According to U.S. News rankings released today, UMBC graduate programs are some of the best in the nation for 2020. The rankings are developed based on expert opinions and statistical indicators for quality. Over 2,000 programs and more than 22,000 individuals were polled to determine this year’s honorees. While some programs have been newly recognized on 2020 rankings lists, others continue to lead on lists developed in prior cycles.

It was another strong year for the graduate programs in UMBC’s College of Natural and Mathematical Sciences (CNMS). Five CNMS fields are recognized in U.S. News graduate program rankings, including mathematics, statistics, biological sciences, chemistry, and physics.

“The breadth of programs recognized in CNMS is a testament to the dedication and extraordinary effort of the faculty and staff across the college,” says Bill LaCourse, dean of CNMS. “I gratefully appreciate their commitment to setting high standards and providing a quality education for all our students.”

As a whole, UMBC’s College of Engineering and Information Technology (COEIT) stands as one of the best engineering colleges in the nation. Just three other Maryland institutions appear on the overall 2020 list of best engineering programs. COEIT remains on the lists of the country’s best electrical, mechanical, and environmental engineering graduate programs, and is featured on the new 2020 list for chemical engineering.

“All of our researchers, faculty, staff, postdocs, and especially graduate students, contribute to an environment that enables innovations that help keep UMBC at the forefront of engineering and computing,” says COEIT Dean Keith J. Bowman.

UMBC’s School of Public Policy welcomed new director Susan Sterett in 2017. Since then, the school’s graduate programs in public policy have continued to thrive. Their success is evident with a 2020 U.S. News ranking in the top 100 of all public affairs graduate programs across the nation.

“UMBC’s School of Public Policy is proud of our excellent faculty and students, who contribute every day to informing the public about health and education policy, equity in cities, and public management and regulation,” says Sterett. “With such excellent scholars in publicly significant fields, we look forward to growing and continuing to contribute to the field in a way that rivals our larger, older peers.”

Graduate programs in fine arts, psychology, and clinical psychology also continue to be recognized as among the best. Earlier this year, U.S. News heralded UMBC’s online master’s degree in information systems as one of the top 20 in the nation, up four spots from last year.

Banner image: UMBC graduates at May 2018 Commencement. Photo by Catherine Borg for UMBC. All other photos by Marlayna Demond ’11 for UMBC.

“I am privileged to receive strong support in my pursuit of a career in math and economics,” says Anna Gifty Opoku-Agyeman, M26, ‘19, mathematics, co-founder of the Sadie Tanner Mossell Alexander Conference for Economics and Related Fields. “I am an anomaly. There has never existed a formal space for Black women in economics to convene and benefit from the resources of a supportive network. I co-created one.”

On February 23, the Sadie Collective launched the first Sadie T.M. Alexander Conference for Economics and Related Fields. The event was held at the Washington D.C. office of Mathematica, a policy research organization.

The Sadie Collective is made up of undergraduate, graduate, and post-baccalaureate students from across the country, including student leaders from UMBC. Along with Opoku-Agyeman, the group includes conference co-organizer and head of logistics Olusayo Adeleye ’20, M28, economics and mathematics. Yasmin Graham ’19, mechanical engineering, served as event photographer. Bethany Woosen ’19, economics and mathematics, participated in the conference, along with other Black women in math, economics, and related fields from across the country.

“There weren’t many people like me in math and economics, which was frustrating. Through the Sadie Collective, I have the community and support I was seeking,” explains Adeleye. “Now, I am part of a network and platform that promotes Black women economists and provides access to high-level opportunities for future Black women economists.”

The conference received support from donors worldwide, including prominent economists. The UMBC delegation also received funding for accommodations from the UMBC economics department through an Alfred P. Sloan Foundation grant. This $1.3 million dollar grant program, announced in November 2017, works to increase the number of students from underrepresented racial and ethnic groups who complete highly competitive doctoral programs in economics.

Did I mention that we have a private Q&A session with the former chair of the @federalreserve, Janet Yellen? Thank you @BrookingsInst and @davidmwessel for this amazing opportunity. #SACE2019 pic.twitter.com/nqCfgPgAoc

— Anna (@itsafronomics) February 22, 2019

Finding a circle of support

Opoku-Agyeman came to UMBC with an interest in understanding health inequalities in Black and African diaspora communities. She found unwavering support for her questions and research in three women on campus: Jacqueline King, Nandita Dasgupta, and Gloria Chuku.

Jacqueline King, Ph.D. ‘09, psychology, met Opoku-Agyeman when she applied to the MARC U*Star program. King is assistant director of the program, which supports students from historically underrepresented groups in the biomedical sciences, with the goal that they go on to complete advanced degrees.

“I’ve witnessed Anna’s metamorphosis from a student who was unsure of her academic capabilities to a young woman who is positioning herself to impact the economic and public policy field,” King remembers. “Her superpower is her ability to foster connections and collaborations to make a difference.”

Opoku-Agyeman explains that Dasgupta, adjunct professor of economics, and Chuku, chair, and professor of Africana studies, have also been intrinsic to her success. “Dr. Dasgupta gave me an economic framework to understand a developing Africa,” she says, “and Dr. Chuku has provided the historical context for the structural inequalities in the African Diaspora.”

With their support, Opoku-Agyeman realized math and economics were priceless tools in understanding health inequalities which helped to eventually chose to major in mathematics and minor in economics.

Inspiration from Sadie T. M. Alexander

As Opoku-Agyeman began to look for other Black women economists to connect with, she was stunned to find so few. Seeking inspiration, she found the story of Sadie T. M. Alexander, the first African American woman to earn a Ph.D. in economics.

Between 1919 and 1923 Alexander served as the first national president of Delta Sigma Theta sorority, which focused on service to the African American community. She earned her Ph.D. in 1921 from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, at a time when the economics field did not allow Black women to practice. Undeterred, Alexander completed a dissertation that called for a change in economic models to include the economic lives of the Black community. She continued to be a pioneer and in 1929 become the first African American woman to earn a law degree from University of Pennsylvania Law School and the first African American woman to practice law in Pennsylvania.

The Indicator Podcast today on Sadie Alexander!

Very fitting on the day of the inaugural Sadie Alexander Conference #SACE2019https://t.co/IqmGqdBw4O pic.twitter.com/OFOpG8suGR

— Dina D. Pomeranz (@DinaPomeranz) February 23, 2019

When Opoku-Agyeman learned that there was no global or U.S. professional organization for Black women economists, she drew inspiration from Alexander’s pioneering spirit and decided to take action.

Legacy of Black women economists

The inaugural Sadie Tanner Mossell Alexander Conference for Economics and Related Fields drew over eighty Black women undergraduate and graduate students, and PhDs in economics, from across the United States and Canada. Notable economists Julianne Malveaux and Willene A. Johnson discussed the implications of Alexander’s dissertation research and speeches for current economic theory and future research. Malveaux, former president of Bennett College, and Johnson, president of Komaza, Inc., a development finance and peacebuilding firm, have both written extensively on the role of economics in Alexander’s life. Alexander’s daughter, Rae Alexander-Minter, and her grandchildren attended as guests of honor.

Three expert panels during the event provided participants insight on how to help Black women succeed in economics, opportunities for Black women in economics beyond the undergraduate years, and navigating professional spaces as a Black woman. These panels included Black women economists from the International Monetary Fund; Women’s Institute for Science, Equity, and Race; American Economic Association; Harvard Research Scholar Initiative;  Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies; Federal Reserve Board; Africa Gender Innovation Lab at The World Bank; Economic Policy Institute; and multiple universities.

Recruiters from doctoral programs as well as prestigious financial and government institutions also attended to take advantage of this unique opportunity to reach out to top talent from across the United States.

Future of Black women economists

Opoku-Agyeman and her co-organizers see an ongoing need for a thriving network of Black women economists beyond the annual conference. They have founded the Sadie Collective to not just organize the conference, but also to connect, empower, equip, and educate Black women in economics and public policy more broadly, for years to come.

The group has already drawn wide public interest. Recently, Congresswoman Maxine Waters mentioned the Sadie Collective in her testimony in a financial and monetary policy hearing with the Federal Reserve. NPR’s Planet Money and Forbes Magazine have also noted the importance of the conference for increasing diversity in economics.

“Similar to Dr. Alexander, people have projected their limitations onto me, often focusing on what I could not do because of my race/ethnicity, gender, socioeconomic background, age, or all of the above,” says Opoku-Agyeman. “She taught me that there is absolutely nothing that I cannot do. If want to reach a goal, all I have to do is run towards it.”

Banner image: Opoku-Agyeman presenting Diane Herz, vice president, director of human services, and chief diversity officer of Mathematica Policy Research, with a plaque of appreciation for hosting the first Sadie T.M. Alexander Conference.

All photos courtesy of the Sadie Collective.

UMBC Chess finished tenth overall at the 2018 Pan-American Intercollegiate Team Chess Championship, held in San Francisco, California, December 27 – 30.

The UMBC Chess A team finished in 10th place, with victories over the University of Texas at Dallas A team (second-place winner), University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (fifth-place winner), University of Minnesota B team, Hart House Chess Club, Carnegie Mellon University, and UC Berkeley A team. This ranking landed UMBC ahead of other high-profile competitors, including Princeton, MIT, and UCLA. UMBC’s Tanguy Ringoir ‘19, economics, ranked fifth in individual competitor performance (see full results).

The UMBC Chess B team earned wins over the University of Texas at Austin B team, University of Washington, Arizona State University, UC Berkeley B team, and Northwest University, and finished 45th overall.

“The Pan-Am tournament was great for all of the players on the team. It was a way of gaining experience, especially when playing against very good teams,” says team member Ewa Harazinska ‘20, chemistry. “We take a great pride in representing UMBC in a national competition, and we were delighted to place in the top 10 chess teams.”

UMBC’s 2018 A team includes grandmaster Tanguy Ringoir; international master Rohan Ahuja ‘21, computer science; woman international master Mai Narva ‘22, psychology; Matyas Marek ‘22, computer science; and woman international master Ewa Harazinska, as an alternate. The UMBC Chess B team includes Maor Leker Locker ’20, biological sciences; Nathan Sukhyun Janus ‘20, mathematics; Danielle Sharp ‘22, engineering; and Kabindra Shahi ‘22, biochemistry.

Alan Sherman, professor of computer science and electrical engineering, serves as director for UMBC Chess and Joel DeWyer, associate director for campus life operations, is business manager.

UMBC has participated in the Pan-American Intercollegiate Team Chess Championship for the past 28 years, and has won or tied for first place at the Pan-Am Championship ten times. UMBC Chess has also continued on to the President’s Cup—known as the Final Four of College Chess—numerous times in the past two and a half decades.

Banner image: Members of the UMBC Chess team. Photo by Marlayna Demond ’11 for UMBC.

UMBC’s Division of Information Technology has made headlines for innovative research collaborations aimed at boosting student success through analyzing how students utilize digital resources. Recently, UMBC researchers have continued this work with education technology companies Blackboard and VitalSource, the university’s learning management system and e-textbook providers. The goal of this research partnership is to better understand connections between how students use course tools and their class performance, and to use that knowledge to support student learning and success.

Leading this work for UMBC are CIO and Vice President of IT Jack Suess ‘81, mathematics, M.S. ‘95, operations analysis; Associate Vice President of Instructional Technology John Fritz Ph.D. ‘16, language, literacy, and culture; and Robert Carpenter, deputy CIO and associate provost for analytics. An early pilot study focused on anonymized data reflecting the performance of nearly 1,000 undergraduates in seven sections of five UMBC courses across a range of disciplines in Fall 2017. Success was defined as earning a C or higher final grade.

Among other things, the UMBC, Blackboard and VitalSource researchers found that by combining data from a wide range of sources, they were able to develop a model that was 70-98 percent accurate in predicting, by week four in the semester, which students would go on to earn a C or higher final grade. Their findings were shared in a Blackboard blog post and then reported by Campus Technology this past summer.

Providing help in time

“This project is important because it focuses on early intervention—offering help in time for a student to improve their trajectory,” explains Fritz. Ideally, he notes, that extra level of support could kick in by week four of the semester. “We want to reach out to and support students earlier in a term,” he says, “when a change in their awareness and behavior could make a difference in outcomes.”

Although the study did not test specific interventions, the researchers believe they have found actionable, concrete evidence that could make a difference in student achievement, to help boost grades and decrease the number of students who need to repeat a course. They are now working to replicate the study, refine the model, and explore relevant interventions, which Carpenter has been developing in complementary analytics studies using Blackboard.

Data-driven collaborations

“UMBC has a long history of innovation as a data-driven institution,” says Suess, who is chair of the board for IMS Global, which defines and supports the standards for the Caliper framework that was used in the study. In addition to resulting in interesting findings, this study “was a solid analytics infrastructure proof-of-concept,” he notes.

The research partners also reflect that this project highlights how so many different units across the university play essential roles in supporting student success. The UMBC bookstore’s Course Materials Initiative, for example, has worked to encourage faculty to use e-textbooks, giving students a more affordable, accessible textbook option and making this type of analytics-based research study possible.

“Our progress using analytics to design interventions for student success wouldn’t be possible without the strong partnerships we’ve developed with faculty and departments,” said Carpenter. “It’s a team effort.”

Additional information about how DoIT uses analytics at UMBC can be found on the DoIT Analytics website.

Banner image: John Fritz. Photo by Marlayna Demond ’11 for UMBC.

Artists, scientists, and social change agents from across UMBC presented the third annual GRIT-X talks on October 13, sharing their ideas and perspectives on stage in UMBC’s Dance Cube. “All our talks gave a different facet, a different beam of light, on what we do at UMBC,” said Vice President for Research Karl Steiner, who spearheaded the event.

The value of stories

Documentary filmmaker Richard Chisolm ’82, interdisciplinary studies, explained how many documentaries and reality television shows today are tightly scripted and controlled, and how, in contrast, he uses an in-the-moment style of filmmaking to produce films that honestly represent a microcosm of the larger story.

Through films like Cafeteria Man, focused on school food reform, and Gun Show, about an artist who makes sculptures of assault weapons out of found objects, Chisolm gives viewers an entry point into thorny issues. Each topic he tackles is a “huge iceberg, the tip of which is an hour documentary,” Chisolm says. “The noblest thing to do is to tell stories in a way that the tip of the iceberg represents the iceberg fairly.”

Manil Suri, mathematics, emphasized in his talk that storytelling can benefit disciplines beyond literature and film. “Stories underlie so much of what we do, including math and other STEM subjects,” he said.

Suri weaves together his passions for storytelling and math on a daily basis: He teaches a course with Michele Osherow, English, about the relationship between math and the humanities, and he’s written a novel, The Godfather of Numbers, that is a sort of creation story for mathematics. He’s using excerpts from it in his math classes this fall.

Suri also urges people who are less keen on mathematics to broaden their perspective of what math is. “Math is about more than calculations,” he says. “It’s about ideas, and ideas, such as infinity, can be enjoyed by everyone.”

Nicole King, American studies, enjoys listening to and learning from others’ stories, with a focus on residents of Baltimore City. After an accident totaled her Corolla in 2010, King decided to go carless, which, she says, removed a barrier to her truly listening to Baltimore. Through taking the bus and more closely connecting with Baltimore in other ways, King shared, “I started to really see the beauty—that cacophony of voices and sounds—that make a city a city.”

King’s research seeks to understand how Baltimore residents are responding to change across the city, with a particular focus on public markets like Lexington Market, and arts districts like Station North. Through that work, “I found listening, really listening, has been the most important, but also the most difficult, method I have used in my research,” she said. She creates opportunities for her students to “show up and listen” through immersive class projects.

Listening to her students has helped shape her teaching and research, too. “Give students the agency to shape projects,” she recommends. “They have good ideas and should be taken seriously.”

Doing things differently

Deborah Thompson Eisenberg ’91, political science, is a professor of law at the University of Maryland Carey School of Law, where she directs the Center for Dispute Resolution. She was motivated to pursue a law career because, she explained, “When our democracy encounters crisis, lawyers and the judiciary tend to step in to give voice to the powerless, enforce our laws and our Constitutional rights, and protect the most vulnerable.” However, over time, she reflected, “I’ve come to believe that if lawyers and judges truly want to foster a culture of conflict resolution, we need more than the power of the rule of law.”

Eisenberg began to focus on alternatives to traditional litigation: mediation and restorative justice practices, teaching our youth to “talk it out to work it out,” and teaching our politicians “to use consensus-building policies.” Conflict is inevitable and has been intensifying, Eisenberg argued, but “we can transform our culture of conflict to a culture of conflict resolution if we use all of our superpowers,” combining the rule of law, alternative dispute resolution, community connections, and education.

Disney’s Princess Tiana may not be a superhero, but, as the first black Disney princess, she is larger than life in the eyes of many young girls of color. Kimberly Moffitt, associate professor of language, literacy, and culture and Africana studies, discussed how Tiana broke the mold of the traditional Disney princess with her entrepreneurial, ambitious spirit in The Princess and the Frog. “Princess Tiana pushes the bounds of the princess trope and says, ‘No more. We can do this differently,’” Moffitt said.

However, Moffitt explained, Tiana is also an example of the “glass cliff,” a phenomenon in business where companies are more likely to hire women and people of color to leadership roles when those companies are in times of crisis and the risk of failure is highest. When Tiana came out in 2009, Disney hadn’t had a new princess-style protagonist since Mulan in 1998, and the brand was faltering. The Princess and the Frog didn’t achieve box office success itself, but, Moffitt argued, “Tiana created space for the next three princesses,” who all were more independent than their predecessors: Rapunzel in Tangled, Merida in Brave, and Moana in Moana. “Tiana was a catalyst to shift our perception of what a princess could look like—in skin tone as well as her actions.”

Eric Dyer ’95, professor of visual arts, shifts our perception of what moving pictures can be by reimagining the zoetrope, one of the original forms of motion picture. Zoetropes use a series of snapshots in a spinning cylinder to trick the mind into seeing a moving scene. “As an artist, I pick up the tactile and interactive zoetrope where it was abandoned 120 years ago,” Dyer said, “and continuously reinvent it to make films, interactive animated sculptures, and immersive installations.”

At GRIT-X, Dyer demonstrated his work for the audience and, for the first time, shared the story behind each piece. Attendees enjoyed frolicking onions and peppers and reflected on Dyer’s exploration of the industrial heydays of the U.S. and China. “Thank you for sharing this performance storytelling experience with me today,” Dyer shared as he closed. “There’s something very human about it that isn’t possible either virtually or remotely.”

Shifting the culture

Diane Bell McKoy ’73, social work and sociology, is the CEO of Associated Black Charities of Maryland. She used her GRIT-X talk as an opportunity to share a powerful personal story of seeking treatment for depression in a broken mental healthcare system. Systems in place in the United States, she argued, perpetuate stigma and fail to support a sense of self-worth for people of color, and she is working to change them.

McKoy’s work has a particular focus on closing the racial wealth gap. If wealth continues to accrue at current rates, it would take a black family 228 years to accrue as much wealth as a white family, McKoy said, and it would take a Latino family 84 years. McKoy encouraged attendees to “look at the world through a new lens” and be willing to question current systems, from employment to education to healthcare.

Shawn Bediako, psychology, is also interested in changing perceptions around race, with a focus on health and science. “Ideas about race can become inscribed in our minds if they’re repeated often enough,” he said at GRIT-X, using the example that many people seem to believe, incorrectly, that sickle cell disease is exclusive to black people.

Bediako went on to explain how race is a complex legal, social, and cultural construct that impacts people’s lives in dramatic ways. But he also shared that he has hope this can change, and that UMBC can develop leaders who will impact the way we think about race. “I feel confident that an institution like ours, with a commitment to inclusive excellence at all levels of the arts, humanities, and sciences,” he said, “can help…change this inscription and hopefully shift this paradigm.”

To close the program, Kavita Krishnaswamy ’07, computer science and mathematics, Ph.D. ’19, computer science, shared her work developing solutions to assist people with disabilities and mobility challenges. Krishnaswamy, who has spinal muscular atrophy, gave her presentation via a telepresence device that allows her to navigate the world from her home in Columbia, Maryland.

Krishnaswamy is the recipient of the Google Lime Scholarship, was named a Microsoft Fellow, and was included among the Baltimore Sun’s “25 Women to Watch.” She is currently working on projects including a bed that allows people with mobility challenges to adjust their position along many different axes of movement, and a robot to enable people who previously could not use the bathroom unassisted to do so independently.

“We have a lot of problems in the world, and I really feel that robotics can solve many of those problems,” Krishnaswamy said. “So in that way we can really promote social progress and elevate the global living standards. That, in turn, can increase the quality of life for people with disabilities, seniors, and their families.”

One of her closing remarks echoed the sentiments of others at GRIT-X. “Even though our perspectives are many and diverse, our vision is one,” she concluded. Whether dismantling stigma, finding new ways to connect students with intimidating subjects, or changing how we think about conflict, all the speakers emphasized how the UMBC community can reach together to improve the world of tomorrow.

Banner image: Manil Suri, mathematics, at GRIT-X. All photos by Marlayna Demond ’11 for UMBC.
Explore video of all GRIT-X talks on the Research at UMBC website. 

UMBC community members from the university’s first class to today kicked off Homecoming 2018 on October 4 with a celebration of UMBC Alumni Award winners. Held in the Earl and Danielle Linehan Concert Hall, the moving and memorable ceremony reflected the rich community that is UMBC and honored the tremendous achievements of eight exceptional awardees.

As the evening began, John Becker ’01, information systems, president of the UMBC Alumni Association, remarked, “The alumni and faculty we will recognize tonight truly capture the depth of the UMBC community.” President Freeman Hrabowski encouraged attendees to “listen, learn, and be inspired.”

Kimberly Ellison-Taylor ’93, information systems, received the 2018 Outstanding Alumna in Engineering and Information Technology Award. She bridges her knowledge in technology and finance as a global strategy director at Oracle. She is also the youngest person and first African-American woman to be elected as chair of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants.

Greg Simmons, M.P.P. ’04, public policy, and vice president of institutional advancement, described Ellison-Taylor as “a visionary in her field” who can “see the future in the work that she does.” Still, he says, despite her success, “she’s never forgotten where she’s come from, and she’s made sure she’s opened pathways for others to have success that she’s modeled so well.”

Ellison-Taylor grew up in Baltimore’s Sandtown-Winchester neighborhood. “Statistically, I shouldn’t be here,” she shared, but “UMBC provided a foundation of unparalleled opportunity. It empowered, enabled, equipped, and energized me to succeed.”

Through her participation in the Sigma Gamma Rho sorority, Ellison-Taylor began paying it forward, supporting others in finding their paths. “Everyone deserves respect and dignity,” she said, “whether they’re the CEO or the janitor.”

Allan Kittleman ’81, political science, introduced Zainab Alkebsi ’09, political science, this year’s Rising Star Award recipient. Alkebsi serves as policy counsel for the National Association for the Deaf.

As a child, Alkebsi was frustrated by the lack of accessibility for deaf and hard-of-hearing people like herself. She recalled attending a movie and seeing everyone around her laughing while she couldn’t follow the dialogue. So, at 11 years old, “I resolved that I was going to go to law school and advocate for full, equal access,” she told the crowd through an interpreter. “Now, here I am—in the trenches of the battle to break down barriers to accessibility for the Deaf and hard-of-hearing communities.”

Among her many achievements as an advocate, Alkebsi recently negotiated 100 percent captioning for in-flight entertainment on several major airlines. Now a mother, she imagines her daughter “boarding a flight and knowing the role her mother played in ensuring greater accessibility.”

Alkebsi thanked her UMBC professors for encouraging her personal and professional growth. She shared that she continues to give back to UMBC by presenting guest lectures focused on the Deaf community.

Kathleen Hoffman, mathematics, and David Mitch, economics, introduced Mark Doms ’86, mathematics and economics, the 2018 Outstanding Alumnus in Natural and Mathematical Sciences Award recipient. A leading economic policy expert, Doms served on the Board of Governors for the Federal Reserve and as the Under Secretary for Economic Affairs at the Department of Commerce under the Obama administration, and worked at Japan’s largest investment bank.

“I couldn’t have gotten a better education anywhere else,” Doms shared, of his time at UMBC. His math classes taught him to analyze data appropriately, and his economics classes taught him “how to think about the world’s problems in a rigorous manner.”

In addition to a strong academic preparation, “UMBC instilled in me a sense of public service,” Doms said. His career has been primarily in the public sector, and he intends to teach at a public university when he returns to the United States from his current work in Europe.

Saira Khan ’09, English, is UMBC’s 2018 Outstanding Alumna in the Humanities. Chris Corbett, English, noted, “She has achieved more in just a few years than some aspiring journalists achieve in an entire career.”

Khan began her career as a freelancer for Dawn, an English-language publication in her native Pakistan, “moving seamlessly between two very complicated worlds,” Corbett said. Less than a decade later, she is now director of social media for The New Yorker.

Attending UMBC was “one of the best decisions I have made in my life,” Khan shared. “I left this place with relationships that I have carried with me for the last 10 years, and I know I will have them with me for the rest of my life. For that, I will be forever grateful.”

Mina Cheon, M.F.A. ’02, imaging and digital arts, also moves seamless between worlds, from Korea to New York City to UMBC. She says “artists are agents of change,” and they become leaders who “perform art projects in social spaces that matter.”

Her often-controversial art includes a series of political videos framed as art history lessons, which she placed on flash drives inside balloons and launched from South Korea over the border with North Korea. The South Korean president and first lady visited her most recent exhibition.

Cheon’s connection to the university has been long-lasting. She graduated from UMBC with her infant son in her arms, and now he is studying math at UMBC. “Thank you for being the leading, visionary STEAM research community where I grew abundantly and where my son will be nurtured to flourish in his academic track,” she shared.

Cheon also mentioned her gratitude for UMBC faculty and staff’s dedication to “shaping the future by empowering the artist in society.” Her nominator, Kathy O’Dell, visual arts, said simply, “Dr. Cheon is a treasure.”

Wanda Keyes Heard ’79, political science, the 2018 Outstanding Alumna in Social Sciences Award recipient, is the first female chief judge of the 8th Judicial Circuit. Keyes Heard holds this position following 19 years of service as a circuit court judge in Baltimore City. She has mentored dozens of UMBC students and fellow judges.

“UMBC helped prepare me to accomplish my professional goals,” she says, “to break through race and gender bias and barriers, because I was a woman headed into a field where people just didn’t look like me.”

Like other recipients, Keyes Heard also talked about relationships and community. “I embraced this campus, and it embraced me,” she said. She described UMBC as “not only my academic home, but my home away from home.” Many of her former classmates, who remain her close friends, attended the ceremony to cheer her achievement. “They’re here tonight,” Keyes Heard said, “because they are still my family after 40 years.”

Mimi Haw Dietrich ’70, American studies, received the 2018 Outstanding Alumna for Distinguished Service Award. As a founder of the “Fab Four” group (comprised of members of UMBC’s first four graduating classes), Dietrich remembers a time when UMBC included just three buildings.

“We planted the seeds for UMBC’s greatness many years ago just by believing in a new university,” she shared. She chose to attend because Albin O. Kuhn, UMBC’s first president, “promised that we would be pioneers.”

For UMBC’s 50th anniversary, Dietrich was one of the first to galvanize alumni to organize and participate in the celebrations. She continues to serve UMBC by organizing Fab Four events. She previously served on the Alumni Association Board of Directors and was named UMBC Volunteer of the Year in 1999 along with her husband, Bob Dietrich ’70, biological sciences.

Professionally, Dietrich has been dedicated to spreading her love of quilting and needlework as an educator for 50 years. She was inducted into the Quilters Hall of Fame in 2015 and named the Professional Quilter of the Year in 2013.

Mariajose Castellanos, chemical, biochemical, and environmental engineering, is the 2018 Outstanding Faculty Award recipient. Castellanos, a teaching faculty member, expressed gratitude that her department supported her when she “chose to pursue teaching and leadership through service,” rather than continue in research.

Jeremy Drew ’17, chemical engineering, reflected on the great impact of her work as an educator, for him and so many others. “She showed me the value of trying a problem I wasn’t sure how to solve,” said Drew. He continued,“Dr. C. cares about the well-being of her students, and adapts to each of their individual needs in order to bring them the most comprehensive education possible.”

Throughout the event, speaker after speaker reflected on meaningful friendships and strong bonds with mentors at UMBC—connections that have lasted over decades. President Hrabowski drew on this theme as he offered closing remarks. “The older I get, the more I realize there’s nothing more important than friends and family,” he said. “It is the notion of community through which we are all connected.”

Banner image: Wanda Keyes Heard ’79 speaks to a full Linehan Concert Hall. All images by Marlayna Demond ’11 for UMBC.

For an undergraduate getting their start in science, traveling far from home for an immersive research experience can be transformational. Living and working in a completely new environment, with new colleagues, can be intimidating, but it also offers powerful opportunities for growth. Five STEM BUILD students from UMBC took that plunge this summer, and all made lasting memories that will inform their paths forward.

Chad Brown ’19, biological sciences, traveled to South Africa with a research team based at the University of Virginia. Before departing, he spent time on UVA’s campus getting to know his team, practicing key lab techniques, and learning about South African culture.

“Not only are you going to be working in a research lab, but you’re doing it in a setting you’ve never experienced before,” Brown said. “You have to be in the mindset for that—and that’s what they were helping us do.”

Once in Thohoyandou, South Africa, Brown measured the concentration of bacteria in water samples from homes in the region. His efforts contributed to a long-term study designed to detect whether water treatment interventions are reducing bacteria in the water and affecting children’s growth.

Brown entered UMBC planning to pursue medical school, “but I think South Africa kind of flipped the script,” he said. Now he’s more seriously considering a research career. Many factors led to the shift, “but South Africa has been the big one that made the difference.”

Victoria Baskerville ’19, biological sciences, and Kendra Kontchou ’19, biological sciences and psychology, both participated in the University of Maryland School of Pharmacy Internship. Kontchou’s project focused on understanding a molecular pathway in pseudomonas bacteria, which is resistant to some antibiotics and commonly found in hospitals. The ultimate goal is to find a way to shut down the pathway and kill the bacteria.

A BUILD summer program at UMBC last summer helped prepare Kontchou by exposing her to techniques like gel electrophoresis, which she carried out many times at UMB. Baskerville felt similarly prepared for her research experience, where she analyzed data from clinical trials comparing a brand name and generic drug for people suffering from anemia.

“I felt comfortable going into it because a lot of the things that I did…I actually was exposed to in the summer BUILD program,” Baskerville said. She loves the scientific process, because “you get to figure out new things all the time.”

Baskerville has been planning to pursue research since her freshman year at UMBC. As she’s gained more lab experience and confidence through the BUILD program, research has become more central to her career plans.

“I feel as if I have a leg-up,” Kontchou said. “BUILD has laid a path for us and guided us. They help us with our academics, and they motivate us to look for research and other opportunities.”

Amber Thompson ’20, biochemistry and math, spent the summer at Colorado State University. She studied a gene that controls whether yeast cells clump together or not, which has important applications in the biofuels industry.

Her research project ran into roadblocks that required repeating a lengthy set of experiments, but there was a silver lining. “Research is like a big jigsaw puzzle,” Thompson said. “At first, I could only focus on one piece at a time. The second time, I could follow the intricacies and piece it together. Rather than just following a procedure, it was more of an intellectual challenge. You can start to see that trail, that next jigsaw piece that needs to be put together.”

Gabriel Duran ’19, environmental science and biological sciences, knows that he wants to first be a scientist, and then use his political science minor to advocate for environmental policies that benefit indigenous and other marginalized communities.

Duran spent this summer at the Marine Biological Laboratories (MBL) at Woods Hole, MA. There, he analyzed the nitrogen content of water samples from Little Pond, a reservoir in Falmouth, MA. The town is transitioning from septic to sewer systems to help reduce nitrogen pollution in local waterways, which causes harmful algal blooms.

“It gave me a lot of experience with different lab techniques, analyzing data, scientific communication skills, and overall it was just a great experience,” he shared. “I was surrounded by people who are as passionate as I am about environmental science.”

Before this summer, Duran had never before been on a boat, and one of his favorite parts of his time at Woods Hole was embarking on a research vessel to conduct experiments at sea. Away from the light pollution of the cities on land, he saw his first shooting star.

Duran’s summer experience went so well that another researcher at MBL has invited him to spend next summer working on her project—in the Arctic. He was delighted to accept, and he looks forward to another season of scientific discovery.

Image: STEM BUILD students on UMBC’s Academic Row. From left to right: Gabriel Duran, Amber Thompson, Kendra Kontchou, Chad Brown. Photo by Tim Ford.

Over the past two decades, UMBC and the National Security Agency (NSA) have developed a strong relationship, which has led to research, internship, and career opportunities for faculty, students, and alumni. UMBC is the first institution to be highlighted in NSA’s Featured School Series, which launched on September 4.

“UMBC’s long-standing partnership with NSA has provided valuable experiences for our students, faculty, and alumni to pursue internships, careers, and collaborative research opportunities,” said President Freeman Hrabowski. “Through this work we are helping to address the need for well-trained cyber professionals by creating a network of talented people to protect the state, nation, and world.”

More than 1100 NSA employees are UMBC alumni, including Darniet Jennings ‘98, M.S. ‘99, Ph.D. ‘03, information systems. Jennings continued his dissertation research when he took a job at NSA, where he developed a system to manage big data effectively, which was patented in 2010.

The opportunities at NSA include careers in a broad range of disciplines including cybersecurity, engineering, computer science, language, and biological and chemical sciences. Regina Hambleton ‘87, mathematics, has held a number of positions at NSA and is currently the Agency’s deputy director of Engagement and Policy. She began working at NSA while she was a student at UMBC, and participated in a program that allowed her to spend a semester at UMBC taking courses followed by a semester working at NSA.

The partnership between NSA and UMBC also helps prepare an increasing number of graduates for careers in cybersecurity-related fields, to protect the nation from cyber threats.

Charles Nicholas, professor of computer science and electrical engineering, is also highlighted in the Featured School Series campaign. He has spent two sabbaticals at NSA during his time at UMBC, and has mentored students who completed NSA internships, in addition to students who went on to pursue careers at NSA. Nicholas is interested in the intersection of cybersecurity and data science, and the tools that are used to compare malware specimens.

“There are so many opportunities in the intelligence community, including at NSA,” Nicholas says. “It is important for students interested in those careers to develop technical ability, as well as critical and creative thinking, and I enjoy the chance to help them grow those skills.”

For more information about the partnership, and a few UMBC alumni who work at NSA, visit the UMBC page on the NSA website.

Banner image by Marlayna Demond ’11 for UMBC.

Cybersecurity is one of the fastest growing industries in the United States and a recent Business-Higher Education Forum report calls Maryland the “epicenter of national cybersecurity.” The report, Building a Diverse Cybersecurity Talent Ecosystem to Address National Security Needs, found that University System of Maryland (USM) efforts to increase the number of students who earn degrees in cyber-related fields has made progress in meeting the needs of the region. It also emphasized that more growth is needed, through programs like those UMBC offers, to meet increasing industry demand for cyber professionals.

In a USM press release, Chancellor Robert L. Caret says, “The University System of Maryland has been committed to growing cybersecurity programs at universities across the state to serve the needs of students and employers in this burgeoning field.” USM highlights programs across the five universities “leading the way” in cybersecurity, including UMBC’s Cyber Scholars program, launched with support from the Northrop Grumman Foundation, and a new cyber apprenticeship program, created through a partnership between UMBC Training Centers, the Maryland Department of Labor, and Gov. Larry Hogan.

In its coverage of the report, The Daily Record focuses on two core findings: the need for students to gain work experience and demand for a diverse cybersecurity workforce. It highlights the work of USM institutions to grow “undergraduate pathways into cybersecurity that attract students with diverse backgrounds and interests, engage them in meaningful learning experiences that reflect the cutting edge of the field and encourage them to stay in the region to build their careers.”

The highlights a UMBC program to explain this idea, noting, “UMBC’s Meyerhoff Scholars program is viewed as a national model for increasing diversity in STEM fields, and the university drew on lessons learned from that model when it launched the Cyber Scholars program in 2013.” As illustration, the report profiles Lauren Mazzoli ’15, computer science and mathematics, M.S. ’17, computer science, a systems engineer in the Future Technical Leaders Program at Northrop Grumman. It showcases her experience as one of UMBC’s first Cyber Scholars and the value she found in UMBC’s Center for Women in Technology and an internship at the Department of Defense.

Graduates from UMBC computing programs continue to have an impact through work with government agencies and top companies in cybersecurity fields. From the Class of 2018, Cyber Scholar Priyanka Ranade ‘18, information systems, is now a cyber software engineer at Northrop Grumman and T-SITE Scholar Bryan Vanek ‘18, computer science is participating in the Computer Network Operations Development Program at the Department of Defense.

Banner image: Mobile technology. Photo by WOCinTechChat, CC BY 2.0.

On June 12, leaders from UMBC and the University of Limpopo in South Africa formalized commitments to collaborate through joint research as well as faculty and student exchanges. UMBC has steadily grown its international partnerships with universities in Germany, Japan, Portugal, Peru, and other nations around the globe. This is the first such agreement between UMBC and a university in Africa.

“It gives us a lot of joy…to be the first African university with which you sign an agreement like this,” shared Jesika Singh, deputy vice chancellor for research, innovation and partnership at University of Limpopo. “There is so much potential that we see.”

This relationship grew out of the African International Conference (AIC) on Statistics, an event organized annually since 2014 by UMBC statistics faculty and international partners. Past conferences have occurred in Senegal, Ethiopia, Cameroon, South Africa, and Botswana, including statisticians from all across Africa as well as a dozen U.S. institutions. The next two conferences will take place in Ethiopia and Morocco.

Yehenew Kifle, associate professor at the University of Limpopo and currently visiting faculty at UMBC, first connected with UMBC during the 2015 AIC at Jimma University in Ethiopia. Inspired to build on the success of the conference, Kifle asked UMBC to partner on a grant from the South African government to support faculty development.

The grant, managed by Professor Kingsley Ayisi, calls for University of Limpopo junior faculty, some of whom do not yet hold doctoral degrees, to travel to UMBC to pursue doctoral-level training in statistics. Through a similar agreement, other Limpopo faculty will travel to Iowa State University for agricultural training.

“This is really a milestone for us,” said Bimal Sinha, professor of statistics at UMBC and a leader in organizing the AIC, at the signing. “I hope that once other African universities see this, they will want to participate as well.”

In addition to Limpopo faculty traveling to UMBC, UMBC faculty will travel to South Africa to provide short training courses in statistical methods. Those courses will specifically focus on how statistics are used in the study of climate and climate change, which is already producing severe effects throughout the African continent.

Beyond the statistics training program, the partners also signed an agreement outlining plans to pursue joint research projects, exchange programs for UMBC and Limpopo students, and other collaborations across a wide range of departments and programs.

“The way I see it, all sides have quite a bit to gain from this collaboration,” said Rouben Rostamian, professor and chair of mathematics and statistics at UMBC.

“This agreement goes far beyond statistics,” said Antonio Moreira, UMBC’s vice provost for academic affairs. “We are using education between our two countries and our two young universities—both less than 60 years old—to truly change the world by educating, training, and cultivating the future.”

William LaCourse, dean of the College of Natural and Mathematical Sciences at UMBC, is equally excited for the partnership. He shared, “We’re very proud to be here on this joint venture and to take this journey with you.”

Singh echoed his feeling. What started as a small gathering of colleagues from two continents, she said, “has very quickly developed into something that we can look forward to for many years to come.”

Photos by Marlayna Demond ’11 for UMBC.