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Honors & Other Things
November 13, 2007, Volume 54, No. 12

Robotic Car “Little Ben
“Little Ben,” the autonomous vehicle engineered by Penn and Lehigh University faculty and students to drive itself, finished the 60-mile course in the 2007 DARPA Urban Challenge finals on November 3. The car was one of 11 finalists selected from 35 semifinalists in the qualification event.

The “souped-up” Toyota Prius, made it to the finals after successful demonstrations in July and October 2007 in which the vehicle navigated a four-way intersection, followed basic navigation and traffic laws, avoided obstacles and reacted intelligently to events (Almanac September 25, 2007).

Research Grant: Ms. Banerjee

Banerjee

South Asia Center outreach coordinator and Bengali instructor, Haimanti Banerjee, has received a three-year, $126,000 International Research and Studies Instructional Materials grant. This award will enable the creation of 100 on-line Bengali learning modules to move learners from the intermediate-low level to the advanced-low level according to the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages proficiency scale. The International Research and Studies Program is part of the U.S. Department of Education’s International Education Programs Service.

 

Literature Fellowship: Dr. Behl

Dr. Aditya Behl, associate professor of South Asian studies, received a $20,000 grant for a translation project from the National Endowment for the Arts. Dr. Behl’s grant will support the translation from Hindavi (medieval Hindi) of the Mirigavati, an Indian Sufi romance about a prince who must find his true love in a distant land.

Courage to Teach Award: Dr. Lackman

Dr. Richard Lackman, Paul B. Magnuson Professor of Bone & Joint Surgery and Chair of Orthopaedic Surgery, has been recognized as one of 10 national recipients of the 2008 Parker J. Palmer Courage to Teach Award from the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME). This award is presented to distinguished program directors in recognition of their commitment to teaching and development of innovative and effective residency programs. The award is named after Dr. Parker J. Palmer, a senior adviser at the Fetzer Institute.

Social Justice Award: Professor Lerner

Lerner

Alan Lerner, practice professor of law, is the 2007 recipient of the Jewish Social Policy Action Network’s Social Justice Award. Professor Lerner, C ’62, L ’65,  teaches at Penn Law’s Interdisciplinary Child Advocacy Clinic, where he practices advocacy for children who have been mistreated.

Almanac - November 13, 2007 , Volume 54, No. 12