Men’s Soccer Beats Princeton in First Round of the NCAA Tournament

UMBC junior midfielder Andrew Bulls scored with 11:58 remaining, as the Retrievers rallied from a 1-0 deficit to defeat tenth-ranked Princeton, 2-1, and advance to the second round of the NCAA Men’s Soccer Championships.

UMBC advances to take on host 12th-seeded William & Mary on Sunday, November 21, at 5 p.m. The fan bus departs from UMBC’s Stadium Lot at 12 p.m. The cost is $20 per person round trip but does not include a ticket to the game. Contact Kristen Alexander at kristen2@umbc.edu by 6 p.m. Saturday to reserve a seat on the bus. Tickets to the game, which can be purchased at William & Mary’s Martin Family Stadium at Albert-Daly Field, are $5 for adults and $3 for youth 14-and-under and for students with valid ID.

http://www.umbc.edu/window/soccer_ncaa_game1_2010.html

Social Sciences Forum Videos Now Online

Did you miss this week’s Social Sciences Forum events? Check them out on UMBCtube! The Post-Election Forum features commentary and a Q&A session with Stuart Rothenberg (The Rothenberg Political Report), Julie Bykowicz (Baltimore Sun), Tom Schaller (UMBC Political Science) and Don Norris (UMBC Public Policy). Topics range from local to national issues, including voter turnout, the impact of unemployment, the role of the Tea Party, and projections for 2012.

“Practical Idealists: Bringing the World to Baltimore” was an opportunity for emerging and veteran social change leaders in Baltimore to discuss the challenges facing underserved Baltimoreans today. Participants included Jody Olsen (UMD Social Work), Ed Orser (UMBC American Studies), Sally Scott (Assoc of Baltimore Area Grantmakers), Ashley Milburn (Culture Works Project) and award recipient Rich Kimball (JHU). Deputy Mayor Kaliope Parthemos kicked off the Q&A session.

UMBC Incubator Partners With a Global Defense Contractor

UMBC is partnering with Northrop Grumman to attract fledgling cybersecurity businesses and generate job growth for the region.

“Cybersecurity is a significantly growing area for obvious reasons,” said Ellen Hemmerly, executive director of the UMBC Research Park Corp.

This new partnership will provide more internship opportunities for students, and new research collaborations for faculty members. “It’s really a win-win because they’re getting relatively inexpensive labor, smart kids who are studying in areas that are helpful to the companies,” Hemmerly said.

The article, “UMBC Incubator Secures Partner for Cyber Business Tenants,” appeared November 17 in the Catonsville Times.

Eight UMBC Graduates Make Baltimore List of Top Doctors

To come up with this year’s list of the city’s top doctors, Baltimore magazine asked 5,500 physicians who they would choose to send their family members to see in each of 86 specialties.

The final list includes eight UMBC graduates—several of whom have made the list before—who were recognized by their peers for the quality of care they provide.

Biological sciences majors who made the list include Fouad Abbas ’82 (gynecologic oncology), Mary “Tessie” Behrens ’80 (nephrology), Robert Donegan ’87 (hematology/oncology) and Stephen George ’80 (pediatric rheumatology).

Michael Lantz ’85, biochemistry and molecular biology, was recognized in the category of obstetrics/fetal medicine.

Psychology majors Lauren Schnaper ’71 (breast surgery), Michael Shear ’78 (physical medicine/rehabilitation) and Francisco Ward ’87 (physical medicine/rehabilitation) were also honored.

The full list can be viewed here.

President Freeman Hrabowski in Inside Higher Ed

President Freeman Hrabowski wrote an essay for Inside Higher Ed explaining steps that higher education leaders can take to increase the number of underrepresented minorities studying, graduating and succeeding in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

“A Time of Urgency,” published November 8, highlights key recommendations from the National Academies committee Hrabowski chaired on Underrepresented Groups and the Expansion of the Science and Engineering Workforce Pipeline.

Ethics Bowl Team to Compete Saturday

This weekend, UMBC’s Ethics Bowl team will head to College Park for the intercollegiate Ethics Bowl tournament. In the tournament, which is similar to a debate, teams are given ethical dilemmas to discuss. The teams must then share the thought process and considerations that lead to an ethically sound answer to the problem. The Ethics Bowl team is coached by Greg Ealick, adjunct faculty, philosophy. The team members are Michael Iafolla ’11, English and philosophy; Nana Owusu-Boaitey ’11, biological sciences and philosophy; and Kayla Smith ’11, biological sciences and philosophy; and Danielle Albrecht ’12, political science and philosophy.

As preparation for the tournament, the Ethics Bowl team staged a mock tournament against the philosophy council of majors, Philosophers Anonymous. The annual event is known as the Yoda Cup for the contest’s trophy: a stuffed Yoda toy. See the video with highlights from this year’s Yoda Cup here.

Arabbers Speak With Humanities Scholars Class

Last week, two Baltimore Arabbers visited campus to speak with a Humanities Scholars class that is studying cultural traditions. Arabbing is a Baltimore tradition of small-scale entrepreneurs hiring horses and carts to carry a variety of food items to the neighborhoods of Baltimore. Below are the Arabbers pictured with Rebecca Boehling, director of the Dresher Center for the Humanities.

IRC to show exhibit at USA Science and Engineering Festival

At this weekend’s USA Science and Engineering Festival in Washington, D.C., the Imaging Research Center will present an exhibit that seeks to help visitors understand intuitive insights.

The exhibit, “See Intuit,” leads visitors to learn about intuition and experience their own moment of insight. It consists of a large black booth with four peepholes, through which visitors will watch short films that comprise different parts of a scene. Visitors are invited to intuit what the larger scene that connects the four short films might be and share their ideas, which will be displayed on a screen. On the side of the booth is an interactive visualization where visitors can see what happened in their brain as they watched the film and reached the insight.

The USA Science and Engineering Festival is the country’s first national science festival, and will feature over 1,500 exhibits.

For more information about the booth, including a video about its concept and construction, visit www.seeintuit.com/.

UMBC Chess Teams Gear Up for 2010 Pan-Am

The UMBC Chess Teams are preparing to defend their title at the 2010 Pan-American Intercollegiate Team Chess Championship (“World Series of College Chess”), to be held December 27-30 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Dating back to 1946, the Pan-Am is the most prestigious college chess championship in the Americas. Last year, against fierce competition, UMBC won first place at the Pan-Am a record ninth time and went on to win the President’s Cup (“Final Four of College Chess”) a record sixth time.

Nevertheless, this year may be UMBC’s toughest fight ever with three Texas schools also fielding extremely strong teams. As does UMBC, University of Texas at Dallas (UTD), Texas Tech and University of Texas at Brownsville (UTB) each recruits Grandmaster chess players from throughout the world with chess scholarships. Each team comprises four players and up to two alternates.

UMBC will send two teams, selected by Chess Coach Igor Epshteyn and Associate Director and International Grandmaster Sam Palatnik. Team A consists of International Grandmasters Leonid “Chief” Kritz of Germany, Sergey “The Stealth” Erenburg (Captain) of Israel, Giorgi Margvelashvili of the Republic of Georgia and International Master Sasha “Plaplan” Kaplan of Israel. Three of these players are straight-A students. The average rating of Team A is an amazing 2586.

Team B consists of International Woman Grandmaster Sabina “Sunshine” Foisor (Captain) of Romania, National Masters Aaron “Kahnvict” Kahn, Richard Selzler (Chess Club President), Adithya “The Smasher” Balasubramanian, plus freshman Chess Expert Benjamin “The Potomac Pillager” Krause as alternate from Potomac, Maryland. The average rating of Team B is 2302.

President Hrabowski Presents National Academies Diversity Report

President Freeman Hrabowski presented the findings on September 30 from a congressionally mandated report that outlines a national plan to engage underrepresented minorities in all levels of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education.

Hrabowski, chair of the committee that produced the report, told the audience at the National Academies’ Keck Center in Washington D.C. that a first step is the development of programs and support systems to improve the retention rate of students who start university or college with an interest in science and engineering.

The country must also strengthen all levels of pre-school and K-12 education, Hrabowski said, as part of a national effort to prepare more underrepresented minorities for careers in science and engineering.

Slides from Hrabowski’s presentation, photos from the event and links to a news release and the report can be found on the National Academies’ website.

A blog post on the report from Science can be viewed here.

The report notes that UMBC is among the top U.S. institutions—and the top producer among predominantly white institutions—for preparing African Americans who went on to complete doctorates in the natural sciences and engineering between 2002 and 2006.

UMBC’s Meyerhoff Scholars Program is recognized in the report as a model of the kind of program needed at universities and colleges across the country to increase the number of underrepresented minorities pursuing careers in the natural sciences and engineering. The Meyerhoff Program is a focused effort to increase diversity in the natural sciences, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields by recruiting, supporting and graduating students who go on to doctoral study.