Local sustainability researchers and thought leaders took center stage on October 16, 2015, at a forum for urban sustainability in Baltimore, hosted by UMBC’s School of Public Policy. The forum was designed to examine how collaborations among government agencies, companies, and nonprofits can improve sustainability policies and programs. It also emphasized how a broad range of perspectives is needed to effectively assess and address environmental concerns.

This isn’t news to Claire Welty, professor of chemical, biochemical, and environmental engineering and director of UMBC’s Center for Urban Environmental Research and Education. Welty is the associate director of research for the Urban Water Innovation Network (UWIN), recently created through a $12 million commitment from the National Science Foundation (NSF).

Global climate change and extreme events can impact water security and be costly to economies. Through UWIN, UMBC and 13 other academic institutions and key partners, including Princeton University and the University of Pennsylvania, will address challenges that threaten urban water systems in the United States. Led by Colorado State University, UWIN will create solutions to help communities increase resilience in their water systems and boost preparedness for responding to water crises.

The research completed by UMBC and other UWIN partners will produce sustainability blueprints for cities of various sizes, detailing the likely effects and tradeoffs of potential solutions to urban water problems. This will serve as a guide for actions urban centers can take to improve their water security.

UMBC’s strong research and education programs focusing on stormwater management, water quality control, and urban biodiversity will serve as major assets for UWIN. In addition to Welty, Andrew Miller and Christopher Swan, both professors of geography and environmental systems, will play an active role in the collaboration.

NSF also recently announced a major $20 million award to expand the Center for Sustainable Nanotechnology (CSN), which uses fundamental chemistry to explore how modern nanomaterials interact with the environment and living organisms. Zeev Rosenzweig, professor and chair of chemistry and biochemistry at UMBC, is leading UMBC’s participation in the CSN, which includes 13 faculty from research institutions across the United States.

Nanotechnology involves the use of materials at the smallest scale, including the manipulation of individual atoms and molecules. There are hundreds of products that use nanoscale technologies in various ways, including beer bottles, car wax, electric and hybrid car batteries, and even Kindle devices, but there are still many concerning unknowns when it comes to how tiny particles interact with biological systems.

“This research center will greatly impact society by preparing next generation nanomaterials that retain high function, while being safer for human health and the environment,” said Rosenzweig.

Each of these projects demonstrates the need for collaboration across disciplines and institutions to develop optimal solutions for environmental problems. Faculty, staff, and students across UMBC are participating in this work in innumerable ways, from the Maryland Green Prisons Initiative, to reducing phosphorus loads in Maryland’s waterways, to constructing new buildings on campus that have been recognized for leadership in energy and environmental design.

In just one week, a UMBC research forum on climate change and the environment will bring together faculty from all three colleges for discussions that may inspire even greater collaboration.

At the recent urban sustainability forum in Baltimore, researcher Eric Zeemering shared, “I think it’s very important that we need to discuss strategies beyond ‘green.’” Zeemering told the crowd that when it comes to developing partnerships to tackle sustainability issues, “Baltimore can continue to be a model for the rest of the nation.”

Image: Zeev Rosenzweig, professor and chair of chemistry and biochemistry, is leading UMBC’s participation in the Center for Sustainable Nanotechnology. Photo by Marlayna Demond ’11.

Since 2007, student enrollment in computer science (CS) at the university level has increased by about 120%. However, despite this level of interest, there are major gaps in CS education that result in fewer girls and students from underrepresented minority groups entering the field, argues Marie desJardins, associate dean in UMBC’s College of Engineering and Information Technology and professor of computer science, in The Conversation.

desJardins has worked to improve CS education at the K-12, undergraduate and graduate levels. She particularly sees boosting the availability of K-12 CS education, and the skills of teachers teaching CS at that level, as necessary to engage more diverse students in the field. While these students have great potential, she writes, they often “do not have the preparation or encouragement to succeed in college-level work.”

In her article, desJardins notes that New York City recently announced a plan to invest $81 million to establish CS instruction in every public school by 2025. Other cities, including Chicago and San Francisco, have dedicated funding to bolster CS instruction in public schools.

As the demand for CS classes has increased, teachers with little CS in their background have been asked to teach these courses. desJardins emphasizes a need for consistent standards across states to attract and retain highly qualified CS teachers.

Read desJardins full article, “Explainer: what it will take to make computer science education available in all schools,” on The Conversation and also now in Fortune magazine.

Robohub has named CSEE Ph.D. student Kavita Krishnaswamy ’07, computer science and mathematics, to their new “25 Women in Robotics You Need to Know About” list, along with other emerging innovators from around the globe, including MIT and Stanford.

Krishnaswamy focuses her work on developing robotic systems and interfaces that increase the independence of people with disabilities. She has worked at the National Science Foundation’s Engineering Research Center—Quality of Life Technology Center (QoLT) at Carnegie Mellon University, the University of Pittsburgh, and IBM Business consulting services. Krishnaswamy is also a Ford Foundation Predoctoral Fellow and a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow.

Click here to see the full “25 Women in Robotics You Need to Know About” list. Now in its third year, the list profiles women in a wide range of fields within robotics and from diverse backgrounds. A full profile of Krishnaswamy and her research is available in UMBC Magazine.

CSEE professor Ting Zhu received an award from the National Science Foundation to develop improved techniques for identifying a person’s location in dynamically changing environments. The award of $250,000 will support the three-year research project, Real-Time Indoor and Outdoor Simultaneous Localization and Mapping.

Location-based service was ranked number one for the top technology trends by a recent survey in Time magazine, with potential applications in the area of location-based advertising, recommendation, navigation, asset recovery, and gaming. While many companies are working to improve location-based services, most existing indoor and outdoor maps are relatively static. In reality, many indoor and outdoor environments are highly dynamic, raising the need for novel techniques and systems to improve simultaneous localization, mapping, and navigation in modern cities. Dr. Zhu’s project introduces a holistic approach for providing real-time, light-weight, and accurate relative positioning to detect peers in both indoor and outdoor environments.

Facilitating underrepresented STEM graduate student and postdoctoral professional development with an eye toward establishing pathways to careers has been at the core of the PROMISE AGEP mission since its inception more than a decade ago. The University System of Maryland (USM)-wide effort is funded by the National Science Foundation and focuses on increasing graduate student recruitment and retention, Ph.D. completion and career preparation, programs for postdoctoral scholars, and programs to enhance faculty understanding of diversity issues in graduate and postdoctoral education.

Graduate deans and STEM deans from across the University System of Maryland (USM) recently gathered at UMBC for a workshop to analyze current diversity issues and to develop tools and ideas for what can most be effective in supporting the goals of PROMISE moving forward. The event, held on September 11, 2015 in the Albin O. Kuhn Library, recognized 12 USM PROMISE AGEP Outstanding Faculty Mentors for 2015-2016 and brought together members of the PROMISE AGEP-T External Advisory Board.

“I think you all understand it takes commitment and hard work to engage in the issues we are going to be discussing today,” UMBC Provost Philip Rous told the group in his opening remarks at the event. “And while we all understand that this workshop is perhaps a smaller part of all of your efforts in this arena, it represents a commitment to understanding and using that understanding to make meaningful and sustainable change.”

Following Dr. Rous’ remarks, Dr. Daryl Chubin, an independent consultant and Senior Fellow with the Georgia Center for Educational Renewal, provided a detailed presentation about understanding interventions that broaden participation in science careers. His talk focused on how higher education institutions can improve academic success and career advancement and it closely analyzed minority participation in STEM fields.

“What this program is about is really changing values as it changes lives,” Chubin said when describing PROMISE.

During the workshop, the 12 PROMISE Outstanding Faculty Mentors were honored for their ongoing work in mentoring diverse groups of students. The honorees were selected by underrepresented graduate students in STEM disciplines and leaders of STEM diversity programs for their inclusion efforts and actions, involvement in STEM diversity conversations, participation in PROMISE activities, and conducting research that broadens the participation of underrepresented STEM scholars.

In addition, several invited faculty members were recognized for their contributions toward efforts for faculty diversity and setting standards of excellence in their work on which the PROMISE Mentors program is based.

Renetta Tull, founding director and co-PI of PROMISE, and UMBC’s associate vice provost for graduate student development and postdoctoral affairs, noted that successful programs that broaden participation need the investment and engagement of full campus communities: administrators, faculty, staff, and students. She said that the campuses within the University System of Maryland are modeling success in the area of graduate student and postdoctoral diversity and inclusion in STEM, and that faculty support and involvement are key to that success.

The faculty who were honored include the following from UMBC, the University of Maryland College Park (UMCP), and the University of Maryland Baltimore (UMB):

UMB:
Dr. Joseph Stains – physiology
Dr. Eileen Barry – microbiology and immunology
Dr. Denise Orwig – epidemiology
Dr. Jacques Ravel – genomics

UM College Park:
Dr. Jeffrey Herrmann – mechanical engineering
Dr. Hugh Bruck – mechanical engineering
Dr. Jeffrey Klauda – chemical and biomolecular engineering
Dr. Sreeramurthy Ankem – materials science and engineering

UMBC:
Dr. Kathleen Hoffman – mathematics
Dr. Stephen Miller – biological sciences
Dr. Ravi Kuber – information systems
Dr. Carlos Romero-Talamas  – mechanical engineering

Additional faculty who have engaged in work on diversity and were also invited to be recognized and contribute to the conversation included:
Dr. Michael Summers (biochemistry, UMBC)
Dr. Tim Oates (computer science and electrical engineering, UMBC)
Dr. Shawn Bediako (psychology, UMBC)
Dr. David Tilley (environmental sciences and technology, UMCP)
Dr. Siddhartha Das (mechanical engineering, UMCP)
Dr. Bret Hassel (microbiology & immunology, UMB)
Dr. Eduardo Davila (microbiology & immunology, UMB)
Dr. Greg Carey (microbiology & immunology, UMB).

The group photo includes a subset of the outstanding STEM faculty mentors and invited faculty who were recognized by PROMISE for their diversity efforts at the graduate student level.

Image: Photo by Marlayna Demond ’11 for UMBC. 

Purdue University has honored Dean Julia Ross of UMBC’s College of Engineering and IT as one of six Outstanding Chemical Engineers for 2015.

Dean Ross is an alumna of Purdue and received her PhD in chemical engineering from Rice University in 1995. She has served as dean of COEIT since August 2014, and is also UMBC’s Constellation Professor of Information Technology and Engineering.

Prior to her appointment as dean, Ross served as special assistant to the provost for inter-institutional research initiatives, 2012-14, and was instrumental in enhancing research collaborations between UMBC and the University of Maryland, Baltimore.

Among her current projects, Dean Ross has collaborated with colleagues Jon Singer and Chris Rakes from UMBC’s department of education, and Richard Weisenhoff from Baltimore County Public Schools, on developing curriculum and training resources to integrate engineering into high school biology and technology classrooms. Most recently, NSF supported UMBC-BCPS Inspires through a $3 million grant in 2014.

As dean, Ross has contributed to several important national initiatives, including signing on to a letter of commitment to improve the inclusiveness of engineering education at the first White House Demo Day, hosted by President Barack Obama in August 2015.

Joining Dean Ross are fellow award recipients Norm Kidder, CEO of Lomar Corporation; John Klier, a global R&D director at Dow; Seung Bin Park (PhD ’88) a vice president at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology; Charles E. Smith, president and CEO of Countrymark; and Vijay Swarup, vice president of R&D for ExxonMobil Research and Engineering Company.

Renetta Tull, associate vice provost for graduate student development and postdoctoral affairs, is one of ten impressive candidates shortlisted for this year’s GEDC Airbus Diversity Award.

The GEDC Airbus Diversity Award honors people and projects worldwide that “have encouraged students of all profiles and backgrounds to study and succeed in engineering.” This year’s shortlist includes scholars from Germany, South Africa, Australia, Canada, the United Arab Emirates, and the United States.

Tull’s profile in the GEDC/Airbus announcement reads:

Renetta Tull leads the PROMISE Alliance for Graduate Education and the Professoriate (AGEP), a program that has grown to include a global STEM diversity and inclusion initiative. This aims to build a global engineering workforce capacity through focused attention on increasing the numbers of future engineering faculty from underrepresented groups.

 

Partnering with programs like ADVANCE for women faculty, and programs that broaden participation in engineering, PROMISE trains undergraduate and graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and early-career faculty. The initiative has resulted in a significantly increased pipeline of underrepresented alumni and engineering program participants.

Learn more about Renetta Tull’s work and #ThinkBigDiversity through her blog, and watch Tull’s nomination video to learn more about her inspiration:

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A8xFZv9dPSw&w=560&h=315]

The Global Engineering Deans Council (GEDC) is an international network of engineering deans working to advance engineering education, research and service. The organization notes, “The importance of diversity and inclusion in the engineering education community is a consistent theme in the GEDC’s conversations on improving the quality of engineering and engineering education.” Airbus Group is a global leader in aeronautics, space and related services, and is a corporate member of the GEDC.

Three finalists will be selected from the shortlist and announced at the IE Reinventing Higher Education conference in Madrid, Spain, October 19-20, 2015. They will also be invited to present their project before a distinguished jury at the annual GEDC conference, on December 1, 2015, in Adelaide, Australia.

Image:  Renata Tull

Responding to the underrepresentation of minority women in STEM fields, UMBC has joined a new national collaborative committed to supporting educational opportunities for girls and women of color in STEM.

The White House Council for Women and Girls announced the formation of the National STEM Collaborative at a special event at the White House on September 15, 2015 (watch video).

In addition to UMBC, the consortium, led by Arizona State University, consists of 19 institutions of higher education and nonprofit partners, including Amherst College, City College of New York, Diné College, Maricopa Community Colleges, Spelman College, University of Alabama, University of California-Riverside, and Harvard University.

In response to the announcement Provost Rous said, “Our participation in the consortium reflects UMBC’s established national reputation for supporting students from all backgrounds. At the national level, it provides an opportunity to share the best practices and innovative ideas we have developed to promote greater educational opportunities for women of color who are underrepresented in many fields, including the STEM disciplines.”

Over the next 3-5 years the collaborative will focus on providing analysis and information on best practices to support women and girls in STEM in educational settings; develop networking resources to help talented students enter and persist in STEM programs; and determine best practices to support women of color transitioning from community college to four-year university STEM programs.

The National STEM Collaborative emphasizes, “Our mission is not to simply populate the STEM pipeline with more women of color. Rather we seek to provide institutions, students, leaders, corporations, and organizations the skills and resources to change the pipeline to be more equitable for more underrepresented women.”

In a ranking of the nation’s community colleges, WalletHub asked experts about changes in the higher education landscape. Sarah Jewett, executive director of the STEM Transfer Student Success Initiative, spoke about whether community colleges should focus on preparing students for the workforce or a four-year institution.

“Both community colleges and universities can benefit from collaborative inter-institutional partnerships in which everyone shares the responsibility for helping students to develop a robust and realistic set of academic and career options,” Jewett said. “Early exploration of majors and fields, active participation in experiential learning opportunities, sustained development of  goals and plans, and transitional support can enhance the success of all students.”

Read Jewett’s response on WalletHub.

A game developed by a four-student UMBC team was recently added on Steam, the giant PC game platform. The success prompted stories in the Baltimore Daily Record and in Technical.ly/Baltimore featuring interviews with team lead Michael Leung ’16; programmer Tad Cordle ’16; and Marc Olano, who heads the game-development track in the computer science department.

HueBots made it to the national “final four” of college game video development this spring. The competition for the Microsoft Imagine Cup entailed not only creating the game but a business plan that included getting the game onto Steam.

Acceptance is a significant boost because the website is the go-place place for PC games. Olano pointed out that Steam’s vetting process invites public feedback, indicating that the game drew wider interest than from just the campus.

HueBots features friendly, colorful robots that players build and use to solve maze puzzles that revolve around the bots’ affinity for color-matched objects. It’s the first game to come to market from the Game Developer’s Club. But, Leung said, not the last. “We want to get as many different games out there as we can.”

Read “Full Steam Ahead: UMBC Students Take Video Game to Market” in The Daily Record and “HueBots, a Videogame Created by UMBC Students, Is Now on Steam” in Technical.ly/ Baltimore.