The leaves of the trees on campus are turning red, orange, and gold as the temperature finally starts to cool down. The semester is halfway over now as the autumn weather settles in, but there are still many great events to look forward to. So take a sip of your apple crisp oat milk macchiato and let’s look at six of the best ways to get in the spirit of the season at UMBC.

Peek “Beyond the Veil”

Throughout the months of October and November, online “Beyond the Veil” lectures will take a look at the ways different cultural histories intermingle with the spirit world, pulling from the Special Collections’ Eileen J. Garrett Parapsychology Foundation collection. Topics include the root of everyday African cultures in spirituality, the origins of Hoodoo during chattel slavery, and the influence of Spiritualism. Join any session of this speaking series for the chance to celebrate cultural histories and the supernatural.

Shiver Your Timbers with Mind’s Eye

“The extraordinary story of the Chicago bellhop who attempted to transfer mental images to Polaroid film,” is how the Mind’s Eye: The Psychic Photographs of Ted Serios is billed for interested readers. Out this October, the book features photography from the Jule Eisenbud collection in the Albin O. Kuhn Library and Gallery’s Special Collections, as well as essays by Emily Hauver ’06, visual arts, exhibition curator, and Beth Saunders, head of Special Collections. If the idea of “thoughtography” (Serios thought he was psychically transferring his thoughts to film) intrigues you, take a look at the images and data created by the mind’s eye of Ted Serios. 

If You Dare, Go See Dracula

If you enjoy drama, the story of Dracula, copious stage blood, or the idea of the deconstruction of horror through a feminist lens, take your seat and enjoy the show! UMBC’s Theatre Department is staging Dracula: a Feminist Revenge Fantasy, Really, from November 2 to November 12. The show—which one might compare more to Kill Bill than Saw—will have a free matinee for UMBC students with an actor talk-back for its final performance. 

Production stage manager Tessara Morgan Farley has been researching stage blood for several months to present the most realistic color, texture, and spray. The director of the show, Kathryn Chase Bryer, says, “The fact that I’m working on a show that has a blood person, that’s really special and well done for UMBC.”

Quake in Your Boots with the Hallowzine

With Halloween comes the Hallowzine, commonvision’s annual spooky zine and digital gallery. “It’s very creative and accepting,” says Anna Mishonova ’24, media and communications studies, who submitted to the Hallowzine last year before joining the commonvision staff. “I really enjoyed it, and everyone is very talented. There are some really nice photos, and the poetry can be very moving.”

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Check Out Holly Horror by Alum Michelle Jabès Corpora 

A girl named Evie moves into a place called the Horror House (her first mistake), where the previous resident mysteriously vanished from her bedroom. Michelle Corpora ’03, English, penned Holly Horror, a young adult book published by Penguin Random House earlier this year as a dark twist on a beloved classic. If you enjoy ghosts, mysteries, and scary stories, this book is for you. 

Groove Along to Some Halloween Jazz

Strange things are afoot at UMBC. Come spend the afternoon with the UMBC Jazz Ensemble performing an all-Halloween-themed live (or undead) show. Treat yourself to these tricky grooves! Bring your human soul to the Earl and Darielle Linehan Concert Hall on Sunday, October 29 at 3 p.m., if you dare!

Selections include Giant Steps by John Coltrane, Dance You Monster To My Soft Song by Maria Schneider, Over the Rainbow by Harold Arlen, A Call For All Demons by Sun Ra, Oh! by Ernie Wilkins, and more!

Animals must constantly make the choice between using energy to gather information about their environment or to carry out goal-driven tasks. Animals use sensory input, including humans’ five senses and other senses like electromagnetics and echolocation, to make those decisions. 

A new study published in Nature Machine Intelligencefinds that all 11 species the research team investigated—ranging from amoebas to humans—demonstrate similar patterns of movement. These results have implications for robotics, because robots must be programmed to make the same kinds of decisions animals do to move safely and efficiently through unpredictable environments.

The research team ran experiments with glass knifefish, and then analyzed data available in the scientific literature on 10 other species: humans, mice, bats, moles, three butterflies, cockroaches, and two amoebas. Every single species demonstrated the same pattern of decision making, which involved turning the information-gathering mode, called “explore,” on and off depending on how uncertain the animals were about their environment.

The mathematical strategy that best represented the animals’ behavior “is the trace of a covariance matrix—which I don’t think the fish is actually computing,” jokes Kathleen Hoffman, professor of mathematics and statistics and an author on the new paper.  

Robots, too, must constantly interpret the sensory input they’re receiving and use that information to make decisions. Understanding how real animals tackle that process, even if they don’t know themselves, is useful for robotics, Hoffman explains, “because the robot actually can compute the trace of a covariance matrix.”

Interdisciplinary innovation advances robotics

Specifically, the paper’s results showed that an animal explores until its certainty about its environment decreases below a given threshold. Then it switches to using that information for tasks, which is called “exploit” mode. When uncertainty rises again, it goes back to exploring. This kind of mode-switching is called “triggered excitation.” It differs from a model called “persistent excitation,” which involves constant exploring.

Applications involving sensory processing, like robots, often use the persistent excitation model, so the team was surprised to discover that persistent excitation is not consistent with their observations and analysis. The team’s findings could have a significant impact in the field of sensory modeling.

The work for this paper required many areas of expertise, and the team included researchers in mathematics, engineering, and biology. Debojyoti Biswas, a postdoctoral fellow at Johns Hopkins University, is the first author on the new paper, and the other authors include Hoffman and researchers at University of Minnesota, Cornell University, and the New Jersey Institute of Technology.

The project grew out of a conversation between Hoffman and John Guckenheimer, an emeritus professor of mathematics at Cornell. They invited the rest of the team members on board as their expertise was needed. From figuring out how to track the position of the knifefish in the experiments with extreme precision, to analyzing the data on other species, to interpreting the math in a way that made sense in a biological context, everyone had a role to play.

“This was one of the coolest interdisciplinary groups I’ve worked in,” Hoffman says. “I really don’t think that any one of us could have done it on our own.”

The remaining “head-scratcher”

The new paper has generated new questions as well as answers. “Here’s the head-scratcher,” Hoffman says: “What’s the mechanism that leads to this?” The team observed the same pattern in species as different as butterflies and moles, which use completely different senses. And they were able to deduce the pattern from published research that was originally undertaken to answer completely different questions. 

Moving forward, some of the same team members, including Hoffman, plan to dig deeper into the mechanism behind this surprising pattern—and whether the mechanism is the same or different across species. “To me,” Hoffman says, “this is fundamental and really important.”

Hoffman is grateful to have been a part of the team. She took the opportunity to grow as a mathematician by contributing primarily to the project’s data analysis, when her focus is usually in mathematical modeling.

“I wanted to really push the limits of what I could do and make it broader. I wanted to develop skills that I didn’t have before,” she says. Overall, “I had fun. You never know what you’re going to be working on as an applied mathematician.”

Emily Bolt,
'24 Chemical Engineering - traditional track, Minor: Entrepreneurship and Innovation

When did you do your Internship?

June 2023

Where was your Internship?

Clene Nanomedicine in North East, Maryland

What is the focus of your Internship?

I evaluated the amount of the edible gold nanoparticle medication in samples. The medication is intended to reduce the symptoms of Parkinson's, ALS, and MS.

What are you looking forward to the most about your Internship? 

I had prior experience as a Federal Employee for a Federal Contractor. Working at Celene allowed me to expand my experience. I was inspired to work at Celene, a small pharmaceutical company, because they focus on developing medications for diseases that are frequently underfunded and aim to treat conditions like Parkinson's, ALS, MS, and many more. 

What was the best part of your Internship OR What was the biggest learning moment of your Internship ?

The highlight of my internship was when a drug trial participant found out they were likely to be examined by the FDA and they sent a heartfelt email promising to do anything they could to support Clene Nanomedicine. The treatment they received as a drug trial participant was life changing for them. 

What advice do you have for students who are interested in getting involved in research or an internship?

My advice would be to diversify the applications to help find what is best for you, even if you think you might not be eligible for some jobs. As a chemical engineering major I even applied to roles for electrical engineering at NASA and got an interview. I got interviews for positions I applied to mechanical engineering roles, process control roles, safety roles. Applying to various positions allowed me to explore all the options and select the position that was the best fit for me.

Are you a member of any clubs/campus organizations?

UMBC Crafters: Founder and President

What are your goals after graduation?

I plan to work in the industry after graduation. I am still deciding if I want to pursue a graduate degree.

Join JNF on Campus from November 30th to December 3rd for the largest gathering of Zionist students in the country to learn about JNF-USA’s visionary work for the land and people of Israel. An incredible opportunity to connect with students who are paving the way to ensure a secure Jewish homeland. Don’t miss this chance to hear from JNF-USA staff and partner professionals and learn how to bring Positively Israel content to life on campus.

Also, exciting news regarding our college summit in Denver, we have received a generous donation to sponsor 100 students for the summit! Register at jnf.org/collegesummit, and use the code is AMISRAELCHAI. The code will expire after the 100th use.

Now more than ever do our student leaders need an experience like this. Students are grieving what is happening in Israel and exhausted having to defend themselves and their community on college campuses. It will be a weekend of solidarity and an opportunity to support and learn from one another.

 What can students expect?

• Learning from top Israel experts such as ambassador Michael Oren

• Networking with hundreds of students and young professionals and JNF-USA donors

• Walking away with more knowledge to answer tough questions about Israel, innovative program ideas and more

• Being in a supportive environment with the opportunity to make new friends and connections while strengthening existing ones 

Registration closes October 27th.

Questions? Email Stephanie Aseraph at SAseraph@jnf.org