For anyone needing an extra push to make it through the final few weeks of spring semester, UMBC’s annual Undergraduate Research and Creative Achievement Day offers a healthy dose of extra energy and a contagious sense of curiosity. This year, the must-see, campus-wide event celebrates its 20th anniversary on April 27th with a diverse array of performances, film screenings, exhibits, posters, and talks.

“Creating a vibrant community of scholars is a major goal at UMBC, and URCAD is a realization of that goal,” says Diane Lee, vice provost and dean of undergraduate education.

“Undergraduates in every field share the knowledge they have gained,” Lee explains. “Beyond the talks and performances we all look forward to, through conducting and sharing their research and creative work, our students develop habits of mind that will serve them well in the future.”

Andreas Seas ’17, chemical engineering, agrees wholeheartedly. “Being involved in this research has really shaped what I want to do after I graduate from UMBC,” he says. “It has provided clarity as well as given me something that I can channel my passion into.”

Seas’s research focuses on risk factors for strain to femoral arteries, as part of a larger project in collaboration with the University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC). Seas’s experience at the medical center combined research and clinical work. He says, “Working with UNMC has definitely helped me focus in on what I am passionate about—improving patient care by developing more effective treatment techniques.”

This Goldwater Scholar still has one more year as an undergraduate researcher before pursuing an M.D./Ph.D. degree. For now, he encourages all of his classmates to attend URCAD if they can: “Not only is it really cool to see what everybody is doing, you never know what will spark your interest or what you can contribute to someone’s work.”

Nneka Opara ’16, psychology, began attending URCAD as a freshman. “It’s been a very inspirational event to attend every year and see the [work] students just like me are doing. It left me with the sense that I could achieve just as much as they were if I put my mind to it.”

For many UMBC students, who want to tackle tough questions that reach across different fields, URCAD is a chance to see up close what interdisciplinary research looks like and to learn about opportunities to do research that has real, positive outcomes.

Brittney Kramer ’16, English, shares that URCAD “is a way for all of the disciplines to come together and see what everyone is doing. It’s a way of showing how much research impacts every aspect of our lives.”

“A lot of times when you go into an English major, you think research is something [for science students],” Kramer says, “but this is a chance to really see how [all kinds of] research has an impact.” This includes Kramer’s own contributions to building a digital exhibit on women working in American textile mills during the nineteenth century, in collaboration with the American Antiquarian Society.

Filmmaker Paul Oh ’17, visual arts, describes URCAD as a helpful opportunity for creative students who want to begin connecting with audiences, but can’t yet access big festivals or performance opportunities. “It’s great that URCAD displays undergraduate work and allows people like myself…to exhibit their work for other students and peers,” he says.

Visit the URCAD website to access the brief event schedule and full schedule with abstracts, to learn about the featured speaker, or to see sneak peeks of select research projects. Guests can support participating students by asking them about their research during the event, and by sharing photos and messages on social media with #URCAD, #UMBC50, and #UMBCproud.

“Support is so important,” says URCAD presenter Austin Maduka ’17, biochemistry. “The support I received as an undergraduate pursuing my own research career has transformed my life,” he shares. For Maduka and his fellow student researchers, URCAD is a day to honor that transformation.

Ganesh Mysore
Plans: Working in biotech while applying to graduate schools
B.S., Chemical Engineering; B.A., Political Science
Cum Laude
Hometown: Clarksville, Maryland

The opportunities I had, and the guidance I received, at UMBC have shaped me into an engaged citizen, and not just a capable engineer.

Ganesh Mysore isn’t earning a degree this spring; he’s actually earning two degrees in very different fields and he’s passionate about them both. Through advanced coursework in both chemical engineering and political science, Mysore has developed a unique skill set and approach to solving challenging problems, he says.

Mysore is a member of the Honors College and Pi Sigma Alpha, the national honor society for political science, and recipient of the Premier Award Scholarship. Beyond his achievements in the classroom, he has also been a highly engaged campus leader, serving as president of UMBC’s Student Government Association as a junior and as a member the working group for BreakingGround, UMBC’s nationally recognized civic engagement initiative.

Mysore credits UMBC mentors with helping him understand the importance of creating positive change through taking action in his community, whether that is a community of students or, in the future, engineering professionals.

Portrait by Marlayna Demond ‘11 for UMBC.

Where many see waste, UMBC’s Lee Blaney, assistant professor of chemical, biochemical and environmental engineering, sees opportunity.

As Blaney explains in Chemical & Engineering News, poultry litter is a very abundant waste product that is regularly used as a fertilizer, but its high phosphorus content poses challenges. Blaney and the students in his lab extract phosphorus from poultry litter in a way that provides a sustainable source of that nutrient for farmers who want to use it, and leaves behind rich organic matter that can be used as fertilizer by farmers who do not want to add more phosphorus to their soil.

In Maryland, new regulations will be fully implemented by 2022 that will limit the amount of phosphorus allowable in fields, to prevent phosphorus runoff that can damage local watersheds. The amount of phosphorus already in the soil will impact the amount of phosphorus farmers can add to their land as fertilizer.

Blaney uses reactors to extract phosphorus from poultry litter. The extracted phosphorus can be sold to farmers who want to add higher levels of the nutrient to their land within the new guidelines, and the leftover material can be used by people who want fertilizer for their land but have already hit the phosphorus limit.

“The easiest thing to do—and what has been historically successful—is to use litter as fertilizer,” says Blaney. He explains that the method that he uses in his lab can be a cost-effective option for farmers to add phosphorus to their land within legal limits, reuse a material that is abundant, keep costs low, and access a new source of revenue in excess isolated phosphorus that can be resold. Blaney is working with several farmers on Maryland’s Eastern Shore, and hopes to have a phosphorus extraction system up and running on one farm in Wicomico County, Maryland in the next year.

Read “How to get the good stuff out of chicken manure” in Chemical & Environmental News.

Image: Lee Blaney works with a student in his lab. Photo by Tim Ford, coordinator of illustrative services in the biological sciences department at UMBC.

Three UMBC students in the College of Engineering and Information Technology (COEIT) have been named Barry Goldwater Scholars for the 2016-2017 academic year. The Barry Goldwater Scholarship and Excellence in Education Program seeks to provide the United States with “a continuing source of highly qualified scientists, mathematicians, and engineers.”

As Goldwater Scholars, Daniel Ocasio ‘17, Naomi Mburu ‘18, and Andreas Seas ‘17, all chemical engineering majors, will receive substantial scholarship funding.

This highly competitive national scholarship has a major impact on each recipient’s educational path. Ocasio shares, “As a first generation college student, I feel extremely fortunate to be pursuing higher education, let alone a career in scientific research. To me, earning the Goldwater Scholarship is recognition of all those who made it possible for me to further my academic development.”

This year, a new initiative coordinated by Mitsue Wiggs, assistant director of the Meyerhoff Scholars Program, allowed UMBC students interested in applying for a Goldwater Scholarship to receive feedback on their applications before formally submitting the materials. Applicants shared early versions with alumni of the Meyerhoff Scholars Program, who reviewed the draft applications and provided advice before the students submitted their official applications to UMBC’s Goldwater Scholarship Selection Committee.

David Eisenmann, associate professor of biological sciences; Lee Blaney, assistant professor of chemical, biochemical and environmental engineering (CBEE) and Simon Stacey, director of UMBC’s Honors College, served on the UMBC Goldwater Scholarship Selection Committee this year. The committee reviewed applications, and provided advice and feedback to nominees on their essays.

At UMBC, Seas is involved with both the Meyerhoff Scholars Program and MARC U*STAR Program. He has also worked closely with faculty mentors at the University of Nebraska Medical Center’s Collaboration for Advanced Surgical and Engineering Applications. After pursuing a Ph.D. in biomedical engineering, he would like to become a professor and do vascular mechanobiology research. “I am honored that my contributions to science have been recognized by the Goldwater Committee,” he said. “My only hope is that I continue to learn from the world around me and contribute to the advancement of human knowledge.”

Ocasio has worked as a student researcher in Lee Blaney’s lab for over a year, and credits Blaney with helping to push him beyond his expectations for his undergraduate experience, and to pursue research as a career. Ocasio would like to pursue a Ph.D. in environmental engineering with the goal of conducting research related to water treatment and quality.

Mburu began research as a high school student with Lasse Lindahl, professor of biological sciences. She says that early exposure to research sparked her interest and encouraged her to join other labs and explore a variety of research areas. As an undergraduate at UMBC, she has worked with Gymama Slaughter, assistant professor of computer science and electrical engineering, who has inspired Mburu to pursue research on energy sources. Mburu also worked with mechanical engineering faculty at Vanderbilt University, producing research that formed the basis of her Goldwater Scholarship application. Mburu’s goal is to pursue a Ph.D. in nuclear engineering, and then teach physics and do nuclear energy development research.

“Being chosen for this prestigious scholarship as a sophomore is such an honor,” says Mburu. “I thank God for this amazing opportunity, and I am incredibly grateful for the wealth of opportunities UMBC had provided for me to make my goal of making an important contribution to the scientific world a reality.”

Image: Andreas Seas, Naomi Mburu and Daniel Ocasio (left-right) have been named Goldwater Scholars for 2016-2017. Photo by Marlayna Demond ’11 for UMBC.

Maryland Secretary of Commerce Mike Gill visited UMBC on April 7, 2016, for an afternoon focused on UMBC research and entrepreneurship.

While at UMBC, Secretary Gill met with President Freeman Hrabowski and UMBC leaders focused on research and technology commercialization, including Ellen Hemmerly, executive director of the bwtech@UMBC Research & Technology Park. He also toured the lab of Govind Rao, director of the Center for Advanced Sensor Technology (CAST) and professor of chemical, biochemical, and environmental engineering (CBEE).

CAST is known as an international leader in developing revolutionary technologies intended to scale up to impact lives across the globe. One tool currently under development is a portable, briefcase-sized bioreactor that rapidly manufactures medicines, replacing airdrops of pharmaceutical supplies to battlefields with point-of-care technology to manufacture specific drugs as they are needed. Rao’s lab has also developed an affordable incubator for vulnerable newborns in low-resource areas. With co-PI Yodan Kostov, CBEE research professor, and faculty collaborators from the College of Engineering and Information Technology, Rao is also working on a wearable system to track asthma triggers in pediatric patients, supported through a nearly $2 million award from NIH.

“I often say that economic development is a team sport, and an important player on Maryland’s team is UMBC,” says Secretary Gill. “Our higher education institutions foster the spirit of innovation and entrepreneurship that help drive Maryland’s industry sectors like cyber and life sciences. It was terrific seeing firsthand the great work that UMBC’s researchers and innovators are doing.”

“We were proud to share with Secretary Gill the strong record of our faculty in launching new companies and contributing to the Maryland economy,” says Karl Steiner, vice president for research. “UMBC and bwtech have been partnering successfully for a long time on creating and attracting businesses that match our scientific strengths in cybersecurity, life sciences and environmental technologies.”

Secretary Gill began his service in the Maryland Department of Commerce in January 2015, after four decades as an entrepreneur, tech executive, and investment banker. His work with UMBC extends back over a decade, through his service on the University System of Maryland Board of Regents, 2004-2009. Sec. Gill’s team includes Brady Walker ’08, political science, special assistant to the secretary.

Image: Maryland Secretary of Commerce Mike Gill, Brady Walker, and  Prof. Govind Rao (left-right). Photo by Marlayna Demond ’11 for UMBC.

More than five million Americans have been diagnosed with bipolar disorder, and Kafui Dzirasa ‘01, chemical engineering, is working to develop an electrical device that would stabilize a person’s mood without the side effects caused by medications. His work is featured in “Ride the Tiger: A Guide Through the Bipolar Brain,” a new PBS documentary that gives viewers a glimpse into the lives and stories of people with bipolar disorder.

Dzirasa, assistant professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Duke University, describes how he is able to approach studying the brain from the perspective of an engineer.

Nearly one third of people with bipolar disorder are prescribed lithium as a way to help manage their symptoms. “These medications go everywhere in the brain. And when they go everywhere, the come along with some side effects that are pretty troubling,” explains Dzirasa.

When it comes to treatment, Dzirasa says, “We want to do the least necessary thing to get [a beneficial] outcome.”

The device that he is creating is able to specifically target a certain part of the brain where there is a “roadblock.” “Because the stimulation is only going where you need it, you don’t have to worry about any of the other side effects,” he notes.

The technology Dzirasa is developing is being tested on mice, which are injected with a human bipolar gene and over time begin to show behaviors that are similar to behaviors exhibited by people with bipolar disorder.

Watch the full documentary “Ride the Tiger: A Guide Through the Bipolar Brain” on PBS or in the window below. Learn more about Dzirasa’s research in a recent UMBC News article about his Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers.

Image: Dr. Kafui Dzirasa. Photo by Les Todd, Duke Photography. 

Six members of the UMBC community, including one current undergraduate and five recent alumni, have received highly competitive National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowship Awards for 2016.

“Through the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program, the nation invests in those individuals who have shown great potential to excel in STEM graduate programs and become the next generation of research leaders,” explains Janet Rutledge, vice provost and dean of the Graduate School at UMBC.

The high number of UMBC students and alumni who receive NSF Graduate Research Fellowship awards demonstrates national recognition of the quality of a UMBC education, which is particularly well regarded for providing robust research experiences for undergraduate and graduate students alike.

Gaurav Luthria ‘16, bioinformatics; Nicholas Rogers ‘15, chemical engineering; Akua Nimarko ‘15, biological sciences and psychology; Abraham Beyene ‘08, chemical engineering; Abigail Jackson ‘15, biochemistry and molecular biology; and Hythem Sidky ‘11, chemical engineering, all received fellowships for 2016. The three-year-long awards support students pursuing master’s and doctoral degrees in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields.

Luthria will use the fellowship funding to support a Ph.D. in bioinformatics and integrative genomics at Harvard Medical School, beginning in the fall. “Since coming to UMBC, I have received tremendous support and exposure to a wide array of research projects,” he says. “I am very excited for graduate school and hope to conduct significant research and develop computational tools to help doctors, scientists, and patients understand, diagnose, and treat human disease.”

Rogers received offers from ten Ph.D. programs, and is now deciding where he will pursue his degree.“The NSF GRF is a tremendous honor for me. It reflects my growth as a researcher and the mentorship that has guided me along this path,” he says. “Many others who have won this fellowship before me have emphasized that the impact of this award stretches beyond what I can see now, and I am very excited to see what opportunities it provides!”

Nimarko, pursuing a Ph.D. in neuroscience at Stanford University School of Medicine, shares, “I am grateful for the opportunities at UMBC that allowed me to successfully compete for this fellowship.”

Image: Akua Nimarko. Photo by Marlayna Demond ’11 for UMBC. 

Congressman Elijah Cummings visited UMBC this month to speak with faculty, staff, and students from across the university about UMBC’s national leadership as a research university and commitment to growing Baltimore through long-term partnerships in local communities.

The morning focused on several major UMBC research centers and labs. Joining Congressman Cummings were Belay Demoz, director of the Joint Center for Earth Systems Technology (JCET); Jan Merka, director of the Goddard Planetary Heliophysics Institute (GPHI); Jane Turner, associate director of the Center for Research and Exploration in Space Science and Technology (CRESST); Gymama Slaughter, assistant professor of computer science and electrical engineering and director of the Bioelectronics Laboratory; and Lee Boot, associate director of the Imaging Research Center (IRC).

Tyson King-Meadows, incoming associate dean of the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences and Karl V. Steiner, vice president for research, also offered their perspectives on UMBC’s well-rounded research portfolio, beyond the conversation’s focus on research strengths in physics, geosciences, space science, and bioengineering.

After a brief campus tour, Congressman Cummings met with several leaders among UMBC staff whose work focuses on students’ academic success, including Renetta Tull, associate vice provost for graduate student development; Keith Harmon, director of the Meyerhoff Scholars Program, and others.

The congressman also spoke at length with scholars from UMBC’s three colleges: Sheniqua Brown ’15, M.S. chemical engineering; Marina Congedo ’17, physics and ancient studies; Ciara Davis ’17, mechanical engineering; Joseph Hunter ’16, biological sciences; Da’Kuawn Johnson ’17, biochemistry; Naomi Mburu ’17, chemical engineering; Larry Morton ’16, biological sciences; Alexis O’Malley ’16, psychology and mathematical sciences; Andreas Seas ’16, mechanical engineering; and Manisha Vepa ’18, economics and global studies.

These students represented the Sherman STEM Teacher Scholars Program, Meyerhoff Scholars Program, and UMBC Honors College. They are pursuing a range of PhD and MD/PhD programs and the most prestigious national and internships and fellowships available. They also spoke of their experiences with and deep personal commitments to community engagement in Baltimore, supporting local groups from refugee communities to elementary school students.

Images: Congressman Elijah Cummings visits UMBC on March 10, 2016. Photo by Marlayna Demond ’11 for UMBC.

In “A passion for research” the Baltimore Sun highlights how undergraduate students at Baltimore area colleges and universities benefit from robust research opportunities across disciplines, including through an exciting new partnership connecting environmental scientists at UMBC with colleagues around the nation.

The Urban Water Innovation Network (UWIN), featured in the article, is one of several multidisciplinary partnerships in which UMBC is actively participating. It was recently created through a $12 million commitment from the National Science Foundation to unite the work of more than a dozen academic institutions  studying the challenges that threaten urban water systems. UMBC undergraduates are closely involved in research working toward UWIN’s goal of creating solutions to help communities become more prepared to respond to water crises.

“It’s a nice opportunity to play a part in a project of national scope. It’s quite an honor,” Claire Welty, professor of chemical, biochemical and environmental engineering (CBEE), director of the Center for Urban Environmental Research and Education (CUERE), and the lead researcher at UMBC for the UWIN grant told the Baltimore Sun.

Andrew Miller, professor of geography and environmental systems, shared, “UMBC has been doing research like this” for years, but being invited to join UWIN felt like “a baseball player getting to be involved in a world series.”

“The idea is to create a network of scientists to help solve environmental problems,” explains Chris Swan, professor of geography and environmental systems. He adds that many universities within the network are including undergraduate and graduate students who can benefit from the networking opportunities the partnership creates.

Miller says that ultimately this intensive collaboration will lead to improved research outcomes, noting, “It’s a big interdisciplinary project with networks of people working together who combine a variety of expertise.”

“One person is not going to solve these types of problems,” Miller explains. “We will all learn from each other and do things we couldn’t do on our own.”

Read the full article on The Baltimore Sun.

Image: Claire Welty and two students conducting research in the field. Photo by Chris Hartlove.

Kafui Dzirasa ‘01, chemical engineering, has been named a recipient of the prestigious Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE). He will be presented with the award during a White House event in spring 2016. This award is the highest honor that the U.S. government presents to science and engineering professionals in the early stages of their research careers.

Dzirasa’s award is funded by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

While he was a student at UMBC, Dzirasa was a Meyerhoff scholar. He is now an assistant professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Duke University, where he received both his MD and his PhD in neurobiology.

Duke’s announcement of this award describes: “Dzirasa’s research uses multiple small electrodes in the brains of mice to measure interactions of genes and environment. Ultimately, he would like to develop a ‘pacemaker’ for the brain to restore neural circuits affecting mood and cognition.”

Update: Dzirasa received his award at the White House on May 5, 2016. A photo from the event is below. Dzirasa is one row behind and two people to the right of President Barack Obama.

Image: Dr. Kafui Dzirasa, top; PECASE recipients at the White House event, bottom. Photos by Les Todd, Duke Photography (top), and Lawrence Jackson, official White House photographer (bottom).