August 5, 2004
Peer Portfolio
FOR LOVE OF PIXIE: The love a pair of poodle owners had for their show dog Pixie has translated into a major donation that will pay for a new endowed faculty chair in comparative oncology next year at the University of Minnesota, according to the UMNews Web site.
Alvin and June Perlman of Minnetonka, Minn., sought help at the UMN’s College of Veterinary Medicine when Pixie, their poodle, developed oral cancer. There they got interested in the cancer research of the school’s dean, who also was their pet’s oncologist. The Perlmans learned that humans and dogs share some types of cancer, including stomach and bone cancer, so studying the genes behind canine cancer could lead to breakthoughs in treatments for humans, too.
Researchers say studying spontaneously formed cancers in dogs is superior to looking at induced cancers in lab mice, and the treatments can extend the pets lives, too.
HIGH-TECH TUTORING: With k-12 education accountability in the spotlight and increased student testing and federal mandates, the need for student tutors is rising rapidly. But tutors are expensive. So researchers at the University of Pittsburgh’s Learning Research and Development Center are working on improving computer-tutoring programs to make them more, well, human-like, according to the university’s Web site.
Most current computer tutorials just tell the user whether an answer is right or wrong, but can’t do much more. With a $2.5 million National Science Foundation grant, Pitt researchers hope to create a program that can handle more natural language such as open-ended questions and analyze student responses. The reseachers hope to get a product on the market in the next five to 10 years.
CREATING ‘CREATE’: Normally, it can take weeks or even months for satellite images of earthly landscapes and terrain to get to researchers. But a new center at the University of New Mexico is looking to change that for the better, and faster.
Called CREATE, or the Center for Rapid Environmental Analysis and Terrain Evaluation, the center is getting its start with the help of a
$3.5 million grant from a series of federal appropriations that will be administered by NASA. Through the center, Louis Scuderi, an associate professor of Earth and planetary sciences, will work toward getting digital imagery almost in real-time, rather than after a delay.
The speeded-up receipt of data could help in firefighting and livestock management, among other areas.
“Getting (data) a month after a fire or a flood isn’t real helpful,” the UNM News and Information service quoted Scuderi as saying. “There’s not very many people outside the Department of Defense with the ability to capture and process data in real time.”
Peer Portfolio is a compilation of what’s news on the campuses of the UW’s peer institutions.
