The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is looking for students for its paid Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF.)

SURF offers students in STEM fields PAID summer research under the guidance of one NIST's scientists and engineers. The 11-week program at NIST's Gaithersburg, MD campus is May 23 through August 9. There is also a SURF program at NIST's Boulder, CO campus from May 20 – August 2). Participants receive a $5,500 stipend and additional travel and housing allowances as necessary.

UMBC applications must be submitted through the Office of Undergraduate Education. Send an email message to Janet McGlynn (Sorry, you need javascript to view this email address. ) to receive application information.

Eligibility:U.S. citizenship or permanent resident status, undergraduate status (can be a senior graduating in May), and at least 3.0 or higher cumulative GPA.

UMBC Sophomore Blossom Metevier (CS ‘15) will be a panelist at Fueling the Future: Celebrating Computer Science Education Week and Computer Science in K-12 Classrooms and Policy, a briefing in Capitol Hill that’s part of Computer Science Education Week (CSEdWeek). Ceremonially celebrated during the birthday week of computer science pioneer Grace Hopper (December 9-15), CSEdWeek's goal is to share the message that computing and computer science education are essential.

Organized by the Computing in the Core Coalition and sponsored by the congressional STEM Education Caucus, Fueling the Future will give congressional staff and STEM education stakeholders an overview of the state and prospects of K-12 computer science education. Specifically, the fact that Computer Science is not taught in the majority of American high schools and how that needs to change.

Blossom joins panelists CSEdWEek co-chair Ruthe Farmer, Director of Strategic Initiates for the National Center for Women and Information Technology, technology writer Douglas Rushkoff, Alison Derbenwick Miller from Oracle, and Brenda Wilkerson from the Chicago Public Schools. Representative Dan Lipinski (D- IL), co-chair of the House STEM Education Caucus, will kick off the event with opening remarks.

Blossom will share her journey to becoming a Computer Science major. It started after she unexpectedly fell in love with programming during her Introduction to Computer Science class during her freshman year at UMBC. She will talk about why she chose the major and her future goals in the field. A Meyerhoff Scholar and member of UMBC's track team, Blossom plans on doing data visualization research in Dr. Jian Chen's lab this winter.

The new UMBC Cyber Scholars Program is seeking applicants. Incoming Freshman for the Fall 2013 school year, current students, and transfer students interested in careers in cybersecurity are encouraged to apply by January 15, 2013.

Starting Fall 2013, the Scholarship program will support 15-20 students annually with financial awards of $5,000-15,000 per year. The scholarship is more than a financial award; it is a scholarship program that fosters a community through common on-campus living-learning housing, events, and activities. Cyber Scholars will learn from and support one another throughout their college careers, and from core interaction with UMBC faculty and mentors.

Every Cyber scholar is assigned a faculty advisor who is pursuing cybersecurity-related research of their own. Advisors will help students find research and internship opportunities best suited to them.

To apply for the UMBC Cyber Scholars Program, visit Cybersecurity.umbc.edu/cyberscholars

The Visual Analytics Research Team at Oak Ridge National Laboratory is looking for summer interns at all levels as well as post-docs, post-masters, and post-bacs. We are also looking for qualified full time candidates.

We have a variety of projects in the areas of cyber security/network defense and health care. Projects tend to be 'big data' type projects that leverage diverse open-source platforms and technologies, such as Hadoop, Storm, graph databases, node.js, and d3js. Successful candidates will perform research and development activities in visual analytics, HCI, user testing, machine learning, probabilistic modeling, data fusion, or distributed computing.

See below for more information on each of the programs. We also have post-masters and post-doc programs in visual analytics.

If you are interested, have questions, or intend to apply, please contact John Goodall, Sorry, you need javascript to view this email address.

DHS HS-STEM (undergrad)

The HS-STEM program is specific to one of our group's projects, "Visually Fusing Contextual Data for Situational Understanding". For more information on the project, see: https://www3.orau.gov/DHS-Ed/Posting/Details/78.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) sponsors a 10-week summer internship program for students majoring in homeland security related science, technology, engineering and mathematics (HS-STEM) disciplines. Undergraduate students receive a stipend of $500 per week ($5,000 for 10 weeks). The application deadline for summer 2013 is January 15.

DOE SULI (undergrad)

Science Undergraduate Laboratory Internship (SULI) encourages undergraduate students to pursue science, technology, engineering and mathematics careers by providing research experiences at DOE laboratories. Students receive a stipend of $500 per week during the internship period. Appointments are 10 weeks (summer term) or 16 weeks (semester term) and are offered fall/spring/summer. The application deadline for summer 2013 is January 10.

DOE HERE (undergrad, graduate)

Higher Education Research Experiences at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (HERE at ORNL) provides research opportunities and associated activities for students at all levels, beginning the term before college entrance through thesis/dissertation research, and higher education faculty. Stipend is determined by category of participant.

The Visual Analytics Research Team at Oak Ridge National Laboratory is looking for summer interns at all levels as well as post-docs, post-masters, and post-bacs. We are also looking for qualified full time candidates.

We have a variety of projects in the areas of cyber security/network defense and health care. Projects tend to be 'big data' type projects that leverage diverse open-source platforms and technologies, such as Hadoop, Storm, graph databases, node.js, and d3js. Successful candidates will perform research and development activities in visual analytics, HCI, user testing, machine learning, probabilistic modeling, data fusion, or distributed computing.

See below for more information on each of the programs. We also have post-masters and post-doc programs in visual analytics.

If you are interested, have questions, or intend to apply, please contact John Goodall, Sorry, you need javascript to view this email address.

DHS HS-STEM (undergrad)

The HS-STEM program is specific to one of our group's projects, "Visually Fusing Contextual Data for Situational Understanding". For more information on the project, see: https://www3.orau.gov/DHS-Ed/Posting/Details/78.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) sponsors a 10-week summer internship program for students majoring in homeland security related science, technology, engineering and mathematics (HS-STEM) disciplines. Undergraduate students receive a stipend of $500 per week ($5,000 for 10 weeks). The application deadline for summer 2013 is January 15.

DOE SULI (undergrad)

Science Undergraduate Laboratory Internship (SULI) encourages undergraduate students to pursue science, technology, engineering and mathematics careers by providing research experiences at DOE laboratories. Students receive a stipend of $500 per week during the internship period. Appointments are 10 weeks (summer term) or 16 weeks (semester term) and are offered fall/spring/summer. The application deadline for summer 2013 is January 10.

DOE HERE (undergrad, graduate)

Higher Education Research Experiences at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (HERE at ORNL) provides research opportunities and associated activities for students at all levels, beginning the term before college entrance through thesis/dissertation research, and higher education faculty. Stipend is determined by category of participant.

The Visual Analytics Research Team at Oak Ridge National Laboratory is looking for summer interns at all levels as well as post-docs, post-masters, and post-bacs. We are also looking for qualified full time candidates.

We have a variety of projects in the areas of cyber security/network defense and health care. Projects tend to be 'big data' type projects that leverage diverse open-source platforms and technologies, such as Hadoop, Storm, graph databases, node.js, and d3js. Successful candidates will perform research and development activities in visual analytics, HCI, user testing, machine learning, probabilistic modeling, data fusion, or distributed computing.

See below for more information on each of the programs. We also have post-masters and post-doc programs in visual analytics.

If you are interested, have questions, or intend to apply, please contact John Goodall, Sorry, you need javascript to view this email address.

DHS HS-STEM (undergrad)

The HS-STEM program is specific to one of our group's projects, "Visually Fusing Contextual Data for Situational Understanding". For more information on the project, see: https://www3.orau.gov/DHS-Ed/Posting/Details/78.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) sponsors a 10-week summer internship program for students majoring in homeland security related science, technology, engineering and mathematics (HS-STEM) disciplines. Undergraduate students receive a stipend of $500 per week ($5,000 for 10 weeks). The application deadline for summer 2013 is January 15.

DOE SULI (undergrad)

Science Undergraduate Laboratory Internship (SULI) encourages undergraduate students to pursue science, technology, engineering and mathematics careers by providing research experiences at DOE laboratories. Students receive a stipend of $500 per week during the internship period. Appointments are 10 weeks (summer term) or 16 weeks (semester term) and are offered fall/spring/summer. The application deadline for summer 2013 is January 10.

DOE HERE (undergrad, graduate)

Higher Education Research Experiences at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (HERE at ORNL) provides research opportunities and associated activities for students at all levels, beginning the term before college entrance through thesis/dissertation research, and higher education faculty. Stipend is determined by category of participant.

MS Thesis Defense

Stateless Detection of Malicious Traffic:
Emphasis on User Privacy

Paul Halvorsen

1:00pm Monday, 3 December 2012, ITE 346, UMBC

In order to allow flexibility in deployment location and to preserve user privacy we have performed research into stateless classification of network traffic. Stateless detection allows for flexibility in deployment location because traffic on a network does not necessarily follow the same path to and from the end points. By only requiring a single direction of traffic, we have the ability to deploy this classifier anywhere on a network. We also do not require the data from a packet which preserves user privacy and allows for the classification of encrypted traffic.

Our research shows that it is possible to determine if traffic is malicious by using packets traveling in a single direction and without the data contained in the packet. Our research shows that with the use of the timing of the packets, time to live value, and source and destination IP addresses and ports, it is possible to determine if the traffic is malicious. In this way we are able to deploy the classifier anywhere on a network, preserve user privacy, and classify encrypted traffic.

Committee members:

• Dr. Anupam Joshi (chair)
• Dr. Charles Nicholas
• Dr. Tim Finin

Originally from Montclair, New Jersey, Celia is a Computer Science and Math double-major and CWIT Scholar.

About Celia

When did you become interested in Computer Science? I’ve always been interested in math and solving puzzles since I was a little girl.  In my senior year of high school, I had the opportunity to take two programming classes at a local college.  At the time, I was thinking I might want to create games for women and children.

What area of Computer Science interests you the most? Now I’m thinking about being a data scientist, somebody who makes sense of the large amounts of data that are growing rapidly in so many fields.  I’ll want to take classes in machine learning algorithms, computer graphics, and data visualization. 

What Computer Science courses did you take in high school?I took seven math classes, including AP Calculus BC and statistics.  I realize now that the programming classes I took at the local college weren’t great, but they helped pique my interest in computer science.

What is your dream job? Google and Facebook created the idea of data science and now there are a lot of start-up companies in Silicon Valley that specialize in mining complex data.  Everyone from the NSA to General Electric are now looking for people who can do this, too, and it would be fun to be part of the exciting breakthroughs in this information technology.

About being a CS major

Who is your favorite professor or course? My favorite class is Discrete Structures with Dr. LaBerge. He’s wonderful.  He’s got so many office hours, and he encourages us to come see him.  He never thinks any question is dumb.

Are you part of any on-campus clubs, organizations, teams, or labs?  I’m a member of the Society of Women Engineers, and I’m joining the A-Team, a group who helps the admissions office when prospective students visit. Every Tuesday I have lunch with a group of intellectually challenged students attending UMBC under the new SUCCESS program. I’m also working on my 3^rd degree black belt in Taekwondo. I was on a demonstration team that won a national championship in 2010.

What is the best part about being a CWIT Scholar? I love living in the Center for Women in Technology (CWIT) LLC in Erickson Hall.  We all got to be good friends before school started at a retreat in August.  It’s so much fun, and it’s really helpful, to have friends right there who are studying the same subjects.

About life at UMBC

What is the best part of college so far? Being on my own and away from home.

What is the best part about campus life at UMBC? Hanging out with friends.

What is your favorite spot on campus? The Commons, because it is so full of life.  There is an awesome game room, many dining options, and many SEB events take place there.

Where can you get the best coffee/lunch/ food or beverage of choice? My favorite place to eat is the Admin Café.  I go there with fellow CWIT scholars every weekday morning and get this delicious bacon, egg, and cheese sandwich.  My favorite lunch there is a turkey, lettuce and tomato sandwich on wheat bread with honey mustard and a pickle on the side.  I also love the chicken tenders at the Mesquite BBQ and Grill and the smoothies at Au Bon Pain!

CSEE professor Dr. Alan Sherman and his Ph.D. advisee Josiah Dykstra have been invited to give the keynote address at the Institute for Defense and Government Advancement’s (IDGA) Forensic Enabled Intelligence Summit. Scheduled to be held in Washington D.C. in April 2013, the conference is one of the IDGA’s most anticipated government technology summits of the year.

The keynote will discuss Sherman and Dykstra’s research in cloud forensics. Their work explores ways to conduct forensic exams of crimes  committed in the cloud.

ACM Distinguished Speaker

Cloud based Active Archiving Solution for Databases

Dr. Mukesh Mohania
IBM Research – India

2:30pm Friday, 30 November 2012
Room 102 (LH8), ITE Building, UMBC

In the second talk of the UMBC ACM Student Chapter's Tech Talk Series, ACM Distinguished Speaker Dr. Mukesh Mohania will visit UMBC and talk about "Cloud based Active Archiving Solution for Databases".

Cloud computing offers an exciting opportunity to bring on-demand applications to customers and is being used for delivering hosted services over the Internet and/or processing massive amount of data for business intelligence. In this talk, we will discuss the architecture of cloud computing, MapReduce, and Hadoop. We will then discuss how the cloud infrastructure can be used for data management services, how the massive amount of data can be processed over cloud for various business intelligence applications, and how the cloud can be used for 'Active' Data Archival for near real-time data access. We discuss various issues concerning the active archive system including schema modification, query federation, query optimization, access control and data provenance. Using TPC-DS benchmark data, we present evaluation results that shows the ability of our system to seamlessly query archive data along with data stored in the warehouse in order of minutes compared to hours required to move the data into the warehouse from traditional archival systems.

Mukesh Mohania received his Ph.D. in Computer Science & Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, India in 1995. Currently, he is a Senior Technical Staff Member and IBM Master Inventor in IBM Research – India. He has worked extensively in the areas of distributed databases, data warehousing, data integration, and autonomic computing. He has published more than 120 papers and also filed more than 50 patents in these or related areas, and more than 14 have already been granted. He received the best paper awards in CIKM 2004 and CIKM 2005. His work on Data Quality, Information Integration, and Autonomic Computing has led to the development of new products and also influenced several existing IBM products. He has received several awards within IBM, such as "Excellence in People Management", “Outstanding Innovation Award”, "Technical Accomplishment Award", “Leadership By Doing”, and many more. He also received IEEE Meritorious Service Award. He is an ACM Distinguished Scientist, and a member of IBM Academy of Technology.

Light refreshments will be served after the talk outside ITE-325

RSVP via Facebook https://facebook.com/events/378277722253548/

More information and directions: http://bit.ly/UMBCtalks