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Chess Champions The UMBC Chess Team captured first place at the Pan American Intercollegiate Championships held in South Padre Island, Texas, December 27-30, beating rivals University of Texas at Dallas (UTD) and the University of Texas at Brownsville (UTB). UMBC placed ahead of 27 other teams including Yale, Princeton, Stanford and New York University. UMBC has now won or tied a record nine Pan-Am titles and is ranked among the best college teams in the country. UTD challenged UMBC in the past, winning the championship in both 2007 and 2008 – but not this year. UMBC beat UTD 3-1 on… Continue Reading Chess Champions

A Prototype for Collaboration   Engineering and art come together in finding innovative ways of using 3D rapid prototyping at UMBC. Dr. Anne Spence and artist Chad Eby discuss how they apply this new tool in the classroom and in the studio. Watch the video, produced by UMBC’s New Media Studio. View Program in QuickTime:   For optimal viewing experience, viewers should download Quicktime 6 Visit the streaming media@UMBC Web site.        

The Engineering Education Frontier Julia Ross, professor and chair of chemical and biochemical engineering at UMBC, was selected to attend the National Academy of Engineer’s (NAE) first Frontiers of Engineering Education (FOEE) symposium. Ross joined 49 of the nation’s brightest engineering researchers and educators who are developing and implementing innovative educational approaches in a variety of disciplines and are in the first half of their careers. Ross was the only participant chosen from a Maryland institution. Throughout the 2-1/2-day event, educators and researchers shared ideas, learned from research and best practices in education and left with a charter to bring… Continue Reading The Engineering Education Frontier

Medieval Text Goes Digital Thomas Field, professor of linguistics and french, is making inaccessible language more available. He and his research assistants spend hours in front of computers inputting and reviewing Occitan and Gascon words, searching for the cultural significance of this endangered language of southwestern France and the Pyrenees area of Spain. Being one of the few people immersed in this language, Field is currently building the first Medieval Gascon digital corpus of its kind. And being named the 2009-10 Lipitz Professor of the Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences will only help him dig deeper and make discoveries about… Continue Reading Medieval Text Goes Digital

Gourd Season Baltimore birds will soon find refuge in hand-made birdhouses this spring – but these small homes aren’t made of wood and paint. Painted, carved gourds, often used to decorate the Thanksgiving table, will be hung instead, thanks to a faculty-student collaboration in the visual arts department. Through a grant from the Parks and People Foundation, Associate Professor of Visual Arts Tim Nohe and Alex Geiger ’12, visual arts, began “Gourd Season” at the Baltimore Montessori Public Charter School (on East Lanvale Street). The project enhances the green infrastructure at the school by adding capacity for rain harvesting and… Continue Reading Gourd Season

Bringing the Peace Corps Home One lesson Katie Long brought home from volunteering in Honduras for the Peace Corps in 2005-07 is that fun and games can have a positive social and health impact on underserved communities. Long is now using recreation and fun to strengthen communities around Patterson Park in Baltimore as part of her public service placement as a graduate student in the Peaceworker Program at UMBC’s Shriver Center. The Peaceworker Program is designed to find ways for returning Peace Corps volunteers to serve their local communities when their missions abroad are completed. As the recreation and Latino… Continue Reading Bringing the Peace Corps Home

Your Sneaker, Your Self UMBC attracts students from many corners of the globe. And sneaker artist and media and communications major Martin Figueroa ’11, has figured out a way that these homesick students can remember that there’s no place like home. He’s painting the skylines of their hometowns – or any other image that represents their personal style – right onto their sneakers. Figueroa started drawing sketches on his own shoes when he was a senior in high school. Before long, friends asked if he would paint their shoes. Figueroa has now designed more than 25 pairs of shoes, with… Continue Reading Your Sneaker, Your Self

“UMBC Reflects and Acts” is a series of events commemorating the anniversary of Sept. 11, teach-ins hosted by UMBC faculty and staff and service events. Lessons of 9-11   On the afternoon of September 11, 2001, the UMBC community gathered for a campuswide teach-in. Faculty, staff and students came together to listen and learn from one another. Now as UMBC marks the first anniversary of September 11, faculty members with expertise on terrorism and American/Middle East relations reflect on the issues surrounding the 9-11 attacks. For a complete listing of UMBC events remembering 9-11, including teach-ins by many of the… Continue Reading Lessons of 9-11