Celebrating Undergraduate & Graduate Research

 

From opera to organic chemistry, this week puts UMBC’s core commitment to student research and creative activity on center stage for two full days.

The Carnegie Foundation ranks UMBC in the category of Research Universities with high research activity, and this week 120 undergraduates and 95 graduate students will prove that as they share their original, interdisciplinary research findings through oral and poster presentations and free arts performances and exhibits open to the campus community and public.

UMBC’s Tenth Undergraduate Research and Creative Achievement Day (URCAD) on Wednesday, April 26, is the biggest in the event’s nine-year history, having doubled the number of student presenters from last year.

On Friday, April 28, the UMBC and University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB)Graduate Student Associations jointly host the 28th annual 2006 Graduate Research Conference (GRC) at the University Center (U.C.).

Founded in 1997 by the Office of the Provost, URCAD has grown steadily since then and is now a project of the Office of Undergraduate Education. The URCAD experience gives students valuable experience preparing for graduate school or future careers.

“Research experience is part of the distinctive undergraduate education offered at UMBC,” said Diane Lee, Vice Provost and Dean of Undergraduate Education. “The 120 students presenting during URCAD are representative of hundreds of students, across all disciplines, conducting research or bringing into existence a new artistic expression or interpretation. Our students and their faculty mentors are to be congratulated on the quality and creativity of these efforts.”

Another key component of UMBC’s commitment to student research is the Undergraduate Research Awards (URA). Each year, students apply during February for these competitive grants of up to $1,500 to support research during the following year. 26 URA scholars from 2005 – 2006 will be presenting their research results at URCAD this week. During the noon session, 36 newly selected URA scholars for 2006 – 2007 will be introduced along with their mentors.

URA scholars will present and perform from a broad spectrum of knowledge on Wednesday.

• Junior environmental science major Ramya Ambikapathi (pictured on homepage, right) studies the impact of the invasive tree species ‘Tree of Heaven’ on eastern U.S. deciduous forests. Her URCAD project helped prepare her for work this summer with the US Environmental Protection Agency’s Western Ecological Facility in Oregon.
• Junior music major Christina Finn (pictured on homepage, center) explores both the business and artistic side of her passion for classical opera singing. Her project, “The Art of Auditioning,” will help her prepare for auditions for apprentice programs at three major American opera companies in the fall.
• Sophomore biological sciences major Rasheeda Johnson (pictured on homepage, left) examines the structure and replication of the bovine leukemia virus, which could yield new approaches to fighting HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. Johnson does her research in the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) lab at UMBC, under the mentorship of HHMI Investigator Michael Summers.

For graduate students, the GRC is a chance to network with peers and mentors while getting a practice run at the rigors of presenting at research conferences in their fields and defending dissertations.

“The GRC provides graduate students with the opportunity to present the results of their ongoing research to peers, faculty members, the University of Maryland community at large and other interested parties,” said Naresh Sunkara, co-chair of the GRC and president of the Chemistry Graduate Student Association.

Like URCAD, the GRC allows graduate students from across disciplines to shine.

• Computer science Ph.D. student Alark Joshi’swork focuses on better visualization of the structure and evolution of hurricanes.
• Chemistry Ph.D. student John Kiser is working on a new type of spectroscopy that could help improve outcomes for one of the most difficult-to-remove forms of brain tumor.
• Language, literacy and culture Ph.D. student Joan Kang Shin studies how online learning environments can provide a unique space for the growth of global communities for teachers of English as a foreign language (EFL).

“We are also excited to have UMBC graduate student alumni attending and judging the conference for the first time, and a big highlight is our keynote speaker Jorge Cham,” said Sunkara.

Cham, an instructor at the California Institute of Technology, is the creator of Piled Higher and Deeper, a highly successful comic strip about graduate school life. In his keynote address, Cham will recount tales of bringing humor into the lives of stressed out academics and explore the guilt, myth and power of procrastination.

URCAD will be held on Wednesday, April 26 from 9 am to 4 pm at the University Center and Fine Arts Building. A full morning session will be devoted to dance and film presentations. The plenary session at noon in U.C. 312 will feature President Hrabowski and two UMBC/URCAD alumni. The complete schedule is available online.

The 2006 Graduate Research Conference will be held on Friday, April 28, from 9 am to 5 pm. Oral presentations will take place in the U.C. Ballroom and ITE building. Posters will be displayed in the Engineering and Computer Science building atrium. The complete schedule is online.

(5/22/06)

 

 

 

 

When someone tells Ray Hoff, professor of physics and director of two of UMBC’s NASA-Goddard related collaborative research centers, that he and his graduate students have their heads in the clouds, it’s taken as a compliment.

This spring has seen two big events for Hoff and his team of faculty and graduate student researchers at the Joint Center for Earth Systems Technology (JCET) and Goddard Earth Science and Technology Center (GEST).

On April 28, Hoff and his students celebrated the successful launch
of NASA’s CALIPSO and Cloudsat satellites. Hoff, a member of the NASA science team for CALIPSO, will join JCET/GEST researchers at UMBC for research using spaceborne lidar (an acronym for light detection and ranging -- using laser beams aimed down from space or up from the earth to collect scientific data) analysis from CALIPSO for years to come.

Throughout April, they worked with colleagues at the University of Wisconsin to track some of the biggest dust storms the Asian continent has seen in decades. The dust storms, which sent large clouds of dust as high as 20,000 feet, were tracked on the “Smog Blog” a web journal devoted to tracking manmade and natural pollution events in the atmosphere.

UMBC, which is ranked 16th nationally in NASA research funding, is also home to a third major NASA-related research center, the Joint Center for Astrophysics (JCA).

“Yawning,” an essay for the Nov./Dec. 2005 issue of American Scientist magazine written by Robert Provine, professor of psychology and an internationally renowned expert on the science of laughter and other contagious behavior, has been selected for inclusion in the “Best American Science Writing 2006.” The latest in the series of annual compilations of top scientific writing in the nation will be published on September 1 by Ecco/Harper Perennial.

110,000 Square-Foot Building to be Multi-Tenant Facility

UMBC's on-campus research and technology park, bwtech@UMBC, and Corporate Office Properties Trust (COPT) announced today that COPT will build and own a second building at the park.

The 110,000 square foot, four-story office building will located at 5520 Research Park Drive on ground leased from UMBC Research Park Corporation and will target large and small technology companies as tenants. The total construction cost of the project is projected to be approximately $22 million.

“We are very pleased to further our relationship with UMBC by being given the opportunity to develop a second building for their expanding research and technology park and to create more critical mass for COPT within the park,” said Randall M. Griffin, President and CEO of Corporate Office Properties Trust.

This building will be adjacent to a development project recently announced within bwtech@UMBC which is the 23,500 square foot new home for the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Maryland-Delaware-District of Columbia Water Science Center located at 5522 Research Park Drive. This would bring COPT’s total square foot ownership in the park to 133,900 square feet.

bwtech@UMBC was Maryland's first university research park and is the only research and development park in Baltimore County. The 41-acre park's first building, completed in 2001, is occupied by RWD Technologies. A second building, completed in 2004, is fully leased.

About COPT:
Corporate Office Properties Trust (COPT) is a fully integrated, self-managed real estate investment trust (REIT) that focuses on the ownership, management, leasing, acquisition and development of suburban office properties located primarily in submarkets within the Greater Washington, DC region. As of December 31, 2005, the Company owned 183 office properties totaling 14.6 million rentable square feet, which included 18 properties totaling 885,000 square feet held through joint ventures. The Company has implemented a core customer expansion strategy that is built around meeting, through acquisitions and development, the multi-location requirements of the Company’s existing strategic tenants. The Company’s property management services team provides comprehensive property and asset management to company owned properties and select third party clients.

COPT’s development and construction services team provides a wide range of development and construction management services for company owned properties, as well as land planning, design/build services, consulting, and merchant development to select third party clients. The Company’s shares are traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol OFC. More information on Corporate Office Properties Trust can be found on the Internet at www.copt.com.

About bwtech@UMBC:
bwtech@UMBC is a 41-acre research and technology community at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC). bwtech@UMBC has a total development capacity of up to 330,000 square feet of office and laboratory space. The USGS building will be the third of five planned state-of-the-art buildings containing over 300,000 square feet of office and wet lab space. The park’s 62,000 square-foot first building has been leased by the information technology firm RWD Technologies since 2001. The second building, a 60,000-square-foot multi-tenant building, is fully leased with tenants including The NASA Goddard Earth Sciences and Technology Center, software maker BD Metrics Inc., healthcare media and education firm Med-IQ, the Erickson School of Aging Studies at UMBC, the engineering/design firm Edwards & Kelcey, and UMBC’s Alex. Brown Center for Entrepreneurship.

UMBC began planning for a new research and technology park in the early 1990s, based on the success of other U.S. parks and the vision of the late Michael Hooker, UMBC president from 1986-1992. To date, UMBC’s research park and technology incubator have received public and private sector funding from the Maryland Economic Development Corporation (MEDCO), the State of Maryland, the City of Baltimore, Baltimore County, the U.S. Department of Commerce, The Abell Foundation, and the Maryland Technology Development Corporation (TEDCO.) bwtech@UMBC is part of Baltimore County's Southwest Enterprise Zone, making companies moving to the park eligible for credits on real property and income taxes, as well as credits for job creation.

Two UMBC Students Named 2006 Goldwater Scholars

 

Two UMBC students are among the 323 sophomores and juniors who have been named 2006 Goldwater Scholars. The prestigious scholarship program honors outstanding students majoring in science, mathematics and engineering who are committed to pursuing careers as research scientists.

Adjoa Smalls-Mantey, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology

Adjoa Smalls-Mantey, a junior with a 3.95 cumulative GPA, is one of several UMBC students conducting research in UMBC’s Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI). Smalls-Mantey, from Upper Marlboro, Md., has worked in the lab since her freshman year. Her research involves improving the mechanics of gene therapy by focusing on the Moloney Murine Leukemia Virus (MMLV). She has participated in the Gene Search Program at Catholic University where she first learned basic lab principles. She also conducted research at Howard University and participated in the Weill Cornell/Rockefeller/Sloan-Kettering Gateways to the Laboratory Program, the first in the country designed exclusively to train undergraduate students to become successful MD-Ph.D applicants.

“This award will help support my goal not only financially, but it also provides me with the resources and networking opportunities as a scholar and researcher,” said Smalls-Mantey.

Smalls-Mantey is a trainee for the M inority Access to Research Careers (MARC), Undergraduate Student Training in Academic Research Program, UMBC’s preeminent undergraduate scholarship program that aims to increase the number of persons from underrepresented groups who pursue Ph.D. degrees and careers in biomedical research or mathematics. A Meyerhoff and HHMI Scholar, Smalls-Mantey is a member of the Honors College and Golden Key International Honor Society. This year, she helped establish Fellowship Under God’s Influence, a student organization based on Seventh-day Adventist beliefs. Off campus, she is the deputy director of Pathfinder, a Christian scouting organization for children at her church.

Smalls-Mantey expects to graduate in spring 2007 and plans to pursue a M.D./Ph.D degree, specializing in immunology.

Devin Burns, Mechanical Engineering

Devin Burns, a sophomore with a 4.0 cumulative GPA, has great aspirations of obtaining a Ph.D. in mechanical engineering with a focus on renewable energy systems and starting his own research lab.

For several years, Burns has worked as a research intern in the College Qualified Science and Engineering Apprentice Program at the Army Research Laboratory (ARL) at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Md. There he investigated mathematical tools to help detect and analyze deceptive activities by opposing forces. He also taught science and math to students in grades 8-11 as part of an outreach program at ARL.

Currently, Burns conducts research in the lab of Marc Zupan, UMBC assistant professor of mechanical engineering. He is studying the advanced materials of mechanical properties. Burns, from Smithsburg, Md., studied abroad in China and Vietnam during Winter Session 2006. He is a Meyerhoff Scholar, a member of the Golden Key International Honors Society and will soon be inducted in Tau Beta Pi, the Engineering Honor Society. He also enjoys intramural sports at UMBC and is a member of the Running Club.

For additional information about the types of prestigious scholarships available, how to apply for them or to read about previous winners, visit www.umbc.edu/prestige.

Below are updates on UMBC’s 2005 Goldwater Scholars. All three students have maintained a 4.0 cumulative GPA.

Michael Aaron is a junior pursuing dual degrees in mechanical engineering and biological sciences with a minor in writing. Aaron recently went on his first international rugby tour. He accompanied the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Rugby Team to Paris, France where they faced off against Institut National d’Agronomie de Paris Grignon and won 24-7.  He met the team this past summer while conducting cellular mechanics research as part of the MIT Summer Research Program (MSRP) in biology.  He has worked in labs at the National Institute of Standards and Technology and at Case Western Reserve University.  A MARC, Meyerhoff and McNair Scholar, Aaron is the captain of UMBC’s Rugby Team, an active member in Tau Beta Pi, the Engineering Honor Society, and a Learning Resource  Center tutor. 

Andrew Kohlway is a senior MARC and Meyerhoff Scholar who has had outstanding summer lab experiences at a consortium of research universities in Pittsburgh and at Yale University. He is majoring in bioinformatics with a minor in mathematics. After graduating from UMBC in May, he will enter Yale University’s Ph.D. program in molecular biophysics and biochemistry. He recently received an honorable mention from the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship competition. He will present some of the research that he has conducted in the lab of Daniele Fabris, assistant professor of chemistry and biochemistry, at the UMBC Undergraduate Research and Creative Achievement Day on April 26.

Stephanie Nunez is a junior biochemistry and molecular biology major with a minor in modern languages and linguistics. In January 2006, she studied abroad in Granada, Spain. She currently interns with Anandarup Gupta, assistant professor at the University of Maryland, Baltimore Dental School. She will present her research at UMBC’s Undergraduate Research and Creative Achievement Day. Nunez is a MARC, Meyerhoff and HHMI Schoar. She recently was awarded the Alumni Association Outstanding Student Award in Biochemistry. A member of UMBC’s Honors College, Nunez also serves as an officer in the Golden Key International Honor Society. For the past three years, she has played the bass clarinet for the UMBC Chamber Players. This summer she will be interning at Stanford University for the second time.

(4/17/06)

 

 

 

 

Education, Exposure, Experience

 

While entrepreneurship may sound like a concept only studied in business school, at UMBC it is an important part of the university’s mission. “Faculty and students pushing the envelope in science and technology, breaking new ground in the creative arts or crafting new solutions to society’s problems can all be entrepreneurs,” said Vivian Armor, director of UMBC’s Alex. Brown Center for Entrepreneurship and a UMBC alumna. “There are many ways you can help prepare yourself for entrepreneurship. You can study it, you can learn from other’s experiences and you can jump in and try it yourself. Our Center initiatives focus on all three of these key areas: education, exposure and experience.”

The Center, founded in 2000 through a generous gift of $1 million from The Alex. Brown Foundation, is infusing the entire university with the thinking and attitude, activities and ideas that inspire entrepreneurial accomplishment. During Entrepreneurship Week, which runs through April 7, it offers events that highlight programs available to both the UMBC and Baltimore business communities. The week kicks off at 12 p.m. Monday, April 3 with a lecture by two successful UMBC alumni entrepreneurs, Eli Eisenberg, founder and principal, Video Production Consulting, Inc., and Frank Taylor, president, The First Choice.

Many UMBC students are not waiting until graduation to start their own businesses. Supported by entrepreneurship courses, internships and other programs, as well as the student-run CEO Club, they are already achieving success. CEO Club members Wan His Yuan, a graduate student in information systems, and Jason Servary, a senior in financial economics, have created OpenPosting.com, the first online classified community for college students. The site now has 1500 registered users and receives about 4,000 page views per day. While they look for funding, Yuan and Servary are participating in the Alex. Brown Center’s IdeaLab at techcenter@UMBC, which offers support for faculty and students engaged in the start-up phase of high-technology companies by providing business advisement, mentoring and space.

Servary and Yuan recently won the UMBC Business Plan Competition and are currently one of 40 finalists (out of 174 entries) to participate in the annual Mosh Pit Business Plan Competition sponsored by the Greater Baltimore Technology Center. During Entrepreneurship Week, Servary, Yuan and other CEO Club business owners will pass on their skills and experience to fellow students in UMBC’s residence halls.

William LaCourse, professor of analytical chemistry and CEO Club advisor, believes that programs like the CEO Club support students across the disciplines. “Every great invention, movement, or accomplishment begins with a single idea that someone had the courage to put into action,” he said. “Entrepreneurism empowers an individual to act upon their idea, organize and manage its implementation, and carry it through even in the face of adversity.

“We all have within us the power to change the world, and the CEO Club is a much needed venue for students to meet and share ideas, hopes and aspirations. Members connect with successful entrepreneurs, practice the tools of success, and learn the art of invention. Whether a fledgling art gallery or an up-and-coming biotech start-up, the CEO Club allows our students to achieve their dreams,” LaCourse added.

One of the Center’s programs for UMBC faculty is a summer entrepreneurship institute that will focus on a different discipline each year. This summer, the Center will work with visual and performing arts departments to incorporate entrepreneurship into the curriculum, from designing new courses to adding new modules to existing classes. To set the stage for creative thinking, the Center and the Departments of Music and Theatre will host a lecture Thursday, April 6 by Michael Gelb, an internationally recognized pioneer in the fields of creative thinking, accelerated learning and innovative leadership. Gelb’s lecture, open to the entire UMBC community and the general public, will be held at 7 p.m. in the Fine Arts Recital Hall. On Friday, April 7, Anne Bogart, associate professor at Columbia University and director of the Saratoga International Theatre Institute, will speak at 8 p.m. in the UMBC Theatre. (For more information, call 410-455-2917.)

Creating and supporting entrepreneurship in the region is another important part of the Center’s mission. In addition to offering classes and seminars, the Center is one of the University’s partners in the ACTiVATE program, funded by the National Science Foundation and designed to address the unique needs of women interested in starting technology companies. ACTiVATE is now in its second year and four women in the program are now heading up their own tech companies, including Mona S. Jhaveri Brown, whose Foligo LCC recently took up residence at techcenter@UMBC.

For more information on the Alex. Brown Center for Entrepreneurship, visit www.umbc.edu/entrepreneurship.

(4/3/06)

 

 

 

 

'Preparing Minority Scientists, Engineers' Appears in Science Magazine

President Freeman Hrabowski and Dr. Michael Summers of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC), have published an article in the March 31 issue of Science Magazine, "Preparing Minority Scientists and Engineers," that examines successful strategies for educating minority scientists and engineers in college and fostering their pursuit of doctorates and medical degrees.

The authors begin by noting that well-prepared minority students are originally interested in pursuing scientific or engineering careers, but far too few of those students actually graduate with degrees in those subjects. Students who entered UMBC's Meyerhoff Program, for example, were twice as likely to earn a science or engineering bachelor's degree and 5.3 times more likely to enroll in post-graduate study, when compared to those who were accepted to UMBC's Meyerhoff Program but attended other institutions.

Hrabowski and Summers then identify several factors necessary for minority student success, such as involving the students in scientific research projects as early as possible.

The Meyerhoff Program (named after its founders, Baltimore philanthropists Robert and his late wife Jane Meyerhoff), focuses on producing bachelor's degree recipients, particularly African-Americans, who go on to doctoral programs in science and engineering. UMBC is leading the nation as a producer of minority scientists who have gone on to earn Ph.D.s and medical degrees. Meyerhoff students with completed advanced degrees now number 44 with Ph.Ds or M.D.-Ph.Ds, 72 with master's degrees and 32 with medical degrees.

Meyerhoff Program alumni include a clinical fellow in cardiovascular medicine at Harvard Medical School, a post-doctoral fellow in neuroscience at Johns Hopkins Medical School and a research and development scientist at Eastman Kodak.

Dr. Michael Summers, professor of chemistry/biochemistry and investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) at UMBC, has worked closely with Meyerhoff Scholars in the course of his research on the application of nuclear magnetic resonance to studies of the structure and function of proteins.

Hrabowski and Summers identify five elements in achieving positive outcomes in retention and development of minority scientists and engineers. Those elements are recruiting a substantial body of high-achieving minority students with interests in math and science; offering merit-based financial support; providing an orientation program for freshman; recruitment of active research faculty to work with the students; and involvement of students in scientific research projects early in their undergraduate careers.

Living Learning Communities Create Rewarding Connections

 

When Tony Harris, a sophomore transfer student from Hofstra University, and Amanda Schwenk, a freshman computer science major, applied to UMBC, they had one question in mind: What is the best way to make new friends at UMBC? They both found their answer while researching UMBC’s Web site, although it wasn’t the traditional suggestion to join an organization or club. The solution was UMBC’s Living Learning Communities (LLC), where residents share common academic interests.

“I knew I would be able to make connections with people from other countries while also being around people who speak my targeted language,” said Harris, a modern languages and linguistics major studying Spanish and a resident of the Intercultural Living Exchange floor, a for-credit language immersion and intercultural communication program.

“We [students on the floor] go to dinner together and take classes at the Retriever Activities Center,” said Schwenk, a Center for Women & Information Technology (CWIT) Scholar, who lives on CWIT’s LLC floor.

However, residents of these communities gain more than friendships by living on one of the nine LLC floors. Students gain academic support with ready-made study groups and have more outside classroom interactions with faculty than non-LLCs residents, according to Kim Leisey, assistant vice president for student affairs and director of residential education. They also have the possibility of taking classes together, participating in community service projects, planning on-campus events or visiting the many Baltimore-Washington attractions.

These are all advantages that Jill Randles, assistant vice provost for undergraduate education, expects residents in the new Exploratory Majors Living Learning Community will experience. Opening this fall, this LLC will offer valuable support to the segment of UMBC students who hope to narrow their talents and interests into a defined major.

“We want to help the students identify their best academic fit at UMBC, and hopefully, by becoming engaged through our programmatic efforts, they will feel connected,” said Randles.

Each LLC offers unique experiences and lessons for residents. For example, students on the Visual and Performing Arts floor grow in their specific artistic area by being exposed to their classmates’ work, having late-night jam sessions and participating in engaging conversations about the arts, said Anna Rubin, associate professor of music, director of the floor and the Linehan Artists Scholars Program. Meanwhile, CWIT residents, particularly the male students, learn how to encourage their female counterparts pursuing careers in the male-dominated science and technology fields, said Bria McElroy, director of university initiatives for CWIT.

In all, LLC residents and their advisors agree these Communities embody UMBC’s commitment to diversity and inclusiveness — gaining a sense of belonging and understanding of various cultures and viewpoints.

Below is a list of Communities for the 2006-2007 academic year:

• Center for Women and Information Technology
• Emergency Health Services
• Exploratory Majors
• Honors College
• Humanities Floor
• Intercultural Living Exchange
• Shriver Living Learning Center
• Visual and Performing Arts Floor
• Women Involved in Learning and Leadership

For more information, or to download an application, visit the Living Learning Communities Web site.

(3/27/06)

 

 

 

 

Award-Winning Designer to Lead Hundreds of Middle School Girls, Parents,
in Day of Hands-on, High-Tech Fun: Computer Mania Day, May 6

If there’s one sure way to get more girls interested in
technology careers, just show them how computers help design some of the
world’s most glamorous clothes.

Cynthia Rowley, one of America’s most honored fashion designers, will
show hundreds of middle school girls, parents and teachers from across
Maryland how high technology helps create high fashion clothes worn by
supermodels as she headlines Computer Mania Day at UMBC on Saturday, May 6.

Rowley, whose signature designs are found in Cynthia Rowley boutiques,
better department stores and specialty stores across the U.S. and globe,
has won multiple awards from The Council of Fashion Designers of
America. Her creations have been featured in Vogue, Elle, Glamour,
Harper’s Bazaar and The New York Times. She is also the co-author of a
best-selling series of books on personal and home style and an entrepreneur.

Computer Mania Day is an annual day of free, hands-on, high-tech, fun
activities for adults and kids sponsored by UMBC’s Center for Women and
Information Technology (CWIT). The half-day event helps to get girls
interested in technology and computing careers while helping parents and
teachers sharpen their own computer skills. While boys are welcome, the
focus is on girls because of their continuing under-representation in
science, technology, engineering and math.

Research shows that the information technology (IT) gender gap opens as
early as the middle school years, when girls are most image-conscious
and do not want to be labeled as “geeks” or “nerds.” Girls also make up
only 14 percent of Advanced Placement students in computer science, a
key to success in IT-related fields at the college level.

At Computer Mania Day, kids will get the chance to meet Rowley and
participate in workshops led by positive female role models from UMBC
along with business, government and education leaders.

Girls’ events highlights include “Hardware Rocks,” “Google of Opportunities,” digital art and imaging, and the physics of do-it-yourself hot air balloons. Adult workshop highlights include how to prepare your kids for college, “Computers 101,” and “Cyber Safety: Keeping Your Child Protected Online.” All attendees will have the chance to win great giveaways like the HP iPAQ, Dell USB Memory Key and Cisco Routers.

EVENT DETAILS:
Saturday, May 6, 2006.
9 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.

Check-in at
UC Ballroom, UMBC. FREE lunch included for students. All adult and student attendees MUST register ahead of time online at www.computer-mania.info. To sign up or for more information, visit www.computer-mania.info or call 410-455-8433.