Apr 29th, 2021
Interview with Tahira Reid, Purdue University
Tahira Reid Smith (left) works with colleagues using an infrared microscope to study how heat affects hair.
Mark Simons/Purdue University
Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering Tahira Reid leads a lab focused on human-centered design. Over her career, she’s gone outside the “traditional engineering box” and integrated compassion for the users of products and services into the design process – what she and colleagues refer to as “compassionate design.” She has also leveraged her insights as a Black woman in mechanical engineering in her work. Together, these considerations led to the development of a compassionate design framework that helps engineers think critically about their design decisions and, in
Born in a Nepali refugee camp, Bijaya Khadka came to Rochester in 2009 at the age of 17. Today, through his non-profit House of Refuge, he aims at helping other new Americans find the life in America he once dreamed of. Bijaya Khadka was 17 when he and his family left the refugee camp on the eastern edge of Nepal in 2009 to seek a better life in the United States.
Khadka, who had known no other life outside the bamboo and plastic huts of the camp erected on the banks of the Timai River, dreamed of America with wide eyes. He imagined a country free of poverty, free of crime, and full of opportunity for everyone. A “second heaven,” as he called it.
click to enlarge “Gentle But Firm” is an apt descriptor of the EP released in early April by local multi-instrumentalist Erik Happ, particularly when compared to his other musical projects. Happ has set aside the aggressive prog rock he embraces as guitarist and vocalist of the trio False Pockets, as well as his grungy, post-punk tendencies as bassist for the band Pomelo. Under the name Foothands, Happ opts for a sleepier, more contemplative sound on the three songs of “Gentle But Firm.” And although this solo project has a more deliberate pace and is rooted in subdued, acoustic guitar-based ruminations, the arrangements are far from simplistic.
Virginia Cookie Stringfellow of Irondequoit says she has had experiences with extraterrestrials spanning over 40 years. One by one, a few dozen members of the New York Chapter of the Mutual U.F.O. Network logged into the organization’s monthly virtual meeting on the third Wednesday in April. It was a proud moment for the group, a nonprofit composed of civilian volunteers who study reported sightings of unidentified flying objects. Two of its members, Virginia Stringfellow, of Irondequoit, who goes by “Cookie,” and Chris DePerno, a retired police detective from Syracuse and the chapter’s assistant director, had been recently featured in
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has joined the league of a few economies in the world where a business can be registered with the provincial and federal authorities from a single online center, the Securities.