The March edition of what’s new for web designers and developers includes new web apps, photoshop plugins, productivity tools, graphics programs, CSS frameworks, jQuery plugins, and some really great new fonts.

Many of the resources below are free or very low cost, and are sure to be useful to a lot of designers and developers out there.

As always, if we’ve missed something you think should have been included, please let us know in the comments. And if you have an app or other resource you’d like to see included next month, tweet it to @cameron_chapman for consideration.

Designer Candies

Designer Candies offers up freebies for designers on a regular basis. Freebies include textures, templates, brushes, and more.

IM Free

IM Free is a collection of free stock photographs from IM Creator. You can search for images or browse by subject.

Speed Design with Illustrator

Speed Design with Illustrator is a selection of 14 tips for speeding up your design process with Illustrator. It includes tips for things like dynamic buttons and starter templates.

Readerrr

Readerrr is a new RSS reader that’s easy to use but balanced for web designers, with a built-in syntax highlighter and more designer-centric features in the works.

Zurb Quips

Zurb Quips is a library of design stats from a variety of sources. It’s a well-organized source of meaningful and accurate stats that you can use to keep on top of what’s happening in the design world.

Cerberus

Cerberus is a set of solid patterns for responsive emails that even work in Outlook. Optimize your emails for small screens with just a few simple patterns.

Dollar Photo Club

Looking for affordable stock photos and vectors? Dollar Photo Club offers 26 million stock photos for just $1 an image.

Glyphr Studio

Glyphr Studio is a free HTML5-based font editor that makes is simple for design hobbyists to create their own fonts, practically eliminating the barrier to entry.

Stripe Checkout

Stripe Checkout is an embeddable payment form for mobile, tablet, and desktop devices that makes it easy for customers to pay instantly. Checkout is continuously working to refine and optimize your sales funnel for you.

Grid Style Sheets

Grid Style Sheets uses the Cassoway Constraint Solver algorithm (the same one Apple uses to compute native layout) to replace the browser’s layout engine and reimagine CSS layout.

ScrollMagic

ScrollMagic is a jQuery plugin for creating scroll interactions, including starting animations at a specific scroll position, synchronizing an animation to scrollbar movement, and more.

Future52

Future52 is a project that features 52 designers with 52 creations over 52 weeks. There are three creations up so far, and you can follow them on Tumblr for more.

Atom

Atom is a hackable text editor from GitHub. You can customize it to do whatever you need, or just use it out of the box.

Type-Finder

Type-Finder is a quick questionnaire that lets you easily find reputable typefaces to meet your needs. Just answer five questions and you’ll get a list of great fonts to choose from.

Type Quest

Confused about how to use OpenType Webfont features? Type Quest is a great learning resource that will teach you everything you need to know to take advantage of all the features OpenType Webfonts offer.

Dewey

Dewey is a better bookmark system for Chrome. It gives you the ability to add custom tags and screenshots, and you get smarter search.

Panda

Panda (formerly Geisha) offers up daily inspiration to designers, either as a website or in a Chrome extension. Easily browse Designer News, Dribbble, Behance, and more in one place.

Ink

Ink is a free Photoshop documentation plugin. It lets you add extra information to your mockups so your developers have a better understanding of how the final output should look.

Random User Generator

This Random User Generator plugin for Photoshop makes it simple to create random users to add to your mockups, complete with names and photos. You can choose whether you want male or female users (or both), and adding them to your mockup is as simple as dragging and dropping or cutting and pasting.

Sache

Sache is a directory of Sass and Compass extensions for your projects. Just browse for the extension you want (you can also sort by tag), or add your own.

Lightly Icons

Lightly Icons is a set of 350 pixel-perfect iOS7 icons inspired by Neue Helvetica. It comes in several file formats, including PNG, PSD, AI, EPS, and SVG, all for $19.

HapTime.in

HapTime.in is an alternative to timers and spreadsheets that makes it simple to easily keep track of your time. There’s nothing to install (just a web app), and tracking is as easy as tapping.

Hemingway

Hemingway is a great free app for improving your writing. It highlights all sorts of common writing pitfalls, including overly complex sentences, adverbs, phrases that could be simpler, passive voice, and more.

Cute Grids

Cute Grids is a clean, responsive grid base for your designs. It’s mobile first, includes five media queries based on em widths, and has detailed documentation.

TLDRLegal

TLDRLegal is a resource for finding easy-to-read summaries of popular software licenses in plain English. You can search or browse, or sign up for updates.

Essay ($10)

Essay, from Ten Dollar Fonts, is a bold all-caps display font inspired by black weight type set in books from the mid-20th century, rock music, and athletics, among other influences.

Voyager ($10)

Voyager is a geometric sans serif typeface that’s highly legible, but with enough personality to be used as a display font, too.

Magnifique ($10)

Magnifique is inspired by decorative French and Italian cafe lettering dating back to the early 1900s. It’s modern while still capturing the romance and elegance of these cultures.

Campton (free)

Campton is a geometric sans serif font based on the neutrality trend of the early to mid twentieth century. Light and bold weights are free, others start at $30.

Courtesy Script Pro ($59)

Courtesy Script Pro is a Victorian-inspired hand-lettered typeface with the look of custom stationery. The lowercase is notably understated while the capitals offer a variety of stroke weights and flourishes.

Wood Nouveau JNL ($25)

Wood Nouveau JNL is inspired by hand cut wood type popular between the Victorian era and the 1920s, as well as the hippie counterculture that came later.

Jayhawker ($15)

Jayhawker is a stylized retro display font that’s great for drop caps, posters, headlines, and more.

LHF Chicago Script ($52)

LHF Chicago Script is a Charles Borges’ script with several OpenType features, including automatic ligatures and manual stylistic alternates.

Pintanina ($50)

Pintanina is a bold display font with definite pop culture and comic book stylings.

Maculature ($29)

Maculature is a grungy, uneven typeface inspired by old posters and ads. It’s legible while still being distressed, and includes some ancillary graphemes, ornaments, and rough lines.

Fonts of Chaos Bundle: 10 Rocking Artistic Fonts – only $17!

Med, Red, and Dead: Exploring three seas and a new model of international study

Israel is home to three of the world�s most diverse marine systems � the Mediterranean, Red and Dead Seas. Although found in rare and remarkable proximity, each is distinguished by unique oceanography, biology, flora and fauna, making Israel a particularly extraordinary destination for students of marine and environmental sciences.

This summer, from June 22 to July 6, Yonathan Zohar, chair of UMBC�s Department of Marine Biotechnology, will lead students on an intensive study of the three Israeli seas at the Ruppin Academic Center, in Netanya, Israel, on the Mediterranean coast. Students will be exposed not only to the diverse biology of the three seas, but also to leading marine and environmental scientists from around the world. �Exploring Three Seas: Med, Red and Dead� � which will explore such topics as marine and environmental biology, oceanography, marine and estuarine ecology, microbial ecology, marine flora and fauna, coastal geology and limnology through hands-on field trips and laboratories � is the latest offering from an emerging model of focused, shorter-term study abroad programs at UMBC.

�Exploring Three Seas: Med, Red and Dead� is a part of a long-term research and educational partnership between UMBC and the Ruppin Academic Center�s School of Marine Sciences. Expanding on UMBC�s commitment to marine and biotechnology, faculty from UMBC and the Institute for Marine and Environmental Technology (a joint University System of Maryland research institute) have taught intensive, one-week courses at the Ruppin Academic Center for the past five years. Many of these same faculty members helped to develop the graduate program at the School for Marine Sciences. �This summer program is what we hope to be the beginning of broadening the partnership between Ruppin Academic Center�s School of Marine Sciences and UMBC,� says Zohar.

International study and research are part of the culture at UMBC, allowing students to build their global outlook and cross-cultural skills. Shorter, intensive, professor-led trips, such as Zohar�s are a unique and increasingly popular prototype for study. Rather than the traditional mold of study abroad, which typically focuses on classroom-style learning and touring the regions of a country, these focus more intensely on experiential learning and fieldwork.

“These programs enable students to learn a great deal in a condensed time period � not only about themselves and their academic interests, but also about the world around them,” says Katherine Heird, assistant director of Study Abroad at UMBC. “Because students are accompanied by their UMBC peers, faculty and staff, faculty-led programs are often an easier and less intimidating introduction to living and studying in a foreign country than other, more independent program models.”

UMBC�s International Field Research Program is considered a pioneer of such innovative experiential study programs. Each spring, a small group of students from the Health Administration and Public Policy (HAPP) program spends the semester preparing for a seven-day summer trip to Switzerland, where they conduct individual field research to better understand how culture, policy and practice interact to achieve a sustainable and healthy society.

Thanks to dedicated faculty and funding from the U.S. Department of Education, UMBC is also launching an exciting summer study abroad in Ghana. Tyson King-Meadows, chair of Africana Studies, and Gloria Chuku, associate professor of Africana Studies, will lead “Understanding Culture and Politics in Ghana” from July 6 to August 4. The unique program is specifically designed for educators and will enroll both current K-12 teachers and undergraduate and graduate students interested in teaching careers.

As in other UMBC summer study abroad programs, participants will complete classroom, laboratory and field-based academic study, plus intensive language lessons. They will also experience intercultural exchanges with Ghanaian governmental and non-governmental officials, and guided-sightseeing activities to historical and cultural sites, exploring topics such as the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade, the African anti-colonialism movement, and Ghana�s experiences with different political systems.

Shorter programs often allow students whose schedules would otherwise not allow full semester travel to experience international and cross-cultural study � and professors are being encouraged to consider this model. Maggie Holland, professor of Geography and Environmental Systems, is traveling with students from across four majors to Costa Rica for an international study in sustainable development and conservation. This innovative study abroad experience will involve a mix of field research and service learning. Over the course of 15 days, students will meet with community groups, engage in service learning, gain experience in field research techniques, participate in focus group discussions and contribute to mapping.

“We feel strongly that our department�s offering of a field course should be designed to offer students a rich experience at relatively low-cost, and with a shorter time commitment than a full semester,” says Holland, who believes that academic, financial and family reasons often prevent students from taking a full semester abroad. “Offering this class as an early summer session course opens the program more broadly to UMBC students, as their perspectives and skills could lend substantially to the overall experience.�

Rising junior and senior undergraduates (BIOL 499) and graduate students (BIOL 601) interested in �Exploring Three Seas: Med, Red and Dead� are encouraged to apply by the deadline of March 10.

Learn More

Download Application

(3/4/2014)

Jesus Caban

Monday March 10, 2014 at 11:50 am

Presentation in Room ITE 459

ABSTRACT: Mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) is an invisible injury that is poorly understood and its sequelae can be difficult to accurately diagnose.Patients who have been screened positive for mTBI are at an increased risk of depression, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), headaches, sleep disorders, concentration difficulties, and other problems. During the last decade, a significant amount of attention has been given to the acquisition of clinical data from patients suffering from mTBI. Unfortunately, most of the data collection and analysis has focused on individual or specific aspects of the injury, not necessarily in comprehensive datasets that can enable research in multi-modal techniques to capture the complex biological state of mTBI patients. This talk will present (a) a large-scale informatics database that has been developed to enable interdisciplinary research on mTBI, (b) specific multi-modal analytical techniques necessary in the analysis of clinical data, and (c) innovative visual data mining techniques used to facilitate the exploration of the complex interactions triggered by mTBI.

SHORT BIO: Dr. Caban is the Acting Chief of Clinical and Research Informatics at the National Intrepid Center of Excellence (NICoE) at Walter Reed Bethesda. He received a Ph.D. in Computer Science at the University of Maryland, UMBC (2009), his M.S. degree in Computer Science from the University of Kentucky (2005), and his B.S. in Computer Science from the University of Puerto Rico (2002). Over the last 9 years Dr. Caban's research has focused on the design and development of techniques to analyze clinical and imaging data. His research and experience has given him the opportunity to work at top healthcare organizations including the National Institutes of Health (NIH), John Hopkins University, and the University of Maryland Medical Center, among others organizations. Dr. Caban is presently an adjunct faculty member at John Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab and an adjunct instructor at the Department of Computer Science at UMBC. Currently, he is serving as the Associate Editor of the JAMIA special issue on Visual Analytics in Healthcare and as the contracting officer representative (COR) and manager for the DoD program on "Watson-Like Technologies for TBI/PTSD Clinical Decision Support and Predictive Analytics".

Rescheduled from last week's snow, there are two interesting events happening on Monday, March 10th:

"Critical Social Justice 101" includes a fantastic group of panelists to discuss and engage with participants. The event is taking place in the University Center's Ballroom, 4-5:30 pm.  More info at http://my.umbc.edu/groups/womenscenter/events/23209

"Just Kids" explores the issue of kids who are 14 years old who are charged with certain crimes that can be automatically sent to the adult criminal justice system.  This event will be held in UC 310 at 7 pm. More info at http://critsocjustice.wordpress.com/2014/02/26/end-the-automatic-prosecution-of-youth-as-adults/

Share these opportunities with your friends and colleagues!

It’s a cliche to say that today’s twenty-somethings are pretty confused about life.

But according to a recent study by the Pew Research Center, that cliche may be grounded in statistical fact.

The Atlantic set out to chronicle the most glaring inconsistencies buried in the polling data. Here’s USDemocrazy’s top five:

1) Despite growing up in the worst economic environment since the 1930s, we’re the most confident in our financial futures.

 2) Our world is profoundly interconnected through social media websites and apps… and yet we are far less trusting of people than our parents and grandparents.

 3) We are least likely to identify with the two-party system… but have the highest approval of Congress?

 4) We are most supportive of “big government” and universal health care, but disapprove of Obamacare by the same margins as everybody else.

 5) We have the most stake in reversing climate change and preserving the environment… but we are less likely than any previous generation to identify as environmentalists.

 What’s your take on all this? Are millennials confused? Or is there wisdom hiding in the senselessness?