Majoring in the arts requires intense levels of stamina and self-discipline—long hours rehearsing, creating, writing, designing, interpreting—coupled with an inner drive for inquiry and perfection. UMBC’s undergraduate and graduate students in the arts are no exception, reaching forward even in this era of social distancing.

UMBC’s 2020 graduates in dance, theatre, music, and visual arts include scholars looking forward to graduate study, teaching, and professional creative work in their fields. Some have been able to move ahead with long-planned next steps. Others have been making adjustments in response this unique and challenging moment.

Listening to the natural world

Percussionist Jonathan Sotelo ’20, music, came to UMBC to study music education, but discovered his love of timpani by playing in the UMBC Symphony. Since then, he has been a member of the UMBC Percussion Ensemble and studied with associate professor Tom Goldstein and Baltimore Symphony principal timpanist James Wyman.

With a strong interest in new music, Sotelo has commissioned a number of his student composer colleagues to write solo percussion pieces for him.

“My most important achievement at UMBC,” says Sotelo, “was learning how to listen. I’ve learned how to listen to the natural world, and how to apply it to music. Because of that, I am able to make my performances more connective to the audience, in any type of music—improvisations to the orchestral repertoire.”

He looks forward to attending graduate school at the University of Maryland, College Park, with the goal of becoming an orchestral timpanist.

An athlete, an artist

Linehan Artist Scholar and Division I soccer player Courtney Culp ’20, visual arts, has combined her loves of sport and visual arts to create impactful works during her time at UMBC.

The National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis screened her film A Mile in My Cleats as the opening presentation of the 2020 Race and Sports Day, held just before Martin Luther King Day. Through her documentary, she gave others space to share their stories of what it’s like to be a black female athlete. She shares, “I finished the project with an immense amount of new knowledge of my craft and closer relationships with my peers at UMBC.”

Studying Italian art and culture in Rome in 2019, with UMBC visual arts faculty Kimberly Anderson and Lynn Cazabon, also played a significant role in Culp’s UMBC experience. “I have gained lifelong friends at UMBC that have pushed and challenged me for the better,” she says. “I will forever be grateful for my time here.”

Culp will begin an M.F.A. program in illustration with minors in production design and themed entertainment design at the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) this fall. “My hope is to become a visual designer for animation, film, and interactive entertainment projects.” She is also slated to play soccer at SCAD.

Contemporary musician

Few musicians are equally adept at more than one instrument, but Christian Hartman ’20, music, is an exception. He has made a name for himself as both a cellist and percussionist.

The principal cellist of the UMBC Symphony and a Linehan Artist Scholar, Hartman will attend the University of Delaware in the fall for graduate studies in cello performance. While at UMBC, he received a Music Performance Fellowship and Music Achievement Award.

“I’m considering an academic career, which would allow me to perform, teach, and research,” says Hartman, “especially in the fields of contemporary and early music in which I’m most interested.”

His interest in contemporary music has led to collaborations with composers, and he has premiered a number of new compositions. A composer and arranger himself, he has written and arranged music for a variety of ensembles, including works premiered by high schools, honor groups, dance companies, and collegiate ensembles.

As a percussionist, Hartman plays snare drum in the Baltimore’s Marching Ravens Drumline, which he intends to continue through graduate school. He also drums for the Baltimore-based rock band The Negative Men and serves as percussion director for Manchester Valley High School marching band, his high school alma mater.

Lighting a new path

Linehan Artist Scholar Corey Goulden-Naitove ’20, theatre, has already had the opportunity to work professionally as a lighting designer at the Annapolis Shakespeare Company, Abington Friends School, and Long Lake Camp for the Arts. He had planned to continue this path when he graduated. But as coronavirus stay-at-home orders rolled out, and show after show was cancelled, he watched as five months of work evaporated in 24 hours.

Remarkably, the next day Goulden-Naitove received a call from Indiana University, Bloomington, inviting him to their Design + Technology program. At the time, it seemed “out of the blue.”

“They called up to offer me a spot in the M.F.A. program, with an assistantship with a living wage and tuition remission,” he says. Now, he will have a chance to continue studying his craft and remain connected to the theatre industry during COVID-19 closures.

This past winter at the Southeastern Theatre Conference, Goulden-Naitove presented his lighting design for the 2019 UMBC production of Anon(ymous), and won First Place in the Undergraduate Lighting Competition. He would later learn that it was that lighting design and award that caught the attention of the University of Indiana.

“UMBC was definitely the right choice for me—I have had opportunities here that I don’t think I would have found anywhere else in the world,” Goulden-Naitove says. “I am very grateful to all of my professors, to the university, and to Earl and Darielle Linehan for helping to make this happen.”

Inspiring the next generation of students

It’s no wonder that Linehan Artist Scholar Teresa Whittemore received the dance department’s Outstanding Senior in Choreography Award—her work has been twice featured at the American College Dance Festival. This includes the work Giving Skin, performed this spring.

Whittemore has also twice presented for UMBC’s Undergraduate and Creative Achievement Day, and through departmental dance showcases. And Arts by the People has presented her choreography in New York.

In addition to choreography, Whittemore also loves to teach. Following graduation, she plans to teach at three area studios—JMD Studios, EMC Performing Arts, and Kinetics Dance Theatre, where she is currently assistant school manager.

Everyday activities become something more

Brandon Ables, who earns his M.F.A. in Intermedia and Digital Arts this spring, had expected to travel to Romania this September as a Fulbright scholar. Fortunately, although coronavirus complications have delayed his travel, it will still move forward in February 2021. In Romania, he’ll teach English at a university and will conduct an arts research project on the Romanian deadlift weightlifting form and history.

In the meantime, Ables will continue his research in the U.S. His work replays dreams, notes, and ideas using everyday environments and actions, accompanied with hypnotic suggestions. “I’m interested in discovering and creating triggerable actions within daily routines to score with audio and visual self-help style suggestions, guiding the subconscious to solve practical and absurd challenges,” he says.

“Activities like lying in bed, chewing, and looking in the pantry become opportunities to carve the subconscious into a desirable shape with no extra effort required.”

This summer, Ables will complete an interactive novel about parking, autonomous cars, and impulse purchases. He will also develop a one-man-band live performance to add more complexity to the actions he’s using to trigger self-hypnotic audio and visuals. And then, onward to Romania.

Performer, producer, teacher

Raymond Robinson ’17, music technology and jazz studies, and ’20 M.A.T., music, came to UMBC in 2013 as Linehan Artist Scholar and a multifaceted musician. He already was a skilled pianist and saxophonist, but he credits UMBC and his professors for his mastery of music theory and music technology.

“Now I produce, engineer, and know advanced jazz theory, arrangement, and composition,” he says. “I would not be the musician and educator that I am today without the guidance of all my teachers. I feel like I owe it to them to also be a teacher.”

Robinson feels that it’s important to have more men in the education system, especially black men. “I hope to have the opportunity to teach students of all ethnicities about acceptance and open-mindedness before perspectives and deeper implicit biases get locked-in,” he says. And he hopes to be a role model for black boys and young men.

He looks forward to teaching instrumental and general music in Baltimore County and Anne Arundel County public schools. He also looks forward to resuming performances at popular venues around Washington’s U Street corridor and with A.B.M and New Impressionz, two of the major Go-Go bands in the District.

Intensive training, unique opportunities

Linehan Artist Scholar Emily Godfrey ’20, dance, has performed at the Kennedy Center not once, but twice. Godfrey first appeared there in 2018 at the American College Dance Festival, performing choreography by Maia Schechter ’18, dance. She then appeared again in 2019 in choreography by assistant professor Ann Sofie Clemmensen.

Godfrey’s own choreography, terminal, was chosen in 2020 for the American College Dance Association (ADCA) Mid-Atlantic North Conference Gala, along with Giving Skin by Teresa Whittemore. At UMBC, she has appeared on stage with Baltimore Dance Project and in many dance department programs.

With the financial support of the Linehan Summer Award and the Dance Department Summer Award, Godfrey attended several intensive programs. These include the Hubbard Street Dance Chicago Summer Intensive, the Paul Taylor American Modern Dance Summer Intensive, the Peridance Blueprint Summer Intensive, and study at the Gerlev Sports Academy in Denmark.

Following graduation, Godfrey plans to pursue a professional career in dance performance with national and international companies.

Satisfying “my creative side”

Double majoring in the arts and sciences can be daunting, but Linehan Artist Scholar and Honors College student Sarah Brewer ’20 will graduate with a B.A. in dance and a B.S. in biology. She credits open communication with dance and biology faculty, a team of advisors, and her own focus on time management for making it work.

As she prepares to leave UMBC, Brewer remains committed to both art and science. She is interning at a molecular biology lab within the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, and recently interviewed for a full-time position. She says the work at the lab “satisfies some of my creative side and all of my scientific side.” Still, she’s already reaching out to contacts at local companies to find ways to continue her work in dance. 

Brewer says her proudest undergraduate moment was a duet performance choreographed by Teresa Whittemore ’20, When Eve and Eve Bit the Apple, at an ACDA gala performance in spring 2019. The piece was one of only two undergraduate works among twelve selected for the gala.

She shares, “To be a part of Teresa’s choreographic process, and build a creative relationship with her and my duet partner Michelle Ye ’22 was one of the most rewarding experiences I’ve had at UMBC.”

The perfect fit

Some UMBC students dream of attending the university for years before they arrive on campus. Linehan Artist Scholar Olivia Mills ’20, visual arts, had a different experience.

“I’m not from Maryland, and I wasn’t familiar with UMBC until the end of my college search,” Mills says, “but once I researched it and was offered the Linehan Artist Scholarship, it rose to being my first choice—and it was the perfect fit for me,” she says.

Mills’s focus has been on animation. Her senior capstone project and 2020 URCAD presentation, the animated film Creatures in Crisis, challenged the notion that robust animated film projects emerge only from major studios.

As an artist at UMBC, she especially enjoyed Commonvision programs, and made a point to share her work during annual Art Week festivities and in seasonal zines.

Given the impact of coronavirus on the arts, Mills plans to use her time immediately following graduation to build her artistic portfolio. “While the coronavirus situation saddens me and has been a source of stress, a silver lining is I now have to stay in and work on my art,” she says. “I’m also glad there is a virtual network through UMBC’s Career Center and Alumni Association to get on-track with my professional goals.”

Catherine Borg contributed to this article.

Banner image: Emily Godfrey ’20 performs with colleagues in Baltimore Dance Project’s 2020 concerts at UMBC.

All Photos by Marlayna Demond ’11 for UMBC unless otherwise noted.

May 6, 2020, Interview by Cheryl Dunigan

Balaji Viswanathan started his career at Microsoft, and moved from there to develop startups in such diverse areas as robotics, education and finance. He has embraced the true calling of an entrepreneur, using long term goals to develop companies that actively seek to make a global impact. This is exemplified by his Bengaluru-based company, Invento Robotics, which is currently using its humanoid robots to provide a myriad of services, from taking temperatures to collecting patient information to bringing medications and food to patients in isolation wards, in an effort to fight COVID-19.

For the UMBC community, perhaps the most interesting fact about Mr. Viswanathan is that he is an alumnus of UMBC, graduating with an MS in Computer Science in 2007.

How did UMBC prepare you for your career as an entrepreneur?

I learned robotics and AI at UMBC with Professors Finin, Oates, DesJardins and Peng. I took masters level courses in the topic (AI, Artifical Neural Networks and Robotics) published a workshop paper on Swarm robotics 15 years ago that we are now implementing in the field.

A lot of ideas talked about at the Ebiquity lab by Finin, Joshi et. al. were years later implemented in the industry, only under different names. UMBC’s work was quite ahead of its time.

Please talk a bit about any faculty or staff that had a positive impact on your experience as a student at UMBC.

I was a TA for 2 years at UMBC. This gave me exposure to a variety of faculty and their teaching methods. I liked the laid back approach of Yun Peng, the very energetic approach of Tim Oates and the to-the-point approach of Marie desJardins.

What’s one piece of career advice you would give to current UMBC engineering, biotech and/or IT students?

What Universities think of now, industries will plan 10 years from now. Don’t forget to dream and don’t be guided by what industries want now. You have to pull the industry rather than allow industry’s mediocrity to pull you.

What was your biggest takeaway from your time at Microsoft?

I have never encountered as many smart people as I did at Microsoft. And despite that, the company was struggling at that time. My biggest takeaway was it takes far beyond just having talent to succeed in business. I saw so many great ideas — like App Store, multi touch interfaces get buried only to be used later by Apple and other companies.

You are the most followed writer on Quora, a question-and-answer website. Of the thousands of questions you have answered, which one sticks in your mind the most?

My favourite one that I have also pinned is recounting my experience of meeting my childhood idol — the famed scientist Dr. Abdul Kalam, who was President of India at the time.

On Quora, you discussed how aspiring entrepreneurs can convert crises into opportunities. Can you discuss the role a widespread problem or crisis played in the development of your startups?

We were building healthcare related tech for over 3 years, but until COVID hit there was no demand for them. Thus, we put it in cold storage. However, when COVID hit China we thought it was time to pull those ideas from cold storage and revive the company with it. We were heavily dependent on events & hospitality industry and our customers came to a grounding halt. We had to execute a fast pivot.

You have developed many robots to help in the fight against COVID-19. Mitra provides patient screening, and Astra is remote-controlled and can disinfect a standard-sized room in 15 minutes using UV rays. What is the timeline for bringing these kinds of robots to the commercial market?

The Mitra is already commercial in the market and getting deployed in hospitals across India. The Astra is going through testing and certification and should be commercial by end of May. The RoboDoc — our dream product — might take about 6 months to be commercial.

In addition to being used for patient screening at hospitals, the temperature sensor attachment that your team has developed has enormous distribution possibilities (in airports, sporting facilities, etc…).  Which functions of your robots, either current or in production, do you think will potentially have the greatest impact on public health in the future?

The ability to have Level 2 autonomy with 80% of the time the robot moving around in predictable, low risk environments and using the help strategically in 20% of the risky situations is the core of what we build at Invento. These could be used in a range of situations including disinfection, surveillance patrol, takeout from restaurant etc. While people always think of robot or human, this approach puts a robot+human like you in front of your PC.

Are you interested in using your robots in biosafety level 4 research facilities for vaccine development?

We don’t yet have the capability.

In a former interview you stated, “As an entrepreneur in the mid-20s, we are more prone to the “shiny object syndrome” where a lot of different things look attractive. Age and wisdom bring more focus and stability.”Has the COVID-19 crisis caused you to rethink the long term direction of Invento Robotics or any of your other ventures?

One thing I have learned is that most people including investors cannot predict the future of technology. Almost every futuristic prediction has been wrong in its entry time or their impact. That means we have to stick to our vision for the long term ignoring the noise. At the same time we have to look for sudden route changes along the way.

I will give this example. Imagine you are driving to the Niagara Falls. Along the way, you should not change your destination, but can take small detours and re-plan the route based on traffic conditions and accidents.

You have said that some of your robots will become affordable for the average consumer in 5 or so years. What do you see-2030 looking like in terms of the roles of robots in everyday life?

In 2030, I see robots as common as computers and smartphones now. You might have a dozen of them in your home doing everything from clean, engaging children, taking care of the elderly, and cooking.

The post Robots and COVID-19; An Interview with Balaji Viswanathan, CEO of Invento Robotics appeared first on Department of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering.

Dear Members of the Ancient Studies Community,

You are invited to the Ancient Studies End-of-Year/Post-Graduation Celebration on Thursday May 21 from 4:00 to 5:30 pm. Stop by to congratulate the Ancient Studies Spring 2020 graduates and award winners, see friends and faculty, and say goodbye to what was a truly remarkable and (hopefully) a one-of-a-kind semester. Keep an eye out for a WebEx Meeting invitation from Prof. Rosenbloom in your inbox.

If you are a member of the myUMBC Ancient Studies Community and do not receive an invitation, please contact Prof. Rosenbloom (dsrose@umbc.edu) to receive a WebEx invitation. If you have UMBC credentials, you can access WebEx through myUMBC.

We are looking forward to seeing all of you!

Best wishes,

SkillSoft Spotlights focus on just-in-time online learning to help you more masterfully manage yourself personally and professionally, improve your effectiveness in managing your work, and support you in skillfully leading your teams. Each course is 30 minutes or less and is curated to provide tools, strategies, and practices to accelerate your success.

This week's spotlight course is Positive Atmosphere: Establishing a Positive Work Environment.

Positive Atmosphere: Establishing a Positive Work Environment (26min)

A positive workplace is paramount to your organization's long-term success. As a manager, you play a key role in establishing a positive work culture, and noticing when negativity takes the place of positivity. As a leader, you can foster a positive work environment by communicating honestly, respecting, supporting, engaging others, and maintaining a good attitude. This course will introduce you to best practices for creating a positive work environment. You'll learn the benefits of establishing a positive and engaged workforce, its characteristics, and concrete steps to create one. You'll also explore how to recognize the signs and impacts of negativity, and how to take corrective action if necessary to engage employees.

In 2015, Cherie Tebah’s dream of providing dental care in marginalized communities was shattered when she sustained injuries while in the U.S. military. Tebah, who is originally from Ghana, had nurtured her dream for years as a dental assistant stationed in Japan. But with the guidance of her medical team, she had to accept that her disability would make achieving that dream impossible. 

Tebah had just completed an associates degree at Montgomery College, and at first, she struggled to move on. But after three years of deep reflection, working with a psychologist and social worker, and starting her own business, Tebah found a new path. 

The support she received from her own social worker, and shadowing a social worker who had graduated from UMBC, helped her decide to apply to UMBC’s social work program at The Universities at Shady Grove (USG). Visiting campus and finding a tight-knit, diverse community so close to home sealed the deal.

This spring, Tebah will graduate from UMBC with a double major in social work and psychology. Now, she has big plans to channel her passion for serving others into a social work career.

Resources for success

Going back to school wasn’t easy. “As a student with a disability, I had trouble getting my tasks done on time. There were days when it was really hard for me to even walk,” Tebah says. “But my professors worked with me, empowered me, and supported me through everything.” Even when she struggled, “they were there to encourage me to carry on.”

The support Tebah received from her faculty mentors and other resources on campus helped her persist through challenges. The Macklin Center for Academic Success helped her improve her writing. Librarians helped her find sources for assignments. Retriever Essentials provided food when times were especially tough. Counseling services supported her mental health. Zumba classes helped her blow off steam.

The Veteran’s Lounge was most important. “When it was too much for me to handle, I would go to the Veteran’s Lounge,” she says. “There I would connect with other veterans and learn about other resources they had used.” 

“At UMBC,” Tebah says, “I’ve gained confidence and learned appropriate ways to advocate for myself.”

Spreading the love

Once she became familiar with campus resources and realized how much they had helped her, Tebah decided to pay it forward. “I love to help people succeed, so for me, if others have put time into my career and my future, I feel that it’s only right to reciprocate that love to other students,” she says. 

Tebah joined the Peer Advisory Team, which staffs orientation and conducts monthly check-ins with students. She also became a leader in the Social Work Student Association. “Connecting students with resources that can help them has been very fulfilling for me,” she says.

In August, Tebah will begin her master’s degree in social work at University of Maryland, Baltimore. She’s asked Nicole Belfiore, a clinical instructor in social work at USG, to continue serving as her mentor. “At USG we’re like a family,” Tebah says. And family members stick with each other.

Chasing his potential

Brian Carroll ‘14, physics, Ph.D. ’20, atmospheric physics, has also already begun to pay forward the mentorship he received while pursuing both of his UMBC degrees. 

As an undergrad, he joined the Atmospheric Lidar Group, led by Ruben Delgado and Belay Demoz. He then chose to continue in the group for his Ph.D. Both Delgado, assistant research scientist in the Joint Center for Earth Systems Technology (JCET), and Demoz, JCET director, have been key mentors and role models for Carroll.

“Ruben does a great job of pushing you to chase your own potential and offering you opportunities to excel,” Carroll says. “And Belay is especially good at giving professional advice…he offers a lot of what you can’t get in a classroom.”

From them, and others, he’s learned how to support younger students in his field.

Finding the edge

Throughout Carroll’s Ph.D., he’s had many opportunities to mentor undergraduates, and his approach has shifted over the years. He’s learned that rather than explaining everything in detail up front, the best mentors “get someone to the edge of their understanding, and then let them wander for a bit,” he says. 

If they get stuck in the dark, “then you kind of light up the area around them. They keep wandering until they get to the edge of the light again, and then push beyond it until they need some more help.”

This summer Carroll will begin a postdoctoral fellowship at NASA Langley in Hampton, Virginia. As he continues his career, “I want to carry on a lot of what Ruben and Belay have taught me and to try to provide that push and help people realize their potential,” Carroll says.

It’s especially important to him to support students from underrepresented backgrounds in atmospheric science, as Delgado and Demoz have modeled so well. “I really want to reach out to as many students as possible,” Carroll says, “especially…from populations that may not have as many opportunities, and help make their success a reality.”

New beginnings

STEM BUILD at UMBC is a program designed to do just that.The College of Natural and Mathematical Sciences (CNMS) runs the multi-pronged, NIH-funded program, which is designed to enhance diversity in the biomedical workforce. In 2018, as a non-traditional student at Montgomery College, Shehar Yar Awan ’20, biological sciences, became a BUILD a Bridge to STEM intern. Little did he know how much the experience would affect his future.

As an intern, Awan conducted research with Erin Green, assistant professor of biological sciences, and presented his work at UMBC’s Summer Undergraduate Research Fest. Because he had such a positive summer experience, Awan decided to transfer to UMBC and apply to be a STEM BUILD Trainee, another arm of the BUILD program. He was accepted.

Spot-on advice

Awan started his STEM BUILD experience as a Retriever with a summer bridge program designed to kick-start his time at UMBC. He shares that program leaders like Lucie Blauvelt, assistant director of student engagement initiatives in CNMS, and Laura Ott, director of the CNMS Science Education Research Unit, made an impact right away. 

“It was really great to have someone showing you around campus, introducing you to people, and giving you insight on what it was going to be like and what you needed to do to be successful—and their advice was spot on,” Awan says.

“Lucie always gave us the confidence to succeed. She always said if we were ever in trouble, we could reach out to her for help.” 

In his first semester at UMBC, Awan was taking a challenging course load and started to flounder. Blauvelt kept her promise and helped him connect with a physics tutor, while also offering emotional support. By the end of the semester, Awan “blew physics out of the water.”

Caitlin Kowalewski, assistant director for undergraduate initiatives, also influenced Awan’s experience. In his first full semester at UMBC, he participated in the Undergraduate Research Symposium in Chemical and Biological Sciences. “I won first place because of the way that Ms. K. mentored us on our presentations and our posters,” Awan says.

Honored to give back

In his second semester at UMBC, Awan resumed research with Green. The following summer, he served as a mentor to three new BUILD a Bridge to STEM interns in Green’s lab. The trio of interns he supported worked on some of the same techniques he initially struggled with, such as molecular cloning.

“It feels great to be able to give back. Research was something I was completely new to, and it really gave me an appreciation for science that I never had before,” he says. “And now, being able to give that back to other people and show them what it’s all about… It’s amazing and it’s an honor.” 

In addition to supporting the interns, as an older student, many of Awan’s fellow BUILD trainees look to him for guidance. “I try to help everyone as much as I can,” he says. 

Awan credits STEM BUILD with reshaping his path forward, a sentiment he also shared with the news outlet Open Campus. He now plans to pursue dental school. He also hopes to continue doing research. 

“I never knew that I wanted to do research. It’s something that developed in me over my entire undergraduate career at UMBC,” he says. “STEM BUILD helped me discover this part of myself that I never knew about. I’ll never forget the gratitude I have for people in the program that have opened my eyes along the way. It’s been wonderful.”

Banner image: Brian Carroll (far right) with Belay Demoz (second from left) and other members of the Atmospheric Lidar Group on the rooftop of the UMBC Physics Building.

All photos by Marlayna Demond ’11 for UMBC unless otherwise noted.

SkillSoft Spotlights focus on just-in-time online learning that supports you in navigating complex challenges in personal and professional life, helps you to increase your effectiveness, and to improve your relationships. Each course is 30 minutes or less and is curated to provide tools, strategies, and practices to accelerate your success.

This week's spotlight course is The Art of Staying Focused.

The Art of Staying Focused (30 min)

Even if you know what's important to do, losing focus can stop your progress. No matter who you are or what job you do, focusing at work can be hard. Even with great schedule management and organizing skills, it's easy to get off track if you're not careful. In this course, you'll learn how to stay focused and stay on top of your schedule. You'll learn strategies for dealing with focus challenges and distractions at work. You'll also find out how to beat fatigue, manage your time, and decline work-related requests. And you'll explore how to adjust your focus to deal with change, and how to regain focus when you've lost it.