We warmly encourage faculty and staff to participate in UMBC’s winter 2013 Commencement Ceremonies. As you know, these events mean a great deal to our students and their parents and guests. I hope you will make a special effort to share in their celebration.

• Graduate Commencement will be held at 10 a.m. on Thursday, December 19 in the RAC
• Undergraduate Commencement will be held at 10 a.m. on Friday, December 20 in the RAC

ORDERING REGALIA: As in the past, UMBC will subsidize the rental of academic regalia for faculty, and administrative and associate staff. The deadline has passed for ordering regalia without a late fee, but it may still be ordered with payment of $25. Please note that it will not be possible to order regalia after December 6. Regalia will be ready for pick-up in the Bookstore beginning December 9 through December 16. (Regalia will not be available for pick-up at the RAC.) Please use the online Commencement RSVP form to place your order. If you have any questions, please call Gail Dupree at the Bookstore, 410-455-3807.

RSVP FOR MARCHING IN THE PROCESSION: Even if you do not order regalia, we need to know that you intend to march in the Commencement procession, so that appropriate seating arrangements can be made. Please give your RSVP on the website response form for Commencement by December 6, 2013.

Thank you for your support of UMBC’s Commencement Ceremonies and graduates.

Susan Hoban made the, National, in a story about a science fair in the UAE.

Dr Susan Hoban, associate professor of physics at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, introduced students to the wonder of Nasa’s Mars Rover, before allowing them to build their own, albeit smaller, versions.

“We want to use Mars as an inspiration to show the students that engineering is a career that they should choose, especially for girls, who maybe do not think that it is something they can do,” she said.

“My hats off to the organisers because it is a great undertaking. We hope that kids leave here thinking that engineering is fun.”

Read the story.

With no agreement in sight on a long-term budget deal with a budget conference committee self-assigned deadline coming up next month, some political experts say another U.S. Government shutdown in January is highly unlikely.

Political science professor Roy Meyers was interviewed for an article in International Business Times about the likelihood of another shutdown. He said a “small-ball deal” will likely be cut among lawmakers next month, but it won’t be the grand bargain to solidify a long-term deal.

“[It’s] one that would simply set an appropriations level for the rest of this fiscal year and it would make some modifications to the sequestration level that would be in place Jan. 15,” Meyers said.

“In other words, spend more on discretionary appropriations than would be the case if sequestration were to go into effect, and to offset those deficit increases by some small savings elsewhere,” he added. “But I don’t believe anything else will happen. In fact, I don’t know anybody who does,” he added.

After last month’s government shutdown, Congress has a job approval rating of 9 percent according to the latest Gallup poll. When asked if another government shutdown will happen in January, Meyers said there is “zero possibility of that happening.”

You can read the full article in International Business Times here.

Microchip today announced the industry's most comprehensive 32-bit microcontroller firmware development framework.