CSEE Professor Anupam Joshi has been named an IEEE Fellow, recognized for his for contributions to security, privacy and data management in mobile and pervasive systems. This designation is conferred by the IEEE Board of Directors on individuals with an outstanding record of accomplishments in any of the IEEE fields of interest and is recognized by the technical community as a prestigious honor and an important career achievement. No more than 0.1% of the total IEEE voting membership can be selected in a year.

Dr. Joshi joined UMBC’s faculty in 1998 and currently is the Oros Family Professor of Technology and Director of the UMBC Center for Cybersecurity. He previously held faculty appointments at the University of Missouri, Columbia and Purdue University. He received a Ph.D. in Computer Science from Purdue University and a B. Tech in Electrical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi. While at UMBC he has taught both undergraduate and graduate courses in operating systems, mobile computing and security. He developed and teaches an Honors College seminar on “Privacy and Security in a Mobile Social World”. He has mentored nine Ph.D. graduates and a large number of M.S. students.

Joshi has made many contributions to the design, analysis and development of intelligent systems for mobile, social and secure computing. Twenty years ago he was one of a handful of researchers who recognized that mobility introduced new challenges for data management, security and privacy over and above those brought about by wireless connectivity. His key insight was to model mobile and pervasive systems as distributed systems that are both open, in that they do not pre-identify a set of known participants, and dynamic, in that the participants change regularly.

He observe that applications on mobile devices require greater degrees of decision making and autonomy as they become increasingly sophisticated and intelligent and can’t always assume connectivity to central servers. Entities in these pervasive computing systems must exchange information about the data and services offered and sought and their associated security and privacy policies, negotiate for information and resource sharing, be aware of their context, and monitor for and report on suspicious or anomalous behavior. Dr. Joshi has addressed these challenges across the stack, from network protocols to data management to policy controlled interactions between autonomous entities.

Much of his research has been done in collaboration with colleagues in industry such as IBM, Microsoft, Northrop Grumman and Qualcomm. It has been funded by not just them, but also NSF, DARPA, AFOSR, ARL, NIST and other federal agencies. Joshi has published prolifically with more than 200 publications in refereed journals and conferences, many of which are highly cited. He has served as the General or Program Chair of many key conferences including the IEEE International Conference on Intelligence and Security Informatics which will be held in Baltimore in May 2015.

The IEEE is the world’s leading professional association for advancing technology for humanity. Through its 400,000 members in 160 countries, it is a leading authority on a wide variety of areas ranging from aerospace systems, computers and telecommunications to biomedical engineering, electric power and consumer electronics. Dedicated to the advancement of technology, the IEEE publishes 30 percent of the world’s literature in the electrical and electronics engineering and computer science fields, and has developed more than 900 active industry standards.

By Jasmine Malhotra, Graduate Coordinator for Cultural Programs with Student Life’s The Mosaic: Center for Culture & Diversity

UMBC’s Critical Social Justice (CSJ) Week 2015 will be February 16 -20th. As we get closer to the week and all the exciting events that will take place, you may be wondering how you can participate. What makes planning a social justice event different than planning any other event?

First, before planning a social justice event, discussion, or activity, it’s important to understand what social justice means. We recommend doing some more research on your own. A great article to read is “From Safe Spaces to Brave Spaces: A New Way to Frame Dialogue around Diversity and Social Justice” by Brian Arao and Kristi Clemens. We also encourage you to read Amelia Meman’s CSJ blog post “Why ‘Critical Social Justice.’”  Have more questions about the Critical Social Justice campaign? The Women’s Center or Student Life’s Mosaic Center staff will be offering drop-in info sessions, so stay tuned to the CSJ Facebook page for details.

Here are a few tips to help you start your event planning.  You can also check out the Critical Social Justice Toolkit for more information on engaging in difficult dialogues. Once you have your basic plan, send us your idea here and get ready to help make a difference!

Social Justice Event Planning Tips: 

Step 1: Planning to plan: Pick people whom you can depend on and who are truly committed to making this event happen. Be mindful of diversity – both visible and invisible – and invite people to join you with various social identities so you can really understand your event from all different perspectives.

Step 2: Choosing your theme or what aspect of social justice you want to bring attention to: There are tons and tons of different subtopics, related to social justice from inhumanity towards animals to unequal access to education. Pick a topic that your whole group agrees on and is passionate about.

Step 3: Do some research on your topic to understand who the least advantaged group is and how there is unequal power. Try to understand the issue from multiple perspectives and think about how it impacts people locally and globally. Why and how is this power inequality perpetuated and why does it matter?

Step 4: While it’s impossible to educate people on the entire scope of a particular social justice issue through just one program, think about ways you might introduce people to the central ideas and relevance of the issue. Look for inspiration online and brainstorm ideas with others involved with your event. Find an interesting way to engage the community in your event while also making them understand your issue. The best types of events are often the ones in which people are involved and engaged. Get creative with your idea!

Step 5: Plan the details of your event (e.g. reserving a space, buying materials, publicizing the event, etc. ) and make sure all the planners know what their role is in making the event happen.

Step 6 (Optional but usually helpful): Have opportunities for additional reflection after your event, whether it’s a discussion space or time for writing responses or other thoughts. Also, give participants ideas on how the can stay educated on your topic though further reading, videos, and online resource pages. Share how they can help create change around this topic with potential theme-related service opportunities and advocacy materials.

We want to give you as much notice as possible about our plan to cease classroom support of VHS players on June 1, 2017. This plan was created with the input from the UMBC Classroom Committee, the AOK Library, and DoIT using the information gathered from the campus-wide VHS Usage Survey distributed in March of 2014.

Since the summer of 2012 both new and renewed technology-rich learning spaces have not included a VHS player. Our current pool of devices is beginning to fail and we are finding it difficult to purchase replacement equipment. Increasingly we see challenges with the quality of existing VHS tapes as they age. Campus usage and library circulation data confirms the decline in the use of VHS media. In addition, many of our VHS tapes do not meet the requirements for accessibility of instructional materials. For instance, do the VHS resources that you use now include closed captioning?

DoIT will continue to have a limited number of VHS players available for delivery from AV Services throughout the transition. The AOK Library will continue to provide VHS viewing stations and a screening room after June, 2017.If you currently own VHS tapes that you use for instruction, you should begin to develop a strategy for migrating that material to a digital or online format. Staff in DoIT and the Library will be glad to assist if you have questions regarding the transition from VHS tapes to updated media formats.

To help, we recommend the following:

 Many VHS tapes used for instruction are now available online by subscription or purchased as DVD material. DoIT is working with the Library to investigate options for streaming media.

 Bookmark clips and desired content in your browser.

We hope that by giving you as much advance warning as possible we can begin working with groups to make an orderly transition before VHS tapes are impossible to support and this impacts your instruction.

Please visit our FAQ page at https://wiki.umbc.edu/display/faq/Classroom+VHS+Player+Retirement

Thank you in advance for your cooperation.

Road Warriors

UMBC men�s soccer team beats the University of Louisville to advance to Elite Eight in NCAA Tournament.

The UMBC men�s soccer team journeyed to play No. 13 Louisville on Sunday night and came back with a famous victory that propelled them into the quarterfinals of the men�s NCAA soccer championship.

Senior midfielder Kansaye Mamadou converted a penalty kick in the 24th minute to give the Retrievers a lead that they never relinquished to earn a spot in the Elite Eight of college soccer.

UMBC is the only team remaining in the tournament with three wins on the road � and coach Pete Caringi, Jr.�s squad will travel again to play the Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska, on Friday, December 5 at 8 p.m. EST.

The Retrievers started the game with immense confidence and composure, and UMBC had the best of the play in the first half before a handball call within the area in the 22rd minute on a Louisville defender led the referee to award a penalty. Mamadou beat the keeper with an expertly-taken penalty kick.

Louisville increased the tempo of the game in the second half to try to find an equalizer, yet the Retrievers began the half still looking dangerous on the counterattack.

As the game wore on, however, the Cardinals piled pressure on the Retrievers, and standout sophomore goalkeeper Billy Heavner made a number of key saves to preserve the UMBC lead � including a tremendous slap save on a threatening ball in the face of goal in the game�s 79th minute.

The Retrievers� current run to the Elite Eight of college soccer is the team�s best showing ever in Division I. The team joins their next opponent � Creighton University � along with Georgetown University, the University of Virginia, UCLA, Providence University, Michigan State University, and the University of North Carolina in the quarterfinals.

The men�s soccer squad has achieved this athletics milestone by taking a different path to success. The university and its athletics department share a vision to seek excellence for UMBC�s student athletes in the classroom as well as on the field.

In a recent interview with UMBC Magazine, UMBC athletics director Tim Hall said: �My own beliefs about intercollegiate athletics and academics are congruent with the leadership of the university. I believe that success in athletics and success in academics are not mutually exclusive. You can be successful and balanced in both.�

It�s a vision that�s paying off with the Elite Eight Retrievers.

Last week, Heavner was presented with the inaugural America East Elite 18 award, which recognizes student-athletes competing in conference championship matches who possess high academic and athletic achievements. In addition to being one of the catalysts on UMBC�s amazing postseason run, Heavner also maintains a 4.0 GPA as a major in financial economics.

The UMBC men’s and women’s soccer teams also earned National Soccer Coaches Association of America (NSCAA) Team Academic Awards for the 2013-14 academic year for posting cumulative team grade point averages of 3.0 or better. UMBC was one of only 188 schools that had both men’s and women’s programs recognized in the NSCAA awards.

The win against Louisville on Sunday night also extends the collegiate careers of the squad�s exceptional core of senior players � including Kansaye, defender Oumar Ballo, forward Kay Banjo, defender Jordan Becker, midfielder Geaton Caltabiano, midfielder Michael DiCesare, defender Marquez Fernandez, midfielder Stephen Ho, midfielder/defender Zach Wenger, and defender Spencer Williams.

To see video highlights of the historic win, explore detailed game accounts and statistics, and obtain information on tickets to next Friday�s game in Omaha, head to www.umbcretrievers.com.

(Updated 12/1/2014)