Where to go if you want to clone mules, hunt aliens, or just build a better videogame
Posted 09.12.2008 at 12:15 pm
15 Comments
A Geek's Guide to East Coast Colleges: Dave Helfrey
E. Hang with Monkeys
University of Wisconsin
Where: Madison, Wis.
Department: Wisconsin National Primate Research Center
UWM’s primate-research center—home to 1,300 rhesus monkeys—has logged both biomedical and behavioral breakthroughs in fields such as socialization and aging, as well as HIV and Parkinson’s disease. Students aid stem-cell scientists in research on human and monkey embryonic cells.
primate.wisc.edu
F. Build Robots
Carnegie Mellon University
Where: Pittsburgh, Pa.
Department: Robotics Institute
Carnegie Mellon is robot Mecca, home to ’bot builders for 29 years. The first university to award a robotics Ph.D., it now offers a minor for undergrads, who put together water-striding mini robots or turn wrenches on autonomous SUVs for the Darpa Urban Challenge, where CMU took first place last year.
www.ri.cmu.edu
G. Create Videogames
Cornell University
Where: Ithaca, N.Y.
Department: Game Design Initiative
At the first Ivy League school to offer a minor in game design, students take classes like "Foundations of Artificial Intelligence" and "Computer Animation." The final project: building their own game. (The school's design software keeps code-writing to a minimum.) Alumni have worked on blockbusters like The Sims and Spore.
gdiac.cis.cornell.edu
H. Float Around Weightless
University of Maryland
Where: College Park, Md.
Department: Space Systems Laboratory
Don a space suit and climb into a neutral buoyancy tank to conduct low- and zero-gravity tests on next-gen astronaut gear, as well as space- and deep-sea-bound robots. Maryland’s 50-foot-diameter, 367,000-gallon tank is one of only two in the U.S., and the only one at a university.
ssl.umd.edu
I. Study Killer Bugs
Boston University
Where: Boston, Mass.
Department: Emerging Infectious Diseases Laboratory
BU’s new biosafety-level-4 facility, opening this year, will be one of only a handful of labs where researchers can study contagious killers like smallpox and Ebola. Undergrads won’t log time in the full-body suits, but they will conduct pathogen research in state-of-the-art labs and learn from top infectious-disease scientists.
bu.edu/dbin/neidl/en
J. Run The Widest Screen
New York University
Where:New York, N.Y.
Department: Interactive Tele-communications Program
Students here design interactive video for a 120-foot, high-resolution screen inside architect Frank Gehry’s InterActiveCorp building in New York, typically used to display art and advertising. One student project used animations of bees flocking to flowers to visualize complex stock market data.
itp.nyu.edu
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Any geek's guide to colleges that mentions neither Caltech nor MIT is simply not to be taken seriously.
I disagree with the MIT/Caltech assertion. MIT is largely irrelevant in the current environment, especially when compared to India Institute of Technology and Chinese Universities. MIT is resting on it's laurels, much like other Ivy League schools who have not produced anything of significance in years. I would say that many of the schools listed are more aggressive in their work and more innovative than MIT. Certainly, Carnegie Mellon has some exciting and innovative research. As for Caltech... it's a great teaching school. Technology and Science are constantly changing and advancing. A motivated dean can easily take the lead in those areas.
"I travel the road less traveled by most people in this world" Ok you need to realize that they are not talking sbout super geeks(the smart ones) they are talking about all those guys that are absolute let downs to society because all they do with their lives is comic books, tv, and video games that have high hopes for their future careers. you really need to learn how to look at things in context.....i hope i didnt upset anyone. sorry if i did.
Regarding your comments of MIT...its a WEST coast guide...where did you guys get edjumacated :P
Now if we are talking globally, I think you guys should look up TUDelft, its the mothership for most most universities mentioned.
"Regarding your comments of MIT...its a WEST coast guide...where did you guys get edjumacated :P"
uh, are you sure about that. as far as i know, wisconsin and new york are not on the west coast.
I love video games, but I want to build a robot. Not in college but I'm a systems programmer and an engineer at electrical circuitry and a wiz at computer science. I just want to make giant robot, know any places that can let me do that? Some funds would be nice!
Lot's of rocket science going on at the University of Iowa in Iowa City if you are into that sort of thing.Hell of a good party school as well.To bad their football team sucks.
No where on the Utah State website will they claim to be the first to clone an equine... That's because the University of Idaho did it. google it.
cornell is east coast so where is MIT
look again bobloftus if you hit i'm feeling lucky on google on the iowa website reading the whole thing it says utah did it first out of a few schools trying
I want to build a robot. Not in college but I'm a systems programmer and an engineer at electrical circuitry and a wiz at computer science. I just want to make giant robot.
http://www.perfectwriting.co.uk/
look again bobloftus if you hit i'm feeling lucky on google on the iowa website reading the whole thing it says utah did it first out of a few schools trying
http://www.aglik.com/vb/
No where on the Utah State website will they claim to be the first to clone an equine... That's because the University of Idaho did it. google it.
http://www.aglik.com/vb/t15114.html
Texas A&M at the time of my graduation from there had cloned more species than any other institute or organization. I'm surprised that Utah State was chosen over my alma mater, although I don't mean to diminish their accomplishment, of which they should be proud.
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