News

UO architecture student recognized for daylighting research

Incoming UO architecture PhD student Amir Nezamdoost joins A&AA after winning two recent competitions: the International VELUX Award 2016 for students of architecture in the Americas region for his investigations into automated blinds in daylight investigations; and best student paper at SimBuild 2016 for his research on daylighting simulation.

Landscape architecture researchers’ work seeks green mechanisms

Findings by UO researchers including Gwynne Mhuireach, a doctoral student in landscape architecture at the UO, and landscape architecture Professor Bart Johnson are featured in the August 2 edition of Phys.org and will appear in print in the journal Science of the Total Environment. The researchers determined that airborne bacterial communities differ in subtle but potentially important ways. “I am looking for mechanisms that explain why vegetation helps people and how we can design for it,” Mhuireach says.

Green Cities summer class helps City of Gervais

A story in the July 27 issue of the Woodburn Independent features the UO Department of Planning, Public Policy and Management’s course “Green Cities,” where a UO class is providing ideas for the City of Gervais to improve its efforts in sustainability. Several dozen students are participating in the summer class, learning about sustainability topics ranging from water conservation to economics. The class is taught by Instructor Ric Stephens.

Summer Craft Forum underway

The 2016 Summer Craft Forum @ University of Oregon is underway through August 6 as artists and curators from around the country occupy UO studio spaces to work and think together. Focusing on ceramics, print media, fibers, and jewelry & metalsmithing, participants represent ways of thinking and making that revolve around notions of craft. The intent is to facilitate discourse representing a diverse range of concerns that form fluidly as the group coalesces.

The event schedule:

Landscape architecture student team wins additional startup funding for filter prototype

A team of UO landscape architecture students has won additional startup funding for a water filtration prototype, this time $2,500 in the statewide Portland State University Cleantech Challenge and a chance at winning another $10,000 in September. Earlier, the team won $10,000 in a global competition and the chance to compete for a $100,000 prize to be awarded in October. In a further show of team unity and largesse, one team member plans to use a separate, individual $15,000 scholarship stipend to further her team’s research.

Nike’s new tennis dress a lesson in design dos, don’ts

Nike’s new women’s tennis dress, “the Premier Slam,” premiered at Wimbledon recently — but not without some skeptical reactions from players assigned to wear the outfit.

The dress “is a tiny babydoll with two big slits along each side. Just try returning a 120-mile-an-hour serve in that thing,” observed Gigi Douban, reporter for “Marketplace,” broadcast live nationally on NPR stations and available online via podcast.