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MIT’s The Weather Oldest and Largest Today: Sunny, 74°F (23°C) Tonight: Clear, 45°F (7°C) Newspaper Tomorrow: Cloudy, cool, 60°F (16°C) Details, Page 2 Volume 124, Number 25 Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139 Friday, May 7, 2004 SAE Ljubicic, Robot Win 2.007 “Big Dig” Contest By Kathy Dobson STAFF REPORTER Decision Dean M. Ljubicic ’06 took first place in the annual 2.007 design contest with his robot besting that of Bryan Woodruff ’06 in the final Tabled round. Both robots featured complicat- By Pon-Pon Yeh ed designs with multiple strategies, STAFF REPORTER and both robots required an addi- The Interfraternity Council tional driver. tabled a vote at a President’s Coun- “A lot of people say, ‘Make your cil meeting this past Wednesday to design simple,’” Ljubicic said; “I give associate IFC member privi- did something complicated but put leges to the Sigma Alpha Epsilon in enough time to make sure it fraternity. The vote will instead be worked.” taken after the fall 2004 recruitment Samuel M. Felton ’06 and Adam period in order to better assess the S. Kaczmarek ’06 were the other two fraternity’s situation, said IFC Presi- in the final four of the contest and, as dent Daniel H. Daneshvar ’05. a result of their finish, will partici- Associate members of the IFC have pate with Ljubicic and Woodruff in all the privileges of full members the International Design Contest in except voting rights. Japan this summer. SAE submitted a petition to become an associate member of the Contest features many options IFC and spoke at the IFC Presi- Named “Big Dig” in honor of dent’s Council two weeks ago. Boston’s Central Artery/Tunnel Becoming an associate member is Project, this year’s contest had four BEN GALLUP—THE TECH the first step in the process of scoring options — more than there Dean M. Ljubicic ’06 (right) and co-driver Salvatore B. Pallante ’06 (left) celebrate Ljubicic’s come- becoming a full member organiza- have been in previous years’ con- from-behind victory in final round of the 2.007 mechanical design competition Thursday night. Ljubicic’s tion of the IFC. tests. The most popular scoring robot employed a spinning device that he had not used previously in the competition, catching his oppo- “I think it went really well,” said option was to move balls from a nent off guard. incoming SAE president Joseph P. stack located between the two play- Another scoring option, which grams, in the hole. multiplied the total score by two. Carlucci ’05. “The IFC tabled the ers’ starting positions and drop them was also used by many participants, The last two scoring options, vote, but gave us full permission to into a hole in the table. Fifty-five was to spin a paddle wheel which which were rarely, if ever, used, were Multiple strategies used rush.” small balls and four large shotput was only accessible by driving up a to push a button on the table, which Ljubicic relied on his blocking The MIT chapter of SAE was balls, as well as pucks that lined ramp. The score was the maximum added ten times the number of sec- projectile to stop his opponents, but derecognized in January 2000 after areas of the table, could be placed in rotational speed of that shaft. This onds elapsed to the score, and to push an underage drinking incident. The the hole for points. value was multiplied by the mass, in mass through a small tunnel, which 2.007, Page 10 SAE house was shut down by the Boston Licensing Board and MIT withdrew recognition of the fraterni- Masterpiece or Junkpile? Stata Opens Its Doors ty. The SAE alumni board expelled the upperclassmen at that time. By Frank Dabek architectural innovation.” Provost orange carpet. hello? … I want my unique design will likely win Currently, there are nine members STAFF REPORTER Robert A. Brown said he hopes that money back.” awards, but it also makes finding the of SAE. MIT’s newest building, the Ray the many open spaces inside the The responses of building resi- stairwell a non-trivial task. All of and Maria Stata Center, will be offi- $280 million building, which he dents to their new space paint the this in a building that came in at Petition still being examined cially dedicated today. called the “new entrance to MIT,” early history of Stata as one of good three times its original budget. An expansion committee con- William will draw students out and create the intentions gone awry. A vision of This is not to say that no stu- sisting of several fraternity presi- J. Mitchell, opportunity for “different forms of collaborative spaces has become, dents are happy with the new dents was formed to look into the Feature professor learning.” for many students, a reality of work- building. “I love the Stata center. petition and make recommendations of architec- The building’s residents have ing with little or no privacy. Beautiful, interesting, artsy,” wrote to the council. The committee con- ture, said that the building, designed their own opinion, however. Natalia Gehry’s name makes it easier to Bryan A. Ford G. A highly infor- ducted several interviews to “deter- by Frank O. Gehry, is part of a wave H. Gardiol G spoke for the majority attract funding, but it also attracts mal poll has “hate it” far outpacing mine whether these members would of building on campus that is (or possibly a very vocal minority) “visitors” who turn a workplace into “love it,” however. One is left to be an addition to the IFC communi- “reclaiming MIT’s great tradition of in an e-mail: “noisy. complicated. a tourist attraction. The building’s wonder where vision and reality ty… whether they’d add something, diverged. bring something to the table,” Daneshvar said. Stata planning began in 1996 Based on its findings, the com- Planning for the Stata Center mittee recommended that “we table began in 1996, and the project was the votes on SAE until after rush of announced in January of 1997. At next year,” said Daneshvar, primari- that time, MIT’s Laboratory for ly because “but there were some Computer Science and the Artificial concerns about some of the individ- Intelligence Laboratory (the two uals and their behavior regarding laboratories have since merged to rush and orientation of last year.” form the Computer Science and “These guys have serious poten- Artificial Intelligence Laboratory) tial to bring something positive to were slated to move to the building the community,” said Daneshvar in 2000. The budget projection at “We wanted to kind of give them a the time of the announcement was chance to prove to us that they $95 million. wanted to be a valuable members of When Building 32 (Stata’s name the community.” under MIT’s numeric system of The council gave SAE stipula- naming buildings) was finally occu- tions to follow in order to prepare pied this year, 78,000 cubic yards of them for potential future IFC mem- concrete had been poured around bership. Members are to receive countless feet of #18 re-bar (the training for intervention procedures, largest manufactured), one million which is required of all IFC mem- bricks had been laid by hand, 1,000 bers. students, faculty, and staff moved In addition, SAE is required to FRANK DABEK—THE TECH their belongings in 16,000 orange meet with Steven J. Tyrell, associate Frank O. Gehry speaks at a media event prior to today’s dedication of the Ray and Maria Stata Center. crates, and the center’s budget had Gehry designed the $280 million building, which is home to the Computer Science and Artificial Intelli- SAE, Page 16 gence Laboratory. Stata, Page 13 OPINION Comics NEWS BRIEFS Two former MIT baseball players Villacorta elected GSC treasurer. World & Nation . 2 clarify facts about the baseball LaVerdes makes delayed charges. Opinion . 4 career of Jason E. Szuminski ’01. Hazmat responds to improper Features . .12 acid dump in Tech Square. Sports . .20 Page 5 Page 7 Page 14 Page 2 THE TECH May 7, 2004 WORLD & NATION FDA Rejects Morning-After Pill U.S. Knew Soldiers Abused Without Prescription THE NEW YORK TIMES Federal drug regulators on Thursday rejected a drug maker’s Iraqi Prisoners for Months application to sell a morning-after pill over-the-counter because of concerns about whether young girls would be able to use it safely. By Neil A. Lewis He noted that some people had In exchange for such access, the The Food and Drug Administration told the pill’s maker, Barr and Eric Lichtblau said that the offenses were “even Red Cross typically does not publi- Pharmaceuticals that before the drug could be sold without a pre- THE NEW YORK TIMES more awful” for the Iraqi prisoners cize its findings but reports them scription the company must either find a way to prevent young WASHINGTON because, in Arab culture, that kind only to the host government. But in teens from getting it from store shelves or prove, in a new study, The International Committee of of treatment is unbearably shameful. rare cases like the situation at Abu that young girls can understand how to use it without the help of a the Red Cross regularly complained He said one thing that Red Cross Ghraib, it makes its complaints pub- doctor. Company executives expressed confidence that they could to senior U.S. officials in Iraq and in officials did not know was that lic when its officials believe its rec- clear those hurdles, although it was unclear how long that would Washington over the last several guards were taking photos of what ommendations have been ignored.