Michael Summers, Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator and professor of chemistry and biochemistry, was part of a recent panel discussion sponsored by Science magazine on improving science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education in the U.S. “Straight Talk About STEM Education” appeared in the July 6 issue of Science.

Columbia Natives Patricia Ordóñez, Jason Reid to Pursue Ph.D.s at UMBC, MIT

Note to Readers: Click on photos below to view high-resolution version.

Patricia Ordóñez, a UMBC second year graduate student, and Jason Reid, a UMBC class of 2007 graduate, both from Columbia, MD, have received National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowships (NSFGRF), which are among the most competitive and prestigious academic awards for American college students as they begin graduate studies. Both students are products of UMBC’s College of Engineering and Information Technology.

The NSFGRF is a three-year award that funds tuition and an annual stipend to support graduate studies for students showing the potential to contribute significantly to research, teaching and innovations in science and engineering. About 1,000 were awarded across the U.S. this year.

Ordóñez, who received a B.A. in Hispanic and Italian Studies in 1989 from Johns Hopkins University, began to pursue her career in computer science attending UMBC part-time in the fall of 2001. She was admitted to the graduate school full-time in the fall of 2005 and will remain at UMBC to pursue a Ph.D. in her field as well as continue research developing medical applications using pervasive computing to help personalize operating rooms for patients and surgeons.

“I would be crazy to leave such an encouraging and supportive environment,” she said. “I love being somewhere where the president of the university greets you as he walks by and takes a personal interest in the students.”

Reid, who received a B.S. in mechanical engineering, will attend the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to pursue an M.S./Ph.D. in mechanical engineering and conduct research in the use of robotics to accelerate rehabilitation in stroke and spinal cord injury patients.

“The NSF award is great because you can work on pretty much anything that interests you,” said Reid. “While I look forward to embarking on the new experiences and challenges of the future, I will always appreciate my time spent at UMBC.”

A Meyerhoff Scholar, Reid also received a Society of Automotive Engineers Scholarship, the UMBC Mechanical Engineering Alumni Award and the Hillel of Greater Baltimore President’s Award. Reid’s winning research proposal for the NSFGRF came from his work in the lab of UMBC mechanical engineering professor Dwayne Arola, with whom he studied ways to improve dental tools and practices for senior citizen patients as the enamel of their teeth grows brittle with age.

For Ordóñez, the award makes her doctoral dreams obtainable. “Without it I think I would have settled for the masters rather than the PhD because I am 40 years old and have the financial responsibilities of a 40-year-old,” she said. “Now I have the financial support I need to focus solely on my research.”

Ordóñez, part of the UMBC computer science and electrical engineering department’s eBiquity Research Group, thanked UMBC faculty members Anupam Joshi, Marie desJardins, Renetta Tull, Tim Finin, Penny Rheingans, Janet Rutledge, Charles Nicholas, Krishna Sivalingam, and Marc Olano for supporting her in her graduate studies and Shon Vick in her undergraduate studies.

New Area the Size of Maryland Starts to Melt Each Year; Long-term Satellite Data Showed First-Ever High Altitude Melting in 2002

Some sobering findings on the extent of Greenland's melting ice sheets were published today as part of a long-term study of earth observing satellites’ data by researchers with the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) and NASA-Goddard Space Flight Center.

Marco Tedesco, a scientist at the Joint Center for Earth Systems Technology (JCET) of UMBC and NASA-Goddard Space Flight Center, was lead author of a study published in the American Geophysical Union's journal Eos. By using a new method for detecting melting snow from satellites, Tedesco found that in 2006 Greenland experienced more days of melting snow and at higher altitudes than the previous trends from the past 18 years.

Tedesco used a new method for detecting melting snow based on readings from the Special Sensor Microwave Imaging radiometer (SSM/I), an instrument aboard the U.S. Air Force’s Defense Meteorological Satellite Program spacecraft. The SSM/I can see through clouds and can measure data without sunlight. Tedesco has tracked the data annually since 1988, allowing him to study big-picture trends in the duration and extent of Greenland's snowmelt.

Certain areas of Greenland were melting over 10 days longer than average in 2006. Greenland’s 2006 melt index, or the number of melting days times the melting area, continued on an upward trend seen in data from 1988 to 2005.

Results from another study by Tedesco published on Geophysical Research Letters on January 2007 show that the year 2002 showed signs of extreme melting. “We identified an extreme melting event in June 2002 that showed for the first time in 18 years snow melting in inner Greenland at high altitudes,” said Tedesco.

“During the same year, over 80 percent of the entire Greenland ice sheet surface experienced at least one day of melting. This corresponds to an area the size of France, Spain and Italy put together,” he said. The area experiencing at least one day of melting has been increasing since 1992 at a rate of 35,000 square kilometers per year, or about two percent of the entire Greenland surface. “That means that, on the average, every year since 1992 an area equivalent to the state of Maryland has been subject to new melting,” Tedesco said.

Left: UMBC JCET Researcher Marco Tedesco

According to Tedesco, tracking melting snow in Greenland, which contains enough water to raise global sea level by approximately 7 meters, is important for several reasons. “Although wet and dry snow look similar, they absorb sun’s radiation in a different way, with melting snow absorbing three to four times as much energy as dry snow, greatly affecting Earth’s energy budget,” said Tedesco.

“Also, melting snow produces liquid water that will seep down to the interface of ice and bedrock, lubricating the ice sheet and increasing the speed with which ice moves,” Tedesco said. “This means that ice might react to a warm climate faster than thought, contributing more rapidly to sea level than previously thought.”

Men’s Lacrosse Heads to NCAA Tournament

For the second consecutive year, the UMBC men’s lacrosse team will compete in the NCAA Men’s Lacrosse Tournament. The Retrievers received an at-large bid and will play the seventh-seeded Maryland Terrapins in College Park, Md. on Sunday, May 13 at 7:30 p.m. The game will be televised live by ESPNU.

This will be UMBC’s fourth appearance in the field since 1998. The Retrievers earned at-large bids in both 1998 and 1999 and earned an automatic qualifier by winning the America East Conference in 2006. All four appearances by UMBC have come under the direction of Head Coach Don Zimmerman. It will be the 11th time in Coach Zimmerman’s 21 years as a Division I coach that he has taken a team to the tournament.

The Retrievers are 10-5 and had their six-game winning streak snapped in Saturday’s 15-14 loss to Albany in the America East title game in Albany, N.Y.

Maryland (also 10-5) defeated UMBC, 11-7 in College Park on March 17. The two teams have not met in UMBC’s previous three tournament appearances. The Retrievers lost, 11-8 to seventh-seeded Princeton in Princeton, N.J. in the first round of the tournament last season.

There will be a fan bus which heads down to College Park for the game. The bus will depart in front of the RAC at 6:00 p.m. Tickets for the Maryland-UMBC game can be purchased in advance through the Maryland Ticket Office at 1-800-462-TERP (1-800-462-8377) or they can be purchased at Byrd Stadium upon arrival. Tickets prices are $10.00 for adults and $5.00 for students. If you are interested in the bus, please contact Joe Sisler at 410-455-2205 or stop by Room 331 in the Retriever Activities Center.

The winner of the Maryland/UMBC game will meet the winner of the Virginia/Delaware first round game in the quarterfinals on Sunday, May 20, at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium in Annapolis, Md.

(5/9/07)

© 2006-07 University of Maryland, Baltimore County � 1000 Hilltop Circle, Baltimore, MD 21250 � 410-455-1000 �

Participants in the UMBC Charlestown digital story project had an opportunity to screen their works at the 2007 Maryland Film Festival as part of a master class sponsored by the Creative Alliance. Documentary filmmaker Aaron Matthews was on hand to lead a critique of the stories produced in last year's summer and winter workshops. Matthews, whose new film The Paper was screened at the festival, was impressed by the stories and encouraged the group to continue making films. "There is something really refreshing about hearing your voices.There are not a lot of films by older women and it was really nice to hear that. I would definitely encourage you to think of yourself as filmmakers and keep doing it. I think there is a lot of interest in hearing more stories from people from your perspective."

International Recognition for a New Filmmaking Technique

Assistant Professor of Visual Arts Eric Dyer ’95 received international recognition for his film “Copenhagen Cycles,” which uses an avant-garde approach of connecting age-old film techniques with digital technology. “Copenhagen Cycles” won the 2007 Director’s Choice Award at the Thomas Edison Black Maria Film and Video Festival and was also screened at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival and festivals in Turkey, Portugal, the Netherlands, England and Germany.

An experimental animator who often uses computers to create his films, Dyer produced “Copenhagen Cycles” using a new filmmaking method that he developed, merging digital animation and a pre-cinema technique. Dyer compiled hundreds of photographs he took while bicycle riding around the streets of Denmark during his 2005 Fulbright Fellowship. First, Dyer printed and cut the sequences of the moving images and built about 25 zoetrope-like paper sculptures, then spun the sculptures and recaptured the collaged movements with a fast-shutter digital video camera. The art installation version of “Copenhagen Cycles” includes the bicycle wheel-sized zoetropes and a video demonstration of the unique filmmaking process.

In his animation courses at UMBC, Dyer is teaching his students to use his new method of filmmaking. “By using this experimental process, my students learn the value of mixing hands-on and digital techniques. They discover pathways or tangents they wouldn’t normally take when using only a computer. In the end, they surprise themselves and grow as artists,” he said.

Dyer is collaborating with UMBC’s Imaging Research Center for his next project, which will use 3D animation and 3D printing technologies to create zoetropes for a new film and installation. He hopes to complete the project in early 2008.

(4/10/07)

© 2006-07 University of Maryland, Baltimore County � 1000 Hilltop Circle, Baltimore, MD 21250 � 410-455-1000 �

International Recognition for a New Filmmaking Technique

Assistant Professor of Visual Arts Eric Dyer ’95 received international recognition for his film “Copenhagen Cycles,” which uses an avant-garde approach of connecting age-old film techniques with digital technology. “Copenhagen Cycles” won the 2007 Director’s Choice Award at the Thomas Edison Black Maria Film and Video Festival and was also screened at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival and festivals in Turkey, Portugal, the Netherlands, England and Germany.

An experimental animator who often uses computers to create his films, Dyer produced “Copenhagen Cycles” using a new filmmaking method that he developed, merging digital animation and a pre-cinema technique. Dyer compiled hundreds of photographs he took while bicycle riding around the streets of Denmark during his 2005 Fulbright Fellowship. First, Dyer printed and cut the sequences of the moving images and built about 25 zoetrope-like paper sculptures, then spun the sculptures and recaptured the collaged movements with a fast-shutter digital video camera. The art installation version of “Copenhagen Cycles” includes the bicycle wheel-sized zoetropes and a video demonstration of the unique filmmaking process.

In his animation courses at UMBC, Dyer is teaching his students to use his new method of filmmaking. “By using this experimental process, my students learn the value of mixing hands-on and digital techniques. They discover pathways or tangents they wouldn’t normally take when using only a computer. In the end, they surprise themselves and grow as artists,” he said.

Dyer is collaborating with UMBC’s Imaging Research Center for his next project, which will use 3D animation and 3D printing technologies to create zoetropes for a new film and installation. He hopes to complete the project in early 2008.

(4/10/07)

© 2006-07 University of Maryland, Baltimore County � 1000 Hilltop Circle, Baltimore, MD 21250 � 410-455-1000 �

International Recognition for a New Filmmaking Technique

Assistant Professor of Visual Arts Eric Dyer ’95 received international recognition for his film “Copenhagen Cycles,” which uses an avant-garde approach of connecting age-old film techniques with digital technology. “Copenhagen Cycles” won the 2007 Director’s Choice Award at the Thomas Edison Black Maria Film and Video Festival and was also screened at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival and festivals in Turkey, Portugal, the Netherlands, England and Germany.

An experimental animator who often uses computers to create his films, Dyer produced “Copenhagen Cycles” using a new filmmaking method that he developed, merging digital animation and a pre-cinema technique. Dyer compiled hundreds of photographs he took while bicycle riding around the streets of Denmark during his 2005 Fulbright Fellowship. First, Dyer printed and cut the sequences of the moving images and built about 25 zoetrope-like paper sculptures, then spun the sculptures and recaptured the collaged movements with a fast-shutter digital video camera. The art installation version of “Copenhagen Cycles” includes the bicycle wheel-sized zoetropes and a video demonstration of the unique filmmaking process.

In his animation courses at UMBC, Dyer is teaching his students to use his new method of filmmaking. “By using this experimental process, my students learn the value of mixing hands-on and digital techniques. They discover pathways or tangents they wouldn’t normally take when using only a computer. In the end, they surprise themselves and grow as artists,” he said.

Dyer is collaborating with UMBC’s Imaging Research Center for his next project, which will use 3D animation and 3D printing technologies to create zoetropes for a new film and installation. He hopes to complete the project in early 2008.

(4/10/07)

© 2006-07 University of Maryland, Baltimore County � 1000 Hilltop Circle, Baltimore, MD 21250 � 410-455-1000 �