[Physics opps] FW: Sloan Career Cornerstone News - May 2009
8-opps@mit.edu
8-opps at mit.edu
Fri May 1 10:27:04 EDT 2009
this is not the Sloan you're looking for.
_____
From: Sloancareers at aol.com [mailto:Sloancareers at aol.com]
Sent: Friday, May 01, 2009 9:04 AM
To: undisclosed-recipients:; @MIT.EDU
Subject: Sloan Career Cornerstone News - May 2009
Sloan Career Cornerstone News
Volume V Issue 5 May 2009
<http://www.careercornerstone.org/scccnews/issues/2009/0509cn.pdf> View as
PDF
<http://www.careercornerstone.org/scccnews/issues/2009/scccnews0509.htm>
View Online
A publication of the <http://www.careercornerstone.org/> Sloan Career
Cornerstone Center,
the premier online resource for exploring career paths in
science, technology, engineering, mathematics, computing, and healthcare.
Readers may pass along copies, republish with credit, or
<http://www.careercornerstone.org/addalink.htm> link to
the Sloan Career Cornerstone Center from their own sites.
____________________________________________________________
May 2009 Issue Contents:
-- New Scientific Visualizations
-- The World's Water
-- Salaries for College Interns Rise 5%
-- Degree Profile: Medical Assistant
-- Precollege Computer Gaming at Cornell University
-- New Rice Could Impact World Hunger
-- Worldwide Telescope on Your Computer!
<New Scientific Visualizations
Science is full of famous visualizations that helped lead to new
breakthroughs in how we understand complex concepts. In recent decades,
researchers have used computers to build complex visualizations based on
large data sets to gain a better perspective on their research. When a
computer combines a map with the data from thousands of sensors measuring
ocean currents and temperatures around the globe, for example, a collection
of numbers can become a stunning visualization that helps us understand
shifting climate patterns. Programming a computer to produce these
visualizations is not an easy task, however. And as the amount of data
collected in our world grows, the challenge of organizing all that
information into an accurate and cohesive picture becomes even more
difficult. To simplify the process the University of Utah developed
VisTrails, an NSF-supported suite of visualization tools that automatically
manages the data, metadata and the data exploration process necessary to
create visualizations. The result is a tool that lets researchers focus on
the data sets and visualizations themselves, rather than the work needed to
bring them together.
<http://www.careercornerstone.org/scccnews/issues/2009/scccnews0509.htm#sccc
news1> Find out more...
<The World's Water
"Is there such a thing as 'peak water'? There is a vast amount of water on
the planet -- but we are facing a crisis of running out of sustainably
managed water," asks Dr. Peter Gleick, president of the Pacific Institute.
The most recent edition of "The World's Water," is a report release by the
Pacific Institute that examining global issues around use and misuse of our
freshwater resources. The report includes a chart on "The Water Content of
Things" -- from potato chips to microchips. It is an eye-opener in terms of
our own water footprints. Key to the discussion of water today is the
concept of "peak ecological water" -- the critical point already reached in
many areas, where we overtax the planet's ability to absorb the consequences
of our water use. A prime example is the water crisis in China, where water
resources are over-allocated, inefficiently used, and grossly polluted by
human and industrial wastes, with 300 million people lacking access to safe
drinking water.
<http://www.careercornerstone.org/scccnews/issues/2009/scccnews0409.htm#sccc
news2> Find out more...
<Salaries for College Interns Rise 5%
Employers expect to increase the pay they offer college students for
internships, according to a new study conducted by the National Association
of Colleges and Employers (NACE). Overall, employers taking part in the
survey say they will offer bachelor's-degree-level interns an average hourly
wage of $17.13 -- up 4.9 percent from the average they offered last year's
interns. Interestingly, the increase in intern salaries is paired with a 21
percent decrease in the number of internship opportunities available. Intern
salaries are affected by the student's major and year of study as well as
the location of the internship. Students in engineering and computer
sciences earn the highest salaries on average. The average hourly wage for
engineering students is $18.26, while those studying computer sciences earn
an average hourly wage of $17.20 as an intern. wage earned by 2007-08
interns.
<http://www.careercornerstone.org/scccnews/issues/2009/scccnews0509.htm#sccc
news3> Find out more...
<Degree Profile: Medical Assistant
Medical assistants perform administrative and clinical tasks to keep the
offices of physicians, podiatrists, chiropractors, and other health
practitioners running smoothly. They should not be confused with physician
assistants, who examine, diagnose, and treat patients under the direct
supervision of a physician. The duties of medical assistants vary from
office to office, depending on the location and size of the practice and the
practitioner's specialty. In small practices, medical assistants usually do
many different kinds of tasks, handling both administrative and clinical
duties and reporting directly to an office manager, physician, or other
health practitioner. Those in large practices tend to specialize in a
particular area, under the supervision of department administrators. Some
medical assistants are trained on the job, but many complete 1-year or
2-year programs. Postsecondary medical assisting programs usually last
either 1 year and result in a certificate or diploma, or 2 years and result
in an associate degree. Courses cover anatomy, physiology, and medical
terminology, as well as typing, transcription, recordkeeping, accounting,
and insurance processing. Employment of medical assistants is expected to
grow 35 percent from 2006 to 2016, much faster than the average for all
occupations. As the health care industry expands because of technological
advances in medicine and the growth and aging of the population, there will
be an increased need for all health care workers. Increasing use of medical
assistants in the rapidly growing health care industry will further
stimulate job growth.
<http://www.careercornerstone.org/scccnews/issues/2009/scccnews0509.htm#sccc
news4> Find out more...
<Precollege Computer Gaming at Cornell University
Computer games are fun and extremely cool. So, Cornell University computer
science students are using games to attract public school students to
computer science. Last fall, 25 nearby middle and high school students
learned how to make their own games, picking up some new computer skills in
the bargain, in a free after-school program on the Cornell campus. Students
met every Tuesday afternoon in a computer lab and often combined programming
and pizza! A new session will be held in fall 2009, and there may be an
advanced section for students from the first group. The course was designed
and taught by Cornell student members of the Game Design Initiative at
Cornell (GDIAC). "We had several sixth-graders and up to a 12th-grader,"
said Chelsea Howe '09, who helped design the curriculum and became lead
teacher. "The sixth-graders were some of our best programmers, and at the
end had some of the best games." In one of those games, called "Bob's
Adventure," the protagonist is chased through Antarctica while fending off
enemies by throwing fish at them. In the after-school program, as in Cornell
undergraduate courses in game design, games are developed by teams to pool
skills in programming, music and art. Students in the program began with
simple graphics programming, learned how to storyboard and moved on to
working with a free program called Game Maker, a program that is available
in a limited form for free.
<http://www.careercornerstone.org/scccnews/issues/2009/scccnews0509.htm#sccc
news5> Find out more...
<New Rice Could Impact World Hunger
A new strain of flood-resistant rice currently being developed has the
potential for making a huge impact on hunger for half of the world's
population, which relies on rice as a food staple. With rising sea levels
and more severe world weather patterns, flooding has become a major cause of
crop failure for rice, which, although grown in flooded fields, can only
stand complete submersion for an average of three days. In a very short
matter of time, an entire crop could be completely destroyed. To combat the
threat that floods hold over crop viability, researchers have introduced a
gene for flood resistance from a low-yield, noncommercial rice species into
a popular and flavorful but flood-intolerant variety of rice, to create a
plant that can withstand submergence for up to 17 days. Farmers who tested
the new variety in flood-prone areas of India and Bangladesh were able to
increase their crop yields threefold to fivefold, without sacrificing
sought-after characteristics like taste. The technique used -- precision
breeding -- uses genomics and molecular biology to pinpoint desirable
genetic traits before crossbreeding plants.
<http://www.careercornerstone.org/scccnews/issues/2009/scccnews0509.htm#sccc
news6> Find out more...
<Worldwide Telescope on Your Computer!
To skim the surface of Mars, fly through the Andromeda galaxy, or peer down
at a dark earth jeweled with the lights of its cities -- all of that seems
impossibly out of reach to the average person, not to mention scientists.
But now it is possible, free, and easy with Microsoft's "WorldWide
Telescope," a powerful piece of downloadable desktop software that allows
people to quit simply staring at the night sky and instead zoom through it,
visiting planets, constellations, even nearby galaxies. Since its release,
nearly 2 million people around the world have downloaded the free desktop
observatory. Worldwide Telescope also got a boost recently with the news
that National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and Microsoft are
developing technology that will make the most interesting NASA content --
including high-resolution scientific images and data from Mars and the moon
-- explorable on WorldWide Telescope.
<http://www.careercornerstone.org/scccnews/issues/2009/scccnews0509.htm#sccc
news7> Find out more...
__________________________________________________________
Sloan Career Cornerstone Center
The Sloan Career Cornerstone Center ( <http://www.careercornerstone.org/>
www.careercornerstone.org)
is a non-profit resource center for those exploring career paths
in science, technology, engineering, mathematics, computing, and healthcare.
Over 170 Degree Fields Profiled at the Sloan Career Cornerstone Center:
* Actuarial Science * Agricultural Engineering * Aerospace Engineering *
* Architectural Engineering * Bioengineering * Biology * Chemical
Engineering *
* Chemistry * Civil Engineering * Computer Engineering * Computer Science *
* Dental Hygienist * Dentist * Electrical Engineering * Engineering *
* Engineering Technology * Environmental Engineering * Geosciences *
* Industrial Engineering * Manufacturing Engineering *
* Materials Science and Engineering * Mathematics * Mechanical Engineering *
* Medicine * Medical Technology * Mining Engineering * Nuclear Engineering *
* Nursing * Optometry * Petroleum Engineering * Pharmacy * Physical
Therapist *
* Physical Therapist Assistants * Physicians * Physics * Respiratory Therapy
*
* Software Engineering * Statistics * Surgeon * Veterinary Science *
and more to come...
Career Cornerstone News Subscription Information
Career Cornerstone News is a free publication of
the Sloan Career Cornerstone Center
with support from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.
This newsletter may be reproduced in other non-profit publications
with credit and <http://www.careercornerstone.org/addalink.htm> links to
the Sloan Career Cornerstone Center.
It may also be forwarded to internal education or non-profit email lists.
<To subscribe, email <mailto:ccnews at careercornerstone.org>
ccnews at careercornerstone.org or
<http://www.careercornerstone.org/scccnews/nlsubscriptions.htm> click here.
<To adjust your subscription to a text only version, adjust your
subscription to
a PDF attachment version, or cancel your subscription, please
<mailto:ccnews at careercornerstone.org> email us.
<Support and graphics are available to
<http://www.careercornerstone.org/addalink.htm> link to SCCC from your site.
<This issue of the Career Cornerstone News is available in
<http://www.careercornerstone.org/scccnews/issues/2009/0509cn.pdf> PDF
format.
_________________________________________________________________________
_____
Join ChristianMingle.comR FREE! Meet Christian Singles in your area. Start
<http://pr.atwola.com/promoclk/100126575x1221673648x1201419171/aol?redir=htt
p://www.christianmingle.com/campaign.html%3Fcat%3Dadbuy%26src%3Dplatforma%26
adid%3Dfooter:050109%26newurl%3Dreg_path.html> now!
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://mailman.mit.edu/pipermail/8-opps/attachments/20090501/bf3865c1/attachment.htm
More information about the 8-opps
mailing list