Thanks to NPR

Is the air in your neighborhood toxic?

For thousands of Americans the answer to that question is “yes”.

Americans living near power plants endure cancerous pollutants and the subsequent illnesses due to the compromised atmosphere.

The evidence is staggering. Now citizens are increasingly demanding the Environment Protection agency (EPA) live up to its name.

A particular case is in Tonawanda, NY . Jeani Thomson who survived multiple cancers has rallied for over 30 years asking the EPA to notice the needs of her community:

Her voice has that raspy smokers sound although she has never had a cigarette.

On the other hand, there are problems regulating toxic emissions…particularly if the monitoring is left to the polluting companies themselves.

Coincidentally, a documentary was just released that is sure to make a splash discusses “one of the largest water contamination incidents in US history,”which, to boot, harmed our own service men and women.

It appears the much maligned (and under staffed) EPA has got its work cut out for it.

EE Graduate Seminar

Spectrum Wars: LightSquared vs. GPS

Professor Chuck LaBerge
Professor of the Practice, CSEE Dept/UMBC

11:30am-12:45pm Friday, 2 March 2012, ITE 231

The radio-frequency spectrum is a limited resource. Within the US, commercial use of the spectrum is administered by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), while government use of the spectrum is administered by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration. Currently, the regulatory community is locked in a battle about spectrum utilization in the vicinity of 1.5 GHz. This struggle pits millions of users of GPS technology for position and time information against technical innovators desiring to bring 4G wireless communications to millions of users in underserved populations. So who wins the spectrum wars?

The talk will outline the technologies involved, and provide a time-line of the regulatory actions to date. There are some innovative things going on here, and some simple analysis will show why there are points of contention. A final resolution cannot be provided at this time, because the issue is currently an open discussion in FCC. And, as might expected, there are financial and political ramifications as well.

This talk will provide an interesting insight into how the 'real world' works.

Dr. LaBerge is Professor of the Practice of Electrical and Computer Engineering in the CSEE at UMBC, where he teaches a wide variety of courses ranging from Introductory Circuits to Error Correcting Codes. From 1975-2008, he was employed by Bendix, which became AlliedSignal, which became Honeywell through a series of corporate mergers. He retired in July 2008 as the Senior Fellow for Communications, Navigation, and Surveillance in Honeywell's Aerospace Research and Technology Center.

Dr. LaBerge has worked on precision landing systems and a wide variety of aeronautical radios and applications. He's recognized as an expert in issues involving interference to aeronautical systems. His technical, writing, and editorial contributions have received numerous citations from regulatory bodies, and he was the winner of the Best Paper of Conference at the 2000 IEEE/AIAA Digital Avionics Systems Conference.

Dr. LaBerge is a Senior Member of IEEE, a member of Tau Beta Pi, and an inductee in the Order of the Engineer. He received his BES-EE and MSE-EE, degrees, both with Honors, from The Johns Hopkins University and the PhD. in Electrical Engineering from UMBC. His three kids are older than his students. He's been married to his patient wife for almost 38 years.

Host: Prof. Joel M. Morris

Luke 9:1-6

¹ When Jesus had called the Twelve together, he gave them power and authority to drive out all demons and to cure diseases, ² and he sent them out to proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal the sick. ³ He told them: “Take nothing for the journey—no staff, no bag, no bread, no money, no extra shirt. ⁴ Whatever house you enter, stay there until you leave that town. ⁵ If people do not welcome you, leave their town and shake the dust off your feet as a testimony against them.” ⁶ So they set out and went from village to village, proclaiming the good news and healing people everywhere.

Reflection:When Jesus sent the Twelve to go out, He gave them power and authority to do His work. Jesus sent them to proclaim the Good News, and to bring His life transforming healing to the people. It is not any different for us who follow Jesus today. We have received the same power and authority by His Spirit, through His death and resurrection, so that we can now also be sent to share this Good News with others. This is how He sends us, as we live out His mission, trusting Him who provides all that we need.

Response:Each of us has received teaching and training of some form that has enabled us to do some important things in life - such as going to kindergarten for the first time, driving a car alone for the first time, leaving home for college or starting our first real job. What Jesus has given us and sends us to do are far greater than all of these than we can imagine. Through the Holy Spirit we are empowered to proclaim and share the Good News of God’s salvation, healing and love to others and ultimately, to glorify God. Let’s pray today, that as the Lord provides for all of our needs, that we do not waver from the mission He has set before us, which is to go and love another to Christ.

Courtesy of Nielsen

Are you apart of the “C” generation? If you were born after 1990, according to Nielsen the answer is Yes!

C stands for connected and by the year 2020, an entire generation will have grown up in a digital world using computers, accessing the world wide web, mobile phones, texting, social networking which will ultimately shift  most industries changing the world.

“Their ownership and use of connected devices makes them incredibly unique consumers, representing both a challenge and opportunity for marketers and content providers alike,” says Nielsen

Some contest that this naming suggests that it’s a poor attempt to re-brand a generation who may not want to be consistently renamed for marketing purposes.

Either way “generation c’ers” make up a small slice (23%) of the overall population but a majority of the digital consumer’s pie.

Click here a larger view of Nielsen’s map

.

Image courtesy of Jezebel.

Does studying STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) appeal to you?

Surely its not everyone’s idea of fun. Still, there has been concern of late about a growing gap between the sexes regarding their studying of the serious STEM Stuff.

A new study from the University of Wisconsin suggests that in terms of test scores, no such gap exists.

In a review of test scores of nearly half a million fourth and eighth graders from 86 countries, researchers found no significant difference in test scores between male and female students. (Although the study did find that countries that ranked high in terms of gender equality boosted everyone’s math scores, across the board.)

2009 census data suggests that while an aptitude gap may not exist, women are definitely underrepresented in STEM fields- holding about 25% of jobs.

So where does this under representation stem from? (Pun intended).

Alicia Chang, a researcher at the University of Delaware, published a study in 2011 examining how American mothers presented mathematics to male and female children. Chang found that, “Even [when their children are] as young as 22 months, American parents draw boys’ attention to numerical concepts far more often than girls’.

Indeed, parents speak to boys about number concepts twice as often as they do girls. For cardinal-numbers speech, in which a number is attached to an obvious noun reference – “Here are five raisins” or “Look at those two beds” – the difference was even larger. Mothers were three times more likely to use such formulations while talking to boys.” While the results of Chang’s study are unclear, it seems getting more women into STEM fields remains one big numbers problem.