Vanderlei Martins, a professor of physics and researcher with the Joint Center for Earth Systems Technology (JCET) joined Sheilah Kast on Maryland Morning to discuss his cube satellite or CubeSat project. Martins is working with students, other professors and NASA scientists to build the backpack-sized satellite. Martins plans to use his tiny satellite to study the role of aerosols, particles in the atmosphere, in cloud formation. Aerosols, he says, are essential for forming clouds. If there weren’t any aerosols there wouldn’t be any clouds.

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Last week, the women’s swimming and diving team won the 2015 America East Championship with 791 points. The men’s swimming and diving team became the 2015 Coastal Collegiate Swimming Association (CCSA) champions several days later.

This year marks the fourth year in school history that the UMBC women’s swimming and diving team has won the America East Championship. Sophomore Emily Escobedo won the Most Outstanding Swimmer of the Meet award and Coach Chad Cradock, as well as assistants Chris Gibeau, Brandt Nigro, Rob Bellamy and diving coach Petar Trifonov, earned Coaching Staff of the Year.

At the CCSA Championship, Nikola Trajkovic won Freshman of the Year, Ryan Green won Diver of the Year, and Petar Trifonov won Diving Coach of the Year. 16 Retrievers were also included in the CCSA All-Academic Honorees.

Read more about the championships below:
CHAMPIONS! UMBC Swimming and Diving Claims the 2015 America East Championship (UMBC Retrievers)
UMBC Wins 2015 #AESD Championship (America East)
The Champs Are Here! UMBC Men’s Swimming and Diving Takes the 2015 CCSA Crown (UMBC Retrievers)
University of Maryland, Baltimore County Crowned 2015 CCSA Champions (CCSA)

In the latest essay for his Race Stories column in The New York Times, Maurice Berger, research professor at the Center for Art, Design and Visual Culture, examines a new exhibition at the Bronx Museum of Art, “Three Photographers From the Bronx: Jules Aarons, Morton Broffman and Joe Conzo,” which opens Thursday, February 26. “Over the past 40 years,” writes Berger, “our collective view of the Bronx has all too often embraced the media-driven myth of its inexorable decline. For many, the blight, addiction and poverty that plagued parts of the South Bronx in the 1970s have come to symbolize the whole borough. But as Mr. Conzo’s photographs suggest, the reality of the Bronx has been far more complicated. They demonstrate the power of courage, cultural expression and political advocacy to sustain even the most endangered neighborhoods.”

Read “Complicating the Picture of Urban Life” and view the photographs at The New York Times Lens blog.

Berger’s Race Stories column, which appears monthly on The New York Times website, is “a continuing exploration of the relationship of race to photographic portrayals of race.”

Here at UMBC, we take pride in what our alums accomplish after graduation. Take a moment to see which Retrievers have been on the move and making news!

Earlier this week, Julian E. Jones, Jr. ’98, information systems management, was featured in a Baltimore Sun article where he discusses his work as the new Councilman for Baltimore County’s 4th District, as well as his prolific district activities before becoming Councilman.

Jones ran unopposed in the 2014 November election and was sworn in on December 1.

Read the full article here.

Last week, Scientific American posted an article featuring Evgenia Barannikova ’11, biochemistry and molecular biology. In it, she discusses her recent work using specialized peptides to improve lithium ion batteries, an breakthrough inspired in part by the structure of snail shells.

Barannikova is currently pursuing a graduate degree in chemistry at UMBC.

Read the article in full here.

Last week, Ed Berlin ’70, history, was interviewed by the Baltimore Sun. In the interview, Berlin discusses his experiences owning and operating an independent bookstore.

Ed and his wife, Ann, bought the Ivy Bookshop in January 2012, and since then have maintained an annual 8 percent to 10 percent sales growth as well as their commitment to high literary quality.

Click here for the full interview, and here for more information about the store.

Richard Forno was interviewed by the Associated Press about cyber attacks on the rise in Utah.

“Utah state officials have seen what they describe as a sharp uptick in attempts to hack into state computers in the last two years, and they think it related to the NSA data center south of Salt Lake City,”

wrote the Associated Press.

“Maybe these hackers are thinking: ‘If we can attack state systems, we can get info that NSA isn’t releasing,”

said Richard Forno.

Where does this leave Utah? Forno and Tim Junio, a cybersecurity researcher at Stanford University, say that the NSA data center may interest hackers who think they can get to the NSA by targeting state-run facilities that power the center.

Richard Forno, assistant director for UMBC’s Center for Cybersecurity, made an
appearance on All Sides With Ann Fisher, a public radio program broadcast out of
Columbus, Ohio to discuss cybersecurity and corporate accountability. Mandy Trimble was sitting in for Fisher. Guests along with Forno were: Joseph Marks, a cybersecurity reporter for Politico Pro, and Dakota Rudesill, an assistant professor of law at the Moritz College of Law, The Ohio State University.

Trimble posed the question to Forno, should we implement corporate accountability in the event of cybersecurity breaches. Forno said, there is the “practicality of accountability,” because “problems like this [cybersecurity breaches] are quite likely to occur.”

“Would we “hold someone accountable for a traffic jam on the way to work?”

“It happens,” he said.

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