U.S. News and World Report has recognized UMBC’s online master’s degree in information systems as #32 on their national list of 2025 Best Online Master’s in Information Technology Programs. The program moved up two spots from last year’s ranking. 

U.S. News evaluates programs based on qualities such as strong faculty credentials, a good reputation among peer institutions, and the opportunity for students to use diverse online learning tools and engage with their instructors and classmates.

The UMBC program prides itself on its flexibility, industry-relevant curriculum, and specialization options. Working professionals can choose to pursue a degree on a full-time or part-time basis, depending on their career and personal goals. Students looking to narrow their focus can choose a specialization track in data science, cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, or UX design.

New this semester, the program is expanding the student experience for online learners by offering tailored events and networking opportunities, such as virtual networking events, industry-specific webinars, and guest speaker sessions. “These initiatives will help foster a sense of community, even from a distance,” says James Foulds, the director for the online information systems master’s program. “Students can connect with peers, faculty, and alumni in meaningful ways to support their academic and professional growth.”

Foulds himself will participate in the first such event—the new “Midday Mingle” series offering students the chance for informal online chats with program faculty and alumni. In February, Foulds will discuss his research specialty: the ethical and responsible uses of AI.

The Greek Theatre Program, which is run by the British American Drama Academy, offers an incredible opportunity to work with leading academics and theatre practitioners in the UK and Greece. It is a month-long summer program dedicated to exploring the performance, reception, and modern relevance of ancient drama.  This is a multi-disciplinary course which combines theory and practice throughout. Course participants will spend the first ten days of the course in London before traveling to Greece for eleven days of workshops and visits to explore ancients sites and then returning to the UK for a final week-long residency at the Archive of Performances of Greek & Roman Drama in Oxford. The course dates for 2025 are 7th June - 4th July.   The course provides a number of unique opportunities for participants to:  Visit ancient sites in Athens, Delphi, Mycenae and Epidaurus, studying and performing chosen extracts from tragedy and comedy along the way Work with leading practitioners from the National Theatre of Great Britain, Complicité, Shakespeare’s Globe and the National Theatre of Greece Research in the one-of-a-kind collections of the Archive of Performances of Greek & Roman Drama at the University of Oxford The deadline for applications for this year’s course is 1st February. Full info here: http://www.bada.org.uk/study/greek-theatre/ If you have any questions please email course director Paul O’Mahony on pomahony@bada.org.uk ANCS department scholarships are available for majors who enroll in this course!

Naghmeh Karimi, an associate professor in the Department of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering, was recently granted more than $300,000 in funding from the Semiconductor Research Corporation (SRC) to study the security of promising hardware components that speed up the computing process. 

SRC brings together technology companies, academics, and government agencies to tackle large scientific and technical challenges, and Karimi’s research will be funded by three leading technology companies: IBM-Research, AMD, and Siemens. 

Karimi and her team, including graduate students and a collaborator from Arizona State University, will study computer chips whose design and structure allows computing-in-memory (CiM), where data processing happens directly within the computer’s memory. CiM architectures are promising for speeding up the use of machine learning algorithms because they consume less energy.

Different types of CiM devices (such as RRAM, MRAM, and SRAM) each have their own strengths and weaknesses in terms of performance, power use, and size, and to get the best results, engineers need to combine different CiM devices into one system. Building these systems in 3D layers can further improve their efficiency and performance. However, the security of these 3D architectures has received little attention to date. 

Karimi’s team will study the security of 3D CiM technologies used in AI applications. In particular, the research will focus on evaluating the security vulnerabilities of the technologies and developing mitigation strategies. 

“I’m excited about this project because the topic is very timely,” says Karimi. “The support from three leading companies in the AI field shows the importance of the problem and the promise of the solutions we are working on.”

The team aims to enhance the security of CiM-based AI accelerators against physical attacks that adversaries might launch to leak sensitive data or induce malfunctions. The researchers will work closely with the funding companies over the next three years in this area.