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• Woodbridge man is finalist in inventors competition

• Lodian convicted of robbery, burglary; jury still debating murder, conspiracy charges

• County Office of Education makes sure school districts are running smoothly

• Victim of fatal crash was volunteer with Sheriff's Department

• Stockton-Lodi ranks third in U.S. for IV drug use

• Regional Roundup

• Planning Commission to hear details of report on housing Wednesday

• Abrahamson elected new county education office board president

• Officials looking for truck involved in fatal accident

• Logbook

• Second horse in county infected with West Nile

• Sheriff's still on water as boating season ends

• Local plane owners upset over unusable hangers in Stockton

November 20th, 2009

• Real estate market gets on more solid ground

• Advocacy groups sue East Bay Municipal Utility District over Pardee expansion

• National Guard troops return home in time for the holidays

• Salvation Army Kettle Kickoff

• Regional Roundup

• Stable southeast of Lodi approved

• Acampo woman killed

• One year after a heart attack, Lodi's Judy Mims thanks rescuers

• Galt plans to help residents with energy-efficient projects

November 19th, 2009

• Logbook

• Water surges in Mokelumne River yield more salmon

• Suspect arrested after hiding in fridge

• Lodi City Council plans to cap number of taco trucks at 22

• Operation: Christmas

• Corrections

• Sales tax hike yields dividends: 5 new officers join Galt Police

• Chase ends in crash

• Lodi Unified School District board votes to cancel summer school for 2010

• Lodi City Council will consider redevelopment next June

• Galt Joint Union High School Distric hires new superintendent

November 18th, 2009

• Congress allocates money for local water projects

• Lodi man finds wife's ashes during police display of stolen property

• Sarah Palin's book hits the shelves: Locals react

• Regional Roundup

• Galt City Council rejects study on rent stabilization

• Paranormal group conducts second investigation of building

November 17th, 2009

• Lodi Budget and Finance Committee to look into ways to save money on employee benefits

• Redevelopment to be discussed by Lodi City Council again

• Paying tribute to a Lodian

• Regional Roundup

• Court reinstates death penalty for killer of Lodi grad

• Clements gets free water rescue boat

• Clarification

• Decision on summer school expected at tonight's Lodi Unified School District meeting

November 16th, 2009

• Sierra Adventure store to close after four years in Downtown Lodi

• Regional Roundup

• Correction

• Lodi's First Sip event showcases area wineries' latest vintages

• City Council 'triple-dog dared' to ditch cars, use Lodi buses

• Three members of Lodi-area family fall ill after eating poisonous mushrooms they reportedly found at Lodi Lake

• Public Meetings

November 14th, 2009

• Regional Roundup

• Despite an increase in homeless students, school districts look to bolster enrollment, raise revenue

• A first look at 2009 vintages at Lodi's First Sip wine-tasting event

• Watchful neighbor in Lodi helped bust suspected burglars

• New Galt city manager juggles job, family

• Galt school district narrows superintendent search to one

• Despite budget cuts, some Lodi Unified School District salaries continue to rise

November 13th, 2009

• What to expect with new homebuyer tax credit

• Lodi Muslim: Local mosque not involved

• Regional Roundup

• Burglary suspects are under arrest

• Lodi veteran recounts close calls in Vietnam

• Mayor Larry Hansen points out Lodi's economic progress

• First phase of Lockeford park by 2011?

The following stories have received the most reader comments during the last 7 days.

• The country's mess is our fault (130)
• Obama is not a moderate (129)
• Sarah Palin's book hits the shelves: Locals react (60)
• Despite budget cuts, some Lodi Unified School District salaries continue to rise (49)
• Lodi City Council plans to cap number of taco trucks at 22 (45)
• Lodi Flames slim playoff chances vanish in setback to Tracy Bulldogs (25)
• Tokay in, traveling to unbeaten No. 3 Grant for football playoffs (25)
• The haves should help the have-nots (25)
• Tokay Tigers blow late 27-point lead in loss to Wolf Pack (22)
• Nightmares about America's future (21)

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Woodbridge man is finalist in inventors competition

In 2002, Ashkon Shaahinfar was a senior at Lodi High School and was active in the Science Olympiad, Breakthrough Club, jazz band, speech and debate and the track team. He was even Mr. Nerd in 2001.

Now he's an inventor.

Ashkon Shaahinfar

Shaahinfar, 20, a junior biomedical engineering major at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, is a finalist in the Collegiate Inventors Competition, a program of the National Inventors Hall of Fame.

The son of Mohammad Shaahinfar and Mina Morshedi, of Woodbridge, Shaahinfar and two teammates, Gillian Hoe and Elbert Hu, have developed a way to detect pre-term labor, a method intended to prevent premature delivery.

The team created a device that measures the conductivity of a pregnant woman's cervical tissue so that doctors will know when the tissue swells.

"One exciting part of it is presenting the program," Shaahinfar said in a phone interview from Baltimore.

Shaahinfar, Hoe, and Hu will present their invention to a panel of eight judges, including representatives from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and inductees from the National Inventors Hall of Fame.

Final judging for undergraduate students takes place on Oct. 2, and all competitors have a chance at the $50,000 grand prize. In addition, a graduate prize of $25,000 and an undergraduate prize of $15,000 will be awarded, plus $5,000 adviser prizes. Winners will be announced at a ceremony the evening of Oct. 2 at the in Akron, Ohio.

"He works from his heart," Morshedi said. "He doesn't think of the money aspect of anything. He doesn't work (just) to get grades."

Shaahinfar said he is excited for the opportunity to create the device at the request of Dr. Gurewitsch, an adviser along with Dr. Robert Allen. The team is still in the research and development phase.

"We haven't tested it on human subjects yet," Shaahinfar said.

The invention is designed to reduce the 11 percent premature birthrate in the United States, said National Inventors Hall of Fame spokeswoman Rini Paiva.

The invention measures a woman's water content with extreme precision. By passing a very low current electrical signal through the tissue, the students measure the tissue's resistance.

Resistance decreases when the water content increases, providing a reliable way to measure the changes. The current is too weak for the patient to feel, and the end result is an accurate prediction of whether she is susceptible to pre-term labor.

Students choose research projects solicited by the academic community and businesses in the greater Baltimore area, Shaahinfar said.

"One of the great things about Hopkins is the research opportunities," Shaahinfar said. "About 70 percent of the undergraduates do some sort of research."

Shaahinfar said he wanted to thank his parents, family, teachers at Lodi High and the scholarship office. As a LHS senior, he won the prestigious Frank H. Buck Scholarship, which pays tuition to any university in the country.

"Without that (scholarship), I couldn't come to Hopkins," he said.

Shaahinfar didn't rest up in the summer, either. He went to Iran, where his parents were born, and interviewed HIV patients, their families and family doctors. His minor is in international health and development.

"He hasn't taken any breaks since he started (college)," his mother said.

While at Lodi High, Shaahinfar spent the summer making a solar oven at home.

Morshedi recalls asking, "Why don't you submit that as your senior project?"

He replied, "I'm only doing it for summer fun."

"He's been like that since he was a child," his mother said. "He always checks books about how things are made. The library was his home."

Shaahinfar said he loves university life -- "Everything but the East Coast weather."