CSEE Professors Nilanjan Banerjee, Ryan Robucci and Chintan Patel with Dr. Richard Allen at Johns Hopkins University were awarded a TEDCO Maryland Innovation Initiative grant to develop a wearable system that can non-intrusively monitor sleep quality in a home setting. The grant will fund students in the eclipse cluster. The researchers will work closely with JHU to develop and help commercialize this novel sensor system.

TEDCO is an independent organization that provides entrepreneurial business assistance and seed funding to foster startup companies in Maryland’s innovation economy and support the commercialization of qualified university technologies.

UMBC President Freeman Hrabowski delivered an evocative, impactful talk on Dr. Martin Luther King’s vision of equal opportunity for all people to an audience of 300 at Carnegie Mellon University on Monday, January 26, 2015.

Dr. Hrabowski’s address was introduced by CMU President Subra Suresh as part of the Simon Initiative Distinguished Lecture Series — a “forum for thought leaders focused on scientific advancement and disruptive innovation in the field of education.” Richard Scheines, dean of CMU’s Dietrich College, moderated a Q&A session following the talk.

Dr. Hrabowski reflected on how central a strong sense of self is to achievement, and how universities can cultivate and strengthen that confidence and drive in students from all backgrounds through high expectations and support. He challenged Carnegie Mellon to “become a leader in the world in producing students from underrepresented groups who will then transform the world.”

“Whether we are talking about a strength in STEM or the humanities or social sciences, the real question for the American university is: How do we reach out to students who are different?” Dr. Hrabowski said. “How do we create a culture in the spirit and dream of Dr. King that welcomes those students, embraces their differences and expects the most — both from them and from ourselves?”

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P1vwNmqtYQ0]

UMBC and Carnegie Mellon have a strong, collaborative relationship. UMBC has been a partner of CMU’s Open Learning Initiative (OLI) for over five years, offering OLI courses in statistics, biology, psychology and computing. UMBC faculty work with CMU researchers to refine approaches to technology-enhanced learning. We are also proud to have welcomed several CMU alumni as UMBC faculty, including Manil Suri, mathematics; Michele Osherow, English; and Amy Hurst, information systems.

On Monday, February 9, Dr. Spencer Crew presents the Humanities Forum “Panel Discussion on ‘Slavery by Another Name.” The event will take place at 4:30 p.m. in the Albin O. Kuhn Library Gallery.

The film Slavery By Another Name explores a reality that often went unacknowledged: a huge system of forced, unpaid labor, mostly affecting Southern black men, that lasted from the 1800s until World War II. Based on the Pulitzer-Prize-winning book by Douglas Blackmon, the film Slavery By Another Name tells the story of black men who were forced to work as convict laborers in factories, mines, and farms. These men were bought, sold, and abused by law enforcement officers who cited regulations against vagrancy, loitering, or walking near railroads. These ‘black codes’ were laws that essentially re-enslaved blacks; many former slaves and their descendants were not free in reality. These laws existed despite the promise of the Emancipation Proclamation, the Thirteenth Amendment, and the Confederate defeat in the Civil War. Although Congress enacted the Fourteenth Amendment (enshrining birthright citizenship and equal protection of the law) in 1868 and the Fifteenth Amendment (guaranteeing the right to vote for all men regardless of race) in 1870, Southern communities ignored these federal mandates. The film includes interviews with the descendants of victims and perpetrators. Panelists will discuss the film and what it suggests about life in America today.

Dr. Spencer Crew is the Robinson Professor of American, African American, and Public History at George Mason University. He has served as president of the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center and as director of the National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution.

For more information, click here.

*The film Slavery By Another Name will be screened at 12 p.m. on February 2^nd and 4^th in the Albin O. Kuhn Library Gallery.

Sponsored by the Africana Studies Department; the Albin O. Kuhn Library and Gallery; the Dresher Center for the Humanities; and the National Endowment for the Humanities, Created Equal: America’s Civil Rights Struggle.

As part of the Humanities Forum series, on Monday, February 2 and Wednesday, February 4, there will be screenings of the film Slavery by Another Name. They will take place at noon each day in the Albin O. Kuhn Library Gallery.

Slavery by Another Name explores a reality that often went unacknowledged: a huge system of forced, unpaid labor, mostly affecting Southern black men, that lasted from the 1800s until World War II. Based on the Pulitzer-Prize-winning book by Douglas Blackmon, the film Slavery by Another Name tells the story of black men who were forced to work as convict laborers in factories, mines, and farms. These men were bought, sold, and abused by law enforcement officers who cited regulations against vagrancy, loitering, or walking near railroads. These ‘black codes’ were laws that essentially re-enslaved blacks; many former slaves and their descendants were not free in reality. These laws existed despite the promise of the Emancipation Proclamation, the Thirteenth Amendment, and the Confederate defeat in the Civil War. Although Congress enacted the Fourteenth Amendment (enshrining birthright citizenship and equal protection of the law) in 1868 and the Fifteenth Amendment (guaranteeing the right to vote for all men regardless of race) in 1870, Southern communities ignored these federal mandates. The film includes interviews with the descendants of victims and perpetrators.

On Monday, February 9, there will be a Humanities Forum Panel Discussion on this film. For more information, click here.

Each year, EDGE.org poses an annual question to leading scientists, philosophers, and artists to tackle some of the world’s most complex issues. The responses are featured as a collection of online essays that is later published as part of a high-profile and top-selling series of books for a general audience, and the annual event draws global news coverage.

As he has for all ten of EDGE’s events, Psychology Research Professor and Professor Emeritus Robert Provine contributed to this year’s question: “What do you think about machines that think?” In his response titled “Irrational Machines and Humans,” Provine wrote that humans should not worry about future characteristics of robots and their ability to spur a future clash with their creators.

“Humans will prevail, in part through primal, often disreputable qualities that are more associated with our downfall than salvation. Cunning, deception, revenge, suspicion, and unpredictability, befuddle less flexible and imaginative entities. Intellect isn’t everything, and the irrational is not necessarily maladaptive,” wrote Provine.

He added: “There is no indication that we will have a problem keeping our machines on a leash, even if they misbehave. We are far from building teams of swaggering, unpredictable, Machiavellian robots with an attitude problem and urge to reproduce.”

To read Provine’s complete response, along with other responses from founders of AI and robotics, Nobelists, and many others, click here. For more information on Provine’s responses to the EDGE question in previous years, click here.

On Sunday, February 1, Provine is contributing to an event at Baltimore’s American Visionary Art Museum titled “The Human Guide to Our Creative Brain.” For more information, click here.

As the discussion continues surrounding a potential new stadium for the Buffalo Bills, an article published January 24 in The Buffalo News examines the possible economic impact of a major sports and entertainment district in the city’s downtown.

Economics Professor Dennis Coates was interviewed for the article and shared that new stadiums don’t necessarily generate job growth and economic development: “If the argument is being put forward that there’s going to be ancillary benefits and job growth discount all of that completely. There’s no evidence that they ever happen,” said Coates. “What I and many others have found is that using stadiums with the intent of them being economic-development tools is not effective.”

Coates added that new stadiums tend not to spur economic growth, but rather shift it from one end of town to another with patrons simply doing business elsewhere: “They’re not actually doing more economic activity than they used to,” said Coates, a Western New York native. “They’re just doing it elsewhere.”

To read the full article “Spinoff of downtown stadium depends on ‘destination’ appeal,” click here.

Susannah Prucka, an Adjunct Instructor of Political Science, and four UMBC students visited the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday, January 20 to sit in on oral arguments and meet with two of Justice Samuel Alito’s law clerks. The students were part of a fall course titled the “Judicial Process,” in which they studied the judicial branch and judicial decision-making.

William Rice, Lereiya Edmonson, Nelly Waribe, and Ellis Zapas were the students who participated in the visit and are all juniors and political science majors. During their time at the Supreme Court, the students saw oral arguments in two cases: Williams-Yulee v. Florida Bar and Armstrong et al. v. Exceptional Child Center, Inc., et al. In addition to meeting with Justice Alito’s law clerks, the students also met with Dan Schweitzer, Supreme Court Counsel for the National Association of Attorneys General. Mr. Schweitzer and the law clerks discussed their respective roles before the Supreme Court and provided insight on life as an attorney.

During the semester, in studying the judicial process, the students heard from several other speakers in the legal profession: the Honorable James Elyer (retired) of the Maryland Court of Special Appeals; Noel Francisco of Jones Day; Larry Doan of the Baltimore City State’s Attorney’s Office, Michelle Martin of the Maryland Attorney General’s Office, and Christopher Wheatcroft ’97, political science, of Alperstein & Diener PA.

Susannah Prucka has been an adjunct instructor of political science since 2012, and is an Assistant Attorney General and Appellate Litigator for the State of Maryland. She is a member of the Maryland and United States Supreme Court bars.