Did you know?

Technology research at universities has led to some developments that we all recognize.  The first graphical computer game, called OXO, was developed by A.S. Douglas at Cambridge University in 1952 for the Electronic Delay Storage Automatic Calculator (EDSAC) computer, which simulates the game, noughts and crosses. It was one of the first games developed in the early history of video games. The player entered their input using a rotary telephone controller, selecting which of the nine squares on the board they wished to move next. Douglas programmed the game as part of a thesis on human-computer interaction at Cambridge. 

Want to conduct research and create something innovative? 

Become a URA Scholar!
Undergraduate Research Awards provide up to $1,500 to undergraduate students to support their research or creative work with a UMBC faculty mentor on an original project. UMBC students of all years and disciplines are invited to apply, as long as they will remain enrolled at UMBC long enough to complete the proposed work. 

Apply by Feb. 16: https://ur.umbc.edu/ura/

Contact Dr. April Householder at aprilh@umbc.edu for more information.

URA Scholar Jolee Cohen is a Linehan Artists Scholar pursuing a BFA in Acting and will graduate in Spring 2018. Her research involved participating in a Summer Shakespearean Study in London, England.

Describe your project: Over the summer, I studied at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art in London, UK, where I was introduced to classical acting and research techniques for working with and performing Shakespeare. Now, I take what I learned and hone the craft, implementing it into my own work and using it to help others.

Who is your mentor(s) for your project? My mentor is Professor Eve Muson of the Theatre Department and Head of the BFA Acting program. She is my adviser and also a professor I had worked with many times before in classes and in theatrical productions. After working with her so many times, and having her mentorship in finding the program, working with her seemed so obvious to me.

How did you become interested in this project? I had worked extensively with Shakespeare once before while here in the U.S., but I felt like I wanted more. The department here is lovely but the classical acting training is minimal, and I knew I'd be able to get that in London. With the nudging of my parents, friends, and advisers, I applied for the Shakespeare Short Course program.

How has being a URA scholar helped you to carry out this project? Mostly, I was able to afford to go do the program, along with the assistance of the Linehan Artist Scholars Summer Award. Without any of that help, I never would have been able to study with some of the best teachers in London and experience Shakespeare the way it was always meant to be experienced.

What has been the hardest part about your research/what was the most unexpected thing about being a researcher? I've so often thought of research as something strictly for STEM, and for a larger community instead of for an individual. Part of the challenge was understanding and articulating how my research has been impactful in a personal way, and physically recording what I was learning as it was happening, since theatrical/performance research is so focused on the physical and emotional experience.

What has been the most rewarding part? The most rewarding part was seeing how the classes and performances were impacting my peers in the program with me, because I knew it was also a reflection of how I was growing. Getting to use this as personal research but to also experience it with others was very exciting and fulfilling.

How will you disseminate your research? I will be doing a performance at URCAD on April 25, to reflect my experiences during the time I was in London, and afterwards. Also, I was able to incorporate some of the techniques I learned this summer at LAMDA in the UMBC Theatre Department's recent production of Twelfth Night.

What is your advice to other students about getting involved in research? Don't be afraid to ask questions. Do what seems the scariest. Write things down. Have an open heart and an open mind. And have fun.

What are your career goals? Simply, I want to be happy doing what I love. I want to make art that questions, confuses, and excites. And I hope to get work, no matter how long it takes for it to be something worthwhile.

Photo: Jolee performing in the UMBC theatre department's production of Twelfth Night.

Be like Jolee! Apply for a URA and get up to $1500 to support your research. For info and to apply, go to: ur.umbc.edu/ura. Attend the workshop this Wednesday at noon!

The Library of Congress, National Archives and Records Administration, National Endowment for the Humanities, National Gallery of Art, National Park Service, Smithsonian Institution and United States Holocaust Memorial Museum join in paying tribute to the generations of African Americans who struggled with adversity to achieve full citizenship in American society.

As a Harvard-trained historian, Carter G. Woodson, like W. E. B. Du Bois before him, believed that truth could not be denied and that reason would prevail over prejudice. His hopes to raise awareness of African American’s contributions to civilization was realized when he and the organization he founded, the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History (ASNLH), conceived and announced Negro History Week in 1925. The event was first celebrated during a week in February 1926 that encompassed the birthdays of both Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass. The response was overwhelming: Black history clubs sprang up; teachers demanded materials to instruct their pupils; and progressive whites, not simply white scholars and philanthropists, stepped forward to endorse the effort.

By the time of Woodson’s death in 1950, Negro History Week had become a central part of African American life and substantial progress had been made in bringing more Americans to appreciate the celebration. At mid–century, mayors of cities nationwide issued proclamations noting Negro History Week. The Black Awakening of the 1960s dramatically expanded the consciousness of African Americans about the importance of black history, and the Civil Rights movement focused Americans of all color on the subject of the contributions of African Americans to our history and culture.

The celebration was expanded to a month in 1976, the nation’s bicentennial. President Gerald R. Ford urged Americans to “seize the opportunity to honor the too-often neglected accomplishments of black Americans in every area of endeavor throughout our history.” That year, fifty years after the first celebration, the association held the first African American History Month. By this time, the entire nation had come to recognize the importance of Black history in the drama of the American story. Since then each American president has issued African American History Month proclamations. And the association—now the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH)—continues to promote the study of Black history all year.

(Excerpt from an essay by Daryl Michael Scott, Howard University, for the Association for the Study of African American Life and History)

For more information on The Mosaic's Black Africana centered events, please check out our upcoming newsletter, attached Black History Month calendar or email us at mosaic@umbc.edu.