Between the Columns: April 2014

in this issue BETTER HEARING PG. 2 / MUPPET MESSAGE PG. 3 / MARYLAND DAY PG. 6 / NEW TRAINING PG. 7 / ACCOLADES PG. 7 / MEME MEANING PG. 8

Between the Columns a newsletter for faculty & staff of the University of Maryland April 2014

what we make From PieceS to MaSterpieceS | PG. 4

BO OKSHELF

Scott Weems, a researcher in the

Center for Advanced Study of Language, investigates the world of human humor in his book Ha! The Science of When We Laugh and Why.

In Maud Casey’s novel The Man Who Walked Away, the associate professor of English weaves a story from the wanderings of a 19th-century psychiatric patient and his relationship with a doctor trying to discover the reasons for his mental trouble.

The Other Black List: The African American Literary and Cultural Left of the 1950s, by English

Professor Mary Helen Washington, sheds new light on the political influences and activism of African American intellectuals during the McCarthy era.

Scott Wible, associate professor of

English, explores the effects of language policies on rhetoric, politics and composition in Shaping Language Policy in the U.S.: The Role of Composition Studies.

2 btc APRIL 2014

Better Hearing Through Darkness Time Spent Without Light Could Improve Hearing

BY DAVID KOHN

WHAT DO YOU GET when you combine blind mice (not three, but a few dozen) and a set of night vision goggles? A discovery that could help improve hearing and illuminate how to reactivate brain areas thought to be permanently dormant.

UMD neuroscientist Patrick Kanold has found that temporarily depriving mice of sight improves their ability to discern a range of sounds for a few weeks, even in adults.

“This was very surprising,” says Kanold, an associate professor in the Department of Biology.

“We thought that these areas couldn’t change in adulthood.”

Kanold and former colleague Hey-Kyoung Lee, now a neuroscientist at Johns Hopkins University, kept mice with normal vision and hearing in a pitch dark cage for a week or so. To ensure that the animals didn’t see anything the whole time, the lab assistants used night vision goggles when they fed the mice or cleaned their cages.

Afterward, the researchers tested the animals’ ability to discern a range of tones, and

found that hearing had improved: The mice were significantly more adept at perceiving pitch and volume. The researchers took MRIs of their subjects’ brains, finding increased activity in a part of the brain called the primary auditory cortex and increased connections to the thalamus, which acts as a kind of central switchboard for incoming sensory information of all kinds.

Such major rewiring was assumed possible only in the brains of juveniles, whose brains are much more malleable.

Kanold, who studies how the brain processes sound, thinks this research might illuminate more about what happens in the brains of people who have not been able to hear since birth. They often have difficult experiences with cochlear implants, because their brains are not wired to translate sound into meaningful chunks. He says the research shows that it may be possible to induce the brain to devote more resources to interpreting the incoming aural data, so people with the implants can make better sense of what they hear.

Giving Muppets a Message Professor Helps Children Learn Around the World

BY LAUREN BROWN

A furry yellow Muppet named Kami smiles at anyone entering Dina Borzekowski’s office. Propped up between several Grovers, Kami wears a green vest and also a red ribbon, because she’s HIV-positive.

Borzekowski helped develop the orphan monster puppet for the South African version of “Sesame Street” to increase young viewers’ sensitivity to the disease. The country has the world’s largest number of people living with HIV—6.1 million, according to UNAIDS. It’s just one of Borzekowski’s many research efforts on behalf of Sesame Workshop to deliver positive messages to children around the world. The School of Public Health research professor, who came to UMD in the fall from Johns Hopkins University, recently received funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to work with “Sesame” versions in India, Bangladesh and Nigeria on messages about using malaria nets and personal hygiene.

“It’s a really hard challenge to teach children to use the toilet and wash their hands if there is no toilet, or soap or water,” she says.

Borzekowski knew she wanted to somehow communicate information about health and science since she grew up watching “Sesame Street,” “Electric Company” and “ABC Afterschool Special.” When, as a master’s student in communication at Columbia, she was assigned a chapter in a book by Gerald Lesser, a founder of “Sesame Street,” she sat on the steps of a brownstone and read it cover to cover. She decided right then that she wanted to work for him.

Dina Borzekowski portrait by John T. Consoli

And she did. Borzekowski completed a master’s and doctorate in education at Harvard under Lesser and went on to work on shows including “Degrassi Junior High” and “Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego?” before reconnecting with Sesame Workshop. She appreciates how the show doesn’t swoop in to interested new countries and dictate the curriculum, but instead trains in-country production teams and leaves them to make their own decisions.

She conducts other research, too, including a study last fall with a former JHU colleague that found children as young as 5 or 6 in Brazil, China, India, Nigeria, Pakistan and Russia can identify at least one cigarette brand logo.

Borzekowski also juggles an undergraduate class on biostatisics and her own children, ages 17, 13 and 8. They have a back yard in Takoma Park full of chickens and a lot of media influences around them, from the Disney Channel to Macklemore. She says she, like all parents, has to help her two daughters and son navigate all the clutter.

“It’s about talking with them, and teaching them to be educated consumers,” she says.

APRIL 2014 btc 3

2

THE UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND is ultimately

dedicated to building the minds of students and helping them develop the Fearless Ideas that will define our future. And to reach that goal, a lot gets “built” in a less metaphorical fashion along the way. ¶ From ice cream to ISS-CREAM, Maryland faculty, staff and students create a lot to continue our great traditions and explore new horizons, be it by filling our stomachs or showing how they work.

Here’s just a sampling of what we make at UMD.

1. ICE CREAM: If you've been at Maryland for

10 days or 10 years, you know how good it is. Maybe you chow down on a classic like chocolate or a specialty like Fear the Turtle, or maybe you save room for limited editions like the upcoming Smith Island Cake Ice Cream.

Regardless, UMD’s ice cream has been

a mainstay for more than 80 years, from its start in the Department of Animal and Avian Sciences to its current home with University Dining Services. Bakery staff create specialty batches from scratch and put the finishing touches on 20,000 gallons last year, adding everything from chocolate sauces to chunks of real birthday cake.

2. ISS-CREAM: A team led by physics Professor

ISS-CREAM, that will measure and analyze cosmic rays from outer space. It’s similar to an instrument that measured cosmic rays using stratospheric balloons in Antarctica, but the space version will be more robust for the increase in radiation and other difficulties expected beyond the atmosphere. The refrigerator-sized final product is anticipated for launch aboard a SpaceX rocket in December.

Eun-Suk Seo is building a payload for the International Space Station, called

ISS-CREAM images provided by Eun-Suk Seo

• • • • •

3

4

5

3. PROPS: The Clarice Smith Performing

Arts Center’s production shops make sets, lighting and costumes for more than 1,000 performances every year—about 1,900 pieces of clothing alone were made in 2013.

Faculty, students and staff in the costume shop made these fairy costumes of tulle and twinkling LED lights for “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” and the “Meat Couch” was designed and built by prop shop students and staff for “Minotaur,” a retelling of the myth in an early 20th-century Chicago slaughterhouse.

4. 3D PRINTER PROJECTS: Tired of squeezing

your arm way down to get the last few chips in a Pringles can? The burgeoning use of 3D printing and ingenuity of Terps may provide a solution. This prototype of a chip can with a rising platform was made by students Elijah Biggs, Ilan Gold, Andrea Kyeremeh and Amanda Shekarchi in a course on design and quality in the Robert H. Smith School of Business’s QUEST Program.

ROOFTOP GARDENS FORMULA SAE RACING CAR RAIN BARRELS HYDROGEN STORAGE BOXES HUMAN-POWERED HELICOPTER • LOCAL-TO-GLOBAL FOREST MAP • RHINO-SAVING DRONES • “INTELLIGENT” TRASH CANS • WOOD BATTERIES • SUSTAINABLE CITY DESIGNS • RADIO BAND DETECTOR • “TREE OF LIFE” TAPESTRY SCULPTURE • TOPOGRAPHICAL MAP OF TWITTER • NEST BOXES • ELECTRONIC HOME PLATE • DEEP IMPACT SPACECRAFT PROJECTILE • APIARY SYSTEM • MICROSCOPIC MEDICAL DEVICES • VIEWFINDER VIDEO SERIES • MICRO-AERIAL VEHICLES • FUEL CELLS • PR2 HUMANOID ROBOT • HOMEMADE SILLY PUTTY • MACROALGAE FARM • LIGHT UP MINI-TURTLES • UMD TERPRIDE BUS • TURTLE SHELL PUZZLE AND MANY MORE!

5. “BODYVIS”: Leyla Norooz (pictured) is

taking anatomy lessons to a new level through her work with “e-textiles.” The Ph.D. student, who is affiliated with UMD’s Human-Computer Interaction Lab, has made a shirt that senses vital signs and displays how the body works through live representations of organs and LED lights.

She wants to teach children physiology by visually showing them how the heart is beating, lungs are breathing, and food is being processed.

Photos by John T. Consoli; Pringles can image provided by Amanda Shekarchi

APRIL 2014 btc 5

Good asGold UMD recently received a “Gold Rating” from the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education, in recognition of all the environmental efforts

by Terp faculty and staff.

Want More UMD Stories?

If you want to know more about the fascinating people and stories that make up the Maryland community, check out Terp magazine’s new website at terp.umd.edu. Look for bonus content and new features on how UMD is changing the world.

Inspiration.

Boldness.

Curiosity.

Passion.

You’ll find it all at Maryland Day, the University of Maryland’s one-day open house of 400 educational, family-friendly and interactive events. Come explore our world of Fearless Ideas.

SATURDAY APRIL 26 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. marylandday.umd.edu Rain or shine / Admission and parking are free

#MARYLANDDAY AND FOLLOW UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND ON UMD President Wallace Loh congratulates Cindi Hale, associate vice president for personnel and budget in the Office of the Provost, who received the "Outstanding Woman of the Year" award at the 2014 Celebration of Women hosted by the President's Commission on Women's Issues.

6 btc APRIL 2014

Lynda.com photo by John T. Consoli; Maryland Day art by Brian G. Payne; Loh photo by Thai Ngyugen

ACCOLADES Assistant Professor of mechanical engineering Sarah Bergbreiter, aerospace engineering Associate Professor Derek Paley and Adjunct Assistant physics Professor Gretchen Campbell were selected for the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers.

Physics Professor Sylvester James “Jim” Gates Jr. was named the 2014 Scientist of the Year by students and faculty of the Harvard Foundation.

Need training? Visit Lynda.

Your professional development just got a lot more convenient.The Division of Information Technology, University Libraries and University Human Resources (UHR) have teamed up to offer more than 2,300 instructional videos focused on teaching, business and creative skills.

The online subscription library at lyndatraining.umd.edu is free and open to all faculty, staff and students. The videos are as short as 10 minutes and accessible 24/7 through computers, tablets and smartphones. Topics include: • Mentoring, managing (“Having Difficult Conversations”) and teaching; • Using an iPad and SMART board in a classroom; • Running a Prezi or PowerPoint presentation; • Setting up a mobile office to work from anywhere.

Nervous about getting started? UHR is offering one-hour workshops about how to get the most out of lynda.com. For details, visit lyndatraining.umd.edu.

LEADERSHIP ACADEMY

University staff members now have the opportunity to participate in the Robert H. Smith School of Business’s UMD-Smith Leadership Academy. The fall 2014 cohort will bring together 25-30 students to take courses in strategic thinking, project management, customer service excellence, financial acumen, negotiations and leadership. Look for information to be distributed this month. Contact ctrombly@umd.edu or bsalters@rhsmith.umd.edu with questions and find out more at rhsmith.umd.edu/leadershipacademy.

The United States Golf Association gave Peter Dernoeden, professor emeritus of plant science and landscape architecture, the USGA Green Section Award for distinguished service to the game of golf through work with turfgrass.

Ed Lemay, associate psychology professor, won the SAGE Young Scholars Award from the Foundation for Personality and Social Psychology and SAGE Publications.

Sandra Gordon-Salant, a professor of hearing and speech sciences, received the 2013 Kawana Award for lifetime achievement in publications from the American Speech-Language Hearing Association.

The Daily Record named Jonathan Katz, professor of computer science and director of the Maryland Cybersecurity Center, as one of its 50 Influential Marylanders for 2014.

Former Philip Merrill College of Journalism Acting Dean and Eaton Broadcast Chair Lee Thornton was inducted posthumously into the National Association of Black Journalists’ Hall of Fame.

APRIL 2014 btc 7

I Can Haz Fun At Art Gallery?

LET'S DO THIS!

Digital Exhibition Displays Viral Internet Memes

BY KAREN SHIH ’09

You’ve probably seen these on Facebook, Reddit or in your inbox: Hillary Clinton, cool as can be in her sunglasses, sending snarky texts. Korean singer Psy, with his confusingly addictive song and dance in “Gangnam Style.” A serene Shiba Inu nicknamed Doge, marveling—in colorful Comic Sans—at the world.

Art history graduate student Kate Kula’s new exhibition at the Art Gallery, called “What’s in a Meme?,” gives you a chance to look back on these and other viral internet sensations.

“I wanted it to be thought-provoking and fun and a little bit irreverent,” she says. “Why do we find certain things funny? Why do we find certain things worthy of being shared globally, electronically?”

The memes are displayed digitally via projection or moving photo slideshows. Since they are usually viewed individually, from the privacy of each person’s computer, Kula hopes that the juxtaposition of certain memes will help visitors see them in a new light.

“This is a chance to look at them with a critical eye,” she says. Satire, like that in “Gangnam Style,” can easily be missed.

“These memes can spread information about our values as a culture and society, but can potentially be a medium for misrepresentation or misinformation.”

The exhibition will run through Maryland Day, April 26. Visit artgallery. umd.edu for more information.

NOT IMPRESSED

Between the Columns is published twice per semester by University Marketing and Communications. Story ideas are welcome and should be sent to Liam Farrell, managing editor, at lfarrel1@umd.edu or by calling 301.405.4629. The mailing list is generated through University Human Resources. Any changes to names and addresses should be made through ares.umd.edu.

Between the Columns University Marketing and Communications 2101 Turner Hall, College Park, MD 20742 P 301.405.4615

· F 301.314.9344

FEAR ME! WOW MUCH FUNNY