Just like the people that are part of our community, UMBC experienced a year of change, growth, and opportunity in 2022. Exciting achievements, transformative leadership, and groundbreaking research made this another year for the record books. Looking back at 2022, we’re reminded of all the reasons we’re proud to call UMBC home.

1. University milestones

• UMBC welcomed Valerie Sheares Ashby as the president, following the retirement of Freeman A. Hrabowski III, who served as UMBC’s leader for a remarkable 30 years. President Sheares Ashby joined UMBC from Duke University’s Trinity College of Arts & Sciences, where she had served as dean. Since starting her tenure, Sheares Ashby has made herself accessible to students through weekly office hours. She’s also enjoyed taking part in some time-honored UMBC traditions, like rubbing True Grit’s nose for luck and taking in all that Homecoming has to offer. 

• Kimberly R. Moffitt was named the new dean of UMBC’s College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences (CAHSS), after serving as interim dean since August 2020.
  
  
• UMBC officially reached the nation’s highest level of research performance. The Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education announced that UMBC has been placed into the category of doctoral universities with very high research activity, popularly known as Research 1 (or R1). UMBC is now ranked as one of only 146 R1 institutions nationally.
  

• The 2022 – 23 U.S. News and World Report Best Colleges undergraduate rankings show UMBC jumping an impressive 25 spots on the list of Best National Universities, in addition to ranking #9 nationally for undergraduate teaching and #10 most innovative, tied with Johns Hopkins. U.S. News also announced its 2023 Best Graduate School rankings, including outstanding UMBC graduate programs across all three colleges. 

2. Student and alumni experiences

• With well over 2,100 new first-year students, and record numbers of graduate and international students, UMBC welcomed its largest class in school history. Several of UMBC’s remarkable current students and community members were showcased as part of Amazon’s Prime’s “The College Tour” series.
  

• Fearless, a company founded by Delali Dzirasa ’04, computer engineering, led the development of the Searchable Museum to complement the National Museum of African American History and Culture’s (NMAAHC) “Slavery and Freedom” exhibition. The team included visual arts, computer science, and computer engineering alumni.
  
  
• Jok Abraham Thon, UMBC’s first Peaceworker Global Fellow and the first Retriever from South Sudan, shared his story of leadership and social impact at UMBC’s Fall Opening Meeting and his experience as an international student in the Baltimore Sun.

• Marcie and David Zisow marked the 53rd anniversary of their first conversation at a shared table at True Grit’s. The Zisows’ youngest child was inspired by their love story to create a surprise celebration for her parents, recreating their 1969 meet-cute. UMBC Dining offered up their services, including baking an anniversary cake, playing music from the ’60s and ’70s, and creating a photo slideshow of Marcie (’72, M.A. ’84) and David (’71) to show on the screens of the dining hall.

3. Student leadership and achievement

• UMBC students excelled in leadership, research, and service. Four UMBC students were named 2022 – 23 Goldwater Scholars, tying the university’s past record. Eight UMBC students and alumni earned 2022 Fulbright U.S. Student scholarships to travel to countries across three continents. 

• Farah Helal ’24, global studies and political science, became University System of Maryland (USM) student regent, representing the student voice on issues such as tuition rates and new degree programs.

• Haleemat Adekoya ’23, political science, was named one of just 58 new Truman Scholars nationwide. Adekoya is the fifth UMBC student to receive this honor, focused on public service. Truman Scholarship finalist Rehman Liaqat ’22, political science, received the inaugural Campus Compact Mid-Atlantic Civic Fellowship, for student leaders who are “engaged global citizens, actively contributing to the creation of equitable, healthy, sustainable, and socially just communities.”

4. Achievements in athletics and intellectual sports

• Three was the magic number for UMBC Athletics this past year. Both UMBC volleyball and softball captured their third consecutive America East titles to continue on at NCAA tournament play.
  

• Softball star Courtney Coppersmith ’22, biochemistry and molecular biology, was named America East Woman of the Year. Coppersmith was the first Retriever in university history to achieve this honor.
  
  
• UMBC men’s swimming and diving reclaimed the 2022 America East Championship title to win their 13th championship out of 15 appearances.

• UMBC is again a national champion, now in ChemE Jeopardy. A UMBC student team of chemical engineering majors emerged victorious at the national competition hosted by the American Institute of Chemical Engineers.

5. Public research for the public good

• GRIT-X returned to UMBC for its sixth year, delivering a wide-ranging lineup of Retriever excellence in action—highlighting research and creative achievement from different fields. One presenter, Airi Yoshioka, professor of music, illuminated how the cultural background of a composer manifests in the music they create. 

• Katherine Seley-Radtke, professor of chemistry and biochemistry, is part of a consortium that will receive $65 million over five years from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases to develop virus-fighting fleximer compounds. At the same time, Phyllis Robinson, professor of biological sciences, has received a $2.5 million grant from NIH to advance study of critical eye protein.

• Vandana Janeja, professor and chair of information systems, is the principal investigator on a five-year, $13 million National Science Foundation (NSF) grant from the Harnessing the Data Revolution (HDR) Big Idea program to analyze enormous volumes of climate data and Arctic and Antarctic observations in ways that could help populations prepare for and respond to sea level rise and other risks.
  
  
• Numerous humanities and social science faculty received prominent fellowships to support innovative research. The Henry Luce Foundation and American Council of Learned Societies awarded Christopher K. Tong, assistant professor of modern languages, linguistics, and intercultural communication, a fellowship to examine ecological consciousness and political representation in modern China. Yolanda Valencia, assistant professor of geography and environmental studies, and María Célleri, assistant professor of gender, women’s, and sexuality studies, received Mellon Fellowships for research on an immigrant community in Washington and postcolonial transformation of Quito, Ecuador, respectively. Elizabeth Patton, associate professor of media and communication studies; Mirjam Voerkelius, assistant professor of history; and Amy Froide, professor and chair of history, received fellowships to explore unique historical events in the United States, Soviet Union, and United Kingdom. 

• UMBC faculty earned prestigious NSF CAREER Awards. Cynthia Matuszek, computer science and electrical engineering, will use her award to study how robots learn about the physical world from spoken language to improve how they work with people. Lauren Clay, associate professor and chair of emergency health services, will develop a sociocultural model called Food Environment in Disasters (FED) to improve the understanding and monitoring of food availability, acceptability, and accessibility during disasters. Stay tuned for news of 2023 CAREER Award recipients, coming soon.

6. Investments in high-impact UMBC programs

• The largest gift in the history of UMBC—a $21 million donation from the Sherman Family Foundation—will dramatically expand the reach and impact of the university’s K-12 and early childhood education work.
  

• UMBC will expand its work boosting diversity in academia from Maryland to the national level through a new NSF INCLUDES Alliance: Re-Imagining STEM Equity Utilizing Postdoc Pathways (RISE UPP). RISE UPP seeks to help R1, R2, and teaching-intensive institutions recruit and train postdoctoral scholars from underrepresented backgrounds in STEM.
   
• UMBC’s College of Natural and Mathematical Sciences is receiving $5.6 million over five years from the National Institutes of Health to fund the Graduate Research Training Initiative for Student Enhancement (G-RISE). This program supports graduate students from underrepresented groups in STEM with funding for up to three years and a broad range of training opportunities.

Contributing authors: Catalina Sofia Dansberger Duque; Adriana Fraser; Sarah Hansen, M.S. ’15; Randianne Leyshon ’09; Megan Hanks Mastrola; Kait McCaffrey; Jenny O’Grady; and Dinah Winnick.

Temperatures may have been cold, but the Chesapeake Employers Insurance Arena was warmed by the cheers of congratulations for this year’s graduates. More than 800 undergraduate and graduate students turned their tassels this week during UMBC’s 79th Commencement Ceremonies. 

This was a week of firsts, with President Sheares Ashby presiding over her first commencement and alumni speakers returning for the first time to offer words of wisdom during winter exercises.

While some elements are new, this year’s ceremonies still had all the trappings that make UMBC’s commencement so special – hugs between classmates, whispered words of gratitude to mentors and colleagues, and misty eyes turned upwards as confetti made the Arena into a verifiable snow globe. 

Sheares Ashby acknowledged the milestone and underscored the importance of those who got our Retrievers across the finish line, such as parents, families, and others. 

“This is an extraordinary moment and we owe a lot of gratitude to those of you who are sitting here in the audience,” says Sheares Ashby.

Tales from the heart

Stories, more than anything, were at the heart of this year’s commencement. Graduate commencement speaker Mustafa Al-Adhami, M.S. ’15, Ph.D. ’20, mechanical engineering, accomplished remarkable things during his master’s and doctoral journey at UMBC. But he took care in his speech to share how his background foundation helped forge his future. 

“Growing up in Baghdad, my life was a series of changes that I could do little to control,” he said. “Following the 2003 war, we no longer had reliable access to meat, electricity, or entertainment. I had to find new ways to pass my time and earn some pocket money, and I found the answer in fixing radios.” 

Al-Adhami’s early penchant for problem solving led him to his position of Chief Executive Officer of Astek Diagnostics, a company he founded, dedicated to developing low-cost solutions for global public health problems. 

Undergraduate speaker Stefanie Mavronis ’12, political science and media and communication studies, shared that growing up in a working class neighborhood, she didn’t have much exposure to the world of higher education. But through support from mentors, she was given opportunities that allowed her to envision a career and a future.

Amy Froide, professor of history, UMBC

Enron. Bernie Madoff. FTX.

In modern capitalism, it seems as if stories of companies and managers who engage in fraud and swindle their investors occur like the changing of the seasons.

In fact, these scandals can be traced back to the origins of publicly traded companies, when the first stockbrokers bought and sold company shares and government securities in the coffee houses of London’s Exchange Alley during the 1700s.

As a historian of 18th century finance, I am struck by the similarities between what’s known as the Charitable Corporation Scandal and the recent collapse of FTX.

A noble cause

The Charitable Corporation was established in London in 1707 with the noble mission of providing “relief of the industrious poor by assisting them with small sums at legal interest.”

Essentially, it sought to provide low-interest loans to poor tradesmen, shielding them from predatory pawnbrokers who charged as much as 30% interest. The corporation made loans available at the rate of 5% in return for a pledge of property for security.

The Charitable Corporation was modeled on Monti di Pietà, a charitable institution of credit established in Catholic countries during the Renaissance era to combat usury, or high rates of interest.

Unlike the Monti di Pietà, however, the British version – despite its name – wasn’t a nonprofit. Instead, it was a business venture. The enterprise was funded by offering shares to investors who, in return, would make money while doing good. Under its original mission, it was like an 18th century version of today’s socially responsible investing, or “sustainable investment funds.”

Raiding the fund

In 1725, the Charitable Corporation diverted from its original mission when a new board of directors took over.

These men turned the corporation into their own piggy bank, taking money from it to buy shares and prop up their other companies. At the same time, the company’s employees began to engage in fraud: Safety checks ceased, books were kept irregularly and pledges went unrecorded.

Investigators would ultimately find that £400,000 or more in capital was missing – roughly $108 million in today’s U.S. dollars.

In the autumn of 1731, rumors began to circulate about the solvency of the Charitable Corporation. The warehouse keeper at the time, John Thomson, who was in charge of all loans and pledges but also in league with the five fraudulent directors, hid the company’s books and fled the country.

At the shareholders’ quarterly meeting, they found that money, pledges and accounts had all gone missing. At this point, the proprietors of the Charitable Corporation stock appealed to the British Parliament for redress. One-third of those who petitioned were women, a proportion that equaled the percentage of women who held shares in the Charitable Corporation.

Many women were drawn to the corporation because of its public mission in providing small loans to working people. It’s also possible that they had been intentionally targeted for fraud.

The parliamentary investigation led to various charges being leveled against both managers and employees of the Charitable Corporation. Many of them were forced to appear before Parliament and were arrested if they did not. The managers and employees deemed most responsible for the 1732 fraud, such as William Burroughs, had their assets seized and inventoried in order to help pay back the shareholder losses.

Bankruptcy proceedings were started against the banker and broker, George Robinson, and the warehouse keeper, Thomson. Both Sir Robert Sutton and Sir Archibald Grant were expelled as members of the House of Commons, with Grant being prevented from leaving the country and Sutton ultimately prosecuted in several courts.

In the end, the shareholders received a partial government bailout – Parliament authorized a lottery that reimbursed only 40% of what the corporation’s creditors had lost.

The risks of concentrated power

There are several key characteristics that stand out in the collapses of both the Charitable Corporation and FTX. Both companies were offering something new or venturing into a new sector. In the former’s case, it was microloans. In FTX’s case, it was cryptocurrency.

Meanwhile, the management of both ventures was centralized in the hands of just a few people. The Charitable Corporation got into trouble when it reduced its directors from 12 to five and when it consolidated most of its loan business in the hands of one employee – namely, Thomson. FTX’s example is even more extreme, with founder Sam Bankman-Fried calling all the shots.

In both cases, the key fraud was using the assets of one company to prop up another company managed by the same people. For example, in 1732, the corporation’s directors bought stock in the York Buildings Company, in which many of them were also involved. They hoped to juice stock prices. When that didn’t happen, they realized they couldn’t cover what they had taken out of the Charitable Corporation’s funds.

Fast forward nearly 300 years, and a similar story seems to have played out. Bankman-Fried allegedly took money out his customer accounts in FTX to cover his cryptocurrency trading firm, Alameda Research.

News of both frauds also came as a surprise, with little advance warning. Part of this is due to the ways in which managers were well respected and well connected to both politicians and the financial world. Few public figures mistrusted them, and this proved to be a useful screen for deceit.

I would also argue that in both cases the company’s connection to philanthropy lent it another level of cover. The Charitable Corporation’s very name announced its altruism. And even after the scandal subsided, commentators pointed out that the original business of microlending was useful. FTX’s founder Bankman-Fried is an advocate of effective altruism and has argued that it was useful for him and his companies to make lots of money so he could give it away to what he deemed effective causes.

After the Charitable Corporation’s collapse in 1732, Parliament didn’t institute any regulation that would prevent such a fraud from happening again.

A tradition of loose oversight and regulations has been the hallmark of Anglo-American capitalism. If the response to the 2008 financial crash is any indication of what will come in the wake of FTX’s collapse, it’s possible that some bad actors, like Bankman-Fried, will be punished. But any regulation will be undone at the first opportunity – or never put in place to begin with.

Amy Froide, Professor of History, University of Maryland, Baltimore County

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

On a sunny fall day in October, a handful of student and faculty researchers are scuttling around outside the Albin O. Kuhn Library and Gallery. High-tech instruments sprawl across folding tables, alongside lower-tech equipment like a hole-punch, glass jars, clippers, and Ziploc bags. A drone about the size of a couch cushion sits on the grass nearby, awaiting instructions.

A student returns from a tree a couple of hundred yards away with a small clipping in a vase-like jar, and the work begins. Different team members examine leaves using the full range of equipment on the tables, collecting different information with each instrument. 

Each month from May to October, the researchers complete this process 60 times over two days, collecting data from 60 different trees on UMBC’s main campus representing nine common species of urban trees. Plus, once an hour, the drone flies a pre-programmed route above campus, collecting additional information. Passing UMBC students occasionally stop to ask questions, and the team is happy to share their work.

Michael Alonzo, an assistant professor at American University, leads the project, and Matthew Baker, professor of geography and environmental systems at UMBC, is co-lead. Their students help out on the data collection days. The work also includes faculty and students from Temple University. The goal is to understand how the trees are responding to heat and moisture stress. By looking at trees from different species and in different locations, the research team can learn which trees might be most resilient in a warming world.

Innovation and transpiration

The UMBC campus, with its variety of tree habitats—like parking lots, grass fields, and natural areas—provides an excellent site to conduct the study. And because urban areas, which tend to include more pavement, are already experiencing higher temperatures on average than less developed areas, “Trees in these heat islands may provide a glimpse into the future about how they’ll respond elsewhere,” Baker says. 

The instruments on the tables can measure things like how much and which wavelengths of light individual leaves are absorbing and their rate of photosynthesis. There are also sensors placed directly on the trees, which collect data in real time. A sensor in a metal box on each tree measures the rate at which water is flowing from its roots to its leaves, a process known as transpiration that is central to the water cycle. An instrument called a Scholander pressure bomb looks at a similar measure, but in the leaves. By gradually applying more pressure to a single leaf, it detects how hard the water is being pulled as it journeys from the roots, to the leaves, to the atmosphere.

By comparing the rates of photosynthesis and transpiration, which are typically closely linked, the researchers can see if the relationship between the two processes is shifting under stress. 

It’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s… a research drone?

The team also uses a drone with a thermal camera to measure the heat signature of the tree canopy compared to the surrounding environment. “As long as the canopy is transpiring, the canopy should appear cooler than nearby pavement in our imagery,” Baker says. That temperature difference between the canopy and the surroundings can help determine how much transpiration is happening.

The researchers compare the findings from the drone’s hourly flights with what they’re seeing on the ground. “We’re in the ‘do we trust you’ phase of the relationship” with the drone and its data, Alonzo says. The hope is that if the drone data matches the ground data well enough, the team can use it to gather the same information in a much less labor-intensive way and over larger geographic areas.

Permission to use the drone also required cooperation and trust-building with several UMBC departments, such as UMBC Police, environmental safety and health, and facilities management, as well as BWI Airport. This project is the first time drones have been allowed on campus for research, following a recent revision of federal aviation and campus safety policies.

Growing the fleet

In addition to the thermal camera on the drone, the team is using a hyperspectral camera (on loan from NASA) to collect imagery from the roofs of both the library and the Physics Building. Hyperspectral imagery provides information about canopy stress, water content, and leaf pigments like chlorophyll, which drive photosynthesis. Next year, they hope to have this camera mounted on a drone, too. Together, these two cameras collecting data from above “are the link to being able to perform similar measurements over much broader areas, like metropolitan Baltimore, with airborne or spaceborne platforms,” Baker says. 

In fact, the team has already started related work in 11 other cities in the Eastern U.S., including research on how trees help cool cities using data from Washington, DC.

The study on campus is already turning up differences in how various tree species respond to warming. The team discovered that some species intermittently reduce their transpiration rate, possibly as a stress response. Some trees even stop the process altogether during the hottest part of the day—a phenomenon Alonzo calls a “tree siesta.”

It remains to be seen if photosynthesis slows down along with transpiration. If it does, this could indicate that the trees are prioritizing protective measures to prevent overheating and water loss over growth. A reduced growth rate would also reduce the amount of carbon the trees are taking out of the atmosphere, which is an important factor when estimating how much planting trees could benefit the future climate.

Informing the future

All aspects of the project have involved undergraduate and graduate students. More than 15 students have contributed, including Caitlin Beckjord ’23, geography and environmental systems, who first got involved in forest research through a summer project while she was a student at Howard Community College. Micah Polsky ’25, geography and environmental systems, has a leading role in a complementary study with the USDA Forest Service. They take precise weekly measurements of the trees’ girth—another way to measure their water status as well as their growth rate. 

Faculty teach each student how to use the full range of instruments used in this study, making this project an excellent training opportunity for students in majors from environmental science to physics or information systems. The project brings together important new details about how trees are responding to stress, testing and verification of new technologies, and student engagement and training in a way that is likely to have a significant impact on the participants and the future of this research field. 

On a Tuesday evening in early November, Main Street in The Commons was uncommonly crowded. Hundreds of democratically-minded students eagerly—and perhaps, anxiously—milled around watching the 2022 mid-term election returns. Dilnaz Hasim ’25, economics, found the scene fitting, saying, “Election Night Extravaganza is supposed to be experienced as a community, rather than as a single person, because when you make a vote, you’re making it for the whole community.”

Jointly hosted by the Center for Democracy and Civic Life, the Student Government Association (SGA), and the Graduate Student Association, the campus-based election event has been around since 2004. Students from every political affiliation bonded over a breakfast buffet and made room for bipartisan conversations in multiple breakout spaces. Other rooms had craft tables set up for students to creatively distract themselves while results rolled in.

As exciting as this night is, it’s only one part of efforts put forth throughout the year by the Center for Democracy and Civic Life to engage students in the day-to-day processes of democratic involvement. Leading up to elections, students are encouraged to “cast your whole vote”—an idea from Henry David Thoreau’s essay on civil disobedience—to commit fully to building strong, inclusive, just communities in which everyone can thrive. Following elections, students, staff, and faculty can take part in Together Beyond November discussions to talk about the election outcomes and envision a common future.

In late November 2022, the ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge released the results of its national student voter pledge competition. UMBC finished at #4 in the nation in the number of students pledging to vote in Election 2022, moving our campus community up from #9 in 2020.

Musa Jafri ’24, political science, SGA’s director of civic engagement, was heartened by the turnout. “Democracy doesn’t end at the voting booth,” said Jafri, who is also co-chair of the University System of Maryland Student Civic Leaders Committee. “There’s so much more we can do as we watch the results and come together as a community. Even after whatever happens, we have fellow Retrievers coming together, watching the results, having food, and playing games.”

Another one of the event organizers, Meghna Chandrasekaran ’25, biology, hosted a social takeover during the night, interviewing her fellow students about their civic engagement. Many mentioned feeling the need to have their voices heard on issues they cared about. To wrap up the evening, Chandrasekaran said, “Election Night Extravaganza is an event to celebrate that we did come out. We had one job as citizens to come out and vote, express our concerns about certain things, and show that we are part of the process.”

To read more about engaging college students in everyday democratic practices, check out an extended Q&A with Musa Jafri, Sunil Dasgupta, professor of political science, and founder and host of the podcast “I Hate Politics,” and David Hoffman, Ph.D. ’13, language, literacy, and culture, the director of UMBC’s Center for Democracy and Civic Life.

— Levi Lewis ’23 & Randianne Leyshon ’09

When UMBC’s volleyball team headed to the University of Southern California (USC) for a tournament, Athletics reached out and invited West Coast Retrievers to an LA happy hour before the game. Eager to reconnect with their alma mater and meet other alumni in the area, folks gathered together and new friendships were formed. 

Despite the decades between their UMBC experiences, Matt Sheriff ’00, political science, and Nathenael Dereb ’21, computer science, bonded over a quintessential California connection—surfing. Specifically, Dereb, a recent relocator, wanted to learn how and Sheriff, who’s been on the West Coast for years, had the skills to teach. Since then, the pair has been meeting before work in the mornings catching the waves. They carved out some time to share the experience with UMBC Magazine. 

UMBC Magazine: We know how you two met—can you tell us how you hit it off?

Sheriff: I attended graduate business school at USC, so when I read about a tournament volleyball game at USC that the UMBC team was invited to attend, I was simply amazed that my undergrad school was coming to USC. At the alumni pre-party, I met Nate Dereb, who, like me, also relocated from Maryland to LA. He was interested in learning to surf, so I’ve been introducing him to the sport when our schedules align. The beauty of living in Los Angeles is we can surf in the morning and be at work by 9 a.m., even earlier if necessary!

UMBC Magazine: What are your best surf tips?

Sheriff: Take it slow in terms of expectations and remind yourself that the best surfer is the one having the most fun.

UMBC Magazine: How was the change from Maryland to California?

Dereb: Relocating across the country to a city I’ve never been before was an overwhelming experience, but I was fortunate to have my family around me during my relocation. One of the shocking things was finding myself outside only in shorts and a shirt in February! I’m still amazed by that.

UMBC Magazine: What are you up to now?

Sheriff: I’m a senior advisor at Southern California Edison where I lead regulatory economics projects and represent the company before the California Public Utilities Commission as an expert witness. Most of my work is finance-related but the communication and analytical skills I learned at UMBC are immensely helpful.

Dereb: I am working as a software engineer at Adobe within the analytics organization. On the side, I’m still maintaining and adding data for the platform I built during my senior year that assists students and faculty in retrieving data regarding course grades, course evaluations, and professors at UMBC.

UMBC Magazine: What was your experience at UMBC like? 

Dereb: My involvement in the Center for Women in Technology organization, as a Cyber Scholar, is an experience I will always cherish. I was also fortunate to win several awards and scholarships, get multiple internship opportunities, become a teaching fellow for Computer Science 202, and do innovative research as part of the Interactive Robotics and Language lab on campus. I am a proud Retriever!

Sheriff: More than anything I feel like I grew into a young adult who was ready for the world.

President Valerie Sheares Ashby is a people person. You can see her eyes light up while she talks with folks. 

On her very first day as president of UMBC, Sheares Ashby made it clear that she wants to be available to students. Right off the bat, in true professor form, she set up weekly student office hours to do just that. 

As you might expect, her office hours are already very popular, so we decided to reflect her friendly open-door philosophy in this regular president’s column. Sheares Ashby is also engaging in a listening tour to hear from faculty, staff, students, alumni, and partners across campus and beyond in the coming month. We look forward to sharing highlights from the tour in future issues.

UMBC Magazine: How would you describe your first few months at UMBC, and what has it been like getting to know this community?

President Sheares Ashby: These first few months have been energizing, inspiring, and joyful. The more people I meet, and the more I start to make connections, the more I love this place. You can love something from a distance because of its values. But when you meet the people, and they embody those values, your love grows even deeper. It has been especially rewarding to engage with students, see who they already are, and imagine what they will become as a result of their experiences at UMBC.

And then, what is most inspiring for me is that it’s becoming more clear every day what the possibilities are for what we can do together going forward.

UMBC Magazine: That’s a terrific segue! What would you like alumni to know about your thoughts on UMBC’s future and how you hope they will be involved?

President Sheares Ashby: Well, right now, as you know, I’m holding listening sessions with members of the community, and I want as many alumni as possible to participate. As we do this, I know that I will discover even more about our collective purpose and the possibilities for UMBC. I have said to alumni that I don’t know what I’m going to ask them to do yet, but when I feel like I’ve got something that’s worthy of their time and effort and the difference that they can make, I will bring it to them. And there will be something that I need our alums to do, for sure, because they are such an important part of UMBC’s future. 

I had the opportunity recently to meet with the executive committee of the Alumni Board of Directors and then, of course, many, many more alumni during Homecoming. As they introduced themselves, they talked about what they are doing and what they loved most about their UMBC education. It was wonderful because I could hear how they are living out the values of the institution wherever their careers and lives have taken them.

I heard people talk about civic engagement and social justice and the things that we believe deep in our core. They’re out there in the world exemplifying what UMBC is, in business, professions, public service, and the arts, and that is just incredible. The more people see our alumni doing this, the more we will continue to attract excellent students, and UMBC will only grow stronger.

Meet Sandra Abbott, who has been working in UMBC’s art world for 14 years. Whether it’s through setting up world-class exhibitions or coordinating educational programs, Sandra combines her work as curator of collections and outreach at the Center for Art, Design, and Visual Culture (CADVC) and affiliate faculty in the visual arts department. Sandra thrives in her role of introducing Retrievers and community members to great art.

Q: What part of your job do you enjoy the most and why?

A: I love working with students who are exploring my profession. They keep me on my toes and ask the best questions.

Q: Who is someone in the community who has supported you, and how did they do it?

A: When I needed to research local 3D printers for a special K-12 art project, I reached out to alum Maks Prykhodko, M.F.A. ’21, IMDA. Maks returned my email within 24 hours and offered help, including a personal introduction to those I needed to connect with at the best vendor.

This is only one example of many alumni I’ve reconnected with professionally after UMBC. This community supports you at UMBC and beyond. It’s the best network!

Q: Tell us about what you love about where you work.

A: What I love about the CADVC gallery is the amazing, world-class artwork I pass by every time I come and go from my office.

Headshot courtesy of Abbott.

Q: What brought you to UMBC in the first place? 

A: I was drawn to UMBC as a place known for its academic rigor and scholarship. I wanted to develop my career amongst those who took their work as seriously as I took mine.

Q: What would you tell someone who is considering a career at UMBC?

There is always someone who can help you when you have a question or a challenge. The network of experts we have access to at UMBC is astounding. They range from those in cybersecurity and STEM to the arts and beyond. I’ve made many connections here, which often continue beyond UMBC. 

There is also always something happening—live theater, films, exhibitions, lectures, and performances. Personal growth, wellness, and education are among so many shared values here.

* * * * *

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.

It’s official: The Baltimore Sun has again named UMBC one of the “Top Workplaces” in the Baltimore region, for the eighth time since 2013. UMBC is featured on the Sun’s list of top large employers—organizations with 400 employees or more—and is the only college or university honored this year.

The “Top Workplaces” designation reflects the results of an independent and confidential employee survey conducted in the summer. The Sun announced the news online on December 8 and highlighted all of the region’s top workplaces in a special section of the paper on December 11.

“What a great honor for us to be recognized by the Baltimore Sun!” says Lynne Adams, UMBC’s chief human resources officer.

“The faculty and staff at UMBC are the best of the best, and we will continue to ensure that we are doing everything possible to make this an appealing and exciting work environment,” she shares. “Each day as we focus on supporting our students’ success, we also recognize that we need to focus on our team members’ successes and well-being. I am excited to work alongside my fellow community members to make sure we do that.”

Shared values, meaningful work

The survey measures aspects of workplace culture such as shared values, effective management, and a sense of meaningful work. It also measures employees’ perspectives on compensation, including pay and benefits. The organizations and companies that earn top marks compared to similarly sized institutions earn the designation of “Top Workplaces.”

Earlier this year UMBC was also recognized as one of the Chronicle of Higher Education’s “Great Colleges to Work For.” It was UMBC’s 13^th year on the list and the 11^th year the university was also highlighted as an “honor roll” university—a distinction for institutions that score high marks in several categories. In fact, UMBC was the only R1 university in the nation recognized in every “Great Colleges to Work For” category this year.

Want to work at UMBC? See listings for faculty and staff positions through UMBC’s human resources office.

UMBC researchers designed the Cybersecurity for Manufacturing Operational Technology (CyMOT) program to help manufacturing professionals grow their cybersecurity skills, protecting the sector from cyber threats and increasing their career opportunities. Now, the program has received significant additional funding to expand its impact.

The CyMOT program—launched in 2020 in collaboration with the Chicago-based MxD (Manufacturing x Digital) and UMBC Training Centers—has been renewed with a $1.2 million grant from the U.S. Department of Defense’s Office of Local Defense Community Cooperation (OLDCC). The funding will support the implementation of new training curricula around machine learning and cybersecurity. 

“In recent years, there has been a large number of cyber attacks on the manufacturing sector,” says Nilanjan Banerjee, professor of computer science and electrical engineering and the grant’s principal investigator. To address this rising concern, Banerjee explains, CyMOT aims to “make sure that people that are in the manufacturing business can get trained and upskilled in cybersecurity concepts around manufacturing.”

Expanding the curriculum

The first initiative of the multi-phased project included developing a cybersecurity curriculum tailored for people who already worked in the manufacturing industry, building on their existing expertise. It provided training for a manufacturing cyber systems operator role and offered content through an online training platform. 

The first cohort included 25 manufacturing professionals. In summer 2022, the program expanded when community college students in Chicago were invited to participate in a modified version of the course.

With this recent 12-month contract renewal, the next phase of the project will include courses for two more senior roles: a manufacturing artificial intelligence/machine learning engineer and an advanced manufacturing cybersecurity operator. This phase is slated to begin in February 2023. The additional funding will cover the cost for up to 150 new students interested in the programs. 

Creating an operational technology cyber range at UMBC

As this program continues to grow, Banerjee also has a related objective in mind: building an operational technology (OT) cyber range at UMBC focused on cybersecurity in manufacturing. 

“We will have equipment on campus with software to run exercises for small and medium manufacturing businesses in Maryland and students at UMBC,” Banerjee explains. “The cyber range will include red team-blue team exercises, as well as exercises to learn about cyber attacks on a company’s infrastructure. We will also conduct exercises around attacks at the interface between information technology networks and operational technology networks.”

With the cyber range, manufacturing professionals in the state can learn how to detect and mitigate cyberattacks through hands-on exercises using similar equipment found in a manufacturing OT environment.

The cyber range will be a unique resource for training and research in Maryland. It will also tie to several cybersecurity programs offered by UMBC and an apprenticeship program offered through the Maryland Extension Partnership (MEP). With emphasis on digitizing the manufacturing sector in Maryland at a time of continually increasing interconnectivity and automation (known as Industry 4.0), the cyber range will act as the testbed to train manufacturers across the state.  

Workforce development in Maryland

Donna Ruginski, UMBC’s executive director of cybersecurity initiatives and a co-PI of CyMOT, shares that the project has the potential to expand Maryland’s workforce development in a significant way, whether through curriculum development and delivery or an OT cyber range. 

“As the manufacturing industry implements digital transformation to Industry 4.0, cybersecurity training resources have become more important,” says Ruginski. “There is a shortage of people who can do cyber-related jobs. CyMOT is an avenue to up-skill and train a talent base positioned to fill those gaps in the workforce.” 

After getting its start with implementation in Chicago, CyMOT has attracted the attention of Maryland state agencies, such as the Department of Commerce, and has been recognized by leaders in manufacturing, such as the Regional Manufacturing Institute of Maryland (RMI). UMBC was named as one of RMI’s Champions of Maryland Manufacturing at its 2022 Maryland Manufacturing Celebration, held earlier this fall. 

On behalf of UMBC, Banerjee and Ruginski accepted an executive citation in recognition of CyMOT’s contributions to Maryland’s manufacturing industry.

“It is a great honor to be awarded an RMI Champions award,” says Banerjee. “The work around cybersecurity training and research performed at UMBC is having a true impact on growing the workforce and digitizing the regional manufacturing ecosystem, and the award is testimony to that fact.”