MONDAY, OCT. 3 – SUNDAY, OCT. 9, 2016
BEST BETS
MOUNDVILLE HOSTS NATIVE AMERICAN FESTIVAL – UA will host its annual Moundville Native American Festival Oct. 5-8 at Moundville Archaeological Park. The festival attracts 10,000-15,000 visitors each year, making it the largest festival of its kind in the Southeast. More than 200 Native Americans attend the festival as performers, vendors and demonstrators. Many are from tribes who connect to Moundville as an ancestral homeland. The festival strives to entertain and educate visitors about the rich culture and heritage that makes Southeastern Indians unique. The components of the festival will include a main Native American stage, children’s area, living history area, trader’s circle, art market and a space for food vendors. For more details, contact Dr. Alexander V. Benitez, director, Moundville Archaeological Park, 205/371-8731, avbenitez@ua.edu. For assistance, contact Chris Bryant, UA media relations, 205/348-8323 or cbryant@ur.ua.edu.
BEAT AUBURN, BEAT HUNGER – UA’s 2016 Beat Auburn, Beat Hunger is in full swing. The drive, which benefits the West Alabama Food Bank, has collected more than 2 million pounds of food over 20 years for those in need. The theme of this year’s competition with Auburn University is “Together we CAN.” The campaign features a #togetherweCAN social media hashtag as well as competitions for collecting food among UA residence halls, student groups and clubs. The official kickoff event will be from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday, Oct. 3, at the Ferguson Center Plaza with an event featuring games and food. The drive ends Wednesday, Nov. 16. For more information, see http://beatauburnbeathunger.ua.edu/. For more details, contact Richard LeComte, media relations, rllecomte@ur.ua.edu, 205/348-3782.
EVENTS
HAMLET ON JAZZ – UA award-winning professor Seth Panitch is releasing his rendition of the world-famous play Hamlet. Panitch’s interpretation of Hamlet will include jazz music written to the play’s script, a visual projection screen into Hamlet’s mind and will be set in the 1950s. The play will be performed at the Marian Gallaway Theatre Oct. 4-7 at 7:30 p.m. and Oct. 9 at 2 p.m. For tickets, go to http://theatre.ua.edu/productions/hamlet/. For more information, contact Jamon Smith, communications specialist, 205/348-4956, jamon.smith@ua.edu.
COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING TO HOST OPEN HOUSE – UA’s College of Engineering will host Engineering Day, or E-Day, an open house for high-school students and their families, Thursday, Oct. 6, from 8:15 a.m. until 1 p.m. The day will include hands-on activities and demonstrations in the buildings in and around the Shelby Engineering and Science Quad. For more information, contact Adam Jones, UA engineering media relations, at acjones12@eng.ua.edu or 205/348-6444.
WOMEN ENGINEERS TO HOST EVENT FOR MIDDLE SCHOOL GIRLS – UA’s section of the Society of Women Engineers, or SWE, will host about 200 middle-school girls at the 2016 “Wow! That’s Engineering” event Oct. 8. This year’s event is themed around space exploration and its effects on daily life. Titled “Across the Galax-SWE,” girls will participate in activities designed to develop students’ confidence in academic subjects and introduce them to engineering design concepts. Activities will begin with registration at 9 a.m. in H.M. Comer Hall and include rocket bottles, circuits, comet, emergency shelter, Mars rover and a shake table. The event concludes at 3:30 p.m. For more details, contact Adam Jones, engineering public relations, 205/348-6444 or acjones12@eng.ua.edu.
CURRENT COMMENT
HISTORIC YAHOO! DATA BREACH LIKELY STATE SPONSORED – Yahoo recently announced that hackers stole personal information (names, email addresses, telephone numbers, birthdates, and passwords) from approximately 500 million users in 2014 – which makes this case the largest publically-known cyber-breach. “This announcement may be generally dismissed by the public, as news of data breaches have (unfortunately) become somewhat routine and the loss of data occurred two years ago,” said Dr. Diana Dolliver, assistant professor of criminal justice at UA. “However, two key points need to be highlighted from the Yahoo cyber-breach. First, this attack is likely state-sponsored. It is not uncommon for cyber perpetrators to reside outside of the U.S. – however, in this case it appears that a foreign country’s resources and/or personnel may have been used to orchestrate the attack. Second, this attack begs the question as to why large corporations in the U.S. are still significantly lagging behind in cybersecurity measures and being able to identify if and when they were hacked. These two points may go hand in hand, however; the U.S. is well-known for its cyber offensive stance worldwide, but is significantly weaker than other national cyber heavy weights (e.g., Russia, Israel, China) in its cyber defensive capabilities.” Dolliver can be reached for additional comments at 205/347-0604 or dldolliver@ua.edu.
LOOKING AHEAD
UA to HOST ANALYTICS FORUM — The 2016 Business Analytics Symposium Oct. 13 and 14 will feature speakers including James Spann from ABC 33/40, Pete Keating from ESPN the Magazine and Filippo Passerini, former Procter & Gamble chief information officer. The Institute of Business Analytics in UA’s Culverhouse College of Commerce hosts the annual event that kicks off Thursday, Oct. 13 at 8 a.m. at the Bryant Conference Center. The symposium concludes at noon Friday, Oct. 14. The $275 early bird registration deadline is Sept. 30; afterward, the price increases to $300. Registration and details on the conference are available at http://mycba.ua.edu/basymposium/. Media Contact: Edith Parten, 205/348-8318, eparten@culverhouse.ua.edu.