John Robert Booker 1942–1998

2002 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 143
Author(s):  
J. P. Carter ◽  
H. G. Poulos ◽  
R. I. Tanner
Keyword(s):  
Civil Engineering ◽  
Academic Career ◽  
Close Contact ◽  
First Marriage ◽  
Engineering Mechanics ◽  
The University

Professor John Robert Booker died in Concord Hospital in Sydney on 13 January 1998, after a long and courageously-fought battle against cancer. His death cut short a brilliant academic career and deprived the Australian geotechnical and engineering mechanics communities of one of its most eminent members. At the time of his death John Booker held a personal chair in engineering mechanics in the Department of Civil Engineering at the University of Sydney, and he was widely regarded as one of the finest researchers of his generation working in the field of theoretical geomechanics. His long battle with cancer did not deflect him from his life's work. While understandably, he was unable to hold formal classes during the last months of his life, it is significant that he was active in research until his very last weeks, such was his love for and dedication to his work. John Booker was a warm, friendly, caring man who touched many lives. He was mentor to most with whom he came into close contact, students and colleagues alike. He is survived by his second wife Elizabeth, daughters from his first marriage, Katie and Lucie, sister Judith and mother Joan.

The Pransky interview: Dr Yoky Matsuoka, Vice President Technology, Nest Labs

2014 ◽  
Vol 41 (6) ◽  
pp. 481-486
Author(s):  
Joanne Pransky
Keyword(s):  
Computer Science ◽  
Mechanical Engineering ◽  
Academic Career ◽  
Industrial Robot ◽  
Vice President ◽  
Early Career ◽  
Smoke Detector ◽  
Foundation Engineering ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The University

Purpose – This article is a “Q&A interview” conducted by Joanne Pransky of Industrial Robot Journal as a method to impart the combined technological, business and personal experience of a prominent, robotic industry engineer-turned entrepreneur regarding the evolution, commercialization and challenges of bringing a technological invention to market. Design/methodology/approach – The interviewee is Dr Yoky Matsuoka, the Vice President of Nest Labs. Matsuoka describes her career journey that led her from a semi-professional tennis player who wanted to build a robot tennis buddy, to a pioneer of neurobotics who then applied her multidisciplinary research in academia to the development of a mass-produced intelligent home automation device. Findings – Dr Matsuoka received a BS degree from the University of California, Berkeley and an MS and PhD in electrical engineering and computer science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). She was also a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Brain and Cognitive Sciences at MIT and in Mechanical Engineering at Harvard University. Dr Matsuoka was formerly the Torode Family Endowed Career Development Professor of Computer Science and Engineering at the University of Washington (UW), Director of the National Science Foundation Engineering Research Center for Sensorimotor Neural Engineering and Ana Loomis McCandless Professor of Robotics and Mechanical Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University. In 2010, she joined Google X as one of its three founding members. She then joined Nest as VP of Technology. Originality/value – Dr Matsuoka built advanced robotic prosthetic devices and designed complementary rehabilitation strategies that enhanced the mobility of people with manipulation disabilities. Her novel work has made significant scientific and engineering contributions in the combined fields of mechanical engineering, neuroscience, bioengineering, robotics and computer science. Dr Matsuoka was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship in which she used the Genius Award money to establish a nonprofit corporation, YokyWorks, to continue developing engineering solutions for humans with physical disabilities. Other awards include the Emerging Inventor of the Year, UW Medicine; IEEE Robotics and Automation Society Early Academic Career Award; Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers; and numerous others. She leads the development of the learning and control technology for the Nest smoke detector and Thermostat, which has saved the USA hundreds of billions of dollars in energy expenses. Nest was sold to Google in 2013 for a record $3.2 billion dollars in cash.

On Being a Punk and a Scholar: A Reflexive Account of Researching a Punk Scene in Russia

2014 ◽  
Vol 19 (4) ◽  
pp. 135-147 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ivan Gololobov
Keyword(s):  
Ethical Issues ◽  
Academic Career ◽  
Social World ◽  
Ethnographic Research ◽  
Methodological Framework ◽  
Main Research ◽  
Research Paradigms ◽  
Ethnographic Studies ◽  
Youth Subcultures ◽  
The University

Ethnographic studies of youth subcultures, scenes and urban tribes often rely on insiders’ accounts, where researchers investigate a social environment of which they are presently or formerly members. This approach raises important questions about the positionality of the researcher, and the reflexivity, epistemology and ethics of an ethnographic investigation, as different roles and engagement with the field, as well as the very identity of the ‘field’ itself, no longer fit into the methodological framework of traditional ethnography. This article explores the difficulties that arise during ethnographic research on one's own social world. I was actively involved in the Russian punk scene before pursuing my academic career in England, and in the framework of a research project on post-socialist punk at the University of Warwick, I went back to study this milieu as a ‘field’ in two different sites in 2009 and in 2010. The article shows the complexity of researching one's own subculture and demonstrates that active discentring of the ‘knowing authority’ in studying one's own ‘tribe’ necessarily involves a transformation of its main research paradigms, where epistemological and ethical issues appear to be rearranged in a new way which radically affects the methodological foundations of such an investigation.

scholarly journals Obituary notices of fellows deceased

1873 ◽  
Vol 21 (139-147) ◽  
Keyword(s):  
High School ◽  
Civil Engineering ◽  
Gold Medal ◽  
Physical Investigation ◽  
The North ◽  
University Of Edinburgh ◽  
The University

William John Macquorn Rankine was bom at Edinburgh on the 5th July, 1820. He was the son of David Rankine (a lieutenant in the Rifle Brigade, and a younger son of Macquorn Rankine, of Drumdow, of a well-known family in the county of Ayr), and of Barbara Grahame, one of the daughters of Archibald Grahame, of Dalmarnock, a banker in Glasgow. He was educated partly at Ayr Academy, partly at the High School of Glasgow, from which he went to the University of Edinburgh; but he derived much of his instruction from his father, and, like most men who have made any real mark in science, he owed the greater part of his knowledge to his own energy and industry. In 1836 he received a gold medal for an essay on the Undulatory Theory of Light, and in 1838 he gained an extra prize for his essay on Methods of Physical Investigation. Shortly after this date he entered upon the profession of Civil Engineering, as a pupil of Sir John McNeill, under whose direction he was employed from 1839 to 1841 in various schemes for waterworks and harbour-works in the north of Ireland, and on the Dublin and Drogheda Railway.

scholarly journals Absolventinnenbefragung muv

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Angela Wroblewski ◽  
◽  
Victoria Englmaier
Keyword(s):  
Academic Career ◽  
Science System ◽  
University Of Vienna ◽  
Leaky Pipeline ◽  
The University ◽  
Further Development

Despite some successes, however, there are still barriers for women at universities, which are reflected in the so-called "leaky pipeline", i.e. a decreasing proportion of women the higher their position in the science system. The University of Vienna is also characterised by a pronounced leaky pipeline. The mentoring programme of the University of Vienna - muv - was launched to counteract this development and to support women in entering an academic career. The programme has been continuously evaluated and further developed. This report continues this tradition and provides input for a discussion on the further development of the programme.

scholarly journals It is not enough to flip your classroom. A case study in the course of Pavements in Civil Engineering

2019 ◽  
Vol 39 (3) ◽  
pp. 62-69
Author(s):  
Yasmany García-Ramírez
Keyword(s):  
Flipped Classroom ◽  
Civil Engineering ◽  
Learning Experience ◽  
University Teaching ◽  
Traditional Model ◽  
Group A ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Group B ◽  
The University

The flipped classroom, as an active learning model, has given remarkable results in several areas in the university teaching; however, its execution is still able to improve. This research shows the implementation and improvement of the flipped classroom model in the course of Pavements. It evaluates their influence on the students’ final grades and their learning experience. Three groups of students participated in this study, who enrolled in the course of Pavements in the Civil Engineering. Group A took the course with the traditional model, while Group B took it with a flipped classroom, and Group C experienced it with a reinforced flipped model. Groups did the course the subject in 2017, 2018 and 2019, respectively. Results show that even though with the flipped classroom models, the finals grades did not increase compared to the scores of the traditional model; however, it improved their learning experience. The students were more satisfied with the method; they even asked for fewer modifications than they did in the traditional model. This research shows that adding little academic things to the course, it would greatly influence their students' opinion.

scholarly journals Development vectors for the NNSUACE campus

2020 ◽  
pp. 157-166
Author(s):  
Anna Gelfond ◽  
Andrei Lapshin
Keyword(s):  
Public Space ◽  
Architectural Design ◽  
Civil Engineering ◽  
Symbiotic Relationship ◽  
State University ◽  
University Campus ◽  
Principal Tool ◽  
The University ◽  
Education Science

The Nizhny Novgorod State University of Architecture and Civil Engineering (NNSUACE) campus is located in Zapochainie, a historical area in Nizhny Novgorod, so the issues of revitalization of the historico-architectural environment and those concerning the methods of architectural design are interwoven in the text. The symbiotic relationship between education, science and practice used as a principal tool for the training of architects at NNSUACE made it possible to envision the evolution of the university campus. The article presents the projects proposed by professional architects and students in response to the need to meet both practical and ideological challenges – to transform the university campus into a viable public space.

scholarly journals Maks Samec and his adapting to academic standards after World War II

2018 ◽  
Vol 58 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Željko Oset
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Research Policy ◽  
Academic Career ◽  
Academic Standards ◽  
World War ◽  
Administrative Reforms ◽  
The 1950S ◽  
The University ◽  
Academy Of Sciences ◽  
Second Chance

The paper at hand deals with the academic career of Maks Samec (1881-1964) after World War II. Samec lost his habilitation upon the »purge« at the University of Ljubljana in August of 1945, but was offered a second chance as an irreplaceable scientist – he became the founder of the newly established Institute of Chemistry at the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts (SASA). He has earned numerous recognitions and state decorations for his work. At the institute, he strived to apply his academic standards, but was not entirely successful, which was also a consequence of administrative reforms and changes to research policy in the 1950s.

scholarly journals Menn, maskuliniteter og faghierarkier

2021 ◽  
pp. 49-74
Author(s):  
Lotta Snickare ◽  
Øystein Gullvåg Holter ◽  
Knut Liestøl
Keyword(s):  
Gender Equality ◽  
Academic Career ◽  
Significant Proportion ◽  
Natural Sciences ◽  
Male Dominance ◽  
Limited Extent ◽  
Masculine Norms ◽  
Informal Communities ◽  
University Of Oslo ◽  
The University

Abstract: Men, Masculinities and Professional Hierarchies Research on gender equality in academia only addresses men’s experiences to a limited extent, and the significance of masculine norms is also poorly elucidated. In this chapter, we present our results on the effects of male dominance in the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences at the University of Oslo. We first discuss whether it is an advantage to be a man at the faculty. The simple answer, based on our data, is “yes”. However, although we could not identify a specific “male” pattern of problems, a significant proportion of men experience problems – some feel “as affected as women” and oppose specific measures for women. There are also indications of informal communities of men, a poorly-considered majority position, the notion that an academic career is incompatible with family and caregiving – not just for women, but for men too – and tendencies toward an unyielding connection between men, masculinity and professional hierarchies.

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