The historic Men's Basketball upset of #1 seeded UVA in the NCAA tournament has shined a light on UMBC for not only its success on the court, but also in the classroom. They swim! They run! They score! But did you know that UMBC's Student Athletes also conduct research and create art? Check out these Student Athletes who will be presenting their research and creative work at URCAD on April 25th:

Courtney Mattson, Biological Sciences (Cross Country/Track and Field)

Title: The Role of Olfactory Cues in Male Mate Choice in Etheostoma zonale

Location: Poster 10-11:30am UC Ballroom

Hannah Aris, Engineering (Cross Country/Track and Field)

Title: Characterization of CMI-7000 Membrane for Implementation in Resource Recovery Systems

Location: Poster 10-11:30am UC Ballroom

Courtney Culp, Visual Arts (Soccer)

Title: Color of Me (Animated film)

Location: Film Festival, 3pm UC 310

Jethro Ssengonzi, Engineering (Swimming)

Title: Surface Phenomena Driving Natural Surfaces

Location: Poster, 10-11:30am UC Ballroom

Matthew Kane, Biological Sciences (Cross Country/Track and Field)

Title: Scratching the Surface of Bahama Oriole Pine Forest Nesting

Location: Poster, 1-2:30pm UC Ballroom

To read these and other abstracts, visit the URCAD page! 

Emmanuel Mones is a major in Intermedia - Film, Photography, and Design, class of 2018. His research project is entitled, ALT.MASC: Man Redefined

Describe your project in 1-2 sentences: I created a men’s streetwear brand called ALT.MASC. Short for “alternative masculinity,” its purpose is to redefine our image, concept, and expressions of manhood. So, I designed some clothing, developed a brand philosophy, and shot some photographs that serve as its ad campaign.

Who is your mentor for your project? Mark Durant, Visual Arts Department (Photography). I took ART215 with Professor Durant my first semester at UMBC and decided we'd be a good fit. Immediately, I was inspired by the way he thought about the role of art in society. That, beyond form and process, it’s a means of communicating abstract ideas in a way that’s accessible and is able to transcend human language. It’s a way of finding order from life’s chaos, and a way of finding truth. It’s become my philosophy of art. With regards to this project, Professor Durant himself identifies as an alternatively masculine person, so him having that personal connection with the content made me feel like I could trust him to give me the kind of guidance that I needed to fully realize this endeavor.

How did you become interested in this project? There’s a sort of parallel that runs through this project and my own process of maturation. It’s born out of my own attempt at trying to define masculinity, and really my identity as a whole, for myself. I’m a queer, effeminate, Filipino immigrant. Growing up, I didn’t really have many people to look up to that empowered my kind of personhood. So, through fashion and photography, I’m trying to create these articles of pop culture that my younger self would have wanted to see, in the hopes that they might help guide someone else going through what I went through.

How has being a URA scholar helped you to carry out this project? Upon receiving the award, you’re informed of the expectations that come with being a recipient of the URA - particularly, presenting your work at URCAD. Having this end goal in mind lit a fire under me that inspired me to put in the work to come up with something that I can feel proud of sharing with an audience. I will be doing an oral presentation at 2:15pm on April 25th!

What has been the hardest part about your research/what was the most unexpected thing about being a researcher? For me, because I am working in the creative field, the hardest part is dealing with how nonlinear the process is. I crave security, but that’s almost impossible in this arena. I’ll think that I’ve nailed a specific design choice. Then, two weeks later, I’d realize that it was tacky, or uninspired, or just not good. Building the resilience to able to start from the beginning over and over again has been challenging but also necessary and transformative.

What has been the most rewarding part? Sharing my project with men who I didn’t think would understand what it is exactly that I’m doing, and having them tell me that they believe in it and that they understand its significance. That has been really rewarding and moving to me. I doubt myself a lot. But, people seem to get it. And, because it’s born out of a really vulnerable place, it’s comforting to know that I wasn’t alone in feeling those things.

How will you disseminate your research? ALT.MASC will be available for sale at altmasc.com (coming soon) and the ad campaigns will be shared on social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter under the account @alt.masc. I’m also setting up pop-up shops at art shows and trade shows in the DMV area come the summer. I will present my research at URCAD on April 25, from 2:15-2:30 in UC 312.

What is your advice to other students about getting involved in research? Find a research subject that you are personally invested in, something you really care about. What will keep you motivated is the search for knowledge that goes beyond a surface level interest. It should driven almost by necessity, like a real need to learn.

What are your career goals? I want to continue to grow as a person along with this project. More than a research project, I feel like ALT.MASC is my personal philosophy. It’ll be a business coming out of this process, but I’ll follow it wherever it takes me and manifest whatever form it wants to take. More immediately, I’d like to get into digital marketing, as a way to better inform myself the ways I can share this content. But, beyond that, I just want to see where this thing goes.

The UMBC Cyber Defense Lab presents

Human Factors in Cyber Security

Dr. Josiah Dykstra

Cyber Security Researcher, US Department of Defense

12:00–1:00pm Friday, 13 April 2018, ITE 229, UMBC

Humans play many roles in the effectiveness of cyber security. While users are often blamed for security compromises, human strengths and weaknesses also affect people who perform design, implementation, configuration, monitoring, analysis, and response. The fields of human computer interaction generally, and usable security specifically, have drawn attention and research to some aspects of human factors, but many opportunities remain for future work.

In this talk, I describe several of my research projects related to human factors in cyber security. The first was a study of how individual differences affect cyber security behavior, and active follow-on research to predict users who might become victimized. The second was a study of stress and fatigue in security operations centers, including a new survey instrument for collecting data in tactical environments. The third was a research prototype using augmented reality to assist humans in cyber security analysis, and an analysis of preliminary results.

Finally, I will present and invite discussion about a new idea for improving security by making it “disappear.” Despite decades of tools and techniques for secure development, and valiant work at adoption and usability, it is clear that many users cannot or will not avail themselves of appropriate cyber security options. It may be time to rethink the amount of interaction required for most users, and if hands-off, behind-the-scenes cyber defense should be the norm.

Josiah Dykstra serves as a Senior Executive Service government civilian and Subject Matter Expert for Computer Network Operations research in the Laboratory for Telecommunication Sciences within the Research Directorate of the National Security Agency. His research includes human augmentation, cyber risk assessment, and cyber effects. He is an active collaborator with academic, industry, and government researchers around the country. Dykstra earned the PhD degree in computer science at UMBC in 2013 studying under Alan T. Sherman. Dr. Dykstra is the author of the 2016 O’Reilly book, Essential Cybersecurity Science, Fellow of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences, and winner of the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers.

Host: Alan T. Sherman, *protected email*

The UMBC Cyber Defense Lab meets biweekly Fridays. All meetings are open to the public.

The post 🗣️ talk: Human Factors in Cyber Security, 12-1 Fri 4/13, ITE 229, UMBC appeared first on Department of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering.

CHMPR Distinguished Lecture

Challenges and pitfalls in big data analysis

Yoav Benjamini, Tel Aviv University

3:30-5:00 Thursday, 12 April 2018, ITE 325b, UMBC

I shall warn about the pitfalls resulting from the false assurance that “we have all data at hand”, and discuss the challenges that are not commonly recognised such as the validity and replicability of the analysis results. Examples will be given from our work on the Health Informatics part of the European Human Brain Project, as well as from our studies in neuroscience and genomics.

Yoav Benjamini is the Nathan and Lily Silver Professor of Applied Statistics at the Department of statistics and operations research at Tel Aviv University. He holds B.Sc in physics and mathematics and M.Sc in mathematics from the Hebrew University (1976), and Ph.D in Statistics from Princeton University (1981). He is a member of the Sagol School of Neuroscience, and of the Edmond Safra Bioinformatics Center both at Tel Aviv University. He taught as a visiting professor at Wharton, UC Berkeley and Stanford and is currently visiting Columbia University. Prof. Benjamini is a co-developer of the widely used and cited False Discovery Rate concept and methodology. His current research topics are selective and simultaneous inference, replicability and reproducibility in science, model selection, and data mining. His applied research fields are Biostatistics, Bioinformatics, Animal Behavior and Brain Imaging, and as a member of the European Human Brain Project he is involved in health informatics research. Prof. Benjamini served as the president of the Israel Statistical Association, He received the Israel Prize for research in Statistics and Economics at 2012, and is an elected member of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities.

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