Kizzmekia Corbett ’08, M16, biological sciences and sociology, is the lead scientist of the research team that developed the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease (NIAID). She returned to campus April 2 for an interview with CNN. From a lab in the Interdisciplinary Life Sciences Building, Corbett spoke about the impact of UMBC and the Meyerhoff Scholars Program on her success.

“Had I not been exposed to Dr. Hrabowski and the Meyerhoff Program…I’m not even so sure that I would be a scientist. It’s really about exposure and resources given to people,” Corbett told CNN. In particular, encounters at UMBC that led her to double major in biological sciences and sociology uniquely prepared her for this moment, when the country is witnessing both an urgent need for cutting-edge science and the effects of widespread health disparities.

The juxtaposition of the reckoning around racial discrimination and the pandemic’s disproportionate effect on people of color “really came together and put a burden on me in so many ways, and it made me more motivated around what I needed to do as far as getting this vaccine out,” Corbett told CNN. “I think as I have looked back on the pandemic, and my work and my team’s work in the pandemic, I feel like it was my purpose, almost.”

It’s about listening

Corbett also understands the importance of approaching vaccine hesitancy with empathy. “I think there is really nothing that you say. It’s really about listening,” she said in the interview. “There is a subset of people who just haven’t been listened to around their health issues and around technology, really. And I just felt like it was time for me to sit down and empathize with an entire group of people who had been ignored.”

Corbett is hopeful for a new generation of diverse scientists. “I think it’s been exciting to be able to be an inspiration,” she says. “I’m happy to be visible if it means that more people understand the science behind this vaccine and for vaccines to come.”

A conversation between Corbett and President Freeman Hrabowski was also featured at the 2nd Annual African Americans in Health Care Awards, presented by Kaiser Permanente and the Reginald F. Lewis Museum of African American History and Culture. Corbett was also featured in the Lifetime Presents Women Making History special and as one of TIME Magazine’s 100 Next.

Banner image: Capture from CNN interview with Kizzmekia Corbett ’08, M16, in UMBC’s Interdisciplinary Life Sciences Building.

This week, UMBC announced plans to reopen the campus for the Fall 2021 semester, providing most courses and campus services face-to-face or in a hybrid format.

“I cannot wait to walk across campus and to again see it busy with students, faculty, and staff,” said President Freeman Hrabowski. “It will be very special to reclaim the vibrant campus community life that we have all missed.”

He and Provost Philip Rous have cited ongoing progress in COVID-19 vaccine access and updated public health guidance as key factors in the university’s planning.

This news comes just over a year after UMBC temporarily moved most teaching and learning, community building, research, and other operations online due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We know that our students really miss seeing their friends on campus. And they miss being able to go to in-person events and connect with their professors face-to-face,” says Nancy Young, vice president for Student Affairs. 

“We’ve discovered innovative ways to help Retrievers find community and stay connected online during the pandemic,” she shares. “At the same time, we know how meaningful it will be for returning students to connect in person once again, and for incoming students to have opportunities for in-person experiences.”

The COVID-19 Planning Coordinating Committee has been working with faculty, staff, and student leaders across the university to plan for a fall that offers opportunities to live, learn, and work on campus, with appropriate safety measures in place. Plans also take into account the diverse needs and individual health concerns of UMBC community members.

Classes, housing, and events

Course registration is now open for both undergraduate and graduate students. Most courses will be offered in-person or in a hybrid format. The university will continue to make additions to the Schedule of Classes over the coming months.

UMBC is preparing to reopen residence halls at up to 95 percent occupancy. More information about housing spaces, rates, and adjustments to meet public health guidance will be available soon.

The university is planning a full Fall 2021 calendar of on-campus events open to both residential and off-campus students.

Yvette Mozie-Ross. Image courtesy of Mozie-Ross.

“We are excited to be able to return to offering a fully immersive on-campus experience this fall,” says Yvette Mozie-Ross ’88, health science and policy. She serves as vice provost for enrollment management and planning.

“These experiences help to enrich the academic and social life at UMBC for many of our students,” says Mozie-Ross. “We are also excited to carry forward all that we learned during the pandemic about ways that online learning, support, and community-building resources can complement on-campus courses and services.”

Facilities for recreation, well-being, and learning

Brian Barrio, 2019

Over the past year, UMBC fully renovated the Retriever Activities Center (RAC). The updated space will offer expanded recreation facilities. These include a track, cardio-training, weight-training, spinning, group exercise space, and basketball courts.

The building really has been transformed,” says Brian Barrio, UMBC’s director of Athletics. “There will be something for everyone’s recreational or fitness needs. It is really exciting.”

A brand new student well-being facility is under construction next to Erickson Field. It will soon house UMBC’s health, counseling, restorative services, and spiritual resources.

The university continues to thoughtfully plan for the reopening of additional facilities and community spaces, including the Albin O. Kuhn Library & Gallery, The Commons, performance spaces, and other gathering spaces.

Ongoing focus on safety, flexibility

“We look forward to a much more active on-campus community this fall,” says President Hrabowski. “At the same time, we know the pandemic is not over. We must continue to be as flexible as possible.”

UMBC will continue to rigorously follow local, state, and federal public health guidance. This includes safety measures regarding testing, symptom tracking, mandatory mask wearing, hygiene, ventilation, physical distancing, and space occupancy, as required. 

The university strongly encourages all students, faculty, and staff to seek vaccination for COVID-19 once they are eligible. Campus leaders note that current public health guidance indicates increased vaccination will enable more expansion of in-person activities.

“We are constantly following the science and public health guidance,” says Young, “and the science says that the more vaccinated our community becomes, the more open we can be.”

“We have been thrilled to hear about expanding access to highly effective COVID-19 vaccines,” she shares. “It’s really been a game-changer for us, to be able to look ahead with optimism for seeing each other again soon, on campus.”

Knowing that individual community members have different situations and concerns, UMBC will continue to emphasize flexibility and responsiveness in meeting diverse student, faculty, and staff needs. 

Community members with questions about COVID-19 and the Fall 2021 semester can contact covid19@umbc.edu.

Featured image: UMBC Orientation Peer Advisors in 2018. Photos by Marlayna Demond ’11 for UMBC unless otherwise noted.

Announced today, 2022 U.S. News Best Graduate School Rankings name several UMBC programs in engineering and public affairs as among the best in the nation.

U.S. News bases these rankings on a combination of quantitative data about over 2,125 programs and expert opinions on program reputations. This feedback is provided through surveys to more than 23,000 deans, program directors, senior faculty, and other leaders. 

UMBC has top-100 programs in public affairs and several engineering fields. Engineering is one of a few areas where rankings also reflect the opinions of professionals who hire or work with new graduates. 

A growing leader in engineering

UMBC’s engineering programs, overall, tied with engineering colleges at the flagships University of Missouri and University of Kansas at 108th. The ranking has steadily climbed from 111th in the 2019 rankings. This year, UMBC is ranked ahead of both the University of Georgia and Utah State University.

UMBC engineering programs were recognized in five separate categories. For environmental engineering UMBC moved from #58 to #56, and for mechanical engineering UMBC rose from #105 to #101. UMBC’s graduate programs in chemical engineering experienced the most rankings growth, from #84 to #68. 

“I am not at all surprised by the higher rankings we see for our chemical, biochemical, and environmental engineering (CBEE) graduate programs,” says Keith J Bowman, dean of the College of Engineering and Information Technology (COEIT). “We have expanded a fantastic team by hiring outstanding new faculty and we have been successful in recruiting extraordinary graduate students.”

CBEE Professor Erin Lavik, COEIT’s associate dean for research and faculty development, shares, “Whether it is technologies to enable better, more accessible treatments for diseases or developing solutions to make environmental justice a reality, our CBEE programs prepare students for the future as socially responsible engineers.”

Groundbreaking computer engineering research

UMBC also ranked #92 in computer engineering and had a strong ranking in electrical engineering. Highly robust research opportunities for graduate students are a key reason why UMBC has a top-100 ranking in computer engineering. 

Tinoosh Mohsenin, computer engineering, leads the Energy Efficient High-Performance Computing Lab (EEHPC), at the forefront of research in the new field of human-autonomy. 

Brain activity monitoring is a growing field with medical applications in detection, diagnosis, prevention, and rehabilitation related to brain disorders. Human-autonomy is one of those applications, where people can potentially use brain signals to remotely guide devices. Mohsenin and her students have also worked on a variety of low power artificial intelligence processors that use electroencephalogram (EEG) signals to identify brain artifacts, detect seizures, and monitor stress and an individual’s attention.

“The UMBC graduate school experience has been very rewarding as it encourages graduate students to express and broaden their outlook while also allowing them time to establish these ideas towards a realistic platform,” says Arnab Mazumder, a computer engineering Ph.D. student who works with Mohsenin.

Arnab Mazumder. Photo by Hasib Al Rashid.

“Working in the Energy Efficient High-Performance Computing Lab has been the highlight of my experience at UMBC,” Mazumder says. He and fellow Ph.D. student Hasib Al-Rashid, electrical engineering, have already published several papers and two book chapters on their research. They focus on developing deep learning models and low power wearables to detect brain EEG artifacts and recognizing activity and gestures from people’s physiological data.

“This opportunity has given me a stage to expand and articulate my vision,” says Mazumder. “My goal is to help the public figure out an end-to-end artificial intelligence solution for detection and recognition-related problems, especially in the area of human health monitoring.”

Producing leaders in public affairs

UMBC has offered robust graduate programs in policy sciences for more than four decades and formally established the School of Public Policy in 2014. Today, the school is best known for research in government performance, health disparities, and improving educational outcomes. UMBC also has expertise at the intersection of economics and public policy.

Nancy Miller

“The School of Public Policy draws a diverse and exceptional group of graduate students,” says Nancy Miller, professor and director of the School of Public Policy. “They go on to exciting leadership careers in the public sector, academia, and non-profit sectors.”

Among the School’s prominent alumni is Rear Admiral Sylvia Trent-Adams, Ph.D. ’06, public policy, former principal deputy assistant secretary for health for the United States and now chief strategy officer for the University of North Texas.

Other Ph.D. alumni include Nathaniel Jones, III ’87, mechanical engineering, Ph.D. ’02, health policy, president of College of Alameda; John A. Olszewski Jr., Ph.D. ’17, public policy, Baltimore County executive; and Deborah Trautman, Ph.D. ‘04, public policy, CEO of the American Association of Colleges of Nursing. 

The School’s many notable master’s degree alumni include leaders like Qubilah Huddleston, M.P.P. ’17, education policy, who is education policy analyst at the DC Policy Fiscal Institute, and Steve Sharkey, M.P.P. ’06, public policy, director of the Baltimore City Department of Transportation.

Excellence across disciplines

“UMBC has outstanding Ph.D., master’s, and certificate programs across engineering, computing, natural and mathematical sciences, social sciences and education, and the arts and humanities,” says Janet Rutledge, dean of The Graduate School at UMBC. “We are proud of how U.S. News and others recognize the accomplishments of our faculty, students, and alumni.”

Banner image: Graduate student Adam Day (left) works with Erin Lavik (right) in her lab, 2018. All photos by Marlayna Demond ’11 for UMBC unless otherwise noted.

In the latest Higher Education Research and Development (HERD) survey, UMBC has ranked among the United States’ top 100 public institutions in federal research support.

The annual survey aggregated federal research and development expenditures for fiscal year 2019. UMBC reported more than $80 million in research and development expenditures in 2019, the highest reported amount since 2012.

“It is an area of pride for us to make it into the top 100,” says Karl V. Steiner, vice president for research at UMBC. “We’ve now had year-over-year growth in the last six years. We grew our expenditures by 24 percent during that time—a very significant increase.”

Within the HERD rankings, UMBC is now #122 in overall research and development expenditures among public institutions, #145 in federal research and development expenditures among all institutions, and #169 overall in expenditures among all institutions. UMBC’s funding sources include NASA, the National Science Foundation (NSF), the Department of Health and Human Services, and many others.

“The expenditures are one key method to get a sense of our faculty and students’ research productivity,” Steiner notes. “These rankings also help us see how UMBC is progressing in meeting our public impact research goals.”

NASA-UMBC connection

UMBC continues to fortify its relationship with NASA, ranking #15 overall in NASA funding (#11 amongst public universities). Currently, more than 170 researchers who are UMBC faculty members and research scientists collaborate with NASA Goddard.

Zhibo Zhang discusses an image collected via satellite with his lab group.

Funding from NASA has contributed to many UMBC-led scientific ventures, including the work of Zhibo Zhang, associate professor of physics.His Aerosol, Cloud, Radiation, Observation, and Simulation (ACROS) research group analyzed data collected from instruments on aircrafts and NASA’s orbiting satellites such as CALIPSO, CloudSat, and MODIS.

They sought to better understand how tiny particles in the atmosphere, such as aerosols and cloud droplets, interact with each other and the radiations from the Sun and Earth, and how these interactions influence our weather and climate systems. 

Explorations in the urban environment

In geosciences, atmospheric, and ocean sciences, UMBC ranked #39 in federal funding. Amongst UMBC’s federally-funded projects is Claire Welty’s study exploring Earth’s “critical zone”—from treetops to weathered bedrock—in urban centers along the Eastern Seaboard. NSF awarded Welty and her team a $4.8 million Critical Zone Collaborative Network grant to execute this project over five years.

Welty is director of UMBC’s Center for Urban Environment Research and Education (CUERE) and a professor of chemical, biochemical, and environmental engineering (CBEE). She is collaborating with Andrew Miller, professor of geography and environmental systems, and researchers in four other East Coast cities.

Human influence on groundwater is one of the many issues they are exploring. “Groundwater is a hidden resource that feeds streams and rivers. In cities, people are typically not using wells for water consumption but groundwater is part of the hydrologic cycle that affects ecosystems,” Welty explains. “Streams lead to rivers and rivers go to potable water intakes for cities, so it’s all connected.”

Despite the COVID-19 pandemic slowing down many research initiatives, Welty and Miller have continued to move their work forward. The team has begun conducting field research that has included subsurface imaging of project field sites, collecting water samples from each of the targeted sites, and deploying water quality sensors. Welty is expecting to bring her first Ph.D. student onto the research team by this fall.

Interdisciplinary approach to environmental problem-solving

Tamra Mendelson, professor of biological sciences, received a $2.8 million NSF Research Traineeship (NRT) grant in 2019 as principal investigator for the Interdisciplinary Consortium for Applied Research in the Environment (ICARE). The training program is designed to broaden participation in the environmental workforce and empower the next generation of scientists to apply research to environmental problem-solving. 

ICARE will focus on the socio-ecological challenges facing the Baltimore Harbor. “The health of the Baltimore Harbor is improving, and I am hopeful that the work of ICARE will bolster ongoing efforts to make the Baltimore Harbor a model for the whole country,” says project partner Lee Blaney, associate professor of CBEE.

“It is my hope that the research focus on the Baltimore Harbor will set up ICARE and UMBC to make lasting, sustainable, and positive impacts in our city,” he notes. 

“ICARE was originally conceived as a way for ecologists and evolutionary biologists on campus to get together. The NRT added this component of engaging the community in our research,” Mendelson explains. 

“At UMBC we are all so invested in this mission of inclusive excellence,” she says. “The racial and ethnic diversity is really low in the environmental sciences, so we wanted to make a difference there as well.”

UMBC partners across five disciplines and three colleges used the time amid the pandemic to organize the program, which will be funded until 2024. Over the next few years, they expect that 30 students will participate. Each student will receive full funding toward a master’s degree. They will also have a chance to collaborate with UMBC faculty, community stakeholders, and scientists and engineers in government, non-profit organizations, and industry careers.

Social science research in action

In the social sciences, UMBC ranks #60 in overall funding sources and #30 in federal funding. Among public universities specifically, UMBC is #37 in overall funding and #20 in federal funding for the social sciences.

Since 2019, the NIH’s National Institute of Aging (NIA) has awarded Laura Girling, director of UMBC’s Center for Aging Studies, more than $750,000 to examine the experiences of people with dementia who live alone in community settings. Recently, Girling has used this funding to research how COVID-19 social distancing guidelines impact people with dementia. She also examines the ethics of including people living with dementia as research participants.

“The social sciences are a hallmark of the UMBC experience, and this is reflected in the funding,” says Steiner. “The excellence and national competitiveness of all of our research programs allows us to grow our research portfolio and pursue more funding for it.”

Photos by Marlayna Demond ’11 for UMBC, unless otherwise noted.

Article written by Adriana Fraser for UMBC.

In September of 2020, UMBC’s Camee Maddox-Wingfield, assistant professor of anthropology, wanted to introduce her Anthropology 211 students to the process of digital storytelling and the tools of the Smithsonian Learning Lab. She reached out to Sarah Jewett who had just launched a new digital storytelling collaboration with the Montgomery College (MC) Digital Storytelling Internship program at the Paul Peck Humanities Institute. The internship places MC students with UMBC faculty who need help with their digital story projects.

Jewett, director of innovations in transfer research and practice at UMBC, knew about MC’s long-standing partnership with the Smithsonian Center for Learning and Digital Access, of which the lab is part. She collaborated with MC’s Digital Storytelling Internship to place Mark Siegrist, who was an intern in the lab, with Maddox-Wingfield. 

Camee Maddox-Wingfield.

Siegrist was the perfect fit. He produced the digital story Maddox-Wingfield needed and had the opportunity to learn about the resources UMBC offers for transfer students.

“I’ve had a really good experience working with Mark Siegrist,” shares Maddox-Wingfield. “He was so helpful. I am so grateful that this sort of collaboration was made possible between the two institutions by Sarah Jewett.” 

Building relationships

This growing, humanities-centered digital stories internship is a collaboration nourished by Jewett and MC’s Jamie Gillan and Mathew Decker. The two English faculty serve as co-coordinators of MC’s Digital Stories Internship, and Gillan is also a Ph.D. student in UMBC’s language, literacy, and culture (LLC) program. Jewett and Gillan initially connected through Gillan’s doctoral research at UMBC, on story work as a way to build empathy. This storytelling project was a natural extension of that work.

Together they built the structures necessary for MC students to work alongside UMBC faculty on digital storytelling projects. MC considers these UMBC collaborations to be Level 2 internships, completed after MC students gain initial experience with digital storytelling. 

Participants enroll as non-degree students at UMBC during their internships to complete a service-learning course through UMBC’s Shriver Center. This provides them with additional support and guidance in completing their collaborative projects and reflecting on their internship experiences. 

“Level 2 interns are expected to bring their own ideas to the table, to be leaders as well as collaborators,” explains Gillan. These learning and teaching partnerships between students and faculty are at the core of how UMBC fosters a culture of intellectual curiosity and relationship-building.

The faculty team for the digital stories partnership in fall 2020 included: Bill Shewbridge, professor of the practice in media and communications studies; Tania Lizarazo, assistant professor in modern languages, linguistics, and intercultural communication (MLLI) and the global studies program; and Beverly Bickel, M.A. ’94, instructional development systems, Ph.D. ’05, LLC, clinical assistant professor of LLC.

Great chemistry

UMBC and MC’s strong working relationship has deep roots. Ten years ago UMBC partnered with three other community colleges in Maryland to develop and implement the STEM Transfer Student Success Initiative (t-STEM). Jewett, the executive director of this initiative, worked with community college counterparts to develop the systems necessary to better support transfer students in STEM as they transitioned to UMBC. 

The seven-year initiative was a great success and inspired Jewett to extend this same model to other fields. She began with a summer environmental science research experience organized in collaboration with Howard Community College and UMBC’s departments of geography and environmental science and biological sciences. 

UMBCs Kevin Omland (center), professor of biological sciences, birdwatching
with students in 2019.

Rather than focus on expanding a single program, or even an array of STEM-focused programs, “We are working to scale horizontally to different disciplines,” Jewett explains. This includes the social sciences and humanities. 

Finding a path

Like Mark Siegrist, MC student Ahmad Al-Olabi was also a Level 2 digital stories intern. The experience had a significant impact on his college experience. 

In his Level 1 internship, Al-Olabi produced “The Journey: Swim or Die,” about his journey as a Syrian refugee fleeing to Greece. His powerful work was one of eight digital stories MC featured during UMBC’s first Digital Decameron. 

“I was hesitant to share my experience,” explains Al-Olabi. But the feedback he received encouraged him to continue forward. “In the second internship,” he says, “I realized everyone empathized with my journey and valued my skills.” 

As a Level 2 intern, Al-Olabi worked with Shewbridge’s digital stories class in collaboration with 20 students at Hong Kong University. He provided his fellow students with script feedback and technical support for the “Global Voices in a Time of Pandemic” project. The project fosters intercultural dialog about COVID-19. 

Ahmad Al-Olabi in the atrium of UMBC’s Performing Arts and Humanities Building.
Photo by Azigza Hussen, 2019

Al-Olabi appreciated working with Shewbridge, whose filmmaking career and expertise have opened a new career option for him to explore. This experience has made him feel more prepared for the next step of his academic career. “Before this program, I wasn’t sure I was ready for an American university,” explains Al-Olabi. “Now that I know Professor Shewbridge and Ms. Jewett, and having been on campus, I feel I can be successful.” 

Reflection through storytelling

A third Montgomery College student, Stephanie Palencia, produced the personal story “Stand Up.” She addresses the importance of self-care while grappling with the pressures of cultural expectations and responsibilities. 

Palencia worked with Lizarazo and Charlotte Keniston, an LLC doctoral student and associate director of UMBC’s Peaceworker Program, on Lizarazo’s Migration Stories project. They organized audio, text, and images to create a story map that reflects the migration stories of some of the members of Maryland’s Latinx community. Palencia also assisted Lizarazo in a digital stories workshop she facilitated at The Universities at Shady Grove. 

“I’ve been grateful to have been invited to work on digital stories with Montgomery College students since 2019,” shares Lizarazo. She continued to work with these students on digital story projects through the pandemic. Of the partnership, she says, “This is truly an initiative in community-building beyond institutions.”

Building bridges to the future

Jewett notes that the internship engages students in critical thinking to refine their technical, communication, and storytelling skills. However, she explains, “The heart is about building meaningful relationships between MC students and UMBC faculty and staff as a bridge to university life.” It’s a mentoring process that reveals all that is possible at UMBC and beyond. 

Mark Siegrist. Photo courtesy of Siegrist.

“These relationships are invaluable,” shares Siegrist. He notes that the UMBC internship gave him access to a network of professors. Should he transfer, he will understand and know the community, where to access resources, and whom to ask for help. 

“This internship will have a big impact on my academic journey,” Siegrist says. “It showed me how I could leverage my skills to design new opportunities.”

Jewett hopes to bring more support and new opportunities to even more students. The spring internship is already underway with three new MC students. 

She and Amy Froide, a professor of history, also just received matching funding from Bringing Theory to Practice. It’s an organization that works to link the engaged learning, well-being, and civic development of students. This grant will help fund a new summer experience in public history with Howard Community College. 

“The impact increases for all involved,” Jewett says, “when students have learning opportunities to explore the different disciplines, networks, and resources UMBC offers, and to connect with mentors.” 

Banner image: Al-Olabi visiting UMBCs Imaging Resource Center photogrammetry 3D and motion capture scanning rig in December 2019. Photo by Azigza Hussen, a Montgomery College digital student intern visiting UMBC with Al-Olabi. All photos by Marlayna Demond unless otherwise noted.

The human hand is capable of exquisitely complex, coordinated movements. Ramana Vinjamuri hopes that, in the future, people will be able to control prosthetic hands and exoskeletons just as seamlessly, using signals from their brains. 

Vinjamuri’s research on the interconnections between the brain and the hand is very personal. His mother had a stroke in 2014 and developed paralysis in her right hand. “The very hand that taught me how to draw and how to write is now paralyzed,” he says.

To tackle questions about how the brain signals body movements, Vinjamuri, assistant professor of computer science and electrical engineering (CSEE) and director of Sensorimotor Control Laboratory, is gathering a team of UMBC researchers and corporate and government partners. He received an Industry University Cooperative Research Center (IUCRC) planning grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) in 2020, and he sees UMBC as perfectly situated to move this kind of high-impact research collaboration forward. 

While other U.S. universities near urban centers may also have industry partners in their areas, Maryland and Washington, D.C. uniquely host a large number of national institutes and federal agencies, in addition to companies. This includes the NIH, NSF, NASA, and others. And UMBC has a strong track record. The UMBC-led Center for Accelerated Real Time Analytics (CARTA) has already found success as an IUCRC composed of multiple universities, industry partners, and government agencies. 

Vinjamuri is proposing that UMBC join the Building Reliable Advances and Innovation in Neurotechnology (BRAIN) Center, a consortium led by Arizona State University and the University of Houston. His vision is to establish an East Coast BRAIN research hub to develop technologies that can help scientists better understand the nervous system and aid people with disabilities.

Benefits of collaboration

The NSF established the IUCRC program to offer academic researchers a framework for establishing long-term partnerships with industry and government agencies. In addition to providing funding, the program gives graduate students unique research experiences that can set them on a path to high-impact careers. 

“They learn how to work in a team, together with professionals from industry and the government,” says Yelena Yesha, distinguished university professor of CSEE and director of CARTA.

Corporate partners and government agencies also benefit since they gain the expertise of academic researchers. “It’s a win-win,” Vinjamuri says.

Dean Drake. Photo by Tim Ford for UMBC.

Representatives of each center’s member institutions meet twice a year to make updates to the consortium’s research goals. These meetings provide an opportunity for industry and government partners to highlight their priorities in particular areas, says Dean Drake, associate vice president for research at UMBC.

And the partners have a financial stake in the success of the IUCRC: Each year they pay membership fees that go toward the costs of research. 

From big data to actionable data

UMBC has been the lead university for CARTA, a multi-institution IUCRC, since its inception in 2018. The consortium’s roots are in the Center for Hybrid Multicore Productivity Research (CHMPR), founded in 2009. CHMPR aimed to develop advanced computing technologies to tackle complex problems of national priority, from human health to climate change. As large datasets gained widespread use, the researchers shifted their focus to new areas and CARTA was born.

“Big data by itself is trouble; what is really needed is actionable data,” Yesha says.

CARTA researchers are focused on real-time analytics, or how to interpret large amounts of data to make decisions quickly. For example, one project is exploring the use of blockchain, the distributed technology underlying bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, to optimize supply chains.

In addition to UMBC, CARTA includes higher education partners North Carolina State University, Rutgers University–New Brunswick, Rutgers University–Newark, and Tel Aviv University. Some of UMBC’s industry and government partners are the data management company Seagate Technology, financial services firm Morgan-Stanley, Department of Homeland Security, and NASA. 

“The challenges we examine require a convergence of technologies,” Yesha says. “Having the resources that come from all these different institutions at the table—as well as the brainpower—enables us to tackle these types of problems.”

Advancing neurotechnology

In proposing UMBC as a future BRAIN site, Vinjamuri hopes to connect with medical centers, companies, and government agencies specifically seeking to accelerate neurotechnology research. Neurotechnology is a broad discipline that includes everything from methods for measuring brain activity to tools for analyzing clinical data to human-centered computing, the focus of Vinjamuri’s research. 

The proposed UMBC BRAIN site will have three additional research themes: artificial intelligence, led by Nilanjan Banerjee, professor of CSEE and director of the Mobile, Pervasive, and Sensor Systems Lab; neural signal processing, led by Tülay Adali, distinguished university professor of CSEE and director of the Machine Learning for Signal Processing Lab; and virtual reality, led by Don Engel, assistant professor of CSEE and director of the Assistive Visualization and Artificial Intelligence Lab.

Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the planning grant timeline has been extended for an additional year. The funds will be used to hold a conference in upcoming fall 2021, to recruit potential industry and government partners for the proposed BRAIN site. Vinjamuri and colleagues will then prepare a formal proposal to join the BRAIN consortium.

“These collaborations across universities, industry, and government are critical to the success of carrying this research out to society,” says Drake, “to meet our most pressing needs.”

Banner image: 3D-Printed Prosthetic Hand, 2013. Photo by M.R.Nuckels. CC by 4.0. All other photos by Marlayna Demond ’11 for UMBC unless otherwise noted.

Article written by Jack J. Lee for UMBC News.

Anthony Johnson, a professor of both physics and computer science and electrical engineering (CSEE) at UMBC, has spent forty years investigating uses for ultrashort pulse lasers. Shrinking cancerous tumors, optimizing long-distance communications, inactivating viruses that commonly infect seafood species, developing new nanoscale materials—he seems to have done it all.

In addition to being an accomplished researcher, Johnson has successfully mentored dozens of students from all backgrounds as they pursued advanced degrees, maintaining contact and continuing to offer support long after graduation. And he’s held key leadership roles in his field, from co-chairing the annual Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics (CLEO) in 1992, to serving as president of the Optical Society in 2002 and as the editor-in-chief of Optics Letters, the premier peer-reviewed optics journal, from 1995 – 2001.

This year, Johnson’s long-term commitment has resulted in a new accolade: the Stephen D. Fantone Distinguished Service Award from the Optical Society. The award is presented each year to someone who has served the Optical Society in an “outstanding way” over an extended period.

Anthony Johnson. Photo courtesy Anthony Johnson.

Ever humble, “Being a past president [of the Optical Society], being on the board, and so forth, when I saw this email about this award, my initial thought was, ‘Ok, they want me to be on the committee to select the awardee,’” Johnson recalls. “It never occurred to me that it was for me. It was quite surprising, and it’s quite an honor.”

Inclusion imperative

Beyond his work within the Optical Society, Johnson was also recently named to the Committee on Diversity and Inclusion on the Technical Advisory Board of the Institute for Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). Johnson says there hasn’t been nearly enough change in the number of non-white and women physicists and engineers since he started in the 1970s, and he has made supporting inclusion in physics and engineering a cornerstone of his career.

“There’s still a lot to be done in our professional societies to build up and attract both women and minorities,” Johnson says. “We still have work to do to expand the opportunities to a broader set of people and bring in new ideas. So being on some of these committees is important.”

Closer to home, Johnson works hard to create an inclusive environment in his own research group. “I like to think of us as a family,” he says. 

Johnson knows how powerful it can be for young scientists to meet researchers with more experience and have opportunities to forge connections. With this in mind, he says, “I try to give my students as many opportunities as possible to go out and give presentations and be involved in the field of science.”

When working with students of all backgrounds, Johnson’s “kindness comes through,” says Stephen Fantone, after whom the award is named. Fantone has known Johnson for many years through the Optical Society, but has no role in the awardee selection process. He shares, “Anthony understands the role of nurturing students, helping them to find their inner spring and to fulfill their potential and their own personal dreams.”

Expert, colleague, friend

Students are not the only beneficiaries of Johnson’s support. “I gained many nuggets from his advice and leadership to the American Physical Society on graduate education and diversity, long before I made it to UMBC,” shares Belay Demoz, professor of physics and director of the Joint Center for Earth Systems Technology (JCET). “As another Black physicist at UMBC, he is my go-to guy for advice on how to handle delicate things; he is generous with his time and has a calming effect on me.”

Johnson’s colleagues recognize the range of important contributions he has made over the years. “The CSEE department is delighted to hear of these richly deserved honors for Dr. Johnson. He is a valued colleague in the department, and a world-renowned authority in the area of optics and photonics,” shares Anupam Joshi, professor and chair of CSEE. 

Joshi notes, “These awards recognize that in addition to being a great researcher, he embodies the service mission of a public university, addressing important societal challenges like diversity and inclusion through his service to the major professional organizations.” 

An exhilarating beginning

Johnson got his start in optics as an undergraduate at Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute (now the NYU Tandon School of Engineering) in the 1970s. A physics instructor encouraged him to pursue an internship at Bell Labs through the company’s Summer Research Program for Women and Minorities. The experience set Johnson’s entire career in motion.

“That’s where I really got my love of science and optics,” Johnson says. 

He earned his Ph.D. in physics from City College of New York, completing his doctoral research at Bell Labs. After his Ph.D., Johnson continued to work at Bell Labs for nearly 15 years, when the lab was in its heyday. “During my doctoral research at Bell Labs, I learned just how many celebrities in physics were there. I could walk down the hall and talk to people we put on pedestals,” Johnson remembers. “It was quite an experience.”

At Bell Labs, Johnson also had the opportunity to mentor interns coming through the same program that had gotten him started. His physics instructor’s impact on his trajectory was not lost on Johnson, and he made a concerted effort to pay it forward with his interns. Eventually, Johnson remembers, “I said, ‘You know, I could enjoy doing this at a university.’”

New home, same mission

So, Johnson made the move to academia. After eight years as a department chair at the New Jersey Institute of Technology, he joined UMBC in 2003. In 2006, he became the UMBC lead on the university’s very first inter-institutional research center when one of his former Bell Labs colleagues, now at Princeton University, suggested the idea.

NSF funded the Engineering Research Center (ERC), named Mid-Infrared Technologies for Health and the Environment (MIRTHE), for 10 years. The center supported research, graduate students, and an annual weeklong meeting where the students from the participating universities shared their progress and forged lasting connections. The six-institution collaboration was headquartered at Princeton, and Johnson served as one of two deputy directors.

The center’s work largely focused on medical applications of infrared technologies. For example, one of the group’s inventions included a breathalyzer-style device to detect ammonia, which can indicate liver and kidney problems.

Today, Johnson serves as the director of UMBC’s Center for Advanced Studies in Photonics Research (CASPR). “I’m cherishing being in academia and working with faculty and students, and, in particular, having students and graduating students pursuing advanced degrees,” Johnson says. “It’s really a satisfying process and enterprise, so that has been quite enjoyable.”

Distinctive approach to leadership

Colleagues also cherish their time with Johnson. In particular, Fantone says, Johnson is well-suited to handle challenging conversations. “In conversation, you can be on opposite sides of an issue, but he doesn’t adopt polarizing tactics,” Fantone says. “He wants to have civil discourse, which leads both parties in the discussion to a better place.” Fantone has seen this play out time and again in conversations with students and colleagues.

David Auston, one of Johnson’s first mentors at Bell Labs with a lengthy career in research and academic administration, is “thrilled” that Johnson is the 2021 award recipient. “Anthony is an outstanding scientist who has fulfilled many key leadership roles with distinction both in the Optical Society and in the scientific community at large,” Auston says. “This is a most deserving recognition of his numerous important contributions.” 

As he enters his fifth decade of professional life, it seems certain Johnson will keep on giving to his community by generating scientific advances, creating meaningful relationships, and inspiring others. As Fantone puts it, “Working with Anthony puts a smile on your face, even when you are working on serious problems. And when you work with Anthony, you have high confidence that the effort is going to be successful.”

“He’s just a person you want in the trenches with you,” Fantone says. “Anthony is an exemplar of a complete human being.”

Banner image: Johnson, right, examines a laser setup in his laboratory. Photo by Marlayna Demond ’11 for UMBC, taken 2017.

Starting out at UMBC, Meyerhoff Scholar Timothy Potteiger wasn’t certain what direction he wanted to take. However, he benefited from UMBC programs that brought the world to his doorstep, inviting universities to pitch him their summer research experiences. One conversation with Washington State University particularly resonated. They spoke about researching smart home sensor technologies to help improve the daily lives of older adults and people with disabilities. 

Potteiger ’14, computer engineering, was drawn to that purpose-driven approach. Little did he know that the program manager for that undergraduate research experience in 2013, Nirmalya Roy, would soon join UMBC’s faculty and expand research opportunities for even more undergraduates.

Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REUs) are critical for students like Potteiger. Roy, now associate professor of information systems at UMBC, is principal investigator leading a new REU in Smart Computing and Communications funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF). The program is accepting applications through March 31 for this summer from students nationwide. 

Potteiger is excited for students to take advantage of this opportunity. “I know Dr. Roy has a good vision on how to actually impact society with research,” he shares.

Transformative experience

The program will bring together ten undergraduate students in a paid 10-week, full-time research experience from June 7 to August 13. While the summer 2021 program will be remote, each student will work closely with a research group and mentor. They will receive guidance from Roy and co-PI Dmitri Perkins, as well as other information systems and computer science and electrical engineering (CSEE) faculty. 

In the final week, the students will have a chance to present their research through UMBC’s popular Summer Undergraduate Research Fest. They will also have the opportunity to develop peer-reviewed articles and continue their research throughout the year with faculty. 

“The idea of this experience is not only to give them exposure to hands-on research problems, but to also help undergraduates with professional development,” says Roy. “Developing a peer network and encouraging them to build confidence talking with professors and researchers in their field will be important for their careers.”

Real-world applications

One REU project will tackle privacy protection in COVID-19 contact tracing programs, while another will study a chatbox method for studying cryptocurrency. Roy will also give students the chance to optimize smart home sensors for seniors or work on the FloodBot project, a collaboration with nearby Ellicott City to create an early flood warning system after a 2018 flash flood caused catastrophic damage. 

Students can also work with Perkins, a CSEE professor, on research into wireless devices capable of “situational awareness,” the ability to switch from one frequency to the next along a limited radio spectrum highway. The interdisciplinary project is crucial to staving off what some experts fear is a looming, massive traffic jam for wireless devices globally.

“The hallmarks of all our projects is that they have community impact,” says Vandana Janeja, chair of information systems.

Expanding opportunity

Providing undergraduates with real, hands-on research experiences resonates personally with Perkins. He grew up in a no stop-light town in Mississippi and attended Tuskegee University, which had well-regarded academic programs but more limited lab research opportunities at the time. Perkins was able to gain research experience in a broader range of areas by participating in REUs at two other universities. 

Dmitri Perkins. Photo courtesy of Perkins.

Recognizing that many students come from similar backgrounds where research opportunities may be rare, the REU specifically encourages applicants from community colleges and groups traditionally underrepresented in the STEM fields. 

“With students from traditionally underserved communities, there is often some apprehension or insecurity about pursuing a career in research,” Perkins says. “Once students complete their UMBC summer experience, they will have more information, more understanding of what research looks like, and the knowledge that they can actually do this.”

Unique online experience

Jianwu Wang, information systems, has also joined the wave of faculty from UMBC’s College of Engineering and Information Technology (COEIT) launching new REUs. Wang is assistant professor of data science and director of the Big Data Analytics Lab. With co-PI Matthias Gobbert, professor of mathematics, he’s just received NSF funding to launch an online interdisciplinary Big Data REU.

They will provide an 8-week summer online research experience to undergraduates from across the country. Students will explore “how to utilize modern data science and high-performance computing techniques to process and analyze big data in many science and engineering disciplines,” Wang explains. This includes fields ranging from atmospheric science to mechanical engineering to medicine. 

“We’ve designed the program to be purely online so it is particularly useful for students in remote areas or who might have health concerns or concerns about travel,” says Wang. “We also want to make sure it is accessible to students with family responsibilities and disabilities, who may not be able to leave their home for an extended period of time.”

Big data research

This program will combine formal instruction, team-based research, and experience disseminating that research. The goal is to ignite students’ interest in “how data science and high-performance computing techniques could help the scientific discovery process” while giving them essential hands-on research skills and preparing them for the workforce.

Students will learn how to identify research questions and conduct research using advanced cyberinfrastructure software technologies and hardware resources. Tentative research themes for summer 2021 research projects include big data and machine learning techniques for sea ice prediction and for medical image classification. 

The summer 2021 program will run June 7 through July 31. Applications are due by April 15, 2021, and the organizers invite undergraduates in all STEM fields to apply. Students who complete the fully-funded program will also be eligible for additional funds to present their research at conferences around the country.

Roy and Wang credit COEIT for encouraging their efforts to launch new REUs. Erin Lavik, associate dean for research and faculty development and professor of chemical, biochemical, and environmental engineering, describes the new programs as “fantastic.” She shares, “This is an exciting chance to connect undergraduates from across the country with unique UMBC student research experiences and our outstanding, innovative faculty.”

Featured image: Nirmalya Roy with a student in 2018. All photos by Marlayna Demond ’11 for UMBC unless otherwise noted.

Article written by Nick Ford for UMBC News.

Cover of the new Chronicle report.

A new report from the Chronicle of Higher Education features UMBC’s peer-based work to boost faculty diversity. For decades, UMBC’s strong reputation for inclusive excellence has focused on student diversity. The new UMBC case study in “Diversifying Our Campus: Key Insights and Models for Change” expands that conversation.

The article notes that UMBC received National Science Foundation support to “revamp hiring processes, write more-inclusive job postings, and craft diversity plans for hiring and recruiting” in 2003. This $3.2 million Institutional Transformation Grant sought to promote the recruitment and advancement of women in STEM, and UMBC saw a 70% increase in women tenure-track STEM faculty. At the same time, the university’s recruitment of scholars from underrepresented racial and ethnic groups lagged.

UMBC adopted a new model called STRIDE: Strategies and Tactics for Recruiting to Improve Diversity and Excellence, developed at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor. A half-dozen faculty now serve as STRIDE fellows, working directly with search committees and departments to improve their processes. 

Frank conversations

As the article notes, “fellows have frank conversations with hiring committee members about how to retool their searches.” They bring in competing institutions’ job ads and have hiring committee members critique old UMBC job listings. They also help departments shift gears from recruiting for individual faculty openings to continuously recruiting by building relationships with emerging scholars in their fields.

STRIDE Fellow Nilanjan Banerjee, professor of computer science and electrical engineering, describes in the article how he shared data with his department on the connection between more diverse faculty and greater research funding and productivity. He then helped the department retool their process to advertise positions more widely and dig deeper into the CVs of candidates.

Seeing results

Autumn Reed, assistant vice provost for faculty affairs, directs the STRIDE program. She notes that initially, “there was a lot of resistance and a lot of skepticism” about STRIDE fellows connecting with hiring committees. But now that departments see other units successfully hiring candidates from underrepresented groups, they want to connect.

The article also highlights UMBC’s faculty diversity postdoc programs, through which 12 former fellows have been converted into tenure-track faculty members at UMBC.

Keisha McIntosh Allen is one of several scholars recruited to UMBC as a postdoctoral fellow for faculty diversity. She is now an assistant professor of education. Her research focuses on how race, culture, and identity influence the educational experiences of Black and Brown youth, including how teachers can engage students through asset-based and humanizing pedagogies.

Together, UMBC’s efforts to hire and retain more racially and ethnically diverse faculty have had an impact. In 2011-12, 9% of tenured and tenure-track faculty were Black, Latinx, or Native American. That increased to 15% in 2020-21.

Student Affairs leadership

Earlier this month, the Chronicle featured Nancy Young, vice president for student affairs, in a virtual roundtable on the Future of Student Affairs. The forum reached a national audience of more than 2,000 registrants. 

Viewers were eager to learn about how the COVID-19 pandemic has heightened or made more visible students’ needs for support, particularly students from disadvantaged, underrepresented, and vulnerable communities. The event was designed to “bring together student-affairs leaders to explore how the profession is adapting to new demands and the evolving campus landscape.”

Focus on connections

Young shared UMBC’s approach to campus safety during the pandemic and the transition back to more on-campus activities. Speaking more broadly about the future, she shared, “I think that what we’re seeing right now is an acceleration of many trends that were already underway,” whether in online learning, the kinds of careers students are preparing for, or the support they need.

At the same time, Young noted, “there are also many things that are going to stay the same, and that people can’t wait to get back to” post-COVID. In particular, she says, students just want to hang out with their friends. 

With this in mind, Young and her team have been working closely with student leaders and student groups. They’ve sought to better understand how the university can support students’ work to connect with each other, and to engage first-year students in particular. 

At a time when we are “no longer able to bump into people in the hallways,” she says, this means there is “more intentionality” and more active listening. And these thoughtful approaches have built lasting connections that will bolster the university community for years to come.

Banner image: Nilanjan Banerjee. All photos by Marlayna Demond ’11 for UMBC.

UMBC’s James Foulds was drawn to working in artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) by “the possibility to make a direct impact on people’s lives and the health of our society” through advancing technology. He has now earned a National Science Foundation CAREER Award of nearly $550,000 over five years to support his research on improving the fairness and robustness of AI algorithms. 

Foulds, assistant professor of information systems, joined UMBC in 2017. His lab focuses on human-centered approaches to AI fairness, working to address many practical limitations in the field.

Implementing an AI algorithm is often presented as a trade-off, Foulds explains. Do you want the program to be as productive as possible or as fair as possible? Foulds sees this as a false and harmful dichotomy.

Thanks to advances in AI, computers can accomplish tasks that would take a human a lifetime, but technologies built by people also perpetuate people’s biases, Foulds says. These biases can then have real impacts on people’s lives, often disproportionately harming already disadvantaged groups. For example, skewed AI and ML models have informed college admissions, credit card approvals, and recommendations for bail in court rooms. 

The ethics of adopting such systems and ways to mitigate their potential harms have become focal points in Foulds’s work.

Fair AI implementation across applications

Foulds’s research demonstrates that developing an AI algorithm that prioritizes fairness can in fact yield more robust results. Models are often used to make generalizations about a population of interest, which can be helpful. But when a model is developed based on biased data, the prediction can suffer from “overfitting,” where the model describes a relationship between variables that doesn’t actually reflect reality. 

In these cases, the model’s predictions can be misleading, rather than useful, and can cause real harm. A model that underscores fairness could provide more stable generalizations and help to avoid perpetuating or amplifying existing biases and false interpretations.

Researchers currently quantify fairness in a variety of ways. Through his CAREER Award-supported research, Foulds wants to develop a unifying framework. From there, he will create a user interface to study how people come to a consensus on defining fairness in a given situation.

The project will target decisions or advice based on things like Medicaid waitlist data, career recommendations, and social media usage data. These all have intrinsic biases that can significantly impact trends and outcomes in society, or the way industry addresses specific problems. 

For example, each U.S. state has a different way of determining who receives health coverage through Medicaid. Creating a better model to perform a needs-based ranking of the waitlist for Medicaid coverage could help officials make more informed, equitable decisions about who should receive coverage.

Bringing more people into the conversation

Foulds believes his research will mitigate barriers to responsible and effective deployment of AI technologies by showing that it is possible to develop a discipline-standard model for fairness. He hopes to make his lab a source of user-friendly AI tools for those who want to implement the model in their work.

As an educator, “I want to inspire the students I come into contact with to see how fascinating and exciting (and potentially lucrative) AI, ML, and data science are,” Foulds shares. “And I want to instill in them the importance of ethical thinking in the practice of data science.” 

Beyond his own courses, he hopes to partner with Baltimore Polytechnic Institute, a local STEM-focused high school, to provide students with exposure to a range of new career options that can have a major societal impact.

Public impact research

In addition to Foulds, UMBC is celebrating the recent CAREER Award of Ramana Vinjamuri, who joined the university’s computer science and electrical engineering faculty in 2020.

Vinjamuri’s project revolves around brain-computer interfaces and understanding the complex relation between the hand and the brain. His goal is to understand how the brain controls the hand and how the hand sends motor and sensory information back to the brain. 

Vinjamuri hopes to be able to demonstrate how a person might more quickly learn skilled movements (like playing the piano) or relearn lost movements after experiencing a stroke. Like Foulds, he feels energized to tackle big questions with the potential for significant public impact.

Banner image: James Foulds with his students in 2019. Photos by Marlayna Demond ’11 unless otherwise noted.

Story by Travis McKay ’19, chemical engineering, for UMBC News.