Every so often, we’ll chat with an alum about what they do and how they got there. Today we’re talking with attorney Gary Brooks ’79, history, about his career in law.

Name: Gary M. Brooks
Job Title: Attorney
Employer: Law Offices of Gary M. Brooks, LLC

Q:  Tell us a little about how you wound up at UMBC. What’s your background?

I am a 1974 graduate of Baltimore City College and we visited UMBC for an overnight visit with a good friend’s relative. I grew up in East Baltimore. I really liked the modern campus and since my parents were elderly, I wanted to stay in the area.

Q:  Tell us about your career as an attorney. Were there any lessons you learned, in particular, at UMBC that you carried with you into your work?

UMBC significantly helped further develop my writing skills and allowed me to have leadership roles in my fraternity, Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, Inc. and serve as a SGA Student Life Senator. I attended UMBC during a time of political unrest and attended and helped organize political events. In regards to being an attorney, UMBC is the one of area leaders in producing attorneys and judges in the State of Maryland. My UMBC colleagues have provided some great attorney resources and friends, such as James L. Wiggins ’75. The UMBC legal community has a strong presence and influence on the Maryland community. UMBC also gave me opportunity to teach an upper-level grade course on Blacks and the Criminal Justice system for several years.

Q:  You’re involved with the Maryland Volunteer Legal Services (MVLS). Tell us a little bit about why you do pro bono work and what you’ve learned from those experiences.

In regards to MVLS, I primarily do pro bono legal services for eligible low income bankruptcy clients. My parents and family were strong advocates of community service and assisting others. These services are very helpful in relieving some of the financial stress that the families are shouldering. My early career out of college at St. Ambrose Housing Aid Center, working with and being mentored by Ralph E. Moore, Jr., demonstrated the importance of organizing, community development, fundraising and community service. I am also very involved in the UMBC second General Scholarship Fund. I have also been fortunate to serve as a committee member of Alumni and Friends of UMBC (AFUMBC) along with UMBC alumni Ronald  Hawkins ’79, Joyce Nance Frierson ’79, Daibeth Saunders ’78, Eric Talley ’79 and Warren Wilson ’72. Over the years, AFUMBC has raised funds for the Africana Studies Department and the Second Generation Scholarship Fund.

Q:  Is there a particular class or professor who really inspired you?

My first semester at UMBC was brutal, however, I returned to eventually graduate.  I started taking African American Studies course each semester and it gave me the writing skill set and confidence to perform well in my courses. The fifth floor in the administration building was a place that provided some cultural and political experiences and emotional healing during a period of widespread educational integration. The instructors and staff welcomed the us and treated us as “special” people

Q:  What advice would you give to students considering UMBC?

UMBC provides a superb education and prepares a student well for the professional and business world. Each time I visit UMBC, which is often, I feel very proud to be an alumnus and to let everyone know that I attended such a fine institution. Through the Sigma Beta Club (youth mentoring) and my inner-city youth program, I try to bring as many young Black males to the campus, as possible. Dr. Hrabowski has been very encouraging and supportive with the youth and has given high school students his email address to keep him informed of their progress.

Every so often, we’ll chat with an alum about what they do and how they got there. Today we’re talking with attorney Gary Brooks ’79, history, about his career in law.

Name: Gary M. Brooks
Job Title: Attorney
Employer: Law Offices of Gary M. Brooks, LLC

Q:  Tell us a little about how you wound up at UMBC. What’s your background?

I am a 1974 graduate of Baltimore City College and we visited UMBC for an overnight visit with a good friend’s relative. I grew up in East Baltimore. I really liked the modern campus and since my parents were elderly, I wanted to stay in the area.

Q:  Tell us about your career as an attorney. Were there any lessons you learned, in particular, at UMBC that you carried with you into your work?

UMBC significantly helped further develop my writing skills and allowed me to have leadership roles in my fraternity, Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, Inc. and serve as a SGA Student Life Senator. I attended UMBC during a time of political unrest and attended and helped organize political events. In regards to being an attorney, UMBC is the one of area leaders in producing attorneys and judges in the State of Maryland. My UMBC colleagues have provided some great attorney resources and friends, such as James L. Wiggins ’75. The UMBC legal community has a strong presence and influence on the Maryland community. UMBC also gave me opportunity to teach an upper-level grade course on Blacks and the Criminal Justice system for several years.

Q:  You’re involved with the Maryland Volunteer Legal Services (MVLS). Tell us a little bit about why you do pro bono work and what you’ve learned from those experiences.

In regards to MVLS, I primarily do pro bono legal services for eligible low income bankruptcy clients. My parents and family were strong advocates of community service and assisting others. These services are very helpful in relieving some of the financial stress that the families are shouldering. My early career out of college at St. Ambrose Housing Aid Center, working with and being mentored by Ralph E. Moore, Jr., demonstrated the importance of organizing, community development, fundraising and community service. I am also very involved in the UMBC second General Scholarship Fund. I have also been fortunate to serve as a committee member of Alumni and Friends of UMBC (AFUMBC) along with UMBC alumni Ronald  Hawkins ’79, Joyce Nance Frierson ’79, Daibeth Saunders ’78, Eric Talley ’79 and Warren Wilson ’72. Over the years, AFUMBC has raised funds for the Africana Studies Department and the Second Generation Scholarship Fund.

Q:  Is there a particular class or professor who really inspired you?

My first semester at UMBC was brutal, however, I returned to eventually graduate.  I started taking African American Studies course each semester and it gave me the writing skill set and confidence to perform well in my courses. The fifth floor in the administration building was a place that provided some cultural and political experiences and emotional healing during a period of widespread educational integration. The instructors and staff welcomed the us and treated us as “special” people

Q:  What advice would you give to students considering UMBC?

UMBC provides a superb education and prepares a student well for the professional and business world. Each time I visit UMBC, which is often, I feel very proud to be an alumnus and to let everyone know that I attended such a fine institution. Through the Sigma Beta Club (youth mentoring) and my inner-city youth program, I try to bring as many young Black males to the campus, as possible. Dr. Hrabowski has been very encouraging and supportive with the youth and has given high school students his email address to keep him informed of their progress.

UMBC Eminent Scholar Program

Smart Distribution Systems

Dr. Karen Butler-Purry
Texas A&M University

11:00-12:00 Thursday, 13 March 2014, ITE 325B

Smart Grid refers to the computerizing of the grid via the addition of monitoring, analysis, control, and communication capabilities to improve its reliability, efficiency, and security. Smart meter devices, that include sensors to gather data and two-way digital communication between the smart meters in the field and the utility’s grid operations center, are associated with the grid. The smart grid can take advantage of new technologies, such as plug-in hybrid electric vehicles, various forms of renewable and conventional distributed generation, lighting management systems, automation technology that lets the utility adjust and control each individual device or millions of devices from a central location, and many more. This presentation will discuss some of the current research projects being investigated by Butler-Purry’s group on smart distributions systems, in grid or island operation. One project investigates the impact of cyber attacks on the operation of smart distribution systems. The second project developed two new approaches to enhance the protection of smart distribution systems. One approach uses smart meters during distribution planning to improve selectivity of protection, and the other approach uses smart meters during operation to improve the sensitivity of protection.

Karen L. Butler-Purry, PhD, PE, is Associate Provost for Graduate and Professional Studies and Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Texas A&M University where she has served on the faculty since 1994. She received a B.S. in Electrical Engineering in 1985 from Southern University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. She was awarded a M.S. degree in 1987 from the University of Texas at Austin and a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering in 1994 from Howard University in Washington, D.C. Her research interests are in the areas of protection and control of distribution systems and isolated power systems such as all electric power systems for ships, mobile grids, and microgrids; cybersecurity protection; and intelligent systems for equipment deterioration and fault diagnosis.

Host: Prof. Gymama Slaughter, Sorry, you need javascript to view this email address.

UMBC Eminent Scholar Program

Smart Distribution Systems

Dr. Karen Butler-Purry
Texas A&M University

11:00-12:00 Thursday, 13 March 2014, ITE 325B

Smart Grid refers to the computerizing of the grid via the addition of monitoring, analysis, control, and communication capabilities to improve its reliability, efficiency, and security. Smart meter devices, that include sensors to gather data and two-way digital communication between the smart meters in the field and the utility’s grid operations center, are associated with the grid. The smart grid can take advantage of new technologies, such as plug-in hybrid electric vehicles, various forms of renewable and conventional distributed generation, lighting management systems, automation technology that lets the utility adjust and control each individual device or millions of devices from a central location, and many more. This presentation will discuss some of the current research projects being investigated by Butler-Purry’s group on smart distributions systems, in grid or island operation. One project investigates the impact of cyber attacks on the operation of smart distribution systems. The second project developed two new approaches to enhance the protection of smart distribution systems. One approach uses smart meters during distribution planning to improve selectivity of protection, and the other approach uses smart meters during operation to improve the sensitivity of protection.

Karen L. Butler-Purry, PhD, PE, is Associate Provost for Graduate and Professional Studies and Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Texas A&M University where she has served on the faculty since 1994. She received a B.S. in Electrical Engineering in 1985 from Southern University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. She was awarded a M.S. degree in 1987 from the University of Texas at Austin and a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering in 1994 from Howard University in Washington, D.C. Her research interests are in the areas of protection and control of distribution systems and isolated power systems such as all electric power systems for ships, mobile grids, and microgrids; cybersecurity protection; and intelligent systems for equipment deterioration and fault diagnosis.

Host: Prof. Gymama Slaughter, Sorry, you need javascript to view this email address.

Imagine if you will, the ultimate video game.

I’m talking about what you wish someone in the industry would make.

You are probably envisioning this game being played on a screen, large in high definition. You would be wrong.

Where the future is headed is total immersion. That’s right, Virtual Reality, VR, as in ‘Put this visor on and be transported to whatever environment you see fit to create for yourself.’ And Oculus Rift, will supply it for you. 

Awarded Best in Show at the Consumer Electronics Show 2014 for the second year in a row, the ‘Crystal Cove’ prototype is getting geeks gawking.

It promises to be the first functional virtual reality system to take immersion to a whole new level.  The two majors breakthroughs include positional tracking and an increased refresh rate. This enables your to comfortably live in a VR environment for extended periods of time and not get sick.

So how long before this wonderful world changing technology is brought to the masses? Nobody is sure since Oculus developers keep what they are doing under very tight wraps, but if this German Facebook ad is any indicator, it could very well be this summer.

That’s right, a major “game-changing”  tech breakthrough coming within the year, and still nobody seems to know about it? 

Maybe that will all change now that games developers are getting involved.

A few weeks ago, EVE Online, makers of the hugely popular space based MMO announced that their dog fighter game, Valkyrie, will have Oculus Support.

And so will The Elder Scrolls Online, the fantasy MMO based off of the Elder Scrolls series by Bethesda.

Considering how people react to a really basic roller coaster simulation, it’s going to be interesting to see reactions to Oculus’s awesome immersive graphics, whether it be a high definition spaceship fighting game or a battle through a dungeon with your friends. 

To help navigate these games experiences, there has also been new exciting developments in the technology of game controllers.. Thalmic’s Myo Armband, a phenomenal piece of technology with an enormous number of potential uses is something that the Oculus team is already looking to harness. The Virtuix Omni is another great example of what the future of controlling games might look like.

But the true potential of the Oculus does not lie entirely, or even mostly in video games.

The advent of VR creates enormous new opportunities for Hollywood.  Nobody really knows what filmmakers are going to do with this type of technology, but the potential is mind blowing.

But the prospects for VR don’t stop there.

VR has the potential to change the way that we train military personnel, doctors, the way we teach in the classroom and almost everything else in our society. 

When this technology is available, you can create a virtual avatar based on your own image, and travel about on the internet in chat rooms that actually appear as rooms.

You could speed date without ever having to leave the comfort of your living room.

Take actual tours of homes or cars before buying them, take your child on field trips anywhere in the Universe, or take a walk with your friend in the Alps. 

These and who knows what other technologies are bearing down us quickly, are you ready? 

If you want to keep up with the latest oculus based news (you do), check out their subreddit.