The Student Advisory Committee for Sexual Misconduct is UMBC’s newest, student-led group focused on sexual harassment prevention. They work with campus leadership and officials to implement policies and initiatives that will help prevent sexual harassment on campus.

The idea is to have a fresh perspective by allowing UMBC students to create positive change concerning issues that are important to them. In this case, it regards the ongoing dilemma of sexual assault. “The Student Government Association, Graduate Student Association and We Believe You recognized that more students needed to be involved in this decision-making process,” says Collin Sullivan, SGA president and co-founder of the committee. “We know that meaningful change can’t happen without working with students from a variety of organizations, majors, cultures, backgrounds and beliefs.”

The committee is composed of both graduate and undergraduate students who serve as advisors to UMBC’s administration and provide feedback on the proposals made regarding sexual misconduct on campus. “Our organizations were looking for two key characteristics in interested applicants: [a] passion for improving our community and dedication to supporting survivors of sexual violence,” Sullivan stated.

UMBC has other on-campus organizations that aim to raise awareness of sexual violence and assault. We Believe You is an organization lead by UMBC students that provides a safe space for sexual violence survivors to share their experiences. The organization was created to provide support for the members of the community that have been affected by this issue by listening and taking action locally. The group hosts on-campus events and volunteer projects to help raise awareness.  

Retriever Courage is another initiative that was implemented to encourage UMBC students to unite as a community, find a resolution to the problem of sexual violence and support other students who have been impacted. The initiative directs many of UMBC’s campus values towards one common goal. “Change requires the courage to speak out, to listen, to learn, and to take action. We must fully live our campus values—inclusive excellence, collaboration, innovation and impact—to make UMBC a safer, more caring living, learning and working environment for all,” writes President Freeman Hrabowski in an email addressing UMBC students.

According to the Rape, Abuse, and Incest National Network, an American is sexually assaulted every 98 seconds, yet only 0.6 percent of the perpetrators will go to prison. Sexual violence has been a major conversation outside of UMBC as well; movements such as #Metoo and #Believewomen went viral across social media in response to the Harvey Weinstein scandal. What started as a simple hashtag lead to thousands of people using their platforms to take a stand against sexual violence and share their stories with others who have experienced similar situations.

UMBC is determined to find solutions that ensure the safety and well-being of every student. In the meantime, organizations such as The Student Advisory Committee for Sexual Misconduct and We Believe You provides support for students, as well as a voice for the student body.

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this article mistakenly referred to Collin Sullivan as the founder of the committee rather than a co-founder. The article has since been updated.

UMBC CSEE alumnus receives NSF support for specialty fiber research

UMBC alumnus Dr. Jonathan Hu (Ph.D., electrical engineering, ’08) was recently awarded a three-year grant by National Science Foundation to develop new techniques using of chalcogenide glass fiber devices to transform mid-infrared sensor technologies that detect hazardous aerosol particles in the air. Dr. Hu is currently a tenured associate professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Baylor University in Waco, Texas. Winning a grant from National Science Foundation is highly competitive as only about 10 percent of the applications will be awarded.

Regarding his accomplishment, Dr. Hu said, “I am grateful for the award from National Science Foundation and I want to thank my former professors at UMBC, who trained me with a very rigorous background in the field of optics and photonics.” This accomplishment reflects Dr. Hu’s continuous effort as well as his significant contributions to the research areas of specialty optical fibers and nanophotonic devices. His recent publications include papers in Advances in Optics and Photonics and Advanced Materials. Prof. Curtis Menyuk, who was Dr. Hu’s dissertation adviser at UMBC, said “It has been a privilege to work continuously with Jonathan as he evolved from a graduate student to a research leader.”

Dr. Hu also serves as a Baylor Fellow for academic year 2018–2019. The Baylor Fellows Program recognizes professors across the disciplinary spectrum who exemplify excellence in teaching at Baylor University. Baylor Fellows are committed to pedagogical innovation, inspirational teaching, and the cultivation of these among Baylor faculty. Dr. Hu was selected for his effort in connecting research and teaching at Baylor University. He also participated in the transformation of undergraduate engineering education, which was sponsored by the Kern Family Foundation.

The UMBC CSEE department is very proud of Dr. Hu, as his accomplishment truly reflects the depth of our graduates and how valuable the UMBC graduate education is for our students in their career path.

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Next month, the Faculty Senate’s vote will determine whether or not to eliminate the Physical Education requirement for graduation. The current General Education Program requirement calls for undergraduate students to take and successfully pass two P.E. classes which are not counted toward the 120 academic credit requirement for graduation. UMBC is the only university in the University System of Maryland that requires P.E. credits for graduation.

An email was sent out several days earlier to UMBC students on Nov. 14 by Philip Rous, UMBC’s Provost, with the subject line “Physical Education Requirement.” In the email, Rous outlines the timeline of the requirement reassessment, saying that the final vote is anticipated to occur on Dec. 11, 2018, during the meeting of the Faculty Senate.

The Faculty Senate is the Senate that determines graduation requirements for UMBC students. An elimination of the current requirements would result in “an official notification of a change to the undergraduate degree requirements,” which “will be communicated to the campus” and take effect beginning with the Winter 2019 academic period.

In a recent SGA meeting, members suggested that students who are not required to take the P.E. courses would not sign up for them. The email addresses this issue with a reminder: “Please keep in mind that, at this time, the physical education requirement still exists although currently under review. All undergraduate degree-seeking students are encouraged to plan accordingly…” Furthermore, P.E. Department instructors will retain their current pay for the time being. The UMBC Provost’s Office will be funding the Athletic Department to the degree it currently receives funding for these courses as the department works through this transition.

As of present, some groups of students are exempt from the P.E. requirement, including current, reserve or veteran military members, varsity athletes, students who are 30 years of age before the semester begins and students who are not physically able to participate and fulfill the requirement, in which case the P.E. department would grant a waiver. Reserve Officers’ Training Corps, or ROTC, students are also eligible for P.E. credit through enrollment in PHED 175 – ROTC Training.

UMBC’s SGA, in association with the College Democrats, College Republicans and other student groups, hosted a variety of events leading up to the 2018 midterm elections.

The first big event was the voter registration drive on voter registration day. The drive allowed students to register and pledge to vote. According to SGA president Collin Sullivan, a senior majoring in information systems and economics, the event attracted “over 100 to take the ALL IN campus pledge saying they were going to vote.” ALL IN is a campus democracy challenge that encourages college students to become more involved in their political community. This is the first time the SGA has done this for a midterm year, but they have done similar events for presidential races. The SGA did not have any numerical goals; their objective was “to make people aware of the midterm elections,” Sullivan explained. He called it a “win” and a great look for the SGA.

The second event was Coffee and Conversation, which focused on healthcare. The event allowed for dialogue and discussions between the College Republicans and College Democrats. The issues discussed within the topic of healthcare ranged from healthcare as a right to issues with healthcare prices.

Another event was the Baltimore County Executive forum, which featured a debate between Johnny Olszewski Jr. and Al Redmer Jr. The forum allowed both candidates to answer questions that affected both Baltimore County residents and UMBC students.

SGA also provided free early voting buses for students. They provided rides to Montgomery County, Howard County, Baltimore County, Carroll County, Harford County and Anne Arundel County. They first picked the counties based on those most adjacent to Baltimore County and then by population. The voting locations were chosen by assessing the ones closest to the campus in those counties. The goal was to incentivize students to vote and remove the barrier of finding a way to get to the polls.

According to Sullivan, the early voting program “was far from perfect.” He says it was their first time and they could have done better with the organization behind it. He also brought up ways they may do things differently next time. Instead of traveling to different counties each day, he wants to have 3-4 buses on Saturday which would all leave at the same time.

Additionally, the SGA hosted a Dinner with Friends session. The goal of the event was to make students aware of local issues and get more interested in Maryland politics.

All of this led up to the big event: the Election Night Extravaganza. Students watched the results of the election while eating pizza and enjoying each other’s company. According to Sullivan, about “250 people got pizza” during the election night. He also said that from data that about 300 to 325 people went to programs; during the 2016 election, the number was around 400 to 450. Taking into consideration that the 2016 number was for a presidential election, the Election Night Extravaganza was deemed was a success.

Sullivan stressed the importance of voting and civic engagement. He said that it is similar to the SGA’s philosophy “of recognizing students’ voice.” The SGA has “a firm belief that everyone should have a saying in co-creating our democracy and the world we live in.”

UMBC’s Mock Trial Team had cause for celebration during the weekend of Nov. 3, as they placed first overall in the 13th Annual Duke University Tobacco Road Invitational. Coached and overseen by Ben Garmoe, a 2013 UMBC alumni and an adjunct professor of political science, the team was proud of the accomplishment. “[We went] into one of the best mock trial tournaments [and created] an upset,” said the team’s president, Ethan Hudson.

Hudson, who is a junior studying political science, explained that Mock Trial recreates trials that typically go on in district courthouses, which are provided to intercollegiate teams by the American Mock Trial Association. Tournaments are typically held on the weekends and consist of two rounds each on Saturday and Sunday. Within each round, one school represents the defendant while the opposing school takes the case of the plaintiff.

Another important key to each trial that Hudson noted was the use of witnesses. Attorneys will “cross,” or essentially interview, the opposing teams’ witnesses in order to make them look less credible before the jury and judges, with the hope of ultimately winning the case.

UMBC Mock Trial consists of three teams: A, B and C, with A being the “top team and the team that traveled to Duke,” according to Garmoe. Currently, the A team consists of seven members, four of whom are freshmen and sophomores.

At the Duke tournament, while the A team members were hopeful about doing well, they were not sure whether they would take home any winning titles. Instead, they thought that this year would be an era of rebuilding the team, especially since several seniors who were vital to the team had recently graduated.

However, some of that optimism became realistic when UMBC won the first day against both University of Tennessee, Chattanooga and Washington and Lee University. “Leaving day one was pretty crazy because [we thought] ‘wait a second … we might have a shot at something,’” Hudson said.

On Sunday, UMBC won against the University of South Carolina and George Washington University; in the last round they won one ballot and lost the other, putting their final score at 7-1. Despite that one loss, to the shock and glory of the team, they snagged first place out of the 26 teams that attended Duke’s Invitational.

The rest of the members were ecstatic about their win as a team. Sam Dhawan*, a senior economics student who plays both an attorney and a witness for A Team, remembers feeling exhilarated about the win. “It was honestly surreal. Knowing that we can be at a tournament with schools like Columbia University that are funded way more than programs like us is an amazing feeling,” Dhawan said.

While the feeling of winning can be truly extraordinary, everyone on the team agrees there are other rewarding components to mock trial, such as sharpening judicial skills and creating solid friendships. Junior political science major Sydney Gaskins, who is an attorney for both the plaintiff and defense on A team, mentions that she “[gets] to compete at the highest level and constantly enhance my talents [as] an advocate. I get to spend time with … people that I have grown … close to [as] we travel across the country.”

Dhawan himself commented, “We travel so often and get so close to one another that it brings you the family vibe.” Hudson agreed, adding that “it’s also invaluable law school experience … if you have any interest in being a lawyer or going to law school, you need to be here. You make so many connections with important people in the legal field.”

Coach Garmoe is happy overall that the win can serve as “motivation for our whole program moving forward.” As long as the UMBC Mock Trial team keeps on practicing, he has no doubt that they can make it to the finals. “To see them put it all together and dominate a field of great teams like they did made me very proud and very excited for them,” he said.

There is no doubt that the incredible win at Duke will not be forgotten any time soon. In fact, Dhawan marveled at how others now know what UMBC stands for within the mock trial community. “The moment they announced that the winner of the tournament [was] the UMBC Retrievers, I saw a girl from another team say, ‘I’ve never heard of them before,'” Dhawan said. “I turned around and thought, ‘well, you have now.’”

In 2013, solar power technology was being installed at an average rate of once every four minutes. GTM Research reported nearly double that frequency the following year, and US renewable energy usage has consistently been on the rise. SolarRetrievers at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County has been working to ensure their campus keeps up.

“The main emphasis of our club right now is to provide solar solutions to problems on campus,” says Daniel Corteville, a junior mechanical engineering major and the current president of the organization. He joined while it was still under the umbrella of the American Society for Mechanical Engineers, became the secretary in his sophomore year, and was elected to be in charge several months ago. “I just thought it’d be a cool club,” he explains. It did not disappoint.

Membership is around a dozen students, most of whom are engineering majors, but new and non-STEM students are also welcome. The group has previously collaborated with the Art Club, although its current work is with the Institute of Electronics and Electrical Engineers as well as Facilities Management.

“We’re working with IEEE to create an automated, solar-powered water system for a garden,” Corteville explains. They are also looking to add a solar aspect to a pressure-sensitive crosswalk light for Facilities Management, and hope to make the new lighting between the Performing Arts and Humanities building and the Walker apartments renewable. More project opportunities are always being pursued.

You can see the fruits of their past designs in front of the Retriever Activities Center, on The Commons Terrace or in the Harbor Courtyard, all in the form of solar panel tables. Funded by the Prove It! Initiative and constructed by outside contractors, they represent a state of eco-friendliness at UMBC. A previous solar statue project was scrapped due to a lack of grant funding, but more possibilities should come into view as the club grows.

“If our projects from this year are successful, I could see getting a lot more collaborations,” says Corteville. “I want to make a positive impact on the school.” Without anything definite yet, he senses a “strong desire” for solar power among school officials too and hopes to foray this into additional work for the club.

“I’m not sure what I want to do after I graduate; there are a lot of ways mechanical engineering can go,” he shares. What he does know for sure is that he supports the goals of SolarRetrievers, and right now those goals involve using his and his team’s skills to do good work.

“This is first-hand design experience,” Corteville advertises on behalf of the student organization. “Everyone is accepted. Design-wise we could use people who could sketch things up, so yeah — we would want humanities majors, too.” With new projects expected, the team is also looking to find new individuals to work with.

“If you’re willing to help make a difference on campus, you can use your skills at SolarRetrievers,” emphasizes Corteville. Indeed, with the booming industry and positive impact of solar power, the sky — well, the sun — is the limit.

Quantum fluctuation theorem for error diagnostics in quantum annealers

Bartłomiej Gardas & Sebastian Deffner

Sci. Rep. 8, 17191 (2018)

The 2000 film “Cecil B. Demented” is a very unique and interesting film. It provides a new perspective on modern media and criticizes many of the films that people love today, including “Forrest Gump“ and “Godzilla.” This movie begins by introducing a “well-known” Hollywood movie star by the name of Honey Whitlock (Melanie Griffith). She is then kidnapped by a ragtag group of sex-crazed filmmakers headed by none other than Cecil B. Demented himself (Stephen Dorff).

Demented forces Whitlock to star in his offbeat movie that is intended to destroy the public’s supposed mindless intake of horrible Hollywood films. She resists at first, finding Demented and his followers to be crazy, but eventually realizes how much she needed an escape from Hollywood.

To film the scenes for their movie, the group goes to various theaters and storms in to cause a panic. They even crash a meeting for the Maryland Film Commission and break into a $65 million set.

This group of outcasts shows that they will stop at nothing to get their message out to the public. Many of them are shot and killed throughout the filming of their movie. The public, as a result of all the violence and death surrounding the filming of certain scenes, appears to be infatuated with Demented and his movie starring Honey Whitlock.

John Waters tends to create peculiar movies of this sort all the time. They give off a sense of hysteria and many of the laughs are generated through the absolute ridiculousness of the scenes. At one point, Cecil B. Demented lights himself on fire and rolls towards a policeman in a wheelchair to defend Whitlock.

Despite the weirdness that exists through the entire movie, there is some surprisingly accurate commentary on Baltimore. Many issues that are present in Baltimore — crime, violence, police brutality and large gaps between social classes — are all exhibited in the movie.

Not only did the outcasts show up at various locations with their guns blazing, but the police also arrived and shot into the crowd with no regard as to who they killed. In Baltimore, this ends up being one of the realities that a lot of the residents deal with. 

The most interesting aspect of this movie is the manner in which Demented and his followers were trying to dismantle the Hollywood blockbuster system. They used force and had no fear of sacrificing themselves for the cause. This is similar to the riots that took place in Baltimore after Freddie Gray’s death in police custody.

The rage that Baltimore residents felt was expressed as Baltimore erupted in flames. Stores were looted, hordes of people marched down the streets and violence was at an all-time high. The movie itself embodies this theme of fire and violence as resistance.

Although the death of Freddie Gray came years after “Cecil B. Demented,” it shows just how little Baltimore has really changed. It shows that some media surrounding Baltimore really reflects the characteristics of the city. Overall, the movie was interesting and so weird that it was hard to look away, and it gives a glimpse of the city that is in our very own backyard.

This past week, rapper Trippie Redd treated his fans to the release of his album “A Love Letter To You 3,” the third project of his famous “Love Letter To You” album series. It comes fresh off the release of “Life’s A Trip,” which was released in August and drew a lot of attention in the rap community.

Redd burst into the scene in 2017 with “A Love Letter To You,” which turned the eighteen-year-old Ohio rapper into a star instantaneously. The album gained popularity for its reminiscent theme, one that reflects Redd’s longing for his past love and regrets over his relationship turning sour. Redd dresses this theme with his unique sound: a singing voice that could be mistaken for yelling and a raspy voice.

As expected, Redd kept this style for this album. Seeing that the inaugural album received so much success, a sequel was a must for his fans. Yet, “A Love Letter To You 2” paled in comparison to its predecessor, and by the time the third album came out, the theme of heartbreak and yearning for a loved one was a bit played out.

His broken-hearted perspective did not change at all as he continued the project series. This led to most of the forgettable songs on the album sounding whiny and similar to each other, a problem magnified by the fact that “A Love Letter To You 2” experienced the same problem that ultimately led to the album doing significantly worse than the first.

The album is not a complete waste; in fact, there are some playlist worthy songs scattered throughout the tracklist. Redd’s “1400/999 Freestyle” with Juice WRLD immediately stands out upon first listen. The beat and WRLD’s verse resemble the style of trap songs, which are popular in today’s music scene and more universally accepted than Redd’s long, melodic yelling and depressed lyrics.

Other tracks such as “Love Scars 3,” “Elevate & Motivate” with NBA Youngboy and “Diamond Minds” with Tory Lanez provide a glimpse of Redd’s high musical upside and ensure that this album will not tarnish his reputation despite its sub-par quality compared to his previous works.

Redd has popularized a sound that rap has never truly seen before. A part of his challenge with standing out is trying to recreate the sound that made him so famous to begin with. Although he has cemented himself in the upper echelon of contemporary rap, this album has parts that reveal the downside of daring to be different.

Redd uses a very hit or miss style that unfortunately brought more misses on this album. However, by no means is Redd a one-hit wonder, and, while he may have reached a peak early, expect him to return with more quality music in the near future.