TODAY AT NOON, SHERMAN 113 WITH DR. APRIL HOUSEHOLDER, Director of Undergraduate Research and Nationally Competitive Scholarships

Undergraduate Research and Creative Achievement Day (URCAD) features research, scholarship, and creative work carried out by UMBC undergraduates. Student work is shared through oral presentations, posters, artistic exhibits, performances, and film. Over 300 presenters participate annually. Researchers work with faculty mentors on independent research, or research that is part of the mentor’s on-going projects.  They are from all disciplines, and can be working on a thesis, capstone project, part of a scholars or honors program, or they can be unaffiliated.

This campus-wide celebration of achievement affirms UMBC’s commitment to the twin goals of research and a distinctive undergraduate experience.

All current undergraduates who have conducted research, scholarship or creative work in the last year may apply to present their results at URCAD. Mentors, fellow students, friends, family members, high school teachers and students, graduate school recruiters, and the general public are invited to attend.

2 Corinthians 12:9-10 – “But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”

“There is no truth more generally admitted among earnest Christians than that of their utter weakness.  Here, as elsewhere, God’s thoughts are heaven-high above man’s thoughts. The Christian often tries to forget his weakness: God wants us to remember it, to feel it deeply. The Christian wants to conquer his weakness and to be freed from it: God wants us to rest and even rejoice in it. The Christian mourns over his weakness: Christ teaches His servant to say, “I take pleasure in infirmities; most gladly will I glory in my infirmities.” The Christian thinks his weakness is his greatest hindrance in the life and service of God: God tells us that it is the secret of strength and success. It is our weakness, heartily accepted and continually realized, that gives us our claim and access to the strength of Him who has said, “My strength is made perfect in weakness.”  (Andrew Murray)

Prayer: Thank you, Lord, for your promise of sufficient grace that sustains me to endure all things. I trust you and embrace my weaknesses as you enable me to say in my weakest moments your power is perfected in me.

– JK

Automated Knowledge Extraction from the Federal Acquisition Regulations System (FARS)

With increasing regulation of Big Data, it is becoming essential for organizations to ensure compliance with various data protection standards. The Federal Acquisition Regulations System (FARS) within the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) includes facts and rules for individuals and organizations seeking to do business with the US Federal government. Parsing and gathering knowledge from such lengthy regulation documents is currently done manually and is time and human intensive.Hence, developing a cognitive assistant for automated analysis of such legal documents has become a necessity. We have developed semantically rich approach to automate the analysis of legal documents and have implemented a system to capture various facts and rules contributing towards building an ef?cient legal knowledge base that contains details of the relationships between various legal elements, semantically similar terminologies, deontic expressions and cross-referenced legal facts and rules. In this paper, we describe our framework along with the results of automating knowledge extraction from the FARS document (Title48, CFR). Our approach can be used by Big Data Users to automate knowledge extraction from Large Legal documents.

Automated Knowledge Extraction from the Federal Acquisition Regulations System (FARS)

With increasing regulation of Big Data, it is becoming essential for organizations to ensure compliance with various data protection standards. The Federal Acquisition Regulations System (FARS) within the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) includes facts and rules for individuals and organizations seeking to do business with the US Federal government. Parsing and gathering knowledge from such lengthy regulation documents is currently done manually and is time and human intensive.Hence, developing a cognitive assistant for automated analysis of such legal documents has become a necessity. We have developed semantically rich approach to automate the analysis of legal documents and have implemented a system to capture various facts and rules contributing towards building an ef?cient legal knowledge base that contains details of the relationships between various legal elements, semantically similar terminologies, deontic expressions and cross-referenced legal facts and rules. In this paper, we describe our framework along with the results of automating knowledge extraction from the FARS document (Title48, CFR). Our approach can be used by Big Data Users to automate knowledge extraction from Large Legal documents.

During the week of Nov. 13-17, Commonvision hosted events dedicated solely to the arts. DIY paracord bracelets on Commons Mainstreet, a paint night social hour, a condom art competition and much more gave students a chance to delve into their creative side. At each event, Art Week staff gave out “badges” to students in attendance at each activity. Every badge stood for a different event category, with the goal being to get one of each. This added a nice touch and encouraged students to come back for more.

Serving as the finale of Art’s Week, the Performance Jamboree had lower Flat Tuesday’s full of music, laughter and fun on Friday night. It was the perfect environment for students to show off their skills in front of a live audience.

The dim lighting and the hush whispers from the audience in between acts gave the atmosphere a very Busboys and Poets-esque vibe. The blinding spotlight flooded the stage with light, making it the center of everyone’s attention. The support from the audience was outstanding. The loud rounds of applause following each act made the audience seem a lot bigger than it really was. Shouts of encouragement and love were heard all throughout the night.

One of the many performances was by UMBC’s own a cappella group, the Cleftomaniacs. With perfectly harmonized covers of songs like “Redbone” by Childish Gambino, they rocked the stage. Their hard work and long hours of practice were clearly displayed during their set, definitely making them a crowd favorite.

The host Casey Lee, a senior with a double major in graphic design and biological sciences, said her favorite part of Art Week was the screen printing because “it was fun seeing all the different designs being printed on the shirts” as well as reminiscing that “I got to pretend I was athletic by pushing the T-shirts on and off the machine.” 

Lee kept the audience entertained in between sets with her comedic personality. Corny jokes and sarcastic comments kept everyone laughing while they waited for the next performers to make their way to the stage.

The Dog Collar Improv Troupe was another group that stole the show. They played a few games that incorporated audience participation. Laughter echoed around the room while things like “The jelly is made from eyeballs” and “But I should be daddy” were being shouted to the crowd. 

Following the programmed events, it was time for open mic. People pushed their fear and reservations to the back-burner and took the stage to share their singing skills. It is always a brave move to perform in front of your peers, but that didn’t seem to phase the artists that performed Friday night.

Events like these prove that even at a school known for its dominating STEM programs, there is always a niche for everyone. With the many different art clubs and organizations, Art Week proves there is nothing that UMBC doesn’t have. No matter what your interests are, you can find a group to fit into. To look for upcoming events similar to this, check the Arts & Culture calendar or visit the Commonvision website for information.