2014 Alumni Award Winners

Engineering and Information Technology
Dr. Claudia Pearce ’89 M.S., ’94 Ph.D., Computer Science
Senior Computer Science Authority, NSA

Humanities
Donna Lewis ’86, English
Attorney, U.S. Department of Homeland Security

Natural and Mathematical Sciences
Michael Adelstein ’96, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
CEO, Potomac Photonics, Inc. 

Social and Behavioral Sciences
Kaliope Parthemos ’93, Psychology
Chief of Staff, Office of Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake

Visual and Performing Arts
Hadieh Shafie ’04 M.F.A., Imaging and Digital Arts 
Independent Artist

Distinguished Service
Gib Mason ’95, Economics
Chief Operating Officer & Director of the Center for Leadership and Innovation, UMBC Training Centers

Rising Star
Isaac Kinde ’05, Biological Sciences
M.D./Ph.D. Candidate, The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine

Outstanding Faculty 
Dr. Anne Spence
Professor of the Practice, Department of Mechanical Engineering

What do I do with last semester’s books I don’t need anymore? Sell them online? Deal with shipping and fees? Nah, I’ll Backpack ‘Em!

You may remember Textbook Swapper from the Cangialosi Business Innovation Competition. Andrew Mavronicolas, Tyler Jaeger, Man Lee, and Jones Moses were one of the runners up at the competition, but had a great idea that will immensely help the students at UMBC, and well beyond.

Textbook Swapper’s initial product was to provide a marketplace for students to buy and sell textbooks amongst each other. There was no need to pay the marked up prices of many of the online web services and to deal with the mishaps of shipping mistakes or returns.

Well, they have been working in stealth mode for a few months, developing, testing, and tweaking…now, they are ready to launch their pilot version to the public.

One of the biggest changes is that the company doesn’t just do textbooks anymore. It’s truly a marketplace for students and will allow you to sell anything within your campus community, provided it’s school appropriate. Therefore, Textbook Swapper is now called Backpack ‘Em, LLC.

It’s easy to use, and is only accessible through your UMBC account. You login and easily search through the university's course listing. If you’re selling, you simply fill out a quick form, come up with a price, and you’re off.

Buying is quick as well. Look up books by course or department. No need for an ISBN number. Then simply message the person selling it to setup a time and place to meet on campus. It’s that easy and painless.

Did I mention that it’s being offered FREE OF CHARGE to students?

Their test users have suggested using the service for furniture, housing, lab equipment, and concert tickets…but the possibilities are endless.

UMBC is the launching site and testing ground for Backpack ‘Em, but the company expects to be at other universities within the school year.

To learn more about Backpack 'Em, visit their website...but to get started using the service, visit their site just for UMBC students: umbc.backpackem.com and start listing your stuff. You can also connect with the company on Facebook.

We’ll also be featuring Andrew Mavronicolas, the CEO of Backpack ‘Em in an upcoming Spotlight next week.

Another successful summer for the Shriver Center’s Governor’s Summer Internship Program (GSIP) came to a close with a celebration at the Maryland State House in Annapolis on Thursday, August 7. Student interns who participated in the program presented policy papers on significant issues in Maryland government to Governor Martin O’Malley and received feedback from the governor and his staff.

The Governor’s Summer Internship Program introduces Maryland college students to the unique challenges and rewards of working within state government. Interns work for ten weeks during the summer in state government agencies doing substantive tasks ranging from drafting speeches and correspondence to researching policy options and assisting with constituent case work. The program is led by the Shriver Center in partnership with the Office of the Governor.

Colby “Ricci” Conley, a political science major, represented UMBC in the program and worked at the Maryland State Department of Education in the Division of Academic Policy and Innovation. At the closing ceremony, his team presented a policy paper that advocated for use of multi-tiered systems of support to address the emotional and psychological needs of students in Maryland. Other presentations from program participants included incentivizing energy efficiency in state buildings, bringing awareness to labor trafficking, improving secondary land use leasing contracts, and local growth for sustainability. UMBC Political Science Professor Roy Meyers worked with the students to develop their policy papers.

Other Shriver Center Public Service Scholars Programs came to a close at the beginning of August, including the Walter Sondheim Jr. Maryland Nonprofit Leadership Program, which offers summer internship opportunities in the nonprofit sector to college juniors, seniors and graduate students attending Maryland institutions.

Several UMBC students were participants in this year’s programs. For a complete list of UMBC students and their mentors, click here. You can learn more about the Shriver Center Scholars Programs by clicking here.

In its Summer 2014 retirement guide, Baltimore Magazine published an article exploring what modern retirement means to the “baby boom” generation. Erickson School Dean Judah Ronch was quoted extensively in the story and commented on how American society’s notions of aging are outdated.

“Younger boomers don’t want to eat at 5 p.m.,” said Ronch when discussing the changing nature of continuing-care retirement communities (CCRCs). He said today’s retirees aren’t necessarily looking for a quiet place to live out their golden years surrounded by people similar to them: “the CCRC is based on a model of aging as leisure and decline,” Ronch said. “I’m hearing from CCRC operators that younger boomers are saying the model doesn’t work for them.”

In the article, Ronch noted that the baby boom generation is rethinking its concept of what home means to them. “Creative solutions come as second nature to boomers,” he said. He added co-housing and group-living arrangements are becoming more common. “This is a generation that knows about groups. We grew up with group therapy, consciousness-raising, and political activism. I expect to see a landscape of options.”

The importance of technology was discussed in the story, and Galina Madjaroff, a clinical assistant professor at the Erickson School, said developers should recognize the vast market potential. “Most technology is being developed for the 25-35 age group,” said Madjaroff, who specializes in technology and older adults. “There’s a huge gap between what the older generation needs and what the industry is providing.”

Helena Mentis, an assistant professor of information systems, said wearable technology such as FitBit, which is a bracelet that monitors sleep and physical activity, among other inputs, “has taken off with healthy twenty somethings.” But that technology could also be used for older folks “to make sure they’re moving enough,” and in some cases, “to see if they’re engaging in social interaction.” Mentis also discussed the potential benefits of Google Glass and Wii Fit.

To read the full article in Baltimore Magazine titled, “A boomer’s guide to 65,” click here.

Can just talking and reading about bedbugs make you feel itchy? That’s a question New York Magazine set out to find the answer to in a recent post on its “Science of Us” blog. The author asked Psychology Professor Robert Provine the question and this was his response:

Itching and scratching, like yawning, laughing, coughing, and vomiting, is contagious. Simply seeing someone scratching is enough to trigger your own bout of clawing, in a vain effort to rid yourself of pests, real or imagined. You don’t need to actually be bitten by a bedbug, louse, or flea — simply seeing their image, thinking about them, or reading about them — as you are doing now — may trigger a seesaw bout of itching (the stimulus), and scratching (the response).

This hair-trigger, contagiousness and hyper sensitivity to itchy stimuli makes sense. Your neighbor’s pest may jump ship and infect you. Better start scratching, just in case. Unfortunately, scratching causes more itching, locking you into an escalating cycle of itch and scratch.

Provine is author of Curious Behavior: Yawning, Laughing, Hiccuping, and Beyond. To read the full blog post in New York Magazine, click here.  

In his latest column in The Baltimore Sun titled, “The GOP chamber puzzle,” Political Science Professor Thomas Schaller writes about how the Republican party holding a majority in the U.S. House of Representatives but not in the Senate is an historical anomaly.

“As I explain in ‘The Stronghold,’ my forthcoming book from Yale University Press, Republicans have been a stronger presence in the Senate in the past half century party because more of the small-population states lean Republican. Therefore, the GOP has consistently held a higher share of Senate seats than the population contained in the states the party’s senators represent,” Schaller writes.

He adds that with the Republicans’ built-in small state advantage, it is puzzling that they control the House but not the Senate and that it should be the inverse. In the column, he does offer an explanation for why this is the case.

“The short answer, of course, is gerrymandering. Thanks to a strong 2010 election cycle in which the GOP posted significant gubernatorial and state legislative wins, Republican state leaders were able to draw favorable U.S. House lines in many states. (Solidly Democratic Maryland was an exception.)”

To read the full column published on August 5, click here.