Nawalage “Nischaal” Cooray, a pre-junior computer science major at Drexel University’s College of Computing and Informatics (CCI), was found dead Aug. 15 at his off campus residence.

Cooray, who co-founded the Drexel Microfinance Group, was an international student who moved to Philadelphia from Sri Lanka. He was a member of the Drexel Mathematics and Computer Science Society as well as the Phi Sigma Pi honors fraternity. He served as a teaching assistant at the Cyber Learning Center within the CCI.

Before attending Drexel, Cooray worked as an intern at Shift Solutions and John Keells Computer Services, both in Sri Lanka. In high school he was the captain of his swim team as well as the president of his school’s Computer Science Society. Upon coming to college Cooray was the recipient of the Drexel Global Scholarship, which awards full tuition to incoming international students with noteworthy academic standing, leadership initiative and dedication to strengthening communities.

“Our thoughts and prayers go out to those who knew Nischaal best, his family and friends. While I know this loss is upsetting to us all, it is at times like this that the comfort of our college and university community can bring us together and give us strength,” Spiros Mancoridis, Interim Dean of the CCI, wrote in an email to CCI students.

The Gamma Xi chapter of Cooray’s honors fraternity Phi Sigma Pi also expressed their grief at his sudden loss in a Facebook post on their official page.

“Some people are taken from us too soon. You were a beautiful soul and human and we will all miss you dearly. On behalf of the Phi Sigma Pi chapter Gamma Xi Rest in Peace Nischaal. We will forever love you,” the post read.

For those seeking support as they grieve Cooray’s passing, the Drexel Counseling Center is open from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Thursday and 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Friday. During regular hours they can be reached at 215-895-1415, and during emergency hours they can be contacted at 215-416-3337.

Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen Kane was found guilty Aug. 15 of all nine criminal charges brought against her. The charges included obstruction of the administration of law, official oppression, conspiracy, false swearing and most notably, two felony counts of perjury. At PA Governor Tom Wolf’s urging, Kane announced her intention to resign Aug. 16, and her resignation took effect at close of business the following day.

The charges stemmed from an illegal leak of confidential grand jury documents in June 2014. The leak, which the jury has now found Kane guilty of initiating and then lying about under oath, was intended to sully the reputation of former state prosecutor Frank Fina.

Fina had instituted an undercover sting operation before Kane’s election that had garnered evidence of Philadelphia officials accepting bribes. Kane’s conflict with Fina began during her first year in office, when she shut down his sting operation despite its incriminating findings.

In March 2014, the Philadelphia Inquirer ran a story reporting that she had cancelled the sting operation, which infuriated Kane. She defended her decision publicly by criticizing the operation in the first place, claiming that the evidence from it was not strong enough to bring about convictions. She believed that Fina was the source for the article, and sought revenge in the form of the leak for which she has been convicted.

The documents that Kane leaked led to a story published by the Daily News regarding J. Whyatt Mondesire, former head of the Philadelphia chapter of the NAACP. The story contained quotes which implied that Fina did not aggressively investigate 2009 allegations against Mondesire, which claimed that Mondesire had used state funds improperly. Mondesire, who has since passed away, was never charged.

Also in 2014, Kane discovered that Fina, who was involved in the investigation of sex offender Jerry Sandusky, had exchanged pornographic emails with numerous government officials. Her criticism of the scandalous emails, only some of which she chose to release, precipitated the resignation of several high-level officials, including two former State Supreme Court Justices and multiple members of former Governor Tom Corbett’s administration.

The Daily News contacted Fina for a comment before the story was released, which alerted Fina that someone had leaked the material. He in turn reported this to the authorities, and Norristown lawyer Thomas Carluccio was appointed as special prosecutor. His grand jury probe as well as an investigation by Montgomery County officials led to Kane’s arrest in Aug. 2015. Her license to practice law was revoked by the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania the following month, although she continued to serve as Attorney General.

Kane claimed that Fina was responsible for her arrest, alleging that he made up charges against her to distract the public from his email scandal. However, prosecutors argued that the emails were irrelevant to Kane’s charges, and the presiding judge did not allow Kane to officially make that charge in court.

Kane became vocal in her criticism of District Attorney Seth Williams, who hired Fina as a prosecutor. She attempted to garner public disdain for Williams by drawing attention to the fact that he stood by Fina and other staff members who were involved in the pornographic email scandal, more commonly known as Porngate. Fina resigned from Williams’ staff June 2016.

Two of Kane’s associates, Adrian King and Joshua Morrow, served as witnesses for the prosecution. They testified that they had been tasked by her to transport leaked information to the Daily News for the story about Fina’s involvement with the Mondesire case. Morrow even claimed, under a grant of immunity, that he and Kane had colluded to place all the blame on King for the leak. Over the course of the trial, five of Kane’s past and present aides testified in favor of the prosecution.

“She knew it was wrong, she knew it was against the law, and she didn’t care. She did it for revenge. And after that happened, she covered it up with lies,” Prosecutor Michelle Henry stated.

In light of Kane’s resignation, Bruce L. Castor Jr. has been appointed her immediate successor. Castor, formerly a top deputy in the Kane administration, will serve as the acting Attorney General until the November election.

Kane will remain free on bail until Oct. 24, when she is scheduled to appear for sentencing. She has no criminal record prior to this incident, so state guidelines suggest that she will likely serve less than the maximum sentence, which is 28 years in prison.

The Drexel University police are seeking culprits responsible for vandalizing the former Beneficial Bank building at 12th and Chestnut streets, currently under renovation to become the Thomas R. Kline Institute of Trial Advocacy. It has been vandalized repeatedly since April with the most recent incident taking place before 3 a.m June 7. The Citizens Crime Commission is offering a $5000 reward for any information that leads to the arrest of the guilty party.

The culprits have been captured on security footage.

“They are two white males, maybe in their early to mid-20s, dark hair. One subject has a tattoo on his right forearm that looks like it could be a rifle or some type of gun. It’s very distinctive,” Eileen Behr, Drexel University Chief of Police, told Channel 6 ABC News.

Drexel police have released the video to aid in the vandals’ identification. Those who have information related to the suspects’ identities may submit anonymous tips to 215-456-TIPS.

Photo courtesy: Drexel Now

Valentina Feldman, a recent Master’s graduate from Drexel University, is making it possible to get up close to a virtual reality dinosaur.  For her PhD thesis, she created an immersive visual experience of the Dreadnoughtus – one of the largest dinosaurs to have ever existed in the world.

When a visitor enters the immersive exhibit, hosted by the Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University, a visual filmed as a 360 degree shot featuring Kenneth Lacovara, renowned paleontologist, provides an introduction.

As he speaks, informative graphics appear around him mid-air, making the best possible use of the 3D space. The visitor then catches their first glimpse of the dinosaur’s legs through a framed archway.

The scene then transforms into a desert where Lacovara discusses the initial discovery of the Dreadnoughtus fossils. Hundreds of bones, actual size, appear all around, and these then assemble into a dinosaur skeleton that walks around the guests in circles, putting them at the center of the situation. As Lacovara begins discussing the muscles and skin of the dinosaur, the muscles and skin appear, until the Dreadnoughtus’ full form is revealed.

Feldman initially began thinking about this project while pursuing her undergraduate degree in animation and visual effects at Drexel. As an elective, she took a paleontology class with Kenneth Lacovara, who shared information about his research on the Dreadnoughtus. At the time, researchers were creating massive sketches of the dinosaur on the fourth floor of the Papadakis Integrated Sciences Building, and Feldman saw an opportunity to use the drawings for artistic purposes.

Feldman then went on to pursue an accelerated master’s degree in digital media, also at Drexel, and actually put this idea into action, creating the virtual reality Dreadnoughtus as her master’s thesis. She and her undergraduate partner Emma were able to access three-dimensional scans of the dinosaur and talk to people who were researching the dinosaur within Drexel, ensuring that every part of the project had scientific meaning. She was also able to use cutting-edge technology, invented within the past year, to film the dinosaur in 360 degrees, in order to visualize the space and size of the dinosaur in a way that traditional 3D screen animation was unable to do.

According to Feldman, Drexel was the perfect place to develop a project like hers. She had the opportunity to work in a producer role with a team that included both students on academic terms and on co-op and who came from varied departments, both art and science related. One of her biggest goals was to ensure that everything in her project was signed off by the scientists who actually discovered the Dreadnoughtus. To her, it was important for all the facts to be correct in order to make the immersive experience a viable educational tool. It was intended as a cross-disciplinary project, that would include aspects of art and science, amalgamating the work done at the digital media department with the more traditional research oriented work done at the biology department.

Feldman says that the most rewarding aspect of the entire experience is seeing children’s reactions to the exhibit. According to her, they get incredibly immersed in the experience, trying to run to and from the dinosaur, losing themselves, but also learning new information. Initially, she planned to create an entire virtual reality ecosystem surrounding the Dreadnoughtus, including multiple dinosaurs, which both children and adults alike could fully immerse themselves in. However, this project turned out to be far too much to complete in one year, even with a large team. Although Feldman herself plans to turn her attention to other projects now, she loves the idea of her work being continued by other people, and would love to see more dinosaurs added to it.

Feldman will present at the SIGGRAPH computer graphics conference in Anaheim, California July 24-28, where attendees will be able to experience the Dreadnoughtus in a planetarium setting. A free smartphone version of the exhibit will be released Aug 25, available for all major platforms, for those who could not experience the simulation in person. Feldman is also currently working on an augmented reality project which she hopes to exhibit someday.

The virtual reality Dreadnoughtus exhibit is still running at the Academy of Natural Sciences, and Drexel University students who can provide a valid ID are eligible for free admission.

Noel Forte, The Triangle

Imagine a tiny particle, significantly less massive than an electron and carrying no electric charge. This, in essence, is a neutrino – likely one of the smallest particles in the known universe. Neutrinos may also be one of the most common, as they are produced by such significant and varying sources as stars, supernovae and even the nearest nuclear reactor.

So far, scientists have identified three distinct types of neutrino, each of which display unique interactions with normal atoms. But a relatively new theory proposes that a fourth type may exist — aptly named the sterile neutrino — which fails to interact with normal atoms at all. Enter the Precision Reactor Oscillation and Spectrum Experiment, or PROSPECT, which aims to find a conclusive answer to this pesky subatomic problem with the help of Drexel University assistant professors Michelle Dolinski and Russell Neilson.

Photo courtesy: Drexel.edu

Photo courtesy: Drexel.edu

The need for a theory such as this one came about when physicists gained enough data to realize that something wasn’t adding up. The detectors placed near nuclear reactors, which produce a great deal of neutrinos, consistently recorded fewer numbers of neutrinos than expected. This, scientists decided, could mean one of two things. One option is that the current understanding of nuclear physics as it occurs in nuclear reactors is insufficient. The other option is that there is another type of previously undiscovered neutrino coming through that simply cannot be detected — this would be the sterile neutrino.

Because neutrinos carry no charge of their own, the three known kinds are difficult to detect. Physicists must wait for one of the many millions of them to interact with an atom while passing through a detector, which will result in the deposit of a measurable amount of energy. The three known types of neutrinos react with normal atoms in three different ways. In other words, a fourth type of interaction has never been observed; if a fourth kind of neutrino does exist, that would mean it is incapable of interaction with normal atoms. This property would make the sterile neutrino very difficult, if not impossible, to observe with a regular neutrino detector. The PROSPECT detector is built specifically for the task.

The PROSPECT research team is based out of Yale University, but includes 68 scientists spread over ten universities. According to a May 31 release on the project’s website, the project, which has been in development for three years, received a federal grant totalling three million dollars to fund their search for the sterile neutrino. Dolinski and Neilson were chosen to lead the Drexel team, which also includes post-doctoral students Yung-Ruey Yen, PhD, and Jonathan Insler, PhD, as well as graduate student Kelley Commeford, and several undergraduate students.

“The challenge of this experiment is to operate a detector very close to a nuclear reactor core,” Dolinski explained in an email correspondence.

The PROSPECT detector will be situated just outside the pool wall of the High Flux Isotope Reactor at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. This means that naturally occurring radioactivity, neutrons from the reactor and other sources of background noise will compete with the neutrino interactions the team is looking for, but hopefully the detector’s design will prevail.

“The PROSPECT detector is designed to succeed in this high background environment by being able to distinguish our neutrino signals from all of our potential backgrounds,” Dolinski continued.

Neilson also commented on the uniqueness of PROSPECT’s design and functionality in an email interview.

“PROSPECT is bringing neutrino physics to the surface. This type of experiment has until now been [done] with detectors deep underground, shielded from cosmic rays that can mimic the signature of neutrino events. The ability to operate a precision neutrino detector at the surface opens up new applications, such as monitoring the fuel content of nuclear reactors,” he explained.

The real question is, should the PROSPECT team discover that sterile neutrinos actually do exist, what does that mean for the scientific world?

“They would be a totally new kind of particle that would open up a new experimental and theoretical physics program to understand their properties. Understanding the properties of sterile neutrinos would give us a new basis for understanding the basic building blocks of the universe,” Dolinski stated.

“PROSPECT is an exciting experiment to be a part of because of the potential to provide a definitive result on the question of sterile neutrinos in just a few years, with the possibility of discovering a new particle. Discovering new particles is the holy grail of particle physics, especially a totally new kind of particle like sterile neutrinos,” Neilson explained.

Whether or not the PROSPECT team confirms the existence of sterile neutrinos, they will hopefully find a conclusive answer to what’s going on in these nuclear reactors. Either way, it is clear that Dolinski and Neilson are a part of something big, even in the pursuit of something very, very small.

The post Finding the sterile neutrino appeared first on The Triangle.

Photo courtesy: Ariel Skovera

For the second time since 2010, Gloria Donnelly, PhD, Dean of Drexel University’s College of Nursing and Health Professions (CNHP) and Associate Vice Provost Steve DiPietro, performed a comedy benefit show for the Dean’s Student Emergency Fund on June 22.

Former Drexel student and beneficiary Alexis Burns gave the opening speech. She explained that during her sophomore year she was having difficulties paying for her rent even though she worked two jobs – one as a waitress and the other as a work-study position. Her parents could not support her at that time since her father was unemployed and her mother was working three jobs.

Reluctant to start a third job, she turned to the Dean’s Student Emergency Fund, and was able to receive funding the summer of her sophomore year in 2012. She currently works at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia as a registered nurse.

“Fifteen students have benefited from the endowed fund that has grown to more than $60,000.  The show’s proceeds will definitely enhance the fund allowing us to assist more students,” Laura Valenti, Executive Director College Engagement, Marketing and Communications, said.

“The Dean is happy to do what she can to assist our students in achieving their goals of becoming well-prepared nurses and healthcare professionals,” Valenti continued.

There were about 75 audience members attending the show, who consisted mostly of members of faculty and a few students. All were eager to see Dean Donnelly in action.

“Dr. Donnelly and the Associate Vice Provost [Steve DiPietro] have worked diligently to develop skits that are downright funny,” Valenti explained as she prepared the audience for the show.

People who had never seen Dean Donnelly perform comedy before were very enthusiastic about seeing her potential as a comedian that night.

As the light dimmed on the stage of the Geary Auditorium, the velveted curtains were lit with an electric blue spotlight which contrasted with the three plants on the front stage.

The audience was then propelled into the first scene: “The Interview.” This scene featured the character of Blanche, the first female NFL coach. The moderator of the interview, Dr. Rottenbottle, played by Dipietro, claimed to have graduated from five-minute University.

Throughout the make-believe interview the audience discovered the quirks of a lazy woman at the head of a football team. One of her “secret” techniques was to communicate during the game with a retired coach in a nursing home. The tips from the retired coach were what made her better than any of the other NFL coaches.

The audience got to learn more about the character’s personal background as well. She graduated from University of Pennsylvania as a political science major who switched to a cheerleading major, and then went to Drexel University to create and participate in a new cheerleading class. She designed her own certificate of cheerleading and also defined the very complex imaginary scrimmage line. She even switched to a French accent while subtly comparing and contrasting education with coaching.  

Photo courtesy: Ariel Skovera

After this opening, the audience was introduced to the more spiritual subject of self-therapy.

In scene two, “The Quest for Psychic Perfection,” Donnelly shared the story of her own quest to psychic perfection through different therapies. She also shared what her mom used to say about feeling better whenever she was feeling stressed. She told of everything from her experience in “psycho drama” where she talked to one and sometimes two empty chairs, to hypnosis therapy where she attempted to cure her fears of flying, to self-therapy with supermarket magazines that told her garlic decreases stress by 39 percent. She concluded her skit with a presentation slide that read: “The path to enlightenment is to create stress for others and help them manage it.”

Lastly, scene three was called “Mob in the Kitchen,” and had the same feel as the television show “Chopped.” But, instead of competing to create the best dish, the participants competed to make up the best insults for one another. The competition was between Donatello Tortellini, a specialist in turtle cooking, and Lydia Beatriarco, a specialist in uniquely cut pasta.

At the end of the show the audience gave a standing ovation for Dean Donnelly’s performance and for the fact that it was her last week as the Dean of the CNHP. In her final words on stage, Donnelly admitted that performing comedy was “harder work than deaning.”  Most of the proceeds benefited the Dean’s Student Emergency Fund at the CNHP. The fund provides financial support to assist students with short-term financial emergencies that can occur for a variety of reasons including family emergencies, the high costs of books and school supplies and room and board expenses.

“We partner with Drexel and we work with the Dean and with the nursing school. We got the advertisement in the mail and we said ‘we gotta go!’” Lorina Marshall-Blake, president of the Independence Blue Cross Foundation, said.

Alumnus Charles “Chuck” Pennoni is a trustee emeritus and has served as Interim President of Drexel University on two occasions. He is also the current chairman of Pennoni Associates. He and his wife Annette Pennoni supported the establishment of the Pennoni Honors College.

“The funding for the students is fabulous,” Pennoni said. He also added that the idea of raising money for students through a skit was very clever and imaginative.

“I saw the last show in 2010. Very funny. I was anxious to see this one too, it’s for such a good cause — raising money for an emergency fund for students,” Michael C. Kennedy, PhD, a Professor and Associate Dean for Undergraduate Health Professions Programs at the Drexel University College of Nursing and Health Professions, said.

To end the night, each audience member was given garlic to serve as a souvenir for the show – and to remind them that no matter what the grocery store tabloids may say, seasonings can’t buy happiness.

The post Dean Donnelly’s stand-up show raises money for struggling students appeared first on The Triangle.

Rachael Ferry, The Triangle

The Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA) announced July 3 that roughly one-third of its regional rail line fleet would be out of service for the immediate future. The decision to temporarily take all 120 of its Silverliner V rail cars off the tracks comes after the discovery of a structural defect with the equalizer bars specific to the Silverliner V model. The cars’ removal prompted a modified Regional Rail schedule, which was initiated July 5.

SEPTA claims that the Silverliner V cars, which composed approximately one-third of SEPTA’s Regional Rail fleet, were taken out of service after a worker observed a “slight lean” on a car as well as a fractured beam in the suspension system. The cars were removed from service the night of July 1.

SEPTA General Manager Jeffrey Knueppel told the Delaware County Daily Times that the decommissioned cars remain under warranty from South Korean manufacturer Hyundai-Rotem Corp. The company is reportedly assisting in the allocation of materials and determining how the cars can be repaired.

Rachael Ferry, The Triangle

Passengers who had purchased Weekly Regional Rail TrailPasses for the week beginning with July 4 or Monthly Regional Rail TrailPasses for the month of July were eligible for refunds and credits as long as the passes were returned and postmarked by July 7.

Tuesday morning delays were observed for several lines of the Regional Rail service, some even totalling over 30 minutes. An average of 65,000 people utilize the service daily, and the recent decision to remove the Silverliner V cars has eliminated 13,000 seats for the immediate future. Substantial delays and crowding are among the unfortunate but unsurprising consequences.

SEPTA is looking into the possibility of leasing rail cars from Amtrak or New Jersey Transit in order to compensate for the, hopefully, temporary loss of the Silverliner V cars.

SEPTA has not yet released a date by which they expect the cars to be restored to duty.

The post SEPTA removes 120 Silverliner V rail cars appeared first on The Triangle.

Philadelphia City Council voted 13-4 in favor of a tax on sugar-sweetened and diet beverages, more commonly known as “the soda tax” June 16. The tax, which is the first of its kind to be established in a major U.S. city, will place a 1.5 cent per ounce price increase on all beverages that qualify.

The tax was proposed as a way to both raise funds for pre-kindergarten programs in the city as well as a way to promote healthier lifestyles by discouraging the purchase of sugary drinks. The tax will come into play Jan. 1, 2017 and is projected to raise approximately $91 million annually. This money will go towards early education related initiatives such as the creation of libraries, community schools and recreation centers. Tax credits will be offered to retailers who choose to sell healthier beverages.

Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney, who advocated for the tax to be twice the amount that was approved, sees the passing of the initiative as an important step forward for the city.

“It’s been generations we’ve been going downhill with our kids in our neighborhoods. And it’s going to take some time to get us back. But this is the first step back,” Kenney told the Philadelphia Inquirer.

Former Mayor Michael Nutter also showed his support of the decision.

“Congrats to PHL City Council & Mayor Kenney on soda tax. It was the right thing for Phila when I proposed it 5+ yrs ago, & it’s right today! (sic)” Nutter tweeted June 16.

Drexel University student Mra Sue Gyaw voiced her hope that the tax would have an impact on the health of the city’s citizens.

“I really hope this works out. With the obesity and diabetes endemic here in the U.S., I think this is a step forward. I know it has certainly deterred me from drinking such beverages,” Gyaw explained in an interview.

“I think it’s a really good thing. You have a right as a citizen to make unhealthy choices but doing so burdens the healthcare system and therefore it’s only fair to pay for it,” sophomore biomedical engineering major Sean Van Duser commented in a digital correspondence.

The tax is intended to be imposed on distributors of qualifying beverages, so there will be no way of knowing how much the tax will increase sales prices until it goes into effect. It is possible that the consumer will not end up paying the full 1.5 cent per ounce extra for certain beverages, depending on how much their distributors choose to cover.

Drinks that are more than 50 percent fresh fruit, fresh vegetables or milk will be exempt from the tax. Beverages such as coffee for which the consumer would add sweetener separately will also not be subjected to the tax.

The tax has seen controversy since its initial proposal. Opponents argue that it will negatively affect employment in the beverage industry and that it will hurt low-income citizens more than it will hurt those in higher socioeconomic classes. Those in favor contend that the profits from the tax will serve to battle poverty since they will be used for establishing better educational opportunities for the most needy neighborhoods.

The anti-tax coalition of the beverage industry has no intention of giving up and has stated that they plan on expressing their opposition in court. This comes after a $5 million ad campaign by the American Beverage Association to try to prevent the tax from being passed in the first place.

However, Mayor Kenney shows no signs of backing down.

“We believe we’re on strong legal ground … they spent a long time twisting the facts of this whole debate on television with millions of dollars and that wasn’t effective. So we’ll fight the next fight when it comes,” Kenney explained to the Philadelphia Inquirer.

Whether or not the opponents of the tax will have any success in their campaign to overturn it will be seen in Jan. 2017, when the tax is slated to come into play. If the implementation occurs as planned, distributors of most energy drinks, sodas, bottled coffees, flavored waters and similar products will have to decide how much of the 1.5 cent per ounce tax will be passed down to consumers.

The post City Council votes in favor of 1.5 cent per ounce tax on soda appeared first on The Triangle.

Photo courtesy: Gluckman Tang

Drexel University officially broke ground on the Korman Center’s $16 million renovation and expansion June 14.

The design for the 1958 building’s expansion comes from New York architecture firm  Gluckman Tang. They have redesigned Korman to mimic the modern style of its two neighboring structures — the Lebow College of Business and the Papadakis Integrated Sciences Building (PISB).

Photo courtesy: Gluckman Tang

The University has also hired Andropogon Associates, a Philadelphia-based landscape architecture firm, to design the open green space in front of the building, which will be labeled the Korman Quadrangle. It is intended to be an ideal public gathering space for the campus community.

“We are incredibly excited to move forward with a new vision for the Korman Center that will transform the center of our campus and make it a wonderful gathering space for all,” Drexel President John A. Fry stated.

Photo courtesy: Gluckman Tang

“The combined building and public space transformation will elevate the Korman Center while at the same time create the Korman Quadrangle,” President Fry continued.

The plan for the building’s interior includes several lounge areas and 9,000 square feet of common space. A “front porch” area will be created adjacent to the front of the building, leading into the Quad. Below, a cantilevered terra cotta screen will be suspended 15 feet off the face of the building.

Photo courtesy: Gluckman Tang

Upon entry, a double-height lobby will give way to first floor lounges, second floor study spaces, and private meeting rooms in fritted-glass boxes. Terrazzo will cover the first floor ground while the second floor will consist of sheet vinyl. The wooden ceiling will extend continuously into the second floor guardrail and down the back wall.

Photo courtesy: Gluckman Tang

Outside, trees with large canopies will provide shade for seating. The buildings around the Quad will be given connecting walkways to tie the campus together and make the area more cohesive.

Construction for Korman is slated to be complete in fall of 2017.

The post Developers break ground on $16 million Korman Center expansion appeared first on The Triangle.

Photo courtesy Drexeldragons.com

Drexel University golfer Chris Crawford qualified for the U.S. Open in Summit, New Jersey on June 6. Crawford is the first Drexel golfer to ever be eligible for the U.S. Open, which will be held this year from June 16 to June 19 at Oakmont Country Club in Plum, Pennsylvania.

Crawford was in good shape through most of the sectional qualifier tournament, holding a tie for the tourney lead at the 15th hole of the second and last round. However, the 11-time Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) Men’s Golfer of the Week bogeyed the two subsequent holes, potentially compromising his chances of qualifying for the Open. At the 18th and final hole, Crawford needed to get a birdie to make the cut.

After three strokes, Crawford found himself staring down a 40-foot putt. In one suspenseful stroke, Crawford sank the shot and earned his ticket to Oakmont.

Crawford is no stranger to success on the course, having clinched eight top-ten finishes during his senior year and being named three times as a first-team All-CAA selection. However, becoming a contender in the U.S. Open marks a whole new level of prestige and challenge for the young athlete.

Crawford is slated to tee off for the first round at 2:42 p.m. June 16 from hole 10 with Austin Jordan and Tyler Raber. Although 11 amateurs are slated to compete in the Open, Crawford is the only amateur in his grouping.

The post Drexel golfer qualifies for U.S. Open appeared first on The Triangle.