Science and Technology

It's official: Buffalo's CAT is back. After nearly a decade without a New York State Center for Advanced Technology program that supports industry/university collaborations to drive job creation and economic growth, Buffalo is once again home to a CAT, this time a joint venture between UB and Roswell Park Cancer Institute (RPCI).

A multidisciplinary team of pharmaceutics and computer-science researchers at the University at Buffalo, one of very few teams in the nation applying DNA microarray technology in studies of multiple sclerosis (MS), has developed a method of interpreting the massive amount of information that results from such experiments.

"E-POETRY, 2001: An International Digital Poetry Festival," the first convocation of digital poets and artists gathered to focus on the emerging medium, will be held April 19-21 at the University at Buffalo.

Investigations by researchers at the University at Buffalo and the University of Tokyo into the origins of life and the genetic code have resulted in a method of developing novel proteins that has enormous potential for the biotechnology industry while providing some important clues to answering the question: "How did life begin?"

The world-renowned architectural team of Elizabeth Diller and Ricardo Scofidio, the first architects to receive a MacArthur Fellowship, will be the special guests of Atelier 2001, the annual showcase and open house of the School of Architecture and Planning, to be held April 6 on UB's South Campus.

Consumers bidding for items on eBay or other online auction sites exhibit a peculiar shopping behavior that actually hinders their ability to get a good deal on a desired item, according to a new study of digital consumer behavior by a University at Buffalo researcher.

Two of the oldest volcanoes on Mars, which have been active for 3.5 billion years, are providing clues to the possibility of life on the planet, according to preliminary analysis by University at Buffalo geologists of new data from the Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) and the Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter (MOLA), currently orbiting the planet.

Middle school students at the Tuscarora Indian School in the Niagara-Wheatfield School District have been working since late September to produce "Skarooran Journey: A Tuscaroran Adventure," an educational journey that explores aspects of the history, language and culture of these ancient eastern woodlands people through a student-designed, multimedia, CD-ROM program.

Cort Lippe appears in his formal photographs to be the serious-minded composer he is -- a leading figure in the international electro-acoustic music community. He is an assistant professor and director of the Lejaren Hiller Computer Music Studios in the Department of Music at the University at Buffalo, an international nerve center for composition and research in the field of interactive computer music. That, however, is just part of his story.

Practitioners of applied mathematics use a lexicon of numerical equations, instead of letters and sentences, to illuminate the secrets of the physical world. Now UB mathematics professor Bruce Pitman is using this "foreign language," to help solve gritty, real-world problems by developing computational models of everything ranging from large industrial systems to tiny biological ones, including the primary functional unit in the kidneys -- the nephron, which measures a mere 20 microns across.