UA Air Vehicle Team ties for 1st in India competition
The UA’s Micro-Air Vehicle Team tied for first place in developing the world’s tiniest and most capable spy plane, the university announced Tuesday.
The UA competed with 15 teams, one of which from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, in Agra, India, in developing a micro-air vehicle.
A micro-air vehicle is a small, radio-controlled airplane that can go into dangerous situations. Nicknamed MAVs, such vehicles are powered by electric motors and carry onboard video and various sensors.
The U.S. Army held the competition along with other Indian agencies and required teams to participate in hostage rescue scenarios where teams would have to guide soldiers through streets, remove obstacles and land mines and get the soldiers to the hostages in less than 40 minutes.
The MAVs were judged on their level of autonomy, if they were able to vertically fly and how many obstacles and they could detect.
College of Medicine receives $2.5 million endowment
The College of Medicine has received $2.5 million from a Phoenix couple to fund two research chairs, the UA announced Monday.
Clara and Murray Walker, a pair of retired Phoenix high school teachers, established the Murray and Clara Walker Memorial Endowed Research Chair in Emphysema and The Murray and Clara Walker Memorial Endowed Research Chair in Ophthalmology posthumously.
The endowment will help fund ophthalmology and emphysema research annually.
The Walkers’ estate totals $6 million and they have also funded gifts to Arizona State University and the Arizona Historical Society.
The UA Foundation will manage the endowment.
Three faculty members named Galileo Circle Fellows
Three faculty members from the College of Science have been named 2008 Galileo Circle Fellows, one of the highest honors a faculty member could receive, the university announced Monday.
Daniel Eisenstein, an associate professor of astronomy and an astronomer with the UA Steward Observatory, Joyce Schroeder, an assistant professor of molecular and cellular biology and a member of the BIO5 Institute, and Brad Story, an associate professor of speech, language and hearing sciences were recognized for their achievements in academics.
Faculty who receive the honor receives $5,000 and a lifetime membership in the Galileo Circle.
UA astronomer takes Guggenheim Fellowship Award
Xiaohui Fan, an associate professor of astronomy at the Steward Observatory, is the only astronomer and Arizonan to receive a 2008 Guggenheim Fellowship Award out of 190 artists, scholars and scientists from the U.S. and Canada, the university announced April 25.
The John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation chose Fan on a basis of achievement, promise and accomplishment.
Fan received a $42,000 fellowship that he will use to take a sabbatical leave at the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy in Heidelberg, Germany to research distant galaxies and quasars with the Large Binocular Telescope on Mount Graham, Ariz.
Fan collaborated with German and Italian scientists to develop the LBT’s ability to detect galaxies and quasars.
– compiled by Arizona Daily Wildcat staff
