On December 5, the campus celebrated this year’s Arts+ initiative with five concurrent events featuring UMBC students, faculty, and guest artists. In a sold out concert in Linehan Concert Hall, the UMBC Symphony Orchestra and String Chamber Orchestra, directed by assistant professor Philip Mann, performed Alexander Glazunov’s Violin Concerto, featuring professor Airi Yoshioka, and works by professor Linda Dusman and Rich Sigwald ’03, music.

Down the hall in the Black Box Theatre, UMBC Theatre presented Street Scenes, with text by Langston Hughes and his contemporaries, with music by Kurt Weill, adapted and directed by associate professor Eve Muson, with musical direction by adjunct professor Andrew Hann—also to a sold out house.

The Department of Dance presented the Fall Dance Showcase on the stage of the Proscenium Theatre, featuring striking capstone works by senior students and independent student research.

The PAHB lecture hall was home to a Film and Animation Showcase, featuring works by 18 students and recent graduates of UMBC’s Intermedia and Digital Arts (IMDA) program.

The Center for Art, Design, and Visual Culture presented a collaboration between 2023 MacArthur Fellow María Magdalena Campos-Pons and musician Kamaal Malak, known collectively as KaMag. Their work, entitled Vignettes in 3 Sessions: An Immersive Ancestral Experience, delighted a capacity audience and was followed by the launch of a new public projection by KaMag, I Am Soil — My Tears Are Water, in the Fine Arts Building amphitheatre.

The Arts+ initiative will continue in spring 2026 with performances by Baltimore Dance Project and Orange Grove Dance, a faculty art exhibition, a lecture by visual artist Lynda Barry, a production of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, and more than a dozen music concerts by faculty and guest artists. A full schedule will be available in January 2026.

Name: Baani Natraj

Pronouns: She/ Her

Semester of Internship: Fall 2025

Major: Ms. Cybersecurity

Current Class Level: Master's Student

This semester I completed a(n)...: Internship

Internship, Co-op, or Research Site (Company/Organization Name): SAP America

Location of the Organization (City, State): Alabama 

Title of position: Operational Security intern

Tell us about your internship, co-op, or research opportunity, including your day-to-day responsibilities:

I am currently interning as an Operations Security Specialist with SAP America, supporting the Sales Performance Management (SPM) platform during its migration to a cloud-native Kubernetes environment. My day-to-day responsibilities focus on container and cloud security, including hardening Docker images, validating base images against security standards, and analyzing vulnerabilities using tools such as Orca Security, Mend, and Black Duck. I assist with automating security reporting workflows using Python to collect, map, and generate weekly vulnerability reports integrated with Jira and SharePoint. I also collaborate closely with DevOps and platform teams to review Kubernetes security policies, enforce compliance controls, and support secure CI/CD pipeline practices. This role has allowed me to apply academic cybersecurity concepts directly to real-world enterprise environments.

Describe the process of obtaining your position. When did you hear of the position and submit your application?

I learned about the internship opportunity through SAP career platform and professional networking platforms. After reviewing the role responsibilities and matching them with my background in cybersecurity and cloud security, I submitted my application with a tailored resume highlighting my technical projects and hands-on experience. The selection process included an initial resume screening, followed by multiple interview rounds focused on technical knowledge, problem-solving, and teamwork. During the interviews, I discussed my academic training, interest in container security, and experience with automation and security tools. After successfully completing the interview process, I received the offer and formally accepted the position.

What resources did you use to find your current experience?

Networking events (UMBC Connects, Info Sessions, Arts With a Purpose, etc.), LinkedIn or other social media, Company careers platform 

What have you enjoyed the most about your position and organization?

What I have enjoyed most about my position is the opportunity to work on real-world security challenges in a fast-paced, cloud-native environment. Being part of SAP America has allowed me to apply classroom knowledge directly to enterprise-scale systems, especially in container security, vulnerability management, and automation. I value the strong culture of collaboration and mentorship, where senior engineers actively support learning and encourage questions. I have also enjoyed contributing to meaningful security improvements that impact live production systems. The organization's emphasis on innovation, continuous improvement, and professional growth has made this experience both technically rewarding and personally motivating.

How do you believe you have made an impact through your work?

I believe I have made an impact through my work by improving the visibility, consistency, and efficiency of security operations within the team at SAP America. By automating the collection and reporting of vulnerability data, I helped reduce manual effort and ensured that critical security findings are tracked more accurately through Jira and weekly compliance reports. My contributions to container hardening and base image validation have supported stronger security controls across multiple services. I have also added value by proactively analyzing security gaps, supporting Kubernetes policy reviews, and collaborating with DevOps teams to strengthen secure deployment practices. Overall, my work has helped streamline security workflows while reinforcing a stronger security posture across the platform.

What advice would you give to another student who is seeking an internship or similar experience?

My advice to students seeking an internship is to focus on building practical skills alongside academic learning. Hands-on projects, labs, certifications, and personal automation work can strongly differentiate your resume. Networking is equally important—engage with professors, career services, alumni, and professionals on LinkedIn, and do not hesitate to ask for guidance or referrals. Tailor your resume for each role and be prepared to clearly explain your technical experience in simple terms during interviews. Most importantly, apply consistently and do not be discouraged by rejections. Persistence, adaptability, and a willingness to keep learning are often what lead to the right opportunity.

Please provide a short reflection or quote about what you liked most about your position / earning internship credit / working with the Career Center.

"I loved gaining hands-on experience solving real-world security challenges while working in a collaborative, professional environment. The Career Center played a key role by helping me refine my resume, prepare for interviews, and stay confident throughout the application process."

For Medical and Dental School Applicants, the UMBC Health Professions Evaluation Committee's (HPEC) Cohort process - which begins with exercises to help applicants prepare the materials they need to complete their professional school application, and results in a Committee Letter from the HPEC to accompany an applicant's other Letters of Recommendation - is set in motion nearly a year and half before an applicant plans to enter Medical or Dental School. 

The next HPEC Cohort, supporting applicants planning to enter Medical or Dental School in Fall 2027, is about to begin!

11:59 pm on February 15, 2026

Greetings UMBC Community,

We have been seeing an increase in Google Calendar being used as a new type of method for phishing. In several instances, these calendar invites are added to a user's calendar without their permission, leaving the user confused as to how the invite appeared and potentially exposing the calendar to other cybersecurity threats. These calendar invites may contain phishing links or malicious content that could be disguised as a legitimate meeting or event.

On December 19th, we will be updating our default settings for Calendar invites. Events from individuals external to UMBC will only be added to your calendar automatically if they are from a known sender or if you manually approve them from your email inbox. To make a sender known, you can click "I know the sender" on their calendar invite. Remember to always report spam if you see a calendar invite that looks suspicious.

If you wish to revert the settings on your calendar to the original setting to accept calendar invites from everyone, you can do so by following the instructions in this FAQ after December 20, 2025.

As winter break is approaching, here are also some cybersecurity reminders to help keep your UMBC account safe:

• Update and shut down all computers that will be unused for the duration of the break,

• Keep an eye out for phishing emails and report them to security@umbc.edu,

• Please validate that before signing into a UMBC-related website from a link, always hover over the link first and ensure the domain in the URL clearly contains "umbc.edu",

• Use the GlobalProtect VPN if you are a staff member working from off-campus.

If you have questions regarding this change you can reach out to security@umbc.edu. We wish everyone a happy and safe Winter Break.

We are excited to share a recent publication by Dr. Matthew E. Fagan, Professor in the Department of Geography and Environmental Systems at UMBC, published in Nature Ecology & Evolution.

In "The responsible use of global remote-sensing datasets," Dr. Fagan and co-authors Naomi B. Schwartz and Ruth S. DeFries examine how global remote-sensing data are increasingly used to analyze Earth's systems at unprecedented scales. The article highlights both the power and the limitations of these datasets, emphasizing the importance of transparency, uncertainty awareness, and appropriate application in scientific research and decision making.

The authors outline three key considerations for responsible use of global datasets:

• What we map, including blind spots and sociocultural biases in data coverage
• How we map, focusing on model uncertainty and transferability across regions
• Where we make inferences, particularly the risks of drawing fine-scale conclusions from coarse-resolution data

This work calls for stronger best practices, improved metadata, and clearer communication of uncertainties to ensure global datasets are used responsibly and equitably.

Read the full article: The responsible use of global remote-sensing datasets