Research Assistantship Available

Smart Plug-based Appliance Energy Profiling and

Prediction Portal for Green Buildings

New emerging “smart plugs” embed a micro-controller and low-power communication device that allows you to monitor the power consumption of individual devices (e.g., microwave, coffee machine, laptop) plugged into power sockets, and communicate such power consumption information over a wireless network to a central monitoring station. Such devices could lead to substantial savings of energy and money by enabling Internet-based monitoring and real-time control of the behavior of individual appliances. This project will use real-life microcontroller kits (ACME Plugs from Moteware) and real-life building measurement data to explore whether such measurement-based monitoring can be used to:

• Develop Smart Circuit Breaker — i.e., to lessen the burden of the user of plugging each and every appliance/device in the building with a smart plug; we will investigate connecting multiple devices together with an individual smart plug/smart circuit breaker and design a smart circuit breaker using energy metering chip (ADE7753), AC/DC power supply, Microcontroller with radio (TI MSP430F16 and CC2420 radio supported by TinyOS) and solid state AC relay (Sharp S216SE1) etc.
• Profile individual devices — i.e., use NILM (non-intrusive load monitoring) data analytics algorithm on the time-series of power consumption traces to infer the type of plugged-in device (e.g., distinguish between a laptop & a coffeemaker), thereby building a dynamic catalog of the types & number of devices connected by a consumer.
• Predict the power consumption of individual rooms — i.e., using the past history of the power consumption of individual devices to create predictive inferences of the usage patterns for individual devices (e.g., learn that the individual switches on a dehumidifier for ~3 hrs every Thursday).

Expertise: Technical knowledge of standard time-series & statistical mining techniques (e.g., regression, support vector machines) is needed. Significant programming knowledge of Java & ability to create simple Web Applications is a must. Knowledge of TinyOS, Embedded System and Networking protocols is a plus, although not essential. The project will utilize real ACME plugs, which are programmed using TinyOS & which communicate using a ZigBee radio.

Please contact Dr. Nirmalya Roy at Sorry, you need javascript to view this email address. for research assistantship for this project.

Agnik is looking for highly skilled web developers proficient in C# and Javascript at the intern level.

Agnik is a data analytics company located in Columbia, Maryland for distributed, mobile, and embedded environments. Agnik's products are powered by a collection of powerful technologies, including distributed data mining, private and secure multi-party data mining, and mobile and embedded data stream management and mining. Agnik is a leader in the field of data stream mining for distributed environments with a long history in research and development by its co-founders, who include UMBC PRofessor Hillol Kargupta.

Experienced Smart phone App developers for Android and iPhone are also welcome to apply. Familiarity with database management systems will be a strong plus. You need to be eligible to work off-campus.

The position starts immediately. We need to be able to work at least 20 hrs/week and should be able to commute to Columbia, MD. Payment is commensurate with experience. If you are interested then send your resume to Sorry, you need javascript to view this email address.

Agnik is looking for highly skilled web developers proficient in C# and Javascript at the intern level.

Agnik is a data analytics company located in Columbia, Maryland for distributed, mobile, and embedded environments. Agnik's products are powered by a collection of powerful technologies, including distributed data mining, private and secure multi-party data mining, and mobile and embedded data stream management and mining. Agnik is a leader in the field of data stream mining for distributed environments with a long history in research and development by its co-founders, who include UMBC PRofessor Hillol Kargupta.

Experienced Smart phone App developers for Android and iPhone are also welcome to apply. Familiarity with database management systems will be a strong plus. You need to be eligible to work off-campus.

The position starts immediately. We need to be able to work at least 20 hrs/week and should be able to commute to Columbia, MD. Payment is commensurate with experience. If you are interested then send your resume to Sorry, you need javascript to view this email address.

Natalie Morningstar, a junior majoring in Computer Engineering, has been awarded a Charlotte Newcombe Foundation Scholarship. The Charlotte W. Newcombe Foundation is an independent foundation begun in 1979 by the estate of Mrs. Newcombe, a Philadelphia philanthropist.  Since 1981, the Foundation has provided scholarship funding for mature women students at UMBC.

This fall, Natalie will participate in the "Returning Women Mentor Program," which is a peer mentoring initiative that the Women’s Center at UMBC is introducing to better facilitate productive and ongoing connections among the scholars in their programs.

Natalie is also a CWIT Affiliate and part of the first cohort of Transfer Scholars in IT and Engineering (T-SITE). T-SITE is funded by an NSF-funded S-STEM grant and will serve 30 transfer students as part of the larger CWIT Scholar and Affiliates community through 2017.

When asked how she came to choose computer engineering as a major, Natalie said "Before transferring to UMBC I studied a mix of motion picture film, digital multimedia production and computer science. Both classroom and work experiences helped to expose me to a number of theories and applications, which ultimately lead me to my interest in computer engineering."

With such a broad range of interests, she will have many options for what to do after finishing her computer engineering degree. "Right now I have a broad interest", she reports, "and have not decided which specific field I want to pursue. I really enjoyed my work in signal processing at my summer computer engineering internship at Ventura Solutions, Inc. and I hope to gain exposure to other fields as well so I can narrow my focus."

CSEE's Dr. Richard Forno, Cybersecurity GPD and Assistant Director of UMBC's Center for Cybersecurity, talked with the Baltimore Sun's Scott Dance about international hacktivism following the defacement of a local area website and the recent attack on the New York Times website.

This week the website of the Canton Kayak Club was hacked and the landing page changed to show the image of a man on a horse with a spear and the messages "NO WAR!" and "All Hail the Islamic world, we're here!".

"We have no idea who did it nor why someone would hack our site," club Vice President Cliff Charland said. "It is obviously something we’re not happy about."

The website had been restored to normal as of 3:30 p.m. Thursday. Charland said the club's webmaster was looking to determine how the hack occurred and how it could be prevented in the future. The club has about 500 members, many of whom use the site frequently for information on club events, he said." source

The Office of Science and Technology Policy is currently accepting applications for its Spring 2014 Internship Program. The application deadline is 11:59pm Friday, October 4, 2013. Students who are U.S. citizens and who will be actively enrolled during the Spring 2014 semester are welcome to apply. 

About OSTP. The Office of Science and Technology Policy advises the President on the effects of science and technology on domestic and international affairs. The office serves as a source of scientific and technological analysis and judgment for the President with respect to major policies, plans and programs of the Federal Government.

About the Internship Program. Interns are accepted for one of three annual terms (Spring, Summer, or Fall), which each last no more than 90 days. While these positions are without compensation, the assignments provide educational enrichment, practical work experience, and network opportunities with other individuals in the science and technology policy arena.

More information about the OSTP Internship Program is available online.  For questions, contact Rebecca Grimm rgrimm at ostp.eop.gov.

The Office of Science and Technology Policy is currently accepting applications for its Spring 2014 Internship Program. The application deadline is 11:59pm Friday, October 4, 2013. Students who are U.S. citizens and who will be actively enrolled during the Spring 2014 semester are welcome to apply. 

About OSTP. The Office of Science and Technology Policy advises the President on the effects of science and technology on domestic and international affairs. The office serves as a source of scientific and technological analysis and judgment for the President with respect to major policies, plans and programs of the Federal Government.

About the Internship Program. Interns are accepted for one of three annual terms (Spring, Summer, or Fall), which each last no more than 90 days. While these positions are without compensation, the assignments provide educational enrichment, practical work experience, and network opportunities with other individuals in the science and technology policy arena.

More information about the OSTP Internship Program is available online.  For questions, contact Rebecca Grimm rgrimm at ostp.eop.gov.

The Office of Science and Technology Policy is currently accepting applications for its Spring 2014 Internship Program. The application deadline is 11:59pm Friday, October 4, 2013. Students who are U.S. citizens and who will be actively enrolled during the Spring 2014 semester are welcome to apply. 

About OSTP. The Office of Science and Technology Policy advises the President on the effects of science and technology on domestic and international affairs. The office serves as a source of scientific and technological analysis and judgment for the President with respect to major policies, plans and programs of the Federal Government.

About the Internship Program. Interns are accepted for one of three annual terms (Spring, Summer, or Fall), which each last no more than 90 days. While these positions are without compensation, the assignments provide educational enrichment, practical work experience, and network opportunities with other individuals in the science and technology policy arena.

More information about the OSTP Internship Program is available online.  For questions, contact Rebecca Grimm rgrimm at ostp.eop.gov.

Professor Curtis R. Menyuk of the UMBC Computer Science and Electrical Engineering Department has been awarded the 2013 IEEE Photonics Society William Streifer Scientific Achievement Award. The award recongnizes Dr. Menyuk

"For seminal advances in the fundamental understanding and mitigation of polarization effects in high-performance optical fiber communication systems."

He will receive the award at presentation during the awards Ceremony at the 2013 IEEE Photonics Conference at the Hyatt Regency Bellevue, Bellevue, Washington in September.

The William Streifer Scientific Achievement Award is given to recognize an exceptional single scientific contribution which has had a significant impact in the field of lasers and electro-optics in the past 10 years. The award is given for a relatively recent, single contribution, which has had a major impact on the Photonics Society research community. It may be given to an individual or a group for a single contribution of significant work in the field.

Professor Curtis Menyuk was born March 26, 1954. He received the B.S. and M.S. degrees from MIT in 1976 and the Ph.D. from UCLA in 1981. He has worked as a research associate at the University of Maryland, College Park and at Science Applications International Corporation in McLean, VA. In 1986 he became an Associate Professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering at the University of Maryland Baltimore County, and he was the founding member of this department. In 1993, he was promoted to Professor. He was on partial leave from UMBC from Fall, 1996 until Fall, 2002. From 1996 – 2001, he worked part-time for the Department of Defense, co-directing the Optical Networking program at the DoD Laboratory for Telecommunications Sciences in Adelphi, MD from 1999 – 2001. In 2001 – 2002, he was Chief Scientist at PhotonEx Corporation. In 2008 – 2009, he was a JILA Visiting Fellow at the University of Colorado.

For the last 25 years, his primary research area has been theoretical and computational studies of lasers, nonlinear optics, and fiber optic communications. He has authored or co-authored more than 230 archival journal publications as well as numerous other publications and presentations, and he is a co-inventor of 5 patents. He has also edited three books. The equations and algorithms that he and his research group at UMBC have developed to model optical fiber systems are used extensively in the telecommunications and photonics industry. He is a member of the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics. He is a fellow of the American Physical Society, the Optical Society of America, and the IEEE. He is a former UMBC Presidential Research Professor.

Dr. Richard Forno, Director of UMBC's Graduate Cybersecurity Program and Assistant Director of the UMBC Center for Cybersecurity, appeared on WEAA (88.9FM) Baltimore's 'The Marc Steiner Show' as part of a long-form panel discussion on assorted cybersecurity issues.   He was joined by Edward Erickson of the Baltimore City Paper and Stephen Bono, CEO of Baltimore-based Independent Security Evaluators.

The show, Hacking: Implications For Our Privacy and Security, was aired on August 15, 2013.

“We turn to the topic of hacking. At recent hacking conventions in Las Vegas, cybersecurity experts revealed how easy it is to hack everything from cars to pacemakers. General Keith B. Alexander, Director of the National Security Agency, spoke at one of the conferences about his organization’s use of technology to spy on people.”