Facebook’s AI Research (FAIR) group has released open-source, optimized deep-learning modules for their open sourced Torch development environment for numerics, machine learning, and computer vision, with a particular emphasis on deep learning and convolutional nets.

The release includes GPU-optimized modules for large convolutional nets and networks with sparse activations that are commonly used in NLP applications.

See fbcunn for installation instructions, documentation and examples to train classifiers and iTorch for an IPython Kernel for Torch.

On Friday, January 9, Political Science Professor Roy Meyers appeared on WYPR’s Maryland Morning with Sheilah Kast to discuss Maryland’s budget process for the upcoming year. Meyers was a guest on the program along with The Daily Record Government Reporter Bryan Sears.

Meyers offered insight into what Maryland Gov.-Elect Larry Hogan will encounter with negotiations with the legislature when he takes office next week. He discussed mandated entitlement spending, discretionary spending, and analyzed Maryland’s unique budget process.

“Every year the governor makes a budget proposal. That budget proposal not only includes recommended spending levels for agency operations which the legislature can’t increase, but also asks for changes in those laws. They’re normally packaged in a law called the BRFA- the Budget Reconciliation and Financing Act.”

To listen to the full interview and hear Meyer’s in-depth analysis of the Maryland budget, click here.

In its January 19th issue, The New Yorker published a poem by English Writer in Residence Lia Purpura. The text of Purpura’s poem “Probability” is below. An audio recording of Purpura reading her poem can be found here. A link to previous poems by Purpura published in The New Yorker can be found here.

Probability

Most coincidents are not
miraculous, but way more
common than we think—
it’s the shiver
of noticing being
central in a sequence
of events
that makes so much
seem wild and rare—
because what if it wasn’t?
Astonishment’s nothing
without your consent.

 Author: Sarena C. Glenn, RD, LDN, Campus Dietitian 

Happy New Year!!! The time of year has approached where many students have promised to follow a healthy diet and go to the gym….commit, commit, commit! How many of last years ‘New Years Resolutions’ are your students still following? For those who may not have achieved or maintained last year’s ‘New Years Resolutions,’…don’t worry help is available! Here are some resources for those who have succeeded in maintaining that healthy lifestyle change AND for those who may be struggling but are willing to make small changes that can have everlasting results.

Acknowledgement of why you eat is a great first start- read this article to figure out are you eating to feed a physical or emotional hunger.

What are You Hungry For? http://blog.myfitnesspal.com/what-are-you-hungry-for/?utm_source=mfp&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=weekly20150105&mkt_tok=3RkMMJWWfF9wsRoku67LZKXonjHpfsX76%2BgsUaK1gIkz2EFye%2BLIHETpodcMTsJgPa%2BTFAwTG5toziV8R7DBLM153N8QXRTg

Hello Healthy sponsored by MyFitness Pal : Their blog is outstanding. It speaks to you as if you are a real person, with real struggles and real successes. The advice given is very practical.

https://blog.myfitnesspal.com/

ACE Fitness FIT LIFE: For my beginner exercisers to those who are hard core, ACE provides practical tips for both.

http://www.acefitness.org/acefit/fit-life/

Choose My Plate.gov provides a ‘10 Tips Education Series’ which focuses on adopting new and longstanding changes. Remember small changes build up to larger changes which yield BIG results. Handouts include “Mini Fridge Makeover”, “Be Choosey in the Dining Hall”, and “Stay Fit On Campus”.

http://www.choosemyplate.gov/

EveryMove.org can help you find the right motivation. For some of us that includes tracking. Use this website to determine which tracker works best for you to achieve your physical fitness goals.

https://everymove.org/fitness-trackers

 Ask the UMBC Dietitian

Zakaria Fatih, modern languages, linguistics and intercultural communication, has been selected to the editorial staff of the French Review, the journal of the American Association of Teachers of French. After serving two years as the Assistant Editor, he has been promoted to the position of Review Editor (section: Culture and Society). The French Review “has the largest circulation of any scholarly journal of French and Francophone studies in the world.”

Fatih also recently published an article titled: “The Aesthetics of Fragmentation, or a Way to Read El Maleh” in Expressions maghrébines: Revue de la Coordination Internationale des Chercheurs sur les Littératures Maghrébines. The article is an attempt to read analytically the complex fiction of Jewish Moroccan author Edmond Amran El Maleh, who is also referred to as the James Joyce of Morocco