Freshman, Victor Kuc, Assists in Groundbreaking Bat Research

By Valerie Morris '13 and Andrea Santini '13 MarCom Interns

At first glance, Iona College student Victor Kuc is your typical college freshman.  He is currently settling into his new home at Rice Hall, getting acclimated with New Rochelle, and getting involved on campus by becoming a member of both the history and economics clubs.  However, this summer, Victor accompanied his father, Roman Kuc, who is a professor of electrical engineering at Yale University, in conducting some groundbreaking research. 

Roman Kuc was first watching a slow motion video of a bat eating a dragonfly when he got the idea for an experiment.  He noticed that as the bat approaches its prey, only the wings of the dragonfly move, while the leaf it is sitting on remains motionless.  Roman Kuc developed a hypothesis which states that the flapping of the bats wings causes a vibration in the insect’s wings.  This allows the bat to detect and pinpoint where its food is located. 

Victor, interest in the field of computer science, helped his father by creating a computer program to control sonar sensors and other devices, which were needed to perform the experiment.  In a small lab on Yale’s New Haven campus, using an airbrush and an air compressor to give the proper amount of pressure, the father and son team created a device that would give out the same puffs of air as bat wings.  They were able to use real dragon flies for their research, which were donated from the Peabody museum.  After performing their experiment, they were able to prove their hypothesis!  Their findings have gone worldwide and Roman Kuc was recently on a German radio station describing what he and Victor have concluded.

Victor chose Iona because he was happy with the course selection that was offered and the sense of community he felt after only one visit to the campus.  He plans on majoring in Computer Science.  After college Victor is hoping to get a job at a software development firm.  He would possibly like to do a fifth year at Iona College to receive his MBA and depending on how available jobs are when he graduates, he is looking into the possibility of graduate school.  He is very proud of the great discovery, but he insists that his father was the brains of the operation handling most of the technical aspects.  He took more of a supportive role but was happy to help out wherever he could.

Founded in 1940, Iona College is a four-year private, coeducational institution of learning in the tradition of the Edmund Rice Christian Brothers and American Catholic higher education. It is a diverse community of learners and scholars dedicated to academic excellence and the values of justice, peace and service. Iona offers undergraduate degrees in liberal arts, science, and business administration, as well as Master of Arts, Master of Science and Master of Business Administration degrees and numerous advanced certificate programs.

For questions or more information please contact:
Dawn Insanalli
Public Relations Office
Iona College, 715 North Avenue, New Rochelle, N.Y. 10801
Office: (914) 637-2726
Fax: (914) 637-2711
dinsanalli@iona.edu