From the start, Lisa (Dates) Price ’87, information systems and Dwayne Price ’87, information systems, ’87, seemed destined to become a couple.

They met on the first day of freshman orientation. Later, they were assigned to the same orientation team. And though they lived in different dorms freshman year (Dwayne in Patapsco; Lisa in in Susquehanna), they shared a circle of friends and a major.

Lisa acknowledges how her feelings for Dwayne began to change as she got to know him better that first semester. “Probably around October or November, I started to see Dwayne a little bit differently,” she recalls. “My relationship [with a former boyfriend] had gone the way most long distance relationships did. I started doing some reconnaissance to see what Dwayne’s situation might be.”

Though Dwayne was not in a committed relationship, Lisa waited some time before making her feelings known. She chose Valentine’s Day to make her move – sort of. A sorority on campus was selling homemade Valentine’s Cards, so she bought one and sent it to Dwayne, signing it, “Your Secret Admirer.”

Wayne was stumped. He asked his friends (including Lisa) who the secret admirer might be. She played dumb, for a while, but a month or so later, she confessed. That risky move turned out to be the turning point.

Their commitment was tested when Lisa received an opportunity to participate in a co-op through UMBC that extended from the summer through the following semester. It meant the two wouldn’t see each other regularly for several months. “It was part of us building the foundation for the rest of our lives,” Lisa says. (Dwayne later completed a co-op as part of his UMBC experience.)

To make up for lost time together, and lost credits, Lisa and Dwayne spent a summer together on campus, working and taking classes.

“You felt like you owned the campus,” Lisa recalls.

Dwayne concurs: “We had the whole campus to ourselves.”

Two years after graduation, they married. They also both decided to pursue master’s degrees in management information systems.

Over the years, the couple has remained highly involved in UMBC, serving on the alumni board in various capacities and offering advice to prospective students. Their two children – Devin, 20, and Layne, 18 – both attend UMBC.

“No one believes us, but we didn’t push them to go there. They could have gone anywhere they wanted, and they chose UMBC,” says Lisa.

Read the full issue of the Winter 2014 UMBC Magazine.

Today W3C published its report from the March Workshop on Web and Payments. More than 100 people from the banking industry, payment service providers, virtual currencies providers, financial institutions, mobile industry, browser vendors, payment regulators, and payment standardization bodies met to discuss Web payment use cases, business requirements, and standardization priorities.

During their two-day agenda they addressed questions such as how can both legacy business models and new business models involving payment be better enabled on the Web? What are the main obstacles to seamless payments on the Web? on Mobile devices? What can we do to facilitate global transactions while still respecting local laws, regulation and both existing and new business models?

Participants recorded key outputs from the meeting, including a recommendation that W3C establish a “steering group” (a W3C Interest Group) to formulate a strategy and roadmap of Web Payments, including existing work at W3C and potential new work. W3C invites expressions of interest in the development of this steering group. For more information, contact Stéphane Boyera.

Potomac Photonics moves headquarters to Baltimore Co.

BALTIMORE - Potomac Photonics, a digital manufacturing firm specializing in micro technology for the bio tech and medical device industries, has moved to Baltimore County.

The company’s headquarters, R&D and digital fabrication production facilities now occupy a 9,000-square-foot space at the bwtech@UMBC Research and Technology Park.

This is the company's third university-related 3D fabrication lab in the county, joining the CCBC Digital Fabrication Center and Towson University Object Lab.

Read more at http://www.abc2news.com/news/region/baltimore-county/potomac-photonics-moves-headquarters-to-baltimore-co

Plasmonix, Bambeco receive InvestMaryland funds

Sarah Gantz, Reporter - Baltimore Business Journal