SHS Inside: The Free Press Volume 11 Issue 12 Friday, April 20, 1990 Editorial 2 Attention UT Students 5 Science Page 6 Theatre Spotlight 7 BCIT gets $5million 8 Plane Crash 11 S A Corner 14 E arthd a y 1 8 AND MUCH MUCH MORE SEE INSIDE Science One Students Visit SFU, UBC By Szilvia Torok and Steven Monai During the recent study break (spring break, that is ), a group of CNC students went on a trip to the Lower Mainland. Some Science One students, some geography students and a few teachers took part in the excursion. The majority of people traveled south in the CNC school bus, but several people obtained their own transportation which was markedly faster and more reliable than our bus. The following Science One students went on the trip: Luke Beek, Nicole Bock, Raj Dhami, Brad Firth, Steven Monai, David Polano, Gordon Rowe, and myself, Szilvia Torok. The teachers who came as a part of Science One were Doug Birtwhistle, Conrad Jarosch and Ben Malcolm; we also met up with Raymond Lo in Vancouver. We left Prince George on Wednesday, March 7, and returned on Sunday, March 1 1 . We spent Wednesday night at the Alpine Motel in Hope - this is as far as we got in twelve hours! The remaining nights were spent at the Holiday Inn in Vancouver. THURSDAY. MARCH 8 Both the Science One and geography students arrived at Simon Fraser University in the morning. While the geography students made their own way, the Science One students split up into two groups: one group was interested in biosciences, and the other group was interested in engineering. I was a part of the "biosciences group." A meeting was arranged between a professor and our group; we were given a short talk on the pestology program at SFU. This program is offered to graduate students, and it has significant applications involving agricultural research and entomology (the study of insects). Our group was also given a short tour of the Gordon Shrum Science Centre; we went into a biology lab, and I found it to be rather small. In the afternoon, we wandered the halls and looked at anything that seemed interesting: the art gallery, the Native Indian museum, a lecture theater and the bookstore. We had lunch in the cafeteria and discovered that university food is actually edible. Meanwhile, Steve and Brad (the engineering group) spoke with a representative of the Faculty of Applied Science about admission requirements and program details. They found out two interesting facts: to be considered for entrance to engineering at SFU, candidates must have a GPA of 3.7 or higher (!), and all engineering programs offer co-op programs with work placements in many exciting places such as IBM and Sony (in Japan!). After that, Steve told me that an engineering student took them on a tour of the labs - they are reportedly very impressive. The labs have very up-to-date computer workstations (namely, the acclaimed Sun workstations) which are being used in every facet of the engineering process" CAD, word processing, computer modelling, high-powered calculations, and the like. nology approached him about using his work on deep sea robots that lay out cables so that the robots can "see" things coming at them and, hopefully, avoid them. Steve and I both think that the SFU campus is very impressive. He saw it as having a futuristic look and atmosphere that makes one feel as if, "this is the place where it's all going to happen." After seeing the engineering department, such feelings are definitely not unwarranted. Bar-B-Q season is here. Good thing these guys don't know about it. Photo by John Van Geloven Another student of electrical engineering showed them his bachelor's thesis project; the fact that it is his bachelor's thesis project is amazing because it is complex and advanced enough to be a master's thesis. The project involves an optical motion-sensing device that was built to mimic the human eye. This clevice consists of a matrix of light sensors, each of which is connected to a separate processor to enable each sensor to interpret what it is "seeing", and to communicate this information to a central computer which is programmed to receive data from all of the sensors. The crux of his thesis is to create a motion-sensing system that could be mounted on a moving chassis so that once motion is detected out of the comer of its "eye", the "eye" can turn itself towards the motion to get a better look. The problem was to build a system that could distinguish between the motion of the "eye" itself and the motion of an external object -not an easy task! This same student told the group that two leading companies in submarine tech- FRIDAY.MARCH9 We arrived at the University of British Columbia before noon; a whole day at UBC was waiting for us! The campus, at first, appeared extremely large. I found it difficult to get a bearing on where I actually was; since I hadn't previously been at UBC, my senses were definitely given a shock! The "biosciences group" was introduced to the entomology division of zoology. A researcher directed us into a room that had cabinets, shelves, drawers, bottles and boxes all full of insects; they were either pinned or preserved. He told us that the classification system for insects is vague and incomplete, since there are so many diverse and undiscovered forms. We were shown some of the equipment that is used to collect insects: various types of nets and bags are used, as well as different sheets of cloth onto which certain species are attracted due to specific chemicals put on the cloth. These cloths are dragged along the ground to collect the bugs. Once and insect is captured, it is appropriately labelled and pinned onto a sort of showcase-drawer; then, the researcher attempts to classify it. Sometimes, a new species or genus is discovered in this way. Some of the pinned specimens have been in that room since the early years of UBC's existence. My group visited the Instructional Resources Centre which housed health science displays; some of these concerned sight, hearing, and various diseases. In this building, there was a booth set up to test a person's overall well-being. I had a Personal Wellness Report issued to me; this included a Coronary Risk Profile (my chancesofheartdisease). There was a catch, though: I had to be brave and sacrifice 1 ml of my blood for testing purposes. My total cholesterol level and blood pressure were obtained; both were at acceptable levels, to my relief! A questionnaire had to be filled out and submitted so that the computer program would have the necessary information to evaluate my risk factors; this, I thought, was somewhat "fake" even though it was neat to find out about my health. While still with the same group, I took a peek at the pharmacy building. Here, we actually met a former CNC student who was in pharmacy - unbelievable! One of the pharmaceutical displays involved distinguishing between candy and pills; another display emphasized the harmful effects of smoking. One of the older buildings is the chem istry building; there were brick walls every where (even inside). In the morning, Steve had the mixed fortune of seeing the first chemistry magic show of its three-day run, He said that it was mainly for the younger children who are more awed by chemical phenomena than we are (probably because we understand it better). Nevertheless, according to Steve, the show was entertain ing; the demonstration of chemilumines- cence (the emission of light from a chemical reaction where no flame is present) was something that he had never seen before Presumably, the many minor blunders were due to the fact that it was their first show, and he was somewhat reassured to see two firemen in the audience. One of the lab displays that I saw in the chemistry building involved Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy; this technique analyzes nuclei of atoms to determine the composition of certain compounds. Samples are inserted by a robotic arm into a ... Continued page 3