PAID PPCO U.S. Postage U.S. Non Profit Org. Alumni Magazine Fall 2017 Alumni Association 459 UCB 80309-0459 CO Boulder, ALSO IN THIS ISSUE: DR. DRONE START-UP FEVER ARE MERMAIDS REAL? A CU SCIENTIST RESPONDS GANGS IN AMERICA THE RALPHIE ISSUE NOWSEPTEMBER 2017 Former Rocky Mountain News illustrator Drew Litton has immortalized Ralphie in numerous cartoons over the years. Here's one of his latest, specially commissioned for the Coloradan. See others at drewlitton.com. 1 FALL 2017 Coloradan ColoradanIllustration byFALL Drew 2017 Litton 2 FEATURES EDITOR’S NOTE Two years ago I spent some time with Larry Strear (Art’69) on his Boulder County buf- falo ranch for a story about ranchers' role in sustaining the Ameri- can buffalo population. I don’t think I’d ever seen a buffalo up close — close enough to feel her breath — let alone mingled among a herd of 40. These were plainly powerful animals, com- manding respect from mere humans. But they were also calm and un- hurried. They munched grass, sauntered to the pond to drink and generally ignored us interlopers, which was fine with me. I tried to imagine that time, many gener- ations back, when tens of millions of bison roamed the West. What did a stampede sound like? Feel like? What was the scent of the churned earth after they’d passed? CU Boulder grad- COVER The Ralphie 15 50 Years of Ralphie 31 Better than Babel uates perhaps can running tradition started The buffalo who became Ralphie I arrived Samuel Boyd has a way with languages. imagine better than in 1967. Photo by Getty in Boulder in 1966. In 1967, her Folsom Field most. Welcome to The Images/Doug Pensinger. performances took root in CU culture. Ralphie Issue. 35 Start-Up Fever ABOVE Madalyn Kern Entrepreneurs are coming out of the woodwork Eric Gershon (MechEngr'12; PhD'16) 23 The Art of Experience at CU Boulder. It’s no accident. at the Catalyze CU Demo Soon there'll be a degree for that. Day in July. Her company, ReForm, is developing a low- 39 Tasmanian Devil Is an Old Soul cost, adjustable prosthetic 25 Behind the Bars CU football captain Phillip Lindsay (Comm'18) socket for amputees. Photo A CU professor goes inside America's prisons enters his senior season as a top-ranked NFL by Logan Guerry. to study gang life. prospect. There's more to the man than that. DEPARTMENTS 1 NOW Super Ralphie 8 BOULDER BEAT 29 INFOGRAPHIC 49 Sports 65 THEN Paul Danish Ralphies I-V Summer 1966 5 INQUIRY 55 Class Notes Brian Argrow 11 LOOK Playground 43 Alumni News 61 Letters CONTACT ERIC GERSHON AT 7 Campus News 13 ORIGINS CU Mascot 47 The President's View [email protected] 3 FALL 2017 Coloradan Coloradan FALL 2017 4 INQUIRY BRIAN ARGROW DR. DRONE I use “legitimate” to separate those greatest promise for humankind? ing design. Integrity because, if we are Brian Argrow, the new chair of CU Boul- who intend to observe the current reg- As much as I see drones changing the to entrust our lives to the technologies of der’s Ann and H.J. Smead Aerospace ulations from the “rogues” who have no world, I suppose if I had to say what holds aerospace engineers, we must first have Engineering Sciences department, talks intention to abide by the regulations. the greatest promise to humanity, it would trust in the people that are the engineers. Mars, drones, integrity and why he always NASA also is focused on developing have to be spacecraft with the potential books a window seat. an air-traffic management system in an- to spread humankind to other planets. Of What first drew you to aerospace ticipation of the continued proliferation of course, Mars is the first target. engineering? If you could visit any planet in our small drones. My first love was astronomy, as far back solar system, which would you pick? CU Boulder’s aerospace program as I can remember. The Gemini and Mars, of course. When I see images from How soon and for what uses? ranks among America’s best. How Apollo programs absolutely captured the surface, they often remind me of Small drones have become ubiquitous would you like to see it change my imagination. I was 8, about to be 9, places I’ve visited in the American South- enough to barely be noticeable. You or grow? for the first moon landing. I was similarly west, and I have so many memories from might have seen News Channel 4 in Den- Once, innovation was primarily within fascinated by the NASA X-plane program, reading sci-fi books such as Ray Brad- ver advertising their “Drone 4,” which is specific, well-defined disciplines. Today’s especially the X-15. If it had anything to bury’s The Martian Chronicles. It would be just a little DJI Phantom-4 quadrotor. innovation is mostly at their intersections. do with astronomy, and if it involved craft fascinating to see just how accurate my A partial list of CU’s recent drone ap- For example, today’s drone technol- that flew fast or high — preferably fast and youthful imagination was. plications and missions includes atmo- ogies are emerging from aeronautics, high — then it had my undivided attention. spheric measurements and profiling, an robotics, intelligent systems and space- You’re an expert in unmanned air- aerial photogrammetry survey of Chim- craft (GPS) technologies, with increasing- When you travel by air: Aisle or win- craft systems (drones). Do you think ney Rock National Monument, delivery ly autonomous technologies starting to dow, and how do you pass the time? they’ll become part of everyday life of real-time pre-storm weather data to emerge in spacecraft, air traffic control Window seat. When I first started traveling in America? the National Weather Service and inter- and ground-based systems, such as cars. as a professor, I thought it was important If you consider the battlefield, tactical cepting supercell thunderstorms in the Our aerospace program continues to for me to have an aisle seat, since I was and strategic missions of the U.S. mili- Great Plains. grow because of our diversity in disci- fancying myself as a businessman. It only tary for the past 20 years or so, drones A multitude of civilian applications plines and research, our willingness to took a few trips and I was back in the win- have already been an indispensable part includes search and rescue; powerline, collaborate and innovate at intersections dow seat where I belonged — where I had of the lives of many Americans — but railroad, bridge and river inspection; and our desire to be leaders in all aspects a clear view of the wings and engines, only recently in America. The introduc- estuary surveys; large aquatic mammal of engineering education. and great views of things on the ground. tion of the FAA’s “Part 107” regulation counts; anti-poaching; and blood and Even though I spend most of my time last year finally gave a relatively straight- plasma delivery. What qualities make for a first-rate working on my computer, I still look out forward path for legitimate drone uses aerospace engineer? and down often. for flights in the U.S. below 400-ft. alti- What aerospace endeavor that Curiosity and integrity. Curiosity drives the tude and away from airports. you’re aware of seems to offer the imaginations at the foundation of engineer- Condensed and edited by Eric Gershon. 5 FALL 2017 Coloradan Photo by Glenn Asakawa Coloradan FALL 2017 6 BOULDER BEAT By Paul Danish FALL ’67: CHANGIN’ TIMES Between 1933 and 1963, Boulder voters THE 1967 SUMMER OF Love may not have considered six proposals to repeal local amounted to much at CU, but the ’67 fall prohibition — and rejected all six. semester was another matter. But by 1967 Boulder’s population was Hippie culture began seeping into the exploding. IBM alone brought more student body. Student activism turned than 8,000 new employees and their more radical. And in the city of Boulder spouses to town. there was a political earthquake. The newcomers weren’t much into FALL 2017 In October CU’s recently organized temperance. So in November ’67 the vot- News Students for a Democratic Society chap- ers said, in so many words, Happy Days ter blocked the entrance to the University Are Here Again, 9,709 to 3,965. Placement Office, where the CIA was The City Council wasted no time in No Smoking, Please interviewing job seekers, prompting a bellying up to the bar. near-riot when students who had other in- It swiftly annexed the enclaves home BUT MAYBE YOU’D LIKE TO BUY SOME ART? terviews scheduled tried to get past. Nine to a necklace of liquor stores, restaurants protesters were suspended for a semester. and bars surrounding Boulder, including The hope, she said, is for By the standards of what came later, the Harvest House and the Lamp Post, visitors to leave with a hap- the demo was pretty tame stuff. But Boulder’s two best eateries then. py token of their experience it marked the moment when student The total value of the property that inspires a return. activism switched from early ’60s civil annexed was almost $19 million in 1967, Eads stocks the Art-o-mat rights-style protests to the more militant about $138 million today. with oil paintings, watercol- Vietnam War era-style. The Boulderado Hotel obtained ors, jewelry, sculpture and Off campus, the citizens of Boulder a liquor license for The Catacombs, fabrics with animal, plant voted for a sales tax to buy open space the first upscale restaurant to open and other natural history (we called it greenbelts back then), and downtown in ages, beginning the area's themes or forms.