Eco-Education

A first-year seminar class offered this semester is giving students the chance to explore environmental issues from a humanities perspective. The class, Sustainability in American Culture, focuses on eco-literacy; that is, an awareness of how cultural influences can affect our relationship with the environment.

“In a humanities course, it’s possible to think about thing like culture, discourse and language and how those things shape our thinking and how our thinking shapes our interaction with the environment and the natural world,” said Rita Turner, ’11 Ph.D., language, literacy and culture, who is teaching the class. Turner’s dissertation is based on developing curriculum to cultivate environmental awareness in high school and college students, so when she heard that the university was testing the idea of having graduate students teach first-year seminars she jumped at the chance to use her materials.

The class allows students to approach environmental issues from multiple perspectives, rather than just learning the science of the environment. For example, students read about how everyday items are produced, wrote creative pieces from the perspective of nonhuman beings in the environment and created digital stories about places.

“We look critically about what’s said in the media, how our attitudes are shaped, what metaphors we use to talk about the natural world and what rights we have,” said Turner. By discussing popular discourse on the environment, Turner hopes to empower her students—many of whom are science majors who plan to work on environmental issues —to understand and critique the range of factors that contribute to our attitudes about the environment.

“I like the fact that we can step into the gray areas instead of being in the black-and-white place that we normally are when it comes to classes and answers,” said Heather Harshbarger ’14, chemical engineering.

 “I was surprised at how much information the class covered,” said Jennie Williams ’14, social work. “Not only did the curriculum focus on conservation, but it also explored consumerism, corporate power, political influence and even art and creative reflection in nature.”

Williams, an avid recycler and vegetarian, said that she was aware of environmental issues before taking the class but that it has expanded her view of these issues. “I have definitely become more aware of consumerism in the American culture and it has motivated me to stay active in education and projects of environmental protection,” she said.

Turner said that teaching the class has helped her to hone the curriculum that she will present with her dissertation, and she looks forward to being able to share what she learned in a real classroom with her dissertation committee. Teaching the class has reinforced her belief that students should learn to think critically about the environment. “This sort of humanities piece of the puzzle is missing, and I feel like there’s a real need for that,” she said.

(12/6/10)

Excellence & Affordability

UMBC is one of 50 public institutions in the United States recognized by The Princeton Review as a “Best Value College” offering a combination of educational excellence and affordability.  The ranking was announced February 22 on the Today Show and in USA Today.

The honor is the third major national distinction UMBC has received from leading higher-education rankings publications this academic year. For the second year in a row, UMBC was named America’s #1 “Up-and-Coming” national university by U.S. News & World Report’s Best Colleges Guide.  The University was also included on Kiplinger’s Best Value Public Colleges list.

The Princeton Review recognizes UMBC, a research university with nearly 13,000 students, for  attracting serious students and supporting them with undergraduate research opportunities throughout the Baltimore-Washington region and beyond. The campus location near BWI-Marshall Airport gives students access to internships with government agencies, nonprofits and leading private-sector companies.

 “UMBC provides a distinctive undergraduate education to outstanding students, many of whom go on to prestigious graduate schools and professional opportunities. We’re delighted to be recognized by The Princeton Review’s list of ‘Best Value Colleges,’ ” said UMBC President Freeman A. Hrabowski, III.

The Princeton Review selected schools by using institutional data and student opinion surveys. Broadly speaking, it examined factors covering undergraduate academics, costs and financial aid. A school’s academic rating was derived from admissions and other institutional data and student opinion surveys.

A school’s financial aid rating was based on data about tuition, fees, room and board and need-based financial aid packages and student opinion surveys regarding award packages and the service provided by a school’s financial aid office.  Approximately seventy-seven percent of students at UMBC receive some financial aid in the form of scholarships, loans and grants.

Dale Bittinger, director of undergraduate admissions and orientation, said, “Being named to the ‘Best Value Colleges’ list once again is something that we are proud of as it reaffirms, among many values, our commitment to attracting a highly diverse community of high-achieving students.”

UMBC was also named a “Best Value College” in 2009 and in 2008 was ranked the second “Most Diverse Student Body”  in The Princeton Review’s “The Best 368 Colleges: 2009 Edition.”

(2/22/11)

Getting Intuit

It’s a feeling that both artists and researchers are familiar with: a problem seems unsolvable when suddenly, in a flash, a creative solution becomes clear. This moment of insight might get credited to instinct or your gut, but what if it’s more than a hunch?  What if it’s part of how the brain solves problems, as trustworthy as conscious thought?

That’s what Lee Boot, associate director of UMBC’s Imaging Research Center (IRC), asked himself when he was invited by the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) to prepare an exhibit for October’s USA Science and Engineering Festival on the National Mall. Now, nearly a year later, IRC is preparing to unveil an exhibit that leads visitors to reach the “eureka” of intuitive insight and teaches them what is happening in their brain at that moment.

“It was important for us to invite an artist to explore this perspective. Lee’s research was extensive and his group’s ability and willingness to bring together a variety of perspectives is one of the reasons we felt that working with him would be a fertile exploration,” said J.D. Talasek, director of cultural programs of the NAS. In many ways, the NAS and the IRC were a perfect fit: the NAS creates exhibitions and programs that explore the intersection of art, science and culture, while the IRC investigates how science and art can influence each other to lead to greater understanding.

To Boot, intuition is at the core of this connection, because it can lead to discoveries in all disciplines. “The fact that scientists have discovered a part of your brain that people who have an intuitive insight have used gives validity to an entire way of thinking,” he said. “It’s one of the things that human brains do that pocket calculators don’t.”

Boot worked with IRC artists and researchers including Abbey Salvo ’10, computer animation; Eric Smallwood ’03, digital arts,’10 M.F.A. imaging and digital arts, and IRC technical director; Gianfranco Mirizzi, M.F.A. imaging and digital arts student; David Gurzick ’09 Ph.D., information systems; and Shane Lynch ’09, computer science, to conceptualize an exhibit that would allow visitors to both learn about intuition and experience their own moment of insight. They eventually settled on a large black booth with four peepholes, through which visitors will watch short films that comprise different parts of a scene. Visitors are invited to intuit what the larger scene that connects the four short films might be and share their ideas, which will be displayed on a screen. On the side of the booth is an interactive visualization where visitors can see what happened in their brain as they watched the film and reached the insight.

“We want them to experience their own brain at an intuitive moment,” said Boot.

In order to create the visualization, IRC researchers read scientific papers on the “neural basis of insight,” and consulted with scientists about the accuracy of the IRC’s representations. They eventually developed an illustration that reflected both the current knowledge and the artists’ impressions. “We want to be consistent with the science, but there are a lot of different windows through which we can look at the human experience,” said Boot.

In addition to helping visitors understand their own brains, the booth will help scientists understand the visitors’ brains. It was designed so that the videos, visualizations and even the graphics on the side could be changed, allowing researchers to use it to collect data about how to help people achieve intuitive insight. This fits another of the IRC’s goals: to use art to contribute to scientific discoveries.

“When you think about what artists can bring to research, I think it is comfort with intuition, comfort with improvisation and comfort and skills with playing,” said Dan Bailey, director of the IRC.

Before the booth heads down to the National Mall for the Festival it will be in the Commons on October fourth (12-5 p.m.) and fifth (9 a.m.-5 p.m.). Boot hopes to get feedback that can be implemented before the festival on October 23-24, which is expected to attract thousands of attendees.

(9/24/10)

Hairy Tales

Kimberly Moffitt, assistant professor of American studies, is co-editor of two recently released books that explore perceptions of race in America.

Blackberries and Redbones: Critical Articulations of Black Hair/Body Politics in Africana Communities (Hampton Press), examines the way that hair and bodies shape perception of African Americans through a variety of interdisciplinary lenses, including poems, creative writing and scholarly essays.

“This book is really the first of its kind to bring together a number of voices and multiple perspectives in terms of exploring issues significant to black hair and body in American society,” said Moffitt.

Aside from presenting traditional views of these issues, Moffitt and her co-editor, Regina Spellers Sims, explored perspectives that are not often heard in conversations about this topic, such as the voice of a homosexual African American man.

Moffitt is also teaching an Africana studies class on hair and body politics, and has found that students are eager to share their own lived experiences. In fact, student response has been so positive that Moffitt is organizing an event called “Hairstories” for Tuesday, November 9, at 7 p.m. in The Commons Skylight Room. Describing the event as “the ‘Vagina Monologues’ of hair,” Moffit said that it will be an outlet for all members of the community, not just her students, to share their own experiences with their hair.

“Society throws so many things at us that we inevitably neglect to analyze what we are being bombarded with,” said Ngeri Nnachi ’10, American studies, the student coordinator of the event. “This event will give us a chance to actually start thinking about what it is that we go though and critically analyze our experiences.”

Despite the book’s success in her class, Moffitt is quick to point out that it can be just as useful to people outside the classroom. “We wanted to make this a text that could be used in spaces where folks are just interested in understanding themselves,” she said. Each work within the book is followed by discussion questions, which she hopes that readers will use as a jumping off point for discussions, and the book’s website includes a discussion board.

Another book out this fall was inspired by a conference that Moffitt helped to organize shortly before the 2008 election. The Obama Effect: Multidisciplinary Renderings of the 2008 Campaign (SUNY Press) includes conference papers that captured the essence of the campaign and election in that moment and places Barack Obama’s candidacy and victory in the context of the American experience with race and the media.

“No one else was able to capture that unique space in which Obama was still a candidate, yet deemed successful at changing the way we do politics and campaigning,” said Moffit, who co-edited the book along with Heather Harris and Catherine Squires.

Moffitt’s research interests aren’t confined to issues of race; this December will see the release of The 1980s: A Critical and Transitional Decade? (Rowman and Littlefield/Lexington Books), which she co-edited with Duncan Campbell, lecturer in American studies. The collection looks at the 1980s as a significant decade in contemporary American history and society.

10/29/10

Honoring Alumni

As Retriever Fever spreads across campus for UMBC’s Homecoming Celebration, October 13-16, it’s an opportunity for alumni to reconnect with their alma mater, reminisce about the past and see firsthand how much campus has grown.

It’s also an opportunity for alumni to reflect on their UMBC education and how it helped them succeed. The Alumni of the Year Awards Reception, an annual ceremony presented during Homecoming by the UMBC Alumni Association, honors former students in three categories: Alumnus/Alumna of the Year, Distinguished Service and Young Alumni Rising Star.

Jenny O’Grady, director of alumni and development communications, said the event represents “an array of alums from all the disciplines, showing us that a UMBC education really takes you places.”

The Alumnus/Alumna of the Year award recipients certainly demonstrate that diverse educational array as they continue to thrive and succeed in an equally diverse spectrum of careers.

Michael George ’87, information systems, is a vice president at Amazon.com and is named on several patents related to payments, the marketplace and group buying business processes and technologies.

Vikki Valentine ’96, English, who graduated magna cum laude, is a science journalist and lead editor of NPR’s environment, energy and climate coverage.

Michael I. Nishimura ’80 BA, ’84 MS and ’89 PhD, biological sciences, pioneered approaches for cancer therapy and is vice chair for research in the department of surgery at the Medical University of South Carolina.

Chad Cradock ’97, psychology, led UMBC’s men’s swimming and diving team to nine consecutive conference championships, including seven straight America East titles, and the Retriever women have won four conference crowns.

Dean Alexander ’88, visual arts, has won nearly 100 international awards for his photography. He has captured a wide variety of subjects, from Oprah Winfrey, Lady Sutherland and Baltimore’s homeless to a variety of corporate and non-profit clients.

This year’s Distinguished Service Award goes to Gene Trainor ’86, health science and policy and economics. He is the chief operating officer of Foundation Capital, a venture capital firm based in Menlo Park, California. He serves on the board of Families of Spinal Muscular Atrophy, a non-profit organization.

Aaron Merki ’05, political science  is this year’s Young Alumni Rising Star. While attending the University of Maryland School of Law, he founded the FreeState Legal Project, an organization that provides legal services to low-income LGBT clients around the Baltimore area. He is also an associate at Venable LLP, where he serves a range of clients from corporations to low-income individuals.

The Alumni of the Year Awards will be presented Thursday, October 14, at 7:30 p.m., followed by a reception for the campus community. More information is available online.

A complete Homecoming schedule and registration are available online.

(10/12/10)

In Demand

Even in tough economic times, UMBC students are in high demand.

UMBC’s commitment to ensuring that students graduate with substantive experience through internships, co-ops, service-learning and research opportunities gets high praise from students and employers alike.

The Shriver Center serves as a powerhouse for applied learning at UMBC, coordinating over 2000 student placements each year. According to Christine Routzahn, director of professional practice, “UMBC continues to help students develop as leaders by complementing classroom teaching and research with internships, co-ops and service-learning opportunities.”

In Maryland and D.C., and across the country, UMBC students link theory to practice in real-world settings, allowing them to more precisely define their career interests as they acquire the valuable work experience and skills needed to jump-start their careers in a competitive employment environment.

Kristen Worrall, a senior corporate recruiter, said, “Over the years, we have consistently had success with UMBC students who join our summer internship program at T. Rowe Price. The students bring intellectual curiosity, a strong work ethic and a desire to learn. Our interns work on some complex projects that have a real impact on our business and UMBC students help us deliver true results.”

Click here to learn how some UMBC students spent their summer engaged in applied learning.

The Shriver Center was recently awarded a Best Practice Award from the Cooperative Education & Internship Association (CEIA).

(9/8/10)

NCAA Bound

For the second time in school history, the UMBC men’s soccer program will compete in the NCAA Division I Championships as the Retrievers advanced, 5-4, in penalty kicks in the America East Conference title game after playing visiting New Hampshire (UNH) to a 0-0 scoreless draw.

“I am extremely proud of our Men’s Soccer program,” said UMBC Athletics Director Charles Brown. “Coach Pete Caringi, his staff and our student-athletes have had an amazing season.  It is great to see that a team with such hard work and dedication has won the America East Conference Championship.  The atmosphere at our championship game was amazing and everyone in attendance was treated to a very special day.  I am sure our team will make UMBC proud in the NCAA Championships.”

The game pitted the league’s top offense of UMBC against the best defense in UNH.  The second-seeded Retrievers (11-4-3) and fifth-seeded Wildcats (9-5-6) played 110 minutes of scoreless soccer, necessitating the penalty kicks. After both teams converted their opening kicks, UMBC junior goalkeeper Dan Louisignau made a diving save to his right on an attempt by UNH’s Joe Corsello.

The next three shooters for each squad converted, leaving it up to UMBC senior midfielder John Paul Waraksa with the shootout knotted at 4-4. The Retriever captain placed his shot inside the left post, setting off a wild celebration from the Retriever players and partisan crowd at UMBC Soccer Stadium.

Senior forward Levi Houapeu was named the tournament’s Most Outstanding Player. He scored two goals in the semifinals vs. Stony Brook and was the game’s most dangerous player in the finals. Warkasa, senior captain Chris Williams and junior midfielder Andrew Bulls were also selected to the All-Championship Team.

“This is a very confident team,“ Caringi said. “We played a lot of good teams on the road and won games at Bucknell and Penn State. It shows that we can play with anybody if we play our game. Our team had tremendous support this season from UMBC students, alumni and fans. We’re very excited to represent UMBC in the NCAA tournament.”  

The Retrievers are now 7-1-3 in their last 11 outings heading into the NCAA tournament.

The team will face host Princeton in the first round of the NCAA Men’s Soccer Championships on Thursday, Nov. 18. Kick-off time is set for 7 p.m. at Roberts Stadium in Princeton, N.J.

UMBC previously went to the NCAA’s in 1999, after winning the Northeast Conference Tournament and advancing in penalty kicks over Lafayette in an NCAA play-in game. The Retrievers, who owned the country’s best record at 19-1-1 in that season, lost, 4-3, in overtime at top-seeded Duke.

(11/15/10)

Nifty Teaching

For about 300 middle schools students in western Maryland, a recent science class masqueraded as a paper-airplane competition. Anne Spence, an assistant professor of mechanical engineering at UMBC, divided groups of students at St. John Regional Catholic School into teams to design single-sheet planes, awarding points to those whose models reliably flew the farthest.

At Huntingtown High School in southern Maryland’s Calvert County, students in advanced placement and honors chemistry classes also got a fresh perspective on science when Mark Perks, a senior lecturer in UMBC’s Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, handed them molecular model kits to demonstrate how identical groups of atoms can take on radically different structures.

The lessons were meant to be fun, but they were also part of a broad effort to ignite scientific interest in local schools as part of the USA Science and Engineering Festival. Spence and Perks were selected to be part of the “Nifty Fifty,” a group of slightly more than 50 leading educators and researchers from across the country.

Other members of the Nifty Fifty included Francis Collins, Director of the National Institutes of Health, and Tony Fauci, Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID).

“It was a real honor to be a part of the Nifty Fifty and to spend a day with Maryland high school students,” Perks said. “There’s such a need in this country for more scientists — programs like this one can provide the necessary spark to put someone on that path.”

The festival concluded with an expo on the National Mall Oct. 23-24.

The work getting young people interested in science and engineering continues. Spence is the director of the state’s Project Lead the Way affiliate, which has provided an engineering curriculum in more than 100 Maryland schools. Spence said the airplane activity she recently taught at St. John Regional Catholic School in Frederick is just an example of the kind of hands-on lesson that can make science and engineering meaningful to students.

“So many kids get the mistaken idea that studying science and engineering has to be boring and difficult,” she said. “When they see they can solve real problems and make new things, many students start mastering the tricky stuff, almost by accident.”

11/5/10

Securing Cyberspace

Military commanders often talk about the need for “situational awareness” — they want to see and track the potential threats facing them, whether they come from planes, ships, troop movements or any other source.

In a traditional conflict, that awareness might come from a giant digital map hanging in a darkened command center. But as the country faces a growing range of threats to the computers and networks that make these maps and other vital technologies possible, it becomes difficult to imagine what a picture to track them would even look like. 

“Cyberspace is a domain that was entirely created by humans,” says Chris Valentino ’02, MS ’05, information systems. “There’s no good way to visualize it and to see where the threats are.”

Not yet, anyway. A new partnership between UMBC and the Northrop Grumman Corporation is designed to accelerate the development of this and other types of technology that will help protect the country from these growing cyber threats. 

“We want to open the aperture to new technologies and ideas,” explains Valentino, a director of cybersecurity at Northrop Grumman. “We want this partnership to help companies find out-of-the-box solutions that will make our nation more secure.”

The partnership will build on the successful business-incubation framework at the bwtech@UMBC Research and Technology Park by creating the Cync Program. The program is now accepting applications from companies from across the country with the most promising cybersecurity ideas. Those selected to participate will collaborate at bwtech’s north campus, drawing on UMBC’s research expertise and Northrop Grumman resources to develop tools that will secure and protect the computer hardware, software and networks vital to national defense.

Companies will join bwtech’s Advantage Incubator in office space adjacent to campus.

Ellen Hemmerly, executive director of the bwtech@UMBC Research and Technology Park, notes that the program is a perfect fit for a region with a strong information technology workforce and a growing array of businesses and governmental agencies working on cybersecurity.

“UMBC and Northrop Grumman share a culture of innovation,” she says. “This program will build on UMBC’s strength in information technology and its success nurturing new companies. Businesses started through this partnership will come from across the country, expanding the local business base and spurring economic growth in the region.”

Participating companies will be provided with office space, business support services and academic resources, including access to faculty and student employees. For more on the program and information about applying, visit http://www.advantageincubator.com.

The Cync Program is part of a growing focus on cybersecurity at UMBC. The university’s new graduate Cybersecurity program offers both a graduate certificate and a master’s degree.

Valentino remembers seeing construction at bwtech during his student days at UMBC, and thinking then about the potential benefit of blending the university’s research expertise with a company like Northrop Grumman’s ability to quickly build complex, structured systems.

Now, he says, he’s thrilled to see what can be accomplished with this new partnership: “This really could go a long way to help meet the country’s cybersecurity needs.”

UMBC’s release on the Cync Program

(12/6/10)

Spectrum

The Center for Art, Design and Visual Culture (CADVC) presents “Spectrum: 2010 Visual Arts Faculty Exhibition.” The first exhibition in a new series, “Spectrum” is designed to give a look into the current research and studio practice of faculty members Dan Bailey, Steve Bradley, Cathy Cook, Vin Grabill, Calla Thompson and Fred Worden.

The moment visitors step into the exhibition space, they are immersed in the artists’ work. Soundtracks from the films of Cook, Grabill and Worden, screened in the darkened theatre, create an ethereal accompaniment to the contemporary visual work on display.

Sounds drift across the room from the loudspeakers connected to the interactive installation created by Steve Bradley. “’TAP’ utilizes architectural infrastructure to perform a live sonic composition determined by the sound frequencies of a building,” Bradley writes in the exhibition’s accompanying catalogue.
                 
Across from the installation hang prints of 360-degree spherical panoramas shot and digitally manipulated by Dan Bailey. His piece, “Retriever Planet,” gives observers a unique perspective on a familiar campus location. “For me, the process of creating an image was one of making or building. With the advent of digital photography, it was a seamless transition to build and make images on a computer,” he writes.

Calla Thompson created pigmented prints and collage-based work raises questions about power. “I am interested in the collapse of a good/evil dichotomy, and instead create a place where characters have the potential to be both the goodie and the baddie, at times simultaneously,” she writes.

Inside the screening room, Vin Grabill, collaborated with two sound artists for his film “Frontier.” He explains that he edits short audio clips and visual footage “to generate visually musical compositions.”

In her documentary, “Immortal Cupboard: In Search of Lorine Niedecker,” Cathy Cook, explores the life of a working artist. She writes, “’Immortal Cupboard’ encompasses many of the subjects that have been central to my work for a long time: nature, women’s roles, rural living, the intersection of personal memory and history and the mechanics of everyday life.”

Fred Worden, creates experimental films that challenge viewers “to make sense of stimuli coming, not from the natural world out in front of the eyes, but rather from a source behind the eyes, the conscious mind.”
                 
“Discernable in all the work is an investigative quality that continually tests the boundaries of technical processes and formats found within each artistic discipline,” writes Symmes Gardner, executive director of CADVC.

“Spectrum” is on view through December 13. Accompanying artist lectures take place at noon on the following dates:

October 27 – Steve Bradley
November 3 – Vin Grabill
November 8 – James Smalls
November 17 – Cathy Cook
December 1 – Calla Thompson

CADVC is located on the first floor of the Fine Arts building and is open Tuesday-Saturday, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Admission is free. For more information, visit the CADVC website or call ext. 5-3188.

(10/21/10)