After over 30 inches of snow dropped on Baltimore last winter, the city has increased and improved its programs and procedures for the upcoming winter. Earlier this November, Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake announced a $6.3 million budget for this winter, more than doubling the budget from last year.

The increased budget comes along with additional personnel, as well as new snow-removal equipment and almost 20,000 tons of salt. Mayor Rawlings-Blake announced the new budget and measures in a tour of a brand new salt and brine-processing facility at 560 W. North Ave. The new facility will be at the disposal of the crews during winter weather events.

The new facility can hold up to 39,000 gallons of brine, which crews will use to pre-treat roads before storms, in order to prevent snow from sticking to essential city gateways, which will help with their snow removal efforts.

Additionally, the facility at North Avenue holds the first salt dome built in the city in over 20 years. With 7,500 tons of salt at the location, the city has increased its salt storage capabilities while also providing personnel with easy access to certain streets and important roads, such as the Jones Falls Expressway. The location and ease of access should prove to be beneficial, allowing for shorter response times for snow-removal crews.

While crews and equipment have been improved since last year, a few other programs and measures have been added or brought back for this weekend. The Department of Transportation has announced the return of its Youth Snow Program. The program connects student workers with senior citizens and/or disabled residents. The students work with those who need assistance with clearing snow in public rights of way passages and sidewalks on days city schools are closed.

Cold weather shelters have also begun opening their doors, both in Baltimore City and Baltimore County. The Baltimore County cold weather shelter operates from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. It is activated on nights when the temperature reaches 32 degrees or below and when there are no more beds in homeless shelters.

Besides cold weather shelters, Baltimore City’s 19 library branches operate on extended hours from November through March, so residents can warm up from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. The City also offers community centers, churches and senior centers as additional warm up locations.

Code Blue guidelines have also been revised for the winter. The city’s Health Commissioner declares a Code Blue Alert during periods of extreme cold, seeking to control hypothermia deaths specifically in vulnerable pockets of the population, such as the homeless and senior citizens. Shelters are encouraged to extend their hours and keep people indoors whenever a Code Blue Alert is issued. The city also participates in energy assistance programs, which target those with no home-heating and give subsidies to those who experience difficulties paying their heating bills.

Programs seeking to provide winter clothing have permeated the Baltimore Community as well as UMBC. At UMBC, boxes for winter clothes donations can be found in the Commons and other common areas around campus. In Baltimore, Operation Warm has been distributing new coats to hundreds of Baltimore children. The organization works with SERKI, a non-profit manufacturer that employs disabled workers in their plant in Kentucky.

UMBC students are also deeply affected by inclement weather: the large amounts of snow delayed the start of the Spring 2016 semester. ResLife staff have procedures to follow in case of snow buildup. The university’s Environmental Safety and Health web page directs users to useful links for winter preparedness, such as emergency kit instructions from the Red Cross. However, its link for UMBC’s winter weather policy currently leads to a dead page.

For inclement weather updates, students should check MyUMBC, or sign up for UMBC’s E2 Alerts for real time text alerts for all weather and other emergencies.

The post Baltimore buckles up for winter weather appeared first on The Retriever.

Photo by Winston Zhou

Think back to your junior year of high school, around this time of the year. By the time the bus took you home, it was already starting to get dark out. You had two books to read that night; one in a language you only vaguely understood. You aat dinner at your desk and by the time you fell asleep, you still hadn’t gotten everything done. In four or five hours you had to do it all again.

Somewhere, despite your lack of sleep, your piles of homework and your efforts to still have some sort of social life, you found time to apply to college. Maybe you found time to read through a book of college rankings; maybe you were predestined to attend the school where your parents worked. However you did it, you found time to figure out what mattered to you in a college and you decided that UMBC met those criteria.

For most four-year students at UMBC, this narrative should sound familiar. Choosing which university to attend is a tough decision, perhaps the toughest that many high school students have had to make so far in their lives.

So what was so attractive at UMBC to that seventeen-year-old with caffeine jitters? Many students are attracted by UMBC’s small size, or the diverse student body. It’s also a common stereotype that students end up at UMBC because they ‘didn’t get in to College Park.’ To find out if any of these assumptions ring true, The Retriever spoke to several students about why they picked UMBC.

Venu Peddibhotla, a freshman biochemistry major, decided to attend the university because of the financial assistance that UMBC offered him. “My biggest reason [to attend UMBC] was the money,” said Peddibhotla. “This was the cheapest option for me, so that’s why I came.”

Peddibhotla also describe the emphasis UMBC places on academics and the importance of that in his college experience. “I really like the academic nature of the university. A lot of kids are very focused on their studies,” said Peddibhotla. “Overall, I think it contributes to an intellectual environment and brings out the best in everyone.”

Peddibhotla isn’t the only student who valued the academic atmosphere at UMBC. Alex Nobleman, senior psychology major, enjoys the small class sizes, which are beneficial to his learning.

“The thing I enjoy most at UMBC is probably smaller class sizes compared to other colleges,” said Nobleman. “I like the fact that I can be in class with twenty or thirty people instead of two hundred.”

Despite the fact that seventy-five percent of UMBC’s students live on campus, the university has never been able to shed its label as a commuter school since its founding.  However, that might not be a bad thing. UMBC’s value as a commuter destination has attracted many students who cannot afford to live on campus, or who prefer not to.

The diversity on campus is also important for many students. Walking around The Commons at lunch, under the flags of the world, you will find people of different backgrounds mixing together. At some schools, the population is much more homogeneous. For Andrew John, a junior biology major, this aspect has always stood out. “I like that it’s diverse and that there are a lot of people from all over,” he said.

So, it seems that some of the stereotypes of UMBC (its size, its “nerdiness”, its diversity) are actually the things that attract students to the school in the first place. For these reasons, and many others, nervous high schoolers keep on visiting, exploring and applying to UMBC. What makes UMBC a special place is that those students and other learners from all backgrounds, decide to enroll.

The post What’s so special about UMBC? appeared first on The Retriever.

As UMBC winds down from the Alex. Brown Center’s Idea Competition, we’re hard at work preparing for an exciting Spring semester full of enriching events—especially the annual Cangialosi Business Innovation Competition (CBIC).

The deadline for applications is March 8, 2017 at 5 pm sharp.

The CBIC is designed for entrepreneurial students attending UMBC who know they want to start a company, or perhaps already have and are seeking funding. This competition was designed for you! If you’re ready to start living your dream, click below to start applying today!

Register Here 

What is the CBIC?
The CBIC is an opportunity for UMBC students who are serious about starting a business.

Who Should Participate?
Any UMBC student (full or part time, graduate or undergraduate) with a dream of launching their own business soon.

Why Participate?
The CIBC will give you "real world" experience.  You'll be paired with a business mentor and you'll get helpful feedback and guidance.  You'll also get connected to the local entrepreneurial ecosystem.

Winners also get:

·         Free legal services

·         Accounting advice

·         Membership at the award winning Betamore campus in Federal Hill

·         Fundraising advice and Pitch practice with members of Betamore Angels.

1ST PRIZE = $3,000

2ND PRIZE = $2,000

3RD PRIZE = $1,000

Additional $2,000 available after 6 months. 

As UMBC winds down from the Alex. Brown Center’s Idea Competition, we’re hard at work preparing for an exciting Spring semester full of enriching events—especially the annual Cangialosi Business Innovation Competition (CBIC). 

The deadline for applications is March 8, 2017 at 5 pm sharp. 

The CBIC is designed for entrepreneurial students attending UMBC who know they want to start a company, or perhaps already have, and are seeking funding. This competition was designed for you! If you’re ready to start living your dream, click below to start applying today! 

Register Here 

What is the CBIC?
The CBIC is an opportunity for UMBC students who are serious about starting a business.

Who Should Participate?
Any UMBC student (full or part time, graduate or undergraduate) with a dream of launching their own business soon.

Why Participate?
The CIBC will give you "real world" experience.  You'll be paired with a business mentor and you'll get helpful feedback and guidance.  You'll also get connected to the local entrepreneurial ecosystem.

Winners also get: 

·         Free legal services

·         Accounting advice

·         Membership at the award winning Betamore campus in Federal Hill

·         Fundraising advice and Pitch practice with members of Betamore Angels. 

1ST PRIZE = $3,000

2ND PRIZE = $2,000

3RD PRIZE = $1,000 

Additional $2,000 available after 6 months. 

Students, faculty, staff and community members are invited to join CWIT and  STEMRules for a lunch event to hear from and network with diverse professionals from across the cybersecurity industry.

Wanted: One Million IT Security Specialists by 2018

You Could be One of Them

12-1:30pm Friday, 2 December 2016
Albin O. Kuhn Library Gallery (1st floor)
Lunch will be provided

RSVP: Please respond by December 1, 2016

UMBC CWIT and STEMRules host cyber professionals from the public, private, and nonprofit sectors who will relate their personal/professional journeys, answer questions and be available for networking. Speakers  will include the following individuals:

• Veda Woods  is an executive at an undisclosed Fortune 500 financial institution, a member of multiple boards and the executive director of the International Consortium of Minority Cybersecurity Professionals.
• William McBorrough is a second-generation engineer is the founder and Managing Director of Washington, DC-based McGlobalTech and an information security and risk management consultant.
• Pamela E. Carbajal is a Cyber Security Compliance and Policy Analyst, Senior Consultant, at Booz Allen Hamilton, a global management and technology consulting and engineering services firm.
• Mahalakshmi “Maha” Venkataraman is a Senior Manager in the Software Engineering unit, and the technology lead for the anti-money laundering investigation team at Capital One, a major bank holding company.
• Lisa Jiggetts is the founder of the Women’s Society of Cyberjutsu, a nonprofit dedicated to empowering women to succeed in the cybersecurity field. She is a also a freelance mobile security consultant.

The post Event: Wanted, One Million IT Security Specialists by 2018 appeared first on Department of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering.