Since 2014, UMBC has used crowdfunding to support both philanthropic endeavors and entrepreneurial projects – everything from purchasing new instruments for the Down and Dirty Dawg Band, to creating educational opportunities for future Retrievers. The continued success of fundraising efforts like these has now led to the creation of Gritstarter, a custom-designed crowdfunding platform UMBC hopes will encourage student, faculty, and staff to serve as their own champions for fundraising.

“This is a tool that connects the UMBC community with donors and helps everyone on campus understand how philanthropy works and how they can be involved on both sides,” said Leanna Powell ’08, assistant director of Annual Giving.

Launched in August 2017, Gritstarter has already raised over $7,000 for student and campus-wide projects, with additional projects currently in the funding stage. One of the most successful campaigns came from UMBC’s mock trial team, who require funds to travel to the national championships in states as far reaching as California and Minnesota.

“We knew we had a number of people – family, friends, alumni, local attorneys –  who were interested in supporting us financially, but we didn’t have an easy way to collect that money and encourage others to give. That’s where Gritstarter came in,” said Ben Garmoe ’13, mock trial head coach, who worked with Powell to build a crowdfunding page that highlighted the work and personal sacrifices the students made to get to nationals.

“We tried to emphasize how even a small donation can make a significant difference, and how our organization works hard to make every dollar we receive go as far as possible,” he said.

The Gritstarter platform comes equipped with a wealth of information for novice fundraisers, with everything from suggestions on how to promote to potential funders, to ideas and guidelines for video creation. By giving students control of their own fundraising efforts – and supporting them with training from the Annual Giving office –  they’re afforded the ability to gain vital skills such as business management and strategic outreach, said Powell. This platform will also be an integral fundraising aid for UMBC’s inaugural Giving Day in February 2018.

In addition to traditional goal and deadline-driven fundraising efforts, Gritstarter also serves as a home for continued goodwill efforts like the Stay Black and Gold Student Emergency Fund. All donations to this fund serve to directly offset unexpected financial burdens for UMBC students.

Collaboration has been the driving force throughout the process of creating Gritstarter. On-campus departments and students were consulted to determine what the aesthetic of the platform would be and how it would fit into the established brand of UMBC.

“We wanted it to look like something for students and that’s why we worked with [student designers at] commonvision to design it because we wanted students to immediately see themselves in it and know it was for them,” said Powell.

Melissa Prather ’18, environmental science and design, and Samual Buettner ’18, design, were initially tapped for their design input as commonvision employees but eventually became the duo responsible for designing Gritstarter’s look and feel.

“Everyone ended up agreeing that it did make sense to have such a student centric thing also made by students,” explained Prather. The pair took inspiration from the landscape of UMBC to create dynamic imagery and logos, dedicating nearly five months to collaborating on the finished product.

Several academic departments, athletic teams, and student organizations are already taking advantage of the new crowdfunding platform but Powell has high hopes that interest will continue to grow. “I want every student organization to meet their fundraising goal and I want every student organization to fundraise with us,” she said.

Jeremiah 29:11-13 (NIV) – “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.”

God has plans for us…and they are good. And one of the ways that the Spirit impacts our lives is by guiding us and teaching us God’s will. And let’s face it, God’s will doesn’t always turn out the way we wanted it to be. In fact for all of us, what we plan or think is God’s will for our life now, probably won’t be exactly what we think it is going to be, and as counterintuitive as it may sound, that is probably a really good thing if your life is in Christ and you are seeking His will.

We were never promised a ten-year plan of action; instead, God promises over and over again in the Bible that he will never leave or forsake us. God also promises in Jeremiah 29 that as we seek Him, as we pray in this way for our lives, He will answer, He will invite us into all that He is doing. And this isn’t just an intellectual understanding or knowing, this is a Biblical ‘knowing,’ which means to be relationally known, to know through experience. This is God’s heart for us to know Him and His wonderful or wonder-filled plans and will for our lives each moment.

Frances Chan wrote, “God cares more about our response to His Spirit’s leading today, in this moment, than about what we intend to do next year. In fact, the decisions we make next year will be profoundly affected by the degree to which we submit to the Spirit right now, in today’s decisions.” [Francis Chan, Forgotten God.] It’s our hope that instead of always searching for “God’s will for my life…future tense,” each of us will learn to seek passionately after “the Spirit’s leading in our life today.”

Let’s seek the Lord in prayer today asking for a renewed passion for seeking the Spirit’s leading in each moment and task in our days. Let’s ask for hearts that our open to letting go of our ‘will and agenda” and being resolved to embrace God’s purposes for our next five days. Ask for love and obedience in what God desires for our lives.

– TR

Naomi Mburu ’18, chemical engineering, is the first student in UMBC history to receive the prestigious Rhodes Scholarship. She is one of 32 students from across the United States to receive this prestigious honor for the 2018 year. Several UMBC students have been finalists for the Scholarship in the past.

Established in 1902, The Rhodes Scholarship is the world’s oldest international scholarship award. Rhodes Scholars are selected based on their academic and research accomplishments, their leadership and commitment to others.

“Being selected as a Rhodes Scholar will provide me with the network and resources to be an influential scientist and education advocate on the global level,” says Mburu.  

“As a Rhodes Scholar, I will be completing a Ph.D. in engineering science and likely conducting my research under Dr. Peter Ireland to work on heat transfer applications for nuclear fusion reactors,” says Mburu. “I believe the Rhodes Scholarship will allow me to foster a stronger community amongst my fellow scholars because we will all be attending the same institution.”

As a UMBC student, Mburu is involved with research and scholars programs, and is a leader in many student organizations. As a Meyerhoff Scholar, she is a peer mentor for freshmen and sophomores pursuing chemical engineering. Mburu is also a MARC U*STAR Trainee. The Meyerhoff Scholars Program and the MARC U*STAR Scholars Programs aim to increase the number of underrepresented minorities who pursue Ph.D.s in STEM fields. She has a passion for supporting STEM education and increasing diversity in STEM fields, which led to her involvement with programs and organizations with similar missions.

“The UMBC community as a whole has been incredibly instrumental in preparing me to compete for these awards. As a Meyerhoff and MARC U*STAR Scholar, I have learned how to write compelling personal statements that express my desire to influence the world in terms of both nuclear fusion power generation and in the removal of barriers to quality education for all people,” says Mburu. “The staff and faculty in the Honors College and chemical engineering department have engaged in mock interviews with me to help me prepare for the broad varieties of questions I could be asked, and I actually found some of their questions to be more difficult than my actual interview questions.”

Mburu is currently working with Gymama Slaughter, associate professor of computer science and electrical engineering, to develop a bioreactor to extend the viability of human organs awaiting transplant. The sensors will track glucose levels, lactic acid, and nitric oxide to ensure that the organ remains healthy as it is transported to the recipient.

“Increasing the participation of underrepresented minorities in STEM fields reflects our changing world and is what we desperately need for working toward discoveries that will improve the human condition,” says Slaughter. “As a mentor, I’m fortunate to work with the best and brightest students at UMBC, including Naomi, who have a strong desire to change the world. Naomi’s aspiration is to become an advocate for scientific advancement in renewable energy sources and education equality. The Rhodes scholarship is a well-deserved recognition of the positive impact she will have in the field of nuclear engineering and on the human condition across the world. We are very proud of Naomi’s accomplishments.”

This past summer, Mburu interned at Intel and developed an interactive model to estimate the cost of coatings applied to equipment. Her work helped improve the pricing negotiations and paved the way for additional should-cost models to be established for other chemical processes.

Mburu’s success shows UMBC’s commitment to research and unique undergraduate academic opportunities is working, explains April Householder ‘95, visual and performing arts, director of undergraduate research and nationally competitive scholarships. “What is particularly striking about Naomi is that she is accomplished in doing high-level scientific research, has a sophisticated grasp of issues related to nuclear energy, and is thoroughly committed to becoming a leader and a role model for other young scientists in her field,” she adds. “It is truly rare to find this combination of intellectual virtuosity and attention to detail, along with the ability to bridge different disciplines and a true desire to give back to others.”

Outside of the classroom and lab, Mburu is involved with many local chapters of national organizations. She has served as the president and pre-college initiative chair of the UMBC’s chapter of the National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE), and currently is the vice chair for Region II of NSBE. Mburu is committed to mentoring youth and supporting them in their schoolwork. She spends time each week working with high school girls on STEM-related research projects, and worked with K-12 students on homework during her first semester at UMBC.

While Mburu was a student at Mount Hebron High School, she completed research with Lasse Lindahl, biological sciences. Her work focused on how the introduction of phosphate affected the ribosomal protein L4. She has also pursued research at The Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory and Vanderbilt University. In summer 2016, Mburu spent the summer in Geneva, Switzerland at the European Organization for Nuclear Research. She worked alongside physicists to measure the impurities found in the Large Hadron Collider particle accelerator.

“Rhodes Scholars come from all over the world, but they are unified by a joint passion to make great change in their communities,” says Mburu.

Mburu’s award is highlighted in The Washington Post, The Baltimore Sun, CBS Baltimore, The Washington Post, Inside Higher Ed, and CBS Baltimore.

Banner image: Naomi Mburu. Photo by Marlayna Demond ‘11 for UMBC.

M.S. Thesis Defense

Internal Penetration Test of a Simulated Automotive Ethernet Environment

Kenneth Owen Truex

11:15 Tuesday, 21 November 2017, ITE325, UMBC

The capabilities of modern day automobiles have far exceeded what Robert Bosch GmbH could have imagined when it proposed the Controller Area Network (CAN) bus back in 1986. Over time, drivers wanted more functionality, comfort, and safety in their automobiles — creating a burden for automotive manufacturers. With these driver demands came many innovations to the in-vehicle network core protocol. Modern automobiles that have a video based infotainment system or any type of camera assisted functionality such as an Advanced Driver Assistance System (ADAS) use ethernet as their network backbone. This is because the original CAN specification only allowed for up to 8 bytes of data per message on a bus rated at 1 Mbps. This is far less than the requirements of more advanced video-based automotive systems. The ethernet protocol allows for 1500 bytes of data per packet on a network rated for up to 100 Mbps. This led the automotive industry to adopt ethernet as the core protocol, overcoming most of the limitations posed by the CAN protocol. By adopting ethernet as the protocol for automotive networks, certain attack vectors are now available for black hat hackers to exploit in order to put the vehicle in an unsafe condition. I will create a simulated automotive ethernet environment using the CANoe network simulation platform by Vector GmbH. Then, a penetration test will be conducted on the simulated environment in order to discover attacks that pose a threat to automotive ethernet networks. These attacks will strictly follow a comprehensive threat model in order to narrowly focus the attack surface. If exploited successfully, these attacks will cover all three sides of the Confidentiality, Integrity, Availability (CIA) triad.

I will then propose a new and innovative mitigation strategy that can be implemented on current industry standard ECUs and run successfully under strict time and resource limitations. This new strategy can help to limit the attack surface that exists on modern day automobiles and help to protect the vehicle and its occupants from malicious adversaries.

Committee: Drs. Anupam Joshi (chair), Richard Forno, Charles Nicholas, Nilanjan Banerjee

M.S. Thesis Defense

Internal Penetration Test of a Simulated Automotive Ethernet Environment

Kenneth Owen Truex

11:15 Tuesday, 21 November 2017, ITE325, UMBC

The capabilities of modern day automobiles have far exceeded what Robert Bosch GmbH could have imagined when it proposed the Controller Area Network (CAN) bus back in 1986. Over time, drivers wanted more functionality, comfort, and safety in their automobiles — creating a burden for automotive manufacturers. With these driver demands came many innovations to the in-vehicle network core protocol. Modern automobiles that have a video based infotainment system or any type of camera assisted functionality such as an Advanced Driver Assistance System (ADAS) use ethernet as their network backbone. This is because the original CAN specification only allowed for up to 8 bytes of data per message on a bus rated at 1 Mbps. This is far less than the requirements of more advanced video-based automotive systems. The ethernet protocol allows for 1500 bytes of data per packet on a network rated for up to 100 Mbps. This led the automotive industry to adopt ethernet as the core protocol, overcoming most of the limitations posed by the CAN protocol. By adopting ethernet as the protocol for automotive networks, certain attack vectors are now available for black hat hackers to exploit in order to put the vehicle in an unsafe condition. I will create a simulated automotive ethernet environment using the CANoe network simulation platform by Vector GmbH. Then, a penetration test will be conducted on the simulated environment in order to discover attacks that pose a threat to automotive ethernet networks. These attacks will strictly follow a comprehensive threat model in order to narrowly focus the attack surface. If exploited successfully, these attacks will cover all three sides of the Confidentiality, Integrity, Availability (CIA) triad.

I will then propose a new and innovative mitigation strategy that can be implemented on current industry standard ECUs and run successfully under strict time and resource limitations. This new strategy can help to limit the attack surface that exists on modern day automobiles and help to protect the vehicle and its occupants from malicious adversaries.

Committee: Drs. Anupam Joshi (chair), Richard Forno, Charles Nicholas, Nilanjan Banerjee

Cybersecurity Challenges to American Local Governments

In this paper we examine data from the first ever nationwide survey of cybersecurity among American local governments. We are particularly interested in understanding the threats to local government cybersecurity, their level of preparedness to address the threats, the barriers these governments encounter when deploying cybersecurity, the policies, tools and practices that they employ to improve cybersecurity and, finally, the extent of awareness of and support for high levels of cybersecurity within their organizations. We found that local governments are under fairly constant cyberattack and are periodically breached. They are not especially well prepared to prevent cyberattacks or to recover when breached. The principal barriers to local cybersecurity are financial and organizations. Although a number of policies, tools and practices to improve cybersecurity, few local governments are making wide use of them. Last, local governments suffer from too little awareness of and support for cybersecurity within their organizations.

Cybersecurity Challenges to American Local Governments

In this paper we examine data from the first ever nationwide survey of cybersecurity among American local governments. We are particularly interested in understanding the threats to local government cybersecurity, their level of preparedness to address the threats, the barriers these governments encounter when deploying cybersecurity, the policies, tools and practices that they employ to improve cybersecurity and, finally, the extent of awareness of and support for high levels of cybersecurity within their organizations. We found that local governments are under fairly constant cyberattack and are periodically breached. They are not especially well prepared to prevent cyberattacks or to recover when breached. The principal barriers to local cybersecurity are financial and organizations. Although a number of policies, tools and practices to improve cybersecurity, few local governments are making wide use of them. Last, local governments suffer from too little awareness of and support for cybersecurity within their organizations.