Oswego, NY — SUNY Oswego’s presentation of “Urinetown: The Musical” gives its audiences a satire about the legal system, corporate greed, and pay toilets. The college’s spring musical continues to take the stage at 7:30 P.M. Thursday and Friday, April 26 and 27, with a matinee finale at 2 P.M. Saturday, April 28. SUNY Oswego student and assistant director, Wyatt Gilbert, says its a musical that deals with a moral issue of what’s best for society. “It’s about water shortage and what is going on in our government. UGC has decided that in order to control the poor, they are going to charge them to use the public restrooms.” Gilbert said one of the biggest challenges to bringing the script to life is was finding a balance between which characters each actor could play. Many of the actors are double cast, so they may be poor in one scene and a UGC employee in the next. One of the lead roles, Bobby Strong, is played by Seth Prevratil. Prevratil says that the cast has come a long way since their first read through of the script. He says it’s been a challenging but rewarding experience and encourages everyone in the community to come see the show.
-
Oswego State’s New Partnership with Virtual Reality
by Jamie Aranoff, WTOP-10 TV
German Virtual Reality Company, Crytek has announced a sponsorship with Oswego State providing virtual reality research opportunities and human-computer interaction graduate programs.
VR [Virtual Reality] First is an initiative to integrate virtual reality and create labs in higher education institutions nationwide. The aim of VR First is to link schools to a global network of virtual knowledge and research.
The need for jobs in the virtual reality market is rapidly opening, said Dr. Jolanda Tromp, a visiting professor at Oswego State. “Experts are needed to help with improvements to the hardware and there are a multitude of application areas opening up, such as big data visualization, explorations of the microbiology world, medical training, health & safety training for hazardous environments, college education programs of all sorts, fashion, journalism, marketing, to name a few,” said Tromp.
Oswego has joined a partnership of schools including Purdue University, Oklahoma State University, University of Florida and many others spanning six countries.
The Academic initiative with Crytek has allowed for the creation of a virtual reality lab in the Shineman center, with five state of the art virtual reality headphones. In addition, all headsets will be complete with Crytek’s software development, CryEngine.
Virtual reality is a computer-generated program that is viewed from specific headgear with a screen securely placed in front of users’ eyes. Virtual reality’s specific draw is that the program allows for users to feel as though they are in a three dimensional location, which is a dynamic shot allowing the image in front of a users eyes to move in sync with a user.
“It’s becoming affordable, the technology is improving and the headsets are smaller and more comfortable to wear,” Tromp said in a press release.
Last Spring, students in Tromp’s graduate virtual reality course divulged into the myriad of opportunities that are presented with the technology. It is applicable not only to the science and technology fields but medical, marketing, psychotherapy, space travel, journalism and more.
“There is a need for software development talent in this field,” said Tromp.
Many students of varying majors and studies are provoked by the new technologies, and their opportunities in the job field.
“It’s becoming cheaper and more common to produce headsets and I really feel as though the ideology of being able to interact with interact with virtual technology paves a way to new technologies I can not even begin to fathom,” said Sophomore computer science student, Joseph McGee.
In addition to the practicalities among many different fields, one Oswego student has taken the technology and applied it to pain management.
Second-year graduate student, Ryan Kikta is using virtual reality to bring patients undergoing medical treatments to feel as though they were in a non-medical location.
“It’s a green technology, it saves resources and time. Its flexibility is incomparable” said Tromp on the ability to use the technologies in different settings.
For students interested in the vast world of virtual reality technology, Tromp is teaching a graduate level virtual reality course again in the upcoming spring semester. The virtual reality lab is available for students to propose projects for, and to collaborate with companies off campus, some even providing opportunities for internships.
-
Women’s and Men’s hockey get their first wins of the 2016-17 season
This past weekend both the women’s and men’s hockey teams got their first wins of the 2016-17 season.
The women’s team had their first road game of the year on Friday. The team traveled to New Hampshireto take on New England College. The Lakers would go on to win their first game of the season 6-1. Freshman twin sisters Jacquelin and Julieann White showed what they are capable of. Jacquelin had two goals while Julieann had a goal and a assist.
On Saturday, the women would make their way to Vermont to take on Castleton. At the end of the second period, the Lakers were up 3-0 put then the Castleon Cougars scored three goals in the third period to tie it up. Senior Kendall Applebaum would score the game-winning goal for the Lakers.
While the women’s team was away, the men’s team was home and played Elmira on both Friday and
Saturday.On Friday, the Lakers dominated the Golden Eagles 7-1. The Lakers saw seven different goal scorers. Three of the goals were power play goals while the first goal of the game was a short-handed goal.
On Saturday, the men played Elmira again, but this time they played in Elmira. The Lakers would get their first road win of the year by winning the game 6-3. Senior Kenny Neil had a hat trick while fellow senior Shawn Hulshof assisted each of Neil’s goal.
Both the women’s and men’s team will be home next weekend. The women will play Chatham on Friday and Saturday while the men will travel to Brockport on Friday and come home Saturday and play Geneseo.
-
Hulshof gets SUNYAC Honors
By Dan Ryans, WTOP10-TV
Senior Forward Shawn Hulshof of the Oswego State men’s ice hockey team has been named the State University of New York Athletic Conference Ice Hockey player of the week. This is the third time in his career that Hulshof has won SUNYAC weekly honors.
In the game against Morrisville State on Friday night, with the Lakers ahead by a score of 2-1 in the third, Hulshof scored within the first 30 seconds of the period to put the team up by two. He was aided by Stephen Johnson and Matt Galati on the goal. With under a minute to go in regulation, the senior scored an empty-net goal to seal the 4-1 victory for Oswego State.
On Saturday night, against the same Morrisville State Mustangs, the Ontario native netted another goal midway into the second period, giving the Lakers a 5-1 lead. He would later assist the Stephen Johnson goal that put the Lakers up 8-1 late in the third period.
With Hulshof’s help, Oswego State remains undefeated on the season with a 9-0 record, and atop of the NCAA Division III Hockey polls.
The Lakers are back in action this weekend as they head out to Western New York to face Fredonia and Buffalo State on Friday and Saturday. Puck drop for both games is at 7 p.m.
