University of Alabama MIS program ranked fourth among public universities, eighth overall
Al.com – July 11
Bloomberg Businessweek has ranked the University of Alabama Management Information Systems program fourth among public schools and eighth overall. The program, part of the Culverhouse College of Commerce, produces highly sought-after graduates, with more than 98 percent of its graduates finding jobs before graduation for the last decade. According to a UA press release, 2013 graduates’ average starting salary was nearly $60,000. MIS programs are designed to teach students how to utilize software and information technology in business organization. UA MIS is sponsored by several Fortune 500 companies, according to the release, consulting firms and business start-ups. MIS seniors work with program partners on projects like creating mobile apps or software solutions for business start-ups.
Cell phones that charge without an outlet? Just one of the concepts in Alabama Launchpad
Birmingham Business Journal – July 10
The second round of the 2013 Alabama Launchpad will continue this Friday when the teams in the statewide startup competition meet at Evonik on Lakeshore Parkway to participate in a pitch presentation. Friday’s event will provide an early assessment of each team’s products and narrow the current pool of 10 startups, each of which are vying for $100,000 provided by several universities and the private sector…While many great ideas have come out of the Launchpad, the two firms I’d like to note at this point are Surface Integrity LLC and e-Electricity. Each firm was developed out of work done at the University of Alabama, but Surface Integrity’s Launchpad team leader is based in Hoover. Surface Integrity is working to develop medical implants that can degrade inside the body and eliminate the sometimes required surgical removal of orthopedic devices…e-Electricity is developing wireless harvesting, a method that allows mobile devices such as cell phones to recharge without the need of an electrical outlet.
Anniston native competing in entrepreneurship contest
Anniston Star – July 10
While working for a general contractor last year, Benjamin Bickerstaff discovered a problem. The Anniston native found that despite the availability of smart phones and Internet search engines, helping his bosses find subcontractors, such as a brick mason, around the state was not easy. The problem made Bickerstaff’s job harder, but it gave him an idea to create a one-stop database of construction contacts — an idea that could help him win up to $100,000 and propel him into the world of entrepreneurship. Bickerstaff, 22, a Saks High School graduate and a civil engineering student at the University of Alabama, is one of a handful of people to make it through the first round of Alabama Launchpad, a statewide entrepreneurship contest run by the Economic Development Partnership of Alabama.
CBS42 Meteorologists attend UA weather workshop
CBS 42 (Birmingham) – July 10
Meteorologists and Social Scientists are learning how to improve education on severe weather. The meeting is being held at the South Education Research Center at the University of Alabama. The UA Center for Advanced Public Safety organized the workshop. The goal is to come to a group consensus on how to get severe weather threats out to the public in a fast and efficient way. Ted McInerney, Gene Norman and Mark Prater are attending this event and we will have a complete report on CBS42 News.
ABC 33/40 (Birmingham) – July 10
WVUA (Tuscaloosa) – July 10
Fox 6 (Birmingham) – July 10
Chicago has welcomed Mexicans for a long time, new book reveals
Chicago Tribune – July 10
STEEL BARRIO, a new book written by Michael Innis-Jimenez (historian and American studies scholar at the University of Alabama) and published by NYU Press, will give advocates, policy makers, politicians, scholars and anyone else interested in immigration a historical perspective on how new ethnic communities become assets to local communities as they cope with harassment and discrimination in time of national economic crisis. STEEL BARRIO tells the story of how a community developed and survived the Great Depression to become the vibrant, active community that continues to play a central role in Chicago politics and society.
Yahoo Finance – July 10
Broadway World – July 10
WBOC 16 (Delmarva, Md.) – July 10
NBC 7 (Hattiesburg, Miss.) – July 10
UA student creates own major in emergency management
CBS 42 (Birmingham) – July 10
He’s the West Alabama Red Cross’s volunteer of the year, and he’s created a new major at the University of Alabama. John Fleischauer is a student volunteer who stays busy. Fleischauer has been working with the Red Cross for about a year and half. He liked it so much, he decided he wants to pursue a career in emergency management. But the University of Alabama doesn’t offer that major. So, he created one … Fleischauer developed the emergency management major through UA’s New College.
Defense Rests In Zimmerman Trial; Race ‘Permeates The Case’
NPR – July 10
The defense is expected to wrap up its case Wednesday afternoon at the murder trial of George Zimmerman, the Florida neighborhood watch volunteer accused in the February 2012 shooting death of teenager Trayvon Martin…Wednesday on Tell Me More, former federal prosecutor Pamela Pierson told host Michel Martin that during the trial so far, “race is the 500-pound gorilla in the room that nobody is talking about. [But] I think it permeates the case — it has from the very beginning. The furor about whether Zimmerman was going to be charged…And despite the judge’s and the attorneys’ efforts to keep racial or racist language to a minimum or out of the courtroom, I think it definitely is permeating the case.” Pierson, now a professor at the University of Alabama School of Law, said she saw race entering the picture particularly in the reactions to the defense attorneys’ cross examination of Trayvon’s friend Rachel Jeantel. Defense attorneys, she noted, try “to destroy someone’s credibility. … That’s their job — to attack their credibility. But we wouldn’t be hearing ‘Oh this was unfair’ or ‘this is racially biased,’ [if the witness had been] a thin, white, well-spoken woman” instead of the African-American Jeantel.
New England Public Radio – July 10
Readers react to Danica Patrick, my midterm grades, more
SI.com – July 10
The dynamic rarely changes: Shortly after I write about Danica Patrick and her skill behind the wheel — and yes, after penning a lengthy SI cover story on her in 2008 and watching her closely for nearly a decade, I believe she is a talented race car driver — the angry responses begin to arrive over email and Twitter. Not just from racing fans, mind you, but even from fellow media members. Danica bashing seems to be at an all-time high. Patrick is clearly the most polarizing figure in motorsports today. I picked her to win last Saturday night’s race at Daytona (prompting plenty of Twitter bile to be spewed my way). After falling to the rear of the pack early, she impressively raced her way into the top five late…I didn’t say they were “equal,” Ran, but I did give them each a B+ in my midterm grades. Let me explain. I teach a journalism class at the University of Alabama. Do all the students who enroll in my course have equal skills on the first day of class? Of course not. I may have one student who is destined for The New York Times in a few months and another who only recently began writing. So my expectations for these students would be quite different. (Lars Anderson)