Homeland Security for H20 It’s a post-9-11 scenario that most homeland security experts agree is not a matter of if but when: a “dirty bomb” attack in the United States. Technically known as radiation dispersal devices or RDDs, dirty bombs combine conventional explosives with radioactive material, most likely cesium or cobalt stolen or scavenged from medical or industrial use. Often confused by the public with nuclear weapons, a dirty bomb’s primary impact is psychological, since while they could render an entire city block uninhabitable for quite some time, overall damage would be limited beyond that area. Like many scientists since… Continue Reading UMBC: Homeland Security for H20
Homeland Security for H20 It’s a post-9-11 scenario that most homeland security experts agree is not a matter of if but when: a “dirty bomb” attack in the United States. Technically known as radiation dispersal devices or RDDs, dirty bombs combine conventional explosives with radioactive material, most likely cesium or cobalt stolen or scavenged from medical or industrial use. Often confused by the public with nuclear weapons, a dirty bomb’s primary impact is psychological, since while they could render an entire city block uninhabitable for quite some time, overall damage would be limited beyond that area. Like many scientists since… Continue Reading UMBC: Homeland Security for H20
A New Look for UMBC’s Homepage Update: Stepping Back and Looking Forward(9/8/05) Okay, we heard you, and here are ways you said the new UMBC homepage and website could be improved: Launch both together; Improve design to reflect UMBC’s energy and quality; Use more campus photos, similar to the new About UMBC; Make myUMBC a more prominent homepage link; Consider vertical scrolling layout; Study peers and competitors; Tighten programming to adhere to contemporary web standards. So, we’re stepping back and will launch a new UMBC web presence in Summer 2006—homepage and all. We’ve turned off comments to the original story… Continue Reading A New Look for UMBC’s Homepage
A New Look for UMBC’s Homepage Update: Stepping Back and Looking Forward(9/8/05) Okay, we heard you, and here are ways you said the new UMBC homepage and website could be improved: Launch both together; Improve design to reflect UMBC’s energy and quality; Use more campus photos, similar to the new About UMBC; Make myUMBC a more prominent homepage link; Consider vertical scrolling layout; Study peers and competitors; Tighten programming to adhere to contemporary web standards. So, we’re stepping back and will launch a new UMBC web presence in Summer 2006—homepage and all. We’ve turned off comments to the original story… Continue Reading A New Look for UMBC’s Homepage
Making the Most of Summer Employers are more interested than ever in hiring UMBC talent: this year, the Shriver Center coordinated and secured nearly 800 internship and co-op placements in over 360 organizations, an increase of over 20 percent in a two-year period, said Christine Routzahn, the Center’s associate director of professional practice. These programs help students gain professional skills and insight into a specific industry and establish a network of contacts. This summer, 210 UMBC students participated in internships or co-ops through the Shriver Center. In their own words, here are just a few of the students who… Continue Reading Making the Most of Summer
Researching a Cure for Alzheimer’s In UMBC’s recently renovated Chemistry Building, Jesse Karr, a chemistry and biochemistry Ph.D. student, is standing over a brand-new electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectrometer, one of the more recent research acquisitions at UMBC and the ‘pride and joy’ of his mentor, Assistant Professor Veronika A. Szalai. Karr is researching copper-metal ions and the influence they have on the neurodegenerative factor of Alzheimer’s disease. Copper plays a more important role in our bodies than most people realize, he said. “Copper is actually biologically relevant; we all have a lot more copper in our bodies then… Continue Reading Researching a Cure for Alzheimer’s
Inside the New York Times Last semester, UMBC Retriever Weekly editors were invited to go “Inside the New York Times” to learn about day-to-day operations and to develop their journalistic skills. Joe Howley and Doug Miller, who recently became Retriever editor-in-chief and news editor, respectively, attended the Times’ annual symposium along with editors from over two dozen student newspapers across the country. Students met with Times’ managing editors and correspondents to discuss how they cover the news and make decisions about editorial content, participated in a workshop on the editing process and exchanged ideas with other student editors. “To be… Continue Reading Inside the New York Times
Ph.D. Students Analyze Baltimore’s Inner Suburbs “In scholarly literature, there is a lot of interest about inner suburbs, those older suburban communities near the central city. We found that these areas suffer from increasing poverty and declining incomes. Therefore, we set off to better understand these urban dynamics,” said Bernadette Hanlon, a public policy Ph.D. candidate at UMBC and one of two authors of “The State of the Inner Suburbs,” an analysis of the urban decline surrounding Baltimore. “There is room for public policy to intervene, to stop this decline, to process and revitalize the suburban communities,” said co-author Thomas… Continue Reading Ph.D. Students Analyze Baltimore’s Inner Suburbs
A Global Action Plan for Women in IT For the first time, technology leaders from 22 countries and six continents will gather to explore concrete ways in which access by girls and women to technology can be increased in order to effect economic, social and political change. The First International Symposium on Women and Information and Communication Technology (ICT) will convene June 12-14 in downtown Baltimore. Participants from developing and developed countries will include leaders from business, government and non-government agencies and educational institutions. The symposium was organized and is co-hosted by UMBC’s Center for Women and Information Technology… Continue Reading A Global Action Plan for Women in IT
Celebrating the Class of 2005 This year, UMBC will award degrees to 1200 undergraduates and more than 200 graduate students in the arts and sciences, engineering and social work. UMBC’s Class of 2005 includes students headed to prestigious graduate programs at Brown University, Cornell University, Harvard Medical School, Johns Hopkins University, the London School of Economics, Stanford University, University of Arizona, University of Cambridge and the University of Westminster (England). Other students have secured jobs with a wide spectrum of corporations, nonprofits, government agencies and universities, including AmeriCorps, the Department of Defense, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Johns Hopkins… Continue Reading Celebrating the Class of 2005
Creating Interactive Memories Associate Professor of Visual Arts Lisa Moren was recently recognized for her new media art—including installations, videos, books and interactive multi-media forms—with a 2005-06 Fulbright Scholar award. Moren will lecture at the Film and TV School of the Academy of Performing Arts (FAMU) in Prague, one of the oldest film schools in Europe. At FAMU, Moren will teach two classes based on DIMINUENTS, which is one project in her three-part series examining memory, place and narrative in former Soviet republics. One class of film students will use new technologies to make their own interactive films, while… Continue Reading Creating Interactive Memories
Shared Values Set in Stone UMBC honors Walter Sondheim, Jr., a pivotal leader of school desegregation and economic revitalization in Baltimore, for his achievements in community service, social justice and diversity on May 11 with the dedication of the University’s first named academic building, Janet and Walter Sondheim Hall, and an accompanying sculpture. The event caps off a successful $6 million campaign to endow the Sondheim Public Affairs Scholars Program at UMBC and rename the former Social Sciences building in honor of Sondheim and his late wife, Janet. Sondheim is perhaps best known for leading the desegregation of Baltimore… Continue Reading Shared Values Set in Stone
