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Tag: University at Albany

  • Police investigate attack on UAlbany campus

    Police investigate attack on UAlbany campus

    ALBANY, N.Y. (NEWS10) — University at Albany’s University Police Department is investigating an attack that happened on campus around 4 p.m. on Saturday. Police announced that the assault happened at the Campus Center food court on the Uptown Campus.

    Police say two suspects attacked a man, who is now being treated for his injuries. The suspects are described as college-age men and appear in the following photos, according to a University Police safety notification that was sent out to students shortly after the incident:

    Photos: UAlbany’s University Police Department

    Law enforcement reports that the suspects left the building and may still be on campus. The investigation remains ongoing.

    Police ask that anyone with information about this incident, or that needs help on campus, contact UPD at 518-442-3131 or 911 from any campus phone. Stick with NEWS10 as this story develops.

    Read the latest from NEWS10:

    NEWS10 is the Capital Region’s local news leader!

    Abbi Stanley

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  • UAlbany women’s lacrosse upends UMass Lowell, clinching spot in conference championship game

    UAlbany women’s lacrosse upends UMass Lowell, clinching spot in conference championship game

    by: ​Tommy Valentine, John P Reilly – UAlbany Athletics Communcations

    Posted:

    Updated:

    ALBANY, N.Y. (NEWS10) — Seven different Great Danes scored in Friday’s America East women’s lacrosse tournament semifinal game, as top-seeded and tournament-host UAlbany outlasted fourth-seeded UMass Lowell, 12-11, to advance to the America East title game for the 13th straight season.

    Key Stats

    Head Coach Katie Thomson: “What a great team effort.  We’re really proud of how resilient we were against a really strong UMass Lowell team.  They are really well-coached, and they never gave up.  We’re really proud of our team for staying the course and executing throughout and staying composed even when UMass Lowell went on a couple of runs throughout.”

    How it Happened

    • The University at Albany opened the 2024 America East Tournament at home, having locked up hosting privileges for the third-straight season.  This year, their opponent was No. 4 UMass Lowell, making their first-ever appearance in the postseason after winning 12 games in the regular season.
    • UAlbany hosted UMass Lowell on April 20, the team’s senior day, and defeated the River Hawks 10-7.  The score in that game was tied at halftime before UAlbany netted four goals in the third quarter to take the lead for good, while the Great Danes’ defense allowed just two River Hawks’ goals following the break, their first of three such defensive efforts to close the 2024 regular season.
    • Katie Pascale started her first game on Friday since suffering an injury in that previous game against UMass Lowell and missing the final two games of the regular season.  Within the first minute, after UMass Lowell scored in the first 31 seconds, Pascale make her presence felt, setting up Ava Poupard for UAlbany’s first goal of the game.
    • UMass Lowell scored each of the next two goals to take a 3-1 lead with 8:46 remaining in the first quarter.  Emma Weaver interrupted the River Hawks’ mini run with a score 50 seconds later, but UMass Lowell responded in kind 63 second after Weaver’s goal to maintain their two-goal advantage heading into the second quarter.
    • Poupard scored with 12:43 remaining in the second, kicking off a four-goal run for the Great Danes lasting nearly the entirety of the quarter.  UMass Lowell’s Audra Hansen scored with five seconds on the clock to prevent the River Hawks from being shut out in the period.
    • Neither team scored again until Hansen found the back of the net with 4:15 remaining in the third to cut the River Hawks’ deficit to just one, but Grace McCauley scored her lone goal of the game with 23 seconds left on the clock to put UAlbany up 8-6 heading into the final frame.
    • Following the slower third quarter, the two teams combined for nine total goals in the fourth.  They traded each of the quarter’s first four goals until UAlbany scored two-straight just 66 seconds apart from Poupard and Bryar Hogg.  With 5:38 remaining, UMass Lowell’s Jade Catlin scored to close the River Hawks within two.
    • Mikaela Mooney scored UAlbany’s final goal of the afternoon with 2:53 remaining to give the Great Danes a 12-9 lead.  UMass Lowell struck back 33 seconds later, and closed within one with 54 seconds remaining off a goal from 2024 America East Rookie of the Year Chloe Bowers.
    • Jill Alberici lined up to take the ensuing draw and directed the ball high and into the stick of Mikaela Mooney to give UAlbany possession with the ability to close out the remainder of the game.  The Great Danes held on to win by one, 12-11.
    • Poupard led all scorers with four total points on three goals and one assist, while Mooney and Megan Dineen each scored twice with one assist.  Hogg finished with two goals, and Weaver, McCauley, and Allie Maloney each added one goal.  In cage, Cincebox recorded her eighth victory of the season, making eight saves.  Haley Phalines finished with six draws, surpassing 200 for her career. 

    Next: UAlbany hosts the 2024 America East title game on Sunday, May 5 at 10:00 am on ESPNU.

    ​Tommy Valentine

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  • UAlbany Expert Available to Discuss President Biden’s Executive Order on AI

    UAlbany Expert Available to Discuss President Biden’s Executive Order on AI

    ALBANY, N.Y. (Nov. 1, 2023) — On Monday, President Biden issued a new executive order on “Safe, Secure, and Trustworthy Artificial Intelligence,” aimed at ensuring the United States leads the way in leveraging the promise of the technology, while also managing the risks.

    The executive order is the first of its kind in the U.S.—requiring new safety assessments, equity and civil rights guidance and research on AI’s impact on the labor market.

    George Berg, an associate professor at the University at Albany’s College of Emergency Preparedness, Homeland Security and Cybersecurity (CEHC), studies artificial intelligence, machine learning, cybersecurity and maker technologies. 

    Berg calls the executive order a “good first step” toward ensuring that AI use is positive and not disruptive for modern society.

    “As artificial intelligence technology has become more and more successful, it is becoming an increasingly significant part of people’s lives. It has the promise to improve their work, education, and personal lives. It also has strong potential downsides, such as increased chances of threats to personal privacy, legal rights, employment prospects, and even health.

    “The President’s executive order does not limit the innovation that drives the amazing advances in these new technologies, but at the same time, it highlights the good and bad that can come from their deployment and points us in the direction of how in the U.S., and worldwide, these technologies should be harnessed to maximize their benefit.”

    Berg is available for phone or live/recorded interviews. UAlbany has an on-campus television studio available for remote interviews.

    About the University at Albany: 

    The University at Albany is one of the most diverse public research institutions in the nation and a national leader in educational equity and social mobility. As a Carnegie-classified R1 institution, UAlbany faculty and students are advancing our understanding of the world in fields such as artificial intelligence, atmospheric and environmental sciences, business, education, public health, social sciences, criminal justice, humanities, emergency preparedness, engineering, public administration, and social welfare. Our courses are taught by an accomplished roster of faculty experts with student success at the center of everything we do. Through our parallel commitments to academic excellence, scientific discovery and service to community, UAlbany molds bright, curious and engaged leaders and launches great careers. 

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    University at Albany, State University of New York

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  • CEHC Researchers Partner with National Weather Service to Improve Extreme Heat Communication

    CEHC Researchers Partner with National Weather Service to Improve Extreme Heat Communication

    Newswise — ALBANY, N.Y. (Oct. 27, 2023) — While flooding, tornadoes and hurricanes often dominate headlines when it comes to deadly weather, heat-related events claim more lives in the United States than any other type of extreme weather.

    From 2004–2018, an average of 702 heat-related deaths occurred in the United States annually, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That’s more than the average from hurricanes and tornadoes combined.

    A new study, led by researchers at the University at Albany’s College of Emergency Preparedness, Homeland Security and Cybersecurity (CEHC), in partnership with collaborators at the National Weather Service, is aiming to improve those statistics through a critical aspect of extreme weather resiliency — risk communication.

    The two-year study will focus on how current heat information is accessed and understood by people in the U.S. through $471,805 in support from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

    “The way that extreme heat events are communicated has implications for how members of the public take action to protect themselves,” said Michele “Micki” Olson, a senior researcher at CEHC’s Emergency and Risk Communication Message Testing Lab and the project’s lead principal investigator.

    “Our study will provide a baseline assessment of current heat risk and preparedness messaging, including how it is understood by vulnerable populations.”

    A National Review of Heat Messaging

    To conduct their assessment, project researchers will lead 16 focus groups in areas across the U.S. that represent different climatologies and population types. 

    Focus group participants will first view the content of recent social media posts shared by their local National Weather Service Forecast Office (WFO) during recent extreme heat events. They will then be invited to share their thoughts about the heat risk, impacts and actions they can take to protect themselves based on that information.

    “In our prior work, we found that there’s a lot of technical language — or jargon — used to describe heat risk and its impact on vulnerable populations,” said Jeannette Sutton, an associate professor who directs CEHC’s Emergency and Risk Communication Message Testing Lab and is the project’s co-principal investigator. 

    “Our focus groups will be looking at text as well as images in each message because these communicate different things. In particular, we want to know what terms may be confusing and why. We will then ask participants about their prior experiences with extreme heat and how they obtain heat-related information.”

    Following the focus groups, the researchers will send out a national survey, allowing them to gather additional data and compare how people think about extreme heat in different parts of the country.

    Their findings will be shared through presentations at the American Meteorological Society and the National Weather Service, as well as in published articles.

    “Using both methods — the focus groups and a national survey — will provide us with a more complete picture of how people understand heat-related information,” Olson said. “By communicating directly with the National Weather Service, and other emergency managers, we can provide immediate actionable recommendations that can be implemented for heat risk and preparedness messaging.”

    Extreme Weather Communication

    Along with this study, researchers at UAlbany, including Sutton and Olson, are currently leading several other projects that are focused on improving the preparedness and response to extreme weather events in the U.S.  

    Earlier this year, Erie County turned to researchers at UAlbany and the National Weather Service to help ensure Western New Yorkers are better prepared for future winter storms. Among the project’s goals is to assess communication around last year’s Christmas blizzard, which brought nearly 52 inches of snow to the Buffalo area over five days.

    Another ongoing project, which includes a mix of UAlbany weather, climate and emergency preparedness researchers, is focused on creating new support tools for New York City emergency managers to use during extreme heat waves.

    “Much of our previous work is relevant to this newly funded project,” Sutton said. “Being able to understand messaging is one of the first steps to taking protective action. People cannot act on warning if they do not understand the information it contains.”

    The latest project will also fund a UAlbany graduate student researcher with an interest in the intersection of weather and risk communication.

    University at Albany, State University of New York

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  • Paleoclimate Lab Researchers Use National Science Foundation Support to Study Climate Change Past

    Paleoclimate Lab Researchers Use National Science Foundation Support to Study Climate Change Past

    Newswise — ALBANY, N.Y. (Aug. 31, 2023) — Last summer, the University at Albany’s Paleoclimate Lab opened its doors, offering a new way to analyze samples of natural materials, such as coral and lake sediment, to help reconstruct Earth’s climate history.

    Now, through nearly $800,000 in new support from the National Science Foundation (NSF) this summer, lab researchers are focused on South Asia and the Middle East.

    Aubrey Hillman, an assistant professor in UAlbany’s Department of Atmospheric and Environmental Sciences (DAES), was awarded $417,242 from the NSF for a collaborative research project to create a 50,000-year continuous record of the Indian summer monsoon by analyzing lake sediment collected from Loktak Lake in Northeast India.

    Sujata Murty, a DAES assistant professor, was awarded $339,771 from the NSF to lead another collaborative research project that aims to reconstruct Red Sea surface hydrology since the 1700s by analyzing coral cores along its eastern edge.

    Both projects are now active and will run through the summer of 2026.

    “The NSF Paleoclimate program is highly competitive; therefore, it is notable that both of these projects were funded,” said Ryan Torn, DAES chair and professor. “Aubrey and Sujata’s work will provide greater insight into Earth’s past climate and offer new research opportunities for both undergraduate and graduate students.”

    Changes in the Indian Summer Monsoon

    The Indian summer monsoon typically lasts from June to September, with much of India, along with other parts of South Asia, receiving a significant amount of its total annual precipitation during this period.

    Hillman’s new NSF project proposes to create new paleoclimate records from Loktak Lake that will provide insight into the causes and consequences of abrupt changes in Indian summer monsoon rainfall over the last 500 centuries.

    To do so, Hillman and her research team, which includes collaborators at the University of Pittsburgh, Manipur University in India and Washington University in St. Louis are using the Paleoclimate lab to analyze lake sediments collected through the project.

    In 2018, the research team traveled to Loktak Lake to start the collection process, using a UWITEC coring device that lowers a long tube to the bottom of the lake and fills it with sediment cores. That tube is then brought home, preserved and analyzed.

    The team plans to return within the next year, collecting a total of 30 meters of lake sediment.

    “The lake sediments will offer us new data to analyze changes in the Indian summer monsoon season over tens of thousands of years,” said Hillman. “There are few records that currently exist at this long of a scale.

    “We believe our findings will offer new insight into the timing, direction, magnitude, and rate of changes in the Indian monsoon season through history, all of which are important to the more than one billion people who rely on it to deliver water and support agriculture,” she added.

    Following the sample collections, the research team plans to hold a series of public engagement workshops with colleagues in India regarding topics such as lake water balance, paleoclimate and monsoons. The project is also supporting graduate student researchers from partnering institutions.

    Climate of the Red Sea

    Our oceans play a critical role in influencing regional and global climate by absorbing much of the solar energy that reaches Earth and releasing heat back into the atmosphere.

    While there’s significant research around the climate history of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, the Indian Ocean, the third largest of the world’s five modern oceans, is much less understood.

    Murty’s NSF research project, which includes collaborators from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and Union College, will focus on analyzing coral samples to determine how climate variability over the last 300 years has impacted ocean circulation in the Red Sea, a marginal sea of the Indian Ocean.

    “The Indian Ocean is one of the most under-observed tropical ocean regions in the world,” Murty said. “We do not have a strong understanding of past Indian Ocean climate or ocean circulation patterns, so I’ve been slowly moving my research over to this area, beginning with the marginal seas, such as the Red Sea.”

    “Our research findings will lead to improved understanding of Red Sea hydrographic variability and interactions with regional climate, aiding in climate and ocean circulation prediction efforts in the region,” she added.

    Corals have annual growth layers, similar to tree rings, that can offer valuable information on how environmental conditions have changed over time and provide insight for future climate modeling.

    Oceanographers like Murty scuba dive in the ocean and drill cores from massive boulder corals, taking care not to harm them. The samples for the new research were collected prior to this project and are now in the Paleoclimate Lab. 

    Along with analyzing the corals, project researchers also plan to participate in art-science outreach initiatives such as Synergy II, a collaborative project between Art League RI and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution that offers a unique opportunity to share ocean science research through artistic expression.

    The NSF funding also supports graduate and undergraduate students assisting with the coral analysis.

    University at Albany, State University of New York

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  • Study: New York’s Bail Reform Law Did Not Increase Crime

    Study: New York’s Bail Reform Law Did Not Increase Crime

    Newswise — ALBANY, N.Y. (May 26, 2023) — New York’s bail reform law had a negligible effect on crime, a study by a recent PhD recipient and a professor in UAlbany’s School of Criminal Justice (SCJ) found.

    Bail reform has been a hotly debated issue in New York and throughout the United States, with proponents arguing that a cash bail system is unfair to poorer defendants and opponents arguing that setting bail for those arrested deters crime. In 2019 New York lawmakers passed a law eliminating bail for most misdemeanors and some non-violent felony charges, with the accused allowed to go free until a court hearing or released with conditions such as electronic monitoring. An amendment that went into effect in July 2020 rolled back some aspects of the reform, expanding the list of offenses eligible for cash bail.

    The SCJ study, “Does Bail Reform Increase Crime in New York State: Evidence from Interrupted Time-Series and Synthetic Control Methods,” was published earlier this month in Justice Quarterly. Led by Sishi Wu, who received her PhD from SCJ in April, it’s the first study to evaluate the effects of New York’s bail reform law on the entire state and “the first attempt to disentangle the effects of bail reform and national historic events” such as the COVID-19 pandemic, according to Wu and co-author David McDowall, a distinguished teaching professor at SCJ.

    Their study found that murder, larceny and auto theft increased after bail reform, but that bail reform itself did not contribute to that increase.

    “We used data from the New York State index crimes, consisting of monthly crime counts for seven offenses: murder, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, larceny and motor vehicle theft,” Wu said. “Monthly crime data from other states were also collected from the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting program to create a control group to compare with New York.”

    Jail population dropped in the state from 2019 to 2020 — one of the goals of bail reform. During the same period, violent crime rose by 1% in the state and murders increased by nearly 47%, from 570 in 2019 to 836 in 2020. However, this increase could be attributed to the pandemic, which caused disruptions ranging from a lack of work and income to a lack of social services.

    To account for the pandemic, the authors compared New York crime data with a control group constructed of other states similarly affected by the pandemic that did not reform their bail laws. That comparison showed “NYS experienced 0.02 more murder, 6.16 more larcenies, and 1.16 more motor vehicle thefts per 100,000 people per month than its control series after the bail reform” – not a statistically significant increase, the study found.

    “Using findings such as ours, legislators and stakeholders can better address public safety concerns when continuing the implementation of bail reform,” McDowall said.

    Read the Justice Quarterly article here.

    University at Albany, State University of New York

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  • UAlbany Meteorologist Available to Discuss California Storms

    UAlbany Meteorologist Available to Discuss California Storms

    Newswise — ALBANY, N.Y. – A series of strong storm systems known as “atmospheric rivers” have dumped massive amounts of rain and snow on California since late December, producing deadly flooding, mudslides, severe thunderstorms and tornadoes.

    California officials reported on Tuesday that the storms have claimed the lives of at least 17 people, which is more than the death toll of wildfires in the region over the past two years combined. More severe weather is expected to hit this weekend.

    Ryan Torn, chair and professor at the University at Albany’s Department of Atmospheric and Environmental Sciences, is an expert on atmospheric predictability and numerical weather prediction (NWP) models. Currently, he’s leading research in collaboration with the Center for Western Weather and Water Extremes that seeks to improve our ability to predict atmospheric rivers along the U.S. West Coast, including where to take additional observations to reduce forecast uncertainty.  

    The goal is to develop and test targeted airborne and buoy observations over the Northeast Pacific to improve forecasts of where atmospheric rivers will make landfall, and their potential impacts, with lead times of at least one to five days.

    “The recent heavy precipitation has helped alleviate some of the multi-year drought for California, yet the precipitation has come too quickly to avoid some of the hazardous impacts, like river flooding and mudslides,” Torn said. “Thankfully, advancements in past and current research of atmospheric rivers have improved our ability to forecast these events, often several days in advance.”

    Torn is available for phone or live/taped interviews. UAlbany also has an on-campus television studio for satellite interviews.

    About the University at Albany:

    A comprehensive public research university, the University at Albany-SUNY offers more than 120 undergraduate majors and minors and 125 master’s, doctoral and graduate certificate programs. As a Carnegie-classified R1 institution, signifying the highest level of doctoral and research activity, UAlbany is a leader among New York colleges and universities in diverse fields like atmospheric and environmental sciences, business, education, public health, health sciences, criminal justice, emergency preparedness, engineering and applied sciences, informatics, public administration, social welfare and sociology, taught by an extensive roster of faculty experts. It also offers expanded academic and research opportunities for students through an affiliation with Albany Law School. With a curriculum enhanced by 600 study-abroad opportunities, UAlbany launches great careers.

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    University at Albany, State University of New York

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