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engineering. Boyles stated that the Department of Engineering will begin offering concentrations in the more complex fields of digital signal processing and VLSI design. Concentrations in algorithms and circuit analysis are set to be added as well.

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believes that all of these

currently no plans to add any new doctoral programs.

Burlington’s Department of

Engineering is already known worldwide for its doctoral program in interactive systems engineering, though.

This is the single largest expansion in the school’s history. It sends a clear message the Burlington University plans on becoming a world leader in the area of computer engineering.

Do you know?

1)control engineering

2)fault-tolerant computer system

3)interactive systems engineering

4)software engineering

5)algorithm

6)circuit analysis

7)VLSI (Very Large-Scale Integration)

a)a system that functions even if parts fail

b)the process of combining thousands of circuits on one chip

c)a set of instructions for solving a problem

d)the discipline that studies voltage and currents in networks

e)the discipline that uses sensors and actuators to control systems

f)the discipline that creates software

g)an interdisciplinary field that combines many disciplines

Take time out to visit the crazy world of Chronobiology – an increasingly popular science that goes something like this: you and every other animal on the planet has a ‘body clock’ that controls rhythms on a day / night cycle (a sort of internal physiological timekeeper). This clock is governed by hormones that determine the best times for us to perform physiological and psychological tasks – whether it’s to do with building new muscle tissue or recovering from last night’s party.

The hormone that makes you feel

sleepy is melatonin, whereas other hormones, such as cortisol, kickstart your body in the morning. In several experiments, volunteers who have been cut off from sunlight, newspapers, TV and all other contact with the outside world, have shown that human body clocks are

‘naturally’ set to a 25-hour cycle. Watches and clocks are needed to keep our bodies attuned to a 24hour routine. The day / night cycle is a definite help. The blind, who are deprived of this natural time-keeper, have to keep to a strict routine – taking meals at regular times, for

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example, and going to bed at the same time every day – in order to avoid falling into the 25-hour cycle.

Small changes to our internal clock, such as missing a night’s sleep, are tolerated by the body. But constant major disturbances, like regular periods of wild partying followed by getting up late, can badly upset your timekeeping. Sleep expert Jim Horne, from Loughborough University, recommends getting up at the same time every day – whether you’re working or not. This, he says, readjusts your body clock so that you feel sleepy at roughly the same time every night.

Shift workers, for instance, nearly always suffer from their working patterns – not because they have to work anti-social hours (given a few days, the body can adapt to this reasonably well), but because their shift times continually change: the body never settles into a set pattern, leading to confusion, fatigue and a lowered immunity to disease.

This can be especially dangerous in professions where constant high concentration is vital. We are at our lowest ebb between 2 am and 4 am, when body temperature is at its lowest and statistics show that this is when most industrial accidents and errors occur. The Chernobyl disaster in Russia and the Union Carbide poison gas leaks at Bhopal in India both occurred in the early hours because workers were feeling sleepy.

Studies have shown that flying across time zones makes the body incapable of distinguishing between day and night. Travellers are nearly always tired or hungry at the ‘wrong times’. Their body clock eventually adjusts, but it can take up to two weeks. Athletes competing in international events must plan their travelling arrangements carefully so that they’re in prime condition.