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August 07, 2008 7:41 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, April 2008
(New programs, Honors, Gifts)
Cupcakes were everywhere as Maryland Day 2008 played to an enthusiastic crowd of nearly 75,000 visitors Saturday, April 26. A beautiful day in the 80's helped visitors from all over the region enjoy 425 campus events -- everything from digging for buried treasure to climbing a rock wall and learning about the Maryland admissions process. 52,000 cupcakes were given out to hungy Terps throughout the day. Patsy Mote -- the wife of Maryland President Dr. Dan Mote -- came up with the sweet idea to celebrate Maryland Day's 10th anniversary. Head bakery chef Jeff Russo and his staff worked for months to bake the cupcakes that were frozen and stored all over campus until they were brought together on Hornbake Plaza Friday night. Dozens of Maryland volunteers converged on the site to create a Maryland seal out of cupcakes. Students from Maryland's engineering school helped with the technical aspects of making the design just right. Everything was in place by around 4 a.m. -- plenty of time before the 10 a.m. opening ceremony.
Associated Press: "The University of Maryland, College Park has decided to create a minor in U.S. Latino studies -- the first such program at a major university in the Washington area. A University Senate committee approved the creation of the minor yesterday. The program will become official in the fall, though two graduating seniors who have fulfilled the requirements will graduate this spring with the minor. The decision prompted applause from activists who have been working to establish a formal program for a decade. No school in the Mid-Atlantic region has a full Latino studies program."
Chronicle of Higher Education: "When it comes to dealing with climate change, some people are looking for a silver bullet. Perhaps instead they should load up on 'silver buckshot' -- trying a whole bunch of ideas and solutions, says Matthias Ruth, professor of natural economics and director of the Center for Integrative Environmental Research at the University of Maryland. Mr. Ruth spoke at the Smart and Sustainable Campuses conference at the University of Maryland, College Park on Tuesday, where climate change -- and colleges' role in addressing it -- was of course a big topic of conversation. The conference was sponsored by the National Association of College and Univerity Business Officers. Mr. Ruth said that much of the campus discussion about climate change focuses on mitigation -- reducing carbon emissions, and so on. But he pointed out that even if all carbon emissions stopped tomorrow, climate change would continue to occur well into the future. 'We should start thinking about adaptation' to climate change, he said. 'We havent really thought through what adaptation means on campuses.' "
Associated Press of Pakistan: "The Northwest Frontier Province University of Engineering and Technology, Peshawar, and the University of Maryland have entered into a new five-year academic linkage under which faculty members from the Pakistani institution would be trained at higher levels. Both universities will engage in cooperation in the fields of common interest and shall develop joint projects to enhance exchange of scientific knowledge. They will seek to engage in future specific implementing agreements regarding exchange of scholars for seminars and joint research activities. Under the agreement approximately 30 teachers of UET (University of Engineering and Technology) Peshawar will be trained at MS and PhD levels in UM during next five years."
Baltimore Sun: "More students are applying to more colleges, complicating the selection process for schools. ... Maryland schools noted an increase in applications from state students trying to save tuition costs in a weak economy. Even community colleges are seeing more students registering earlier. And so now some high school seniors are left with fewer choices than they expected -- while others must pick from a confusing number of acceptances. At Washington College in Chestertown, the number of applicants for 400 slots in the freshman class went up from 2,146 last year to 3,391 this year. At Hopkins there were 16,006 applications for 1,235 spots, an 80 percent increase in applications since 2002. And at the University of Maryland College Park, the number of applications went up from 25,000 last year to 28,000 this year for a freshman class of 4,500. 'It is hard to know how much is true interest,' said Barbara Gill, director of college admissions at the state's flagship campus. 'It was unusual to talk to a student who didn't apply to more than five schools.' "
Maryland Daily Record: "The University of Maryland's Hinman CEOs Program is getting a $50,000 gift to provide seed funding for students who are starting companies, thanks to alumnus Anik Singal, the university announced. Singal, who graduated from the university in 2005, is the founder of Affiliate Classroom, a step-by-step training program to help people launch and grow affiliate Internet businesses. The Hinman CEOs Alumni Fund, which Singal will chair, will give students access to capital for such purposes as expenses relating to legal work for company formation, patents, licensing, contracts and other legal needs, and marketing costs for research or advertising a proposed product or service."
Library Journal: "The Association of Research Libraries (ARL) Board of Directors has appointed Charles Lowry as the next executive director of the association, effective July 1. Since 1996, Lowry has been the dean of libraries at the University of Maryland, a major library system serving over 35,000 students, faculty, and staff. Lowry's appointment, however, is only for a limited, three year period. He will step down from his deanship at Maryland and take a leave of absence to lead ARL for the next three years. When his term concludes, he will return to a post in UM's iSchool, where he holds a tenured professorship."
Washington Times: "Property owners of about 400 private and government buildings in the Washington area announced yesterday that they would retrofit their buildings with energy-efficient features. They plan to invest $175 million in the retrofits but gain energy savings of $36.5 million a year. Buildings slated for the retrofits include the Washington Convention Center, much of the University of Maryland, College Park campus, the Brookings Institution headquarters and buildings belonging to real estate developer JBG Cos. in L'Enfant Plaza."
Science & Technology
United Press International: "BAE Systems (British Aerospace/Marconi Electronic Systems) is participating in a U.S. science universities collaboration to advance military robotics. The Micro Autonomous Systems and Technology Collaborative Technology Alliance plans to make progress in developing fundamental science and technology for future robotic systems in sectors such as small-scale aeromechanics and ambulation; propulsion; sensing, processing and communications; navigation and control; micro-devices and integration; platform packaging; and systems architectures, BAE Systems said in a statement. ... The MAST project will be divided into four main research areas, which will be directed by four principal alliance members, the company said: BAE Systems will direct Microsystems Integration, the University of Michigan will direct Microelectronics, the University of Maryland will direct Microsystem Mechanics, and the University of Pennsylvania will direct Processing for Autonomous Operation."
New Scientist: "A few years ago, Ning Zeng began to wonder about the hidden potential of landfill sites. He had been discussing a mystery with his students: for some reason, North America's carbon dioxide emissions are not quite as high as they 'should' be. Perhaps, one student suggested, America's huge landfill sites were acting as carbon sinks. After all, a lot of what is thrown away does not decompose: even 50-year-old newspapers can be perfectly legible. Zeng, an atmospheric scientist at the University of Maryland, College Park, later calculated that the amount of carbon sequestered in this way is actually tiny, but it gave him an idea. What if we could sequester the carbon locked up in trees in such a way that it doesn't get released back into the atmosphere? Could we store enough of it to offset a meaningful amount of emissions?"
Agence France-Presse: "Radical proposals to inject sulfur particles into the Earth's stratosphere to cool it down and battle global warming could instead badly damage the ozone layer, a study warned. 'Our research indicates that trying to artificially cool off the planet could have perilous side effects,' said researcher Simone Tilmes from the National Centre for Atmospheric Research. 'While climate change is a major threat, more research is required before society attempts global geoengineering solutions.' The study, published yesterday in Science, warns that injecting sulfate particles into the air at an altitude of some 10km to 50km, could lead to a loss of ozone above the Arctic and delay the recovery of the hole in the ozone layer above Antarctica by decades. ... 'This study highlights another connection between global warming and ozone depletion,' said co-author Ross Salawitch (atmospheric and oceanic science) of the University of Maryland. 'These traditionally had been thought of as separate problems but are now increasingly recognised to be coupled in subtle, yet profoundly important, manners.' "
Scientists from UM and the Max-Planck Institute for Solar System Research in Germany appear to have solved a long-standing mystery about the cause of anomalies in Jupiter's gossamer rings. In a new study published in Nature, they report that a faint extension of the outermost ring beyond the orbit of Jupiter's moon Thebe, and other observed deviations from an accepted model of ring formation, result from the interplay of shadow and sunlight on dust particles that make up the rings. 'It turns out that the outer ring's extended boundary and other oddities in Jupiter's rings really are "made in the shade," ' said Douglas Hamilton, professor of astronomy."
Phys.org: "A research team from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the University of Maryland has succeeded in cooling atoms of a rare-earth element, erbium, to within two millionths of a degree of absolute zero using a novel trapping and laser cooling technique. Their recent report is a major step towards a capability to capture, cool and manipulate individual atoms of erbium, an element with unique optical properties that promises highly sensitive nanoscale force or magnetic sensors, as well as single-photon sources and amplifiers at telecommunications wavelengths. It also may have applications in quantum computing devices." James Hanssen, who is research associate at UM's Institute for Research in Electronics and Applied Physics, co-authored the research.
Fire Rescue: "Turnout gear has come a long way. From the rubber coats of the 19th century to today's high-tech materials, no one can argue the modern firefighter is not better protected against the extreme temperatures that come with the job. But for many, the advances in protective clothing have had a downside, too. The 21st century firefighter can enter further and further into the fire, often to the point of no return. This has led experts to come up with a device that works in a similar way to the SCBA low-air warning bell -- except this one tells firefighters when their actual gear simply cannot protect them any more. For the past two years, safety engineers at the Fire Protection Engineering Department at the University of Maryland have been working on the heads-up temperature display. ... 'We hope we can implement this sensor within the fire service so that people will have thermal ability information similar to knowing how much air they have,' said Professor Marino diMarzo, chair of the engineering department (fire protection engineering, Clark School) behind the project."
Asian News International: "Scientists have come a step closer in designing a clean and efficient hydrogen-powered car, by demonstrating a novel class of materials, which could enable a practical hydrogen fuel tank. Storing enough raw hydrogen for a reasonable driving range would require either impractically high pressures for gaseous hydrogen or extremely low temperatures for liquid hydrogen. Now, researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology's Center for Neutron Research (NCNR) in US have demonstrated that a novel class of materials could enable a practical hydrogen fuel tank. For the research, a team from NIST, the University of Maryland and the California Institute of Technology studied metal-organic frameworks (MOFs)." Co-author Yun Lin, is a UM research associate, materials science and engineering.
Society & Culture
Annapolis Capital: "Did you know that when Maryland voted to abolish slavery in 1864, the measure initially didn't pass? In fact, Anne Arundel County's tally was only 281 for and 1,360 against. The measure failed until absentee votes from federal troops were counted. That's one of the interesting tidbits in a new publication that's a joint effort of the Maryland State Archives and the University of Maryland. The 38-page A Guide to the History of Slavery in Maryland provides a written narrative as well as photographs and a timeline. It's the result of two years of work, said Chris Haley, the director of the Study of the Legacy of Slavery in Maryland. ... It touches not only on racial issues, but also on economic, societal and religious factors, he explained. His department collaborated with Dr. Ira Berlin, a history professor at the University of Maryland, College Park, on the guide. ... The guide was originally intended as a primer for high school teachers, but Dr. Berlin said the information is readily accessible to everyone. The professor, along with graduate students, provided the text for the guide."
Archaeologists Find Log Road in Annapolis
Baltimore Sun "Standing over one of the Colonial, brick sidewalks that help define Annapolis, the archaeologists began digging with trowels and shovels. The team from the University of Maryland carved a 4-foot-long trench along a sidewalk at Fleet and Cornhill streets -- two of the oldest in the historic district. Bagging and tagging artifacts along the way, they scraped through the powdered remains of a red brick sidewalk from 1820 and a black layer of wood chips from 1740. Then they found something far more significant than the shards of pearlware, animal bones and the King George III penny that they uncovered in the layers above: a log street that archaeologists called the oldest remnant yet discovered of the Annapolis settlement. ... The find ... is unique because log roads, while common during Colonial times, rotted long ago, said Mark Leone, a University of Maryland archaeologist who started the Archaeology in Annapolis project in 1981."
Reuters: "Eight out of 10 Arabs have an unfavourable view of the United States and only six per cent believe the US troop build-up in Iraq in the last year has worked, said a poll of six Arab countries. The poll by the University of Maryland and Zogby International, also found most Arabs did not see US foe Iran as a threat and they sympathized more with Hamas in the Palestinian Territories than US-backed Fatah. 'There is a growing mistrust and lack of confidence in the United States,' said Shibley Telhami, a University of Maryland professor (Sadat Professor for Peace and Development) in charge of the annual poll. ... Of those polled, 83 per cent had an unfavourable view of the United States and 70 per cent had no confidence in the superpower. 'You see this (mistrust) in the number of people who are more comfortable with the US withdrawal from Iraq,' said Telhami, noting that more people in this year's annual survey wanted the United States to leave Iraq."
Reuters: "Most people believe oil is running out and governments need to find another fuel, but Americans are alone in thinking their leaders are out of touch with reality on this issue, an international poll said on Sunday. On average, 70 percent of respondents in 15 countries and the Palestinian territories said they thought oil supplies had peaked. Only 22 percent of the nearly 15,000 respondents in nations ranging from China to Mexico believed enough new oil would be found to keep it a primary fuel source. 'What's most striking is there's such a widespread consensus around the world that oil is running out and governments need to make a real effort to find new sources of energy,' said Steven Kull, director of WorldPublicOpinion.org (School of Public Policy), a global research organization that conducted the poll. Concerns over climate change, which is spurred by emissions from fossil fuels including oil, also were a factor among respondents, Kull said."
An analysis, published in the Economic Journal, shows parents were more likely to withdraw their support from first-born children who got into trouble than younger siblings who ended up in the same situation. This is despite the fact that younger siblings were more likely to engage in these forms of behaviour, particularly dropping out of school. The BBC: "The oldest children in a family are likely to face the toughest discipline, academics have found. There seems to be truth in the belief that younger siblings get away with more, according to a study by American academics. They also found that younger children were more likely to rebel and 'go off the rails.' ... Co-author Ginger Zhe Jin, an assistant professor of economics at the University of Maryland, said: 'Tender-hearted parents find it harder and harder to engage in "tough love" since, as they have fewer young children in the house, they have less incentive to uphold reputations as disciplinarians. As a result, the theory predicts that last-born and only children, knowing that they can get away with much more than their older brothers and sisters, are, on average, more likely to engage in risky behaviour.' "
Vancouver Sun: "Children born to methamphetamine-using moms have a strong chance of growing up healthy if risks tied to the mother's drug use are treated, says a visiting academic. Poverty, mental illness and family violence can be as damaging, or more so, to a child's development than exposure to stimulants in the womb, according to research presented during Cracked But Not Broken, a three-day international conference on addiction which ended yesterday at the University of British Columbia. 'The moms don't have the support structures in place to be employed, have good relationships with their parents and are at risk of entering the prison system,' said Dr. Amelia Arria, associate director for the Center for Substance Abuse Research at the University of Maryland. The five-year study recruited adult women belonging to the same socio-economic background from four U.S. states."
Medical News Today: "Sigmund Freud hailed the phenomenon of transference as fundamental to the process of dynamic psychotherapy. Freud depicted transference as a false connection between patient's memories of a past relationship and the therapeutic context. He noted it as an integral part in the psychoanalytic cure. New theories present a very different interpretation of transference. In that, it transcends the therapeutic context and constitutes part and parcel of everyday social perception. Much like stereotypes, mental representations of significant others may be activated from memory and applied to new people that you meet who resemble someone you know. Psychodynamic theories argue that transference is an intense, resource-demanding process, but psychologists Arie Kruglanski (Distinguished University Professor of Psychology, University of Maryland, and Antonio Pierro, University of Rome 'La Sapienza,' suggest that transference is more likely to occur when an individual's energy resources are low, rather than abundant."
A poll whose results were published around the world. Christian Science Monitor: "The world may not be ready to forgive George Bush, but it is slowly starting to forgive America. That was the strongest message to emerge from a survey of attitudes in 34 nations toward the world's leading powers released here Wednesday. 'There are a number of reasons to think this is ultimately a turning point [in perceptions of the US],' says Steven Kull, director of the Program on International Policy Attitudes (PIPA) at the University of Maryland, which helped conduct the BBC World Service poll of more than 17,000 people. Previous surveys showed global dismay about US influence in the world, especially its handling of prisoners at Guantânamo and Abu Ghraib, as well as White House inertia on climate change and Middle East peace."
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