The university’s Communication Sciences and Disorders Department has developed a Web-based speech therapy telepractice training program to give graduate students the competencies that are revolutionizing the delivery of health care worldwide. It is now accepting speech therapy clients who would benefit from the remote access of telepractice.

“We have created one of the first nationwide speech therapy telepractice training programs,” says Judy Walker, a UMaine CSD associate professor who developed the program in collaboration with colleagues in the Speech Therapy Department at Waldo County General Hospital (WCGH) in Belfast.

The UMaine program is one of only a few programs in the country that offers speech therapy telepractice training at the college level in an emerging service model for delivering health care through evolving technologies. Speech therapy telepractice involves almost no travel expense and expands the reach of therapy services to more people in Maine, where an overabundance of people in need of speech therapy is compounded by a severe shortage of speech therapists, Walker says.

“Telepractice is not only efficient in reaching people, but also cost-effective,” Walker says.

Nationally, at least one study estimates that telemedicine services provided via broadband Internet would save $700 billion nationally over the next 15 to 20 years, according to Walker.

The program uses a secure, password-protected Web-based platform that allows virtual face-to-face therapy between service providers and clients. Clients can be assisted by designated “e-Helpers” — family, friends or caregivers — according to Walker. All that is needed is a computer with a webcam and broadband Internet access, located in a private setting, such as a home, school, clinic or community center.

“In addition to overcoming barriers such as geography, weather and transportation, we can also bring in family members and caregivers to participate in the therapy from their own computers in any location,” Walker says. “With this service delivery model, anyone involved in a child’s or adult’s therapy program can actually view or participate in the session, regardless of where they are,” Walker says.

The UMaine graduate training program in speech therapy telepractice, based in the Madelyn E. and Albert D. Conley Speech, Language and Hearing Center in Dunn Hall, complies with American Speech-Language-Hearing Association guidelines for demonstrating competencies and skills in speech telepractice services, which standardizes the training of the UMaine graduates.

That’s important, according to WCGH Speech Therapy Department Director Michael Towey, who oversees the hospital’s 5-year-old speech therapy telepractice, on which the UMaine program is modeled. Competency standards have not been well defined nationally, says Towey, a UMaine alumnus and adjunct CSD faculty member assisting the university with its telepractice training curriculum.

Industry credentials reassure clients that telepractice therapists are competent, he says. Towey says the UMaine speech therapy telepractice training program is among the first to establish training standards for therapists at the college level.

Waldo County General Hospital’s speech telepractice program is provided by staff professionals, who have served people from Canada to Russia and Taiwan, in addition to more that 40 Maine communities between Kittery and Fort Kent. It is one of only a handful of speech therapy programs in the country with Training Program Accreditation from the American Telemedicine Association, according to Towey, and the only one that allows therapists to work with clients in home settings rather than at designated clinics, he says.

Walker along with Casey Monnier, a CSD staff speech pathologist and lecturer, and WCGH staff offered the first telepractice training class in August 2012 to 10 CSD graduate students, including Taylor Rodgers of Standish and Janet Ciejka of Brunswick. Following the class, Rodgers and Ciejka applied their new skills in two semesters of clinical practicum providing telepractice speech therapy to clients under the supervision of Walker and Monnier. A new cohort of 12 CSD graduate students are currently in a telepractice training class this month and will be involved in applying their new telepractice skills in clinical practicum during the next school year.

Prior to graduation, Rodgers had been providing speech therapy to a woman from southern Maine, who as the result of a stroke in April 2012, had difficulty finding the words to communicate with her family for much of the spring and summer. Speech therapy telepractice sessions began in the fall 2012, involving one adult daughter videoconferencing from Rhode Island, another daughter at her mother’s side in southern Maine, and Walker and Rodgers in Orono. Now, the woman can retrieve many nouns and other words (verbally or in writing using e-Tools) as Rodgers displayed digital materials that are unique to this client on the computer screen where all participants can see- bread, rice cakes, butter or milk, for example.

Therapy by videoconference is working better than the daughters expected, they say. Their mother is progressing faster as a result of more frequent therapy sessions and outside practice of activities involving the daughters and their mother between online sessions with Rodgers and Walker.

“I had a telephone conversation with my mother last week and I understood everything she was trying to say,” the southern Maine daughter says of her mother.

Therapy at home also ended a “convoluted and complicated” transportation problem when her mother was visiting a therapy clinic, says one daughter, a nurse.

“I was driving her to therapy two and three times a week, and we had to arrange transportation. I felt I was losing touch because I wasn’t there for all the sessions,” she recalls. It was worse for the daughter in Rhode Island, a school bus driver who can now participate in therapy sessions with her mother between her shifts at work. “Being so far away, I feel so much more involved now,” she says.

For the mother’s part, starting telepractice speech therapy “was wonderful,” she says. “It’s helping me.”

Rodgers, who recently received a master’s degree, is convinced the new telepractice skills will give UMaine speech-language pathologists an edge in the job market.

“I think it’s a really exciting opportunity the University of Maine makes available to us,” Rodgers says. “I have friends in speech pathology at other universities and they really don’t have anything like this, and this seems to be the future direction of speech pathology.”

The University of Maine, Madelyn E. and Albert D. Conley Speech, Language, Hearing Center is accepting new clients for speech therapy telepractice services this summer and fall. Telepractice is covered by many insurance plans, including MaineCare. For more information or to make an appointment, call the Conley Speech, Language Hearing Center, 207.581.2006, or visit the telepractice website.

Contact: Margaret Nagle, 207.581.3745

The thousands of children who enjoy reading and are reading well are proof.

Brian Doore, assistant research professor in the University of Maine’s College of Education and Human Development, figured out a way to strengthen the life-changing initiative by analyzing Reading Recovery data within a comprehensive intervention model.

Doore and his wife, Stacy, a UMaine doctoral student in spatial engineering and a research associate at the Center for Research and Evaluation at UMaine, designed the prototype for Comprehensive Intervention Model for Maine (CIMME) — a Web-based data collection entry system for educators.

Teachers plug in a student’s data, including instructional hours, number of absences, books read, average text level gain, average writing vocabulary gain, as well as notes and comments. With CIMME, teachers are able to make up-to-the-second instructional decisions to best help the student.

The system displays children’s learning trajectories in various forms, including line charts and motion graphs.

Kit Cuddy was lead programmer on the CIMME project and Quansheng Song supervised. Cuddy, Song and CRE director Craig Mason refined and added functionality to the system so it could be offered to schools throughout Maine and in nine other states, Doore says.

Often times, says Doore, educators utilize summative assessments — think midterms and finals. These tests seek to determine whether students learned — past tense — the material.

This data collection system provides a formative assessment — in real time. “We’re focused on what they are learning,” Doore says.

Because the graphs show the child’s reading knowledge at that moment, educators can determine what instructional strategy will be most beneficial at that moment in time.

“The right question (for teachers) is, ‘What does the child need to learn and what do I need to teach next?’” Doore says.

For Doore, a former special education and regular education teacher, the objective is “for all children to make progress and be successful.”

Because teachers, teacher leaders and administrators in different locations can simultaneously view the information on their computers, they can collectively brainstorm about how best to proceed.

The data provides a detailed picture of individual literacy interventions and that becomes the catalyst for coaching conversations around how to accelerate students’ learning.

Teachers can follow a student’s long-term progression in one school system and, if a student moves, Doore says educators in the new school can immediately access the data so there’s no gap in services for the youth.

“It’s an empowering model instead of a deficit model,” says Mary Rosser, director of the University Training Center for Reading Recovery at UMaine.

“Rather than contemplating what we could have, should have and would have done, it’s an opportunity to look at where we are we now and what can we do, in the moment, to accelerate learning.”

In order to increase access to the system, Doore and Rosser have teamed up with partners from across the country to submit multiple federal grants.

Additional funding, says Doore, would allow CIMME to be available to more students and teachers across the country and support improved outcomes and accelerated learning for children through educators’ increased ability to engage in systematic, data-based, instructional decision-making.

Contact: Beth Staples, 207.581.3777

This academic year, 1,665 students — 1,333 undergraduate and 332 graduate students — earned degrees from UMaine.

A 10 a.m. ceremony was held for graduates in the College of Business, Public Policy and Health; the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences; the College of Education and Human Development; and the Division of Lifelong Learning. Graduates in the College of Engineering and the College of Natural Sciences, Forestry, and Agriculture were recognized at a 2:30 p.m. ceremony.

UMaine President Paul Ferguson, who presided over the ceremonies, encouraged the students to invest their talent, success and great achievements in enriching the world and improving the quality of life of those around them. The hope, he said, is that the students’ experiences and education at UMaine have inspired them to dare and to “achieve greatly.”

“You can be confident that your UMaine education represents the very best of Maine and that you, in turn, represent the very best of Maine,” Ferguson said. “It is with great pride that I remind you that UMaine is now forever a part of your identity, just as you are the legacy of the University of Maine.”

UMaine awarded an honorary degree to film producer Lawrence Bender, whose noteworthy projects such as “Inglourious Basterds,” “Pulp Fiction” and “Good Will Hunting” have been honored with 29 Academy Award^® nominations, including three for Best Picture. His film, “An Inconvenient Truth,” which raised unprecedented awareness about climate change, won the Academy Award^® for Best Documentary Feature.

In his remarks, which included a standing ovation, Bender said he would not have the life he lives today if not for his University of Maine experience, and he urged the students to find success through consistent hard work and persistence.

“How can you achieve greatness? I would say three basic things,” said Bender, who graduated from UMaine in 1979 with a degree in civil engineering. “One, you must find your passion. Two, failure must be a possibility. And three, never give up, especially when you are failing.”

“The ability to allow yourself to fail is the ability to allow yourself to go full on and to break boundaries. Many times it’s only by failing that you find the real truth. And this is not esoteric, this is basic to the heart of all entrepreneurism.”

Other Commencement speakers included students Emma Burgess Roy of Auburn, Maine, a graduating senior in international affairs, with a concentration in women’s studies; and Lindsay LaJoie of Van Buren, Maine, a graduating senior in food science and human nutrition.

LaJoie is the 2013 salutatorian. The 2013 valedictorian is Spencer Hathaway of Turner, Maine, who received two bachelor’s degrees — economics and business administration in accounting.

Also honored at Commencement, as well as at a Faculty Appreciation and Recognition Luncheon today, were four faculty members in physics, insect ecology, finance and computer science. Professor of Physics Robert Lad, director of UMaine’s Laboratory for Surface Science and Technology is the 2013 Distinguished Maine Professor, an award presented by the University of Maine Alumni Association in recognition of outstanding achievement in the university’s mission of teaching, research and public service.

Professor of Insect Ecology Francis “Frank” Drummond is the 2013 Presidential Research and Creative Achievement Award recipient. This year’s Presidential Outstanding Teaching Award recipient is Professor of Finance Richard Borgman. Professor of Computer Science George Markowsky is the recipient of the Presidential Public Service Achievement Award.

University of Maine System Board of Trustees members Samuel Collins and retired Adm. Gregory Johnson, a UMaine alumnus, delivered greetings from the board in the morning and afternoon sessions, respectively.

Alumna Samantha Lott Hale, chair of the University of Maine Alumni Association Board of Directors, welcomed the new graduates to the ranks of the more than 105,000 University of Maine alumni worldwide.

Contact: Margaret Nagle, 207.581.3745

Three years later on a trip back to Turkey, Kiziltas met a carpet manufacturer with a growing concern over nonbiodegradable waste. Kiziltas wanted to find a solution not only for the businessman, but for the country, environment and future generations.

“My biggest concern is to find uses for recycled materials to keep the environment beautiful for younger generations,” says Kiziltas.

Kiziltas’ award-winning research in UMaine’s Advanced Structures and Composites Center in collaboration with Professor Douglas Gardner has focused on the use of natural fillers such as microcrystalline cellulose, wood flour, hemp, flax and kenaf fibers as opposed to conventional reinforcing fillers such as glass fiber, carbon fiber, nanoclay and silica. He is exploring new heat-resistant automotive plastics from these natural materials, which he has determined can stand the stress of high temperatures and are low-cost, low-density, strong, renewable, recyclable and biodegradable.

Kiziltas will continue his research at Ford Motor Co. in Dearborn, Mich., when he starts a six-month internship in August.

Last year, Kiziltas received an Automotive Composites Conference & Exhibition (ACCE) Graduate Scholarship Award from the Society of Plastics Engineers for his research proposal focused on cellulose-filled recycled carpet for under-the-hood applications for the automobile industry.

Other recognition he has received for his preliminary research results include the Dean’s Undergraduate Mentoring Award at UMaine’s 2013 Graduate Academic Exposition and first place for his oral presentation and third place in the commercialization competition at the 2012 GradExpo. He also won first place in the poster competition in the 2012–2013 SPE Automotive Composites Conference & Exhibition (ACCE) for his project having the greatest potential effect on ground transportation.

Most recently, Kiziltas was named the 2013 outstanding Ph.D. student in UMaine’s College of Natural Sciences, Forestry, and Agriculture.

In 2010, Kiziltas submitted the “Under the Foot to Under the Hood” proposal to the Republic of Turkey, Ministry of Science, Industry and Technology. Out of more than 700, it was chosen to receive $60,000 in funding if he returns to Turkey and opens his own company. The competition is open to students from Turkey until five years after earning an undergraduate, master’s or Ph.D. degree.

Kiziltas earned an undergraduate degree in forest products engineering from Karadeniz Technical University in Trabzon, Turkey, and in 2006 was awarded one of two full scholarships from the Republic of Turkey’s Ministry of National Education to pursue graduate studies in wood sciences and technology in the United States.

In August 2009, Kiziltas earned a master’s degree from UMaine’s School of Forest Resources and became the first UMaine student to earn a graduate certificate in innovation engineering. This August, he will start his internship with Ford, and will receive his Ph.D. from UMaine in May 2014.

Kiziltas hopes to convert the nylon used in carpets to a form that could be used by automobile manufacturers by mixing the recycled nylon with the natural fillers.

Many scientists think natural materials can only be used in thermoplastics with a low melting point, Kiziltas says. However, he thinks UMaine is the only research institute that can heat cellulose at such high temperatures, opening the door for more uses of the materials.

Kiziltas says according to carpet industry estimates, about 4–6 million tons of carpet are disposed every year worldwide, with less than 5 percent of the disposed materials being recycled and less than 1 percent being reused. Nearly 95 percent of nonbiodegradable carpet waste ends up in landfills, taking up space that could be used for other materials.

Carpet is generally made up of a face fiber and backing. About 65 percent of carpets sold in the U.S. are made of nylon, making it the most popular face fiber because of its versatility, moldability and resistance to high temperatures and harsh chemicals. Even though nylon performs the best among synthetic fibers, it is also the most expensive.

Demand for nylon in the automotive industry is expected to increase because of government regulations requiring fuel economy upgrades. Lightweight nylon can help make cars lighter, more efficient and environmentally friendly, according to Kiziltas.

Kiziltas believes nylon from carpet waste can fill the demand in the automotive industry once properties from the materials are converted to meet required standards.

After speaking with automotive manufacturers, Kiziltas learned the market requires a high specific strength and modulus, low density and inexpensive reinforcements for nylon. From his master’s thesis research, he knew cellulose fiber reinforcement could be a suitable candidate to mix with the recycled nylon and found natural fibers-filled nylon composites could be produced for under-the-hood applications where conditions are too severe for other plastics.

The reused nylon could be used in simpler automobile applications, such as dashboards, engine covers and side panels, that require less modification, Kiziltas says, but adds that he and his team “like a challenge.”

Kiziltas, who lives in Orono with his wife — who is also a UMaine graduate student — and their two young children, says he would like to return to Turkey to continue his research with the scholarship he was awarded, but he may wait a few years to do so.

“I would like to work in a research institute to mentor young scientists while using my background to make new materials,” Kiziltas says.

He has already mentored and supervised more than six students in the field of natural fillers-filled thermoplastic composites for automobile applications. One of his mentees, third year civil engineering student Alex Nash, won the Society of Plastic Engineers (SPE) 2013–2014 Extrusion Division/Lew Erwin Memorial Scholarship.

Kiziltas says he used to want to be a professor, but after taking the innovation engineering courses at UMaine, his image of his future began to shift as he discovered his passion for creating new materials with moneymaking potential.

In the long term, Kiziltas would like to return to Turkey to help his native country become more developed and scientifically advanced. He also hopes to help build a relationship between Ford Motor company and UMaine while doing his internship at Ford’s research facilities this summer.

“I don’t want to see my degrees on a shelf. I want to see them put to use in the industry,” Kiziltas says.

Contact: Elyse Kahl, 207.581.3747

Katherine Farrow of Cousins Island and Erin Wilkinson of Saco have joined 47 fellow graduates from throughout the country to work on marine policy in Washington, D.C. The one-year fellowships provide an opportunity for recent graduates to apply their scientific background to marine and coastal policymaking at the national level.

Since 1997, 12 of the Knauss Fellows have been from Maine, according to the National Sea Grant website.

Farrow completed her undergraduate studies in economics at UMaine in 2009, and earned two master’s degrees in global policy and resource economics and policy from the university in 2011 and 2012. She has worked as an assistant to the director of the UMaine School of Economics, and also collaborated with Maine Sea Grant and the National Sea Grant Network to survey and advance best practices for conducting economic impact evaluations of Sea Grant research, extension and education programs.

Farrow grew up on Casco Bay, where she first became aware of the intricate connections between ocean and coastal ecosystems and coastal economies. She also has worked as an island caretaker and field volunteer for the Maine Island Trail Association, a stewardship organization that cares for a recreational boating trail that links islands along the entire coast of Maine. For her Knauss Fellowship, Farrow is working as a fisheries economist for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA) National Marine Fisheries Service Office of Science and Technology.

Wilkinson received an undergraduate degree in marine sciences from UMaine in 2008, and completed her master’s degree in marine sciences at the University of New England in 2012, where she examined ecological relationships between predatory fish and lobster in the Gulf of Maine. During her graduate studies, she worked closely with recreational fishermen in Southern Maine to raise awareness about striped bass research and to facilitate local angler contributions to research efforts.

Prior to her graduate work, Wilkinson participated in numerous research projects through internships and research technician positions with the Gulf of Maine Research Institute, UMaine’s Darling Marine Center and Aquaculture Research Center, the University of Georgia Marine Institute on Sapelo Island, Ga., and MariCal Inc., an aquaculture research facility in Portland, Maine. In addition, she spent 13 months working at the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Research Station on Antarctica. Wilkinson’s Knauss Fellowship position is with the NOAA National Marine Fisheries Service Office of Sustainable Fisheries.

The Knauss Fellowship was established in 1979 for students interested in ocean, coastal and Great Lakes resources and the national policy decisions that affect those resources. Qualified graduate students spend a year with “hosts” in the legislative and executive branch of government in Washington, D.C. The program is named in honor of one of the founders of the National Sea Grant College Program, former NOAA Administrator John A. Knauss. More information about Knauss Fellowships is online.

Contact: Beth Bisson, 207.581.1440; beth.bisson@maine.edu

The lecture begins at 1:30 p.m., in 105 Corbett Business Building. The Stanley Sue Lecture Series, an annual event sponsored by UMaine’s Diversity Committee of the Doctoral Program in Clinical Psychology, focuses on speakers who work with diverse populations.

Kimmel will be speaking about his work with LGBT and aging populations, and social justice. Kimmel has worked extensively with several divisions of the American Psychological Association and authored books, chapters and journal articles.

After serving on the faculty at City College in New York City from 1970-98, Kimmel moved to coastal Maine.

For more information or to request disability accommodations, contact Ethan Rothstein on FirstClass.

More than $10,000 in cash prizes were awarded at this year’s expo, including the $2,000 President’s Research Impact Award given to the graduate student and adviser who best exemplify the UMaine mission of  teaching, research and outreach.

Following are the winning presentations:

• President’s Research Impact Award — Alison Mitchell and adviser Jennifer Middleton for “What Happens Next? Examining Child Protection Outcomes for a Cohort of Opioid-Exposed Infants”

• Dean’s Undergraduate Mentoring Award — Alper Kiziltas, “Natural Fiber Blend-Nylon 6 Composites” and Katharine Ruskin, “Testing for Stability in the Sharp-tailed Sparrow Hybrid Zone: 130 Years of Plumage Comparisons”

• Graduate Student Photo Contest, Research Category — Mariusz Potocki, first; Bridie McGreavy, second; Bjorn Grigholm and Luke Groff, third

• Graduate Student Photo Contest, Graduate Student Life Category — José Carrasco, first; Amy Pierce, second; Jincy Joseph and Jocelyn Runnebaum, third

• Foster Center for Student Innovation Commercialization Award — Heather Perry, in intermedia; Hari Prasanth Palani, in science and technology

• PechaKucha Competition — Amy Pierce, “12 Steps to Planning the Perfect Wedding,” first; Hollie Smith, “Intersections of Higher Education, State Policy, & Economic Development: Understanding the Connections in Maine Communities,” second; Jessica LeClair, “Be Prepared,” third

• Intermedia Competition — Heather Perry, “Queen for a Day,” first; Benjamin Burpee, “Spaz.lab,” second; Tara Law, “Enchanted,” third

• Humanities/Social Sciences Poster Competition — Stacy Doore, “Movement Matters: Using State Longitudinal Mobility Data to Improve School Policy, Intervention and Academic Outcomes,” first; Bridie McGreavy, “A Collaborative Model for Conservation Action Planning: Communication and Resilience in the Frenchman Bay Partners,” second; Chris Bennett, “Non-Visual Graphical Accessibility,” third

• Humanities/Social Sciences Oral Competition — Karen Hutchins, “Improving Links Between Knowledge and Action by Identifying Factors that Influence the Structure of Municipality-University Partnerships,” first; Rebecca White, “The Ragged Edge of Motherhood: Mothers’ Allowances in Policy and Practice, 1924–1960,” second; Ian Jesse, “Bad Men and Horrible Bosses: Masculinity and the Folksongs of Larry Gorman,” third

• Physical Sciences and Technology Poster Competition — Abolfazl Razi, “Delay Optimal Packetization Policy for Wireless Sensor Networks,” first; Hannah Breton, “Mechanically Fastened Fiber-Reinforced Polymer (FRP) Flexural Retrofit Systems for Reinforced Concrete Flat-Slab Bridges,” second; Samuel Roy, “The Influence of Tectonic Strain on Landscape Evolution,” third

• Physical Sciences and Technology Oral Competition — Silas Owusu-Nkwantabisah, “Novel Approach to Controlling Layer-by-Layer Polyelectrolyte Multilayer (PEM) Formation & Application as Sensor,” first; Bess Koffman, “Centennial-Scale Shifts in the Position of the Southern Hemisphere Westerly Wind Belt over the Past Millennium,” second; Delia Massey, “Use of Diffusive Gradients in Thin Films (DGT) as an Assessment Tool for Bioavailability of Mercury Species in Sediment,” third

• Natural Sciences Poster Competition — Richard Luc, “The Role of Caveolin in the Toll-Like Receptor Signaling Pathway,” first; Brianna Hughes, “Effect of Rigor Status during High Pressure Processing on Abalone Texture and Color,” second; Luke Groff, “Hibernation Ecology of Lithobates Sylvaticus in Maine’s Montane Landscape,” third

• Natural Sciences Oral Competition — Nadir Yildrim, “Nanofibrillated Cellulose (NFC) Insulating Foams,” first; Katharine Ruskin, “Testing for Stability in the Sharp-tailed Sparrow Hybrid Zone: 130 Years of Plumage Comparisons,” second; Anna Breard, “Comparison of the Effect of Peroxyacetic Acid and Lactic Acid Washes on the Removal of Toxoplasma Gondii Oocysts from the Surface of Blueberries,” third

• People’s Choice Award — Roghaiyeh Ebrahimi Kalan, “Surface Modification of Mesoporous Silica in Supercritical CO2”

George F. Dow Graduate Scholarship Fund — Yucheng Peng, Ph.D. candidate, Forest Resources, School of Forest Resources

Fred Griffee Memorial Award — Stefano Vendrame, Ph.D. candidate, Food Science and Human Nutrition, Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition

Norris Charles Clements Graduate Student Award — Matthew Jones, M.S. candidate, Ecology and Environmental Sciences, School of Biology and Ecology

Research Excellence Award — Nathan Briggs, Ph.D. candidate, Oceanography, School of Marine Sciences

Outstanding Service Award — Spencer Meyer, Ph.D. candidate, Forest Resources, School of Forest Resources

Outstanding Ph.D. Award — Alper Kiziltas, Ph.D. candidate, Forest Resources, School of Forest Resources

Outstanding Masters Award — Alisha Autio, M.S. candidate, Forest Resources, School of Forest Resources