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Tag: University of Minnesota

  • Kiss Cam Video Becomes A Viral Hit

    Kiss Cam Video Becomes A Viral Hit

    Whenever a couple attends a sporting event of some kind, there’s a good chance their faces will appear in a kiss cam, and if that’s the case, they’ll probably feel instant pressure to smooch in front of thousands of people.

    But what happens when the couple at the sporting event isn’t really a couple, and they’re actually brother and sister?

    That’s exactly what happened to Adam Martin when he attended a University of Minnesota hockey game with his female sibling, because as soon they appeared on the kiss cam screen, Martin whipped out a hilarious, but very appropriate sign.

    “My sister,” a white piece of paper read. It also showed an arrow pointing to the woman sitting next to him.

    Apparently, Martin prepared the sign beforehand since it was Valentine’s Day, because he wanted an instant explanation for not kissing the woman that was seated next to him. “It was Valentine’s Day and I was taking my sister with me to a hockey game,” he said in an interview.

    “I was not going to be caught off guard. I was sitting next to an attractive woman and I didn’t want people to heckle me.”

    Amazingly, the whole thing made it on to YouTube and received over 6 million hits in just three day’s time, and choosing to show the sign saved Martin a lot of explaining after the game he said, because he was almost sure that he would end up on the kiss cam.

    “The perception whether at the game or before it is that we’d look like we were on a date, so I wanted to make sure that there was a clean line, a sibling line between the two of us,” he explained.

    And now that Martin is a big Internet star, it should be easy for him to meet someone and bring her to the next hockey game, where it’s almost certain he’ll be in the kiss cam again. But you can almost guarantee his reaction will be different then.

    Image via YouTube

  • People Are Now Controlling Drones With Their Minds

    The drones of today are controlled via a remote control. The drones of tomorrow will be controlled via your brain.

    University of Minnesota Biomedical Engineering Professor Bin He recently unveiled his latest project – a drone that can be controlled with brain waves. The device in question is a skullcap with a variety of sensors place on the outside of it that picks up brain waves from the person wearing it. The computer translates these brainwaves into commands for the drone thus allowing the user to control movement with their mind.

    Of course, brain-controlled drones are not the end result of this experiment. He’s team hopes to use this drone as a stepping stone to noninvasive remedies for people with neurodegenerative diseases that take away their ability to speak or move.

    The University of Pittsburgh has already been researching ways to give mobility back to those who have lost all motor functions. Late last year, the university shared the story of Jan Scheuermann – a woman who suffered from a rare neurodegenerative disease that robber her of all of her motor functions. The researchers at the university implanted a cable into her brain that allowed her to control a robotic arm. It wasn’t much, but it was the first time in more than a decade that she had any kind of freedom of movement.

    Now that example is much farther along than He’s, but his solution promises to be completely noninvasive. He hopes to make it so that those suffered from neurodegenerative diseases will not have to get chips implanted into their heads, or have wires leading out of the body.

    For now, however, we can just look on in awe as a drone performs mid-air tricks using only commands being fed to it by somebody’s mind.

    If you want to know more, check out this article in the Journal of Neural Engineering.

  • Tubby Smith Fired From Minnesota Basketball

    College basketball coach Tubby Smith coached the 11-seeded University of Minnesota men’s basketball team past six-seeded UCLA in the second round of the men’s NCAA basketball tournament, but the team lost to third-seed Florida in the next round. Evidently, a tournament showing and a winning record are not enough to guarantee a coaching position in the NCAA these days.

    The University of Minnesota today announced that Smith has been ousted from his coaching job just one day after the loss to Florida.

    “Tubby has had a long and distinguished career and we feel it’s time for a fresh set of eyes for our student-athletes and our program in general,” said Norwood Teague, University of Minnesota athletics director.

    Smith has been the coach of Minnesota’s basketball team since 2007. In his time with the program, Smith coached the team to a 124-81 record and three NCAA tournament appearances. This week’s third-round loss was the team’s best NCAA tournament showing under Smith’s coaching.

    Before taking the coaching position at Minnesota, Smith coached the University of Kentucky men’s basketball team. He had been an assistant coach for the team under coach Rick Pitino, who is currently coaching the number-one seeded University of Louisville men’s basketball team into the Sweet Sixteen

    “I want to thank the University of Minnesota and the people of Minnesota for giving me the opportunity to lead the Golden Gopher basketball program for six years,” said Smith. “Our staff did things the right way and will leave knowing that the program is in far better shape than when we arrived. The people of the State of Minnesota embraced Donna and me from the beginning and we will always be grateful.”