March 29, 2024

Taking on Twitter

Is it a human or a Twitter bot?

Researchers from the University of Mary Washington and the Naval Surface Warfare Center want to know for sure.

UMW computer science majors Bryan Holster and Chris Zimmerman, under the guidance of Professor Stephen Davies, have teamed with scientists at the center’s Dahlgren division to get to the bottom of this sometimes perplexing social media mystery. The partnership is one of several ongoing collaborations between the University and the Naval Surface Warfare Center.

Taking on Twitter

UMW students team with Dahlgren scientists to conduct research.

Faculty Research Grant Awards

These College of Arts and Sciences faculty members submitted Faculty Development Grant proposals in November, and following review by the Committee on Faculty Development and Grants, the CAS Dean made these awards for the 2011-12 fiscal year:

  • Jason Davidson, Department of Political Science and International Affairs, ” ‘We Gotta Get out of this Place’: US. Allies’ Decisions to Withdraw from Iraq and Afghanistan.”
  • Mindy Erchull, Department of Psychology, “Objectification, Sexualization, and Sexual Agency.”
  • Jacqueline Gallagher, Department of Geography, Textbook on Field Methods in Mobile GIS and GPS.
  • Debra Hydorn, Department of Mathematics, “Correcting for Error in GPS Postion to Improve the Linear Association Between Satellite and Field-Collected Measurements of Elevation.”
  • Rosemary Jesionowski, Department of Art and Art History, “Proof of Experience.”
  • Janusz Konieczny, Department of Mathematics, “Conjugacy in Semigroups.”
  • Ben LaBreche, Department of English, Linguistics, and Communication, “Samson Agonistes and the Critique of Liberalism.”
  • Elizabeth Lewis, Department of Modern Foreign Languages, “Women and Charity in Spain, 1786-1939.”
  • Leslie Martin, Department of Sociology and Anthropology, “Making Sense of Need: Organizational Constructions of Homelessness and Solutions.”
  • Maya Mathur, Department of English, Linguistics, and Communication, ” ‘Big Fish and Little Fish’: Comic Economics on the Jacobean Stage.”
  • Keith Mellinger, Department of Mathematics, “Cap partitions of affine spaces.”
  • Laura Mentore, Department of Sociology and Anthropology, “The Social Significance of Competitive ‘birdsport’ among Guyanese Men.”
  • Marjorie Och, Department of Art and Art History, “Community and Friendship in the Letters and Portraits of Vittoria Colonna.”
  • Jennifer Polack-Wahl, Department of Computer Science, “iPod for Education: Teaching Resource for the Future.”
  • Sheshalatha Reddy, Department of English, Linguistics, and Communication, “Two Chapters on Indian-English Periodical Literature.”
  • Debra Steckler, Department of Psychology, “An Investigation of the Foundation of Arnett’s New Life Stage: Emerging Adulthood.”
  • Abbie Tomba, Department of Biological Sciences, “Identification of Larval stages of trematodes (Family Opecoelidae) parasitizing freshwater snails (Family Pleuroceridae).”