Videos

The annual Summer Noon Concert Series continues today with Seattle reggae rockers Kore Ionz. Having shared the stage with such legends as The Wailers, Steel Pulse and Third World, and currently touring with New Zealand’s Katchafire, Kore Ionz brings reggae influenced by both jazz and the sounds of Hawai’i. Their hit single “Love You Better” has been a top-request on radio stations in Honolulu, Hilo, and Kona.

The free concerts take place at noon every Wednesday in the Performing Arts Center Plaza (Viking Union in case of rain).

The series began June 27 with acoustic folk band Pretty Little Feet. Pretty Little Feet, whose members are Matt Novak and Allegra Ziffle, has been creating musical collaborations in Bellingham for 10 years, previously as Quickdraw String Band and Barnum Jack. Novak and Ziffle have six full-length albums between them, and their latest, The Mountain Runners, serves as the soundtrack for the recent local hit documentary of the same name, which chronicles the incredible true story of the 1911-13 Mt. Baker Marathon, America's first mountain endurance race.

Upcoming shows:

• Cumulus, born in Bellingham as a solo project by Alexandra Niedzialkowski, takes the stage July 18 Niedzialkowski has now added a full band, and the group is based in Seattle. The band features catchy hooks, polished indie pop and airy lyrical mastery.
• High-energy Zimbabwean percussion group Ruvara Marimba Ensemble will play July 25. Come enjoy the perfect summer sounds of the marimba (wooden-key xylophones) and hosho (gourd shakers), sure to have people of all ages moving and shaking. Nancy Steele and her talented crew from the local Ruvara Marimba Studio are ready to show Western a good time.
• Old-school blues/funk band Hot Bodies In Motion will play Aug. 1 with melodies soulful and catchy enough to put that iconic smile on Stevie Wonder's face and music that would make Stevie Ray Vaughan tip his hat.

The concerts are sponsored by the Associated Students Summer Program. For more information, contact Casey Hayden at (360) 650-2489 or casey.hayden@wwu.edu.

The Bellingham Festival of Music, which takes place this month at various locations around town, including on the Western Washington University campus, continues today at the Mt. Baker Theater.

Violinist Joshua Bell is today's featured guest.

One of the country's premier virtuoso orchestra festivals, the event features a repertoire of the finest symphonic music. Members of the orchestra all hold artistically prestigious positions elsewhere, and many of them are principal players in major North American symphony orchestras. The festival also features world famous guest artists and young rising stars.

The Ralph Munro Institute from Western Washington University spent last week at North Seattle Community College. It has moved to Western's campus in Bellingham for this week, June 25 to 29. Elected officials, public policy experts, political scientists and distinguished scholars will be among the speakers at panels that are free and open to the public.

“The panels will focus on a wide range of some of the most important issues facing our state today. The public is invited to join us for these interesting and lively discussions with key decision makers and experts,” said Sara Weir, chair of Western’s Political Science Department and director of the Ralph Munro Institute.

These sessions took place last week and are available for viewing on TVW, Washington state's television station.

Tuesday, June 19: “Budgeting in Challenging Times”

Panel with moderator Dick Thompson, Western trustee who served in the administrations of three Washington governors, including as past director of the state Office of Financial Management; state Rep. Ross Hunter; state Sen. Doug Ericksen; Marty Brown, current director of the state Office of Financial Management; and Rep. J.T. Wilcox.

Wednesday, June 20: “Higher Education: Legislative Challenges”

Panel with moderator Kelly Evans, public affairs and political consultant; state Rep. Reuven Carlyle; Rep. Hans Zeiger; Rep. Larry Seaquist; state Sen. David Frockt and Sen. Steve Litzow.

Thursday, June 21: Initiatives and Referenda: Good for Washington State?”

Panel with moderator Paul Dunn, senior executive assistant to the Western president; Seattle Times journalist Joni Balter; political activist Tim Eyman; state Rep. Chris Reykdal; and Allison Holcomb, campaign director for Yes on I-502, the marijuana legalization initiative.

Below is the list of topics and confirmed panelists June 26 to 28 at Western’s campus in Bellingham. All panels will be from 2:15 to 4 p.m. at Old Main 340 – the Board of Trustees meeting room. No public panels are taking place on Mondays and Fridays, which are filled with classes.

Tuesday, June 26: “Political Influence: Inside the Process”

Panel with moderator Todd Donovan, professor of Political Science at Western; political strategist Ron Dautzauer; political strategist Terry Thompson; and Alex Hays, executive director of the Mainstream Republicans of Washington.

Wednesday, June 27: “Political Reporting: A Challenging Landscape”

Keynote address by Western President Bruce Shepard. Panel with moderator Dave Ammons, former Associated Press capital reporter and current communications director for the Washington Secretary of State; Seattle PI.com columnist Joel Connelly; and Austin Jenkins, Olympia reporter for public radio and host for TVW’s weekly public affairs program “Inside Olympia.”

Thursday, June 28: “Lobbying: Influence and Access”

Panel with moderator Cole Taratoot, visiting assistant professor of Sociology at Western; contract lobbyist Charlie Brown; Wendy Rader-Konofalski, with the Washington Education Association, and Amber Carter, with the Association of Washington Business.

Western’s Ralph Munro Institute is devoted to promoting civic literacy within secondary education and the public at large. It offers students, teachers and community members an opportunity to work with professors, activists and political leaders to learn how local, state and national politics develop. The institute was named in honor of Ralph Munro, a WWU alumnus and trustee. Munro was elected Washington’s Secretary of State in 1980 and continued in that position until his retirement in 2001. Munro plans to attend this year's institute, to participate and to welcome participants.

Western Washington University’s computer science department held its annual Student Robot Competition May 29 in the Communications Facility lobby on the first floor on WWU’s campus.

The participants were students from Associate Professor of Computer Science Jianna Zhang’s Computer Science 372: Robotics class, although all Western students, regardless of their major or area of study, are allowed to enter robots in what has now become an annual competition.

In lieu of a final exam, the students’ culminating project assignment was to build and program a robot. There were no restrictions on types of robots; they just had to be made by students using safe materials such as Lego, electronic sensors, plastic lunch boxes, thin metal sheets, or other un-harmful materials. The goal of the class was to implement some aspect of learning into the robot.

Western sophomore Gary McNall, who is majoring in computer science and mathematics, showed off his model, the Robot Sonographer, which he first started building and programming as a class project in the past month.

The project “kind of became a little pet of mine,” he said.

But before there was a moving robot, McNall spent hours coming up with math proofs. As he leafed through his notebook, line after line of algorithms rolled off the pages. Even the seemingly simple actions, such as getting the robot to turn, took planning and lots of trial and error.

“You have to be willing to put in the time to build something cool,” he said. “I had to write a lot of proofs just to build the path-tracking system,” he says. “The sonar system took a lot of algorithms to refine the data to make noticeable shapes. You have to figure out what data points are important and which are irrelevant or redundant.”

The robot, made from a Lego Mindstorm NXT kit, can scan 360 degrees around it and builds a two-dimensional representation of the area around it. It then takes that two-dimensional information and displays it to the user. It also uses the information to make navigational decisions so it doesn’t collide with objects in its path. Overall, it can travel for about 200 seconds. Essentially, the robot can recognize its environment and sense where it’s going. The trick is it uses a learning algorithm to decide on the optimal path to take.

“It wants to explore more areas, but the algorithm is going to tell it which way is going to teach me the most about the environment based on what I’ve already seen,” McNall said.

Zurka Wolford, a junior computer science major, agreed that successful robots are about 90 percent hard work.

“You have to play around a little bit,” she said.

Maybe more than a little bit. For her project, she built Spot, a robot puppy that knows how to do seven tricks, such as wagging its tail, with the help of sensors. Wolford was able to control the programming language by inputting the values of the sensors. As a result, Spot reacts to a reward system. If she commands him to perform a task and he successfully imitates it, she rewards him by pushing his nose.

Like many students in the 372 class, McNall and Wolford built a foundation for robotics in the introductory course, Robotics 172. The program Wolford used, also Lego Mindstorm NXT, has a simple, easy-to-learn language, but she plans to further explore robotics with a more complex model.

“I have a different robot at home that I can play with,” she said. “It’s more advanced. It has a better programming language.”

But if robot-building is a hobby for many students in the class, more robotic courses are in computer science senior Sam Nguyen’s future. He plans to pursue a career in game development and make games where he can create his own world, like Hogwarts. He said he appreciates the computer science department because as long as he can program his project, he is allowed to get really creative. He programmed his aptly named model, The Follower, to follow whatever is in front of it.

“It scans around and determines which way to go,” he said.

Nguyen also programmed a reward system for his follower. When the robot gets closer to its desired location, it rewards itself with points.

“That can take lots of programming,” he said. “And some sleepless nights.”

But that seems to be half the fun.

Registered Pet Partner Teams (dogs and handlers) have been in the Western Libraries on campus for a couple of weeks providing some "doggie therapy" for students stressed out by finals or those who just want to relax.

The Condom Fashion Show from the Western Washington University Associated Students Sexual Awareness Center is an expression supporting safer sex practices and proper condom use. In the yearly show, models walk the runway wearing outfits made with expired condoms.

The Muslim Students' Association at Western Washington University held various events on campus this past week as part of Islamic Awareness Week on campus.

Students in the Western Washington University art department have created a minigolf course in front of the Fine Arts Building.

Plans are to use the functional sculpture to raise funds for the department.

Western Washington University student Jesus Velazquez practices the art of FLOEball in Red Square.

A form of meditation, a martial art, an exercise and a game, FLOEball (FLOE stands for "For Love of Energy") has its roots at Western.

Western Washington University Associate Professor of Theatre and Dance Rich Brown received the 2012 award for Outstanding Lead Deviser/Director of a Devised Work at the national awards at the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival on April 21 at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C.

Brown was honored for directing the devised production, “Us,” which ran on campus in April 2011 and was invited to be one of four full-length plays shown as part of the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival in Fort Collins, Colo., in February.

A devised theater work is an original work created collaboratively by a team of artists who are usually also the performers.

“It’s very humbling and gratifying to be honored for a collaborative and experimental way of creating new theater,” Brown said.

Inspired by Jack Kerouac’s “On the Road” and photographer Robert Frank’s book, “The Americans,” Brown and a group of Theatre students devised “Us” over the course of a year. The show is an investigation of the young American experience.

Brown said devising is about empowering young theater artists to make their own work. That way, he said, they will not have to wait for others to cast or hire them; they always have their own projects to create and perform.

Recently, a group of Theatre alumni, some of whom took part in the production of “Us,” formed the Bangarang Ensemble in Seattle and are now devising their first piece.

“If you find your collaborators, no one can say you can’t practice your art,” Brown said.

He said he hopes Western’s Theatre and Dance department continues exploring devised works.

Brown will be directing another devised work, “Occupy Soapbox,” which will premiere in May 2013.

For more information on the award, contact Brown at (360) 650-7320 or Rich.Brown@wwu.edu.