Silicon superchips set to transform cyberspace

Mario Paniccia '88, director of Intel's photonics technology laboratory in Santa Clara, Calif., conceived of and headed up the research effort that has resulted in a silicon modulator that operates at a speed of 1 gigahertz -- 50 times faster than similar devices that have been fabricated so far out of silicon, according to Intel. The silicon chip " . . . can switch light on and off like electricity, blurring the line between computing and communications and bringing sweeping changes to the way digital information and entertainment are delivered," wrote John Markoff in an article in The New York Times, "Intel Says Chip Speed Breakthrough Will Alter Cyberworld."

Paniccia's and his team's discovery was also reported in the Wall Street Journal, Dow Jones New Service, CNN International, Wired News and in scores of newspapers, magazines, television news program and Internet news sources, many of which picked up the UPI, AP and Reuters stories about the technological breakthrough. Paniccia's team's paper about the discovery appeared in the journal Nature Feb. 12.

The ramifications of discovery are far reaching. ''Before there were two worlds, computing and communications," said Alan Huang, a former Bell Labs physicist who founded Terabit, an optical networking company in Menlo Park, Calif. "Now they will be the same, and we will have powerful computers everywhere," wrote Markoff. "The advance . . . suggests that Intel, as the world's largest chip maker, is on the verge of developing the technology to move into lucrative new telecommunications markets."

Concert to honor a friend

Roger Peltzman '86, a music and cinema major at Binghamton who earned a master of music at the Manhattan School of Music, will perform a piano recital dedicated to his former Hinman suite mate, the late Larry Favilla '83, at Carnegie Hall's Weill Hall April 4, 2004. Peltzman will play works by Bach, Schubert, Chopin, Bartók and Debussy.

"Larry and I lived together as sophomores in Hinman, although we were friends since freshman year," wrote Peltzman. "Our suite was a very tight one and we all continue to be good friends until this day. Larry married one of our best friends, Gina Mitchell '84, after graduation. They were true soul mates.

"Larry was a terrific human being. . . . He was usually smiling, quick to laugh and even-tempered. I spent many afternoons at his parents' house with Larry, Gina and his siblings -- they were special people; [we] always [had] fun times.

"Larry was suddenly struck down in December of 2002. It turned out he had a tumor around his heart that no one knew about. Tragically, it broke up, causing a stroke that killed him. He was so full of life and in such fine physical condition that his death seemed doubly tragic and un-real. He has three marvelous children, one of whom plays the piano very well! It is a small gesture on my part to his friends and family to mark this occasion by dedicating this concert to Larry. He would have loved to have heard the music and hang out with his friends. This is the next best thing."

Peltzman, who spent 12 years in the recording industry as a producer and engineer, says he has gone back to his roots and is teaching piano at the Third Street Settlement Music School.

A call for ethics in accounting

Jill D'Aquila '87, PhD, CPA is coauthor of the cover story for the January 2004 issue of CPA Journal, "A Crucial Test for New CPAs: Ethics at the Gateway to the Profession."

"The number and magnitude of recent business scandals have created an overwhelming need to reexamine the regulatory environment of the accounting profession," the article begins. "The confidence in the integrity of financial statements has deteriorated. Since the downfall of Enron, WorldCom, and others, changes have certainly been made or proposed in an attempt to restore the public's confidence, such as the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, the most significant accounting legislation since 1933. . . . Additionally, a new fraud standard has been issued, SAS 99: Consideration of Fraud in a Financial Statement Audit, which provides more specific guidance to auditors regarding the detection of fraud. . . . Although these kinds of changes should help restore the trust in the accounting profession, they are not enough. Attention also needs to be focused on the education and licensing process. We need to teach ethics, emphasize it on the national exam, and include it in the licensing process." D'Aquila is an associate professor of accounting at Iona College, New Rochelle, N.Y.

To view the entire article, go to http://www.nysscpa.org/cpajournal/2004/104/text/p58.htm .

Watson grad pens monthly column

Jamilah Abdur-Rahim '03, who earned her BS in electrical engineering with a minor in economics in electrical engineering from the Watson School of Engineering and Applied Science, is serving as national publications chair of the National Society of Black Engineers and writes a column for its monthly publication, NSBE. Her column in the January/February 2004 issue, "Valuing Your NSBE Membership," underscores the benefits of membership in the student-run organization.

Abdur-Rahim is a graduate student in mechanical engineering at Syracuse University.

Click here to read a profile of Abdur-Rahim in the Commencement 2003 issue of Inside BU.

School addresses immigrants' needs

John Choe '93 was featured in an article in the Queens Chronicle, "An Immigrant School In Queens? J.H. Man Wins Grant To Look Into It," by Keach Hagey. Choe has taken a leave from his position as legislative director with New York City Council Member John C. Liu '88 to coordinate the community-based initiative funded by the Open Society Institute, part of the Soros Funding Network. According to the Queens Chronicle article, Choe was "one of 11 New York City Community Fellows to be awarded the prestigious grant, for which over 300 activists applied. The fellowship is designed to give an 18-month stipend to support innovative public interest projects that address critical social needs in low-income communities."

"As a New York City Community Fellow, I will be organizing a coalition of local parents, teachers and youth to build a public school specifically addressing the needs of immigrant families in Queens," Choe wrote in an email. The mission of the Stepping Stone Community School Project, according to the project's website, is to empower " . . . all New Yorkers, especially recent immigrant youth and their families. Our goal is to offer a rigorous hands-on curriculum that provides students with the foundation they need to excel in life and become community leaders."

Debut novel garners high praise

Debra Weinstein '83 received a glowing review of her book in the Jan. 26, 2004 "Books of the Times" section of The New York Times: "'Apprentice to the Flower Poet Z': In the Garden of Verses, Revenge Grows Like a Weed," by Janet Maslin. "The world of poetry may be rarefied, but Debra Weinstein now gives it something usually associated with magazines and movies: a tell-all novel in the roman ˆ clef, ingrate-assistant genre," Maslin wrote. "Perhaps she is writing pure fiction. Perhaps she knows a great-lady poet or two. But it's a credit to this author and her amusing debut novel that the poetic proclivities described here have an authentic ring."

New York magazine also featured Weinstein and her new novel in an interview by Boris Kachka. "'I wondered what it would be like to graft the characteristics of an executive woman onto a poet,' says Weinstein," Kachka wrote. "So Annabelle is exploited, degraded, and plagiarized -- and endures an absurd hand-holding workshop, a Joyce-obsessed fetishist of a boyfriend, and a good deal of bad poetry.

Weinstein majored in English literature and creative writing at BU, and remembers studying poetry with Milt Kessler and Heather McHugh when John Gardner was chair of the writing program. "They really were great teachers and it was a wonderful program," she wrote.