Grand Opening for NNU’s New Boise Education Center

NNU Education Facility

[NNU News Release]

Northwest Nazarene University is pleased to announce the opening of its new Boise Center campus. Located downtown on Park Blvd., the new center has many amenities to offer to its students. This Boise campus hosts graduate, adult and professional programs in accounting and business with plans to incorporate classes in education, counseling and social work.

When asked about the impact this new Center will have on the Boise Valley, Dr. Ron Galloway, Boise Center Director, said, “The new Boise Center, located across the street from both Boise State and the University of Idaho in the Washington Group Plaza, gives NNU greater visibility in the Boise Metro area. As academic offerings and student numbers increase in Boise, the importance of this new location will become evident.”

The new facility includes four classrooms with ample room for 125 students. A student computer lab with 20 laptops as well as three desktop computers are available for student use. The new Boise Center has breakout rooms both inside and outside of the suite as well as a conference room and an on-site cafeteria.

William and Kate Fowler, both students pursuing an MBA at the new location, chose NNU’s Boise Center because of its cohort model that allows them to graduate in 16 months. “The Boise Campus is in close proximity to our house, which makes it only about a 10-minute drive.”

Directly following the grand opening ceremony, prospective students had an opportunity to tour the new facility.

Rural Health Grant for Idaho State as Outreach Partner

[ISU News Release]

Idaho State University's Institute of Rural Health has received a $22,500 grant from the National Institute of Mental Health to serve as the agency's Outreach Partner for Idaho.

ISU-IRH has served as the NIMH Outreach Partner for Idaho for 15 years and was selected this month for another round of funding. ISU-IRH is one of the state partners as well as representatives from District of Columbia and Puerto Rico.

Professor Kirkwood

"As an Outreach Partner, ISU is responsible for disseminating the latest NIMH mental health research findings and talking to the public about mental disorders and discrimination associated with mental illness," said Ann Kirkwood, ISU-IRH senior research associate at the Meridian Health Science Center and principle investigator for the project.

"We disseminate NIMH information through our partners across Idaho and provide materials to complement our children's mental health trainings," Kirkwood said.

ISU-IRH has offered the Better Todays/Better Tomorrows gatekeeper education program to 11,000 Idahoans since 2000. It provides information on the signs and symptoms of mental health problems in children and youth, suicide risk and protective factors, mental illness stigma and resiliency. The free course currently is offered through the Awareness to Action Youth Suicide Prevention Project funded by the Garrett Lee Smith Memorial Act and administered by the U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.

"ISU-IRH's participation in the Outreach Program provides Idahoans the opportunity to give input to NIMH on public health needs of communities across the state," Kirkwood said. "This input ensures that Idaho's needs are represented as NIMH advances its research agenda."

Better Todays train session are free to the public. Upcoming sessions are scheduled in Caldwell, Meridian and Sandpoint. To register for training, go to www.isu.edu/irh/. NIMH materials are available on the ISU-IRH website in a virtual packet at www.isu.edu/irh/projects/better_todays/.

For more information on this NIMH  program visit Outreach Partnership Program.

College of Idaho Student Helps Nurture Global Environmental Blog

Blogster Kevin Xu

[College of Idaho News Release]

College of Idaho senior Kevin Xu is a double major in finance and mathematics. Xu will graduate in May, but he already is using his financial training from the C of I to help another of his passions: the environment.

Xu works as the Chief Financial Officer of the online organization Collegiate Climate Collaboration (CCC), which is committed to raising awareness and fostering climate change-related discussion and debate amongst the international college community. The CCC globally brings college students together to share ideas, opinions and solutions to global climate change and other environmental issues.

CCC was established in September of 2010, and Xu has been involved since July, when he was approached by a friend who also is involved in the organization.

“Because of my strong interest in the environment movement, I was recruited as an administrator and a contributing writer for the CCC,” Xu said.

While it has been hard work getting the CCC on its feet, the organization is off to a good start. After just 15 months, there are approximately 26 contributing writers from colleges across the country, including Stanford, UCLA, Princeton and The College of Idaho. According to Xu, the CCC’s future plans include gaining professional advisors and academic contributors, adding a list of book and video recommendations to the website, and eventually building partnerships with major climate and environmental non-government organizations.

Xu’s written contributions to the online forum are aimed at environmentally-interested readers, but the articles also are friendly to those who are new to the environmental movement. In articles such as “Is the Carbon Price Right?” and “Green it up now, Uncle Sam,” Xu is careful to explain concepts to new readers and outline any controversies involved, a valuable asset for an organization seeking to raise awareness.

As graduation nears, Xu is applying to masters programs across the country in financial mathematics. Originally from Shanghai, Xu plans to return to his native China after he finishes graduate school and operate a venture capital firm in renewable energy in China and the U.S. Until then, he is happy with his role of raising environmental awareness among college students and building a strong foundation for his future career in environmental finance.

“Hostile Environment” Control Technology

[BSU News Release]

A Boise State University materials science researcher, along with engineers from Arizona State University, has received a $1 million grant from the U.S. Department of Defense to improve the performance of technology where radiation is present.

The radiation sensing device invented at Boise State performs tasks in places that are dangerous or impossible for humans to venture, such as outer space, on other planets or inside nuclear reactor facilities. The researchers hope to optimize the next generation of these devices by focusing on specialized materials that are used in components of small integrated circuits. The new versions of the technologies will be more resilient and more effective in environments with high levels of radiation.

Professor Mitkova

Maria Mitkova, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering at Boise State, will work with ASU engineering professors Hugh Barnaby and Michael Kozicki to study a specialized material called chalcogenide glasses, which is a glass containing one or more chalcogenide elements such as sulfur and selenium. They are currently found in rewritable DVDs, infrared detectors and lenses, among others. The compounds are useful because they can change physical and electrical properties when photons or radiation with shorter wavelengths redistribute metal atoms within their interiors. Mitkova, an expert in chalcogenide glass systems, will provide studies of radiation-induced changes in the properties of the material and related devices.

“So far little is known about how these materials respond to radiation especially with particles like protons, neutrons, etc, particularly their susceptibility to degradation and how that affects the performance of the device,” Mitkova said. “The knowledge that we gather in this project will be used to develop a deeper understanding of how radiation – from high energy photons, neutrons and ionized particles – affects the material structure and electrical performance of the devices based on  chalcogenide glasses.”

The study is expected to take five years to complete.

Public Land Adventurer Geocaching Program for GPS Users

[Bureau of Land Management News Release]

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Twin Falls District has joined the BLM Idaho State Office as a partner in its Public Land Adventurer Geocaching Program. The District has placed five geocaches in special public land sites throughout south central Idaho for geocachers to find. “We believe this pilot program provides an important avenue to engage both the public and BLM in an ongoing recreational activity that encourages people to get outside and explore their public lands,” said Bill Baker, Twin Falls BLM District Manager.

Geocaching has been around for quite a while. Essentially, it is an outdoor adventure game played by global positioning system (GPS) users. Participants search for hidden containers, called geocaches, and then share their experiences online. Individuals and organizations have placed caches all over the world and share the locations on websites such as GroundSpeak - GeoCaching.

Idaho BLM has created a virtual passport program to help participants log their visits to each geocache. At each cache site, players are provided an identification code that allows them to download a unique electronic stamp to place in their passport book. These stamps can be collected and redeemed for prizes. Individuals who find four caches in this region will be eligible for a district prize. Visitors who discover the district’s fifth cache, along with one cache from each of BLM’s three other districts, will earn the state prize.      

More information about the BLM passport program is available online at This Site. If you have further questions or want to learn more about this program, please contact Heather Tiel-Nelson, BLM Public Affairs Specialist, at 208-736-2352.

Professor D'Arcy-Evans receives Nursing Excellence Award

[News Release, Lewis-Clark State College]

Michele D`Arcy Evans, a professor in Lewis-Clark State College`s Nursing and Health Sciences Division, has been selected as a 2011 March of Dimes Idaho Nursing Excellence Award recipient.

The annual award, which recognizes nurses from across the state of Idaho for their outstanding work and impact on communities and the nursing profession, was announced at the March of Dimes Nurse of the Year Award Celebration in Boise, Idaho, earlier this month.

D`Arcy-Evans, who has served at LCSC since 1992 and specializes in family health, was recognized for her excellence in nursing education and for her volunteer efforts including service for the March of Dimes and the Idaho Perinatal Project.

She is the third member of LCSC`s Nursing and Health Sciences Division to receive the award in the last two years. In 2010, professors Tracy Flynn and Susan Odom were honored.

Idaho State Receives Grants to Study Landscape Fuel (Burnable Material)

[Idaho State University News Release]

Idaho State University geosciences researchers received two grants this fall totaling more than $688,000 to study fuels in shrub-dominated landscapes in the Northwest and to gather remote-sensing data to assess floodplains.

LiDAR Analysis Screen

The largest amount – $546,723 – is from the Joint Fire Science Program, an interagency research and development partnership between the U.S. Department of the Interior and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.  The Joint Fire Science Program awarded the money to the U.S. Geological Survey and ISU's Boise Center Aerospace Laboratory over three years.

The goal of the project, which will focus on lands in the Morley Nelson Snake River Birds of Prey National Conservation Area south of Boise, is to provide land managers with better tools to assess fuel volumes before a fire and how best to manage a landscape after a blaze, said Nancy Glenn, ISU geosciences research professor and BCAL director.

Fuel volume – combustible grasses, shrubs and trees – is calculated by tons of fuel per acre. The higher the fuel volume, the hotter the fire will burn.  ISU's portion of the project is to characterize the vegetation for fuel inventories by using remote-sensing or LiDAR data and to process the data.

"This project is a great opportunity for ISU students to work closely with the USGS, Bureau of Land Management and Orchard Training Area scientists. It's also an opportunity for federal agencies to better utilize remote-sensing tools and software for land management," said Glenn.

The Idaho Department of Water Resources awarded BCAL a $142,000 contract to collect and analyze airborne LiDAR imagery to assess floodplains.  The images will provide precise elevation data, enabling scientists to study floodplains in greater detail and identify flooding hazards.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency provided funding to IDWR and ISU to monitor several areas in Idaho, including the Priest and Snake River regions. The project also supports the newly formed Idaho LiDAR Consortium led by ISU.

For more information about the grants, contact Nancy Glenn at (208) 345-1994.  To read more about the Idaho LiDAR Consortium, visit their Web Site.

Miniature Plasma Source for Satellite Thrusters

[News release from Boise State University.]
Credit: Matt Pene, BSU News Feature

A miniature plasma source for a micro-propulsion system developed and tested by Boise State engineering researchers could help move small satellites and enable them to maintain a position while in orbit.


The propulsive force in the miniature, inductively coupled plasma source is generated by electricity rather than combustion. In physics and chemistry, plasma is a state of matter similar to gas, where a portion of the particles are ionized. The new system is a result of research on electric propulsion in low-temperature, co-fired ceramic (LTCC) materials. The engineers designed and tested a system that provides high-density plasma by using the gas argon as a propellant and injecting it into a thrust chamber to move small objects like a satellite.

“Overall, electric thrusters are more efficient in propellant usage and that allows the devices to operate for longer periods of time without the need to refuel,” said study coauthor Don Plumlee, assistant professor of mechanical and biomedical engineering. “A plasma thruster provides more thrust for the mass of propellant being ejected compared to traditional chemical thrusters, and it provides more efficient performance at the small thruster sizes we are targeting.”

The miniature plasma source was created out of a material that allows the integration of additional thruster elements, including propellant delivery into a single device. The concept is based on the miniaturization of an electric thruster, using ceramic materials to integrate fluidics and electronics. Researchers then tested the system over different frequencies and argon pressures. The system performed well at frequencies from 400 MHz to 1000 MHz and a resonant frequency near 920 MHz.

“Our inductively coupled plasma source also is embedded inside the ceramic substrate, which protects it from back-bombardment of the plasma ions that could potentially erode the antenna,” said study coauthor Jim Browning, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering. “These devices are really the first step in developing a smaller electrostatic thruster in ceramic materials.”

The design and testing of the plasma source is outlined in a paper that appears online in the journal IEEE Transactions in Plasma Science.