Sixty-six years ago today (on 1947-09-09) operators of the Mark II Aiken Relay Computer being tested at Harvard found a dead moth trapped between points of Relay #70 in Panel F. Dr. Grace Hopper made an entry in the Mark II log book and identified it as the "first actual case of bug being found". (source)

The log book is now at the National Museum of American History.

Meet David, he is a Physics major and an undergraduate researcher. The focus of his research will be to calculate, both analytically and numerically, the emission anticipated from the relevant radiation processes of jets such as synchrotron and inverse-Compton emission.

How did you find your mentor for year research project?
Last semester I decided that I wanted to do research and asked some people in my department about how to get started. I was directed to the astrophysics department and there I found one of the professors that I had taken a couple of courses with. Because I had taken classes that were relevant to the research subject that we would be doing, it seemed like a good fit.

How did you know this was the project you wanted to do?
I always enjoyed astronomy and I had also found that I liked the astrophysics course that I had taken last semester. The subject seemed to be very interesting and something that would give me a better idea of what working in the astrophysics field would be like.

Is this your first independent research project?
Yes, it is. It seems like something that is a great experience and perhaps something that I would have wanted to do more of if I could.

Do you get course credit for this work?
Yes, we placed the research for this semester under a category of a three-credit senior research 499 course. This will help me to fulfill the credit requirements for upper-level classes needed to graduate.

How did you hear about the Undergraduate Research Award (URA) program?
My mentor told me about URA. A researcher of his had previously been accepted as a URA scholar and he suggested that I apply as well.

What academic background did you have before you applied for the URA?
I had transferred from community colleges after deciding that I wanted to do physics. I then took all of the required courses in my major as well as a few electives before applying for the URA.

Was the application difficult to do?
It could have been fairly difficult due to the fact that it was hard to know many details of the subject that the research was going to be about prior to actually starting. With the help of my mentor it was not too hard, however.

What has been the hardest part about your research?
All of it is fairly challenging but enjoyable also. The theory is not very simple and it can be hard to understand how a quantitative analysis of a process is formulated based on a qualitative idea of the physical processes involved.

How does your research relate to your work in other classes?
The information and knowledge obtained from my classes is fundamental in the research that I am conducting. Also, as a result of the research requiring a large amount of in-depth topics, the knowledge gained will help me in future classes.

What are your career goals?
Hopefully I will find something related to what I have been studying and perhaps to what I have been researching. I am not certain about the exact area I want to go into but doing this research will help me decide.

Did you transfer to UMBC from another institution? Where?
I spent a little time taking classes at community colleges in the area before I decided that physics was the subject that I wanted to pursue.

Read more about David's research here... 

Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2013:
Setup: 6:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.

Thursday, Sept. 19, 2013:
All-Day Shift: 9:30 a.m. – 3:00 p.m.
Morning Shift: 9:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.
Afternoon Shift:12:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m.
Takedown: 3:30 p.m. – 6:30 p.m.
 

CSEE Professor Tim Finin was one of eight researchers elected this year as a fellow of the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI). His election citation reads

The new fellows were inducted at the annual AAAI fellows dinner at the 2103 AAAI conference in Seattle Washington in July.

Finin's research interests have ranged widely over a the field of Artificial Intelligence during his professional career and have included computer vision, natural language processing, knowledge representation and reasoning, expert systems and multiagent systems. His current research is focused on extracting useful information from text and semistructured data and using Semantic Web technologies to enable people and computers to effectively model, share and integrate both knowledge and data. He is working with UMBC faculty and students on applying these ideas to help solve problems in security, privacy, mobile computing and social computing environments.

AAAI was founded in 1979 as an international scientific society devoted to advancing the scientific understanding of the mechanisms underlying thought and intelligent behavior and their embodiment in machines. It's fellow program started in 1990 to recognize individuals who have made significant, sustained contributions, usually over at least a ten-year period, to the field of artificial intelligence.