June 4, 2018

Tenzin Yangchen

Italian Politics in Siena, Italy

Global Studies (International Affairs)

Arrival:

The UMBC study abroad group met in Rome, where we experienced the city through the cultural trip exploring the Roman Forum, the Colosseum, and Italian political palaces. We headed to our program location on the third day in a bus journey of about three hrs. The program I chose to study is Italian politics in Siena, Italy. Siena is a lovely medieval city that is distinguished by its medieval brick buildings. Located in the Tuscany region, the city has 17 contradas, or districts; each representing with a flag of their own, especially during their annual horse race or the Palio di Siena. The student group from my study abroad program is separated in groups of three, and assigned to various different contradas. My apartment is just off of the main square of Piazza Del Campo, the town square. The housing looks medieval and has a rustic touch to it. I am accompanied by my two program classmates and an Italian RA who is a twenty four year old university student herself. Our classes are held for about two hours Monday through Friday, with mixed schedule of guided tour alongside free weekends.

My favorite things about my host location so far is definitely the number of designated stores for wine, pizza, and gelato that the place has to offer. I have two roomates where one is obsessed with gelatos, while the other with wine as she admiringly promises that she is not an alcoholic, but explains how it is simply a part of the European culture.

Siena is famous for its magnificent art and architecture that are reminders of the renaissance period. So naturally, we had a couple guided tours of cathedrals around the town. One of the best schools in the country, University of Sienna, is also located here and luckily, our program allows us access the library and cafeteria amongst other Italian students.

The location of the town square had an uncanny resemblance to my hometown of Boudha, which is an UNESCO heritage site itself. Similar to the town I grew up in, Piazza Del Campo was said to be formed through the passing of trade routes like many medieval towns.

I must admit that I experienced (or am experiencing) a mild version of culture shock where there are ups and downs for excitement and joy. The downer mostly being the difference in daily lifestyle which I was used to back home, but on the bright side, it makes a perfect circumstance to push one out of their comfort zone and experience growth.

Baltimore Center Stage (LORT B) is accepting applicants for the position of Master Carpenter. BCS produces six mainstage shows and a mix of other artistic programs on three stages. We are committed to being an inclusive workplace, and strongly believe in the importance of having a diverse group of individuals represented both on stage and off. Primary duties include:

Construction of scenic elements for all productions

Attribute Based Encryption for Secure Access to Cloud Based EHR Systems

Medical organizations find it challenging to adopt cloud-based electronic medical records services, due to the risk of data breaches and the resulting compromise of patient data. Existing authorization models follow a patient centric approach for EHR management where the responsibility of authorizing data access is handled at the patients’ end. This however creates a significant overhead for the patient who has to authorize every access of their health record. This is not practical given the multiple personnel involved in providing care and that at times the patient may not be in a state to provide this authorization. Hence there is a need of developing a proper authorization delegation mechanism for safe, secure and easy cloud-based EHR management. We have developed a novel, centralized, attribute based authorization mechanism that uses Attribute Based Encryption (ABE) and allows for delegated secure access of patient records. This mechanism transfers the service management overhead from the patient to the medical organization and allows easy delegation of cloud-based EHR’s access authority to the medical providers. In this paper, we describe this novel ABE approach as well as the prototype system that we have created to illustrate it.

The post paper: Attribute Based Encryption for Secure Access to Cloud Based EHR Systems appeared first on UMBC ebiquity.

Darius McKoy is a Biological Sciences (B.S.) major and Psychology (Minor) who will graduate in Spring, 2020.

List any Scholars/Honors programs you are a part of: Meyerhoff Scholar, HHMI Scholar, President's List, Dean's List, LSAMP Participant

Title of your research project: The Role of Protein Synthesis in Cellular Arrest and Organismal Survival Under Anoxia

Describe your project: The phenomenon is that zebrafish can survive up to 50 hours by halting their development to converse energy. In the lab, we are analyzing the signaling pathways that allow this arrest to occur.

Who is your mentor(s) for your project? Dr. Rachel Brewster, Biological Sciences. I became interested in Dr. Brewster because of recommendations from past students. I chose her because from meeting with her and talking to the graduate students, it was clear that she would push me to become the best researcher that I could be.

How did you become interested in this project? I became interested in the project because I realized that it can have some real medical applications and can impact human health which aligns with my career goals. 

What has been the hardest part about your research/what was the most unexpected thing about being a researcher? The hardest part has been managing time in lab with classes and other commitments but keeping track of my time can greatly benefited me. I had to learn that patience was key to survival in a research lab.

What has been the most rewarding part? Finally getting things to work after troubleshooting for a long time and gaining approval from graduate students.

How will you disseminate your research? URCAD Presentation and a future publication 

What is your advice to other students about getting involved in research? At UMBC, the opportunities are endless. A simple email asking to meet with a faculty member to discuss their research can do the trick.

What are your career goals? Obtain a MD/PhD in neurobiology and become a successful neuroscientist and anesthesiologist, then start a medical company.

Want to be featured as a Researcher of the Week?  Email: aprilh@uumbc.edu