From Tech Today.

Demonstrating Physics and a Passion for Teaching

Read more at Michigan Tech News, by Kevin Hodur.

Miguel Levy is a mosaic: a physicist who loves to paint, an atheist who honors his Jewish heritage while harboring a deep sympathy for the Palestinian cause.

He started participating in demonstrations, which inspired his art. However, most of his paintings are based on photographs that appeared in news media, including Free Gaza! perhaps his favorite work.

Read more at Michigan Tech Magazine, by Marcia Goodrich.

Read more at SPIE Press Releases.

2013 recipient Tyler Plamondon (right) accepts the award from Dr. Will Cantrell (left).

Back Row: Raymond Shaw, Ethan Miltenberger, Jacob Smock, Jonathan Curtis, Jeremy Dobbs, Mac Brennan

Front Row: Eric Kaphengst, Clarence King, Kathryn Cox, Tyler Plamondon, Abigail Dillon, Derek Van Damme

Special for classic rock fans: Powell draws a parallel with the 1960s Zombies hit “She’s Not There.”

From Tech Today.

Dispatches from AAS: The Not-There Universe

Albert Einstein’s general theory of relativity implies that space should be smooth at very small distances, just as it is smooth at the distances we experience. Some newer theories, which attempt to go beyond relativity, suggest otherwise: They predict that sub-subatomic space is a froth of unseen particles and energy. Nemiroff figured out a way to see who is right. He tracked gamma rays—radiation that is like light but much more energetic—from an exploding star roughly 7 billion light years from Earth, and looked for signs that they had scattered off any frothy space along the way. He found none. For the umpteenth time, a challenge to Einstein has failed.

Read more at Discover Magazine, by Corey S. Powell.

The Michigan Tech chapter is part of Zone 09. The award criteria include K-12 outreach, community service, interactions with alumni, and other considerations.

Paintings by Miguel Levy
Rozsa Gallery
January 18 – February 15, 2013

Reception for the Artist
Friday, January 18, 6:00 pm

Admission is free.

CS Faculty/Students Win Best Paper Award

Computer Science Assistant Professor Chaoli Wang, former CS undergraduate student John Reese, former CS MS student Huan Zhang, CS PhD student Jun Tao, and Physics Professor Robert Nemiroff will receive a Best Paper Award for their paper, “iMap: A stable layout for navigating large image collections with embedded search”, at the IS&T/SPIE Conference on Visualization and Data Analysis, Feb. 4-6, 2013, in Burlingame, Calif. Jun Tao will present the award paper at the conference.

For their next steps, the authors will further develop techniques for animated transition and graph-based image layout, deploy the visualization results on the display wall at the Immersive Visualization Studio (IVS) at the Center for Computer Systems Research (CCSR) for outreach, and eventually release a web-based online program to benefit a wider user base.

From Tech Today.

More than 20 teams did their best pitches, and the judges had some hard choices to make. Winning first prize and $1,000 was MyPaar (My Love), a dating website for India, created by physics PhD student Abhi Kantamneni. He also won the Audience Favorite Award and $200.

Kantamneni said he got his inspiration for the idea at 2:30 a.m. one morning, while immersed in another competition. “I realized that my other idea was no good, and I needed to follow one important part of a business model: think of the customer first.”

In spite of nearly double the number of contestants and added entertainment, the event still concluded in about an hour and a half, thanks to many hands that helped: SBE Instructor Michele Loughead and undergrad students Travis Beaulieu (physics and one of last year’s winners), Mason Pew (sound design) and Haley Carlson (marketing).

Read more at Michigan Tech News, by Dennis Walikainen.

The School of Business and Economics’ Bob Mark Memorial Elevator Pitch Competition was covered by the Detroit News recently.

From Tech Today.