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Some of the best and brightest computer science students in the Rocky Mountain region will face off Saturday, Oct. 30, in an all-out "battle of the brains" contest of logic, strategy and mental endurance at the University of Colorado at Boulder. The Association for Computing Machinery's International Collegiate Programming Contest, sponsored by IBM, is the oldest and largest programming contest in the world with 3,000 teams competing in 70 countries this fall.

More than 200 University of Colorado at Boulder students are expected to "Trick or Treat for Charity" Oct. 31 through a program organized by the university's Volunteer Clearing House. "It's a really fun way to make a difference," said Volunteer Clearing House director Anna Domenico. "Basically, it's a Halloween-themed food and clothing drive. CU students can do something good for the local community, get to know their neighbors, and have an excuse to get dressed up and trick or treat again."

The American mass media are doing a poor job of investigating the role of religion in the 2004 presidential campaign, according to a University of Colorado at Boulder journalism professor who just returned from a European conference examining religion and media. "The media in the United States take it as a given that religious people are likely to vote for President Bush," said Professor Stewart Hoover, who made a presentation Sunday at the Prix Europa festival in Berlin. Hoover is co-director of the CU-Boulder Resource Center for Media, Religion and Culture.

Pink lights will illuminate the west steps of Norlin Library at the University of Colorado at Boulder through the end of October as part of a worldwide commemoration of International Breast Cancer Awareness month. Four lanterns and six spotlights will provide pink lighting at night for the steps and pillars of the library thanks to a cooperative effort by the CU-Boulder Office of Community Relations, University Libraries and Facilities Management. The office of Chancellor Richard Byyny, who is a physician, provided support for the lighting.

Editors: Doug Duncan, director of Fiske Planetarium and Sommers-Bausch Observatory, is available for interviews on or before Oct. 27. He can be reached at (303) 735-6141. Colorado sky watchers will be treated to a total eclipse of the moon in the week before Halloween, according to experts at the University of Colorado at Boulder's Sommers-Bausch Observatory and Fiske Planetarium.

Team members for NASA's Solar Radiation and Climate Experiment, or SORCE, satellite that was designed, built and currently is controlled by the University of Colorado at Boulder have received two major awards from the agency. Gary Rottman, a senior research associate at CU-Boulder's Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics and the SORCE mission's principal investigator, accepted NASA's Group Achievement Award on behalf of the SORCE team Aug. 24. The award is made for outstanding contributions to the success of NASA's overall mission.

An open house featuring a student recreation center and other amenities at Bear Creek Commons at Williams Village at the University of Colorado at Boulder will be held Tuesday, Oct. 26, from noon to 4 p.m. The new 11,000-square-foot building also houses a police annex and leasing office for the Bear Creek Apartments and multipurpose area. Tours of the facility will be conducted during the open house.

Using software that created special effects in movies like "Star Wars: Phantom Menace" and "The Lord of The Rings," a team of University of Colorado at Boulder geologists is pioneering the creation of interactive geologic displays and three-dimensional animated movies for museums and national parks.

In an age of increasing gender equity in many areas, women still represent only 25 percent of all information technology professionals. With the help of a $3.25 million grant from the National Science Foundation, the University of Colorado at Boulder is leading the mobilization of the National Center for Women & Information Technology. The four-year grant became effective Oct. 1 with an initial $1 million from NSF.

The Women's Resource Center at the University of Colorado at Boulder will celebrate its 10th anniversary with an open house at the University Memorial Center Oct. 22. The center, which provides resources for CU-Boulder students, faculty and staff, will be open in UMC room 416 from 10:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. Free food and information on the center's services will be available for visitors, as well as a visual display of the center's history. The center advocates for people of all genders, backgrounds, races and sexual orientations.