2005

Recruiting/Retention

• On Friday, July 15th two visiting undergraduate students from the ' University of Delaware Ronald E. McNair Post baccalaureate Achievement Program' toured the ERC labs. The McNair program awards grants to institutions of higher education for projects designed to prepare participants for doctoral studies through involvement in research and other scholarly activities. McNair participants are from disadvantaged backgrounds and have demonstrated strong academic potential. Institutions work closely with these participants through their undergraduate requirements, encourage their entrance into graduate programs, and track their progress to successful completion of advanced degrees. The goal of McNair is to increase the attainment of the Ph.D. by students from underrepresented segments of society.

• On Saturday, July 16th Cyndi Ramey participated in the University at Buffalo McNair Research Conference as a recruiter for the REU programs and potential graduate students. The conference was for hundreds of McNair students to display and present their research, learn about different programs at participating colleges and universities, and meet individually with the recruiters.

The ERC was represented at the conference and received many inquiries about the research conducted and general information about the Whiting School of Engineering. We hope to continue to participate in these conferences to recruit top engineering students

• On Friday, September 9th, the CISST ERC set up a table at the annual Student Activities Council (SAC) Fair for new freshmen. The SAC Fair has a broad range of clubs represented, and CISSRS is one of the academic clubs registered. The following CISSRS students volunteered at the table: Carol Reiley, Henry Lin, Pauline Pelletier, Ofri Sadowsky, Gouthami Chintalapani, Jen Hoi, Tiffany Chen, Victor Yip. They got around 80 signatures from interested students.

• On Friday, September 16, the CISST ERC set up an exhibit at the National Science Foundation (NSF) for the World Technology Evaluation Center (WTEC) International Study of Robotics. Dr. Peter Kazanzides, Joe DiPisa and graduate students Ankur Kapoor, Sunipa Saha, and Greg Fischer demonstrated the Steady Hand robot for aneurysm clipping and an ischemia sensing organ retractor. The exhibit also included a robot for prostate brachytherapy and a continuously running display of slides and videos from a number of different ERC projects. It was a busy day as many NSF staff, robotics researchers and local K-12 students visited the exhibit.

• On October 13^th ERC student and Diversity Committee member, Nd Ekekwe, participated in the Tuskegee University Graduate and Professional School Fair. Tuskegee University is a Historically Black College and University (HBCU) which provides a great opportunity for the ERC to recruit potential, highly qualified diverse graduate students. Nd spoke to many students and answered their questions about the opportunities at Johns Hopkins University.

Community

• On Saturday, April 9th, 2005, several ERC students, staff and faculty participated in a great event. The Center for Women and Information Technology (CWIT) at UMBC hosted their third annual Computer Mania Day where over 700 middle school girls and their parents participated in this half day event. The program is designed to provide a broad based introduction to the ways in which different careers make use of information technology.

Representing the ERC were:

Professor Russ Taylor- VIP

Ms. Cyndi Miller- recruiting, ERC sponsor table

Ms. Carol Reiley- mentor, break-out session leader

Ms. Sunipa Saha- mentor, break-out session leader

Ms. Katherine Tsai- mentor, break-out session leader

Ms. Sharmi Sheshamani- mentor, break-out session leader

Ms. Nim Marayong- mentor, break-out session leader

Ms. Netta Gurari- mentor, break-out session leader

The women graduate students listed above did an outstanding job representing the ERC through their demonstrations and presentations. The impact they had as mentors on so many young women in MD was enormous.

• On Friday, April 15th, 2005, Baltimore County held its Robotics Systems Challenge at the Baltimore Museum of Industry (BMI). Cyndi Miller, the ERC's Education Director, judged the Slalom BoeBot event which saw 11 high school teams participate. In addition, the ERC Education Thrust sponsored funds to help pay for participant T-shirts.

• For the third year, the ERC sponsored a middle-school Summer Robotics Camp to engage students in robotics, computers, and basic engineering principles. Over 90 students participated in one of the three week-long sessions. The students attended and participated in ERC lab tours and information sessions on undergraduate admissions here at JHU. A new activity added this year to the camp allowed the participants to design their own websites showcasing the robots they have built. The ERC graduate students went to the camp at Woodlawn High School in Baltimore County to teach Front Page and help the students with their designs. A big thank you to the following ERC students that took the time to participate: Bryan Wheeler, Francesco Tenore, Sharmi Seshamani, Sunipa Saha, Nd Ekekwe, and Greg Fischer.

• On Tuesday, August 9th, 2005, Bennett Landman from Dr. Jerry Prince's lab, Nd Ekekwe from Dr. Ralph Etienne-Cummings lab, and Cyndi Ramey, ERC Director of Education, visited a local pre-school which focuses on technology for the students. The school, Tiny Tekkies, is co-directed by two women both with technology backgrounds. Earlier this year at UMBC's Computer Mania Day the school director came to the ERC CISST table and inquired about having our Center visit the school for a presentation during Technology Week.

All three presentations were technology, engineering and medicine related and engaged the students in fun learning activities. The students were charged about what they learned and the enthusiasm they shared with their parents reflected their passion for learning new things. We hope this visit will encourage the students and parents to become more engaged in learning new technology and engineering topics.

• On Wednesday, September 14th, the ERC had its second annual Fall Kick-Off Seminar, hosted by Diversity & Education. Professor Ralph Etienne-Cummings introduced the ERC and all of its components, more specifically the research and ERC faculty. Cyndi Ramey discussed student opportunities and introduced the staff, as well as discussing a Student Survival Guide that has important information pertaining to the ERC. The meeting came to a close with the 2005 CISSRS President, Carol Reiley, discussing CISSRS opportunities and leading the new student introductions.

Achievement

• The following students received a prestigious NSF Graduate Fellowship award:

· Netta Gurari (working with Allison Okamura)

· Katherine Tsai (working with Ralph Etienne-Cummings)

· Michael Bryan Wheeler (working with Jerry Prince)

• Prof. Allison Okamura has won the 2004 Outstanding Paper Award from the journal Industrial Robot for her paper "Methods for Haptic Feedback in Teleoperated Robot-Assisted Surgery," 31(6):499-508, http://images.emeraldinsight.com/emerald/pdfs/awards2005/ir.pdf.

• The ERC was asked to present an REU poster on Capitol Hill, and attend a workshop hosted by the NSF to work on producing a better program for all research areas in science, technology, engineering, and math. On Tuesday, September 20th, 2005, Cyndi Ramey, Director of Education, represented the CISST ERC on Capitol Hill where she discussed the REU research projects, program highlights, and women and minority representation. The REU program received great attention from the NSF Program Directors, faculty from across the nation, industry, and Congress.

Participating in such a workshop will provide the CISST ERC with insight to new program ideas and guidelines to help bring in the best undergraduates to our research areas. Trained undergraduates will be entering graduate school with a clear understanding of the research process, as well as the skills that will enable them to begin or continue their projects at a higher level.

• Ralph Etienne-Cummings has been re-elected to serve a new 2 year term on the IEEE Circuits and Systems Society Board of Governors. (http://www.ieee-cas.org)

• The CISST Student Leadership Council hosted the Student Retreat at the 2005 ERC Annual Meeting. The meeting took place on Wednesday, November 16, 2005 in Bethesda, MD. The NSF Program Directors and meeting participants were very impressed by the positive and constructive feedback provided to the group.

The following students organized and conducted the sessions: David Choi (CMU), Nd Ekekwe (JHU), Henry Lin (JHU), Lauren O'Donnell (MIT), and Carol Reiley (JHU). Carol Reiley, CISSRS President, reported feedback to all of the meeting attendees on Friday, November 18^th

2004

• The response to our 2004 graduate student recruitment was outstanding. Out of 12 minority or female students who were offered full tuition and fellowship packages, 8 have enrolled at Hopkins, and 5 are working with ERC faculty. We conducted a follow-up survey by email, and learned, among other things, that the students wanted a longer visit with us (a full day instead of ½ day).

• Prof. Allison Okamura continues to be an outstanding researcher and educator in our ERC. She is a champion for diversity and a beacon for attracting diversity students into our ERC. She won an NSF CAREER Award last year, which includes in its education plan efforts to encourage women and minorities in engineering and create museum displays that use CISST ERC technology. She also won the 2003 JHU Diversity Recognition Award, and is the advisor for the JHU Society of Women Engineers. In the fall of 2004, she became Thrust 1 Leader.

• Prof. Ralph Etienne-Cummings is a leader in his field – he was voted to the Board of Governors of the IEEE/Circuits and Systems Society – and was profiled in Black Engineer magazine. Johns Hopkins awarded him tenure as an associate professor at a time when tenure was almost always awarded at the full professor level. (Hopkins now awards tenure at the Associate Professor level, a decision influence by the difficulties in recruiting and retaining female faculty members.) Ralph is Associate Director for Education and Outreach of our ERC; he is the Director of the Computer Engineering program (ABET accredited); and he served on the most recent Dean Search Committee. He is an excellent role model for minority students within the center, our institutions, and the larger engineering community.

• In April 2005, ERC CISST will participate in Computer Mania Day. This is held at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, and it provides role models, hands-on experiences, and information about technology careers to middle school girls and their parents and teachers. Six (6) CISSRS women graduate student role models will provide workshops with presentations and hands-on demonstrations in the areas of haptics and computer vision. An estimate of 319 female middle school students will attend the workshops.

• Several of our diversity REU students have received recognition for their efforts. Former REU student Vanessa Chial won a 2002 NSF Graduate Fellowship. Former REU student Wagahta Semere presented a poster on her research at a regional National Society of Black Engineers Conference and won first place. Also, her paper was a finalist for the Best Paper Award at the 2004 Haptics Symposium, which is the top international conference in the field. Numerous other REU students have been first authors or co-authors on papers published about their research. Jasenka Memisevic, a 2004 REU student, presented her poster at the BMES 2004 Conference at UPenn in October of 2004.