KPCB Engineering Fellows Program Accepting Applications!

Hello AIChE, 

My name is Manika Sachdeva and I am a coordinator for HackUMBC. We are holding our Fall hackathon, called HackUMBC from October 7th-8th. A hackathon is a 24 hour event, where students from the neighboring areas and UMBC gather together and have 24 hours to create almost anything! From mobile apps to websites to VR games!  We are expecting around 600 people for this event and volunteers help our team make this event be smooth and successful. For this event, we are asking for volunteers from your organization to help out with tasks such as signing people in, taking care of food, etc (more information on the google form). Volunteers will not be required to stay the whole time and will be assigned shifts. They can still participate in the hackathon. No technical experience is required to be a volunteer or to participate!

Please visit our website for more information about the hackathon itself.

If you or your club members are interested, please fill out the attached google form as soon as possible. Feel free to contact me (msach1@umbc.edu) if you have any further questions!

Thank you!

​

UMBC Mock Trial is a nationally ranked, award-winning program on campus, and we are looking for new members. Last year we advanced to the National Championship Tournament for the first time, and won numerous team and individual awards throughout the season. This year, we're traveling up and down the coast to compete at places like Yale, Duke, Cornell, and William & Mary, and we want you to audition for the team!

Come find out more at one of our remaining information sessions. They are:

Tuesday, September 12, 12pm: Public Policy 451

Tuesday, September 12, 7pm: Student Org Space*

Wednesday, September 13, 12pm: Fine Arts 015

Friday, September 15, 12pm: Fine Arts 015

Each info session will last about an hour, and you only need to come to one - but it is mandatory to attend a session to audition. At the sessions we'll explain more about the team and share the audition materials. If you have questions, or if you can't make any of the meetings but want to audition, email us at UMBCMockTrial@UMBC.edu and we'll send you all the information you need.

Auditions will be held next week, on Monday, September 18, and Tuesday, September 19, from 7-10pm. 

We hope to see you at our info sessions and auditions!

*The Student Org Space is on the second floor of the Commons. If you go in the main entrance, pass the front desk, and walk up the main stairs, it's on your left. There's an entrance right by the entrance to Upper Flat Tuesdays, and another one near the Game Room. 

We will be using UMBC's new platform for donating, Grit Starter, in order to help us meet our goal. All donations are tax deductible, and the proceeds go directly to supporting UMBC Mock Trial! As always, thank you for supporting us and everything we do.

https://gritstarter.umbc.edu/p/mocktrial/

The National CCDC (Or Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition) is a competition in which teams are given inherently insecure computers/servers and told to defend those servers against professional hackers (Red team). While protecting against the red team they must also keep up critical services (Email servers for example), respond to a mock CEO, and complete business injects.

To make it to the National CCDC teams must first win their region. The winning teams from each region (10 Regions) go to compete in San Antonio, TX for the Alamo Cup. In all over 200 colleges compete in this competition annually with this year UMBC winning! 

For more information on the Cyber Defense Team and how to get involved check out our website at http://umbccd.umbc.edu

The B Team also had an excellent weekend as they won 4 ballots. This was an impressive achievement, especially since it was the first time a UMBC B Team had competed at ORCS. Additionally, no UMBC team had previously finished with a record of .500 or better at ORCS. It is particularly impressive, and exciting, that many of the members of the B Team are in their first or second year with the program. 

Coinciding with our trip to Nationals, we are re-opening our GiveCorps fundraising campaign to help raise Program funds. If you're interested in making a donation please visit our webpage here: https://umbc.givecorps.com/projects/16154-student-organizations-umbc-mock-trial-program. Just as before, all donations are tax deductible. We're grateful for all of your help and support.

Nonetheless, invitationals are an excellent preparation for the playoff tournaments and doing well in the fall is a sign of prestige for a program. 

Despite success at Regionals the previous two season, earning bid to ORCS in 2015 and 2016, UMBC Mock Trial never had as strong a fall semester as this year. 

For the first time in the Program's history, a team "placed" at a fall invitational tournament, with the A Team earning 4th place at Drexel University's Market Street Invitational. The B Team would add to this by finishing 3rd at Elizabethtown College's Blue Jay Invitational. The A Team rounded out the autumnal victories with a 5th place finish at Temple University's Hooter Invitational.

Below you will find a tournament by tournament break down of how well the teams did and who won individual awards (spoiler alert, a lot UMBC competitors won awards this fall!).

Keep watching this space as we will continue bringing you exciting UMBC Mock Trial news into the New Year!

A Team Record: 20-11-1

B Team Record: 10-6-0

Individual Awards: 9

See you there!

-UMBC AIAA