MIT's The Weather Oldest and Largest Today: Cloudy, 62°F (17°C) Tonight: Cloudy, misty, 52°F (11°C) Newspaper Tomorrow: Scattered rain, 63°F (17°C) Details, Page 2 Volume 119, Number 25 Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139 Friday, May 7, 1999 Arguelles Climbs to Victory In 2.70 'Mech Everest' Contest By Karen E. Robinson and lubricant. will travel to Japan next year to ,SS!)( '1.1fr: .vOl'S UHI! JR The ramps were divided into compete in an international design After six rounds of competition, three segments at IS, 30, and 4S competition. Two additional stu- D~vid Arguelles '01 beat out over degree inclines with a hole at the dents who will later be selected will 130 students to become the champi- end of each incline. Robots scored compete as well. on of "Mech Everest," this year's points by dropping the pucks into 2.;0 Design Competition. these holes and scored more points Last-minute addition brings victory The contest is the culmination of for pucks dropped into higher holes. Each robot could carry up to ten the Des ign and Engineering 1 The course was designed by Roger pucks to drop in the holes. Students (2,.007) taught by Professor S. Cortesi '99, a student of Slocum. could request an additional ten Alexander H. Slocum '82. Some robots used suction to pucks which could not be carried in Kurtis G. McKenney '01, who keep their treads from slipping the robot body. Arguelles put these finished in second place, and third down the table, some clung to the in a light wire contraption pulled by p\~ce finisher Christopher K. Harper walls bordering the table, and some his robot, which he added "last '01 were separated only by a tie- shot grappeling hooks past the table Thursday, the day before ship breaker based upon time. to help pull themselves. The four date." The object of Mech Everest was finalists' robots were fairly simple, At the lowest hole, the trailer te}' design a robot to travel up a and McKenney attributed his suc- dumped the extra pucks, and those steepening ramp and drop hockey cess to the fact that he "kept it sim- that fell in the hole scored one pucks at the top. Students were ple." point each. This was added to given kits of materials to use, and Arguelles, along with points amassed by the pucks that w~re allowed to provide only inci- McKenney, Harper and Justin W. dental items such as washers, bolts, Raade '01, who took fourth place, MechEverest, Page 23 Injured Police Officer Files Suit ANNIE CHOI-THE TECH David Arguelles '01 leaps In the air upon winning this year's 2.70 Against Institute, Beta Theta Pi competition last night. B,f Douglas E. Heimburger James B. Williams '99, Philip J. the defendants did not ensure that fXECUT/VE EDrrOR LaFond G, Russell Speiler '00, rules and regulations for social The Boston University police Robert N. Tunick '99 and Steven J. events were upheld. officer who was severely injured last Lefkowitz '00 as defendants. The suit also alleges that Johnson, ROTC, Sloan Tea;m Up summer while avoiding bottles LaFond, Speiler, Tunick, and BTP national, the alumni chapter, thrown from the roof of Beta Theta Lefkowitz are named as representa- and MIT committed willful, wanton, Pi has filed suit against the Institute tives of the BTP chapter. The chapter and reckless conduct by failing to On Leadership Course and others. itself, as an unincorporated associa- perform duties "in light of the defen- ,. The suit, filed by BU officer tion, was not named. dants' knowledge of the history of By Sanjay Basu Management as a special seminar James Barry and his wife Dorothy The suit alleges that all the defen- criminal and/or serious incidents ASSOCIA TE NEWS EDITOR (1S.328). on April 14, names the national Beta dants "owed a duty of reasonable involving MIT fraternities arising Beginning this fall, non-ROTC The course will be jointly T~eta Pi, the local alumni corpora- care to those on the premises" from alcohol consumption and lack students will" be allowed to enroll taught by officers from the Army, tion Beta Upsilon Association and its including that alcohol laws were of supervision." in Leadership and Management I Navy, and Air Force beginning in president, Michael A. Johnson '80, observed by all those on the premis- (MS.40 1), and will receive credit the fall. It will offer six units of M IT, and current MIT students es. Additionally, the suit alleges that BTP, Page 18 through the Sloan School of credit and will be open to all stu- dents. The proposal for the new class, announced by Professor of Biotech Companies Excel in $50K Competition Management Emeritus Robert B. McKersie and Visiting Professor By Kristen landino boasts a net worth over $3 billion. of Military Science Robert R. ASSOCIA TE NEWS EDITOR "The second telecommunication revolution Rooney at the April faculty meet- MolecularWare, a software start-up compa- has come: a computer-mediated communica- ing, was created by the ROTC ny launched to help researchers develop drugs, tion revolution," Sahin said. oversight committee, which con- was awarded the grand prize in this year's Preparation for the competition started in sists of faculty members, ROTC SSOK Competition Tuesday night in Kresge the fall with the $IK Competition. This warm- cadets, and military commanders. Auditorium. up for the $SOK Competition began in October "They were interested in get- Runners-up in the competition were Just-in- and winners were announced in early ting more of ROTC into the main- Zyme, a biotechnology company, and December. stream of campus coursework," Crosskate. which manufactures all-terrain Rooney said. "The three services skates for extreme sports enthusiasts. $SOK Compe~tion heading into 10th year - Army, Navy, and Air Force - , MolecularWare, Inc. was founded by Seth The MIT $SOK Competition is an annual really teach a lot of the same Taylor MBA '97 and Ngon D. Dao G. The event which began in 1990 with a '$1 OK things. There's a commonality company is on its way to closing a deal with a Competition and evolved into its current form here that we could exploit." prominent biotechnology firm and hopes to through increased sponsorship. It was founded "We had two objectives here: to release a product as soon as possible. by the MIT Entrepreneurs Club and the Sloan merge the three services, to con- "It's a great experience. The $SOK New Ventures Association to "take advantage solidate our training of leadership Competition gives graduate students the oppor- of the winning combination of engineers and doctrine, and to export it to the tunity to see their ideas and research applied to business students." , MIT community," Rooney said. the real world," said Eudean W. Shaw G, a Over ISO teams submitted entries in the The proposal for the course member of the Just-in-Zyme Team with partner 1999 competition. The field was narrowed to comes four months after the MIT Andrew Sarquharson of Harvard Business 39 semi-finalist teams in March and these chapter of ROTC held an School. remaining teams developed business plans for Independent Activities Period sem- Kenan Sahin, Founder of Kenan Systems their ventures. Of those, seven finalists were inar in leadership, with 18 in atten- and Vice-President of Software Technology at selected to present their plans at the Awards dance. Bell Laboratories, gave the Keynote Address at Ceremony. "We wanted to make sure that ,\(/()f)RAG CIRKOVIC -TIlE TECII the awards ceremony. His company was we had interest before we started a James Page demonstrates his product, the recently acquired by Lucent Technologies and SOK, Page 19 real course," Rooney said. "And it CrosSkate ROTC, Page 24 ~/;--------------------------------------------------------------------- MIT honors ________~ Comics THE ARTS World & Nation 2 community Student Opinion 4 members at playwrights Arts 6 Awards showcase On The Town .12 Convocation. their work. TechCalendar .15 Page 16 Page 13 Page 6 May 7, 1999 Page 2 THE TECH 01 WORLD & NATION Justice Dept. to Review China Nuclear Probe u.s. Allies and Russia Work THE WASIIINGTON POST WASHINGTON Out Kosovo Peace Fonnula' The Justice Department is establishing a team of FBI agents and federal prosecutors to review the government's response to suspi- By WIlliam Drozdlak he met here with German States, Britain and France. cions that the Chinese were engaged in espionage at some of the THE WASHINGTON POST Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, "but NATO military officials BONN, GERMANY nation's nuclear weapons laboratories, Attorney General Janet Reno it has no chance of reaching a satis- Thursday produced details to sup- said Thursday. The United States and its allies- factory conclusion unless we main- port their repeated claims over the Describing the review as "administrative" and not a criminal reached agreement with Russia tain allied unity and firmness. I past few weeks that alliance f~ces r1 j investigation, Reno said the purpose of the inquiry wiIl be to deter- Thursday on a set of principles for don't think the process is long, but I are striking hard at the Yugoslav I mine whether "there was anything, either in this administration or in resolving the Kosovo conflict that don't think we can afford to be dis- army and Serbian special police prior administrations, that could have been done differently." include the key NATO demand for couraged or be impatient." forces responsible for the expulsion "I don't have any allegation that anybody did anything wrong," deployment of an international mili- The Serb-led Belgrade govern- of ethnic Albanian civilians from Reno said.