22nd Annual Concrete Canoe Competition draws hundreds of civil engineering students to Alabama
AmerSurv.com – June 9
…hundreds of civil engineering students are now paddling to Tuscaloosa, Ala. for the American Society of Civil Engineers’ (ASCE) 22nd Annual National Concrete Canoe Competition. The event, now entering its third decade, is being hosted by the University of Alabama…
WVUA (Tuscaloosa) – June 8
Alabama State Troopers Begin Using E-Crash
CBS42 (Birmingham) – June 8
…”E-Crash was funded by the University of Alabama through ADECA, and the federal government.
Engineering cleaner water
Shelby County Reporter — June 8
As Billy Clark finished up his junior year at the University of Alabama, the Pelham native began packing bags for a trip to South Asia with the program Engineers Without Borders. “I had always wanted to travel to Asia anyway,” Clark said. “This was a way for me to do that and make a difference for the actual people living there. We weren’t just visiting tourist sites.” A team of 12 students and professors spent May 10-30 in Vietnam and Cambodia working on a clean water initiative by assessing the drinking water quality of households and local villages…Although the students remained busy during their trip, they also kept up a blog keeping family and friends up-to-date on their work. You can read that blog at Uanews.ua.edu/blogs/ewb.
Opinion: Search of Mabila goes on despite doubts
Tuscaloosa News – June 9
Mabila, the site of a decisive battle between Spanish conquistador Hernando de Soto and Native Americans led by Chief Tascalusa (or Tuskaloosa, or Tasclauza, depending on translation) has long been the holy grail of Southern archaeology, and if a new University of Alabama Press book on the subject is to be believed, it is likely to remain so for some time…UA history professor Lawrence Clayton argues that Mabila represents a key battle in the overall struggle for human rights, because without Mabila and other atrocities committed by the Spanish, the reforms signed into law later in the 1540s restricting conquistadors would not have been codified. As part of the long historical movement for human rights, Mabila needs a place for remembrance, Clayton wrote in the new UA Press book…But that does not mean the search will not go on, as Jim Knight, another UA professor who edited the new book, makes clear. For Knight, the aim of the book is to collect all knowledge into one volume for the next generation of historical sleuths…
Endangered darters struggling to rebound
Birmingham News – June 9
…Scientists from the University of Alabama found half as many darters this spring as in past years in the pond, which was drained last fall after a Birmingham recreation center supervisor ordered the destruction of a dam. The low population was not a surprise, said Bernie Kuhajda, research biologist at the University of Alabama and one of the state’s top fish experts. About half the fish died last September and their grassy underwater habitat dried out.
Nanotech in the South
AreaDevelopment.com – June 9
…The University of Alabama’s Center for Materials for Information Technology is focusing on nanotech R&D for data storage technologies.