Kazuhiko Kawamura, professor of electrical engineering, professor of computer engineering and professor of management of technology, has been named a fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. The IEEE grade of fellow is conferred for "outstanding and extraordinary qualifications and experience in IEEE-designated fields, and who made important individual contributions to one or more of these fields," according to the professional organization. The IEEE Board of Directors selected Kawamura for his "contributions to the understanding, the modeling, and the realization of human-robot symbiotic systems." Kawamura is director of the Vanderbilt School of Engineering Center for Intelligent Systems, which conducts research on intelligent robotics including humanoid robots, personal and service robots, mobile robots, robot brains, computational neuroscience and other intelligent systems.

Herwig J. Schlunk, assistant professor of law, spoke at the University of Texas' Morrison Symposium in October. The symposium was dedicated to his paper, "Little Boxes: Can Optimal Commodity Tax Methodology Save the Debt-Equity Distinction?" The University of Texas Law Review awarded the paper the Morrison Prize and will publish it in the spring. Schlunk also delivered a paper titled "The Cashless Corporate Tax" at Duke University in October. The paper is forthcoming in Tax Law Review.

 

Debi Tate, director of the State and Local Policy Center at VIPPS, was honored as a co-founder of Renewal House, a residential home for mothers and children affected by cocaine addiction. Tate was the honorary co-chair, along with state Human Services Commissioner Natasha Metcalf, at the annual "A Women's Thanksgiving," Nov. 11 in Nashville. Additionally, Tate has been chosen to serve on the United Way Community Assessment Task Force to define the scope and objectives of a Nashville health and human service assessment. Tate, director of the Census Information Center at VIPPS, and Cyndi Taylor, research associate at VIPPS, presented information at the national CIC conference in Albuquerque, N.M., on Nov. 28 regarding the integration of census and other local data. In addition, they presented "Using Census Data in a Geographic Information System for Communities." The paper describes how to utilize GIS/mapping software to map census and other data in order to make informed community decisions. Tate serves on the National Steering Committee for the newly established CIC program, under the U.S. Department of Commerce and the Census Bureau. Nationwide, there are 58 CICs that support training and dissemination of census products and census 2000 data to communities and nonprofits.