Name: Marie Machin

Internship, Co-op or Research Site: Baltimore City Paper

Position Title: Photography Intern

Major(s)/Minor(s): Interdisciplinary Studies

Work Term: Fall 2016

Briefly describe your internship, co-op,  or research opportunity, including your day-to-day tasks, responsibilities, and assignments.

A big portion of my internship right now is running around Baltimore City doing various photoshoots (events, products, people, places). I also make quite a few phone calls, letting people know I'll be coming and planning out when a shoot can be arranged between the two parties. It's a lot of work and communication but it's my favorite kind. I also spend a decent amount of time in the photo studio at the moment, preparing for the paper's "Gift Guide" issue.

Describe the process of obtaining your internship, research, or co-op opportunity.

I actually found this internship through networking in the city. I try to let the new people I meet know I am a photographer, because it generally opens up a lot of doors. I met the photo editor of Baltimore City Paper and he needed a new intern, and I got the job after submitting my portfolio and resume.

What have you enjoyed the most about your position or organization/company?

Working on "Gift Guide" is a ton of work, but I get to go around the city to various neighborhoods, and go into independent shops and pick out fun gifts for the guide. Then, like a strange photojournalist Santa, I get to take the gifts back to the studio and photograph them. It's a lot of driving, planning, and talking, but those are all things I enjoy on top of taking photos.

How do you believe you have made an impact through your work?

I've been trying to make the photo editor's job a little easier. He has ton of work to do to keep that aspect of the paper going smoothly, and I try to be as helpful as possible. In the process, I have learned a lot about lighting. I feel much more comfortable using a flash with my camera (which is useful when shooting events), as well as using lights in a studio setting.

What advice would you give to another student who is seeking an internship or similar experience?

I would say don't be afraid to talk about your favorite things with new people. Also, if you're nervous, you can't help but feel that way, but if this is a job you really want, challenge yourself to push out of your comfort zone. It's very helpful when you're out there with your camera asking strangers for their photo to remember to cheer yourself on.

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The Baltimore Choral Arts Society is one of Maryland’s premier professional cultural institutions. The Symphonic Chorus, Full Chorus, and Chamber Chorus perform throughout the mid-Atlantic region, as well as in Washington, DC, New York, and Europe. 

UMBC CSEE Research Seminar

 Biomedical Engineering Projects at CAST

Dr. Yordan Kostov

UMBC Center for Advanced Sensing Technology

1-2pm, Friday, 9 December 2016, ITE 229

The Center for Advanced Sensor Technology is currently leading two projects: “Biologics manufacturing on demand,” funded by DARPA, and “A wearable asthma trigger monitoring system with integrated physiological monitor,” funded by NIH.  The first project is focused on shrinking the footprint of a pharmaceutical factory down to suitcase, capable of producing biologics within twelve hours from the start. There is an ample need for drastically rethinking every detail of the process, with the need to miniaturize all the fluidic components (tanks, mixers, purification columns) and to create networked versions of the shakers, pumps, valves and sensors. The presentation highlights the need for novel sensing devices for process control and drug release. The second project is focused on development of three separate sensors for measuring CO2 in blood, concentration of dust particulate in air, and respiration rate.  These sensors must be networked together to collect real time data and transfer them to a central depository via a cell phone app. The presentation highlights the different challenges in creating the sensors.

Dr. Yordan Kostov holds the B.Sc. and M.Sc. in Electrical Engineering, from Odessa Politechnic Institute, Ukraine. He received a Ph.D. Degree in Electrical/Chemical Engineering from Bulgarian Academy of Sciences for his work in the area of optical chemical sensors and biosensors. His post-doctoral training includes fellowships at University of Hannover, Germany and University of Maryland Biotechnology Institute. He was an assistant professor in the Department of Biotechincs, Sofia Technical University, Bulgaria. Since 2000, he is a research professor in the Department of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering, University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC), with an appointment as assistant director of the UMBC Center for Advanced Sensor Technology. He is an affiliate professor in CSEE.  Dr. Kostov is involved in the development of chemical and biochemical sensors for biotechnology and biomedical applications.

Organizers: Tulay Adali (*protected email*) and Alan T. Sherman (*protected email*)

About the CSEE Seminar Series: The UMBC Department of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering presents technical talks on current significant research projects of broad interest to the Department and the research community.  Each talk is free and open to the public.  We welcome your feedback and suggestions for future talks.

Other UMBC CSEE Seminar Series: The UMBC Cyber Defense Lab (CDL) meets biweekly Fridays 11:15am-12:30pm in ITE 229, for research talks about cybersecurity.

The post talk: Biomedical Engineering Projects at UMBC’s Center for Advanced Sensor Technology appeared first on Department of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering.

Students, faculty, staff and community members are invited to join CWIT and  STEMRules for a lunch event to hear from and network with diverse professionals from across the cybersecurity industry.

Wanted: One Million IT Security Specialists by 2018

You Could be One of Them

12-1:30pm Friday, 2 December 2016
Albin O. Kuhn Library Gallery (1st floor)
Lunch will be provided

RSVP: Please respond by December 1, 2016

UMBC CWIT and STEMRules host cyber professionals from the public, private, and nonprofit sectors who will relate their personal/professional journeys, answer questions and be available for networking. Speakers  will include the following individuals:

• Veda Woods  is an executive at an undisclosed Fortune 500 financial institution, a member of multiple boards and the executive director of the International Consortium of Minority Cybersecurity Professionals.
• William McBorrough is a second-generation engineer is the founder and Managing Director of Washington, DC-based McGlobalTech and an information security and risk management consultant.
• Pamela E. Carbajal is a Cyber Security Compliance and Policy Analyst, Senior Consultant, at Booz Allen Hamilton, a global management and technology consulting and engineering services firm.
• Mahalakshmi “Maha” Venkataraman is a Senior Manager in the Software Engineering unit, and the technology lead for the anti-money laundering investigation team at Capital One, a major bank holding company.
• Lisa Jiggetts is the founder of the Women’s Society of Cyberjutsu, a nonprofit dedicated to empowering women to succeed in the cybersecurity field. She is a also a freelance mobile security consultant.

The post Event: Wanted, One Million IT Security Specialists by 2018 appeared first on Department of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering.

UMBC CSEE Seminar Series

Genetic ancestry predicts striatal dopamine D2 receptors

Dr. Corinde Wiers
National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, Bethesda, MD

1-2pm Friday, 2 December 2016, ITE 229, UMBC

Genetic ancestry was recently found to be associated with cortical geometry, cortical surface, and total brain volume in humans. Despite ethnic differences in allele frequency in dopaminergic genes associated with dopamine D2/D3 receptor availability (D2R), no study to date has investigated the relationship between genetic ancestry and striatal D2R. Here, we show that genetic informative markers significantly predict dorsal striatal D2R in 117 healthy ethnically diverse residents of the New York metropolitan area using Positron Emission Tomography (PET) with [11C]raclopride, while correcting for age, sex, BMI, education years, and estimated socioeconomic status based on individuals’ ZIP codes. Striatal D2R may thus be modulated by genetic ancestry, although differences in environmental factors between ethnic groups could mediate these effects. Findings may have implications for pharmacological treatment targeting D2R, such as antipsychotic D2R antagonists.

Corinde Wiers, PhD, is a Research Fellow at the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, in the Laboratory of Neuroimaging of Nora D. Volkow, M.D. After her studies in Psychology and Psychobiology at the University of Amsterdam (Netherlands) and Sussex University (UK) in 2010, she completed her PhD in Psychology at the Berlin School of Mind and Brain and Free University Berlin (Germany) in 2014, where she investigated neural underpinnings of automatic approach behavior to alcohol cues, and neural effects of behavioral trainings in patients with alcohol use disorder. The main goal of Dr. Wiers’ research is to understand cognitive, neurobiological and (epi)genetic processes involved in drug addiction, using functional MRI, PET, psychophysics and molecular techniques. She currently works on how peripheral epigenetic markers relate to brain functioning in drug addiction and other psychiatric disorders. Further research interests include the neurobiology of sleep, effects of sleep deprivation, comorbidities of sleep and substance use disorders, and how neuroimaging techniques can be of use for treatment in psychiatry.

Host: Tulay Adali

About the CSEE Seminar Series: The UMBC Department of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering presents technical talks on current significant research projects of broad interest to the Department and the research community. Each talk is free and open to the public. We welcome your feedback and suggestions for future talks.

Organizers: Tulay Adali and Alan Sherman

The post talk: Genetic ancestry predicts striatal dopamine D2 receptors, 1pm Dec 2, ITE229 appeared first on Department of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering.