sound vision motion
UMBC’s IRC Fellows Program, a partnership between UMBC’s Department of Visual Arts and the Imaging Research Center (IRC), has quickly built upon the existing successes of the IRC Internship Program and the Visual Arts Undergraduate Program to create a national model for the recruiting, retention, education and support of talented digital artists. “Students are transferring to UMBC with the hope that they will get into the IRC Fellows Program,” said IRC Director Dan Bailey.
Designed to recognize, reward and encourage UMBC juniors and seniors who have displayed exceptional artistic talent and technical proficiency over the course of their first two years as undergraduate art students, the IRC Fellows Program supports these student artists as they pursue careers in either academic or professional art settings. Through a series of specially designed seminar-style courses, IRC Fellows are exposed to new technologies and artistic practices. IRC Fellows have access to the Center’s labs, visiting researchers, and to mentoring by visual arts faculty and IRC staff.
The IRC Fellows Program also fuses the research initiatives of UMBC’s visual arts faculty with the national significance of the IRC, which is dedicated to investigating new technologies and using them for interpreting and presenting content. Since its inception in 1987, artists and researchers across disciplines have collaborated in the IRC’s creative environment to develop new strategies and techniques in digital media. State-of-the-art facilities enable research in 3D visualization, immersive technologies, interactivity, installation, animation, high definition video and sound.
On February 4 and 5, Baltimore audiences can see the product of a collaboration between the IRC Fellows and Associate Professor of Visual Arts Timothy Nohe, who directed the program during the fall ’04 semester, and modern dance company movement/addiction, directed by UMBC alumni Renée Brozic and Sarah D. Seely. The evening length concert, *blink*, will be held at the Creative Alliance and includes body.txt, in which sweeping live video is projected onto canvasses made of latex sheets. The dancers press their bodies against the sheets, creating a stunning visceral background, and time delay video techniques allow the dancers to duet with images of themselves. The words of New York City-based slam poet Noel Jones glide across the screens and the dancers.
*blink* takes place at 8 p.m. February 4-5 at the Creative Alliance at The Patterson, 3134 Eastern Avenue in Baltimore City. Tickets ($15) can be ordered in advance through MissionTix, or call 410-752-8950.
Watch a video clip from body.txt.
Watch a feature on the IRC from MPT “Artworks.”
(1/31/05)
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Adventures in Ancient Studies
From the History Channel to sword and sandal epic movies, 21st century citizens remain fascinated by the mysteries of the ancient world.
In UMBC’s Department of Ancient Studies (ANCS), students from various disciplines enroll in classes with topics ranging from elementary Latin to women and gender in the classical world. Faculty members emphasize teaching as the cornerstone of the department and consequently draw up to 100 students in some lower-level courses. Through their creative teaching methods and the practical field experience offered to majors, ANCS connects with undergraduates and enables them to reach, sometimes literally, into the annals of western civilization.
With faculty specializing in archaeology and the history, language and literature of the ancient world, ANCS is able to offer holistic instruction in the classics. Many faculty members contribute to the department’s study/travel program, which gives students the opportunity to participate in digs and discover ancient sites firsthand. Past destinations have included China, Egypt, England, France, Germany, Italy, Greece, Israel, Spain, Tunisia and Turkey. ANCS also reserves departmental funds for travel scholarships, making it one of only a few classics programs in the country to do so.
In 1969 Rudolph H. Storch, associate professor and chair of ancient studies, founded ANCS and helped develop the program, recruiting professors for both ANCS and the history department. He has written extensively about the military history of the ancient world and is currently researching Greek warfare during the archaic period. Storch edits issues of the departmental newsletter, organizes trips to museums in New York and Washington, D.C. and plans events for Ancient Studies Week.
Walter Sherwin, associate professor of ancient studies, is also a founding member of ANCS and has taught at UMBC since 1967. Sherwin has used his expertise in Greek and Roman literature to consult with the U.S. Supreme Court in research and library affairs. He chaired a University committee aimed at improving the undergraduate experience and was recently an advisor to the Ancient Studies Club. Sherwin also coordinated recent study/travel trips to Italy, London and France.
In 1969 Jay M. Freyman, associate professor of ancient studies, helped create the ANCS study/travel program and has since organized trips all over the world. He was instrumental in establishing a Phi Beta Kappa chapter on campus and received a University System of Maryland Regents Faculty Award for Excellence in Mentoring in 1999. Using his background in ancient Greek and Latin, Freyman developed courses in etymology and medical terminology. He also provided historical instruction to theater troupes performing Greek dramas at UMBC and in Washington, D.C.
Marilyn Y. Goldberg, associate professor of ancient studies, has been an ANCS faculty member since 1978. She championed several projects designed to improve pedagogy at UMBC and is bringing technology to ANCS with a pilot project using Web-based images in the classroom. Goldberg also designed an ANCS course for UMBC’s First Year Seminar program. She is currently working on a manuscript that examines communities and gender in the public space of classical Athens.
A recognized expert in ancient trade and transport amphoras, Carolyn G. Koehler, associate professor of ancient studies, has taught at UMBC since 1978. She recently wrote a book on the results of an excavation of Corinthian amphoras in Athens to be published by Princeton’s American School of Classical Studies at Athens and is the president of AMPHORAS Project, Inc. Koehler also works with students to find field-related internships and coordinates trips for the department’s study/travel program.
(1/25/05)
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Art as Collaboration
For over 20 years, composer Anna Rubin has collaborated with dancers, musicians and video artists. As director of UMBC’s Linehan Artist Scholar and InterArts Studies Programs, she brings the spirit of collaboration to the University’s undergraduates. “Some of the most exciting work occurs in collaboration,” said Rubin, who is also an associate professor of music. “All of my roles at UMBC allow me to work with a variety of students and faculty members to help enhance the arts environment at UMBC. There’s a great interest in collaborative work here, which I find very stimulating.”
In addition to exploring individualized study in more than one discipline, students in the VPA/InterArts Studies Program have the opportunity take classes with established artists who visit campus each year. This spring, Rubin and Carolyn Tice, associate professor and chair of social work, will teach Art in Community—open to all students—in conjunction with the Liz Lerman Dance Exchange (LLDE) and Charlestown Retirement Community. LLDE has pioneered dance education with senior citizens as well as the inclusion of older dancers within their company.
Art in Community will give arts, social work, public policy and sociology students a hands-on experience in the use of the arts to promote self-expression, a sense of community and health in senior citizens. Participants will create a collaborative work to be shown on April 29. (Liz Lerman Dance Exchange will also present a public concert at UMBC on February 4.)
“There is an enormous opportunity for our arts students to learn about entrepreneurship in community arts projects such as our collaboration with Lerman Dance Exchange and Charlestown Retirement Community,” said Rubin. “Professional artists often have to be their own fundraisers, teachers, marketers and promoters. In addition, they work with diverse audiences. It is important for our students to see the model of an established company like LLDE, which has created many successful collaborations. The course is also a research opportunity for students from other majors as they examine the efficacy of the program and how it affects a social organization like Charlestown.”
Rubin is excited about the potential for courses like Art in Community, just one example of her lifelong passion for collaboration. After falling in love with composition as a master’s student at CalArts, Rubin began seeking out opportunities to work with other artists. “Once I discovered composition, I couldn’t get enough and pursued every opportunity I could get to work with virtuoso performers, collaborate with other composers and artists and explore computer-generated sound,” said Rubin, who has created over 35 compositions and won numerous awards for her work, most recently from the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) and the Aether Festival of Radio Art#1 (Radio Station KUNM, Albuquerque). In May, the acclaimed Da Capo Chamber Players will perform one of her works at New York’s Knitting Factory in a concert showcasing works which integrate electronics with acoustic instruments.
(1/10/04)
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As the national debate on gender and science in higher education heats up, the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC)is an excellent example of how a campus can increase the presence andsuccess of women faculty in science and technology.
Led by President Freeman A. Hrabowski, UMBC is a public researchuniversity with a national reputation for academic excellence and diversity. Over the last six years, UMBC has expanded campus-wideinitiatives to attract and support female faculty and graduate studentsin science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields.
"Since 2000, when we first began studies on how to tackle the problem, the number of UMBC's tenured or tenure-track women faculty in the STEM fields has more than doubled from 17 to 36," said Lynn Zimmerman, ViceProvost for Academic Initiatives and Professor of Biology at UMBC.
UMBC now requires all departments to form diversity plans prior to starting faculty job searches. The campus also redesigned its family and medical leave policy to be more visible and attractive to women faculty.
"Good things can happen once there is a genuine commitment to the issue," said Zimmerman. "UMBC's work is by no means finished, but I am excited about our progress in such a short period of time."
Initiatives and Expert Sources on Women and Science:
Hrabowski is leading gender diversity efforts on the campus as the principal investigator for ADVANCE at UMBC, a $3.2 million, five year,National Science Foundation (NSF) institutional transformation grant. ADVANCE is designed to change the campus structure and culture to improve recruitment, retention, career advancement and mentoring for talented women STEM faculty.
"Programs like ADVANCE show that what's good for women is good for the entire university," said Zimmerman, who also leads the university's day-to-day efforts for ADVANCE and other science diversity programs.
In 2001, UMBC appointed Janet Rutledge Associate Dean of the Graduate School. Rutledge was instrumental in bringing the PROMISE program to UMBC. Through this $2.5 million NSF grant, UMBC leads an effort by Maryland's three public research universities to increase the number and diversity of Ph.D. graduates in the sciences and engineering who go onto academic careers.
As the first African American female to receive a Ph.D. from Georgia Tech's electrical engineering program, Rutledge knows firsthand the challenges that women and other minorities face in academia. "There's a feeling of invisibility," said Rutledge, who focused on the scarcity of minority science Ph.D.s at the NSF prior to coming to UMBC.
In 2000, Zimmerman and fellow biological sciences professor Phyllis Robinson founded UMBC's faculty group Women in Science and Engineering(WISE). The informal support group for women STEM faculty became the foundation for ADVANCE and other efforts at UMBC.
In 2004, UMBC was one of only five U.S. institutions to receive an award to establish a Clare Boothe Luce Professorship. The Clare Boothe Luce Program is among the most significant sources of private support for women in science, engineering and mathematics in the U.S. When hired,the new professor will make UMBC's Department of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering faculty over 50 percent female.
UMBC is home to the Center for Women and Information Technology (CWIT),which is dedicated to strengthening the nation's technology workforce by increasing the participation and advancement of women and girls in information technology (IT) and IT careers.
Claudia Morrell, Executive Director of the Center, has led a dramatic expansion at CWIT, including the development of a scholars program with a 93 percent retention rate and a $6.5 million increase in scholarships,research, and program funding.
Anne Spence is an Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering at UMBC and a member of WISE and CWIT's Advisory Board. An aerospace engineer, Spence is used to the challenges of being a woman in a technical field.
"One of my college professors told me that women should not be engineers, so I got the highest grade in the class to prove him wrong," she said. "When I graduated I had six job offers. I did encounter initial resistance, but I was always able to get rid of it by proving myself."
Spence is a volunteer for CWIT's annual educational outreach event,Computer Mania Day. The event works to break stereotypes by building interest in technology among middle school girls, their parents and teachers via hands-on education and mentorship. She is also an advisor for UMBC's chapter of Mentor Net, a national mentoring program for women studying engineering and computer science.
]]>Using Physics to Synchronize Clocks
Even the most accurate timepieces are almost certain to disagree by at least a few seconds, which can be problematic for applications such as telecommunications, satellites, wide area networks (WANs) and global positioning systems that rely heavily on time synchronization. But thanks to sophisticated computations and high-speed electronics, distant clocks with separations of thousands of miles can be synchronized within a just few nanoseconds—one billionth of a second.
Physics Ph.D. students Alejandra Valencia and Giuliano Scarcelli, under the mentorship of Dr. Yanhua Shih, conducted an experiment to show that tighter synchronization of distant clocks may be possible by utilizing quantum physics. “We used the quantum entanglement of photon pairs to achieve clock synchronization,” said Scarcelli.
By sending two entangled photons down optical fibers, the research team was able to detect synchronized events with picosecond—one trillionth of a second—accuracy over a distance of three kilometers. Synchronizing clocks in global positioning satellites to within a picosecond might make it possible to locate objects at the earth’s surface within millimeters. The team’s research, first published in Applied Physics Letters and Science News last September, might have a role in a future space-based observatory.
Valencia and Scarcelli enjoy working under the guidance of faculty members who are considered among the top-ranking physicists in the U.S. In addition, since the University— ranked 16 th nationwide for NASA funding—has close relationships with NASA, the National Institute of Science and Technology and other research institutions, Ph.D. students also have the opportunity to network with other scientists in the region.
Having traveled from their respective native countries, Italy and Colombia, Scarcelli and Valencia have found UMBC to be a home away from home. Alejandra appreciates that Shih and other professors here treat their students like fellow researchers and value their ideas. “Back home this kind of relationship does not exist. We are not as close to professors as we are here at UMBC,” said Valencia.
(1/4/05)
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The Science of Snow
There are good reasons why Baltimore goes berserk about winter weather: Like many areas along the Mid-Atlantic, it often sits on the “rain-snow” line, or 32 F line, which makes storms difficult to forecast. “Small errors in predicting a storm’s track and intensity can mean all the difference between being on the warm side and getting mostly rain, or the cold side and mostly snow,” said Jeff Halverson, research associate professor at UMBC.
The University’s Joint Center for Earth Systems Technology (JCET) is home to NASA Goddard Space Flight Center research professors/weather and climate experts like Halverson and Ali Tokay who can help explain the science of snow. In addition to their research on global rainfall (Tokay) and tropical weather (Halverson) the pair also take turns teaching Geography 311: Weather and Climate, where students often ask about the nor’easters that occasionally dump over a foot of snow on the Mid-Atlantic.
There’s a good reason why the 50 million residents of the Northeastern urban corridor stretching from Richmond to Boston are hit by big snows fairly frequently. “The corridor’s unique geography puts its cities in a meteorological cross-hairs,” said Halverson. “The warm Atlantic Gulf Stream supplies abundant moisture, and the Appalachians ‘dam up’ or trap cold Canadian air, factors that often combine for significant snow events.”
“UMBC is in an interesting part of the U.S.; the rain-snow line can be just on top of us,” said Tokay. “If you recall December 5, 2003, UMBC was closed due to snow, but no snow was observed in greater Washington.”
Tokay, who devotes about a week of his class to winter weather, studies the microphysics of all types of precipitation. Throughout his career he’s used both high and low tech ways to study snow and ice, from yardsticks and buckets to a modern instrument called a disdrometer that measures the size, fall velocity and shape of individual snowflakes.
As a graduate student at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, Tokay once braved a 22-hour blizzard to photograph individual snowflakes under a specially fitted microscope. “All snowflakes are six-sided, but it’s true as they say that no two are identical,” said Tokay. “They come in several shapes including needles, dendrites, columns and plates. Measuring snowfall is not an easy task, and running in and out of our building every five minutes at frigid temperatures was not fun, but we meteorologists live for that sort of thing.”
So what sort of winter is predicted for Maryland this year? Halverson said that official forecasts for early winter look normal, i.e. equal chances of snow or rain. “But the data suggests to me that the Mid-Atlantic is in an upswing of severe snowstorm activity and I would predict an active year with two to three major snowstorms.”
12/20/2004
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The best way to relieve congestion on Route 32 between Interstate 70 and Route 108 in Maryland is to adopt the State Highway Administration (SHA) plan to widen Route 32 to four lanes, according to a study by graduate students in the UMBC Department of Public Policy.
The study, Maryland Route 32: A Policy Analysis, examined alternatives for addressing the congestion on the heavily traveled, undivided two-lane stretch of road in Howard County. The SHA proposed that the road be widened to four lanes, with interchanges and service roads, and received an exemption from the Maryland's Smart Growth law to allow state funding for the project. However, community activists and environmental groups oppose the SHA plan, and one group has announced that it will file suit to stop state funding for the $220 million expansion.
]]>Helping to Save the “Other Bay”
While Mid-Atlantic residents are often reminded to preserve the beauty and health of the Chesapeake Bay, Assistant Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering Upal Ghosh recently did some hard-hat meets high-tech fieldwork to help protect the West Coast’s most famous bay from cancer-causing pollutants.
Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), carcinogenic chemicals often found in waterways near cities and industrial areas, are at the heart of Ghosh’s research. Commercial fishing is banned in the San Francisco Bay due to high PCB levels in the fish. Many other U.S. port areas are in a similar state, including the Chesapeake Bay watershed, where PCB contamination has caused warnings against eating fish from most major rivers.
Ghosh helped develop an innovative approach to sediment clean-up that trades a white lab coat for a hard hat and wading boots. His technique uses a heavy-duty machine—the AquaMog—as a sort of underwater rototiller to mix activated carbon into contaminated Bay sediment.
“This process binds up the PCBs into the carbon, making them less available to bottom-dwelling organisms and fish and less likely to escape into the surrounding waters,” said Ghosh. “It’s the first time researchers are doing this in a large area using heavy equipment.”
The U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) and the U.S. Navy supports ongoing evaluation of the technology. To test the process, the team exposes caged clams in the sediments and then measures their PCB uptake. Ghosh also checks the water quality at treated sites to monitor PCB levels being released into the Bay watershed.
The San Francisco Bay project is a collaboration with Stanford University faculty and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Ghosh and Richard Luthy, professor of civil and environmental engineering at Stanford, have a patent pending on the technology application.
The research team was recently awarded a project by the DOD to do a more extensive pilot demonstration study at the same site. Ghosh also receives funding from the Environmental Protection Agency to test the technology on freshwater sediments from areas of environmental concern near the Great Lakes.
“I’m excited that a technology I conceived five years ago is now going into field trial,” said Ghosh. “There is a great potential to revolutionize the way we clean up contaminated waterways in the future.”
For more details about these and other research projects at UMBC, watch the home page for the debut of a new online home for UMBC research. If you know of UMBC research projects with a positive impact on people’s daily lives, please e-mail information to researchnews@umbc.edu.
12/13/2004
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Helping to Save the “Other Bay”
While Mid-Atlantic residents are often reminded to preserve the beauty and health of the Chesapeake Bay, Assistant Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering Upal Ghosh recently did some hard-hat meets high-tech fieldwork to help protect the West Coast’s most famous bay from cancer-causing pollutants.
Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), carcinogenic chemicals often found in waterways near cities and industrial areas, are at the heart of Ghosh’s research. Commercial fishing is banned in the San Francisco Bay due to high PCB levels in the fish. Many other U.S. port areas are in a similar state, including the Chesapeake Bay watershed, where PCB contamination has caused warnings against eating fish from most major rivers.
Ghosh helped develop an innovative approach to sediment clean-up that trades a white lab coat for a hard hat and wading boots. His technique uses a heavy-duty machine—the AquaMog—as a sort of underwater rototiller to mix activated carbon into contaminated Bay sediment.
“This process binds up the PCBs into the carbon, making them less available to bottom-dwelling organisms and fish and less likely to escape into the surrounding waters,” said Ghosh. “It’s the first time researchers are doing this in a large area using heavy equipment.”
The U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) and the U.S. Navy supports ongoing evaluation of the technology. To test the process, the team exposes caged clams in the sediments and then measures their PCB uptake. Ghosh also checks the water quality at treated sites to monitor PCB levels being released into the Bay watershed.
The San Francisco Bay project is a collaboration with Stanford University faculty and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Ghosh and Richard Luthy, professor of civil and environmental engineering at Stanford, have a patent pending on the technology application.
The research team was recently awarded a project by the DOD to do a more extensive pilot demonstration study at the same site. Ghosh also receives funding from the Environmental Protection Agency to test the technology on freshwater sediments from areas of environmental concern near the Great Lakes.
“I’m excited that a technology I conceived five years ago is now going into field trial,” said Ghosh. “There is a great potential to revolutionize the way we clean up contaminated waterways in the future.”
For more details about these and other research projects at UMBC, watch the home page for the debut of a new online home for UMBC research. If you know of UMBC research projects with a positive impact on people’s daily lives, please e-mail information to researchnews@umbc.edu.
12/13/2004
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