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A free noontime performance of "Shakespeare's Sister" on Thursday, Sept. 13, will kick off Arts and Culture Week at the University of Colorado at Â鶹ӰԺ, featuring the artistic and cultural highlights of the Â鶹ӰԺ campus through a series of events from Sept. 13 through Sept. 20. Departments from across campus are hosting the free and low-cost events, ranging from a performance by a world-renowned musical artist to museum open houses.

One week ago, our son, Michael Knorps, was thrust headlong into the media spotlight because he was the victim of an assault on the campus of the University of Colorado at Â鶹ӰԺ. This inexplicable act of violence has, since that time, brought our close family even closer together, tested Michael's youthful character in ways he and we never imagined, and presented us with a traumatic moment in the life of our family.

University of Colorado at Â鶹ӰԺ professors Ross Corotis and Jerry Peterson have been named Jefferson Science Fellows and will spend the 2007-08 calendar year working full time at the U.S. Department of State in Washington, D.C. They are the first CU-Â鶹ӰԺ faculty members to participate in the program, which was established in 2003 to engage the academic science, technology and engineering community in the shaping of U.S. foreign policy.

Two exhibits on display at the University of Colorado at Â鶹ӰԺ tap into the complexities of immigration and border crossings and feature the work of several prominent Latino artists from Mexico and the Denver area. The exhibits are part of a campuswide event called “Crossing Borders/Border Crossings: A Collaborative Exploration of Geographic and Cultural Boundaries Through Art, Conversation and Film.”

University of Colorado at Â鶹ӰԺ filmmaker and film studies Professor Philip S. Solomon has been named the 2007 Thatcher Hoffman Smith Creativity in Motion recipient. Solomon will receive a trophy and a check for $40,000 to use at his discretion based on his entry titled "American Falls." The presentation will take place Sept. 5 at a ceremony on the University of Oklahoma's Norman campus.

A NASA exhibit that invites visitors to experience a simulated walk on the surfaces of the moon and Mars will visit the University of Colorado at Â鶹ӰԺ campus Sept. 5 through Sept. 7. Hosted by CU-Â鶹ӰԺ's Fiske Planetarium, NASA's traveling exhibit "Vision for Space Exploration Experience" will be located in parking Lot 308 on campus, just west of the planetarium on Regent Drive. The exhibit is free and open to the public on Wednesday, Sept. 5, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., Thursday, Sept. 6, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Friday, Sept. 7, from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.

A new study involving the University of Colorado at Â鶹ӰԺ that modeled the spread of forest fires in Colorado and other western states indicates the size and intensity of fires is directly linked with the density and flammability of houses built in the so-called "wildland-urban interface."

The University of Colorado at Â鶹ӰԺ received about $266.2 million in sponsored research awards in fiscal year 2007, the highest total in campus history. The sponsored research total surpasses the previous CU-Â鶹ӰԺ record of $259.7 million set in the 2004 fiscal year, said Office of Contracts and Grants Director Randall Draper. CU-Â鶹ӰԺ first topped the $200 million mark in 1999. Â鶹ӰԺ 85 percent of CU-Â鶹ӰԺ's sponsored research total for 2007 comes from both direct and indirect federal funding, he said.

New rules adopted by the Federal Communications Commission will change the way we communicate in a wireless world. The FCC changed its rules as part of an upcoming auction of valuable UHF spectrum once used for analogue television broadcasting. Wireless service providers who bid on the spectrum must now agree to "unlock" their services so that consumers can pick any smart phone or other wireless device and load any software on it. Consumers currently are limited to what the wireless carrier wants them to use.

Several residence halls, classrooms and administrative buildings at the University of Colorado at Â鶹ӰԺ were without power for four and one-half hours in the early morning hours on Wednesday, Aug. 29, making some students late for early classes but not affecting most of the 3,967 students in the 15 affected halls.