Timmie Topoleski, professor of mechanical engineering at UMBC, has received the 2024 Society for Biomaterials Award for Service, which honors individuals who have devoted significant time and energy to advancing the goals of the professional society.

The Society for Biomaterials brings together professionals from academia, government, and business to promote advancements in biomaterials science, education, and professional standards to enhance human health and quality of life.

“I do not know anyone for whom “Service” is written in their DNA as it is for Tim,” said Paul Ducheyne, a professor of bioengineering at the University of Pennsylvania who nominated Topoleski for the award and is quoted in a society press release. 

Topoleski has served on and chaired many Society for Biomaterials committees and has taken on leadership positions for many years. His own research has focused on understanding the behavior of a range of biomaterials, from the harmful plaques that can build up in people’s arteries, to the metal, ceramic, and cement used in joint replacements. The work may lead to better ways to diagnose and treat diseases such as arthritis and heart disease.  

“I enjoy working to make the Society for Biomaterials a society that serves the needs of our members and provides a forum for the exchange of the latest developments in our biomaterials research,” Topoleski says. “It is an honor and very humbling to be in the company of those who previously received the award.”

The American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) has chosen UMBC’s Interdisciplinary CoLab for its “Undergraduate Spotlight” series. ACLS is a nonprofit federation of 80 scholarly organizations that has supported and amplified American scholarship in the humanities and interpretive social sciences since 1919. Over the last six summers, UMBC’s CoLab has provided students with an innovative team-based applied learning opportunity through a three-credit paid internship in narrative-based research. 

ACLS writes, “Unlike traditional group work in a college classroom, wherein majors from the same discipline are all trying to master the same material, CoLab projects require students to use their own skills and appreciate the skills of others.”

Professional research experience

CoLab gives interdisciplinary student teams a professional research experience while learning how to tell effective stories and create valuable public-facing results for community partners. “I wasn’t aware of the [Baltimore Immigration] museum prior to my internship,” shared CoLab alum Johanna Alonso ’20, English, about her team’s project “Baltimore: The Second Ellis Island. “I think the real benefit of the CoLab is that it exposes students to people, places, programs, and projects we may never have encountered otherwise.”

Co-directed by Carole McCann, professor and chair of gender, women’s, + sexuality studies, and Donald Snyder, a principal lecturer in media and communications studies, UMBC Interdisciplinary CoLab is a partnership between the Provost’s Office, the Dresher Center for the Humanities, and the Office of Summer, Winter, and Special Programs.

“ACLS is a very prestigious national academic organization,” says McCann, “so for it to highlight CoLab as an innovative program is a big deal.” 

After participating in the 2021 CoLab focused on BLM and Civil Rights Oral Histories, Deysi Chitic-Amaya ’23, media and communication studies, said, “I want to be able to approach future projects with a more open-minded perspective that may help to produce something new and innovative.”

Read more about students’ CoLab experiences and the application process.

The increasing impact of global disasters on health systems has created a growing need for experts to help manage disaster risks and reduce their impact. In keeping with that demand, UMBC’s emergency health services (EHS) department has changed its name to the Department of Emergency and Disaster Health Systems (EDHS) to reflect the scope of research, teaching, and learning of emergency and disaster health systems covered in its programs. The new name also acknowledges the scholarship happening at the graduate level.

“Our new department name signifies our commitment to emergency and disaster health education,” says Lauren Clay, associate professor of emergency and disaster health systems and department chair, who has received several grants from the National Science Foundation in recent years to specifically address the understanding and monitoring of food availability, acceptability, and accessibility during disasters. “We prepare leaders that are ready to tackle the complex and evolving hazards facing communities across the United States and the world,” explains Clay. 

UMBC’s EDHS department is rising to the challenge by equipping students with the skills needed to pursue careers as emergency preparedness coordinators, community engagement specialists, emergency communications supervisors, or analysts. Undergraduate students can now enroll in classes that focus on disaster management in healthcare, public health, and emergency management organizations, in addition to emergency health services classes.

UMBC’s EHS department has a long history of preparing students to enter careers where they are ready to respond to local disasters like Ellicott City’s most recent floods and international disasters, like the Philippines’s Typhoon Haiyan. The EHS baccalaureate program began in 1980 with the goal of producing the most comprehensively educated individuals capable of performing tasks within the broad scope of the emergency healthcare field as leaders, managers, and providers.

The graduate program for emergency health services, the first in the nation, began a year later. It remains the largest program of its type available in the United States. Next year, the department is planning to offer several new graduate and undergraduate classes on a range of disaster health systems topics.

“The department has offered emergency health services and disaster management programs for decades. The former name did not fully capture the breadth of those offerings,” explains Clay. “We wanted to make sure that students and our colleagues know about our programs that prepare students to work in various professions addressing emergency and disaster health.”

Learn more about what EDHS has to offer.

Noor Zaidi, assistant professor of history, received a National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) fellowship to research and write Translations of Zaynab: Gender, Sectarianism, and Citizenship in Shi’a Islam. The book will analyze how the seventh-century figure, Zaynab bint Ali, granddaughter of the Prophet Muhammed, has been used in 20th-century political contexts.

“It is my great pleasure to announce NEH grant awards to support 260 exemplary humanities projects undertaken by scholars, higher education institutions, and organizations of every size,” stated NEH Chair Shelly C. Lowe (Navajo) in the NEH press release. “This funding will help preserve and expand access to community histories, strengthen the ability of small museums and archives to serve the public, and provide resources and educational opportunities for students to engage with history, literature, languages, and cultures.”

Zaidi, a 2017 UMBC postdoctoral fellow, is a scholar of the Middle East and South Asia. She specializes in the history of gender, sectarianism, and Shi’a Islam in national and transnational spaces. Her research explores “sites of sectarianization” through the 20th century, tracing the development and evolution of pilgrimage to two female shrines in Syria and Pakistan and prisons in Iraq as sites of memory and identity construction. Based on oral interviews, fieldwork, and archival research in Syria, Pakistan, and Iraq, Zaidi’s work explores the physical and imaginative spaces in which identity is made and contested and shows how transnational narratives become embedded in local contexts.

You can read Zaidi’s articles about “green” Ramadan, the hajj pilgrimage, and the Shiite Muslim holiday, Ashura, in The Conversation.

Meet Kevin Yang ’07, computer science and financial economics. Kevin is a real estate entrepreneur, the current executive vice president and vice president of finance of the UMBC Alumni Association Board of Directors, and one half of an alumni power couple. Kevin met his wife, Katelyn Niu ’05, biochemistry, when the pair found themselves in the same physics study group as undergrads (because where else do you find love at UMBC?). They both share a passion for UMBC that runs deep. Take it away, Kevin!

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

A. I grew up in an immigrant family and witnessed the sacrifices that my parents made to give me an opportunity to achieve the American dream. Although they never had the chance to finish high school, my parents firmly believed in the importance of higher education. I came to UMBC for a quality STEM education and found it to be a perfect fit. UMBC offered the resources of a larger university and the individualized attention of a smaller college.

Q: What’s your favorite part of Retriever Nation?

A. I love UMBC’s commitment to inclusive excellence. Retriever Nation welcomes students from diverse backgrounds and provides them with the necessary support to succeed at UMBC and beyond. I am forever grateful for the amazing experience that I had at UMBC! In addition to receiving a quality education, I made many lifelong friends, including my wife. I have stayed engaged since graduation, and I am proud of UMBC’s commitment to inclusive excellence.

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

A. I had an excellent experience with the computer science program, which offered many opportunities beyond the classroom. As a tutor, teaching assistant, and research assistant in the computer science department, I learned valuable written and verbal communication skills, which was a highlight of my UMBC education.

Today, I am a real estate entrepreneur, the Founder of KRY Properties. As a business owner, I love the ability to chart my own path. I often have to assume multiple roles, which is both challenging and rewarding. The analytical, problem-solving, and communication skills that I developed at UMBC gave me the confidence to pursue entrepreneurship.

Q: Where did you find support? 

A. I built meaningful and long-lasting relationships at UMBC. I attribute much of my personal growth and academic achievements to my peers. We struggled together in challenging engineering courses, contemplated our futures from late night into early morning, and celebrated our birthdays at the local Olive Garden. We strengthened our bonds through highs and lows, and I will forever cherish those special memories.

Q: Tell us about someone in the community who has inspired you.

A. I received substantial financial and academic support from the Meyerhoff Scholars Program, which laid the foundation for my personal and professional successes. As a Meyerhoff Scholar, I learned about and took advantage of many incredible opportunities, such as summer internships at Georgia Tech and MIT. The Meyerhoff Scholars Program and its co-founder, Dr. Freeman A. Hrabowski, III, have inspired me to give back to the community that gave me so much.

Q: As alumni, how have you and Katelyn given back?

A. “To whom much is given, much is required.” I have been a donor every year since I graduated in 2007. My support focuses on scholarships, including the Meyerhoff Scholars Program and the Alumni Endowed Scholarship Fund. My wife, Katelyn, and I established an endowed scholarship in 2014 to support undergraduate students. Katelyn and I were fortunate to receive scholarships at UMBC. We are giving back so students who come after us can continue to have the same extraordinary experience that shaped our future.

Q: What’s the one thing you’d want someone who hasn’t joined the UMBC community to know about the support you find here?

A. UMBC community members work together to help our students achieve their academic and professional goals. We are proud of our collaborative culture!

* * * * *

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.

Walking down Academic Row, the ground floor windows of the Biological Sciences Building reflect the flow of student traffic, and colorful renditions of animals and microbes, silhouettes of researchers, and other elements of biology seem to pop off the wall and join the campus milieu. 

For many, the images on the mural blend into the background of campus—just another wall in just another building. But the artist remembers the blank wall 10 years ago, covered sparsely in inspirational posters and placards. 

“It was a huge wall, and visible from the outside,” says Anna Vikhlyayeva ’15, visual arts. In addition to wanting to beautify the space, Vikhlyayeva thought to herself, “The research of scientists can be very interesting and colorful and very inspiring for artists. What if by highlighting the biology research that people do in this building, other students will become more interested in biology?”

More than a mural

In 2013 Vikhlyayeva took her plan to then-chair of the biology department Professor Philip Farabaugh, and it was perfect timing, he says. “I’d been thinking about branding the building in some way…and a mural was an obvious means to do that.” And in the decade since its installation, Farabaugh says, “I’m really gratified that the mural acts as a uniting image for all our faculty, staff, and students.”

But in December 2022 a combination of freezing temperatures and burst pipes resulted in damage across campus and significant flooding in the biology building. The bottom half of the mural fell victim to the water.

The challenges caused by the flood were hard to bear, particularly following COVID, says Farabaugh. “But, despite the disaster fatigue that everyone felt, the faculty, staff, and students responded with grace, energy, and yes, resiliency to the challenge.”

Vikhlyayeva, a working artist, still lives in the area, so when the biology building was reopened, Farabaugh emailed her to see if she’d be interested in repainting the damaged section. “I was happy to know that people in the building appreciate this wall so much that they want me to repair it,” says Vikhlyayeva. “Based on my images of the original mural, I’ve attempted to replicate the colors and designs the same.”

Farabaugh says different elements of the mural stick out to him at different times, including that “the integration of the realistic animals and stylized students works to emphasize their direct relationships.” He sees the figures in the mural “representing all the thousands of students who have passed through the building in the last almost 60 years. I hope that many of them feel that their experience of research in our building set them on a life path and the mural is a visible representation of that.”

A glow up, 10 years later

In summer 2023, Vikhlyayeva brought a folding camping stool and a vibrant palette of green and blue hues to tackle the lower portion of her mural.

“I thought that bright colors, these nice pictures, will put other students in a good mood and give them inspiration to study and even to be more happy,” she says.

Farabaugh says that he’s enjoyed watching students and researchers claim the re-beautified space as their own, holding poster sessions in the hallway with the mural as the backdrop. “It really has become the heart of the building and, mixing a metaphor, its public face.”

UMBC’s Center for Accelerated Real Time Analytics (CARTA) team will advance its work in investigating data analytics using next-generation computing hardware with the launch of the next phase of the multi-institutional research collaboration. 

UMBC is partnering with Rutgers University, the University of Miami, and Arizona State University to deploy CARTA Phase II, a five-year initiative that explores data analytics research to develop new accelerated and real-time approaches to address advanced technology integration in industries such as health care, finance, and security. 

CARTA initially launched in 2018 with funding provided by the National Science Foundation’s Industry-University Cooperative Research Centers (IUCRC) program to develop next-generation computing hardware to address data-intensive infrastructure challenges. The IUCRC grant has been extended to fund new and existing CARTA sites with an additional $100,000 per year (for the next five years) to build on the centers’ work in data analytics research. 

“CARTA’s focus has been on real-time analytics of large datasets on next generation technologies, or accelerated technologies, like high-performance computing, cloud computing, and quantum computing. This work will continue in Phase II,” says Karuna Joshi, associate professor of information systems and director of UMBC’s CARTA site. 

Advancing industry collaborations

Since its launch, UMBC-CARTA faculty and student researchers have conducted more than 40 projects examining data analytics in Blockchain technology, malware analysis, medical data sharing, and evaluating bias in artificial intelligence in medical imaging. UMBC-CARTA collaborator Milton Halem, research professor of computer science and electrical engineering, will continue his work in weather and wildfire prediction research in the next phase of the initiative. 

CARTA Phase II projects will largely focus on medical analytics (medical images and dataset sharing) and scientific and environmental datasets that can inform weather and wildfire predictions, Joshi explains, adding that “security is going to be the overlying paradigm across all of those various areas of research.”

The CARTA sites are also aiming to expand their number of industry partner collaborations. In CARTA Phase I, UMBC worked with a range of industry partners that included NASA, IBM, the National Security Agency, Laboratory for Physical Sciences, the Department of Homeland Security, Morgan Stanley, RAD-AID, and Carestream. 

“In Phase II, we are focusing more on collaborative projects with our university partners and building on those collaborations and making them stronger,” says Joshi. “We’re also looking at new avenues that our industry partners might be interested in such as smart cities, next-generation airports, and how to build secure image analytics and algorithms.”

As Phase II evolves, UMBC-CARTA research will also focus on large language models that are rising in popularity, such as ChatGPT, and digital twinning technologies, which is the process of creating a virtual model of a physical object. 

Student collaboration at every level

Undergraduate, graduate, and post-doctoral students will continue to work on research projects at UMBC-CARTA. Since its inception, UMBC-CARTA has supported more than 15 graduate students and has provided opportunities for undergraduate students to strengthen their research skills through the NSF-funded Research Experiences for Undergraduates program. 

Kelvin Echenim, a second-year information systems Ph.D. student at UMBC, has worked on the CARTA team developing a scoring system to assess the comprehensiveness and user-friendliness of internet of things privacy policies.

“The scoring system aims to improve user comprehension and involvement in privacy matters by finding a balance between strict legal compliance and end-user practical accessibility,” says Echenim. 

He adds that current and future research in CARTA Phase II will help expand his knowledge in solving complex problems in data-driven AI systems. 

Read more about UMBC’s Center for Accelerated Real Time Analytics 

The Center for Research in Emergent Manufacturing (CREM), which started as the ambitious idea of two UMBC researchers in 2019, is launching a major new project with the U.S. Army and other partners this year. UMBC has received an initial amount of more than $3 million to fund the first year of the project, which will investigate ways to digitize the army’s supply chain.

CREM is led by director Nilanjan Banerjee, professor of computer science and electrical engineering, and associate director Donna Ruginski, associate vice president for center development in the Office of Research and Creative Achievement at UMBC. It aims to help manufacturers reap the benefits, and manage the risks, of new manufacturing approaches increasingly centered around computer systems—a concept known as digital manufacturing.

Since its founding, the center has already established programs to educate manufacturing professionals in cybersecurity. The new project will significantly advance the center’s research activities and impact. 

“The partnership with the army is an important step in our evolution as a research center. We will be working on cutting edge problems for the Army in the areas of digitization,” says Banerjee.

“We’re new and full of energy,” says Ruginski. “I’m confident we’ll make a difference.”  

From spinning jennies to generative AI

Manufacturing has come a long way since the 18th-century textile industry was revolutionized by the invention of machines such as spinning jennies, which greatly increased the amount of thread a single worker could produce. Since then, new technologies, such as the electric grid in the early 20^th century and computers in the mid-century, brought further waves of change to the way goods are made.

On a modern factory floor, robots and their computer control systems increasingly take the place of humans in the assembly process, and the future of manufacturing will likely be even more automated and digitized than it is today. Companies are increasingly turning to new technologies such as smart sensors, AI, cloud computing, and advanced analytics to increase the flexibility, resilience, and efficiency of their operations. This transformation—called industry 4.0—holds enormous promise to improve living standards by increasing productivity, but it also comes with some perils, including vulnerability to cyberattacks.

Training and research

UMBC aims to help manufacturers navigate the industry 4.0 shift. Part of that mission will be to educate future workers in digital manufacturing, be they UMBC students or working professionals looking to expand their skill set.

In 2020, under the auspices of CREM, Banerjee and Ruginski launched the Cybersecurity for Manufacturing Operational Technology (CyMOT) program to train manufacturing professionals in best practices for preventing cyberattacks on manufacturing operations. Through the program, CREM has educated more than 300 manufacturers from small and medium-sized businesses.  

“The manufacturing sector has suffered a number of cyberattacks recently, so it’s important to make sure people in the sector are trained in cybersecurity,” says Banerjee.  

CREM also hosts a state-of-the-art cybersecurity training and research facility, called a cyber range, specifically focused on digital manufacturing technology—one of only a few in the country. In the coming months, the cyber range will move to a new and dedicated location on the UMBC campus.

“The research and training efforts conducted by CREM under Dr. Banerjee’s leadership have wide-ranging consequences,” says Karl Steiner, the vice president for research and creative achievement at UMBC. “As digital manufacturing rapidly becomes a national and global standard, it is critical to develop adaptive cybersecurity strategies and protocols to secure the global supply pipeline. I am delighted that CREM is supported through one of three major research partnerships that UMBC developed in recent years with the U.S. Army.”