Those who immigrate to the U.S. are generally assumed to be in pursuit of the “American Dream.”

And rightfully so, considering that the U.S. offers some of the greatest economic opportunities in the world. 

But what about those who move to the U.S. for other reasons? 

Since 1980, the U.S. has been home to nearly 1.8 million refugees and asylees who have moved to the U.S. in order to escape persecution. They’re more in search of safety than the “American Dream.”

A city such as Baltimore is home to a diverse refugee population. Here are some of their stories:

Bhutanese:

In the 1980s the Bhutanese government implemented policies of “Bhutanization” where the Lhotsampas people (an ethnic minority) were deprived of citizenship and civil rights and; eventually, forced out of the country. Dispersed and living in inhumane conditions in refugee camps on the outskirts of Nepal and West Bengal, the U.S. provided the only opportunity for a safe life. 

Iraqi:

Saddam Hussein’s oppressive regime and mass violence from both the Gulf War and the U.S. 2003 war have led to large numbers of refugees from Iraq to flee to Iran and Saudi Arabia. The Iraqi resettlement in the U.S. has been controversial but has provided Iraqi refugees with a much safer environment. 

Congolese:

War, internal conflict, and the collapse of the government have led the Democratic Republic of Congo to be one of the most dangerous countries in the world. Since sexual violence is used as a weapon of war, the DRC is particularly dangerous for women. Congolese refugees have fled to neighboring African countries, only to find conditions similar to that of their homeland. The U.S., once again, provides great relief for these people.

Refugees suffer from some of the world’s worst humanitarian crises, living lives of instability and persecution.

The U.S. acts as a much-needed sanctuary. 

If you are interested in learning more about refugees or wish to help check out the International Rescue Committee: a non-profit working to bring safety to those who need it most. 

Rachel Brewster, an associate professor in the department of biological sciences, was profiled in a recent issue of Science magazine. The article titled, The Adapter, explores how Brewster, in a world of tight funding, adapts her work on neural development, and continues training graduate students.

Jennifer Couzin-Frankel writes in Science:

“Brewster landed at UMBC in 2003, after marrying a biologist she met at New York University (NYU) who accepted a job at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. Since securing tenure, she aspired to create a different culture from the one she experienced during her postdoc, in a prestigious lab at NYU’s Skirball Institute of Biomolecular Medicine. “I do not want to have the kind of cutthroat lab where people feel the pressure to work Saturday, Sunday, 16 hours a day,” she says. “But then there’s of course a price to pay,” she admits. “The price to pay is in productivity.”

“Her lab uses zebrafish to disentangle how the early brain is shaped, and Brewster has also made it a priority to support women and students from minority groups. In part that reflects her own background—she grew up in Switzerland, the child of a Jamaican mother and a British Guyanese father who worked for the United Nations. She’s fiercely proud of UMBC, a state school that graduates a remarkable 40% or so of its students, many of them minorities, from science-based majors, well above the national average of 25%. “A lot of our students are daughters and sons of recent immigrants, people who still believe in the American dream and who are investing every penny and dime they have to get their kids an education,” she says.”

If you’re looking for a good read about one of UMBC’s scientists then this article may be for you.

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KoolSpan, Inc. Named “Emerging Firm of the Year” By The Tech Council Of Maryland

KoolSpan, Inc., a company that has earned an industry-wide reputation for innovation in hardware-based mobile security applications receives honor from Maryland technology trade association, the Tech Council Of Maryland

Bethesda, Maryland (PRWEB) May 30, 2014

Maryland-based company, KoolSpan Inc, developer of patented, hardware-based mobile security applications, was named “Emerging Firm Of The Year” in the 26th Annual Industry Awards ceremony by the Tech Council of Maryland (TCM), Maryland’s largest technology trade association for life science and technology.

With more than 700 technology and business leaders from around the state in attendance, the awards ceremony took place on May 15th and honored technology firms that exemplify talent, dedication, and innovation, and play a vital role in Maryland’s thriving technology community. KoolSpan was one of nine winners to receive a prestigious accolade from the Tech Council of Maryland.

“We are honored to be recognized alongside other firms that are representative of Maryland’s innovative and prospering technology community,” said Gregg Smith, Chief Executive Officer of KoolSpan, Inc. “This award recognizes the dedication, hard work, creativity, and innovation representative of our employees and company culture.”

KoolSpan, Inc. develops hardware-based encryption and security applications to protect data and voice communications over network-connected devices. The core of KoolSpan’s technology is its Trust Chip, a validated technology deployed in more than 50 countries powering security offerings from S-1, the security division of Samsung, and AT&T’s voice encryption platform. Based in Bethesda, Maryland, KoolSpan also has earned an industry-wide reputation for innovation and a solid business model. The company holds 20 patents and was named one of Federal Computer Week’s “Hot Companies to Watch.”

“Through global expansion and the continued emergence of cutting-edge technology, innovation and ideas, we look forward to continue making a positive contribution to Maryland’s influential technology industry,” said Gregg Smith.

About KoolSpan

With 20 patents underlying its technology, KoolSpan, Inc. offers communications security to companies and government agencies worried about loss or theft of intellectual property, vital information and proprietary assets. KoolSpan develops hardware-based encryption and security applications to protect data and voice communications over network-connected devices. The foundation for KoolSpan encryption is TrustChip®, a hardware-based security platform delivered through a secure microSD processor. It protects connected devices including cell phones, office network phones, laptops, and tablets, PCs, desktop phones and servers.

KoolSpan is a privately held and based in Bethesda, Md. For more information, visit http://www.koolspan.com , follow us on Twitter @KoolSpan1 and at Facebook.com/KoolSpan.

TSA Wins PMA271 TACAMO Contract

CALIFORNIA, Maryland (May 29, 2014) – Technology Security Associates, Inc. (TSA) and TSA Team TACAMO (including subcontractors CACI, SAIC and Sonalysts) was awarded a five-year contract in support of the US Navy PMA-271 E-6A/B Take Charge and Move Out (TACAMO) Program.

The E‑6B Take Charge and Move Out (TACAMO)/Airborne Command Post (ABNCP) Survivable Mobile Command Center (SMCC), is an airborne communications platform capable of originating and/or relaying Emergency Action Messages (EAMs) as part of the Worldwide Military Command and Control System (WWMCS).  The E‑6B is capable of operating in the LF to EHF radio frequency ranges.  The aircraft fleet maintains continuous airborne and ground alert coverage 365 days a year at Tinker AFB and various alert sites.  The fleet currently consists of sixteen E‑6B aircraft performing the TACAMO/ABNCP missions.

The program office for the E-6B is Program Manager (Air) (PMA) 271.  As part of its mission, the Airborne Strategic Command, Control and Communications (C3) Program provides enhancements to the E-6B aircraft to improve the platform's ability to perform the strategic communications relay mission, ABNCP mission and any future mission tasking as directed by the Combatant Commander (COCOM).

Under this contract the TSA Team TACAMO will provide support services to assist in concept development and requirements analysis by the application of national security, defense and public policy in the forms of substantive research and analysis, technical/policy advice and assistance, and direct support to PMA-271.  These services also include providing support for mission systems acquisition and communications systems architecture requirements.  The effort includes a variety of supporting services including providing Program Team Leads as well as other PMA‑271 IPT and Competency Leads; a full range of technical services, and management support for the research, design, development, integration installation, test and evaluation, fielding, analysis, maintenance, material procurement, training and disposal of E-6B (to include any future versions of the aircraft) and other major aircraft systems.

This contract has a life of five years and a ceiling of $19.2 million.

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Mobile Analytics: An Enabler for Urban Lifestyle Applications

Professor Archan Misra

School of Information Systems, Singapore Management University

10-11:00am 24 June 2014, ITE 459, UMBC

This talk will describe various research initiatives related to the theme of “urban mobile analytics and applications”, which utilizes smartphone sensor data from multiple individuals to extract near-real time insights about individual and collective behavior in urban public spaces. A major part of this research is being conducted under the auspices of the LiveLabs Experimentation Platform, a unique urban behavioral testbed effort that enables an ecosystem of industry partners to test advanced context-based applications on a pool of approximately 30,000 real-world users in multiple real-world public spaces in Singapore. Besides describing LiveLabs-related research in areas related to energy-efficient mobile sensing and large-scale mobile analytics (e.g., queuing analytics, group detection and adaptive indoor localization). I will describe the role of such analytics for a couple of novel industry-driven applications: (a) in-store shopper intent monitoring and (b) large-scale mobile crowd-tasking.

Archan Misra is an Associate Professor of Information Systems at Singapore Management University (SMU), and a Director of the LiveLabs research center at SMU. Over the past 14 years (as part of his previous jobs with IBM Research and Telcordia Technologies), he has worked extensively in the areas of mobile systems, wireless networking and pervasive computing, and is a co-author on papers that received the Best Paper awards in EUC 2008, ACM WOWMOM 2002 and IEEE MILCOM 2001. Archan’s broad research interests lie in the areas of pervasive computing and mobile systems, with specific current focus on applying mobile sensing and real-time analytics to understand human lifestyle-driven activities in urban spaces. He is presently an Editor of the IEEE Transactions on Mobile Computing and the Elsevier Journal of Pervasive and Mobile Computing and chaired the IEEE Computer Society’s Technical Committee on Computer Communications (TCCC) from 2005-2007. Archan holds a Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of Maryland at College Park.

Host: Prof. Nirmalya Roy, Sorry, you need javascript to view this email address.

Spend some time with fellow alumni at these great events:

IT & Engineering Alumni Happy Hour
Wednesday, June 25, 6 – 8 p.m.
Union Jack’s
10400 Little Patuxent Pkwy
Columbia, MD 21044

An IT and an Engineering alum walk into a bar. The bartender says, “Hey, is this some kind of joke?” to which they reply, “No, we just like networking.” Enjoy a night out with fellow graduates of the College of Engineering and Information Technology and others now working in those fields for a networking happy hour at Union Jack’s for food and drinks. This event is sponsored by the UMBC Training Centers. RSVP to this FREE event now!

Battle of the Beltways: Orioles vs. Nationals
Wednesday, July 9, 5:30 p.m. picnic, 7 p.m. game
Camden Yards, Baltimore

The UMBC Alumni Association is hosting a night at Camden Yards as the Baltimore Orioles take on the Washington Nationals! Join other graduated Retriever Believers for a night of food, fun, and America’s favorite pastime.

The price for admission is $25 per person (limit 4) and each ticket includes a stadium seat and a pre-game picnic in the bullpen. For more information and to buy tickets, click here.

UMBC Night at the Nationals Stadium: Nationals vs. Phillies
Saturday, August 2, 5:30 p.m. picnic, 7 p.m. game
Nationals Stadium, Washington D.C.

If you missed the Battle of the Beltways, you have another chance to join the UMBC Alumni Association for a night of baseball! Come watch the Washington Nationals challenge the Philadelphia Phillies at the Nationals Stadium. The price of admission is $20 per person (limit 4) and each ticket includes a seat in the stadium and a pre-game picnic area. Our group will be seated in the Mezzanine Gallery. To purchase your tickets now or to learn more, click here.