Get ready to lock in and boost your research and writing skills! Join us during any of the following library workshops that are scheduled throughout the semester. From citation management and grad student resources, to tips on how to give your academic research poster the ultimate glow up, you’ll find the tools you need to succeed and ace your semester! 

Follow us on the AOK Library's myUMBC page for updates on registering and more info on our events!  

• Monday, August 31, 12pm–1pm: Library Services for Graduate Student Success

• Wednesday, September 2, 12pm–1pm: Navigating the UMBC Library: Resources and Support for International Students

• Tuesday, September 15, 4pm–5pm: How to Prepare a Social Science/Humanities Literature Review 

• Monday, September 21, 12pm–1pm: How to Write a STEM Literature Review (Introduction) 

• Tuesday, September 22, 4pm–5pm: Skills for Graduate Students: Technical Writing

• Monday, September 28, 12pm–1pm: Using Citation Management Tools for Your Research and Writing

• Monday, October 5, 12pm–1pm: Creating an Academic Research Poster Using Canva

• Thursday, October 8, 12pm–1pm: How to Write a STEM Literature Review (Advanced)

• Monday, October 19, 4pm–5pm: Navigating the Use of AI Tools in the Research Process

• Monday, October 21, 12pm–1pm: Skills for Graduate Students: Advanced Research Strategies

• Monday, October 26, 12pm–1pm: Creating an Academic Research Poster Using Google Slides

• Tuesday, November 10, 4pm–5pm: Skills for Graduate Students: Managing and Organizing Your Research 

These workshops are open for full participation by all individuals regardless of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, or any other protected category under applicable federal law, state law, and the University’s nondiscrimination policy.

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Starting September 2026, ASPIRE is a semester-long program created to provide individuals who are not currently supervising staff with the essential professional competencies and interpersonal skills needed to effectively lead in the future. This cohort-based experience will be delivered through a mix of engaging in-person instruction and team coaching. This is a unique opportunity open to all non-supervisory employees past their probationary period who are eager to take the first step on their leadership journey.

For specific dates, eligibility requirements, and additional information, please view the Academy Overview here.

Application Information & Deadlines: 

The ASPIRE program is a self-nominated program. Interested individuals must obtain their supervisor’s support to attend the program, and full session participation is required. Leaders are encouraged to have a conversation with their employee/s they feel would benefit from participating in this program and encourage them to apply.

Submit your application by August 7, 2026.

Applicants will be notified by Monday, August 17, 2026.

Questions? Email: hrtraining@umbc.edu

Name: Parth Vaja

Pronouns: He/Him

Semester of Internship: Summer 2026

Major: MS Data Science

Current Class Level: Master's Student

This semester I completed a(n)...: Internship

Internship, Co-op, or Research Site (Company/Organization Name): BeOne Medicines

Location of the Organization (City, State): Hopewell, New Jersey (Remote)

Title of position: AI & Data Engineering Intern

Tell us about your internship, co-op, or research opportunity, including your day-to-day responsibilities:
I am working as an AI and Data Engineering Intern at BeOne Medicines, supporting the Global Commercial and Medical Technology team on a project to build an AI-powered bot over the company's Amazon Redshift data warehouse. My day-to-day work involves extracting metadata from Redshift, parsing SQL and stored procedures with Python, generating documentation using large language models, and building a retrieval-augmented pipeline that lets users query the warehouse conversationally. I am also designing a dependency graph layer that enables deterministic impact analysis for stored procedure changes. A typical day includes syncs with my manager, hands-on engineering work, coordination with other engineers on the team.


Describe the process of obtaining your position. When did you hear of the position and submit your application?
I first came across the BeOne Medicines internship posting in early March 2026 while searching for summer roles that combined AI, LLMs, and data warehousing. I applied within a few days with a tailored cover letter and outreach email, and was soon contacted for a phone screen with the hiring manager. After that initial conversation, I researched the project deeply and prepared a written architecture proposal outlining how I would approach the stored procedure documentation bot. A follow-up discussion led to a formal offer through BeOne's talent acquisition team and their workforce partner, Magnit Global, which I accepted in May 2026 and started in June.

What resources did you use to find your current experience?
LinkedIn or other social media

What have you enjoyed the most about your position and organization?
What I have enjoyed most is the combination of real technical depth and real business impact. The project I am working on directly touches how BeOne's commercial teams understand their own data infrastructure, so every design decision has actual consequences for how analysts, engineers, and leadership do their jobs. I have also appreciated the trust my manager has placed in me from day one, giving me space to propose my own architectural ideas rather than just executing predefined tasks. Being part of a mission-driven organization focused on oncology adds another layer of meaning to the technical work.

How do you believe you have made an impact through your work?
I have contributed by designing and building the foundational components of an AI-powered bot that will help the team query stored procedures and perform impact analysis on their Redshift data warehouse. Beyond writing the code, I proposed adding a deterministic dependency graph layer alongside the retrieval-augmented generation pipeline, which improves reliability for the exact impact-analysis questions the team relies on most. My work is helping build a system that will reduce the time engineers and analysts spend manually tracing data dependencies, making the broader commercial data platform more transparent and maintainable.

What advice would you give to another student who is seeking an internship or similar experience?
Start early, prepare seriously, and treat every application as an opportunity to learn something about the company rather than just a submission. I have found that tailored applications, thoughtful outreach emails, and genuine research about the role make a significant difference compared to generic mass applications. Do not be afraid to propose ideas or share your thinking in interviews, since managers often value candidates who engage with the problem rather than just answering questions. Finally, stay persistent and keep track of your process, because internship searches take time and small improvements compound over dozens of applications.

Registration is open for hackUMBC 2026, UMBC's official student-run hackathon. The 24-hour event brings together graduate, undergraduate, and high school students of all backgrounds and skill levels to learn new technologies, collaborate on creative projects, and build software and hardware solutions in a supportive, hands-on environment. It will include a workshop and special track on AI and machine learning. Register here.

We are a friendly family looking to share our space with graduate students and postgraduate students within the area.

The house is located right by the UMBC bus Stop (CATONSVILLE ROUTE).

You will be renting a fully furnished basement room with a shared bathroom.

Rent includes washer/dryer, internet, alarm system and shared kitchen and living room.

Separate entry is also available. I also have a friendly dog (golden doodle).

No smoking or drugs.

The UMBC bus stop is less than a minute from our home. We look forward to hosting a safe place for you while you continue your education to succeed.

DETAILS

Rental Term: 12 month Lease

Amount: $675 monthly (All Utilities Included)

Availability: 8/25/2026

Security Deposit: $675

Furnished: YES

If Interested, contact at - (757) 636-8271 or (774) 437-0654

The Chronicle of Higher Education will hold an online session on Accelerating Scientific Discovery: AI Case Studies in Research, 2-3 pm on Wednesday, August 12. Academic experts from a range of disciplines will share real case studies: what’s working, what’s not worth the spend, and how they’re making the case to their own leaders for the infrastructure this work now requires. Get more information and register here.

Attention ALL Summer Session 2 students!

The deadline for returning rented books to the Bookstore is August 14th. All rentals must be received by the Bookstore by 3PM. More information regarding rentals can be found here. Further inquires can be directed to textbook@umbc.edu.

Join us for the annual ESS & NESS Staff Cookout on Wednesday, August 12! 

Who? Open to all UMBC staff members

When? Wednesday, August 12, 2026, 11:30 a.m - 1 p.m

Where? The Commons, Main Street

What? Classic BBQ food (including vegetarian options)

If you would like to help out (and we would be ever so grateful!), sign up for a volunteer slot.

**Please RSVP here so we know how much food to order! 

Happy end of July everyone,

I'm writing to give everyone an update regarding the UMBC HPCF and other Research Computing projects currently undertaken by DoIT during the month of July.

Summary

• chip and RRStor System Maintenance Reminder/Completed
• ada Research Volume Migrations Nearly Complete

chip and RRStor System Maintenance Completed

The maintenance period on July 28th for the chip and RRStor clusters went about as smoothly as we could have hoped for! This maintenance focused on optimizing our software stack to better leverage our hardware architectures, alongside applying storage enhancements to RRStor to ensure long-term data reliability.

Please refer to this post for more information regarding the changes: https://my3.my.umbc.edu/groups/hpcf/posts/161332 

ada Research Volume Migrations Nearly Complete

Our transition of research storage volumes from the ada server to the RRStor ceph cluster is almost done! Only a couple of volumes remain, all slated to finish within the next couple of weeks.

We appreciate everyone's cooperation and quick turnaround in helping us coordinate these migrations in a short timeframe.

Publications
If you have any publications, presentations, theses, or other works that made use of the campus cluster, please submit an RT Ticket with bibliographic information so that we can accurately reflect this work in our records and on the HPCF Website. 

Need Help?
As always, please communicate any issues/questions to the Research Computing RT Queue (hpcf.umbc.edu > User Support > Request Help).

Gregory Ballantine
HPC System Administrator

In order to prepare for the fall semester, the RAC will be closed from August 9 to August 15, 2026. We will reopen on Sunday, August 16, 2026, at 12 p.m.