Near West End

The University of Richmond was among 48 universitiues to receive money from The Howard Hughes Medical Institute. UR will get $1.4 million towards its teaching computer science to introductory science course students.

A year ago, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute issued a challenge to 224 undergraduate colleges nationwide: identify creative new ways to engage your students in the biological sciences.

Now 48 of the nation’s best undergraduate institutions will receive $60 million to help them usher in a new era of science education.

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Computational Tie Binds Interdisciplinary Classes

If you want to see the big picture in science, you’ve got to learn to crunch the numbers. That’s a theme at the University of Richmond, where faculty funded by a $1.4 million HHMI grant are teaching computer science in their introductory science courses.

“We’ve found that students who don’t have at least a rudimentary background in programming are at a real disadvantage,” says HHMI grant director Kathy Hoke, a mathematician. “The ties that bind disciplines tend to be computational.”

The faculty at this Richmond, Va., institution aim to expose students to computer science and more in a new, two-semester course that replaces standard introductory classes in computer science, biology, chemistry, physics, and math. Instead of learning these subjects in isolation, students will approach them in an interdisciplinary way. Students will use their programming skills to investigate pertinent science questions, such as modeling key HIV proteins and analyzing their ability to bind to inhibitory drugs. That class will prepare students for upper-level courses in each field, which they can pursue from their sophomore years onward.

“We want our students to think algorithmically,” Hoke explains, saying it will better prepare the students for a career in science. “And we’ll structure the class so they learn to answer questions like this by drawing from different perspectives, such as molecular biology, thermodynamic analysis, and mathematical modeling.”

The emphasis on computation is also reflected in newly-offered courses in bioinformatics, biophysics, computational science, neuropharmacology, and systems biology. Hoke says these subjects all combine elements from multiple fields; progress in each one is dependent on the use of databases and quantitative methods. Systems biology, for instance, draws heavily on genomics and molecular biology, which are data-intensive fields.

The same can be said for epidemiology, which looks for medical trends in human populations. Using its HHMI grant, Richmond is adding a new faculty member in epidemiology this year. “Epidemiology draws on multiple disciplines, and it’s an area that we currently don’t have expertise in,” Hoke says. “And we’ve found that questions about disease really engage students from a variety of different majors.”

Julie Rechel, age 20, of the University of Richmond, finished as the first place female at the Twenty-12 Talent Identification Triathlon in Tuscaloosa, Alabama this weekend. She won the race with at time of 1:06:57.
Sunday’s race was a chance for USA Triathlon or USAT officials to scout and develop talent for the Olympic Games in 2012 or 2016.

Rechel, a student at the University of Richmond, said she didn’t expect to be out front on the bike in the women’s race. “I just held on and brought it home on the run,” she said.

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The location of the April 10 symposium kicking off the inauguration of Edward L. Ayers as president of the University of Richmond has been changed to accommodate high demand for tickets.

“New Perspectives on the American Civil War” will be held on campus at the Robins Center at 4:30 p.m. April 10. A book-signing by the three panelists — Ayers, Harvard University president and history professor Drew Gilpin Faust, and University of Virginia professor of the Civil War Gary W. Gallagher — will follow.

Ticket requests have significantly exceeded the capacity of the originally scheduled location, 600-seat Camp Concert Hall, and continue to come in. Admission is free and open to the public, but advance online registration is required at inauguration.richmond.edu. For more information, call 804-287-1800.

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Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke will speak at the University of Richmond tomorrow. Let’s hope he has something good to say about the economy! As for me, my entire tax refund and economic stimulus check, and vacation allowance will be going towards a new $3,000 transmission in husband’s car. Wonder how much that will do for the local economy.

The national spotlight will be on Richmond tomorrow when Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke will speak to the World Affairs Council of Greater Richmond.

About 235 business representatives are expected to attend the sold-out luncheon at the University of Richmond. An overflow room for students and others also will be filled, said council President Randolph Bell, former U.S. ambassador at large.

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University of Richmond police are investigating the simulated lynching of a miniature black doll as a possible hate crime.

“When I actually saw what had been done, it took my breath away,” said Walter Schoen, chairman of the university’s department of theater and dance, who discovered the figure hanging by a noose in a small studio theater.

Schoen described the green and red elf-like character as a Christmas decoration that has been around for at least the past two years. It was brought to school by a student as part of a fraternity initiation ceremony that involved giving a present, he said.

Just under 2 feet tall and considered female, the figure had become a good-luck charm, Schoen said, that was kept in the lighting booth.

“Some of the kids would even talk to it,” Schoen said.

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Join the Friends of Bandy Park, and Richmond City Parks and Rec and help plant seedlings at Bandy Field Friday starting at 2 p.m.

The University of Richmond has donated 135 seedling trees, which student volunteers from the university and members of the non-profit citizen group, Friends of Bandy Field, will help Richmond’s Department of Parks, Recreation and Community Facilities plant at Bandy Field Nature Park on Friday, April 4, starting at 2 p.m.

The park is located on Three Chopt Road west of Patterson Avenue near the university.

The tree planting is one of the programs planned in conjunction with the April 10-11 inauguration of the university’s new president, Edward L. Ayers, and reflects the university’s focus on protecting the environment. As part of President Ayer’s inauguration, the university is donating a total of 178 trees that will be planted in various locations around the city—in honor of the university’s 178-year history.