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U. THE NATIONAL COLLEGE NEWSPAPER 1
18 U.. THE NATIONAL COLLEGE NEWSPAPER
Dollars And Sense. OCTOBER 1988
OCTOBER 1988. Life And Art
i r
Patient eases
others' pain
with invention
By Craig Lancaster
The Shorthorn
U. of Texas, Arlington
In February 1971, Steve Schuchman
was diagnosed as having Hodgkin's Dis-
ease, or cancer of the lymph system.
He was 19.
After a series of full-body radiation
treatments, the disease was eliminated,
only to return in 1979. Once again,
Schuchman had to undergo che-
motherapy.
As he lay in a hospital battling cancer
for the second time, an idea struck him
- an idea that won him third place
among 1,515 entries nationwide in the
Motorola University Design Contest
this past June.
His winning entry: a device that com-
puter-monitors the flow of intravenous
(IV) injections. The apparatus utilizes a
Motorola microcomputer chip, a re-
quisite of the contest.
"If I ever go back to the hospital,"
Schuchman said, "I'm taking this thing
with me. I'll experiment on myself.
"During chemotherapy, in particular,
Moonwalking vehicle rockets
Georgia Tech to new heights
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Inventor Steve Schuchman and his device
for monitoring intravenous flow.
the immune system is depressed," said
Schuchman, now a computer science
and engineering assistant instructor at
U. of Texas, Arlington. "The chemother-
apy drugs damage the veins. A typical
IV doesn't last long - the flow stops.
"Soon, blood clots form in the needle.
All the medical assistants can do is pull
out the needle and reinsert it some-
where else. I would be stuck with a nee-
dle four or five times a day."
The device, which can be produced for
less than $200, allows flow rate to be
programmed both directly into the unit
and from a remote computer terminal.
An alarm sounds when IV flow stops
or is rtot within prescribed limits.
By Praveen Murthy
The Technique
Georgia Institute of Technology
It can walk, climb, dig and drill. With
programming, it can turn cartwheels.
On its side is a university logo.
Its name is Skitter, a three-legged
robot invented by Dr. Jim Brazell, a
mechanical engineering instructor, and
graduate students Brice MacLaren and
Gary McMurray. Several undergradu-
ates also helped out.
The robot is part of the NASA/Uni-
versity Advanced Space Program.
NASA gives contracts to schools in the
University Space Research Association
to design studies for equipment to be
used when man establishes a perma-
nent colony on the moon.
A prototype of the robot was designed,
built and tested for $4,000 and pre-
sented to NASA in Washington, D.C.
"We blew all the other universities
(that did presentations) away because
they really never got beyond the draw-
ing board," MacLaren said.
Skitter went beyond that, winning
the Design News 1988 grand prize for
excellence in design.
"We blew all the other
universities (that did
presentations) away
because they really never
got beyond the drawing
board."
- BRICE MacLAREN
Since Skitter is a walking vehicle, it
can be very light with effective traction,
making use of gravity to bring itself
down once it raises a leg. It uses forward
momentum to help propel itself, some-
what resembling a person on crutches.
It can pick up cargo, tilt to aim a drill
bit, serve as a crane platform and dig
soil without using other equipment.
While traditional walking vehicles use
four to six legs, Skitter is a tripod and
can easily step around obstacles.
The team is adding locking wheels to
Skitter's legs, enabling it to negotiate
hilly terrain.
U. of Idaho
'chips' away
at space future
By Brian Holloway
The Argonaut
U. of Idaho
Scientists and engineers at the
U. of Idaho's (UI) Microelectro-
nics Research Center (MRC) have
developed a series of computer
chips, capable of processing 1.6
billion operations per second, that
will be used in NASA space satel-
lites.
The chips will be used by the
National Aeronautics and Space
Administration to correct errors
in data returning to Earth.
The chips are the first of their
type, according to Don Wiseman,
an electrical engineering student
who helped with the project.
"These are specialized chips,"
Wiseman said. "This is the first
set of chips to be designed for
error corrections." He said the de-
sign is what allows the chips to
Double Take
Is it real? Or is it a clever fake
by photographer Schapiro?
By Scott Lipsett
Daily Trojan
U. of Southern California
In Hollywood, there was Lon Chaney, the man
of a thousand faces. At the U. of Southern Califor-
nia (USC), there is Martin Schapiro, the man of, so
far, six faces. But Schapiro doesn't do monsters.
He does rock stars - big ones.
Schapiro and his students recreate photo-
graphic images found on album covers. "I had al-
ways wanted to be Bruce Springsteen," Schapiro
said. "I had a poster of the Born To Run album and
I wondered if I could redo it."
Schapiro has played a range of characters, from a
drunk in Sheila E.'s The Glamorous Life, to Billy
Joel's The Stranger, John Cougar Mellencamp's
Scarecrow, Bono in U2's The Joshua Tree, and most
recently, Sting in Nothing Like The Sun.
"As long as there are rock and rollers that I can play,
it'll go on," Schapiro said. "When I have to start doing
Perry Como or Frank Sinatra, maybe I'll stop."
Schapiro came to the USC School of Cinema-Televisio:
in 1984 to begin a photography department emphasizin
professional techniques. "I don't think I'm really here t
just teach photography, I'm here to teach experience," h
said.
r-
Re-creation (above) of Bruce's Born
To Run. Schapiro played the Boss.
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User-friendly? Yeah, sure!
For many, action starts when the sun goes down
Micro
Continued From Page 1
engineering into realms that have been,
until now, unimaginable," said UCB en-
gineering Professor Richard S. Muller,
who invented and successfully' tested
the tiny motor in July along with two
UCB electrical engineering graduate
students, Long-Sheng Fan and Yu-
Chong Tai.
Muller said the development of mic-
roscopic cranks, gears and springs in-
spired the trio to assemble what is be-
lieved to be the world's smallest motor.
Muller's rotating motor, designed
with notched teeth the size of red blood
cells, will open the door to developments
in more intricate microsurgery tools,
scientific measuring devices and a more
compact line of consumer electronics,
according to a report released in May by
a National Science Foundation (NSF)
workshop on micromachinery.
Other possible practical medical de-
vices cited in the NSF report include a
tiny buzzsaw for slicing away scar tis-
sue from retinas and "smart pills" which
would dispense exact doses of medica-
tion through microscopic valves when
swallowed. Physicians could also inject
micromachines into arteries to scrape
away fatty deposits and prevent heart
attacks.
Not only is the product itself unique,
but the manner in which it was created
is a breakthrough in technology:
The finished product is three
thousandths of an inch across and one
ten-thousandth of an inch thick.
It is made of polycrystaline silicon,
the same material used to manufacture
computer chips.
The micromotor was assembled
under similar conditions as computer
chips, making mass production of mini-
ature machinery a distinct possibility.
The polysilicon is sandwiched be-
tween layers of a temporary silicon
dioxide framework, which dissolves
once the motor is assembled.
The completion of Muller's machine
process information nearly 1,000 By Dirk DeYoung
times faster than a personal com- * The Minnesota Daily
puter. U. of Minnesota, Twin Cities
The MRC designed the chips Midnight. A time when students are
and had Ti-Quint, a subsidiary of reading that extra chapter before bed,
Tektronix in Beaverton, Ore., getting home from the bar or flipping on
fabricate a prototype. Wiseman David Letterman. A time when history
said the computer prototypes will major Jennifer Leazer is two hours into
be sent into space aboard the her work day.
space shuttle for testing. The A junior, Leazer works at Kinko's
tests will determine how the pro- Copies from 10 p.m. to 8 a.m., Monday
totype will perform under the through Wednesday. She said she
harsh conditions found in space. works nights because the pay is better
The contract to develop the and she can keep her daytime schedule
chips was not part of NASA's $7 clear for school work.
million research grant given to Leazer is just one of thousands at
the UI last spring, but Wiseman work on what Boston U. sociologist
said the project's success may Murray Melbin calls "the last frontier."
have influenced the agency's We are colonizing the night, much like
choice of research universities, pioneers colonized the American West,
Melbin said. Since we've run out of land,
he reports, we're colonizing time.
According to Melbin's estimates,
based on 1980 census data, there
were at least 3 million people working
in 1980 during the quietest hours,
from 3 a.m. to 5 a.m. At 1 a.m., more
than 4.5 million nationwide were still
at work. He added that since the eco-
nomy is in better shape than in 1980,
those numbers could be even higher
today.
W On campus, the undetermined num-
Insomniacs apply here ..Students at
a 4 U. of Notre Dam~e can socialp arond the clock
thanks 6a concerted push by students to establish a
24-hour lounge on campus' With help from the
director of food services, students convinced uni
versity officials to convert a cafeteria into a lounge
that would remain open seven days a week and
ley's micromotor, which is the size of a feature a limited menu "with Cokes, hamburgers,
urgery tool is as big as a red blood cell. fries and coffee," said Mike Paese, student body vice
president. The lounge will be run on a trial basis for
on electrostatic forces because of the anywhere from 90 days to a semester. "Student use
large distances between machine parts. will determine the longevity" of the facility, Paese
One motor requires about one- said. Mark McLaughlin, The Observer,
billionth the amount of current needed U. of Notre Dame, IN
to run an electric pencil sharpener, Mul- ..
ler said.
ber of "pioneer" students include night
managers in dormitories, parking ramp
attendants, hospital employees and
those providing custodial and security
services.
Philosophy major Durk Thompson
is one of the ramp attendants on the
graveyard shift at the campus's six
24-hour ramps. "There's not a thing I
"There's not a thing I
dislike about working
nights. The whole world is
at your command."
- DURK THOMPSON
dislike about working nights," he said
of his three-late-shift week. "The
whole world is at your command."
However, Jan Schluter, patient-care
coordinator at the Sleep Disorder Cen-
ter at Hennepin Medical Center, and
many experts claim that overnight
work can be unhealthy. It can mix up
the worker's circadian rhythms (better
known as the body's 24-hour biological
clock that adjusts to the way one
sleeps), they say, damaging sleep pat-
terns and causing extreme fatigue and
other ailments.
Upsetting this rhythm can result in
gastrointestinal problems and sleep de-
privation, Schluter said. She acknow-
ledges, however, that younger people
can adjust their rhythms more easily
than older people.
Leazer cited sleep deprivation as the
biggest drawback to working nights.
"Mentally, you can't do anything, espe-
cially between 3 and 5 a.m," she said.
There are students around campus,
however, who are wide-eyed during the
wee hours of the morning, yet not hard
at work. Some are just night people who
love the quiet, relaxed atmosphere that
the night provides.
A group of dorm residents, who night
manager Marc Bervis calls "nocturnal
people," hang out every night in the
dorm's seventh floor lounge. Sopho
mores Jonathan Miller and Robert
Zwiefelhofer and freshman Jessica
Higg said they spend every night talk
ing, studying or watching TV at least
until 3 a.m., many times until sunrise
They schedule their classes as late as
possible and sleep during the day wher
they're not in class, Miller said.
They agreed, though, that they're
night people who love to escape from th(
hectic pace of daytime. And there are
other advantages. "How many people
can say they've watched the sun rise?
Higg asked.
An artist's rendition of U. of California, Berke
human hair. Each rotating tooth on the micros
marks the first time scientists have effi-
ciently powered machinery using elec-
trostatic force, the same reaction re-
sponsible for static electricity. Most
machines are dependent on a magnetic
field to generate energy and cannot run
u.mm"umun Pfaows, mf0
Available on dHiFi StereosVideocassetteand CX Stereo Laserdisc. (.
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