An article published December 16 by the Pew Research Center examines the relationship between lower gas prices and consumer confidence in the economy. The article cites research by Douglas Lamdin, professor of economics, and Mark Johnson, a professor at Loyola University Maryland. Their research found a negative relationship between changes in gas prices and their impact on consumer sentiment. The excerpt from the Pew Research Center article can be found below:

“[The Pew Research Center] plotted the monthly consumer-sentiment index against the monthly average price of regular gas (adjusted for inflation) and found a moderately strong negative correlation — that is, consumer sentiment rose as pump prices fell. That aligns with previous research: For example, a 2012 paper from two researchers at Loyola University Maryland and the University of Maryland Baltimore County not only found an inverse correlation between gas prices and consumer sentiment, but used causality testing to conclude that price changes predicted sentiment changes and not the other way around.”

To read the full article in Pew Research Center news titled “Do lower gas prices make for confident consumers, click here.

Presented by the Dresher Center for the Humanities and the UMBC College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences

The National Endowment for the Humanities Division of Research will conduct a regional grant-writing workshop at UMBC on Friday, February 20, 2015 (inclement weather date on February 27), from 8:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. in UC 312. Registration is required.

Sessions will include NEH grant and fellowship programs, proposal writing, and the NEH peer review process. Faculty may also register for a limited number of 15-minute appointments with the NEH program officer in the afternoon to discuss specific grants and project ideas (first-come, first serve). The rsvp deadline is February 10th. 

UMBC faculty registration and information: http://goo.gl/forms/DMmlGvc4y6 

MS Thesis Defense

distratto: Real-time Impaired Driving Detection Using Multiple Textile and Inertial Sensors

Tsu An Chen

1:00-3:00pm Tuesday, 23 December 2014, ITE 341

Statistical data shows that driving-related accidents and human casualties caused by vehicles are on the rise in the US and globally. Most of these accidents are cause by impaired or distracted driving. Existing systems that detect impaired driving use cameras that perform eye and head tracking and do not capture full-body movements that are indicative of dangerous driving. To address this problem, in this thesis we present a system, distratto, that uses capacitive textile sensors embedded into car seats, headrests, and arm rests to capture whole body motion, and inertial and GPS sensors for determining vehicle speed and turns. Using a combination of these sensors and a tiered signal processing algorithm, we infer attributes that are indicative of impaired driving. We have developed a fully functional prototype of distratto that we evaluate in a real vehicle setting. We show that our system can detect impaired driving instances and driver movements with high accuracy.

Committee: Drs. Nilanjan Banerjee (chair), Ryan Robucci, Chintan Patel

Dear Graduate Students and Postdocs,

Our colleagues at Anne Arundel Community College are seeking scholars with science and/or math backgrounds, and at least a master’s degree, to teach classes in the sciences. There are at least three courses that need an instructor for the Spring 2015 semester. They are asking for applicants ASAP. In addition, the Math Department at AACC (where PROMISE AGEP Alum, Dr. Alycia Marshall is Chair) is seeking three full-time faculty positions. We have a partnership with AACC through our PROMISE AGEP and the PROF-it program (http://promiseagep.wordpress.com/archived-posts/prof-it-professors-in-training/) and we want to extend these opportunities to all graduate students and postdocs. Please consider these opportunities below.

—-FROM THE CHAIR OF THE PHYSICAL SCIENCES DEPARTMENT —–

The Physical Science department needs people interested and willing to teach General Physical Science Lecture and lab (PHS 100), General Chemistry Lecture and Lab (Che 111), Oceanography (PHS 109), and Physics Lecture and Lab (algebra or Calculus based).

The requirements for the position are a Master’s degree in the subject area or a related area (Many engineering degrees, or Science Education Degrees are acceptable).  Teaching experience is preferred but not required.

All of our courses have course coordinators, and sample materials are readily available.  All lab curriculum are set, and we have a full complement of lab staff, so instructors do not have to do any lab set up or take down.

If you are interested, send a resume/CV directly to me via email:

Kirsten Casey

Department Chair Physical Sciences

Anne Arundel Community College

kacasey@aacc.edu.

If you apply through the AACC website,  contact me directly so that I can get back to you quickly.

———–FROM THE CHAIR OF THE MATH DEPARTMENT—————-

The math department is searching for three new full-time faculty members to join our department for the upcoming academic year.

REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS:

Master’s degree or higher in Mathematics, Mathematics Education or a related field with at least 18 graduate credit hours in mathematics.  Ability to teach a wide variety of courses included developmental and credit-level math courses is required.  Candidate should have demonstrated experience integrating technology and innovative teaching strategies to improve student learning.

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS:

Community College teaching experience is preferred.  Experience teaching online, hybrid, statistics and/or math courses for elementary education majors is highly desirable.  Experience in accelerated and/or technology-supported developmental mathematics programs and an ability to teach upper-level STEM courses such as the calculus series (Calculus 1, 2 and 3), Differential Equations, Linear Algebra and/or Discrete Structures is a plus.  A strong candidate has knowledge of the community college’s mission and issues directly related to serving community college students.  A Ph.D. is not required, but highly desirable.

Information can be found here:

Instructor/Assistant Professor, Mathematics

—–

Thank you to Dr. Alycia Marshall (degrees from UMBC, Bowie State University, and the University of Maryland College Park) for sharing these opportunities with us. Dr. Marshall chairs the Math Department at AACC, and is a former PROMISE Peer Mentor.  Another colleague and former College Park PROMISE Peer Mentor, Dr. Stacey O. Nicholls, http://ola4.aacc.edu/sonicholls/, is also at AACC. Dr. Nicholls and Dr. Marshall have served as speakers and mentors at some of our PROMISE Summer Success Institute (SSI) events over the years. Both former PROMISE Peer Mentors are tenured professors in the Math Department at AACC.

Dear Graduate Students and Postdocs,

Our colleagues at Anne Arundel Community College are seeking scholars with science and/or math backgrounds, and at least a master’s degree, to teach classes in the sciences. There are at least three courses that need an instructor for the Spring 2015 semester. They are asking for applicants ASAP. In addition, the Math Department at AACC (where PROMISE AGEP Alum, Dr. Alycia Marshall is Chair) is seeking three full-time faculty positions. We have a partnership with AACC through our PROMISE AGEP and the PROF-it program (https://promiseagep.wordpress.com/archived-posts/prof-it-professors-in-training/) and we want to extend these opportunities to all graduate students and postdocs. Please consider these opportunities below.

—-FROM THE CHAIR OF THE PHYSICAL SCIENCES DEPARTMENT —–

The Physical Science department needs people interested and willing to teach General Physical Science Lecture and lab (PHS 100), General Chemistry Lecture and Lab (Che 111), Oceanography (PHS 109), and Physics Lecture and Lab (algebra or Calculus based).

The requirements for the position are a Master’s degree in the subject area or a related area (Many engineering degrees, or Science Education Degrees are acceptable).  Teaching experience is preferred but not required.

All of our courses have course coordinators, and sample materials are readily available.  All lab curriculum are set, and we have a full complement of lab staff, so instructors do not have to do any lab set up or take down.

If you are interested, send a resume/CV directly to me via email:

Kirsten Casey

Department Chair Physical Sciences

Anne Arundel Community College

kacasey@aacc.edu.

If you apply through the AACC website,  contact me directly so that I can get back to you quickly.

———–FROM THE CHAIR OF THE MATH DEPARTMENT—————-

The math department is searching for three new full-time faculty members to join our department for the upcoming academic year.

REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS:

Master’s degree or higher in Mathematics, Mathematics Education or a related field with at least 18 graduate credit hours in mathematics.  Ability to teach a wide variety of courses included developmental and credit-level math courses is required.  Candidate should have demonstrated experience integrating technology and innovative teaching strategies to improve student learning.

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS:

Community College teaching experience is preferred.  Experience teaching online, hybrid, statistics and/or math courses for elementary education majors is highly desirable.  Experience in accelerated and/or technology-supported developmental mathematics programs and an ability to teach upper-level STEM courses such as the calculus series (Calculus 1, 2 and 3), Differential Equations, Linear Algebra and/or Discrete Structures is a plus.  A strong candidate has knowledge of the community college’s mission and issues directly related to serving community college students.  A Ph.D. is not required, but highly desirable.

Information can be found here:

Instructor/Assistant Professor, Mathematics

—–

Thank you to Dr. Alycia Marshall (degrees from UMBC, Bowie State University, and the University of Maryland College Park) for sharing these opportunities with us. Dr. Marshall chairs the Math Department at AACC, and is a former PROMISE Peer Mentor.  Another colleague and former College Park PROMISE Peer Mentor, Dr. Stacey O. Nicholls, http://ola4.aacc.edu/sonicholls/, is also at AACC. Dr. Nicholls and Dr. Marshall have served as speakers and mentors at some of our PROMISE Summer Success Institute (SSI) events over the years. Both former PROMISE Peer Mentors are tenured professors in the Math Department at AACC.

Spotlighters Theatre seeks Education Director

About the Academy

Spotlighters Theatre's Young Actors Academy is a year round theatre education program offering training to youth in the Baltimore metro area through an academic and conservatory style approach. The program is designed and facilitated by instructors who work in K-12 schools, colleges/universities, and local, regional and LORT theatres. Our aim is to provide opportunities for serious young actors who want to have fun!

CSEE’s Marie desJardins is currently collaborating with Maryland educators and researchers for the NSF-funded CS10K Teacher Training Project. The project seeks to change how computer science is taught by high school teachers. Researchers work together with high school teachers to craft new curricula for high school computer science programs. This project is unique in that actual high school teachers are creating the new curricula, rather than professional curriculum writers. The CS10K Maryland Project team includes faculty from UMCP, as well as high school teachers from Charles County and Baltimore County.

The CS10K team has facilitated the creation of “a complete curriculum package for a new College Board Advanced Placement (AP) course called CS Principles.” Originally, the goal of the CS10K team was to train 10,000 teachers to teach computer science in 10,000 schools nationwide. The project has been revised to reflect its new goal of training teachers in all U.S. schools.

In academia there is a growing concern that females–as well as minorities and those with disabilities–are being repeatedly discouraged from pursuing programming in high school. Professor desJardins is trying to change this by directing the CS Matters in MD Project. (CS Matters in MD is part of the larger, NSF-supported initiative known as CS 10K.)

“I believe that CS should be included throughout the K-12 curriculum as a set of basic skills and knowledge for today’s world,” desJardins said. “All citizens of the 21st century, especially the next generation of knowledge workers, will benefit greatly from learning about computational thinking and the problem-solving skills that are a core part of computer science.”

In addition, desJardins explains that, “We need to expand the pool of available workers to fill the many computing-related jobs that our economy demands, and in order to be sure that the technology we develop is robust and useful, we need to increase the diversity of the computer scientists who take those jobs.  To meet these goals, we must broaden our notion of what it means to teach computer science (beyond just teaching coding skills), and we must reach a broader audience at an earlier age.  Our ‘CS Matters in Maryland’ project is particularly focused on creating appealing and engaging curriculum materials for the newly announced AP CS Principles course, and on training teachers to deliver this material effectively to a diverse population of learners.”

More information about CS Matters in Maryland and the CS10K Project can be found here.

This article was reposted from the CSEE Web site.