[Vision2020] The UI Friday Letter

[Tom Hansen]

The Friday Letter
A Newsletter for University of Idaho Alumni and Friends
June 25, 2004

Here's the latest news at the University of Idaho:

* A new power management system for batteries and other power sources
provides optimum capacity or voltage delivery and is the newest UI
technology ready for commercial application, according to the Idaho
Research Foundation managers. The controller can help avoid the failure
of a battery or the need to replace all the batteries in a multi-battery
unit. It also can "turbo-boost" batteries and provide more reliable power
in remote or hazardous areas. UI engineering researchers under the
leadership of Herb Hess, associate professor of electrical and computer
engineering and member of the Microelectronics Research and
Communications Institute, created the controller and developed a working
prototype. The new power-management circuitry can detect failing cells
and isolate them to minimize the impact on the performance of the battery.

* Leaders in the utility industry are convening on the Moscow campus
until July 1 for a specialized executive course, the only one of its
kind held yearly in North America. The Utility Executive Course is
targeted for middle managers in electric and natural gas utility
companies around the world. During the course, participants learn about
strategic leadership skills, marketing energy services, financial
management, environmental challenges, global energy strategies and
utility accounting. Since 1954, the Utility Executive Course has trained
nearly 2,000 managers and key contributors from more than 100 companies.

* UI environmental chemist Greg Möller has won a Fulbright Scholar grant
to teach and research water quality issues in Greece next year. The grant
from the J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board is sponsored by
the U.S. State Department to build mutual understanding between U.S.
citizens and those of other nations. Möller is one of about 800 U.S.
faculty and professionals who will travel to some 140 countries during
the coming academic year.

* UI alumna Amy Bartlett '98, also is headed to Greece this summer. She
has been chosen to carry the Olympic Torch for a stretch near Kavala,
Greece, on July 19. Bartlett, who began running as a young girl growing
up in Sandpoint, now lives in Tigard, Ore. She told the Portland
Oregonian she doesn't plan to speed through her part of the relay. "I
think I'm going to take it slow and really enjoy the experience," she
told the newspaper. "I've never done anything like this. It's such an
honor."

* Caxton Press of Caldwell begins marketing and selling all of the UI
Press books to vendors this month, now that a trade distribution
agreement has been finalized. UI Press and Caxton reached this agreement
in March to stem UI Press' increasing deficits. Scott Gipson, UI alumnus
and Caxton principal, was instrumental in forging the deal. Besides
supplying book vendors, Caxton also will begin taking orders from
individual book-buyers interested in purchasing any of the 85 titles
produced by UI Press. Orders can be made at 1-800-657-6465 or at
www.caxtonpress.com. The full UI Press catalog will be online within
a month.

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Take care,

Tom Hansen
UI '96
Moscow, Idaho

Spring is nature's way of saying, "Let's party!"
-Robin Williams