The National Science Foundation, with NBC News, has produced a series of wonderful videos of winter sports, with a focus on last year's Winter Olympics in Vancouver, and the science behind the sports.
I especially appreciate the videos on figure skating (yes, my daughter is a figure skater, and also plays on a couple of varsity sports teams); the material science behind skates from the boots to the blades and how they differ for speed skates, hockey skates, and figure skates, and the math behind sports. These short videos include faculty speaking on their research in sports. Several faculty from Ithaca College, Cornell University, and Williams College (the host of the recent Bay State Games) give great deliveries of their work, to name just a few. You can see such athletes as Apollo Ohno and Rachel Flatts, to name just two, in the videos.
And for all of the skiers out there, there are several videos focused on skiing, just for you!
These videos are engaging, informative, and very well-done, so enjoy! I even heard "optimization" mentioned in the context of sports, which was great to hear!
You can access all the Science of the Winter Olympic Games videos here.
Showing posts with label New NSF Director. Show all posts
Showing posts with label New NSF Director. Show all posts
Saturday, February 26, 2011
Monday, November 15, 2010
Celebrating International Week and the New NSF Director on NPR
This week we are celebrating International Week at the Isenberg School and our atrium is festooned with flags of different countries as featured above.There are also special activities planned this week to commemorate different countries and international experiences.
And today's Boston Globe is reporting that Massachusetts is one of the top states attracting international students for education, with Boston University, MIT, Harvard, Northeastern, and the University of Massachusetts Amherst, being the leading such universities within the state!
Speaking about international experiences, I very much enjoyed the interview on NPR by Ira Flatow with the new NSF Director, Dr. Subra Suresh. In the interview, the transcript of which is available here, Dr. Suresh said: I've been fortunate to have had the experiences that I've had, having been born abroad. And here is the basic truth related to that: Science has no borders, no boundaries, and science is nonpartisan. If you look at the United States, more than half of all the American Nobel laureates in the last 60 years were born abroad.
He also spoke about the importance of collaborations and in bringing different disciplines together to solve the most difficult problems whether in clean energy or transportation (I concur)!
The US continues to be a mecca for education but it is essential that researchers have the support necessary to make fundamental discoveries and breakthroughs. Research requires uninterrupted time for intense work and concentration.
Friday, October 29, 2010
New Director of NSF and New Interim Dean of Engineering at MIT who is in Operations Research!
While in Washington DC this past Monday, I heard that it is now official that Dr. Subra Suresh, the former Dean of Engineering at MIT, has been sworn in as the new Director of the National Science Foundation (NSF).
MIT issued a nice press release, complete with a photo of the swearing in ceremony of Dr. Suresh with his wife present.
I had written about Dr. Suresh's nomination earlier in this blog and about the Acting/Interim NSF Director, Dr. Cora Marrett.
Also, while in Washington, I speculated with a few colleagues that Dr. Cynthia Barnhart would "take over" Dr. Suresh's position as the Dean of Engineering at MIT. She has been appointed, in fact, as the Interim Dean of Engineering.
Kudos to Dr. Barnhart, former President of INFORMS -- a wonderful scholar in transportation and in operations research, a terrific human being and role model, and a member of the National Academy of Engineering!
Coincidentally, I will be on a panel with Dr. Barnhart at the upcoming INFORMS National Meeting in Austin Texas, November 7-10, 2010.
The panel, quite appropriate, is entitled: Balancing Work and Life.
Professor Barnhart visited us at the Isenberg School at UMass Amherst when she spoke in our Speaker Series.
Congratulations to both Dr. Suresh and Dr. Barnhart on their new major leadership roles!
The President of MIT, Dr. Susan Hockfield, is a female and now the Interim Dean of Engineering is also a female! Perhaps the permanent one will be, as well.
MIT issued a nice press release, complete with a photo of the swearing in ceremony of Dr. Suresh with his wife present.
I had written about Dr. Suresh's nomination earlier in this blog and about the Acting/Interim NSF Director, Dr. Cora Marrett.
Also, while in Washington, I speculated with a few colleagues that Dr. Cynthia Barnhart would "take over" Dr. Suresh's position as the Dean of Engineering at MIT. She has been appointed, in fact, as the Interim Dean of Engineering.
Kudos to Dr. Barnhart, former President of INFORMS -- a wonderful scholar in transportation and in operations research, a terrific human being and role model, and a member of the National Academy of Engineering!
Coincidentally, I will be on a panel with Dr. Barnhart at the upcoming INFORMS National Meeting in Austin Texas, November 7-10, 2010.
The panel, quite appropriate, is entitled: Balancing Work and Life.
Professor Barnhart visited us at the Isenberg School at UMass Amherst when she spoke in our Speaker Series.
Congratulations to both Dr. Suresh and Dr. Barnhart on their new major leadership roles!
The President of MIT, Dr. Susan Hockfield, is a female and now the Interim Dean of Engineering is also a female! Perhaps the permanent one will be, as well.
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