Bryan Castillo

Degree: B.A., Business Technology Administration
Hometown: Columbia, MD
Plans: Working at the intersection of arts and tech

“There’s a really good support system at UMBC for someone like me—a transfer and first-generation student. There are groups for everything. I found the best support system for me.” 

Bryan Castillo with his artwork that was displayed at OCA Mocha.

Bryan Castillo ‘22, business technology administration, came to UMBC from Howard Community College as a first-generation college student with a clear vision on how he would succeed: making connections and exploring every opportunity. He wanted to combine his interest in art with his passion for technology. He also wanted to make sure he felt supported on his college journey and could make life-long friends.

Castillo worked with the UMBC Career Center to find opportunities that would match his interests—meeting to discuss his goals and attending career fairs. He was able to access a coveted internship with the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City. 

“If it wasn’t for my own previous experience with databases, I would never have gotten the internship,” he says. He describes that experience as an important stepping stone to become more confident, build his resume, and grow as an in-demand professional in the field.

Still, he made time for friends, leadership activities, and developing as an artist. In addition to being active in UMBC’s Hispanic Latino Student Union and the running club, he exhibited his artwork at the OCA Mocha coffee shop and gallery near UMBC.

Bryan Castillo, third from right, with members of the UMBC Running Club. (Image courtesy of Castillo.)

A research team that includes UMBC CSEE faculty Naghmeh Karimi and Roberto Yus won the second place prize in the 2022 INCS-CoE Sandpit Challenge on Digital Trust. The International Cyber Security Center of Excellence (INCS-CoE) is an international collaboration of government, industry, and academic organizations that have partnered to explore pioneering efforts to address cybersecurity challenges created by a growing borderless digital society.  UMBC is a charter member of INCS-CoE.

The INCS-COE Sandpit Challenge invited self-assembled teams to compete for seed research funding prizes to pursue their work further. The UMBC faculty teamed up with researchers from Royal Holloway (UK) and Keio University (Japan). They were awarded second prize for their proposal to deal with challenges associated with developing an International Digital Trust Framework. In particular, their project proposal focused on designing an ontology-based interoperability solution amongst the US, UK, and Japan for mutual recognition of trust, capturing private and public sector use cases with different assurance levels.

The post UMBC faculty Karimi and Yus help team win 2nd place in Sandpit Challenge on Digital Trust appeared first on Department of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering.

A research team that includes UMBC CSEE faculty Naghmeh Karimi and Roberto Yus won the second place prize in the 2022 INCS-CoE Sandpit Challenge on Digital Trust. The International Cyber Security Center of Excellence (INCS-CoE) is an international collaboration of government, industry, and academic organizations that have partnered to explore pioneering efforts to address cybersecurity challenges created by a growing borderless digital society.  UMBC is a charter member of INCS-CoE.

The INCS-COE Sandpit Challenge invited self-assembled teams to compete for seed research funding prizes to pursue their work further. The UMBC faculty teamed up with researchers from Royal Holloway (UK) and Keio University (Japan). They were awarded second prize for their proposal to deal with challenges associated with developing an International Digital Trust Framework. In particular, their project proposal focused on designing an ontology-based interoperability solution amongst the US, UK, and Japan for mutual recognition of trust, capturing private and public sector use cases with different assurance levels.

The post UMBC faculty Karimi and Yus help team win 2nd place in Sandpit Challenge on Digital Trust appeared first on Department of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering.

POLI 469: Citizens and Democracy

What do American people think of the most contested issues facing our society today and how have those opinions changed over time? Furthermore, how do people around the democratized world think about these same issues, issues like abortion, immigration, income inequality, capital punishment, the role of science in our lives, and environmental protection? Finally, how satisfied are people with their own democracies and with their own lives?

The ambition of this special sessions course is to give students an opportunity to study publicly available public opinion data from the United States and around the world to understand how people think about important and highly controversial topics that are facing our societies. It is also an opportunity for students to learn about or apply existing skills in quantitative data analysis. But don't worry if you haven't had any formal training in statistics. No background in statistical analysis required. As such, the course is open to everyone, both those who have had a background in statistics and those who are new to statistical analysis.

There is no central text for this course. After I provide a brief introduction to the types of basic statistical analysis we will utilize, we will treat each issue area listed above as a course module. For each module, there will be short readings and/or videos to watch, a lecture (by me) about the topic, and short homework assignments, including 1-paged reaction and analysis papers and problem sets based on data. By the end of the course, it is hoped you will improve your skills in writing, critical reasoning, and data analysis and interpretation.

Audrey Houck

Degree: B.S., Financial Economics
Minor: Mathematics
Hometown: Leonardtown, MD
Plans: T. Rowe Price Investment Fellowship

“Here at UMBC, there is a network of people behind me to make sure I am successful.”

Audrey Houck ‘22, financial economics, got a first-hand look at what a finance career involves day-to-day when she was paired with a mentor as an intern at T. Rowe Price. “This was my first time having work experience in the financial world, and it is very different from what you learn in the classroom,” Houck explains. “It’s a steep learning curve.” 

With her mentor’s support and guidance, Houck was able to create a strong project, which led to a publication in T. Rowe Price’s internal research data center. “It was amazing having someone there every step of the way to make sure that you can take what you learned in undergrad and effectively apply it.”

Following her successful internship with T. Rowe Price, she’ll begin there as an investment fellow after graduation.