| 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
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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.