Knowledge for the World Tour kicks off in San Francisco

More than 300 people gathered in San Francisco on March 11 to help Johns Hopkins kick off the six-city Knowledge for the World Tour. The "day of discovery" offered Bay Area alumni and friends the chance to reconnect with Hopkins through a program that highlighted the role Johns Hopkins plays in bringing knowledge to the world.

The afternoon session consisted of three panel discussions featuring prominent faculty and alumni. Topics were chosen by the local volunteer committee and included "Medical Horizons," "Countering the Nuclear Threat" and "Mysteries of History." Guests were also treated to the premiere of several short films highlighting the work of Hopkins people around the world.

The tour continues through June, and the schedule for the remaining events is March 25, Los Angeles; April 8, Philadelphia; April 22, Chicago; May 6, New York City; and June 10, Boston. Event information (panels, speakers, accommodations) is available at www.johnshopkins.edu/tour.

 

HopkinsOne gets closer to announcing new 'go-live' date

The leadership of the HopkinsOne project has announced that they are nearly finished with an intensive re-planning process for the new business software system.

Originally scheduled for July 1 of this year, the new go-live date will be no earlier than January 2007.

Project staff have carefully reviewed every task in the 9,000-line project plan and increased the amount of practice time users will have in the new system prior to "go live." In addition, there has been a careful computation of the resources needed to complete the plan, as well as some allowance of time for unexpected problems. After completing final reviews of the plan, staff will get input from Johns Hopkins leadership and key users and then announce the new go-live date, likely in the next month.

 

Intel STS recognizes second high-schooler working in JHU lab

For the second year in a row, a high-school student working in the laboratory of a Johns Hopkins engineering professor has been a top-10 finalist in the prestigious national Intel Science Talent Search.

Last week, the seventh-place spot went to Baltimore Polytechnic Institute senior Myers "Abe" Davis, who worked with Jonathan Cohen, a research professor in Computer Science. Davis' project, which earned him a $20,000 scholarship, was designed to produce more accurate physical simulations.

In 2005, Ryan Harrison, now a first-year Baltimore Scholar at Johns Hopkins, took fifth place and received a $25,000 scholarship for his project extending the capabilities of Rosetta, an important computer program for genomic scientists. The project came out of Harrison's after-school research over two years in the lab of Jeffrey Gray in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering.

Both Davis and Smith participated in the Ingenuity Project, whose mission is to prepare highly capable and motivated Baltimore City students to achieve at nationally competitive levels in mathematics and science. One elementary school, three middle schools and one high school, Baltimore Polytechnic, serve as the project sites.

 

New study hall in Vietnam to be dedicated to Linda Trinh

The Linda Trinh Memorial Study Hall is on the drawing board as part of Lavang Boarding House, which will be built in Saigon to accommodate 20 poor female college students. The construction will take place under the auspices of the nonprofit Vietnam Dream for Success, which provides opportunities for poor students in Vietnam, according to its founder and president, Sister Cecilia Nguyen, who is a doctoral candidate at Catholic University in Washington, D.C.

Trinh, a Johns Hopkins senior who was murdered in January 2005, was the daughter of Vietnamese immigrants. A biomedical engineering major, she spent the summer before her senior year in Vietnam observing public health issues regarding breast cancer and volunteering at an AIDS hospice in Ho Chi Minh City.

"What prompted VDS to want to dedicate the study hall in memory of Linda Trinh is because of Linda's dedication to her academic endeavors and her vision of helping the world, including the poor in Vietnam. She will be a great example and inspiration for our female college students," Sister Nguyen said.

A dinner to raise funds for the boarding house is scheduled for Sunday, April 23, in Falls Church, Va. For details, contact Sister Nguyen at 202-238-1696, 240-486-1961 or ceciliantt@yahoo.com.

 

Community Day celebrates city's young music makers

The spotlight shines this week on Baltimore's young music makers when Community Day 2006: Makin' Music takes over Homewood's Shriver and Shaffer halls from 2 to 4:30 p.m. on Sunday, March 26.

The initiative — presented by Shriver Hall Concert Series and sponsored by Sylvan/Laureate, AEGON Transamerica Foundation, Piper Rudnick and the Jim and Patti Rouse Charitable Foundation — is designed to make sure that children and their families know that there are free and inexpensive resources available to help them get involved with music or better their musical abilities.

Plans include performances by local groups, including Peabody Prep, the Baltimore School for the Arts and the Maryland Children's Chorus; an area with information about activities for children; and hands-on musical activities, including drum making, an instrument petting zoo and dancing and face painting to music. For more information, call 410-625-0403.

 

Center for Summer Learning holds national conference

The SPSBE-based Center for Summer Learning will hold its annual National Conference in Baltimore this week, when more than 400 educators from across the country are registered to participate in seminars and panel discussions.

The conference, set for March 22-24 at the Reniassance Haborplace Hotel, will provide research and new teaching techniques, highlighting successful, innovative summer learning programs. Among the scheduled topics are creating effective partnerships for program delivery; new methods for teaching reading, art, math and science; evaluation techniques; and program management. During a half-day learning institute preceding the conference, the center will introduce its new handbook, Making the Most of Summer: A Handbook on Effective Summer Programming and Thematic Learning.

For more information, call 410-516-6228 or go to www.summerlearning.org.

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