Walk In Advising Hours May 11th-15th

Monday, May 11th
10am-11:30am and 1:30pm-3pm

Tuesday, May 12th
10am-11:30am and 1:30pm-3pm

Wednesday, May 13th
None

Thursday, May 14th
10am-11:30am

Friday, May 15th
10am-11:30am

Advisors are also available by appointment. Our advising offices are located in ITE 202-206.

The 13th IEEE Intelligence Security Informatics Conference will be held May 27-29 at the Royal Sonesta Harbor Court Hotel in Baltimore's inner harbor.  The conference covers research spanning information technologies, computer science, public policy, bioinformatics, and social and behavior studies. It will bring together researchers and practitioners from academia, industry and government agencies.

The program includes 45 technical paper presentations, a poster session, a panel on security and privacy on the Internet of Things, social events, several invited talks and five keynotes by distinguished speakers:

• Mark E. Segal, Chief of Computer and Information Sciences Research in the National Security Agency Research Directorate
• Jeremy Epstein, lead program officer for the National Science Foundation’s Secure and Trustworthy Cyberspace (SaTC) program
• Jay F. Nunamaker, Regents and Soldwedel Professor of MIS, Computer Science and Communication, University of Arizona
• Donna Dodson, Deputy Cyber Security Advisor at National Institute of Standards and Technology
• Alan Sherman, Professor of Computer Science and Director of the UMBC Center for Information Security and Assurance

The full program description is available here.

For more information and to register, see http://2015.ieee-isi.org or contact Sorry, you need javascript to view this email address.

The GovConnect conference seeks college sophomores, juniors and seniors interested in cybersecurity to apply for free admission to its showcase event:

   GovConnects' 6th Annual Cyber Conference: Migration to the Cloud:
   Vulnerabilities and Challenges/ Opportunities and Solutions
   Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Lab Kossiakoff Center, 
   Wednesday, 17 June 2015, 9:00-5:00

Resumes are currently being accepted by GovConnects for a one day internship that provides free attendance.  Participation options: 8:00am–12:00noon or 12:00noon — 4:00 pm.
 
GovConnects, a program of the Howard County Chamber of Commerce, is the organizer of this event. Over 300 industry and government professionals are expected to attend the all-day conference. Student interns will be provided with breakfast and lunch. Parking is free and there is no charge for internship participants.
 
Keynote speakers are Dmitri Alperovitch, Co- Founder and CTO of CrowdStrike Inc., and LTG (R) Rhett Hernandez, Chair, Army Cyber Institute.  The conference has multiple paths of interest including breakout sessions in Mobile IT, Insider Threat, Health IT, and FedRAMP. Interns will be able to attend a breakout session of choice and have access to the who's who of the conference cyber speakers. Tech Talks will feature new products and ideas pitched by companies and judged by a panel of industry experts including representatives from Leidos, Ciena, Honeywell, Dell Federal, and Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Lab.
 
Cyber 6.0 is an excellent opportunity for technical candidates (For example, Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, and Computer Engineering, but not limited to these fields.) to meet and interact with industry and federal government officials. Conference sponsors have agreed to review internsÕ resumes for potential employment eligibility, if interested.
 
Several sponsors have current programs in place that support technical students close to graduation in obtaining federal clearances.
 
The opportunity to attend the conference, gain valuable information about the trends/forecasts for cybersecurity issues and technology, and meet companies, speakers and potential employers is a day well spent!
 
If you are interested in attending, explore the conference details and send your resume to Tom Sabia, Conference Intern Coordinator at  Sorry, you need javascript to view this email address. or Sorry, you need javascript to view this email address.

The GovConnect conference seeks college sophomores, juniors and seniors interested in cybersecurity to apply for free admission to its showcase event:

   GovConnects' 6th Annual Cyber Conference: Migration to the Cloud:
   Vulnerabilities and Challenges/ Opportunities and Solutions
   Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Lab Kossiakoff Center, 
   Wednesday, 17 June 2015, 9:00-5:00

Resumes are currently being accepted by GovConnects for a one day internship that provides free attendance.  Participation options: 8:00am–12:00noon or 12:00noon — 4:00 pm.
 
GovConnects, a program of the Howard County Chamber of Commerce, is the organizer of this event. Over 300 industry and government professionals are expected to attend the all-day conference. Student interns will be provided with breakfast and lunch. Parking is free and there is no charge for internship participants.
 
Keynote speakers are Dmitri Alperovitch, Co- Founder and CTO of CrowdStrike Inc., and LTG (R) Rhett Hernandez, Chair, Army Cyber Institute.  The conference has multiple paths of interest including breakout sessions in Mobile IT, Insider Threat, Health IT, and FedRAMP. Interns will be able to attend a breakout session of choice and have access to the who's who of the conference cyber speakers. Tech Talks will feature new products and ideas pitched by companies and judged by a panel of industry experts including representatives from Leidos, Ciena, Honeywell, Dell Federal, and Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Lab.
 
Cyber 6.0 is an excellent opportunity for technical candidates (For example, Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, and Computer Engineering, but not limited to these fields.) to meet and interact with industry and federal government officials. Conference sponsors have agreed to review internsÕ resumes for potential employment eligibility, if interested.
 
Several sponsors have current programs in place that support technical students close to graduation in obtaining federal clearances.
 
The opportunity to attend the conference, gain valuable information about the trends/forecasts for cybersecurity issues and technology, and meet companies, speakers and potential employers is a day well spent!
 
If you are interested in attending, explore the conference details and send your resume to Tom Sabia, Conference Intern Coordinator at  Sorry, you need javascript to view this email address. or Sorry, you need javascript to view this email address.

The GovConnect conference seeks college sophomores, juniors and seniors interested in cybersecurity to apply for free admission to its showcase event:

   GovConnects' 6th Annual Cyber Conference: Migration to the Cloud:
   Vulnerabilities and Challenges/ Opportunities and Solutions
   Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Lab Kossiakoff Center, 
   Wednesday, 17 June 2015, 9:00-5:00

Resumes are currently being accepted by GovConnects for a one day internship that provides free attendance.  Participation options: 8:00am–12:00noon or 12:00noon — 4:00 pm.
 
GovConnects, a program of the Howard County Chamber of Commerce, is the organizer of this event. Over 300 industry and government professionals are expected to attend the all-day conference. Student interns will be provided with breakfast and lunch. Parking is free and there is no charge for internship participants.
 
Keynote speakers are Dmitri Alperovitch, Co- Founder and CTO of CrowdStrike Inc., and LTG (R) Rhett Hernandez, Chair, Army Cyber Institute.  The conference has multiple paths of interest including breakout sessions in Mobile IT, Insider Threat, Health IT, and FedRAMP. Interns will be able to attend a breakout session of choice and have access to the who's who of the conference cyber speakers. Tech Talks will feature new products and ideas pitched by companies and judged by a panel of industry experts including representatives from Leidos, Ciena, Honeywell, Dell Federal, and Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Lab.
 
Cyber 6.0 is an excellent opportunity for technical candidates (For example, Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, and Computer Engineering, but not limited to these fields.) to meet and interact with industry and federal government officials. Conference sponsors have agreed to review internsÕ resumes for potential employment eligibility, if interested.
 
Several sponsors have current programs in place that support technical students close to graduation in obtaining federal clearances.
 
The opportunity to attend the conference, gain valuable information about the trends/forecasts for cybersecurity issues and technology, and meet companies, speakers and potential employers is a day well spent!
 
If you are interested in attending, explore the conference details and send your resume to Tom Sabia, Conference Intern Coordinator at  Sorry, you need javascript to view this email address. or Sorry, you need javascript to view this email address.

On May 1, Dawn Biehler, an assistant professor of geography and environmental systems, was a guest on Science for the People Radio to discuss her book Pests in the City: Flies, Bedbugs, Cockroaches, and Rats (University of Washington Press). “Science for the People” is a syndicated radio show and podcast based in Edmonton, Alberta, that broadcasts weekly across North America and aims to explore intersections among science, popular culture, history, and public policy.

During her interview, Biehler examined several topics, including the environment and policies in the early twentieth century which created more disadvantages for low-income city residents in dealing with pest control. She also discussed how many people at the time were unaware of the health concerns associated with pests.

“This is a time when they are just starting to realize specific infectious diseases could be spread by pests. Before 1900, very few lay people knew about germ theory. There might have been suspicions that pests spread specific kinds of diseases, but it wasn’t really well-known,” Biehler said.

To listen to the full interview on “Science for the People,” click here.

Inmates work with UMBC staff to brighten vacant city lots

Maryland prisoners have enrolled in a program, led by UMBC professor Christopher Swan, that teaches them horticultural skills, while cleaning and planting vacant lots in West Baltimore.

With the help of a UMBC professor and his associates, several Baltimore inmates have enrolled in a program to clean up vacant lots and engage in environmental research. Participants have engaged in productive activity, while improving the city by planting and maintaining land.

The Baltimore Sun has reported on this effort, interviewing several participants who expressed their excitement and their sense of productivity. The initiative has given them horticultural skills that they plan to use at their homes, if not in their future jobs. Through hands-on learning opportunities, participants are able to learn a great deal while simultaneously beautifying the city.

To learn more about the development of this program and its research aspect, The Retriever Weekly spoke to its leader, UMBC geography and environmental systems professor Christopher Swan.

“[Participants] are engaged in maintaining the vacant land where our studies take place,” said Swan. So far, they have planted 24 lots, with plans to plant 16 more this spring.

The work is designed to help the inmates, but it has farther-reaching benefits. “By engaging inmates in environmental science, we provide a venue for productive activity.  With this in mind, we designed a research program to understand how to improve the environmental quality of urban vacant land in Baltimore,” said Swan.

Swan’s research focuses on biodiversity patterns in urban environments. While the participants plant in vacant lots to improve West Baltimore, they also take environmental samples that will aid in Swan’s work.

The local initiative has links to wider organizations. “The work is a combined research, outreach and informal training program,” said Swan. “It was born out of a nationwide effort called the Sustainability in Prisons Project.”

Even so, the project has remained local and intimate. Besides Swan, who designed the initiative with graduate student Anna Johnson, and colleagues with the Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services, few people have been involved. At any given time, eight to ten inmates participate.

Swan and his team have been working with inmates for two and a half years, and the recent unrest in West Baltimore has not swayed them, despite the fact that many of the plots of land being studied are in this troubled neighborhood.

“We have managed to move back some of the work for the Spring to let things settle down,” said Swan, who had only good things to say about the community as a whole. “I have received nothing but positive feedback from community members over the time the project has been in place. As such, I don’t foresee our efforts being compromised by any peaceful protests,” he continued.

Johnson, who has helped lead the program, agreed and said, “we have had very positive experiences while working in these neighborhoods,” she said. “People stop to chat with us, have brought us and the inmates water on hot days, and are generally interested in the work, and friendly.”

The program has proven an excellent opportunity for inmates to connect with the community and gain skills. They have brought some green to the concrete and brick of the city, and they’ll bring it with them to their next homes.

Read more stories from: The Retriever Weekly

An award ceremony for LGBTQ students and allies at UMBC

Before the seniors move on to bigger and better things, the UMBC LGBTQ community wanted to celebrate their accomplishments and recognize the outstanding support systems here on campus.

In recognition of graduating LGBTQ seniors, allied staff, faculty, offices, departments and supportive programs here at UMBC, the Lavender Celebration encouraged family and friends to come together in a commemoration of accomplishments within the LGBTQ campus community.

Sponsored by Student Life’s Mosaic and Interfaith Centers, this year’s Lavender Celebration took place in The Commons’ Skylight Room on the evening of Wednesday, April 29. Before the ceremony began at 6:30 p.m., attendees had the chance to mingle and load up on hors d’oeuvres and refreshments.

Coordinator for LGBTQ Programs Zach Kosinski began by welcoming Dr. Nancy Young, Vice President for Student Affairs, to the podium for some opening remarks. “There are so many things to celebrate,” Young said to the crowd. “You have really made a difference. You work hard at bringing people together and creating this safe and welcoming place.”

Following Dr. Young, Dr. Kim Leisey, Associate Vice President of Student Affairs, provided everyone with a little bit of LGBTQ history. The efforts of the LGBTQ community have come a long way throughout the years and have overcome obstacles in order to make a difference in the world.

Numerous awards were presented throughout the ceremony, such as Allied Office/Department of the Year, Outstanding Program, Faculty/Staff Ally of the Year, Outstanding Faculty/Staff, Building Bridges, Outstanding Ally, Emerging Leader, Service to the LGBTQ Community and Outstanding LGBTQ Leadership.

Marie Stelmack, a senior biology major, said, “There have been some ups and downs, but overall, I’m proud to be a part of the LGBTQ community.” Stelmack and the other graduating seniors posed together proudly for a few pictures.

Winner of the Outstanding LGBTQ Leadership award, Skylar Pardue, a freshman mathematics major, said, “I’m really honored to be a part of this welcoming community. I’ve felt nothing but love and acceptance since day one.” As the Executive Director of QUMBC (Queers United Mobilized and Bringing Change), Pardue strives to improve the climate here on campus and create this accepting space.

With the help of numerous LGBTQ groups and organizations, such as Between Women, Freedom Alliance, QUMBC, Spectrum, B’More Proud Planning Committee and the Queer Leadership Council (QLC), individuals within the LGBTQ community have made significant changes in order to create a welcoming and comfortable environment for people to turn to and embrace.

Victoria Besner, a junior mathematics major, said, “It’s great that UMBC supports this community. We really lift each other up.” Along with some others, Besner stuck around after the ceremony to catch up and congratulate those who received awards.

“This celebration’s goal was to simply recognize and celebrate these individuals’ accomplishments. I think it was hugely successful and I think people had a good time,” said Kosinski.

Read more stories from: The Retriever Weekly