On May 29, Jodi Kelber-Kaye, associate director of the honors college, was a guest on the Marc Steiner Show to discuss the 162nd anniversary of Sojourner Truth’s “Ain’t I a Woman?” speech.  Kelber-Kaye was joined by Lea Gilmore, singer, activist, and Center for Emerging Media cultural correspondent; Dream Hampton, journalist and cultural commentator; and A. Adar Ayira, project manager of the More in the Middle Campaign for Associated Black Charities and facilitator and analyst at Baltimore Racial Justice Action to discuss African American women and feminism.

“The word feminism is a more recent invention, and if we want to say it was invented out of white women’s movements we could easily say that.  Black women’s rights people have always had a dissonant relationship with that term,” said Kelber-Kaye.

The full conversation can be heard here.

Embrace the Windows 8 design principles by taking full advantage of the rich feature sets offered by both Blend and Visual Studio. Learn how to start from scratch and have a fully functioning (and visually appealing!) application that highlights how to work with styles, controls, data sources, layout, CSS3 transitions, web services, and many other features that help you create a better user experience with greater productivity.

In his latest Baltimore Sun column, UMBC political science professor Thomas F. Schaller, responds to the White House’s challenging month, including more Benghazi developments and scandals involving the IRS and journalist bugging.

“Taken separately, none of these episodes is fatal,” writes Schaller, “But, taken together, these three political problems reveal an underlying fault in President Obama’s leadership style. […] Mr. Obama too often seems politically detached.”

How has this become problematic in the Obama presidency? Schaller suggests, “We tend to equate the abuse of presidential power with its use…In Mr. Obama’s case, however, the abuse of power emanates from non-use. Failing to employ the power of the presidency to protect journalists, whistleblowers, and political opponents constitutes the abuse of power in absentia and is byproduct of this president’s political detachment.”

In accordance with the W3C Patent Policy, W3C has launched a Patent Advisory Group (PAG) in response to a disclosure related to the Push API specification published by the Web Applications Working Group; see the PAG charter.

W3C launches a PAG to resolve issues in the event a patent has been disclosed that may be essential, but is not available under the W3C Royalty-Free licensing requirements. Public comments regarding this disclosure may be sent to public-push-pag@w3.org (with public archive). Learn more about Patent Advisory Groups.

Five students in UMBC’s College of Engineering and Information Technology have been selected for major scholarships to pursue studies in cybersecurity-related fields under UMBC’s participation in the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Scholarship for Service (SFS) Federal CyberCorps program.

As SFS Scholars, students receive full tuition, fees, annual reimbursement of professional development expenses ($3,000), a nine-month stipend ($20,000 for undergraduates, $25,000 for MS/MPS students, and $30,000 for PhD students) for up to two years (three years for Ph.D.), and assistance with federal cybersecurity internships and career placement.

The awardees for academic year 2013-14 are:

• Nathan Price, MS (CMPE)
• Punlada Muangrat, BS (IS)
• Shannon Mcpherson, MPS (CYBR)
• Alex Cooke, BS (IS)
• Denis Danilin, MS (IS)

These new awardees will join existing UMBC SFS Scholars Oliver Kubik (BS, CMSC), Mary Mathews (PhD, CMSC), Brendan Masiar (MPS, CYBR) and Brandyn Schult (MPS, CYBR).

The CyberCorps program produces highly-qualified professionals to meet the United States government’s increasing need to protect American’s cyber infrastructure. While in the program at UMBC, SFS CyberCorps Scholars participate in special SFS program activities, have opportunities to engage in mentored research opportunities both at UMBC and its partners from industry and government, and must complete a paid summer internship for the federal government. Upon graduation, each student must work for the government (for pay) for one year for each year of scholarship received. CSEE Drs. Alan Sherman and Richard Forno direct the program under a five-year $2.5 million NSF grant received in 2012.

This post originally appeared in UMBC Insights.