UBalt Faculty Scholarship
Permanent URI for this collectionhttp://hdl.handle.net/11603/76
The UBalt Faculty Scholarship Collection accepts scholarly work by faculty members of the University of Baltimore. A wide variety of scholarly materials can be uploaded in any file format.
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Item A Passive Activity Monitor for Artemis-Generation EMUs(2024-07-21) Vincenti, GiovanniThis paper introduces PAM (Passive Activity Monitor), an autonomous infrastructure meant to provide a redundant safety system for astronauts on an EVA through body pose recognition. The keypoints identified by the system can be utilized to estimate the action that the astronaut is carrying out, or if the situation requires assistance or intervention from other astronauts in case of emergencies. This paper focuses on OpenPose as a candidate for the detection of keypoints associated with skeletal joints. We evaluate how the system performs on basic movements using next-generation EMUs, an astronaut spinning in microgravity, and an initial overview of how OpenPose performs on images acquired through LiDAR in an environment with no lighting. The results show that OpenPose is a valid keypoint detection engine for humans wearing an EMU and is promising on images acquired through LiDAR technology. However, the system does not perform well when the subject is inverted in a microgravity environment.Item Engaging High School Students Through Space Tech Camp: An Experience Report(2024-07-21) Vincenti, Giovanni; Walsh, GregDuring the summer of 2022 and with the support of NASA's OSTEM through a MUREP PSI grant, we organized a summer camp experience called Space Tech Camp, a one-week experience dedicated to STEM engagement. The initiative included 18 students in Grades 10 and 11 in the Baltimore City Public Schools System. The students spent a week learning about the Artemis program, living and working in Space, and got to experience an augmented reality application as a way to simulate what future generations of astronauts may experience. They also designed and ran simple experiments related to what they learned during the week utilizing the Scientific Method and Design Thinking. This paper describes the structure and pedagogical foundations of Space Tech Camp. We also report high-level feedback that we received from students and other personnel involved with the experience. Overall, the initiative was successful and helped students learn about STEM, Space exploration, and college readiness.Item White Paper: AI Perceptions at the University of Baltimore(2024-02) Jessica Stansbury; Sarah Lausch; Nima Zahadat; David Kelly; Center for Excellence in Learning Teaching and TechnologyThis white paper presents a comprehensive analysis of the University of Baltimore's AI Perceptions project. Using a data-driven approach this white paper aims to highlight the methods, findings, and implications of this study, demonstrating how data-driven insights can guide the development of AI tools tailored for enhancing teaching and learning experiences. Additionally, the paper underscores UBalt's commitment to faculty and student success, highlighting how such forward-thinking initiatives can significantly contribute to the advancement of educational practices and student outcomes in the modern digital era. Faculty are an important part of student success, and it is critical to consider pedagogical approaches that enhance teaching and learning experiences so that students are equipped with the education, skills, and knowledge to compete in a 21st century workforce that includes generative artificial intelligence.Item Pursuing the Promises of Social Media? Changes in Adoption and Usage of Social Media by the Top 10 Police Departments(Information Polity, 2016-07-01) Edlins, Mariglynn; Brainard, LoriRecent academic literature highlights the potential benefits of social media use by government agencies, such as police departments (PDs). This study builds on previous work to explore whether and how the top 10 U.S. police departments changed their social media use between two points in time. To do this, we examine what, if any, changes have occurred in PDs' use of social media, their use of it for interaction, as well as their use of the platforms for dialogic communication. Our findings suggest that there is change, yet the change is slow and not always in the direction of hype.Item “Spheres of Influence: The Intersections of Feminism and Transnationalism in Betty Millard’s Woman Against Myth.”(State University of New York Press, 2012) Keohane, JenniferItem Marginalization and Hope: Personal Narratives of Previously Incarcerated Mothers(Bradford: Demeter Press, 2015-01) Wyatt-Nichol, Heather; Seabrook, RenitaIncarceration among women in America's correctional system has dramatically increased over the past several decades, an increase of approximately ten percent each year (Laux et al.). Not surprisingly the majority of imprisoned when, approximately 70 percent, are mothers with dependent children (Poehlmann). Women have an average of two to three children living with them prior to incarceration (Laux et al.; Polluck). Within state institutions, 64 percent of incarcerated women had at least one child under the age of eighteen prior to incarceration —the number increases to 84 percent in federal prisons (Laux et al.; Figueira-McDonough and Sarri; Morash and Schream; Moses; Snyder; Tuerk and Loper).Item Extensiveness of Business Planning and Firm Performance: An Examination into the Drivers of Success and Survival for Startup Firms(University of Twente, 2010) Englis, Paula Danskin; Ratinho, Tiago; Englis, BasilThere is much debate about the role of business planning and new venture creation and success (i.e., Gruber, 2007; Karlsson & Honig, 2007). In this paper, we extend this debate and advance our understanding of the potential role of the extensiveness of business planning. Specifically, we investigate the extensiveness of business planning as it affects firm performance and survival using data from a sample of incubator spin off firms. Extensiveness of business planning is concerned with if the firm has a plan and if it is written down (what Liao & Gartner [2006] refer to as presence and formality), but also the number of sections and the extensiveness each section.Item Trans Archival Practice: Cultivating Public Memory, Investigating Professional Binaries(Library Juice Press, 2023-07-04) Faust, AidenThis is a story about coming out in the workplace at age forty while standing for tenure as library faculty. It is also a meditation on false binaries in professional practice with the hope of identifying and ultimately dissolving them.Item The Reparative Potential of Building Relationships: Archivists and Researchers in the Reading Room(2023-10-19) Faust, AidenThis conference session, entitled "Reflecting Back, Looking Forward: Reparative Approaches to Oral History Archiving and Practice," continued the Oral History Association's dialogue on race and power in oral history, with a particular focus around oral history archiving. The panel examined the ways in which archivists have taken a reparative approach to legacy oral history collections in their stewardship, and the ways they see the work and practice evolving. As part of this panel, my paper explored reparative work through the lens of dialogue and critical inquiry in the reading room, including fostering transparency about archival interventions and collection provenance, and inviting critique of collections and collecting practices.Item Streaming Access in a Fractured World: Designing LibGuides with Student Users in Mind(College & Research Libraries News, 2021-09) Gilchrist, Sarah; Li, Debbie; Toepfner, ErinFaculty in the University of Baltimore Division of Legal, Ethical, and Historical Studies incorporate multiple modes of learning into their course materials. For many professors, this means that films are shown as part of the curriculum. As we know from professional experience, streaming access to films through platforms like Kanopy has become financially untenable for many academic libraries.Item Integrating Open Challenges in the Curriculum: Lessons Learned from an Experience with NASA(2022-12-15) Vincenti, GiovanniPreparing students for the workforce is a balancing act that involves theory, practice, and assessment. As students navigate an educational experience that is, however, often distant from real-world needs, it is imperative that academia finds a novel way to bridge the gap. As many organizations utilize open challenges to attract ideas and talent, academia can easily create such bridge, leading to greater engagement, greater student preparation, and a potential employment pipeline. This paper describes the experience of our students and faculty advisors who participated to the NASA SUITS (Spacesuit User Interface Technologies for Students) Design Challenge. In particular, we review the pedagogical value of the solution that they created and the changes that were implemented in the curriculum of an undergraduate degree program in Information Technology. This open-source, multi-year project is also a flexible platform that can be utilized for engagement in K-12 education as well as graduate research projects.Item A Cloud Computing Infrastructure to Support xEMUs and Future EVAs(2022-07) Manlucu, John; Ahsan, Najya; Robinson, Ruth; Vandi, Michael; Baker, Kaitlyn; Vincenti, GiovanniTo create a safer operational environment during EVAs, we propose OCTaVIA (Operations Control, Translation, and Visual Interface Assistance), a modular and robust system that incorporates industry-standard technologies used in cloud architectures. The main features include distributed data storage, processing and redundancy, a communications infrastructure designed for disaster recovery, computational load balancing, localization services, and passive safety mechanisms. We utilize a testbed composed of several Raspberry Pi and Jetson Nano devices placed on stationary posts within the EVA workspace, which operate as nodes in a Kubernetes infrastructure, a system that automatically deploys, manages, and scales containerized applications. The system offers distributed processing and communications through the Raspberry Pi devices, GPU-intensive computing devices with Jetson Nanos, and LiDAR-enhanced visual technology to support remote as well as automated monitoring of EVA worksites. OCTaVIA is part of ARGOS, a larger solution presented at ICES 2021 aimed at creating an information and communications management system that utilizes augmented reality to let astronauts interact with mission personnel and assets.Item Embedding A "Reflexive Mindset: Lessons From Reconfiguring The Internal Auditing Practice(Academy of Management, 2022) Bento, Regina; Soh, Woon Gan; Antonacopoulou, Elena; Rigg, ClareThe education and training of internal auditors is an example of management learning which has received limited attention in management education journals. This paper presents the lessons from an action research inquiry designed to reconfigure the Internal Auditing function to address the problem of a conformance mindset and compliance-based approach. We show how cultivating a ‘reflexive mindset’ becomes a critical catalyst in developing an Internal Auditing approach that leads to the identification of misconduct, conduct risk and deficiencies in the organization’s conduct risk management and governance frameworks. We contribute to advance reflexivity as a practice that can support the reconfiguration of management functions like Internal Auditing, not only by readjusting operating routines but also by encouraging internal auditors to critically (re)consider how their activities may contribute to the common good of the organization’s members and customers.Item An Augmented Reality Guidance and Operations System to Support the Artemis Program and Future EVAs(2021-07-21) Ahsan, Najya; Andersen, Michael; Baldwin, Peter; Brown, Jasmine; Chapman-Weems, Naiya; Hunt Estevez, Chantil; Hyland, William; Leonard, Blessing; Manlucu, John; Vandi, Michael; Yee, Claudia; Walsh, Greg; Vincenti, GiovanniIn preparation for the challenges of modern and future Lunar missions, NASA has decided to leverage augmented reality technology to aid astronauts to accomplish their lunar assignments and field work. This manuscript describes the work that students have created to meet the NASA SUITS Design Challenge, which is part of the Artemis Student Challenges. In order to develop a system designed to aid users through complex and possibly dangerous tasks, we propose the Augmented Reality Guidance and Operations System (ARGOS) which utilizes the Magic Leap One Augmented Reality Headset (ML1) to simulate the spacesuit of an astronaut on an EVA. Using the ML1, ARGOS presents a minimal, yet effective user interface designed to display vital information, provide instructions, and reduce the cognitive load for the user. We accomplish these tasks through the introduction of 3 main elements in our system: Voice Commands/Interaction, Remote Control Application, and the ARGOS-specific Operations Control, Translation, and Visual Interface Assistant, also known as OCTaVIA. The goal of ARGOS is to create a system that will ensure a user's ability to complete the given task with the utmost safety and efficiency, despite any communication failures that may occur. Lunar missions present a unique and dangerous set of challenges, and with the updated design of ARGOS, astronauts will have an available and usable system built specifically to help reduce cognitive load, aid completion of tasks, and increase safety, with the support of a cloud-like data processing infrastructure that lives on the network itself. This manuscript describes ARGOS as a training platform as well as a testbed for systems that will support human exploration. We also report preliminary tests of its effectiveness in terms of usability and efficiency. Lastly, we briefly describe how this system has become a significant platform for student engagement in a higher education context.Item From slavery to "Indian schools" to internment camps, family separation is nothing new in America(Salon.com, LLC, 2018-06-22) Watkins, Dwight; Communications Design; Communications DesignTrump had to sweep his ugly twist on an old story under the carpet. It was a reminder of America at its worstItem Lessons from Sterling Brown's arrest: Bodycams don't deter racist cops(Salon.com, LLC, 2018-06-05) Watkins, Dwight; Communications Design; Communications DesignWe have the technology to monitor problem cops in real time. Why aren't we using it?Item "No Ashes in the Fire" author Darnell Morre on what it means to be "Black and Free in America"(Salon.com, LLC, 2018-07-12) Watkins, Dwight; Communications Design; Communications DesignSalon talks to Darnell Moore about his new memoir, existential freedom and the power of "radical black love"Item A Lunar Spacewalk Simulation to Support the Artemis Outreach Program and Promote Remote Public Engagement(2021-07-21) Hunt Estevez, Chantil; Jones, Joshua; Shrestha, Sujan; Vincenti, GiovanniVideo game development is a discipline that has the capacity to create multi-objective systems, fulfilling the needs of Human In The Loop Testing as well as promote public immersion, and remote accessibility, via the World-Wide Web. University of Baltimore's contributions to the NASA S.U.I.T.S challenge clearly frames the utility of game development as a tool for distance engagement and usability feedback, using educational STEM themes. To accomplish these tasks, we created varying versions of the Lunar Surface Simulator via the Unity Game Editor in conjunction with Visual Studio; As well as its supporting 3D & 2D assets via Illustrator, Autodesk Maya (Non-Profit Educational License), Blender Modeling Engine and NASA's open source 3D library. Due to the nature of time-based survival simulations, our goal was aimed to engage players using the "Active Critical Learning Principle (Gee, 2007)" as a design framework. Simulation prototypes were designed to mimic how lost astronauts may solve problems using augmented and virtual reality systems on the Lunar Surface. To ensure user comprehension, custom UI design expanded options for players to choose from a variety of play styles that best suited their problem solving skills. User feedback was collected as post questionnaires to ensure player immersion and boost engagement on future iterations of the Lunar Surface Simulator. This manuscript describes how simulations can be used to engage the public on STEM topics. We share how the development of these simulations can be incorporated into HTML5 and other web and mobile platforms for remote public engagement, a tool that could be used in conjunction with remote educational activities. Finally, we discuss how web based accessibility has helped our team establish close rapport with video game and space enthusiasts of all ages during a global pandemic using the World-Wide Web.Item Wayne Jenkins, Baltimore's dirtiest cop, is sentenced: It still doesn't feel like justice.(Salon.com, LLC, 2018-06-11) Watkins, Dwight; Communications Design; Communications DesignJenkins was supposed to get guns off the street in Baltimore — but wound up running a vicious criminal gang instead.Item Trayvon Martin's parents tell Salon: "Nobody is being held accountable" for racist violence(Salon.com, LLC, 2020-06-25) Watkins, Dwight; Communications Design; Communications DesignSybrina Fulton and Tracy Martin discuss the 6-part TV documentary on their son's life and death, "Rest in Power"