Flashpoint: How a Little-Known Sporting Event Fueled America\u27s Anti-Apartheid Movement

Forty years ago, a South African rugby tour in the United States became a crucial turning point for the nation’s burgeoning protests against apartheid and a test of American foreign policy. In Flashpoint: How a Little-Known Sporting Event Fueled America\u27s Anti-Apartheid Movement, Derek Charles Catsam tells the fascinating story of the Springbok’s 1981 US tour and its impact on the country’s anti-apartheid struggle. The US lagged well behind the rest of the Western world when it came to addressing the vexing question of South Africa’s racial policies, but the rugby tour changed all that. Those who had been a part of the country’s tiny anti-apartheid struggle for decades used the visit from one of white South Africa’s most cherished institutions to mobilize against both apartheid sport and the South African regime more broadly. Protestors met the South African team at airports, chanted outside their hotels, and courted arrests at matches, which ranged from the bizarre to the laughable, with organizers going to incredible lengths to keep their locations secret. In telling the story of how a sport little appreciated in the United States nonetheless became ground zero for the nation’s growing anti-apartheid movement, Flashpoint serves as a poignant reminder that sports and politics have always been closely intertwined.https://falconcommons.utpb.edu/utpb-facbooks/1025/thumbnail.jp

Men\u27s Soccer game athlete #21 dribbling ball

Photo of Men\u27s soccer game with athlete #21 dribbling ball.https://falconcommons.utpb.edu/utpb-sports/1025/thumbnail.jp

Visual Arts Studios Building

Photograph of the Visual Arts Studio on campus.https://falconcommons.utpb.edu/utpb-campus/1007/thumbnail.jp

Women\u27s Tennis team player Xan Halog 1980s

Photo of Women\u27s tennis player Xan Halog during the 1980s.https://falconcommons.utpb.edu/utpb-sports/1015/thumbnail.jp

Cyber-Physical Anomaly Detection in Microgrids Using Time-Frequency Logic Formalism

Modern cyber-physical microgrids rely on the information exchanged among power electronics devices (i.e., converters or inverters with local embedded controllers) making them vulnerable to cyber manipulations. The physical devices themselves are susceptible to potential faults and failures. Effects of these cyber and physical anomalies can propagate throughout the entire microgrid due to information exchanged and the inherent low inertia of the distribution network. This work employs the parametric time-frequency logic (PTFL) framework to detect such cyber-physical anomalies. PTFL is a formalism to analyze the time-frequency content of the observable quantities of interest (such as current, voltage, or frequency) of power electronics devices in comparison with the predefined time-frequency properties. PTFL formalism is presented to detect the anomalies such as false data-injection attacks, denial-of-service attacks, and faults on a cluster of four DC microgrids and an inverter-populated IEEE 34-bus feeder system in a controller/hardware-in-the-loop environment

Metal Sculpting of Robotic Man by Art Student

Art student works on welding metal sculpture together of a robotic man at UTPB.https://falconcommons.utpb.edu/utpb-courses/1039/thumbnail.jp

Cowboy Statue Construction

Picture of the installation of the Cowboy Statue.https://falconcommons.utpb.edu/utpb-campus/1013/thumbnail.jp

Ann Richards Passes Four-Year Bill Finalized

Governor Richards shakes hands with UTPB leadership after making UTPB a four-year university.https://falconcommons.utpb.edu/utpb-memo/1011/thumbnail.jp