Advancing Biometric Technologies
WVU has joined with the Biometric Foundation of Washington, D.C., to advance the use of biometric technologies. Biometric systems gather human physiological "signatures" such as fingerprints, faces, irises, retinas, voices, and neural signals and use them to identify individuals. The new technologies are being applied in health care, law enforcement, banking, and e-commerce. William W. Wilson, chairman of the Biometric Foundation and managing director of the California-based Recognition Systems Inc., says the partnership with WVU is "natural and unique" because "no other educational institution has better credentials than West Virginia University in identification technology."
In 1998, WVU became the first university in the world to offer an under-graduate degree in forensic and biometric identification. Researchers at WVU are conducting pathbreaking studies in biometric technologies.
Wilson said WVU and his organization will conduct studies of public attitudes toward biometrics uses. The two will also hold conferences and seminars about effective uses of the technology. Future advances in this field promise to enable nearly all objects to identify and interact with their users.
President David C. Hardesty Jr. says the partnership demonstrates WVU's role as a leader in biometric education and research. "This is a rapidly growing area that is going to change many aspects of our everyday lives during the next 10 years," he said. "I'm very pleased WVU is playing such a key role and will grow with this new technology."
Skating Past Physical Disabilities
Using a specially equipped walker designed by a WVU School of Physical Education professor, people with physical disabilities may soon be able to enjoy one of America's favorite recreational activities: in-line roller skating.
Linda Carson, an associate professor and director of the West Virginia Motor Development Center, is experimenting with special wheels, brakes, and seats that can help these individuals to enjoy in-line skating without fear of falling.
Assisting Carson on the project are Deborah Thorpe, a former WVU volleyball star who is now a professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; Dale Castilla, a rehabilitation technology engineer with the West Virginia Division of Rehabilitation Services; and Bob Chico of the University Affiliated Center for Developmental Disabilities at WVU.
Preparing for Terrorism Emergencies
WVU and the West Virginia National Guard are working together to prepare medical personnel to deal with the results of terrorist attacks.
The state National Guard is establishing a National Training Center for Weapons of Mass Destruction at Camp Dawson in Preston County. The facility will include a replica of a three-block urban landscape, where emergency workers from around the country can train for terrorism emergencies.
A key component of the collaboration is preparing the emergency personnel who are the first to arrive on the scene of a terrorist situation. WVU's Virtual Medical Campus and its high-speed telecommunications technologies will provide these "first responders" with medical expertise and access to on-line health care information from around the world.
Are Numbers the Origin of Life?
An article in the November 2000 issue of Discover magazine includes observations by a WVU philosophy professor regarding a perpetually vexing question: "Why is There Life?"
According to many prominent thinkers including Martin Rees of King's College in Cambridge, England, author of the book Just Six Numbers, the numbers underlying the structure of our universe are just the right ones to create life and nurture it. Those who ascribe to this theory believe that if these numbers were different, nobody would be here to think about it.
"Typical of this breed," writes the author of the story, Brad Lemley, "is Theodore Drange, a professor of philosophy at West Virginia University, who claims it is nonsensical to get worked up about the idea that our life-friendly universe is 'one of a kind.' As Drange puts it, 'Whatever combination of physical constants may exist, it would be one of a kind.' "
Lemley explains: "The six numbers lurk in the universe's smallest and largest structures. To select one from the small end: The nucleus of a helium atom weighs 99.3 percent as much as the two protons and the two neutrons that fuse to make it. The remaining .7 percent is released mainly as heat. So the fuel that powers the sun-the hydrogen gas at its core-converts .007 of its mass into energy when it fuses into helium. That number is a function of the strength of the force that 'glues' together the parts of an atomic nucleus.
"So what? Consider this: If the number were only a mite smaller-.006 instead of .007-a proton could not bond to a neutron, and the universe would consist only of hydrogen. No chemistry, no life. And if it were slightly larger, just .008, fusion would be so ready and rapid that no hydrogen would have survived from the Big Bang. No solar systems, no life."