At UMBC, we celebrate the accomplishments of our alumni community year round, but our annual Athletics Hall of Fame induction and Alumni Awards ceremony and reception give us a chance to cheer extra loud for the outstanding Retrievers among us. 

Stanyell Odom, director of alumni engagement, says it best about the incoming class of awardees: “These award winners embody so many of the characteristics that make UMBC such a special place. They are leaders in their professions and fields—innovative teachers, educators, and scientists—and are engaged and proud members of this UMBC community.”

The 23rd Hall of Fame induction 

Coming up on October 13, as part of Homecoming’s series of events, Athletics will honor a new class of Hall of Fame, including:

• Cleopatra Borel ’02 , interdisciplinary studies, track & field
• Cornelia Carapcea ’09, information systems/financial economics, tennis
• Pete Caringi III ’15, psychology, men’s soccer 
• Carlee Cassidy Dewey ’10, media and  communication studies/sociology, women’s basketball 
• Emily Escobedo ’17, psychology, women’s swimming & diving 
• Brian Hodges ’07, financial economics, men’s basketball 

This range of Retriever student-athletes comprises a 4-time Olympian, a host of America East conference honors, a 4.0 GPA co-salutatorian, and others who are leaders on and off their field of play. The 23rd induction will take place at UMBC’s University Center Ballroom on Friday, October, 13, 2023 at 6 p.m. Register to attend or learn more about the awardees. 

Excellence in our alumni community

Later in the month, join the Alumni Association Board of Directors for the 2023 Alumni Awards ceremony to recognize and celebrate the professional and personal achievements of outstanding alumni, faculty, and—new this year—an exemplary staff member. 

“The cohort represents excellence in our alumni community,” says Odom, “and now honors both the faculty and staff who’ve made lasting impacts on the lives of our Retriever alumni.” Cheer on the individuals below on Thursday, October 26, 2023, at 6:30 in the Earl and Darielle Linehan Concert Hall in the Performing Arts and Humanities Building.

Outstanding Alumni

• Humanities – Aaron Ralby ’05, English and modern languages and linguistics, founder and CEO, Linguisticator
• Social Sciences – Josh Michael ’10,political science,Ph.D. ’22, public policy,  executive director, Sherman Family Foundation
• Visual & Performing Arts – James Dorsey ’05, music technology and vocal performance, artist and National Board Certified Educator, Prince George’s County Public Schools, Maryland 
• Engineering & IT – Annica Wayman ’99, mechanical engineering, associate dean and professor of the practice, College of Natural and Mathematical Sciences, UMBC
• Natural & Mathematical Sciences – Kay Bidle ’91, biological sciences, professor, Department of Marine & Coastal Sciences, Rutgers University

Distinguished Service

• Anwesha Dey, Ph.D. ‘04, biochemistry and molecular biology, director, Discovery Oncology and Distinguished Scientist, Genentech

Rising Star

• Asif Majid ’13, interdisciplinary studies, assistant professor of theatre and human rights, University of Connecticut

Outstanding Staff

• Rehana Shafi, director, Sherman Teacher Scholars Program

Outstanding Faculty

• E.F. Charles LaBerge, Ph.D. ’03, electrical engineering, professor of the practice, computer science and electrical engineering, UMBC

Inioluwa Oluseyi has wanted to be a neurosurgeon as long as she can remember. She didn’t anticipate how much fly husbandry would play a role in her reaching her goal. In a fall 2022 genetics class with Fernando Vonhoff, “He talked about how his lab works on flies to answer questions related to neurological issues, so that just immediately clicked for me,” says Oluseyi, a biological sciences junior.

She talked to Vonhoff, an assistant professor of biological sciences, after class about opportunities. He gave her a tour of the lab the following week, and she started working with his research group soon thereafter. In the fall and spring, Oluseyi gained skills in fly husbandry, dissection, and common testing protocols. 

Vonhoff was impressed with her progress, and it was clear that by summer Oluseyi would be ready to take on her own project. Vonhoff suggested she apply for research scholarships, including the new Thomas F. Roth Research Award.

Roth joined the UMBC faculty in 1972 and helped get the fledgling university off the ground. He was instrumental in forging the culture of collegiality in the biological sciences department that continues today. Roth passed away in 2021, and his sons Kurt and Peter Roth established the research award in his memory.

Oluseyi is an international student from Nigeria, and she was happy to learn that she was eligible for the Roth award. Many scholarships are limited to U.S. citizens or permanent residents. “I was so excited,” she recalls. “Finally, I had this opportunity to apply to.”

Pushing her thinking

Oluseyi is the first recipient of the Thomas F. Roth Research Award. She also successfully applied for a UMBC Undergraduate Research Award (URA) for the 2023 – 2024 academic year based on her work in Vonhoff’s lab. Her URA proposal builds on her Roth-funded summer research and outlines experiments to study the behavioral responses of flies to pain, including whether experiencing pain changes their preference for plain versus ethanol-laced apple juice, or if it affects their mobility or feeding and mating patterns.

This summer, she bred the flies needed for her fall experiments. She also supported testing on flies with altered genes, for a project led by Ph.D. student Claudia Gualtieri, to learn how those genes are involved in various behaviors. “Ini has always been willing to go the extra mile,” Gualtieri says. “She was eager to learn despite challenges, and she did all of this while bringing a contagious smile into the lab,” Gualtieri says.

Oluseyi’s summer experiences funded by the Roth award “made me push my thinking,” she says, and may lead to changes in the project she proposed for her URA.

“I think I want to broaden my horizons,” Oluseyi says. “My research proposal was very much behavioral, but now I want to refine it and go deeper into the gene level.” 

Growing relationships, setting goals

Spending so much time in the lab over the summer also afforded opportunities to enrich her relationships with labmates and think deeply about her future. “I branched out and talked to a lot of new people and learned what they were studying,” Oluseyi says. “That helped me to improve my scientific thinking.”

Her connection with Vonhoff also shifted. “Now we’ve talked more and connected in a different way,” Oluseyi says. “Before I saw him as my supervisor, but now I see him as a mentor—someone I can come to if I need anything.”

Those conversations covered the immediate work in the lab as well as Oluseyi’s longer-term goals. Originally, she was planning on medical school. Now that she knows she enjoys research and has discussed her options with Vonhoff, Gualtieri, and others in the lab, the M.D./Ph.D. path toward life as a physician-scientist is appealing.

“Inioluwa is a living example of how access to research opportunities can be a transformative experience for growing young minds,” Vonhoff says. “From the beginning, it was obvious that Ini was driven by her intellectual curiosity and passion to make meaningful contributions to our society.”

A cool connection

The Roth award made these developments possible, but her connection to Roth extends beyond receiving support for her studies. In her spring 2023 cell biology class, around the time she was applying for the Roth award, Oluseyi was learning about coated pits—structures on a cell’s surface that help it take in large molecules. She also learned who discovered these pits: Thomas Roth. 

Roth made the discovery as a graduate student under Keith R. Porter at Harvard University. Later in his career, Porter became a professor at UMBC, and UMBC’s Keith R. Porter Imaging Facility bears his name.

“When I found out about that, I told everybody—‘What we’re learning about is by this person!’” Oluseyi says. “It was so cool.”

Pursuing her dreams

Oluseyi’s research has not progressed as quickly as she hoped, mostly due to unexpected flooding in UMBC’s biology building last winter, but even the challenges became a learning experience. “My biggest takeaway from this summer is that research doesn’t always go as you want it to go,” she says. “But even if it changed, I liked what I did. I got to explore other things and learn more about flies in general.”

And the experience has paved the way for future work—which will certainly be full of both challenges and successes. “The Roth family’s generosity has made it possible for me to pursue my dreams,” Oluseyi says. “I’m looking forward to starting the URA project this semester.”

Mold on your bread or bathroom tiles can be a nuisance. Mold in a scientific lab can be a marvel.

Up close, the growth of mold becomes living artwork—white, feathery shoots morphing into undulating waves of color. And molds can be amazingly useful.

“They are used to ferment food, make laundry detergent enzymes, and help produce pharmaceuticals,” explains Garrett Hill ’24, biochemistry and molecular biology, who has been working with molds in the research lab of UMBC chemical engineering professor Mark Marten for more than four years. “It’s surprising how ubiquitous they are in industry.”

Mold under the microscope. (Image by Kathie Hodge via Flickr. CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.)

Molds (along with mushrooms) belong to a group of organisms more technically known as filamentous fungi. One of the oldest and largest living organisms in the world is a filamentous fungus, nicknamed the “Humongous Fungus,” that has likely been spreading across the Blue Mountains in eastern Oregon for more than 2,000 years, and has come to occupy an area of more than 2,000 acres.

The Humongous Fungus grew (and grew) through an enormous network of interconnected thread-like structures called hyphae that gather and share vital nutrients.

Networks—of a different sort—are also vitally important to the students studying fungi in Marten’s lab. Lab members, from high schoolers to Ph.D. students, work together on projects. Marten offers advice not only on research questions, but also on skills such as communication. Support flows in from the university, in the form of research awards, scholar programs, and more. It’s tied together with a simple philosophy that helps everyone flourish: “Mentorship is the magic ingredient,” Marten says.

High school research leads to UMBC

Hill found his way to Marten’s lab through a program in nearby Howard County Public Schools called the Biotechnology Career Academy. As part of the program, he earned credit for conducting research in the lab. After high school graduation, he enrolled at UMBC and has continued his work in Marten’s lab every year since.

“UMBC has a culture that emphasizes supporting students,” says Hill. “This was something that initially attracted me to the school, and something that I’ve absolutely experienced during my time here.”

In Marten’s lab, Hill has been working on research that investigates how a fungus called Aspergillus nidulans repairs damaged cell walls. Armed with a better understanding of the complicated cascade of biochemical reactions triggered when the fungal cell wall is damaged, scientists could possibly manipulate the process to use molds more effectively (or in the case of harmful molds, eradicate them more effectively.)

Mark Marten (left) and Garrett Hill examine mold cultures. (Marlayna Demond ’11/UMBC)

To untangle the hidden and complicated inner workings of the fungus, the researchers deploy an arsenal of analytical tools and methods.

“When I started in the lab, I spent a lot of time learning the background and standard lab techniques,” Hill says. “But now that I’ve had a few years to acclimate, I have the foundation to support my own project.”

As part of that project, Hill has been investigating how to use the Nobel Prize-winning gene editing tool called CRISPR to create fungal cells with inner elements that light up. The light provides a beacon for researchers to track how those elements move as the cell experiences stress or initiates repairs.

“The sense of project ownership has been one of the most rewarding parts of my research experience,” Hill says. “When my graduate mentor and I first discussed the possibility of leading my own project, I had a brief moment of doubt. But I chose to not listen to that voice.”

Networks nourish growth

Hill says he was attracted to the beauty and power of science from a young age, even though no one in his family had a scientific career. UMBC has provided the resources and counsel to help him chart his path.

Within Marten’s lab, Hill says more experienced researchers were always willing to help. When Hill first joined as a high schooler, fellow lab member Ryland Spence ’19, biological sciences, who is now a medical student at Brown University, trained him on techniques.

“Mentorship has been so important for me, so I am always happy to provide mentorship to others whenever I get the chance,” Spence says. “A supportive environment that values diversity is very much a part of UMBC.”

Marten himself also provided enormous guidance and support. “Dr. Marten has been the strongest mentor I’ve had, helping me even before I came to UMBC,” Hill says. “He’s taught me not only about fungus, but also about how to think like a researcher, how to present research, and how to be a good student.”

University-wide programs provided Hill with additional research support. He was awarded multiple Undergraduate Research Awards (URAs), which provide financial assistance for research projects and opportunities to practice skills such as presenting research.

Hill is also part of the nationally renowned Meyerhoff Scholar Program, which seeks to increase diversity among future leaders in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics by supporting students who intend to pursue a Ph.D. or combined M.D./Ph.D. in STEM and are interested in the advancement of minorities in those fields.

“A lot of my best friends are from the program,” says Hill. “It’s been great to have that community.”

Now that he is applying to graduate schools, Hill says the Meyerhoff program provides detailed guidance through the process. “They have been an invaluable resource, and a rock really. They make sure I know what I need to do now to ensure I have opportunities in the future.”

A closing chapter and a new beginning

As the fall semester of his senior year kicks off, Hill says that he’s feeling confident and excited.

“I find myself frequently looking back on how I felt on my first day in the lab, during my first lab meeting presentation, or during my first day of classes, and realizing how much I’ve grown these past few years,” he says. “What once used to really shake me, I am now able to do with confidence—that tells me a lot about what I’ve gained from my research experience.”

As Hill gears up for grad school, he is passing the baton to other UMBC students like Matthew Quintanilla ’27, chemical engineering, a first-year student whose journey shares many similarities with Hill’s. The first in his family to pursue a scientific career, Quintanilla also started work in Marten’s lab as a high-schooler and decided to enroll at UMBC. In Marten’s lab, Quintanilla is working with Ph.D. student Alex Doan, who attended the same high school and embraced the opportunity to mentor fellow students.

“It’s been great catching up on high school news, but more importantly helping students grow,” says Doan.

Matthew Quintanilla works in the lab. (Marlayna Demond ’11/UMBC)

Quintanilla is also a URA-recipient and Meyerhoff Scholar, and says he is excited for the new school year.

“I am eager to start my academic career at UMBC, meet many others, and integrate my knowledge from courses into my lab work,” he says.

“Matthew and Garrett are both really talented individuals,” says Marten. “Having them in the lab has been a win-win situation.”

April Householder ’95, the director of undergraduate research and prestigious scholarships at UMBC, looks at Marten’s lab as a microcosm of the vibrant UMBC research environment. “These two students—Garrett and Matthew—represent two ends of the research spectrum. One is just getting started, and the other is a four-time URA Scholar,” she says.

“The support these students receive from the mentorship in their lab is invaluable, but also as important is the peer-to-peer support they will get from one another. It’s this type of academic community building that gets student researchers excited about being a part of UMBC.”

Richard Forno, assistant director of UMBC’s Center for Cybersecurity and a principal lecturer in the department of computer science and electrical engineering, has been appointed an honorary international professor in the School of Science and Engineering at the Universidad Autónoma del Estado de Hidalgo (UAEH), one of Mexico’s oldest universities.

Forno joins a select group of academics who have been named honorary international professors at UAEH. The recipients, some of whom have received some of the highest honors in their fields, are chosen for their overall academic and professional contributions.

The investiture ceremony coincided with the university’s two-week-long international book fair, held in late August and organized this year around the theme of cybersecurity. Over two days, Forno delivered five talks, met students and faculty, and spoke with university leaders about areas of possible collaboration between UMBC and UAEH.

Richard Forno delivers a lecture on cybersecurity. (Photo courtesy of UAEH)

Countries around the world share the challenge of maintaining cybersecurity in an interconnected and ever-evolving digital landscape. In his main lecture, Forno emphasized the importance of education and interdisciplinary collaboration to combat cybersecurity threats.

Forno says the formal investiture ceremony, held in one of Hidalgo’s oldest structures, was a particularly meaningful event for him. “It was a humbling personal experience and certainly a professional honor that I will not soon forget,” he says.

For nearly two decades, UMBC faculty and students have been deeply engaged in story-driven research. The UMBC community’s contributions to this humanities-centered scholarship has included documenting the stories of former workers of the historic and now-defunct Sparrows Point steel mill in Baltimore County, and projects such as “A Place Called Poppleton,” which chronicles the history and culture of Baltimore City’s Poppleton neighborhood.

UMBC’s commitment to highlighting storytelling research continued this summer as the university co-hosted the first state-side edition of the 11th International Digital Storytelling Conference—a four-day event showcasing an expansive range of storytelling-focused projects and initiatives. The conference was a collaborative effort in partnership with the Smithsonian Institution, StoryCenter, and Montgomery College, who previously partnered with UMBC on digital storytelling projects.

A commitment to community storytelling 

The multi-day conference included workshops, presentations, storytelling tours, and site visits to partner institutions illuminating the impact of digital storytelling. Julissa Gómez Ruvalcaba, M.A. ’23, applied sociology, was one of the featured presenters at this year’s conference, her work adding to UMBC’s ongoing research of Latinx immigrant communities in Baltimore. During a site visit on the first day of the conference to the Creative Alliance, a non-profit art space in Baltimore City, Ruvalcaba discussed her capstone research project that included an ethnographic study of the city’s Latinx community. 

Ruvalcaba shared that she felt a sense of “culture shock” when originally moving to Baltimore to study at UMBC. She is from a predominantly Mexican community in Northern California and took note of the drastically smaller Latinx population in Baltimore City, which, according to the 2020 Census, makes up about eight percent of the city’s population. 

“I became curious about how Latinx people understood their cultural identity and how they expressed themselves while living in a city that is predominately Black and white. That was the starting point to my thesis.”

That curiosity culminated in “Nest Making,” a short film that Ruvalcaba created documenting the Latinx community living in Highlandtown, a neighborhood in Southeast Baltimore that Ruvalcaba says is often referred to as “Latino Baltimore.” During the conference, Ruvalcaba held a screening of the film, which captures Ruvalcaba’s year-long research journey of examining how Latinx people are building their homes and communities in Highlandtown as they express parts of their culture and heritage.

“Digital storytelling is a medium that I’m really excited about. I thought about how to make my research accessible to all, including my family who may not understand all of the research jargon,” says Ruvalcaba. “Showing your story in a way that’s visually engaging, along with audio, captures [many] of the senses, which is something that I want to show people that can’t really be shown on paper.”

Digital storytelling history at UMBC

Bill Shewbridge ’80, history, a professor of practice in media and communication studies, attended a StoryCenter workshop in 2004 and was excited to bring the practice back to UMBC. The university’s cultivation of storytelling research grew following a series of several StoryCenter workshops organized in 2006 by UMBC’s New Media Studio, the university’s multimedia production hub. Faculty and staff learned about digital storytelling as a pedagogical tool and have since brought the practice into the classroom. 

“Over the years, UMBC has become an active participant in a growing international community of the digital storytelling practice through conferences and collaborative projects,” explains Shewbridge. “[Bringing] the international conference to our region grew out of discussions had at the 2018 conference in Zakinthos, Greece, so it was in the works for a long time.”

UMBC’s Digital Storytelling and Civic Agency in Higher Education working group, which Shewbridge leads, collaborated with Loughborough University in England, Montgomery College, the Smithsonian Office of Educational Technology, and StoryCenter to bring the international conference stateside for the first time. 

“It was a great experience to be able to share our work in the Baltimore region with this very special group of colleagues,” says Shewbridge. 

That sentiment was echoed by Charlotte Keniston, MFA ’14, intermedia and digital art, associate director of UMBC’s Shriver Peaceworker Fellows program. “What’s significant about UMBC hosting the conference is that it represents nearly 20 years of digital storytelling work that’s been happening here on campus,” she noted.  

Keniston, who co-chaired this year’s conference, has championed digital storytelling research since she was a student at UMBC: “I have been using digital storytelling, teaching it, and facilitating others in using it since my start at the university. There are hundreds of students who have used it in the classroom, and dozens of faculty who teach it in their curricula as a way to engage students in reflection.”

For more information on storytelling research happening at UMBC, review a collection of UMBC’s digital storytelling projects here. 

UMBC continues to show its strengths in undergraduate research, innovation, value, teaching programs, and several other areas highlighted in the 2023–24 U.S. News and World Report Best Colleges undergraduate rankings. This year, the university moved up in the national rankings in numerous categories, showcasing UMBC’s growth in several key areas. 

The 2023–24 U.S. News college rankings, released today, were calculated using 19 key measures of academic quality, evaluating nearly 1,500 four-year bachelor’s degree-granting institutions in the country. For the second consecutive year, UMBC has moved up several slots on the list of Best National Universities (tied at #133). UMBC also climbed 38 slots in the category of best value schools, coming in at #69 nationally. 

The university remains a leader in undergraduate teaching programs, ranking #12 nationally. UMBC also maintains its longstanding position as one of the nation’s most innovative universities, ranking #15 this year. 

UMBC students presenting their research and creative projects at the 2023 Undergraduate Research and Creative Achievement Day (URCAD).

Since receiving a Research 1 Carnegie designation in 2022, UMBC has advanced nearly 20 slots in the undergraduate research and creative projects rankings, now nationally ranked at #27. Those research efforts culminated in UMBC students receiving prestigious Goldwater and Gates Cambridge scholarship awards within the last year. 

“This impressive jump shows that internal and external stakeholders have really taken notice of the incredible work that our undergraduates are engaged in,” says April Householder ’95, visual and performing arts, UMBC’s director of undergraduate research and prestigious scholarships. “The faculty and staff at UMBC nurture a culture of research across all disciplines, supporting academic excellence from the humanities to the sciences.”

UMBC remains within the nation’s top-100 public universities, ranking #70 overall, and also moving up to #87 in the nation as one of the best colleges for veterans. While the rankings are primarily university-wide, they also include top-100 recognition for several specific undergraduate programs. The university advanced to #82 in computer science programs, sharing the ranking with other universities such as Auburn University, University of Georgia, and the University of Delaware. In engineering programs, UMBC also ascended to #90 nationally, joined by Howard University, Oklahoma State University, and the University of Alabama. 

Read more about UMBC’s national rankings recognition here. 

The Conversation U.S. launched its new book club with a bang – talking to mathematician Manil Suri about his nonfiction work “The Big Bang of Numbers: How to Build the Universe Using Only Math.” Suri, a previous author in The Conversation, has also written an award-winning fiction trilogy, in addition to being a professor of mathematics and statistics at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County.

Below is an edited excerpt from the book club discussion between Maggie Villiger, senior science editor for The Conversation US and Suri. 

Watch the full book club meeting and leave your own question in the comments at the bottom of this article.

What is the Big Bang of numbers and where do you go from there in the book?

I think the story for me started way back when I was an undergraduate in Bombay. My algebra professor told us this very famous saying by Leopold Kronecker, the famous mathematician, that God gave us the integers and all the rest is the work of human beings. What he meant was that once you have the whole numbers – 1, 2, 3, 4 – which are somehow coming from heaven, then you can build up the rest of mathematics from it.

And then he went on and said, Hey, I can actually do better. I don’t need God. I can actually, as a mathematician, create the numbers out of nothing. And he showed us this marvelous, almost magic trick, where you start with something called the empty set and then you start building the numbers.

It was the closest I’ve been to a religious experience, almost like the walls just dissolved and suddenly there were numbers everywhere.

Once I started writing my novels, I was meeting a lot of people who were artists and writers. And they would always say, you know, we used to love math when we were in school, but afterward we never had a chance to really pursue it. And can you tell us something about your mathematics?

So, I started building a kind of talk, which started with this big bang, as I call it, building the numbers out of nothing. I finally decided I should write a math book, and it would be aimed at a wide audience.

And I said, well, can you go further? You can create the numbers, but can you actually start building everything, including the whole universe from that? So that was a way to try to lay out mathematics almost as a story where one thing follows from the other and everything is embedded in one narrative.

Who were you imagining to be your readers as you were writing the book?

There’s just so much joy to be had out of mathematics, so many things that you don’t really see in normal courses where the emphasis is always on doing the calculations, finding the right answer. So this book is written for people who want to really engage with mathematics on the level of ideas rather than get into computations and calculations.

After you set off your Big Bang of numbers, you dig in to some of life’s big questions. What do you see as math’s role in grappling with those big thoughts, like where the universe came from, why we even exist and so on?

Once you start talking about the Big Bang, what comes into your mind is creation. There is a doctrine called creatio ex nihilo, which is basically creating everything out of nothing.

That’s a cornerstone of many religions where God creates the universe out of nothing. It’s also in some sense being explored by physicists, where you have some sort of singularity and from that, everything emerges in the Big Bang.

So my thought was, both these areas, religion and physics, are in the public’s imagination much more than mathematics is. Is there a way to posit math as the creative force of everything?

Physicist Eugene Wigner, who was a Nobel laureate, talked about the “unreasonable effectiveness” of mathematics at describing everything in our physical universe. It’s so good at modeling physics and what have you. Could it be that math is really the true driving force of the universe? Rather than us just inventing it and using it to describe the universe, could the universe really be describing mathematics? Then the universe is just a physical manifestation, an approximation, if you will, of those mathematical ideas. It’s a completely different view of math.

There’s an ongoing debate over whether math is something that people invented or whether it’s something that exists independently of us. In the book, you say that perhaps the deepest insight that math can offer us is that it’s both of those things.

So the glib answer to your question whether math’s invented or discovered is that you have to create a new word. Instead of discovered or invented it’s “disvented.”

What I mean by that is simply that there are some questions we really can’t get to any kind of logical or supportable answer. One is the question of our own existence – people might believe one thing or the other, but it always comes down to: Is there some real purpose to our lives, or is our creation just something that happened randomly – you know, molecules getting together?

Now if we invent mathematics, then we’re inventing it for a purpose. If it just generates by itself, starting with emptiness, building around numbers in some strange realm that we don’t know about, then it’s just wafting around, purposeless.

Math has that duality that can’t be resolved. So it’s a metaphor, telling us, hey, you can’t decide for math, and you’ll never be able to decide for yourself about your own existence.

Can you tell us a bit about your previous books, the Indian novels?

The first one was called “The Death of Vishnu.” I went back to visit my parents in Mumbai in around 1995, and this man Vishnu, who used to live in our building and do errands, was dying on our steps. I started writing this as a short story.

It started going into a more philosophical realm when a writing teacher said, you know, Vishnu is also the name of the caretaker of the universe in Hindu mythology. So if you name somebody Vishnu, you need to somehow explore that. So that’s what opened up this whole new world for me.

The second book was “The Age of Shiva.” That one’s the journey of a woman right after India’s independence in 1947. She’s making her way in a very male-dominated world, and she’s not perfect.

Then the third one, I decided, OK, I need to put in some science and math characters. So “The City of Devi” actually has both a physicist and a statistician. Again it’s in Mumbai, set in the future with the threat of a nuclear war with Pakistan and a love triangle unfolding in front of that.

It’s kind of interesting. I thought that I was done with this mythical “where do we come from?” kind of philosophy that I had in the three books, but apparently not, because now “The Big Bang of Numbers” looks at it from a mathematical perspective.

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

As waves of students swarmed the Retriever Activity Center last week, senior Micah Polsky of the UMBC Crafting Club quietly stood knitting a pale blue merino wool sock with three tiny needles. Behind Polsky, on a presentation board the UMBC Crafters made to lure prospective new club members, was pinned the mate to the sock in progress.

“Knitting is a lot of trial and error and a surprising amount of math…but it can be very relaxing or very stimulating depending on the kinds of projects you make,” says Polsky, an environmental science major. Together with club president Emily Bolt (a senior chemical engineering major and avid embroiderer), they talked yarns and technique with students shopping for new clubs and organizations to join at this year’s Involvement Fest.

Beyond a meet and greet, and far beyond posters and tchotchke giveaways, iFest is a key moment for students looking to meet new people and try something new. An estimated 2,000 students attended this year’s event, according to Tori Ciorra, assistant director for student organizations. With more than 200 UMBC clubs representing everything from career pathways to religion, to service, recreation, sports, and more—not to mention an open door for students to create new orgs of their own—there is something for everyone to enjoy.

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“Involvement Fest is an exciting opportunity for new and returning students to join a student organization and find a community where they can foster new relationships and experiences. Each organization is incredibly unique and creates a wonderful opportunity for students to get involved outside of the classroom,” said Ciorra, who was pleased to see the crowds of interested students. 

“I am always in awe of the organizations that our students have created, and watching the creative ways they market their organization. Hearing leaders talk about the number of sign-ups they received and their excitement for the year is extremely rewarding and sets a wonderful tone for the rest of the year.” 

A smorgasbord of choices

Surveying one of two huge rooms of club displays, first-year computer science student Emma Popoko flipped through the event program to pinpoint tables she especially wanted to visit. 

“Film club could be interesting. And I’m definitely interested in the African Student Association because I’m African…and possibly the National Society of Black Engineers,” she said. Her added motivation to be there? “So I don’t just stay in my dorm all day. I can interact with people and get a feel for the place and feel like I’m part of the community and not just here for classes.”

Sophomore Ayan Chaudry, a biology major, joined a couple of clubs in his first year at UMBC, but came to iFest specifically looking for something new—possibly a pre-med fraternity. Taking part in student organizations—especially as a commuter student—made his first year feel “less lonely.”

“I know some people like to just go home and back and forth to school, but I feel like if you stay on campus a bit longer…there’s more to it than just studying,” he said.

As folks passed the table for The Garden, a physical gardening space on campus that also grows food for Retriever Essentials and other partners, club president and senior biology/psychology major Eli Gooding handed out lollipops and made a solid case for why getting one’s hands dirty—while growing veggies, that is—is such a great form of self-care.

“For me, gardening is really therapeutic and it’s how I relieve stress,” said Gooding. “It’s really good to have a hobby.”

Learn more about UMBC’s 200+ student organizations.

Although objects like bridges, buildings, and airplane wings may seem quite rigid, by design they are capable of a surprising deal of bending. This elasticity allows them to deform safely and temporarily in windy conditions. However, very rarely, “Elastic systems like bridges, buildings, and planes can become oscillatory or unstable in the presence of everyday wind, with potential for the oscillations to become damaging,” says Justin Webster, associate professor of mathematics and statistics. “Understanding this has big implications for fields like civil engineering or alternative energy.”

Webster has received a new $290,000 National Science Foundation Division of Mathematical Sciences grant to “look at the mathematical models that describe these wind-structure systems,” he says, “and try to answer the questions, ‘What gives rise to these self-destabilization effects? And do I understand it well enough to stop it, or better yet, to prevent it altogether?’”  In other words, can we prevent the bridge collapsing or the wings snapping off the plane in windy conditions?

In contrast, certain energy harvesting devices require oscillation to function. As wind flows over one of these flag-like surfaces, it flaps, or “flutters,” generating electrical current. With these energy harvesters—as opposed to planes and bridges—says Webster, “It’s the opposite: You want the oscillations to happen. Not only do we want this to happen, but we want it to happen in an optimal way.”

For some of these systems, there are no existing mathematical models. For others, models exist, but they don’t seem to capture the way these systems behave in the physical world very well. As a first step, Webster and his students, including new members brought on board with the NSF support, will work to generate new, relevant models or refine existing ones. Next, they will analyze how the models address key questions in three applications: a bridge, an airfoil (like a plane wing), and a flutter-driven energy harvesting device.

In each scenario, Webster and his team will ask, “What conditions give rise to flow-induced oscillations that appear to be spontaneous? And if they do happen, can the model predict what they will look like—such as bending, or, more dangerously, twisting?” Right now, the answer to the latter is “no.” The new grant will help Webster get closer to “yes,” and as a result, eventually improve infrastructure safety and the efficiency of some alternative energy devices.