Wednesdy, July 28, 1993 - The Michigan Daly Summe Weekdy -3
Delegation sees solidarity in strife of Haty
By VLAD SIGNORELLI
DAILY STAFF REPORTER
The usual influx of Haitian citizens to the
United States was reversed last month when a
handful of Ann Arbor activists traveled to the
heated political climate of Haiti.
Since 1991, Ann Arbor's Haiti Solidarity
Group has taken an on-going interest in the
human rights of Haitian citizens.
Funded in part by Michigan Student Assem-
bly and Rackham Student Government, five
membersof the group travelled to Haitilastweek.
Bryan Whirram, the group's coordinator, ex-
perienced his tenth trip to Haiti since 1986.
"People wanted to talk, but they wanted to
know why we were
there. But after intro-
ducing ourselves, they
spoke pretty freely,"s
Whirram added.,
Former LSA stu-
dentCeceliaOber,*said
the group wanted to
show the Haitianpeople
that the international
community wants to Whirram
help Haitian citizens,
rather than proclaim neutrality which, in essence,
aids their oppressors.
"Since we are from a university town, we
thoughtthatmay be away togetmorepeoplehere
involved," Whirram said.
Haiti's de facto university system rector,
GdrardBissainthe,recently institutedacampaign
of oppression targeting student activism.
"They've closed several colleges," Whirram
said. "They've replaced several of the deans.
They've expelled students. They've fired many
of the teachers."
Prof. Cecilia Green, former group president
and Eastern Michigan University professor of
African American Studies, said, "In some sense
the students are the most overtly militant, militant
inthe sense of demonstrating andsoforth,"Green
said.
Whirram said the group's experiences pro-
vided a perspective alternatve to the one offered
by media.
"Much of the media has portrayed, for in-
stance, the refugees as economic migrants not
really seeking political asylum. And certainly
from being there first hand, you can see the
overwhelming amountofoppression that's there,"
Whirram said.
"You can see that people are seeking asylum
and people fled the country because they feared
for their lives," Whirram added.
Whirram also said themediapoorly portrayed
the returning president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide,
as a perpetrator of human rights violations.
ups comae out for
xxs
MRS: GALA .f: ion
FROM STAFF AND WRE REPORTS
Ron Fracker didn't know what to
expect from the first meeting of the
University's Gay and Lesbian Alumni
Society (GALA).
Friday's inaugural meeting was a
complete success, he said. About 60
people attended the gathering at the
University Alumni Center.
"Wehadawonderfulturnout,"said
Fracker, one of the founders and board
members of the University's GALA.
Most participants were from southeast
Michigan,buthesaidsomealumscame
from Ohio, New York and California
to attend.
Fracker, who works in the Lesbian
GayMaleProgramsOffice(LGMPO),
said the immediate focus of the
University's GALA begins with asus-
tained membership drive.
Organizersareoptimistic that,with
the logistical and staff support of the
University's Alumni Association, the
group will grow quickly.
Future plans include a scholarship
for gay, lesbian and bisexual Univer-
sity students. LGMPOco-coordinator
Jim Toy added that he hopes alums
will aid students in funding events.
"We will go to people in the
alumni association and go to people
in the gay community who have
been disenfranchised by society,"
Fracker added.
Toy said GALAs give gay and
lesbian students positive role mod-
els-especially whenGALAmem-
bers work to improve campus life.
"We are spread across the na-
tion," he said. "We can offer some
supportandhelpraisetheconscious-
ness of people where we live."
GALAmembershope to address
campus issues ranging from
homophobic behavior to sex dis-
crimination.
"One big issue at the university
is the fact that there is no non-dis-
crimination clause in the (Univer-
sity) bylaws (in regards to gay men,
lesbians and bisexuals)," Fracker
said.
"Wecertainly willbe doing what
we can to apply pressure and see that
happens," he said.
. . News and Information Services
Members of the University robotics team pose with their design feats.
U robotics team receives a B'
By JONATHAN KAUFMANN
FOR THE DALY
Two weeks ago, the University
robotics team graduated from a
Washington-based competition -
with a B average.
Thetwo-year-oldteamcompeted
against collegiate and corporate
teams at the second Artificial Intel-
ligence Robotics Competition and
Exhibitionsponsoredby theNational
Conference on Artificial Intelli-
gence.
These competitions are intended
to test new technological advances,
particularly in sensing - aproblem
afflicting most existing robots.
In one case, a Stanford delivery
robot fell into a hospital stairwell
due to its inability to detect its sur-
roundings.
TheUniversity teamenteredtwo
robots, a cybermotion K2A robot
nicknamed CARMEL (Computer-
Aided Robotics for Maintenance,
Emergency, and Life Support), and
a TRC Labmate robot called BORIS
(Box Organizing Robotic Intelligent
System).
Therobots' similardesignsinclude
attached personal computers, visual
sensors and ultrasonic sensors which
use pulses of sound to find obstacles.
The University team plans to re-
place the current personal computers
with laptop computers, which would
be interchangeable andself-contained.
- CARMELemploys24sensors that
allow it to "see" 360 degrees, while
BORIS's 12 sensors limit the robot's
"vision" to 180 degrees.
The software for the robots was
written by programmers at the Univer-
sity. The team also used software from
a commercially-available compiler.
Human members of the team who
went to Washington included research
programmersPatrickKenny andFrank
Koss; graduate students Marc Huber,
Dave Kortenkamp, and Annie Wu;
and two undergraduates, William
Belding and Alex Ramos.
"A lot of people were grum-
bling aboutit when we were there,"
Koss said, "but when we came
back, everyone was talking about
going back next year."
This year 's competition in-
volved three juried events to test
the robots' proficiency at separate
tasks.
Wu said that while she enjoyed
both dealing with the robotics team
and meeting members of other
teams, her participation next year
will probably depend on whether
the events involve visual sensing
- her specialty.
Like the other teams, the Uni-
versity team had problems with
"bugs" in the programs, particu-
larly lack of memory space avail-
able to coordinate sensors working
in tandem.
But Koss is confident that next
year's competition will be easier.
Hesaidsimplertestswillbechosen
year and more teams will compete.
.
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