Description (.pdf)

The Department of Chemical, Biochemical, and Environmental Engineering (CBEE) at the University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC) seeks to fill a tenure-track position at the Assistant Professor level in the broad field of computational science and engineering, including areas such as applied machine learning, bioinformatics, computational fluid dynamics, data science, environmental informatics, environmental modeling, microbial ecology, molecular modeling, multiscale modeling, and systems biology. We are especially interested in applicants that conduct interdisciplinary research and complement the current expertise in our department and college.

Qualifications

The successful candidate is expected to build an externally-supported research program, address novel challenges in their field, teach undergraduate courses in our core chemical engineering curriculum, and work with diverse faculty, students, and staff. Candidates should hold a doctoral degree in chemical, biomedical, or environmental engineering or a related discipline. We are particularly interested in candidates that are committed to diversity and inclusiveness. Historically underrepresented minorities, women, persons with disabilities, and veterans are strongly encouraged to apply. The anticipated start date for this position is August 2020.

General Information

The CBEE department (https://cbee.umbc.edu) is a vital component of the College of Engineering and Information Technology. Current departmental research focuses on biochemical, biomedical, bioprocess, environmental, and water resources engineering. The CBEE faculty maintains diverse, active, and successful research programs amounting to over $5 million in external research support in FY2018. Our faculty are also active participants and leaders of interdisciplinary research centers, including the Center for Advanced Sensor Technologies and the Center for Urban Environmental Research and Education. CBEE faculty members regularly collaborate with researchers from nearby institutions and federal agencies. In addition to departmental space and facilities, the recently opened Interdisciplinary Life Sciences Building provides 123,000 square feet of flexible research and education spaces that incorporate modern biochemical, cellular, and molecular research facilities and support interdisciplinary research and teaching in the life sciences. The CBEE department actively promotes mentorship opportunities for new faculty members through the Faculty Development Center, which supports the development of effective teaching methods, and the Advance Program, which supports the advancement of women at all faculty ranks.

UMBC is a public research university with approximately 14,000 students. The department has approximately 300 undergraduate and 40 graduate students, 13 tenure-track faculty, and three full-time lecturers. At the undergraduate level, the department provides tracks in three areas: traditional Chemical Engineering; Biotechnology/Bioengineering; and Environmental Engineering and Sustainability. All three tracks lead to the B.S. degree in Chemical Engineering. At the graduate level, the department offers M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in (1) Chemical and Biochemical Engineering and (2) Environmental Engineering. Our students participate in the Meyerhoff Scholars Program, the Meyerhoff Graduate Fellows Program, and the Center for Women in Technology, which have achieved national renown for inclusive excellence through the successful training of underrepresented students for careers in academia and industry.

The UMBC High Performance Computing Facility is an interdisciplinary core facility that has been continually upgraded with support from the National Science Foundation. The facility is configured with nearly 200 compute nodes across cpu and gpu units and has over 750 TB storage. Current informatics initiatives at UMBC include cybersecurity and artificial intelligence partnerships with the University of Maryland Baltimore Institute for Clinical and Translational Research and the IBM-funded Accelerated Cognitive Cybersecurity Laboratory. The successful applicant will have opportunities to collaborate with faculty from UMBC’s top-ranked programs in computer science and information systems.

The UMBC campus is located on 500 acres in the Baltimore-Washington corridor. Our proximity and easy access to a wide variety of research facilities provide numerous opportunities for collaborative interdisciplinary research. For example, we are within a short drive to many federal facilities, including the Department of Defense, Environmental Protection Agency, Food and Drug Administration, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, National Institutes of Health, National Institute of Standards and Technology, NOAA, NSF, US Geological Survey, and the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center. The bwtech@UMBC Research and Technology Park, a 71-acre community housing over 110 companies engaged in research, entrepreneurship, and economic development is located on the UMBC campus. BWI Thurgood Marshall Airport and local/regional train stations are a five-minute drive from campus.

Application instructions

Electronic submission of applications containing a cover letter, curriculum vitae, statements of research and teaching interests, a statement of commitment to diversity and inclusiveness, and contact information for at least three references is required at http://apply.interfolio.com/70040. Review of applications will begin on Nov. 1, 2019 and will continue until the position is filled. For questions related to this position, please email CBEE-search2019@umbc.edu and be sure to include the position of interest (Assistant Professor) in the subject line.

UMBC is an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employer. Minorities, women, veterans, and individuals with disabilities are encouraged to apply.

On October 29 and 30 the National Science and Technology Medals Foundation will host Science Unscripted: Conversations with AI Experts, two early evening events at UMBC from 5:00 to 8:00pm that bring together AI experts to discuss how AI will impact our lives. The events will be held in the Fine Arts Recital Hall with doors open at 5:00 prior to the 5:30 start and will conclude with a reception starting at 7:00pm with food and drinks. Both events are free, but registration is requested.

These events are a part of the NSTMF’s Science Unscripted program. Through the SU program, the Foundation is building an inclusive coalition of inspired STEM students. By highlighting voices often left unheard in the STEM community, we show audiences that there is no “right” way to be a trailblazer in science and technology. Each evening, attendees will have the chance to hear about the lives and experiences of the women and men dedicated to creating smart, socially conscious AI.

Tuesday, Oct. 29: Code-ifying AI is a a discussion about AI policy. A panel including UMBC Professor Cynthia Matuszek, Dr. José-Marie Griffiths and moderated by Rosario Robinson will examine what it will take to govern AI as well as the implications of incorporating AI into our everyday lives. Register on Eventbright.

Wednesday, Oct. 30: Decoding Bias in AI is a panel discussion about implicit bias and how we can create more socially conscious AI with UMBC Professor James Foulds, Loretta Cheeks, Emmanuel Johnson and moderator Deborah Kariuki. Implicit bias remains one of the most prevalent concerns about incorporating AI into the mainstream, and our panel is poised to deliberate the ethics and possible solutions to this issue. Register on Eventbright.

The events will be webcast live with closed-captions on Facebook, and the full event videos will be available on our YouTube channel afterward. Webcast audiences are encouraged to participate in the conversation using #ScienceUnscripted on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

Both events are no-cost, equal access (ADA compliant), and open to the public. Save your seat on Eventbrite for day one at Code-ifying AI and for day two at Decoding Bias in AI.

The post Science Unscripted: Conversations with AI Experts, 5-8:00pm 29&30 Oct 2019, UMBC appeared first on Department of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering.

Content warning for sexual assault.

Morgan is a senior here at UMBC pursuing a BA in Media and Communications major with minors in English and Cinematic Arts. If she’s not working at the Women’s Center you can find her watching Ghost Shark (2013) with her friends. 

You know who Brock Turner is. 

In January 2015, Turner sexually assaulted “Emily Doe.”. His face was splattered everywhere in the media. Sometimes it was his mugshot and other times it was the shining photo of him competing on Stanford’s swimming team. He’s a rapist but look, he’s an athlete! One year later, in 2016, you knew his face and you knew his name. Prosecutors recommended six years. He was sentenced to six months. He served ninety days. In a letter to the judge, his father stated that legal repercussions were a “steep price to pay for 20 minutes of action out of his 20 plus years of life.” 

We were all forced to reckon with the reality that for many victims of sexual assault they get no real sense of justice, in court or otherwise. Emily Doe was a blank space and Brock Turner’s narrative was the one that filled it.

That was until Chanel Miller revealed herself to be the “Emily Doe” in the case of Turner vs. the People. Now, the case takes on a different face. Not only is Chanel Miller a survivor of sexual assault, but she is a woman of color, white and Chinese-American. I, along with countless others, had assumed she was white. It immediately became clear why there had only been a six-month sentence, why the judge was so quick to discredit her, and why her facelessness resonated so deeply. Chanel Miller, like many before her, was another woman of color who knew all too well the intersections of white supremacy, rape culture, and violence against women of color.

Her pain feels familiar in too many ways. Miller was violated in the same way that white men historically and continually perpetuate violence (especially sexual violence) against women of color over and over again. Take for instance, the expected sexual violence against black women by their white slave owners. This was normalized so much so that raping a black woman was not a crime for much of history. How can you violate your own property? Or the comfort women of Eastern Asia–women and girls forced into sex slavery by the Japanese Army around World War II. Women from China, Korea, the Philippines, and many other areas were objectified by the Japanese who believed themselves to be a superior people. For the Imperial Japanese Army, it was not just about sex; rather, it was about power and domination.

Rape is never about pleasure. It’s about power. Chanel Miller was incapacitated beyond the point of consent and Brock Turner knew that — despite what his testimony might tell you. He saw an opportunity to exercise his power as a white man and he took it, leaving lasting harm on a woman of color he doesn’t know. 

In the aftermath of rape and sexual assault, his mugshot was in every headline and on every news report. Chanel Miller, in identity and aftermath, remanded faceless left with her perpetrator serving three months in jail with a six-month sentence from a judge who was later was recalled partly due to the public’s accusations of the negligence in the People v. Turner case.

In court, Chanel read a particularly powerful impact statement that went viral. I read the whole thing in one breathless sitting when it was first published. I remember my heart beating out of the chest as I read and read through Chanel’s (then “Emily Doe’s”) words to Brock Turner. “I am no stranger to suffering.”

She continues, “[Turner] made me a victim. In newspapers, my name was ‘unconscious intoxicated woman’, ten syllables, and nothing more than that. For a while, I believed that that was all I was. I had to force myself to relearn my real name, my identity. To relearn that this is not all that I am.”

Her words rang in my head and resonated with me. In leading Take Back the Night the past two years, sharing my own survivorship, and hearing the stories  of other women of color that sense of erasure feels reclaimed in a way.

It’s not about the Brock Turners anymore and their faces and all their harm. 

This is a list of questions Miller was asked at Turner’s trial. Read through them. Every single one. 

How old are you? How much do you weigh? What did you eat that day? Well what did you have for dinner? Who made dinner? Did you drink with dinner? No, not even water? When did you drink? How much did you drink? What container did you drink out of? Who gave you the drink? How much do you usually drink? Who dropped you off at this party? At what time? But where exactly? What were you wearing? Why were you going to this party? What’ d you do when you got there? Are you sure you did that? But what time did you do that? What does this text mean? Who were you texting? When did you urinate? Where did you urinate? With whom did you urinate outside? Was your phone on silent when your sister called? Do you remember silencing it? Really because on page 53 I’d like to point out that you said it was set to ring. Did you drink in college? You said you were a party animal? How many times did you black out? Did you party at frats? Are you serious with your boyfriend? Are you sexually active with him? When did you start dating? Would you ever cheat? Do you have a history of cheating? What do you mean when you said you wanted to reward him? Do you remember what time you woke up? Were you wearing your cardigan? What color was your cardigan? Do you remember any more from that night? No? 

Okay, well, we’ll let Brock fill it in.

Sources:

https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/katiejmbaker/heres-the-powerful-letter-the-stanford-victim-read-to-her-ra

https://eji.org/history-racial-injustice-sexual-exploitation-black-women

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/dear-christine-blasey-ford-i-too-was-sexually-assaulted–and-its-seared-into-my-memory-forever/2018/10/03/2449ed3c-c68a-11e8-9b1c-a90f1daae309_story.html

https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/books/2019/09/24/chanel-miller-brock-turner-rape-emily-doe-book-review/2073117001/

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/24/opinion/chanel-miller-know-my-name.html

https://digitalcommons.law.umaryland.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1324&context=rrgc

I hope you are having a great start of your semester! I graduated from UMBC (GO RETRIEVERS!) in December of 2017 with a BS in Mechanical Engineering and I am currently working in the Architectural Engineering field. I am also actively involved with The American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) and our local chapter in Baltimore, serving as a co-chair of the Student Activities Committee. My co-chair Rob and I would like to offer an informational session to give an overview of the HVAC industry, discuss support for design projects, and scholarship opportunities.  Below is a link to our webpage for more information on our college scholarship opportunities where you can download the application. The deadline to apply is December 31, 2019, and the award will be granted during the Spring semester.

Scholarship Opportunities:   https://ashrae-balto.org/scholarship

Student Activities Committee:  https://ashrae-balto.org/Student_Activities

Website for JMT https://jmt.com/#s1

*Message is from Simona Tsvetkova 

Information security firms, LogRhythm and Jazz Networks, in conjunction with ISSA Central Maryland are hosting an event at the National Electronic Museum (1745 W Nursery Rd, Linthicum Heights, MD 21090) to celebrate National Cybersecurity Month with two speaking series and private tours of the Electronic Museum. 

This event will take place on Wednesday October 16th at 5 pm. Registration is required. See description below for more details on the guest speakers and the topics they will be presenting.

Please Note:

• Deadline to register is October 14th at 5 PM via EventBrite link below:

• https://www.eventbrite.com/e/issa-central-md-meeting-october-16th-tickets-71162128843?ref=elink

• Guest tickets: No charge for guests for this meeting

Presentation One Brought to You by LogRhythm

Topic: Security Operations Maturity Model (SOMM)

SOMM explores how to assess and evolve the principle programs of the security operations center (SOC): threat monitoring, threat hunting, threat investigation, and incident response. LogRhythm developed the Threat Lifecycle Management (TLM) framework to help organizations ideally align technology, people, and process in support of these programs. The TLM framework defines the critical security operations technological capabilities and workflow processes that are vital to realize an efficient and effective SOC. LogRhythm’s SOMM helps organizations measure the effectiveness of their security operations, and to mature their security operations capabilities. Using our TLM framework, the SOMM provides a practical guide for organizations that wish to optimally reduce their mean time to detect (MTTD) and mean time to respond (MTTR) — thereby dramatically improving their resilience to cyberthreats.

Speaker: Darren Cathey, Sr. Systems Engineer, LogRhythm

Darren Cathey has several decades of experience in programming, operating systems, and applications security. His multi-functional experience in engineering, marketing and sales lends itself well to supporting both SMB and Enterprise customers in the Mid-Atlantic territory as a Sr. Systems Engineer. Past experience includes positions with HP, Wind River Systems, Arxan, Vormetric and Varonis.

Presentation Two Brought to You by Jazz Networks

Topic: Taking a holistic approach to an insider threat program

This presentation will provide insider threat mitigation strategies for every phase of the employment life cycle, including pre-employment screening; ongoing insider threat and security training; leveraging tools like Jazz Networks for user activity monitoring, and finally what to watch out for when an employee is leaving the organization. We will share anecdotes from public and private sector service experience, highlighting vulnerable areas of the employee life cycle where an insider can become an active threat. We will also provide a brief demonstration of the Jazz Networks insider threat and detection platform.

Speaker: Charles Finfrock, Senior Threat Investigator, Tesla

Charles Finfrock is a Senior Threat Investigator in Tesla’s Security Intelligence Department, the team responsible for protecting Tesla’s Intellectual Property and confidential business information from internal and external threats. Prior to joining Tesla, Charles spent 18 years as an operations officer in the Central Intelligence Agency. Charles is also the head of Insider Threat at the Washington DC based, Cyber Intelligent Partners, a training and education company focused on helping companies develop programs to counter cyber threats, regional threats, and insider threats.

Speaker: Alex Price, Account Executive for Jazz Networks.

At Jazz Networks, Alex focuses on educating organizations on the risks associated with insider threat, helps them deploy solutions which will increase visibility and control, and finally, works on operationalizing insider threat programs so that the entire organization helps form a human perimeter

Name: Rusif Eyvazli

Internship, Co-op or Research Site: Food and Drug Administration

Position Title: Student Trainee (Administrative Support)

Major(s)/Minor(s): Computer Science, Mathematics Minor

Current Class Level: Junior

Work Term: Summer 2019

Tell us about your internship, co-op, or research opportunity, including your day-to-day responsibilities.

This summer, I started my internship with the Pathways Program at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which is an administration that is responsible for protecting public health. It is still an ongoing opportunity. My day-to-day responsibilities are to make sure that my learning objectives are met by completing the given tasks by my mentors. Those tasks include scaling applications that are written in Java and C++ on HPC clusters, understanding and analyzing the given data and creating a sample of it, and generating comprehensive performance graphs with non-trivial plots using given data on Python to analyze HPC Cluster systems that help applications run faster. 

I also have to regularly share my progress with my mentors, get feedback on projects, and update the FDA Wiki page to make it accessible for others.

Describe the process of obtaining your position. When did you hear of the position and submit your application?

I discovered this position through USAJOBS. I had previously received a lot of interview and resume training through workshops and professional development sessions. I had my resume reviewed by Jennifer Heilman from the Career Center and worked on a 30-second elevator pitch with her as well. 

What have you enjoyed the most about your position or organization? 

I have enjoyed being able to learn more about the computer science industry and develop new skills throughout my day-to-day work. I have also enjoyed meeting people who have helped me foster these skills and be successful throughout the internship. 

What advice would you give to another student who is seeking an internship or similar experience? 

I would advise students seeking employment to network! Be sure to make those connections and gain knowledge by communicating with other people. Sometimes the best way to get a foot in the door is to sneak in with someone else. Also, the Career Center is a great tool to help jump start your career, so take advantage of those resources!

Like the Career Center on Facebook

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Want to be the next Intern of the Week? Make sure to fill out this form and stay tuned. New interns are announced every Friday!

Connect with Rusif:

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rusifeyvazli

Personal Website: https://eyvazlirusif.wixsite.com/portfolio

Instagram: @rusif.e99