The Volunteer Registration is now open for the NIH Regional Conference to be held at the Renaissance Baltimore Harborplace Hotel on May 15-17 2019 as local “Ambassadors." This NIH program provides valuable information to our research-active faculty and administrative staff to learn firsthand about current NIH-related research administration matters. 

 Workshop topics are broken down for Administrators, New Investigators and something for everyone.  There are session on Writing Grants, International Collaborations, Advanced Administration – Post Award, and Current NIH Issues.  There is also an opportunity for faculty to meet their Program Directors face to face!

In past years a contingent of UMBC personnel attend the meeting as volunteer ambassadors. This is an excellent opportunity for our research faculty, administrators, and students to attend the seminar at no charge on the day they volunteer. If someone volunteers for a day and would like to attend a 2nd day as an attendee, the OVPR will pay for the $100 charge for second day!  That is a day of Free training from arguably one of the best federal granting agencies. UMBC will be billed centrally for all of the registration for Ambassadors so don't worry about payment.  Once you have registered please email me to let me know. I would like to have a list by early next week.

Stan Jackson

jacksons@umbc.edu

Information for registration is below:

Online Registration 

Students, faculty, or staff who are interested in participating as a volunteer will be able to sign-up here on a first come, first served basis. When prompted for an access code, please enter 2019Volunteer to begin registration. Once you get to the point that it is asking for payment just exit the registration.  They will then send on bill to OVPR.  Make sure you email me that you are registered because I must send a list of our volunteers so they can mark them as paid.  Please also have volunteers select “No” when asked if they will be an exhibitor. During the registration process, potential volunteers will be: 

·         Reminded that volunteers are expected to participate in a full day of events 

·         Informed about the mandatory orientation session the morning of their participation (only need to attend one orientation if volunteering multiple days) 

·         Asked to choose their preferred roles and seminar sessions from the following choices: 

o    Room Monitor: volunteers will select this role by the title of the session; duties may include counting attendees, keeping the session on time, and assisting speakers and/or attendees  

o    Data Entry: volunteers will help collect and tabulate survey responses 

o    Floater: volunteers will pitch in as needed; duties may include helping with registration, assisting attendees, setting up or breaking down conference rooms, or other activities 

o    All volunteers will be asked to support morning registration after the volunteer orientation  

While the registration page reflects the current conference agenda, it is important to note that the timing, titles, and/or content of individual sessions are subject to change. We will send an email to the confirmed volunteers outlining the orientation session, roles and responsibilities, and additional seminar information a few weeks before the event.  

Help us bring the stories of the Walters to life.

The Walters Art Museum seeks a dynamic and innovative storyteller to fill the position of Digital Media Associate in the Marketing & Communications Department. We need someone with fresh ideas and great instincts, who works quickly and nimbly and has the ability to create compelling content in a range of formats and across multiple platforms.

On March 27, 2019, UMBC graduate students will gather in the University Center Ballroom to improve their communication skills, share their work, and get to know their UMBC colleagues. The new Graduate Experiences, Achievement, and Research Symposium (GEARS) aims to provide rich professional development opportunities—from showcasing art pieces to mingling with alumni—for students in all fields, right here on campus.

“We want to provide an avenue for people to learn skills that they’re not going to get in the classroom or the lab,” says Alex Rittle, Ph.D. student in geography and environmental systems and chair of the GEARS planning committee.

The opportunities at GEARS include an interviewing workshop led by Susan Hindle, assistant director for internships and employment; an art showcase by students in UMBC’s Intermedia and Digital Art program; an exhibition by emergency health services graduate students; short “Gritty Talks,” modeled after the annual GRIT-X talks at UMBC Homecoming, and traditional poster presentations.

“Preparing a good poster can be more difficult than preparing a talk, but it can provide more bang for your buck,” says Roy Prouty ’16, M.S., atmospheric physics, current M.S. student in computer science, and Graduate Student Association president. Choosing what data to include and laying it out in a way that is easy to follow can be challenging. To help, the GSA organized a workshop prior to GEARS run by Tim Ford, manager of Research Graphics in the College of Natural and Mathematical Sciences, and Joe School, director of the Cartographic Services Laboratory in geography and environmental systems. Both have decades of experience printing posters, and know what makes a good one.

GEARS will also feature a Three Minute Thesis (3MT) competition, the winner of which will compete at the Southern States Regional 3MT contest. The Graduate School supported training from renowned communications coach Scott Morgan for all students who signed up in advance to participate in 3MT.

“Regardless of whether you’re going into industry, the public sector, or academia, you need the skills to be able to tell people what you’re working on,” says Rittle.

Prouty acknowledges that a three minute explanation of one’s dissertation is not the typical talk a researcher would give at a department seminar or academic conference. However, he says, it’s also important to learn “to communicate what you’re doing and what you care about in more informal ways that will make sense to the broader community.”

Mustafa Al-Adhami, Ph.D. ’19, mechanical engineering, and a researcher at UMBC’s Center for Advanced Sensor Technology, won last year’s 3MT and found the experience transformative. After winning at UMBC, he came in second place the Southern States Regional, earning him the right to compete at the national 3MT competition this coming December.

“In real life, I feel like you don’t get more than three minutes,” Al-Adhami says. “So practicing how to do it is valuable.” Al-Adhami is also an entrepreneur, and less than a week after the 3MT regional, he won the elevator pitch contest at the Baylor New Venture Competition in Waco, Texas. “What I learned from 3MT transferred into a totally different enterprise,” he says. Al-Adhami will present his talk after the competitors at this year’s 3MT contest.

GEARS isn’t all serious professional development, though. A social hour where current graduate students can mingle with Graduate School alumni will close out the day. One of the highlights? An activity known as Powerpoint roulette, where participants are given a random Powerpoint slide from an academic presentation and must try to explain it on the spot. There will be prizes in different categories, like most realistic and most creative.

The GSA executive board and GEARS planning committee members are hoping for a strong start for this new offering, and also that it will grow into a popular event for graduate students from all disciplines. “This is something we’re creating that’s new,” says Adam Harvey, Ph.D. student in physics and GSA vice president, “and we’re trying to build on it.”

Banner image: Alex Sestok, Ph.D. student in chemistry, explains her research to a guest. All photos by Marlayna Demond ’11 for UMBC.

Dear All, 

This is a reminder for today's seminar at noon. Hope to see you there !

We will have Dr. Yale Goldman as a seminar speaker on this Friday. Dr. Goldman is a Biophysicist and Physiologist known for his development of novel biophysical techniques and their application to mechanistic studies of muscle contraction, non-muscle molecular motors and protein synthesis. He obtained a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from Northwestern University, MD and Physiology PhD degrees from the University of Pennsylvania in 1975 and was Post-Doctoral Fellow at University College London, UK. He joined the faculty of the Department of Physiology at the School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, in 1980, and has secondary appointments in Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics and Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics. He is Professor of Physiology, former Director of the Pennsylvania Muscle Institute, Associate Director of the Nano/Bio Interface Center and formal President of the Biophysical Society. Currently, he is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and a member of the National Academy of Sciences.

He will give a talk titled with “Structural Dynamics of Elongation Factors During Protein Synthesis” on coming Friday. The abstract is below.

Thank you very much for your consideration.