Value added - USG serves Georgia [Apr. 2007]

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April 2007

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1932 - 2007

Georgia Tech Researchers Work at Stemming Tide of Spam
esearchers at Georgia Tech are designing Rbetter methods of fending off the everincreasing volume of unsolicited spam clogging e-mail in-boxes. After 18 months spent studying spam-filter design, GT College of Computing Assistant Professor Nick Feamster and graduate student Anirudh Ramachandran concluded that Internet service providers could do a better job of fighting unwanted junk e-mail by addressing the problem at the network level, rather than simply employing message content filters. Their research also identified two other worthy strategies for intercepting spam - improving the security of the Internet's routing infrastructure and developing algorithms to identify computers' membership in "botnets," which are groups of computers that are compromised and controlled remotely to send large volumes of spam. Feamster and Ramachandran are hard at work on designing new systems to stem the tide of this e-mail scourge.

Georgia State Legal Clinic Helping Sick Kids
&free legal clinic launched recently by Georgia tate University law professors Sylvia B. Caley and Lisa R. Bliss is helping low-income children to overcome socio-economicbarriers to better health. The Health Law Partnership (HeLP) Clinic is a collaboration between the Georgia State College of Law, Atlanta Legal Aid Society and Children's Healthcare of Atlanta, with offices at the law school, Scottish Rite and Egleston children's hospitals. It combines the medical and legal communities in a way that few universities, if any, have attempted, and is providing law students with valuable experience in collaborating in this manner. Attorneys who are full-time,paid employees of Atlanta Legal Aid have already handled several hundred cases involving family law, housing conditions, consumer and even adoption and custody issues, supervised by the GSU professors. Cases have ranged from a child in need of daily transportation to a dialysis center to children with respiratory infections caused by mold infestations in their homes.
Albany State Student Organization Promotes Reading, Writing Among Children
Every year, the Albany State University Public Administration Student Association invites hundreds of local elementary and middle-school students, Sunday School classes, Headstart participants and children from other youth groups to attend BOOK-NIK. This free event promotes literacy by providing every participant aged three through 15 with an age-appropriate book as well as pens, pencils and other materials. BOOK-NIK, held on April 14 this year, has attracted as many as 200 children per year since the event was launched in 2002. A number of community organizations now partner with the students to offer other fun, free services, activities and giveaways for children at the same time.

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NGCSU Opens Health Clinic for Local Residents Who Can't Afford Insurance
North Georgia College and State University's new Appalachian Nurse Practitioner Clinic is providing basic healthcare services for patients in seven North Georgia counties who are unable to afford medical insurance. Business has been brisk since the clinic opened its doors in January, indicating the community need was real, and NGCSU nursing students are gaining clinical experience in treating acute illnesses and infections, managing chronic diseases and offering preventive care services such as breast exams and physicals. Chestatee Regional Hospital in Dahlonega allows the clinic to use its facilities, radiology and x-ray equipment, and Northeastern Medical Center in Gainesville has donated a customized 36foot recreational vehicle so that the clinic can serve patients physically unable to come to the NGCSU campus.

GCSU Offers Free Math Courses for Teachers
Georgia College 8.State University will pay for 18teachers to take six hours of graduate courses in math this summer with the help of the University System of Georgia's Partnership for Reform in Science and Mathematics initiative, better known as PRISM. The two graduate classes - number sense and algebra, and geometry for teachers - are designed to teach elementary-school teachers how to help their students with math. The only cost to the teachers for taking the courses will be their books, and the courses will count toward the 1 2 hours needed to qualify for an "early childhood mathematics endorsement," which shows a teacher has expertise in the field. Carol Bader, assistant dean in the John H. Lounsbury School of Education, said she will look at funding the remaining six hours of the endorsement next summer if all goes well this summer. P