As an analytical chemist and senior scientist for consumer goods giant Proctor & Gamble, Ronita Marple ’05 Ph.D., chemistry, observes that it’s not unusual for her to walk past a lab and catch a glimpse of a robot testing a product by performing a household chore over and over again, for hours on end, to identify a product’s weaknesses without stressing out human testers in the process.

Such grueling tests are part of how all of the nearly 125 products marketed by Proctor & Gamble end up in a consumer’s shopping cart. So is Marple’s own job mundane and robotic? “Never,” laughs the recipient of UMBC Alumna of the Year Award in the Sciences, who manages a team of chemists that unravel the technology behind each line of personal care at the corporation’s Cincinnati headquarters.

“Maybe there’s a new ingredient [in a product]: It’s my job to come up with a method to measure it,” she explains. Shampoo, for example. “There are just tons of ingredients in every bottle,” she says. Her team can scan a dollop of shampoo using a technique known as “whole product NMR” to determine the identity and concentration of each ingredient in the formula.

Marple and her team must also help ensure that most important ingredients of all – those responsible for cleaning and conditioning hair – remain stable and optimally concentrated between factory and shower. After all, that dollop of shampoo must trek cross country in a sweltering delivery truck before it becomes lather on a lustrous head of hair.

You don’t want to feel like you’re washing your hair with dish soap,” says Marple. “On the other hand, you want enough conditioning that it feels good.”

Read the full story in the Fall 2011 issue of UMBC Magazine.

Read more alumni stories at Retriever Net, UMBC’s alumni online community.

Alexander Morrow is a Sophomore majoring in Computer Science. His research explores predictive model uncertainty. To learn more about Alexander's research, read his research profile.

Photo courtesy of the Huffington Post.

America is tired of wars in far-flung places. Maybe it is time to replace them with military conflicts closer to home!

Just as US troops may or may not be leaving Iraq, one Presidential candidate has suggested U.S. forces should be deployed in Mexico.

Former Governor of Texas Rick Perry has suggested military force as a possible solution to the ongoing drug cartel violence along the Mexican border.

The cartels, which are estimated to have killed nearly 35,000 people in the last five years, are not unfamiliar to Perry, who called for increased security forces along the border during his term as governor.

The U.S. has sought to step up efforts to combat the violence which has potential to spill stateside. Some say the US is a partner in this growing calamity.

A Senate report in June 2011 suggested some 70% of firearms recovered from Mexican crime scenes in 2009 and 2010 came from the US.

However, other critics argue that such a precipitous step as deploying troops would significantly sour relations between the U.S. and Mexico and infringe upon Mexico’s sovereignty.

Rep. Roberto Badillo, Secretary of the National Defense Committee in the Mexican Congress said in a 2009 Time magazine article,

“I would never, ever, support the intervention of foreign troops in our territory, and that is the way that 99.9% of Mexicans think. Perhaps someone should tell Mr. Perry?”

Good news for Arrested Development fans! A spinoff is in the works!

Visual.ly might be the new coolest infographic site.

The Tidal Basin in Washington, DC is perhaps best known for the cherry blossoms that attract many visitors in the spring. But during the past few weeks, the park has served as the staging ground for the 2011 Solar Decathalon.

A project of the U.S. Department of Energy, the Solar Decathalon consists of various collegiate teams from around the world that compete to construct realistic, marketable houses with a twist - they need to be powered by solar energy.

In addition to an overall winner based on various categories from architecture to affordability to home entertainment - this year, the University of Maryland - visitors have a chance to vote on their favorite entry.

I had a chance to meet with this year's People's Choice Award winner, Appalachian State University. Video cameras captured live interviews all around us as I sat with with two students at a chic table on the porch of their competition entry, the mix of excitement and apprehension that is indicative of an international competition in the air. More than anything, though, the giddy pride of the students shone as they described the work they had completed.

“You have to think, how do you construct something and make it livable? You have to be careful, because it’s no longer a conceptual dream. It’s reality,” Jacqueline Stewart, an undergraduate in Appalachian State’s design program, described to me.

Reality it is, indeed. Appalachian State’s Solar Homestead has four different outbuildings that are connected by one outdoor living space called the Great Porch. The porch houses 42 solar panels that are bifacial, meaning they collect sunlight from both the top and the bottom of the panel.

Stewart said that the idea was to demonstrate how the future of solar energy is integrating solar energy into the house, not just adding the panel to the house. “We did this because we wanted to marry the engineering and the architecture,” Stewart said, “instead of just tacking solar panels on the roof.” The Homestead was inspired by the design used by settlers in North Carolina’s mountain region.

According to Kenric Hartman, the construction manager for the Homestead, the project was entirely student-designed and led. “A lot of people were starting from the beginning and a lot of people have not designed something to this scale, so it’s been a huge learning process,” said Hartman.

If the house were put on the market today, the students estimate it would go for around $350,000.

There is no engineering or architecture program at Appalachian State, and the bulk of the students come from either a construction or design background. Still, the design curriculum has a large focus on renewable energy technologies and building efficiency.

“Appalachian is always pushing the envelope on sustainability,” said Stewart, “and I think this is why, though we have no engineering or architecture program, we were able to do this.”

Ged Moody, sustainability director at Appalachian State, views the Solar Homestead as “a great rallying point for sustainability.” According to Moody, the Homestead has “built tremendous awareness, particularly around student involvement and renewable energy.”

Appalachian State is still trying to find a home for the solar house on campus, but there are some ideas in the pipeline. For instance, it could be used for long-term testing or used as a teaching tool for students on campus. Regardless, the Solar Homestead will certainly be an emblem of the students’ tenacity, creativity and dedication to renewable energy.