All posts by: UMBC News Staff

UMBC Signs Agreement with U.S. Army RDECOM

CRADAsigning-5460On June 6, 2014, UMBC President Freeman Hrabowski and U.S. Army Research, Development and Engineering Command (RDECOM) Director Dale Ormond signed a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA).

The CRADA enables future collaboration between UMBC and the U.S. Army. At the signing, President Hrabowski spoke of the tremendous potential impact of the agreement, stating, “Nothing is more important in our country than building strong partnerships.” Director Ormond expressed enthusiasm for the partnership and discussed internships for UMBC students, saying, “Once I get a kid into our laboratories, they get to do things they can’t do anywhere else… We will challenge them beyond their wildest dreams.”

CRADAsigning-5526Immediately after the CRADA was signed, Karl Steiner, vice president of research at UMBC, and Suzanne Milchling, director of program integration at ECBC, signed a Joint Work Statement giving Professor Bradley Arnold, chemistry and biochemistry, and a graduate student the opportunity to conduct research at RDECOM’s Edgewood Chemical Biological Center (ECBC).

“Over the next 10 to 15 years, we’re going to have a huge changeover in our workforce. About 50 percent of our scientists and engineers are in their early to mid-50s,” Ormond shared. “I need smart, bright people who have STEM degrees to come work for us so we can continue to push the leading edges of science and engineering.”

[Photos] A Small Thanks for a Big Contribution

Click here to view more of our grads!

As the first day of summer approaches, we’d like to look back and congratulate the class of 2014 for completing their undergraduate years at UMBC. This class created memories, opportunities, and relationships that are unlike any others, and were able to take part in many events while completing their degrees here. Thanks to the investment of donors like you, our grads are holding their heads high as they look to a future full of bigger and better things.

While it may not be immediately recognizable, your donations, no matter how big or small, all contribute to the livelihood and well-being of our campus, our faculty, and our students. We are grateful for every gift and show of support that you are able to offer.

 

Thank you for the past year of giving, and take a look at this video from one of our newest grads about the class of 2014!

 

Tony Moreira, Vice Provost of Academic Affairs, Honored by President of Portugal

Antonio “Tony” Moreira, vice provost of academic affairs and professor of chemical and biochemical engineering, has been awarded the National Order of Civil Merit of Public Education by the President of Portugal on behalf of the Portuguese government.

The award is given to distinguished individuals from the Portuguese diaspora community and is in celebration of the National Day of Portugal on June 10. The decoration will be presented to Moreira at the Portuguese Embassy in Washington, D.C. in the fall.

Click here to see the full list of awardees.

UMBC Partners With Newcastle University in Urban Water Quality Study

Upal Ghosh, professor in chemical and biochemical engineering, has partnered with Newcastle University in the project:

Development of Sustainable Technologies to Investigate, Restore and Protect the Urban Water Environment. Newcastle University, University of Maryland Baltimore County (US), Federal University of Minas Gerais (Brazil), Indian Institute of Technology Delhi (India) and CSIR-National Environmental Engineering Research Institute Nagpur (India)

The grant instituted through Newcastle University will support student and faculty research exchanges among the partnering institutions.

The project will examine urban water quality and was summarized by the researchers:

Urban water quality is under enormous pressure around the world because of increasing population density and economic activity in cities. Pollution disturbs the ecosystem functioning of urban streams, rivers, ponds and lakes; poses a risk to public health; decreases the value of surface waters for public recreation; and makes water more costly to treat for use. While faecal and industrial chemical pollution remain substantial challenges, new threats to urban water quality are emerging in highly populated areas from chemicals in widely used consumer and household products such as pharmaceuticals, personal care products, and biocides. At the same time, existing water pollution control infrastructure is costly and very energy-intensive (i.e. consumes 1.4% of national electricity in the UK) and should be replaced with more energy-efficient or net energy producing alternatives. In their infrastructure expansion, emerging economies like India and Brazil are presented with golden opportunities to leapfrog beyond the traditional wastewater treatment models and install more sustainable technologies that also address emerging challenges. The proposed global partnership between environmental engineers from Newcastle University (NCL), UK, the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC), USA, the Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (UFMG), Brazil, the CSIR-National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (CSIR-NEERI) in Nagpur, India, and the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi (IITD), India, will pool knowledge, skills, technology testing and analytical facilities, and access to field sites and the facilities of industrial partners for the development of innovative methods to detect and monitor existing and emerging threats to the urban water environment, and sustainable technologies to reduce identified pollution releases and to remediate existing pollution deposits. This initiative will seek to recover urban water resources and their recreational and health values for the people living in cities, thus creating more desirable urban neighborhoods and providing new business opportunities.

Robert Provine, Psychology, on The Atlantic Video and ABC Australia Radio

Robert Provine“We have the illusion that laughter is a choice, that we speak laughter as we speak any other word. But we don’t speak hah-hah when we laugh. It’s an involuntary action,” says Psychology Professor Robert Provine in a compelling new video exploring why humans laugh. The video is part of The Atlantic Video web series.

Provine narrates the video and it’s broken into parts including segments on the anatomy of laughter and the danger of laughter. During one portion of the video, Provine visits The Commons at UMBC and conducts an experiment simply by sitting down and observing the people around him.

“Breakthroughs in science come from studying things that are simple and easily described. I call it sidewalk neuroscience,” says Provine. In the video, he listens to two people laughing nearby and highlights that social laughter is caused by relationships, not jokes.

Provine has been studying the social and neurological roots of laughter for 20 years and his latest book, Curious Behavior: Yawning, Laughing, Hiccupping, and Beyond (2012), is an exploration of neglected human instincts.

To watch the complete video titled, “Why We Laugh,” click here.  

Provine also participated in a recent discussion about laughter on ABC Australia Radio’s “Life Matters” program. To listen to the complete interview, click here.

Dave Marcotte, Public Policy, in The Washington Times

Dave MarcotteA recent Washington Times article discusses Maryland officials joining other states in reconsidering school start dates that have been pushed earlier in the summer over the last several years. Some officials say moving the start dates to after Labor Day could benefit the state economically due to additional tourism dollars.

Public Policy Professor and Graduate Program Director Dave Marcotte was interviewed for the article and commented on potential academic effects of moving school start dates to after Labor Day.

“With the state testing schedule, schools that start early have an advantage,” Marcotte said. “In the state of Wisconsin, schools started moving their start dates up in order to do better on standardized tests. The state had to restrict the early start dates because the schools were creeping up into early August.”

Marcotte said that students from lower income families suffer the most from long learning gaps during the summer and tend to lose many educational gains made during the school year.

To read the full article in The Washington Times titled, “Starting school later could generate an extra $7.7 million for Maryland’s coffers, click here.

Anne Rubin, History, on C-SPAN

Anne RubinOn Saturday, May 31, C-SPAN 3 aired a talk given by History Associate Professor Anne Rubin at the U.S. Capitol Historical Society. The talk was part of the 2014 Civil War Symposium held at the beginning of May.

Rubin discussed Union General William T. Sherman’s March to the Sea and the concept of “civilized war.” In 1864, General Sherman marched his troops from Atlanta to Savannah, Georgia, and Rubin described the destruction along the way as setting the precedent for “total war” tactics in subsequent conflicts.

Rubin opens her talk by discussing basic Google and Internet searches of General Sherman and that many of them represent “a really popularly held view that William T. Sherman and the march through Georgia and the Carolinas in the final months of the Civil War have something to do with the creation of total war.”

You can watch the full talk on C-SPAN 3 by clicking here. Rubin’s book, A Shattered Nation: The Rise and Fall of the Confederacy, 1861-1868, won the 2006 Avery O. Craven book prize for the best book in Civil War history. 

Ellen Handler Spitz, Honors College, to Direct Creativity Seminar at Austen Riggs Center

Honors College Professor Ellen Handler Spitz is leading the 2014 Austen Riggs Center Creativity Seminar, which will be held from August 1-2. Spitz is the author of six books and brings psychological perspectives to bear on the arts and on children’s aesthetic lives.

Creativity Seminar photo

The conference has the theme of “Translation,” and organizers have posted the following description on the conference website: “we will learn about the process of translation in different areas of creative endeavor in the visual medium of photography, through the embodied work of translation by an orchestral conductor, via the interpretative work of translation by a psychoanalyst, and by means of the multilayered acts of translation in theater.  Our aim is to understand more deeply the subjective and objective nature of interpretation and translation and to stimulate our use of these ideas in our various clinical, educational, and other settings.” To learn more, click here.

Spitz also published an article in the June 2014 issue of “The Brooklyn Rail,” devoted to art and the unconscious. In her piece titled, “Kris-Crossing,” Spitz explores the unconscious, writing about Ernst Kris, a psychoanalytic art writer, and a personal experience she had in the presence of Barbara Chase-Riboud’s 2008 sculpture, “All That Rises Must Converge / Red,” shown with her series, “The Malcolm X Steles.” To read the full article, click here.

Round-Up: UMBC In the News, 6/6

One of the things that makes UMBC great is how wonderful our alumni, students, faculty, and staff are. Because of these amazing people, UMBC often finds itself “in the news,” so each week, we’ll be sharing with you a round-up of the most newsworthy achievements from our community.

Check out all the other great campus news on Insights Weekly.

Northrop Grumman Funds Scholarship

Northrop Grumman’s Electronic Systems sector recently donated $30,000 to establish the Northrop Grumman Scholarship at UMBC. Awards of $10,000 will be made to three students who are U.S. citizens studying Computer and Electrical Engineering, which will serve a goal of increasing the quantity of Americans graduating with undergraduate and graduate degrees in those fields. Initial awards will be provided to high-performing sophomores and juniors, who may be candidates for UMBC’s accelerated BS/MS program.

Northrop Grumman is a leading global security company providing innovative systems, products and solutions in unmanned systems, cyber, C4ISR, and logistics and modernization to government and commercial customers worldwide. The scholarship recipients will be eligible for summer internship positions at Northrop Grumman.

“Northrop Grumman is proud to support education programs that will develop tomorrow’s leaders in computer science and engineering. I am very pleased Northrop Grumman is partnering with UMBC,” says Ted Imes, Sector Director, Talent Acquisition at Northrop Grumman Corporation.

UMBC thanks Northrop Grumman for their continuing commitment to our students.

Show your support of UMBC. 

Jazz Brunch Raises $1000 for Scholarships


Recently, the Chapter of Black and Latino Alumni hosted their annual Jazz Brunch. The event brings together alumni from across the years for fellowship and food. It is also an opportunity to raise money and awareness for the Second Generation and Esperanza Scholarships. Thanks to attendees at this year’s event, the Chapter was able to raise $1,000 for those funds.

For many of our alums, giving back to UMBC is an important part of acknowledging all they’ve received in their lives. “My experience as an undergraduate student at UMBC was not only memorable but life changing,” says Dr. Yvette Mozie-Ross ’88, health science and policy. “By giving back, I’m able to pay it forward to ensure that others are able to share in this remarkable experience.”

Our alumni and donors know that by investing in UMBC, they are making a difference for future generations.

“Each time I return to campus, I feel a sense of pride for UMBC’s tremendous growth. I want to play a part in UMBC’s advancement by remaining connected to the institution that helped shape my professional and personal development,” says Dr. Tamara L. Lewis ’92, psychology. “Giving back and saying ‘thank you’ are two important lessons my parents taught me as a child. I believe it’s important for alumni to give both of their time and monetary donations, no matter how small. Every donation helps UMBC remain in the forefront of producing tomorrow’s leaders.”

Support the Esperanza or Second Generation Scholarships with Your Gift Today!

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