Did you know that you can read major newspapers for free online using the Library's databases?

Keep informed by bookmarking or using a feed-reader app (like Feedly) to access:

● New York Times

● Wall Street Journal

● Washington Post

We’ve got the paper versions too!  Head up to the 2nd floor for current newspapers such as: the Baltimore Sun, the Guardian, Le Monde, the New York Times, The Times (London), the Wall Street Journal, and the Washington Post.

Last year, Naomi Mburu became the first Rhodes Scholar in UMBC’s history.  A few weeks ago, she traveled to England to begin her graduate studies at Oxford University as part of the 115th Rhodes cohort. Here, she reflects on the transition to Oxford.

My time in Oxford has been very busy, but quite exciting and full of new adventures! I started my journey to Oxford in New York City, where I met all of the other American Rhodes scholars, along with two Caribbean Rhodes scholars and one Chinese Rhodes Scholar who are living in the US. During the weekend, we attended Hamilton on Broadway and met some of the cast, and had many networking opportunities with Rhodes Alumni including a meet up with female Rhodes alumni living New York City.

When we arrived at Oxford, we met up with all of the other Rhodes Scholars from around the world. There are over 90 Rhodes Scholars from all over the world this year! We mixed and mingled with each other, and the older Rhodes Scholars who are still at Oxford. It has been really nice to have this community of Rhodes Scholars during this big transition to England. We even had a dinner for all of the Rhodes Scholars on campus studying engineering! Having a built-in support group full of friendly faces makes being in a foreign place much less intimidating!

The next week was Oxford's official Fresher's Week, where we had many opportunities to meet the other students in our college, departments, and across Oxford. The city of Oxford is an incredibly beautiful city with a rich history. Oxford is split into 38 colleges, and I chose to live in the oldest one! It was founded in 1249, and it is called University College. The college system provides another sense of community within Oxford, in addition to your department and any other organizations you are part of (such as Rhodes). The Kofo Collective is a cultural organization that I recently joined, and we had a nice brunch together to kick off the term. The week ended with matriculation, where we dressed in graduation clothes and were formally deemed students of the University of Oxford. 

I work in the Osney Thermofluids Laboratory, which is a subset of the engineering science department here. The lab is very interdisciplinary, and most of the research projects are sponsored by industry partners. My research is focusing on developing in thin film, liquid metal cooling system for a nuclear fusion reactor, and I am working with an industry sponsor in the area that is focusing on making nuclear fusion reactors! I really enjoy the practicality of the work that I am doing. Some of the students in my research lab put together a Black Panther themed science event for kids that I was able to help out with, which was a really fun way to get to know the greater Oxford community and teach a diverse group of kids about science.

-NM

For more information about Prestigious Scholarships, or if you'd like to be the next UMBC Rhodes Scholar, email Dr. April Householder at aprilh@umbc.edu or visit:

https://ur.umbc.edu/prestigious-scholarships/

You are invited to attend on November 8, from 4:00 PM to 6:00 PM a writing for publication seminar hosted by the Graduate Student Association (GSA) and PROMISE.

Place: Meyerhoff Building, Room 120

Agenda:

4:00 – 4:30   Registration & Dinner Service

4:30 – 4:40   Welcome

4:40 – 5:30   Panel presentation

5:30 – 6:00   Panel Q&A

The following are topics that will be covered as part of our seminar and discussion:

Please RSVP at the following link: https://my3.my.umbc.edu/groups/promise/events/65426

The topic is about pros and cons for leaving a digital device unattended, such as a cell phone, a laptop or a desktop computer. It does not matter whether devices are personally owned or business owned.

CONS:

1.     This situation of leaving a device unattended is like leaving a car unlocked. The biggest risk is about the loss of a device itself (i.e. stolen). Thieves would be able to sell parts of a device if not an entire device. True, stolen devices could be tracked. But, only when a device is unassembled.

2.     Loss of privacy. Intruders might be able to see (and read) confidential matters. Doesn’t matter whether the stored information is personal (e.g. family photos) or business (e.g. contracts). Thus, putting a business or an employer at a risk when sensitive information is left unguarded.

3.     Spies could install malware on an unattended device and download stored information remotely at their convenience. (Sometime, government spies including manufacturers from China install malware devices on laptops sold to a country for monitoring daily activities).[1]

4.     Waste of electric power or discharging battery if left unlocked and running (while a device is also left unattended). If left running 24/7 then internal parts of device would wear quickly (because every part has a limited life based on number of operating hours).

5.     Children may visit unauthorized webpages in case a personal laptop or a cell phone is left unattended. Children might be exposed to inappropriate materials. Children may be targeted by predators. Children may post something on line (and it is difficult to delete almost anything once something is posted on line). Children may play for hours and hours and exposed to health risk (i.e. weight gain, watching games on a device left unattended). Children distracted from studies.

PROS:

Almost none. Except, a minor convenience of not turning ON. We see that in offices desktops are left running at night. Monitors get burned. Parts get worn (limited life). And, security guards are annoyed.

RedShred, a four-year-old company at bwtech@UMBC created by UMBC graduates, was recently presented with the National Science Foundation’s highly sought-after Phase II Small Business Innovation Research Award.

UMBC’s own Jeehye Yun, ‘97, and Jim Kukla, ‘00, created RedShred in 2014, which has the goal to “[end] the need to read boring but important documents.” Their business uses “state of the art AI [artificial intelligence] and machine learning technologies to search and read documents from federal public sources.”

RedShred’s website boasts that they save more than half of the time and effort required in locating and reading through requests for proposals because of their SmartEngine AI program. After scanning the document, the program generates “at-a-glance” compilations of the material; these compilations are tailored to the user’s specifications so that they can see the information they need without ever having to open the documents.

Back in its first year of operation, RedShred won the Phase I Small Business Technology Transfer Award, providing Yun and Kukla with the funding to start their business. The award program has allotted over $1.3 million total to numerous awardees from April 2016 to date. The Phase II Award supplied the Baltimore company with the money needed to sell their products to commercial organizations. 

The Small Business Innovation Research program “enables small businesses to explore their technological potential and provides the incentive to profit from its commercialization.” Co-founder and CEO Yun said, “[w]e’re excited about this Phase II grant, which allows us to commercialize our Phase I research and development and develop new mechanisms to help people understand increasingly complicated documents.”

Facets of the SBIR’s goals include, “[to] stimulate technological innovation, meet federal research and development needs, foster and encourage participation in innovation and entrepreneurship by women and socially or economically disadvantaged persons,” and “increase private-sector commercialization of innovations from federal research and development funding.”

Research and development federal budgets that are over $100 million must allocate 3.2 percent (as of the 2017 fiscal year) of their R&D budget to SBIR programs. Participating government agencies include the Department of Agriculture, Department of Health and Human Services, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the NSF.

Tim Finin, a UMBC computer science and electrical engineering professor, and a handful of graduate students have worked in conjunction with the start-up “to better understand how large documents, such as RFPs [Requests for Proposals], tend to be structured, even when each one is formatted differently and doesn’t follow a template.” Finin believes that the collaboration with the start-up company has been quite beneficial for UMBC students, undergraduates and graduates alike. It “gives UMBC students great opportunities to participate in both basic and applied research focused on developing an innovative commercial product,” and even gave one graduate student something to include in his Ph.D. dissertation.

The hope is that the funding “is expected to increase the quality, value, and accessibility of medical ultrasound, which would, in turn, reduce medical imaging costs in the US healthcare system,” saving the government money. On average, the United States spends approximately $9,000 per year in health care costs for each person. By making this award and others like it available, “[it] will result in cost savings to the health care system, will produce improvements in patient care, and will support a sustainable business opportunity.”

“College is going to be the best four years of your life,” is a phrase that students have heard from older adults. But amidst the days over-scheduled with classes and clubs and endless nights of studying, it is easy to forget that college is supposed to be an enjoyable experience.

There seems to be a relentless force pushing students to take on harder classes and be more involved. Unfortunately, that force often comes from within the student. Expectations for one’s self are usually much greater than anything on the outside. As a result, students end up committing to more activities than they should.

This is not to say that students should not be involved—Tre Barr, a sophomore computer science major, said, “Most of the clubs on campus are ones that help you build connections, and the other non-academic ones help you balance out and find things you enjoy outside of education.”

Activities outside of classes can be an excellent way to relax and gain extra experience, but sometimes they consume students’ precious free time. Nidhi Naik, a sophomore biochemistry and computer science double major, said, “On Wednesdays I go to lab for 6 hours. Whenever I have a break, I do work, and when I come back in the evening I do work until around midnight.”

Some weeks may not be as busy as others, so it is easy to believe one’s schedule is balanced when it really is not. However, when the overwhelmingly busy weeks outnumber the balanced weeks, it may be time to reevaluate and re-prioritize.

Barr feels that he lives a relatively balanced life. He says, “I don’t feel like I have an overbearing workload. I feel like it’s manageable, and there are no times when I have no free time.”

Creating that balance can be difficult, but it is possible. Naik said, “know[ing] when to say no is just as important as saying yes to things, because you can’t do everything. No one is expecting you to do everything, but choosing the right things to do is important.”

This process of learning what is worth committing to takes time. The harsh realization is that no one can do everything. This can be a frustrating lesson to learn, but it is necessary to get the most out of a college experience.

Quality is always better than quantity. If being involved in more activities means that a student is not doing anything as well as it could be done, it is best to figure out what affords them the greatest long-term benefit or what they are most passionate about.

Along with grades and extracurricular activities, students must remember that they are also a priority. Naik advises her peers to “take time for yourself because if you don’t, you’re going to drown a lot faster.”

Every student wants to succeed at UMBC and beyond, but over-committing is not the way to do it.

“The Night My Mother Killed My Father” (Spain 2016) directed by Inés París, is a comedic film focused on Isabel París, an aspiring actress who wants to be cast in her husband Ángel’s mystery film. In order to accomplish this, she, with the help of her ex-husband Carlos and his pretend girlfriend Alex, puts on an “audition” in which she pretends to murder Carlos and leaves it up to her husband and friend to figure it out.

Her plan becomes complicated when Ángel tries to cover up the “murder” by rolling Carlos’ body and his car down a ravine. The dramatic irony is successfully executed throughout the movie, which provides much of the humor. The audience erupted in laughter when Diego Peretti began to urinate on the supposedly dead Carlos until he eventually broke character and gasped as he was rolled into a ravine.

Overall, the movie was enjoyable and humorous. The audience was left satisfied at the very end of the movie, having learned that Carlos was not dead (despite having many opportunities to be) and that Isabel was able to get the lead role in her husband’s movie.

The title of this movie contributes to the suspense and meaning of the film. From the title, the audience obviously realizes that somebody is going to die at some point in the movie. In the beginning, Ángel is introduced and suggested to be the one that will be killed. However, the movie’s title becomes much more diluted as each character is introduced to the audience.

It keeps the audience on its toes while they are constantly waiting for a death to occur. In the second to last scene, when Carlos is presumed dead after being hit by a car, the audience seems to take a breath because someone has finally died only to find out that Carlos had survived the accident.

Inés París was a leading director in the Association of Women Filmmakers and Media. Through her movies, she desired to debunk the fallacies that there is equal opportunity for all and that all you need is talent. She also believed that there is a sort of “invisible hand” that represses women and causes them to be held to high scrutiny in the media industry.

In “The Night My Mother Killed My Father,” there is a heavy reflection of París’ ideals and experiences in the media. Isabel has just turned 40 and she can’t even secure a spot in her own husband’s film. Many aging actresses can resonate with this as directors continue to look for younger and more attractive actresses to cast for their films.

On the other hand, in order to make a name for themselves, some younger actresses must play ditsy female characters. Alex, played by a relatively new actress, was used as comic relief throughout most of the movie and could be considered the most annoying character in it. Women do not have access to the variety of roles that their male counterparts do.

Inés París manages to keep the audience captivated and still includes comments on modern society. She picked a creative title that added a lot to the movie. Each joke really hit its mark among the diverse audience. Her movie delves into long-standing issues of sexism while remaining light-hearted in its entirety. This comical movie is an impressive feat indeed.