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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (April 26, 2004)
An independent newspaper http://www.dailyemerald.com Monday, April 26, 2004 Since 1900 University of Oregon Eugene, Oregon Volume 105, Issue 141 Student develops innovative software Senior Anna Cavender earns national acclaim for EyeDraw, a program designed to help disabled children draw By Steven Neuman News Reporter Senior computer and information sci ence major Anna Cavender sits at a com puter in a small room, her hands wrapped around her waist, her posture straight but relaxed. She waits while the machine calibrates and begins drawing a house on the screen, adding a chimney, a window and trees. But Cavender's hands never leave her hips; she draws the house using only her eyes. Cavender was demonstrating new soft ware dubbed EyeDraw that she and recent University graduate Rob Hoselton recently developed. The software is designed to al low children with severe motor impair ments to draw smoothly using eye track ers. A sensor is mounted beneath the computer monitor to detect eye move ments and analyze them, thus creating hands-free control. As a result of her work on the EyeDraw project, the Computing Research Associa tion named Cavender as North America's 2004 Outstanding Female Undergraduate ifi Computer Science and Engineering. CRA is an association of more than 200 computer science and engineering aca demic departments, laboratories, centers in industry, government and academia that are engaged in basic computing re search, according to http://www.cra.org. Cavender will receive a $1,000 cash prize Turn to EYEDRAW, page 4A NEWS BRIEF Moreno-VHIamar takes Senate Seat 14 Rodrigo Moreno-Villamar seized Student Senate Seat 14 from his opponent Spencer Hardy at the polls Friday, taking 114 of 192 total votes cast for the social science seat. The Seat 14 special election was created after a DuckWeb error forced the ASUO Elections Board to invalidate the primary results. The special election was open for voting by social science majors only. "I'm glad that the election went through with relative smoothness," said Moreno Villamar, a member of the PSST voting bloc. "I'm definitely willing to turn (the win) into work next year, bringing student issues to the table and making strides to change the political culture of the ASUO." — Jared Paben THEIR DAY IN THE SUN INSIDE The Duck women take No. 1 Arizona in a surprise win at Howe Field PAGE 7A :V. ■"V:V:.;.V, \ :V 3 Danielle Hickey Photo Editor Senior catcher Jenn Poore tags out Arizona’s Wendy Allen in the top of the first inning Sunday at Howe Field. It was the closest that No. 1 Arizona (45-2 overall, 9-1 Pac-10) came to scoring against the No. 12 Ducks (34-12, 84) on Sunday. Oregon’s Ashley Richards hit a walk-off home run in the bottom of the eighth to give Oregon the 1-0 victory and hand the Wildcats their second loss of the season. Grant funds students’ public-sector work The funding from the grant helps students participate in community development projects while in school By Chelsea Duncan Senior News Reporter Every weekday at 6:30 a.m., University gradu ate student Miranda Byrd joins a car pool travel ing from Corvallis to Eugene in order to attend school and work. And although the commute is a pain, she said, the ability to study and work in a rewarding field makes it all worth the trouble. Byrd is one of five graduate students receiv ing funding from a federal grant that provides students with support while they work on local community development planning projects. After a stint in the private sector working for an advertising agency, Byrd said she found that work unfulfilling and decided to enter the field of community development. "I didn't feel like I was contributing to socie ty," she said. "1 wanted my path to kind of change direction." Now, Byrd is earning her master's in commu nity and regional planning and is working be tween 12 to 20 hours a week for HIV Alliance, a local non-profit HIV/AIDS support and educa tion agency. The aim of the $150,000 U.S. Housing and Tim Kupsick Freelance Photographer First-year graduate student of community and regional planning Miranda Byrd receives federal grant funding to work part-time at the HIV Alliance in Eugene. Urban Development Fellow Placement grant is to encourage students to seek careers in the pub lic or non-profit sectors, said Megan Smith, managing director of the University Community Service Center. The grant partially compensates students for their tuition and provides $9,000 annually for their part-time work. Students work with two or ganizations for about nine months during the two-year life of the grant, according to a Univer sity press release. Smith said the grant provides students with financial support while giving them real-world community-building experience and serving the public. She said the support allows students to com plete their degrees without accruing as much debt in hopes they won't need to find higher paying jobs in the private sector later in life. "It helps keep the sort of cadre of profession als that are interested in working in the public or non-profit sector," she said. HIV Alliance Development Director Michele Erickson said the agency depends on volunteers and interns like Byrd to provide vital work the agency can't always afford. "Otherwise it's a need that would probably go unfilled," she said. "The need for service is really great in our community." Byrd's main project at the HIV Alliance has been to create a speaker's bureau for representa tives from the agency to give presentations to community organizations, including schools, businesses and hospitals. The presentations are intended to educate the public about HIV/AIDS issues, such as local and global trends and cur rent legislation, she added. "(The HIV Alliance) is a really unique organi zation," she said. Erickson said working for the non-profit or Turn to FUNDING, page 3A WEATHER INSIDE NEXT ISSUE LOW 50 HIGH 83 Campus buzz. Classifieds. Commentary. ..4A Clarification. 11A Nation & World ..2A Sports. 4A .5A 7A Adam and Mena learn Exec ropes
