This newsletter, prepared monthly, provides highlights of the Performance Plan Updates developed by H&SS Department Heads of news within their departments. Represented here are works accomplished: grant awards, program and curricular initiatives, appointments, publications, performances, conference papers, and the like.

AWARDS

Ron Eglash, Assoc. Prof. in STS, was a co-principle on a successful NSF grant at Texas A&M University for a workshop on cultural diversity in computing, to be held April 14-15 at TAMU. The workshop will plan the next steps towards creating a national center for cultural diversity in computing and information technology.

Jan Fernheimer, Asst. Prof. in LL&C, has been names the Hadassah Brandeis Institute Scholar in Residence for Fall 2008, and will be in residence at the Brandeis Summer Institute for Israel Studies in Summer 2008.

Cheryl Geisler, Prof. and Head of LL&C, and Deborah Kaminski received an $80,000 gift from the New Scholars Program of the Elsevier Foundation for SettleNet: A Regional Settling-In Service to Benefit Women Scientists and their Families.

Roger Grice, Clinical Prof. in LL&C, received the The Director’s Award from the Rensselaer Alumni Association presented each year to individuals who have made significant contributions to the success of the Office of Alumni Relations and to the RAA during the past year. The award can be presented to either alumni or friends.

Wayne D. Gray, Prof. of Cognitive Science, received the 2008 Franklin V. Taylor Award for Outstanding Contributions in the Field of Applied Experimental/Engineering Psychology, awarded for his efforts to build the types of cognitive science theories that can be applied to real-world  problems. The award has been given annually since 1962.

Linda Layne, Prof. in STS,  was the winner of the Gracie "Outstanding Talk Show" from The Foundation of American Women in Radio and Television for "Combating the Criminalization of Stillbirth and Miscarriage: A Conversation with Lynn Paltrow, J.D., Executive Director of National Advocates for Pregnant Women."

James Watt, Prof. in LL&C, received an extension on a subcontract on "Emotional Information Processing Project,” with Institute for Creative Technologies, University of Southern California. $24,422 original amount, $7776 summer extension; and also received a private donation to fund the "Patricia Wieler Memorial ALS Project," to SBRL, April 2008. $8000.

APPOINTMENTS

Caren Canier, Prof. in Arts, was one of two jurors for the Constance Saltonstall Foundation for the Arts 2008 Individual Artist Grant in Painting.

Larry Reid, Prof. in Cognitive Science has been elected USA Councilor, International Behavioral Neuroscience Society.

Ron Sun, Prof. in Cognitive Science, is a member of the program committee for the First International Workshop on Social Computing (SOCO 2008), in the Sixth IEEE International Conference on Intelligence and Security Informatics, Taipei, Taiwan. June 17, 2008; is a
member of the program committee, International Conference on Advanced Intelligence, Beijing, China. October 19-22, 2008; and was appointed to be the Chair of the Awards Committee,
the International Neural Networks Society (INNS).

PUBLICATIONS, PERFORMANCES & EXHIBITIONS

Mark Changizi, Asst. Prof. in Cognitive Science, published “Economically Organized Hierarchies in WordNet and the Oxford English Dictionary” in the Journal of Cognitive Systems Research 9: 214-228; and “Perceiving-the-Present and a Systematization of Illusions” with Hsieh A., Nijhawan R., Kanai R. & Shimojo S. in Cognitive Science 32: 459-503.  His work was also prominently discussed in Scientific American,  Fox News Channel, and The New York Times.  He will also publish “How to Harness Vision for Computation”  in Perception; and Shimojo S. (2008) “A Functional Explanation for the Effects of Visual Exposure on Preference, with Shimjo S. in Perception.

Nathan Freier, Asst. Prof. in LL&C, published three articles: “Office Window of the Future? – Field-Based Analyses of a New Use of a Large Display with Friedman, B., Freier, N. G., Kahn, P. H., Jr., Lin, P., & Sodeman, R. in the International Journal of Human-Computer Studies, 66(6), 452-465 (2008); “Children Attribute Moral Standing to a Personified aAgent, Proceedings of the ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing (CHI 2008). (pp. 343-352). Florence, Italy; and “Design patterns for Sociality in hHuman-Robot Interaction” with Kahn, P. H., Jr., Kanda, T., Ishiguro, H., Ruckert, J. H., Severson, R. L., & Kane, S. K. in the Proceedings of the ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction (HRI 2008). (pp. 97-104), Amsterdam, NL. (2008).

John J. Heim, Clinical Assoc. Prof. in Economics, published "Does the Exchange Rate Really Affect Consumer Spending?" ICFAI Journal of Monetary Economics. Vol VI, No.2 (May 2008), pp. 31-42.

Shawn Lawson, Asst. Prof. in Arts, exhibited the interactive installation "One Chair" for Experiencing the War in Iraq at the Arts Exchange in Providence, RI; and screened "Effervescence" in "What Happens Next?" at Time and Space Limited in Hudson, NY.

Sin-Hwa Kang, graduate student in LL&C, S., Gratch, J., Wang, N., & Watt, J. (2008) published “Does the Contingency of Agents’ Nonverbal Feedback Affect Users’ Social Anxiety?”
In Padgham, Parkes, Mueller and Parsons (eds.), Proceedings of AAMAS 2008, Estoril, Portugal, and also with Prof. Watt, and Ala, S.K. she published “Social Copresence in Anonymous s
Social Interactions Using a Mobile Video Telephone,” in Proceedings of CHI 2008. New York: ACM Press.

Larry Kagan, Prof. in Arts, has two sculptures included in an exhibition entitled “The Grand Illusion” March 29- April 26, 2008 at the Louis K. Meisel Gallery, NYC.

Pauline Oliveros presented  a Trio Concert on accordion with Jean-Marc Montera-electric guitar, Pascal Contet-accordion and a Trio and Duo with Fred Frith-Electric Guitar, John Giorno-poetry in Nomadic Nights at Fondation Cartiér in Paris FR; a Pre-concert talk and post concert Q&A at Open Space via SKYPE from Cassis FR to Victoria B.C.;  premiered Heart of Tones an original composition for Avatars, voices, and trombones in a mixed reality performance in Second Life (virtual world) and at Open Space in Victoria B.C.; a Trio Concert on accordion and Expanded Instrument System, with Jean-Marc Montera- Cetera/Electric Guitar and Pascale Contet-accordion in the Amphitheater at the Camargo Foundation in Cassis FR; and Studio lecture/demo in LaLecque to the fellows in residence at the Camargo Foundation, Cassis FR (May 7 to 20).

Neil Rolnick, Prof. in Arts, premiered The Economic Enginefor an octet combining traditional Chinese instruments with a classical string quartet and video track by Taiwanese artist Cindy Ng Sio Ieng at the Beijing Modern Music Festival at the Chinese Central Conservatory of Music, Beijing, China. The work was commissioned by the China Electronic Music Center at the Central Conservatory of Music, with support from Meet The Composer's Global Connections Fund, Asian Cultural Council, and the Macau Ministry of Culture, May 29.  He also presented two performances of Avian Music LOCKED TO PICTURE, and Don Berman performed Digits on two programs of new music with video, also in May.

Kathleen Ruiz, Assoc. Prof. in Arts, published “CapAbility Games Research,” installed and presented her current project, “Capable Shopper”, a simulation to help empower independence for disabled people at the Center for Disability Services, Albany N.Y., and conducted a media campaign May 13, which was seen on Channels 9, 10 and 13 in addition to print media.

Kenneth Simons, Asst. Prof. in Economics, published a chapter in a focus report of the National Academies: Susan Walsh Sanderson, Kenneth L. Simons, Judith Walls, and Yin-Yi Lai, “Lighting Industry,” in Innovation in Global Industries - U.S. Firms Competing in a New World, National Academies Press, 2008, pp. 163-205,  and the work (including the chapter contributed here) was described in Business Week May 7, 2008.

Ron Sun, Prof. in Cognitive Science, just published a major reference work, The Cambridge Handbook of Computational Psychology, edited by Prof. Sun, from Cambridge University Press.    http://www.cambridge.org/ catalogue/catalogue.asp?isbn=9780521857413.  He also published “The Importance of Cognitive Architectures: An Analysis Based on CLARION,” Journal of Experimental and Theoretical Artificial Intelligence, Vol.19, No.2, pp.159-193. 2007; and “Implicit and Explicit Processes in the Development of Cognitive Skills: A Theoretical Interpretation with Some Practical Implications for Science Education,” with R. Mathews, and S. Lane, in E. Vargios (ed.), Educational Psychology Research Focus, pp.1-26. Nova Science Publishers, Hauppauge, NY. 2007.

James Watt, Prof. in LL&C, authored “Correlating Collegiate Soccer Players' Neck Strength with Head Acceleration During Heading: Preliminary Data,” in American College of Sports Medicine, Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, with Kerr, H., Dezman, Z., Volume 40:5 Supplement (in press).

LECTURES AND PANELS

James D. Adams, Prof. in Economics, presented “The Geography of Scientific Ideas and the Mobility of Scientists: U.S. Evidence” at a conference on Labor Markets for Scientists and Engineers held at the University of Maastricht, the Netherlands on May 30-31, 2008; and he participated in the NSF Workshop on Record Linkage, Arlington, Virginia, February 29; and presented two papers: “Invention and Discovery in Science-Based Firms,” at the Maxwell School for Citizenship, Syracuse University, March 6, and “Invention and Discovery in Science-Based Firms,” at Union College, April 4.

Sharon Anderson-Gold, Prof. and Head of STS, presented “Cosmopolitanism: Global Governance without a Global State” at the American Philosophical Association, Central Division Meetings, Palmer House, Chicago on April 17. She also presented “Kant’s Cosmopolitan Peace” at the Eastern Division Meetings of the North American Kant Society, held at the New School for Social Research in NYC on April 19; and she delivered an invited paper, “Kant’s Cosmopolitan Peace”, at the 10th annual International Kant Congress: Kant, Hegel and Contemporary Philosophy (May 19-20) hosted by the Ukrainian Kant Society at Kiev National University, Kiev.

Nancy D. Campbell, Assoc. Prof. in STS, gave two invited papers: "Visual Iconographies of Addiction: Rendering Visible Invisible Wounds" at a conference called "Narco-Epics Unbound" sponsored by the Department of Hispanic Languages and Literature, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, April 4; and "The History of a Public Science" at the conference on "National Institute on Drug Abuse Directors and Leading Historians" on May 22 in Washington, DC.

Mark Changizi, Asst. Prof. in Cognitive Science, was an invited speaker on “The Structures of Letters and Symbols Throughout Human History Are Selected to Match Those Found in Objects in Natural Scenes” at the Vision Sciences Society meeting, Naples FL.
Marc Destefano, Clinical Asst. Prof. & graduate student in Cognitive Science, co-presented the tutorial "Pygame: Modern Game Development" at the PyCon 2008 Conference in Chicago on March 13th.

Ron Eglash, Assoc. Prof. in STS, gave a lecture and workshop at the Baltimore Museum of Art, and was interviewed in the Baltimore Sun.

Nathan Freier, Asst. Prof. in LL&C, presented “Personified Technologies and Child Development” as an invited speaker in Cornell's SIGCHI Lecture Series. Ithaca, NY, April 2008.

Cheryl Geisler, Prof. and Head of LL&C, and Deborah Kaminski gave a paper, RAMP-Up: Writing Our Way to Institutional Reform, at the Annual Conference on College Composition and Communication, New Orleans.

John Gowdy, Prof. in Economics, presented three papers: “Welfare Economics, Environmental Valuation and Climate Change Policy,” Autonomous University of Barcelona, February 25; “The Stern Review and New Directions in Environmental Valuation,” Science and Technology Policy Research (SPRU), University of Sussex, March 4; and “Climate Change and Economic Development: A Pragmatic Approach,” Keynote Address, Pakistan Society of Development Economics, Islamabad, Pakistan, March 13, 2008.

David Hess, Prof. in STS, was an invited guest in the "Energy Alternatives" symposium at SUNY Morrisville, and he served on a panel for Gilda's Club on "Complementary and Alternative Cancer Therapies."

Linda Layne, Prof. in STS, presented "Many Feminisms/Complex Answers: A Feminist Technology Assessment of Menstrual-Suppressing Birth Control Pills" with Jennifer Aengst at the Society for Medical Anthropology/Society for Applied Anthropology Meetings, Memphis. She also gave an invited talk  "Cultural and Historical Perspectives on Religious Rituals and Memory Making in a Hospital Setting Following a Pregnancy Loss" to the Pastoral Care Program, Albany Medical Center, and an invited Public Lecture "Seasonale: A Feminist Technology?" with Jennifer Aengst. Co-sponsored by the Department of Anthropology and Women's Studies, State University of New York, Oneonta.
Bill Puka, Prof. in Cognitive Science, spoke at the conference on New Direction in Moral Theory Research and Practice at Cornell, March 31. The talk concerned how to engender and increase the strength of moral commitment and motivation.
Sal Restivo, Prof. in STS, and Peter Denton, editors, will publish Battleground: Science and Technology, a two volume encyclopedia, to be published in November by Greenwood Press.

Kenneth Simons, Asst. Prof. in Economics, presented “Two Roads to Riches? The (In)Frequency of Disruptive Technological Change,” and presented “Bodyshopping versus Offshoring: Determinants of Outsourcing Behavior by Indian Software and Information Technology Firms,” with Sumit K. Majumdar and Ashok Nag both at the International Industrial Organization Conference, Washington, D.C., 17 May 2008. He also presented his work “Solid State Lighting Development and Policy in the Global Context,” with Susan Sanderson (Management) at the U.S. Department of Energy, 14 May 2008.  And together they presented “Solid State Lighting,” at the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Industry Studies Conference, Boston, 2 April 2008.  He served as a discussant at the Duke Strategy Conference, held at Duke University, 4-5 April 2008.

Ron Sun, Prof. in Cognitive Science, was an invited speaker, at the Mind Forum III “Conscious, Unconscious, and Habit," sponsored by the Finnish Cultural Foundation, Kirkkonummi, Finland. March 6-8, 2008.

Bella Veksler, Graduate Student in Cognitive Science, received an HA&SS Travel Award for travel to the Cognitive Science conference this summer where she presented “Counting Sheep is a Good Way to get to Sleep, but The Occasional Aardvark Will Wake You Up: How a Salient Event Improves Performance” with Wayne D. Gray.  Their article will appear in V. Sloutsky, B. Love, & K. McRae (Eds.), Proceedings of the thirtieth annual meeting of the Cognitive Science Society, Austin, TX.

James Watt, Prof. in LL&C published “Resolving the role of Web site pragmatic value in the hierarchy of advertising,” with, Rotondo, A., Ala, S.K, TeBordo Wood, K., Kimelfeld, Y., & Nambison, P. (2008) for the Information Systems Division, International Communication Association, Montreal.  He was also a consultant on "Development of Finite Universe Statistical Calculation Software" for the Boston Research Group; and he lead "Structural Equation Modeling." 1-day intensive workshop for faculty of Marketing Department, Fairfield University, May 2, 2008.