School Of Engineering

Howard signs pact with Liberian system The Howard County public school system has signed a partnership agreement with the Monrovia consolidated school system in Liberia, West Africa. The partnership is intended to create an alliance to promote mutual understanding and common goals and establish a dialogue for possible cultural exchanges. The two school systems will explore opportunities to enhance their programs and build understanding of each nation's history and culture by exchanging personnel, information and other resources.

Kristina Johnson has been a pioneer before. This time, it is becoming the highest-ranking woman in the history of the Johns Hopkins University. She took over as provost in September. In one way, she certainly came to the right place. That's because one of her previous pioneering efforts was when she entered Stanford University 32 years ago and helped establish the first women's team in - you guessed it - lacrosse. "I love sports," says Johnson, 50, a native of Denver. "I loved field hockey and I loved lacrosse.

Sydney C. Blumenthal Jr., chief executive officer of the Blumenthal-Kahn Electric Co. Inc. and local philanthropist, died of cancer Thursday at the Gilchrist Center for Hospice Care in Towson. He was 82.The longtime Pikesville resident had been CEO of the company for 37 years. One of the oldest electrical contracting firms in the nation, it was founded by his father, Sydney C. Blumenthal Sr., with partner Abraham Kahn in 1909.The company, now based in Owings Mills, was in the Blumenthal-Kahn Building at Liberty and Lombard streets until the early 1960s, when the building was demolished to make way for the Baltimore Arena.

Charles R. Flynn Jr., 51, engineering firm executiveCharles R. Flynn Jr., an executive at a Hunt Valley engineering firm, died Wednesday of a heart attack at York (Pa.) Hospital. He was 51 and lived in New Freedom, Pa.He was senior vice president at EA Engineering Science and Technology. He had worked there for 24 years and helped it establish a national client base.Born in Weymouth, Mass., he was a graduate of Memorial University of Newfoundland, Canada. He moved to Baltimore in 1969 to enroll in the Johns Hopkins University's Whiting School of Engineering, where he received his doctorate in environmental engineering.

YOU'VE GOT to question the aesthetic sensibilities of any Beltway commuter who longs for ramshackle views of storage sheds and carports," insists motorist Steve Hasler.He's referring, of course, to the design of the area's new sound barriers -- a topic that seems to have overtaken the Orioles as summer small talk, thanks to a general collapse at Camden Yards.Last month, Intrepid One sought opinions of drivers concerning the walls that line portions of Interstate 695. Soon thereafter, the point-of-view floodgate opened.

Jeong H. Kim, founder of the Landover-based telecommunications equipment firm Yurie Systems Inc., has pledged a $5 million gift to the University of Maryland's A. James Clark School of Engineering.Kim, whose company was acquired by Lucent Technologies Inc. in May for $1 billion, received an engineering doctorate from the university in 1991. His donation is to provide money for student scholarships, five new endowed professorships and operational support at a new engineering and applied sciences building.

THERE WAS a time, a few years ago, when some questioned the need for an engineering program at Morgan State University. How wrong they were.At the time, fewer than 30 engineering degrees were being awarded each year in Maryland to African-Americans -- and nearly half of those were granted by the Naval Academy at Annapolis.Today, the total is more than 100, with Morgan State awarding the overwhelming majority of the degrees and, in the process, earning national recognition for the quality of its civil, industrial and electrical engineering programs.

Morgan State University dedicated a school of engineering building yesterday that is named for a governor who helped finance it, and reflects the growth of the program at the historically black school.Hundreds of people and public officials attended the ceremony for the $16.5 million William Donald Schaefer Engineering Building at 5200 Perring Parkway -- adjacent to the school's other engineering building, named for civil rights leader Clarence M. Mitchell Jr.Schaefer recalled being told years ago that the names of public figures were put on buildings only to be taken off when their prominence faded, and noted with satisfaction yesterday that his named was strategically carved in stone on Morgan's newest addition.

The longtime chairman of art history has been appointed dean of arts and sciences at the Johns Hopkins University, assuming leadership of a school that has been troubled by the defection of distinguished faculty members.Herbert L. Kessler, the Charlotte Bloomberg professor of art history, was approved as dean of the Zanvyl Krieger School of Arts and Sciences during a telephone conference yesterday of the executive committee of the university's board of trustees.Kessler, 56, is the second new dean announced this week.

Three Johns Hopkins University graduate students were killed and two others seriously injured early yesterday when their compact car slammed into a bridge abutment on Interstate 95 south of Baltimore in the deadliest of a spate of holiday highway accidents.Other accidents in Anne Arundel, Carroll and Howard counties since late Friday killed three others, according to police.The five Hopkins students -- all from India, and studying engineering -- were traveling north on I-95 in Howard County, on their way home from Thanksgiving with a friend in North Carolina.

Construction magnate A. James Clark has pledged $10 million to endow the deanship of Johns Hopkins University's Whiting School of Engineering, his second $10 million gift to the private Baltimore college and the latest in his string of multimillion donations to Maryland schools. "This really is fabulous for the school," said Hopkins' engineering Dean Nicholas P. Jones. "The revenue generated from this commitment can be used to do exactly what any dean would love to do, and that is make investments in promising ideas and opportunities, whether in research or education."

Kristina Johnson has been a pioneer before. This time, it is becoming the highest-ranking woman in the history of the Johns Hopkins University. She took over as provost in September. In one way, she certainly came to the right place. That's because one of her previous pioneering efforts was when she entered Stanford University 32 years ago and helped establish the first women's team in - you guessed it - lacrosse. "I love sports," says Johnson, 50, a native of Denver. "I loved field hockey and I loved lacrosse.

Howard signs pact with Liberian system The Howard County public school system has signed a partnership agreement with the Monrovia consolidated school system in Liberia, West Africa. The partnership is intended to create an alliance to promote mutual understanding and common goals and establish a dialogue for possible cultural exchanges. The two school systems will explore opportunities to enhance their programs and build understanding of each nation's history and culture by exchanging personnel, information and other resources.

Engineering course for high-schoolers The Johns Hopkins University Whiting School of Engineering will offer a four-week summer course, "What is Engineering?" from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. weekdays July 9 through Aug. 3 at the university's new Dorsey Campus, 6810 Deerpath Road, Elkridge. The course, which is open to rising juniors and seniors in high school, includes engineering concepts and participation in lab experiments, simulations and field trips. Transportation will be provided. Students will have opportunities to meet professional engineers and complete team projects such as building weight-bearing spaghetti bridges and mousetraps that catch pingpong balls.

Rebecca L. Harding, a manager of information engineering for an Annapolis engineering company, died of cancer Sunday at University of Maryland Medical Center. The Severna Park resident was 44. She was born Rebecca Lee Himmelmann in Milwaukee and moved with her family to Cape St. Claire in 1974. She was a 1980 graduate of Severna Park High School and earned a bachelor's degree in computer science from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in 1985. She earned a master's degree in computer science from the Johns Hopkins University Whiting School of Engineering in 1997.

Even before Harvard University President Lawrence H. Summers proposed that differences in the "intrinsic aptitudes" of men and women were the explanation for women's underrepresentation in the sciences, a plan to increase the number of female science and engineering students had been hatched by the Garrison Forest School and the Johns Hopkins University. Garrison Forest, an independent boarding and day school near Owings Mills, is partnering with Hopkins' Whiting School of Engineering and Zanvyl Krieger School of Arts and Sciences to bring high school girls into the science and engineering fields.

Political, education and business leaders gathered at three events in the metropolitan area recently. Coppin State University's president, Dr. Stanley F. Battle, played host to several community leaders at one in a series of State of Black Baltimore Roundtable Summit discussions at the North Avenue campus. Martin's West in Woodlawn was the setting for two other popular affairs. The first was a banquet to honor the years of service of Morgan State University President Dr. Earl S. Richardson and to celebrate the School of Engineering's 20th anniversary.

When students enter the Clarence M. Mitchell Jr. School of Engineering at Morgan State University, they become part of a calculated mission. Since the fall of 1984, the department has had one leader, and his vision has been clear. "It has been our past tradition of providing access and opportunity for under-represented minorities," says Eugene DeLoatch, dean of the engineering department. The engineering program at Morgan has made great strides in increasing the number of African-Americans in the field.

William P. Flanigan, a retired executive for a local contracting firm that built highways and other public works, died Sunday of a blood disease at his Homeland home. He was 86. In his long career in construction, Mr. Flanigan oversaw highway construction projects at Baltimore-Washington International Airport, the Baltimore Beltway and the Dundalk Marine Terminal. Born in Baltimore and raised in the city's West Arlington neighborhood, he attended the old Mount Washington Country School for Boys before graduating from Calvert Hall College High School in 1935.

Morgan State University's School of Engineering has received a $6 million, five-year grant from NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center to establish a research center that will provide space missions with a technology base for the production of microwave components and systems, the university announced this week. Called the Center for Advanced Microwave Research and Applications, the program is part of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's effort to encourage competitive aerospace research and technological capability among historically black colleges and universities, Morgan officials said.