Annual campaign finance reports released this week indicate three fundraising leaders among potential Democratic candidates for Maryland governor: Lt. Gov. Anthony Brown (taking in $1.25 million), Attorney General Douglas Gansler ($1.24 million) and Howard County Exec. Ken Ulman ($1.14 million). A fourth potential candidate, Montgomery County Del. Heather Mazeur, collected $248,671 in 2012, leaving her with $380,000 in cash on hand.

Donald F. Norris, professor and chairman of UMBC’s Department of Public Policy, told the Baltimore Sun that Ulman’s fundraising figures were particularly surprising, saying, “You would think the other candidates would be ahead of him, but he’s been out there on the hustings.” Regarding relative newcomer Mazeur, Norris notes that the little-known delegate would face long odds in a gubernatorial race but, “This is very early and is very fluid. A lot of things can happen.”

Leading potential candidates from the Republican party include Harford County Exec. David Craig and Frederick County Commission Pres. Blaine Young.

For the sixth time since 2000, UMBC associate head men’s soccer coach Anthony Adams has been recognized by College Soccer News as one of the top assistant coaches in the nation.

The web publication cited Adams among 15 assistant or associate head coaches at the NCAA Division I level. He earned his fifth accolade after the 2010 season, and in 2003, he was one of 27 college coaches in the nation (all sports) to be honored as an Assistant Coach of the Year by AFLAC.

Adams earned four letters for UMBC from 1992-95 and was a starter in the backfield in his final three seasons. The Dundalk, Md. native (Calvert Hall) started his UMBC tenure on the bench with head coach Pete Caringi, Jr. in the fall of 1997. The coaching tandem has led the Retrievers to three conference titles (1999, 2010, 2012) and subsequent NCAA Tournament appearances and three additional regular season championships (1999, 2002, 2003) since 1999.

The American Association of Immunologists (AAI) awarded Dr. Suzanne Ostrand-Rosenberg, Department of Biological Sciences Professor, the 2013 Excellence in Mentoring Award “[i]n recognition of exemplary career contributions to a future generation of scientists.”

View the official announcement and see other award recipients at the American Association of Immunologists website.

For All the World to See: Visual Culture and the Struggle for Civil Rights, the exhibition currently on display in the Center for Art, Design and Visual Culture was mentioned earlier today in Baltimore Arts, the blog of the Baltimore Office of Promotion and Arts.

Visit the blog: baltimorearts.org

Every year the website Edge.org poses an annual question to dozens of scholars, scientists, writers, artists and thinkers.  Among them is Robert Provine, professor of psychology.

NPR’s 13.7 blog wrote about this year’s question, “What should we be worried about?” in a January 14 post.

Themes that the blog detected in the answers included “the impact of technology on individual minds and human relationships,” “the growing disconnect between science and the rest of human knowledge and culture,” and “worry itself.”

Provine gave a positive spin on the question, urging people to “stop worrying about worry.” “Too much worry strands us in an agitated state of despair, anxiety and paranoia; too little leaves us without motivation and direction,” he wrote.

Based on Provine’s advice, readers are urged to “go ahead and read all 150-plus responses to this year’s challenge. But in the interest of worrying just the right amount, you might not want to do so in a single sitting.”

UMBC professor Dr. Tim Oates has been named an Oros Family Professor in Computer Science and Technology. The five-year endowed professorship will fund Dr. Oates’ newly proposed research project in the area of mobile healthcare.

Read more about endowed professorships at UMBC here.

A professor of computer science and electrical engineering, Dr. Oates is principal investigator in UMBC’s Cognition, Robotics and Learning (CoRaL) Lab, where he pursues research in the broad areas of artificial intelligence, machine learning, robotics, and natural language processing.

“I was delighted to recommend Dr. James T. Oates’ appointment as Oros Family Professor in Computer Science and Technology, an endowed professorship established to honor and support the work of faculty pursuing scholarly activity in computer science,” says Dr. Warren Devries, Dean of UMBC’s College of Engineering and Information Technology.

“Tim Oates is a first rate teacher and scholar, and I had a chance to work with him as a key part of the College and CSEE department’s accreditation activity. Taken together this is precisely the type of faculty member this professorship is intended to recognize. The CSEE department’s faculty, staff and students are fortunate to have Tim Oates as a mentor and colleague.”

The funds will support graduate students to work with Dr. Oates on a project to improve healthcare in developing countries. “The issue is that in developing countries, almost everything is still done on paper,” explains Dr. Oates. That means that every record—things like immunization records and medical histories–are taken by hand. It’s an inefficient process that makes it hard to keep track of medical data.

His proposed solution is to develop an algorithm that can extract data from a cell-phone photo of the paper record. Once digitized, the medical data can be more easily shared and analyzed.

Dr. Oates chose to develop this technology for cell phones because they are a common and reliable tool in these areas, he explains. In many cases, cell phones can be found where basic needs are absent. “There are people living in villages that don’t have access to clean water, but they have cell phones,” he says.

Dr. Oates joins last year’s Oros Family Professor appointee, Dr. Anupam Joshi, who is similarly using the funds for his research in mobile healthcare.

– by Anissa Elmerraji ’11

This story originally appeared on the CSEE website.

Is Ray Lewis A Classic Raven?

Ray Lewis is the perfect Raven. So says Kevin Omland, a professor of biology at UMBC who’s spent his career studying the feathered version. Lewis is a classic: Smart – How else did he get to be one of the most successful linebackers of all time? Loyal – He started his career with Baltimore in 1996, and he’ll end it there this year. Tough – He’s leading the Ravens through the playoffs, wearing a bulky brace for a triceps tear that’s still healing.

Wait a minute, you say, what football player isn’t tough?  Fair enough. But part of what makes ravens stand out – their recipe for success, if you will – is a rare combination of traits perfect for just about anywhere in the world, including some field in Massachusetts. According to Dr. Omland, ravens are …

SMART: Ravens are among the smartest of birds. They can figure out complicated problems using insight, rather than just solving things by trial and error.

ADAPTABLE: Ravens are found over much of the world, from the mountains of western Maryland to Mexico, from Arizona to Alaska, from China to the Czech Republic.

LOYAL: Ravens mate for life. The pair works together year round to defend a territory, forage for food, find a nest site and raise young.

BIG: Ravens are the largest songbird species in the world. They are roughly twice the size of the American Crows common around Baltimore.

TOUGH: Ravens are the only birds that spend the whole winter in the high arctic, following wolves and polar bears to feed on their prey. Foxborough is a tropical paradise by comparison.

READY TO WIN: Oh, yeah, sorry.  We were talking about the birds.

(1/15/13)

“Bittersweet.”

That’s how Kyla McMullen ’05, computer science, describes what it feels like to be the first African American woman at the University of Michigan to graduate with a Ph.D. in computer science.

– Read an interview with McMullen in NBC’s The Grio here.

“I don’t think there’s anything special about me,” says a modest Kyla, who recently started a new job as an Assistant Professor in the Human-Centered Computing division of Clemson University’s School of Computing. She explains that while it’s nice to be recognized as a “first,” her accomplishment points out a sad reality: not enough women and minorities are pursuing advanced degrees in computer science. Out of the more than 1,400 Americans who received Ph.Ds in computer science from 2010-2011, less than a quarter were female, and a mere 1.2 % (or 16 people) were African American, according to the latest Computing Research Association (CRA) Taulbee Survey. It’s a good thing staggering statistics like that didn’t deter Kyla, who finished her doctorate at Michigan in 2012.

Kyla’s passion for computer science started early and was nurtured throughout high school. “When I was little, I always liked gadgets,” she says. She remembers being fascinated by her family’s first computer because it seemed like magic. She admits to staying up all night, clicking through file folders, trying to figure out how it worked. Luckily for Kyla, her high school in her hometown of Oxon Hill Maryland had a special computer science track. This meant exposure to curriculum that most high schools lack, and the opportunity to take courses in computer programming and engineering early on.

It paid off. One day, Kyla was sitting in calculus class when the guidance counselor called her to his office. She thought she was in trouble, but he actually wanted to recommend that she apply for UMBC’s Meyerhoff Scholarship program.

“It was an excellent opportunity,” says Kyla of the program (she was a member of the 13th cohort). Though tough, Kyla credits the program’s sense of community and her mentors as crucial ingredients of her success. She remembers her time at UMBC fondly; especially the hours spent burning the midnight oil with her two study buddies, Aimee Strang ’05, computer science, and Nwokedi Idika ’05, computer science (who is now, coincidentally, the first African American to get a Ph.D. in Computer Science from Purdue University).

As graduation neared, Kyla knew that she was bound for graduate school. She also knew that Michigan was the last place she wanted to live. But, at the insistence of Keith Harmon, then the Assistant Director of the Meyerhoff Scholars Program, and Lamont Toliver, late Meyerhoff Scholars Program Director, she reluctantly made the trip to tour the University of Michigan, where she promptly fell in love.

Here, the graduate students were happy and invested in one another’s success—an atmosphere that mirrored that of UMBC, she says. That, coupled with the school’s high reputation for computer science, made her decision to study there a no-brainer. “My time at UMBC prepared me very well for Michigan.”

At Michigan, Kyla explored a little before finding her niche. Drawn to the human aspect of artificial intelligence, she joined the intelligent systems group. Then, in 2007, while pursuing her Master’s, she began working on educational software that taught kids how to make relationships between objects. One of her favorite parts, she admits, was getting to know the kids in the classroom before testing out the software.

After that, Kyla discovered spatial audio. Her research involved constructing virtual environments navigable by sound alone. “It’s like searching for a cell phone in the dark,” explains Kyla, who has worked with the Naval Submarine Medical Research Lab on her research. The concept, which can be applied to any domain with a spatial component, is especially being considered for workers in dangerous environments.

Another of Kyla’s passions while at Michigan was promoting the sciences within minorities. During her time, she was both the President and the Vice President of The Society of Minority Engineers and Scientists and the Vice President of the Movement of Underrepresented Sisters in Engineering and Science (MUSES). Though, she recognizes the benefit of the groups, she talks about their limited capacity to help. “You can only influence the people who make it in the doors, but not the people who aren’t in the doors yet.”

That’s why Kyla stresses the importance of relatable role models early on. In high school, hers was computer science teacher Mr. Randy Ware, a young and “normal” teacher who challenged the stereotype of what computer scientists are supposed to look like. It was at that point that she realized she didn’t have to look a certain way to study computer science. She could just be herself.

Kyla hopes she can help others comes to this realization, too. She’s happy to be an example for young girls like her. Even now–with a Ph.D. under her belt, and her new job at Clemson—Kyla hopes to be a resource for girls like her. Girls who just need to talk to someone that looks like them.

– by Anissa Elmerraji ’11

This story first appeared on the Computer Science and Electrical Engineering website.

Laura Hussey, assistant professor of political science, participated in a lively conversation on the Marc Steiner Show discussing the 2013 Maryland legislative session, in which lawmakers will grapple with topics like gun control and the death penalty. Joining her on the program were Cory McCray, co-founder of the BEST Democratic Club; Jon Cardin, Delegate for Maryland’s 11th District in Baltimore County; and E.J. Pipkin, Minority Leader in the Maryland State Senate.

Hussey initially focused on the question of whether we have too many people in prison, responding,  “I think that the answer has got to be ‘yes.’ If you look at the U.S. relative to the rest of the world, we are a tremendous outlier in terms of our rate of incarcerating people.” She also detailed how having a prison record has serious implications for individual people’s lives as well as continuing the larger cycle of poverty.

Additional topics Hussey covered in the radio segment include perceptions of environmental policy relating to the Chesapeake Bay and public views on raising transportation funds through increasing the gas tax.

In the weeks since the shooting in Newtown, Conn., Gov. Martin O’Malley has repeatedly referred to gun violence as a “public health issue.” On Monday he announced a plan that would give Maryland one of the nation’s strictest gun laws, reports the Baltimore Sun. To own a handgun, residents would need to pass a training course and provide fingerprints to a police database, and Maryland would ban the sale of assault rifles and high-capacity magazines.

How was the proposal received and how might this impact O’Malley’s prospects in a national election? Donald F. Norris, professor and chairman of UMBC’s Department of Public Policy, notes, “This appeals to the Democratic base,” continuing, “If he can get out in front on this and show some success legislatively on this, it bodes well for him in the Democratic primary.” The Sun reports O’Malley aides have dismissed the notion that the gun proposal signals his presidential aspirations.