IMPACT

UNL Gets National Press

		Engineers inspect the results of an impact with the SAFER barrier

News from developments by the Midwest Roadside Safety Facility continued to lead UNL's national news coverage during 2003.

The SAFER (Steel And Foam Energy Reduction) barrier first came on the scene publicly in 2002 at the annual Indianapolis 500, an Indy Racing League production. But prior to that, engineers and safety experts at UNL's Midwest Roadside Safety Facility had spent many months designing, testing and perfecting the so-called soft wall. NASCAR and IRL officials had asked the roadside safety experts to develop a softer, safer wall in response to concerns about race-car driver safety. Since the introduction of the first SAFER wall at Indianapolis, numerous other IRL and NASCAR racetracks across the nation have been fitted with special SAFER walls.

And each time, the MwRSF engineers receive significant news play and congratulations for making auto racing a bit safer. News reports for the year included items in USA Today, The New York Times, and several television news programs.

Other high-profile news from the year included several faculty quotes in The New York Times: John Allen of the Center for Applied Rural Innovation, Patricia Draper, psychology, and others. Physics professor Tim Gay was featured in the Wall Street Journal and on CNN Headline News. The Admissions/Communications initiative Real Nebraska, making student-life at Nebraska interactive, earned attention on CNN Headline News and in The Chronicle of Higher Education. Pat Crews and the International Quilt Study Center were given a page in the July 4 Chronicle 'End Paper' for the quilt exhibition Wild By Design.

REAL NEBRASKA