UB Buzz

Higher Ed's Help with Oil Spill Response

Since the BP Deepwater Horizon rig explosion on April 20, engineers and scientists from colleges and universities across the country have been getting their hands dirty with the Gulf Coast oil spill. They continue to give their time and expertise toward tracking the leak, developing cleanup methods, and monitoring the consequential damage on the region’s ecosystem. Here is a sample of various institutional efforts.

Conducting Research

About 14 scientists from The Institute of Environmental and Human Health at Texas Tech University have been collecting oil samples along the coast to for toxicology tests to determine the direction of oil is spreading and how organisms are responding to it, according to Director Ron Kendall. Crude Survival, a web-based journal, catalogs their efforts and acts as a media resource center. The institute is also working with the Caesar Kleberg Wildlife Research Institute at Texas A & M University-Kingsville to conduct surveillance of rookeries (breeding grounds for birds) and determine how vulnerable they are to contact with oil.

At the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, researchers from the College of Arts and Sciences have been examining microbes present in the Gulf’s waters to see how they might be helpful in cleaning up the oil.

In mid-June, two University of Iowa students and a UI engineering professor visited Louisiana for five days to see how to treat marshlands that have been heavily affected by the spill. The team is studying how much oil the coast's salt marsh can withstand before the vegetation dies and also will examine how to best speed up the wetlands' recovery should it die.

Marty Matlock, professor of ecological engineering at the University of Arkansas, has been working with a group of students to assess environmental damage and ultimately to develop recommendations for coastal wetlands restoration.

Three University of Connecticut scientists were among a select group of researchers convening at Louisiana State University in early June in an emergency meeting to assess the spill’s environmental impact. They had also contributed in science-based efforts. Professor James O’Donnell, a physical oceanographer, helped to develop tools for the Coast Guard and NOAA to predict how the oil will be distributed at the ocean surface. Associate professor and chemist Penny Vlahos created a method for testing the oil’s chemical makeup in water samples.

Texas A&M University atmospheric science researcher Don Conlee and a group of students are taking air samples with a series of weather balloon tests in conjunction with the National Weather Service. The group was asked by the NWS to develop procedures and examine feasibility of weather balloon observations in the vicinity of the spill site. The weather balloon launches will help improve the operational forecasting efforts of the weather service.

Johns Hopkins University (Md.) scientists are collaborating with colleagues at the Baltimore Aquarium and the Mote Marine Laboratory to access what impact the released oil would have in Florida's Sarasota Bay if the spill were to reach the area's ecosystem. According to Edward Bouwer, the university's Abel Wolman professor of environmental engineering, the team will sample the bay's sediment, biota (living organisms), and water samples for background levels of oil so that they can monitor the oil spill's long-term effects. The work will allow them to do a before-and-after analysis to better define what the impacts would be.

Paul Edmiston, an associate professor of chemistry at The College of Wooster (Ohio), developed Osorb, a nano-material glass that can absorb organic compounds like oil, in 2005. Edmiston and employees of his company ABS Materials sent a unit to the Gulf on July 12 with a machine that is described as being capable of treating up to 100 gallons of sea water and oil per minute.

Getting Information Out

Higher ed institutions along the Gulf have been providing web-based information to keep the public up to date on information and efforts. Mississippi State University Extension Service’s website, MSUCares.com, has a section listing research-based information on disaster preparedness and response initiatives.

Tulane University (La.) students in a Geographic Information Systems class used open source software to develop an Oil Spill Crisis Map for displaying the impact of and the response to the crisis with reports from ordinary citizens. Folks can send in tips by text message, e-mail, and Twitter.

A team of researchers at the University of Hawaii at Mānoa have chartered a series of computer simulations to portray how the oil spill could possibly spread over the course of a year.

Louisiana State University's Media Center has a web page highlighting institution-wide initiatives such as a poster project run by art students and alumni, veterinarian instructors and students caring for oiled birds, and researchers studying the health impacts of Louisiana coastal residents.

Scholars and scientists at Florida's public and private universities belong to an Oil Spill Academic Task Force that is working in collaboration with the Florida Department of Environmental Protection. The website provides information on the task force, links to partners and other resources.

Course Subject

On campus, instructors are bringing the issue to their classrooms. The University of Minnesota will offer a fall course called “Oil and Water: The Gulf Oil Spill of 2010” centering on the Gulf’s history and ecology, the makeup of the Louisiana economy, and the impact of past oil spills.

Stephen MacAvoy, a biogeochemist and a College of Arts and Sciences professor at American University (D.C.), has been opening each session of his undergraduate oceanography class this summer with a discussion of the situation. The topic is also being discussed academically in economics, biology, and psychology courses at Harper College (Ill.).

Institutions can send their examples to Associate Editor Michele Herrmann at mherrmann@universitybusiness.com.

Colleges Face Strict New File-sharing Rules

Today (July 1) is the day that colleges and universities that receive Title IV funding were to have implemented file-sharing rules under the Higher Education Opportunity Act (HEOA) of 2008.

Among other things, according to CNET, the schools are required to:

• Provide students a description of copyright law and campus policies with regards to violations of copyright law. 
• Combat copyright violations on campus networks using technology-based deterrents.
  
• Offer alternatives to illegal downloading.

Recording Industry Association of America President Cary Sherman noted that although many schools have taken it upon themselves to monitor file-sharing activity, the new law—with the threat of loss of funding—carries extra weight.

"It's the first time ever in the history of dealing with the issue that Congress is holding schools accountable and requiring them to address the problem," he said. "Here you have Congress saying 'Get off the sidelines and deal with the problem.' It's an important signal."