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Friday, February 5
Highlighted News Items
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UM--Higher Ed, Community
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UM No. 1 Among U.S. Public Universities at International Collegiate Programming Contest World Finals
(Association for Computing Machinery)
Standings at the ACM (Association for Computing Machinery) International Collegiate Programming Contest World Finals in Harbin, China.
UM finished No. 32 overall and No. 6 among U.S. competitors. (No. 1 Stanford, No 2 Cornell, No.3 Carnegie-Mellon, No. 4 MIT, No. 5 Columbia, No. 6 Maryland, No. 7 Michigan, No. 8 Wisconsin, No. 9 Duke, No. 10 Rochester.
"A three-student undergraduate team from Maryland's College of Computer, Mathematical and Physical Sciences (CMPS) has once again earned a spot to compete in the World Finals of the IBM-sponsored Association for Computer Machinery (ACM) International Collegiate Programming Contest (ICPC). Coached by Prof. Amol Deshpande (Computer Science and UMIACS), Maryland Computer Science and Mathematics majors Alan Jackoway, Mitchell Katz and Matt McCutchen won the ACM Mid-Atlantic Programming Contest in early November, which qualified them for the 2010 ACM-ICPC World Finals. Only 21 U.S. universities earned the chance to compete in the competition -- better known as the 'Battle of the Brains.' Upwards of 7,100 teams, representing more than 1,830 universities from around the globe, participated in the regional competitions last fall. Last year, the University of Maryland took 20th place in the competition -- tied with Stanford. It was the best showing by any public university in the United States."
Source:
ACM
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Northrop Grumman, PG County and UM
(Business Gazette)
"Gov. Martin O'Malley's staff is evaluating a study that discusses the merits of moving either the state's Military Department or the Department of Housing and Community Development to a new location in Prince George's County, a state official said Thursday. ... Also revealed at the Thursday meeting, two county sites are being offered to Northrop Grumman for consideration as the company plans to move its headquarters to the Washington, D.C., area. One is at National Harbor and the other is at the University of Maryland, College Park, said Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr. (D-Dist. 27) of Chesapeake Beach."
Source:
Business Gazette
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snOMG Freaks Colleges Out
(Washington Post)
"Meteorologists are calling for an epic snow storm in the D.C. area this afternoon: A foot or two of snow falling at the rate of one or two inches an hour. Snow has just begun to fall from the sky in the District (that photo is from another storm, at the University of Nebraska). But since last night, local colleges have been canceling classes at rapid speed: University of Maryland, Catholic University and College of Southern Maryland didn't even open today. (Here's our full list of snow closures, delays and early dismissals.) ... I hail from the Midwest, where cold-weather-hardened administrators refused to cancel school unless the storm reached truly epic levels -- like double-digital negative temperatures, thick ice and, you know, flakes falling from the sky. A shortage on Puffins cereal at Whole Foods did not, in my college years, count as an emergency."
Source:
Washington Post
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Mtechs Maryland Industrial Partnerships Program Announces 17 Research Projects
(Epicos)
"University of Maryland's Maryland Industrial Partnerships Program (MIPS), an initiative of the Maryland Technology Enterprise Institute (Clark School of Engineering), today announces 17 research projects teaming Maryland companies and university faculty to develop high technology and biotechnology commercial products. Worth $3 million, the projects combine $1.5 million from participating companies and $1.5 million from MIPS. Funding supports research in the laboratories of participating university faculty, who work closely with partner companies to advance their products. All funding goes to the project faculty and often supports the work of graduate students." UM faculty received 10 of the possible 17 awards.
Source:
Epicos (UM Release)
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UM to Team with Companies on Product Development
(Baltimore Sun)
"The University of Maryland says it is teaming with Maryland companies on 17 research projects to develop products for technologies ranging from wind power to removing nutrients from wastewater. Other projects include restoring vegetation in the Chesapeake Bay and medical technologies for diabetes, kidney disease and other conditions. The companies include Hunt Valley-based Mastix Medica, which is developing a chewing gum to help dialysis patients control phosphorus levels, and Jessup-based American Dynamics Flight Systems, which is working on propulsion systems for unmanned aircraft that can take off and land vertically. The projects are being funded with a total of $3 million from the companies and the university's Maryland Industrial Partnerships Program."
Source:
Baltimore Sun
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UM Scholar Studies College Application Hype
(Washington Post)
"The College of William and Mary announced Tuesday it has received 12,500 applications for a freshman class no larger than 1,500 students. A sobering statistic. Or is it? Samir Khuller, a computer science professor at the University of Maryland, examines college-application hype in a paper titled 'How many places to apply to and how many to accept?' He co-wrote it with Jessica Chang, a graduate student at the University of Washington. understanding their findings requires a grasp of simple statistics, or a large cup of coffee. 'In short," Khuller said, 'we were trying to show that the "demand" can be slightly misleading.' They document a vicious cycle in college admissions: 'If people apply to more and more places, a lot of applications get generated, making it look like it's near impossible to get admission,' he said, in a series of e-mails explaining the paper. 'As a result, people apply to more and more places.' "
Source:
Washington Post
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UM Extension: Youth Robotics Team Takes Lessons from Legos
(Gazette Newspapers)
Extension Robotics in Clinton, Md.: "The Lego Bros. is one of 158 teams of young engineers throughout Maryland participating in the First Lego League, an international program that promotes math and science by introducing robotics technology to young people ages 9 to 14. First Lego League teams build robotic cars using Lego pieces and carry out an original research project on an annual theme; this year's theme was about improving transportation.The First Lego League began in 1998, but The Lego Bros. team only started in September. Team coach Shante Stokes, an educator with 4-H, secured a $1,000 grant from the National 4-H Council and JCPenney Afterschool Fund to purchase materials and cover any other costs. ... The team has met twice a week since September in a classroom at the University of Maryland Extension office in Clinton. Stokes and another volunteer, Katherine Stambaugh, have helped the boys learn how to build the robotic car and program different tasks using special computer programs."
Source:
Gazette Newspapers
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Riverdale Park Residents May Get to Ride UM Buses
(Washington Post)
"Riverdale Park is examining a potential program in which town residents could ride the University of Maryland, College Park's buses without paying fares. The council unanimously approved a resolution Jan. 21 expressing interest in pursuing a resident ridership program with the university's Shuttle-UM system, which provides daily bus service to students throughout areas of northern Prince George's County. But before any kind of deal can be worked out with the university, state legislation needs to be changed in order to allow riders not affiliated with the university to ride the buses, Riverdale Park Town Administrator Sara Imhulse said."
Source:
Washington Post
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UM Alum: Bowie Woman to Run 'The Amazing Race'
(Gazette Newspapers)
"No matter how ingrained reality television shows have become in popular culture, the reality is that it's still pretty hard to get a spot on one. Just ask Bowie resident Shawne Morgan. The first two times she tried to get on 'The Amazing Race,' she didn't make it. But her persistence paid off: Morgan did finally make it on the show with her friend Monique Pryor, beating out tens of thousands of other applicants from around the country for one of the 11 coveted team spots. They'll be in this year's Amazing Race, which premieres Feb. 14 on CBS. Morgan said she is planning a Bowie watch party with family and friends at Buffalo Wild Wings on Martin Luther King Jr. Highway. ... Morgan, who lives in Bowie with her husband Clif, 7-year-old daughter and 4-year-old son, grew up in Chesapeake, Va. She received her degree in government and politics from the University of Maryland in College Park. There, Morgan and Pryor were members of the same sorority, Alpha Kappa Alpha; later on, they became good friends during a study-abroad program in Nairobi."
Source:
Gazette Newspapers
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Yow: Football Legislation Inflames Athletic Directors
(Gazette Newspapers)
"When Towson University Athletic Director Mike Hermann was hired in 2006, his first phone call was to schedule a football game with the University of Maryland, College Park. The teams are scheduled to play in 2011. Contests between in-state foes may become more frequent if lawmakers pass a bill introduced this week. It would require the Terrapins to play both the Tigers and Morgan State -- Maryland's two Football Championship Subdivision schools -- at least once every four years. The Bears are scheduled to play at Maryland this fall. ... But the three schools' athletic directors aren't sure that government should be in the business of mandating college football matchups. 'Generally, as a concept, I believe in institutional control and autonomy on a number of campus-related initiatives, and that would include scheduling football games,' said University of Maryland Athletic Director Deborah A. Yow. Bigger football programs typically pay large sums to have smaller schools play at their home stadium. If the games are mandated by law, 'why would we pay them to do that?' Yow said. Further, Yow questioned whether the state will determine where the games are played and force schools to void existing contracts, if necessary, to fit the in-state contests on the schedule."
Source:
Gazette Newspapers
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Science and Technology
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Moss: 'Zen' Bats Hit Their Target by Not Aiming at It
(Science Daily)
UM Newsdesk released published on many science Web sites: "New research conducted at the University of Maryland's bat lab shows Egyptian fruit bats find a target by NOT aiming their guiding sonar directly at it. Instead, they alternately point the sound beam to either side of the target. The new findings by researchers from Maryland and the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel suggest that this strategy optimizes the bats' ability to pinpoint the location of a target, but also makes it harder for them to detect a target in the first place. 'We think that this tradeoff between detecting a object and determining its location is fundamental to any process that involves tracking an object whether done by a bat, a dog or a human, and whether accomplished through hearing, smell or sight,' said coauthor Cynthia Moss, a University of Maryland professor of psychology, who directs interdisciplinary bat echolocation research in the university's Auditory Neuroethology Lab, better known as the bat lab. Moss, colleagues Nachum Ulanovsky and Yossi Yovel of the Weizmann Institute, and Ben Falk, a graduate student of Moss's in Maryland's Neuroscience and Cognitive Science Program, published their findings in the journal Science. Ulanovsky, the paper's corresponding author, was a Maryland postdoctoral student under Moss."
Source:
Science Daily
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Moss: Optimal Localization by Pointing Off Axis
(Science)
Report on Cynthia Moss's research in Science: "Is centering a stimulus in the field of view an optimal strategy to localize and track it? We demonstrated, through experimental and computational studies, that the answer is no. We trained echolocating Egyptian fruit bats to localize a target in complete darkness, and we measured the directional aim of their sonar clicks. The bats did not center the sonar beam on the target, but instead pointed it off axis, accurately directing the maximum slope ("edge") of the beam onto the target. Information-theoretic calculations showed that using the maximum slope is optimal for localizing the target, at the cost of detection. We propose that the tradeoff between detection (optimized at stimulus peak) and localization (optimized at maximum slope) is fundamental to spatial localization and tracking accomplished through hearing, olfaction, and vision."
Source:
Science Magazine
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Moss: Egyptian Fruit Bats Find Target by Not Aiming Directly at It
(Asian News International)
"In a new research, scientists at the University of Maryland have found that Egyptian fruit bats find a target by not aiming their guiding sonar directly at it, but alternately pointing the sound beam to either side of the target. The new findings, by researchers from Maryland and the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel, suggest that this strategy optimizes the bats' ability to pinpoint the location of a target, but also makes it harder for them to detect a target in the first place. For the research, the team of researchers trained fruit bats to land on a spherical target while relying exclusively on their sonar. Trained in Israel, the bats were then brought to Maryland to be studied in (Professor Cynthia) Moss's specialized lab."
Source:
Asian News International
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Kanold: Imaging Techniques Reveal New Picture of Sound Processing
(Asian News International)
"Researchers from the University of Maryland have come up with a surprising picture of neuronal activity after using advanced imaging techniques to see how the brain processes sound. The study was conducted by Patrick Kanold, Assistant Professor of Biology, Shihab Shamma, Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Institute for Systems Research (ISR), and Sharba Bandyopadhyay, Assistant Research Scientist (ISR). Dr. Kanold said all our knowledge of the brain's functioning has been based on taking a small sampling of all available neurons and making inferences about how the other neurons respond. He explained: 'This is like showing someone who wants to know how America looks, "Here is one person from New York City and one person from California." You don't get a very good picture of what the country looks like from that sampling.' However, Kanold and his team were able to look at the activity of all the neurons in a large region of the auditory cortex simultaneously."
Source:
Asian News International
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Thorne: Termite Battles May Explain Evolution of Social Insects
(Live Science)
"Natural selection argues for small biological changes that yield greater chances of survival and successful reproduction. Yet, that process does not square well with the evolution of social insects, particularly when their colonies can have over a million non-reproductive members. A new study of termites may have the answer for such an evolutionary question, first posed by Charles Darwin nearly 150 years ago: How does natural selection support insect 'worker' and 'soldier' offspring who never reproduce, find mates or start their own colonies? Apparently, the answer may be because the workers and soldiers stay home. 'This question about the evolution of social behavior among insects really intrigued me,' said lead researcher and University of Maryland evolutionary biologist Barbara Thorne, who has spent nearly 30 years pursuing the answer. ... Thorne's recent research, funded in part by NSF, puts forth a novel theory that it was more advantageous for early termite offspring to stay at home and help their parents than risk dangerous attempts at creating independent colonies away from the nest where they would be more susceptible to predators. The termite youngsters had the best opportunity to take over the reproductive throne when their parents were killed by neighbors. 'The incentive to remain home with their siblings and inherit their parents' estate could provide a missing link to the evolution of sterility among social insects,' Thorne said. Thorne and her colleagues Philip Johns and Ken Howard, both now at Bard College, and fellow Maryland colleagues Nancy Breisch and Anahi Rivera, staged meetings between colonies of neighboring Dampwood termites -- the most primitive living termites with traits similar to hypothesized ancestors -- and also analyzed the termites' genetic markers."
Source:
Live Science
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Pecht: Toyota Recalls Spur Worries
(NPR: All Things Considered)
Audio and transcript., All Things Considered
Professor MICHAEL PECHT (University of Maryland): "The electronics of the car is probably the likely suspect for this."
LANGFITT: "Pecht is the co-author of "'Sudden Acceleration.' He's also a professor of electronics reliability at the University of Maryland. Pecht says electromagnetic interference may be causing the throttles to just open up. In the old days, throttles were mechanical and used cables. Today, they rely on computers and sensors. Pecht says any number of things can cause interference."
Prof. PECHT: "It could be even a cell phone. It could be power lines and it could be other electronics in the car, by the way."
LANGFITT: "But proving that is hard. Pecht says electronic failures are intermittent and difficult to replicate in tests. He compares it to what happens when your laptop crashes."
Prof. PECHT: "Let's say you have an HP computer and it suddenly doesn't work, and you reboot it and now you go to HP and you say, okay, HP my computer crashed yesterday right in the middle of doing something. And they're going to say, okay, well, let me see your computer. Well, I can't find anything. It looks good to me. It was working great."
Source:
NPR: All Things Considered
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Society and Culture
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Morici: Toyota's Safety Concerns Deepen
(Toronto Globe & Mail)
"The tough anti-Toyota talk is raising awkward questions about potential conflicts of interest for the Obama administration. The U.S. government is part owner of two U.S. auto makers that stand to gain if buyers shun Toyota -- General Motors and Chrysler. Washington owns 60.8 per cent of GM and 10 per cent of Chrysler. Peter Morici, a University of Maryland business professor and auto industry expert, said it's difficult to 'divine ulterior motives' in Mr. LaHood's retracted warning. But Prof. Morici said he doesn't blame the Obama administration for putting Toyota owners on alert. 'You can't fault LaHood for telling people not to drive a vehicle that could run away from them, hurting them or others,' Prof. Morici said. And he acknowledged that Toyota's pain is GM's gain because it has the capacity to sell more cars."
Source:
Toronto Globe & Mail
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Morici: White House Piles Pressure on Toyota
(Canada.com)
"While ill-considered, Mr. LaHood's comments also highlight the inherent conflict the U.S. and Canadian governments face acting as a regulator while owning a substantial chunk of its competitors, General Motors Corp. and Chrysler Group LLC. 'They are conflicted. This is the problem you have when the referee is a player as well,' said Peter Morici, a professor at the Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland. But until Mr. LaHood's comments Wednesday, it appeared the U.S. Government's response to the recalls has been appropriate, Prof. Morici said. 'They've been pretty tough on American automakers over the years on this stuff,' he said. 'With recalls in the United States, if you get on it fast, they want to help you get it done. If you shuck and jive and you try to put off the inevitable, the system comes down on you hard.' "
Source:
Canada.com (Toronto National Post)
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Morici: Jobless Rate Unexpectedly Drops To 9.7 Percent
(NPR)
"The department also revised its estimates for April through October 2009, adding an additional 433,000 job losses. November was revised up, however, to show a gain of 64,000 jobs. In total, the government now says the worst downturn since the Great Depression has eliminated 8.4 million jobs. The figure for discouraged workers and those working part-time but want full-time work also dropped to 16.5 percent from 17.3 percent in December. Even with the revised data confusing the picture, Brian Wesbury, chief economist at Chicago-based First Trust, says the report is encouraging, with household employment up along with increased productivity. 'People are working harder and earning more and to my mind that means the economy is entering a self-sustaining recovery,' Wesbury told NPR. But other economists were less optimistic. Peter Morici, a University of Maryland economist, told NPR that while the numbers were consistent with a moderate recovery, they were largely accounted for in the revised data. 'The actual unemployment in the economy did not go down, it's just the data was revised,' he said. 'When you have a revision in the data like this, you really have to wait until next month, at least, to get a clear picture of what's going on.' Morici said the data were encouraging enough, however, to push the risk of a double-dip recession down to 1 in 3 or even 1 in 4."
Source:
NPR
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Ruth: Trees by the Bay Bulking Up
(Baltimore Sun)
"Forests by the Chesapeake Bay are growing two to four times faster than expected these days, researchers have found - a signal that rising carbon dioxide in our atmosphere might be triggering noticeable changes in ecosystems in the Mid-Atlantic. And though scientists warn it's no panacea, the accelerated growth in stands of hardwoods monitored for the past 22 years is an indication that forests might dampen or delay the impact of climate change at least for a while, by soaking up some of the greenhouse gases that most scientists believe are warming the planet. 'We clearly see an increase in growth in these forests lately,' said Geoffrey Parker, a senior scientist at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center in Edgewater. The 58-year-old forest ecologist said he's been methodically measuring the girth of trees since he began working at the facility in 1987. ... A 2008 University of Maryland study also suggested that the makeup of the state's forests might change as climate warms, with hardwoods in western and northern Maryland giving way to more heat-tolerant southern pines and oaks. Warmer summers and lack of precipitation might increase the risk of forest fires as well, it notes. Matthias Ruth, director of the University of Maryland's Center for Integrative Environmental Research, said the Smithsonian scientists' findings are "perfectly consistent" with what computer climate models project. But he cautioned that the beneficial effects of forests soaking up carbon dioxide likely won't last long. 'As trees grow faster and we change climate, diseases will become an issue,' he predicted. The findings now suggest there's a brief "window" before harmful changes wrought by rising greenhouse gases overwhelm the beneficial effects."
Source:
Baltimore Sun
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Moeller: Images Demand a Deeper Look
(Albany Times-Union)
"We need images. They offer a glimpse at the face of tragedy. They jolt us from our slumber of indifference. Moreover, they kindle in us first steps in understanding -- awakening and curiosity. Images shape our sympathies and transform them into action, as in the record outpouring of international support for Haitian survivors. Sympathy's one moral value lies in its transformation into deed. Even when used as corporate and political tools to mobilize support, images reflect our connectedness with each other and with history. If memory is our only connection to the past, images keep memory alive. Images also have their dark side. They can consume our vision and blind us to misery closer to home. Image glut can harden sentiment and inure, what University of Maryland journalism expert Susan Moeller describes as 'compassion fatigue.' The blend of pity, desensitization, and helplessness can lead to callous indifference....Particularly in the matter of Haiti, images can short-circuit
thinking. Believing that the image alone is the complete story
constitutes a pernicious illusion. The danger lies in assuming the
image, an antiseptic construction of what is "real," to be our
principal means to know reality. Instead, the image freezes a moment in
time, a fragment in a complex web of historic, political, economic,
social and cultural forces, discerned only through reading, study and
reflection. Understanding Haiti's plight requires seeing beyond
images and reflecting on its sad history of exploitation, violence and
offensive health care conditions."
Source:
Alany Times-Union
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Q&A: Carmen Reinhart on Greece, U.S. Debt and Other 'Scary Scenarios'
(Wall Street Journal)
"University of Maryland Professor Carmen Reinhart co-authored one of the most important economics books of 2009, 'This Time Is Different: Eight Centuries of Financial Folly,' a catalogue of financial crises, their causes and consequences. In January, Ms. Reinhart and her co-author, Harvard Professor Kenneth Rogoff, both former International Monetary Fund economists, produced a sobering follow-on to the book, a new paper called, 'Growth in a time of Debt,' which reviewed the painful consequences of the rising government debt loads that often follow financial crises. We interviewed Mr. Rogoff and Ms. Reinhart in October. With worries about public debt now mounting in financial markets, we decided to catch up with Ms. Reinhart again in Washington D.C. this week. As she sipped on a hot cup of tea, she offered the following sobering assessment of the many challenges ahead for policy makers in the U.S. and Europe."
Source:
Wall Street Journal
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Kettl: Why Federal Workers Deserve What They're Paid
(Washington Post)
"The affection is apparent in Chapter 10 of the 'Analytical Perspectives' section of the budget. 'We are fortunate to be able to rely upon a skilled workforce committed to the public service,' it says. Of course, lip service like that comes quick and easy. What makes this budget stand out is the level of serious attention that the White House, through its Office of Management and Budget, gives to federal employees. Recent budgets by previous administrations have not gone into the depth of detail on federal-workplace issues that Obama's spending plan does. The OMB's focus on the workforce is important because of the critical role the budget office plays in setting -- and enforcing -- administration priorities. Under Obama, that muscle is being applied to workplace matters in a determined fashion. Says Donald F. Kettl, dean of the University of Maryland's School of Public Policy: 'If you grab people by their budgets, their hearts and minds will follow.' "
Source:
Washington Post
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Herrnson: Maryland May Be Too Blue for Republican Surge
(Baltimore Sun)
"A wave of voter anger and frustration sweeping the nation may make for a more interesting election year in strongly Democratic Maryland, conservative activists and candidates say. That anger -- attributed to frustration over the health care reform bill and the stumbling economy -- boiled over in dramatic fashion in Massachusetts when Republican Scott Brown upset Democrat Martha Coakley in a special election Jan. 19 to fill the Senate seat of the late Ted Kennedy. That result has led to speculation that more Democrats could be headed toward similar upsets in the fall. Gov. Martin O'Malley, Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., and all eight of Maryland's representatives in the House are up for re-election this November. Every incumbent except for one, Rep. Roscoe Bartlett, R-Frederick, is a Democrat. ... The recent Supreme Court ruling that loosened restrictions on political campaign spending by corporations and labor unions is expected to have an impact on the Kratovil-Harris race, said Paul Herrnson, a political science professor at the University of Maryland, College Park. 'It will attract a fair amount of money and it will attract some outside spending,' said Herrnson. 'It should be a lively race.' Herrnson said that most incumbents in Maryland's congressional delegation are fairly safe, and the state is unlikely to see a huge political swing in 2010. 'I anticipate that Democrats in Maryland will continue to control the state legislature and probably continue to control the governorship and they should learn from the lessons that were learned in Massachusetts,' Herrnson said. 'If you want to get elected, winning your primary isn't sufficient.' "
Source:
Baltimore Sun
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Walters: The Big Question: Will the Budget Deficit Be a Major Issue for Voters?
(The Hill)
Ron Walters, professor of Government and Politics at the University of Maryland, said:
"The normal politics of this situation would be that if you equalize the challenge of a reduction in unemployment with the deficit problem, the public has generally privileged the former and forgotten the latter. Thus the deficit only matters in a context where the anger of the public over the lack of personal security exists. I would think, given this, that the Democrats may be in some trouble, since Obama's job creation mechanism is relatively modest in its emphasis on tax incentives and levying $30 billion to community banks so they can hire. Businesses don't hire just because there is money available, they hire because there is an increasing demand for their product, so unless there is overall growth in demand, this strategy might not be as dynamic as required to affect the unemployment rate much. In any case, I think that the so-called 'freeze' -- whether or not it is a fraud -- could hurt aspects of the Democratic party like blacks whose needs depend upon precisely those categories of the budget that will likely be frozen. Unless the projected unemployment rate of 20% by this Fall is satiated, the political effect of this is likely to deepen cynicism and affect their turnout, as it has in the by-year elections we have seen thus far."
Source:
The Hill
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