Nancy Kusmaul, associate professor of social work, a scholar and advocate for the rights of older adults and professional caregivers, received the “Outstanding Individual in Academia” award from the Congressional Research Institute for Social Work and Policy in March 2024 at a ceremony on Capitol Hill. Kusmaul’s work is informed by her 10 years of experience as a social worker and over a decade of novel scholarship. 

As co-chair of the Committee on Aging for the Maryland Chapter of the National Association of Social Workers, Kusmaul helps advance programming for seniors, professional development for social workers in the aging field, and inform policy and legislation. In 2019, Kusmaul served as a  Health and Aging Policy Fellow at the office of U.S. Senator Ron Wyden and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services learning about how Congress and the executive branch create policies that affect care for frail older adults. 

Social work advocacy and policy

“During my time as a nursing home and hospital social worker, I witnessed the day-to-day impact of policy on practice, when families had to choose between the best of less-than-desirable options. As a scholar, I answer questions and promote policies to improve those options,” says Kusmaul. Her research and advocacy focus on improving nursing home care and organizational culture as well as the understanding of trauma experiences on direct care workers, care recipients, and their families.

 “Advocacy is a central tenet of social work, and this award recognizes my time, collaboration, and leadership in this area on behalf of older adults and their families,” says Kusmaul who recently published “Let’s cut out the ageism and the notion of getting ‘too old’” in the Baltimore Sun.

Kusmaul’s first textbook, Aging and Social Policy in the United States, is one of the first textbooks designed to provide students with an in-depth understanding of the conditions and policies at the local, state, and federal level that affect the rights and interests of senior citizens.

Measuring nursing home care

Her work continues in the classroom and the “lab” as a co-investigator in a new interdisciplinary research project with principal investigator Roberto Millar, M.A ’19, sociology, Ph.D. ’20, gerontology, a policy analyst advanced at The Hilltop Institute at UMBC, and co-investigator, Ian Stockwell, associate professor of information systems. For the first time, the researchers will also combine data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ Care Compare database and results of the Maryland Family Satisfaction Survey. The survey assesses the experiences of family members with loved ones in Maryland nursing homes and, Kusmaul’s research, offers a unique approach to measuring quality of care.

“There are no national measures of nursing home quality that consider the experiences of family members,” she explains. “When we think about what quality is and the outcomes we’re measuring, we have to think about the different perspectives of what is good nursing home care.”

Halaevalu Fonongava’inga Ofahengaue Vakalahi, president and chief executive officer of the Council on Social Work Education, who attended the March event in D.C., said, “This award is absolutely well-deserved because Nancy is a champion of all things aging and gerontology. There could not be anyone more fitting for this award!”

Learn more about UMBC’s School of Social Work.

UMBC’s Undergraduate Research and Creative Achievement Day (URCAD) returned earlier this month for its 28th year, bringing together more than 400 student presenters and the broader university community for a day filled with posters, performances, demonstrations, and much more. 

With excitement and energy in the air of the University Center, undergraduate students—many accompanied by faculty mentors—presented a broad range of research and creative projects to peers, family, friends, and inquiring minds of all kinds. The day included a film festival, interactive video game demonstrations, musical performances, a photography and painting exhibition, as well as poster board and oral presentations from students across colleges. 

“This showcase event not only exemplifies UMBC’s commitment to our students from all disciplines, but defines our commitment by providing them the opportunity to engage in mentored projects, and, through creative thought and focused inquiry, to discover in themselves their passion,” said Katherine Cole, dean and vice provost of undergraduate academic affairs. 

Among this year’s group of presenters was Chiad Onyeje ’24, chemical engineering, who explained the research he’s worked on for nearly three years to develop “spherical shells that we can use as internal Band-Aids” he said in this URCAD 2024 recap video. 

“URCAD is different from any other presentations that I’ve been able to give on my research thus far. It really felt like a celebration in comparison,” said Onyeje. “I could go in, have a good time, talk about my research to interested parties, and share why I love this project so much—because it can help people.”

From URCAD to the Mayor’s Office

Stefanie Mavronis ’12, political science, media and communication studies, delivered this year’s URCAD keynote speech. Just over a decade ago, Mavronis, who is the director of the Mayor’s Office of Safety and Engagement (MONSE) in Baltimore City, was once a student presenter at URCAD where she premiered her short documentary titled, “Reclamation and Resistance: Audiovisual Tools in Bolivia.” 

“The documentary captured the experiences of indigenous Bolivians who were using art and media technologies to challenge and transform the legacy of hundreds of years of colonization in Bolivia. I learned about decolonization, self determination, reciprocity, and representation,” Mavronis shared with the audience. 

Mavronis, a UMBC Sondheim Public Affairs Scholar alumna, spoke of her journey to finding her passion for public service and how it led to her positions within Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott’s election campaign and then office. Her work in MONSE has resulted in the office’s implementation of Baltimore’s Comprehensive Violence Prevention Plan—the city’s first ever comprehensive, 5-year public safety strategy. 

“When I think back to it, it was UMBC that was the first to help me see myself as a creative practitioner. It’s the place that prepared me to confront the challenges and harsh realities of the world head on and to do so while embracing clear values,” says Mavronis. “It was through my time at UMBC that I uncovered my commitment to Baltimore…through the opportunities that the institution afforded me to see the world outside of the city.”

“Supporting our students’ applied learning experiences is central to our mission at UMBC,” added Cole, “as it develops creative thinking skills, the ability to communicate effectively, analyze information, share stories, and connect with people from diverse cultures, disciplines, and ideologies. These are the skills our students will take forward as leaders of the future.”

For more on UMBC’s undergraduate research and creative work, check out the 2024 UMBC Review, the journal of undergraduate research, volume 25. Free copies of the current issue are available for pick up at the Office of Undergraduate Research and Prestigious Scholarships, located in the Albin O. Kuhn Library and Gallery.

Ramana Vinjamuri, associate professor in computer science and electrical engineering, recently received funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to support UMBC’s participation in a industry-university cooperative research center aiming to improve how we diagnose and treat people with conditions such as neurological disorders, brain injury, mental illness, limb loss, and paralysis. The center, called BRAIN (Building Reliable Advances and Innovations in Neurotechnology), brings together partners from academia, industry, and the regulatory and clinical communities to develop safe, effective, and affordable personalized neurotechnologies.

The need for such technologies is driven by an increase in survivable trauma and an aging population, Vinjamuri says. However, several challenges are holding back progress, including costly equipment, lagging standards for verifying the safety, efficacy, and reliability of devices, and an undersupply of physicians and engineers trained in emerging technologies.  

The BRAIN Center aims to tackle these challenges by bringing together experts in a wide range of topics, from neural, cognitive, and rehabilitation engineering to neurorobotics, neuromodulation, and ethical artificial intelligence. As an Industry–University Cooperative Research Center (I/UCRC), it emphasizes academic research conducted jointly with innovative industry partners, and UMBC’s location will facilitate cooperation with northeast-based biomedical companies.

“BRAIN will become a neurotechnology hub by creating a pipeline from discoveries to solutions, while helping students, scientists, and engineers solve one of the greatest unmet medical and healthcare needs of our time,” Vinjamuri says. 

UMBC’s participation will expand the center’s research into new areas such as artificial intelligence, neural signal processing, cyber-human systems, human-centered computing, neural imaging and stimulation, and virtual/augmented/mixed reality. Other UMBC researchers who will contribute to the center’s activities include Tulay Adali, Nilanjan Banerjee, Fow-sen Choa, Don Engel, Seung-Jun Kim, and Charles Nicholas. BRAIN is the second I/UCRC at UMBC, joining the Center for Accelerated Real Time Analytics (CARTA), which recently received a second round of funding.

While Earth Day may be a one-day affair, our everyday actions affect the Earth 365 days of the year. This April, UMBC is celebrating Earth Month, allowing the community to dedicate time to reflect more deeply on the environmental challenges we are facing and also celebrate the many gifts our world has to offer. In partnership with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the United States Geological Survey (USGS), UMBC is hosting a lineup of free, exciting, Earth Day events happening all month! You don’t even need to leave campus to join in on the fun all while learning about how we can all do our part to take care of our planet.

1. Watch the Solar Eclipse (with proper glasses)

Head over to the Quad, on April 8 from 2 to 4 p.m., and join your fellow earthlings from the Astronomy Club for a watch party of the solar eclipse! The eclipse will trace a narrow path of darkness across North America where the moon will pass between the Sun and the Earth, creating a partial eclipse. Watch as more than 88 percent of the Sun will be obstructed from view at UMBC. (Left, a group watches the 2017 eclipse in front of the AOK Library.)

2. Go see the play “SLIME”

As part of the Plays for Our Planet initiative, the Department of Theatre is producing Byrony Lavery’s “SLIME,” directed by Nigel Semaj. The play is about seven graduate students who appear at the Third Annual Slime Crisis Conference, fighting to save the Earth from a toxic slime that is threatening all animal life.

Performances will take place from April 4 to 14, and on April 14, there will be a free matinee for students, followed by a post-show actor talk-back, featuring, Dawn Biehler of UMBC’s Department of Geography and Environmental Systems. You don’t want to miss this opportunity to educate yourself on climate change in an engaging and entertaining way.

3. Run the Earth Day 3K 

Enjoy the spring weather and head over to RAC for the annual free Earth Day 3K Run on April 17. Don’t worry if you’re not a competitive runner, walking is encouraged as well. If you’re up for the challenge, you can sign up here, or via walk-up registration the day of from 11 a.m.to noon. Prizes will be awarded to the top finishers, and the first 100 completed racers will receive Earth Day T-Shirts. 

The event begins at 12:15 p.m. and refreshments will be provided post-race. All participants will have a chance to connect with the community and become more aware of earth sciences and the environment. UMBC students, faculty, as well as anyone in the Baltimore community is encouraged to participate!

4. Bring global change down to Earth

For most of us, managing greenhouse gas emissions and watching distant islands flood or glaciers melt are far beyond our reach. However, the pervasive reach of an environmental reckoning means we have local issues, with much for all of us to work on. This panel on April 22 will bring together scholars from public policy, geography and environmental systems, and beyond to discuss multiple ways to understand climate work.

5. Check out research from the UMBC community

There is so much groundbreaking research happening at UMBC conducted by students, faculty, staff, and community members, and you can learn all about it at Earth Day Community Day on the Quad on April 22. There will be two sessions, one starts at 10 a.m. and another at 1 p.m. Take this time to enrich your understanding of the research being carried out at UMBC and how it has had a significant impact on the Baltimore community and beyond.

6. Attend an Earth Day panel

After checking out Community Day on the Quad, be sure to catch the panel, Climate Change, Science Communication, and the Arts. Artist Anastasia Samoylova (Gator, 2017, left) will be joining scientists and media historians for a panel discussion on April 22. 

Along with Anastasia Samoylova—the photographer behind the vivid pictures in the exhibit “Floodzone” which takes a look at how climate change has affected the southern U.S.—the panelists will include, Autumn Powell, a UMBC graduate student in geography and environmental systems, Lavar Thomas, a special assistant within the EPA’s administrator’s office, and Tracy Tinga, assistant professor in media and communication studies. This event will be a discussion of how to use of how to use alternate forms of communication, including art, to describe climate change findings to a general audience. The event will take place at the AOK Library Gallery at 5 p.m. 

Written by Richard Forno, principal lecturer in computer science and electrical engineering, UMBC

Volt Typhoon is a Chinese state-sponsored hacker group. The United States government and its primary global intelligence partners, known as the Five Eyes, issued a warning on March 19, 2024, about the group’s activity targeting critical infrastructure.

The warning echoes analyses by the cybersecurity community about Chinese state-sponsored hacking in recent years. As with many cyberattacks and attackers, Volt Typhoon has many aliases and also is known as Vanguard Panda, Bronze Silhouette, Dev-0391, UNC3236, Voltzite and Insidious Taurus. Following these latest warnings, China again denied that it engages in offensive cyberespionage.

Volt Typhoon has compromised thousands of devices around the world since it was publicly identified by security analysts at Microsoft in May 2023. However, some analysts in both the government and cybersecurity community believe the group has been targeting infrastructure since mid-2021, and possibly much longer.

Volt Typhoon uses malicious software that penetrates internet-connected systems by exploiting vulnerabilities such as weak administrator passwords, factory default logins and devices that haven’t been updated regularly. The hackers have targeted communications, energy, transportation, water and wastewater systems in the U.S. and its territories, such as Guam.

In many ways, Volt Typhoon functions similarly to traditional botnet operators that have plagued the internet for decades. It takes control of vulnerable internet devices such as routers and security cameras to hide and establish a beachhead in advance of using that system to launch future attacks.

Operating this way makes it difficult for cybersecurity defenders to accurately identify the source of an attack. Worse, defenders could accidentally retaliate against a third party who is unaware that they are caught up in Volt Typhoon’s botnet.

Why Volt Typhoon matters

Disrupting critical infrastructure has the potential to cause economic harm around the world. Volt Typhoon’s operation also poses a threat to the U.S. military by potentially disrupting power and water to military facilities and critical supply chains.

Microsoft’s 2023 report noted that Volt Typhoon could “disrupt critical communications infrastructure between the United States and Asia region during future crises.” The March 2024 report, published in the U.S. by the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, likewise warned that the botnet could lead to “disruption or destruction of critical services in the event of increased geopolitical tensions and/or military conflict with the United States and its allies.”

Volt Typhoon’s existence and the escalating tensions between China and the U.S., particularly over Taiwan, underscore the latest connection between global events and cybersecurity.

Defending against Volt Typhoon

The FBI reported on Jan. 31, 2024, that it had disrupted Volt Typhoon’s operations by removing the group’s malware from hundreds of small office/home office routers. However, the U.S. is still determining the extent of the group’s infiltration of America’s critical infrastructure.

On March 25, 2024, the U.S. and U.K. announced that they had imposed sanctions on Chinese hackers involved in compromising their infrastructures. And other countries, including New Zealand, have revealed cyberattacks traced back to China in recent years.

All organizations, especially infrastructure providers, must practice time-tested safe computing centered on preparation, detection and response. They must ensure that their information systems and smart devices are properly configured and patched, and that they can log activity. And they should identify and replace any devices at the edges of their networks, such as routers and firewalls, that no longer are supported by their vendor.

Organizations can also implement strong user-authentication measures such as multifactor authentication to make it more difficult for attackers like Volt Typhoon to compromise systems and devices. More broadly, the comprehensive NIST Cybersecurity Framework can help these organizations develop stronger cybersecurity postures to defend against Volt Typhoon and other attackers.

Individuals, too, can take steps to protect themselves and their employers by ensuring their devices are properly updated, enabling multifactor authentication, never reusing passwords, and otherwise remaining vigilant to suspicious activity on their accounts, devices and networks.

For cybersecurity practitioners and society generally, attacks like Volt Typhoon can represent an enormous geopolitical cybersecurity threat. They are a reminder for everyone to monitor what’s going on in the world and consider how current events can affect the confidentiality, integrity and availability of all things digital.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article and see more than 250 UMBC articles available in The Conversation.

Over the weekend of April 6 – 7, the UMBC student chapter of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) will host the 2024 Mid-Atlantic Regional Conference on campus. The event will feature workshops, research presentations, and a career fair with companies such as AstraZeneca and Astek Diagnostics and schools including Johns Hopkins University, Rutgers University, the University of Delaware, and Lehigh University. It will also feature the conferences’ two signature competitive events: Chemical Engineering Jeopardy and ChemE Car—a competition to build and operate a car powered and stopped by chemical reactions.

Organizers expect more than 350 attendees from more than 30 universities across the region. UMBC students are encouraged to register to attend, even if they aren’t chemical engineering majors. “As the premier student chemical engineering conference in the region, this event will offer great opportunities for networking, presenting research, landing internships and jobs, and general professional development,” says Terra Miley ’25, chemical engineering, who is serving as the communications chair for the student organizing committee.

Over two weeks at the end of January, six UMBC faculty woke up early to deliver lectures and lead workshops with students more than 9,000 miles away, in the small Asian nation of Brunei, located on the island of Borneo. The online talks were part of the Diversity in Cybersecurity, Brunei conference, organized jointly by Edah Hasnal, an advocate for gender diversity in the tech sector in Brunei, and Carolyn Seaman, director of the Center for Women in Technology (CWIT) at UMBC.

The idea for the conference was born out of an internship that Hasnal completed with Seaman in the fall of 2021 through the Young Southeast Asian Leaders Initiative, a U.S. State Department-funded leadership development program. During the internship, which was conducted remotely due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Hasnal created a series of short videos highlighting tech workers in Brunei. She also worked with Seaman to propose a follow-up project that ultimately turned into the Diversity in Cybersecurity, Brunei conference.

The goal of the conference was to share cybersecurity concepts and career paths with women interested in the tech sector. Out of around 50 applicants, the organizers picked 10 women with varying backgrounds. 

“We wanted to keep the conference relatively small, so that we could connect the participants with further opportunities,” Hasnal says. She says she was inspired by the stories of the women who attended, including a woman who worked as a cleaner while pursuing a tech education. Hasnal also says that Brunei is working to diversify its economy, and she sees the tech sector as a natural area of growth. 

Seaman recruited speakers from across UMBC to join the conference virtually and share their cybersecurity knowledge with attendees. Karuna Joshi, information systems, Deborah Kariuki, education, Christine Mallinson, language, literacy, and culture, Vandana Janeja, information systems, and Sreedevi Sampath, information systems, gave talks on topics ranging from cloud computing security to AI deepfake detection.

“The great thing about having women trainers who come from different backgrounds was that it was both insightful and inspiring for us all,” Hasnal says. 

It was wonderful to have CWIT’s reach extend so far through participation in the conference, Seaman says. “We’ve been dedicated to increasing gender parity in the tech industry, and we could see that many of the same issues and same goals we have are shared by people on the opposite side of the world.”

UMBC’s Interdisciplinary Consortium for Applied Research in the Environment (ICARE) program, a cohort-based master’s program focused on local environmental research, held its first annual ICARE CoNavigator Day on Friday, February 23, in the University Center Ballroom. The all-day event consisted of research planning activities for ICARE trainees, poster sessions highlighting the trainees’ research, and a keynote address given by Jalonne White-Newsome, senior director for environmental justice in the White House Council for Environmental Quality. The Maryland deputy and assistant secretaries of the environment and representatives from the League of Conservation Voters also attended.

“ICARE is a unique training model in which master’s students in the environmental sciences and engineering are co-mentored by UMBC faculty mentors, professional scientists or engineers, and community leaders. This day brought together all the trainees and their mentors to conceptualize their research through CoNavigator and present their research in well-attended poster sessions,” shares Tamra Mendelson, ICARE director and professor of biological sciences. 

CoNavigator is a unique three-dimensional concept mapping protocol the ICARE trainees and their thesis committees used to brainstorm. The structured format encouraged creative thinking about their projects’ goals and implementation.

Danish researchers created CoNavigator in 2015, and “UMBC was a big part of the genesis of this,” shared Katrine Lindvig, one of CoNavigator’s founders who facilitated the ICARE session. UMBC was one of the first institutions to apply the unique protocol, Lindvig said.

White-Newsome said in her keynote that addressing environmental problems “takes multiple perspectives; it takes creativity; it takes ensuring that those folks who are most impacted are part of and given the space to implement and co-solve and create solutions that will benefit us all.” 

She also encouraged the ICARE trainees: “To read about the questions you’re asking, and the way you’re going about answering them— your work is so important.”

Learn more about ICARE.

The American Physical Society, an influential professional society founded in 1899 to “advance and diffuse the knowledge of physics,” is highlighting the fusion research of UMBC’s Carlos Romero-Talamás at its largest annual meeting, held March 3 – 8 in Minneapolis this year. A short film showcasing Romero-Talamás and colleagues’ work on a relatively simple and cheap approach to fusion power will be broadcast on APS TV, a channel that plays on screens around the meeting venue, in selected local hotels on dedicated TV channels, on the virtual meeting platform, and on YouTube.

Fusion, which is the reaction that powers stars, releases enormous amounts of energy when light atomic nuclei combine to form heavier ones. Initiating, sustaining, and controlling the process in a way that allows humans to generate clean, safe, and near limitless commercial power has long been a goal in the physics community and beyond. The film, created by the international film and broadcasting company WebsEdge, brings viewers into the lab where Romero-Talamás, alongside colleagues and students from UMBC and the University of Maryland, College Park, are questing to bring this celestial energy down to Earth.

Romero-Talamás’s group is exploring a promising alternative to traditional fusion power approaches, using equipment that is smaller, cheaper, and more simple to operate. The group’s current experiments are going well, and they are working to attract public and private investment to build a next-generation machine that could be fitted to produce more power than it takes to run, a key milestone on the road to commercial fusion power.

“The APS March Meeting is an opportunity to connect and promote our research with the largest physics audience in the world,” Romero-Talamás says. The video aligns with the lab’s work to raise their visibility and attract additional students and researchers interested in fusion energy. “At the levels of effort that we will require for the next step in our quest for fusion energy, we will need to grow quickly,” Romero-Talamás says.

Learn more about fusion research at UMBC in this interview with Carlos Romero-Talamás and in his GRIT-X talk.

Meet Nathan Wooddell ’23, computer science. Nathan is a member of UMBC’s CyberCorps: Scholarship for Service cohort, and is getting his master’s in cybersecurity as a graduate researcher at the National Nuclear Security Agency. Nathan attributes much of his success to the connections he’s made with the staff and faculty at UMBC who have helped him to discover his true passions. During his time as an undergraduate at UMBC, Nathan also completed a Russian language certificate, and has found a way to combine his interests of both cybersecurity and the Russian language in the professional world. Take it away, Nathan.  

Q: What’s one thing you’d want someone to know about the support you find at UMBC?

A: In many classes, casual visits to professors during office hours, polite interactions during class, and expressing interest in the subject matter can go a long way. Such interactions help with all aspects of student life. Too many students fail to take proper advantage of the fantastic support that the university faculty can offer. The best way to do this in my experience is simply to speak with your professors after class or outside of class.

Such interactions help with all aspects of student life. The faculty can offer support in the form of academic resources, scholarship recommendations, professional guidance, and even letters of recommendation for work or graduate programs.

Q: Tell us about someone in the community who has inspired you or supported you, and how they did it.

A: I want to give special thanks to Russian instructor Vira Zhdanovych. Since I first transferred to UMBC, I have taken Russian language courses with Professor Zhdanovych. It was through her guidance that I got my first research experience when she advised me on my 2022 Undergraduate Research and Creative Achievement Day presentation Analyzing the Russian Federation’s Impact on Global Cyber Security. This was also the first time that I was able to merge my interest in cybersecurity and Russian language. 

I have worked extensively with Professor Zhdanovych to study and research the impact of the Russian-speaking world on the cybersecurity and intelligence communities—I owe so much of my professional and academic success to her.

Q: Tell us what you love about your academic program or an organization you’re involved in.

A: I am a participant and former officer in UMBC’s Russian Club. The meetings of this club are especially good for learning about contemporary Russian culture, as well as the geopolitical history, which still shapes the diplomacy of the Russo-American relationship.

Q: What is your WHY? What brought you to UMBC?

A:I came to UMBC in my sophomore year as a transfer student. Admittedly when I was accepted I toyed around with the idea of going to a variety of different schools, but eventually decided on UMBC for the price, and the relative vicinity to my home in northern Maryland.

Had I known then what I know now about the university’s programs, rigor, faculty, and opportunities, UMBC would have been a shoo-in. Ultimately, I am so grateful that I applied to, and attended UMBC.

Q: Tell us about the people who are helping you grow at UMBC, and why their HOW made such a difference to you.

A: In addition to Professor Zhdanovych’s support with my Russian language and research, Professor RJ Joyce in computer science encouraged me to become invested in cybersecurity. It’s because of him that I’ve become involved in many of the clubs and organizations I am currently enrolled in. Such interest in security was able to earn me recipient status in UMBC’s Scholarship for Service cohort. 

Q: What clubs, teams, or organizations are you a part of? What do you love about them?

A: First and foremost, I am a member of UMBC’s National Science Foundation-fundedCyberCorps: Scholarship of Service (SFS). This program has allowed me to pursue my interest in security outside of the traditional academic venues. Thanks to SFS, I was able to attend and present at DEFCON 31 in Las Vegas, one of the largest cybersecurity conventions in the world [Photo: Wooddell, left, at DEFCON 31 with a fellow student].

I am also a member of the UMBC Cyberdawgs. I never miss an opportunity to compete in the annual competitions they hold on campus. Beyond this, I attend the bi-weekly Cyber Defense Lab meetings, which allow me to keep up to date with all sorts of security research projects being conducted on campus.

Q: Are you a student leader? Tell us about it! 

A: Through SFS, related organizations, and clubs on campus, I have been lucky enough to meet and work with some of the most amazing and intelligent people I have ever met. From these associated labs, clubs, and programs I have met and been influenced by more people than I could ever hope to list here.

I am incredibly honored to have been able to lead these organizations, as they have provided me with opportunities to give back to my university and community.

* * * * *

UMBC’s greatest strength is its people. When people meet Retrievers and hear about the passion they bring, the relationships they create, the ways they support each other, and the commitment they have to inclusive excellence, they truly get a sense of our community. That’s what “Meet a Retriever” is all about.

Learn more about how UMBC can help you achieve your goals.