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Adam Leff

FEATURES 10/4/23 12:08am

Alumni point future engineers towards the stars

By Adam Leff

Of the 30 mechanical engineers in John H. Scott’s 1982 graduating class at Rice, four would end up at the level of department head or higher at NASA. Scott himself was among them; now the principal technologist for power and energy storage, he noted that many of his classmates wound up in similar leadership roles.

NEWS 9/13/23 12:03am

Medical humanities, advanced materials and sustainability institutes launch

By Adam Leff

Rice established three new research institutes this summer in medical humanities, advanced materials and sustainability. The university also increased funding for the Ken Kennedy Institute and Smalley-Curl Institute, investigating interdisciplinary uses of artificial intelligence and applied physics, respectively, and approved a Synthetic Biology Institute to complement these programs, according to Executive Vice President for Research Ramamoorthy Ramesh. 

FEATURES 4/18/23 10:51pm

Golden Talon scavenges on campus

By Adam Leff

Normally, the steam tunnels under Rice are off-limits to students. But on Tuesday, April 6, as part of a scavenger hunt organized by a student group called the Order of the Golden Talon, two intrepid teams got the privilege of exploring the steam tunnels under Rice. Duncan College junior Ethan Peck, who was on the winning team, noted that this was one moment when the team had doubts about the hunt.

FEATURES 4/4/23 10:09pm

Rice Eclipse launches rockets, shoots for stars

By Adam Leff

While most Rice students were sleeping in the morning of March 26, a group of students were in transit to launch rockets an hour away. These students had spent hours working in the Oshman Engineering Design Kitchen on their rockets with Rice Eclipse and were now ready to get their L1 rocketry certification.

FEATURES 3/21/23 10:29pm

Do it yourself: Students talk designing area majors

By Adam Leff

Any prospective student flipping through Rice’s major offerings would miss Computer Science and the Arts — probably because it’s not listed. This specific program is an area major, a type of unique student-designed major made by students looking to forge their own curriculum. Bria Weisz said she created the Computer Science and the Arts major upon finding out that the curricula lacked adequate flexibility for her intended double majors, computer science and visual and dramatic arts.

FEATURES 2/21/23 10:29pm

Science, tech, engineering and crochet: looking at COLL courses

By Adam Leff

Like any other course, COLL 113 begins with a discussion of the assigned readings. The current discussion topic is the relationship between crocheting and coding, and how the fields can be used to inform one another. Afterwards, the teacher demonstrates crochet techniques for the class, projected on a screen so her hands are visible.

FEATURES 1/31/23 10:50pm

Owls after dark builds community

By Adam Leff

Tahj Blackman, assistant director of campus events, keeps an array of Lego sculptures in his office, remnants from a competition he helped host on Jan. 19. Owls After Dark, a late-night events program, recently hosted this Lego competition in collaboration with the Doerr Institute.

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