Dr. Jennie Leach   is an Associate Professor in the Department of Chemical, Biochemical, and Environmental Engineering.  Dr. Leach serves as an iCubed Faculty Mentor for the freshman Chemical Engineering and General Engineering majors.   Dr. Leach’s research is focused on designing, synthesizing, and characterizing biomaterials for tissue engineering applications to develop strategies to repair damaged tissues and gain a more detailed understanding of neural and cancer cell behavior.   Her research aims to elucidate key design principles that will aid in the development of improved therapies to treat nerve injury and tumor growth.

What is your mentoring philosophy?  Professors in engineering have many aspects to their job, but mentoring students is one I enjoy most.  My career has been profoundly influenced by several key mentors who have opened my eyes to options that I never thought about or had the confidence to choose on my own. My mentoring philosophy is to pass along their enthusiasm for engineering, encouragement to students to set high standards and believe in themselves, and knowledge about maneuvering through perhaps the hardest and most fun times in your life – college and becoming an independent adult.

When I was an undergraduate at Rensselaer, I did research in the labs of Drs. Georges Belfort and Todd Przybycien (now at Carnegie Mellon University). Both professors as well as their graduate students were invaluable mentors to me. They introduced me to research, but more importantly, encouraged and convinced me to go to graduate school.

My Ph.D. adviser at the University of Texas, Dr. Christine Schmidt, continues to be one of the most inspiring people in my life. Her advice and everyday actions convinced me to pursue a career in academia. She demonstrates life as a highly successful researcher and skilled educator who cares deeply for students and their success. She challenged me to do more than I thought possible. She knew when to be tough, when to be my cheerleader, when to give advice and when to let me forge out on my own.

What do you enjoy most about mentoring freshman students?  I am honored to be part of the iCubed program and hope to help freshmen envision themselves as engineers. Many of our graduating seniors remark that our department is close-knit, supportive and much like a family. However, prerequisite requirements make it such that students take their first chemical engineering course at UMBC in their sophomore year. Through programs like iCubed, we are able reach out to freshmen and more effectively integrate new students into our departmental community.  

Welcome to our new home. Page, that is.

If you�re new to UMBC, we hope our new homepage will show you what our university is all about. If, on the other hand, www.umbc.edu is one of your old favorites � the new homepage preserves the features our research showed you loved, like easy access to myUMBC and the directory.

The new homepage also adds enhanced features to better help you find campus resources, stay informed about news and events and, generally, make the most of your time at UMBC.

You can take a brief, guided tour of the new homepage below. Here are a few of the principles you�ll see at work:

1. Homepages are no longer gatekeepers, but storytellers. People increasingly navigate the web by search. So, while it�s still important that information be clearly laid out, something that�s more than a click or two away isn�t necessarily hidden. And a homepage, rather than just serving as a map to information, should tell the story of a place. We hope ours does.

2. You matter. The new homepage provides content tailored for certain audiences, recognizing that not everybody is looking for the same thing. Personalized is the way of the web. So, we�ve introduced content tabs that let you see what�s most relevant to you, whether you�re a prospective student, current student, parent or family member, faculty or staff member, alum or supporter, business or employer.

3. We needed a friendlier site. Mobile-friendly that is. The new homepage is designed to play nice with just about any device � from a desktop or laptop to a tablet or smart phone. This recognizes what we have heard repeatedly from experts on and off campus: mobile is the new normal.

We hope you�ll love the new homepage, but you might still be wondering, �Why now?�

First, you should know that the new homepage is one step in a broad, multi-year process to overhaul UMBC�s web presence, thinking critically and strategically about how and what we do. Faculty, staff, students and alumni have been involved in a number of discussions about how to improve our web experience, and those conversations will continue.

However, members of the UMBC community and, especially, campus experts advised us of a number of improvements important to make now. Our marketing and recruitment efforts demand a cutting edge homepage, and the innovation and expertise of our faculty in the computer science, information technology and visual design fields further raise the bar. In the constantly evolving environment of the web, we simply can�t stand still.

Of course, this is a work in progress. So, if there�s something different you�d like to see, let us know at homepage@umbc.edu. Likewise, if you love something, let us know too. We hope that the guided tour below will answer most of the questions you have about how to navigate the new homepage, but we�ll keep an eye out for frequently asked questions and provide updates as needed. And we will be paying attention to your broader feedback, although we may not be able to respond personally to every note.

Again, this is just the first step in what will be a multi-year process, and your feedback is not only valued, but crucial.

View As One PageView As Slideshow

There are three primary ways to navigate from the new homepage into the rest of the UMBC website (see red arrows):
The search function and directory bar
The top level navigation, with dropdown menus
The new audience-specific sections, with content for prospective students, current students, parents & family, faculty & staff, alumni & supporters, and businesses & employers

Looking for myUMBC? You�ll find it in a number of places (see red circles):
Above the search function, in the directory bar
In the Current Student and Faculty & Staff audience sections, under �Top Tools�

Looking for news & events? You�ll find them just below the new �audience section.�

Events can also be found above the search bar, in the directory bar (see red circle).

(8/20/12)

John 6:25-29 (NIV)

25 When they found him on the other side of the lake, they asked him, “Rabbi, when did you get here?”

26 Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, you are looking for me, not because you saw the signs I performed but because you ate the loaves and had your fill. 27 Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For on him God the Father has placed his seal of approval.”

28 Then they asked him, “What must we do to do the works God requires?”
29 Jesus answered, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.”

Reflection:

Has anyone ever opened your fridge in the midst of a prolonged power outage to get a glass of milk … only to find that the milk has spoiled? Even worse, has anyone taken a sip of milk, not knowing that it had gone bad? It is perhaps the worst taste ever! We know from experience that all food spoils in this world. Many of the things that we work so hard for, we can’t take with us when we die.

Before this passage, Jesus had just miraculously fed a crowd of 5000 men and women and children who were with them. People knew from this miracle that Jesus was no ordinary person. Jesus had slipped out from among their midst. They relentlessly looked for Jesus until they found Him. But Jesus knew that they did not necessarily believe nor put their faith in Him — they had their own agenda. Jesus addresses their hearts and tells them not to live for things that spoil but to live for what leads to eternal life.

Responding to the Transmission:

May we take some time today to really examine our hearts and motives for following Jesus. Is it for the benefits we receive? Let’s pray that we would not live for what spoils, but rather for what endures to eternal life - living for Jesus and His kingdom. Let’s pray that our living this life together will be filled with more belief in the One that was sent to lead us to eternal life.

Computer science alumnus Joshua Barczak ’03, M.S. ’06, spoke about his work in the video game industry at this spring’s Undergraduate Research and Creative Achievement Day (URCAD). Barczak, who is a senior graphics engineer at Firaxis Games, helped develop Sid Meier’s Civilization V game.
Watch the full video by clicking the image below.