• MS Swim at the Catonsville Y of Central Maryland - working with adults with Multiple Sclerosis - Fridays in particular, 1-4pm

• Project Team - working with youth at the Glen Burnie Boys & Girls Club to develop their teamwork skills.  Mondays, 4-7pm
• College Gardens - afterschool program at nearby College Gardens community in partnership with the Y of Central Maryland.  Primarily attended by elementary-aged youth, who enjoy tutoring and recreational activities supported by UMBC students.  Volunteers needed Tuesdays, @2:20-5:45 pm
• Choice Education Team - new initiative for The Choice Program, funded by the Open Society Institute, working at local school in West Baltimore with high school students to support career/college readiness activities, Wednesdays, 3-7pm
  

• Abco Roofing Inc. -- Accounting Assistant -- ID# 9249667
• Consumer Credit Counseling Service of MD and DE, Inc. -- Bankruptcy Support Representative -- ID# 9245855
• Samuelson's Diamonds -- Digital Marketing Intern -- ID# 9249576
• Photogenic Inc. -- Guest Services Representative -- ID# 9249582
• Bright Spot, Inc. -- High School Mathematics Tutoring -- ID# 9245891
• Community College of Baltimore County -- Part-Time Lab Assistant - ID# 9249671
• YMCA of Central Maryland -- Substitute Teacher (651-221) -- ID# 9249612

Engineering Week IEEE Student Branch Seminar
in conjunction with CSEE Graduate Seminar

Brain-Computer Interface Technologies
in the Coming Decades (with Demonstration)

Dr. Kaleb McDowell
Translational Neuroscience Branch Chief
Army Research Laboratory

11:30-12:30 Friday, 24 February 2012, ITE 227, UMBC

As the proliferation of technology dramatically infiltrates all aspects of modern life, in many ways the world is becoming so dynamic and complex that technological capabilities are overwhelming human capabilities to optimally interact with and leverage those technologies. Fortunately, these technological advancements have also driven an explosion of neuroscience research over the past several decades, presenting engineers with a remarkable opportunity to design and develop flexible and adaptive brain-based neurotechnologies that integrate with and capitalize on human capabilities and limitations to improve human-system interactions. Major forerunners of this conception are brain-computer interfaces (BCIs), which to this point have been largely focused on improving the quality of life for particular clinical populations and include, for example, applications for advanced communications with paralyzed or "locked-in" patients as well as the direct control of prostheses and wheelchairs. Near-term applications are envisioned that are primarily task-oriented and are targeted to avoid the most difficult obstacles to development. In the farther term, a holistic approach to BCIs will enable a broad range of task-oriented and opportunistic applications by leveraging pervasive technologies and advanced analytical approaches to sense and merge critical brain, behavioral, task, and environmental information. Communications and other applications that are envisioned to be broadly impacted by BCIs are highlighted; however, these represent just a small sample of the potential of these technologies.

Kaleb McDowell (M'08-SM'11) was born in Frederick, MD, USA on July 10, 1970. He has a B.S in operations research and industrial engineering from Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA in 1992, an M.S. in kinesiology from the University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA in 2000, and a Ph.D. in neuroscience and cognitive science from the University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA in 2003.

He is currently the Chief of the Translational Neuroscience Branch and Chair of the Neuroscience Strategic Research Area at the U.S. Army Research Laboratory (ARL) in Aberdeen Proving Ground, MD, USA. Since joining ARL as a Research Psychologist in 2003, he has contributed to over 30 reviewed publications, and has led several major research and development programs focused on neuroscience, indirect vision systems and vehicle mobility. His current research interest focuses on translating basic neuroscience into applications for use by healthy populations in everyday, real-world environments.

Dr. McDowell received Department of Army Research and Development Achievement awards for technical excellence in 2007 and 2009 and the ARL Award for Leadership in 2011.

Host: IEEE UG and Grad Student Branches (cookies drinks available 11:15am)

Exploring the Web, Beyond Document Search

Professor Yi Chen
Computer Science, Arizona State University

1:00pm Friday 24 February 2012, ITE 325b, UMBC

Today we rely on Web Search Engines, like Google or Bing, to find relevant documents among trillions or quadrillions of documents on the Web. The Web also contains a vast amount of structured data in a variety of domains, such as travel, products, bibliographies, finance, and social networks. Current Web search engines and web database query interfaces are insufficient to satisfy the diverse search needs of web users. The information discovery processes are further complicated by the prevalence of uncertain data. At the same time, it is infeasible to request a web user to design clean databases and write precise SQL queries. In this talk, I will discuss the challenges, opportunities, and then some of the solutions that we have developed for empowering web users for effective information search on structured data. Furthermore, I will discuss how to enable successful social search so that complex computation tasks can be accomplished by leveraging social computing.

Yi Chen is an Associate Professor in Computer Science and an affiliate faculty in Biomedical Informatics at Arizona State University (ASU). She received her Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania and her B.S. from Central South University in 2005 and 1999, respectively. Her research interests include keyword search on structured data, learning uncertain data, workflow management and social computing, with applications in Web, social computing and healthcare. She is a general chair for SIGMOD'2012, a PC chair for KEYS’2009 and DBRank’2012. Yi Chen is a recipient of Outstanding Researcher Award in ASU CSE (2011), a Google Research Award (2011), IBM Faculty Award (2010) and an NSF CAREER Award (2009).

Host: Anupam Joshi

Congressman Roscoe Bartlett, Chairman of the Subcommittee on Tactical and Air Land Forces of the House Armed Services Committee (HASC), seeks a
    graduate or upper class student for a military legislative internship serving as an assistant to the Chief of Staff and Military Legislative Assistant. 

A part-time commitment of a minimum of 24 hours/week with some hours on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays is required. Hours are flexible to accommodate educational commitments and other requirements to ensure academic credit. Start date is as soon as possible. 

Primary duties will include attending HASC hearings and defense-related meetings and writing correspondence on behalf of the Member concerning the development of the
    Fiscal Year 2013 defense-related Authorization and Appropriations bills, as well as other duties as assigned. This Military Legislative Intern Position
    requires a high degree of background knowledge, maturity, discretion and self-initiative. Military experience and/or background, Maryland ties and a recommendation are a plus. The ability to continue the internship through
    the summer of 2012 is a plus. This internship is non-paid, but there is potential for a superior candidate for this internship to negotiate compensation as a part-time employee. 

Please submit resumes and address any
    follow-up questions to Deborah Burrell, Deborah.burrell@mail.house.gov, 202-225-2721.