White House officials held a conference call yesterday to discuss the potential effects of President Barack Obama’s proposed 2012 budget on the education sector.

White House Domestic Policy Council Director Melody Barnes and Office of Public Engagement Associate Director Kalpen Modi highlighted various aspects of the budget, including its recommendation to maintain the maximum Pell Grant award of $5,550. According to USA Today, Obama’s proposed budget would cut the 2008 deficit he inherited in half while increasing the U.S. Dept. of Education’s overall budget by 4.3 percent.

Although maintaining the maximum Pell Grant award is an admirable priority, Barnes said it would require cutting programs such as the year-round Pell Grant that, unlike the general Pell Grant, allows students to receive two grants in one calendar year. The latter policy is meant to encourage timely graduation. Because the budget cannot stretch to cover both types of aid, one award must be compromised to preserve the other.

“This approach ensures that we will have fully funded growth in the Pell Grant over the next decade,” Barnes said. “We must make cuts to account for this growth. In order to make investments to education, we also believe we’ve got to function within our means. We need to tighten our belts and take responsibility of our deficits.”

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Physics professor Lars Bildsten has been honored with a position as endowed chair in the theoretical astrophysics program.

Bildsten was bestowed the Wayne Rosing, Simon and Diana Raab Chair from the Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics for his groundbreaking work in the interstellar discipline. The award includes a $1 million research grant that will be matched by the institute.

According to Physics Dept. Chair Omer Blaes, Bildsten’s appointment represents a promising new era of research for the institute and university as a whole.

“First, [the donation] will provide professor Bildsten with financial resources to pursue new scientific and educational endeavors,” Blaes said. “Secondly, recognizing his considerable contributions to UCSB and to the community at large inspires the rest of us to continue to pursue excellence in these areas.”

Launched over three decades ago, KITP aims to explore regions of theoretical physics that are not normally studied by existing institutions.

Bildsten said the financial support from the institute and its donors will allow him to pursue a broad range of research opportunities at a rate that would be impossible without the endowment.

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Next week, five energy converting workout bikes, knows as visCycles, will be installed in UCSB’s Recreational Center.

Typical gym equipment runs on electricity, and the energy generated from working out is converted into heat and expelled. However, the new Rec Cen bikes will not operate off of electricity, and the kinetic energy produced from student workouts on these bikes will be fed into the main campus power grid.

Second-year chemical engineering major Elisa Ovadia and alumna Julie Castro used a grant they received from UCSB’s Green Initiative Fund to purchase the bikes.

“We chose the visCycle bikes since they harness an untouched source of energy — human energy — and convert it into electricity,” Ovadia said. “The power you generate while working out on the bikes is directly plugged out into the power grid, thus electrically powering UCSB’s campus.”

Because the bike screens will also provide energy and environmental facts, Castro said, cycling at the Rec Cen will make learning interactive.

“Students can physically convert electricity that ‘plugs-out’ to the grid and really see the process before them,” she said in an e-mail. “Hopefully, the bicycles will provide a gateway to an energy-environment education in an unlikely place and reach students who might not have otherwise been interested.”

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Former Gaucho Tony Lochhead made UCSB history this past month as the first alumnus to compete in the FIFA World Cup.

Lochhead, who graduated from the university in 2005, played for his native country, New Zealand. As a testament of his talent, Lochhead played the entire 90 minutes of the team’s first match against Slovakia and went on to start in the team’s following games.

As a defender for UCSB, Lochhead led the team to the 2004 National Collegiate Athletic Association in Carson, Calif. The Gauchos will host this year’s NCAA Men’s College Cup Final Four in December.

According to the Men’s Head Soccer Coach Tim Vom Steeg, Lochhead’s talent and drive for soccer is simply unmatched.

“Tony started in his first game as a freshman and played every minute of every game for four years,” Vom Steeg said. “He goes down as one of our top-10 players over the last 10 years. In 2004, his career culminated when he scored a goal in the semifinals against Duke. He is definitely of the best players we’ve had at UCSB.”

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UCSB’s Center for Asperger Research was recently awarded a $250,000 grant by the Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation to help fund research in the field of autism.

Initially founded in 2007 with the help of a $930,000 grant from the Broad Foundation, the center is an offshoot of the university’s Koegel Autism Center, which strives to discover new innovations and advancements in the understanding of autism. Researchers from the center say the newest grant aims to further understanding of Asperger’s syndrome — a domain of autism — and create social interaction courses to aid those already affected by it.

According to a press release, individuals with Asperger’s syndrome tend to portray a certain set of characteristics: notable intelligence, good language and cognitive skills, social awkwardness, a lack of empathy, inability to socialize fully and the propensity to take intense interest in a single object or topic.

Lynn Koegel, director of the Broad Foundation, said the center aims to educate staff on the disorder and how to promote social interaction from afflicted individuals, in addition to researching means for a cure or more effective treatment. It seeks to minimize misdiagnoses and help instructors understand the social interactions of students afflicted with Asperger’s syndrome by properly training pediatricians and faculty from local junior high and high schools in diagnosing it.

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UCSB’s Biology Dept. recently received a $1 million grant to fund innovative undergraduate research.

The endowment, which aids science education research, is part of a $70 million donation distributed by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute to 50 research universities nationwide. The university will use the gift to purchase new laboratory equipment and fund original undergraduate research on the roundworm Caenorhabditis elegans — a widely used model organism in scientific research studies.

Professor and Chair of the Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology Dept. Joel Rothman said the grant couldn’t have come at a better time. According to Rothman, the research equipment currently provided for UCSB’s undergraduate biology students is antiquated and inadequate.

“Students are very aware that government funding has been slashed and tuition does not cover all the expenses our university faces,” he said. “Lab courses have definitely suffered from insufficient funds. The equipment is twice as old as our students.”

MCDB Associate Professor Rolf Christoffersen said the grant will help to further distinguish UCSB as a prominent research university.

“This opportunity differentiates our school … from a school without much research,” Christoffersen said. “This grant allows us to bring concentrated research down to the introductory biology level.”

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Energy experts assembled this morning for the second annual Santa Barbara Summit on Energy Efficiency to discuss the latest developments in energy efficiency technologies, policies and implementation.

The two-day summit — organized by UCSB’s Institute for Energy Efficiency — hosts UCSB faculty and prominent world leaders in an energy efficiency symposium. Held at Santa Barbara’s Four Seasons Biltmore, the two-day conference will focus on advancements in energy efficiency, the demand for innovation and the role of the government in the application and execution of these technologies.

Chancellor Henry T. Yang will launch the summit with a welcoming address at 8:30 a.m., followed by an opening keynote from Dan Reicher, Director of Climate Change and Energy Initiatives for Google.

The Institute for Technology’s Program Director Whitney Wegener said the conference allows prominent figures from across the country to discuss innovations in the field.

“We host this event to bring together thought leaders in energy efficiency from all across the world to talk about the latest technology development,” Wegener said. “We’re focusing on the latest technology coming down the pipeline and finding the most efficient way to do things.”

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Middle Eastern Cultural Awareness Week kicked off at UCSB yesterday to celebrate the Middle East’s unique cultures through festivities that include everything from Arabic lessons to belly dancing performances.

Hosted by the Lebanese Club and the Persian Student Group, the week of events is designed to honor various Middle Eastern countries. Starting with yesterday’s free Arabic lessons, traditional Arabic step dance performance and film screening, the awareness campaign will conclude with a Middle East culture show Thursday at 9 p.m.

Tonight, the Persian Student Group will perform their annual culture show at 7:30 p.m. in the MultiCultural Center theatre, featuring music, poetry and a free traditional Middle Eastern dinner.

Lebanese Club senior advisor Thalia Jarjour, a fourth-year economics and communication major, said the film screened last night, Caramel, documented the daily struggles of five Lebanese women living in Beirut.

“Our goal is to spread awareness of Middle Eastern culture by including all different sects and aspects of Middle Eastern culture in our events this week,” Jarjour said. “We try to unify the different peoples of the Middle East to come together to exhibit the beauty and greatness of the culture itself.”

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Earlier this month, UCSB alumni Alfred Konuwa competed on the Super Bowl XLIV episode of “The Price is Right,” making it all the way to the Showcase Showdown.

Konuwa — who graduated as a business economics major in 2008 and donned a UCSB sweatshirt for the show — bought tickets for himself and his girlfriend, not expecting to be chosen as a contestant. He was however, and won $978 worth of Reebok athletic gear and scored a spot in the Showcase Showdown.

After his estimation of the Reebok prize was the closest among the contenders, Konuwa lost a game in which he nearly scored a tailgating package, which included a new trailer.

Konuwa’s career as a tax auditor in West Covina, Calif. prompted jokes from show’s host Drew Carey.

“Drew Carey gave me crap for being a tax auditor and said to me on stage, ‘I hope you lose.’ Then, during the commercial break, he apologized to me about the joke,” Konuwa said. “Carey was nice, real cool, normal guy.”

In the next game, Konuwa spun the giant wheel and won a seat in the Showcase Showdown.

“The wheel was heavy; it looks light on TV,” Konuwa said.

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