The Art of Powering Implantable Electronics

UMBC professor Gymama Slaughter give a short talk at the Grit-X event on her recent research on powering implantable devices for medical applications.

The number of smart implantable devices is on the rise, especially as we approach the ramping up of the “internet of things.” A key challenge for implantable electronic devices has been keeping these devices properly and conveniently powered. Current battery technologies are sealed within these devices, thereby forcing the surgical replacement of the device once the battery is depleted. We need an inconspicuous means of powering implantable electronics with imperceptible methods that moves us toward new innovative solutions to the power challenge in implantable devices. A lightweight bio-solution that leverages the biochemical energy from human biological fluids is a step forward for powering these smart implantable technologies.

The post Gymama Slaughter: The Art of Powering Implantable Electronics appeared first on Department of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering.

Campus Republicans are working to bring political commentator and Daily Wire editor Ben Shapiro to campus to speak.

College Republicans, a right-wing partisan student organization, says should they acquire sufficient funds and receive approval from the Student Government Association, Shapiro could speak at UMBC as early as spring 2018.

Their chairman, Jason Stein, claims the group chose to invite Shapiro to diversify thought on campus. He said, “[Shapiro] would be good to create diverse thinking on campus. We always try to create diversity on this campus, and that goes further than just origins, culture, skin color, it’s also diversity of thought.”

Shapiro, who has given talks at campuses across the country, brings commentary on national issues that past speakers, such as house of delegates candidate Brooks Bennett, have not. Shapiro may be most well-known for his controversial character, as many of his events have been subjected to protests from students.

Last month, scuffles broke out between protestors and police when Shapiro spoke at the University of California, Berkeley. Former Breitbart editor, Milo Yiannopoulos, and Republican commentator, Ann Coulter, were also invited by conservative student organizations to speak at Berkeley earlier this year, but were cancelled due to security reasons.

“I don’t think he is controversial; what makes him ‘controversial’ is that he says things that are different from what is normally said,” remarked Stein.”He creates that diversity of thought that I brought up earlier.”

While UMBC college republicans are solely a political group, Shapiro errs on the side of social conservatism. Many of his talks target recent social issues, like political correctness, the Black Lives Matter movement, and transgenderism.

For some campus groups, this type of speech may be unwelcome or unhelpful.

One group in particular, the UMBC progressives, did not seem to welcome the idea of Shapiro speaking on campus. The progressives started the previous year under a different name, UMBC Students for Bernie Sanders, but post-election used their established platform to continue distributing news to students, and transformed their presence by rebranding as UMBC Progressives.

Richard Elliot, UMBC Progressives president and senior political science major, criticizes the move to invite Shapiro as “controversial for the sake of being controversial.”

“If you think that UMBC has too much of a liberal bend, try and bring in reasonable conservatives who might actually sway people to your side with sound arguments, not conservatives who are going to come here to make some people really angry … It’s not productive for anybody, for Ben Shapiro to come here,” said Elliot.

He added that Shapiro is a “political hack, who bases his ideals off making people upset.”

For now, College Republicans still need to raise the appropriate funds in order to invite Shapiro, and then have it approved through the SGA finance board to allocate such funds.

Police received multiple reports of an active shooter on Howard University’s campus on Tuesday. After a thorough investigation, authorities found no evidence of a shooting, but the incident caused a major disruption for students and staff.

Authorities received multiple calls about an active shooter at the university, with one person reporting a shooting at the College of Medicine building while another reported a shooting at Howard’s administrative building.

Police sent over 100 officers in response and searched the campus buildings and closed streets, putting the campus under lock-down for two hours. Howard University was preparing to celebrate their homecoming when the incident occurred, but still opted to continue with celebrations.

According to authorities, calls came after a student’s ex-boyfriend repeatedly threatened her and warned her about being on campus. Several officials said the man had been rejected from the university’s medical program and barred from the Northwest Washington campus two weeks before the incident. They believe the calls were made by people concerned about the young woman’s safety, fueled by false rumors. Authorities said that because the incident turned out to be a hoax, the sources of the calls made to police could face charges.

Officials said they had not determined the source of the calls, but they believe some or all of the calls may have come from the ex-girlfriend’s friends or relatives. Authorities are also exploring whether allegations about a shooting circulated on social media before calls to the police were made.

Howard University’s president, Wayne A.I. Frederick, was asked by the Washington Post if police notified students quickly enough, and said “I think that we were doing the best we could with the limited information we had.”

Should a similar event occur at UMBC, the police department offers information on their website that covers what to do in a variety of emergencies, including natural disasters, terrorist attacks, campus shootings, etc.

According to Paul Dillon, the UMBC Deputy Chief, the best advice during an active shooting “is to immediately flee the area of the shooting, put as much distance between yourself and the shooter as possible. If you are unable to flee then you should hide, preferably in a place that can be locked or barricaded and keep yourself out of sight.”

Mayor Catherine Pugh’s recent plan to offer free community college for all Baltimore public high school students continues to gather momentum. Her original announcement was included in her August anti-crime plan, surprising many in attendance.

The estimated operating cost of the program will be 1.7 million dollars in the first year, according to the state’s legislative services department. This will jump to 3.4 million the following year. Despite the seemingly high costs, analysts are not too concerned, seeing it as a drop in the bucket of the nearly 3 billion dollar operating budget.

In addition, budget analysts are confident the costs will be curbed by 92 percent of community college students already receiving Pell Grants. It is unclear at this time if the legislation would only cover expenses not met by a Pell Grant or if it would apply to all graduates regardless of whether they received a form of financial aid or not.

Successful implementation of this plan would add Baltimore to the growing list of cities offering high school graduates free community college. Nearly 200 cities across 40 states offer similar programs. Leading the way was Tennessee back in 2014, when free community college tuition was established for the entire state.

Josh Heidke, junior social work major, noted: “I know a lot of people come here after going to [Baltimore City Community College] so I’m sure it’ll help those people.”

This legislation that aids the graduating class of 2018 could lay the foundation for future transfer students at UMBC in 2020.

Part of the drive behind the legislation is that with rising costs of secondary education institutions, more students will be able to pursue their education further if they are free from community college debt.The overall hope is that as college graduation levels rise, crime numbers will fall in accordance with Mayor Pugh’s anti-crime plan.

The planned legislation has proved so popular that Mayor Pugh has received support from even some of her most vocal critics. Councilman Brandon Scott was excited by the prospect and suggested funding the free tuition by charging fare on the currently free Charm City Circulator.

While the implementation details are still in their early stages, Pugh and others involved in the project are confident they can have the program in place for the graduating class of 2018.

Multi-observable Session Reputation Scoring System

Arya Renjan

11:00-12:00 Monday, 23 October 2017, ITE 346

With increasing adoption of Cloud Computing, cyber attacks have become one of the most effective means for adversaries to inflict damage. To overcome limitations of existing blacklists and whitelists, our research focuses to develop a dynamic reputation scoring model for sessions based on a variety of observable and derived attributes of network traffic. Here we propose a technique to greylist sessions using observables like IP, Domain, URL and File Hash by scoring them numerically based on the events in the session. This enables automatic labeling of possible malicious hosts or users that can help in enriching the existing whitelists or blacklists.

Halloween is just around the corner, meaning lots of trick-or-treating, partying, and haunted houses. If you’re someone who celebrates by binging on tacky movies here’s a special list of ghoulishly good films to watch this season.

Easily one of the most iconic horror movies, John Carpenter’s Halloween (1978) starts us off. This movie is a perfect way to slip into the holiday mood. Expect to be spooked by Michael Meyers, the masked killer following a young Jamie Lee Curti. The crisp fall setting and abundance of fake blood will leave you feeling oddly satisfied.

The natural follow-up to Halloween is the cult classic, Nightmare on Elm Street (1984). Wes Craven is the mastermind behind this movie that has inspired a generation of horror films. Even if you’ve never seen it, you might recognize the name of Freddy Krueger, the twisted killer that slips into his victim’s dreams and kills them in a nightmarish fashion.

For the squeamish and the kids at heart, it would be criminal to omit The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993). Despite the mass of Jack and Sally costumes you’ll see on the streets, Tim Burton’s iconic mix of Christmas and Halloween has not grown old. Delve into a cozy town where creatures eat, sleep, and breathe Halloween. Nightmare? More like fairytale!

What good would this list be without a Disney Channel Original Movie? With arguably the best special effects of any Disney movie, Don’t Look Under the Bed (1999) is all about a teenage girl who, with the help of her brother’s imaginary friend, fights the Boogeyman terrorizing her town. Thrills! Chills! Spooks! This movie truly has it all.

Clowns, whether horrid or happy, are often associated with Halloween. If you’re looking for a good clown movie, you might want to opt for the 1990 TV adaptation of Stephen King’s It. For those looking for more clowns, more antics, and more disturbing costumes, try the Chiodo Brothers’ Killer Klowns from Outer Space (1988).

If you’re looking to get spooked in theaters this holiday season, you’ll find more than a handful of films. On Oct. 27, the eighth (and hopefully final) installment of the Saw franchise, Jigsaw hits theaters. A decade after his death, killer Jason Kramer is back to the grindstone, creating sadistic puzzles that his victims must solve in order to escape gruesome deaths.

For the honors student, on Friday, Oct. 13, Happy Death Day will hit the box offices. Although this movie sadly lacks Halloween spirit, its youthful cast may appeal to millennials. In this nightmarish flick, a college student must live her birthday over and over. Even worse than being stuck on campus for her birthday, she must relive her murder at the end of each day until she uncovers the identity of her killer.

Whether you’re looking to spend this holiday season cozied up with your laptop or at the movies with friends, you’re bound to find something tasteful on screen. For more spooky films, consider The Exorcist, Monster House, VHS, and Pet Semetary.

Acts 2:17-18, 21 (NIV) – In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams. Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy…And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.

“Up to this moment, God has acted by is spirit among his people, but it’s always been by inspiring one person here, one or two there – kings and prophets and priests and righteous men and women. Now, in a sudden burst of fresh divine energy released through the death and resurrection of Jesus, God’s spirit has been poured out upon a lot of people all at once. There is no discrimination between slaves and free, male and female, young and old. They are all market out, side by side, as the nucleus of God’s true people.

“This work of God is wonderfully inclusive, because there is no category of people which is left out: both genders, all ages, all social classes. But it is wonderfully focused, because it happens to all ‘who call on the name of the Lord’ (verse 21). All who call…will be saved.

“‘Being saved’ doesn’t just mean, as it does for many today, ‘going to heaven when they die’. It means ‘knowing God’s rescuing power, the power revealed in Jesus, which anticipates, in the present, God’s final great act of deliverance’. Peter will now go on to encourage his hearers to ‘call on the Lord’s name’, and so to know that ‘salvation’, that rescue, as a present reality as well as a future hope. If these really are ‘the last days’, then ‘salvation’ has already begun. Anyone who knows they need rescuing, whatever from, can ‘call on the Lord’ and discover how it can happen.” (N.T. Wright, Acts for Everyone, pp. 33-34)

As we worship with the song, “Same Power”, let’s pray in faith for God’s salvation in every area of our lives and for the circumstances of our brothers and sisters that they too would know God’s salvation. Let’s pray that God would give us His visions and dreams to direct our prayers and to increase our faith for these salvation moments.

Open House: UMBC Graduate Professional Programs

The Fall Open House for UMBC Professional Programs, including the graduate programs on Cybersecurity and Data Science, takes place this coming Wednesday evening, 25 October 2017, at BWTECH South (map) from 6:00-7:30pm.

Students interested in pursuing such programs (MPS degrees and/or certificates) or just to learn more about the field are encouraged to register and attend. Current students interested in pursuing a BS/MPS option for selected programs (such as Cybersecurity or Data Science) are especially welcome.

Attendees who apply to start in Spring 18 will have their UMBC application fee waived.

The programs represented include:

• Cybersecurity
• Data Science
• Engineering Management
• Systems Engineering
• Health Information Technology
• Instructional Systems Development

Program directors for these programs will present in individual breakout sessions and relevant support staff from DPS, the UMBC Graduate School, Veterans Affairs, etc. will be on-hand to provide administrative overviews, answer questions, and mingle. Refreshments will be provided.

for more information, directions and to register, see here.

The post Open House: UMBC Graduate Cybersecurity and Data Science Programs, 6-7:30 Wed. 10/25 appeared first on Department of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering.

Open House: UMBC Graduate Professional Programs

The Fall Open House for UMBC Professional Programs, including the graduate programs on Cybersecurity and Data Science, takes place this coming Wednesday evening, 25 October 2017, at BWTECH South (map) from 6:00-7:30pm.

Students interested in pursuing such programs (MPS degrees and/or certificates) or just to learn more about the field are encouraged to register and attend. Current students interested in pursuing a BS/MPS option for selected programs (such as Cybersecurity or Data Science) are especially welcome.

Attendees who apply to start in Spring 18 will have their UMBC application fee waived.

The programs represented include:

• Cybersecurity
• Data Science
• Engineering Management
• Systems Engineering
• Health Information Technology
• Instructional Systems Development

Program directors for these programs will present in individual breakout sessions and relevant support staff from DPS, the UMBC Graduate School, Veterans Affairs, etc. will be on-hand to provide administrative overviews, answer questions, and mingle. Refreshments will be provided.

for more information, directions and to register, see here.

The post Open House: UMBC Graduate Cybersecurity and Data Science Programs, 6-7:30 Wed. 10/25 appeared first on Department of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering.