Homewood Arts Programs to offer nonacademic certificate

The Homewood Arts Programs is now offering a nonacademic arts certificate to students, starting with the class of 2003, who have participated in four or more semesters of extracurricular arts programs on the Homewood campus. The idea is to provide undergraduates with official university recognition for their contributions in dance, digital media, fine/visual arts, music or theater.

An informational meeting is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 11, in 101 Mattin Center. For more information, call 410-516-2224.

Discussion set for anniversary of 'The Souls of Black Folk'

In celebration of the 100th anniversary of The Souls of Black Folk by W.E.B. Du Bois, Nahum Chandler, the Du Bois Scholar in the JHU Humanities Center, will moderate a discussion from noon to 2 p.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 4, in the Great Hall at Levering, Homewood campus.

Du Bois, a leading African-American intellectual of the 20th century, wrote the essays and stories collected in Souls to explore the meaning of being black in a society that viewed blacks with contempt.

The event is sponsored by the Sheridan Libraries MSE Library Diversity Book and Video Discussion group, the Black Faculty and Staff Association and the Black Student Union. Participants may bring their lunches; light refreshments will be provided.

Also opening Feb. 4, and running through May 30, is an exhibit titled "The Minds of Black Folk: Rediscovering an Intellectual Heritage," which will be on the M-Level of the Eisenhower Library. From noon to 3 p.m. on opening day, the exhibit will feature a wax figure of Du Bois, courtesy of the Great Blacks in Wax Museum in Baltimore.

Applications are available for Technology Fellowship Program

Applications for the annual Technology Fellowship Program will be available beginning today, Feb. 3, for faculty and students interested in working on innovative projects that incorporate technology into teaching. The deadline is March 3.

The Center for Educational Resources in the Milton S. Eisenhower Library oversees the program, which last year selected 16 proposals for funding, out of 41 applications received. Each grant is for $5,000-$4,000 for student salaries and $1,000 for the faculty member overseeing the work.

The grants have been used to underwrite projects in a variety of disciplines, from scientific efforts such as creating a virtual lab for a chemistry course, to humanities and social sciences courses such as the creation of an online database of the university's archaeology collection.

For more information, call 410-516-7181 or go to www.cer.jhu.edu/techfellows.

CEPAR kicks into action during 'Shadow Bowl' event

While most Baltimoreans were thinking about the Super Bowl on the last weekend in January, the Johns Hopkins Office of Critical Event Preparedness and Response was among several organizations participating in Shadow Bowl, a series of simulated mass casualty disasters in communities around the nation.

Activities for CEPAR were kicked off by a message that an "attack" on FedEx Field outside Washington had injured approximately 45,000 people, and Johns Hopkins medical facilities had to accommodate 500 or more of them.

Chris Latimer, who heads APL's CEPAR team, said, "As these units simulated the discharging of patients, canceling elective procedures, transferring patients to alternate sites, adding staff and using other strategies to accommodate the incoming patients, we were able to review our mass casualty emergency procedures and evaluate what we need to improve."

APL/SOM- developed heart diagnostic technologies optioned

APL has signed an exclusive option with Zargis Medical Corp. of Princeton, N.J., a spin-off of Siemens Corporate Research, to license heart diagnostic technologies developed jointly by researchers at APL and the School of Medicine.

The option includes two technologies: a system and method--based on algorithms--for diagnosing pathological heart conditions, and the Cardiac Auscultatory Recording Database, or CARD. Together, these technologies form an automated system able to detect abnormal heart sounds and distinguish between innocent and pathological heart murmurs.

Commercial development of the technologies could lead to products that nonspecialists can use to screen populations for heart abnormalities, particularly in rural settings, where advanced diagnostic procedures are either unavailable or too costly. Other applications could include pulmonary diagnostic devices, telemedicine services and medical education tools.

Homewood House plans study tour of British homes, gardens

Private visits, luncheons and receptions with the owners and curators of some of the finest historic houses in Great Britain are on the agenda for Homewood House Museum's study tour of British country homes and gardens, scheduled for May 18 to 30. Andrew Barber, historic building curator for the National Trust, East Midlands Region; and David Bostwick, former keeper of social history with the Sheffield City Museum, will lead the tour. For more information, call Judith Proffitt at 410-516-8645 or visit www.jhu.edu/historichouses.