If You Have Something To Sell,
Remember:
Classifieds Can Do It
Call 845-0569
The Battalion
rf ir_
Aggie Cross Stitch
www.aggieland-depot.com
N= I ! =F
Tuesday, April 8, 2003
www.AGGIESA.com
The San Antonio Ag’s Information Center on
the Web
Thinking of San Antonio?
- Visit www.aggiesa.com for your relocation needs
- Post your resume for Ag employers to view in San Antonio
- View available jobs with Ag employers in San Antonio
- Keep in touch with the Ag family after graduation
When traveling to:
A&M Sporting Events * George Bush Library * Post Oak Mall
l\i/ The Place to Stay is:
Marino Road RV Park
10% Discount^
with this
;ouponL
549 Marino Road
Bryan,Texas 77808
(979) 778-3767
www.marinoroadrv.com
65 Sites - 32 Level Pull-thru • Full Hook-ups 30/50 Amps.
Clean Restroom & Showers • Dump Station
Big Rigs & Slide-outs • Public Phone
Laundry ‘Country Atmosphere
(Run (Thru the Vines
10K and 5K Fun Run
9:00 a.m. on Saturday
April 12, 2003
At Messina Hof Winery
www.runthruthevines.com
Visit us for information or to register online
Presented by Texas A&M Roadrunners
bsl
c£ i)( ■
Aggie Dance Team
Try-Outs
May 3rd
Reed 3ui!diri0 Gym 303
, I :aorl
■ )0£ br
Prep Classes
April 12th & 26th
690-1813
Jennifer Hart
Aggie Pance Team Pi rector
wvwv.aggieathletics.com
jhart@athletioe-.tamu.edu
MATHEMATICS CONTEST
Annual
FRESHMEN & SOPHOMORE
MATHEMATICS CONTEST
TONIGHT
7:00 P.M. - 9:00 P.M.
Six prizes from $50.00 to $150.00 will be awarded!
Contest problems will cover topics through Math 152 (Engineering Calculus II) for
Freshmen contestants, and through Math 308 (Differential Equations) for Sophomore
contestants.
Contact Doug Hensley, e-mail: dhenslev@math.tamu.edu
For more information and sample problems, check
Dr. Hensley's Home Page: http//www.math.tamu.edu/~doug.hensley
(For purposes of this contest, freshmen are first-year undergraduate students, and
sophomores are second-year undergraduate students. All majors are welcome.)
SCI|TE0f
1
THE BATTALIOJ
Innovative angling
Students mech-fishing rod helps the handicappd
2HIV M ■'
By Steve Kuchera
KRT CAMPUS
DULUTH, Minn. — A
group of University of
Minnesota Duluth students are
going into business.
In just one semester, four
engineering students are trying
to develop a working prototype
of a mechanized fishing rod and
reel that physically disabled
anglers can use.
Four marketing students are
working with them, doing
extensive market and product
research, and developing plans
for selling the one-of-a-kind
device, named HandiCast.
“It's nice to work on some
thing that will bring value to
society,” said Mariia
Kouznetsova, one of the School
of Business and Economics stu
dents involved in the project.
This is the first time students
from different schools at UMD
have worked together on such a
project. It may not be the last. If
all goes well, the students will
work with UMD to create a
company named “Limitless
Opportunities,” where future
groups will improve existing
projects or design, create and
market new ones.
The whole idea is to give stu
dents from marketing and from
the College of Science and
Engineering a foretaste of the
business world, where people
from different disciplines com
monly work together on proj
ects, said marketing instructor
John Kratz.
Students began this year with
a 2001 prototype rod and reel.
The device — cobbled together
from a Snoopy rod and reel, a
couple of motors, a few gears
and switches and some wires
and duct tape — was designed
and built by a previous group of
UMD engineering students to
allow a quadriplegic person to
accurately cast a fishing lure. In
November 2001, it took first
place in the American Society of
Mechanical Engineers interna
tional design competition.
The prototype had to meet
strict competition guidelines.
That's no longer the case.
“The engineering students
are free to alter it in any way to
Cullen Boyd, a University of Minnesota student at the Duluth campus, is a senior industrial engineering!
He holds the controls of a prototype device to help physically disabled anglers cast a fishing rod.
make a better piece of equip
ment,” marketing student Chris
Bremner said.
“We're aiming for a 20 to 35-
meter casting range,” up from
the few yards required for the
competition, engineering stu
dent Eric Hesse said.
“From the original rod, we
ordered larger motors and a
longer casting rod,” engineering
senior Andrew Eldien said.
“We're also putting the whole
device on a rotating base.”
The students are refining the
controller, aiming for a 4-by-6-
inch box similar to a video game
controller. Anglers will use the
box to control the base's rota
tion, the drawback of the rod,
the cast and retrieval speed.
“I try not to get too
involved in the details,” said
mechanical and industrial
engineering professor David
A. Wyrick. “I let the students
do the design and then ask
questions that make them
think about what's going on.”
While the engineering stu
dents are developing and refin
ing HandiCast, the marketing
students are trying to determine
whether people would buy it.
“Our whole goal is to
develop a comprehensive busi
ness plan and test the feasibil
ity of this product from all
perspectives — cost, market
ing, price, distribution,”
Kouznetsova said.
Toward that end, students
have talked to people whow
with the disabled. They
present the HandiCast idea at
conference this month.
They're also researching 1
possible patent for HandiCal
making sure they're not infrinl
ing on an existing product.*
extensive search has fond
nothing similar, Bremner sai:
There have been some ps|
lems along the way. Durinftf
first few weeks, the engines
ing and marketing studentsdit
n't understand each others'
gon, said marketing seni(|
Megan Vesaas.
“It's been a real learnii
experience for students anl
teachers because it's all nett
she said.
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ihampionsh
NEWS IN BRIEF
Aggie b
on Rice
Experts recommend pills to
stave off radioactive fallout
CHICAGO (AP) — Households, schools and
child-care centers near nuclear power plants
should keep potassium iodide pills on hand to
protect children from an accidental or inten
tional radiation release, the American
Academy of Pediatrics recommends.
The pills protect people from getting thy
roid cancer.
Bioterrorism concerns and the war in Iraq
helped prompt the new policy, Dr. Sophie
Balk, a New York pediatrician who heads the
academy committee that wrote the policy,
said Monday.
The policy is aimed at families, schools and
child-care centers within 10 miles of nuclear
plants. Schools and child-care facilities within
that distance should stockpile the pills and
develop plans for how to distribute them in
the event of a disaster, the academy said.
"It may be prudent to consider stockpiling
potassium iodide within a larger radius
because of more distant wind-borne fallout, as
occurred after Chernobyl," the 1986 Ukrainian
nuclear plant catastrophe, the academy said.
The academy posted the policy late last
week on its Web site, and plans to publish
it in the upcoming June edition of its med
ical journal, Pediatrics.
China turns to animals in
search of SARS beginnings
GUANGZHOU, China (AP) - China disclosed
Monday that a deadly respiratory illness had
struck in more of its provinces than previously
reported, while experts in the south looked
into whether the disease came from animals
on farms or in the wild.
In nearby Hong Kong, officials said they we'
preparing for a worst-case scenario of 3,Oft!
cases of severe acute respiratory syndrome,:
SARS, amid fears its health system could fe
stretched beyond its limits. There are 7ft!
cases and 22 confirmed deaths in Hong Konj
Also Monday, the Beijing office of tlii;
Geneva-based International Labe
Organization was sealed, and an employeeo !
the diplomatic office building said it was disie
fected after a Finnish official of the agency Id
ill with severe acute respiratory syndrome,®
SARS, in Beijing. The official died Sunday.
China's death toll rose by one Monday to 51
state television reported, citing the Heat
Ministry. It said that included 43 deaths in
southern province of Guangdong, whert
experts suspect SARS originated. Other deatbs
had been reported in Beijing and the Guangi
region.
AIE>S MEMORIAL
UILT
Skydive
Sponsored by TAMU Student Health Services (847-8910) (htto://shs. tamu. edu)
10 minutes
from campus
Skydive
Aggieland
The Quilt is on display at the J. Wayne Stark Galleries,
Memorial Student Center @ Texas A&M. Admission is free.
Gallery hours are 9am - 8pm Tuesday thru Friday 12 noon to 6pm Saturday and Sunday.
TUESDAY, APRIL 8
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 9
THURSDAY, APRIL 10
12:00pm - 1:00pm
Living with HIV: A Student’s
Perspective
Stark Galleries
(Student Health Services)
4:00 - 5:00pm
History of the Quilt:
HIV/AIDS Today
Stark Galleries
(Student Health Services)
9:00am -11:00am
Personal Perspectives and
Remembrances
Stark Galleries
(GLBT Professional Network)
8:00pm - 9:00pm
Candlelight Vigil
Rudder Fountain
(GLBT Professional Network)
7:30pm
Viewina of movie And the
Band Plaved On
G. Rollie Coliseum Room 267
(MSC Film Society)
10:00am - 2:00pm
Free HIV Testing
Memorial Student Center (MSC)
Room 139
(AIDS Services of Brazos Valley)
a
• 16 years combined staff
experience
• Video of your jump available
• Call or go to the website to
make a reservation
• Located at Coulter Airfield
• dzo@skydiveaggieland.com
www.skydiveaggieland.com
778-JUMP
The No. V
travel to Hou
Rice Owls at
Rice (31-1
team in the r
and is riding
The Owls e
the national
won.
The Aggies
hander Dan !
the Owls. Th<
and an ERA <
Donaldson
recorded 17.:
Rice will
Wade Towns
perfect 4-0 n
In 53 innin
out 75 oppo
The two te
Feb. 11 at Mi
Rice defeate
The teams
holds the se
First pitch
can listen to
Station.
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*MSC E