Articles
Events and news of what's happening around the Fredonia campus.
Find a News Story
Dr. Arnavut's technique for file compression loses nothing in translation
Dr. Ziya Arnavut in his Fenton Hall office. He has improved on a data compression technique that "losslessly" does the job. In his 2004 paper published in The Computer Journal, Dr. Ziya Arnavut (computer science) demonstrated that a technique he developed to help compress digital files, known as Inversion Coder, yields superior compression results when used in the second step of a compression algorithm. Recently, Prof. Hidetoshi Yokoo of Gunma University in Japan published an article in the prestigious international journal, IEEE Transactions on Information Theory, in which he theoretically proved Dr. Arnavut’s thesis. Read the complete news release on Dr. Arnavut.
Concerto winners worked hard for solo gig
Three students have stood out among the 16 finalists that performed at the School of Music concerto competition held in September. Sipkje Pesnichak, a junior, and seniors Phil Servati and Scott Horsington were judged by a panel of faculty to be the concerto winners. An oboist, a pianist, and a clarinetist, respectively, the three instrumentalists will be featured soloists during three concerts in the spring semester. Phil Servati Sipkje Pesnichak Scott Horsington “Ever since I heard a live orchestra I was amazed,” said Mr. Servati, a music composition major who also studies piano as an applied piano major under Professor Nathan Hess. A native of Rochester and the technical manager for Ethos New Music Society, he said, “I have always wanted to be featured as a soloist.” And the path to being featured soloists with the College Symphony was not easy. On top of the juries that all music majors are required to go through just to continue on in their major, these three and dozens of others had to grit their teeth and work their appeal on an additional series of juries during preceding semesters in order to compete for the concerto. Once there, they had to outshine the other musicians who had strived for the same goal in front of a panel consisting of their professors.Judging by their excitement today, the long hours of practice in Mason Hall were all worth it.
Dead bridge, dead theory?
Musings during a recent trip through China are the inspirations for Mohawk poet James Thomas Stevens’ sixth book of poetry, A Bridge Dead in the Water, which plumbs the depths of experiences of Native peoples on two continents. Said to have once been an exposed strip of land that brought Asian settlers to the continent of North America, the Bering Strait Land Bridge has also become a metaphor for the conflict between Europeans and Native Americans. Just as science and religion clash in all cultures, the Bering Strait theory has appeared to trivialize the hundreds of creation accounts that were fundamental to the traditions of Native peoples in North America. Read why the theory antagonizes many Native Americans. The Bering Strait Professor Stevens, who teaches English at SUNY Fredonia, researched the effects of colonization on either side of the strait – China and North America, in preparing to write his newest collection. His explorations took him to unexpected sources that gave a glimpse into the lives of native peoples. For example, the Mutual Life Insurance Company of New York’s 1901 published list of accidents, emergencies, and illnesses became the inspiration for a key poem in the book, “The Mutual Life.” Two other poems focus on mapping, authority and propaganda, while the short poems recall some of his more personal experiences.
Filmmaker takes camera behind scenes with Whirling Dervishes
To the advantage of her audiences, filmmaker Nefin Dinc’s eyes become theirs. A documentary filmmaker allowed to follow a group of whirling dervishes behind the scenes as they prepare for a ceremony in Turkey, she turned her camera on a 12-year old girl who was undergoing the spiritual and physical training to perform the ancient devotional dance. “I wanted to show a glimpse of Islamic life in Turkey,” the SUNY Fredonia communication professor said. Professor Nefin Dinc
Professional activities of faculty and staff
Alberto Rey (visual art and new media) was a panelist during the "Complicit" symposium at the University of Virginia at Charlottesville recently. Panelists discussed "Contemporary...
SUNY Press to publish Nelson's book on Rt. 20
Distinguished Teaching Professor of English Malcolm Nelson is currently working on an anecdotal study of the longest highway in the United States. It is this road, U.S. 20, which he takes to work every day, and indeed, offers him an exceptionally personal vista of human traffic going east or west as it passes by the front door of his home in Brocton, N.Y. SUNY Press has selected Dr. Nelson's book, Twent West: The Great Road Across America, as one of its books to be published in 2007. Dr. Malcolm Nelson
Global warming: where economics and ecology face off
As nations across the planet come to grips with the realities of global warming, power plants that burn fossil fuel and send carbon dioxide into the atmosphere are regarded as probably the single most significant human contributors to the problem. At the same time, the world depends on the energy they produce. Among the engineers, scientists, academics, politicians, and CEOs who are seeking solutions to the power plant challenge is Professor Peter Reinelt, above, who teaches economics at SUNY Fredonia. He studies the economics of investing in new power plants when decision-makers are surrounded by regulatory uncertainty. So far, governments, especially at the federal level, have not committed themselves to legislation that would limit how much carbon dioxide plants are allowed to release. “No one wants the climate to change, obviously,” Dr. Reinelt said. “There’s really only one reason the government and industry aren’t racing to stop carbon emissions, and that’s the perceived cost.”
Is slavery the world's oldest trade?
Slavery in ancient Egypt Slavery is not a pleasant subject. The suffering of slaves and the brutality of slavery is a black page writ large in American history, and most SUNY Fredonia freshmen come into Markus Vink’s history classes carrying powerful images of slavery as it was practiced in their own country in the 19th century. But, in his research seminar, Dr. Vink takes them on a different journey across time and space. He directs their attention eastward across the Atlantic, across the continent of Africa and into the world of the early modern Indian Ocean. He points them back to a time earlier than the American colonies. Here they find a world in which slaves are already ubiquitous, and where the practice of slavery is traditional. His research has traced slavery as far back as 1500 B.C.E., to the beginnings of (recorded) history and to the times of stateless peoples, hunter-gatherers, and pastoral nomads. Since then, a steady stream of captive humanity continued to flow through the rise and fall of empires, sultanates, confederations and kingdoms “Slavery,” Dr. Vink maintains, “is the world’s oldest trade.”
Geosciences riding crest of new gas boom
Technology is making the difference in modern gas exploration. Dr. Lash studies data from a well already drilled for clues to subsurface characteristics in Western...
The next level of air quality modeling
With a research grant of $80,000 through the Great Lakes Air Deposition (GLAD) program, Dr. Sherri Mason (chemistry) is collaborating with the State Department of...