On Friday, April 10, 2026, we’re migrating our ticketing system to Request Tracker (RT) 6. This is a major update focused on dramatically improving system speed, tightening our security, and preparing our system for modern AI tools. Click here to learn more from our vendor. 

Impact & Downtime

• When: Friday April 10 - Sunday, April 12 

• Downtime: The system will be offline for maintenance starting at 6 PM on Friday, April 10, to finalize the migration. While we expect the upgrade activities to be shorter, we’re holding the entire weekend for potential upgrade activities. 

• No action is required on your part; the update will be applied automatically.

Key Changes & Improvements

A Faster, Customizable Interface

If you spend your day working in queues, you will immediately feel the difference in RT 6:

• Lightning-Fast Interactions: The system now uses modern web technology (HTMX) to load different parts of the page in parallel. Instead of waiting for full-page reloads every time you update a ticket, edit a field, or use "Quick Create," changes happen instantly inline.

• Custom Page Layouts: You are no longer stuck with a one-size-fits-all view. You can now arrange widgets, prioritize the fields you actually use, and declutter your ticket views to match your specific workflow.

• Independent Refresh: Do you have a saved search that you monitor? Searches can now auto-refresh on their own independent timers without reloading your entire dashboard.

• Cleaner Design: The entire interface has been upgraded with a modern framework, making complex ticket histories much easier to read and navigate.
  
  

Under-the-Hood Priorities 

Beyond the UI, we are moving to RT 6 to solve two major backend goals:

1. Enterprise-Grade Security
   Protecting internal requests and data is our top priority. Moving to this version ensures we stay compliant with the latest security standards.

2. Laying the Groundwork for AI
   While you won't see "AI buttons" on launch day, RT 6 is the necessary foundation to get us there. The updated architecture allows us to start testing AI integrations later this year. Once stable, we will explore tools to support our users, including:

   • Smart Summaries to instantly catch you up on long, complex ticket threads.
   • Response Drafting to speed up common replies.
   • Automated Categorization to route tickets more efficiently.
   • MCP Server access for advanced users to interact via workflow tools (learn more).
     
     

Need Assistance?

Support Portal: Request Tracker (RT)

The first draft of the above announcement was generated using AI and edited by the Division of Information Technology Communications and IT teams.

Happy Monday Pre-Pharmers ! 

Our E-board Applications are now OPEN! 

Being a part of our E-board not only prepares you for being a leader, but also allows you to work with students who have similar professional goals as you! If you are interested in being a part of Pre-Pharmacy Society and getting leadership experience, fill out the form attached below. 

Forms will close on April 27th, so please make sure to submit before the due date. Depending on the number of applicants, we may also conduct interviews, so please keep that in mind as you complete your application and look out for an email update from me after submission. 

Pre-Pharm Club E-board App
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdlINf26skuhKdhnxY1NXzyXgIUG5MKlWwlF4tgrdea0_EHvQ/viewform?usp=dialog

Good luck to everyone applying!

Please consider volunteering your time to support the 2026 Mathematics Olympiad. This event will be hosted on April 18th at UMBC by the Maryland Science Olympiad. Additional event information will be linked below!

• This opportunity is open to undergraduate students, graduate students, post-doctoral candidates, and faculty members!
• We still need volunteers especially for events such as Bungee Drop, Eng CAD, MAchines and Materials Science.
• We also need help behind the scenes, especially UMBC students to serve as concierges at registration tables and events since folks from the Maryland Science Olympiad not familiar with campus will need to be pointed in the right direction. 
• Volunteer sign-ups are managed through this link

Please reach out to Justin Webster (websterj@umbc.edu) with any additional questions!

Event Info & Logistics:

• Tournament Logistics
• Tournament Schedule

Kick off Graduate Student Appreciation Week by actually putting yourself first. Whether you’re looking for wellness hacks or want to get your hands a little messy with a creative project, we’ve cleared the schedule for you.

THE BEST PART: We’re giving away wellness goodies all afternoon! Snag some face masks, hydrating hand lotions, and more to keep the spa vibes going at home.

Join us for a full afternoon of slowing down and recharging:

• 1–3 PM | Wellness Tabling: All the resources you actually need. (Main Street)

• 3–5 PM | Candle Making: Pour some light into your week. (Room 329)

• 4–6 PM | Break the Mold: Pottery, networking, and zero talk about your thesis. (Fireside Lounge)

Supporting Cybersecurity-Aware Technology Adoption Decision-Making among Patients in an Increasingly Complex Digital Health Ecosystem

Professor Tera Reynolds
UMBC Department of Information Systems

12–1 pm ET, Friday, April 10, 2026, online

The 21st Century Cures Act has expanded patient access to medical records and enabled certified electronic health record systems to share data with “trusted” mobile health applications via APIs, allowing patients to cultivate personalized micro-ecosystems of health technologies within a broader digital health ecosystem that includes tools like large language models and wearable devices. While this interconnected ecosystem has the potential to support patient self-management, it also introduces a more complex cybersecurity landscape, with limited understanding of how healthcare organizations define “trusted” apps or how patients navigate related risks. In this study, we combined a literature review with interviews with two health IT professionals and 25 patients with complex care needs to examine cybersecurity risks and decision-making across the digital health ecosystem. Our findings highlight emerging themes in how healthcare systems determine trusted apps, monitor threats, and communicate risks, as well as how patients form mental models of cybersecurity, weigh trade-offs when adopting technologies, and vary in their risk tolerance—often perceiving cybersecurity as a constantly evolving challenge that requires ongoing vigilance or avoiding health technologies altogether. These insights underscore the need for better support in navigating cybersecurity decisions and inform our ongoing work to co-design a personalized decision aid to help patients make informed, risk-aligned choices about health technology use.

Tera Reynolds takes a socio-technical lens to understand how we can improve the design and implementation of technologies that connect, facilitate interaction, and support the independent and collaborative health work of individuals (e.g., patients, general public/citizens) and health professionals (e.g., doctors, public health practitioners). Examples of such technologies include patient portals, Apple Health Records, and COVID-19 Contact Tracing applications. She is particularly interested in examining how we can mitigate the risk of these technologies exacerbating health disparities by providing another advantage to already advantaged groups (referred to as intervention-generated inequalities or digital health disparities).

 Host: Dr. Alan T. Sherman. Support for this event was provided in part by the NSF under SFS grants DGE-1753681 and 2438185. 

Event Details

Date: April 7, 2026
Time: 10:00 AM – 12:00 PM
Location: UC Ballroom

While the deadline has passed for free poster printing, we are still accepting presenter registration for poster presentations until TODAY at 5PM.

So, if you have a poster already or are able to prepare a poster, we welcome you to register for tomorrow's symposium.

Registration form here!

This is a great opportunity to share your research, ideas, engage with others' research from across campus, and connect with other scholars. And - there is a chance to win a prize (more details below). 

Who You Are:

• A graduate or undergraduate student from any college at UMBC who wants to share their research with the university community.

What to Expect:

• Poster Presentations from students across CAHSS, COEIT, and CNMS. Come and explore groundbreaking work from all corners of UMBC.

• $2,500 Prize Pool across four categories:

  • BEST of CAHSS (College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences)

  • BEST of COEIT (College of Engineering and Information Technology)

  • BEST of CNMS (College of Natural and Mathematical Sciences)

  • Provost's Choice Award

  • People's Choice Award

• Buffet Lunch for All Attendees – Enjoy a catered lunch featuring a variety of cuisines to accommodate diverse dietary preferences.

• Limited Free Poster Printing is available on a first-come, first-served basis. Participants are encouraged to bring posters they have already prepared for previous conferences or presentations.

Whether you are presenting your research or just want to explore the exciting projects happening across UMBC, we welcome you to participate in this celebration of academic excellence.

Click the link here to register today, or scan the QR code in the flyer! Full URL below:

https://forms.gle/AYC5NiG917QULX8NA

Follow our Instagram @gears_umbc for other updates on events and things! 

Hi all,

Honors College Summer Session Applications are open, due by 11:59pm on Sunday, April 26th. More information and application here.

Please note that budgets are tight across campus, so our scholarship funds are more limited than in previous years. Sorry about that!

ADS and CRSP welcomes Rabbi Lauren Tuchman, the first blind Rabbi ordained in the United States, to campus to share about critical religious pluralism, her experiences and helping our campus community think about resiliency in difficult times.

Join Rabbi Lauren for a lunch and learn to dive into your own cultural and religious resources and come to the public conversation to hear more about her story.

This post is for Signing Up for the Lunch & Learn. Sign up for the Public Talk, too! 

These events and all events are open for full participation by all individuals regardless of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, or any other protected category under applicable federal law, state law, and the University's nondiscrimination policy.

From Crocetta Argento, Executive Administrative Assistant to Dr. Karl Steiner, Division of Research & Creative Achievement

Dear Business Administrators, 

As members of the Strategic Planning Steering Committee, Nancy Kusmaul, Cael Mulcahy and Eli Gendleman and I serve as co-leads for the Cultivate Innovation and Vitality (COIV) Pillar.

We are conducting outreach to various university & community stakeholders to ensure our strategic plan reflects diverse perspectives. Specifically, we are looking to identify potential ideas for ambitious goals and brainstorm the opportunities and challenges UMBC may face in the coming years.

The COIV Pillar is about organizational effectiveness - supporting those that are doing the work at UMBC and ensuring they have the tools and support they need to excel. As business administrators, you serve as the operational backbone of UMBC. You possess a comprehensive view that spans from implementing level policies to managing granular departmental operations. As a result, you can easily identify processes that support or hinder university goals.

We strongly encourage you to complete the strategic plan survey which was distributed to the university community at the end of March. The survey contains 5 sections-one for each Pillar - and you can choose ahead of time which sections you would like to complete.

Additionally, if after reviewing the COIV Pillar Section of the survey, you would like to have a deeper discussion, please feel free to contact any one of us directly.

Thank you for your time and your commitment to UMBC.

Sincerely, 

The COIV Pillar Co-Leads

Eli Gendleman elijahg1@umbc.edu

Nancy Kusmaul nkusmaul@umbc.edu

Cael Mulcahy cmulcahy@umbc.edu

and Crocetta Argento cargent1@umbc.edu