Lots of news with an interdisciplinary flavor this week.

 

Anurag Mazumdar (adviser: Nancy Ettlinger) has published a book review on: Undervalued Dissent: Informal Workers’ Politics in India by Manjusha Nair; [Albany: State University of New York Press, 2016]. The review appeared in Economic and Political Weekly.

 

Alvaro Montenegro has received funds for a very interesting collaborative exercise: Bits in Digs aims to use computer models to acquaint history and archaeology researchers with state-of-the-art, data-heavy climate and human migration computer models and give modelers a better understanding of the needs faced by historical and archaeological research and how these can become better incorporated in model development and analysis. The investigators are Alvaro Montenegro and Sam White (History) and they received support from the Third Round of STEAM Powered Project (SPP).

 

Harvey Miller has received funds from TDAI for a very interesting project: Measuring and Analyzing Active Transportation Using Low-Cost Wireless Sensor Networks. In the project accurate, persistent, fine-grain counting of movement is expected to provide a powerful building block for data analytics in active transportation. The work is in collaboration with Anish Arora, Department of Computer Science and Engineering.

 

Dan Sui was at SUNY-Buffalo this week, for the 25th Geoinformatics International Conference. He presented a lunchtime plenary lecture on "Does GIScience Have Its Own Replication Crisis? Thoughts on Making GIScience More Robust and Reliable." Dan and Shih-Lung Shaw also co-organized a panel on the smart city and human dynamics.   

 

Infrastructure

Following what has truly been an exceptional period of re-building this summer, we are approaching the completion of a number of great upgrades; I am happy to give this update and summary.

 

Good news on the Gary & Connie Sharpe Innovation Commons.  We are nearing the completion of the first step in the creation of an Innovation Lab for undergraduates. The room will be equipped in ways that support the aspirations and wishes of our undergraduates, and will contain facilities to practice video broadcast and allow for a clustering of effort around innovative ideas. We are truly appreciative of Gary and Connie Sharpe’s generous support. The next phase will add to this space by incorporating further rooms.  We plan a ribbon cutting ceremony in September.

 

Derby 0100 (new) has been equipped as a research work space. It is primarily to be the focal point for Steven Quiring’s group. The room is adjacent to the Tech Office and is nicely equipped for small group meetings and communications. A cluster of undergraduate students will have access too. Derby 0160 (new) has been repainted and refitted with a cluster of graduate research computer stations. We are grateful to the college for transferring these spaces to us.

 

We have remodeled an office on the main floor as a space for visitors, Post Docs, and senior graduate students. It might suit a cluster of co-located students. Its use can evolve depending on our cohorts. Talk to us if you anticipate visitors! We have remodeled an office on the main floor as a space for Zhengyu Liu who will arrive in August. Some grad and faculty office space is also getting a refresh.