Date: Saturday, January 27, 2018.

Time: 10 am-noon.

Location: UMBC Sherman Hall, Room 003

Our coach Scott Morgan from the Morgan Group is back! We will talk about how to prepare a talk about your scientific research and prep for your defense! This public speaking workshop will be useful for ALL graduate students, especially Ph.D. students. Master students are strongly encouraged to attend!

This is a brunch workshop and it will serve as a make-up session/preparation for those Ph.D. students interested to participate from the 3MT competition. The GSA at UMBC is our co-host.

Three Minute Thesis (3MT®) celebrates the exciting research conducted by Ph.D. students. Developed by The University of Queensland, the exercise cultivates students’ academic, presentation, and research communication skills. The competition supports their capacity to effectively explain their research in three minutes, in a language appropriate to a non-specialist audience.

The California Alliance for Graduate Education and the Professoriate’s Postdoctoral Fellowship Program is now accepting applications for 2018-2019.  Prospective applicants in the mathematical sciences, physical sciences, chemistry, computer science, and all fields of engineering are invited to apply by completing ONE application for postdoctoral positions at any of the four partner schools: Berkeley, Caltech, Stanford, and UCLA. Applicants for California Alliance positions at Caltech are strongly advised to apply by the upcoming application review date, January 15, 2018.

The California Alliance’s Postdoctoral Fellowship applications are accepted online at https://www.california-alliance.org/postdocfellowships

Please see the attached program announcement or visit the California Alliance website for more information: https://www.california-alliance.org/

 These are postdoctoral awards for up to two-years, with annual stipends from $50K to $70K per year.

The California Alliance for Graduate Education and the Professoriate is a National Science Foundation-supported initiative to increase diversity among STEM graduate students, postdocs, and faculty. Please see the attached program announcement or visit the website for more information.  For assistance with the application process, please contact Ira Young at californiaalliance@berkeley.edu

Click on the following link to view the flyer for this Postdoc Fellowship Program announcement: California Alliance Postdoc Announcement 2018-19

The Winter Dissertation House is coming to UMBC (January 16-19, 2018). Graduate students who plan to participate should follow the application procedures on the application webpage for the Dissertation House (below). Open application period: November 8, 2017– December 31, 2017. (Please note that there are only 12 to 15 slots for this event, consider applying early). Applications received after December 31, 2017 will be considered for the DH waiting list.

Event: Winter 2018 Dissertation House

Dates: January 16, 2018 – January 19, 2018

Time: 9:00 AM – 5:00 PM each day

Location: University of Maryland Baltimore County, Commons 329 and Commons 328

Registration: Please login to MyUMBC (https://my.umbc.edu/groups/promise/events/54676), click “I can attend” below, *AND* follow the application procedures on the main website for the Dissertation House: https://dissertationhouse.wordpress.com/apply/. Application period to apply to attend the Dissertation House: Nov 8 – Dec 31, 2017.

Event Details: 

• The Dissertation House runs from 9 AM – 5PM, for four days, Tuesday, January 16 through Friday, January 19.
• Students must plan to attend the full session, for each of the 4 days. 
• Daily schedule includes 2 mini-lectures, and 5 hours of writing per day.
• Breakfast, Lunch, and a snack will be served daily.
• The Dissertation House is free for UMBC’s graduate students.
• There are 15 to 18 spaces available for the Dissertation House. 
• Details regarding eligibility can be found on the application page of the website for the Dissertation House.

Read about The Dissertation House in UMBC’s Alumni Magazine: Byrne, R.  (2011, Fall) “The Write Stuff”, UMBC Magazine. p. 12. More information about the DissertationHouse: https://dissertationhouse.wordpress.com/about/

Dissertation House Application Procedures

Both the on-campus setting and the retreat setting provide Dissertation House participants with productive and rewarding scholastic engagement.  Students who participate in this program will spend each day thinking, writing, and sharing ideas about their doctoral dissertations.  Students will learn effective time-management skills; learn how to set small manageable goals, and will meet with a dissertation coach in one-on-one consultations to discuss and address obstacles that might prevent them completing their degrees.

The Dissertation House period can span either a Tuesday – Friday (9 a.m. – 5 p.m., non-residential) or a Friday – Sunday weekend (includes evening sessions) commitment to focus on the doctoral dissertation.  The Dissertation House activities focus on areas where students typically have difficulty: conceptualizing a topic, writing a literature review, transitioning from a proposal to a dissertation, analyzing data, writing the last chapter, and editing.
Students may apply to attend the next Dissertation House during open application enrollment, by submitting two parts of an application.

PART I:

I. Submit a brief description (maximum 2 pages, font size 11-12 point 1 inch margins) that describes the project that you wish to accomplish during the Dissertation Houseperiod.  Applications will neither be reviewed nor accepted outside of the application enrollment period.

PART II:

II. Please use the following guidelines  for the application:

(1) Summary of the project, including research question(s), data or texts, and method

(2) Amount completed on the project to date

(3) Any obstacles that you are encountering that hinder completion of the dissertation.

(4) Include the following header information with the description:

• Name
• Address
• Telephone numbers (home, office, and fax)
• E-mail address
• Academic Program and Year in the program

Dates/Location: January 16 to 19 (Tuesday – Friday), 9:00 AM – 5:00 PM. Dissertation House will be held in COMM 329 (for Dissertation House) and COMM 328 (for one-on-one sessions).

Application Enrollment Period: Application can be submitted within a designated 2-week period, usually scheduled 1-2 months prior to the next Dissertation House session.  Email applications to promisestaff@gmail.com.  Please use the words “Dissertation House” in the subject line of your email.

Selection Process: Eighteen participants will be selected for participation in the Dissertation House.  The following applicants will have priority:  (1) Applicants who plan to finish the Ph.D. within the next 6 months; (2) Individuals who are working on dissertations and theses rather than a proposal; (3) Applicants who submit earliest; and (4) Individuals who appear most able to benefit from the services offered at the Dissertation House.

If your application is accepted, you will receive an acceptance notice via email and additional details about the Dissertation House.  All students, including those who have not applied or those who are not selected, have the option to participate in the next online challenge, a virtual version of the Dissertation House.

The Winter Dissertation House is coming to UMBC (January 16-19, 2018). Graduate students who plan to participate should follow the application procedures on the application webpage for the Dissertation House (below). Open application period: November 8, 2017– December 31, 2017. (Please note that there are only 12 to 15 slots for this event, consider applying early). Applications received after December 31, 2017 will be considered for the DH waiting list.

Event: Winter 2018 Dissertation House

Dates: January 16, 2018 – January 19, 2018

Time: 9:00 AM – 5:00 PM each day

Location: University of Maryland Baltimore County, Commons 329 and Commons 328

Registration: Please login to MyUMBC (https://my.umbc.edu/groups/promise/events/54676), click “I can attend” below, *AND* follow the application procedures on the main website for the Dissertation House: https://dissertationhouse.wordpress.com/apply/. Application period to apply to attend the Dissertation House: Nov 8 – Dec 31, 2017.

Event Details: 

• The Dissertation House runs from 9 AM – 5PM, for four days, Tuesday, January 16 through Friday, January 19.
• Students must plan to attend the full session, for each of the 4 days. 
• Daily schedule includes 2 mini-lectures, and 5 hours of writing per day.
• Breakfast, Lunch, and a snack will be served daily.
• The Dissertation House is free for UMBC’s graduate students.
• There are 15 to 18 spaces available for the Dissertation House. 
• Details regarding eligibility can be found on the application page of the website for the Dissertation House.

Read about The Dissertation House in UMBC’s Alumni Magazine: Byrne, R.  (2011, Fall) “The Write Stuff”, UMBC Magazine. p. 12. More information about the DissertationHouse: https://dissertationhouse.wordpress.com/about/

Dissertation House Application Procedures

Both the on-campus setting and the retreat setting provide Dissertation House participants with productive and rewarding scholastic engagement.  Students who participate in this program will spend each day thinking, writing, and sharing ideas about their doctoral dissertations.  Students will learn effective time-management skills; learn how to set small manageable goals, and will meet with a dissertation coach in one-on-one consultations to discuss and address obstacles that might prevent them completing their degrees.

The Dissertation House period can span either a Tuesday – Friday (9 a.m. – 5 p.m., non-residential) or a Friday – Sunday weekend (includes evening sessions) commitment to focus on the doctoral dissertation.  The Dissertation House activities focus on areas where students typically have difficulty: conceptualizing a topic, writing a literature review, transitioning from a proposal to a dissertation, analyzing data, writing the last chapter, and editing.
Students may apply to attend the next Dissertation House during open application enrollment, by submitting two parts of an application.

PART I:

I. Submit a brief description (maximum 2 pages, font size 11-12 point 1 inch margins) that describes the project that you wish to accomplish during the Dissertation Houseperiod.  Applications will neither be reviewed nor accepted outside of the application enrollment period.

PART II:

II. Please use the following guidelines  for the application:

(1) Summary of the project, including research question(s), data or texts, and method

(2) Amount completed on the project to date

(3) Any obstacles that you are encountering that hinder completion of the dissertation.

(4) Include the following header information with the description:

• Name
• Address
• Telephone numbers (home, office, and fax)
• E-mail address
• Academic Program and Year in the program

Dates/Location: January 16 to 19 (Tuesday – Friday), 9:00 AM – 5:00 PM. Dissertation House will be held in COMM 329 (for Dissertation House) and COMM 328 (for one-on-one sessions).

Application Enrollment Period: Application can be submitted within a designated 2-week period, usually scheduled 1-2 months prior to the next Dissertation House session.  Email applications to promisestaff@gmail.com.  Please use the words “Dissertation House” in the subject line of your email.

Selection Process: Eighteen participants will be selected for participation in the Dissertation House.  The following applicants will have priority:  (1) Applicants who plan to finish the Ph.D. within the next 6 months; (2) Individuals who are working on dissertations and theses rather than a proposal; (3) Applicants who submit earliest; and (4) Individuals who appear most able to benefit from the services offered at the Dissertation House.

If your application is accepted, you will receive an acceptance notice via email and additional details about the Dissertation House.  All students, including those who have not applied or those who are not selected, have the option to participate in the next online challenge, a virtual version of the Dissertation House

As part of our ongoing commitment to security, the Unix Infrastructure group will be conducting its quarterly system patching on Thursday, December 21st and Saturday, December 30th.  While many of the systems will be patched without any service disruption, there are some systems which require the downtime of key services.  The schedule below outlines which key services will be offline and for how long.

Thursday, 12/21/2017 between 5pm and 8pm (most systems will only be down for a short period during this time): 

• The web hosting environments (virthost and jabba) will be partially unavailable (pages will be available but any database calls will not work)
• Access to Cyrus and UMBC Webmail (accounts not migrated to UMBC Gmail)
• All mail will be queued up and delivered after the server is patched
• Expected to be unreachable from 5pm to 7pm
• All HFS (user) servers will be offline
• Certain software licenses will be unavailable (autodesk, cadence, idl, schrodinger, xilinx, mathematica)
• RT will be offline between 5pm and 6pm

Saturday, 12/30/2017 between 10am and Noon(most systems will only be down for a short period during this time):

• myUMBC lite page will be up resulting in reduced myUMBC functionality
• Wiki will be unavailable
• The sites (wordpress) web hosting environment will be unreachable

Please let us know if you have any concerns or questions.

Thanks.

Tim Champ

Manager of Unix Infrastructure

UMBC DoIT