NEWS AND NOTES

Memorial Makeover

>>> When the football team unveils its new uniforms this fall, they’ll do so in the newly renovated Memo- rial Field. The new west stands will feature wider aisles and concourses, handrails, restrooms, a section of cushy seats on the 50-yard line, and three-level access via an elevator. Several campus war memorials and plaques, new and old, will also be housed in areas under the stands. A memorial dedication will take place prior to the gates opening for the Cornell game on November 6.

Human vs. Algorithm

>>> Can computer-generated creativity fool humans into thinking it is man-made? Campus innovator and math professor Dan Rock- more hopes to find out by putting together the Neukom Institute Prizes in Computational Arts, which runs through next April. Contestants will enter computer-generated stories, poems or music, and if any are determined by human judges to be man-made, the creator wins $5,000. The computer-generated DJ sets will compete against human disc jockeys during a real dance party. The contests are called DigiLit, PoetiX and AlgoRythms. “Historically, often when we have advances in artificial intel- ligence, people will always say, ‘Well, a computer couldn’t paint a sunset’ or ‘A computer couldn’t write a beautiful love sonnet,’ but could they? That’s the question,” says Rockmore.

Faculty Notes

>>> Twelve professors recently retired as tenured members of the arts and sciences faculty. They are Edward Berger (biological sciences), Laura Conkey (geography), Jonathan Crewe (English), Bruce Duncan (Ger- man studies), Nancy Frankenberry (religion), Ronald M. Green (religion), Ernest Hebert (English), Russell Hughes (chemistry), Carl Pomerance (math), Peter Travis (English), Samuel Velez (biological sciences) and Mar- garet Williamson (classics/compara- tive literature).