“Held in the UMBC Skylight Room from 7:00pm Friday to 7:00pm Saturday this past weekend, UMBC’s first-everhackathon was open to all UMBC students of any skill level, from innovators and explorers to designers and hardcore coders. Its purpose was to allow students to mingle and collaborate for 24 continuous hours of community exploration to grow technology projects from scratch while expanding their connections to other students, industry leaders, and faculty. Admission was free and attracted students from across the UMBC campus community, including CS, CE, EE, IS, Biology, Biotechnology, Math, Physics, and Media Studies.”
All posts by: UMBC News Staff
Thomas Schaller, Political Science, in The New York Times
With less than a year to go before Election Day 2014, three Southern Democrats in the U.S. Senate are up for re-election and Republicans are trying to capture all three seats, which would strengthen the party’s firm hold on the Senate in South.
Senators Mary Landrieu of Louisiana, Mark Pryor of Arkansas, and Kay Hagan of North Carolina are the three Democrats up for election next year.
Political science professor Thomas Schaller was interviewed by The New York Times about the Democrats’ future prospects in the South.
“Democrats are fighting against history in most of the South,” Schaller said. “You can still elect a Democrat to a statewide office in the South,” he added, “if you have the right candidate, with the right biography, in the right cycle. And then hopefully you get some help from the Republicans’ nominating a bad candidate. But that’s a lot of ifs.”
The article also discusses how Democrats are hopeful in states such as Georgia in winning against conservative candidates who they deem too far to the right to be elected, but others point to Texas as an example that such candidates can win.
“My three-word answer to that is: Senator Ted Cruz,” Schaller said.
You can read the full article in The New York Times here.
Thomas Schaller is author of “Whistling Past Dixie: How Democrats Can Win Without The South.”
Simon Stacey, Honors College, on The Marc Steiner Show
The Marc Steiner Show held a special two-hour tribute to Nelson Mandela on Monday, who passed away last week at the age of 95. The program featured guests from all over the world who discussed the life and legacy of Mandela, including some who fought with him to end Apartheid.
Honors College Director Simon Stacey was a guest during the show’s second hour, which discussed Mandela’s legacy and contemporary politics in South Africa.
“It’s difficult to imagine South Africa having weathered the transition without Mandela at the helm, especially after he was made the face of the armed struggle,” Stacey said.
“If Mandela had died on the operating table in the early 80s when he was having his prostate surgery, if the long bout with tuberculosis in the late 80s had killed him, I don’t think South Africa would have made it,” he added.
Other panelists in the discussion included Patrick Bond, professor at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, Emira Woods, co-director of Foreign Policy in Focus at the Institute for Policy Studies, and Zane Ibrahim, who grew up in Mandela’s era and was in exile at the time of the resistance.
You can listen to the full segment on The Marc Steiner Show here.
Donald Norris, Public Policy, in The Baltimore Sun
Rebecca Pearce, Maryland’s health insurance exchange director, resigned on Friday after ongoing technical issues and criticism surrounding a recent Caribbean vacation she took while the state health secretary was being questioned by lawmakers about ongoing problems with the system.
Pearce was hired two years ago to create the exchange and her resignation comes as officials are trying to fix the system which has had low enrollment numbers since it was launched on October 1.
Public policy professor and chair Donald Norris was interviewed by The Baltimore Sun about Pearce’s resignation and decision to take the vacation amid the ongoing problems.
“That’s pretty bad timing,” Norris said. “If you are responsible for something that is failing, you don’t bail out on it until you fix it.”
You can read the full article in The Baltimore Sun here.
Manil Suri, Mathematics, on Saturday Night Live’s “Weekend Update”
Mathematics professor Manil Suri was mentioned on Saturday Night Live‘s “Weekend Update” (Dec. 7) for winning the Bad Sex in Fiction award for his most recent novel, The City of Devi. Some of the world’s most acclaimed writers have won the award, including John Updike, Norman Mailer and Tom Wolfe.
Media across the globe have covered news of the prize, awarded last Tuesday. Suri spoke about the honor with Washington Post book editor Ron Charles (read the full story here). Suri was also mentioned in The Baltimore Sun.
In accepting the award, Suri’s publisher pointed out that the Times Literary Supplement praised the novel’s sex scenes as “unfettered, quirky, beautiful, tragic and wildly experimental.” In addition, the Wall Street Journal writes that Suri “captures the insecurity, the curiosity and even the comedy of those vulnerable moments without stooping to prurience.”
Suri is also author of The Death of Vishnu and The Age of Shiva.
Student Curated Exhibition in City Paper, Bmore Art
Simple Stories: The Photography of Robert Houston, a curatorial project of the Museum Practice class (Art 427), was mentioned this week in an interview with the artist in City Paper and in the contemporary art blog, Bmore Art, as “best Baltimore art opening.”
Read the interview, “Images of Struggle,” at City Paper‘s website, or see which other exhibitions top the list of Bmore Art picks.
Simple Stories explores the work of photographer, Robert Houston whose photographic career documents half a century of portraits and everyday life, including his work for LIFE magazine and images of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Museum Practice is a course under the Art History/Museum Studies concentration in the Department of Visual Arts taught in the fall by Sandra Abbott, curator of collections & outreach at the CADVC. The course addresses professional museum and gallery practice, includes several visits to area institutions — such as the BMA, Homewood Museum and the Archaeological Museum at Johns Hopkins University — and then culminates in a student-curated exhibit at a Baltimore institution.
Simple Stories opened at the Creative Alliance at the Patterson December 6, and continues through December 14. Starting at 8:30 pm on Thursday, December 12, the Marquee Lounge will host “A Night with the Storyteller,” in which the artist shares accounts from his career of visually chronicling those from all walks of life. The Amalie Rothschild Gallery is open Tuesday through Sunday, 11 a.m. — 7 p.m.
UMBC: Youth First
Youth First
UMBC researchers collaborate to treat and prevent psychosis in young people.
A teenager thinks someone is following him when no one is there. Another believes the television is sending her special hidden messages and feels disoriented by time speeding past. These represent symptoms of psychosis, a mental illness comprised of hallucinations and delusions.
What can be done to treat and prevent psychosis in young adults to help them get back on track to leading the lives they want to live? Psychology associate professor Jason Schiffman and his Youth First research team are trying to answer this question in partnership with leading psychosis intervention experts.
The Maryland General Assembly approved funding this year to establish the Center for Excellence on Early Intervention for Serious Mental Illness. This collaborative program aims to treat young people between the ages of 12 and 22 who are showing early warning signs of developing psychosis.
Jointly with the University of Maryland Medical Center, University of Maryland School of Medicine, and Maryland Psychiatric Research Center, Schiffman and his team of graduate and undergraduate students are studying factors that put young people at risk for developing psychosis. They are in the early stages of also providing clients with youth-focused and family-centered assessment and treatment.
An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of medicine, Schiffman says. If we find young folks who might be on a trajectory towards risk for more severe mental health concerns and we intervene with them early, then we might be able to provide them the best opportunities to lead the lives that they want to lead.
Schiffman is heading the clinical high-risk program at the new center. A major emphasis at this stage of the clinics development is outreach, working with community partners and stakeholders to educate the public about warning signs and the value of early intervention and prevention.
As the center grows, Schiffman will increasingly focus on assessment and clinical treatment of individuals exhibiting hallucinations and delusions that may turn into psychotic behavior. He and his collaborators will combine resources from partner institutions to design unique treatment programs suited to patients individual needs, which take into account their experiences as young adults.
Psychosis sometimes isnt the main thing that folks want help with, Schiffman observes. We may be working, for instance, with a young person who hears voices, but his priority may not be the voices per se. It may be making friends, doing well in school, graduating, getting a job…we want to be equipped to be able to manage those priorities.
When intervention responds to the individuals needs and happens very early on, it can be instrumental in preventing violence, Schiffman argues.
Several recent tragedies have been linked to mental illness. But part of what Schiffman and his team are trying to emphasize is that people with psychosis are far more likely to be victims of violent acts than to carry them out.
Additionally, the risk of suicide and self-inflicted violence is incredibly high. One in five individuals who is in their early episode or first episode of psychosis is likely to attempt suicide, Schiffman says. One in twenty will complete that suicide.
Patient assessments have already begun through the facilities of clinic partners, and Schiffman is hopeful his team can begin clinical treatment in the spring. The new center is something larger than anyone of the participants could have created on their own. For UMBC, this collaboration means greater training opportunities for students interested in psychiatric medicine and social work, including the ten remarkable UMBC graduate students on the Youth First team: Eryn Bentley, Elizabeth Connors, Caroline Demro, Danielle Denenny, Greg Epstein, Sabrina Ereshefsky, Emily Kline, Elizabeth Thompson, Thomas Tsuji, and Camille Wilson. For the community, the impact is palpable in a different way.
If we can reduce their suffering as a function of some of the symptoms that come along with this disorder, if we could even prevent illness in and of itself, wed be making a huge difference for [youth with psychosis], for their family and loved ones, for their friends, and for a wider community that may or may not even know they were at risk.
Schiffman has been featured in USA Today and The Baltimore Sun, and was also a guest on WYPRs Maryland Morning discussing his role in the new center.
(12/09/2013)
Christopher Corbett, English, in The Wall Street Journal
Christopher Corbett, professor of the practice of English, recently reviewed a new book for The Wall Street Journal about Red Cloud, a Sioux war chief who defeated the U.S. Army and negotiated unprecedented concessions from the government. In “The Heart of Everything That Is: The Untold Story of Red Cloud, An American Legend,” authors Bob Drury and Tom Clavin tell the story of the powerful and successful Indian warrior.
“The great Sioux war chief, a military genius of the Indian wars, is a largely forgotten figure in the shape-shifting history of the American West,” Corbett wrote. “In his day, he presided over a vast swath of the continental U.S.—from Canada to Kansas and from what is today Minnesota and Iowa to Idaho and Utah. His name was much-feared.”
“‘The Heart of Everything That Is’ is a vivid if melancholy story that may make readers ponder our relationship with the memory of the American West,” Corbett added.
Corbett is the author of “Orphans Preferred: The Twisted Truth and Lasting Legend of the Pony Express” and “The Poker Bride: The First Chinese in the Wild West.”
You can read the full book review in The Wall Street Journal here (subscription required).
Justin Vélez-Hagan, Public Policy, in Forbes
Puerto Rico currently has a per capita debt load of $19,000 and its 2013 deficit was around $2.2 billion. In the midst of a prolonged recession, there has been widespread debate on how to solve the debt crisis.
Justin Vélez-Hagan, Public Policy Ph.D. student and executive director of The National Puerto Rican Chamber of Commerce, co-authored an article published in Forbes that suggested bankruptcy might be the only solution to reforming the economy.
“Puerto Rico has to restructure. They can’t keep borrowing at 8 and 9%, raising taxes on the only ones paying any, and chasing away its brightest contributors to the relative economic paradise of the mainland,” Vélez-Hagan wrote. “Bondholders have already taken a big hit and are going to take a long, slow and inevitable bigger one if they don’t restructure now.”
Vélez-Hagan also argued that Puerto Rico must change its economic attitude and way of thinking to rebound, especially with an unemployment rate currently at 13.9%.
“Even if there is a bankruptcy, and even if bondholders get 30 or 40 or 60 cents on the dollar and even if pension obligations are reduced 30 or 40 percent, Puerto Rico must undergo an economic structural reform and create a competitive economy that incentivizes new business and creates an atmosphere that that makes it more profitable to work than to be on the dole,” Vélez-Hagan wrote.
Contributing writer Richard Finger co-wrote the article with Vélez-Hagan. To read the full article “Default: Puerto Rico’s Inevitable Option” in Forbes, click here.
Faculty, PAHB in Baltimore Sun
The Baltimore Sun’s special education supplement last month featured William D’Eugenio ’14, theatre, and Nyalls Hartman, theatre, as they discussed the features of the Black Box Theatre and the Performing Arts and Humanities Building Theatre.
D’Eugenio spoke about the influence the new facilities had in his decision to apply to UMBC and become a part of the theatre design and production program, saying that “they are built to the standards of today and offer a real broadway style experience. Working with lighting systems that are being used in professional theaters gives me an advantage when applying for jobs.”
Read more of the article, “More than Just Performing: Music, Theatre Students Learn Diverse Skills”
Amy Hurst, Information Systems, Collaborates on $3.7 million project
Amy Hurst, Collaborates on Multi-University Project To Improve Web and Cloud Computing Accessibility
Will Help People With Disabilities Take Full Advantage of Online Resources
“The researchers are working on methods for easily modifying software to meet the needs of people with disabilities. Researchers will develop ways to make it easier for people with disabilities to log on to the Web, make user interfaces more accessible, and change the presentation of information on the Web to streamline experiences for people with disabilities, caregivers and service providers. The researchers also will look for ways to leverage help from other people on the Web — crowdsourcing — to increase accessibility for all.
“Authentication or logging into a service is an integral yet mundane part of peoples’ Internet experience,” said Yang Wang, assistant professor at the School of Information Studies at Syracuse. “However, most existing authentication schemes tend to be difficult to use for people with disabilities. We’re very excited about this opportunity to explore new authentication schemes that can provide a much better experience for people with disability.”
The team also will explore ways to dynamically change pointing and clicking actions on Web pages. “For example, if an individual is having difficulty smoothly controlling a mouse, we could detect this and smooth their input,” said Amy Hurst, assistant professor of human-centered computing in the Information Systems Department at UMBC.”
Donald Norris, Public Policy, in The Washington Post
Heather Mizeur, a Democratic candidate in the Maryland gubernatorial race, has announced she will participate in the state’s public financing system next year. Mizeur will limit overall spending in exchange for matching funds, and is the first candidate in 20 years to do so.
Public policy professor and chair Donald Norris was interviewed by The Washington Post for an article about Mizeur’s decision. With Mizeur running against two candidates with greater name recognition in Attorney General Douglas Gansler and Lt. Gov. Anthony Brown, Norris said the move is needed for Mizeur to remain competitive.
“It may be a principled matter, but it’s also making a virtue out of a necessity,” Norris said. “It’s very unlikely, given that she’s a dark-horse candidate, that she could raise serious money on her own.”
Mizeur, a Montgomery County delegate, was expected to release several campaign finance proposals, including expanding the state’s public financing system to candidates running for other state offices.
You can read the full article in The Washington Post here.