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May 2007 · 5/25/07SIUE School of Nursing Alumni & Friends Raise $14K At Annual Gala(EDWARDSVILLE, Ill.) The third year for the Southern Illinois University Edwardsville School of Nursing Excellence Gala raised more than $14,000 for student scholarships.The money was raised at the SIUE School of Nursing Excellence Gala and Awards ceremony through a silent and a live auction. Nearly 250 University employees, students, alumni, administrators and health-care professionals turned out to bid on items such as distinctive artwork, sports tickets, fun getaway packages, private meals prepared by professional chefs and School of Nursing Dean Marcia Maurer’s homemade Christmas cookies.Four awards were presented at the event, including:• Outstanding Hospital or Health Care Agency: Alton Memorial Hospital; • Outstanding Friend to Nursing: Sam and Geri Winston;• Outstanding SIUE School of Nursing Alumnus: Jim Cato• Outstanding New SIUE School of Nursing Alumna: Gretchen Henderson.   5/25/07Engineering Professors Receive $150K NSF Grant For Robotics(EDWARDSVILLE, Ill.) Jerry Weinberg and William Yu, associate professors of Computer Science at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, in partnership with Kim Wheeler and Robin Knight of RoadNarrows LLC, have received a $150,000 grant from the National Science Foundation to create a “Brain Pack” for walking robots.Since 1999, Weinberg, chair of the Department of Computer Science in the SIUE School of Engineering, and Yu have been instrumental in bringing middle school, high school and college students together from throughout the region to study robotics and participate in robotics competitions.The NSF grant, “General Robot Controller for Legged Mobile Robots with Integrated Open Source Software,” will help develop a computer backpack or “Brain Pack” for two-, four-, and six-legged robots for teaching science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) courses. “The Brain Pack will provide an easy to program computer controller that connects sensors, such as foot touch sensors, to give a robot the ‘sense’ of walking and a color camera to give the robot ‘eyesight,’” Weinberg said.“It will be a general controller that can be used on any legged robot, providing it with sensors and computing power that walking robots on the market currently do not have.”Hands-on robotics projects have become useful educational tools across a variety of subjects, Weinberg pointed out. “Robots are integrated systems comprised of interdependent electrical, mechanical, and computational components. Because of their multidisciplinary nature, the study of robotics in the classroom has become a valuable tool for the practical, hands-on application of concepts in various STEM topics at the K-12 and undergraduate educational levels.“While there are wheeled robots that are easy to use for K-12 and undergraduate educators, there are no legged robot platforms with easy to use hardware and software,” Weinberg said.“The Brain Pack will have ‘plug-and-play’ sensors with straightforward software modules developed specifically for use in the classroom.” Weinberg recently organized the Greater St. Louis Botball Tournament conducted on the SIUE campus, where some 150 students, along with their teachers and parents from 11 schools in Missouri and Illinois, participated in the event. “This was a regional robotics competition for a national tournament conducted by the KISS Institute for Practical Robotics,” Weinberg said.“The event started with a student/teacher workshop on building and programming robots and ended in an exciting head-to-head tournament seven weeks later,” Weinberg explained. This was the first regional robotics tournament held at SIUE and Weinberg plans to make it an annual event.Kim Wheeler-Smith and Robin Knight are the co-founders of RoadNarrows LCC in Loveland, Colo. They earned engineering and mathematics degrees focused on robotics and computational intelligence, which led them to create a company to provide mobile robots to educators and researchers.“The primary mission of RoadNarrows is to participate in the robotics revolution by developing, manufacturing, and offering hardware and software platforms for purchase to further technical education and to enable related research and development,” Weinberg said.“The partnership between SIUE and RoadNarrows is key to the successful development of the Brain Pack innovation. The educators at SIUE have considerable experience in developing curricula and software for using robots in the classroom, and RoadNarrows has similarly considerable experience in engineering and marketing robot hardware for educators.For more information, contact Professor Weinberg, (618) 650-2368.   5/24/07ChangesRetirements Catherine Banks, senior library specialist for Library and Information Services at Lovejoy Library, effective April 1, after more than 31 years. Linda Durrell, account tech in Finanical Affairs/Administrative Accounting, effective May 1, after more than five years. Diane Giger, secretary in the Office of the Chancellor, effective May 1, after 10 years. Rudolph Wilson, assistant provost for Cultural and Social Diversity, effective April 1, after nearly 38 years. Dennis Tate, lead plant operating engineer in Facilities Management, effective May 1, after nearly 29 years. 5/22/07SIUE East St. Louis Center Receives Grant For Upward Bound Programs  The U.S. Department of Education has granted more than $870,000 to the Southern Illinois University Edwardsville’s Upward Bound programs, part of the federally funded TRIO programs offered at the SIUE East St. Louis Center.The Upward Bound (EC) program received $565,548 to serve 150 students, while the Upward Bound (BEMV) program received $305,552 to serve 65 students, all throughout the 2007-08 academic year. Upward Bound is a college preparatory program serving low-income or potential first-generation college students who are currently in high school—EC serves students at East St. Louis Senior High School and at Cahokia High School, while BEMV serves students at Brooklyn High School, SIUE East St. Louis Charter School, Madison High School and Venice –Lincoln Technical Center.Center Director Patricia Harrison said the Upward Bound program is a valuable resource in the community. “We are very excited about this news. Harrison said the Education grants for TRIO programs at the SIUE East St. Louis Center have been invaluable in providing more opportunities for students to graduate high school and enroll in higher education. “Some 80 percent of our students have entered post-secondary education,” Harrison said.Upward Bound participants receive free tutorial services in their college prep courses and are eligible to receive waivers for the SAT and ACT. Students in the program receive assistance in applying to college, and may receive six hours of college credit after successfully completing the programs. Afternoon sessions in mathematics, science, foreign language, computer study, and English are conducted at the East St. Louis Center. Students are assigned courses based on their high school class schedules. 5/22/07SIUE Enters ‘Blogosphere’ For Sharing In Cyberspace(EDWARDSVILLE, Ill.) Southern Illinois University Edwardsville has entered into the emerging social network of blogs (WebLogs) by allowing individuals to discuss their personal experiences and memories of SIUE on its Web site.It’s all part of the University’s 50th Anniversary celebration, which begins officially with a “Founder’s Day” celebration on Sept. 24. “We thought this would be a good opportunity to experiment with an emerging communication technology,” said Barbara O’Malley, SIUE’s executive director of marketing and communications and co-chair of the 50th anniversary planning committee.“A blog is a tool for people to discuss what’s important to them. It’s a way for people to interact with each other—the University simply creates the communication vehicle to make it possible.”So far, people are blogging. Because bloggers can post confidential comments, it’s no

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