Alabama Board of Trustees approves new 34,000 square-foot athletic training facility
Al.com – Aug. 1
The Executive Committee of Alabama’s Board of Trustees unanimously approved the immediate construction of a new, 34,495-square foot, two-story strength and conditioning facility Wednesday during a conference call.
Situated between the Hank Crisp Indoor Practice Facility and the Mal M. Moore Athletic Facility — buildings that it will inevitably connect — the latest addition to Alabama athletics’ expanding footprint on the Tuscaloosa campus is expected to be ready by January 2013.
WAKA-CBS (Montgomery) – Aug. 1
UA engineering students: Design contest was rewarding
Tuscaloosa News – Aug. 2
They may not have won the competition, but the opportunity to compete as a finalist was a prize in itself for five University of Alabama senior electrical engineering students. Selected as one of 12 finalists in the Texas Instruments Analog Design Contest, the team returned Wednesday from Dallas, where the students competed for a $10,000 prize in the national Engibous Summit. “I was ecstatic,” said 23-year-old Madison resident Kenneth Spradling. “I was blown away that we made it to the finals. And Texas Instruments paid for everything. Just making it there was amazing.” The team’s senior project, a wheelchair seat cushion monitoring system, was designed to prevent patients in wheelchairs from developing pressure sores. According to the team’s report, pressure ulcers are injuries to the skin resulting from prolonged pressure on the skin and that those who use wheelchairs are particularly susceptible. While patients often use inflatable cushions to help prevent ulcers, the cushions lose pressure and become ineffective over time. Working with researchers at the Spain Rehabilitation Center at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, the team worked to create a low-cost device that was always on and could last for a year on a single battery. “It was a fascinating idea,” Spradling said.
UA’s Plank Center Recognizes Public Relations Mentors
TMCnet.com – Aug. 2
The University of Alabama issued the following news release: The University of Alabama’s Plank Center for Leadership in Public Relations will honor six outstanding mentors at its third Honoring Milestones in Mentoring Awards Banquet at the Union League Club of Chicago Thursday, Nov. 1.The following honorees were selected in six categories by their peers: Legacy: Steve Harris, former VP, global communications, General Motors Executive: Jon Iwata, senior VP, marketing & communications, IBM Corporate: Nick Ashooh, global VP, corporate affairs, Alcoa Agency: Margery Kraus, founder and CEO, APCO Worldwide Educator: Dr. Elizabeth Toth, professor and chair, department of communication, University of Maryland Young Professional: Ryan McShane, account executive, Taylor “Mentoring is an essential component of a successful career in public relations, and each of these six individuals has inspired so many during their extraordinary careers,” said Ron Culp, director of the graduate PR and advertising program at DePaul University and vice chair of the Plank Center. The Honoring Milestones in Mentoring Awards Banquet will include a reception, dinner and awards ceremony. Proceeds will be used to support research, national awards and service programs to advance the understanding and practice of ethical and responsible public relations. A registration form can be downloaded at www.plankcenter.ua.edu.
George A. Miller dies at 92; psychologist helped lead cognitive science revolution
Washington Post – Aug. 2
George A. Miller, an iconoclastic scholar who helped topple the behaviorist school of psychology and replace it with cognitive science, a shift that amounted to no less than a revolution in the study of the human mind, died July 22 at his home in Plainsboro, N.J. He was 92. The death was announced by Princeton University, where he was a professor emeritus…Dr. Miller came to prominence in the mid-1950s at Harvard University, where he and colleague Jerome Bruner founded an intellectual hothouse known as the Center for Cognitive Studies. There, Dr. Miller established his reputation as one of the leading psychologists of the late 20th century. In 1991, President George H.W. Bush awarded Dr. Miller the National Medal of Science. Before Dr. Miller, Bruner and Noam Chomsky came on the scene, the field of psychology was dominated by behaviorists such as B.F. Skinner. Behaviorist theories — long regarded as dogma — basically posited that people act in accordance with rewards and punishments. Cognitive processes such as thought and memory could not be directly observed, Skinner argued, and therefore did not merit scientific inquiry … George Armitage Miller was born Feb. 3, 1920, in Charleston, W.Va. He received a bachelor’s degree in history and speech in 1940 and a master’s degree in speech in 1941, both from the University of Alabama.
New York Times – Aug. 2