| The Behrend Beacon Computer science speaker series kicks off By Jeff Smen staff writer This Wednesday Karen Panighetti, a certified computer examiner specializing in forensics, will be giving the first of the “Computing in an Unsafe World” Computer Science Speaker Series. The lec ture entitled “Introduction to Cybercrime and Com puter Forensics” will be presented in the Otto Behrend Science Building in room 101, starting at 7:30 p.m. Panighetti works for TechnoSecure’s headquar ters located right in downtown Erie, as their as chief computer forensic examiner and security consult ant. Graduating from Edinboro University with a Almy provides haven for trick-or-treaters Community kids have Halloween at Behrend Meghan 800 l staff writer Every year during the month of October, Almy Hall provides a safe trick-or-treating environment for children of faculty, staff and the child care center here at Penn State Behrend. The kids are invited to celebrate the holiday in Almy Hall this Saturday, from 1-2 p.m. “The safety of the children is very important,” said Jaime Russell, coordinator for residence life, “By having them trick-or-treat with us, we are providing a dry and well lit environment that is closely monitored. All around, it is just a fun way for the kids to spend an afternoon celebrating Hal loween!” Russell has coordinated this Halloween event for many years now and does so much behind the scenes work, such as organizing and purchas ing the crafts and treats, to make this occasion a memorable one for the kids and their parents. Tra ditionally this event has been organized by the resident assistants as well as the Almy Hall Coun cil. This year the residents of Ohio Hall have been invited to participate in the program as well. Their job is to help with the crafts and treats as well as leading the kids to their trick-or-treating. Residents are very excited and incredibly busy preparing for the upcoming event on Saturday. “It is a nice activity for not only the little kids, but for the college kids as well. Rebecca Gor Car Accidents Drunk Driving Defense Criminal Defense Grant C. Travis, Esquire www.paautomjury.com www .duilawyerpa. com degree in Computer Science, Panighetti has over 18 years of experience in the information technol- ogy area. Panighetti is skilled in a number of areas in deal ing with computers, such as, computer forensics, information systems security, systems administra tion, programming, networking, implementation planning, systems analysis and design troubleshoot ing and maintenance and accounting and financial systems. Panighetti earned her Certified Computer Examiner (CCE) certification from the Southeast Cybercrime Institute. She has gone on to serve as the vice president for the Society of Computer Fo rensic Investigators. Panighetti is also a Microsoft Certified Professional for Windows NT. don, resident assistant said, “Now that they are in college many of them do not celebrate Hal loween as much as they have in the past, and this gives them the opportunity to be young kids again!” In the past they have put together festive craft ideas, such as door hangers and picture frames, a relaxing story time, tasty refreshments and trick or-treating to finish off the afternoon. Residents have been encouraged to purchase candy and pass it out to the youngsters as they pass by their doors in their costumes. In the past, the residents have decorated their building wing for the event. The best decorated wing wins a pizza party as a thank you for their time and hard work spent dedicated to making this occasion fun for all who attend. “It is a nice way for the students to interact with the community and we are all, once again, very excited for another great trick-or-treating event with the kids,” said Russell. There was much feed back from last years trick-or-treating Event. “Jaime and the students did a wonderful job putting everything together for the little kids,” Jim Serafin, senior systems analyst for the com puter center, “The photo frames were great and my wife and boys really enjoyed themselves! Keep up the good work!” “Kudos to all involved!” said Jackie May staff assistant, “The crafts were great! Thanks so much for all of your hard work!” 100 State Street Suite 210 Erie, PA 16507 455-3839 Panighetti is coming to Behrend because cybercrime is an ever growing concern in the United States, growing at an alarming rate. According to the Secret Service and the Federal Trade Commis sion, online fraud and identity theft are two of the fastest growing crimes in America. Panighetti’s speech will deal with how computer forensics works and what type of work someone who specializes in computer forensics would do. Criminals use computer technology all the time by hacking, distributing viruses, corporate espio nage, child pornography, and various other ways in order to hurt innocent people. In order to try and keep the amount of “cyber criminals” at bay, com puter forensics was created. Computer forensics Astronomy open house to target faint blue planets By Teresa Nicolia staff writer Dr. Darren Williams assistant professor of phys ics and astronomy will lecture on this Thursday for the Penn State Behrend Open House Night in As tronomy in room 101 of the Otto Behrend Science Building at 7:30p.m. The event is ffee and open to students and the public. The Astronomy Open House Night is part of an ongoing Astronomy Lecture Series containing six talks over the course of two semesters. The theme of the night will be, “Targeting Faint Blue Planets with NASA’s Terrestrial Planet Finder Telescope.” Thursday’s presentation will be the second of the sequence and will focus on describing a futuristic mission of the launch of several space telescopes, specifically, the Terrestrial Planet Finder (TPF). The instruments would be used to locate and study plan ets that are circling neighboring stars and determine their capability to support life. Over 120 new planets have been discovered around stars since 1995; however, scientists have been unable to take any photographs of them. Sci entists can be almost certain of the planets exist ence by looking at particular stars and watching for the momentary dimming of light, caused by the planet circling and creating an eclipse-like effect. The star appears to be flashing in space at precise time intervals. The lecture will help to describe the technology that is being developed, what the fu ture telescopes would be able to see and how they might work in space. Soup for the soul senes in swing By Brian Battin staff writer Every Wednesday for the next few weeks the Soup for the Soul series will be going on at the Smith Chapel. The program started Oct. 13, and will continue each week until Wednesday Nov. 3. The program starts at noon in the living room of the Smith Chapel. Each week there is a lun cheon and a different speaker. The speakers will focus their talk on overcoming challenges. The discussions will vary from how to deal with ev erything from spiritual difficulties to challenges with school and life. On Oct. 13, Jennifer Kaleta, 05 MRKTG, spoke about overcoming difficulties. On Oct. 20 another Behrend stu dent, Karl Bierly MET 07, spoke about a simi lar topic in overcoming a difficulty in his life. The event has been going on for two years and all students and faculty are invited to at tend. “It’s a time for students to have some time with their professors and to build an almost spiritual relationship where they are probably not as apt to talk about that in class,” said Nicole Miller, Coordinator of the Protestant Campus Ministry. “Here it’s kind of where students can see which professors they might want to go to if they need something.” The idea for the program was developed from the series of books Chicken Soup for the Soul. “We got the idea from the book,” said Sr. Mary Drexler, Coordinator of the Catholic Cam pus Ministry. “We try to have the topic some what inspirational or challenging for somebody else to think about” This Wednesday Drexler will follow up the other speakers in discussing overcoming chal lenges. On Nov. 3 the series will wrap up with another speaker who has yet to be determined. The series will take place in the spring as well. There will be six luncheons next semester that will focus on similar inspirational talks. Students and faculty are encouraged to attend. “People might not be as apt to come to some thing church related right away,” said Miller. “This is a kind of way for them to see this is what we do and it introduces them to who we are without having them come to a worship ser- vice.” “Its purpose is to provide faculty, staff, and students with an opportunity to come together for an inspirational talk and an opportunity for some discussion,” said Drexler. Friday, October 22, 2004 deal with the recovery of evidence left in a com puter system. Applications have been filed in both the criminal and civil arenas. “We are really excited to have Karen here,” said Matt Stanton, president of the Computer Science Organization, “We’ve been trying to get someone in this field to talk to the community on Computer Forensics for a long time.” Panighetti is the first speaker in the series. The Behrend Computer Science Department and the Behrend Computer Science Organization will also be sponsoring Albert Whale and Sreela Sasi. Albert Whale will be speaking on Internet Security, and Sreela Sasi will be talking on the Potential of Bio metric Techniques for Security. “It will be an overview of where we are at in Astronomy,” Williams said. Recently, NASA awarded Williams, in conjunc tion with Eric Gaidos, assistant professor of geobiology at the University of Hawaii, a grant of almost $250,000 to conduct a study exploring dif ferent aspects of planets outside of our solar sys tem. The idea of “faint blue planets” comes from a picture taken in 1989 by the Voyager 1 spacecraft. Astronomer, Carl Sagan, described Earth as appear ing to be merely a “pale blue dot.” It is because of the light reflecting from our oceans that scientists are able to reason, from billions of miles away, that Earth would appear to have an atmosphere and be water-covered. NASA is planning several future missions and has already launched a telescope that should help to view planets around stars. While the extended research and information on the project is some what complicated, Williams assures that the As tronomy Open House is a suitable presentation for the public to attend. “In general, everyone should be able to get some thing out of it,” Williams said. “It should be very picturesque. Some students in the area high schools even attend for credit.” The lecture follows a similar format every year and is expected to last for approximately one hour. Weather permitting, William’s hopes to escort those attending to the Mehalso Observatory on campus to observe the night sky following the talk. The next speech in the Astronomy Lecture Series is sched uled for December. Executive hears call for teaching program Erikson visits Behrend By Sarah Weber staff writer Executive Vice President and Provost of the Pennsylvania State University Rodney Erickson visited the Behrend campus Thursday, and met with students to discuss issues concerning the university. About a dozen students, mostly SGA members, attended the meeting that took place in Reed 113. The biggest concern addressed to Erickson was the lack of a teaching program at the Behrend campus. Many Behrend students who are inter ested in pursuing a career in education but don’t want to go to University Park choose get their bachelor’s degree from Behrend and then get their teaching certification from Mercyhurst College or another area school. Erickson explained that he supports the idea of getting a teaching program on campus, but he says that integrating the program will take time. The Penn State Altoona campus has phased in a teaching program over three years and now has a four year teaching program. Erickson says that would be the ideal thing to do for Behrend be cause of cost. “It is very expensive to bring in faculty for a whole new program,” said Erickson. “I’m not against putting teaching programs into the Penn State branch campuses - but it has to be done right.” Another thing that may slow down the inte gration of a teaching program is that Penn State’s teaching accreditation is university wide. If Behrend were to create a teaching program, it would have to be immediately worthy of that ac creditation. Erickson says that the existing Penn State edu cation program would have to play a role in mak ing sure Behrend, and all other campus that opened a teaching program, met the same stan dards as University Park. He says teachers graduating from University Park have had strong tradition of being the top scoring students on cer tification exams. However, the students at the meeting felt that Behrend was up to the task. “I think the faculty, staff and students here re ally shouldn’t be underestimated,” said Ross Zambanini, Econ. 03. Erickson, responding to a student question, also said that adding a teaching program would most likely boost Behrend’s enrollment.
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