Local teens to learn video game creation at University of Alabama weekend workshop
Al.com – Jan. 8
Local teens will get a chance to create their very own video game at a weekend workshop, the first in a series hosted by the Alabama Museum of Natural History’s GeoTech Lab at The University of Alabama. The lab is hosting free Saturday workshops for 8th-12th graders, kicking off the program Jan. 11 with tutorials on GameMaker, a program used to create games. Lab mentors will help teens create a video game of their own by the end of two-hour program. According to a UA press release, the lab is a partnership with the UA department of geography and the museum, intended to give students technology and resources they might not normally have access to.
Tuscaloosa News – Jan. 9
Leaders for Tomorrow scholarship awards worthy students
Crimson White – Jan. 9
When the recession hit, Steven Tice and his family thought they would not be heavily affected. But after a few months, businesses, including the one Tice’s dad worked for, began to feel the ripple effects. Tice’s dad lost his job, and within a month, his mom had been told her hours at work were being cut. During that month, Tice and his family went from living a fairly comfortable life to applying for government aid. Tice, still in high school at the time, picked up more hours at work to help out his family, and the money set aside for his college fund had to be used for bills and food. He was responsible for paying for his own education. “I was in complete panic mode,” Tice said. “I was going to have to take out tons of loans and would be graduating with a mountain of debt.” The summer before Tice entered The University of Alabama, he found out he was one of three students selected for the Annexstad Leaders for Tomorrow Scholarship Program. The program, offered at only 22 campuses across the country, is in its inaugural year at the University. “I definitely felt blessed,” Tice, a freshman majoring in marketing and advertising, said. The Annexstad Family Foundation’s Leaders for Tomorrow Scholarship Program seeks to award students who have overcome adversity and proven leadership qualities, Kady Johnson, program administrator for the foundation, said … The scholarship program will provide the selected students $25,000 in scholarship funding, which will be payable for the duration of four years. The University of Alabama will join other schools, including Harvard, Vanderbilt and Stanford, who participate in the Leaders for Tomorrow program.
IceCube project receives breakthrough award
Crimson White – Jan. 9
The IceCube project, a research project collaboration between several scientists, including professors in the University of Alabama physics department, was awarded the “Breakthrough of the Year” award for 2013 by the magazine, Physics World. IceCube is a multi-purpose neutrino detector that is being used for several research purposes, including detecting exotic cosmic point sources that emit high-energy neutrinos. Though physicists have been trying to detect cosmic neutrinos for many decades, IceCube is the first neutrino telescope system with that aim; it has observed high-energy neutrinos from outside of our solar system within two to three years of its full operation. “This is the first time extremely high energy neutrinos have been detected outside of our solar system,” Dawn Williams, an associate professor of physics at the University, said. “We’ve seen neutrinos outside of our solar system once before, but those were lower energy from a supernova. These are much higher energy neutrinos. These are the highest energy neutrinos that have ever been seen.”
The Face takes Manhattan; Jack Blankenship scores internship with Jimmy Fallon show (podcast)
Al.com – Jan. 8
Folks at the Alabama-Vanderbilt basketball game in Coleman Coliseum Tuesday night might have wondered about the absence of a certain member of the student section. Sadly, fans will have to do without The Face this season, as University of Alabama junior Jack Blankenship is skipping the season in favor of an opportunity to intern at “Late Night with Jimmy Fallon” and soon “The Tonight Show” this spring semester. In 2012, Blankenship almost instantaneously became a sports fandom icon, doing countless interviews for major television networks and websites and even hitting the late night circuit. Blankenship went on to appear on NBC’s “Today” and has made several appearances on ESPN. He even got NBC’s Al Roker to sport his own version of The Face. Talk show comedians like Conan O’Brien were working jokes about “The Face” into their opening monologues. Reader’s Digest even featured Blankenship in its “Laughterpedia” issue. The Los Angeles-based viral comedy video site FunnyOrDie.com brought him out for a shoot.
Death by black hole in small galaxy?
Phys.org – Jan. 8
A bright, long-duration flare may be the first recorded event of a black hole destroying a star in a dwarf galaxy. The evidence comes from two independent studies using data from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and other telescopes. As part of an ongoing search of Chandra’s archival data for events signaling the disruption of starts by massive black holes, astronomers found a prime candidate. Beginning in 1999, an unusually bright X-ray source had appeared in a dwarf galaxy and then faded until it was no longer detected after 2005. “We can’t see the star being torn apart by the black hole,” Peter Maksym of the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, AL, who led one of the studies, “but we can track what happens to the star’s remains, and compare it with other, similar events. This one fits the profile of ‘death by a black hole.’”
Red Orbit – Jan. 9
UA’s Sarah Moody Gallery to present ‘Morgan Collection’ pieces at Dinah Washington Cultural Arts Center
Al.com – Jan. 9
The University of Alabama Sarah Moody Gallery of Art will present “The Morgan Collection — Selections,” a part of the gallery’s permanent collection. The exhibit will be produced for The University Art Gallery at the Dinah Washington Cultural Arts Center and will be open Jan. 16 through March 7, 2014. A public reception honoring members of the Morgan family will take place Wednesday, Jan. 29 at 5:30-7:30 p.m. Alabama natives and UA alumni Jim and Myra Morgan founded the Morgan Gallery in Kansas City in 1969. They celebrated visual arts of the Midwest and brought artists from across the country to a growing audience of both corporate and private collectors, according to UA.
Classes resume at UA
WVUA (Tuscaloosa) – Jan. 8
You may have noticed more traffic on the roads today. That’s because school is back in session. The University of Alabama and Shelton State students returned to town this week. Today marked the first day of classes for both colleges. More than 30,000 students returned back to school for the spring semester.
Fraternity puts on clothing drive in ‘very cold winter’
Crimson White – Jan. 9
With temperatures dropping, students at The University of Alabama with spare winter clothing can donate their apparel to those in need through Phi Beta Sigma’s winter coat drive. “This clothing drive is to give individuals on UA’s campus an opportunity to donate clothing such as scarves, hats, coats, earmuffs, gloves, etc. to give to the homeless during this very cold winter season because it’s obviously colder this year than it was last year,” said Varrecke Johnson, president of the Theta Delta Chapter of Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity Inc. Members of the fraternity will be present at the Ferguson Center food court from noon to 4 p.m. Friday to receive any warm clothing that students and faculty are willing to donate.
Book Arts program exhibit explores patterns
Crimson White – Jan. 9
In the modern age of e-books and publishing conglomerates, the craft of hand producing a book may seem like a lost art. At The University of Alabama, though, graduate students are keeping the tradition alive through the MFA Book Arts program, which hosts its annual exhibition in Gorgas Library this month. “Recently, we’ve seen an explosion in [the] craft in America,” Steve Miller, coordinator of the MFA Book Arts program, said. “People don’t just want to be sitting in front of computers. They need to make something that is real. The craft roots you in your hands, in the materials and the process.” The MFA Books Arts program at The University of Alabama is one of the only graduate-level courses in the nation, and was the first to be established Miller said. The course allows graduate students from a variety of academic disciplines to explore bookmaking from concept to production. Students in the program learn a variety of craft skills including bookbinding, letterpress printing and hand papermaking.
Kinesiology encourages practical lifestyle choices
Crimson White – Jan. 9
The department of kinesiology keeps students active by offering a variety of activity classes to work into their course load. Kinesiology is a wide field that ranges from sport pedagogy, which trains physical education teachers, to sport management on the administrative side, to exercise science, which entails the science behind athletics. As a professor of exercise science, Phillip Bishop’s advice regarding fitness is not about the magic fitness plan, but developing a fitness lifestyle. “Active is more than going to the gym and sweating,” Bishop said. “If you can’t keep it up, don’t do it. Do what you can do for the rest of your life.” … By taking classes offered by the kinesiology department, physical activity becomes mandatory. With a variety of options, the classes offer a way to get involved and learn more about an activity. Matthew Curtner-Smith, the kinesiology department head, instructs a running class where he teaches the skills and aspects necessary to running, such as where to buy shoes, how to sign up for races or how to join running clubs. “Sports and physical activities are a wonderful, human thing to do,” Curtner-Smith said. “It’s a complex in which you can grow personally in many ways.”
University of Alabama announces winter graduates
Hartselle Enquirer – Jan. 8
The University of Alabama awarded some 2,150 degrees during winter commencement exercises on Sat., Dec. 14, on campus. With this graduating class, UA will have awarded more than 234,000 degrees since its founding in 1831 as the state’s first public university. Students listed as candidates to receive degrees include …