WVU Receives
Biometrics Funding
When America's security is riding
on the line, there is no room for error. The means of authenticating
or determining the identity of an individual must have high performance
levels while assuring a balance between privacy and security
in the sharing of that information.
A three-year, $3.1 million Information Technology Research grant from the National Science Foundation, with financial support provided by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, will enable researchers at WVU and its partner institutions (Clarkson University, Michigan State University, St. Lawrence University, and the University of Pittsburgh) to conduct the most comprehensive, collaborative biometrics research to date.
"For the first time, researchers will be developing an analytical framework for modeling and predicting the performance of biometric systems," said WVU's Larry Hornak, who will lead the research effort. "We will also be studying the relationships among biometric applications, privacy, security, and user acceptance that are essential for both informed public policy and system design."
A new laboratory in WVU's Lane Department of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering is being used to collect fingerprints, hand geometry, face, voice, and iris patterns will be collected from research volunteer subjects.
J.R.R. Tolkien
Subject of Journal
The WVU Press is publishing a new
journal, Tolkien Studies: An Annual Scholarly Review.
The first of its kind, this journal includes critical commentary
and scholarship about the writings of J.R.R. Tolkien, author
of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings trilogy.
The founding editors of the journal are all notable Tolkien researchers. The first volume includes essays by Tom Shippey (J.R.R. Tolkien: Author of the Century and The Road to Middle-Earth), the founding editors, and other noted Tolkien scholars.
In addition, Tolkien's previously unpublished edition of the Middle English poem "Sir Orfeo" (edited by Carl Hostetter) is included. This first volume also contains a bibliography of scholarly works written on Tolkien in 2000 and 2001. The complete table of contents is available at www.tolkienstudies.com.
New Minor
Focuses on Food
WVU's Davis College of Agriculture,
Forestry, and Consumer Sciences will offer a new academic minor
in food science and technology.
"The minor in food science and technology will meet the needs of students interested in pursuing careers in the food industry," said Paul Lewis, professor and director of the Division of Animal and Veterinary Sciences. "The food industry constitutes about one-sixth of the United States' economy and offers diverse career opportunities."
The program introduces students to food processing, engineering, chemistry, microbiology, and marketing. Career opportunities include food safety and quality assurance, food science and technology, food engineering, new food marketing and research, development, sales and marketing, and inspection.
Packing on
Pounds
A team of WVU researchers are looking
to pack on the pounds . . . to cattle. And they're using cutting-edge
technology to do it. WVU's Reymann Memorial Farm in Wardensville,
part of WVU's Davis College of Agriculture, Forestry, and Consumer
Sciences, is home to one of the most advanced pieces of feed
efficiency technology in the nation—the GrowSafe 4000E.
WVU animal scientists think it will have significant benefits
for the state's beef producers and the WVU young sire evaluation
program.
"Feed efficiency is a measure of how much animals eat as compared to how much they grow," explained Gene Felton, assistant professor of animal and veterinary sciences. Ideally, cattle will experience maximum growth with a minimum input of feed, saving production costs and increasing profitability.
"Feed costs account for about 60 percent of production costs in cattle production," he added. "Consequently, it's in a producer's best interest to select an animal on the right side of the feed efficiency equation, requiring as little feed as possible to create a pound in weight gain."
The GrowSafe takes a lot of the guesswork out of the selection process. The system includes a feeding station that only one animal can use at a time. Each bull or cow is tagged, allowing a system of sensors to record how much it consumed and how that consumption was broken down over time. At the end of the test period, system users compare consumption quantities and rates with weight gain in the test herd, finding animals that are making best use of the feed provided.
"If feed cost savings could be applied to the 200,000 calves in West Virginia alone, the impact could be approximately $1 million annually for the state's beef producers," said John Warren, professor of animal and veterinary sciences. "Additionally, a ten percent gain in feed efficiency may translate that producers could increase cattle inventory by ten percent on the same land base."
Incubator
Nurtures New Businesses
WVU has opened a business incubator
at the Chestnut Ridge Research Building.
Two businesses have located in the incubator, with the likelihood of at least three more tenants moving in by the end of the year.
The intention of the incubator is to assist businesses spawned by new technologies discovered primarily at WVU, but it's not restrictive.
"The link between research and economic development is entrepreneurship," said John Weete, vice president for research and economic development at WVU. "We see the role of the WVU Business Incubator as providing nurturing services for a young business . . . services that it can't afford, or doesn't know how to do, to get it off the ground."
A one-year, $169,000 Benedum Foundation grant is enabling WVU's Office of Technology Transfer to offer various services to start-up businesses through the incubator.
"The grant helps pay for some of the
equipment needed like computers, fax machines, and copiers,"
Weete said. "It also helps to offset the costs of professional
consultants that might be brought in to assist the businesses
in the various service areas." Some services offered deal
with legal and financial issues, and others with marketing and
information technology.
National Geographic
Facility Opens
Valuable land use information ranging
from soil makeup to the location of federally protected sites
is now a mouse click away with the opening of a national geographic
research facility at WVU.
The National Geospatial Development Center is a partnership involving the Department of Geology and Geography in WVU's Eberly College of Arts and Sciences and the Natural Resources Conservation Service in the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
"WVU, in addition to other NRCS centers, will provide the GIS research and software development tools that NRCS will use to perform its work," said Trevor Harris, department chairman and codirector of the center. "We'll be utilizing data from the NRCS data repositories, developing computer tools to analyze the information, and sharing these tools with scientists and decision-makers."
The center was made possible by $4.34 million that Senator Robert C. Byrd added to federal legislation.
"For farmers, this means a better
understanding of the earth in their fields. For businesses, it
means better placed, more focused, and improved investments.
For individuals, it means a more thorough analysis of the soundness
of their homes' foundations," Byrd said. "Utilizing
the expertise and technology at the University, this effort will
help to improve safety and expand economic opportunity."
Coal Industry
Seeks Workers
Are there enough trained people
to meet the demand for qualified workers in today's growing coal
industry? That was one of the central questions addressed at
the Energy Roadmap Workshop on Coal Workforce Development held
in Beckley this past spring.
Industry experts expressed concern over the graying of the coal workforce. A survey conducted by West Virginia University Institute of Technology in cooperation with the West Virginia Coal Association indicated that more than two-thirds of those employed in mining are between the ages of 41 and 60.
"Industry leaders reported they have lost an entire generation of workers. Nearly half of these leaders said that they lack skilled workers in the 21-40 age group," said D. Anne Cavalier, vice president at WVU Tech.
The event was sponsored by the WVU National Research Center for Coal and Energy, the West Virginia Development Office, and the West Virginia Coal Forum.
Planning
for 2007 Mars Mission
Tom Meloy, a Benedum Professor
in the College of Engineering and Mineral Resources, is pegged
as a lead scientist for a NASA mission in 2007. The Phoenix project
involves sending an unmanned chemical laboratory to Mars.
"We want to put a sophisticated 'wet' chemistry lab on board, with a robotic arm that will scrape up soil and put it in a container," Meloy said. "We will inject water into the container, stir the mixture, and use the latest technology to measure it for various ions."
Those various ions include sulfate, chloride, sulfide, and nitrate, Meloy said. But the most sought-after ion, he noted, will be carbon, the stuff of life.
In the 1960s, Meloy accurately predicted the size of particles on the moon before the first object from Earth arrived there. He was the lead scientist on the 2001 MECA Mars lander mission, but NASA canceled the project after the Climate Orbiter and Polar Lander missions failed.
Each summer he works at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. JPL, managed by California Institute of Technology, does robotic exploration of the solar system for NASA.
Neuroscience
Facility Coming in 2006
A
$30 million neurosciences research facility for programs studying
cognitive disorders such as Alzheimer's disease, depression,
schizophrenia, and post-traumatic stress disorder will open its
doors in spring 2006 on the WVU campus.
It will house the Blanchette Rockefeller Neurosciences Institute and the WVU Sensory Neuroscience Research Center. The 100,000-square-foot building, designed by Shepley Bulfinch Richardson and Abbott of Boston, will include both laboratory and office space. Funding for construction includes a $10 million federal grant, obtained with the assistance of Senator Robert C. Byrd, and $10 million in West Virginia state economic development funds.
"The goal of the institute is to understand these diseases that destroy human memory, then to use that understanding to develop treatments, and finally to prevent these diseases altogether," said Robert M. D'Alessandri, MD, the institute's president. "This new facility will help us to attract world-class neuroscientists interested in studying and treating cognitive disorders."