On May 7, 2013, Dr. Richard Forno, Assistant Director of UMBC's Center for Cybersecurity and Director of UMBC's Graduate Cybersecurity Program, conducted an invited talk on the proposed Cybersecurity Information Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA) and moderated a discussion about general cybersecurity issues to UMBC's Delta Sigma Theta Sorority.  The evening event was the second in a series of invited guest speakers as part of the Sorority's May Week festivities.

CISPA is a proposed law that would allow and encourage the sharing of Internet traffic information between the U.S. government and technology and manufacturing companies in order to help US government agencies investigate cyber threats and ensure the security of networks against cyberattacks.

Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. is a private, non-profit organization whose purpose is to provide assistance and support through established programs in local communities throughout the world. A sisterhood of more than 200,000 predominately Black college educated women, the Sorority currently has over 900 chapters located in the United States, England, Japan (Tokyo and Okinawa), Germany, the Virgin Islands, Bermuda, the Bahamas and the Republic of Korea.

Professor Nilanjan Banerjee's Introduction to Mobile Computing class will hold a poster and demonstration session showcasing student class projects from 12:30 to 2:00 on Tuesday, May 14 in room 210 of the ITE building. The projects inlcude mobile apps, games, and systems that have built during the semester.  Pizza will be served.

The course was partially sponsored this year by Microsoft Research's Hawaii Initiative, which provided students with hardware and access to cloud services for storage, computing and data.

Anyone who is interested in mobile technology is welcome to attend and intereact with Professor Banerjee and the students, who include both upper-level undergraduates and graduate students. See the event flyer for more information.

Here are the systems that will be demonstrated:

• Food Life-cycle Manager: Reduce food waste, Save your money
• Home Guard: The easiest way to protect your home from anywhere without compromise
• JUMP: Keep Jumping up
• DIY Picture Dictionary: making learning Fun Multiple Places Near you Trackit: Anytime anywhere
• SpotOrNot: A crowdsourced parking app for UMBC
• Build-A-Bill: An easy to use bill splitting app (even after you've had a few drinks)
• Pocket Philosopher: What would YOU do?
• Golf score browser
• Math Path
• Community: Share whats on your mind 
• System Android Powered Telepresence: Accessible and Low-cost Telepresence with Android
• Beat Box: tap and mix your musical mind
• PillNote: Capturing user's interaction with medication
• YASLA (Yet Another Shopping List App): app that saves the day by saving your lists and suggesting stores.

For more information, contact Prof. Banerjee at nilanb at umbc.edu.

The following full-time positions have been posted within the past week to UMBCworks. Login to your account (via the link in the Jobs & Internships topic in myUMBC) and find details and application instructions as well as hundreds of other job postings!

9258122 - Mortgage Banker Assistant - Townsend and Halbrook Mortgage Corporation
9258057 - Mortgage Processor - Susquehanna Bank
9258093 - Junior Systems Administrator - Network Specialty Group, Inc.
9258116 - Mechanical Cell Development Technician - Saft America
9258121 - Human Resource Assistant - SPS Health/HealthPRO Rehabilitation
9258047 - Bi-Lingual KELLY Call Center Representative - Kelly & Associates Insurance Group, Inc.

The following part-time positions have been posted within the past week to UMBCworks. Login to your account (via the link in the Jobs & Internships topic in myUMBC) and find details and application instructions as well as hundreds of other job postings!

9258035 - Spanish Language Video Editor/Coordinator - Milner-Fenwick, Inc.
9258074 - Swim Instructor (Dundalk) - YMCA of Central Maryland
9256633 - Telemarketing Representative - Transparent BPO
9258073 - Stay & Play Caregiver (Perry Hall) - YMCA of Central Maryland
9258038 - Program Assistant - Howard County Conservancy

Program Details

To apply to this program complete and submit your application here.

Ph.D. Dissertation Proposal

A Rapidly Deployable Image
Classification System Using Multi-Views

Adrian Rosebrock

11:00am Friday, 10 May, ITE 325, UMBC

Constructing an image classification system using strong, local invariant descriptors is time consuming and tedious, requiring many experimentations and parameter tuning to obtain an adequately performing model. Furthermore, training a system in a given domain and then migrating the model to a separate domain will likely yield poor performance. As computer vision systems become more prevalent in the academic, government, and private sectors, it is paramount that a framework to more easily construct these classification systems be created. In this work we present a rapidly deployable image classification system using multi-views, where each view consists of a set of weak global features. These weak global descriptors are computationally simple to extract, intuitive to understand, and require substantially less parameter tuning than their local invariant counterparts. We demonstrate that by combining weak features with ensemble methods we are able to outperform the current state-of-the-art methods or achieve comparable accuracy. Finally, we provide a theoretical justification for our ensemble framework that can be used to construct rapidly deployable image classification systems called "Ecosembles".

Committee: Dr. Tim Oates (chair), Dr. Jesus Caban, Dr. Tim Finin, Dr. Charles Nicholas

Classes each Wednesday evening starting July 8.

This five week workshop prepares participants to take the computer-adaptive Graduate Records Examination. The purpose of the course is to improve students' performance on the GRE by:

• Providing students with successful test management techniques
• Familiarizing students with question types specific to the GRE
• Teaching the logical, rhetorical, and mathematical problem-solving techniques relevant to the GRE
• Teaching essential grammatical and mathematical concepts and techniques in application to real test problems
• Identifying the specific problems posed by the GRE, and analyzing common test-taking errors
• Improving performance and reducing test anxiety through practice testing

This workshop is taught by Dr. Anthony Poplawski, who has helped thousands of students perform better on their GRE examinations. While this workshop provides participants with very valuable information, techniques and strategies for maximizing their potential on the GRE, please note that it does not replace studying. In addition to taking this workshop we recommend that students dedicate significant time to studying for the examination in order to be truly prepared.

Please visit the Graduate Record Examination web site at www.gre.org to view information on the GRE exam.

TO REGISTER AND LEARN MORE ABOUT THE COURSE, PLEASE VISIT:

http://www.umbc.edu/testprep/gre.html

Take advantage of early bird discounts by registering before June 17, 2013!

Medifast is looking to hire UMBC IS, CompSci, BTA and EE majors for summer positions in Owings Mills, MD.  Get involved with this fantastic company!  Position descriptions are below.  To apply, make sure to click the link on each position title to get directed to the Medifast website.  Get your credentials in to them today!

IT Business Analyst Intern: - IS, CompSci, BTA & EE Majors

Job Description:

As part of the I.T. Project Team, the Business Analyst Intern will participate in project meetings and discussion and based on the teams input, and with direction, take ownership of creating the Business and Functional Documentation based on a best practice template.

The Business Analyst Intern will be part of the project team and support the team through the phases of the project by gathering information, seeking answers to question, creating process flow diagrams and following up on open items.

Knowledge and Skills:

The candidate should have experience with or exposure to the following technologies and skills through hands on experience and/or relevant course work:

• Excel
• Word
•  Written and verbal communication skills
• Good comprehension skills
• Ability to adapt to changing priorities

Education:

Viable candidates must be currently enrolled in a degree college/university program working toward a degree in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering or other Information Technology related discipline. Must be able to work 15-20 hours per week during the school year and 40 hours during breaks.

Reporting Analyst Intern - FIEC and ECON Majors

Medifast is looking to hire an intern to join our Client Solution Center Operations & Technology Support team for Summer 2013. This person will take on a Reporting Analyst role to conduct data analysis on performance metrics for our call center agents.

• Update reports, spreadsheets and databases daily
• Modify model based on learned information to allow for more precise volume and staffing projections
• Identify objective and reportable metrics for balanced scorecard
• Tie the metrics to areas of delivery that may be impacted and contributing to negative results to derive actionable items for resolution
• Identify and extrapolate information from Business Intelligence data sources where appropriate

Skills Needed:

•  Advanced level Experience using Excel including data links; VLookup, Pivot Tables, advanced formula, macros, etc.
• Experience conducting interviews to determine existing data sources to create output to meet business needs
• Ability to assess current reporting methods and identify ways to produce quality and accurate reports with greater efficiency and broader output options
• Must be able to create and manage Access Database
• Ability to import source data and create reports
• Adept at queries and report writing
• Ability to train staff on data management techniques
• Proficiency using Word and PowerPoint