CRA-Women is accepting applications for the 2014 Graduate Cohort for Women. Cohort activities will kick off with a workshop 11-12 April 2014 in Santa Clara, CA. This workshop is the cornerstone of CRA-W’s efforts to increase the ranks of senior women in computing by building and mentoring nationwide communities of women during their graduate studies.

Women students in their first, second, and third year of graduate school in computer science and engineering or a closely related field, who are studying at a U.S. or Canadian institution. Travel expenses, meals and lodging will be provided for students chosen to participate in this program.

At the Grad Cohort Workshop, women graduate students in their first year of graduate school will be welcomed into the community of computing researchers and professionals by providing them with a broad range of strategies and role models. Strategies and mentoring for students in their second and third years of graduate school will also be provided.

All of the students will meet for two days with ~20 senior computing researchers and professionals who will share pertinent information on graduate school survival skills, as well as more personal information and insights into their experiences. The rewards of a research career will be emphasized. This workshop will include a mix of formal presentations and informal discussions and social events. Through the workshop, students will be able to build mentoring relationships and develop peer networks that will form the basis for ongoing activities during their graduate careers. Also, participants will be able to network with our generous sponsors to learn about career and internship opportunities they have available.

See http://bit.ly/crawgcw for more information about the Grad Cohort program. Apply by December 4, 2013.

CRA-Women is accepting applications for the 2014 Graduate Cohort for Women. Cohort activities will kick off with a workshop 11-12 April 2014 in Santa Clara, CA. This workshop is the cornerstone of CRA-W’s efforts to increase the ranks of senior women in computing by building and mentoring nationwide communities of women during their graduate studies.

Women students in their first, second, and third year of graduate school in computer science and engineering or a closely related field, who are studying at a U.S. or Canadian institution. Travel expenses, meals and lodging will be provided for students chosen to participate in this program.

At the Grad Cohort Workshop, women graduate students in their first year of graduate school will be welcomed into the community of computing researchers and professionals by providing them with a broad range of strategies and role models. Strategies and mentoring for students in their second and third years of graduate school will also be provided.

All of the students will meet for two days with ~20 senior computing researchers and professionals who will share pertinent information on graduate school survival skills, as well as more personal information and insights into their experiences. The rewards of a research career will be emphasized. This workshop will include a mix of formal presentations and informal discussions and social events. Through the workshop, students will be able to build mentoring relationships and develop peer networks that will form the basis for ongoing activities during their graduate careers. Also, participants will be able to network with our generous sponsors to learn about career and internship opportunities they have available.

See http://bit.ly/crawgcw for more information about the Grad Cohort program. Apply by December 4, 2013.

CRA-Women is accepting applications for the 2014 Graduate Cohort for Women. Cohort activities will kick off with a workshop 11-12 April 2014 in Santa Clara, CA. This workshop is the cornerstone of CRA-W’s efforts to increase the ranks of senior women in computing by building and mentoring nationwide communities of women during their graduate studies.

Women students in their first, second, and third year of graduate school in computer science and engineering or a closely related field, who are studying at a U.S. or Canadian institution. Travel expenses, meals and lodging will be provided for students chosen to participate in this program.

At the Grad Cohort Workshop, women graduate students in their first year of graduate school will be welcomed into the community of computing researchers and professionals by providing them with a broad range of strategies and role models. Strategies and mentoring for students in their second and third years of graduate school will also be provided.

All of the students will meet for two days with ~20 senior computing researchers and professionals who will share pertinent information on graduate school survival skills, as well as more personal information and insights into their experiences. The rewards of a research career will be emphasized. This workshop will include a mix of formal presentations and informal discussions and social events. Through the workshop, students will be able to build mentoring relationships and develop peer networks that will form the basis for ongoing activities during their graduate careers. Also, participants will be able to network with our generous sponsors to learn about career and internship opportunities they have available.

See http://bit.ly/crawgcw for more information about the Grad Cohort program. Apply by December 4, 2013.

CSEE Professor and director of the chess program Alan Sherman with the team that will represent UMBC at the 2013 Pan American Intercollegiate Team Chess Championship next month in Lubbock, Texas.  The top four qualifying schools from the PanAms go on to compete in the Final Four of college chess, held in the spring. The winner is considered national champion and takes home the President’s Cup.

M.S. Thesis Defense
Computer Science and Electrical Engineering
University of Maryland, Baltimore County

Fabrication and Characterization of a

Pd Nanowire-based Glucose Biofuel Cell

Kweku Amoah

10:30-12:30 Monday, 25 November 2013, ITE 346

The use of glucose as a biofuel has received a lot of attention in part due to the potential applications of such systems. In addition to the being a clean energy alternative, it provides a pathway for implantable microelectronic devices such as pacemakers to be powered by interstitial fluid and eliminate the need for batteries. Furthermore, using interstitial fluid as power sources will drastically reduce necessary invasive surgeries to replace batteries. Additionally, cost to such patients will be reduced while quality of life enhanced. The research presents a unique platform for harvesting energy from glucose. Using semiconductor cleanroom techniques, electrically conductive palladium nanowires are grown on anodized aluminum oxide (AAO) templates using silicon and glass as supporting substrates. Photolithography is used to create two non-continuous gold windows and contact pads on the substrates. AAO templates are attached to the two gold windows and palladium nanowires are electrochemically grown on the AAO templates. Glucose oxidase and catalase are immobilized on the anode and laccase on the cathode. In the presence of glucose, electrons are released that generate voltage and current. The current-voltage behavior of the fuel cell, as well as electrochemical properties, is characterized using standard performance metrics. In 0.5 moles per liter of glucose solution with a neutral pH of 7.3, the open circuit voltage obtained was 335 mV and the short circuit current of 6 µA to yield a maximum power output of 2.01µW.

Committee: Drs. Gymama Slaughter (Chair), Fow-Sen Choa and Joel Morris

Church Members Mistreat Homeless Man, Unaware It Is Their Pastor in Disguise

from Independent Reporters TV Media, Africa's No 1 Internet TV Platform

Pastor Jeremiah Steepek transformed himself into a homeless person and went to the 10,000 member church that he was to be introduced as the head pastor at that morning.

He walked around his soon to be church for 30 minutes while it was filling with people for service, only 3 people out of the 7-10,000 people said hello to him.

He asked people for change to buy food – no one in the church gave him change.

He went into the sanctuary to sit down in the front of the church and was asked by the ushers if he would please sit in the back.

He greeted people to be greeted back with stares and dirty looks, with people looking down on him and judging him.

As he sat in the back of the church, he listened to the church announcements and such.

When all that was done, the elders went up and were excited to introduce the new pastor of the church to the congregation.  (...)

Read more by clicking "Visit Website" below.

The Problem with Print: publishing born digital scholarship

Professor Helen J. Burgess
Department of English, UMBC

4:00pm Monday, 25 November 2013

Gallery, A. O. Kuhn Library

Dr. Burgess will discuss some of the difficulties for academics seeking to work and publish outside traditional “print-bound” models of humanities scholarship – including issues of professional evaluation and distribution – and show some examples of “born digital” works that would benefit from a new model of publishing. A reception, sponsored by the Libby Kuhn Endowment Fund, will follow the program.

Helen J. Burgess is an Assistant Professor of English in the Communication and Technology track. Dr Burgess received her BA(Hons) and MA(Dist.) in English Language and Literature from Victoria University of Wellington, in New Zealand, and her PhD in English from West Virginia University. She is active in the new media research community as editor of the online journal Hyperrhiz: new Media Cultures, and technical editor of Rhizomes: Cultural Studies in Emerging Knowledge. Dr Burgess is coauthor of Red Planet: Scientific and Cultural Enounters with Mars and Biofutures: Owning Body Parts and Information, both titles published in the Mariner10 interactive DVD-Rom series at the University of Pennsylvania Press. She has interests in multimedia and web development, open source and open content production, electronic literature, and science fiction.

Ph.D. Dissertation Defense
Computer Science and Electrical Engineering
University of Maryland, Baltimore County

Applying Data Visualization Techniques to Support the
Analysis of Digital Forensic Data

Timothy Leschke

10:00am-Noon Friday 22 November 2013, ITE 456

The Modern Age of digital forensics is characterized by a proliferation of artifacts, increased data complexity, larger and cheaper data storage, and the emergence of the need for tools that support timeline analysis, anomaly detection, and triage. Traditional text-based digital forensic tools can no longer keep pace with the demands of the modern digital forensic examiner. A new approach for developing digital forensic tools is required if digital forensics is going to avoid becoming stagnant.

We apply the power of data visualization to support the needs of the modern digital forensic examiner. We design and develop a tool called Change-Link; a coordinated and multiple view tool which uses semantic zooming in the form of an overview, treeview, directory content view, and a metadata view to provide an understanding of digital forensic data that changes over time. By using this tool to examine a mock evidence hard drive containing shadow volume data provided by the Microsoft Volume Shadow Copy Service, we demonstrate a way to reduce data complexity and provide better forensic data analysis while supporting timeline analysis, anomaly detection, and a triage of the dataset.

We demonstrate a proof for our broader hypothesis which is data visualization techniques can be developed to support better analysis of digital forensic data.

Committee: Drs. Charles Nicholas (chair), Konstantinos Kalpakis, Dhananjay Phatak, Jian Chen, Clay Shields (Georgetown Univ.), Daniel Quist

The MURF program aims to increase the participation of underrepresented students (such as African American, Hispanic, and Native American; females who are underrepresented in their discipline; or first-generation college students) in science and engineering Ph.D. or M.D./Ph.D. programs and to make Caltech's programs more visible to students not traditionally exposed to Caltech.

Eligibility: Students must be current sophomores through non-graduating seniors and must be U.S. citizens or U.S. permanent residents. A minimum GPA of 3.2 is required.

Competitive applicants will have completed sophomore-level courses in desired research field, have demonstrated through academic and/or co-curricular activities a passion for research, and can articulate how their research interests align with Caltech's research areas. The most competitive applicants will have prior research experience.

Support: MURF students will receive a $6000 award for the ten-week program. An additional $500 housing and travel supplement will be provided.

Application: Online applications are due January 8, 2014.