All posts by: UMBC News Staff

Founders Day celebrates 50 years of inclusive excellence at UMBC

On September 19, 1966, the first students began classes at UMBC. Fifty years later to the day, the UMBC community gathered for a special Founders Day celebration to reflect on the first generation of students, faculty, staff, and alumni who paved the way for university to become a national model of inclusive excellence.

Before a full crowd at the Retriever Activities Center (RAC), Robin Mayne ’69, American studies, UMBC’s first graduate, presented a letter she wrote to UMBC’s current freshman class and to future UMBC students over the next fifty years. It will be placed in a time capsule that will be opened in 2066.

Robin Mayne '69

Mayne described how her liberal arts education at UMBC inspired her to become a lifelong learner and provided her with the critical thinking skills needed to grapple with the complexities of today’s world.

“At [UMBC’s] core was engagement of both students and faculty in studies, creativity, community, political action, and social awareness and responsibility,” shared Mayne. “In the 50 years since those beginnings, these commitments have not diminished, but have only expanded and intensified.”

Vrinda Deshpande ’20, mathematics, formally thanked Mayne and accepted her letter on behalf of the freshman class. She reflected on her desire, and that of her fellow new Retrievers, to build on the foundation they are inheriting. “With these lessons, I know that my class’s next four years will reflect the same dedication that the first graduating class had to education and changing the world for the better,” Deshpande said.

The program also included top photos from the 50th anniversary celebration weekend and a living history that was presented by faculty, student, staff, and alumni leaders, documenting significant milestones over the university’s 50-year history.

President Freeman Hrabowski delivered the 2016 State of the University Address, reflecting on the university’s growth and achievements over the last 50 years. He highlighted rapid increases in UMBC’s research funding and partnerships, as well as the university’s economic impact. He also spoke to the impressive accomplishments of 70,000 UMBC alumni and the university’s commitment to issues of social justice and equality.

President Hrabowski also highlighted a New York Times story by columnist Frank Bruni, published during UMBC’s 50th anniversary weekend, that praised the university for serving as a national model of inclusive excellence—being a place where students of all backgrounds can achieve great things.

“From the ceiling of the student commons hang flags of countries from which students have come. There are more than 100,” wrote Bruni. “It’s a kind of kaleidoscope, and as I walked under it with Freeman Hrabowski, U.M.B.C.’s dynamic president, he stressed the school’s determination to ‘connect students to people different from themselves and lives different from their own.'”

“This has been a 50-year experiment in Catonsville,” Pres. Hrabowski explained in his remarks at Founders Day. “Can you bring people together from all races, backgrounds, and religions, and have them learning how to work together, to live together, and to listen to each other? That’s what we’re in the process of doing in our country, and it’s what we believe we are doing on this campus and will do even more of in the time to come.”

After commemorating UMBC’s first 50 years, President Hrabowski closed the Founders Day celebration by emphasizing that there is plenty of work still to be done in achieving sustained future success.

“We are forward-looking and responsive. We have a strong focus on inclusive excellence. We believe in high expectations and a passion for learning. But most important, we still believe in hard work.”

Read more about UMBC’s 50th anniversary celebration in The Baltimore Sun article “Over 50 years, UMBC has cultivated a research mission from former pastures” (with video).

UMBC50-Founders-day-6985

Images: UMBC 50th Anniversary Founders Day Celebration, September 19, 2016. Photos by Marlayna Demond ’11 for UMBC. Video by New Media Studio. 

Brewster lab to examine “pause button” on embryonic development, with eye on improving organ transplant

Embryos of zebrafish, a workhorse model organism in biology labs, routinely survive without oxygen for up to 50 hours by hitting the pause button on their development. Rachel Brewster, professor of biological sciences, and her team are working hard to learn how they do it. She hopes mechanisms that enable survival without oxygen could eventually be intentionally triggered in tissues like donated organs, to increase the length of time that can pass before they are transplanted.

That brief window of time is a major limiting factor in the availability of organs for transplant. Today, donated organs are cooled to slow metabolism and reduce oxygen consumption. Using that technique, hearts and lungs last only four to six hours, and kidneys up to 48. After that, tissues break down due to lack of cellular energy. This sliver of time to identify a recipient and deliver an organ means recipients are limited to a small geographic area in which to find a donor. Each day in the U.S., 79 people receive organ transplants and 22 die waiting for an organ.

Brewster’s research is supported by an Idea Discovery Grant from the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD). The DoD is interested in ways to improve transplant technology to increase the chances that injured soldiers would have timely access to donor organs and other tissues. If successful, the benefits would extend beyond the military.

The zebrafish Brewster work with “can arrest everything they’re doing as a mechanism to conserve cellular energy,” she says, so the goal is to “find the signaling mechanisms that shut down cellular activity.” Tissues survive by reducing energy consumption when energy production plummets in the absence of oxygen.

One of Brewster’s goals with the new project is to understand the timing of arrest—when development is paused—in zebrafish embryos. The research group has already learned that younger embryos arrest faster and more efficiently than older embryos. Also, older embryos are less likely to survive when oxygen is reintroduced.

Brewster would like to understand the sequence of arrest, as well. For example, does cell division in muscles arrest before it does in the digestive tract? Does tissue in an extremity like the tail succumb to a lack of oxygen before brain tissue? Are there essential systems that never arrest? “We can’t identify signaling mechanisms that cause arrest until we define arrest,” she says.

The team also hopes to identify small molecules whose concentrations in the cell change quickly upon oxygen deprivation, allowing them to mediate the rates of cellular processes on a short time scale. Brewster believes these molecules’ rapid effect on the cell makes them more likely to be involved in arrest than slower processes, such as the rate at which proteins are built from genetic instructions and then modified by cellular machinery.

Brewster hypothesizes that the involved small molecules activate or deactivate larger effector molecules, such as a class of proteins known as “kinases,” that carry out the arrest process. The team’s most ambitious goal is to identify those effector molecules. Rather than one “master regulator” molecule that controls the arrest process, Brewster explains, “It’s more likely every tissue fending for itself.” She adds, “My hunch is that the system is sloppier than we predicted.”

The experiments themselves are challenging and complex. The team will work with individual zebrafish embryos, and even using very young, fairly homogeneous embryos won’t make them all perfectly identical. Individual differences may show up as false positives in their results. “To figure out what is signal versus noise is not easy,” says Brewster.

One tack the team is taking to find molecules that trigger arrest is to knock out candidate molecules one by one. They’ll know they’ve got a winner if embryos without that molecule continue to develop in oxygen-deprived conditions.

“To actually identify a molecule that promotes arrest would be very exciting,” says Brewster. In addition to the organ transplant, another application of intentionally-triggered arrest might be during open heart surgery to prevent or slow tissue damage. Someday, NASA might use the technique to trigger a low-metabolic state in astronauts, similar to hibernation, to allow them to survive trips farther and farther from Earth.

Beyond practical applications, this project attracted Brewster on a more fundamental level. “Ninety-nine percent of developmental biologists study how development progresses,” she explains. “I was intrigued by the prospect of studying the exact opposite.”

Brewster is excited to share her passion for discovering how development can be paused with the many students who work in her lab, such as Ph.D. student Jong Park, who will focus on this project.  Undergraduates have also contributed significantly to the research. “I’m very proud that most of the preliminary data was produced by undergrads,” she says. “It’s really kudos to them that we got this thing funded.”

Image: Rachel Brewster at work in her lab; photo by Marlayna Demond ’11 for UMBC.

 

 

UMBC and Portuguese Naval Academy launch partnership to promote academic and cultural exchange

A delegation from Portugal visited UMBC earlier this month to sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) outlining plans to develop collaborative exchange programs for teaching, learning, and research between the Portuguese Naval Academy (PNA) and UMBC. Initial projects will focus on cybersecurity, an area of strength for both schools.

Antonio Moreira, vice provost for academic affairs at UMBC, earlier named an “advisor of Portugal in the world” by that nation’s president, spearheaded the formal collaboration after meeting Admiral Torres Sobral from the Portuguese National Security Agency at a conference in Lisbon. Similarities emerged between the PNA and UMBC in their conversation, especially in cybersecurity and naval science. Moreira shared, “It became natural to focus on collaborations between the two institutions.”

High-level Portuguese officials have embraced the collaboration. “I think it is important to be here and be aware of what’s happening in our two countries,” said Navy Captain Afonso Galrito, Portugal naval and air attaché, at the signing event. “As soon as I heard we were taking this next step I asked, ‘Can I go?’”

The newly formalized relationship, which will initially last five years and is slated for automatic renewal, will support faculty exchanges for research and teaching, student exchanges at the undergraduate and graduate levels, joint seminars and conferences, and collaborative publication efforts.

UMBC is particularly excited to collaborate with the PNA this year, as the university’s Naval Reserve Officer Training Corps (NROTC) program kicks off. “It is fitting we are signing on the first day of classes and on the first day of our new NROTC program,” Moreira said. In addition, UMBC has strong ties with the U.S. Naval Academy, and the PNA signed an MOU with the Annapolis, MD institution in February 2016, providing opportunities for triangular collaboration.

UMBC President Freeman Hrabowski emphasized to the Portuguese dignitaries that an NROTC program within the University System of Maryland offers local students a compelling new path to military service and leadership development. “I am so proud of getting this program,” Hrabowski shared, having worked for many years to bring NROTC to UMBC.

While the initial collaborative focus is on cybersecurity, “What we sign here is just a start of the collaboration between these two institutions,” said Commodore Henriques Gomes, superintendent of the Portuguese Naval Academy, “We look forward to expanding it to other fields.”

Image: Antonio Moreira (r), UMBC’s vice provost for academic affairs, and Commodore Henriques Gomes (l),  superintendent of the Portuguese Naval Academy, shake hands after signing the MOU between their two institutions in the presence of other UMBC and PNA representatives. Marlayna Demond ’11 for UMBC.

New research by Curran and Kellogg points to inequities in science education from early age

In a new article published in The Conversation, School of Public Policy Assistant Professor F. Chris Curran shares his latest research that reveals significant achievement gaps in science for students as soon as kindergarten.

The study, which Curran worked on with Ann Kellogg, a public policy Ph.D. student, examined data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study (ECLS-K), a national study conducted by the federal government that uses data from science achievement tests that assessed concepts in physical, life and environmental science, and scientific inquiry.

“Our study revealed large gaps in science achievement in kindergarten between white students and racial or ethnic minorities. And, where science gaps existed, we found that they were generally larger than the gaps in reading or mathematics achievement. However, we did not find significant gaps by gender,” Curran wrote in the article titled “Science achievement gaps start early – in kindergarten.”

Curran, whose research areas of focus include education policy and early childhood education, notes in the article that the results of the study point to the need for increased attention to inequities in science achievement.

“I believe, for example, that teachers and school leaders should look for opportunities to incorporate science concepts into reading and math lessons,” writes Curran. “Looking beyond the classroom setting, the findings of our work and that of others suggest the need to provide support to informal science learning opportunities. Visiting museums, interacting with nature and exploring novel tools all represent ways in which parents and caregivers can support early science inquiry.”

Read the full article in The Conversation, and view additional coverage below.

A new generation of all-girls schools (The Atlantic) 
In kindergarten, there is no STEM gender gap (Education Week) 
Science achievement gaps start early, in kindergarten (San Francisco Chronicle)
Why startling racial-based gaps in scientific achievement begin in kindergarten (Spare Min Podcast)
Science achievement gap  (Academic Minute)
Science achievement gap (Inside Higher Ed) 

Image: Chris Curran presents talk at UMBC about his research. Photo by Marlayna Demond ’11 for UMBC.

NSF funds Jason Kestner to tackle major obstacle to quantum computing

Predictions suggest that advances in quantum computing could lead to computers vastly faster than any that currently exist—computers that could efficiently crunch the more than 2.5 quintillion (that’s 2,500 million billion) bits of data created every day. But, despite this grand vision, the reality is that “nobody has a useful quantum computer right now,” says Jason Kestner, assistant professor of physics at UMBC. Kestner plans to help change that with a new three-year grant from the National Science Foundation.

Traditional computers use a binary system to store information in “bits.” At any given moment, a single bit can either be in a state that represents 1 or 0. Quantum bits, however, can be 1, 0 or exist in “a weird, spooky in-between state,” Kestner says.

To understand a quantum bit or “qubit,” Kestner suggests picturing it as a point on the surface of a sphere. The two poles represent 1 and 0, but the bit can be anywhere on the surface. This added complexity is what grants quantum computing its power to store huge amounts of information in small spaces, but complexity is also the source of one of its major challenges: noise. Kestner’s project will address the noise in quantum computers, which he describes as “the major obstacle to building a quantum computer.”

So what is noise? Say a qubit is at a point on the sphere halfway between the two poles, on the sphere’s equator. While the qubit is idle, it can slide along the equator. The distance it slides is the noise in the system—unwanted inaccuracy that slips in due to external influences. If enough noise builds up across all the computer’s bits, its output becomes unreliable.

Theorizing on ways to compensate for noise in quantum computers goes back to 1950, but no one has successfully achieved this in a many-bit system, which is Kestner’s goal. His research dives into a complex “spin echo” technique and asks, “How can we return the qubits to their rightful positions without disturbing anything else in the system?”

Kestner is a theoretical physicist, so the work that he and graduate student Fernando Calderon Vargas do is “a lot of math,” he explains. Calderon Vargas has published promising preliminary results. Now Kestner is starting to look into collaborations with experimental physicists who can test the new theories.

“It’s going to be a challenge to optimize this for particular experiments,” he says. Each experimental setup will be a little different and require tweaks to the equations.

As a quantum computing researcher, Kestner has long been fascinated by the fact “that something so counter-intuitive could be real,” but the incredible potential utility of advances in this field are what make it so exciting to him today. He shares, “The fact that we could use quantum weirdness to actually do something useful is pretty cool.”

In new book, Brian Grodsky argues recent revolutions are threatening the future of democracy

During the last two decades, Brian Grodsky has spent significant time talking to citizens who have been fighting for political change in countries like Poland, Uzbekistan, Serbia, Croatia, Russia, and South Africa. The result is a new book that is a thorough examination of how the most recent wave of democratic revolutions has actually threatened the future of democracy.

Grodsky, an associate professor of political science, is the author of The Democratization Disconnect: How Recent Democratic Revolutions Threaten the Future of Democracy (Rowman and Littlefield 2016), which closely looks at how recent democratic revolutions have played out over time. In countries that Grodsky spent time in as a researcher and professor, and also while working as a reporter and acting Foreign Service Officer at the U.S. Embassies in Poland and Uzbekistan, he discovered that leaders of these countries’ pro-democracy opposition movements often pushed for democratic reforms for vastly different reasons than the citizens wanted.

“These people, the masses, were struggling for change. They were struggling for greater human rights, for greater human dignity,” explains Grodsky. “The democratization disconnect comes in here where elites and non-elites, the people on the streets, sometimes have a very differing balance of economic and political understandings of what human dignity really is.”

Because democracy has become the internationally legitimate form of government, Grodsky says that many leaders promised democracy in their rise to power. After the revolutions, many of these same leaders found their publics bitter at being left with similar challenges, especially economic ones, to those they faced before.

“False promises and unmet expectations cheapen the idea of democracy and the whole idea of democratization, not just in these countries, but in many of the other countries where people are watching these democratization cases,” says Grodsky. “We’ve seen this all over the world.”

Grodsky notes that recent examples in the Middle East with the Arab Spring and past examples such as the color revolutions in Eurasia on the surface champion the idea that democracy has come of age, but at the same time threaten the idea of democratic legitimacy.

“I’m writing this book now because we are at this precarious period where I think we can still save democratic legitimacy and we can still move forward with democratization,” says Grodsky. “But in order to do this we need to stop and we need to think about what people are after.”

Grodsky, an expert in comparative politics, human rights, democratization, and Post-Communist issues is also author of Social Movements and the New State (Stanford University Press 2012) and The Costs of Justice (University of Notre Dame Press 2011). Read more about his most recent book, The Democratization Disconnect.

Read media coverage of Grodsky’s book below:

Trump, Clinton and the future of global democracy (The Conversation)
Democracy in the world of Donald Trump: The future of the global system (Salon) 
Trump, Clinton and the future of global democracy (SF Gate)
Democracy Lab Weekly Brief (Foreign Policy) 
Democratic Disneyland: Will Trump kill democracy as we all know it? (Biz News)
How will the 2016 election shape the future of democracy in the U.S. and throughout the globe? (Spare Min Podcast) 

Image: Brian Grodsky. Photo by Marlayna Demond ’11 for UMBC.

Governor’s Summer Interns present policy papers to state political leaders

It’s not often that college students have the opportunity to present policy recommendations directly to senior level government officials, but students throughout Maryland recently shared research papers on significant issues impacting the state as part of The Shriver Center’s Governor’s Summer Internship Program (GSIP). The 2016 program ended with a celebration at the Maryland State House in Annapolis last month.

The Governor’s Summer Internship Program introduces Maryland college students to the unique challenges and rewards of working within state government. Interns work for ten weeks during the summer in state government agencies doing substantive tasks ranging from drafting speeches and correspondence to researching policy options and assisting with constituent case work. The program is led by the Shriver Center in partnership with the Office of the Governor.

Governor's Summer Interns 2016

During this year’s program, students studied topics such as addressing the achievement gap for English language learners, reducing recidivism, preventing opioid abuse, and affordable housing. Several UMBC students participated in the 2016 GSIP, including: Vanessa Barksdale ’17, social work; Nathan O’Toole ’17, economics; Aidan Delisle ’17, political science and philosophy; Patrick DuBoyce ’17, political science and history; and Manisha Vepa ’18, economics, global studies, and music.

At the closing ceremony, the GSIP interns presented their policy papers and fielded follow-up questions from senior cabinet officials in Maryland state government. The students offered thoughtful policy solutions including further development of transitional housing and continuing education for ex-offenders re-entering society, developing and passing a housing anti-discrimination law, and further development of local programs and magnet schools to address the achievement gap for non-English students.

UMBC Political Science Associate Professor Laura Hussey worked closely with the students throughout the summer to develop their policy papers, and Lieutenant Governor Boyd Rutherford opened the closing event by congratulating the students and thanking them for their service.

Other Shriver Center Public Service Scholars Programs came to a close at the beginning of August, including the Walter Sondheim Jr. Maryland Nonprofit Leadership Program, which offers summer internship opportunities in the nonprofit sector to college juniors, seniors and graduate students attending Maryland institutions, and the Maryland Department of Transportation Fellows Program. Read more about The Shriver Center’s Public Service Scholars Programs.

Images: The 2016 Governor’s Summer Internship Program closing ceremony at the Maryland State House, August 11, 2016. Photos courtesy Maryland Governor’s Office Photos.

UMBC’s 100th MARC U*STAR alumnus to earn Ph.D. inspires today’s scholars

Lasse Lindahl’s goal for the MARC U*STAR Scholars program is to “light the fire in the belly so students are hooked on science.”

Lindahl, director of the MARC U*STAR program at UMBC and professor of biological sciences, founded the UMBC chapter of the intensive research training program with a grant from the National Institutes of Health in 1997. The program engages individuals from historically underrepresented groups in the biomedical sciences, with the goal that they go on to complete advanced degrees. UMBC’s MARC U*STAR program celebrated its first alumnus to earn a Ph.D. in 2004, and just honored its 100th Ph.D.

MARC U*STAR stands for Maximizing Access to Research Careers Undergraduate Student Training in Academic Research. Students receive a yearly stipend, significant tuition assistance, and funding for travel to conferences where they present their research. Biomedical experts present regular seminars to MARC students on campus. With 40 students in the program on campus each year, UMBC’s MARC U*STAR program is now one of the largest in the country; 386 students have participated since its inception.

The cornerstone of the program is research experiences. Students are paired with a research mentor at the outset of the program and conduct research during the school year and over the summer. “Research is not just a summer excursion,” says Lindahl, “It is a lifelong pursuit.”

He and associate director Jackie King Ph.D. ‘09, psychology, are instrumental in helping students obtain research opportunities off campus as well as helping with the graduate school application process, from selecting appropriate schools to preparing for interviews. Keith Harmon, director of the UMBC Meyerhoff Scholars Program, also mentors MARC students, many of whom are also Meyerhoff Scholars.

King sees mentorship as essential to the program’s success, connecting students directly with people “who have high expectations, but also provide resources and support.”

MARC Scholar and 2016-17 Goldwater Scholar Andreas Seas ‘17, chemical engineering, says, “The support I get from Dr. King and Dr. Lindahl is really amazing,” particularly as he has continued to seek out new research opportunities. Seas regularly shares with them the setbacks and his accomplishments on his path to a research career.

cabreraErwin Cabrera ‘10, biological sciences, was the 100th MARC Scholar to complete a Ph.D., earning his in 2016 in Basic Biomedical Sciences – Neuropathology from the New York University School of Medicine. “As an undergraduate filled with self-doubt, the MARC program, and especially Mrs. Taifa Hibbert Simpson (the assistant director at the time), provided the love and confidence that allowed me to excel,” he shares. The research experience bolstered his confidence, too. “The MARC program allowed us a safe space to be who we were and incorporate the title of ‘researcher’ into that mosaic,” Cabrera reflects.

Lindahl hopes the program will have a “multiplier effect,” because MARC alumni “serve as role models for underrepresented groups,” he says. Cabrera has embraced that charge, as he takes on a new role as associate director of the Research Aligned Mentorship program at Farmingdale State College, part of the State University of New York.

The MARC program “solidified my career passion for work in higher education,” Cabrera says. “It showed me that mentorship is a key component in a student’s success, and that I would like to contribute the same wisdom to others that was given to me.”

Another of Lindahl’s goals is to help students “see the impact research has on the larger community.” Seas has taken that to heart. After homing in on his passion through undergraduate research, he plans to pursue an M.D.-Ph.D. related to vascular surgery. His favorite part of UMBC’s MARC program, he says, is “being surrounded by people that are interested in science and want to improve people’s lives with science.”

Image: Andreas Seas ’17 presents his research at URCAD 2016; Photo Marlayna Demond ’11 for UMBC. Erwin Cabrera ’10, photo courtesy Farmingdale State College.

 

 

 

 

Delegation from the University of Kassel in Germany visits UMBC to grow interdisciplinary exchange program

Eight administrators and faculty members from the University of Kassel in central Germany visited UMBC from August 29 to September 2 to build on a thriving university partnership between the two schools by continuing to cultivate broader research collaborations and student exchange programs.

Both UMBC and Kassel are young, innovative institutions known for promoting interdisciplinary programs and with particular strengths in STEM fields and the arts. “This visit is very important for us, as Kassel recognizes UMBC to be an international partner of strategic importance,” shares David diFuccia, professor of chemistry education at Kassel, at a lunch celebrating the partnership. “I hope our cooperation will grow and deepen, and that with every meeting we will take a step further.”

The partnership began when Matthias Gobbert, professor of mathematics at UMBC and a Kassel native, spent his sabbatical at Kassel during the 2011–2012 academic year. A memorandum of understanding (MOU) between the two universities’ math departments grew out of that visit, leading to fruitful exchanges of graduate students and faculty. In 2014, the MOU expanded to the university level, and undergraduate students have been studying abroad at each institution since fall 2015.

Karl Steiner, UMBC vice president for research, and Antonio Moreira, vice provost for academic affairs, have visited Kassel and discussed ways to grow the relationship, including development of a streamlined study abroad program. Now, Moreira says, “It’s truly expanding to the whole campus here at UMBC and at Kassel.”

Fields of study where UMBC and Kassel teams are already conducting complementary research and which are rife for collaboration include renewable energy, cybersecurity, nanoscience, remote sensing, and education. Other departments such as visual arts; economics; modern languages, linguistics, and intercultural communication (MLLI); and computer science are also exploring opportunities to partner.

Ellen Hemmerly, executive director of the bwtech@UMBC Research and Technology Park, discussed potential future business collaborations with the German guests. “We think global opportunities are really significant for companies,” she says, “so we’re always looking for natural ways to form partnerships.”

Both universities also see student academic exchange, beyond language classes, as a major priority in the partnership. Given course and lab research requirements, many students with majors in the hard sciences and engineering perceive study abroad as unrealistic—an option not truly available to them. However, UMBC and Kassel are committed to making it a clear and accessible process for students of any major. Julie Ross, dean of the College of Engineering and Information Technology, notes, “The things they’ll be working on in engineering and IT are global issues,” so it’s important for students to gain international exposure.

Study-Abroad-Fair16-8994

Susanne Sutton, coordinator of German in MLLI at UMBC, adds, “We have many STEM majors in our German classes. This is a tremendous opportunity for them to study abroad, as well as for students who are less familiar with the language and culture of Germany but have an interest in exploring it.”

Scott Casper, dean of the College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences, is particularly excited to see his global studies students and Humanities Scholars travel abroad. “The problems our students are tackling are not limited to the U.S.,” he says.

Students in UMBC’s teacher education program, including those in the Sherman STEM Teacher Scholars Program, will also have opportunities to visit German schools and learn about teaching methods in Germany through collaboration with Kassel. In this digital age, “the students they will be teaching are global students,” says Casper, so it’s important teachers come to the classroom with a global perspective. The delegation also met with leaders of the Meyerhoff Scholars Program, who see excellent opportunities for their students to study abroad at Kassel.

The next step for the burgeoning UMBC–Kassel relationship is to expand the undergraduate exchange component. Already, many courses at the German university are taught in English, expanding the number of UMBC students who are able to complete discipline-specific coursework through an international exchange experience.

UMBC and Kassel are growing their cooperation steadily in many directions, with over a dozen faculty and staff working to make productive international exchanges possible for faculty and students on each side of the Atlantic. “When something comes together and it seems effortless,” says UMBC Provost Philip Rous, “you know that means a tremendous amount of effort has gone into it.”

UMBC students interested in learning more about study abroad should attend a Study Abroad 101 seminar offered twice a week by the Study Abroad Office, 2nd floor Administration building. Apply by October 10 to study abroad in the following spring semester.

Images: The University of Kassel delegation and UMBC representatives, August 30, 2016; students at UMBC’s Study Abroad Fair, September 2, 2016, interact with University of Kassel representatives. Photos by Marlayna Demond ’11 for UMBC.

Ellen Handler Spitz publishes letter in The New York Times on why handwriting is still important

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. 

Baltimore Magazine features UMBC in its 2016 College guide

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.

Senator Ben Cardin visits bwtech@UMBC to discuss support for small businesses in the tech sector

U.S. Senator Ben Cardin (D-Md.) visited Amethyst Technologies at the bwtech@UMBC Research and Technology Park August 31. He met with Amethyst CEO Kimberly Brown and employees to discuss ongoing projects, the benefits of being part the bwtech@UMBC community, and how policymakers can most effectively support small businesses in the technology sphere.

Amethyst provides program development and compliance software and services to government agencies, private companies, and the U.S. military. Cardin was most impressed with Amethyst’s work in developing African nations, including support for disease prevention and diagnosis, clinical trials, and training programs in Tanzania, Kenya, Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Ghana, with a new project on the horizon in Ethiopia.

Brown and Cardin discussed funding opportunities for small businesses like Amethyst, which currently employs 20 people in the U.S. and 20 in Africa, with plans to bring on 20 more as part of an expansion to a new site in Frostburg, MD. The senator was excited to find ways to make receiving government support easier for technical companies through programs like the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC), Small Business Administration (SBA), and Small Business Innovation Research program.

“The work you’re doing is critically important,” said Cardin, “and the applications are so diverse. I recognize the importance of the small business community and the creativity you bring.”

Brown credits Amethyst’s success in part to her involvement with UMBC’s ACTiVATE program (Achieving the Commercialization of Technology in Ventures through Applied Training for Entrepreneurs), housed in UMBC’s Alex Brown Center for Entrepreneurship. ACTiVATE supports women who want to start technology companies.

“UMBC was critical to our success,” Brown said. The university offered space in the life sciences incubator at bwtech@UMBC South, connected them with a qualified attorney and a business advisor, and assisted them with accessing high tech equipment.

Brown’s positive experiences with UMBC have led her to put down roots at bwtech@UMBC and continue to develop her relationship with the university. Since the company arrived in 2007, it has established an internship program for UMBC students and hired UMBC alumni.

“We are very pleased to have Amethyst Technologies as part of our bwtech community,” shares Ellen Hemmerly, executive director of bwtech@UMBC. “Dr. Brown is not only a great role model for our other entrepreneurs, but she also creates opportunities for both faculty and students at UMBC.”

Image: CEO Kimberly Brown and Senator Ben Cardin at Amethyst Technologies’ lab in the bwtech@UMBC Research and Technology Park; photo by Marlayna Demond ’11 for UMBC.

 

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