Meet Michael Cook ’20. While at UMBC, Michael majored in information systems with a minor in statistics. Outside of the classroom, he was a member of UMBC’s improv troupe, Dog-Collar Comedy, eventually serving as the group’s president. Today, Michael is a senior business intelligence analyst for Johns Hopkins University. But recently, Michael put his improv skills to good use once again when he turned a Dungeons & Dragons mistake into the idea behind his first book, He Who Speaks Out Of Turn, which the author published in May 2026. Take it away, Michael! 

Q: What initially brought you to UMBC?

A: The big drivers for me were cost, convenience, and reputation. Of all the schools I applied to, UMBC gave me the best scholarship (in the sense that I had the least amount of tuition left over to pay myself), so it was the most affordable. In terms of convenience, UMBC was actually a shorter drive from my house than my high school was. This meant I could keep my part-time job and visit home whenever I wanted, which was most weekends, if nothing else than for the free laundry. Finally, I knew UMBC had a great reputation. I knew people, such as my own older brother, who had graduated from the school and gone on to successful jobs right out of college.

Q: Who in the UMBC community has inspired you or supported you?

A: While at UMBC, I worked in the Admissions Office as a tour guide (now called Grit Guides). One of the most valuable lessons I learned there was to communicate through stories rather than facts. Prospective students typically don’t care about statistics; they’re more interested in hearing things like, “In my second semester, I met my best friend at Salsarita’s.”

So, without realizing it, the Admissions Office trained me to think narratively and to look for the story in everyday events and present it in a way that would engage an audience. While I was never inspired to author a fantasy story specifically, my time in that position helped storytelling become second nature. That mindset probably helped me turn my D&D accident into a story in the first place. Which reminds me, I should shout out the Dungeon Master (DM) for that session: Thanks, Skip!

Q: Tell us about what you love about your academic program or an organization you were involved in at UMBC.

A: Other than the Admissions Office, I was also involved in UMBC’s improv team, Dog-Collar Comedy. We practiced once or twice a week and put on a show each semester, but it never felt like work. It felt like I was just hanging out with friends, which is really what it became over the years. One of the things I love most about the group is how we’ve maintained a strong community, even after graduation. We still keep in touch and get together as we can. In fact, many improv alumni were among the first people to order copies of my book!

Pictured above: Cook during an improv show when he was a student (left). Cook at a recent Dog-Collar Comedy alumni Christmas party (right).

Q: How did UMBC help prepare you for your next steps after graduation?

A: My coursework directly prepared me for the kind of technical work I do for Johns Hopkins now. The information systems program places a strong emphasis on SQL, which I use daily in my work. Even subjects that don’t directly apply to my current role, such as networking, gave me a broader understanding of how technology systems fit together. Just as important were the professional skills or “soft skills.” UMBC taught me how to manage my time, communicate effectively, and take ownership of my work. In my current position, I’m expected to work independently, balance multiple projects, and speak directly with customers. Because of the habits and skills I honed at UMBC, the transition from student to professional felt natural from the start.

Q: Can you tell us about your journey as an author?

A: He Who Speaks Out Of Turn began with a mistake. During Covid, I had participated in a D&D campaign virtually, where I accidentally created a typical medieval-era wizard character for a futuristic campaign. That sparked the idea of a time-traveling wizard who accidentally strands himself far in the future. Of course, the story morphed to be much more than that, but that is where it began.

In the intervening five years, I worked on the story with no intention to publish; I wrote 500 words here and there as I got spare time. I’ve always enjoyed stories, and when I was younger, I wanted to be an author, so it was a natural hobby for me. I moved multiple times and got married, and the story followed me through these different phases of life and grew as I did. One day last summer (2025), I typed the final word and finished the story. It was one of those moments where I paused and felt like, “Well, now what?” I had an entire story written, so I decided to look into publishing it. I worked with an editor to clean up the story and some friends to design the cover and map. By this spring, five years of writing, revising, and collaboration had transformed that hobby into a published novel.

People have asked me if the characters are based on people I know. The truth is, the core characters are just different aspects of my own personality; some of them are the best of me, some the worst, some who I aspire to be, and some who I never want to be. While I’ve never traveled through time or slain a dragon, I’ve felt the same loss they have, given into the same impulses, and made the same mistakes. I learned a lot about myself while I wrote this story, and I had a lot of fun with it. I hope people enjoy reading it as well.

Pictured right: Author Michael Cook holding a copy of his debut novel, He Who Speaks Out of Turn.

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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.

Magnets often attract curious minds. Einstein told of his profound sense of hidden order after witnessing the invisible forces of the Earth’s magnetic field guide the needle of a compass. For Ethan Bowers, it was the wonder of learning Maxwell’s laws—equations developed by 19th-century Scottish physicist James Clerk Maxwell that unite magnetism, electricity, and light—that really pulled him in.

Now a Ph.D. student in mechanical engineering, Bowers is building a massive, one-of-a-kind research magnet. It weighs more than 2,300 pounds and will be capable of generating a magnetic field of 7 tesla (roughly 140,000 times stronger than the Earth’s magnetic field and more than twice as strong as the field in most MRI machines).

Making the magnet has been the labor of multiple researchers over more than a decade, led by mechanical engineering associate professor Carlos Romero Talamás, who plans to use the magnet to conduct experiments on plasma, the superheated soup of particles found in stars, lighting, and the Aurora Borealis, and which makes up more than 99 percent of the visible universe. 

An initial magnet design and analysis was completed by Evan Bates, M.S. ’15, Ph.D. ’18, mechanical engineering. In 2023, Bowers, who had returned as a student to UMBC following a stint in industry, joined the project. He redesigned key aspects of the magnet and began the meticulous work of assembling and testing it. In the coming months, Bowers plans to run the magnet up to full strength. Then the real fun begins: Unleashing the new tool to help answer the questions curious minds dream up.

Tools of the trade

• Mechanical and electrical know-how
• Perseverance
• Heavy-lifting equipment (custom designed)
• A serious power source and some chilled water (things are going to get hot)

Step 1: Brush up on your magnet basics

Say “magnet,” and many people think first of the objects affixing their kids’ artwork to the fridge. Refrigerator magnets are an example of permanent magnets: materials in which the electrons permanently align in a way that generates a magnetic field. Permanent magnets can get quite strong—such as the rare earth neodymium magnets used in some maglev trains—but they top out at about 2 tesla.

To get an even stronger magnet, engineers can turn to a phenomenon that’s captured in the Maxwell equations that captivated Bowers: Electricity and magnetism are intrinsically linked. 

Electrons flowing through a wire generate a magnetic field. Coil the wire and you can create a field similar in shape to a permanent bar magnet, with distinct north and south poles. This is the electromagnet. Higher current and more coils make a stronger magnet. However, high current also risks melting your magnet into a puddle and mangling it with the enormous pressure from the magnetic field pushing on the moving electrons (called Lorentz forces). 

Superconducting electromagnets, which use material with the almost magical property of showing virtually zero electrical resistance when cooled with liquid helium, can eliminate the melting risk, but are expensive and finicky to operate, and have other limitations.

Another (more old-school) solution is called the Bitter electromagnet, invented in the 1930s by American physicist Francis Bitter. In place of coiled wires, circular metal disks separated with insulating spacers create a helical path that concentrates the current. The disks are shot through with holes for circulating water to whisk away heat and the structural design counteracts the mechanical stresses. “We chose a Bitter magnet because it offered the right combination of features for the tasks we wanted to perform,” Bowers says.

Step 2: Design, test, refine, repeat

The UMBC team’s initial vision was to create a 10-tesla Bitter magnet, with space in the center for a relatively large vacuum chamber to hold plasma. The magnet could generate either a steady or pulsed magnetic field, depending on the needs of the experiment. Bates analyzed the disk shape, stacking methods, cooling hole geometry, heat transfer, mechanical stress, and electrical properties of the magnet to optimize the design. He validated it by constructing and testing a 1-tesla prototype.

In 2023, the team decided to change the desired magnetic field profile, making it slightly higher on the ends of the magnet than in the middle, so that charged particles would be pushed toward the center. They didn’t want to redesign the Bitter disks, so they had to lower the maximum field strength to 7 tesla. They also had to vary the coil density, making tighter turns at the ends to get the stronger field.

Bowers analyzed the new field profile and worked out a clever trick of adding a tapered insulating disk to seamlessly transition between the areas of tighter and looser turns. He also performed a structural analysis of the whole assembly.

Step 3: Pallets, cranes, and painstaking planning

The final design called for 439 copper Bitter disks, four insulating transition disks, and 434 regular insulating disks housed inside a pressure vessel. Outside companies manufactured the disks, but Bowers personally inspected every single one, removing any with defects, and cleaning the copper ones with isopropyl alcohol. He built a custom pallet to hold the cylindrical assembly in place in the lab, and started stacking. 

The process took about a month, and near the end “I was so sick of the monotony,” Bowers says. To push it across the finish line, he worked straight through the weekend, stacking the last disk on a Sunday afternoon in February. “It happened to be my friend’s birthday so I celebrated that completion and their birthday together,” he says.

Next up was moving the approximately 2-foot-high stack of disks to a movable swing set, created by a UMBC mechanical engineering capstone team to serve as a mobile and rotatable platform for the magnet. Bowers built a custom crane fixture to lift the assembly onto the platform and spent weeks planning every step of the move. “It was the last major place the structure could fail before we power the magnet,” he says. After one stressful day, Bowers says he was elated when it all went according to plan. “I felt genuinely grateful for all I had been given the chance to work on, and grateful that God had given me the ability to succeed.”

Step 4: Test some more

With the core of the magnet assembled, Bowers has also begun the detailed process of testing its electrical properties, using a host of measurement equipment. 

At first, he is powering the magnet with lower currents, but eventually he will send 15,000 amps through the disks, about half the current that flows in an average lightning bolt. The voltage will be about five times the voltage in a wall socket. 

Safety is of paramount concern to the team when working with such high power. When the magnet is operating at full strength, the energy in two cubic feet of the magnetic field alone will be more than the energy of a small SUV zooming by at 60 miles per hour.

Bowers is working on a set of detailed instructions to address all conceivable operating, maintenance, and failure scenarios. “We’re safe. We do all our due diligence,” he says.

Step 5: Serve up some science

Once the magnet is fully up and running, the science experiments can start. Bowers and Romero Talamás have a few ideas for initial experiments, including investigating how a high magnetic field affects when a gas will suddenly switch from being an insulator to a conductor, allowing current to arc through it. They are also interested in how the magnet might be used to separate different forms of hydrogen—particularly two forms that may form the fuel for future fusion reactors to supply clean and near limitless energy. 

Bowers grew up in rural Hagarstown, Maryland, a kid who enjoyed exploring everything from the rocks on the side of a path to the electrical motors his grandfather would wind. Research has offered him the chance to constantly challenge himself. After graduation, he’ll move on to new questions at the scientific frontiers, perhaps working at a fusion energy start-up or a national lab. But the 7T Bitter magnet will remain at UMBC, a gift to curious students who come after him.

Balmory Moran II ’24, history, used to describe himself as a soccer player above all else. The soccer field and his team were where he felt most at home. In high school, an injury ended his hopes of playing at the collegiate level, and doubts about his future settled in until he met Joe Thompson, a professor of history and political science at Montgomery College (MC), and Andrew Nolan, teaching professor of history at UMBC. They instilled in him a passion for history, and their support helped him transfer to UMBC as a history major, where he learned not only about the past but also interpersonal and mentorship skills that he now puts to practice every day as a coach for the Latino Youth Development Program in Rockville, Maryland. 

As a coach, Balmory imparts performance strategies and techniques to middle school and high school students in the program while also emphasizing essential team skills such as collaboration, active listening, empathy, and accountability, both on and off the field. This strategy led the team to win the league championship in fall 2025. 

After years of coaching and time away from the classroom, Balmory is ready to balance soccer and the classroom once again as he begins applying to a master’s in social work. He credits his sister, Alexandra Moran ’15, social work, a current social worker, for the inspiration to join the field. Take it away, Balmory!

Q: What was your journey to UMBC?

A: I began my undergraduate experience at MC. I was a bit lost, and I didn’t know what I wanted to do, but Professor Thompson changed all that. I had a 200-level U.S. history class with him. He made our class so entertaining, enticing, and interesting at both a personal and an academic level. It really showed me that history didn’t have to be boring or slow. 

After seeing how attentive I was in his classes, he encouraged me to pursue a degree in history. Professor Thompson showed me multiple examples of students in different fields of work with a history degree. It prompted me to take more history classes at MC, which laid the foundation for studying history at UMBC. 

I made my way to UMBC after Professor Nolan visited MC multiple times to talk to students about life as a history major at UMBC and the careers it could lead to after graduation. He also explained the many ways UMBC would further nurture my academic aspirations. I was so involved with the history program at MC that it felt like a natural next step to continue my undergrad degree in history at UMBC.

Q: What was your experience studying history at UMBC?

A: Once at UMBC, I dove into the multitude of classes on aging, women’s studies, sociology, and, of course, history, which all helped me gain a better understanding and appreciation for the communities I grew up alongside. I learned that there was a history of pretty much everything, as long as there was some interest. So many people think history is just old people in wigs, but it’s everywhere, from political history to sports history. There is always a story to be told as long as someone is willing to listen and learn.

Q: Who in the UMBC community has inspired you or supported you? 

A: The last two years have really pushed me to be the best version of myself in my work as well as my mentorship. I’ve learned from Melissa Blair, associate teaching professor of history, as well as other professors throughout the history department, how to approach different types of students. These lessons have helped me teach these young men right from wrong in ways that they can understand.

UMBC gave me the tools to be creative in how I tackle challenges and debates with my players. I guide players by equipping them with the tools to grow and improve, as Blair and other professors supported me in the classroom, rather than stepping in. 

So many people think history is just old people in wigs, but it’s everywhere, from political history to sports history. There is always a story to be told as long as someone is willing to listen and learn. —Balmory Moran ’24

Q: Is there a concept you learned in your classes at UMBC that is applicable outside of the classroom?

A: The professors I had at UMBC showed me that there are many ways to get important information across that don’t feel like a lecture. They taught me how to be an effective problem-solver. These lessons were within a history class setup, but felt applicable to how I wanted to coach and mentor my players. So many people get the wrong idea when they hear the term “history degree.” It’s not just about curating museums and lecturing. It is also about what makes us who we are, helps us understand where we come from, and what values we hold onto. 

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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 and the UMBC History Department’s programs and faculty.

Researchers have developed a new approach using data from NASA’s Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, ocean Ecosystem (PACE) satellite to observe the timing and progression of fall colors across landscapes.

The study, published in Remote Sensing Letters and led by Karl F. Huemmrich, a research professor at UMBC’s Goddard Earth Sciences Technology and Research (GESTAR) II center, focuses on detecting changes in leaf pigments including chlorophylls (greens), anthocyanins (reds), and carotenoids (yellows and oranges).

PACE’s advanced sensors capture fine details of light reflected from leaves, with near-daily global coverage. The research team used indices that associate the reflectance data with the presence of various pigments, allowing them to produce detailed leaf color maps and track color changes throughout the fall. These maps could help support the multi-billion-dollar leaf-peeping tourism economy by directing visitors to peak viewing areas in real time and helping communities manage visitor flows.

Traditional greenness indices, such as the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), primarily show a gradual decline in green leaves. The PACE-based indices improve on those methods by allowing scientists to identify more precise markers of the end of the growing season, including dates of peak fall color. Over time, the data could also yield insights into plant stress from drought or insect damage—with potential benefits for agriculture—and help improve models that predict fall color timing based on environmental conditions.

“PACE is the first mission that can measure these pigment indices over large areas, and repeatedly, so we can look at change through the fall,” Huemmrich says. The indices he and Caplan used were developed in the early 2000s, but the new paper applied them at a global scale for the first time. Huemmrich adds, “I anticipate that as we accumulate more years of PACE data, we will be able to observe changes in the timing of peak color, which may be related to climate change.”

PACE opens frontiers in ecosystem science

Study co-author Skye Caplan, a NASA data scientist, expressed enthusiasm about the broader research potential unlocked by PACE. “I’m excited about observing fall colors with PACE, because I think it’s the beginning of a real exploratory period for global hyperspectral leaf pigment measurements,” she says. “I’m hoping we get to see folks read the paper, see how PACE observes these metrics like relative chlorophyll, anthocyanin, and carotenoid content, and apply those observations to their own work.”

“Working with PACE data is really fun, because you get to see the world in so many different ways,” Caplan adds. “It doesn’t just offer observations of the oceans, but also characterizations of the atmosphere and land—and all of these domains as a system, rather than as separate entities. I think that is critical and a real advantage of PACE.”

For example, Huemmrich previously published research that used PACE data to assess ecosystem productivity, and the UMBC-designed and -built HARP2 instrument flying on PACE is contributing to atmospheric chemistry studies. 

Plus, PACE observations aren’t only for scientists: Caplan notes that the public can access NASA Worldview, an interactive site for browsing satellite images from many different NASA missions. “Sometimes I like to pull up PACE data on NASA Worldview and just scroll around to see what the world looked like on any given day,” she says. “I often find something interesting and worth exploring.”

Read more about UMBC’s NASA-related research and past news and magazine stories about UMBC researchers making discoveries in earth science.

At UMBC, entrepreneurship transcends a traditional business education: It empowers scientists, artists, and technologists to transform their expertise into real-world impact. Through business accelerators, ambassador programs, interdisciplinary courses, and other innovation pathways, the university offers many avenues for ideas to flourish.

Kushani Mendis and her labmates have developed novel nanomaterials that could transform biomedical technology. She wants to translate their discoveries into a business opportunity, but initially, wasn’t sure what steps to take. So, early in her chemistry Ph.D. with Zeev Rosenzweig, professor of chemistry and biochemistry, Mendis told him that she wanted to become an entrepreneur—and he jumped at the chance to creatively support her with internal and external resources.

UMBC has no formal business school. Yet it may be one of the best places in the country to learn entrepreneurial thinking—precisely because the best ideas so often come from those with technical expertise rather than MBAs. Also, many UMBC entrepreneurs are motivated by a desire to drive positive social change rather than profit, which is supported by courses on “socialpreneurship.” Overall, the university’s model rests on a simple but powerful dual thesis: 1) Disciplinary excellence paired with an entrepreneurial mindset produces graduates who create real-world impact, and 2) entrepreneurship is for everyone. 

Employers repeatedly say they need graduates who excel in communication, creative problem-solving, collaboration, and constructive conflict navigation. Traits like resilience and empathy are in high demand—after all, finding effective solutions often requires understanding problems from another’s perspective. UMBC’s courses and programs deliberately train these skills, which can enhance the success of entrepreneurs—and every UMBC graduate.

The results speak for themselves. Students are winning state and national funding, launching ventures, gaining versatile life skills, and contributing to Maryland’s innovation economy. This spring, two UMBC student teams—iBraid and StrikeSense—each received $50,000 Pava LePere Innovation Awards. Others have advanced through the university’s Summer Launchpad accelerator and secured funding totaling more than $300,000 in the past three years.

An entrepreneurial environment

The roots of UMBC’s entrepreneurship emphasis trace back to 2000, with the founding of the Alex. Brown Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation. Initially led by Vivian Armour and supported by Constellation Energy Group and the Bearman Foundation, the center took off in 2006 the Kauffman Foundation awarded funds to a small cohort of universities including UMBC, as well as Brown, Carnegie Mellon, Arizona State, and Purdue, to further their entrepreneurship efforts. Armour invited Gib Mason ’95, economics, a serial entrepreneur who had been guest lecturing at UMBC, to help steward UMBC’s $2 million Kauffman award.

“Kauffman’s research had shown that it wasn’t the business school students bringing entrepreneurial ideas to the marketplace,” Mason recalls. “It was the engineers and the tech guys and gals.” The foundation’s premise was that exposing disciplinary experts to entrepreneurial environments could help them develop and commercialize new ideas, he explains.

That initiative led to the creation of UMBC’s minor in Entrepreneurship and Innovation. The 18-credit program combines two core entrepreneurship courses with 12 credits from designated courses across UMBC’s three colleges, where faculty have infused entrepreneurial principles into existing major curricula. Today, more than 70 courses in biology, public health, information systems, art, and engineering count toward the minor, making it broadly accessible. 

The center turned 25 this academic year. Kevin Fulmer, its first full-time director and a lifelong entrepreneur, has spent the past five years expanding its reach and visibility. “Before there were any full-time staff, awareness of the center was fairly minimal,” he says. Under his leadership, Introduction to Entrepreneurship—which fills up quickly every semester—was approved as a General Education Program course. The center also launched a student ambassador program, and now six students promote events, support programming, and serve as peer mentors. Faculty can apply for funding to embed entrepreneurial thinking in their courses, and designated faculty fellows from each college are designing discipline-specific tracks within the minor. “We’re trying to make it as accessible for as many students as possible,” Fulmer explains.

A separate master’s in Entrepreneurship, Innovation, and Leadership—developed by Mason and offered through UMBC’s Division of Professional Studies—has served working professionals since 2019 and draws on the same philosophy of practical application. Meanwhile, the center’s summer Launchpad accelerator has supported more than 20 student ventures since 2022; participants receive an $8,000 stipend to dedicate 10-weeks to full-time customer discovery and problem validation. iBraid and StrikeSense, the Maryland award winners, emerged from the accelerator’s pipeline. Additional opportunities include the fall Idea and Innovation Challenge (with a popular social-impact category) and the spring Cangialosi Business Innovation Competition for more developed concepts. 

All of this exists without a traditional business school. Instead, UMBC has built an ecosystem that meets students where they are—inside their technical and creative majors—and provides the tools to translate discovery into impact. “Entrepreneurship is for everyone,” the Alex. Brown Center’s website proclaims, regardless of major or career aspirations.

Not-so-risky business

Entrepreneurship at UMBC emphasizes mindset over venture creation alone. “It’s really just about solving problems and using an entrepreneurial mindset to do that,” Fulmer stresses.

Studies suggest that only 30 to 50 percent of graduates nationally are employed in roles directly related to their specific field of study, Fulmer notes. “You may have all the technical skills in the world, but not get these life skills from your major,” he adds. UMBC’s approach prepares students for diverse careers—launching startups, innovating inside a corporation, teaching, or pursuing research—by developing empathy and resilience and building creative problem-solving and communication skills.

Mason challenges the stereotype that entrepreneurs are reckless risk takers. “Most entrepreneurs are constantly making informed decisions to mitigate risks,” he says. He draws from childhood summers working on his grandfather’s Kansas farm, where he earned money from “his” acres of wheat—until one year a tornado destroyed the crop. The experience taught him that “there’s a lot that you can control and a lot that you can’t.” True entrepreneurs, he says, take calculated risks and then work diligently to reduce them.

Many UMBC students are drawn to “socialpreneurship”—ventures that solve societal problems rather than chase profit. “Students today seem especially geared toward trying to do things for social impact,” Mason says. The center’s social-impact track in competitions reflects this, and courses like Creative Problem Solving and The Socialpreneur have led to tangible outcomes, such as OCA Mocha, a coffee shop connecting UMBC with the Baltimore community.

Braiding the future 

Velma Funebe, a public health major, embodies this orientation. Her venture, iBraid, uses augmented reality to help users part and braid their own hair—transforming protective styling that can become a multi-day ordeal into a more manageable process. Inspired by braiding her own hair since age 11 and running a professional braiding business since ninth grade, Funebe validated demand via TikTok and conversations. “I realized it was a major problem because so many people struggled with it,” she says. “I couldn’t find any solutions out there.”

As an Entrepreneurship Ambassador, she now supports programming and events like 1 Million Cups, another Kauffman Foundation initiative where entrepreneurs pitch ideas and get feedback. The Baltimore edition meets at OCA Mocha twice monthly. “The scariest part is when the idea is not just in your brain, but other people hear it,” Funebe says. “But I think it’s a great space to get feedback and say, ‘Okay, I can live through an application rejection.’” 

Funebe’s faith helps anchor her while she balances classes, leadership in the Public Health Council of Majors, weekend braiding appointments, and venture development. iBraid has gained strong traction: a second-place finish in UMBC’s Idea and Innovation Challenge, the Pava LaPere Innovation Award, a waitlist approaching 4,000, and more than 10,000 TikTok followers. Beta testing is underway, supported in part by two UMBC data science graduate fellows through the Maryland New Venture program at bwtech@UMBC, a business incubator adjacent to campus. iBraid’s momentum continued to build at Maryland New Venture Pitch Night ’26, where Funebe took third place and received the Audience Choice Visionary Award. 

“The Alex. Brown Center has played an essential role in helping me to grow my confidence,” she says. To others considering giving entrepreneurship a try, she says, “Don’t be afraid to fail—at least you get a result out of failing, and can learn a lot from it.”

Striking while it’s hot

Abhinav Patel, Charles Nerad, and Aidan Fleischer, co-founders of StrikeSense, channeled frustration with their Taekwondo training into innovation. In competition, expensive electronic wearables detect hits and record scores, but most athletes lack access to that equipment in practice. “I had the idea for a sparring vest with a health bar like something from a video game,” Nerad says. 

The team developed an affordable sensor attachment that turns any existing sparring vest into a smart vest capable of detecting and scoring hits, with a gamified “health bar” interface. After placing second in the 2025 Cangialosi Business Innovation Competition, they joined the summer Launchpad program. 

“All of the support we have gotten from UMBC has been instrumental, and we wouldn’t be where we are today without it.” Patel notes. Mentors like Donald Miner ’06, Ph.D. 2010, computer science; and Chris Ewing, an “entrepreneur in residence” at bwtech@UMBC, and especially Fulmer provided guidance: “Without him, we would not have had the encouragement to continue, the accountability to work hard, and the guidance to grow,” Nerad adds. 

They are now refining software and preparing a pilot program with local dojos. “There is no better time to take a chance on an idea than right now,” Nerad advises. “You are surrounded by thousands of brilliant minds at UMBC, and have access to dedicated mentors who genuinely want you to succeed.”

And Kushani Mendis is now thriving at the intersection of research and entrepreneurship. She’s participated in the Center for Sustainable Nanotechnology, represented UMBC in the regional 3-Minute Thesis competition, and completed training at Brookhaven National Lab through UMBC’s Chemistry and Biology Interface program. To younger scientists, she says: “Being a scientist does not have to mean being confined in a lab. You are a human who has a lot of potential that you can give out to the community.”

As Fulmer puts it, “We’ve always been really great at UMBC at training students’ analytical, left-brain development—but our entrepreneurship programs are promoting right-brain skills as well, which are just as important.”

Extending the ecosystem

Faculty, alumni, and the broader community benefit, too. bwtech@UMBC offers state-of-the-art labs and work spaces, educational programming, mentorship, and industry connections. Many alumni and community members have built businesses there that contribute jobs and innovative products and services to the regional economy.

In addition, the Entrepreneurial Skills Training program for faculty in the College of Natural and Mathematical Sciences helps principal investigators apply strategic, startup-style thinking to manage their multi-million-dollar research labs. “They’re running a business, whether they like it or not,” says Mason, who originally designed the program that’s now run by Fulmer. “They’re hiring people, buying resources, creating stuff.” 

Finally, the new Entrepreneurial Learning Lab (ELL) pairs faculty with trained students to evaluate research for commercialization potential—without requiring faculty to become full-time CEOs. The inaugural cohort drew strong interest: 23 faculty applied for 10 spots alongside 54 student applications. “We’re not trying to change what faculty do in terms of research and teaching,” Fulmer explains, “but while they’re doing that, think about potential impact.”

This diverse array of entry points—from minors and master’s programs to accelerators, competitions, and faculty-student collaborations—deliberately creates an inclusive entrepreneurial ecosystem. Ideas from any discipline or career stage have room to grow.

The bigger picture

UMBC’s entrepreneurial ecosystem does more than launch student ventures; it strengthens Maryland’s innovation economy, particularly in biotech, health tech, and advanced materials. The university’s strengths in these areas—coupled with proximity to federal labs and funding—creates what Fulmer calls a “target-rich environment.” Many Launchpad teams naturally transition into bwtech@UMBC’s incubation programs, forming a clear pathway from classroom concept to scalable company.

Today, Mendis’s schedule is packed with interviews of biomedical technology researchers in government, academia, and industry. Her probing questions are helping determine whether her lab’s novel nanomaterials have commercial potential. Rosenzweig’s encouragement and programs like the National Science Foundation Innovation Corps (I-Corps), which trains scientists to translate research into societal impact, have been key. She is thriving, balancing independent laboratory research, teaching and mentoring undergraduates, and her entrepreneurial work; she even occasionally finds time to engage her artistic side.

Whether or not students like Mendis ultimately launch businesses, at UMBC, they gain versatile skills—problem-solving, communication, empathy, and resilience—that will serve them across diverse careers. Here, entrepreneurial thinking is not an elective add-on but foundational preparation for an unpredictable world. 

“UMBC’s model—technical excellence plus mindset training—prepares graduates to innovate anywhere,” Fulmer says, “making the university a powerful driver of Maryland’s future.”

Written by Weizhi Deng, University of Iowa; Jun Wang, University of Iowa; and Meng Zhou, research scientist at the Goddard Earth Sciences and Technology Research Center II

For decades, the United States made steady progress in reducing surface ozone pollution, the main ingredient in smog. But that progress – achieved as vehicles, industries and power sources became cleaner – is increasingly being overshadowed by a different and growing source of ozone pollution: wildfires.

Our team of atmospheric and wildfire scientists analyzed wildfires’ contribution to surface ozone levels from 2003 to 2024 across the United States.

We found that the gases in wildfire smoke have reversed the national ozone trend, forcing a shift from declining ozone levels prior to 2015 to increasing ozone levels after 2015. We also found that the number of ozone-related premature deaths due to wildfires has been increasing by about 300 deaths per year since then.

Battling smog

Most people know ozone as the protective layer of the atmosphere high above the Earth that shields the planet from harmful ultraviolet radiation. But ozone has two very different faces.

High in the atmosphere, ozone is beneficial. Near the ground, it is a harmful air pollutant that can irritate the lungs and worsen respiratory diseases.

Los Angeles made ozone visible to the nation in the 1940s and 1950s, as thick, eye-stinging smog often blanketed the city. It turned an invisible chemistry problem into a public-health crisis people could see and feel. That crisis helped motivate decades of air pollution control efforts in California and, later, across the United States.

After the passage of the Clean Air Act and its amendments in the 1970s, the U.S. made steady progress in cleaning up surface ozone. Regulations on vehicles, power plants and industrial sources reduced emissions of nitrogen oxides and other ozone-forming chemicals.

To monitor the progress, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has over 1,000 stations that measure ozone around the country. They cover many places, but mostly urban areas, and do not measure ground-level ozone everywhere at the neighborhood scale.

We were able to fill in the gaps by combining those monitoring station measurements with satellite-derived information about air pollution and human activity, along with weather and air quality model simulations. We then used artificial intelligence to estimate daily surface ozone levels everywhere in the contiguous U.S., with data every square kilometer, over the past 22 years.

The results show that national progress in reducing surface ozone reversed around 2015 as North America began to face more severe wildfires. In many regions, ozone levels are now increasing, especially in the western U.S. and the Midwest, where smoke and gases from wildfires are becoming more common as they are transported through the air.

Overall, surface ozone levels that had been falling by about 0.65 part per billion per year from 2003–2015 have since increased by about 0.13 parts per billion per year. If wildfires hadn’t been an influence, we found, the trend of falling surface ozone levels would have continued instead.

People often think of wildfires as a problem for the western U.S., but smoke and gas pollutants from their emissions can travel thousands of miles, affecting communities far from the fires themselves.

The 2023 Canadian wildfires offered a vivid example. In much of the Midwest, ozone reached unhealthy levels for more than a week. The impact of wildfire smoke reached as far as Georgia and New York. That year, an additional 43 million Americans lived in areas with ozone exceeding healthy standards compared to previous years because of increased wildfire emissions.

As the Earth and its atmosphere warm, wildfire seasons are becoming longer and more severe across many parts of North America, and the trend is predicted to continue. In line with projections, Canada experienced its most devastating wildfire seasons on record in 2023 and 2025. In January 2025, destructive fires burned more than 16,000 homes and businesses in and around Los Angeles during a time of year when such events have historically been uncommon.

The shift toward more fires suggests that the rising ozone problem could become even greater in the future. That’s a problem for human health.

Reducing exposure to ozone and its health risks

People can reduce their exposure to ozone pollution by checking air quality forecasts and limiting outdoor activities when wildfires are sending smoke into the air. But protecting public health in the long run will require broader actions to reduce ground-level ozone itself.

That includes efforts to mitigate fire risk by improving wildfire management, such as reducing brush and other dry undergrowth that can fuel fires, and also scaling back the causes of rising global temperatures, such as the burning of fossil fuels. As temperatures rise, the ground loses moisture, creating conditions for more extreme fires.

Protecting public health also means strengthening air quality forecasting systems to provide accurate early warnings, so people can take precautions, and maintaining air pollution monitoring networks and investing in satellite sensors to continue measuring progress, so problems can be identified and fixed.

Weizhi Deng, Ph.D. Student in Atmospheric and Environmental Science, University of Iowa; Jun Wang, Professor of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering, University of Iowa, and Meng Zhou, Researcher in Atmospheric and Earth Sciences, University of Maryland, Baltimore County

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article and see more than 300 UMBC articles available in The Conversation.

They say a rising tide lifts all ships—the idea that when an ecosystem prospers, everyone within it is propelled upward by the same powerful current. The same can be said for UMBC’s Meyerhoff Scholars Program. At least that was the experience of Alycia Marshall ’95, mathematics. The Meyerhoff tide eventually lifted her higher than she imagined: president of the Community College of Philadelphia. 

As an undergraduate student at UMBC, Marshall wasn’t a Meyerhoff Scholar by title, but she felt like one by proximity. Many of her friends were Meyerhoff Scholars. Her peers were Meyerhoff Scholars. Her line sisters Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority Incorporated were Meyerhoff Scholars. Everywhere she turned, she was surrounded by Meyerhoff Scholars.

“Even though I wasn’t a Meyerhoff, I was sucked into this culture of high achievement,” says Marshall. “I call it ‘the Meyerhoff Effect.’”

Pictured above: Marshall and members of Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority Incorporated on campus.

Brilliance was the baseline, and everyone strived to do their absolute best. It became a friendly peer-to-peer competition. But more than that, for Marshall, it was inspiring to see so many high-achieving Black students in one place, pushing each other to be the best versions of themselves.

“I had been in talented and gifted classes my entire school career,” says Marshall. “I was used to being around high-achieving students, but I was always the one person of color in the room. I was just floored to actually see so many people that looked like me who were high achieving at one time, in one place.”

For Marshall, that “Meyerhoff Effect” caused a fundamental shift in her internal barometer for success. She began to see her own potential through a wider lens—one that would eventually take her from a shy undergraduate student at UMBC to the President’s Office at CCP.

The teaching bug

Marshall started her UMBC journey as a biology major. Math and teaching were not even on her radar as potential careers—but that all changed pretty quickly during Marshall’s first year. Her “aha moment” occurred during a Calculus 1 lecture. Marshall was doing well in the course, but she knew she could do even better. She wanted that “A.” So, when the professor offered extra credit to anyone who could go to the board and explain the solution to a problem, Marshall couldn’t help herself. While other students were intimidated by the hundreds of students in that lecture hall class, and the difficulty of the material, Marshall regularly volunteered. She found that she wasn’t just good at solving the equations—she was good at communicating the logic behind them. “I got something out of that,” she says. Before she knew it, her classmates were asking to study with her, and Marshall started tutoring a few of her peers.

“That experience encouraged me to think about mathematics and teaching as a profession,” says Marshall. 

After graduating from UMBC in 1995 with a B.S. in mathematics, Marshall began her teaching career at Bishop McNamara High School, a private school in Forestville, Maryland, before moving to Frederick Douglass High School, a public school in Prince George’s County. Around the same time, she began a master’s program at Bowie State University, eventually earning her masters of arts in teaching in 1998. Then, she got the higher education itch.

Education that changes lives

“I was very intrigued by the idea of teaching at the college level,” says Marshall, who quickly found an adjunct role at Anne Arundel Community College (AACC), teaching developmental math part-time. She was teaching high school students during the day and non-traditional college students twice a week in the evenings for AACC at Fort George G. Meade, a United States Army installation in Maryland.

“That was a whole different experience for me,” says Marshall, “understanding how important education was and how people were seeking that to change their lives.”

She was hooked. So, when a full-time position opened up, Marshall jumped at the opportunity and for the next 23 years she built an impressive career at AACC. During this time, Marshall also earned a Ph.D. in mathematics education from the University of Maryland, College Park in 2007. Her career saw her move from a professor of mathematics to the first African American woman to chair the department. Eventually, she worked her way up to associate vice president of learning and academic affairs. However, the work Marshall says she is most proud of is what she’s done throughout her career to support underrepresented students in STEM and leadership—an effort to replicate aspects of the Meyerhoff Scholars Program at the community college level.

When the idea initially occurred to Marshall, the first thing she did was reach out to her mentor, Freeman Hrabowski, III, UMBC president emeritus. He invited Marshall and AACC leaders to UMBC to meet with him and LaMont Toliver, then the director of the Meyerhoff Scholars Program and assistant dean of undergraduate education.

“It was great,” says Marshall. “That never would have happened had it not been for my connection to UMBC, my relationship with Dr. Hrabowski, and his continued interest in supporting me well beyond my graduation.”

The UMBC field trip and a National Science Foundation grant helped Marshall start the Engineering Scholars Program at AACC, connecting underrepresented students with scholarships, mentoring, and support services. Marshall also created the African American Leadership Institute to develop highly qualified, diverse leaders through targeted leadership development to improve the retention rates for this population and increase the diversity of college leadership.

For years after that, whenever Hrabowski was in a room with Marshall, he would introduce her with a bold proclamation: “This is Dr. Marshall. She’s a UMBC graduate, and she’s going to be a president one day.” 

“When Doc pours into people that way, he has a way of speaking their future into them,” says Marshall. “I leaned on that. Knowing that he knew I could do it helped me know I could do it, too.” 

Marshall left AACC in 2022 to become the provost and vice president for academic and student success at the Community College of Philadelphia (CCP). And it didn’t take long for her to make an impact. Soon after joining CCP, Marshall started the Aspiring Leaders Fellowship Program for employees interested in moving into higher education leadership roles. The program, now in its third cohort, matches participants with senior leaders from different institutions who serve as mentors.

Marshall also started a new faculty onboarding program to provide newly hired faculty the tools they need to succeed—time to learn ways to enhance their pedagogical practices and build on their teaching skills in their first year at CCP—as well as a new department head onboarding program.

“There’s a similar theme with all this about professional development, continuous improvement, and making sure folks have the tools that they need,” says Marshall.

In 2025, Hrabowski’s prophecy came true. Marshall was named CCP president, the first Black woman to serve in the role in a permanent capacity.

Upon receiving the news, one of Marshall’s first calls was to the man who believed in her future before she believed it herself.

“When I told Doc I got the job…he was emotional,” says Marshall. “He was so very proud of me. It was a wonderful day.”

Payton Barry, a fourth-year Ph.D. candidate in biological sciences, is diving into the world of Maryland’s streams. Under Tamra Mendelson’s mentorship, he studies how introduced species of darters, a family of freshwater fish, are affecting native ones. Equal parts dedicated researcher and enthusiastic science communicator, Payton has creatively pieced together funding from organizations like The Explorers Club while sharing his work with the public through outreach events and his engaging Instagram account, @barrybiome.

Q: Why did you choose UMBC for graduate school, and how is it going?

A: I completed my undergrad at the University of Missouri and applied to UMBC specifically to work with Dr. Tamra Mendelson. I discovered her research on Twitter and thought, “This is really cool.” I sensed her great energy in our first virtual meeting, and I knew I could work with her. I moved from Missouri, and it’s been incredible ever since. 

My project is pretty independent, but Tamra is always supportive. She is an awesome mentor—super approachable, really relaxed, and incredibly knowledgeable. Anything I have an issue with or a question about, she’s got an answer or knows who to direct me to. I’m one of three grad students in the lab, including Ph.D. students Georgie Puffer and Shea Buczkowski. Plenty of undergrads are involved in our work, too—sophomore James Keller has been especially helpful with my research. I was humbled to be selected as an Outstanding TA of the Year after nominations from Kevin Omland, Tamra, and Cheng-Yu Li for teaching introductory biology and evolution. 

At right: Payton Barry holds the 2026 Outstanding Graduate Teaching Assistant Award presented at the CNMS Awards and Recognition Day. (Courtesy of Barry)

Q: What are the primary goals of your research, and why is this work important to you?

A: Darters are small freshwater fish common in streams. They primarily eat macroinvertebrates—little bugs—and reproduce in spring. My research evaluates how introduced darter species might affect native darter species in Maryland. We study two native species and two that were introduced in the late 1950s and 1970s, likely unintentionally by anglers using them for bait.

One of my projects focuses on habitat use. Native darters provide paternal care, with the males guarding eggs, so they need specific microhabitats to reproduce. We found a large degree of overlap between one introduced species and the native species, especially during the reproductive season—that added competition could hamper native reproduction.

We’re also studying what darters are eating, including whether introduced species prey on native eggs. We sample streams to compare how their diet matches or doesn’t with what’s available across the seasons.

This work matters because these little fish play important roles in stream ecosystems. Losing natives through competitive exclusion could affect Maryland’s biodiversity and even impact recreational fisheries. 

At left: Payton Barry conducts fieldwork to monitor the seasonal movement behavior of native and introduced darter species. (Courtesy of Barry)

Q: What does a day in the field look like?

A: It’s mostly me, though Dr. Mendelson joins when she can, and it’s a lot of fun. We drive about an hour to sites near Frederick, Maryland at Little Bennett Creek and the Little Monocacy River; in Montgomery County near Rock Creek; and in the Monocacy River area, plus closer sites on the Anacostia River.

First we catch the darters, and then we survey macroinvertebrates in the stream to measure food availability. We use a nonlethal technique called “gastric lavage” to wash out the fishes’ gut contents. We prep the gut samples and then send them out for genetic sequencing to identify what the fish are eating. We sampled six populations in spring, summer, and winter—when biodiversity is lowest.

Q: To support your work, you’ve sought a range of funding sources. Can you talk about that process and offer any advice?

A: With recent changes to the federal funding landscape, smaller grants from nonprofits have been crucial. I rely on racking up these small awards to support big projects. This project is funded by four or five grants combined. Our newest grant from The Explorers Club covers our genetic sequencing costs. Other support comes from the North American Native Fishes Association (NANFA), the Society for Freshwater Science, and Fly Fishers International.

I just search online for terms like “native fish research grants” or “stream fish restoration.” I tailor my applications and projects for the funders’ priorities—for example, I tied my work to the health of stocked fish populations for Fly Fishers. If you can find an organization focused on your research niche, you might have a greater chance of success, because fewer people are applying.

Q: You’ve made an effort to share your research with members of the broader community. Can you describe some of that work?

A: I’m involved with the graduate student outreach group in UMBC’s biology department. For example, last fall, we hosted an event called Science on Tap at Checkerspot Brewing in Baltimore, where we invited UMBC graduate student researchers in biology and geography and environmental systems to give talks about what they do. We’ve also presented at events run by the Baltimore Underground Science Space. Plus, I run the Instagram account @barrybiome, where I post research updates and a weekly Fieldwork Friday series in collaboration with undergrads in the lab. 

A lot of times researchers present only to specific audiences, which makes science less accessible. It is really fun for me to share my passion for what I do. I love getting questions about how my work relates to people. It really makes an impression when I’m able to tell them how important these little guys are and their role in the ecosystem—everybody’s got a part to play.

When UMBC founded the Institute of Politics (IoP) in fall 2024, the new politics research center housed in the College of Arts, Humanities, and the Social Science outlined a clear mandate: to produce public-facing and community-engaged research and events on political, policy, and social issues for the betterment of Maryland, and to include UMBC students every step of the way. 

Two years on, the IoP and its signature research product, the UMBC Poll, have already become indispensable to policy makers and the press and are garnering a reputation for accuracy and up-to-the-minute relevancy. Thanks to covering such hot button issues as Gov. Wes Moore’s approval ratings and the Key Bridge rebuild, the UMBC Poll has garnered over 400 mentions in the press so far in 2026. 

True to the IoP’s founding mission, students are centered in the work. IoP Director Mileah Kromer and Associate Director Ian Anson are committed to giving their students hands-on experience in developing, conducting, analyzing, and publicizing high-visibility political polls. That commitment kicked up a notch as spring semester came to an end. The IoP held two events that brought policy-minded Retrievers together with state and local leaders to share visions for a better future–and to learn from each other how to bring those visions to fruition. 

Students share UMBC Poll results on parks and recreation use

On April 29, IoP research assistants Trisha Sirsat, Audrey Grutzik, and Sofia Cabrera presented results from the IoP’s March statewide poll and April poll of Baltimore County. Each poll included an array of questions that gauged residents’ opinions toward parks, recreation, and public lands. The audience of state and county leaders included Maryland Department of Natural Resources Secretary Joshua Kurtz and Baltimore County Director of Recreation and Parks Bryan Sheppard. The students’ presentation provided analysis regarding visitation, preferred activities, and areas for expansion and improvement. When the leaders peppered the students with questions, the students were prepared.

“I was really impressed with the quality of the analysis,” said Kurtz, who appreciated how the student’s youthful perspective added to the value of the research. “Having our young people who are about to step into the professional world and be the next set of leaders doing this research is critically important.”

AAPI event connects students with careers in politics

A week later, the IoP brought another set of leaders to campus to engage with students, this time to mark Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month. Politics Everywhere: Understanding the AAPI Vote was co-moderated by Sirsat and UMBC alum Del. Mark Chang ’99 and kicked off with a keynote by Lt. Gov. Aruna Miller followed by a panel including Dels. David Moon, Kris Valderrama, and Harry Bhandari, Ph.D. ’21, and Sushant Sidh, principal at Capitol Strategies.

The event was inspired by Del. Chang, who worked with Sirsat to develop questions for the panelists. The panelists shared similar stories of having been written off, undervalued, or discriminated against early in their careers until learning that they deserved to have their voice heard—a lesson they urged the assembled students to take to heart. 

“Volunteer, work on a campaign. And when the time comes, run for office. Don’t ever keep that off your list of things to do, said Lt. Gov. Miller, who added this incentive: “When any of you decide to run, give me a call. I would love to be able to be the first one that writes you a check for your campaign.”

The students say working on critical policy research and engaging with local and state leaders shows them how government actually works and helps them make connections for the future.

“It was really exciting and fulfilling to see leaders so invested and interested in our work,” says Sirsat, a junior majoring in political science. “I think it’s really valuable to meet and have conversations with experts in positions you may want one day.”

Kromer says the recent events, and all of the IoP’s work, are key to living up to the IoP’s commitment to its public-facing mission. “I want to elevate the voices of everyday Marylanders and provide policymakers useful information about how they can better serve the residents of the state,” says Kromer, who adds that students can look forward to more exciting opportunities in the fall.