Patriots Win Super Bowl! MIT’s The Weather Oldest and Largest Today: Rain and snow 40°F (4°C) Tonight: Rain, 30s°F (0-3°C) Newspaper Tomorrow: Partly cloudy, 42°F (6°C) Details, Page 2 Volume 124, Number 1 Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139 Tuesday, February 3, 2004 UA Completes Under Convertible Wins Killian Chaos By Kathleen Dobson year’s Autonomous Design Robot ble Trouble,” created by Cheng Lui Half Of Fall Projects Competition (6.270) called “Killian ’05, Pedro Yip ’05, and Sheung Yan In a nearly full Kresge auditori- Chaos.” S. Lee ’07, by just one point. By Lauren E. LeBon amount has been small. um, “ZSR Convertible,” created by The closest match-up of the day “We expected to go pretty far” and Tongyan Lin “It’s supposed to be a two-way Xin David Zhang ’06, Yasuhiro Shi- for “ZSR Convertible” came in the but did not expect to win, Ren said STAFF REPORTERS thing,” Uzamere said, “not a dic- rasaki ’06, and Yin Ren ’06, went final round of the best of three afterwards. Out of the 52 Undergraduate tum.” undefeated last Thursday to win this match-up, when it defeated “Hum- Having no previous robot design Association’s goals published in While 19 of the goals have been experience and little electronics The Tech last term, 19 have reached completed as of Feb. 1, 23 goals coursework, the “ZSR Convertible” completion by the end of Indepen- have missed the original deadlines team relied on the programming dent Activities Period, while 23 published in The Tech. Meanwhile, experience of Zhang, who finished have missed their deadlines. 10 goals have deadlines coming this eighth in the world at the Interna- The UA Goals Checklist, a list spring. tional Olympiad in Informatics of goals which students could use Uzamere said the projected when he was in high school. to track the progress of UA pro- completion dates are when MIT jects, served as the centerpiece of students can see the results of the Competition considered easier the election platform for Pius A. UA’s work around campus. This year’s competition was Uzamere II ’04 and Jacob W. Faber “If you see a target implementa- “significantly easier” than last ’04 during the presidential elections tion date, that is when the imple- year’s, said Vimal Bhalodia ’04, an last March. In October, The Tech mentation is completed,” he said. organizer for the competition. In ran the first edition of the checklist “You can see it.” addition to including more scoring followed by two more updates in Uzamere added, however, that options, the contest designers also November. deadlines are not absolute, and that made the table flat, avoiding last Several UA officials, including sometimes factors outside the con- year’s problems with light sensors Uzamere, said they have been dis- trol of student representatives can on tilted surfaces, Bhalodia said. appointed in the low amounts of affect the completion date. The object of the contest was to feedback received from students as collect balls arranged on the flat a result of the checklist. Uzamere Some goals achieved playing board and place them in one points to infrequent updates of the Last fall, the UA established a of three scoring areas on the board. checklist web site and “marketing Daytime Shuttle to transport stu- Each small ball, or “freshman” was issues” as possible causes for low dents across campus and into PETER R. RUSSO—THE TECH worth one point while the two large student input. Boston. There has been debate late- Xin David Zhang ’06 sets up his team’s LEGO robot, named ‘ZSR balls, or “particularly cool fresh- Nonetheless, the list seems to ly among the UA, Parking and Convertible,’ for an early round in the annual 6.270 autonomous men” were worth three points. The have provided a degree of motiva- Transportation, and the Graduate robot competition, held in Kresge Auditorium last Thursday evening. tion and accountability for the UA Student Council over routes for the ‘ZSR Convertible’ would go on to win the tournament. 6.270, Page 16 and has received significant support winter shuttle schedule. Three from current officers. routes, two from the UA and one from the GSC, are being consid- MIT Lays Off 100 Staff Members Officials assess early goals ered, said Katherine H. Allen ’05, “I viewed the first term as a trial UA representative of off-campus to view how effective it is,” Uza- students. Other Positions Left Vacant in $23 Million Cost Cutting Measure mere said. “On the whole, it’s been One route shortens the walking By Beckett W. Sterner 130 positions unfilled, said Execu- ment, said Jerrold M. Grochow, pretty successful.” distance for residents of Epsilon NEWS EDITOR tive Vice President John R. Curry. vice president for IS&T. The Still, Uzamere said that while Theta and Zeta Beta Tau, another MIT will lay off approximate- About 60 layoffs have already department will also leave ten posi- there has been some useful feed- ly100 staff from its administrative been announced in the Information tions unfilled. back from the student body, that UA, Page 19 branch this year and leave another Services and Technology Depart- The other layoffs will come from the facilities department, although their exact size and nature has not yet been fixed. Shutdown “We have been asked to reduce our [Fiscal Year] ’05 budget by close to $8M,” wrote chief facilities Savings officer Victoria V. Sirianni in an e- mail. “This cannot be done without reductions in staff.” Sirianni declined to comment Minimal further pending the official announcement of the layoffs this By Michael E. Rolish Thursday and Friday. STAFF REPORTER Curry said that layoffs and Additional staff vacation days empty positions would save the and warm weather resulted in limit- institute approximately two-thirds ed financial savings that did not sig- of the $35 million dollar gap in next nificantly affect institute costs dur- year’s budget. ing the holiday shutdown, although Vice President for human resources Hiring freeze in place Laura Avakian said that staff did Curry said that for almost all appreciate the extra days off. empty positions, they are “basically “The temperatures over the shut- telling people we have a hiring down period were very mild,” said freeze,” and are losing staff through Peter L. Cooper, director of utilities attrition. for the Department of Facilities. The hiring freeze carries over to “That masks any effect of having administrative staff for faculty as the buildings shut down” as far as PETER R. RUSSO—THE TECH well, said Provost Robert A. A Boston Police officer stands ready with a pepper rifle in Kenmore Square Sunday night. Thou- steam usage. “As far as the electric Brown, although some positions sands of fans swarmed the square after the New England Patriots’ victory over the Carolina Pan- usage, we had hoped that people may be filled occasionally. thers in the Super Bowl, igniting small fires and climbing traffic lights. Shutdown, Page 28 Layoffs, Page 23 Examining MASLab SPORTS World & Nation . 2 diversity and competition Brian Chase reviews the game Opinion . 4 racial issues spread that gave the Patriots their sec- Arts . 6 on campus. ond title in three years. Comics . .14 Events Calendar . .18 Page 9 Page 24 Page 32 Page 2 THE TECH February 3, 2004 WORLD & NATION Iran’s Reform Party To Boycott Bush Budget Proposal Adds Elections Next Month THE NEW YORK TIMES TEHRAN, IRAN Homeland Security Funding Iran’s leading reform party announced on Monday that it would boycott the parliamentary elections this month. The boycott was By Richard W. Stevenson military operations next year in Iraq new technologies and an initiative to announced one day after more than a third of the Parliament’s mem- THE NEW YORK TIMES and Afghanistan, an expense the tear down dilapidated public hous- bers resigned to protest a ban on hundreds of reformist candidates. WASHINGTON administration said it would specify ing, and outright cuts in 63 more, Mohammad Reza Khatami, the party leader and younger brother President Bush proposed a $2.4 and seek funding for only after the including federal assistance to local of President Mohammad Khatami, said that his Islamic Iran Partici- trillion budget on Monday that presidential election. law enforcement and research into pation Front had decided by a large majority not to take part in the would substantially increase funding For domestic security programs, ecosystems. poll. next year for national security but the White House said it wanted a The budget showed Bush making “We have no hope that free and legal elections will be held on would cut or strictly limit spending budget increase of 9.7 percent, or good on his pledge to cut the deficit Feb. 20,” he said at a news conference. “Therefore, it is impossible on most domestic programs and, on $2.7 billion, to $30.5 billion. in half within five years from its pro- for the Participation Front to take part in the elections under current paper at least, put the government on By contrast, the budget proposed jected level this year of $521 billion circumstances.” a path of declining deficits. that the overall growth in spending to $364 billion next year and $237 The tension between reformist supporters of Khatami, who con- The release of Bush’s budget on other government operations out- billion in 2009. trol Parliament, and their hard-line opponents has been building since plan for the fiscal year that starts side of Social Security and Medicare But the White House did not pro- early January, when nearly half of the 8,200 people who had filed as Oct.