Monthly Archives: July 2012

James Frew is an Associate Professor in the Donald Bren School of Environmental Science and Management at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB), and a principal investigator in UCSB’s Institute for Computational Earth System Science (ICESS).

His research interests lie in the emerging field of environmental informatics, a synthesis of computer, information, and Earth sciences. Trained as a geographer, he has worked in remote sensing, image processing, software architecture, massive distributed data systems, and digital libraries. His current research is focused on geospatial information provenance, discovery, and curation, using remote sensing data products generated by his Environmental Information Laboratory as operational test beds.

Dr. Frew received his Ph.D. in Geography from UCSB in 1990. As part of his doctoral research, he developed the Image Processing Workbench, an open-source set of software tools for remote sensing image processing, currently used for instruction and research at UCSB and elsewhere. He has served as both the Manager and the Acting Director of UCSB’s Computer Systems Laboratory (ICESS’ predecessor), and as the Associate Director of the Sequoia 2000 Project, a 3-year $14M multi-campus consortium formed to investigate large-scale data management aspects of global change problems. He was a co-PI on the Alexandria Project (part of NSF’s Digital Libraries Initiative), where he directed the development of the Alexandria Digital Earth Prototype (ADEPT) testbed system. Dr. Frew also served on the National Research Council’s Committee on Earth Science Data Utilization (CESDU).

Dr. Frew currently leads the Earth System Science Server (ES3) project, and serves as President of the Federation of Earth Science Information Partners. During the 2005-2006 academic year he was a visiting professor at the University of Edinburgh‘s Digital Curation Centre.

Mike is a PADI divemaster, digital underwater photography instructor, a world-class photographer, web designer, photoshop and lightroom master. He teaches multimedia arts at Santa Barbara City College.

Bill Powell was trained in the philological methods of Buddhist studies, which was the basis for his translation and study of the prominent 9th century Chan (Zen) monk, Dong shan. This will be followed by a study of Dong shan’s disciple, Cao shan. His present work focuses on the relationship between Chinese Buddhism, pilgrimage and sacred space, particularly mountains. This work places emphasis on modes of spatial perception rooted in religious understandings, and the role of those modes of perception in economic, social, and ecological systems. This work has led to an involvement in digital simulations of sacred geography and topography, both as a means of scholarly analysis and as a pedagogic device for teaching about the relatively complex notions that emerge from such analysis at the undergraduate level.

ANDREW DAVIS’s bio is on Wikipedia

Kevin C. Almeroth is currently a Professor in the Department of Computer Science at the University of California in Santa Barbara where his main research interests include computer networks and protocols, wireless networking, multicast communication, large-scale multimedia systems, and mobile applications. At UCSB, Dr. Almeroth is the Associate Director of the Center for Information Technology and Society (CITS), a founding faculty member of the Media Arts and Technology (MAT) Program, Technology Management Program (TMP), and the Computer Engineering (CE) Program. In the research community, Dr. Almeroth has authored more than 150 refereed papers. He is the chair of the Steering Committee for the ACM Network and System Support for Digital Audio and Video (NOSSDAV) workshop; on the Editorial Board of IEEE/ACM Transactions on Networking, IEEE Transactions on Mobile Computing, IEEE Network, ACM Computers in Entertainment, and ACM Computer Communications Review; has co-chaired a number of conferences and workshops including the IEEE International Conference on Network Protocols (ICNP), IEEE Conference on Sensor, Mesh and Ad Hoc Communications and Networks (SECON), IFIP/IEEE International Conference on Management of Multimedia Networks and Services (MMNS), the International Workshop On Wireless Network Measurement (WiNMee), ACM Sigcomm Workshop on Challenged Networks (CHANTS), the Network Group Communication (NGC) workshop, and the Global Internet Symposium; and has been on the program committee of numerous conferences. Dr. Almeroth is the former chair of the Internet2 Working Group on Multicast, and is active in several working groups of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF). He also serves on the boards of directors and/or advisory boards of several startups. Dr. Almeroth has also served as an expert witness in a number of interesting patent cases. He is a Member of the ACM and a Senior Member of the IEEE.

Miriam Metzger teaches at UC Santa Barbara in the Communication Department.
Professor Metzger’s research interests lie at the intersection of media, information technology, and trust, centering on how information technology alters our understandings of credibility, privacy, and the processes of media effects. Her work examines questions about how information technology challenges traditional notions of trust, with a specific focus on the credibility of information online and on how users of digital media negotiate privacy and disclosure decisions. She has also published work examining the impact of mass media on public opinion, and on the theoretical and regulatory changes brought about by emerging information and communication technologies.

Dr. Metzger’s research has been published in such journals as Human Communication Research, Journal of Communication, Communication Research, Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, Mass Communication & Society, Communication Yearbook, New Media & Society, Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, Media Psychology, Journal of the American Society for Information Science & Technology, Computers & Education, Computers in Human Behavior, Critical Studies in Media Communication, Communication Research Reports, Journal of Health Communication, and Information, Communication & Society.

Michael Marzolla served as 4-H Youth Development Advisor, with University of California Cooperative Extension from 1983 through June of 2011.

Since 1983 he led the Santa Barbara county 4-H Youth Development Program. From 2004-2010 he led the county’s Master Gardener Program. From October 2010 through June 2011, he served as Youth Advisor for southern Santa Barbara and Ventura counties.

He has over thirty years of experience in the field of informal science and environmental education. He led the nationally recognized USDA funded Neighborhood GreenNet, and the 4-H Agua Pura. He has served as the Chair of the EPA funded diversity project for the Golden State Environmental Education Consortium (GSEEC), and chair of the CREEC (California Regional Environmental Education Community) Region 8 Steering Committee. He co-founded the California Aquatic Science Education Consortium (CASEC). He also co-founded of the “Los Marineros” marine science education program. He has served as Vice President for the Santa Barbara based Center for the Study of the Environment, (CSE). In 2003 CSE was appointed by the U. S. Department of State to serve on the United States National Commission for UNESCO. He served on the board of the North American Association for Environmental Education as Chair of the Non-formal Commission, and locally as a member of the board for La Casa de la Raza. He holds a Masters in Education, specializing in non-formal education, from the Center for International Education at the University of Massachusetts. His undergraduate degree is in fine arts, from Humboldt State University, where he did course work and special projects in environmental planning and design. His international work experience began in the Peace Corps in Guatemala, where he coordinated the country’s school and community garden program, and served as a team member responsible for nonformal education for a nutrition education research project with INCAP (Institute of Nutrition for Central America and Panama). As a consultant in Lesotho, Southern Africa, he lead the establishment of a non-formal education service center. His experience includes the development of the appropriate technology training program and manual for the Peace Corps. In recent years he has undertaken various consultancies with ACDI/VOCA in Bolivia and most recently in Serbia. Before he began his work with the University of California, he directed a farm worker service center for eighteen Northern California counties. He is fluent in Spanish and Italian.