UMBC alumnus Nelson Emokpae ’03, psychology, will make his television debut this week on NBC’s singing competition “The Voice.” Emokpae immigrated to the U.S. as a political refugee from Nigeria and received his B.A. from UMBC before picking up a guitar for the first time while in graduate school. He decided to pursue a full-time music career as Nelly’s Echo just last year, and has been touring at college campuses around the country.

In a recent interview, the Baltimore-based Emokpae remarked, “I love touring. I love meeting different people. I love seeing different locations, trying out different cultures. Because even in America, the variety of cultures within one country is so vast, and being able to travel from California to Maine to Seattle to Florida and every [place] in between affords me that opportunity to meet a lot of people and amass a lot of great experiences.”

To watch Emokpae’s audition on “The Voice,” tune into NBC at 8:00 p.m. EST on September 11th and 12th (Note: his exact air date has not been announced and it could be either day). Check out this video performance of the song “If I Were the King.”

Four students in UMBC’s Department of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering have been selected for major scholarships to study cybersecurity in the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Scholarship for Service (SFS) CyberCorps program. Each student will receive full tuition, fees, and a nine-month stipend ($20,000 for undergraduates, $25,000 for MS/MPS students, and $30,000 for PhD students) for up to two years (three years for PhD). For this first year of the program at UMBC, recipients are Oliver Kubik (BS student in computer science), Brendan Masiar and Brandyn Schult (MPS students in cybersecurity), and Mary Mathews (PhD student in computer science).

While in the program at UMBC, each student will participate in paid summer internships and have opportunities to engage in mentored research opportunities at the UMBC Center for Information Security and Assurance (CISA) and its partners from industry and government. Following graduation, each student must work for the government (for pay) for one year for each year of scholarship received. Drs. Alan T. Sherman and Richard Forno direct the program using support they received from their recently awarded $2.5 million NSF grant. The CyberCorps program will produce highly-qualified professionals to meet the increasing need to protect American’s cyber infrastructure.

The Baltimore Sun recently chronicled UMBC’s rise over the past two decades into a nationally-recognized powerhouse for academic innovation.

As the campus approaches its 50th anniversary in 2016, UMBC sports enviable credentials, the Sun wrote: “It’s cited as America’s top up-and-coming university and a leader in undergraduate teaching by U.S. News. It has an endowment of about $60 million, built from less than $1 million when Hrabowski took over. Research funding has risen from less than $10 million to about $90 million.”

While UMBC is known for excellence in a wide range of fields, the Sun notes that the university has found remarkable success in areas where higher education nationally has struggled. “Educational heavyweights such as MIT and Stanford have been to Catonsville to study the methods with which UMBC churns out elite black graduates in the sciences. How, they want to know, has a 46-year-old university, founded to serve commuters, cracked the code to one of American education’s most vexing problems?”

The piece comes as President Hrabowski marks his 20th year leading UMBC, and it paints a picture of university and leader both deeply committed to students’ success.

“This is a guy who’s on a flight to speak somewhere every other day,” Jeremy Brickey ’12, English, said of President Hrabowski. “But here he takes the time to talk with me for 30 minutes all the time. It’s amazing.”

Miguel Calderon ’12, Visual Arts, seconded that: “I can’t speak to other universities. But from what I hear, it’s not an everyday thing to see the president asking students, ‘How are your classes? What did you get on your last test? You didn’t do well? Maybe you need a tutor.’ It’s really a miraculous thing.”

More than that, though, President Hrabowski stressed that it’s a sign of the culture of UMBC, and of the dedication of so many faculty and staff members. It’s who we are.

“It is part of the work of education to have substantive relationships with your students,” President Hrabowski told the Sun. “What people don’t realize is that everybody needs support, one way or another.”

Musician Devin Walker ’89, political science, took his “Uncle Devin” show to the U.S. Capitol this summer, sharing educational music with children and parents alike.
Walker, who plays the drums, calls the show “a live, interactive musical experience for children five and over by renowned drummer Devin Walker. The show cultivates the minds of children through percussion instruments and is a dynamic cross between Fat Albert and Schoolhouse Rock.”
View photos from the show here.  Read more about the show here.
Walker and his jazz band, A Sense of Urgency, will be one of three alumni-driven bands playing at this year’s Homecoming Crab Feast on Saturday, October 13. (The others are: Fiddlin’ Around, an Irish folk band featuring UMBC’s own staff and faculty members Terry Aylsworth, Eric Ebersole, and William Farrell, and alums David Aylsworth ’74, Tara Ebersole ’08 and Sara Moreland ’97; and Black Falls, a blues and classic rock band featuring alumnus Philip Medenbach, Jr. ’87.)
For more information about the event, visit the Homecoming website here.

Musician Devin Walker ’89, political science, took his “Uncle Devin” show to the U.S. Capitol this summer, sharing educational music with children and parents alike.

Walker, who plays the drums, calls the show “a live, interactive musical experience for children five and over by renowned drummer Devin Walker. The show cultivates the minds of children through percussion instruments and is a dynamic cross between Fat Albert and Schoolhouse Rock.”

View photos from the show here.  Read more about the show here.

Walker and his jazz band, A Sense of Urgency, will be one of three alumni-driven bands playing at this year’s Homecoming Crab Feast on Saturday, October 13. (The others are: Fiddlin’ Around, an Irish folk band featuring UMBC’s own staff and faculty members Terry Aylsworth, Eric Ebersole, and William Farrell, and alums David Aylsworth ’74, Tara Ebersole ’08 and Sara Moreland ’97; and Black Falls, a blues and classic rock band featuring alumnus Philip Medenbach, Jr. ’87.)

For more information about the event, visit the Homecoming website here.

Philanthropy is an extremely personal act. We all give in different ways, and for very different reasons.

Many of us give back by writing a check to a favorite program, providing an immediate (and, often, necessary) infusion of funds. Some of us also volunteer time to the organizations that mean the most to us. And, many times, we give as members of groups — interactions that bind and strengthen our communities.

It is in this spirit that UMBC has launched BreakingGround, “a campus-wide initiative to embed opportunities for civic learning and collaborative problem-solving even more broadly and deeply in our curriculum and co-curricular activities.” Already, stories of new partnerships and programs designed to make UMBC — and, ultimately, the world — a better place are streaming onto the BreakingGround site.

For students learning how best to shape their world, BreakingGround is terrific way to inspire good work, and to frame and measure successes. It is also an excellent showcase of the many ways we, as members of the UMBC community, can put the philosophy of philanthropy to work in ways both fun and fulfilling.

In an op-ed published in this week’s Baltimore Sun, co-authors SGA president Kaylesh Ramu and David Hoffman, assistant director of student life for civic agency at UMBC, share a vision of civic engagement that invites students — and the community surrounding them — to think creatively about how they can improve UMBC, and beyond:

UMBC has received so much attention because our culture and practices make creativity, innovation, appreciation for diverse perspectives and talents, and public impact central to our identity. We take pride in our scrappy, can-do spirit, celebrating entrepreneurs, boundary-busters and problem-solvers in every field.

We look forward to seeing how UMBC’s students, faculty, staff and alumni use BreakingGround as a springboard for community-based philanthropy, and we will share the most interesting stories from these efforts throughout the year.

Kimberly Moffitt, assistant professor of American studies, discussed the Democratic National Convention on WYPR’s “Midday with Dan Rodricks” on Wednesday, September 5.  A central question of the hour was the way that both sides are trying to appeal to undecided voters, and whether those appeals are working.

“Working class and middle class individuals aren’t relating to [the message of the Republican party] at all,” Moffitt said, pointing out that the Democratic party is presenting itself as inclusive at its convention.

The full conversation can be heard here.

Ellen Hemmerly and Kent Malwitz were quoted in the September 7, Baltimore Business Journal in an article written by Jack Lambert, Cyber security attracts attention (and cash) from venture capitalists.

Lambert writes, “Cyber security is big business in Maryland. The state’s proximity to federal agencies in Washington, D.C., as well as nearby government contractors such as Northrop Grumman Corp. and Lockheed Martin Corp., has led to significant government investment in companies that can protect confidential data.”

Lambert goes on to write about his conversation with Hemmerly and Malwitz,

“The commercialization of cyber security products helped encourage investment, said Ellen Hemmerly, executive director of the UMBC bwtech Research and Technology Park. Companies developing new products for mobile devices like tablets and smartphones need to be protected, she said. And venture firms want to get in on the ground floor.

“We are seeing more and more folks trying to create a way to solve those cyber security issues,” Hemmerly said. “[Venture capital] money is agnostic. They are going to look where there is the business opportunities.”

Students and startups are taking advantage of those opportunities. Twenty-two cyber security companies are part of UMBC’S incubator and accelerator program in 2012, whereas only six companies were in the program when it began in March 2011.

Colleges and universities are seeing increased cyber security interest at the undergraduate level as well. UMBC taught 84 cyber security courses in 2011 compared to 70 courses in 2010, said Kent E. Malwitz, president of the UMBC training centers. The University of Maryland’s Cybersecurity Center has seen double the number of computer science and computer engineering majors over the last five to seven years, said Eric Chapman, the program’s deputy director.”

UMBC’s Training Centers launched its Cyber Academy program on September 10th, with the new certification program profiled by Baltimore Business Journal‘s Sarah Gantz in an article published September 7th.

In the subscriber-only article, UMBC Training Centers President Kent Malwitz spoke with Gantz about the idea behind the academy, where already-existing security courses will be tied with more specialized ones to aid in preparing students for entry-level technology jobs at cyber-security companies. The purpose will be to aid students who might not necessarily be as initially tech-oriented as others, and to help them gain more work in this information era, as well as the possible benefit to computer science students, as well.

“f you have a liberal arts background, you have a lot to bring to the table,” said Malwitz. “A lot of the knocks on people who are purely technical is they don’t have the communication skills.”

Gantz wrote that the program will be divided into three and four-week sessions, and will teach skills which can have immediate use as well give “a well-rounded understanding of how to apply technology in cyber security settings,” according to Homer Minnick III of  the university’s Center for Cybersecurity Training, who added that “the folks who really get into this are the ones who want to know how stuff works, [and have] a general thirst for more knowledge of whatever kind.”

Gantz wrote that as of July, there were 400 cyber security students involved in the Center for Cybersecurity Training, and with the addition of the Cyber Academy, the Center will grow to 1,200 by 2013.

Alumna Jeehye Yun ’97, computer science, was profiled along with her cybersecurity company Secured Sciences Group (SSG) by The Baltimore Business Journal‘s Jack Lambert in an article published on September 7th.

Yun told Lambert that SSG–a member of UMBC’s Research and Technology Park, and which is in the process of working with the research park on a plan to attract investors–is particularly adept at cutting through red tape and redundancies which can occur in government applications, saying, “We can take a lot of disparate policies and figure out where the overlaps are.”

The alumna, who is CEO/President of SSG as well as a former teacher at her alma mater from the late-90’s, also told Lambert that the company’s upcoming technology will new technology will hopefully cut through the quantity of material companies have to sift through from government grant applications and contracts by finding the overlaps between for organizations like the Department of Defense, the Navy and the Marines.

Yun also noted that her company’s products also have value for colleges, management consultants and small businesses, saying, “The biggest rule of thumb for us is, actually, are we solving a problem where we would want to use the product?”