Three University of Alabama-related companies in Launchpad competition
Tuscaloosa News – June 14
Three start-up companies affiliated with the University of Alabama are among the 10 start-up companies from across the state that were selected this week to compete in the second 2013 Alabama Launchpad Start-Up Competition. Twenty-seven start-ups applied for the competition and a five-judge panel chose the 10 after reviewing submitted applications. The 10 teams now will compete for up to $100,000 in award money that will be used to further develop their company. Alabama Launchpad is in its seventh year. Its purpose is to help innovative ventures that have the potential to create and keep jobs in Alabama grow into businesses in the state.The UA-affiliated companies in the competition are: – Bidsters: An online interactive database in which construction industry businesses can display their information to get connected with others in the industry and communicate with them all in one place. Its team leader is Ben Bickerstaff and the company is based in Tuscaloosa. – e-Electricity: A telecommunications company that is developing wireless harvesting, allowing for mobile devices to recharge wirelessly, without the need to plug-in to a power outlet, which it said is a tremendous advantage for individuals who are always “on the go” or traveling. Its team leader is Sloan McCrary and the company is based in Tuscaloosa. – Surface Integrity LLC: A medical devices and equipment research and development company that develops custom surfaces for a wide variety of industries and applications, including controlling the surface of degradable metal implants by surface treatments. Its team leader is Michael Sealy and the company is based in Hoover.
University of Alabama class gives students hands-on experience with gardening, local food movement
Al.com – June 13
When you try to track down University of Alabama professor Margaret Purcell during the summer, you won’t find her holding regular office hours on UA’s campus. Instead, she’s harvesting, weeding and upkeeping the land on her and her husband’s farm in Coker, Ala. And what started out as a home garden has now blossomed into a local business and a class offered through the University’s New College LifeTrack, a distance education program. Purcell, a political scientist by training, developed the curriculum as a one-time class last summer focused around the local food movement. The class was so popular, Purcell is teaching it again this summer. “I’m really interested in group behaviors and why some things become movements and why some things never really take off,” Purcell said. “We thought it would be a one time class, but I think we are having more and more people interested in locally produced products and food.”
University of Alabama holding summer workshops for students
CBS 42 (Birmingham) – June 14
Unique summer workshops are keeping Alabama’s gifted students sharp. For the past 35 years, the University of Alabama’s College of Education has hosted the three-week Summer Enrichment Workshops. This year, the workshops have gotten more challenging. Each workshop is adapting to the nationally-trending STEM and STEAM education models. The program is designed for kindergarten through eighth grade students. Topics range from crime scene investigation to recreating the causes of the Titanic disaster.
About 75 local students in UA summer program
Gadsden Times – June 13
More than 75 Tuscaloosa city and county high school students have been accepted into this year’s CollegeFirst program at the University of Alabama. CollegeFirst is a three-week summer enrichment program that prepares upcoming juniors and seniors to take Advanced Placement classes — college-level courses — at their schools. The program was created by the UA Center for Ethics and Social Responsibility. “Research has shown that students who take AP classes in high school are much more successful in college,” said Sarah Louise Smith, program coordinator for the UA Center for Ethics and Social Responsibility. “AP can also help with the achievement gaps between different ethnicities. African-American and Hispanic students who take AP classes outperform their peers in college who don’t take AP classes. “It’s also important because of summer slide,” she said. “Getting students involved in academic programs helps them mitigate the academic loss they would otherwise experience during the summer.”
WVUA (Tuscaloosa) – June 13
WHNT-CBS (Huntsville) – June 13
Despite excessive heat, volunteers from Alabama’s Boys State 2013 revitalize Tuscaloosa park
Al.com – June 14
The 560 rising high school seniors from all parts of Alabama taking part in the American Legion’s 2013 Boys State Conference braved heat indices of more than 100 degrees this week to revitalize Palmore Park in west Tuscaloosa as part of their community service work during the weeklong leadership conference hosted annually at the University of Alabama. The boys threw the first loads of dirt into the abandoned Olympic-sized swimming pool at the park, beginning the long process of filling the pool, paving over it and turning the area into a “sprayground,” a small water park for children. Gary Minor, the executive director of Tuscaloosa’s Park and Recreation Authority, said the pool had not seen use in almost a decade because of a broken chlorine filter that was too expensive to repair at the time it stopped working and was ultimately forgotten. The area will now be revived as the splash park, which Minor said should be completed and ready for use this fall. Other projects for the young men included painting the curbs and picnic tables of the park, landscaping the area, installing safety fiber into its playgrounds so that children who fall are not badly hurt, and renewing the flowers in the bulb garden at the entrance of the park.
State automotive industry seminar to cover topics for all manufacturers
Al.com – June 14
The Alabama Automotive Manufacturers Association will hold a seminar next week in Tuscaloosa that will cover state resources available for all manufacturers to help grow their business, not just those who make vehicles. The seminar will be held Thursday from 8:15 a.m. to 3:45 p.m. at the Bryant Conference Center at 240 Paul W. Bryant Drive…Speakers will be Alabama Community College Chancellor Mark Heinrich; Bill Visnic of Edmunds.com; Auburn University’s Business College Dean Bill Hardgrave; Ed Castile, executive director of the Alabama Industrial Development Training (AIDT) program; and Bharat Balasubramanian, executive director of the Center for Advanced Vehicle Technologies.
LOCAL Q&A: Seth Panitch
Tuscaloosa News –June 14
Seth Panitch, in addition to teaching, directing and acting at the University of Alabama, has extensive professional credits as a writer, director and actor from New York to Los Angeles to Havana, Cuba. His play, “Alcestis Ascending,” featuring a mix of Cuban and American professional actors, will travel from a July 1-5 Tuscaloosa run to an off-off Broadway stint July 9-21 at the Harold Clurman Theatre on Theatre Row, after which it will move to Havana for two weeks, to celebrate the grand opening of the Raquel Revuelta Theatre.
Alabama Voices – Fredrick E. Fars: Civil rights era in Alabama also brought new era in mental health care
Montgomery Advertiser – June 13
Fifty years ago this week, Vivian Malone Jones and James Hood, backed by threat of force from a federalized National Guard, walked through the doors of Foster Auditorium and became the first African-American students to register at the University of Alabama. Gov. George Wallace’s infamous stand in the schoolhouse door had failed. At that moment, less than a mile away, about 5,000 people were locked behind another door. Bryce Hospital was one of the oldest and largest state-run inpatient psychiatric facilities in the country. One journalist described it as a “hellhole.” Photos showed patients strapped to rocking chairs. There were only three psychiatrists — one for every 1,700 patients. State expenditures per patient were at or near the lowest in the country. The struggles and successes of patients at Bryce are far less well-known than the events across town, but connected to them in deeply important ways…Fredrick Vars is a professor at the University of Alabama School of Law, where he teaches and writes about mental health law.