Basketball Statistician Help Wanted

The Athletic Department is looking for students to help assist staff during the Fall 2016, Winter 2016-17 and Spring 2017 semesters. Students in this position will be keeping live statistics during basketball games. Students must meet all of the following requirements:

•   Good computer skills
•   Available evenings and weekends

•   Knowing basketball rules and statistics

  Students interested in working for the Athletic Department should contact the Athletic Coordinator at their respective(各自的) campuses.

•   TP/SS Athletic Coordinator, Michael Simone,240-567-1308
•   Rockville Athletic Coordinator, Jorge Zuniga,240-567-7589
•   Springfield Athletic coordinator, Gary Miller,240-567-2273
•   Germantown Athletic Coordinator, GavriChavan, 240-567-6915

    Scotland has long been characterized as a land of romance. It contains ruins of many ancient castles and abbeys，and there is an attractive beauty in its mountains，long deep valleys，and ribbon lakes.Each year those things attract a great number of tourists.

    Numerous islands line the coast.In the north are two large groups，the Orkney Islands and the Shetland Islands.Close to the west coast are the Inner and Outer Hebrides groups，and the islands of Arran and Bute.

    The land may be divided into three regions: the Highlands in the north，the Central Lowlands and the Southern Uplands.

    The Highlands are wild and picturesque(如画的)． A long valley called Glenmore crosses the Highlands from southwest to northeast.

    In the south of the Highlands are the Grampian Mountains，highest in the British Isles. Ben Nevis，the highest peak，rises to 1,243 meters.Ben Lomond rises from the shore of Loch Lomond，Scotland's largest freshwater lake.

    The Central Lowlands run from southwest to northeast and the greatest length is nearly 145 kilometers.The soil here is fertile，and there are four coalfields underlying the area.In the east is Edinburgh，Scotland's historic capital city，and in the west is Glasgow. Almost 90 percent of Scotland's population live in the Lowlands.

    In the Southern Uplands, the hills are generally less than 600 meters high. Their rounded or flat tops are often capped with dark peat(泥炭). Along the slopes are plants like grass and heather(石南花).

    Anki has introduced Cozmo, a little robot powered by an advanced artificial intelligence. Cozmo promises to be for more interactive（互动的）than any toy robot.

Cozmo, which can lie in your hand, has a “brain”—technically its CPU—that can process data amazingly fast. In addition, Cozmo has a playful personality. He's designed to react to emotions and even ask users to play with him.

    Cozmo is not the first interactive toy to reach the market nor is it the first robot toy. What sets Cozmo apart from the other “smart toys” is that it has greater play value than those toys, which can become repetitious all too quickly.

    “Every interaction with Cozmo is different, so you do not put up with repetitive play patterns and responses typically found with other preprogrammed robots,” explained Anki spokesperson Peter Nguyen. Because it has functionality that is similar to that of video games, Cozmo also can receive regular updates, which could extend its playability. Still, Anki has designed this toy to be just that: a toy. It's not an advanced computerized robot. Its software is app-based.

    Cozmo lacks the “traditional” human-like robot form factor（要素）of legs, arms, and a head. But Cozmo does have an OLED screen/face with blue eyes, which in fact were designed to help it connect with its user.

    “I'm glad my kids are already raised,” said Roger L. Kay, analyst at Endpoint Technologies Associates. “Otherwise, they might become more antisocial if their relationship with Cozmo is more satisfying than those with real people,” said Kay. “Cozmo might encourage kids to learn more about technology or even inspire them to try programming and similar studies,” said Charles King, analyst at Pund-IT.

    Yet this technology does promise to be more than a toy. “It's a pretty cool invention and might have further applications, for example in elder care,” suggested Kay.

    Technology is always trying to meet our needs and demands. There's a new frontier in 3D printing that's beginning to come into focus: food. Recent development has made possible machines that print, cook and serve foods on a mass scale. And the industry isn't stopping there.

    Food production

    With a 3D printer, a cook can print complicated chocolate sculptures and beautiful pieces for decoration on a wedding cake. Not everybody can do that — it takes years of experience, but a printer makes it easy. A restaurant in Spain uses a Foodini to "recreate forms and pieces" of food that are "exactly the same," freeing cooks to complete other tasks. In another restaurant, all of the dishes and desserts it serves are 3D-printed, rather than farm to table.

    Sustainability (可持续性)

    The global population is expected to grow to 9.6 billion by 2050, and some analysts estimate that food production will need to be raised by 50 percent to maintain current levels. Sustainability is becoming a necessity. 3D food printing could probably contribute to the solution. Some experts believe printers could use hydrocolloids (水解胶体) from plentiful renewables like algae (藻类) and grass to replace the familiar ingredients (烹饪原料). 3D printing can reduce fuel use and emissions. Grocery stores of the future might stock "food" that lasts years on end, freeing up shelf space and reducing transportation and storage requirements.

    Nutrition

    Future 3D food printers could make processed food healthier. Hod Lipson, a professor at Columbia University, said, "Food printing could allow consumers to print food with customized nutritional content, like vitamins. So instead of eating a piece of yesterday's bread from the supermarket, you'd eat something baked just for you on demand."

    Challenges

    Despite recent advancements in 3D food printing, the industry has many challenges to overcome. Currently, most ingredients must be changed to a paste (糊状物) before a printer can use them, and the printing process is quite time-consuming, because ingredients interact with each other in very complex ways. On top of that, most of the 3D food printers now are restricted to dry ingredients, because meat and milk products may easily go bad. Some experts are skeptical about 3D food printers, believing they are better suited for fast food restaurant than homes and high-end restaurants.

    The flowers are blooming and the birds are singing as Melinda sits in the rose garden of the nursing home. She is recalling old times as she waits for her family's arrival. The nursing home has been Melinda's new settlement ever since Thomas passed away a week ago. Thomas had fought a long and hard battle against lung cancer for three years. Unfortunately, he has broken the promise that he and Melinda had made: to be with each other for every birthday. Melinda knew this was unrealistic (不现实的) but agreed to the promise for Thomas's sake.

    "Thomas, you are completely a dreamer." Melinda shouted to Thomas as he dragged on about living on an island with his beautiful wife. That's what she loved about him most—he had a vivid imagination. They got married at age eighteen and began having children right away. Mary came within the year, followed by Thomas Benjamin II, Lilly-Ann, and Joseph “Little Joey” George. The family lived an exultant life filled with laughter and love.

    "Mom!" Lilly shouted, but it really sounded like a howl. Melinda had lost herself in thinking about the life she had shared with her late husband. Lilly pushed her down the long dark halls of the nursing home until they arrived at the recreational room.

When the doors opened, Melinda put her hand over her mouth and was completely speechless. The room was crowded with the people nearest and dearest to her and the warmth and love was felt instantly. The night went on; stories and cocktails were shared and everything was perfect.

    However, when Melinda caught a moment to herself she looked around at her family. With a smile on her face, she raised her Manhattan and called out for a toast. “This one is for you, Thomas, though you are not here.”

    As a Fulbright（富布莱特法案基金）scholar at Yale, I wanted very much to get some individual help from some famous professors, but their office-hours were only once a week and there were always students waiting outside. At first, I was too polite to get their help. Then I realized that Chinese politeness does not work in this society. I needed to be aggressive to get what I wanted. I also noticed that Chinese students or Asian students were very polite in class while American students often interrupted the professor, asking questions and dominating the discussion. The Chinese students were not as aggressive as American students.

    I was impressed by the role of the professor in the class. The professor didn't act as an authority, giving final conclusions, but as a researcher looking for answers to questions together with the students. One linguistic feature of his interacting with his students was that he used many modal verbs-far more than I did in Beiwai. When answering questions, he usually said: "this is my personal opinion and it could be wrong. It would be a good idea if you could read the book I mentioned the other day." Or," You may find the book I recommended helpful." Or, "You could be right, but you might find this point of view also interesting." When making comments on students' performances, the professor usually said:" It might have been much clearer if you had taken in some of the ideas we discussed earlier this semester."

    In China, authorities are always supposed to give wise decisions and correct directions. Therefore students always expect the professor to give an answer to the question. I still remember how annoyed they were when foreign teachers did not provide such an answer. Their expectations from authorities are much higher than those of American students. Once the Chinese students got the answer, they were sure about it. That is why they make far more certain statement than American students. That is why Chinese students find it difficult to use modal verbs because the function of modal verbs is to provide room for negotiation and different ideas.