Are You Ready to Pave the Way for hackUMBC 2025?

Following the incredible success of hackUMBC 2024, we’re excited to keep the momentum going for an even more ambitious hackUMBC 2025—and we’re on the lookout for talented, driven individuals to help us make it happen! This is your opportunity to join the dynamic hackUMBC team, committed to creating UMBC’s flagship hackathon from the ground up.

Joining the hackUMBC team is more than just an experience; it’s a chance for personal and professional growth, where you’ll tackle challenges and gain invaluable skills along the way. You’ll become an essential part of one of our four core teams—Tech, Design, Marketing, or Sponsorship—contributing significantly to the event’s success. You can indicate your preferred team on the organizer form.

Ready to dive in? Apply here:https://hackumbc.typeform.com/to/zBg8SfON.

Interviews will begin on November 11th, so be sure to submit your application soon!

If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to hackumbc@umbc.edu.

UMBC Cyber Defense Lab presents

FT-PrivacyScore: Personalized Privacy Scoring for Machine Learning Participation

Dr. Keke Chen, UMBC

1-2 pm EDT Friday, Nov. 1, 2024, online

Joint work with PhD students Ethan Gu and Jiajie He

UMBC's Faculty Development Center will hold the second online discussion session on Teaching with AI on Wednesday, October 30 from 12-1  based on the book Teaching with AI: A Practical Guide to a New Era of Human Learning by José Antonio Bowen and C. Edward Watson.

This session will cover pages 81-158 of the book and explore how AI can support educators, examine how AI complicates cheating and detection, and share insights about AI policies. Arguing that C-level work is no longer acceptable, since AI can do that for all of us, the last chapter in this section looks at how AI impacts grading and our shared understanding of quality.

Participants can access the ebook online at any time through the AOK library using the following steps.

1. Log into myUMBC
2. Go to the AOK Library Website
3. In the AOK OneSearch box, type the book title and press Search
4. Locate the ebook, and click on the green "Available online" link
5. Click on “EBSCOhost Ebooks” under the “View Online” header

Get more information and register here to get the link to the session.

On October 22, 2024, this year’s GESTAR II undergraduate and graduate fellows gave virtual presentations on topics they researched with their mentor(s); they were joined by an international visiting student who is working with a GESTAR II scientist. The event was organized and moderated by Dominique Footes, Special Programs Administrator (SURA). 

Three different GESTAR II fellowships were represented: 2023-2024 Graduate Fellows, 2023-2024 Morgan State University Undergraduate Fellows, and 2024 Short-Term/Visiting Fellows, who are students at partner universities ASU, CSU, and PSU. This year’s visiting fellows worked with their mentors over ten weeks in Summer 2024; however, their research collaborations continued into Fall 2024. For more information on upcoming fellowship opportunities, visit the GESTAR II Student Opportunities.

GESTAR II 2023-2024 Graduate Fellows:

Chhaya Kulkarni (University of Maryland, Baltimore County) presented “Assessing Radiance Variance in OSSE Simulations for Improved Satellite Observations.” She worked with GESTAR II mentor Nikki Privé (610.1/MSU) and Dr. Vandana Janeja (UMBC). Ms. Kulkarni created a web tool that shows some of the Machine Learning results from her research; she submitted a “demonstration track” paper titled “Interactive Assessment Variances of High-Resolution Model Features in OSSE Simulations” that was accepted by ACM SIGSPATIAL 2024.

Yu-An Chen (Colorado State Univ.) presented “Application of Nonlinear Data Assimilation to Hurricane Dynamics and Predictability: Boundary Layer Turbulent Structure.” Mr. Chen worked with GESTAR II mentor Stephen Guimond (UMBC, now with Hampton Univ.) and Dr. Peter Jan van Leeuwen (CSU).

GESTAR II 2023-2024 Morgan State University Undergraduate Fellow:  

Ajan Coleman (Morgan State Univ.) gave a lightning talk titled “Plant Hyperspectral Spectroscopy Data Research”; his mentor was Dhruva Kathuria (618/MSU).

GESTAR II 2024 Short-Term/Visiting Fellows:  

Praveena Kulandhaivel (Arizona State Univ.) gave a lightning talk titled “Exploring High-Resolution PM2.5 Hindcast Modeling in Phoenix”; her mentor was Carl Malings (610.1/MSU).

Alexis Cole (Pennsylvania State Univ.) gave a lightning talk titled “Exploring the Relationship Between GNSS RO Penetration and Lower Tropospheric Moisture in the Arctic Using Multi-Observational Datasets”; her mentor was Manisha Ganeshan (613/MSU).

Madison Shogrin (Colorado State Univ.) gave a lightning talk titled “O3-sensitivity from space: diurnal variability in the HCHO:NO2 ratio and NO2 over the Colorado front range from TEMPO and TROPOMI”; her mentor was Lok Lamsal (614/UMBC) and her advisors were Dr. Emily Fischer (CSU) and Dr. Vivienne Payne (NASA JPL).

In addition to the GESTAR II fellows, international student Janhavi Singh (Banaras Hindu University, India) gave a short presentation titled “Estimation of Surface Concentration of Particulate Matter (PM2.5) Using Machine Learning Algorithms over Kolkata (INDIA)”; her mentors were Lok Lamsal (614/UMBC) and Dr. Sunita Verma (B.H.U.).

Congratulations to all of our fellows on their collaborative and informative presentations, and we thank all the mentors and advisors!