In a June 5 essay for the online magazine Salon entitled “Can liberals cure stupidity?“, Tom Schaller, associate professor of political science, discussed one of the major obstacles for the left in today’s political climate: the general public’s overall lack of knowledge regarding a number of the most controversial issues we face.

From what areas should be cut in the federal budget to the size of the gay community in the country, Schaller cataloged a number of instances in which the American people have misunderstood important fiscal, governmental, and social matters, a fact that Shaller believes demonstrates that, “[g]iven that the public believes they are less dependent on a government that is actually less wasteful than they believe it to be, and that what the public doesn’t know may or may not hurt them, this much is clear: Their ignorance surely makes political life much harder for liberals.”

Psychiatry Online published an article entitled “Cervical Cancer Screening and Acute Care Visits Among Medicaid Enrollees With Mental and Substance Use Disorders” on June 1, which counted among its co-authors Michael T. Abrams and Cynthia Boddie-Willis, a Senior Research Analyst and Director of Health Services Policy and Research for The Hilltop Institute, respectively.

The piece, which involved creating logistic models using data from women enrolled in Medicaid for 2005, used cancer screening and acute care visits as dependent variables and mental illness flags and independent variables in order to “compare rates of cervical cancer screening and acute care (primary or gynecological) visits among women with and without a diagnosis of psychosis, substance use disorder, bipolar disorder or
mania, or depression,” according to the study.

Ultimately, the authors concluded that women with serious mental disorders who utilize Medicaid in Maryland were more likely to receive cervical cancer screening along with other related acute care visits than the control group, in contast to women with only substance use disorders, who were more at risk to not receive cancer screenings as opposed to acute care visits. As such, the authors of the piece recommended that “acute care visits [were] a high-potential path toward better prevention” of cervical cancer among these patients at risk.

The a PDF of the original article can be found here.

The zombie trend continues to spread across the pop cultural landscape and shows little sign of slowing down. Speaking with The Baltimore Sun‘s John-John Williams IV for a June 9 story entitled “Pop culture’s undying affection for zombies“, Arnold Blumberg, adjunt faculty member in English and co-author of Zombiemania: 80 Movies to Die For, illustrated the history of this now-ubiquitous staple of modern popular culture, as well as theorizing as to why the walking undead seem to have captured our culture’s imagination in recent times.

“There has never been a figure that has reflected all the fears we have as the zombie,” he told Williams. “It is the closest type of monster to us. They are us and we are them. The zombie comes down to some form of being a human being.”

NPR host and blogger Robert Krulwich devoted the May 26 edition of his blog Krulwich Wonders to a post entitled “A Puzzle: Why Aren’t They Laughing?”.

The post discusses a popular internet video ostensibly involving a Belgian television interviewer laughing at the “strange” voices of an interviewee and an audience member. Krulwich wrote of how the stone-faced reaction of the general audience in the video contradicts the findings of Robert Provine, professor of psychology. “It seems unnatural and seems to contradict what neuroscientist Robert Provine says about laughing — that it’s contagious, that ‘we laugh when we hear other people laugh. This is an automatic kind of thing.’ I thought, could this be evidence that Provine’s theories need amending?” Krulwich writes.

The answer to the puzzle – which leaves Provine’s theories intact – can be found in the original post.

Visual Arts associate professor and chair Vin Grabill’s latest experimental video Wet has been making the rounds for the past few months, including being show at the 2012 Athens International Film & Video Festival at Ohio University this past April and at the Tenement Street Workshop’s Second Annual Snowballs Film Festival in New York City June 3rd. Describing the piece, Grabill says on the video’s site that, ” I collaborated with computer animator Francisco Olivares to create a waterspout sequence designed to overwhelm a series of abstracted TV scenes. A second animated water sequence depicts the flooding of the physical detritus of our media infrastructure. Additional interludes depicting wetness round out the video’s visual episodes.”

Grabill’s work was also featured in last month’s edition of the online quarterly journal The Light Ekphrastic. Gabrill’s two pieces are another collaboration, this time with Baltimore writer Danielle Ariano, and entitled “Black Friday” and “Dishes.” The concept was to pair writers and poets with visual arts and have them switch off, with Grabill’s “Black Friday” inspiring Ariano’s “Holding,” and the writer’s “Anger” inspiring Grabill’s “Dishes.”

In aJune 5 article entitled “What’s the Buzz? Beehives Burgeon in Baltimore Backyards,” Rachel Wilkinson, adjunct professor of English, recently reported on the local beekeeping community for the website BmoreMedia.

Over the course of the piece, Wilkinson explores a number of facets to the practice and its prevalence within Maryland, noting that there are 1,751 registered beekeepers with about 12,000 colonies in 1800 locations according to the state’s Department of Agriculture, and that “[a]ccording to to state apiarist Jerry Fischer, Baltimore alone was home to about 29 registered beekeepers keeping more than 100 colonies in 45 locations as of February.”

Wilkinson also looks into the personalities and motivations of those who have chosen to pursue the beekeeping in the area. “Beekeepers are part thrill-seekers, part environmentalists. Concerned with ecology and sustainability, gardeners often find beekeeping the obvious next step. Keeping the pollinators results in more fruit, vegetables and flowers in your garden,” she writes.

Each year, the Alumni Association Scholarship program helps amazing students succeed at UMBC. Over the next few weeks, we’ll be sharing some of their stories with you. This week, meet scholarship recipient Paige Khoury ’12.
When you meet Paige Khoury ’12, dance, it’s easy to see why the new grad has trouble sitting still. Not only does she dance and choreograph, she’s also a dedicated volunteer – and even, recently, a budding filmmaker.
As one of four Alumni Association Scholarship winners for the 2011-2012 school year, Paige puts her passions to work wherever she goes, and UMBC is all the better for it.
“Dance helps my soul thrive,” said Khoury, whose choreographed piece, “Catalyst,” was performed by other students in the 2012 UMBC’s Undergraduate & Creative Achievement Day. “There really aren’t words to describe it. Dance is something that anyone can do…anybody is capable of it, and I love that.”

Each year, the Alumni Association Scholarship program helps amazing students succeed at UMBC. Over the next few weeks, we’ll be sharing some of their stories with you. This week, meet scholarship recipient Paige Khoury ’12.

When you meet Paige Khoury ’12, dance, it’s easy to see why the new grad has trouble sitting still. Not only does she dance and choreograph, she’s also a dedicated volunteer – and even, recently, a budding filmmaker.

As one of four Alumni Association Scholarship winners for the 2011-2012 school year, Paige puts her passions to work wherever she goes, and UMBC is all the better for it.

“Dance helps my soul thrive,” said Khoury, whose choreographed piece, “Catalyst,” was performed by other students in the 2012 UMBC’s Undergraduate & Creative Achievement Day. “There really aren’t words to describe it. Dance is something that anyone can do…anybody is capable of it, and I love that.”

While dancing takes up a lot of her time, Khoury also truly enjoys giving back through volunteer work. She spent a month in Haiti during the summer of 2010 helping earthquake victims rebuild their lives. The volunteering – which she completed as a part of her church’s mission work – shaped her world outlook, she says.

“We helped out at an orphanage with 50 children in it that was run by one woman all by herself,” she says, showing off a bracelet given to her by a little boy named Albert, who latched onto her her first day in the torn country.

“I cherish this,” says Khoury, who has stayed in touch with Albert, and who is working from afar to raise money for the people in his village.  “He had nothing, and he gave this to me…he showed me that possessions aren’t important. Only people are important.”

Newly graduated, Khoury is taking some time to figure out what she wants to do long term. She knows she wants to help people. She wants to dance. Perhaps she could combine the two somehow, she says.

Ever grateful for the chances her scholarships gave her (she also earned a partial Linehan Artists Scholarship for dance), she also hopes to stay involved with UMBC.

“Every year, I’ve struggled to pay for school,” she says. “The scholarship allowed me to pursue dance and the things I love…it really helped make this year great. Thank you.”

* * * *

– As a sort of going away present to the Class of 2012, Paige orchestrated (and choreographed!) a video “lip dub” entitled “Study Rock Anthem” (to the tune of “Party Rock Anthem” by LMFAO). Watch it here. 

British writer and scientist Arthur C. Clarke once wrote that “any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.”

And for many of us, that’s exactly how the beeps and pings and connecting dings that keep our schedules, steer our cars to the right destination, and even maintain our bonds with family and friends over great distances seem to work. Like magic.

But to the humans behind the technologies – including Silicon Valley-based UMBC alumni at Apple and Google – it’s anything but abracadabra. It’s a combination of hard work, entrepreneurial drive and visionary imagination at its geekish best.

Let’s meet some of the minds behind the magic of our technologies.

by Jenny O’Grady

Photos by Timothy Archibald. Illustrations by Meredith Nelson.

* * * *

How a UMBC alumnus found more than (voice) recognition for his work on the iPhone’s enigmatic Siri technology.

Sometimes, Harry Chen needs to get away. Far away.

When he’s surrounded by the sands of Death Valley, California, even the GPS can’t find him. He can’t check his email, or video chat with his parents in Hong Kong, or stream music from his favorite Pandora station. And he likes that solitude.

“Sometimes you’ve got to go to the desert,” says Chen, a UMBC computer science alumnus (B.A. ’98, M.S. ’00, Ph.D. ’04) who helped develop Siri, the voiceresponsive “personal assistant” found inside the latest Apple iPhones.

“You stay out there, and when you come back, you see such a big contrast of civilization,” he continues. “And it makes you appreciate life a lot more. Everything we created – one way or another – is kind of superficial, but also kind of essential.”

In a world where computing has left the desktop and lives in the clouds, Chen is a bit of a tech superstar. The work that he and his colleagues have done makes it easy for everyone from tweeners to grandfolks to whisper wishes into the palms of their hands to find the closest pizza, send an email or solve a math problem.

Reflecting on his short-yet-impressive career, the energetic 35-year-old software engineer is quick to note the importance of the nearly ten years he spent at UMBC. He says that the people and the environment of discovery at the university helped shaped him into the kind of thinker capable of seeing models and years ahead to the next cool thing.

Building The Basics

Like many blossoming tech geeks in the early 1990s, Chen first contemplated the inner workings of computers as a teenager, sitting at home in Hong Kong, his thumbs occupied by the bright red buttons of that era’s ubiquitous Nintendo controller.

“While I was playing, I’d get so curious. How did all those characters come about? I started thinking about how some games would make very predictable moves, and why some are not predictable at all,” he says. “Later on, my dad bought me a computer…and the games on that were sort of like the ones with a snake going in different directions. It made me very interested in understanding more about computer instructions.”

When Chen left home for Towson University in 1994, the world of web-based computing was just beginning to blossom. At the urging of his parents, he began a course of study in pharmacy, but a job opening at the campus library allowed Chen to help customers with computers. He started building simple websites with his friends. After taking a few classes, Chen discovered he had an aptitude for programming.

Suddenly, the future – including a transfer to UMBC – seemed obvious to him. It didn’t take Chen long to make himself at home in the university’s computer science department, where he turned artificial intelligence algorithms into Java code for computer science research projects, won highly-sought internships at Hewlett-Packard, and generally wowed his peers.

“One thing we always liked so much about Harry is that he liked to charge into things,” says Dr. Tim Finin, a professor of computer science and electrical engineering who specializes in artificial intelligence and who served as Chen’s Ph.D. advisor. “He was not afraid to just drop in and start working on something.”

At the time, many of UMBC’s computer science researchers focused on pervasive computing – which aims to unobtrusively connect and share data between the many devices in our lives. Chen took to it like a teen to texting, and reveled in collaborating with fellow students to test new ideas.

“Harry was, and probably still is, very good at that level. He could very effortlessly turn ideas into working prototypes,” says Finin. “It’s a really significant skill to be able to have an idea and then very quickly test it out…to be able to implement enough of it to get some feedback to know whether it’s a brilliant idea, whether it’s something that will pan out.”

The Smartest Room in the Building

Many computer science students at UMBC take jobs right after they finish undergraduate studies. But an iffy job market in the late 1990s and then the dot.com bubble’s burst a few years later kept Chen in school.

Chen’s decision to wait to test the market turned out to be a good one. He used that time to develop a concept that helped shape his future research.

Imagine a room that answers your questions, or anticipates your needs and then fulfills them. Chen imagined that room – and then figured out how it might be brought to life.

“The graduate student’s life is really about exploration and to be free to identify your interests,” he says. “It’s almost like an accident when you find something you really like to work on and you just know it.”

Chen had spent some time interning at the Hewlett-Packard Labs, which were – at the time – at the forefront of mobile computing research and development. So when Chen returned to UMBC, he figured out what he wanted to design: a conference room broker. This system would retrieve and translate data from the devices within the room itself to solve problems for occupants while also considering user-privacy issues.

“So you walk into a meeting room,” Chen explains, “and the room understands how many people are in that room, what those people do…so the room says, ‘Oh, there’s a projector,’ and the projector would say, ‘I want to show a PowerPoint presentation. I can do that.’”

The smart room would also locate the presentation on Chen’s phone, download it, and show it – after automatically darkening the room. It might know that one of the meeting attendees wants a copy of the PowerPoint, and then simply download it to their phone. The room might even detect that an attendee’s hotel room is several miles away – and offer to call them a taxi.

“The idea is that people will use technology without thinking about it, which is just like you pick up chopsticks or a utensil and you just use it, you don’t think about it,” he says. “So that’s an idea, to try to encourage people to build technology for everyday people, to solve everyday problems.”

Imagining this room would help Chen shape his later work.

Taking Chances – and Detours

Following graduation from UMBC, both Chen and his wife Gigi Yim, who earned a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in information systems from UMBC in 2004 and 2007, pursued jobs in the Baltimore area. They even bought a house.

But the lure of Silicon Valley – and the fast-paced, creative life it offered – called to Chen.

“At one point, I thought: life is too short. I woke up one morning and I wrote my wife an essay and I said these are the reasons why we should just move to the West Coast,” he says, smiling. “Kind of like writing a paper: these are my reasons. I sent the email in the morning, and in the evening, I come home, and she says, ‘OK. Let’s do it.’”

Within days, they were looking for new jobs and making plans to move west. Yim took a job at Netflix, and Chen wound up at a vaguely-named startup working on a secret project involving voice recognition. (This startup – Siri – would later be bought by Apple.)

Right away, Chen felt confident they had made the right choice.“There’s a mentality here among a lot of people…a sort of hunger drive to make something” in Silicon Valley. “I always feel like you capture people’s smartness in thin air here,” he adds. “Somehow, you just breathe in people’s knowledge.”

“Harry, from day one, was pretty clear. Silicon Valley was where he wanted to end up,” says Dr. Anupam Joshi, a professor of computer science and another of Chen’s graduate school advisors. He observes that some students simply crave the risk and reward of the Silicon Valley environment.

“Some of it could be – for all we know – genetic hard wiring,” Joshi says. “That is why some people become race car drivers and others, like me, drive five miles below the posted speed limit.”

Valley Life: 101

Drive down Route 101 from San Francisco, and you see signs of our burgeoning tech civilization everywhere.

Billboards touting the latest cloud software. Silver-sided buildings in seemingly endless business parks that are home to startup upon startup. Even the street names themselves – like Apple’s famous Infinite Loop, or the punningly named Disk Drive in San Jose – conjure images of innovation and dreams.

Strolling around the manicured Apple campus in Cupertino, California, Chen speaks quickly. Excitedly. He says Silicon Valley is a place where ideas can be imagined without fear, where innovation is rewarded.

“People here have a passion for technology and innovation,” he says. “They want to change the world. They take risks. Most of the time they fail, but sometimes they succeed. So they step out, dream up some crazy idea and say ‘If I fail, fine. I’ll dream another one.’”

Even so, Chen acknowledges that nothing happens overnight. If you think about the gadgets that have occupied your pockets over the last 10 years, the technology required to power them crawled more than it leapt. The palm-held organizers of the mid-’90s, for example, were little more than tiny personal computers; today’s equivalent relies on web networking and interaction with other devices. Who knows what tomorrow’s devices will look like?

“Especially in the [artificial intelligence] research field, you can’t just jump to the dream right away,” Chen says. “You kind of have to think about yourself climbing a mountain. You have to do the work to get up there…you can’t just shoot straight up because that’s impossible. And once in a while you will have to make a detour, and because certain technology or culture has changed, you have to adapt to that.”

Back at UMBC, Joshi acknowledges that Chen’s metaphor is rooted in the reality of how creativity works. “That’s part of the fascination of this field, I think, going back to the creative process,” he says. “So much is yet not done. So much power is available through the computational process…we just have to channel it. We’ve barely scratched the surface.”

For Chen, it’s often enough just to see these products in use by the people he loves. When he was an undergraduate student, he communicated with his parents in Hong Kong by hand-written letter; today, he uses FaceTime to video chat with them whenever he wants.

Chen isn’t able to discuss what he’s working on now at Apple – a company known for keeping a tight leash on its ideas and products until they are introduced. But when you ask Siri a question on your new iPhone and get an answer, consider yourself at the doorway of Chen’s smart room, engaging with his work.

“It feels surreal,” Chen concludes, “because the things I talked about four or five years ago seem like a dream, and today, it doesn’t seem like a dream anymore.”

Read about UMBC alumni working at Google here.