Is Ray Lewis A Classic Raven?

Ray Lewis is the perfect Raven. So says Kevin Omland, a professor of biology at UMBC who’s spent his career studying the feathered version. Lewis is a classic: Smart – How else did he get to be one of the most successful linebackers of all time? Loyal – He started his career with Baltimore in 1996, and he’ll end it there this year. Tough – He’s leading the Ravens through the playoffs, wearing a bulky brace for a triceps tear that’s still healing.

Wait a minute, you say, what football player isn’t tough?  Fair enough. But part of what makes ravens stand out – their recipe for success, if you will – is a rare combination of traits perfect for just about anywhere in the world, including some field in Massachusetts. According to Dr. Omland, ravens are …

SMART: Ravens are among the smartest of birds. They can figure out complicated problems using insight, rather than just solving things by trial and error.

ADAPTABLE: Ravens are found over much of the world, from the mountains of western Maryland to Mexico, from Arizona to Alaska, from China to the Czech Republic.

LOYAL: Ravens mate for life. The pair works together year round to defend a territory, forage for food, find a nest site and raise young.

BIG: Ravens are the largest songbird species in the world. They are roughly twice the size of the American Crows common around Baltimore.

TOUGH: Ravens are the only birds that spend the whole winter in the high arctic, following wolves and polar bears to feed on their prey. Foxborough is a tropical paradise by comparison.

READY TO WIN: Oh, yeah, sorry.  We were talking about the birds.

(1/15/13)

i) The MIT Summer Research Program (MSRP) seeks to promote the value of graduate education; to improve the research enterprise through increased diversity; and to prepare and recruit the best and brightest for graduate education at MIT.

MSRP began in 1986 as an institutional effort to address the issue of underrepresentation of African Americans, Mexican Americans, Native Americans, and Puerto Ricans in engineering and science in the United States. Today, this program seeks to identify talented sophomores, juniors, and non-graduating seniors who might benefit from spending a summer on MIT’s campus, working in a research laboratory under the guidance of experienced scientists and engineers who are MIT faculty members, postdoctoral fellows, and advanced graduate students. Students who participate in this program will be better prepared and motivated to pursue advanced degrees, thereby helping to sustain a rich talent pool in critical areas of research and innovation.

For more information and to apply (Deadline is January 25th, 2013)  http://odge.mit.edu/undergraduate/msrp/

ii) The Columbia University IGERT on Optical Techniques for Actuation, Sensing, and Imaging of Biological Systems (BioIGERT), a National Science Foundation IGERT program, will support outstanding undergraduates as Summer Research Fellows for the period from June 2 through August 3, 2013. This program provides a $4000 stipend for each successful candidate and free campus housing (worth $2700) in which you are expected to reside. Those selected will have an opportunity to participate fully in the interdisciplinary research activities of the BioIGERT faculty across the Departments of Physics, Biology, Biomedical Engineering, Chemistry, Chemical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, and Electrical Engineering, and includes collaborative research with industry including IBM Yorktown Heights. 

This is the best summer job you'll ever have, apply now: http://www.bioigert.columbia.edu/rpu/apply.html
For details about BioIGERT, please visit: www.bioigert.columbia.edu

iii) The Moncrief Undergraduate Summer Internship Program at the UT Austin Institute for Computational Engineering and Science is organized to provide summer support for qualified undergraduate students of mathematics, science, and engineering to work within the Institute during the summer months.

Moncrief Summer Interns work with faculty and research staff from one of ICES’ sixteen research centers and groups (full listing at: https://www.ices.utexas.edu/research/centers- groups/)
Research activities generally focus on developing modeling and simulation methods to study problems in areas such as:
 energy, advanced materials, biomedical research, nanomanufacturing, and related areas that draw on applied and computational mathematics, computing, fluid mechanics, solid mechanics, mathematical physics, and biology.
Application deadline: February 1, 2013
Application instructions at: http://www.ices.utexas.edu/programs/summer-internship/
Stipend: $6,000
Dates: Jun – Aug 2013 (10 weeks)
Who should apply: Undergraduate students of mathematics, science,or engineering who are entering their junior or senior year in Fall 2013
Requirements: 3. 0 GPA; U.S. citizens or permanent residents only


iv) The Nebraska Summer Research Program is a consortium of NSF funded Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) and other summer research opportunities programs (SROP).

One unique feature of the Nebraska Summer Research Program is the partnership between the REU and SROP programs and the Office of Graduate Studies. Students benefit in having a community of scholars in which to learn and to share research with.

This intensive summer research experience provides mentoring and research experiences while allowing scholars to preview graduate school life. Students with a strong interest in graduate programs are particularly encouraged to apply, as are those from populations traditionally underrepresented in graduate education.

For information on individual programs go to: http://www.unl.edu/summerprogram/

Programs: Bioenergy Systems, Biomedical Engineering, Chemistry, Earth & Atmospheric Sciences, Applied Mathematics, Nanomaterials & Nanoscience,Optics and Laser Physics, Redox Biology,Virology

Application Dates
We plan to begin accepting applications on November 14, 2012.
The priority deadline is February 1, 2013.
Complete applications are due on February 15, 2013.

Program Dates
10-week program: June 3 - August 7
8-week program: June 3 - July 26

Travel Dates
Arrival (all): Sunday, June 2
8-week program departure: Saturday, July 27
10-week program departure: Thursday, August 8

“Bittersweet.”

That’s how Kyla McMullen ’05, computer science, describes what it feels like to be the first African American woman at the University of Michigan to graduate with a Ph.D. in computer science.

– Read an interview with McMullen in NBC’s The Grio here.

“I don’t think there’s anything special about me,” says a modest Kyla, who recently started a new job as an Assistant Professor in the Human-Centered Computing division of Clemson University’s School of Computing. She explains that while it’s nice to be recognized as a “first,” her accomplishment points out a sad reality: not enough women and minorities are pursuing advanced degrees in computer science. Out of the more than 1,400 Americans who received Ph.Ds in computer science from 2010-2011, less than a quarter were female, and a mere 1.2 % (or 16 people) were African American, according to the latest Computing Research Association (CRA) Taulbee Survey. It’s a good thing staggering statistics like that didn’t deter Kyla, who finished her doctorate at Michigan in 2012.

Kyla’s passion for computer science started early and was nurtured throughout high school. “When I was little, I always liked gadgets,” she says. She remembers being fascinated by her family’s first computer because it seemed like magic. She admits to staying up all night, clicking through file folders, trying to figure out how it worked. Luckily for Kyla, her high school in her hometown of Oxon Hill Maryland had a special computer science track. This meant exposure to curriculum that most high schools lack, and the opportunity to take courses in computer programming and engineering early on.

It paid off. One day, Kyla was sitting in calculus class when the guidance counselor called her to his office. She thought she was in trouble, but he actually wanted to recommend that she apply for UMBC’s Meyerhoff Scholarship program.

“It was an excellent opportunity,” says Kyla of the program (she was a member of the 13th cohort). Though tough, Kyla credits the program’s sense of community and her mentors as crucial ingredients of her success. She remembers her time at UMBC fondly; especially the hours spent burning the midnight oil with her two study buddies, Aimee Strang ’05, computer science, and Nwokedi Idika ’05, computer science (who is now, coincidentally, the first African American to get a Ph.D. in Computer Science from Purdue University).

As graduation neared, Kyla knew that she was bound for graduate school. She also knew that Michigan was the last place she wanted to live. But, at the insistence of Keith Harmon, then the Assistant Director of the Meyerhoff Scholars Program, and Lamont Toliver, late Meyerhoff Scholars Program Director, she reluctantly made the trip to tour the University of Michigan, where she promptly fell in love.

Here, the graduate students were happy and invested in one another’s success—an atmosphere that mirrored that of UMBC, she says. That, coupled with the school’s high reputation for computer science, made her decision to study there a no-brainer. “My time at UMBC prepared me very well for Michigan.”

At Michigan, Kyla explored a little before finding her niche. Drawn to the human aspect of artificial intelligence, she joined the intelligent systems group. Then, in 2007, while pursuing her Master’s, she began working on educational software that taught kids how to make relationships between objects. One of her favorite parts, she admits, was getting to know the kids in the classroom before testing out the software.

After that, Kyla discovered spatial audio. Her research involved constructing virtual environments navigable by sound alone. “It’s like searching for a cell phone in the dark,” explains Kyla, who has worked with the Naval Submarine Medical Research Lab on her research. The concept, which can be applied to any domain with a spatial component, is especially being considered for workers in dangerous environments.

Another of Kyla’s passions while at Michigan was promoting the sciences within minorities. During her time, she was both the President and the Vice President of The Society of Minority Engineers and Scientists and the Vice President of the Movement of Underrepresented Sisters in Engineering and Science (MUSES). Though, she recognizes the benefit of the groups, she talks about their limited capacity to help. “You can only influence the people who make it in the doors, but not the people who aren’t in the doors yet.”

That’s why Kyla stresses the importance of relatable role models early on. In high school, hers was computer science teacher Mr. Randy Ware, a young and “normal” teacher who challenged the stereotype of what computer scientists are supposed to look like. It was at that point that she realized she didn’t have to look a certain way to study computer science. She could just be herself.

Kyla hopes she can help others comes to this realization, too. She’s happy to be an example for young girls like her. Even now–with a Ph.D. under her belt, and her new job at Clemson—Kyla hopes to be a resource for girls like her. Girls who just need to talk to someone that looks like them.

– by Anissa Elmerraji ’11

This story first appeared on the Computer Science and Electrical Engineering website.

Laura Hussey, assistant professor of political science, participated in a lively conversation on the Marc Steiner Show discussing the 2013 Maryland legislative session, in which lawmakers will grapple with topics like gun control and the death penalty. Joining her on the program were Cory McCray, co-founder of the BEST Democratic Club; Jon Cardin, Delegate for Maryland’s 11th District in Baltimore County; and E.J. Pipkin, Minority Leader in the Maryland State Senate.

Hussey initially focused on the question of whether we have too many people in prison, responding,  “I think that the answer has got to be ‘yes.’ If you look at the U.S. relative to the rest of the world, we are a tremendous outlier in terms of our rate of incarcerating people.” She also detailed how having a prison record has serious implications for individual people’s lives as well as continuing the larger cycle of poverty.

Additional topics Hussey covered in the radio segment include perceptions of environmental policy relating to the Chesapeake Bay and public views on raising transportation funds through increasing the gas tax.