• Thursday, November 5th (4:00pm - 5:30pm)
• Friday, November 6th (5:00pm - 6:30pm)

Happy Election Day everyone! We hope everyone went out to the polls to get their voices heard!

Just a reminder that we’ll be having a GBM tomorrow, 11/4 at 12pm on Zoom. Our GBM will have a representative from the University of Maryland, Baltimore School of Pharmacy (UMSOP) present so please make to make some time and stop by! Be sure to come with any questions you may have!

As always our social media...  

Facebook: UMBC Pre-Pharmacy Society

Instagram: umbcprepharmacysociety

myUMBC: UMBC Pre-Pharmacy

groupMe: https://groupme.com/join_group/54738203/uHip512d

Zoom: https://umaryland.zoom.us/j/96623313041

(Meeting ID: 966 2331 3041)

Hope to see you there!

Best, 

Elizabeth (and the rest of the Pre-Pharmacy E-Board!) 

Remotegrity was the first voter-verifiable Internet voting system used in 2011 for a public office election in Takoma Park, Maryland

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Alan Sherman and collaborators develop VoteXX with new strategies for secure online voting

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Over the past several months, the topic of online voting has been at the top of the minds of millions of Americans and has been widely debated. Supporters often highlight how it would increase voter turnout through improved accessibility and convenience. Privacy and election integrity are among the top concerns about implementing an online voting system.

Researchers from UMBC and xx.network have been working to design an online voting system that is resistant to coercion and would provide a secure way for people to cast their ballots from computers, tablets, and smartphones in the future. Alan Sherman, professor of computer science and electrical engineering, is developing the system, VoteXX, with David Chaum, a cryptographer known for his work on privacy-centered technology, and Richard Carback ‘05, M.S. ‘08, Ph.D. ‘10, computer science, who has spent his career deflecting would-be hackers.

The security of devices that voters might use to cast their ballot is a significant concern, notes Sherman. He explains that malware on the devices that voters use might change the votes or spy on the voter.

Alan Sherman, right, talking with Rick Forno on campus in 2018. Photo by Marlayna Demond ’11 for UMBC.

As described in a press release and the researchers’ new whitepaper, VoteXX allows voters to confirm that their ballots were accurately cast, collected, and counted. This system uses ideas from an earlier system, Remotegrity, that the collaborators developed and used in a municipal election in Takoma Park, Maryland, in 2011. Voters received secret vote codes on a scratch-off card via traditional mail, which they used to hide their votes from the software and hardware. Remotegrity was based on Scantegrity, an earlier in-person verifiable voting that was also used in binding elections in Takoma Park, Maryland.

VoteXX uses a combination of simple strategies and complex cryptography to create a more secure online voting scheme. For example, to address the issues of coercion and vote selling, VoteXX allows voters to cancel or change their vote up to a certain deadline. David Chalm explains how this simple capability undermines vote selling. “You make it possible to flip (change or cancel) that vote outside the voting process. Because a vote buyer cannot be sure you didn’t or won’t flip your vote, they can’t be sure that a voter has been honest with them, making it useless to buy votes.”

This “vote flipping” approach provides a subversively simple yet powerful tool to voters. It’s accomplished by creating a “flip code” during the registration process that allows the voter to flip their vote after casting.

You can read more about this research in a UMBC News article by Megan Hanks.

The post Alan Sherman and collaborators develop VoteXX with new strategies for secure online voting appeared first on Department of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering.

Remotegrity was the first voter-verifiable Internet voting system used in 2011 for a public office election in Takoma Park, Maryland

---

Alan Sherman and collaborators develop VoteXX with new strategies for secure online voting

---

Over the past several months, the topic of online voting has been at the top of the minds of millions of Americans and has been widely debated. Supporters often highlight how it would increase voter turnout through improved accessibility and convenience. Privacy and election integrity are among the top concerns about implementing an online voting system.

Researchers from UMBC and xx.network have been working to design an online voting system that is resistant to coercion and would provide a secure way for people to cast their ballots from computers, tablets, and smartphones in the future. Alan Sherman, professor of computer science and electrical engineering, is developing the system, VoteXX, with David Chaum, a cryptographer known for his work on privacy-centered technology, and Richard Carback ‘05, M.S. ‘08, Ph.D. ‘10, computer science, who has spent his career deflecting would-be hackers.

The security of devices that voters might use to cast their ballot is a significant concern, notes Sherman. He explains that malware on the devices that voters use might change the votes or spy on the voter.

Alan Sherman, right, talking with Rick Forno on campus in 2018. Photo by Marlayna Demond ’11 for UMBC.

As described in a press release and the researchers’ new whitepaper, VoteXX allows voters to confirm that their ballots were accurately cast, collected, and counted. This system uses ideas from an earlier system, Remotegrity, that the collaborators developed and used in a municipal election in Takoma Park, Maryland, in 2011. Voters received secret vote codes on a scratch-off card via traditional mail, which they used to hide their votes from the software and hardware. Remotegrity was based on Scantegrity, an earlier in-person verifiable voting that was also used in binding elections in Takoma Park, Maryland.

VoteXX uses a combination of simple strategies and complex cryptography to create a more secure online voting scheme. For example, to address the issues of coercion and vote selling, VoteXX allows voters to cancel or change their vote up to a certain deadline. David Chalm explains how this simple capability undermines vote selling. “You make it possible to flip (change or cancel) that vote outside the voting process. Because a vote buyer cannot be sure you didn’t or won’t flip your vote, they can’t be sure that a voter has been honest with them, making it useless to buy votes.”

This “vote flipping” approach provides a subversively simple yet powerful tool to voters. It’s accomplished by creating a “flip code” during the registration process that allows the voter to flip their vote after casting.

You can read more about this research in a UMBC News article by Megan Hanks.

The post Alan Sherman and collaborators develop VoteXX with new strategies for secure online voting appeared first on Department of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering.

UMBC’s Marjoleine Kars has published a new book examining accounts of a nearly successful rebellion of enslaved people just over 250 years ago. Blood on the River: A Chronicle of Mutiny and Freedom on the Wild Coast (The New Press, 2020) chronicles a rebellion by enslaved people in the Dutch colony of Berbice, 1763 – 1764. This uprising took place thirty years before Toussaint L’Ouverture led a successful rebellion by enslaved people in Haiti against French colonizers. 

“It is important that people know that there is a long history of African people, people of African descent, and in the African diaspora, fighting against oppression and putting their lives on the line like they are today,” says Kars, associate professor of history. “There is also a long tradition of people having different ideas about how to fight oppression and what life should look like at the other side.”

Unexpected archival find

Marjoleine Kars. Photo by Tim Ford.

Kars traveled to the National Archives of the Netherlands in the Hague many times to study primary documents about the uprising that had not been researched before. The archives house colonial documents about the rebellion, including the journals of the governor, military reports, and correspondence between officials in Berbice and the government in the Netherlands. She also came across a rare find in colonial research that became the basis for her book: first-hand accounts by enslaved people. 

The archive stores 500 pages of personal accounts from judicial investigations of people who were enslaved when the rebellion was suppressed. While these first-hand accounts are unique and essential to the book, Kars acknowledges their limitations. 

The fifteen-month rebellion

“These accounts are problematic records because they were obtained under duress, translated from Creole to Dutch, summarized by the clerk, and done in third person,” shares Kars. “However, they still provide a unique and important perspective that breaks from the racist accounts of the colonial government.”

Kars uses these documents to weave an untold story about the uprising led by Coffij against the colonial government of Berbice. Like many enslaved people in the European colonies, Coffij was captured in his home of West Africa as a child and enslaved to work in the sugar plantations of the Dutch colony. 

A decade before the rebellion, Berbice suffered from drought, crop failure, and the Seven Years War, which slowed the shipment of food. Enslaved people fought to stave off starvation and to survive raging epidemics, while also experiencing torture at the hands of Dutch slaveholders. As deaths rose, surviving enslaved people were at even greater risk of death through overwork.

Coffij led 4,500 enslaved African and people of African descent and 350 enslaved indigenous people in rebelling against 350 Europeans spread over five plantations. While he was leading a fight for independence from the Dutch, he was not fighting to create a democracy. Rather, Coffij sought to found a similar authoritarian government led by him and dependent on the plantation system. The rebellion lasted fifteen months. 

Ideas of freedom

Cover of Blood on the River.

Kars also examines the motivations and experiences of the many people she describes as remaining neutral in the conflict. “Rebellions are suicidal. And neither side was offering a life free from slavery,” she explains. In this way, enslaved people who wanted to be independent subsistence farmers, and be free on their own terms, faced painful choices in the rebellion. 

“Blood on the River is a story about the complex political internal dynamics of a rebellion and this anticolonial fight between former slaves and former masters,” Kars shares. It’s also about “the many ideas of what freedom means.”

Award-winning scholarship

Kars’s first writing on this research topic was an article focusing on the women of the rebellion. It was published in the American Historical Review in 2016. “Dodging Rebellion: Politics and Gender in the Berbice Slave Uprising of 1763” earned four prizes in 2017. She received the Vanderwood Prize, which is awarded for a distinguished article on Latin American history. She also earned the Kimberly S. Hanger Article Prize for the quality and originality of research and writing. 

The Carol Gold Best Article Award seeks to promote women’s history and to support women in the historical profession. Kars received the prize in 2017, which acknowledged her article as the best peer-reviewed journal article of the year. 

The Forum on European Expansion and Global Interaction, affiliated with the American Historical Association, also gave Kars their biennial article prize. This prize recognizes “outstanding and path-breaking scholarship that furthers historical understanding of the circumstances, causes, and consequences of increased global interaction, worldwide exchanges, and cross-cultural connections in the early modern period.”

Funding for research

Research for the book spanned over a decade. During this time Kars received major funding from various organizations. Kars was a Huntington Library Fellow in 2018 – 2019. She was a Fernarnd Braudel Senior Fellow at the European Institute in Florence, Italy between 2016 and 2017. She also received a Franklin Research Grant from the American Philosophical Society, an NEH Fellowship for College Teachers, and a Mellon InterAmericas Fellowship from the John Carter Brown Library over the course of five years. 

UMBC also supported Kars’s research for this book. Kars received a College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences Research Fellowship. She also received a Dresher Center for the Humanities Residential Faculty Fellowship and a Dresher Center for the Humanities Summer Fellowship, and a UMBC summer fellowship. 

To learn more about the book, see the reviews in the Los Angeles Times, NPR, and The Washington Post. 

Banner image: Marjoleine Kars. Photo by Marlayna Demond ’11.

Every so often, we chat with an alum about what they do and how they got there. By day, Melissa Penley Cormier, M.F.A ’17, intermedia + digital arts (IMDA), helps faculty and students at UMBC create the graphic pieces they need for presenting their research. By night, she’s building an arts practice that draws from nature and scientific processes. Here, Cormier gives us a peek into her life as an artist.

Q:  Can you tell us about the type of creative work you are doing these days? 

A:  I love exploring different forms and processes of photography while also mixing some of the finished results and presentation with digital media. Although the current situation makes it difficult to show work and create installations, I have a small studio in the newly renovated Long Reach Village Center in Columbia that I’ve been using for a few months to test out photography, drawings, and projected works. Finding virtual ways to show art work has been a new challenge, but also this time has made it fairly difficult to fully focus on creative endeavors. As hard as it has been, I often use my work as means of allowing myself to follow interests or take time out to just look closely. So recently, my photography has centered on my garden and nature because it has been important for me to get outside as much as possible.

Q:  I know you’re also the manager of UMBC’s research graphics office. Can you talk about any ways that position and your creative life overlap?

A:  My work with the sciences really fuels my curiosity in my personal work. It’s always amazing to me to see what students and faculty are researching, and talk to them about what drives them each day. The skills that I draw upon to make their work look its very best (either by printing their work for conferences, or helping with research figures and images for publications, or even taking professional portraits for announcements or lab websites) keeps my artistic skills sharp in a way that I’m truly thankful for. 

Q:  Could you tell us about your experience in the IMDA program? How did it help your work grow? Is there a particular professor who was especially helpful, and how?

A:  The IMDA program gave me three years and the studio facilities to explore new work in an academic setting while forging new skills and professional relationships. I have a BFA in oil painting, but needed to delve deeper into more conceptual work. My thesis committee (Dan Bailey, Calla Thompson, and Timothy Nohe) were crucial in letting me fully realize my potential for the thesis project and helped support me during the intense writing, exhibition and defense process. Because my work and my writing tend to be about process and materials as much as the concepts driving the work, it can be a little difficult to nail down, and I think without their immense insight and understanding, it would have been difficult to have it be a successful direction. 

Q:  What would you tell prospective IMDA students about why they should join this community?

A:  IMDA is sort of like being a part of this secret club of artists who really just want to make the best work they can possibly make in three years, even if they have no clue what that work is going to look like in the end. We draw such an eclectic crowd of creatives that it encourages everyone to see their own work differently while having critical discussions with faculty and fellow grads. Attending a creative MFA program at a research university certainly sets the bar high for the level of academic rigor as well as offers the opportunity for the work to truly be interdisciplinary. 

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See more of Melissa Penley Cormier’s work at her website or on Instagram. Header image: Self portrait with test polaroids in small mirror in the Howard County Arts Council’s Long Reach Village Center Studios.  All images courtesy of Cormier.

New Internships and Jobs for Science Majors!

The UMBC Community is now active online and the Career Center is here to provide you with helpful resources!  As you scroll down this message you will find a list of new job listings available within your field. This is just a sampling of positions, so be sure to check out all the opportunities posted in UMBCworks to assist you in your search for your full-time job or internship. 

As you browse the positions below, you must be logged into UMBCworks to access these links.   

Please note you MUST have an approved resume by a Career Center Staff Member to apply to positions posted on UMBCworks. 

ONLINE APPOINTMENTS

• Career Center professionals are available for virtual appointments. Students may schedule individual 30- or 60-minute appointments through UMBCworks. NEW- 15-minute "Express Appointments" are also an option for a quick resume review.

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Please note you MUST have your resume approved by a Career Center staff member to apply to positions posted in UMBCworks. To schedule an appointment, click on "Schedule Appointment" from the UMBCworks homepage or call 410-455-2216. 

We are located in Math/Psychology Room 201. Appointments can be made by calling 410-455-2216. We now have online scheduling too!

Please visit our website to find further information: careers.umbc.edu.

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Jobs New Internships and Jobs in Science!: Therapeutic Mentor (9319852) Advanced Behavioral Health - Multiple Locations POSITION TYPE: Full-Time - Entry-Level POSTING DATE: Nov 03, 2020 END DATE: Jan 03, 2021 2021 Gap-Year Regenerative Medicine Fellowship (9319842) SENS Research Foundation - Multiple Locations POSITION TYPE: National Experiential Postings, Temporary/Seasonal, Post-Graduate Research Opportunities POSTING DATE: Nov 02, 2020 END DATE: Feb 17, 2021 Neuromonitoring Clinician (9319824) Neuromonitoring Technologies, Inc. - Multiple Locations POSITION TYPE: Full-Time - Entry-Level POSTING DATE: Oct 30, 2020 END DATE: Feb 26, 2021 M.S. Research Assistantship (9319810) University of Wisconsin-Madison - Madison, Wisconsin United States POSITION TYPE: Research Internships POSTING DATE: Oct 29, 2020 END DATE: Nov 15, 2020 Quantitative Analyst Intern (Grad) (9319805) State of Wisconsin Investment Board (SWIB) - Madison, Wisconsin United States POSITION TYPE: Internship Opportunities POSTING DATE: Oct 29, 2020 END DATE: Dec 29, 2020 IRC- Refugee Casework (9319773) International Rescue Committee, Inc. - Silver Spring, Maryland United States POSITION TYPE: Internship Opportunities POSTING DATE: Oct 28, 2020 END DATE: Dec 21, 2020 Research Professional--Compiani, Moshary, and Shapiro (9319780) The University of Chicago Booth School of Business - Chicago, Illinois United States POSITION TYPE: Full-Time - Entry-Level POSTING DATE: Oct 28, 2020 END DATE: Nov 16, 2020 IRC-Family Mentor (9319728) International Rescue Committee, Inc. - Silver Spring, Maryland United States POSITION TYPE: Internship Opportunities POSTING DATE: Oct 27, 2020 END DATE: Dec 21, 2020 IRC-Immigration (9319730) International Rescue Committee, Inc. - Silver Spring, Maryland United States POSITION TYPE: Internship Opportunities POSTING DATE: Oct 27, 2020 END DATE: Dec 21, 2020 IRC-Intake-Outreach/Q&A (9319732) International Rescue Committee, Inc. - Silver Spring, Maryland United States POSITION TYPE: Internship Opportunities POSTING DATE: Oct 27, 2020 END DATE: Dec 21, 2020 Postdoctoral Fellow (Epidemiology) - Preventive Medicine (9319729) Henry M Jackson Foundation - Bethesda, Maryland United States POSITION TYPE: Full-Time - Experienced POSTING DATE: Oct 27, 2020 END DATE: Nov 23, 2020 Research Coordinator (9319714) The Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences - Bethesda, Maryland United States POSITION TYPE: Full-Time - Entry-Level POSTING DATE: Oct 27, 2020 END DATE: Dec 27, 2020 Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) (9319712) University of Kansas - Kansas United States POSITION TYPE: Internship Opportunities POSTING DATE: Oct 27, 2020 END DATE: Jan 25, 2021 Senior Research Associate (9319715) The Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences - Bethesda, Maryland United States POSITION TYPE: Full-Time - Experienced POSTING DATE: Oct 27, 2020 END DATE: Dec 27, 2020 Threat Detection Technology Postdoctoral Research Scientist (9319721) ORAU on behalf of the Department of Homeland Security - Atlantic City, New Jersey United States POSITION TYPE: Post-Graduate Research Opportunities POSTING DATE: Oct 27, 2020 END DATE: Dec 27, 2020

Workshops Upcoming Events: Society for Neuroscience - Virtual Graduate School Fair SESSION START: Nov 05, 2020, 12:00 PM SESSION END: Nov 07, 2020, 3:00 PM Society for Neuroscience - Virtual Career Fair SESSION START: Nov 05, 2020, 12:00 PM SESSION END: Nov 07, 2020, 3:00 PM Inroads Career Expo SESSION START: Nov 06, 2020, 10:00 AM SESSION END: Nov 06, 2020, 5:00 PM Boston Career Forum Online 2020 SESSION START: Nov 06, 2020, 4:00 PM SESSION END: Nov 08, 2020, 9:00 PM Alex. Brown Center For Entrepreneurship Speaker Series SESSION START: Nov 09, 2020, 12:00 PM SESSION END: Nov 09, 2020, 1:00 PM Intern Success Practicum Virtual Reflection Session SESSION START: Nov 11, 2020, 12:00 PM SESSION END: Nov 11, 2020, 1:00 PM LOCATION: Online Idea Competition SESSION START: Nov 12, 2020, 7:00 PM SESSION END: Nov 12, 2020, 8:30 PM

Info Sessions Upcoming Information Sessions: National Institutes of Health (NIH) - National Eye Institute START DATE/TIME: Nov 05, 2020, 12:00 PM END DATE/TIME: Nov 05, 2020, 1:00 PM LOCATION: Online Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory START DATE/TIME: Nov 04, 2020, 11:00 AM END DATE/TIME: Nov 04, 2020, 11:30 AM LOCATION: Online T. Howard Foundation START DATE/TIME: Nov 04, 2020, 12:30 PM END DATE/TIME: Nov 04, 2020, 2:30 PM LOCATION: Online United States Army Communications Electronics Command START DATE/TIME: Nov 09, 2020, 12:00 AM END DATE/TIME: Nov 09, 2020, 11:45 PM LOCATION: Online Smithsonian Environmental Research Center START DATE/TIME: Nov 10, 2020, 1:00 PM END DATE/TIME: Nov 10, 2020, 2:00 PM LOCATION: Online University of Virginia School of Medicine START DATE/TIME: Nov 10, 2020, 7:00 PM END DATE/TIME: Nov 10, 2020, 8:00 PM LOCATION: Online BAE Systems START DATE/TIME: Nov 11, 2020, 4:00 PM END DATE/TIME: Nov 11, 2020, 5:00 PM LOCATION: Online T. Howard Foundation START DATE/TIME: Nov 18, 2020, 12:30 PM END DATE/TIME: Nov 18, 2020, 1:30 PM LOCATION: Online T. Howard Foundation START DATE/TIME: Nov 23, 2020, 12:30 PM END DATE/TIME: Nov 23, 2020, 1:30 PM LOCATION: Online Emma Bowen Foundation START DATE/TIME: Nov 12, 2020, 2:00 PM END DATE/TIME: Nov 12, 2020, 5:00 PM LOCATION: Online