The UMBC Cyber Defense Team is looking for new members. Cyber security is all over the news, and UMBC is right in the middle of it. Join the UMBC team to learn more about this exciting and fast growing field, and to gain access to the best competitions, such as CCDC, the DC3 DFC, and the recently announced MDC3, as well as networking opportunities with all the key players, from government agencies to private industry.

When and where?

Join us for a presentation followed by a discussion next Monday, February 14th from noon to 1.00PM, in room ITE 235.

Who should attend?

We are inviting everyone who has an interest in cyber security, regardless of your major or current knowledge level. Most of our team members are undergraduate IS or CS majors, but we also have graduate CE and EE majors.

Why?

Because we want your help to grow within both UMBC and Maryland.

In Spring 2010 our team competed in the regional Collegiate Cyber Defense Championship (CCDC) for the east coast. In this competition, each team defended a mock corporate network against a horde of professional hackers in a fast-paced, real-time event over the course of two days. During Fall 2010 we participated in a scrimmage hosted at Towson University and became an official student organization recognized by SGA, consolidating both our technical and organizational skills. For 2011, we are upgrading our whole network/computing infrastructure and expanding to new competitions such as DC3 and MDC3.

In summary, the UMBC Cyber Defense Team is a great opportunity to gain real world security experience. We practice both penetration and defense of isolated networks similar to real business environments and plan on tackling more research-oriented problems as well. No experience is required, but you must be motivated to learn about computer networks and systems security.

If you have any questions, please email Sorry, you need javascript to view this email address and we’ll help you out.

In today’s ebiquity meeting, Curt Tilmes showed an interesting figure showing the how often a particular dataset (MODIS snow cover data) was mentioned in a paper vs. how often it was formally cited. It’s a good example of how far we still need to go w.r.t. formally capturing the provenance of data and information derived from it.

The figure is from:

Parsons, Mark A.; Duerr, Ruth; Minster, Jean-Bernard. Data Citation and Peer Review. Eos, Transactions American Geophysical Union, Volume 91, Issue 34, p. 297-298. 2010.

Contact:
Dinah Winnick
Communications Manager
University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC)
410-455-8117
dwinnick@umbc.edu

A year after the February 2010 North American blizzards and in the wake of recent storms, government and business leaders are asking how we can better deal with extreme weather. UMBC faculty researchers offer important perspectives on severe storms and Mid-Atlantic meteorology, emergency/disaster preparedness and response and the impacts of school closures on learning.

Jeffrey B. Halverson is associate professor of geography and environmental systems and associate director-academics at the Joint Center for Earth Systems Technology (JCET). He has expertise on severe storms, mesoscale meteorology and meteorology/climatology of the Mid-Atlantic region and he helped pioneer the first system to take direct measurements in the eye of a mature hurricane from 70,000 feet. Halverson has worked at both NASA Headquarters and the Goddard Space Flight Center. He has appeared in hurricane specials on The Discovery Channel and NOVA, and has written columns for Weatherwise Magazine and the Baltimore Sun. Contact him at jeffhalv@umbc.edu or 410-455-3350 (o).

Richard A. Bissell, associate professor and graduate program director in emergency health services, is an expert on emergency preparedness and response and EMS system development, with specialties in rural and international EMS. Bissell’s work in emergency health epidemiology and disaster services planning/evaluation has taken him to over 40 countries. He has served on the advisory boards of the American Red Cross and World Health Organization, and as principal investigator on a multi-million dollar U.S. Public Health Service project to train clinicians and logistics personnel in medical response to disasters and terrorism. Contact him at bissell@umbc.edu or 410-455-3776 (o).

Dave E. Marcotte, professor and graduate program director in public policy, can offer insight on how resources impact student performance in primary and secondary education, including the effects of snow days on learning. His research has appeared in the New York Times, Washington Post, LA Times, Baltimore Sun, Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic, The Economist, Education Week, Christian Science Monitor and more. For details, see the Education Next article “Time for School.” Contact him at marcotte@umbc.edu or 410-455-1455 (o).

Cell numbers available upon request.

The Feb. 11 episode of PBS's Need to Know will look at the Meyerhoff Scholars Program and curriculum changes at UMBC that have helped more students succeed in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

The segment is part of a one-hour special on education. It is scheduled to air on Maryland Public Television MPT2 at 11 p.m. and, in the greater Washington area, on WETA HD and TV 26 at 10:30 p.m. The program also will be available on the Need to Know website.

The program “highlights three dramatic stories of academic transformation – focusing on literacy, physical education and science education.” The segment on UMBC is titled, “Reinventing science education at one Maryland university.”