Luke 9:18-20, 28-36

¹⁸ Once when Jesus was praying in private and his disciples were with him, he asked them, “Who do the crowds say I am?”

¹⁹ They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, that one of the prophets of long ago has come back to life.”

²⁰ “But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?”

Peter answered, “God’s Messiah.”

²⁸ About eight days after Jesus said this, he took Peter, John and James with him and went up onto a mountain to pray. ²⁹ As he was praying, the appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became as bright as a flash of lightning. ³⁰ Two men, Moses and Elijah, appeared in glorious splendor, talking with Jesus. ³¹ They spoke about his departure, which he was about to bring to fulfillment at Jerusalem. ³² Peter and his companions were very sleepy, but when they became fully awake, they saw his glory and the two men standing with him. ³³ As the men were leaving Jesus, Peter said to him, “Master, it is good for us to be here. Let us put up three shelters—one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah.” (He did not know what he was saying.)

³⁴ While he was speaking, a cloud appeared and covered them, and they were afraid as they entered the cloud. ³⁵ A voice came from the cloud, saying, “This is my Son, whom I have chosen; listen to him.” ³⁶ When the voice had spoken, they found that Jesus was alone. The disciples kept this to themselves and did not tell anyone at that time what they had seen.

Reflection:

Jesus asks his disciples, “Who do the crowds say I am?” and they reply with what they hear but Peter declares that Jesus is God’s Messiah.He is declaring that Jesus has come to rescue His people.He is the long awaited Savior.Days later, Peter witnesses the voice coming from the clouds, proclaiming, “This is my Son, whom I have chosen; listen to Him.”Jesus was the long awaited Messiah and even more Jesus is the Son of God and the One who we are to listen to.

Response:

Jesus has come and has rescued us.God our Father proclaims that Jesus is His Son and says to listen to Him. Who do we say Jesus is?Let’s proclaim together that Jesus is our Savior, He is the Son of God and let’s pray that we will have hearts and ears open to listen to Him.

Interaction with Virtual Environments

Tabitha C. Peck
Event Lab, University of Barcelona

1:00pm Tuesday 27 March 2012, ITE32bb, UMBC

Immersive virtual environments (VEs) enable user-controlled interactions within a computer-generated virtual world, such as head-controlled point-of-view, user-controlled locomotion, and user-controlled self-avatars. In this talk I will present three projects focusing on the development of VE systems through understanding human interactions within the VE. The first project presents a VE system that enables users to really walk through VEs that are larger than the tracker-space by manipulating the imprecisions of the human visual system. The remaining two projects focus on virtual embodiment. The theory of embodiment is based on the plasticity of the human mind and its ability to accept a virtual avatar’s body as its own. One theory as to why embodiment works, following the same underlying principles thought to cause the “rubber hand illusion” from cognitive psychology, is that when given appropriate visual and/or haptic stimuli, people will accept an external representation of a body part as their own. This effect has been shown to extend to full-body avatars in virtual environments. I will present one project that demonstrates, through electroencephalography (EEG), that people respond to a virtual avatar as if it is their own body, and a second project that explores harnessing the powers of embodiment to reduce racism and study other psychological issues.

My name is Tabitha C. Peck and I am a post-doctoral researcher at the Event Lab in Barcelona, Spain working with Professor Mel Slater. I received my PhD from The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill under the supervision of Professors Henry Fuchs and Mary C. Whitton. My PhD research focused on locomotion interfaces in virtual environments and enabling people to physically walk in small spaces while walking in much larger virtual spaces. I am currently working in the European project, Virtual Embodiment and Robotic Re-Embodiment (VERE), and my current research focuses on the psychological effects of embodiment in virtual environments. My research interests include immersive virtual environments, virtual embodiment, human-computer interaction, 3D user interfaces, locomotion, navigation, system design and evaluation, and human perception.

Securing Cyber-Physical Systems

Alvaro Cardenas
Fujitsu Laboratories of America

1:00pm Monday 26 March 2012, ITE 325b, UMBC

Our critical infrastructure systems are being modernized with information and communication technologies to face the operational requirements and efficiency challenges of the 21st century. The smart grid in particular, will introduce millions of new intelligent components to the electric grid, buildings, and homes within the next decade. While this modernization will bring many operational benefits to infrastructure systems, it will also introduce new vulnerabilities, a larger attack surface, and raise privacy concerns.

This presentation will be divided in three parts. The first part of the talk will cover the unique and fundamentally new challenges and solutions required for securing cyber-physical systems. The second part of the talk will focus on new mechanisms for securing cyber-physical systems. The final part of the talk will cover my other research interests in intrusion detection and future plans for big-data security.

Alvaro A. Cárdenas is a research staff engineer at Fujitsu Laboratories of America. Prior to this he was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of California, Berkeley working in securing critical infrastructure systems. His research focuses on network security, the smart grid and other cyber-physical systems, intrusion detection and big data security. He has received numerous awards for his research including a best paper award from the U.S. Army Research Office, a best presentation award from the IEEE, a fellowship from the University of Maryland, and a Distinguished Assistantship from the Institute of Systems Research. He has also been an invited visiting professor at the University of Cagliari. Alvaro holds M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Maryland, College Park, and a B.S. from Universidad de los Andes.

See http://csee.umbc.edu/talks for more information

playthefivetones:

UMBC Student Events Board is showing JURASSIC PARK on April 5th!

Jurassic Park is a classic, and it deserves to be seen in a movie theater. On April 5, UMBC’s Student Events Board is giving you that opportunity. Whether you’re watching it again, or for the first time, this is a night you don’t want to pass up. Imagine seeing this in a movie theater, on a big screen. It’s magical on your computer, but imagine what it’s like on a big screen. So, support the SEB! Go see Jurassic Park on April 5!

Shoutouts! Thanks man!

This must be a week for laughter with four comedies opening this week (with only 21 Jump Street is getting a full wide release).

Last week wasn’t strong for new releases, with The Lorax remaining in the top spot. Meanwhile the Sci-Fi spectacle John Carter opened to only a lacklustre $30 million. Considering the movie’s $250 million budget, that is not good news. Silent House and A Thousand Words both opened around $6 million.

21 Jump Street – This movie is definitely the most anticipated comedy of 2012 and has opened to high praise thus far. Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum star as two cops who get involved in a revamp of the 80’s TV show plot. This is the sort of R-rated humor that people mostly seem to enjoy, while some find crass. Undoubtedly it will make a killing at the box office.

Jeff, Who Lives At Home – The Duplass brothers, champions of “mumblecore” films (for better or worse), direct this comedy starring Jason Segel and Ed Helms as brothers who have their issues. The titular character Jeff has a feeling that signs are all around him pointing him to his unforeseen destiny, while his brother Pat is dealing with a rocky marriage to Linda (Judy Greer), and their mother (played by a charming Susan Sarandon) is dealing with the bittersweet emotions of another birthday. We had a chance to catch this film and we completely fell for the clever script, endearing characters, and carefully injected humor. It’s really a fun film that has an emotional depth that catches you off guard. If you like quirky comedies we think you’d really enjoy this one.

Friends with Kids – Another film that we had a chance to see, this one a take on the romantic comedy which is seeing a theater expansion this week. It boasts a strong cast lead by Adam Scott and Jennifer Westfeldt (who also wrote and directed) with supporting roles by Bridesmaids alums, Maya Rudolph, Kristen Wiig, Jon Hamm, and Chris O’Dowd. Scott and Westfeldt are two 30-something best friends who decide to have a child together since they don’t seem to be having much luck with finding prospective partners. They also see that their friends’ relationships struggle under the stress of parenting, and think they can do better as friends. This is a romantic comedy so the familiar tropes can be found, but the script is rather smart and original for the genre. Elements of drama make the film well-rounded, and the cast brings it to life in a way that doesn’t make you mind any reminiscent territory. It also manages to not completely trivialize the female characters as romantic comedies seem prone to do.

Casa de mi Padre – Will Ferrell starring in a Spanish language film? Like seriously, this is the sort of brilliant idea that Adam Sandler only thinks he has. Whether you want to see this completely depends on how much you love Ferrell and his antics. If you think this sounds stupid then you will definitely feel the same after seeing it.

What do you plan to see in theaters? What do you think about any films you have seen lately?

Video from http://www.youtube.com/v/SlqwSc8J8NU

It has been over 20 days since 17-year-old Trayvon Martin was shot and killed with a 9mm pistol in his father’s gated community in Florida on February 26th. Walking home from the local convenience store where he bought Skittles and a can of iced tea, Trayvon was identified as “suspicious” by the leader of the community’s Neighborhood Watch, George Zimmerman. Trayvon Martin was African-American.

Zimmerman allegedly called 911 to report a suspicious person walking around in the neighborhood and was told by police to take no action, to which Zimmerman responded, ”These assholes always get away.”

Minutes later, there were reports of shots being fired. Witnesses have been emerging and have faced some difficulty in getting the police to record their full testimonies, but have noted hearing a cry of help from the boy just before shots were fired. The youngest witness who saw the shooting take place, a 13-year-old boy, is still struggling with what he saw and the fact that Zimmerman has not yet been arrested. Other witnesses are arguing that the police department tampered with witness evidence at the scene of the crime.

The Martin family sued the police department for access to the 911 tapes, which they finally had the chance to listen to late last week. The family claims that the tapes make it absolutely clear that the teen was pursued by Zimmerman and that Zimmerman was not acting in self defense. According to one witness who heard the cries for help:

“This was not self-defense. We heard no fighting, no wrestling, no punching. We heard a boy crying. As soon as the shot went off, it stopped, which tells me it was the child crying. If it had been Zimmerman crying, it wouldn’t have stopped. If you’re hurting, you’re hurting.

The family, witnesses, and commentators are noting the racial components to the case.

The police department recently turned over the case to the State’s Attorney’s Office. The family continues to search for justice in the killing of their son and brother.

Addressing failures in wireless sensor networks

Krasimira Kapitanova
University of Virginia

1:00pm Wednesday 28 March, 2012, ITE 325b, UMBC

Wireless sensor networks are now being used for a growing number of applications, from mission critical applications, including fire-fighting, emergency response, infrastructure monitoring, and medical application, to smart home applications, such as home automation, energy efficiency, and home security. These applications must operate reliably and continuously due to the high costs associated with system failure and maintenance. However, continuous and reliable operation of sensor networks is notoriously difficult to guarantee due to hardware degradation and environmental changes, which can cause operating conditions that were impossible for the original system designers to foresee. Recent studies have found that low-cost sensors suffer from many types of faults. Inexpensive nodes can break and battery-powered nodes lose power. Furthermore, sensor network installations suffer from a large number of non-fail-stop faults in which the sensor does not completely fail. Instead, it continues to report values, but the meaning of the values changes or becomes invalid. This talk will discuss a number of new run-time techniques that use application-level semantics to detect, assess, and adapt to sensor node failures.

Krasimira Kapitanova is a PhD candidate of Computer Science at the University of Virginia. Her research focuses on wireless sensor network, in particular using formal approaches for event description and detection. She is also interested in how testing and machine learning techniques can be used to improve the reliability of sensor network applications.

Host: Tim Finin