http://www.lafayette.edu RSS Feed For Lafayette Academics Stephanie Fosbenner 10 (Perkasie, Pa.) and Max Minckler 10 (Fort Lauderdale, Fla.) have been selected as finalists in the 2010 Marshall Scholarship competition.  Marshall Scholarships finance young Americans of high ability to study for a degree in the United Kingdom. Up to 40 scholars are selected each year to study at the graduate level at a U.K. institution in any field of study. Each scholarship is held for two years. Fosbenner and Minckler are both scheduled to be interviewed by a regional Marshall selection panel this month. http://www.lafayette.edu/news.php/view/14313 http://www.lafayette.edu/news.php/view/14313 Mechanical engineering major Tiffany Patafio 10 (Staten Island, N.Y.) got a taste of life in the finance industry during a summer internship with Daniel Kilmurray 75 at UBS Financial Services in New York City. "This opportunity not only exposed me to the world of finance, it also helped me to network and connect with people in all different fields. I worked with so many wonderful people who had so much advice to offer about possible career paths and how to approach my upcoming job search. I learned so many valuable things about the finance world and gained so many beneficial contacts in all industries, that I truly feel this internship will help to shape my career and, consequently, the rest of my life," she says. http://www.lafayette.edu/news.php/view/14297 http://www.lafayette.edu/news.php/view/14297 Soon students taking Introduction to Engineering and Public Policy and Introduction to Policy Studies will have a new software program at their disposal called Urban Development Tools (UDT). The twist is that fellow students studying computer science are creating the program. Miguel Haruki Yamaguchi 11 (Akashi, Japan) and Rhodes Baker 10 (Columbus, Ohio) developed the UDT concept and a basic prototype this past summer as EXCEL Scholars under the guidance of Chun Wai Liew, associate professor and head of computer science. http://www.lafayette.edu/news.php/view/14289 http://www.lafayette.edu/news.php/view/14289 http://www.lafayette.edu/news.php/view/14281 http://www.lafayette.edu/news.php/view/14281 A new team-taught course will provide students with a look at Russian and Eastern European art, government, history, literature, music, and religion, both in and out of the classroom. The interdisciplinary class, which includes a free trip to Russia, will allow students to experience the country firsthand. History, Art, and Culture of Russia and Eastern Europe, taught by Joshua Sanborn, associate professor of history, andIda Sinkevic, associate professor of art, will allow students to learn from experts in two different disciplines in the same classroom. http://www.lafayette.edu/news.php/view/14282 http://www.lafayette.edu/news.php/view/14282 A team of six students will travel to Maryland Nov. 2-4 to compete in the regional College Fed Challenge competition held at the Baltimore branch of the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond. The students will become monetary policymakers as they assess current economic conditions, determine Federal Reserve goals, and develop a monetary policy that addresses these goals. They are scored on content, responses to judges questions, research and analysis, presentation, and teamwork. Students learn about the nature of monetary policy and how it is conducted, says James DeVault, associate professor of economics and team co-adviser. They also learn how to put together a persuasive presentation and how to work together as a team. http://www.lafayette.edu/news.php/view/14271 http://www.lafayette.edu/news.php/view/14271 Two teams of Lafayette students will be challenged to use their programming skills, creativity, and business sense as they compete in the regional round of the worlds most prestigious computer programming competition. Sponsored by IBM, the 34th annual Association for Computing Machinery International Collegiate Programming Contest (ICPC) for the mid-Atlantic region will take place Nov. 7 at Wilkes University. The Battle of the Brains is based on a competition first held at Texas A&M University in 1970 and requires student teams to write programs to solve as many complex, real-world problems as possible within a five-hour time limit. http://www.lafayette.edu/news.php/view/14268 http://www.lafayette.edu/news.php/view/14268 This fall, Donald L. Miller, John Henry MacCracken Professor of History, will welcome the premiere of two projects hes worked closely on to preserve the rich stories of World War II. The film Beyond all Boundaries will debut at the National World War II Museum Nov. 6-8, and the 10-hour series WWII in HD will begin its run Nov. 15 on the History Channel. Miller served as writer and creative consultant on the film, traveling to California to meet with Tom Hanks about the project. Miller was writer and chief historical consultant for WWII in HD. He worked with Lou Reda Productions of Easton on the full-color, high-definition series, which is one of the History Channels most ambitious projects to date. It is narrated by Emmy Award-winner Gary Sinise. http://www.lafayette.edu/news.php/view/14256 http://www.lafayette.edu/news.php/view/14256 For three weeks in January, students will be immersed in Japanese culture through a new winter interim-abroad course led by Paul Barclay, associate professor of history, and Naoko Ikegami, visiting instructor of foreign languages and literatures. The course is being offered as part of the College's new interdisciplinary Asian studies major. While in Japan, the students will tour temples, shrines, gardens, monuments, and natural vistas of Western Japan, with a concentration on Kyoto. They will watch demonstrations of and participate in Zen mediation; the art of Kimono, ceramics, paper-making, and calligraphy; traditional martial arts; and fine Japanese cuisine and tea ceremony. They also will practice communicating using Japanese and Japanese-friendly English. http://www.lafayette.edu/news.php/view/14244 http://www.lafayette.edu/news.php/view/14244 Jamila Bookwala, associate professor of psychology, will present this years Jones Faculty Lecture 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 28, in Kirby Hall of Civil Rights room 104. A reception will follow. Her talk, Our Relationships, Our Health, will focus on her research looking at the link between personal relationships and health during the middle and late adulthood years.  In particular, her research examines the interconnections among marriage, stress, and psychological and physical health in adults aged 50+ years.   The talk is sponsored by the Thomas Roy and Lura Forest Jones Faculty Lecture and Awards Fund, established in 1966 to recognize superior teaching and scholarship at Lafayette. http://www.lafayette.edu/news.php/view/14227 http://www.lafayette.edu/news.php/view/14227 Lew Minter, director of the art department's media lab, and art major Amanda Smith 10 have produced digital reconstructions of two altarpieces by Italian Renaissance Painter Antonio Vivarini. The reconstructions will be exhibited at the Gemldegalerie museum in Berlin and were published among a broader discussion of the context of the polyptychs in the Jahrbuch der Berliner Museen 2008 (Year Book of the Berlin Museums, published 2009). A detailed article focusing on reconstruction problems will be published, along with color reproductions, in a museum journal. http://www.lafayette.edu/news.php/view/14221 http://www.lafayette.edu/news.php/view/14221 The Experimental Printmaking Institute (EPI) has hired three student interns this semester, starting a program which Curlee Raven Holton, professor of art and director of EPI, hopes will become a model for the future. The program provides students with an experience that is both interdisciplinary and very real world in nature. The interns, who are not art majors, will not only learn about the art industry, but also will be in charge of EPIs business management, marketing, public relations, and research and documentation. Holton believes the internship program fits in with EPIs student-centered mission. http://www.lafayette.edu/news.php/view/14219 http://www.lafayette.edu/news.php/view/14219 Muhannad Suleiman and Anne Raich, assistant professors, and Steve Kurtz, associate professor of civil and environmental engineering, have received a $279,275 National Science Foundation grant to research the use of pervious concrete in foundations supporting structures and highway facilities which are constructed on poor soil. Experimental and analytical research will be conducted in Lafayette's new Soil-Structure Interaction Facility, which is funded by a $222,487 National Science Foundation Major Research Instrumentation grant. At least four students will be involved in the research project. http://www.lafayette.edu/news.php/view/14214 http://www.lafayette.edu/news.php/view/14214 In her new book, Katalin Fabian, associate professor of government and law, contrasts the stages of development in organization, membership, and activism of Hungarian womens groups over the last two decades. Contemporary Women's Movements in Hungary: Globalization, Democracy, and Gender Equality will be released this month by Johns Hopkins University Press. The work focuses on the role of women's activism in a country where women have been traditionally under-represented in formal political institutions.  http://www.lafayette.edu/news.php/view/14166 http://www.lafayette.edu/news.php/view/14166