Monday, January 4, 2010

Whales, Art and Nature Reserves

Here are three links related to UC San Diego that I came across this morning going through my email, after the year-end break.


California gray whale migration has begun, and the UC San Diego Birch Aquarium is a good place to start your search for a glimpse of the whales along the San Diego coast.
Read a round-up of whale-watching options in the North County Times

Catch up with the Birch Aquarium on Twitter.

The Jacobs School is getting a house on a roof!
Read about it in the San Diego Union Tribune. Here is an excerpt from the UT story by Robert Pincus about the next addition to the UC San Diego Stuart Collection:

Looking toward the 30th anniversary of the collection next year, [Mary] Beebe is raising money and awareness to install Korean-American Do-Ho Suh’s “Fallen Star” as the collection’s 18th work. It would consist of a modest suburban-style home with landscaping on the rooftop of a parapet that is part of a building in the campus’s engineering school. Suh is on campus next week to work on details of the proposal and speak to an invited audience at UCSD’s faculty club.




Suh will also give a second talk at UC San Diego on January 13.

UC San Diego Natural Reserve System
The UC San Diego Natural Reserve System (http://nrs.ucsd.edu/) includes the Dawson Los Monos Canyon Reserve, the Elliott Chaparral Reserve, the Kendall-Frost Mission Bay Marsh Reserve, and the Scripps Coastal Reserve. The reserves support university-level teaching, research and public service by protecting key areas of the natural environment.


Boeing 787 First Flight


I just learned of another way in which engineers from the Jacobs School are involved in the Boeing 787. Zachary Workman graduated from the Jacobs School in Spring 2009.

Workman interned with Boeing during his final year at UCSD, and he been working full time for the the last 6 months on the Dreamliner.


Lots more information on the first flight of the Boeing 787 here:
http://787firstflight.newairplane.com/ffindex.html

In December 2009, I highlighted the work that structural engineering professor Hyonny Kim has been doing on landing gear for the Boeing 787.