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August 07, 2008 8:18 PM |
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UM Wins International Robot Competition UM's Fall Semester to Focus on All Aspects Of War Anthrax /Bio-Chem Attacks Rare, Records Show 1925 Recording Makes National Archives Registry |
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Highlighted News Items, August 7
Building a More Responsible B-School
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Maryland Moments, November, 2004
University Initiatives
(New Programs, Appointments, Special Ceremony)
UM establishes the Maryland Confucius Center with a formal signing ceremony featuring Saul Sosnoski, director of the Office of International Programs, and Meihua Yan, director general of the China National Office for Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language. The Institute for Global Chinese Affairs administers the program, which is designed, in part, to teach Chinese through non-credit courses to people on and off campus. "The impact of the Confucius Institute goes beyond language, literature and culture. It allows access to other areas of the university, opportunities for Chinese scholars that come here," says President C.D. Mote Jr.
The Smith School of Business signs an agreement with Beijing's ChinaCast, a privately held satellite-based services group, to televise courses throughout China. ChinaCast and the Smith School will offer general management and bank management courses initially. Prospective courses include management programs in education, healthcare, hospital administration, insurance and hospitality. The courses are to be delivered via satellite, with ChinaCast providing remote campuses, marketing and call-center services to help the Smith School interact with students and corporations. The Smith School already runs an MBA program in Beijing and will expand to Shanghai in 2005.
A Memorial Chapel ceremony honors the nation's war veterans and focuses on the conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq. The names of more than 1,100 Americans killed are read. The unique memorial receives national attention as both wars continue.
K-12 educators are honored for the lasting impression they had on students who are now among the university's top seniors. The "Merrill Master Teacher" designation brings with it a $1,000 scholarship to be awarded in each teacher's name next fall to an incoming UM freshman who graduated from the teacher's school. "We would like to create a kind of legacy for our own students and make that K through 12 connection with the university," said Phyllis Peres, associate dean for undergraduate studies and coordinator of the Merrill program. "It's a circle of scholarship, of teaching and excellence."
Ernest Wilson, director of the Center for International Development and Conflict Management, is reappointed to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting's board. He says public broadcasting faces challenges in the second Bush administration and the new congress. "Given the changing dynamics in Washington, public broadcasting will need to find support across the political spectrum to maintain funding levels, and there's a very strong case to be made." President Bush nominated Wilson to serve an additional term on the board in October and the Senate confirmed his nomination in November. Wilson is also an associate professor of government and politics and Afro-American studies, senior fellow at the Academy of Leadership and a faculty associate in the School of Public Policy.
Society & Culture
Charles Christian's genius for broadening the horizons of school children is on display as an African American studies program is introduced into Maryland's schools curriculum. Christian chairs the task force that designed the black history curriculum, the first of its kind in the nation. A professor of geography who also founded and directs Maryland's popular Black Saga competition for school children, Christian believes the "new lessons to have broad implications for race relations and minority student achievement."
Science & Technology
UM expertise is involved in reviving the oyster harvest in Maryland. The precipitous drop in the harvest moves Gov. Robert Ehrlich Jr. to consider introducing an oyster native to China, the Crassostrea ariakensis, into the Chesapeake. Watermen are watching their vocation disappear, but Matthew Hare, assistant professor of biology and a geneticist who specializes in oyster populations, warns the cure could be worse than the meager harvests. The experiments of Kennedy Paynter, research associate in biology and professor in Life Sciences, who introduced sterile ariakensis into underwater cages in the Choptank, Patuxent and Severn rivers, is being closely watched by the state. A decision on whether to proceed with Asian oysters should come early in 2005.
UM's Institute for Advanced Computer Studies, the National Archives and Record Administration, and the San Diego Supercomputer Center test a prototype grid computing network, the Persistent Archives Prototype. The prototype will test how well a data grid can bring together multiple copies of electronic materials residing in separate locations with different types of hardware.
Gerald Wilkinson, professor of biology, and biologist Susan Davidson, an alumna of the Wilkinson Lab, find the best singers among bats attract more female admirers. Some males and females sing in sounds other animals can't hear. Their findings are published in the journal Animal Behaviour.
Daniel Lathrop, an associate professor of physics in the University of Maryland's top ranked (#1 by U.S. News & World Report) nonlinear dynamics and chaos research group, is seeking to solve a major scientific mystery: How is the Earth's magnetic field formed and what causes changes in the field? The basics of the process have long been understood: magnetism, motion and electricity are an inseparable trio, when any two are present the third is there as well. However, exactly how the complex dynamics of the Earth's core translate this principle into a stable and sustainable magnetic field is still largely unknown. To find answers, Lathrop is trying to recreate on a small scale the forces that produce Earth's own magnetic field. He has constructed a series of "geodynamos" -- metal spheres filled with liquid sodium that emulate conditions of the Earth's spinning, churning molten iron core.
As the pubic looks for answers in a flu season largely devoid of flu shots, UM's Mark Kantor says a healthy diet does help even though there is no sure-fire way to avoid viruses. The Baltimore Sun: " 'I'm not aware of a strong relationship between a person's diet and the ability to ward off viruses such as the flu, other than a general overall healthy diet to help boost your immune system,' says Mark Kantor, associate professor in the nutrition and food science department at the University of Maryland. If you want to actively work at skipping the flu, start with Kantor's common-sense suggestion: Eat 'lots of fruits and vegetables and whole grains and go easy on the fats and sweets.' Then, pay extra attention to the role certain foods and nutrients play in strengthening the body's defense system."
More Maryland News in November
Popularity may be measured in many ways; in a tech era, having a university's application Web site overrun is a 21st century sign of great interest. A spike in online applications causes the university's Web site to slow in mid-November, prompting calls and E-mails from prospective students. More than 11,000 applicants submitted their applications online to meet the university's priority deadline, which is extended in the wake of the computer slowdown.
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