Todd Haddaway at Alliance 2017

“It was great to see that there was interest”

“...gives us the opportunity to highlight some of the innovative solutions that we have developed at UMBC”

Undergraduate Research and Creative Achievement Day (URCAD) features research, scholarship, and creative work carried out by UMBC undergraduates. Student work is shared through oral presentations, posters, artistic exhibits and performances, and film.

Over 250 presenters participate annually. Researchers work with faculty mentors on independent research, or research that is part of the mentor’s on-going projects.  They are from all disciplines, and can be working on a thesis, capstone project, part of a scholars or honors program, or they can be unaffiliated with other programs.

Students who have received Undergraduate Research Awards (URA) for the previous year will be presenting their findings. The UMBC Review, UMBC’s annual peer-reviewed research journal, which features academic papers written by UMBC undergraduates, makes its debut at this event- stop by and get your copy! Come hear the alumni keynote speaker talk about their experiences after UMBC, and how being an undergraduate researcher benefited them.

UMBC is unique in providing this opportunity for undergraduate students to conduct and present their research in a professional and supportive setting.  Students get valuable feedback from their peers, faculty, and staff, and practice their public speaking and presentations skills.  This campus-wide celebration of achievement affirms UMBC’s commitment to the twin goals of research and a distinctive undergraduate experience.

The UMBC CyberDawgs are at the University of Texas, San Antonio competing in the national two-day finals event for the Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition (CCDC) that takes place April 13-14. The CybrDawgs took first place in the Mid-Atlantic regional finals two weeks ago which qualified them for the finals this week. This is UMBC’s second trip to the CCDC national finals – two years ago in their first visit the CyberDawgs came in fourth.

The CyberDawgs is a group of UMBC students who share a common interest in computer and network security.  The group is advised by UMBC faculty Charles Nicholas and Richard Forno. See the CyberDawgs Web site for information on their activities and how to get involved.

Good luck to the CyberDawgs!!!

The post UMBC Cyberdawgs compete in 2017 Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition finals appeared first on Department of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering.

For the past two weeks, former UMBC student and 2016 U.S. Women’s Chess Champion Nazi Paikidze has been busy defending her national chess title at the U.S. Women’s Chess Championship in St. Louis, Missouri. The tournament came to a close on Monday, April 10, with Paikidze finishing in second place

Born in 1993 in Irkutsk, Russia and later moving to Tbilisi, Georgia, Paikidze has been a rising chess star for quite a while. By the time she was eight, she came in second at the under-10 Georgian Championship, thus qualifying for the European Youth Championship that same year. By 16, she was already in the top 40 female players in the world.

Currently, Paikidze holds both the Women’s Grandmaster and the International Master titles, achieving her peak Fédération Internationale des Échecs, or World Chess Federation rating at age 16.

Paikidze, now 23, came to UMBC at 18 after receiving several scholarship offers from American universities with strong chess teams. During her time at the school, she helped the UMBC team qualify for three straight President’s Cup tournaments, otherwise known as the Final Four of College Chess.

The star player received international media attention after boycotting the Women’s World Chess Championship in 2016 that took place in Iran, due to regulations that obligated female players to wear hijabs during the tournament.

“I think it’s unacceptable to host a Women’s World Championship in a place where women do not have basic fundamental rights and are treated as second-class citizens,” she said at the time.

In 2015, Paikidze won second place in her first ever U.S. Championship. The following year, she beat the seven-time champion Irina Krush for the title and the $25,000 prize. She once again faced Krush this past Thursday, scoring another win.

“She’s a brilliant chess player, and it was a huge accomplishment for her. We were all really happy for her,” said Levan Bregadze, Paikidze’s former teammate at UMBC who is now the general assistant for the school’s chess program after graduating last December.

Bregadze and Paikidze both met in Georgia and started playing together from a very young age. Additionally, they shared the same coach for a while. According to Bregadze, they traveled to play in World Youth Chess Championships and European Chess Championships.

“Nazi has won those world tournaments like, four, five times. I’ve lost count how many times she’s won the European Championships,” he said. In 2014, Paikidze officially changed her chess federation from Georgia to the United States.

Despite graduating, Paikidze still retains ties to the UMBC chess program. Tanguy Ringoir, current team member and the youngest Grandmaster in the history of his native Belgium, developed a tradition of practicing with Paikidze before their tournaments.

“The first time she played the Championship, we played some blitz (fast time-controlled rounds) in the Commons, but the following year we took it slightly more seriously and I visited her for a week before the championship, which she won,” said Ringoir.

This year was no different. Ringoir visited Paikidze in Vegas, before her Women’s Championship and a tournament of his own, taking place in Charlotte, which made the training mutually beneficial, according to Ringoir. “I won the tournament in Charlotte, and for the moment she is leading hers at St. Louis, so I hope she’ll win hers as well,” he said.

On average, games may last around four hours, but many go on for up to eight, according to Bregadze. “In standard time control, each player gets 90 minutes at the beginning of the game, with the clock adding back 30 seconds for every move. After move 40, you get an additional 30 minutes,” he explained.

Paikidze led the Women’s Championship with a half-point lead up to the last round, which she lost to Sabina-Francesca Foisor, who is now the 2017 United States Women’s Champion.

The post UMBC alumna fails to defend national chess title appeared first on The Retriever.

It's time to Register for Fall Classes!

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What about Summer Classes?

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What If I'm a New Student?

New Students may not register for courses until Orientation. Please sign up for summer Orientation.

http://orientation.umbc.edu/

What If I Still Have Questions?

Everyone during the time of Jesus was familiar with the cross –a torturous execution reserved for the worst of criminals. After someone is found guilty and is sentenced, he had to carry the top beam of the cross to the execution site. Along that trip, they were spat on, sneered at, mocked and yelled at. It was dead man walking – the ultimate human example of self-denial. It was a one-way trip. There was no turning back. Your life was as good as gone. You aren’t living for your own glory or for your own accomplishments. When Jesus says to take up your cross, he says “daily.” There are very few things that we actually do daily: we eat, we drink, we breathe, we clean and clothe ourselves. The word daily infers that it is something of the utmost necessity—like our daily bread. By using the same the word ‘daily’ in taking up our cross, Jesus is pointing to the utter necessity of taking up our cross in order to live as disciples. Walking in God’s plan for our lives is to take up our cross. Denying ourselves and walking with Jesus.

Today, let’s recognize our daily need to take up our Cross, as we follow him.

-GK

A few weeks ago, I sat down with Chloe Scully, a junior media and communications major with a theatre minor, to talk about TheatreCOM’s New Playwright’s Festival and some of the behind-the-scenes aspects of directing and producing plays.

Can you start with an overview of New Playwright’s Festival?

The New Playwrights Festival is a festival in which we turn scripts written by UMBC students into actual plays and it’s directed, acted by and produced by UMBC students. It’s a bigger version of the 24-hour Playfest that TheatreCOM also does in the fall.

What piece are you directing?

I’m directing a piece called “Love Letters” that Nell Quinn-Gibney and Ali Mark wrote. Basically, this guy, a grad student, puts an ad in the Lonely Hearts newspaper section, and there are two best friends, Sarah and Rachel, and Rachel’s like “Oh, you can’t form a meaningful connection with someone via letter writing. It’s too outdated.” And Sarah’s like, “Bullshit,” and they end up making a bet on it and Sarah writes letters to the grad student, Andy. We see into each of their lives and it’s a really cute play.

Why did you want to direct this piece?

I told [the TheatreCOM board] that I wanted to direct a piece, but I wanted to see a little description of each, so that if I did get a choice, I could choose. They sent me three pieces. One was a film noir, another was a ten-minute, one scene play, and then there was “Love Letters.” And I thought “Love Letters” sounded cute and Nell and Ali are great, so let’s do this one.

What are the other pieces about?

The film noir is a murder mystery — that’s all I really know about it — but the one scene play was written by Steven Gondre-Lewis, and basically there’s this girl who had been raped by a neighbor, and her entire family knew, but they didn’t report him yet. The neighbor is arrested for murdering his wife, and the dad… knows that the neighbor isn’t guilty of murdering his wife — the play is basically a question of whether or not the family should let the man rot in jail because they know he did something wrong, but don’t know if it is okay for him to be in jail for the wrong thing.

Have you had any challenges so far in directing the piece?

I would say scheduling. I got an amazing cast, which I was really lucky in getting, but because they’re so amazing, they’re also in a bunch of other things or in “Legally Blonde” — literally everyone except for two of my cast are in “Legally Blonde” in some major capacity. So they aren’t able to make most times anyways. Another issue is that my play has a lot of props, but thankfully, I’ve been able to figure that out pretty quickly. I’ve been going to Facebook and asking if anyone has this or that. I’ve gotten everything except for four items, and I can receive funding for those, so we’re good. I just didn’t want to have to go to the TheatreCOM board and be like “So I have 20 things I need to buy for this and it’s going to be about $100 altogether.” Now, it should only be about 10 bucks and we’ll be fine.

How does funding work?

So we have to make a prop list. So what I did first was go and see what I could get on the prop list from a bunch of other people, see what the cheapest way to make it was, and then whatever I couldn’t get, I put in a list. [For example] I have to make some Blockbuster T-shirts for my play because two of the characters work at Blockbuster, so [in the list, I’d write that] I need two white T-shirts and some iron-on transfers. The T-shirts should be this much and here’s a link to prove that I’m not just making up a number, and here are the iron-on transfers and here’s the price and a link to prove I’m not making up a number again. I do that for a couple items, and then what I did was provide a final price for what I need, a list of what I already have from people [as far as props or outside funding] and a price for what I’m willing to spend outside of what I already have, and then that’s normally how much I need from the board. And then they’ll send me back an email saying they can provide funding for this and this and this or not for this because of whatever reasons, but it typically works out, and then we’re good.

What is the significance of this piece to you?

I like the whole love letters aspect of it and them writing to each other because that’s actually how I found my current boyfriend. We just wrote letters for a long time before we started dating — we’ve known each other for four years and just started dating a year and a half ago, so we started with letters and then Facebook messages and Skype calls because he moved. So it has a little sentimental value to me. I also just love the characters and the people who wrote it.

What would you like the audience to take away from this play?

You can find love in any way. Though writing letters may be a bit outdated, it’s still a very good way to talk to someone. The piece does not really have a lesson as much as it’s a character study, so I want [the audience] to leave loving the characters — thinking like, this [character] is my new best friend.

The New Playwrights Festival will be held on April 15 and 16 in the Sportszone. Tickets are available at the CIC and are free for UMBC students and $5 for non-UMBC students. “Love Letters” will be performed on the 15^th.

The post Emerging UMBC playwrights’ work takes the stage appeared first on The Retriever.