New for Fall 2019!

CMSC 291
Continued Computer Science for Non-Majors

This fall, Dr. Susan Mitchell will teach a special topics course designed for all non-computer science, non-computer engineering majors. The 3-credit course will be a continuation and extension of CMSC 201 Computer Science I and taught in the popular Python programming language. The catalog description is:

A continuation of problem solving and programming in the Python language. Emphasis is placed on the solution to more complex programming problems, expanding on the topics of modularity, abstraction, program design, testing, and debugging. The use of Python libraries relevant to non-CS major fields are presented.

Assignments and projects will emphasize topics applicable to many non-CS disciplines, such as data visualization, working with large data sets, and database usage.

The course will be held on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 11:30am to 12:30pm (Course catalog number 291-01).

Prerequisites:  Completed CMSC 201 with a C or better; completed MATH 150, 151 or 152 with a C or better, OR have MATH test placement into MATH 151, OR have completed MATH 155 with a C or better

This course is restricted to non-computer science, non-computer engineering majors. It does not satisfy any requirement for computer science or computer engineering majors and may not be substituted for CMSC 202 Computer Science II.

For questions, please email Dr. Susan Mitchell at *protected email*

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Fall 2019
CMSC 201 Computer Science I
Section for Non-Majors

This fall, Dr. Susan Mitchell will teach a special section of CMSC 201 Computer Science I designed for all non-computer science, non-computer engineering majors. The course will cover the same content and have the same rigor as all other CMSC 201 sections and prepare students to continue on to CMSC 202 if they wish.  As with other sections, it fulfills any major’s requirement for CMSC 201. The key difference will be that the assignments and projects will emphasize topics applicable to many non-CS disciplines, such as statistical analysis, working with large data sets, and data visualization. The course will be taught in the popular Python programming language. The catalog description is:

An introduction to computer science through problem solving and computer programming. Programming techniques covered by this course include modularity, abstraction, top-down design, specifications documentation, debugging and testing. The core material for this course includes control structures, functions, lists, strings, abstract data types, file I/O, and recursion.

The 4-credit course will include a lecture from 2:30pm to 3:45pm on Mondays and Wednesdays (Section 60-LEC) and a one-hour lab on either Monday (Section 61-DIS) or Wednesday (Section 62-DIS) from 11:00-11:50am.

No prior programming experience is required. The only prerequisite is that students must have completed MATH 150, 151 or 152 with a C or better; OR have MATH test placement into MATH 151; OR have completed MATH 155 with a C or better.

This course is restricted to non-computer science, non-computer engineering majors.

For questions, please email Dr. Susan Mitchell at *protected email*

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UMBC’s 15th Digital Entertainment Conference

11:00am-5:00pm, Saturday, May 11, 2019

Commons Sports Zone, UMBC

The Digital Entertainment Conference (DEC) is an annual student-organized event that brings professional game developers from the area to UMBC to talk about their experience in the game industry. DEC’19 will be held 11-5 on Saturday, May 11 in the Sports Zone of the UMBC Commons building. Attend to meet professions from the local game industry, see games made by UMBC students, and network with game developers.

DEC’19 is free to attend and open to UMBC students, high school students, UMBC alumni and anyone interested in game development. A free catered lunch is provided and parking on campus is free on weekends on any lot marked A, B, or C.

This year’s speakers include: Greg Lane, Community Manager at Big Huge Games; Dorian Newcomb, Co-founder and Art Director at Mohawk Games; Andrei Shulgach, Composer for games and short films and UI Implementer at UX is Fine; Rebecca Bushko: Software Engineer at Big Huge Games; Eric Jordan, Senior Software Engineer at Firaxis Games and the first president of the UMBC Game Developers Club.

The DEC’19 is co-sponsored by the UMBC Game Developers club and Computer Science Education Club and funded by the COEIT Dean’s Office’s Collaborative Student Funding Program.

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“Cybersecurity research is important because we live in a connected world. As a society, we have an expectation to conduct professional business in a safe and secure technology environment,” says Donna Ruginski, UMBC’s new executive director for cybersecurity initiatives. “Research is thriving at UMBC, and some of the nation’s leading cybersecurity research is being conducted at UMBC.”

Ruginski joins the Office of the Vice President for Research as the first campus leader to hold this partnership-focused cybersecurity role.

“I am delighted to join the UMBC community and to work with its visionary leadership and extraordinary faculty and staff,” she says. “UMBC’s capabilities and resources in cybersecurity contribute to the region’s economic development through a comprehensive cybersecurity focus on academic education, research, workforce development, technology incubators, and entrepreneurship. UMBC truly offers the complete package, making it an exciting place to be.”

Ruginski brings significant experience in cybersecurity to her new role at UMBC. She holds a master’s degree in computer science from Johns Hopkins University and has founded and served as a senior technology executive at software companies over the course of her career.

Karl V. Steiner, vice president for research at UMBC, says Ruginski’s role is important for UMBC, for Maryland, and for the United States. “UMBC is already recognized for its strength in the growing field of cybersecurity and through our strong relationships with federal agencies and the private sector,” Steiner explains. “Ruginski comes to us with an exceptional background and strong skill set that will enable our community to thrive and successfully pursue exciting new opportunities in the years to come.”

In her new role, Ruginski will work to enhance awareness of UMBC’s broad portfolio of cybersecurity initiatives and expand research partnerships with public and private organizations, says Steiner.

“Expanding cybersecurity research at UMBC will offer additional opportunities for faculty and students at all levels,” says Ruginski. “I’m excited to supportUMBC’s growing reputation as a leading research institution.”

Adapted from a UMBC News story by Megan Hanks. Photo of Donna Ruginski by Marlayna Demond ’11 for UMBC.

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UMBC Cyber Defense Lab

Security for Smart Cyber-Physical Systems

Prof. Anupam Joshi, UMBC

12:00–1:00pm, Friday, 3 May 2019, ITE 227

Smart Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) are increasingly embedded in our everyday life. Security incidents involving them are often high-profile because of their ability to control critical infrastructure. Stuxnet and the Ukrainian power-grid attack are some notorious attacks reported against CPS which impacted governmental programs to ordinary users. In addition to the deliberate attacks, device malfunction and human error can also result in incidents with grave consequences. Hence the detection and mitigation of abnormal behaviors resulting from security incidents is imperative for the trustworthiness and broader acceptance of smart cyber-physical systems. We propose an automatic behavioral abstraction technique, ABATe, which automatically learns their typical behavior by finding the latent “context” space using available operational data and is used to discern anomalies. We evaluate our technique using two real-world datasets (a sewage water treatment plant dataset and an automotive dataset) to demonstrate the multi-domain adaptability and efficacy of our approach.

Anupam Joshi is the Oros Family Professor and Chair of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering Department at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County(UMBC). He is the Director of UMBC’s Center for Cybersecurity, and one of the USM leads for the National Cybersecurity FFRDC. He is a Fellow of IEEE. Dr. Joshi obtained a B.Tech degree from IIT Delhi in 1989, and a Masters and Ph.D. from Purdue University in 1991 and 1993 respectively. His research interests are in the broad area of networked computing and intelligent systems. His primary focus has been on data management and security/privacy in mobile/pervasive computing environments, and policy driven approaches to security and privacy. He is also interested in Semantic Web and Data/Text/Web Analytics, especially their applications to (cyber) security. He has published over 250 technical papers with an h-index of 79 and over 23,250 citations (per Google scholar), filed and been granted several patents, and has obtained research support from National Science Foundation (NSF), NASA, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), US Dept of Defense (DoD), NIST, IBM, Microsoft, Qualcom, Northrop Grumman, and Lockheed Martin amongst others

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UMBC Cyber Defense Lab

Using CPSA to Analyze Force-Latency Protocols

Dr. Edward Zieglar, National Security Agency

12-1 Friday, 19 April 19, ITE 227

Several cryptographic protocols have been proposed to address the Man-in-the-Middle attack without the prior exchange of keys. This talk will describe a formal analysis of one such protocol proposed by Zooko Wilcox-O’Hearn, the forced-latency defense against the chess grandmaster attack. Using the Cryptographic Protocol Shapes Analyzer (CPSA), we validate the security properties of the protocol through the novel use of CPSA’s state features to represent time. We also describe a small message space attack that highlights how assumptions made in protocol design can affect the security of a protocol in use, even for a protocol with proven security properties.

Edward Zieglar is a security researcher in the Research Directorate of the National Security Agency, where he concentrates on formal analysis and verification of cryptographic protocols and network security. He is also an adjunct professor at UMBC where he teaches courses in networking and network security. He received his master’s and doctoral degrees in computer science from UMBC.

Host: Alan T. Sherman, *protected email*

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IBM Cloud Academy Workshop

9am-5pm Friday, May 3, 2019

UMBC will host an all-day IBM Watson Cloud Academy Workshop 9am-5pm on May 3 taught by Prof. Anand Singh of NCSU. All faculty, students and staff are welcome to attend. We also welcome government and industry partners. Register for the free workshop here.

The workshop will provide hands-on training on many of the IBM Watson, analytics and IoT cloud services that can be used in support of a wide-range of AI/cognitive-based research projects and curricula. It will also provide use cases of many typical biomedical, engineering and other problems that can be solved using these technologies.

The workshop will end with a project planning clinic, whereby faculty can discuss proposed projects. To prepare for this hands-on workshop, participants should obtain a free IBM Cloud trial accounts and review the educational modules/material as outlined below:

• Obtain a free IBM Cloud trial account (that will provide you with free access to a subset of Watson services).
• Click on Watson and then select Cloud Access and then follow the directions to get your free account.
• Go to the free Educator Guides page
• Review the material for the “Updated Watson Education Guide” and complete the Lab and Exercises.
• Go to the Watson Academic Engagement page and go through the “Application Starter Kit”, “API Documentation,” and “Watson on Github” and other material there.
• Go to the IBM Watson Academy page and go through the material under “IBM Watson and Cloud Platform”, especially material on NLP, Dialog, Assistant, Discovery and Watson Knowledge Studios.

Register for the free workshop here.

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