Originally from Frederick, MD, Beatrice Garcia is a Freshman Computer Science major and a Center for Women in Technology (CWIT) Scholar.

About Beatrice

When did you become interested in Computer Science? I've always liked computers and technology in general. I was always tinkering with the next new gadget. So, I decided to take a computer science class in high school, Introduction to Programming Concepts. We programmed in Java and I loved it. Sounds dorky, I know.

What area of Computer Science interests you the most? I love cyber security and I would love to explore bioinformatics. I have not taken any Biology classes yet, but I'm really interested in building software for the biology/medical field. As for cyber security, I think it's an integral part of our society nowadays because everything is being digitized and we need that security.

What Computer Science courses did you take in high school. How did those influence your choice of major? In high school, I took Introduction to Programming Concepts and AP Computer Science. No one really influenced me in taking those classes but my high school teacher was a huge influence in me majoring in Computer Science. She was a great teacher and really made the class a lot of fun.

What is your dream job? I would love to work for Google because they come up with the most innovative products. For example, the Chromebook. I've also heard about the amazing way Google treats their employees. They even have a program in Women in Leadership.

About being a CS major

What is the best part about being a CWIT Scholar? The absolute best thing about being a CWIT is the sense of community. Prior to entering freshman year, we went through a retreat. The retreat was really helpful because by the time classes started,  we already knew each other. So, college wasn't as intimidating as it could've been. In addition to already having friends as soon as you stepped onto campus, you already have an academic community supporting you. We instantly took advantage of study groups and helping each other with homework.

What classes are you taking? Right now, I'm taking Calculus I, Computer Science I for Computer Science Majors, Introduction to Gender/Women Studies, First-Year Experience, and English: Composition. I'm excited about taking CMSC 345: Software Design and CMSC 421: Operating Systems.

Are you part of any on-campus clubs, organizations, teams, or labs? Since this is my first semester as a college student, I actually did not sign up with as many clubs as I wanted because I wanted to test out the water first. Right now, I am a member of the Oxfam Club, which is an organization that helps build a future without poverty. I am a CWIT Scholar (Center of Women in Technology) and we try to promote gender diversity and equality in male-dominated technology fields. I'm also part of the Society of Women Engineers and for fun, I like to do yoga!

About life at UMBC

What is your favorite part about college so far? My favorite part of college is having more responsibility for myself. I know that I'm responsible for myself, so as long as I keep being level-headed and try my best, I will be fine. I've been constantly told that college is what you make of it and I will take advantage of that.

What is the best part about campus life at UMBC? I love that everyone on UMBC is mature and has an intention to succeed. But, we know how to have fun, too! The Students Events Board comes up with greatest events and they make sure you always have something fun to do!

What is your favorite spot on campus? I love walking by the pond or sitting at the ledges by the library because it's so peaceful and the landscape is beautiful.

Where can you get the best coffee/lunch/ food or beverage of choice? For the best coffee, I always go to Starbucks. But for breakfast, I always go to the Coffee Shop in the Administration Building. The ladies who work there are so nice and they have great food!

On-Campus Interviews offer students a chance to conveniently interview for professional positions on campus.  Employers travel to our campus for the specific purpose of interviewing preselected students for currently open positions.  This is a great opportunity to interview with employers specifically interested in UMBC students and offers the advantage of a smaller applicant pool.  Interviews take place during the fall and spring. The logistics (viewing positions, applying, signing up for interview time slots, etc.) are all handled via UMBCworks.

Don't miss out on employers coming to UMBC to recruit YOU this fall! The following is a list of employers coming to conduct on-campus interviews with application deadlines in the next month.

**Naval Sea Systems Command - NAVSEA

Interviewing on 11/14/12 (Deadline to apply via UMBCworks:  10/31/12)
Position:  Various Engineering Positions
Majors:  CHEM, ENME, ENEE, Environmental Science, MATH, MSSE, ISD

**Sherwin-Williams

Interviewing on 12/7/12 (Deadline to apply via UMBCworks:  11/23/12)
Position:  Management/Leadership Training Program
Majors:  All Majors

A full list of On-Campus Interviews scheduled this fall is available on our website calendar and on UMBCworks, please check regularly for any updates or changes that may occur.

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!

9254545 - The Answer - SAT & ACT Prep Instructor
9254520 - YMCA of Central Maryland - Chess Instructor
9254500 - Maryland Casino Live - Cashier
9254495 - Ex-Boyfriend.com - Office Assistant

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! 

9254363 - Ecuadent Foundation - Program Director
9254544 - Inovation - Business Analyst
9254536 - Northrop Grumman Corp. - Jr. Java Developer
9254528 - Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission - GIS SpecialistII/GIS Specialist I

1. Read about opportunities in your major. Investigate the summer programs linked to your major and pick 15 favorites.
   
2. Put these workshops on your calendar  
   
3. Use the advice on the same page to get started on a Personal Statement and on letters of recommendation to go with your application.
   
4. Visit the Career Center or Shriver Center to make sure your resume is the best it can be for this purpose. 
5. Make sure you are a member of the myUMBC group Undergraduate Research so you receive notices about application deadlines and application support. 
   

Center for Hybrid Multicore Productivity Research (CHMPR)
Distinguished Computational Science Lecture Series

Computational Science at the
Argonne Leadership Computing Facility

Paul Messina
Director of Science Argonne National Laboratory
http://www.alcf.anl.gov

3:00 p.m. Thursday, 1 November 2012, ITE 456, UMBC

The goal of the Argonne Leadership Computing Facility (ALCF) is to extend the frontiers of science by solving problems that require innovative approaches and the largest-scale computing systems. ALCF’s current production computer has over 150,000 cores, and the system currently being readied for production – Mira, an IBM Blue Gene/Q system — has nearly one million cores.  How does one program such systems?  Are current software tools such as MPI and OpenMP available for such systems. Are scientific and engineering applications able to scale to such levels of parallelism?   Is resilience a new concern for 1,000,000 production codes on Mira This talk will address these questions and describe a sampling of projects that are using ALCF systems in their research.  Finally, the ways to gain access to ALCF resources will be presented.

Paul Messina is Director of Science at the ALCF. Dr. Messina guides the ALCF science teams using the IBM Blue Gene systems. In 2002-2004, he served as Distinguished Senior Computer Scientist at Argonne and as Adviser to the Director General at CERN (European Organization for Nuclear Research). Previously at Caltech, Dr. Messina served as Director of the Center for Advanced Computing Research, as Assistant Vice President for Scientific Computing, and as Faculty Associate for Scientific Computing. He led the Computational and Computer Science component of Caltech’s research project funded by the Academic Strategic Alliances Program of the Accelerated Strategic Computing Initiative. He also acted as Co-principal Investigator for the National Virtual Observatory and TeraGrid. At Argonne, he held a number of positions from 1973-1987 and was the founding Director of the Mathematics and Computer Science Division.