The Commons SportsZone was packed last month as finalists in UMBC’s 3rd annual Idea Competition — a bi-annual contest of entrepreneurial prowess — made their presentations to a panel of alumni judges and a standing room-only crowd of over 100 members of the UMBC community.

Forty ideas were originally submitted by students, with the top 10 selected for the final round. Winners were chosen by a combination of scores from the voting audience and the judging panel, consisting of three entrepreneurial alums: Greg Cangialosi ’96, English, CEO of Nucleus Ventures, LLC; Delali Dzirasa ’04, computer engineering, President of Fearless Solutions, LLC; and Jeehye Yun ’97, computer science, CEO and President of Secured Sciences Group.

UMBC alumnus and judge Greg Cangialosi was inspired by the innovative ideas from the students. He says, “It is truly inspiring to come back to UMBC as an entrepreneur and to see the amount of energy and the quality of the ideas coming out of the students on campus. The advancements in promoting entrepreneurship at UMBC have been incredible.”

Read more about the competition winners here.

All the winners won cash prizes: 1st place $750, 2nd place $500, 3rd place $250 and Most Creative $250. The Idea Competition was sponsored by the Alex. Brown Center for Entrepreneurship and was part of Global Entrepreneurship Week, a week where universities around the world celebrate entrepreneurship with activities and events for their students, faculty and alumni.

• Are you a female student 25 years of age or older? 

• Are you returning to college to finish your degree? 

• Are you beginning school at the age of 25 or older? 

Margie Burns, lecturer part-time in English, will be included in “Persuasions: The Jane Austen Journal,” published annually by the Jane Austen Society of North America (JASNA). Her article, “Comic Resolution, Humorous Loose Ends in Austen’s Novels,” is about Austen’s outrageous comic wrap-ups, endings with a cavalier disregard for painful realism and social awkwardness.

Articles from recent issues of Persuasions are distributed electronically through EBSCO and Thomson Gale.

In his latest Baltimore Sun commentary, “Newt Gingrich Is the GOP’s Only Serious Candidate,” UMBC political science professor Thomas Schaller argues that despite claims of his unelectability, Gingrich stands out as unique in the GOP presidential field. Schaller calls Gingrich “the Republicans’ one-man walking, talking think tank” and argues, “he will be able to conduct a serious debate about America’s future because he’s the only GOP contender who has spent the past three decades actually pondering the problems, large and small, facing the country.” Read the column to learn more about Schaller’s 2010 interview with Gingrich and their conversation on Gingrich’s book “To Save America.”

Jaimes Mayhew ’10, MFA in imaging and digital arts, has received a Fulbright U.S. Student Program scholarship to Iceland, where he will spend the next nine months working on a social practice art project, Autonomous Energy Research Lab.

Mayhew states, “Autonomous Energy Research Lab is an art research project that will investigate the idea of autonomy through conversations, art events, visits from other Baltimore-based artists and any other methods of research that may come about. All of these events will take place involving my research lab, which is a modified bike cart that includes a table, chairs, protection from the rain and is capable of producing and storing energy in a mobile battery. I will be using this lab to research ideas of autonomy, with special interest in Iceland’s use of geothermal power, of preservation of the Icelandic language and culture and, of course, in talking to people about Iceland’s economic collapse and strategies to recovery.”

See more about Mayhew’s work at his website:  www.enginesofthefuture.com

– Originally published on the UMBC Graduate School blog

– Read more about UMBC alumni on Retriever Net

The Commons SportsZone was packed last month as finalists in UMBC’s 3rd annual Idea Competition — a bi-annual contest of entrepreneurial prowess — made their presentations to a panel of alumni judges and a standing room-only crowd of over 100 members of the UMBC community.

Forty ideas were originally submitted by students, with the top 10 selected for the final round. Winners were chosen by a combination of scores from the voting audience and the judging panel, consisting of three entrepreneurial alums: Greg Cangialosi ’96, English, CEO of Nucleus Ventures, LLC; Delali Dzirasa ’04, computer engineering, President of Fearless Solutions, LLC; and Jeehye Yun ’97, computer science, CEO and President of Secured Sciences Group.

UMBC alumnus and judge Greg Cangialosi was inspired by the innovative ideas from the students. He says, “It is truly inspiring to come back to UMBC as an entrepreneur and to see the amount of energy and the quality of the ideas coming out of the students on campus. The advancements in promoting entrepreneurship at UMBC have been incredible.”

Read more about the competition winners here.

All the winners won cash prizes: 1st place $750, 2nd place $500, 3rd place $250 and Most Creative $250. The Idea Competition was sponsored by the Alex. Brown Center for Entrepreneurship and was part of Global Entrepreneurship Week, a week where universities around the world celebrate entrepreneurship with activities and events for their students, faculty and alumni.