Iron Man, Fiction or New Reality?

A new movie “Iron Man” is showing a super hero with a strong, intelligent flying suit. This is science fiction with a mixture of fantasy. At almost the same time the Associate Press has announced the development of a robotic exoskeleton that can increase one’s strength by a factor of twenty. Robert Downey, Jr. would not be flying in his ‘Iron Man’ suit without a lot of computer intelligence and control. He also has intelligent robots to build and maintain the suit and very high tech manufacturing at play.

Some of this stuff is not so far fetched! At OIT we have faculty and student teams working the technology issues around intelligent systems, including our new embedded systems engineering technology program. That program merges the design of micro system hardware and software to meet the demand for intelligent components to serve in a variety of manufactured devices.

The demand for smart cars, toasters and biological implants will provide excellent opportunities for our graduates from this program. Wait until you see what gadgets they attach to you on your next stay in a hospital!

We also have outstanding manufacturing engineering technology programs being delivered at OIT in Klamath Falls, Portland and at Boeing in Seattle. Those faculty and student teams are working on the robotic manufacturing issues that could lead to the kind of suit that ‘Iron Man’ flies around in.

To learn more about the toroidal power supply used to power the suit, I encourage you to visit Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory in New Jersey and get an update on toroidal fusion reactors.

A Spry Sixty

OIT is turning 60 this year. The university has certainly matured over that time and only seems to get better year-to-year.

During the week of May 12 we will be celebrating this milestone.

Following are a few of the highlights of the week: a presentation on the Crater Lake digital collection in OIT’s library (noon on Tuesday), a choral group performance (5pm on Wednesday) in the College Union, a student project symposium (Friday from 1pm until 4pm) in the CU and a “Spring into Summer” carnival on Saturday.

Our Project Symposium in Klamath Falls is always a terrific event, giving OIT’s outstanding students an opportunity to display and discuss their hands-on, real-world projects for our community. Our students and their ingenuity constantly amaze me. Given a virtually impossible problem, they seem to be able to find meaningful solutions.

At this symposium you’ll see projects ranging from engineering and technology, computing, electrical, mechanical and manufacturing systems, applied psychology to communications (and a few I’ve missed!). Expect an amazing display of innovative solutions to our world’s problems by our talented student teams!

Our student teams in Portland will display their results in a student project symposium on June 6. Check that symposium out and get to OIT’s Portland West campus in Beaverton for those presentations.

Spring – Softball, Parents, International Dining

Today we celebrate spring with the arrival on campus of the NAIA Cascade Conference regional softball tournament. The OIT women's team has had an exceptional season, with an overall record of 32-12-1 and national ranking.

It is nice to have such beautiful weather for these games with our peer schools from throughout the region. The winner will go on to the national championship series in Decatur, Alabama in mid-May.

We also welcome to our campus this weekend the parents and family of OIT students. There is a busy weekend of activities planned, including a dinner sponsored by our international student organization.

It should be a great weekend for enjoying the Klamath Basin and all it has to offer!

Earth Day – OIT Style

Today we are celebrating national ‘Earth Day’ at OIT along with our sister universities throughout the country. In addition to showing displays of student projects with a sustainability theme, we sponsored a panel with speakers emphasizing renewable energy.

Two individuals from the Geo-Heat Center of the Oregon Renewable Energy Center focused on using a deep geothermal well to access high temperature water to make electricity. This is a project that may come to fruition in the next couple of years, allowing OIT to become the only university in the nation that produces all of its energy on its campus from renewable sources.

Geothermal energy is abundant in Oregon, thanks to the collision of the Pacific and North American plates. The volcanoes that created the Cascade Range left a lot of hot rock at depth in the earth. Ground-water migration into crevices or faults in that rock get heated and become a source of hot water that can be tapped for human use.

Prison and Healthcare

A recent report, “One in 100: Behind Bars in America 2008”
was published by the Pew Center on the States.

That study reports that in 2007 Oregon had the highest percentage of total general fund expenditures (10.9%) on corrections of all of the states. Also they noted that Oregon is one of only five states that spent more on corrections than they did on higher education.

It seems that increases in the cost of health care is one of the drivers for increased cost of incarceration, so we can applaud the leadership of the Oregon legislature in funding the healthcare workforce initiative in 2007. It will enhance the ability of Oregon’s universities to education more healthcare professionals to serve us all, even those who are incarcerated.

OIT is pleased to be engaged in a big way in the growth of education and training in the critical allied health professions through our programs supported by the Oregon Center for Health Professions.

New Directions

Access to and from California and points south and east have improved for the Klamath Falls campus of OIT. It was announced today that an additional commercial airline will serve the Klamath Falls airport.

SkyWest, in partnership with United Express will begin daily service from Klamath Falls to/from San Francisco on July 7, 2008. This will allow easy connection to the national routes of both Delta Airlines and United Airlines.

This change will make air travel easier for our students, especially those going to and from California, Arizona, Texas and points south and west.

OIT faculty and staff will find that they have many more convenient air connections for their professional and technical meetings!

Champions and Character

The men and women at OIT who participate in athletics with our Cascade Collegiate Conference colleagues are student-athletes in the truest sense. They excel in the classroom, as well as on the field of competition, and they do it with style and grace.

We are proud to celebrate the second National Championship in five years for our men's basketball team, which was achieved yesterday! Congratulations to Coach Miles and his team.

OIT is a member of a program called Champions of Character sponsored by the National Association for Intercollegiate Athletics.

This program helps instills character values and integrity in competitive sports, leading to the high level of accomplishment of students at OIT in all competitive sports. We look forward to carrying the Champions of Character program further into the community, as our coaches and students work with younger players.