contract would have beenfilmed in just three weeks,would have been a testingground for the contest’s com-petitors.

Marc Forest, the show’sexecutive producer, said hehopes the university willreconsider their decision andallow IMG to film an episodeof the show on the campusthis spring when filming theactual series. For now, Forestsaid the show’s campusarrival has only been put onhold.

Though the producers had-n’t planned on broadcasting

the trial run of the show, theyintended to invite UMTV tofilm it, Forest said.

IMG Media Vice ChairmanBarry Frank said he was dis-appointed by the university’smove.

“After having agreed to hostit and having any number ofmeetings and trips to Balti-more and having gottenapproval from everyone, theypulled the plug on us on the13th of September,” saidFrank in an e-mail to TheDiamondback.

Frank could not be reachedfor further comment.

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president. “We need to attractand retain good, qualified peopleto be officers.”

The university has slots for 99full-time officers, but only 76 ofthose positions are filled, Univer-sity Police Spokesman Paul Dil-lon said. Nine officers are in train-ing, but even if all of them finish,the department will have 14 va-cancies, he said.

“The more retention problemswe have, we have more vacan-cies,” Dillon said. “And the morevacancies, the less cops on thestreet. With less human resourcesyou’re less able to do the thingsyou’d like to do.”

Neither the FOP nor Dillonwould disclose details of the con-

tract being discussed. The cur-rent agreement expires Sept. 30,but will remain valid until a newcontract is signed.

The University’s Departmentof Human Resources, which ishandling negotiations for theschool, could not be reached forcomment Thursday.

“The university wants a con-tract that is going to be satisfacto-ry to the FOP so the members ofthe department don’t leave theagency,” Dillon said.

Capt. Carolyn Consoli, whooversees the police budget, saidpolice manage to cover some ofthe vacancies by spreading offi-cers on duty over larger areas orpaying off-duty officers overtimeto work additional hours.

“There’s a lot of different waysto handle a vacancy,” Consoli said.

She said police are continuous-ly hiring and training new offi-cers in anticipation of vacancies,but supply has fallen short of de-mand.

Of the more than 90 officerswho have left the force since1998, at least 42 cited another lawenforcement position as the rea-son for departure. Others retired,left police work altogether orcited other reasons.

“We’ve become a trainingground for some agencies, be-cause it doesn’t cost them any-thing, they just get a trained offi-cer,” Diaz said. “It would be niceto just keep a hold of them so theycan be productive officers for thecommunity.”

Salaries for University Policeofficers start at $38,000 a year,Dillon said. That’s thousands lessthan Prince George’s County orneighboring Montgomery Coun-ty, which offer starting salaries of$44,148 and $45,165, respectively.

Both counties also offer higherstarting salaries for experiencedofficers, according to their web-sites.

Many smaller departments, in-cluding nearby University Parkand Greenbelt, have comparablestarting salaries, but also demandless forced overtime than the uni-versity.

University Park starts certified,but inexperienced officers at$36,338, said Sgt. Wayne McCullyof the department. Greenbelt’swebsite estimates starting salariesrange from $35,714 to $57,200.

Police say many officers aredriven to leave the university be-cause of the frequent sportsevents and university programsthat pull them away from familyand friends to work odd hours.

“When they are taking days offaway or making you come inearly, some officers like it becausethey want the money,” said Offi-cer Mark Wittkoppw during a re-cent ride along. “Others are bitterabout it and it chases them away.”

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BYMEGANECKSTEINStaff writer

When freshman finance majorDylan Brenneman moved into hisDenton Hall dorm this semester, itdidn’t look quite right.

His fan unit was on the ceilinginstead of the floor. The cin-derblock walls that are such acommon feature of life in the NorthCampus dorms were strangely ab-sent, replaced by smooth blue sur-faces.

No, he isn’t receiving any specialtreatment over the other freshmenin his building. Brenneman is aguinea pig for the university’s“green” prototype room, an exper-iment in cutting down on theamount of energy used in thedorms.

As the popularity of so-called“green development” surges, theschool is tapping into the trend witha number of projects, looking tostay at the forefront of environmen-tally minded universities and savecash on energy at the same time.

As Brenneman puts it, “it’s en-

vironment friendly, which is al-ways good I guess if that’s whattheir goal is. And if it saves moneytoo, more power to them.”

Along with energy-savingdorms, the university launchedEcoHouse this semester, a living-learning community in NewLeonardtown aimed at educatingstudents in environmental issuesand green practices. The Depart-ment of Residential Facilities willbe adding meters to rooms in theEcoHouse to measure energy con-sumption and let residents seewhere they could potentially savethe most power. And Dining Ser-vices has plans in the works forroof-top gardens on top of the din-ing halls, which absorb carbondioxide and help to insulate build-ings. Facilities is planning on doingthe same on top of the North Cam-pus dorms.

In Denton, Facilities made alter-ations to two dorm rooms to makethe space more energy-efficient.The department’s director, JonDooley, said his hunch is therooms are already working, but

they will monitor the two roomsthroughout the year to make surethere is a tangible cut.

Doing their part for the environ-

ment isn’t the only factor pushingthe university toward green devel-opment, though. Also behind thechanges is the need to reduce ener-

gy use ahead of the installation ofcentral air conditioning in a fewyears so the energy bill won’t sky-rocket. Dooley said he expects that

once the AC starts running, theoverall energy bill will be justslightly lower than it is now.

This summer, a private engi-neering firm contracted by the uni-versity came up with recommen-dations for saving energy.

First, the cinderblock wallswere not good at all for moderatingroom temperature. So in the twoprototype rooms in Denton Hall,the cinderblock was covered witha layer of insulation made from re-cycled denim, and then a layer ofdry wall was added.

Next, the windows were lettingair escape into and out of therooms. Residential Facilities willreplace the current windows withdouble-paned, thermal insulatedwindows later this fiscal year.

Finally, the firm addressed thefan and heater unit’s location. Intheory, the unit is set up so that airwill circulate throughout the roomand warm up or cool down the en-tire room.

However, because of limitedspace in the rooms, residents withfew options in setting up their fur-niture put the beds right next to thefans, and blankets and pillows in-evitably block the air from circu-lating. So the department decidedto try moving the fans to the ceil-ing.

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be able to simulate a virtualmeeting place for friends,organize research points intoa well-edited grade-A paperand design custom prescrip-tion medication based on anindividual’s medical historyand genetic code.

While typical desktops useserial processing, whichallows one operation to beperformed at a time, Vishkin’screation uses a process calledparallel processing. Vishkin,who is in his nineteenth yearas a university professor andworks in the Department ofElectrical and ComputerEngineering, explained whyserial processing is inferior toparallel processing.

“Suppose it takes onecleaner 300 minutes to cleanyour home,” Vishkin said.“Parallel processing meansthat using 100 cleaners, wecan clean your home in 3 min-utes, reducing the interrup-tion to your life, as well as

reducing your cost since youwill be paying the samehourly rate.”

Although Vishkin has madewaves with his prototype, hesaid it could be three to fiveyears before it reaches themarket. The next step is toacquire the funding necessaryto build an industry-gradechip to try to sell to a largecompany, such as Intel, thatcan mass-produce it, Vishkinsaid. This chip would be lessthan two-thirds of a squareinch — smaller than the proto-type.

“I believe that the work weare doing is truly revolution-ary,” said George Caragea, afifth-year doctorate student incomputer science who workedwith Vishkin on the prototypefor three years. “It remains tobe seen if it will overcome thebarriers set by the big corpo-rations which control the mar-ket,” Caragea said.

Patrick O’Shea, chairman ofthe Department of Electricaland Computer Engineering,

praised Vishkin’s innovationand said that his work repre-sents the motto of the depart-ment, “we bring you modernlife.”

“Professor Vishkin’s work isan ideal embodiment of ourrole as a leading educationalinstitution,” O’Shea said.“Here, faculty, staff and stu-dents work together on cut-ting-edge research to produceresults that have good anduseful outcomes for human-ity.”

Vishkin has showcased hispatented invention, which wasgiven about $2 million infunds by the National ScienceFoundation and the Depart-ment of Defense, at variousconventions for computermanufacturers andresearchers such as the Asso-ciation for ComputingMachinery’s InternationalConference on Supercomput-ing in Seattle in June. He alsoheld a demonstration on howto program the computer inlocal high schools, most

recently Montgomery BlairHigh School.

A Tel Aviv native, Vishkinsaid he began to develop thenecessary theory to programparallel processing in 1979while earning his doctorate atTechnion-Israel Institute ofTechnology. It took him about15 years, but he said hissteady approach of workingwith theories before mechan-ics allowed him to progress.

“Parallel processingrequires a very different wayof thinking that is differentfrom doing one thing at atime,” Vishkin said.

In the 1990s, Vishkin saidhe discovered that the time fora computer to perform onefunction, known as clockspeed, would not improve inthe new millennium becausethe electronic signals thatallow for computations cannottravel faster than the speed oflight. Therefore, the only wayto improve a computer’s pro-ductivity was to place manymore transistors, which con-

duct electricity and are funda-mental in the operation of allmodern electronic devices, ona single chip. A single chipwith billions of miniaturetransistors can utilize parallelprocessing because manychips can perform the sameoperation, allowing for afaster performance.

It is important for the nextgeneration of computer engi-neers to understand how toprogram a computer that usesparallel processing, Vishkinsaid. This spring, he is teach-ing two university coursesabout his developments andtheories: “Towards a New Eraof Supercomputing” and “Par-allel Algorithmics.”

To promote his new technol-ogy, Vishkin is holding a con-test, open to anyone in theworld, to choose a name forthe single-chip supercom-puter. The deadline for sub-missions is Sept. 30 and thewinner will receive $500.

dbknews@gmail.com

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 2007 | THE DIAMONDBACK 3

SUN

MON

-THU

FRI-

SAT

ALL SHOWS BEFORE 5 PM

ONLY $5.50Children, Seniors $5.50

Adults $7.50

Good Luck Chuck RDragon Wars PG-13The Brave One RHalloween RShoot ‘Em Up RRush Hour 3 PG-133:10 to Yuma RResident Evil: Extinction RBalls of Fury PG-13

Academy 8 Theatre

Week of Sept. 21st6198 Greenbelt Rd.

Center Court of Beltway Plaza Mall

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Good Luck Chuck 12:20 2:30 5:00 7:15 9:45Dragon Wars 12:20 2:30 5:00 7:25 10:00Halloween 4:50 7:15 9:45Shoot ‘Em Up 12:30 2:50 5:10 7:30 10:15Rush Hour 3 12:30 2:50 5:10 7:30 10:153:10 to Yuma 1:00 4:00 7:15 10:00Balls of Fury 12:20 2:40Resident Evil: Extinction 12:30 2:40 5:00 7:15 9:45The Brave One 1:00 4:00 7:15 10:00

Good Luck Chuck 12:20 2:30 5:00 7:15Dragon Wars 12:20 2:30 5:00 7:25Halloween 4:50 7:15Shoot ‘Em Up 12:30 2:50 5:10 7:30Rush Hour 3 12:30 2:50 5:10 7:303:10 to Yuma 1:00 4:00 7:15Balls of Fury 12:20 2:40Resident Evil: Extinction 12:30 2:40 5:00 7:15The Brave One 1:00 4:00 7:15

Good Luck Chuck 1:20 4:00 6:45 9:00Dragon Wars 1:40 4:30 6:45 9:00Halloween 6:30 8:45Shoot ‘Em Up 1:20 4:00 7:00 9:15Rush Hour 3 1:40 4:30 6:45 9:003:10 to Yuma 1:00 3:30 6:15 8:45Balls of Fury 1:40 4:30Resident Evil: Extinction 1:20 4:00 7:00 9:15The Brave One 1:00 3:30 6:15 8:45

Regional News

BBoobb SSaaggeett ccoommiinngg ttoo ccaammppuussOOcctt.. 1188

The split personality ofBob Saget will come to thecampus as part of StudentEntertainment Event’sHomecoming Comedy Showon Oct. 18.

The stand-up comicknown as the straight-lacedfather Danny Tanner on thefamily T.V. show Full Houseand the mild mannered hostof America’s FunniestHome Videos will bring histrue self to Cole FieldHouse: a raunchy comediannot suitable for sensitiveears.

The show also featuresJamie Kennedy, star of theprank television series TheJamie Kennedy Experimentand the film Malibu’s MostWanted, and Jeff Ross, bestknown for his role as“Roastmaster General” atNew York’s Friars Club.

Tickets are now on sale.

—Reporter Ben Blockcontributed to this story.

University to save energy, cash with redesigned dorms

Almost half of outgoing Univ. Policesince ’98 left for other departments

Strongest Man no more

POLICE, from Page 1

STRONGMAN, from Page 1

CHIP, from Page 1

A supercomputer for every desk

School taps into ‘green building’trends with campus projects

ADAM FRIED–THE DIAMONDBACKTwo prototype dorm rooms have air conditioning units mounted on the ceiling and special insulation on one of thewalls.

BY THESALARIES

$38,000University Police

$44,148Prince George’s Co.

$45,165Montgomery Co.

$35,715Greenbelt

$36,338University Park