assist older, nontraditional students who rely on community colleges to improve their prospects. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's move would save $57 million as the state faces a $17.2 billion budget shortfall....
Unless restored to the budget, the proposed cut would eliminate "competitive" Cal Grants for about 25,400 students in the fall. Of those, about 18,500, or 73 percent, would be community college students and the rest from UC, CSU and private colleges.... Full Story
5. University of California averts strike
East Bay Business Times
May 30, 2008
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA SERVICE AND PATIENT-CARE WORKERS won't strike June 4 and 5 as previously announced, according to a joint statement issued Thursday by the university administration and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees.
Instead, the two sides have agreed to follow the recommendation of the State Mediation and Conciliation Service and return to the bargaining table to continue talks on new labor contracts for the more than 20,000 UC workers AFSCME represents....
The strike would have hit medical centers at UCSF, UC Davis, UCLA, UC Irvine and UC San Diego, as well as all 10 UC campuses: BERKELEY, San Francisco, Santa Cruz, Davis, Merced, Irvine, Santa Barbara, Los Angeles, Riverside and San Diego. The union also represents workers at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.... Full Story
6. Harvard, Yale Boost Engineering in Race With China
Bloomberg
May 30, 2008
(Bloomberg) -- Harvard and Yale are boosting their engineering programs because of increased demand and competition from China, where more engineering degrees are awarded each year than in the U.S....
None of Harvard's or Yale's graduate programs placed in the top 10 schools in mechanical, chemical, electrical or biomedical engineering, according to the latest annual U.S. News and World Report survey of engineering department heads.
In biomedical engineering, the magazine's No. 1 school was Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. The California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge and the UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY, tied at the top of the chemical group.... Full Story
7. A new surge in gas prices
KGO TV
May 29, 2008
San Francisco (KGO) -- You've probably noticed a sudden and dramatic rise in gasoline prices: 15 to 20 cents -- just since Memorial Day weekend....
Up, up and away go gas prices. And yet the price of a barrel of oil came down $4? So what is the relationship between the price of oil and the price at the pump?
UC BERKELEY ENERGY EXPERT DAN KAMMEN says there is a relationship, but it's not a direct one.
"The gas prices you see today reflect something that happened a little bit in the past. They reflect what was the price when that barrel was bought and then refined at the local refinery," said Kammen....
Kammen says the price of oil has in no way peaked, and there's no end in sight.
"People who are buying raw petroleum, raw crude on the market right now see increasing demand in the future, and a US government that's doing nothing to diversify our supply in a significant way, so the forecast is up and up and up," said Kammen....
[Link to video] Full Story
8. The Energy Challenge: Mounting Costs Slow the Push for Clean Coal
New York Times (*requires registration)
May 30, 2008
Washington — For years, scientists have had a straightforward idea for taming global warming. They want to take the carbon dioxide that spews from coal-burning power plants and pump it back into the ground.
President Bush is for it, and indeed has spent years talking up the virtues of “clean coal.” All three candidates to succeed him favor the approach. So do many other members of Congress. Coal companies are for it. Many environmentalists favor it. Utility executives are practically begging for the technology.
But it has become clear in recent months that the nation’s effort to develop the technique is lagging badly....
“It’s a total mess,” said DANIEL M. KAMMEN, DIRECTOR OF THE RENEWABLE AND APPROPRIATE ENERGY LABORATORY AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY.... Full Story
9. Op-Ed: International Quality Control Is No Easy Task
Chronicle of Higher Education (*requires registration)
May 5, 2008
In early March, the European Quality Assurance Register for Higher Education was established under what is called the Bologna Process. The 46 countries involved in the process seek to improve the quality and assessment of higher education throughout Europe, thus facilitating students' mobility among institutions and countries and enhancing international use of courses and degrees from the participating countries. The new register creates a screening process that European colleges can apply to go through.
The register is a good idea, but its administrators will have to grapple with the same underlying reality that U.S. states struggle with: Some governments have good standards for higher-education oversight, and some don't. A few American states have such low standards that a degree from all but the best private colleges within their borders is automatically met with suspicion by anyone knowledgeable about accreditation....
We now have Stanford University, the UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT BERKELEY, and the University of Texas at Austin planning to operate a joint program with a new institution in Saudi Arabia ("Despite Doubts, 3 Prominent Universities Sign Deals With a Saudi University," The Chronicle, March 14), and the University of Arizona hoping to operate what amounts to a brand-new, full-scale university in China. It is all but impossible for a university to maintain meaningful academic oversight at such a distance; some senior staff members need to be permanently assigned to the foreign campus. I have grave doubts about the ability of even the best institutions to do that consistently, and without meaningful third-party oversight by an accreditor or government, where does quality control come from?...
[Link by subscription only] Full Story
10. Introductory Science Moves Beyond 'Rocks for Jocks'
Courses for nonmajors get increased attention
Chronicle of Higher Education (*requires registration)
May 30, 2008
Four hundred years have passed since Galileo helped prove that the Earth orbits the Sun once a year. But today more than one-third of adult Americans do not know this basic science concept....
But behind those disturbing numbers lie another, more encouraging, set of poll results intimately tied to the college curriculum. Americans' overall score in science literacy ranks second in the world among developed nations, behind only Sweden....
Another cause for optimism is that problems like global climate change and the need for renewable energy have made it easier for instructors to interest nonmajors in science courses and package them as relevant and even (gasp) fun, educators report. The reputation of science as boring and only for nerds is beginning to change.
This can be seen at the UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT BERKELEY, where the PHYSICIST RICHARD A. MULLER started a course in 2000 called "Physics for Future Presidents." Students this year voted the class the best on the campus, and videos of Mr. Muller's lectures are the most popular Berkeley offerings on YouTube....
[Link by subscription only] Full Story
11. URS unit to lead cleanup of 53 million gallons of radioactive waste at Hanford
San Francisco Business Times
May 30, 2008
The Washington division of URS Corp. will lead a team cleaning up some 53 million gallons of radioactive waste in 177 underground tanks at the Hanford Site in southeastern Washington....
The Hanford Site, near the Columbia River, was used by the U.S. government to make plutonium and store nuclear waste starting in 1943, when it was created as part of the Manhattan Project -- the program that developed the world's first atomic bombs....
"There's a lot of uncertainty -- there's an earthquake fault line and the Columbia River is shifting and the State of Washington wants it cleaned up right now," said WILLIAM IBBS, an engineer who has done work at the site.
The project requires engineering ingenuity on a huge scale, said IBBS, WHO IS ALSO A PROFESSOR WHO TEACHES PROJECT MANAGEMENT AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY....
"They'll pump out the tanks, which contain all sorts of material, some of which is fluid and some granular, crystalline like salt," said Ibbs. "It's got all sorts of radiation levels."... Full Story
12. Shipping Costs Scupper Online Buys
Financial Post [Canada]
May 30, 2008
A survey conducted by PayPal Inc. and comScore Inc. suggests unexpectedly high shipping fees are the top reason consumers abandon online purchases before the checkout. Two of three consumers fail to pay for items they put in their shopping carts on online shopping sites: instead, they abandon the transactions. The survey found 43% of consumers didn't pay because shipping charges were too high; 36% felt the total cost of the purchase was more expensive; and 16% didn't pay because they could not contact customer support. "The survey shows that consumers are quick to walk away from online purchases when merchants don't fully disclose critical information related to cost," said ARTURO PEREZ-REYES, PROFESSOR OF E-COMMERCE AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY. Full Story
13. Column One: Berkeley event to honor missing scientist Jim Gray
The database genius disappeared in the San Francisco Bay last year, prompting a sophisticated search-and-rescue effort.
Los Angeles Times
May 30, 2008
San Francisco — The daylong event honoring the computer-science whiz who helped create automated teller machines will be part celebration, part science fair....
The commemoration of JIM GRAY's life on Saturday is billed as a "tribute," as if the 6-foot-3 Microsoft Corp. researcher might stroll right into UC BERKELEY'S WHEELER HALL for the kind of academic symposium he loved to attend, where experts come together to solve a problem.
In this case, though, the hundreds of technologists and Silicon Valley executives who are expected will have to confront the one puzzle they couldn't crack: What happened to Jim Gray?
This is known: On Jan. 28, 2007, a clear, calm Sunday, the world-renowned scientist set out across the San Francisco Bay toward the Golden Gate Bridge on his 40-foot red sailboat named Tenacious to scatter his mother's ashes. He never returned.
...The family chose UC BERKELEY because GRAY COMPLETED HIS UNDERGRADUATE AND PHD STUDIES THERE....
Throughout the day, there will be talks on Gray's contributions to technology, to his colleagues and to the physical sciences. One talk is billed "Scalability and Immortality." Another is on "Building the World Wide Telescope," a look at the role Gray played in building Microsoft's recently launched software program that turns Windows computers into a virtual observatory of space....
The following day, those who searched for Gray will hold a colloquium with the Coast Guard to discuss how technology could better help in search and rescue, and whether a dedicated nonprofit organization could help....
"Jim was trying to make technology more accessible," SAID JOSEPH HELLERSTEIN, A UC BERKELEY COMPUTER SCIENCE PROFESSOR. "He saw data access as a leveler. That's the spirit of this meeting: How do we make this kind of search possible for people who don't have access to the same resources?"... Full Story
14. Longer Days and Shorter Weeks as Colleges Cope With Soaring Energy Costs
Chronicle of Higher Education (*requires registration)
May 30, 2008
Nestled in a valley in the Appalachian Mountains, Western Carolina University doesn't offer the most stressful of commutes. But in the coming year, the Cullowhee, N.C., university hopes to provide a regional shuttle service and an online carpool program so students and employees can share rides with commuters from four other colleges nearby.
This summer Western Carolina is also letting employees work four 10-hour days instead of five eight-hour days, an enticing option as gasoline prices inch toward $4 a gallon. And the plan will cut the institution's lighting and air-conditioning costs....
Going to a four-day workweek is not the only way to use energy more efficiently. The UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT BERKELEY'S RECREATIONAL-SPORT DEPARTMENT has cut energy costs by eliminating the custodial late-night shift. By turning off all the lights at 1 a.m., the department saves nearly a month's worth of electricity each year.
The exercise equipment may need an extra swipe with cleaning wipes by the morning crew, but there will be a smaller carbon footprint left behind. Full Story