Loyal.Constant.

Strong and Resilient.

Season to Season.

Survival.Growth.

These are just some of the many qualities of the Wye Oak Tree – Maryland’s state tree – and so many of the same qualities we find in the Women’s Center at UMBC. For some, a tree provides shade to rest under on a hot summer day. To others it provides leaves that fall to the ground to play in on a crisp autumn day. In the winter months, we look at trees covered in frost and snow with wonder and awe until we finally see the earliest buds come to life once again on the first days of spring. The tree is many thingsto many people, just like the Women’s Center is to the UMBC community. We are a place to find comfort, a listening ear, and friendship. Much like the tree, we seek to be strong but flexible, loyal but open to growth, courageous to challenges but loving with support. Our roots dig deep into the grounds of feminism and our many limbs reach further towards social justice, activism, and the honoring all of our intersecting identities.  

This new logo reflects our ongoing growth and evolution as a women’s center which is grounded in our steady core values and reliable strengths so many UMBC community members have come to know and love. As always, and much like the great Wye Oak beckons, all are welcomed in our space, so long as they respect each other, their stories, their experiences, their potential.

Many thanks to UMBC’s Creative Services for designing our new logo which is modeled after UMBC’s very own Wye Oak Tree.

The Yale University Astronomy Department is pleased to invite applications for the first annual Hoffleit Undergradate Astronomy Research Scholarship. This program serves as an opportunity for keen undergraduates in STEM fields with a strong interest in pursuing astronomy to spend 6-8 weeks performing astronomy research in with Yale rearchers.

Research topics cover a wide range, from the characterization and discovery of exoplanets, the study of the Sun and stars, to the origin and evolution of small and large galaxies. Yale’s astronomy department is located in New Haven, CT, near historic downtown and the East Rock neighborhood. New Haven is a vibrant city in the summertime; home to the Arts and Ideas festival, many cafes and restaurants. The undergraduate students will be housed together in the beautiful campus residential colleges where they will have the opportunity to interact with undergraduate scholars from other departments.

The program encourages undergraduates from all nationalities to apply, particularly, those with a strong desire to continue to graduate school.

To apply or find out more, visit http://www.astro.yale.edu/vlg8/hoffleitfellowship.html

And direct any questions to  valerie.robalino@yale.edu Subject: Hoffleit Queries

See www.midas.pitt.edu/srp

The University of Pittsburgh Models of Infectious Disease Agent Study (MIDAS) National Center of Excellence summer research opportunity in computational modeling and simulation of infectious diseases.

Through this ten-week Summer Research Program, participants will gain an appreciation of major research questions being raised at the intersection of public health, biological science, and computer technology and become acclimated to the rigors of scientific research and graduate education.

For the Ninth year, UMBC hosted the Maryland State FIRST LEGO League Championship on March 1^st, 2014 in the RAC. This year, nearly 350 teams competed in 17 qualifiers around the Maryland area to earn one of the 72 championship slots. Teams performing well in all three judged areas (Project, Robot Design and Core Values) and scored in the top 40% of the Robot rounds at their qualifier, were invited to compete. Maryland FLL is currently run out of the College of Engineering and IT, Mechanical Engineering Department. Several Departments and scholar programs (Meyerhoff, CWIT, Sherman) continue to support the program through volunteering at many of the qualifiers and the state championship.

A video of the state championship can be found here.

FIRST® LEGO® League (FLL®) introduces young people, ages 9 to 16* (grades 4-8), to the fun and excitement of science and technology while building self-confidence, knowledge, and valuable career and life skills. FLL challenges kids to think  like scientists and engineers. Alongside adult Mentors, FLL teams research and design their own solutions to a current scientific question or problem using  engineering concepts, presentation techniques, and build autonomous LEGO robots.  In this year’s challenge, NATURE’S FURY’S, students explored the awe-inspiring storms, quakes, waves, and more that we call natural disasters. Teams discovered what can be done  when intense natural events meet the  places people live, work, and play.

For more information about Maryland FLL, please visit www.mdfirst.org.

CSEE professor Tim Finin has been appointed as a co-editor of the Viewpoints section of the Communications of the ACM, the monthly magazine of the Association for Computing Machinery. ACM was founded in 1947 and is the world’s largest educational and scientific computing society with the mission of providing resources that advance computing as a science and a profession.

The Communications of the ACM was started in 1957 and is sent to all ACM members (currently over 100,000) and is considered “the leading print and online publication for the computing and information technology fields”. CACM’s Viewpoints section is publishes short articles expressing opinions and views that pertain to issues of broad interest to the computing community, covering a wide range of topics, including scientific, technical, educational and social. Each month a handful of articles are published from those contributed by a set of distinguished ACM columnists and submitted by ACM members and computing professionals.

Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) Program Description

LearnLab at Carnegie Mellon and the University of Pittsburgh has an exciting summer research opportunity available to undergraduate students. This research program encourages applications from students who would like to conduct research in the fields of psychology, education, computer science, human-computer interfaces and language technologies.  This program seeks broad participation, including members of underrepresented groups as defined by the National Science Foundation (African American, Hispanic, Native American) who may be considering pursuing further graduate study in the learning sciences.

LearnLab's REU program allows talented undergraduates to spend 8 weeks during the summer in a research laboratory at Carnegie Mellon University, the University of Pittsburgh, or one of our research partners. The REU program aims to make LearnLab's programs more visible to students not traditionally exposed to our fields. The REU program supports LearnLab's commitment to training a diverse set of science, technology, education, and psychology leaders.

Applications are encouraged from students who wish to learn to conduct research in a modern academic research laboratory under the guidance of experienced scientists and engineers and experiment in real classroom environments. The REU program will expose students to the excitement and opportunities of a research career. This experience will provide excellent preparation for students interested in subsequently pursuing a Masters or Ph.D. degree. Although students from other years may apply, this opportunity is most fitting for a student at the end of the junior year of undergraduate studies.

Each student will receive a fellowship stipend of $4000 for the eight-week REU program. Food, housing and travel will also be provided. Students will conduct research in an area matched to the interests expressed in the student's application. Guidance and supervision of the research project will be provided by the faculty member as well as, in some cases, a postdoctoral fellow and/or advanced graduate student.

The REU program in Computational Sensing and Medical Robotics(CSMR) is an intensive, ten-week program of laboratory research and instruction, beginning end of May 2014 and concluding in early August 2014. Participants will contribute to specific research projects pursued by faculty and researchers at the Laboratory for Computational Sensing and Robotics (LCSR) and Computer Integrated Surgical Systems and Technology ERC. Projects are listed by departments including Electrical and Computer Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Biomedical Engineering and Computer Science.

Each student will be a part of a collegial research team, including a faculty project supervisor and a graduate student mentor, and will work on a challenging research project. The projects will be designed to match each student’s interest and to maximize the potential for making a contribution during the session.

The projects hosted by the Laboratory for Computational Sensing and Robotics (LCSR) and the Computer Integrated Surgical Systems and Technology Engineering Research Center (CISST ERC) are funded by the National Science Foundation (number of spots available will be based on funding renewal by NSF). Participating students will receive instruction on technical communication, oral presentation skills, and research ethics to aid in the completion of the required final research report and presentation. The participants may also have an opportunity to be part of a poster session at the end of the program. The students will have the opportunity to tour a local government laboratory, a private company and participate in social events in the lab. Candidates will need to be a U.S. Citizen or a U.S. Permanent Resident to be accepted into this program. 

Stipend for 10 weeks- $5000 
Housing will be provided
Program Dates- May 27, 2014- August 1, 2014 

The National Science Foundation is sponsoring a Summer Research Experience in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Missouri (MU) to engage students in high quality research on topics in materials and modeling. The program is one of several research experiences being offered by MU’s Office of Undergraduate Research.

Program details:

• Engage in cutting-edge research in active and established physics research groups. List of specific projects.
• Participate in a nine-week research experience from Wed, May 28 to Friday July 25, 2014 (travel days on Tuesday, May 27 and Saturday, July 26).
• Earn a $4,500 stipend and the cost of travel, tuition, air-conditioned campus dorm housing and meals will be covered.
• Present completed work in a poster session, or possibly a co-authored journal publication.
• Earn 1 hr credit for a course in “Undergraduate Research in Physics.” Tuition is waived.
• Join 50+ undergraduate students in a Research Symposium. Prepare a poster presentation and a one-page abstract for publication in a symposium handbook.
• Attend weekly science events, including popular science lectures, skill development (e.g. science writing and ethics), career and graduate school opportunities, and weekly lunches with other undergraduate researchers.
• Visit off-campus industrial research and development opportunities.
• Have fun and build a collegial network with organized community-building activities and outings.
• Enhance your resume and prepare for graduate school!

Eligibility:

Acceptance to the program is competitive. At a minimum, students must:

• have completed at least two years of full-time college enrollment prior to June 2014 and be entering their junior or senior year of college.
• be pursuing a major in physics, engineering, biophysics or related fields
• be citizens or permanent residents of the US
• have earned a minimum GPA of 3.0 (on 4.00 scale) including both overall GPA and science/math GPA
• have completed calculus-based physics by the start of the program
• be interested in physics, including a possible career in physics