Sustainability Across the Disciplines: Faculty Curriculum Workshop (6/5-6/6)

Sustainability Across the Disciplines: Faculty Curriculum Workshop
Wednesday, June 5th and Thursday, June 6th, 2013

This event is a curriculum development workshop for faculty wishing to integrate topics of environmental sustainability into their courses. Faculty from all disciplines are welcome to apply – we encourage diverse perspectives!

The workshop will offer concepts, detailed examples, and materials useful for developing engaging new course content across the disciplines. Participants will collaborate to develop innovative course components that inspire critical thinking in students and address pressing environmental issues.

Workshop facilitators and guest presenters will share a range of models and resources for designing content that will engage students with locally relevant issues, generate innovative research, and encourage active ecological citizenship on campus and beyond. The ability to think critically and problem-solve around sustainability is an increasingly essential and sought-after skill. We can empower our students to examine and address real concerns, through every disciplinary lens.

Stipends are available. Light breakfast & lunch will be served, sustainably sourced.

To apply, please contact Tanvi Gadhia: tanvig1@umbc.edu or visit http://sustainability.umbc.edu

2013-2014 Faculty Mentor Positions Available

The 2013-2014 faculty mentor positions in the UMBC residential community are available. These positions are open to full-time UMBC faculty who are interested in interacting with students in the residential community. These are paid positions and provide an excellent opportunity to get to know and interact with students outside of the classroom.

Contact David Clurman at clurman@umbc.edu if you are interested in learning more about this opportunity.

Lecture: Quantum Computer Compilers (4/25)

Alfred Aho, Lawrence Gussman Professor of Computer Science at Columbia University, will give the next Distinguished Computational Science Lecture on quantum computing on Thursday, April 25.

Quantum computing is an exciting emerging field that offers great potential for next generation information processing but also presents great scientific and engineering challenges. Assuming that someday we will be able to build scalable and reliable quantum computers, we will need to create programming languages and compilers that will allow programmers to harness quantum phenomena. In this talk, Alfred Aho will look at quantum computing from a compiler writer’s perspective and discuss some of the formidable challenges that face quantum computer compilers.

Support URCAD by Encouraging Your Students to Attend

It’s not too late to integrate the Undergraduate Research and Creative Achievement Day (URCAD) experience into your classroom!

Encourage your students to take time during class to explore the world of undergraduate research and learn about all the great work their fellow students are doing. Many faculty members have already made URCAD part of their syllabus as extra credit and have reported that their students found the event interesting, engaging and educational.

Some ideas to consider are:

• Specific extra credit, such as a short essay describing the event
• Brief write-up on a student poster or oral presentation
• Q&A for a student’s research project

URCAD gives UMBC undergraduates an opportunity to share their research with colleagues, faculty and staff members and alumni. The projects feature research, scholarship and creative work shared through oral presentations, posters, artistic exhibits and performances and film.

The event will be held from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Wednesday, April 24,
in the University Center (third floor) and Fine Arts 221 and 317. For a complete schedule of presenters, go to www.umbc.edu/urcad. For specific questions contact Janet McGlynn, Office of Undergraduate Education, at mcglynn@umbc.edu or 410-455-5754.

Campus Community Invited to Join Strategic Planning Conversation (5/1)

Provost Philip Rous invites all members of the UMBC community to a conversation about UMBC’s upcoming strategic planning process Wednesday, May 1 from noon to 1 p.m. in UC 310.

The dialogue is one of a series “planning to plan” conversations led by the Provost throughout the academic year to shape the strategic planning process set to launch this coming fall.

“Before planning, we want to think about how we are going to plan and the principles that will guide us,” says Dr. Rous. “This plan will be about the future of everyone connected to UMBC. We want to be sure we have a structure for planning that engages the entire community in addressing matters vital to our future.”

The May 1 conversation will include discussion of guiding principles for the planning process, the timeline and structure of the process, information needed for planning, and suggested areas of focus for the process.

From UMBC to the World

Over Spring Break, a group of Chemical, Biochemical and Environmental Engineering students, Aaron Gibson, Dagmawi Tilahun, Kevin Tran, and Don Wong, led by Professor Govind Rao, and accompanied by Dr. Theresa Good and Ms. Geetha Ram, went to India in order to get end user data for a low cost neonatal incubator the team is developing for use in resource-poor environments.

If you listen to the students, they’ll tell you the project started in Professor Rao’s 2011 Sensors class, a senior elective, where students learned that over 340 neonates die an hour in their first week of life, with 99% of those deaths occurring in low and middle income countries. Most of those deaths could be prevented if appropriate technology were available.

Professor Rao challenged the class to develop incubators that would work in these resource limited environments, where electricity might only be available for 8 hours a day, and salaries might be less than $6 a day. A few students from that class have continued to work with Professor Rao on this project funded by National Collegiate Inventors and Innovators Alliance which has culminated in the trip to India, where students met with rural health care workers in the Mysore region in Southern India, to ensure that they design a low cost incubator that will meet the needs of the local population. They visited several rural health care providers and have now partnered with an incubator manufacturer (Phoenix Medical Systems) and a health care provider (Karuna Trust) to take the concept to reality. Of course, we couldn’t leave India without seeing a few famous wonders of the world – the trip to the Taj Mahal was a gift from Professor Rao to the students and his colleagues. It was breathtaking.

UMBC at Shady Grove: Cybersecurity and Biotechnology Info Session (4/24)

Beginning Fall 2013, UMBC will offer two of its Master’s in Professional Studies (MPS) programs in biotechnology and cybersecurity at UMBC at the Universities at Shady Grove. With a focus on management, these programs will prepare students for leadership roles in two of the region’s fastest growing industries.

Attend an information session to learn more about cybersecurity and biotechnology master’s programs at UMBC at The Universities at Shady Grove.

Wednesday, April 24: 6:30–8 p.m.

UMBC at The Universities at Shady Grove
Camille Kendall Academic Center (Building III)
9630 Gudelsky Drive
Rockville, MD 20850

RSVP Here

Join the information session to meet Graduate Program Directors and learn more about curriculum and class formats.

Summer Session Registration is Now Open

Registration for summer session is now open!

UMBC offers courses over two summer sessions, with four, six, eight and 12 week options. Learn more about the sessions, and what courses are offered at http://www.umbc.edu/summer/

Deadline Approaching: Scholarship Opportunities for 2013-2014 Returning Students

Scholarship applications for the Newcombe Scholarship for Mature Students and the Bryson-Neville Scholarship for Returning Women are now available.

Applications are due to the Women’s Center by Friday, April 5 at 4 p.m.

Information and application for the Charlotte W. Newcombe Foundation Scholarship for Mature Students – Eligible students must be at least 25 years of age, have at least 60 credits, and be seeking their first undergraduate degree.

Information and application for the Bryson Neville Scholarship – All undergraduate women over the age of 25 and with at least 60 credits may be eligible.

For additional information on eligibility, please download the applications by visiting our my.UMBC page or contact the Women’s Center at 410-455-2714 or womens.center@umbc.edu.

Engineering Graduate Programs Info Session (3/21)

In the engineering field, knowledge of managerial and business skills can take you a long way, and you can set yourself apart with the skills required to develop operable systems, navigate the complexities of system design, and manage interdisciplinary teams. Whatever your engineering career goals are, UMBC can help you achieve them with a Master’s Degree or Graduate Certificate in Engineering Management or Systems Engineering.

Attend the info session on Thursday, March 21, from 6-7:30 p.m. to learn about curriculum, instruction and format for systems engineering and engineering management graduate programs. The information session will take place in the Information Technology/Engineering Building, Room 102.

For more information or to RSVP, click here.