Desktop News January 2018 – College of Arts & Sciences

Team of UA Students Competes in National Cybersecurity “Capture the Flag” Competition

January 10, 2018

From the January 2018 Desktop News | The University of Alabama’s new undergraduate cybersecurity team competed in their first national cyber “capture the flag” competition involving virtual security simulations at financial firms. The competition, which occurred in October, brought ten teams from different areas around the United States to St. Petersberg, Florida. Each team competed in multiple rounds, which involved different IT scenarios that companies face daily. “The competition consisted of over four hours of non-stop team-based student hacking,” Dr. Matthew […]

UA Chemist’s Work in Understanding New Materials Gets Boost

January 10, 2018

From the January 2018 Desktop News | Dr. Jared Allred, assistant professor of chemistry at The University of Alabama, was recently awarded a grant from the 2017 Early Career Research Program sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy to investigate properties of novel metal compounds and develop a new way to analyze certain aspects of these materials. “Anytime you are working on new materials, you need to be able to understand the physics of what’s going on – the interactions,” Allred […]

An Insomnia Label More Harmful Than Poor Sleep

January 10, 2018

From the January 2018 Desktop News | People who worry about poor sleep have more emotional and physical problems during the day than those who do not worry, regardless of how well either sleep, according to research conducted at The University of Alabama. In a review of more than a dozen sleep studies going back more than 20 years, Dr. Kenneth Lichstein, UA professor of psychology, defines something he calls insomnia identity, a person’s conviction of having poor sleep. This belief […]

Faculty Awarded NOAA Grant to Improve Tornado Warnings for Deaf

January 9, 2018

From the January 2018 Desktop News | The University of Alabama’s Drs. Jason C. Senkbeil and Darrin Griffin have been awarded a grant of $251,850 from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to study how tornado warnings could be improved in their accessibility and comprehension by members of the Deaf, Blind, and Deaf-Blind communities. The grant will enable this team to build and test a system whereby Deaf people can view a local weather broadcast in a split-screen format. Half of the […]

UA Scientist Helps Show How Earth Stops Tiny Particles in Their Tracks

January 9, 2018

From the January 2018 Desktop News | An international group of researchers, including several from The University of Alabama, measured the interaction between tiny particles, called neutrinos, that travel the cosmos and Earth. The findings, which carry implications for our understanding of physics and Earth’s core, were published in the journal Nature. Neutrinos are abundant subatomic particles famous for passing through anything and everything, rarely interacting with matter. About 100 trillion neutrinos pass through your body every second. Now, scientists have demonstrated […]

UA Students Build Sculptures for Parks after Winning Art Competition

January 9, 2018

From the January 2018 Desktop News | In cities like Detroit, Miami, and Philadelphia, public art can be seen in commonly traversed areas without the need to step into a building. It undoubtedly contributes to the identity of a city. Soon, Tuscaloosa’s public art scene will be making a few new contributions of its own. About a year ago, the Tuscaloosa County Park and Recreation Authority, along with the Arts and Humanities Council of Tuscaloosa, approached University of Alabama art and sculpture […]