The UMBC Office of International Education Services (IES) hosted its first Passport Caravan this spring to jump-start students’ study abroad journeys. In partnership with UMBC’s study abroad affiliate, the Council on International Educational Exchange (CIEE), and the Baltimore County Public Library, the event, organized by Caylie Zidwick ’08, modern languages, linguistics and intercultural communication, IES assistant director, increased access to study abroad programs by fully funding 40 students’ new passport applications and providing information to students across all majors on how international education can enhance academic and professional opportunities.

Study abroad can involve a complex set of logistics and, while there are certainly support resources available, starting the process can be challenging for students who are juggling many responsibilities. “Getting a passport is often the first step in changing a student’s mindset about international education, to see it as a realistic option for them,” says Brian Souders, Ph.D. ’09, language literacy, and culture, IES associate director.

“It is important for students to apply for a passport now to ensure they are ready for professional opportunities after graduation,” says David Di Maria, associate vice provost for international education. “If their boss needs someone to travel to another country to assist with an important project, we want UMBC graduates to be able to stand up and say, ‘I have my passport. I’m ready to go,’ or even better, ‘I have my passport, and I have prior international experience from studying abroad while a student at UMBC.’”

Heather Moore ‘18, media and communications studies, was thrilled to submit her passport application. She wants to use travel to merge her first career in business with her new focus on communications. “I have not traveled abroad before and it is something I have always wanted to do. I am now one step closer to making it happen.”

Beyond the Passport Caravan, UMBC study abroad student leaders also work to share the message that credit-bearing international experiences can open doors for future careers through weekly Study Abroad 101 information sessions.

Marijka Frazier ‘19, social work, studied Spanish in Madrid, while living with a host family to strengthen her language skills. “I plan to go back as an English assistant in schools to further my knowledge of Spanish for a couple of years before continuing to a master’s in social work to become a bilingual play therapist,” she shares.

Megan Savastuk ‘18, emergency health services and global studies, studied Spanish in Costa Rica and will teach English in Japan next fall while studying building code design for national disasters. Sara Masoudi ‘18, computer science, who is also a Center for Women in Technology (CWIT) Scholar, studied computer science in Sweden, and says being part of CWIT and having an international study experience helped her secure a position on Disney’s ESPN web team for after she graduates this spring.

Zidwick is also working to increase awareness of credit-bearing international educational opportunities among faculty, recently hosting a packed workshop on faculty-led educational experiences abroad with CEA, another study abroad partner. Caroline Forestiere, associate professor and chair of political science, shared her successful experiences leading groups of students to Italy, focused on learning Italian language and politics. Faculty also heard about the work of colleagues like Chuck Eggleton, professor and chair of mechanical engineering, who is exploring bringing students to Colombia after winning a Fulbright award in the country last year, and Preminda Jacob, associate professor of visual arts, who is examining opportunities for arts-focused student experiences in India.

Christine Mallinson, professor of language, literacy, and culture, is already planning to lead a new credit-bearing educational experience in Amsterdam, English as A Global Language, this summer. The program is designed for students interested in studying the roots, development, and globalization of the English language and its many variations.

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Students interested in faculty-led international learning experiences for the summer of 2019 should apply by next February. The deadline for individual study abroad opportunities for the summer and fall of 2018 is Saturday, March 10. IES requests that students attend a Study Abroad 101 session before initiating the application process. Sessions are held on Mondays, 12 – 1 p.m., and Thursdays, 3 – 4 p.m., each week during the fall and spring semesters in Administration Building room 218.

All images by Marlayna Demond ‘11 for UMBC.

Scientists, across all areas of study, seek to help us better understand the world in microscopic and massive ways. How does it work? What rules does it follow? Theoretical physicists in particular have developed theories that explain how parts of the universe work: classical mechanics for objects at everyday sizes and speeds, quantum mechanics for very tiny objects at everyday speeds, special relativity for things that approach the speed of light. But what about very small objects that also have very high energy, like the universe at the start of the Big Bang?

“This final case—small objects with high energy—is very important if you want to understand where the universe comes from,” says Sebastian Deffner, assistant professor of physics at UMBC. But physics theories to date aren’t quite able to handle it. They assume that systems are at least locally stable, which doesn’t hold for some of the most interesting cases, from the Big Bang to black holes. Deffner adds, “If we want to understand all these cosmological models, and we want to understand the thermodynamics of the universe, we actually have no means to do that.” That may be about to change.

Deffner’s new paper in Physical Review X with co-author Anthony Bartolotta, a Ph.D. candidate at Caltech, builds on an explosion of research in the field of quantum stochastic thermodynamics in the last decade. This field describes the laws of thermodynamics—one of the fundamental pillars of physics—at a microscopic level for the first time. Importantly, it takes into account how their immediate surroundings affect small systems in a way that differs from how the environment affects larger systems. Deffner and Bartolotta’s work extends this field even further to examine tiny systems at very high energies that are changing quickly.

That extension “is really uncharted territory…a completely new idea,” says Deffner. “And the reason no one has done it before is because stochastic thermodynamics is only 20 years old. Quantum stochastic thermodynamics is only 10 years old. As a field, we’ve just learned how to stand. We don’t even know how to walk yet.”

The work is pioneering, but it fits into a larger ecosystem of existing physics theories. For example, in everyday systems, you intuitively expect that if you put one particle in, you will get the same one particle out. It might be going faster or slower, or in a different direction, but it’s still the same single particle. However, at high energies, like those generated at the Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland, it’s actually possible to end up with a different number of particles than you started with. The famous equation e = mc² allows mass to be created from energy when the energy is extremely large. Deffner and Bartolotta found that in their model system with high energy and at small scale, the system was much more likely to return multiple particles upon sending in just one, than to come out with the initial particle and no more, which was a huge surprise.

The math to calculate it all was “incredibly hard,” Deffner reflects, but the end result, which involved finding a way to compute an infinite number of possibilities, “was actually quite beautiful,” says Bartolotta. He shares, “Our hope is that this paper will now open the doors for other people in other fields that previously couldn’t use these techniques to now use them.”

Deffner’s overall research goal is to broaden the uses of the framework of thermodynamics, “until we find neat things that no one has ever seen before,” and his latest paper fits that bill.

“I’m still totally blown away by the result,” Deffner says, but he’s also already contemplating possibilities for future research directions. When it comes to untangling the mysteries of the early universe, he notes, “there’s a lot that we have to do next.”

Image: Sebastian Deffner, photographed by Marlayna Demond ’11 for UMBC.

Available May 1^st

2 bed/2 bath condo in Riverchase, 5 minute drive from UMBC

End unit with lots of natural light, generous closet space, cathedral ceilings and wood burning fireplace

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UMBC is pleased to host the first ever IBM-UMBC Day on Friday, April 6th.

IBM-UMBC Day will create connections and enhance collaboration between UMBC faculty, students, and guests with IBM researchers and thought leaders around topics impacting the future of computing.

Technical talks by IBM and UMBC researchers will include Artificial Intelligence/Watson, Blockchain, Quantum Computing, and Cybersecurity. A full agenda will be available soon.

Friday, April 6, 2018
10 a.m. – 3 p.m.
Performing Arts and Humanities Building

Please register for the event here.

For questions about the event, please contact Natalie Brianas, Associate Director of Corporate Relations at nbrianas@umbc.edu.

It’s always a wonderful time to be a Retriever. After all, we have grit and greatness to spare. But now is also an especially amazing moment to break out the black and gold to cheer on UMBC basketball.
On Saturday, in its first America East playoff home game in a decade, the second-seeded UMBC men’s basketball team hit back stronger than ever, after being down 11 points in the first half, to outscore No. 7 UMass Lowell, and come away with a decisive 89-77 victory. Thanks to this win, UMBC will host a semifinal round game versus No. 3 Hartford this Tuesday, March 6 at 7:30 p.m. at the new UMBC Event Center.
In honor of our mighty dawgs, UMBC Magazine presents our top five reasons why now is the perfect time to re-declare your love for UMBC men’s basketball.

1. They’re really, really good. Period.

This year marks the first time in three decades of NCAA Division I play that UMBC has posted 20-win seasons back-to-back. Now in his second year as head coach, Ryan Odom has created a squad that’s confident and smart, both on and off the court.

2. Our president and star guard are BFFs.

That’s right, according to the Baltimore Sun, UMBC President Freeman Hrabowski and senior guard Jairus Lyles M.A. ’18, education, have formed a mutual admiration society, texting each other often. How adorable is this selfie? Photo provided by Lyles’ mother, Carol Motley.

3. K.J. Maura is a certified rock star.

Days before the semifinal victory, senior point guard K.J. Maura ’18, sociology, was named America East Conference Defensive Player of the Year. Ranked 29th nationally and second in the America East in steals per game, the Puerto Rico native is averaging 11.1 points per game, and generally tearing up the court wherever he goes. Photo by Gail Burton, UMBC Athletics.

4. Um, have you seen our new digs?

UMBC just opened a brand-new Event Center, home to UMBC basketball and volleyball. It’s truly a DI-level facility, with room to host future Commencements and even large concerts. We can’t wait to see the Class of 2018 toss their mortarboards in our new digs this spring!

5. This future Retriever knows what’s up.