All posts by: UMBC News Staff

Rowing to Two World Records

Graduate student Amanda Lea Miracle can now add world record holder to her already long list of accomplishments: 4.0 GPA, Presidential Award Scholarship, Ford Scholarship, graduate teaching assistantship and several published research articles. On January 17 and 18, Miracle set the women’s world record for longest continual row on an erg, or rowing, machine at 25 hours non-stop—with only an allotted 10-minute break per hour—rowing for a total of 176,766 meters. In doing so, she also set the world record for the individual 24-hour row in the heavyweight women (age 20-29) category, rowing for a total of 170,425 meters.

Although Miracle just started rowing in the spring of 2003, she showed the same dedication to the sport as she does her academic goals. When she wasn’t working on her M.A. in Historical Studies (she plans on beginning Ph.D. studies this fall, concentrating on the history of women, children and the American family), she trained every day for six to eight hours. In the summer, her day began with a commute to Annapolis for two hours of morning training with the Annapolis Rowing Club, followed by two hours on an erg, and then evening practice with the UMBC Crew club.

“She is a remarkable person about whom her coaches, myself and her fellow rowers are very proud,” says Crew faculty advisor Lou Cantori. “She exemplifies the personal modesty and high individual motivation of the UMBC rower.”

For Miracle, the 25-hour row was a way of balancing her incredibly demanding academic life—she wanted a “big athletic goal” to balance her “big academic goal.” In addition to the physical training, she did a lot of research and planning. Miracle meticulously planned out a schedule which detailed what and when to eat and drink.  Her support team, which included friends, fellow rowers and her coaches, Evan Rea and Renee Foard, made sure that Miracle followed her schedule and provided moral support. “Evan was there for 18 hours, and Renee for 14,” says Miracle. “I really could not have done it without them. I may have been the one bouncing back and forth like a ping pong ball, but it was really a group effort.”

Click here for more information on UMBC’s Crew club.

Driven to Win

Spring is around the corner, and it’s once again time to prepare for the big race. The drivers strap on their helmets. The pit crew fine tunes the engine. Right feet twitch in anticipation of flooring the gas at the first wave of the green flag.

It’s not NASCAR; it’s a car-obsessed club of mechanical engineering students right here at UMBC. For over two decades, members of UMBC’s chapter of The Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) have designed, built, tested and raced a pint-sized but powerful dune-buggy style car in a national contest that pushes their reflexes and brainpower – as well as their cars’ gears, tires and pistons – to the absolute limit.

“We expect to reach our goal of a top 20 finish this year,” says Robert Barrick, a senior mechanical engineering major and public affairs officer of the UMBC SAE chapter. “The plan is to take two cars to the race this time, which we’ve not been able to do before.”

As they gear up for the national race (held in June in Milwaukee), the UMBC team has an added edge this year – real-world experience from one of the top technology and engineering companies in the nation – Lockheed Martin. The team has also received support and sponsorship from Black and Decker, Siemens Building Technologies and UMBC mechanical engineering professor Uri Tasch.

According to Panos Charalambides, chair of mechanical engineering at UMBC, the Mini-Baja experience is impressive to employers. “Last May, Toyota of North America design group hired one of our students, Alex Marinelli, who competed with graduates from schools with established strengths in automotive engineering,” says Charalambides. “Alex was selected because of his intimate experience with the Mini Baja project.”

Barrick and his fellow team members have spent much of the fall semester holed up in a small machine shop located in the basement of the Technology Research Center (TRC) building. They plan to begin testing the two “mini-baja” cars over Spring Break.

The contest isn’t necessarily won by the fastest car. In addition to top speed, the SAE regional competitions are a gearhead’s dream combination of challenges measuring acceleration, braking distance, maneuverability, and even a tractor pull and endurance race. Points are also given for important design elements including comfort, safety and originality.

The mini-baja experience is a great way for mechanical engineering students to apply lessons from the classroom to the real world. Professor Bill Wood, who teaches ENME 444 (Mechanical Engineering Systems Design), is also the team’s faculty advisor.

In 2003, the UMBC team placed 54th out of 119 teams, but that was using a car designed in 1997 driven by team members new to the contest. “This year we’re more experienced and we have two much better cars,” says Barrick. “Our eye is on making the top 20 SAE teams in the country.”

The UMBC SAE chapter meets every Wednesday at 1 p.m. in ENG301. Students of all majors interested in helping with this year’s race team or the club’s First Annual Car Show, tentatively scheduled for April 17, should contact sae@umbc.edu or drop by a Wednesday meeting.  

Committing to Scholarship and Service

For the members of UMBC’s Golden Key International Honor Society chapter, an honor society offers much more than an addition to a resume or graduate school application. These students have committed both to maintain the level of academic excellence that earned them a place in the society and to support the community service activities that are a hallmark of the UMBC chapter.

UMBC’s Golden Key chapter was founded in 1995 and currently has about 600 members. It is advised by Lynn Zimmerman, professor of biological sciences and vice provost for academic initiatives, and Mark Terranova, associate director for service-learning in the Shriver Center. To be invited into the society, students must be juniors or seniors in the top 15 percent of their class. In addition to its recruitment efforts, UMBC’s chapter of Golden Key focuses on participating in community service activities. During the fall semester, chapter members organized a Halloween party for children at Villa Maria, a Baltimore shelter for children with emotional disabilities; entered a team in the Washington, D.C. AIDS Walk; and participated in several activities that involved sharing books with children. (These activities are open to anyone who wishes to participate, not just Golden Key members.)

Other Golden Key chapters have taken notice of UMBC’s successful chapter. Last August, the chapter won its fourth Key Chapter Award at Golden Key’s annual International Convention. This award was presented to just 25 of 335 chapters in Australia, Canada, Great Britain, Malaysia, New Zealand, South Africa and the United States. UMBC’s chapter has also been active in passing on its knowledge of successful practices in workshops and displays presented at every International and Regional convention since 1996.

Akua Bonsra, president of UMBC’s chapter of Golden Key and a senior biochemistry major, sums up the appeal of the society for new members: “This is a group where you can have the most fun while doing the most good.”

Juniors (60 credits) and seniors who have completed at least 15 credits at UMBC and have a 3.6 cumulative GPA (top 15 percent academically) should receive an invitation to become a member of Golden Key in mid-February. If you do not receive an invitation and believe you meet these qualifications, please contact Dr. Lynn Zimmerman as soon as possible at zimmerma@umbc.edu. Additional information about UMBC’s Golden Key chapter is available online.  

Modeling the Subsurface of the Earth

Mathematics and statistics professor Sue Minkoff and two of her Ph.D. students are engaged in a mathematical geoscience project that will lead to greater understanding of the Earth. Now in its second year, the collaborative project with Rice University is funded by a three-year grant from the National Science Foundation.

The overarching mission of the project, Minkoff says, is “to understand statistical properties of the earth at a variety of different scales.” At Rice University, much of the emphasis is on developing a basic understanding of the deep crust of the earth and issues related to near-surface environmental cleanup. At UMBC, students Tanya Vdovina and Oksana Korostyshevskaya are developing efficient mathematical algorithms for modeling the subsurface of the earth.

A large chunk of the project involves inversion, a process in which researchers attempt to learn about material properties of the earth without actually digging up the subsurface and causing environmental damage. The strategy is similar to a CAT or MRI scan, or an ultrasound used to view a developing baby. During inversion, an elastic wave is sent into the earth and interacts with the heterogeneous layers that make up the subsurface. Based on the message that the wave sends back, it is possible to obtain geophysical information without the need to actually dig.

Minkoff’s students are focused on finding a quicker way to solve the wave equation mathematically so that researchers can tackle the large amounts of data one encounters in these problems in reasonable time. The goal is to match this data through repeated solution of the wave equation, all the while tweaking the elastic parameters in the model to better fit the data. “This is a time-dependent problem; one of the algorithms we are looking at for solving the elastic wave equation is staggered in both space and time, so conceptually it gets very challenging,” says Minkoff. “I think they [Vdovina and Korostyshevskaya] understand it better than I do!”

Vdovina and Korostyshevskaya, both of whom have a solid theoretical background, have never engaged in such a large project before. “It’s very different from doing homework for class,” says Korostyshevskaya. “You can feel the difference. It’s interesting to work on a project with such a practical application.”

A National Model for Math and Science Education

A partnership between UMBC, Baltimore County Public Schools (BCPS), Maryland State Department of Education, and the Achievement Initiative for Maryland’s Minority Students is helping to create a national model for improving pre-K through 12th grade math and science education.

SUPER STEM [School-University Partnership for Excellence in Research-based (SUPER) Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM)] is funded by a five-year, $13-million grant from the National Science Foundation Math and Science Partnership program, and promises to accelerate student achievement and reduce achievement gaps by enhancing teacher and school effectiveness.

The SUPER STEM project is an extension of UMBC’s successful Urban Teacher Education (UTE) program for schools in Baltimore County. “Our emphasis is on improving teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge and diagnosing student understanding of math and science to accelerate student learning and achievement,” says John Lee, founder and director of UTE. “Teachers learn to access and inventory their students’ current skills and use that as a foundation for further teaching.”

SUPER STEM will increase the number, quality and diversity of teachers from all disciplines by offering performance-based recruitment incentives to attract high-quality teachers and principals to serve in highest-needs (low-performing and underserved) schools and by providing training and professional development to nearly 2000 existing principles and teachers on designing, implementing and assessing STEM-focused educational practices.

In addition, six technology-mediated STEM academies at high needs pre-K through 12 schools will allow students and their teachers to develop the information technology skills required for the 21st century. The project will also provide year-round schooling to students attending the STEM academies and special projects that extend beyond the school day.

Assessments of the outcomes and effectiveness of SUPER STEM will be conducted at the student, teacher, school and BCPS level, and the findings will be disseminated through various education conferences across the U.S.

A Decade of Learning and Service

This month, the Shriver Center celebrates ten years of service to the UMBC community and beyond. Founded on December 14, 1993, in honor of Sargent and Eunice Kennedy Shriver, the Shriver Center was created to engage the strengths and resources of higher education to find creative solutions to the most pressing of social problems. It has since become a national leader in promoting service-learning, civic engagement, and community-based service delivery.

The following are just a few of the Shriver Center’s many accomplishments over the last ten years:

*The Choice Programs, which have been administered in the Shriver Center since its opening, have served 15,000 youth from across the state of Maryland during its 15-year history.  Choice Programs, which include the Choice Program and Choice Jobs, work directly with young people and their families to provide job skills and reduce delinquency. These programs have now been replicated in California and Connecticut.

*Ninety percent of the Shriver Peaceworker Program’s alumni are currently employed full-time and 100 percent continue in careers of public service. More than 80 percent of the participants in this program for returned Peace Corps volunteers came from outside the Baltimore-Washington metropolitan area, but 74 percent continue to live in the area after graduation as they pursue careers in public service.

*Over the last ten years, the Shriver Center has placed over 10,000 undergraduate and graduate students in internships, cooperative education and service-learning opportunities.

Building upon these accomplishments, the Shriver Center continues to expand its services to UMBC and the surrounding community.

*The Shriver Living Learning Center, now in its fourth year, offers 29 undergraduates with interests in public service the opportunity to live together in Erickson Hall. These students commit to performing five hours of community service per week and taking a practicum class that allows them to reflect on their service experience.

*The Shriver Center collaborates with the Department of Biological Sciences, College of Engineering and five Baltimore areas middle schools in the Teaching Enhancement Partnership Project (TEPP), an effort funded by the National Science Foundation. This program, now in its second year, brings UMBC students into classrooms to provide support to teachers in math, science, engineering and technology education.

*In 2001, the Shriver Center initiated the Kauffman Entrepreneur Internship Program, which provides undergraduates with first-hand learning experience in entrepreneurship. Students in the program work in a semester-long internship with start-up or emerging companies, including some located in techcenter@UMBC.

A ten-year anniversary celebration from 5 to 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday, December 10 will highlight the accomplishments of the Shriver Center through testimonials of participants and beneficiaries of the many Center initiatives serving the Baltimore area and beyond. Opening remarks will be delivered by President Freeman Hrabowski. Honored guests are Eunice Kennedy Shriver and Sargent Shriver. The event will be held in the Skylight Room at The Commons.

Standing Out From the Competition

Have you ever seen a clever product – say, a pair of earmuffs with built-in headphones – and said to yourself, “Why didn’t I think of that?” If so, there’s a good chance Gib Mason, economics ’95, was involved.

The “serial entrepreneur” and CPA is chief financial officer of Baltimore-based 180s LLC (formerly Big Bang Products), an innovative sportswear company whose signature products include stylish fleece ear warmers, scratch-resistant sunglasses and gloves that feature “Exhale Heating Technology,” which uses the wearer’s own breath to warm the hands. In October, the Greater Baltimore Technology Council recognized 180s LLC for its innovative products with a nomination for one of its annual “Purple Cow” awards, given to innovators whose new approaches stand out from the competition.

The entrepreneur bug bit Mason early. While in high school, he convinced a local music store to let him offer customers jazz trumpet lessons. During the 1980s, he was involved with a handful of different businesses, ranging from retail to manufacturing and distribution, with mixed results. “It’s interesting that you always learn more from the failures than the successes,” he says.

After the wood heating business he worked for began to go downhill in 1990, Mason decided to go back to school and finish his degree, 13 years after he’d started college at Miami University in Ohio. With enough work experience to know that accounting costs companies big bucks, Mason decided to take a basic accounting class at UMBC.

“Numbers had always intrigued me, and I thought, ‘I’ll probably learn something and maybe reduce my costs,'” he says. After his first class, he walked up to his professor, Elizabeth Gerkin, and said, “I am going to become a CPA,” Mason recalls. “It was so interesting, it was unbelievable. I had years of life experience with numbers, and what I heard that first night began to put definition to what I was dealing with every day.”

After graduating in 1995, Mason spent five years at Wolpoff and Company, a large, entrepreneurial accounting practice that was acquired by American Express Tax & Business Services, where he was involved in strategic planning, staff development and marketing.

Soon after Mason joined 180s in 1999, he founded a company-wide mentoring program, 180s-4-Students. Mason is working to get more companies involved in similar programs through the new b4students Foundation, which 180s formed with EntreQuest, a corporate training company. Mason’s company also hosts an intern from UMBC’s Kauffmann Entrepreneur Internship Program each year, and last fall he participated in the Entrepreneurship Speaker Series hosted by the Alex. Brown Center for Entrepreneurship at UMBC.

Mason’s best piece of advice for aspiring entrepreneurs? “You’ve got to learn to have a duck’s back and some thick skin and keep plugging away,” he says.

Honoring America’s Veterans

For as long as he can remember, freshman Greg Winger has always had a love of history and an interest in foreign affairs. Now, as a Sondheim Public Affairs Scholar at UMBC, he has the opportunity to participate in the Veterans History Project, a program established by the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress to record the personal histories and testimonials of American war veterans, covering World War I to the Persian Gulf War.

To date, Winger has interviewed over 20 veterans at the VA Hospital in downtown Baltimore and describes his experience as “ranging from tragic to triumphant.” He’s listened to veterans describe the tragic moments that led to their disfigurement and shared in their bittersweet joy when he hears a veteran proudly recall how his African-American lieutenant was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor over 50 years after serving in WWII. The experience has given Winger a deeper understanding of war and soldiers that books and documentaries can only touch upon.

“Through these interviews, I hope to gain a true understanding of Veterans affairs, warfare and the individual soldier,” says Winger. “I have found that there are many misconceptions about America’s wars and warriors and I hope to learn the truth and comprehend these men and events.”

Greg’s interviews, along with all the interviews and documents collected as a result of the Veterans History Project, will be cataloged by the Library of Congress and used to develop online presentations for the Library’s American Memory website.

Click here for more information or to learn how to get involved with the Veterans History Project.

Immigration and America’s Future

 On Nov. 5, UMBC’s Interdisciplinary Studies program is sponsoring its third Mosaic Roundtable (http://www.umbc.edu/mosaic/), a panel discussion by a diverse cross section of UMBC experts on controversial, timely issues.  This semester’s Mosaic examines changes in attitudes and laws regarding immigration after 9-11, and the impact of those changes on research, higher education and the high-tech economy. The panel is made up of four immigrants – an international educator, a physicist, a computer engineer, and a sociologist – three of whom are now U.S. citizens – all with unique perspectives on the issue.

Dr. Arlene Wergin, Director, International Education Services

Arlene Wergin helps over 1,000 international undergraduate and graduate students and 150 international faculty and visiting researchers at UMBC navigate increasingly restrictive federal regulations governing student and exchange visitor visas.

“Our international students and scholars contribute not only to the academic mission of the university, but they also add a valuable intercultural diversity to the campus,” she says. “For many of our domestic students, interactions on campus with international students are their first close and extensive contacts with people from other countries.

Wergin adds, “Current immigration policies and lengthy security checks at U.S consulates abroad make it increasingly more difficult for even the best and brightest international students to enter the U.S. to study.”

Dr. Philip Rous, Professor, Physics

Philip Rous, a physicist and a U.K. citizen, will examine both the history and future of immigrant scientists in the U.S. “Immigrants make up 28 percent of all Ph.D.s currently doing research and development in America,” he says. “Between 1901 and 1991, 44 of 100 Nobel Prizes were awarded to immigrant U.S. researchers or their children.”

Rous will discuss how stricter security policies have made it tougher for high-tech immigrant professionals to get visas. One example is the little-known but controversial “Technology Alert List” used by the Homeland Security Department to “red-flag” students based on their field of research.

“Scientific advancement underpins the development of defense and security technology,” says Rous. “Given that a third of people working in high-tech fields are immigrants, perhaps we might think about whether or not an exclusive immigration policy enhances or degrades U.S. security.”   

Dr. Ray Chen, Professor, Computer Science and Electrical Engineering

Ray Chen is interested in how immigration affects the information technology industry. He will examine the question of whether or not Silicon Valley is moving overseas as a result of the U.S. failing to recognize that “immigrants and U.S. citizens are partners in the global competition arena.” 

If America fails to recognize this importance, Chen says, “One in 10 tech jobs could move overseas by the end of 2004.” 

Chen believes that America is currently very friendly towards immigration. But he will argue that America should not only welcome immigrants, but try to keep U.S.-educated immigrants in the States in order to to keep up with global competition. “We are in a global competition for the brightest brains,” he says. “The U.S. will be in the best position if we embrace immigration.”

Dr. Sara Poggio, Associate Professor, Modern Languages and Linguistics

Sara Poggio is a sociologist who studies international immigration, especially from Central and South America. She will discuss the historical, cultural and socioeconomic forces surrounding immigration and whether America can afford to not have immigrants.

“Immigration is not easy,” she says, “So there must be reasons for these migrations. Aside from freedom and economic gains, most migrations from one country to another are partly due to political intervention by the receiving country, which leads to the displacement of certain groups.”

Poggio will also discuss stereotypes such as “immigrants are uneducated” or “immigrants take jobs away from Americans.” “These American perceptions and attitudes are not new or recent,” she says. “They have persisted through time, and remind us that many immigrant groups, past and present, have faced these economic, racial, and cultural rejections.”

“Immigration and America’s Future: Paradox & Perception” takes place Wednesday, Nov. 5, from 1 to 2:30 p.m. on the 7th floor of the Albin O. Kuhn Library.

Exploring the Sonic Landscape

Performing classical music‹whether by Bach, Stravinsky, Mozart or a host of others‹presents tough challenges for concert artists, who not only learn the music’s notes, but also master phrasing, articulation and other elements to bring the music to life. But for performers of contemporary classical music (or “new music” in the common parlance‹music written in the past 10 or 20 years), the challenge intensifies: the music is often unfamiliar and far more difficult to play. Sometimes learning just a few seconds of music can take repeated hours or days of rehearsal.

At UMBC, Department of Music performance faculty relish the opportunity to study and perform new music. Two years ago, several faculty banded together to form Ruckus, a group dedicated to performing contemporary music. The newest member is violinist Airi Yoshioka, who joined the department this fall. She describes working with the ensemble as “an eye opening experience…Playing with Ruckus is all about being in the moment and tapping into one’s creativity. Although I’ve played a lot of new music, I previously hadn’t been challenged to improvise as extensively or even compose a portion of a piece.” Other members of Ruckus include flutist Lisa Cella, cellist Franklin Cox, percussionist Tom Goldstein, clarinetist E. Michael Richards, and pianist Kazuko Tanosaki.

By providing an opportunity for intensive collaboration and investigation of new music, Ruckus functions as a research laboratory for the Department of Music. Says Richards, “It’s a rigorous environment. Working closely with each other, and often with composers, helps each of us broaden our insight and understanding.”

In addition to its concerts in the campus’ Fine Arts Recital Hall, Ruckus has extended the visibility of music at UMBC by performing at the University of Virginia, the University of Maryland, College Park, Hartwick College, and the Smithsonian Institution¹s Freer Gallery of Art. This Thursday, November 6, Ruckus will play at the Baltimore Museum of Art as part of the Museum’s First Thursdays program.

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Ruckus will perform twice at the Baltimore Museum of Art on November 6. At 6:30 p.m., the group will present pieces by Fluxus composers, and a concert at 8:00 p.m. will include John Cage’s Variations II and music by Randolph Coleman and Louis Andriessen. Information is available on UMBC’s arts calendar.

A Time to Explore

For freshman Ross Dixon, UMBC is not only a place to obtain a bachelor’s degree and prepare for a career, but also a place to explore the full range of his abilities. Whether he’s studying for his physics courses or adding the finishing touches to his most recent script, Dixon is making the most of UMBC’s many opportunities.

Dixon comes to UMBC as an accomplished 2003 graduate of Hereford High School in northern Baltimore County, with academic credentials that include recognition as a Maryland Distinguished Scholar and recipient of a scholarship from the Baltimore County Chamber of Commerce. An aspiring singer and playwright, Dixon was a member of Baltimore County’s All County Choir, Hereford High School’s chamber choir and he performed original works at the Maryland Theatre Festival.

While Dixon is studying physics and plans to attend graduate school for further study in the field of theoretical physics, he intends to continue with his work in music and theater as much as his academic schedule will allow. He currently sings with the Jubilee Singers, under the direction of Janice Jackson, and hopes to add music as either a major or minor. Dixon has also found time to incorporate theater into his busy class schedule by taking a scriptwriting course and using Professor Alan Kreizenbeck’s Performance in Baltimore course to fulfill one of his requirements for the Honors College.

Many students would find the sheer breadth of all these activities to be overwhelming, but Dixon has a common goal that keeps him focused in each of his endeavors. “I consider science, music, and drama all to be alternative forms of communication,” he says, reflecting on his disparate pursuits. “I’m drawn to activities that offer opportunities for sharing ideas and connecting people. When I sing, work on a play, or learn something new in my physics course, I have the opportunity both to learn from the ideas of other people and express my own.”

Click here for more information on UMBC’s freshmen and new graduate students.