UA Student Robotic Rover Team Among Best in Nation

  • UANews
  • June 24, 2011
UA engineering students designed and built a planetary rover and demonstrated its capabilities recently at the NASA Johnson Space Center in Houston. The team received $10,000 to partake in the competition, requiring the rover to negotiate obstacles and traverse difficult terrain.

Arizona's Painted-Gravel Landscaping Losing its Appeal

  • The Arizona Republic
  • June 23, 2011
Long before xeriscaping, the low-maintenance landscaping of choice for many Arizonans involved blankets of pea gravel painted green to look like lawns – at least from an airplane. But painted gravel now is losing its popularity. "I wondered why anyone would want their yard to impress somebody in an airplane," said Terry Mikel, a retired UA horticulturist.

UA Awarded Millions to Shape Solar Telescope Mirror

  • UANews
  • June 22, 2011
The UA College of Optical Sciences has been awarded a multi-million dollar contract to polish the 4.2-meter primary mirror for the world's largest solar telescope. Researchers will produce a surface that will allow scientists to view features on the sun in unprecedented detail.

Summer Solstice 2011: Why It's the First Day of Summer

  • National Geographic
  • June 21, 2011
Summer starts today, the longest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere. For many modern cultures – Americans in particular – the solstices and equinoxes no longer attract the same kind of attention that they once did, said Jarita Holbrook, a cultural astronomer at the UA.

Engineering Sculpture Tells Many Stories

  • UANews
  • June 21, 2011
Wondering about that odd-looking bronze sculpture outside Old Engineering? It's called a bent, the official symbol of Tau Beta Pi, the oldest engineering honor society in the U.S. The one here has an interesting history.

Putting a New Spin on Computing

  • UANews
  • June 20, 2011
Harnessing the magnetic moment, or spin, of electrons rather than their electric charge, physicists at the UA have achieved a breakthrough toward the development of a new breed of computing devices that can process data using less power.

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