Are you interested in assistive robotics research?

Kavita Krishnaswamy is a Ph.D. candidate in the UMBC Computer Science program and has Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA), a neuromuscular disorder that affects the control of muscle movement.

Her goal is to develop robotics aids to increase independence for people with physical disabilities like herself. As part of her research she is conducting a survey on attitudes toward robotic aids and how they may improve the quality of life for those with physical disabilities, their family members, and their caregivers.

If you have a physical disability, are a caregiver for a person with a physical disability, or are a friend or family member of a person with a physical disability, you can help Kavita with her research by particiating in the survey. Participation is voluntary and anonymous. The participant must be 18 years or older. You can access the survey here.

This study has been reviewed and approved by the UMBC Institutional Review Board (IRB). A representative of that Board, from the Office for Research Protections and Compliance, is available to discuss the review process or Kavita's rights as a research participant. Contact information of the Office is (410) 455-2737 or compliance@umbc.edu.

The Reginald F. Lewis Museum, in partnership with UMBC’s Department of Africana Studies, will host postdoctoral fellow and instructor Iyelli Ichile during the upcoming year. As part of the fellowship, Ichile will be in an instructor in the Africana studies department, and she will conduct research on Maryland African American history and culture to support the Reginald F. Lewis Museum’s permanent collection.

Ichile holds a Ph.D. in African diaspora history from Howard University and a master’s degree in African American studies from Columbia University. Her research and teaching revolves around the themes of spirituality, liberation movements, music, folklore and gender among African people globally.

The fellowship is made possible by a grant from the Institute for Museum and Library Services. For more information, visit the Reginald F. Museum website.

Image: Iyelli Ichile. Photo courtesy Reginald F. Lewis Museum. 

Baltimore Magazine recently released its “Best of 2016” edition, which highlighted leaders in arts and culture from across the city over the past year. Lia Purpura, writer in residence in UMBC’s Department of English, was named Baltimore’s top poet.

The magazine states: “In It Shouldn’t Have Been Beautiful, her latest collection published this year, Purpura impressively delivers poignant insight into our existence without pomp and circumstance. Her verses are little gems with short stanzas and an absence of flowery language, but that doesn’t make them any less profound. Instead, Purpura…proves how meaningful simplicity can be.”

Purpura has also been awarded a Pushcart Prize for her essay “Scream, or, Never Minding,” which was originally published in The Georgia Review. Also receiving recognition last month was Purpura’s poem “Resolution” which was featured on The Academy of American Poets website as the national “Poem-a-Day” on August 8.

Lia Purpura’s work frequently appears in The New Yorker, Orion, The Paris Review, Best American Essays, The Iowa Review, and other national journals. Among her numerous honors are a Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship, National Endowment for the Arts and Fulbright Fellowships, and four Pushcart prizes. Her collection of essays, “On Looking” was a finalist for the National Books Critics Award.

Read more about Purpura’s work on the English department website.

You can connect with the UMBC Phage Hunters on Twitter or on the UMBC Phage Hunters website.

Note: This article was updated on September 30, 2016.

Following a letter she published in The New York Times, Honors College Professor Ellen Handler Spitz was a guest on the BYU Radio Network program “Top of Mind with Julie Rose” to discuss the importance of handwriting and the psychological and intellectual benefits it can have for students.

During the interview segment, Spitz talked about a writing exercise that students in her seminar do to answer a question that she poses at the beginning of each class.

“They take out their pens, they think about the question, and they write,” explained Spitz. “The whole rest of class we talk to each other, and if they take notes, I want them to take it with a pen…what I get from them is something very intimate, personal, and immediate. There is nothing that comes between their thoughts and what I am experiencing. When they go on the Internet, their laptops, or devices, there isn’t that immediacy.”

Spitz also referenced prior research that found students remember notes better when they are handwritten, rather than typed out on a laptop or device, and she emphasized the value of cursive handwriting to connect letters to words, sentences, and thoughts.

The radio interview followed a response Spitz wrote to a column published August 20 in The New York Times Sunday Review titled “Handwriting just doesn’t matter.” Spitz wrote a letter to explain the value of handwriting in the classroom.

“As a humanities professor at a large public university with a diverse student population, I ask my students to write longhand in class each week. At first, some protest, but I persist, for I have found that intimacy, immediacy and personal quality infuse their handwritten essays,” Spitz wrote in the letter published August 30.

“Socrates argues in the ‘Phaedrus’ that speech is preferable to writing. I concur, believing that lively class discussion outshines written work in the educational process. But I also hold that writing by hand is second best: informal and quirky, sometimes messy, but straight from one heart and mind to another’s.”

Read the complete letter on The New York Times website.

Spitz is the author of six books on the arts and psychology. She teaches interdisciplinary seminars in aesthetics, literature, psychology, and the visual arts. Read more on the Honors College website.

Image: “Handwritten” photo. CC by 2.0. 

Readers of this year’s Baltimore Magazine guide to popular colleges in Maryland opened the publication to see a full-page vibrant photo of UMBC’s campus, taken from a rooftop above the tree canopy. UMBC is one of nine area colleges featured in the guide, with a university profile emphasizing the growing reach of UMBC’s positive reputation, the diversity of UMBC programs, and the university’s affordability.

“We are a best-value institution with national name recognition for undergraduate education, entrepreneurship, and innovation,” shared Diane Lee, vice provost and the dean of undergraduate education. UMBC’s strength in undergraduate research across all academic fields also earned a mention.

“We are producing great outcomes and people see it,” added Yvette Mozie-Ross, vice provost of enrollment management and planning, emphasizing how UMBC graduates are well prepared for the workforce and for graduate degree programs.

The magazine lists STEM fields as popular areas of study at UMBC, while also calling attention to the LEED Gold-certified Performing Arts and Humanities Building (“The PAHB”).

Faculty members Manil Suri, mathematics and statistics, and Kimberly Moffitt, American studies, are listed as “popular professors.” In addition, Kaye Whitehead Ph.D. ‘09, language, literacy, and culture, is highlighted as a popular professor at Loyola University.

Andrew Belasco, head counselor at College Transitions, an independent college-counseling company, says UMBC today is underrated. According to him, the Retrievers “have arrived.”

Image: The UMBC library in spring; photo by Marlayna Demond ’11 for UMBC.