Researchers from North Carolina State University and IBM have invented a way to update computer systems packaged in virtual machines in a computer “cloud” – even when those programs are offline. Continue Reading »
General Raymond T. Odierno, commander of U.S. Joint Forces Command (USJFCOM), will deliver NC State’s commencement address on Saturday, Dec. 18, at the RBC Center in Raleigh. The commencement ceremony will begin at 9 a.m.
During the ceremony, Chancellor Randy Woodson will confer honorary degrees on behalf of NC State to Odierno and Dr. Deanna Bowling Marcum, associate librarian with the Library of Congress. Continue Reading »
The troposphere, the lower part of the atmosphere closest to the Earth, is warming in ways that are broadly consistent with both theoretical expectations and climate models, according to a new scientific study from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the NOAA-North Carolina State University Cooperative Institute for Climate and Satellites (CICS).
Since the development of the first climate models in the 1960s, the troposphere has been projected to warm along with the earth’s surface because of the increasing amounts of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. This expectation has not significantly changed even with major advances in climate models.
In the 1990s, however, observations did not show the troposphere to be warming even though surface temperatures were rapidly warming. This lack of tropospheric warming was used by some to question both the reality of the surface warming trend and the reliability of climate models as tools. The NOAA study, entitled “Tropospheric Temperature Trends: History of an Ongoing Controversy,” extensively reviews the relevant scientific analyses and finds that there is no longer evidence for a fundamental discrepancy and that the troposphere is warming.
“Looking at observed changes in tropospheric temperature and climate model expectations over time, the current evidence indicates that no fundamental discrepancy exists, after accounting for uncertainties in both the models and observations,” said Peter Thorne, a senior scientist at CICS in Asheville, N.C., and a senior researcher at NC State.
The paper, which is co-authored by researchers from NOAA, the NOAA-NCSU Cooperative Institute for Climate and Satellites, the United Kingdom Met Office, and the University of Reading in the United Kingdom, appears in Climate Change. And while this was the first comprehensive review of the scientific literature on this topic, it is not the last word on the tropospheric temperature trend.
“Looking to the future, it is only through robust and varied observations and data analyses can we hope to adequately understand the tropospheric temperature trend,” said Dian Seidel, a NOAA scientist at the Air Resources Laboratory, in Silver Spring, Md.
The work was funded by UK Department of Energy and Climate Change, the UK Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and NOAA. CICS is a consortium led by NC State University and the University of Maryland.
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Researchers from North Carolina State University have developed a sensor that allows engineers to assess the scour potential of soils at various depths and on-site for the first time – a technology that will help evaluate the safety of civil infrastructure before and after storm events. Scour, or erosion of soil around structures due to water flow, is responsible for a wide range of critical infrastructure failures – from unstable bridges to the levees that gave way in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. Continue Reading »
North Carolina State University celebrated its achievements in innovation and entrepreneurship for 2010 – including 32 U.S. patents issued and four start-up companies launched – with the inaugural presentation of its Innovator of the Year and Entrepreneur of the Year awards.
Dr. Behnam Pourdeyhimi was named NC State’s Innovator of the Year for 2010. Pourdeyhimi is the William A. Klopman Distinguished Chaired Professor of Materials in the College of Textiles and a professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering in the College of Engineering. Currently he serves as the associate dean for industry research and extension in the College of Textiles and is also the executive director of the Nonwovens Institute and the Nonwovens Cooperative Research Center (NCRC).
Pourdeyhimi’s research interests are in the area of nonwovens, responsive fibrous systems, filtration, computational modeling, materials, failure mechanisms, software algorithms, optics and image analysis.
Dr. Thomas Miller received the 2010 Entrepreneur of the Year award. Miller is the McPherson Family Distinguished Professor of Engineering Entrepreneurship at NC State. He is an associate dean in the College of Engineering and is vice provost for Distance Education and Learning Technology Applications (DELTA).
Miller is also executive director of the NC State University Entrepreneurship Initiative and a member of the Academy of Outstanding Teachers at NC State. He co-founded and served as president of X Engineering Software Systems Corporation, a developer of first native X-Window spreadsheets.
The NC State Entrepreneur and Innovator of the Year awards were established to recognize members of the NC State community who work to promote the commercialization of university intellectual property, train future leaders, and serve as champions of the university’s culture of innovation and entrepreneurship.
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The North Carolina State University Police Department will hold a ceremony to honor three students who saved a fellow student’s life by performing CPR.
Media are invited to attend the ceremony, which will be held on Friday, Nov. 12, at 1:30 p.m. in the Talley Student Center on NC State’s campus. Parking is available in the Coliseum deck.
On Sept. 2, three NC State students – Robert Olson, Jonathan Smetana and Matthew Cross – saw a jogger collapse on Dan Allen Drive. The man had no pulse and was not breathing. The students immediately began CPR and continued until EMS arrived and took over. Thanks to their quick action, the jogger – a fellow NC State student – survived.
Five other students will also be recognized at the ceremony for their assistance at the scene, as will members of the Raleigh Fire Department, Wake County EMS and Cary EMS.
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North Carolina State University will welcome back alumni and celebrate Homecoming with a parade on Hillsborough Street from 6 to 7 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 12, followed by a pep rally and concert on Harris Field from 7 to 11 p.m.
Media coverage of both events is invited. Chancellor Randy Woodson and his wife, Susan, are the parade’s grand marshals.
Raleigh Police Department and Campus Police will close the portion of Hillsborough Street affected by the parade route – between Dan Allen Drive and Pullen Road – beginning at about 5:45 p.m. The parade leaves the Sullivan Lot on campus and travels via Sullivan Drive, Dan Allen Drive, Hillsborough Street, Pullen Road, Dunn Avenue, Jeter Drive, Cates Avenue (which will be temporarily westbound only until the parade passes), Dan Allen Drive to Sullivan Drive and back to the Sullivan Lot.
The pep rally features a concert by the San Diego-based rock band Augustana.
Homecoming wraps up with NC State’s 2 p.m. football game against Wake Forest University on Saturday, Nov. 13, at Carter-Finley Stadium.
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What: North Carolina State University will host a free, half-day workshop to help job-seekers find employment in North Carolina’s growing green-energy sector. The workshop will explore:
For the last hour of the workshop, N.C. Solar Center staff and other green professionals will be on site to answer questions and provide advice.
Who: Presented by the N.C. Solar Center, part of NC State’s College of Engineering.
When: 9 a.m. to noon on Wednesday, Dec. 8
Where: NC State’s Jane S. McKimmon Center at the intersection of Gorman Street and Western Boulevard in Raleigh
Cost: Free and open to the public; registration is required. To register, visit the Web.
Contact: For more information, visit the N.C. Solar Center online.
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New research from North Carolina State University shows that most online news stories about cancer contain language that likely contributes to public uncertainty about the disease – a significant finding, given that at least one-third of Americans seek health information online. Continue Reading »
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