TV Grows Up Fast at UMBC

“Quiet on the set, please!” will soon be a familiar refrain at UMBC. Retirement Living Television (RLTV), America’s first network devoted exclusively to people age 55 and over, recently gave the University’s on-campus TV studio a $1.3 million dollar upgrade and has begun offering students hands-on experience behind the scenes of nationally broadcast programs.

RLTV began as a media offshoot of Erickson Retirement Communities and has since grown to reach over 26 million U.S. households through DirecTV and Comcast. RLTV produces two of its programs – “The Voice” and a yet-to-be-named advocacy show – at the revamped UMBC studio. The network will eventually broadcast from a new $20 million TV production and information technology facility at bwtech@UMBC Research and Technology Park.

The campus community is invited to celebrate UMBC’s partnership with RLTV on Friday Feb. 16 from noon to 2 p.m. at a studio open house featuring UMBC president Freeman Hrabowski, Erickson founder and CEO John Erickson and RLTV president Brad Knight. UMBC communication faculty and students will be on hand as RLTV production staff demonstrate the studio’s capabilities and discuss the programs produced there. The studios are located on the second and third floors of Academic IV, A Wing.

“The new studio and the new relationship with RLTV are already creating amazing opportunities for students studying media and communication to do hands-on creative and technical work in the field,” said Jason Loviglio, associate professor of American studies and coordinator of media and communication initiatives. “We’re lucky to have this exciting new resource right here on campus.”

The first crop of UMBC student interns is eager to get to work. For sophomore English/political science major and Humanities Scholar Adrienne Hawkins, the RLTV studio offers a chance to expand communication skills she developed through her high school’s TV program and as a writer for The Retriever Weekly student newspaper. “I would like to eventually run a successful television show, and this internship would be a step in the right direction,” she said.

“The RLTV staff always welcomes those eager to learn and help in the process,” said RLTV studio engineer Sophia Manos. “We hope it turns into a symbiotic relationship for RLTV, the Erickson communities and the UMBC media programs,” she said.

Cathryna Brown, a senior interdisciplinary studies major, is also looking forward to connecting with RLTV. Both Brown and Hawkins are working towards completion of the certificate in Communication and Media Studies.

Brown and other students recently worked with UMBC’s New Media Studio to create digital video illustrations of stories told by residents of Charlestown, an Erickson Retirement Community located near UMBC.

“The Digital Stories project allowed us to come together and communicate on a level that’s rare in today’s world,” said Bill Shewbridge, manager/producer of the New Media Studio. “Several students have described the relationships they have built with the residents as ‘timeless,’ which sums up the spirit of the project well.”

“I’m very excited to be a part of programming that will potentially bridge the gap between children, their parents and grandparents,” said Brown.

For more information on the RLTV Studio or the open house event, please contact Kathy Raab at 443-610-0028 or kraab@rl.tv.

(2/9/07)

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Each year, the UMBC Alumni Association presents awards to honor alumni for their professional and personal achievements and service to the University.   Learn more about our past award winners.

Outstanding Alumnus
Social & Behavioral Sciences
Eric A. Carlton ’91, Africana Studies

After becoming the youngest high school principal in the country at age 29, Eric A. Carlton ’91, Africana studies, later launched Banner Schools, a private company that partners with public school districts to provide a successful educational environment for at-risk youth. The company has three schools in Chicago, one in Miami, and will open another in Detroit. Together, the schools serve some 500 middle- and high-school students from the most troubled environments. A former UMBC SGA vice president and president, member of the men’s soccer team and tutor for the Shriver Center’s Choice Program, Carlton has received numerous accolades for his services as an educator.

Distinguished Service Award
Eli Eisenberg ’86, Interdisciplinary Studies

Eli Eisenberg ’86, interdisciplinary studies, is connected to UMBC through both service and philanthropy, as a member of the board of UMBC’s Alex. Brown Entrepreneurship Center, the “Exceptional by Example” Alumni Campaign Committee and the 2016 Alumni Strategic Planning Committee. In addition, he has endowed a scholarship in the name of his parents that supports two students per year.  Eisenberg is founder and principal of VPC, Inc., a company providing multimedia production services, event management and studio and technology systems design. Guests at UMBC’s Commencement ceremonies and the spectacular 40th Anniversary celebration have seen VPC’s technical expertise at work.

Outstanding Alumna
Visual & Performing Arts
Sheila López ’92, Visual and Performing Arts -Theatre

After earning her M.F.A. from the Yale School of Drama, Sheila M. López ’92, visual and performing arts/theatre, founded Antecesores, a non-profit organization in Buffalo, NY, that advances, nurtures and celebrates Latino cultures through theatre. Antecesores (translated as “ancestors”) focuses in particular on programs for children, to allow them to explore and discover their cultural heritage. She also works to bring different generations of Buffalo’s Latino community closer together and to provide a cultural bridge between Latinos and those of non-Latino descent.

Outstanding Alumnus
Engineering and Information Technology
Robert S. Marshall ’88, Mechanical Engineering

Robert S. Marshall ’88, mechanical engineering, is president and CEO of AWS Convergence Technologies, better known as “WeatherBug.” Marshall pioneered the networking of weather instrumentation and cameras using the Internet, and has built this capability into the single largest network of weather stations and Internet cameras in the world.  Since it was launched in 2000, WeatherBug has become one of the top 10 news and information sites on the Internet. It is the leading provider of real-time, local weather for broadcast television and, through a landmark agreement with the National Weather Service, now also provides critical weather data to federal, state, and local government agencies.

Outstanding Alumnus
Natural & Mathematical Sciences
Joseph P. McCloskey ’81 M.S., ’83 Ph.D., Applied Mathematics

Joseph McCloskey, M.S. ’81, Ph.D. ’83, applied mathematics, is a senior cryptologic mathematician for the National Security Agency, where he has worked since 1968. As technical director of the agency’s Mathematics Research Group for the past 11 years, he is responsible for coordinating and supervising the professional training of newly hired mathematicians and statisticians. Throughout his career, Dr. McCloskey has received numerous citations, including the prestigious Presidential Rank Award in 2006 and the President’s Award from the Crypto-Mathematics Institute, the agency’s oldest learned society, in 2001. He is the author of more than 80 professional papers, and he has taught one course each semester at UMBC for 20 years

Outstanding Alumna
Humanities
Patricia A. Smith ’74, Ancient Studies

A distinguished attorney, Patricia A. Smith ’74, ancient studies, has acted as People’s Counsel for the State of Maryland, a special solicitor and chief counsel to the Baltimore Police Department for the City of Baltimore, and has served as an administrative law judge in the Maryland Office of Administrative Hearings, as an assistant United States Attorney for the District of Maryland and an assistant attorney general in the Office of the Attorney General for the State of Maryland. She is also an instructor at the Johns Hopkins University.

Andrew Sears, chair and professor of UMBC's Information Systems department, was recently an in-studio guest for Maryland Public Television's "Business Connection."

Sears discussed how the information technology (IT) job market is doing much better than conventionally thought. According to Sears, trends like decreased outsourcing, increased hiring and even signing bonuses for talented IT grads all add up to a booming IT job market for the Class of 2007.

Sears was invited by the show's producers based on UMBC's growing reputation as a statewide and national leader. According to the January 2007 issue of Computing Research News, UMBC ranks # 2 in IT degrees awarded by major US research universities. UMBC also continues to be the largest producer of information technology graduates in Maryland.

To watch the video online, visit the UMBC Informations Systems department's website.

During the fall semester and winter break, students from the New Media Studio returned to the Charlestown Retirement Community for another round digital storytelling. Following the success of last summer's project, Retirement Living TV agreed to extend the workshop which they hope will form the basis of an ongoing program of viewer-submitted content for the network. This time cameras from RL-TV and the New Media Studio followed the students and residents as they collaborated in the creation of eleven new stories. The documentary footage and stories will be a part of an upcoming series on the project to be aired on RL-TV. You can view a short feature about the project here.

GEST Center's Assaf Anyamba Helps to Slow Deadly Fever in Kenya

Photo Caption: UMBC/NASA scientist Assaf Anyamba.

Update: Feb. 9, 2007. Read more about Dr. Anyamba's work in the Baltimore Sun.

Recently, Assaf Anyamba, a research associate scientist at UMBC’s Goddard Earth Sciences and Technology (GEST) Center, got a first-hand look at how his research helped save lives.

Anyamba, an expert on using earth science satellite data to see the links between weather, disease and famine, was on personal travel in East Africa when an outbreak of Rift Valley Fever -- a deadly hemorrhagic disease -- began in Kenya. A similar outbreak the same time of year in 1997-1998 killed about 400 people.

But this time Anyamba and a team of earth science and public health colleagues from NASA, the Department of Defense and the USDA had seen the outbreak coming. Back in October, Anyamba and other scientists tracked satellite imaging data and weather forecasts predicting warmer ocean temperatures that would result in widespread and heavy rainfall and a spike in the mosquito population -- perfect conditions for Rift Valley Fever.

Photo Caption: Assaf Anyamba (right) surveys a typical breeding environment for Rift Valley Fever-carrying mosquitos northeast of Nairobi, Kenya. He is joined by Kenneth Linthicum (left) director of the USDA Center for Medical, Agricultural and Veterinary Entomology, and Elizabeth Kioko, a research entomologist with the DOD-Walter Reed Project, Kenya.

Thanks to their work, the Kenyan government partnered with international science and public health teams and had time to take preventative steps, such as outlawing the ritual sacrifice of cattle, sheep and goats during the Muslim Eid festival. These and other steps helped reduce human contact with likely animal carriers of the disease. This year's outbreak death toll was limited to 104 people so far.

Anyamba was tapped by the Department of Defense - Global Emerging Infections Surveillance and Response System (DoD-GEIS) and the World Health Organization (WHO) to monitor conditions associated with vector-borne disease outbreaks and provide early warning information to prevent and minimize the impacts of outbreaks such as the one in Kenya.

In recent months, he presented his findings on using earth science to prevent diseases like Rift Valley to various prestigious international health groups, including the WHO, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and the U.S. Rift Valley Fever Working Group. In February and March, he will be doing assessment fieldwork in Kenya to monitor the success of the disease prevention efforts.

Image Caption: A map produced by Anyamba's research team predicted the Kenyan outbreak of Rift Valley Fever.

Anyamba's work helping to contain the outbreak received international media attention from the Associated Press, The Chicago Tribune, Washington Post, New York Times and many other major news outlets.

"This is a culmination of 10 years of dedicated work," said Anyamba. "It is a great pleasure to have the opportunity to translate scientific data and analysis results into products that benefit global public health."

Stephen Auvil, of UMBC's Office of Technology Development and the ACTiVATE Program, is invited to speak at the FemStart Conference in Stuttgart, Germany from February 14-15. The ACTiVATE Program will be featured as a best practice for training women to commercialize technology out of universities.

FemStart is an initiative funded by the European Commission’s 6th Framework Programme for Research and Technology within the Science and Society Priority. It will start a public debate on the issue of how female scientists can be motivated to start their own businesses after university.

For more information about FemStart visit the website at www.femstart.eu.