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If you've ever seen a Roomba vacuum cleaner, you know that it's a pretty cool gadget. Not only does it rid your carpet of grime, but infrared sensors help navigate its way around your living room. This summer, Tom Williams '11 will play with robots that look just like these, except they're not mini-maids. They're designed to think and deduce like humans.

Now that most Hamilton College students have left campus for the summer, the bulldozers, dump trucks and front-loaders have moved in.  Even in a down economy, Hamilton will invest, on average, in excess of $1 million per month for the next year in construction projects.

As President Obama eases travel restrictions between Cuba and the U.S., curbing the tension between the two countries will become a priority. The conflict dates back to 50 years ago, when Cubans flocked to America following Fidel Castro's revolution in 1959. The exodus forced immigrants to reshape their core beliefs, and caused both countries to become engulfed in changing attitudes. Rachel Pohl '11 will work with Assistant Professor of Women's Studies Anne Lacsamana to study how assimilation affects an ethnic group's philosophy and perspective.

This summer, 10 pre-med students from Hamilton are gaining valuable clinical experience working directly with patients at the Burke Rehabilitation Center, in White Plains, N.Y. The students, Amy Rumack '09, Caroline Briggs '10, Mimi Briggs '10, Andrea DeSimone '10, Ben Saccamano '10, Nedzada Smajic '10, Valerie Valant '10, Elizabeth Wahl '10, Ben Dropkin '11, and Kristen Randolph '11, have been working as nurses' assistants at the hospital since the end of May. The hospital has generously provided housing for those students not from Westchester County.

Anoop Pandey '10 is responsible for distributing the famed "golden bikes" for free student use on campus, but the part of the globe he's studying certainly isn't accessible by bike. This summer, Pandey is using remote sensing to study unusual fold structures along faults in the Western Desert of Egypt. He is working with Upson Chair for Public Discourse and Professor of Geosciences Barbara Tewksbury. 

Edith Toegel, associate professor of German, published two articles in May on the contemporary Austrian writer Barbara Frischmuth. The first, in Seminar, discusses the issues of multiculturalism in a post-1989 Austria as depicted in Frischmuh's recent novels.  The second article, in German Studies Review, discusses her recently published diaries viewed through the lens of an avid gardener.

Jay Williams '54, the Walcott-Bartlett Professor of Religion, published a book review of Catherine L. Albanese, A Republic of the Mind and Spirit: A Cultural History of American Metaphysical Religion (Yale University Press, 2007) in the summer 2009 edition of the Quest.

Acting Dean of Faculty Patrick D. Reynolds announced the appointment of two of Hamilton's most outstanding teacher-scholars to endowed chairs. Professor of Art Bruce Muirhead was appointed to the William R. Kenan Chair, and Professor of Music Sam Pellman was appointed to the Leonard C. Ferguson Chair. Both are effective July 1. 

Hamilton College invites you to attend a series of summer picnics and parties to help welcome incoming students and families of the Class of 2013.

The "New York Six," six liberal arts colleges in Upstate New York, has received a one-year planning grant of $100,000 from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to begin collaborative work with the goals of controlling business costs and learning from each other's experience in areas of student life and staff development. Hamilton is the designated grantee for the project and will serve as a hub for the consortium with fiduciary and reporting responsibilities.