Buff briefs | Ride the Buff

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Ride the Buff

The Elevations Credit Union Buffalo Bicycle Classic, an effort to raise more than $1 million in scholarship funds for University of Colorado Boulder students, will be held on Sept. 11 in Boulder.

Cyclists can ride 100-mile, 70-mile, 50-mile or 35-mile rides. Families and recreational riders are encouraged to ride the 14-mile Little Buffalo, which will include snow cones and complimentary face paintings.

Riders should register early, as the ride will be capped at 2,500 cyclists. Online registration of $95 for the longer rides includes a scholarship donation of $45. Registration for the Little Buffalo is $65 for participants 14 and older and $35 for riders from 8 to 13.

Registration for all rides includes a Ride the Buffalo T-shirt, water bottle, aid-station treats, breakfast and lunch.

The event has generated 548 scholarships for good students who need financial support. It is the largest source of scholarships in the College of Arts and Sciences.

Riders can register online at www.buffalobicycleclassic.com. Walk-up registration is available the day of the ride, but includes a $10 late fee. For information call 303-735-1569 or email bbc@colorado.edu.

Researchers explore mobile ’Net

Researchers at CU are helping develop the next generation of the Internet — a more mobile version — and the campus’s Office of Information Technology is using the new technology to provide wireless service on campus buses and in some labs and classrooms.

The university recently used the WiMAX (Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access) wireless protocol to extend its wireless network to the campus buses running between the campus and off-campus student residence halls like Williams Village. A tabletwielding student in an off-campus residence hall can now jump on the campus wireless network while waiting at the bus stop, board the bus and ride it to campus, all during one uninterrupted session on the campus wireless network.

While Wi-Fi wireless service is designed for short-range wireless coverage, primarily inside buildings, WiMAX is designed for outdoor connections that can be maintained at highway speeds.

The university’s Interdisciplinary Telecommunications Program, or ITP, is employing WiMAX technology in a laboratory setting to allow students firsthand experience with the technology.

Smart (phone) sustainability

Fourteen graduate students from the Engineering for Developing Communities program at CU traveled abroad this summer to gain field experience in community development.

Three of these students, Chalie Nevárez, Katie Spahr and Chance Steffey, helped to implement a monitoring and evaluation system that uses smart phones to assess the sustainability of community-based drinking water and sanitation projects in Nicaragua.

They worked with El Porvenir, a Denver-based nonprofit organization that provides technical assistance and training for rural communities lacking access to government services to build and manage their own drinking water and sanitation systems. Over a period of seven weeks, they helped train El Porvenir staff and local university students in the use of the smart phone system, and supervised the rollout of a pilot evaluation system in 44 rural communities.

The evaluations will help El Porvenir determine the factors that influence communities’ ability to operate and maintain their water and sanitation systems long-term.

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