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Channel 5 (WABI), Channel 2 (WLBZ) and the Bangor Daily News reported on the 2013 Northeast Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition at UMaine over the weekend where 10 teams competed by defending against computer hacking attempts made by national cybersecurity professionals. The media spoke to event organizer George Markowsky, associate director of the UMaine School of Computing and Information Science, who says the event is a great experience for students training to be cyberprofessionals. Rochester Institute of Technology in Rochester, N.Y., took top honors. The winners of the northeast division will compete in the nationals in Texas next month. The University of Maine team, which was missing two of its eight members, ranked sixth.

Daniel Sandweiss, dean and associate provost for graduate studies, was interviewed for a Feb. 26 story in El Comercio, Peru’s leading newspaper, about the use of archaeological and paleoclimatic data to look for ways that past peoples adapted to climate change and to help test models for climate prediction. It’s important to know if models reproduce past climate accurately in order to know how well they might predict future change, Sandweiss says. In some times and places, such as on the coast of Peru, paleoclimate signals from archaeological sites are among the most useful sources of data we have available.

Parents and children are invited to attend the 2013 Summer Camp Fair for Kids, 4–7 p.m., Wednesday, March 13 at the University of Maine New Balance Student Recreation Center. Admission is free and all attendees will also receive a day pass to the recreation center. The event is sponsored by the UMaine Division of Student Affairs, Campus Recreation and Foster Center for Student Innovation. Jesse Moriarity, Foster Center coordinator, says at least 65 Maine summer camps have signed up to offer information during the fair, with more expected to attend. For more information or to request disability accommodations, call 581.1454.

Click here to view the “How do I test the quality of my homemade maple syrup?” video on YouTube.

Click here to view the “How to Prune a Blueberry Bush” video on YouTube.

The University of Maine’s Paint, Plant and Polish Program, which began last year as a Presidential Initiative, continues to improve the UMaine campus as part of the Blue Sky Plan Pathway 5, chaired by UMaine alumnus John Rohman and co-chaired by Stewart Harvey, executive director of facilities and capital management services.

To improve campus infrastructure and appearance, UMaine President Paul Ferguson initially reallocated approximately $2.5 million. This funding was derived from energy cost-savings realized through improved utility and fuel contracts, increased campuswide efficiencies, as well as overall cost reductions on a one-time basis. Paint, Plant and Polish now will be sustained annually by approximately $320,000 from the newly endowed Hosmer Fund in the University of Maine Foundation.

This first year included more than a dozen campus buildings and academic areas identified as improvement and deferred maintenance priorities by the deans of UMaine’s colleges, including the Honors College, as well as staff of Facilities Management. More than $1.6 million is earmarked for classroom upgrades and improving accessibility, and approximately $800,000 will be directed for painting and minor maintenance to preserve the integrity of campus buildings, including UMaine’s “legacy assets.” Much of the work began last summer and employed numerous local Maine painting and construction companies, as well as elevator, furniture and equipment suppliers.

Paint, Plant and Polish is a four-pronged approach to infrastructure improvement, focusing on classroom upgrades, Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) upgrades, energy-saving initiatives and painting projects. Many are aimed at addressing deferred maintenance that has resulted from decades of budget cuts. All will improve the quality of life for students, faculty, staff and visitors on campus, according to Janet Waldron, UMaine’s senior vice president for administration and finance.

“How the campus looks really matters,” Waldron says. “We have a beautiful campus with legacy buildings. The benefit of these investments is improved aesthetics, higher quality classrooms, more accessible facilities, and an enhanced impression of campus for visitors and prospective students.

“Proper stewardship of our infrastructure is important, but also because it makes financial sense. Maintenance costs quadruple if not timely executed,” Waldron says. “Facilities Management is pleased to partner in the initiatives of the Blue Sky Project to care for UMaine’s irreplaceable campus assets, such as Fogler Library.”

Among the buildings slated for improvements:

• Estabrooke Hall, where the first floor is being renovated for office space for Honors College faculty and the Maine Center for Research in STEM Education (RiSE), as well as an interactive, general-purpose classroom with sophisticated audiovisual equipment. The project is expected to be completed by fall 2013.
• Fogler Library, which will receive exterior painting and partial first-floor renovation to create additional collaborative academic space for student study groups. Painting was completed last summer and renovations are planned for this summer.
• Crosby Lab, where an elevator will be installed to provide handicapped access to the second floor, and restrooms will be renovated to meet ADA guidelines. The project is expected to be completed this summer.
• Clapp Greenhouse, which will receive some upgrades in the south end teaching area. The project is expected to be completed this spring.
• D.P. Corbett, which received exterior painting last summer, and where desks and seating in two first-floor classrooms will be replaced. The project is expected to be completed this summer.

In addition to the projects associated with the Paint, Plant and Polish Program, several other capital projects are under way that will significantly enhance the UMaine campus, including a $5.2 million Astronomy Center in 2013. Other capital improvement projects:

• Nutting Hall received a $3.95 million energy upgrade with roof, insulation, façade and window replacements. Construction was completed in late summer.
• Alumni Hall will receive an estimated $495,000 second-floor renovation and repurposing to relocate the Division of Marketing and Communications from the Keyo Building. While the renovation will address safety, structural and access issues, it will also enable the strategic relocation of Marketing and Communications consistent with the Blue Sky Pathways 2 and 3 through enhanced synergies resulting from the proximity to Enrollment Management, Academic Affairs and Research. Renovation to this historic building will be accomplished in summer 2013 and make available the Keyo Building to support the strategic procurement initiative.
• Memorial Gym and New Balance Field House will receive a $15 million renovation, made possible by a state-backed revenue bond, gifts from New Balance, the Harold Alfond Foundation, and several other private donors, including Tom and Sally Savage. Renovations are expected to begin May 13.
• A $6.4 million Wind and Wave Research Facility will be built as a 12,000-square-foot addition to the Offshore Wind Laboratory of the Advanced Structures and Composites Center. The facility will house a robotics laboratory for the manufacture of wind blade components and a 10-meter by 30-meter freshwater basin for testing scale models of scale-model turbines. The 5-meter deep basin will be equipped with wind and wave generators. The facility is funded by a $2.9 million EDA grant and a $3.5 million match from UMaine. Construction will begin in March and is expected to be completed this fall.

Regular updates on projects in the Paint, Plant and Polish Program, as well as other major projects associated with Pathway 5 to promote our stewardship of place at UMaine can be found on the Blue Sky Implementation website.

Contact: Margaret Nagle, 207.581.3745

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration has awarded a University of Maine marine researcher up to $957,871 to improve ways to detect and track changes in the oceanic carbon pool, subsequently allowing scientists to better understand its role in oceanic ecosystems and the removal of atmospheric carbon dioxide.

Ivona Cetinić, a research associate in the School of Marine Sciences and the Darling Marine Center in Walpole, Maine, is leading a four-person team that will develop a novel way of detecting particulate organic carbon (POC) in oceans, using data collected by satellites.

POC — which includes phytoplankton, zooplankton and marine debris — is part of the oceanic mechanism that “pumps” carbon dioxide from the atmosphere to the depths of the ocean to be stored.

Oceanographers seek to better understand how POC distribution varies in oceans around the world. Together with policy makers, they are interested in learning whether the changing climate is impacting POC and the global carbon cycle.

Cetinić and her team will analyze seawater collected from multiple places in the world’s oceans, including from coastal Maine, equatorial and polar regions, to see how POC distribution varies in different marine ecosystems. The team will use those oceanographic measurements to develop an algorithm — a set of calculations that can be used to detect POC from space.

NASA’s Ocean Biology and Biogeochemistry program is funding the three-year project through November 2015. Mary Jane Perry, a professor at the School of Marine Sciences and Ira C. Darling Marine Center; Nicole Poulton, a research scientist at Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences in East Boothbay, Maine; and Wayne Homer Slade, who earned a doctorate in oceanography at UMaine and is now at Sequoia Scientific Inc. in Bellevue, Wash., are collaborating with Cetinić on the study.

Contact: Beth Staples, 207.581.3777

In a story on the Portland Flower Show, Channel 2 (WLBZ) advanced the silent and live plant auctions that will take place Sunday at the Portland Company Complex and will benefit the University of Maine Cooperative Extension Demonstration Garden at Tidewater Farm and the Maine Harvest for Hunger Gardens in Cumberland County.

Several media outlets including the Bangor Daily News, Portland Press Herald, Channel 5 (WABI) and Channel 2 (WLBZ) reported on University of Maine System Chancellor James Page’s address at a joint session of the legislature Thursday. Page, along with other higher education leaders, vowed to continue to adapt to the state’s needs and build a skilled workforce, but said they need the legislature’s support. Page told the legislature education must be affordable, and the first step is to “break the back of year-to-year tuition increases.”

The Bangor Daily News reported that American pianist Jonathan Biss will make his third appearance at the University of Maine at 3 p.m. Sunday, March 10, at Minsky Recital Hall.

The newest entry in the Bangor Daily News blog Education: Future Imperfect, by UMaine Professor of History Howard Segal is online.

University of Maine faculty will take part in a series of events surrounding the Penobscot Theatre Co. production of the Pulitzer Prize-winning play “Wit.”

Jesse Moriarity, coordinator of the Foster Center for Student Innovation, will host “Stories of Survival” at 7 p.m. Saturday, March 16 at the Bangor Opera House. Offered in partnership with Bangor Area Story Slam, audience members are invited to tell their stories of survival at the free event. Call 207.942.3333 to register. Women in the Curriculum and Women’s Studies Program Spring 2013 Lunch Series will also hold a panel discussion based on the play and focused on cancer and women’s health from 12–1:20 p.m. March 19 in the Bangor Room of the Memorial Union. The play’s cast and director will also visit Mimi Killinger’s Cultural Odyssey class in the Honors College on March 27.

“Wit” was the first play written by Margaret Edson and was inspired by her experience working in a hospital oncology unit. Tickets can be purchased online or through the box office at 207.942.3333.

A film director and an author will visit UMaine this month to discuss transgender issues.

The University of Maine’s Rainbow Resource Center and the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender and Allies Council will host Jennifer Finney Boylan, author of “She’s Not There: A Life in Two Genders” and Mark Schoen, producer of the new documentary “Trans.”

Boylan, who is also a Colby College professor, will speak from 3–4 p.m. Thursday, March 21 in the Bangor Room of the Memorial Union. She will discuss life as a transgender woman as well as her new book, “Stuck in the Middle with You.”

Schoen will attend a screening of his film “Trans” at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, March 28 in 100 D.P. Corbett Business Building. He will also host a question-and-answer session after the screening from 8–9 p.m. The movie looks into the personal journey into the transgender world through the characters and their life stories.

Both events are free and open to the public.

The Portland Press Herald reported that Michael Dubyak, chairman, president and CEO of South Portland-based WEX Inc., and chairman of the business-led nonprofit Educate Maine, promoted Project>Login at the Portland Community Chamber’s monthly Eggs & Issues event Wednesday. Project>Login, led by Educate Maine and the University of Maine System, is a new initiative designed to attract more students to information technology programs at Maine colleges and universities. “I’d love to see our best and brightest stay in Maine,” Dubyak said.

Amy Witt, a home horticulturist with the University of Maine Cooperative Extension, was cited in a Portland Press Herald story about the Portland Flower Show. The theme of the flower show is “Timeless Gardens” and organizers invited children and teenagers to write essays about how to make gardens timeless. Witt said nine students received cash prizes for their essays. The Cumberland County Master Gardener Plant Auction, which benefits the University of Maine Cooperative Extension and the Maine Harvest for Hunger Gardens in Cumberland County, will take place Sunday, March 10 during the flower show.

The Bangor Daily News reported the estate of a University of Maine alumnus who was killed along with two UMaine students in a Nov. 16 plane crash at the Knox County Regional Airport has notified the county that it may sue for $2 million. The notice was filed on behalf of the estate of William B.J. Hannigan III, a member of the Maine Air National Guard and the Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity. In December, a notice of intent to sue was also sent on behalf of the estate of UMaine student Marcelo Rugini who was also killed in the crash.

The Bangor Daily News spoke with George Markowsky, associate director of the UMaine School of Computing and Information Science, about the three-day 2013 regional Northeast Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition that begins Friday, March 8. Ten teams will compete in UMaine’s Neville Hall by defending against computer hacking attempts made by national cybersecurity professionals. Markowsky, who organized the event, told the BDN, “We have some great hackers involved.”

CompositesWorld spoke with UMaine’s Advanced Structures and Composites Center Director Habib Dagher about the center’s efforts to develop a scale model of a floating wind turbine for testing off the coast of Maine. At the Offshore Wind Power USA 2013 conference in Boston on Feb. 26–27, Dagher said the test turbine is progressing well and deployment is expected later this year.

The Bangor Daily News reported on the March 4 episode of Comedy Central’s “Colbert Report” that featured a segment about a November incident in Somesville in which a bucket of scallop innards to be used for research was mistakenly placed in the wrong car. Skylar Bayer, a marine biology graduate student at the University of Maine’s Darling Marine Center, and Gail Garthwait, a faculty member in the College of Education and Human Development, were featured on the show and in the article.

The Portland Press Herald spoke to Rick Wahle, research associate professor in the University of Maine’s School of Marine Sciences, about Maine’s early lobster season. Wahle explained that in 2012, the season for soft-shell lobsters started four to five weeks early when there weren’t enough buyers, which brought the price down. Wahler warned lobstermen that if prices stay in decline they will have only two options: to stop fishing or fish harder.