UMBC Presents Roundtable on Environmental Issues, Hosts Former VP Al Gore

This year’s Mosaic Roundtable –“If now what then, if then what now?”– is a timely opportunity to showcase UMBC’s faculty and student research on the environment, an area of emerging focus for the university. “If now�,” a multidisciplinary discussion of former Vice President Al Gore’s Oscar-winning film, “An Inconvenient Truth,” is a prelude to Gore’s upcoming lecture at UMBC on May 8, part of The Maryland Forum lecture series.

The Mosaic Roundtable, sponsored by UMBC’s Interdisciplinary Studies Program, on Monday, April 9 will be held from 4 to 6 p.m. on the 7th Floor of the Albin O. Kuhn Library & Gallery. The week prior to the event, the Interdisciplinary Studies Council of Majors and the Campus Climate Initiative will host free film screenings of “An Inconvenient Truth.” Founded in 2002, the Mosaic Roundtable is an annual discussion of controversial, timely issues. More information about Mosaic and the screenings is available online.

Roundtable participants are:

Scott Farrow, Chair
Department of Economics
Scott Farrow’s current research focuses on risk management and micro-economic performance while his teaching focuses on benefit-cost analysis and the economics of risk management. His work related to global climate change includes academic articles on methods to quantify the precautionary principle and economic approaches to sustainability as well as his authorship of Making the Environment Count on which then-Senator Gore held hearings.

He served twice in the Executive Office of the President, in the Department of the Interior, and carried out domestic and international consulting work for Dames & Moore, Inc. Consulting clients and funding sources have included: the US Environmental Protection Agency, ExxonMobil, Audubon Society of Western Pennsylvania, American Chemistry Council, Harvard Institute for International Development (for the US Agency for International Development) and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

Jeff Halverson, Associate Director
Joint Center for Earth Systems Technology
Associate Professor
Department of Geography and Environmental Systems
Jeffrey Halverson’s present research and teaching interests focus on the climatology and severe storms of the Mid Atlantic region, including nor’easters, severe thunderstorms and tropical cyclones undergoing extra-tropical transition. Prior to UMBC, Jeffrey Halverson investigated severe storms for NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. He also worked at NASA Headquarters, where he helped manage NASA’s Tropical Cloud Systems and Processes (TCSP) and NASA African Monsoon Multidisciplinary Activities (NAMMA) experiments to study the birth and intensification of hurricanes. He has extensive field experience investigating hurricanes, serving both as an Instrument Scientist for NASA’s ER-2 high altitude research aircraft and as Mission Scientist on NASA’s DC-8 research aircraft.

Halverson writes a regular column for Weatherwise magazine. Most recently, he wrote the scientific content for author Stefan Bechtel’s new release, Roar of the Heavens (Citadel Press), which tells the story of the catastrophic Hurricane Camille flash flood in Nelson County, Virginia.

Robert Neff, Assistant Professor
Department of Geography and Environmental Systems
Robert Neff has been studying human dimensions of global climate change for the past 10 years. He has published findings of the Mid-Atlantic Regional Assessment, which was part of the national assessment of the impacts of climate change in the late 1990s, and more recently has published findings of the Human-Environment Regional Observatories (HERO) project, which was funded by a five-year grant from NSF to enhance infrastructure for studying vulnerability to climate change and variations.

Neff wrote his master’s thesis on the economics of a gasoline tax and his Ph.D. dissertation on greenhouse-gas emissions from transportation in urban places. He is currently working with the Baltimore Ecosystem Study, an NSF-funded Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) study site to analyze energy-consumption patterns in multiple urban places. Neff is the chair of the Human Dimensions of Global Change Specialty Group of the Association of American Geographers (AAG), the national disciplinary organization for geographers in the United States.

Ellen Handler Spitz, Honors College Professor of Visual Arts
Honors College
Department of Visual Arts
Ellen Handler Spitz teaches interdisciplinary seminars in the arts and humanities. She lectures internationally and is the author of numerous articles and five books: Art and Psyche, Image and Insight, Museums of the Mind, Inside Picture Books, and, most recently, The Brightening Glance.

Spitz was recently named a 2007 summer fellow at the Erikson Institute for Education and Research. She held fellowships at the Getty Center for the History of Art and the Humanities, the Bunting Institute (now the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study), the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford, the Camargo Institute in France and the Center for Children and Childhood Studies at Rutgers.

Moncie Wright, President
Campus Climate Initiative
Moncie Wright is the first student to present at a Mosaic event. A senior environmental science major, she is the president of the Campus Climate Initiative, an organization devoted to reducing UMBC’s impact on global warming

As a student at the Community College of Baltimore County (CCBC), Wright was mentored by Chris Fox, head of the CCBC Environment Project, who has studied global warming for 20 years. After receiving her A.A. in Environmental Science Technology, Wright transferred to UMBC in fall 2005. While attending the 4th Annual N.E. Climate Conference in 2006, she learned how hundreds of schools across the country were combating global warming on their campuses and working with administrators to reduce their campuses’ impacts on climate change. When she returned to UMBC, Wright started the Campus Climate Initiative and did independent research under the guidance of geography and environmental systems professor Chris Swan on an invasive species.

The Campus Climate Initiative is completing a greenhouse gas emissions inventory and the group also applied for an EPA grant to investigate student attitudes and perceptions toward energy efficiency. In addition, the Campus Climate Initiative is performing energy efficiency research.

Wright is also a member of the Campus Sustainability Research Group and treasurer for the Geography and Environmental Systems Council of Majors.

(4/2/07)

© 2006-07 University of Maryland, Baltimore County � 1000 Hilltop Circle, Baltimore, MD 21250 � 410-455-1000 �

UMBC Student Named Top U.S. Scholar-Athlete

Meyerhoff Scholar Isaac Matthews, a senior mechanical engineering major and a four-year track and field letterman, was recently named the 2007 Arthur Ashe Jr. Male Sports Scholar of the Year.” The award is given annually by Diverse: Issues in Higher Education magazine to the U.S. female and male athletes who best combine athletic and academic excellence with community activism.

LaMont Toliver, director of the Meyerhoff program, described Matthews in an April 5 Diverse cover story as “the prototype for a scholar-athlete with the potential to be the Paul Robeson of our time. He’s that well rounded.”

Matthews, who has a 3.88 grade point average, will graduate in May with a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering. He has been accepted to prestigious engineering graduate programs at MIT, Stanford, Carnegie Mellon, Georgia Tech, Michigan and Illinois.

During his athletic career at UMBC, Matthews finished seventh in the 2005 America East Indoor Championships 800-meter run, placed eighth in the 2004 America East Outdoor Championships and was named a Toyota Athlete of the Week in 2003.

In addition, Matthews is well known on campus as a dedicated mentor and tutor to young African-American middle and high school students and as an accomplished cello player. He serves as treasurer for UMBC’s chapter of the National Society of Black Engineers and gives motivational talks to NASA Sharp students.

In the Diverse cover story, Matthews discussed his lifelong quest to shatter stereotypes about black students and the challenges of mentoring the younger generation. “There are more black doctors than there are basketball players, but you don’t see the image� As the numbers increase, as you have more black engineers, professors, that image can be defeated by the numbers.”

(4/30/07)

© 2006-07 University of Maryland, Baltimore County � 1000 Hilltop Circle, Baltimore, MD 21250 � 410-455-1000 �

Men’s Lacrosse Heads to NCAA Tournament

For the second consecutive year, the UMBC men’s lacrosse team will compete in the NCAA Men’s Lacrosse Tournament. The Retrievers received an at-large bid and will play the seventh-seeded Maryland Terrapins in College Park, Md. on Sunday, May 13 at 7:30 p.m. The game will be televised live by ESPNU.

This will be UMBC’s fourth appearance in the field since 1998. The Retrievers earned at-large bids in both 1998 and 1999 and earned an automatic qualifier by winning the America East Conference in 2006. All four appearances by UMBC have come under the direction of Head Coach Don Zimmerman. It will be the 11th time in Coach Zimmerman’s 21 years as a Division I coach that he has taken a team to the tournament.

The Retrievers are 10-5 and had their six-game winning streak snapped in Saturday’s 15-14 loss to Albany in the America East title game in Albany, N.Y.

Maryland (also 10-5) defeated UMBC, 11-7 in College Park on March 17. The two teams have not met in UMBC’s previous three tournament appearances. The Retrievers lost, 11-8 to seventh-seeded Princeton in Princeton, N.J. in the first round of the tournament last season.

There will be a fan bus which heads down to College Park for the game. The bus will depart in front of the RAC at 6:00 p.m. Tickets for the Maryland-UMBC game can be purchased in advance through the Maryland Ticket Office at 1-800-462-TERP (1-800-462-8377) or they can be purchased at Byrd Stadium upon arrival. Tickets prices are $10.00 for adults and $5.00 for students. If you are interested in the bus, please contact Joe Sisler at 410-455-2205 or stop by Room 331 in the Retriever Activities Center.

The winner of the Maryland/UMBC game will meet the winner of the Virginia/Delaware first round game in the quarterfinals on Sunday, May 20, at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium in Annapolis, Md.

(5/9/07)

© 2006-07 University of Maryland, Baltimore County � 1000 Hilltop Circle, Baltimore, MD 21250 � 410-455-1000 �

International Recognition for a New Filmmaking Technique

Assistant Professor of Visual Arts Eric Dyer ’95 received international recognition for his film “Copenhagen Cycles,” which uses an avant-garde approach of connecting age-old film techniques with digital technology. “Copenhagen Cycles” won the 2007 Director’s Choice Award at the Thomas Edison Black Maria Film and Video Festival and was also screened at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival and festivals in Turkey, Portugal, the Netherlands, England and Germany.

An experimental animator who often uses computers to create his films, Dyer produced “Copenhagen Cycles” using a new filmmaking method that he developed, merging digital animation and a pre-cinema technique. Dyer compiled hundreds of photographs he took while bicycle riding around the streets of Denmark during his 2005 Fulbright Fellowship. First, Dyer printed and cut the sequences of the moving images and built about 25 zoetrope-like paper sculptures, then spun the sculptures and recaptured the collaged movements with a fast-shutter digital video camera. The art installation version of “Copenhagen Cycles” includes the bicycle wheel-sized zoetropes and a video demonstration of the unique filmmaking process.

In his animation courses at UMBC, Dyer is teaching his students to use his new method of filmmaking. “By using this experimental process, my students learn the value of mixing hands-on and digital techniques. They discover pathways or tangents they wouldn’t normally take when using only a computer. In the end, they surprise themselves and grow as artists,” he said.

Dyer is collaborating with UMBC’s Imaging Research Center for his next project, which will use 3D animation and 3D printing technologies to create zoetropes for a new film and installation. He hopes to complete the project in early 2008.

(4/10/07)

© 2006-07 University of Maryland, Baltimore County � 1000 Hilltop Circle, Baltimore, MD 21250 � 410-455-1000 �

International Recognition for a New Filmmaking Technique

Assistant Professor of Visual Arts Eric Dyer ’95 received international recognition for his film “Copenhagen Cycles,” which uses an avant-garde approach of connecting age-old film techniques with digital technology. “Copenhagen Cycles” won the 2007 Director’s Choice Award at the Thomas Edison Black Maria Film and Video Festival and was also screened at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival and festivals in Turkey, Portugal, the Netherlands, England and Germany.

An experimental animator who often uses computers to create his films, Dyer produced “Copenhagen Cycles” using a new filmmaking method that he developed, merging digital animation and a pre-cinema technique. Dyer compiled hundreds of photographs he took while bicycle riding around the streets of Denmark during his 2005 Fulbright Fellowship. First, Dyer printed and cut the sequences of the moving images and built about 25 zoetrope-like paper sculptures, then spun the sculptures and recaptured the collaged movements with a fast-shutter digital video camera. The art installation version of “Copenhagen Cycles” includes the bicycle wheel-sized zoetropes and a video demonstration of the unique filmmaking process.

In his animation courses at UMBC, Dyer is teaching his students to use his new method of filmmaking. “By using this experimental process, my students learn the value of mixing hands-on and digital techniques. They discover pathways or tangents they wouldn’t normally take when using only a computer. In the end, they surprise themselves and grow as artists,” he said.

Dyer is collaborating with UMBC’s Imaging Research Center for his next project, which will use 3D animation and 3D printing technologies to create zoetropes for a new film and installation. He hopes to complete the project in early 2008.

(4/10/07)

© 2006-07 University of Maryland, Baltimore County � 1000 Hilltop Circle, Baltimore, MD 21250 � 410-455-1000 �

International Recognition for a New Filmmaking Technique

Assistant Professor of Visual Arts Eric Dyer ’95 received international recognition for his film “Copenhagen Cycles,” which uses an avant-garde approach of connecting age-old film techniques with digital technology. “Copenhagen Cycles” won the 2007 Director’s Choice Award at the Thomas Edison Black Maria Film and Video Festival and was also screened at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival and festivals in Turkey, Portugal, the Netherlands, England and Germany.

An experimental animator who often uses computers to create his films, Dyer produced “Copenhagen Cycles” using a new filmmaking method that he developed, merging digital animation and a pre-cinema technique. Dyer compiled hundreds of photographs he took while bicycle riding around the streets of Denmark during his 2005 Fulbright Fellowship. First, Dyer printed and cut the sequences of the moving images and built about 25 zoetrope-like paper sculptures, then spun the sculptures and recaptured the collaged movements with a fast-shutter digital video camera. The art installation version of “Copenhagen Cycles” includes the bicycle wheel-sized zoetropes and a video demonstration of the unique filmmaking process.

In his animation courses at UMBC, Dyer is teaching his students to use his new method of filmmaking. “By using this experimental process, my students learn the value of mixing hands-on and digital techniques. They discover pathways or tangents they wouldn’t normally take when using only a computer. In the end, they surprise themselves and grow as artists,” he said.

Dyer is collaborating with UMBC’s Imaging Research Center for his next project, which will use 3D animation and 3D printing technologies to create zoetropes for a new film and installation. He hopes to complete the project in early 2008.

(4/10/07)

© 2006-07 University of Maryland, Baltimore County � 1000 Hilltop Circle, Baltimore, MD 21250 � 410-455-1000 �

Alumnus Ian M. Ralby Receives Prestigious Gates Cambridge Scholarship

Ian M. Ralby, UMBC’s 2002 Valedictorian, will enter the M.Phil. program in International Relations at Cambridge University with funding provided by the Gates Cambridge Scholarship, considered one of the world’s most selective academic awards.

“President Hrabowski and UMBC helped me to become a Gates Cambridge Scholar,” said Ralby, who graduated with a B.A. in Modern Languages and Linguistics and a M.A. in Intercultural Communication. “UMBC nurtured my intellectual curiosity. My work in modern languages and linguistics and intercultural communication helped solidify my passion for international affairs. Through study abroad in Switzerland–made possible by my Humanities Scholarship–I discovered the field of international conflict resolution. UMBC has continued to support me throughout my time in law school and in the practice of law. President Hrabowski remains an important mentor and role model for me. His support has been instrumental in helping me get to where I am today.”

While completing his J.D. at the College of William and Mary in 2005, Ralby was part of a legal team that worked with the U.S. Department of Justice to provide legal research and support for the Iraqi High Tribunal as it prepared its legal case against Saddam Hussein.

When Ralby begins his studies at Cambridge in fall 2007, he plans to focus on means of establishing the rule of law in post-conflict societies, examining how post-conflict justice processes could be better used to facilitate reconstruction. He intends to continue studying for a Ph.D. in International Relations. Ultimately, Ralby plans to devote his career toward assisting failed states as they attempt to recover from collapse.

Since earning admission to the Virginia state bar, Ralby has served as an associate in the Norfolk, Va., office of Hunton & Williams, an international law firm with offices in New York, Washington, D.C., London, Beijing and Brussels.

Read the full news release.

(3/5/07)

© 2006-07 University of Maryland, Baltimore County � 1000 Hilltop Circle, Baltimore, MD 21250 � 410-455-1000 �

UMBC Draws Top-Seeded Connecticut in NCAA Tournament

Indianapolis-The America East champion UMBC women’s basketball (16-16) team has garnered the No. 16 seed in the Fresno Regional and will take on top-seed Connecticut (29-3) in the first round of the NCAA Tournament Sunday at 9 p.m. at the Hartford Civic Center in Hartford, Conn. The game can be seen live on ESPN2.

After becoming the first team in conference history to defeat the one, two and three seeds en route to the title, the Retrievers are making their first-ever trip to the NCAA tournament. UMBC becomes the fourth America East team to play as the 16th seed, and these squads are 0-3 all-time, including Maine’s 1995 loss to Connecticut. Overall, America East teams are 0-2 in the NCAA tournament against the Huskies.

The Retrievers have never played Connecticut, ranked third in the final ESPN/USA Today Coaches poll. UMBC is one of nine teams making its first appearance in the NCAA Tournament, while the storied Huskies are 58-13 in 18 all-time appearances since 1989, with five national titles and eight Final Four appearances.

Harvard was the only No. 16 seed to defeat a No. 1 seed, taking down Stanford in 1998. If the Retrievers defeat Connecticut on Sunday, they will face the winner of the first round game between No. 8 New Mexico and No. 9 Wisconsin-Green Bay on Tuesday, March 20.

(3/12/07) © 2006-07 University of Maryland, Baltimore County � 1000 Hilltop Circle, Baltimore, MD 21250 � 410-455-1000 �

UMBC Student and Faculty Entrepreneurs

Look for more information on entrepreneurship at UMBC, and faculty and student entrepreneurs, on the UMBC Web site and myUMBC portal throughout the semester.

Melissa Amor
Senior, Political Science
Amor came to UMBC with plans for a career in law, but in her freshman year she took a class in The Practice of Management and became inspired by the idea of entrepreneurship. Now, she is a finalist in the Most Promising Campus CEO contest, founded by Randal Pinkett and is also interviewing at such prestigious graduate schools as Harvard, Notre Dame and Georgetown.

Amor’s Most Promising Campus CEO contest entry grew out of a class project with students Natalie Collings, Jessica Most and Johnny Tseng ’05, economics, to start a mobile salon. Amor expanded on the group’s ideas by creating a franchising plan for the salon, and hopes the group will reunite to develop the business regardless of the contest’s outcome.

In the 2006 MoshPit Business Plan Competition sponsored by the Greater Baltimore Technology Committee, Amor was part of a team that finished in second place against approximately 174 other entrepreneur student-led teams/companies from the Baltimore area. She also helped UMBC alumni Wan His Yuan and Jason Servary, founders of Openposting.com, market the first online classified community for college students.

Sandor Dornbush,
Ph.D. Student, Computer Science
Dornbush has found entrepreneurial ideas in things that bug him – being stuck in traffic and his dislike for making playlists for his iPod.

Dornbush is part of a research group led by one of his mentors — computer science professor Zary Segall-which specializes in human aware computing-making computers wearable, ubiquitous and most importantly, able to sense and adjust to a user’s mood, surroundings and social situation.

Last year, with the help of visual arts professor David Yager and the encouragement of Alex. Brown Center for Entrepreneurship Director Vivian Armor, Dornbush took his idea StreetSmart Traffic to the Greater Baltimore Technology Council’s “Mosh Pit” business plan competition and placed third overall. The idea uses peer-to-peer wireless communication to boost a standard GPS driving aid.

More recently, Dornbush expanded on an idea for a smart MP3 player developed by Segall. The “XPod” learns the type of music its owner likes best and automatically plays the perfect song for studying in the library, working out in the gym or chilling out at home. The project was the source of a widely cited research paper, which led to media coverage in Electronic Musician, Newsday, the Baltimore Sun and others.

“The Mosh Pit competition was very fun and I learned a lot about how to develop and pitch a business plan,” said Dornbush. “I was kind of amazed by the support and attention that I got from the University when I did as well as I did. I would strongly recommend anybody with novel ideas that have market potential to pitch their idea.”

Doug Hamby
Associate Professor, Dance
After participating in the Alex. Brown Center for Entrepreneurship’s Faculty Summer Institute, Hamby created a Dance and Entrepreneurship class, which he is teaching during the spring 2007 semester. Students in the class have formed a dance company, and will be creating new dances and promoting the new company’s concert (12 p.m., April 27, Fine Arts 317). They spend two hours per week developing the new work and two hours learning about marketing and promotion.

Hamby said the class evolved out of years of talking with students about how to use their degree in dance. “They have to find their niche, they have to learn how to brand themselves and they have to be professional in how they go about this. Artists have to be entrepreneurial, to think in a creative way, to look for opportunities in order to get work,” he explained.

“I’ve founded my own company and produced many concerts, so I want to share my experience in a more formal setting with students,” Hamby added. “I think learning how to be an artist-entrepreneur changes them. It helps them prepare more while they are in school for life after graduation. They concentrate more on what they need to do in order to have the kind of career they want.”

Kriste Lindenmeyer
Professor and Chair, History
“Humanities and social science scholars have always been entrepreneurs – they just don’t know it,” said Lindenmeyer. “They are creating new fields of research and finding new ways to look at old problems. Entrepreneurship is about finding innovative solutions from a variety of perspectives.”

Lindenmeyer’s exposure to entrepreneurship began when she became a volunteer email list editor for Humanities Net (H-Net), an international consortium of scholars and teachers pioneering new communication technology in order to advance teaching and research in the arts, humanities and social sciences. “H-Net took the latest technological opportunity that scientists and engineers were using and adapted it to our own fields of interest,” Lindenmeyer said.

At UMBC, Lindenmeyer says she sees many examples of entrepreneurship, including collaborative projects across disciplines. She serves as a consultant for a National Institutes of Health-funded project led by principal investigator Lee Boot, associate director of UMBC’s Imaging Research Center, entitled The Fieldtrip Project. UMBC faculty from a wide range of disciplines are developing an online community designed to stimulate discourse among teens concerning issues affecting their orientation toward school and learning. The community will include an episodic reality show, online role-playing game and discussion forums, among other media. Co-investigators for The Fieldtrip Project are Susan Sonnenschein, psychology, Linda Baker, psychology and Dongsong Zhang, mechanical engineering. In addition to Lindenmeyer, the consultants are Wayne Lutters, information systems and David Mitch, economics. Information systems Ph.D. student David Gurzick is the project’s graduate assistant.

Antonio “Tony” Moreira
Vice Provost for Academic Affairs
Professor, Chemical and Biochemical Engineering
With over 25 years of experience working with the biotechnology industry, Moreira has turned his expertise into a company with global reach. In 2000, he partnered with a European consulting firm to form SPI USA, Inc., which specializes in training and consulting services that help biotech clients comply with US Food and Drug Administration regulations and maintain best processes and practices for manufacturing.

What began as a corporate training CD-ROM has since expanded into a global business beyond biotech connecting UMBC and Maryland to the world. “We currently have projects in India, Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Portugal, Albania and the U.S.,” said Moreira. Located in bwtech@UMBC research park, SPI USA has also hired many student interns from UMBC’s Shriver Center, some of whom have been assigned to positions in SPI’s European offices.

Moreira brings lessons learned from business back to classes he teaches at UMBC. “We often invite speakers from industry and the FDA to be guest lecturers to give current experience to the classroom,” he said. “And we use case studies on ongoing issues in industry in lectures and class discussions.”

The collaboration also benefits the research of faculty and graduate students. “We are very focused on the biotech industry’s real needs,” Moreira said. “We now have a major collaboration with the FDA which involves other chemical engineering faculty and has resulted in very significant scholarly publications and invitations for our faculty and students to present at major research conferences.”

(2/19/07)

© 2006-07 University of Maryland, Baltimore County � 1000 Hilltop Circle, Baltimore, MD 21250 � 410-455-1000 �

TV Grows Up Fast at UMBC

“Quiet on the set, please!” will soon be a familiar refrain at UMBC. Retirement Living Television (RLTV), America’s first network devoted exclusively to people age 55 and over, recently gave the University’s on-campus TV studio a $1.3 million dollar upgrade and has begun offering students hands-on experience behind the scenes of nationally broadcast programs.

RLTV began as a media offshoot of Erickson Retirement Communities and has since grown to reach over 26 million U.S. households through DirecTV and Comcast. RLTV produces two of its programs – “The Voice” and a yet-to-be-named advocacy show – at the revamped UMBC studio. The network will eventually broadcast from a new $20 million TV production and information technology facility at bwtech@UMBC Research and Technology Park.

The campus community is invited to celebrate UMBC’s partnership with RLTV on Friday Feb. 16 from noon to 2 p.m. at a studio open house featuring UMBC president Freeman Hrabowski, Erickson founder and CEO John Erickson and RLTV president Brad Knight. UMBC communication faculty and students will be on hand as RLTV production staff demonstrate the studio’s capabilities and discuss the programs produced there. The studios are located on the second and third floors of Academic IV, A Wing.

“The new studio and the new relationship with RLTV are already creating amazing opportunities for students studying media and communication to do hands-on creative and technical work in the field,” said Jason Loviglio, associate professor of American studies and coordinator of media and communication initiatives. “We’re lucky to have this exciting new resource right here on campus.”

The first crop of UMBC student interns is eager to get to work. For sophomore English/political science major and Humanities Scholar Adrienne Hawkins, the RLTV studio offers a chance to expand communication skills she developed through her high school’s TV program and as a writer for The Retriever Weekly student newspaper. “I would like to eventually run a successful television show, and this internship would be a step in the right direction,” she said.

“The RLTV staff always welcomes those eager to learn and help in the process,” said RLTV studio engineer Sophia Manos. “We hope it turns into a symbiotic relationship for RLTV, the Erickson communities and the UMBC media programs,” she said.

Cathryna Brown, a senior interdisciplinary studies major, is also looking forward to connecting with RLTV. Both Brown and Hawkins are working towards completion of the certificate in Communication and Media Studies.

Brown and other students recently worked with UMBC’s New Media Studio to create digital video illustrations of stories told by residents of Charlestown, an Erickson Retirement Community located near UMBC.

“The Digital Stories project allowed us to come together and communicate on a level that’s rare in today’s world,” said Bill Shewbridge, manager/producer of the New Media Studio. “Several students have described the relationships they have built with the residents as ‘timeless,’ which sums up the spirit of the project well.”

“I’m very excited to be a part of programming that will potentially bridge the gap between children, their parents and grandparents,” said Brown.

For more information on the RLTV Studio or the open house event, please contact Kathy Raab at 443-610-0028 or kraab@rl.tv.

(2/9/07)

© 2006-07 University of Maryland, Baltimore County � 1000 Hilltop Circle, Baltimore, MD 21250 � 410-455-1000 �