UA Army ROTC hosts golf tournament at Vistoso Golf Club

The UA Army ROTC is hosting a golf tournament on April 19 to raise funds and work toward creating an alumni association.

Besides giving participants a chance to play at The Golf Club at Vistoso at a discounted rate, the first annual Army ROTC Alumni and Friends Golf Scramble will also include raffles, silent auctions and golf competitions. The tournament, which begins at 1 p.m., will help raise funds for scholarships, grants and team-building activities, as well as serving as part of a larger effort to create a UA Army ROTC Alumni Association.

Read the rest here at the Arizona Daily Wildcat.

Radio Boot Camp

This Saturday I participated in a Radio Boot Camp class. Led by journalists from Arizona Public Media the 12 hour crash course taught us the basics of how to write, record, voice and edit an audio story. This is the product of that experience. 

Businesses say construction for the Tucson Streetcar has deterred customers from visiting shops along University Boulevard. Kayla Samoy reports.

UA professor works on autonomous car

When Jonathan Sprinkle was young, he invented his own crossword puzzles and convinced his dad to make copies of them at work.

For Sprinkle, now an assistant professor in the UA Electrical and Computer Engineering Department, inventing those crossword puzzles led him to realize that he had the ingenuity he needed to pursue his current career.

Now, one of the main projects Sprinkle is working on is an autonomous car that can drive itself.

Read the rest here at the Arizona Daily Wildcat.

UAMC brings back lung-transplant program with new director

The University of Arizona Medical Center is reviving its lung-transplant program after a yearlong hiatus.

The program shut down in February of 2012 after UAMC’s primary lung-transplant surgeon, Dr. Michael Moulton, left to accept an appointment as chief of cardiothoracic surgery at the University of Nebraska Medical Center. Now, with the recent hiring of Dr. Jesus Gomez-Abraham as the director of the lung and heart-lung transplant programs atUAMC, the program is being restored.

Read the rest here at the Arizona Daily Wildcat.

UA campus members to showcase research, business plans at Innovation Day

Students have the opportunity to showcase projects, like a website that would help users achieve their life goals, at the UA’s 10th annual Innovation Day on Thursday.

Innovation Day began when the Office of University Research Parks wanted to encourage UA faculty and students to think of ways to commercialize technology instead of publishing research.

Read the rest here at the Arizona Daily Wildcat.

UA astronomy professor participates in Science for Monks program in India

Published March 6, 2013 – Arizona Daily Wildcat

Paper timelines fan out across the floor, filled with pictures of the universe and human culture. They’re all supposed to show moments between the Big Bang and now in chronological order, but all of them vary.

Around these pieces of paper stand groups of Tibetan monks debating and defending the timelines they’ve arranged. To an outsider who doesn’t speak Tibetan, the energy in the room would be overwhelming. The monks are shouting and shoving, but if you look closely, you can see the smiles on their faces and hear the laughter amidst the arguing.

Read the rest here at the Arizona Daily Wildcat.

UA dean to retire, tackle sex trafficking issue in India

Published March 20, 2013 – Arizona Daily Wildcat

Ray Umashankar isn’t in the habit of taking “no” for an answer. After having a total hip replacement surgery nearly 10 years ago, he was told that in the best-case scenario, he’d walk with a cane for the rest of his life.

A little more than a year after the surgery, Umashankar and his wife hiked the Grand Canyon.

Read the rest here at the Arizona Daily Wildcat.

UAMC orthopaedic surgeon saves lives, helps improve soccer field in Honduras

Published February 10, 2013 – Arizona Daily Wildcat

It was the medical team’s first night in Honduras and, after the long trip, the team members just wanted to sleep.

They were woken up at 1 a.m. Confused and tired, they put on their scrubs and rushed to the operating room.

A 17-year-old boy had been brought in, his thumb nearly amputated from a machete. The medical team included Dr. Joseph Sheppard, a University of Arizona Medical Center orthopaedic surgeon.

The boy was quiet and in shock. The sight of his bloody hand shocked everyone out of their fatigue.

Read the rest here at the Arizona Daily Wildcat.