Groups hold voter registration drive The drive, which took place from Monday to Wednesday in front of the Class of 1920 Dining Commons, provided students with voter registration forms and information about absentee voting. Pennsylvania voters this year will elect a governor and U.S. senator, in addition to members of the House of Representatives and state legislature. As Alpha Phi Alpha member and College junior Charles Howard explained, it is difficult for many students to balance their civic and scholarly duties. "A lot of us are busy," said the United Minorities Council chairperson. "It's hard to stay focused on world issues when you're focused on school, but we need to come together and express our voice." APSC Vice Chairperson for Community Affairs and College sophomore Hoa Duong added that for students with financial aid from their home states, failing to file an absentee ballot can result in a loss of aid. For the rest of the week, Alpha Phi Alpha will visit Haverford College and Drexel University for similar voter registration drives. -- Matthew McNulty Robotics expert to leave Penn for NSF post Longtime Computer and Information Science Professor Ruzena Bajcsy, an expert researcher in robotics and artificial intelligence, is leaving the University this December for a post at the National Science Foundation, the foundation announced this week. Bajcsy is director of Penn's General Robotics and Active Sensory Perception Laboratory, which she founded 20 years ago. Current projects at the GRASP lab include building a wheelchair that can climb stairs. At the federally-funded NSF, Bajcsy will be assistant director of its Computer and Information Science and Engineering Directorate, managing an annual budget of about $300 million. Before she came to Penn in 1972, Bajcsy taught at Slovak Technical University in Bratislava, Slovakia, where she earned a doctorate in electrical engineering. She also holds a doctorate in computer science from Stanford University. Bajcsy replaces Juris Hartmanis, who will return to Cornell University after having completed his term at the NSF. She is the sixth person to be named to the position since the directorate was created in 1986. -- Scott Lanman
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