December 2014 Newsletter: Resiliency, Energy Innovation, Big Data
Written by
Maura M. Fennessy
Dec. 5, 2014
Ideas. Innovation. Issues. Service. Art. Events. Activities. These are what Princeton University brings to the residents of New Jersey and the region. And it is the theme of the new website of the Office of Public Affairs. Use it as a resource for news about the latest research findings, or upcoming events featuring national leaders on issues of importance to New Jersey policymakers, or even tidbits of information about how many New Jersey governors studied at Princeton (11) or that the "Dinky" line is the shortest regularly scheduled commuter line in the country at 2.9 miles.
Building on this theme, this issue of "@princeton" features the most recent milestone in a major campus investment in the arts and transit; planning for resiliency post-Sandy; faculty innovations and collaborations with industry on energy solutions; big data and what businesses and governments do with it; and visits from major national and world leaders - including former President Jimmy Carter and the Dalai Lama - whom the University has been honored to host this fall.
ARTS AND TRANSIT PROJECT UPDATE
Officials celebrate new Princeton Station
NJDOT Commissioner Jamie Fox and NJ Transit Executive Director Ronnie Hakim joined President Chris Eisgruber and Princeton Mayor Liz Lempert for the November 25 ribbon-cutting ceremony to open the new Princeton Station.
Resilient Shores: After Sandy, climate scientists and architects explore how to co-exist with rising tides:
Post-Hurricane Sandy, coastal planners have been rethinking how to cope with the increasing risk of hurricane-induced flooding over the coming decades. Now, a team of researchers, led by Princeton University, aim for no less than a reinvention of flood hazard planning for the East Coast.
Two years after Hurricane Sandy, recognition of Princeton's microgrid still surges: In the nearly two years since Hurricane Sandy hit New Jersey, darkening swaths of the nation's most densely populated state for days, Princeton University has emerged as a national example of how to keep power running for residents, emergency workers and crucial facilities when the next disaster strikes. Specifically, attention has fallen on Princeton's "microgrid," an efficient on-campus power generation and delivery network that draws electricity from a gas-turbine generator and solar panel field southeast of campus in West Windsor Township, New Jersey.
Princeton celebrates faculty inventions: A method for discovering antibiotics, a device for studying developing lungs and a fuel-efficient engine design were three of the innovations displayed at Celebrate Princeton Invention. The annual event, held Thursday, Nov. 13, honors Princeton faculty, staff and students whose research has the potential to improve lives and benefit society.
Industry, academic collaborators push for energy solutions: Investigating long-term solutions to the world's energy needs and investing in sustainable technologies are crucial as the climate crisis comes into focus, a set of experts cautioned at the third annual meeting of the Princeton E-ffiliates Partnership.
An Amazon purchase here, a Zappos buy there. Individually, such simple online actions seem to carry little identifying information. But, when combined with other online behaviors, a "mosaic effect" can emerge, painting a specific - and traceable - picture of an online user's life.
Learn more about Edward Felten's testimony before the federal Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board on these concerns.
Tracking the trackers: Investigators reveal pervasive profiling of Web users: Revealing and measuring the many commercial tools that invisibly track Web users is a key step toward improving transparency and privacy on the Internet, according to a set of privacy and technology experts who convened at Princeton University on Oct. 24.
SEEN ON CAMPUS: THE DALAI LAMA, JIMMY CARTER, ELENA KAGAN, JOYCE CAROL OATES
Compassion, service, joy: The Dalai Lama visits Princeton: With wisdom, honesty and humor, His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama urged young people to take action to make the world more peaceful through compassion and service during a visit to Princeton University on Tuesday, Oct. 28.
Kagan discusses the Constitution, the Supreme Court and her time at Princeton: In a conversation peppered with humor and warmth, Elena Kagan, an associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court and a member of Princeton's Class of 1981, offered insights into her time at the University, the workings of the court and her legal philosophy on Thursday, Nov. 20, at Richardson Auditorium.
Jimmy Carter calls for better treatment of girls and women around the world: Former President Jimmy Carter put a spotlight on the mistreatment of girls and women around the world during a speech Wednesday, Dec. 3, in the Princeton University Chapel that offered both distressing statistics and reasons for hope.
Joyce Carol Oates 'Fest' celebrates her 'life-changing' influence on student writers: In a lively twist on the academic tradition of festschrift - a collection of writings published in honor of a scholar - colleagues and former students celebrated Joyce Carol Oates with stories and remembrances on Friday, Nov. 7.
