Engineers Use Their Noodle
Freshmen in the Whiting School of Engineering may graduate in the 21st century, but they are already building bridges--with materials picked up at the local Giant.

Each year, Professor Michael Karweit requires students in his freshman engineering course to build a 1-meter-long, 750-gram bridge using nothing but spaghetti and glue. Not just a tribute to great Italian thinkers (Da Vinci? Galileo? Fellini?), the spaghetti bridge is Karweit's way of pushing students to combine engineering theory and practice.

The finished projects are entered into an open competition, held this year on Nov. 9 at the Maryland Science Center. Explains Karweit, "Maris St. Cyr at the center knew that I do this project and thought it would be a wonderful way to make fun science available to the outside community."
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Crocker To Head Research At CAS
The university has appointed an internationally known engineer to head up research at the Center for Astrophysical Sciences and to help Hopkins compete for shrinking federal funding.

James H. Crocker officially filled the position on Oct. 27. He is the first associate director of research for CAS, which was created in 1985 to support and oversee large astrophysics projects at Hopkins.

An electrical and systems engineer by training, Crocker spent 10 years at the Space Telescope Science Institute, where he led a team of scientists in repairing the Hubble Space Telescope's flawed optics in 1994.
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