Read the UMBC News story here:

https://umbc.edu/stories/undergraduate-research-urcad-at-30/

UMBC gets ready to celebrate 30 years of its signature undergraduate research extravaganza

Published: Apr 20, 2026

By: Catherine Meyers

The band Fever Dream will perform at URCAD. (Photo courtesy of April Householder)

On April 22, more than 450 student presenters and their friends, mentors, and supporters will fill the Retriever Activities Center (RAC) for the 30th anniversary of the Undergraduate Research and Creative Achievement Day.

It’s the first year the annual event, more commonly known as URCAD, will take place in the RAC, where it has moved because of its record-breaking size. The event will feature poetry readings, live music performances, video game demonstrations, scientific research presentations, artistic exhibits, films, and more. The new space provides room for more live performances and exhibits. This year’s URCAD will feature music by the Dana Idnay band, members of the UMBC Jazz Ensemble, the drum circle, the Down and Dirty Dawg Band, and Fever Dream, a band made up of UMBC undergraduate and graduate students and led by biology professors Jeffrey Lieps and Stephen Caruso.

It’s a tradition of the event to invite an outstanding alum as the keynote speaker. This year, Karena Ingram ‘16, music composition, will speak about her work as a composer and arts advocate who brings issues ranging from domestic violence to video gaming into her projects. As a student, she presented her own research at URCAD on the Baltimore-based composer CK Barlow and her influence in the field of electronic music. 

Student participants hail from all corners of campus and will showcase their diverse research and creative projects, including investigations into supermassive black holes, patterns of Antarctic tourism, the effects of 9/11 on U.S. immigration, and much more. 

“As we celebrate the 30th anniversary, we recognize that URCAD is one of the oldest and largest events of this kind in the state, and that UMBC has one of the highest rates for undergraduates who do mentored research in the country,” says April Householder ’95, director of undergraduate research and prestigious scholarships. “To commemorate, we are throwing back to the 1990s—stop by the photo booth and graffiti wall and make some memories!”

Students pose for a photo and mingle at a poster session during URCAD in 2024. (Marlayna Demond ’11/UMBC)

A lively festival of the mind

The original URCAD was held in 1997 on the 7th floor of the AOK Library, with about 50 scheduled student presenters. Former Vice Provost and Dean of Undergraduate Education Diane Lee, who had the idea for the event, says she was afraid there wouldn’t be enough attendees. 

Former Vice Provost and Dean of Undergraduate Education Diane Lee, who started URCAD 30 years ago, attends the 2024 event. (Marlayna Demond ’11/UMBC)

“We decided to have a midday program and invite [President Emeritus] Dr. Hrabowski to speak. His presence and wonderful snacks including chocolate covered strawberries ensured a good crowd,” she recalls. 

Over the years, the event grew ever larger, but it stayed true to its purpose of showcasing the quality of UMBC students and the depth of the questions they investigate. It also serves as a unifying event, where students from diverse disciplines can learn about each other’s work. 

Householder says that because of the size of this year’s event, she briefly considered splitting URCAD across two days—one for STEM and one for artists. But she quickly discarded that idea. “What is special about URCAD is that everyone is together in one space,” she says. “A scientist presenting a biochemistry poster can hear music, a poet who is an English major can see an airplane prototype, and an engineer can check out costumes made for the theatre. UMBC is a place where we don’t exist in boxes.”

Tags: CAHSS, CNMS, COEIT, Undergraduate Research, URCAD

FacebookTwitterLinkedIn

We've just published a rundown of everything that's new in the myUMBC groups editor, and there's a lot. Scheduling posts, archiving content, a preview step before you publish, a better editor, and more.

It's worth a read: myUMBC Groups: We Heard You and We've Been Busy

As always, if you run into anything or have questions, don't hesitate to reach out.

If you manage a myUMBC group, you've probably noticed some things look a little different lately. We've been working on a big round of improvements to the editor and groups experience, and I wanted to walk you through what changed and why.

There's a lot here, so I'll try to keep it organized.

A Much Better Editor

The most visible change is the editor itself. We replaced the old one with a modern rich-text editor that, hopefully, just gets out of your way.

Paste from Word or Google Docs and it just works. Formatting comes in cleanly without a wall of mystery HTML. This one has been a long time coming.

Images are easier to work with. You can paste, drag-and-drop, or upload images directly into the body of your post. No more hunting for a separate upload button. When you insert an image you'll be prompted for alt text (more on that in a minute).

Paste a YouTube URL and it becomes a player. Drop a YouTube link into the editor and it automatically embeds as a video player. In the notification email that goes out to your group, recipients will see a clickable thumbnail linking to the video instead of a broken embed.

Attachments and tags got some attention too. The interface for attaching files is cleaner, and the tag editor now works like a chip input: type a tag, press Enter to add it, click the x to remove it.

One small but important change: the "Silent" option on the post form has been renamed to "Send Notifications." It's on by default, which is the right behavior for most posts. If you don't want to send a notification, just uncheck it. We made this change because "silent" wasn't exactly self-explanatory.

Preview Before You Publish (and Scheduling!)

Instead of going straight from editing to publishing, there's now a Preview step in between.

On the edit form, you'll choose whether to publish immediately or schedule your post for later. Group admins can schedule up to 30 days in advance. Once you've made that choice, you click Preview before anything goes out.

From the preview screen you can:

• See exactly what your post will look like to readers before it goes live
• Send yourself a test email to see what the notification looks like in your inbox
• Copy a shareable preview link to send to other group admins if you want a second set of eyes before it goes live

Then you confirm the publish or the scheduled time from there.

If your group does a lot of time-sensitive announcements, scheduling should make your life a lot easier.

Alt Text is Now Required

We're making a serious push on accessibility, and one concrete change is that alt text is now required on all images before you can publish. If you've got images without alt text, the Publish button will stay disabled until you fix them.

When you insert an image you'll be prompted right then. If the image is purely decorative, you can check "decorative" and move on. Otherwise a short description goes a long way for people using screen readers.

You may notice other accessibility-related changes around myUMBC as we continue this work. We do our best to make sure nothing breaks along the way, but if something feels off please don't hesitate to reach out to me or the team.

Archive Your Content

Groups can now archive posts and events rather than choosing between leaving old content in the feed or deleting it forever.

Each post and event now has an Archive button. Archiving moves that item out of the main listing into a separate archived view. On your Posts tab, there's a button on the right side that says "View Archived Posts" to toggle between active and archived content.

This is especially useful for groups targeting students with announcements. Old posts that aren't relevant to new visitors can be tucked away without losing them permanently.

If you want to do a bulk cleanup, say archive everything before a certain date, submit a ticket and our team will take care of it.

A Few More Things

Events: In-Person, Virtual, or Hybrid. When creating an event you now explicitly choose the format, and the form shows or hides relevant fields based on what you pick. No more filling in a location for a fully virtual event.

Subscription tag filtering. If your group subscribes to another group's content, you can now limit that subscription to specific tags so only the content you care about comes through.

Group inactivity process. After eight months of inactivity, your group will start receiving emails letting you know. You'll have the option to extend the group for four more months, or choose to archive or delete it. Archiving sets the group to read-only so people can still see past content but no new posts can be made. Deleting removes the group itself but keeps individual posts intact since we hold onto public content for the historical record.

My Events page. Go to the Events section in the left nav and choose My Events to see upcoming events you're signed up for, plus upcoming events from the groups you belong to.

Personal posts are now called Messages. For groups that use them, you'll see the updated label.

Questions?

If something isn't working right or you have questions about any of this, reach out to our team and we'll be happy to help.

The Campus Connect: A Centralized Digital Marketplace for Student Entrepreneurship and Campus-Based Services

Presenter: Jada Iwuoha
Mentor: Kevin Fulmer, Alex Brown Center for Entrepreneurship; Tasha Vanzie, Alex Brown Center for Entrepreneurship and BwTech

RAC Arena, 2 – 3 p.m., Poster #34

With the growing number of entrepreneurs and talented students at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County there is an urgent need for a centralized solution that allows students to advertise and engage in the services/products offered by students within the campus community. Currently, many student entrepreneurs and campus organizations use disconnected communication channels such as social media, word of mouth, or group chats, allowing for limited visibility and inconsistent outreach. As a result, many students on campus aren’t aware of these opportunities and believe they must leave campus to receive the services they need. The Campus Connect is a digital platform which offers a user-friendly website where on-campus student-run businesses can register, create profiles, and promote their products/services directly to the students of UMBC through campus marketplaces and service listings. The Campus Connect addresses the limited visibility and centralized support for student entrepreneurs while reducing barriers for students seeking affordable, convenient, and campus-accessible services. Initial usability testing with nine student participants indicated that users were able to quickly locate services, understand business offerings, and navigate the platform with minimal instruction. These findings suggest that centralized digital marketplaces can significantly improve awareness of campus-based services and reduce accessibility barriers.

This work was funded, in part, through an Undergraduate Research Award from the UMBC Division of Undergraduate Academic Affairs.

URCAD is tomorrow in the RAC!

URCAD.umbc.edu

Both items have stickers on them:

1. Yellow Hydro Flask: White roadrunner sticker.
2. Black WH-CH520 Sony Headphones: Hamster & flower stickers on both earmuffs.

If found, please turn them in to the Campus Information Center (CIC) located in the Common's lobby, or the Library Circulation Desk at AOK Library, and leave a comment on this post.

There will be no Tone with Maria today, April 21. 

The Quantitative Finance & Analytics Club and the Accounting Club are excited to host a Career Conference featuring guest speakers from leading firms such as JP Morgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, and Ellin & Tucker.

The event will be hosted in Commons 329 this Thursday, April 23rd from 7pm.

Join us to gain valuable insights into:
Breaking into the finance industry
Real-world experiences from professionals
Tips on landing internships and full-time roles

Food will be provided!

Don’t miss this opportunity to network, learn, and take the next step toward your career in finance.

Six English department students will deliver presentations tomorrow at UMBC's Undergraduate Research and Creative Achievement Day (URCAD) during its thirtieth anniversary event. Find their presentation titles, times, and locations in the list below. We hope to see you there!

URCAD will be held Wednesday, April 22, 2026 in the RAC. Access the full URCAD schedule here: urcad.umbc.edu

Also, UMBC BookFest '26 events continue through the week, including two events highlighting the importance of libraries on Thursday, April 23. Visit the BookFest website here to access the full schedule.

English Department Student Presentations at URCAD

Kat Gill | The Case for a Public Internet | Michael Casiano | American Studies/English | RAC 230 | 2:55-3:10 

Phoenix Gordon | Conceptions of Blackness: A Fantastical Re-Imagining of Black Heroism and Villainy | Sharon Tran | English | RAC 106 | 10:00-10:15 

Esther Myers | Homophobia and Queer Repression in Watchmen | Keegan Finberg and Sharon Tran | English | RAC 106 | 1:15-1:30 

Ryan Supplee | Spiritualized Disability and Liminality in The Book of Margery Kempe | Kathryn McKinley | English | RAC 106 | 9:40-9:55 

Maia Turman Cooke | The Language of Decriminalization: Drug Policy Rhetoric and Public Health in 21st Century Canada | Earl Brooks | English | RAC 106 | 11:00-11:15 

Trilece Wilson | Tears Made of Ink | Nicole Pekarske | English | RAC STAGE | 11:15-11:30

This month, Serena Studivant and Pooja Danda from Commuter Student Programs presented on the data they have collected about Good Morning, Commuters! and the broader Commuter Connections area to continue to shape the commuter student experience at UMBC. Their presentation captured a mix of quantitative and qualitative data, which not only highlighted the program’s impact but also informed continual program improvement. This presentation builds on a previous presentation Serena delivered last year at Assessment 365.

After watching this video, please take our two question, 15 second evaluation, thanks!

Dear Graduate Students,

As we approach the upcoming academic year, I am writing to encourage you to finalize your course selections and enroll for the Fall 2026 semester. I understand that managing your finances may be a primary concern, however please note the following: 

• You can complete your registration for fall courses as soon as possible without an immediate financial transaction or bill.  
• Fall 2026 tuition bills will not be disseminated until August 1 and are not due until August 20, which allows for those awaiting funding or financial aid to be processed and reflected on your account. Click here to view UMBC's billing cycle. 
• Your academic department leaders need to get a sense of course enrollment to determine whether a class will reach the necessary threshold to run as scheduled. 

Thank you for your continued dedication to your program of study. Your presence and participation in our scholarly communities are vital to UMBC's success. 

Thank you, 

Dr. Christa Porter