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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 16, 1990)
This Week: I 4 Young Guns" review. *¥if Behind the lens* ir« Volleyball preview. ^ _■ 1.1 . .i i -i ' ■ —■ i r.ra • Hi. i. >■■+ JUNE unaffected by HEAP problem Rfiy Mark (ieorgeff jit Staff Reporter e B cccni financial problems with kJ |< the nationwide Higher Educa f Awtion Assistance Foundation II (HEAF) thus far have had no impact f on University of Nebraska-Lincoln student loans, according to the direc tor of scholarships and financial aid. John E. Beacon said student loan disbursement at UNL is “business as usual.” Kansas, Minnesota and Wyoming lending institutions have delayed college student loan proceedings because ofeurrent financial problems within the Kansas-based HEAF or ganization. Beacon said HEAF still is in busi ness, and he doesn't think it's good for financial institutions to “panic” at this time. College students apply for loans through their personal choice of banks, savings and loan institutions and credit unions, and lending institutions’ stu dent loans are financially secured by a guarantee agency such as HEAF. When college students default on their school loans, HEAF is legally obligated to pay back the lending institution. And student loan default rales arc on the rise. Beacon said a SI .8 billion default rate existed last year on stu dent loans nationwide with that fig ure possibly exceeding S2 billion this year. Federal government administrations previously have secured HEAF’s fi nancial obligations to it’s creditors. But according to Beacon, the government is not obligated to reim burse HEAF at all. Beacon said the federal govern ment does not have to refund 1(X) percent of HEAF’s capital. He said if the government reim burses HEAF at even a 90 or 80 percent margin, the possibility for bankruptcy within the HEAF system exists. Beacon said some banks are nerv ous right now, but he’s not sure if anyone can predict what will happen with HEAF's financial situation. “The banks are still using HEAF, and HEAF is still backing the loans,’’ he said. The student loan default rate prob lem exists primarily among technical See HEAF on 2 I urns tf+ project into award-winning entry Recent architecture graduate earns award By Kara Wells Staff Reporter Crecent graduate of the Univer sity of Nebraska-Lincoln turned a B+ architecture project into an award-winning entry for the 1990 Autodesk Images Awards held this spring. Barry Shull, who received his master’s degree in architecture from UNL in May, submitted his project to CADalyst Magazine's competition. Of the seven categories in the competition, Shull entered his proj cct into the animation category for faculty and graduate students. As the first place winner, Shull said, he won a trophy called the "Caddie” and also was awarded 55,000 in both hardware and software. "1 didn't think 1 had a chance,” Shull said. “I only got a B+ ... I’m surprised I actually won.” Shull said this is the first year for the competition. He said the maga zine already has called him and asked him to enter next year’s competition. The winning project was part of the Architecture 955 class, a design studio. Students were asked to create a multi-purpose high-rise building for the Baltimore inner harbor. Shull said most of the students created their projects on drawing boards, but he decided to do his project entirely on computer. Shull said he used snapshots of the inner-harbor and used the computer to superimpose the building onto the Baltimore background. After receiving an undergraduate degree in computer science, Shull eventually decided to go back to school to earn his master’s degree. While going lo school, he said, he worked pari lime for Simulation Technology Association,creating simulations and animations for architects. He said he used equipment at the company to design his project. After graduaung in May, Shull said, he began working full-time for the company, and he plans to use his project for promotional purposes. Shull credits Professor Brito Mu tunayagam with assisting him in his Computer Aided Design, or CAD, See ARCHITECTURE on 2 w • a UNL receives record grants for fiscal year By Cindy Wostre! Staff Reporter The amount of money UNL received in grants for 1989 1990 fiscal year was uft. samulaicd by the Research Ini tiative program, according to Bill Splinter, interim vice chan cellor for research. The University of Nebraska Lincoln received arccord S29.7 million in research awards in 1989-1990, SI .5 million more than the previous year and al most S7 million more than in 1987, before the Research Ini tiative program began. The program, established by the Nebraska Legislature two years ago, provides money for research in areas that might lead to economic development for the state. The money invested by the state encourages research awards from other sources. Splinter said. For example, Nisar Shaikh, UNL assistant professor of en gineering mechanics, planned a research project on “smart materials," with sensors that detect information about inter See RESEARCH on 2 • • • rive students participate m scientific research project By Mall Merck Senior Kdilor Five University ol Nebraska I in coin students were taught to look into rtie gray areas of sci ence this summer. Kcone Stretcher, David Holliday, Jell Niemann, Paul Poulosky and Daniel Guinan were instructed in the Fuzzy Set Theory by a visiting pro fessor from Belgium, Etienne Kerrc. The theory attempts to find a bet ter way of representing imprecise concepts, whereas the classical meihtxl of scientific interpretation uses only binary logic, said Tadeusz Radccki, faculty coordinator and research sc i entist for the project. The project, Summer Undergradu ate Research Program in Computer Science anti Engineering (SURPRISE), provides the opportunity lor under graduate students to participate in university research. One of the goals of the pro ject was for the students to produce publish able work over the two, live-week summer school sessions, Kerrc said. The live students were divided into two groups and were given specific topics upon which to base their re search, he saiu. Their research was then published. ITte students said they worked about eight hours a day in the classroom, on homework and on their research top ics. The young people got motivated to think in ways they had never done before, Kerrc said. “In my opinion, this was a very great initiative," he said. At the beginning of the summer, Guman said, none ol the students had been introduced to the Fuzzy Set Theory, but within one month they were doing research on it. The students said they learned about things that w ill help them in w hatever they decide to do alter their under graduate studies arc completed. “An artist needs paints before he can paint a picture, and we were just given a w hole new set of colors," Guinan said. The project was made possible through funding from the National Science Foundation, UNL’s Center for Communication and Information Science and UNL’s Extension and Service Council. >•: , ,
