Grace Waterman is a Biochemistry and Molecular Biology major who will graduate this spring. She is a member of the Biological Sciences Departmental Honors Program, and a URA Scholar.

Title of your research project: Testing the Effects of Entresto on the Heat Stress Response of Drosophila melanogaster

Describe your project:

My project is a group project focused on determining how Entresto, a blood pressure medication, impacts response to heat stress in different ages and genetic backgrounds in Drosophila melanogaster. We want to apply the results we find from our experiment to predict how people taking Entresto will be affected by heat stress, like a heat wave. 

Who is your mentor(s) for your project?

Dr. Jeff Leips, Department of Biological Sciences

I found my mentor when I was taking BIOL 142. Dr. Leips discussed his research one day during class and it sounded interesting. After learning more about his research online, I asked if I could join his lab and participate in the research.

I chose Dr. Leips because I am interested in the projects in his lab. I also chose the Leips Lab because before joining the lab, everyone was incredibly nice and supportive. I could tell it would be a great environment to do research in.

How did you become interested in this project?

When interviewing to join the Leips Lab, Dr. Leips told me about each of the projects being done in the lab and I chose to join the Entresto group. My project is a further investigation of the Entresto project from when I joined the lab. 

What has been the hardest part about your research/what was the most unexpected thing about being a researcher? 

During my time as an undergraduate researcher, one of the projects I worked on has had numerous setbacks. We have had everything from controlled temperature room failures to the COVID-19 pandemic to equipment malfunctions. Having numerous setbacks can be hard but it has taught me that research can sometimes go wrong, and you cannot give up.

What has been the most rewarding part?

The most rewarding part of being a researcher has been discovering my passion for research. Before joining a lab, I was not completely sure I wanted to pursue research in graduate school or as a career. After working in a lab, I found research is what I am passionate about. Even when I encountered numerous setbacks in my projects, I still enjoyed doing research.

How will you disseminate your research (URCAD presentation, conference, publication, etc?)

My research is going to be presented at URCAD, April 19-25. My group also hopes to write a paper about the research and publish it.

What is your advice to other students about getting involved in research? 

My advice to other students is to never give up. When pursuing research, things often do not go as planned. You cannot give up; keep trying and it will work out.

What are your career goals?

I plan to attend graduate school after graduating from UMBC and earn a PhD in Biochemistry. I plan to focus on drug design and develop medications to treat cancer. After graduate school, I aim to work in the pharmaceutical industry and become a leader in the field of drug development.

Anupam Joshi (left, photo by Marlayna Demond’ 11) and Tina Williams-Koroma, ’02 computer science (right, photo courtesy of Williams-Koroma)

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Three CSEE faculty receive MIPS research awards

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This post is adapted from a UMBC News article UMBC faculty, alumni entrepreneurs receive record-number of MIPS awards for tech collaborations written by Adriana Fraser.

Six UMBC faculty members have just received grants from the Maryland Industrial Partnerships (MIPS) program to develop new technologies with potential to grow the state’s economy. This is UMBC’s largest number of winning proposals within a single proposal round since MIPS began in 1987. The program connects University System of Maryland (USM) faculty and students with Maryland businesses. UMBC’s latest MIPS grantees include computer science and electrical engineering faculty Tim Oates, Chein-I Chang, and Anupam Joshi; Soobum Lee, mechanical engineering; Dipanjan Pan, chemical, biochemical, and environmental engineering; and Vikram Vakharia, marine biotechnology. Among their industry partners are UMBC alumni entrepreneurs who are building businesses in Maryland.

Joshi, professor and chair of computer science and electrical engineering, received a MIPS grant for a cybersecurity collaboration with the startup CyDeploy. They are developing a platform that automates the quality assurance process for cybersecurity updates made to IT and “internet of things” (IoT) devices like Amazon Alexa, Google Home, and health and medical devices. CyDeploy CEO Tina Williams-Koroma ’02, computer science, presented Joshi with the idea to develop a “cybersecurity-driven change management system.” The technology is based on and leverages the use of artificial intelligence and machine learning to create a cloud-based replica of a company’s systems. 

Williams-Koroma and Joshi’s group at UMBC developed a conceptual prototype. It shows the infrastructure and technology that would make the system feasible, combining off-the-shelf tools with novel research. “Increasingly, the government is now beginning to mandate security requirements around IoT devices. The longer-term vision that CyDeploy has is capturing the state of these systems, virtually recreating them and then running the security changes against virtual versions to see how the changes would affect those systems,” Joshi adds. 

Williams-Koroma, who is also an adjunct instructor at UMBC, projects that the initial development of the platform will be complete in late spring 2021. They anticipate launching a free pilot version for businesses to test their IT systems. IoT pilots will come in a later phase.

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Read more about these awards in the UMBC News article UMBC faculty, alumni entrepreneurs receive record-number of MIPS awards for tech collaborations.

The post Six UMBC faculty, incuding three in CSEE, receive MIPS research awards appeared first on Department of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering.

The Black Excellence Summit is a virtual summit taking place on February 27th, 2021 through Webex from 1:00 pm - 6:00 pm.

Please use this link to RSVP as spots are limited, and choose which two sessions you are interested in attending:

• Racial Trauma/Racial Battle Fatigue and Radical Self Care - Dr. Whitney Hobson, Staff Psychologist/Multicultural Coordinator

• Understanding and Overcoming Imposter Syndrome - Ciara Christian, Graduate Assistant, Initiatives for Identity, Inclusion & Belonging 

• Understanding and Responding to Microaggressions - David Shanks, Community Director for Hillside & Terrace Apartments; Amery Thompson, Community Director for Harbor Hall

• Challenging Racial Disparities in Health - Samantha A. Smith,  Associate Director of Health Promotion, University Health Services

• Race in the Classroom and Academic Success - Carlos Williams, Academic Advocate, Academic Success Center

• The Practice of Diaspora: Exploring Pan-Ethnic Identity & Unity - Erin E. Waddles, Coordinator, Initiatives for Identity, Inclusion & Belonging

The Black Excellence Summit hosted in collaboration with the Student Government Association (SGA), Initiatives for Identity, Inclusion & Belonging (i3b), Office of Equity and Inclusion (OEI), Africana Studies Department, National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE), Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, CURL P.W.R, the Women's Center, and the Faithful Black Men Association (FBMA). This event is a virtual summit taking place on February 27th, 2021 through Webex from 1:00 pm - 6:00 pm.

Please use the link below to RSVP as spots are limited, and choose which two sessions you are interested in attending:

• Racial Trauma/Racial Battle Fatigue and Radical Self Care - Dr. Whitney Hobson, Staff Psychologist/Multicultural Coordinator

• Understanding and Overcoming Imposter Syndrome - Ciara Christian, Graduate Assistant, Initiatives for Identity, Inclusion & Belonging 

• Understanding and Responding to Microaggressions - David Shanks, Community Director for Hillside & Terrace Apartments; Amery Thompson, Community Director for Harbor Hall

• Challenging Racial Disparities in Health - Samantha A. Smith,  Associate Director of Health Promotion, University Health Services

• Race in the Classroom and Academic Success - Carlos Williams, Academic Advocate, Academic Success Center

• The Practice of Diaspora: Exploring Pan-Ethnic Identity & Unity - Erin E. Waddles, Coordinator, Initiatives for Identity, Inclusion & Belonging

Link to RSVP: https://forms.gle/MCJk5wCFMfyHAw497

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UMBC Information Systems Department

Machine Learning for Malware:
Challenges and Progress 

Dr. Edward Raff
Booz Allen Hamilton
Visiting Prof. UMBC Computer Science & Electrical Engineering

12:00-1:00 pm ET Wednesday, 17 February 2021

online via WebEx

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Malware is an ever-growing problem, single malware families have caused billions in damages, and the first direct death attributed to malware taking down a hospital has occurred. To detect new malware, machine learning is a naturally attractive approach. However, malware poses a number of unique challenges that have slowed the progress of ML-based solutions. In this talk, we will look at the task of malware detection from byte-based analysis, why it poses many challenging machine learning research problems, and progress we have made on these tasks by taking some non-standard approaches to machine learning: building shallow and wide networks instead of deep, handicapping the features of our model to make it robust, and using literal compression algorithms (LZMA) to find similar content. 

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Edward Raff leads Booz Allen’s machine learning research group and supports clients in developing new ML solutions. His research includes cybersecurity, adversarial machine learning, fairness and ethics, fingerprint biometrics, and high-performance computing. In his spare time, he is the author of the JSAT machine learning library. He received his BS and MS in Computer Science from Purdue University and his Ph.D. in CS from UMBC. Dr. Raff is a Nvidia Deep Learning certified instructor, and Visiting Professor at UMBC.

The post talk: Ed Raff on Machine Learning for Malware: Challenges and Progress, 12-1pm ET Wed 2/17 appeared first on Department of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering.

So, what is radical love & belonging?

Radical Love in Practice

• Interrogate... Pay close attention to your behaviors and your actions, in what ways are you causing harm?  
• Righteous anger... Feel the feelings, while striving  to hate the action, not the person.
• Call-in... Be brave and courageous, as you call-in family and friends around harmful behaviors that should be called-out.
• Speak truth to power... Name your truth and amplify the needs of others
• Act... consider your spheres of influence and use your privilege and power to act: vote, protest, lobby for policies, or engage in financial activism.
• Accountability and responsibility... Consequences, accountability and responsibility are all necessary aspects of radical love.

Radical Love in Practice: