Genetically modified crops will allow farming practices closer to the ideals of the organic movement.

I grew up on a farm on the North Coast of California in the 1970s. It had been a sort of commune, and after my parents bought the property, the hippies stayed on as farm workers and the place retained the style of the counterculture. Stewart Brand’s Whole Earth Catalog, with its tools and ideas for the back-to-the-land movement, was the farm’s almanac.

Robots will be more useful when they can work alongside us, says Julie Shah.

Traditionally, robots were designed to work separately from people. That is starting to change as robots begin working alongside humans to courier medicine in hospitals and assemble complex machinery. New legged robots could soon accompany soldiers across treacherous terrain or perform rescue missions at stricken nuclear power facilities. But for the most part, robots still can’t function in human environments without requiring costly changes to people’s own working patterns.

Revelations about NSA surveillance have prompted Yahoo, Microsoft, and other companies to deploy long-overdue security improvements.

Last week, Google, Microsoft, and five other leading Web companies formally requested that the U.S. government rein in its use of dragnet surveillance. These companies don’t have to wait for the government to act, though. Encryption technology can protect the privacy of innocent users from indiscriminate surveillance, but only if tech companies deploy it. In the wake of the Snowden disclosures, they are starting to do so. It shouldn’t have taken them this long.

Professor Marie desJardins received a research award from the National Science Foundation focused on increasing the expertise of Maryland high school teachers for teaching computer science, with the ultimate goal of increasing the number of computer science classes offered in Maryland and the number and diversity of students taking them.

The project, CS10K: Collaborative Research: A Structured CS Principles Approach to Professional Development for Maryland High School Teachers, is led by Dr. desJardins and will involve collaborators from the Computer Science department at the University of Maryland, College Park, and high school teachers from Charles County and Baltimore County. The NSF award will provide $845,000 in funding over a three year period and is part of the Computing Education for the 21st Century (CE21) program, which aims to build a robust computing research community, a computationally competent 21st century workforce, and a computationally empowered citizenry.

The project is also part of the CS 10K community, which works to make computer science accessible in high schools. The nationwide effort has a goal of getting rigorous academic computer science courses into 10,000 schools taught by 10,000 well-prepared teachers. The project pays careful attention to the inclusion of women and minorities–groups that have been traditionally underrepresented in computing.

The project will develop and evaluate professional development activities focused on increasing the expertise of Maryland high school teachers for teaching computer science. Experienced higher education faculty and highly effective high school teachers will collaborate to train other high school teachers to develop and offer a college preparatory CS curriculum. In the first year, an initial cohort of 12 master teachers will collaborate with the project leadership team to develop standardized classroom materials based on the CS Principles curriculum and then offer the CS Principles course in their home schools. In the second year, the project staff will train less experienced teachers in the CS Principles curriculum, and in the third year, the leadership team will demonstrate scalability by supporting the delivery of multiple independently funded regional workshops. The project’s ultimate goal is to achieve significantly increased interest of Maryland students in studying and pursuing careers in computer science.

TO:  The UMBC Community

FROM:  Provost Philip Rous and Faculty Senate President Kathleen Carroll

As co-chairs of the Strategic Planning Steering Committee, we have the inspiring opportunity this semester to listen in as more than 30 faculty, staff, student, and alumni groups discuss proposed vision elements and focus areas for the University’s next strategic plan. The sessions held so far have been robust in attendance (nearly 800), insights, and thought-provoking questions. Our colleagues on the Strategic Planning Steering Committee join us in expressing thanks to all participants in this initial stage of the planning process.

Focus Areas for Planning

While there are several more conversations to come, we frequently hear similar views expressed from group to group, particularly the understanding that a focused plan is essential to the University’s progress and that issues and opportunities addressed in planning should be limited in number. The campus discussions have consistently identified three proposed focus areas as essential:

• The Student Experience (academic and co-curricular)
• Advancing Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activity
• Innovative Curriculum and Pedagogy

Many groups also endorse a fourth focus area of Community and Extended Connection, encompassing opportunities for collective impact on campus and beyond in such forms as civic engagement, social responsibility, and economic development. Finally, the importance of infrastructure as a foundation for achievement in each area has been emphasized in all discussions.

During the break between semesters, the Steering Committee will further explore these emerging focus areas, outlining charges and research questions for Strategy Groups that will be appointed to develop goals, objectives, and progress measures in each area. Once focus areas and Strategy Group charges are established by the Steering Committee, co-chairs will be named for each Strategy Group – one a Steering Committee member and the other someone new the planning process.

At the beginning of the spring semester, faculty, staff, students, and alumni will be invited to apply online to serve as volunteers in the next stage of the process. Co-chairs will have the opportunity to draw from this volunteer pool as they build Strategy Groups of eight to 12 members, and all volunteers will be invited to participate in focus groups related to their area of interest. The University Retreat in August will also provide opportunities to discuss and respond to initial reports from the Strategy Groups.

Vision Elements

Campus discussions this semester have affirmed core elements of our current campus vision statement while pressing for new language that is more bold and inspiring. The word “leadership” came up in group after group as an important element for an updated vision statement, while the phrase “the best of our size” was noted in many conversations as an outdated, inadequate descriptor. Many groups also identified “community” and “students” as words currently missing in vision language that are important to include.

Once all feedback from fall semester meetings is analyzed, the Steering Committee will propose draft vision language that reflects these very useful conversations and aligns with the emerging focus areas for planning. We greatly appreciate the thoughtful responses shared by faculty, staff, students, and alumni in the first stage of the planning process and look forward to continued participation from the UMBC community next semester.

HTML5 development tools company Gizmox has announced the release of their Visual WebGui Version 7 with a new mobile feature set, a code assessment tool for analyzing legacy desktop apps, and integration with Microsoft Visual Studio 2013.

AccuRev empowers software developers and software engineers to leverage ALM architecture and continuous integration with delivery capabilities.