Focus now includes administrative efficiency & effectiveness

John Fritz·May 12, 2026 at 4:54 PM

Once again, the Division of Information Technology (DoIT), in partnership with the Office of the Provost, invites UMBC faculty and staff to submit analytics proposals for the 2026-27 academic year. Also, this year, a new focus will include proposals that aim to improve administrative efficiency and effectiveness. Regardless, the goal is the same – to use current or past data to inform future interventions or “actionable intelligence” that can solve a current problem or create a new opportunity to achieve a desired outcome.

Grant Overview
Award: $2,000 professional development award, renewable annually, transferred to your department’s PeopleSoft chart string.

Focus Areas

• Student Success and Retention: Projects exploring relationships between activities or learning in one course and outcomes in other courses, particularly critical progression points, low-success courses, or foundational skills.
• Faculty Development and Support: Proposals that leverage institutional data (via REX and Tableau) to inform instructional practices, contributing insights to the LA Community of Practice.

• Administrative Efficiency and Effectiveness: Projects focused on improving administrative efficiency & effectiveness, especially return on investment (ROI) to do so.

Eligibility

• All UMBC faculty (including adjunct faculty, lecturers, and tenure-track faculty) and staff members.

Expectations for Grant Recipients

• Engage actively with the UMBC Analytics Community of Practice (CoP).
• Produce and present a final report or scholarly product (conference presentation, external grant proposal, or publication).

• Consider leveraging results to apply for a Hrabowski Innovation Fund award.

Application Components:
Proposals must include:

1. Brief Abstract: Suitable for publication on UMBC’s website (maximum 200 words).
2. Project Proposal: Clearly outlining objectives, methodology, expected outcomes, and relevance (maximum 3 pages).
3. FERPA training completion certificate (more info)
4. Signed acknowledgement of support: Department Chair or Leader (through DocuSign)

Timeline

• Proposal Deadline: Friday, June 5, 2026
• Notification of Awards: Early July 2026
• Grant Period: July 2026 – June 2027

Support and Resources

• REX Data Warehouse (available to all faculty & staff who’ve completed FERPA training)
• Tableau training and support provided by DoIT
• Access to online, self-paced “Analytics @ UMBC” Blackboard training site.
• Access to prior workshops and resources to inform proposal development.

Click here for original post. Please submit proposals here. For proposal guidance, questions, or further information, please contact:

Robert Carpenter
Associate Provost for Analytics & Deputy CIO
bobc@umbc.edu

John Fritz
Associate Vice President, Instructional Technology
fritz@umbc.edu

Tom Penniston
Coordinator of Learning Analytics
penniston@umbc.edu

Hello there! We will have abbreviated hours from today until the end of the semester. We will be opening from 10am to 3pm today, Wednesday May 13th until Thursday, May 21st. Happy end of the semester and good luck on finals!!

Hello everyone!

Retriever Essentials will be CLOSED today (5/13/2026) due to our end of the year celebration.

As a reminder, we will be reopening on Friday at our regularly scheduled time, but closing at early 4:45pm. Please plan your trip accordingly, and we apologize for any inconviences.

UMBC Center for Precision Aquaculture launches to boost sustainable U.S. fish farming and has secured $1.5 million in congressional funding.

Please click link for full story. 

https://umbc.edu/stories/center-for-precision-aquaculture/

Fuel up for finals! Our Grad Finals Reset kickoff is officially underway, and we want to see you there.

Stop by The Commons 308. Limited food is left.

Don't forget: Our daily drop-in reset space is also open in the OGSL office starting today. Swing by all week for puzzles, coloring, and a quiet place to decompress.

Good morning Retrievers and Value Riders,

Beginning with the Summer 2026 semester, UMBC Transit will expand service on both the Route 40 and Arbutus routes to improve safety, accessibility, and connectivity for our riders. 

New Route 40 Stops (New Route Map)

The following four stops will be added to Route 40: 

• Plum Tree Apartments @ Plumtree Dr & Joycin Ct (Northbound) 
• Plum Tree Apartments @ Plumtree Dr & Harrington Dr (Northbound) 
• Chatham Gardens Apartments @ Baltimore National Pike / North Chatham Rd (Eastbound)
• St. John's Plaza @ Baltimore National Pike / St. John's Ln (Eastbound) 

New Arbutus Route Stop (New Route Map)

The Arbutus route will also add service to: 

• Lansdowne Station Shopping Center (Arbutus Super Walmart, and more retail stores) 

These enhancements are part of UMBC Transit's continued commitment to being Safe, Reliable, and Responsive. The Route 40 expansion is specifically designed to improve pedestrian safety by reducing the need for riders to access stops along unsafe, high-traffic roadway areas while expanding access to key residential and commercial destinations. 

This low-cost, high-impact improvement strengthens connectivity for students and community members, enhances mobility options beyond campus, and increases UMBC Transit's visibility and presence throughout the surrounding region.

We look forward to continuing to improve access and service for our riders and community partners. Stay tuned for updated schedules and route maps ahead of the Summer 2026 launch.

Safe Travels,

Your Transit Team ~ Driving Student Success!

Original post from UMBC News & Magazine

In February 2020, Carter Gerhardt visited the UMBC campus as a newly admitted student. Six years later, he attended the same event, this time as a senior computer engineering student answering questions about his experience. During his time at UMBC Gerhardt faced the challenge of virtual learning during the COVID pandemic and doubt over whether his math skills were strong enough to pursue a major he was interested in. Supportive friends and faculty encouraged him and this May he will walk across the stage with a degree he was close to giving up on. “I’m getting a degree that I originally thought that I couldn’t do,” he says. “I’m proud of that.” 

Q: Why did you choose UMBC?

A: I picked UMBC because I knew the class sizes were smaller. The financial aid was also generous, and that was certainly a big factor. I wasn’t 100 percent sure what major I wanted to do—I was considering mechanical engineering, computer science, and computer engineering. When I looked at companies and organizations in the area that I might want to work for, I saw that a lot of UMBC graduates ended up at those places. 

Q: What are some of the challenges you faced during your college experience?

A: My entire first year of college was virtual because of COVID. My math grades were not as high as I was used to them being in high school. So you could say that college was a wake-up call. It was partly for that reason that I first chose computer science as a major—it was less intimidating than computer engineering. 

But I still enjoyed working with hardware and working with my hands. 

So about two years later, I revisited that decision, encouraged by my friends in the computer engineering major. I talked to my advisor about what changing majors would involve and he walked me through it. Classes were back in person, and that was helpful. I decided I could do it.

Q: What do you like most about the computer engineering degree?

A: Computer engineers have to be good at a lot of things. You learn about electrical signals and power distribution on the hardware side. And you also need to understand software and algorithms. The breadth of topics you get exposed to is really fun to explore.

The sense of community within the major itself is also very strong, especially as you get into upper-level computer engineering courses and your class sizes get a lot smaller. Last fall, I took a communication engineering class with Dr. Seung-Jun Kim and there were five undergraduates in the entire class. (It was cross-listed as a graduate course.) 

The depth of material that you can dive into and the level of instructor support here is fantastic. 

Q: What are your next steps after graduation?

A: I’m part of a scholarship program here at UMBC called Scholarship for Service. It’s a cybersecurity focused scholarship, and for every year of support you receive, you commit to a year of working in the government on cybersecurity. Most of the scholars in that program go into federal service, but you can also work at the state, local, or tribal level, or you can be a cyber educator. I’ll fulfill that commitment, and then see what happens. 

My interests are mainly in wireless/hardware security and radio-frequency engineering, and I would be interested in making medical devices secure. Whether it’s in government service, or in the private sector, the idea of developing products that make people’s lives safer is very appealing to me.

Q: What are some of the student activities you were involved with during your time at UMBC?

A: Since May of 2021, I’ve been a student worker in the Division of Information Technology (DoIT). My supervisor, Courtney Burkett, has been a great mentor and it has been a great experience. It’s taught me job skills and time management, and also it’s been a fun way to learn about the campus and make friends. I’ve been part of the Tau Beta Pi Engineering Honors Society, the UMBC CyberDawgs, and part of the Baja Racing Team. 

Currently, a few other students and I have been working with Dr. Kim to develop a computer engineering Council of Majors. As a student organization, it would link students and faculty in the major. We [envision the organization growing to be able to] plan social events, networking events, and try to educate students about the opportunities available to them, such as working on research in faculty members’ labs.

In 2021, Carter Gerhardt was part of the UMBC Baja Racing team. Team members, from left to right are Manny Conrad, Carter Gerhardt, Emilie Shoff, Nick Myers, Michael O’Connor, Peter Stein, Alec Atwell, Zachary Love, and Alex Povodyrev. (Image courtesy of Gerhardt)

Q: Has there been a piece of advice that someone at UMBC has given you that has really stuck out in your mind?

A: I’d say the advice that’s stuck the most would be to take the path less traveled. I am currently taking the Computer Engineering capstone engineering class with Dr. E. F. Charles LaBerge [Ph.D. ’03]. When it came time to decide on our project, my teammates and I were leaning toward a flashy project building a vehicle and its sensor systems. But Dr. LaBerge encouraged us to take on a project focusing on an error detecting and correcting algorithm called Reed-Solomon. It’s the same algorithm that helps your phone read QR codes, even if you’re not lining everything up perfectly. It was a topic none of us were really familiar with and it has pushed us out of our comfort zone in a great way. I’ve seen how things I’ve learned across my classes are really coming together in this project and it has been super interesting. 

Q: Looking back, how do you think you’ve changed the most since senior year of high school?

A: Overall, I guess you can say I’ve matured. I would say my ability to look at a problem and break it down into manageable pieces is much better. I’ve come to realize no matter how big a problem you’re presented with, you can tackle it with the right tools.

And the other thing that I’ve learned, especially after having my first year be virtual, is the importance of taking care of yourself, both physically and mentally. It can be easy with the rush of assignments and deadlines to let everything else fall to the side. Some of the things that I’ve incorporated are that I make my bed every morning. That’s definitely not something I did when I was in high school! I exercise regularly and try to get a good night’s sleep every night. I’ve learned I need to take care of myself so I can take care of other people and put my best work forward. 

After a long and strenuous what better to celebrate the completion of the school year! UMBC will be having their Annual Grill and Chill Celebration! Pop out and come enjoy some DJ'd music, food, and raffles, and Vibes!

Location: Quad

Time: Today 1-4PM

Attire: Cookout 

UMBC's 10th Earth Day Symposium was held during Earth Week on April 24, 2026, and this year's theme was "Extreme Events in a Changing World." The morning featured talks addressing extreme events, such as space weather, wildfires, air quality, and how atmospheric modeling assists in examining earth systems, along with a keynote presentation on extreme storms and another on the polar vortex. 

Fortunately, the weather was not extreme that day, as the afternoon included an outside exhibit hall, featuring a model of HARP2, a collection of ash and dust logistically placed on a world map, and a wind lidar system, followed by a tree planting (thank you, UMBC Office of Sustainability). Once back inside the Physics Building, Atmospheric Physics graduate students presented their posters, an experts panel convened to discuss "Our Response to the Extremes", and Dr. Zhibo Zhang delivered closing remarks. 

Congratulations to the 2026 EDS Steering Committee members Joshua Richards (lead, ATPH/GESTAR II), Parker Coye (ATPH), Eniola Oyedeji (ATPH/GESTAR II), Tashin Ahammad (ATPH), Connor Thompson (ATPH), and Idris Ali (ATPH/GESTAR II) on a successful UMBC Earth Week event! 

Guest Speakers on Extreme Events:

Dr. Denny Oliveira (GPHI/UMBC)

Dr. Shane Coffield (NASA GSFC/UMD)

Dr. Viral Shah (GESTAR II/MSU)

Dr. Rebecca Eager (JHU APL, LLC)

Keynote Speaker:

Dr. Jeff Halverson, GES/UMBC 

Exhibit Hall:

Ansel Lavitz, who works with UMBC's Dr. Adriana Rocha-Lima, conducts research on dust aerosols.

UMBC Atmospheric Physics graduate and doctoral students' Poster Presentations:

Joshua Richards, Ph.D. candidate in Atmospheric Physics

Greema Regmi, Ph.D. candidate in Atmospheric Physics

Eniola Oyedeji, Ph.D. candidate in Atmospheric Physics

EDS Panel "Our Response to the Extremes":

UMBC Moderator and Panel Members: Parker Coye (ATPH, UMBC); Joel Dreessen, Maryland Department of the Environment; Steven Fuhrmann, NOAA Climate Prediction Center, ERT; and Dr. Ana Prados (Earth and Space Institute, UMBC). 

(All photos by A. Houghton.) 

Dr. Gonzales is a recipient of the 2026 Excellence in Teaching Award for the College of Natural and Mathematical Sciences.

The Excellence in Teaching Award recognizes excellence in teaching and service/leadership by a full-time non-tenure track instructional faculty and carries a one-time allocation of $2,000 in support of faculty development.