CAS in the Media | Washington State University

^{CAS in the Media} _{Arts and Sciences Media Headlines}

Art, ecology exhibit a call to community action

September 19, 2016 adriana

Stream and native plant restoration along Missouri Flat Creek in Pullman is the subject of an exhibit of Washington State University student art and an opening talk 2-4 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 22, at Thomas Hammer coffee shop downtown.

The art will be on display through Oct. 13. Paintings, either done at the stream or inspired by visits to it, will be available for sale; half of the proceeds will help restore the creek.

WSU graduate student Kayla Wakulich, School of the Environment, will talk briefly about her work protecting and restoring Missouri Flat Creek. The little known stream enters Pullman from the north, continues along north Grand Avenue and joins the south fork of the Palouse River just northwest of downtown. » More …

Modeling maps vegetation to monitor erosion, rising seas

September 16, 2016 will.ferguson

Washington State University scientists Stephen Henderson and Nikolay Strigul have developed a computer model that uses photographs to recreate the complex geometry of coastal plants.

“A large and growing percentage of Earth’s human population lives at low elevations along coastlines,” said Henderson, an associate professor in the School of the Environment at WSU Vancouver. “Developing a better understanding of the sheltering effects of aquatic vegetation on these environments will help us identify areas at risk from climate change and in the design of solutions to future problems.”

The research more efficiently gathers input for models that determine the effectiveness of mangrove forests, seagrass beds and other coastal plants at depositing sediment and reducing flooding and erosion. This could eventually help scientists predict how rising seas and more frequent extreme weather events will affect coastal population centers impacted by climate change.

Find out more

WSU News

WSU Writing Program ranks among top in nation

September 15, 2016 adriana

The Writing Program at Washington State University again has been named among the 21 best in the nation by U.S. News & World Report. WSU is the only institution in the Northwest to “typically make the writing process a priority at all levels of instruction and across the curriculum,” according to the rankings criteria.

“It is a great honor to be recognized publicly for the positive affect we have on students and their academic programs,” said Victor Villanueva, Writing Program director and WSU Regents professor of English. “To be on this list of top programs means we are on the radar of university officers and administrators across the U.S.”

Of the seven institutions on the list west of the Mississippi River, those closest to WSU are Stanford and the University of California-Davis. Other top schools across the nation include Brown, Cornell, Duke, Harvard and Princeton.

Find out more

WSU News

$1.1 million award funds solar technology advances

September 14, 2016 will.ferguson

Washington State University researchers have received a $1.1 million U.S. Department of Energy SunShot Initiative cooperative award to improve the performance and lower the cost of solar materials for the multibillion dollar industry.

Working in collaboration with researchers at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and industry partner Nious Technologies, Inc., WSU researchers will improve the performance of cadmium telluride (CdTe) solar material. They will improve its feedstock, or the raw crystal needed to make solar cells, with the goal of reducing costs and making it more competitive with popular silicon-based technology.

“A robust CdTe feedstock manufacturing technology and high quality CdTe materials will be available to the solar industry that could disrupt the current thin-film solar energy supply chain,” said Kelvin Lynn, Regents professor in WSU’s School of Mechanical and Materials Engineering and Department of Physics and Astronomy. “The overall outcome will positively impact American solar energy manufacturing sector by boosting technology competiveness.”

Find out more

WSU News