If your research involved language processing and/or machine learning you should consider submitting a poster abstract to the Mid-Atlantic Student Colloquium on Speech, Language and Learning.

This is a free, one-day event bringing together faculty, researchers and students from universities in the Mid-Atlantic area working in human language technology and/or machine learning. It is an opportunity for students to present preliminary or completed work and to network with other students, faculty and researchers working in related fields. The event will be held at JHU in Baltimore on Friday 23 September 2011.

Students are encouraged to submit one-page abstracts by Monday, August 15 describing ongoing, planned, or completed research projects, including previously published results and negative results. Submissions and presentations must be made by students or postdocs. See the call for papers for more information.

Accepted submissions will be presented as posters and each will also be given a one-minute presentation during a poster spotlight session. A small number of submissions will be selected to be presented as talks, on the basis of diversity and general interest. Student-led breakout sessions of one hour will also be held to discuss papers on topics of interest and stimulate interaction and discussion.

Dr. Sergei Nirenburg, professor of computer science and electrical engineering, is a member of the truly smart agents research group (TSA), where he works on building artificial intelligent agents capable of human behavior. Since 2006, Dr. Nireburg has been working on the Maryland Virtual Patient (MVP) Project, a multi-level heterogeneous agent-oriented environment that simulates a doctor-patient relationship by way of a "virtual patient."

To read more about Dr. Nirenburg's research pursuits, see his full research profile.

Dr. Gymama Slaughter, assistant professor of computer science and electrical engineering, runs UMBC's Bioelectronics Laboratory (BEL@UMBC), which combines different projects in the areas of electronics, biology, medicine and chemistry. She is currently working on designing a closed-loop system that monitors blood glucose levels and administers insulin to diabetic patients. Dr. Slaughter says that what she desires most is to reduce complications in the lives of diabetic patients and their families. “If I can do that,” she says, “I will count what I do as successful.”

To read more about Dr. Slaughter's research pursuits, see her full research profile.

Dr. Tim Finin, professor of computer science and electrical engineering, specializes in artificial intelligence and has been working on developing smart phones that can guage their user's "context." “What I have always found interesting since I was an Undergraduate was the idea that we could make machines as smart as people,” explains Dr. Finin, whose research involving semantic web technology is directed towards realizing that goal.

To read more about Dr. Finin's research pursuits, see his full research profile.

Visit some of the most spectacular Greek and Roman sites in the world! 

• The Greek temples of Paestum and Agrigento.  
• The Roman towns of Pompeii and Herculaneum
• The famous theater at Taormina
  
• The wonderful mosaics of a Roman villa in Sicily

The trip leaders are Richard Mason and Robert Rivkin.

This study/travel tour can be taken for winter session credit (ANCS 301).

Sign up now (by e-mailing abigail3@umbc.edu) to reserve your place on the list and receive final details as soon as they are ready.

Twenty years ago today, Tim Berners-Lee posted a short summary about the new World Wide Web project on the public alt.hypertext newsgroup. A copy of the first Web page mentioned in his post is hosted by the W3C.

The Web is arguably the most significant computing technology that has been developed in the forty years, although was enabled by other key developments, including the Internet and the “personal” computer. The impact of Sir Tim Berners-Lee’s simple idea and the principles behind it continues to grow as we discover new ways to apply it.

You can read more about the history of the Web in several Wikipedia articles, on the World Wide Web Consortium Web history page, and at CERN.