Hi everyone, 

We have an exciting message from U-RISE:

Are you interested in pursuing a PhD in the biomedical sciences? If so, please join the U-RISE Program Interest Meeting on Monday, December 1st, at 12:00 p.m. in ILSB, Room 118.

U-RISE Scholars receive:

• A scholarship for partial tuition, fees and housing

• Year-round participation in research with a mentor

• Summer research stipend 

• Special advising, seminars & workshops 

• Funds to travel to & present at conferences 

• Help with graduate school applications 

• Experience presenting at URCAD & other national meetings 

This Interest Meeting is intended for sophomores, who will be Juniors in Fall 2026. If you cannot make the Interest Meeting live, we will share the link to the recorded session. Applications for next year's cohort will open December 5, 2025, in Scholarship Retriever, and close January 22, 2026.

You can also email the Associate Director Dr. King at jking3@umbc.edu, with any questions or concerns.

Happy Thanksgiving!

- SACNAS E-Board

I'm looking for a female roommate for a master bedroom with a private 1/2 bathroom in my 2-bedroom apartment in Catonsville. Rent is $747.5/month, and the deposit is $500.

The room is bright and spacious, and it has two full closets. 

This is a great 2-bedroom apartment in Catonsville in a safe, quiet, and convenient area. The UMBC bus stop is right across the street; it's 5 minutes to UMBC if you drive (parking is available), and the MTA bus to Downtown Baltimore stops on the corner of the street. The current roommate is a UMBC student. The apartment has utilities, including internet, a heating and cooling system (around $80/mo), and a full kitchen. The living room is furnished. The laundry is shared in the building. Surface lot parking is available. 

I am a PhD student looking for a clean and well-mannered roommate.  If interested, email me at ssemsar1@umbc.edu

Please message me for more information and to schedule a visit.

-Everything is furnished except the bedroom.

Requirements: 

- No smoking 

- No pet

Are you interested in pursuing a PhD in the biomedical sciences after graduation from UMBC If so, please join the U-RISE Program Interest Meeting on Monday, December 1st, at 12:00 p.m. in ILSB, Room 118.

U-RISE Scholars receive:

• A scholarship for partial tuition, fees and housing

• Year-round participation in research with a mentor

• Summer research stipend 

• Special advising, seminars & workshops 

• Funds to travel to & present at conferences 

• Help with graduate school applications 

• Experience presenting at URCAD & other national meetings 

This Interest Meeting is intended for sophomores, and transfer students. If you cannot make the Interest Meeting live, we will share the link to the recorded session. Applications for next year's cohort will open December 5, 2025, in Scholarship Retriever, and close January 22, 2026. To learn more.

U-RISE at UMBC is a preeminent undergraduate research training scholarship program with the goal of increasing the number of students from underrepresented groups who pursue Ph.D. degrees and research careers in the biomedical sciences. This program, primarily for juniors and seniors, is funded by the National Institute of General and Medical Sciences (NIGMS) of The National Institutes of Health (NIH). 

You can also email Dr. Jackie King, Associate Director of U-RISE (jking3@umbc.edu), with any questions or concerns.

Attention Student Org Leaders! 

We're gathering insights on how student org leaders use digital tools for communication, event planning, and organization management. Your voice will guide improvements. 

Register here: https://signup.com/go/vOxybxs 

Orgs that participate will be entered into a raffle for $500!

On November 15, more than 120 engineering and computer science professionals and students convened on the UMBC campus for the 2025 IEEE Baltimore Technical Colloquium, co-sponsored this year by the Department of Information Systems. It was the second IEEE Baltimore Technical Colloquium, and saw approximately 20 percent growth in attendance compared to the inaugural event.

The colloquium focused on innovation and leadership in cutting edge areas such as artificial intelligence, data analytics, quantum computing, computational medicine, trustworthy computing, and more. The event, held in the Interdisciplinary Life Sciences Building, was a chance for academic experts, industry leaders, and students from around Baltimore to share their research, network, and find new inspiration.

Chinonso Ezeobi, M.S. ’22, electrical engineering, and a current Ph.D. student, served as conference vice chair. “Curating programs for our IEEE professional community has been incredibly rewarding,” he said. “Serving as chair has provided invaluable opportunities to expand my network and develop my leadership capabilities.”

The event attracted major area universities, companies, and organizations including the Army Research Lab, Northrop Grumman, JP Morgan Chase, and the National Institute of Standards and Technology. Ezeobi delivered opening remarks and, along with several other UMBC students and faculty, presented research. Student and alumni volunteers helped keep the program running smoothly. 

Jeanne van Briesen, dean of the College of Engineering and Information Technology, delivered keynote remarks on how engineers and scientists can tackle complex, modern problems, such as reverse engineering the human brain and preventing nuclear terror. In these so-called “wicked problems,” engineered, natural, and data systems interact with human and social systems, creating situations where there is no clear, single solution and oftentimes attempts to fix the original issue create new problems. 

Van Briesen described how “convergence research,” which integrates knowledge, methods, and expertise from different disciplines to form novel frameworks that catalyze new discoveries and innovations, can help humanity tackle its most intractable problems. She gave examples of convergence research at UMBC addressing challenges such as improving mental health, increasing the safety of first responders and soldiers, and making medicine cheaply and on-demand. 

“A wicked problem is sometimes described as a problem that cannot be fixed—but never tell an engineer something can’t be done,” she said.

Tyler Josephson, an assistant professor in the Department of Chemical, Biochemical, and Environmental Engineering, was selected as a 2025 Pivot Fellow by the Simons Foundation. The fellowships support top researchers as they pivot to making contributions to a new discipline.

At UMBC, Josephson leads the AI & Theory-Oriented Molecular Science Lab, which develops computational methods to simulate the behavior of molecules and, potentially, to automate the discovery of new scientific theories. His current research includes National Science Foundation-funded projects to digitize chemical theories using a programming language developed by researchers at Microsoft called the Lean theorem prover and a DARPA-funded project to develop AI tools that can check the feasibility of scientific claims.

During his Pivot fellowship, Josephson will join the research group of Jeremy Avigad, a professor of philosophy, computer science, and mathematics at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, where he’ll study advanced topics at the intersection of formal mathematics and computer science. He plans to formalize statistical thermodynamics derivations in Lean, develop computational workflows for auto-formalizing science using AI, and build molecular simulation software integrated with formal proofs of mathematical correctness.

The skills, knowledge, and connections Josephson develops will strengthen his ongoing work with his UMBC students and colleagues.

“As an engineer, I didn’t formally study these topics in school. I’m really excited by the opportunity to dive deeper and learn new things,” he says.