The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is pleased to announce the availability of scholarships for undergraduate students majoring in disciplines related to oceanic and atmospheric science, research, or technology, and supportive of the purposes of NOAA’s programs and mission. Over 100 students are selected each year for participation in the Ernest F. Hollings (Hollings) and Educational Partnership Program (EPP) scholarship programs. These scholarships include support for two years of undergraduate study and summer internship opportunities at NOAAfacilities across the country.

For information on program benefits and how to apply, visit our web sites:

· Educational Partnership Program Undergraduate Scholarship: www.noaa.gov/eppscholarship

o   Application Deadline:  January 31, 2018

· Ernest F. Hollings Undergraduate Scholarship: www.noaa.gov/hollings

o   Application Deadline: January 31, 2018

Eligibility Requirements:

· US Citizen

· 3.0 GPA (Hollings) or 3.2 GPA (EPP)

· Full-time second year student at an accredited four-year undergraduate program or third year student at a five-year undergraduate program

· Majoring in NOAA mission disciplines, including but not limited to: atmospheric science, biology, cartography, chemistry, computer science, education, engineering, environmental science, geodesy, geography, marine science, mathematics, meteorology, oceanography, physical science, photogrammetry, physics, etc.

· Enrolled at a Minority Serving Institution (EPP Scholarship only)

For further information, contact the Office of Education Scholarship Programs at: StudentScholarshipPrograms@noaa.gov or (301) 628-2913.

The National Science Foundation recently awarded UMBC a Major Research Instrumentation (MRI) award totaling more than $550,000 to expand the university’s High Performance Computing Facility (HPCF). The funding will go toward upgraded hardware and increased computing speeds for the interdisciplinary core facility, which supports scientific computing and other complex, data-intensive research across disciplines, university-wide. As part of the NSF grant, UMBC is required to contribute 30 percent of the amount that NSF is providing to further support the project, meaning a total new investment of more than $780,000 in UMBC’s High Performance Community Facility.

Meilin Yu, assistant professor of mechanical engineering, is the principal investigator on the grant. He replaced Matthias Gobbert, professor of mathematics, who served as principal investigator on previous grants for the core facility in 2008, 2012 and 2017 on behalf of the 51 faculty investigators from academic departments and research centers across all three colleges.

Matthias Gobbert, left, and Meilin Yu in UMBC’s High Performance Computing Facility. Photo courtesy of Meilin Yu.“The MRI grant will allow us to upgrade the UMBC HPCF with state-of-the-art computing nodes and networks,” explains Yu. “It will boost sustained growth in research and education relating to computational science and engineering, including but not limited to, high performance computing, cybersecurity and big data, atmospheric physics, environmental science and engineering, and life sciences.”

Through the facility, researchers can run simulations with a range of applications, including industrial designs and weather prediction. UMBC faculty will utilize the upgraded system to complete simulations and modeling tasks significantly faster than the current system allows, explain Yu and Gobbert. The updated technology includes accelerated graphics processing units that, in addition to speeding up calculations, will “improve the quality of digital visualization,” says Yu.

The HPCF governance committee is working with UMBC’s Division of Information Technology to purchase and implement the upgraded hardware, including central processing units, which completes computing tasks, graphics processing units, which manages the visual displays on computers, and cores. “We hope to have at least 72 nodes in service to the UMBC community by spring 2018, with 16 core Central Processing Units, Graphics Processing Units suitable for integer/single-precision and double-precision arithmetic, and cutting-edge many-core Intel Xeon Phi KNL processors with 68 cores,” Gobbert explains, adding that by increasing the number of nodes, UMBC’s HPCF is worth more than $2 million.

UMBC faculty are able to use the facility for their research at no charge, and they receive technical support from graduate assistants as well as staff in UMBC’s Division of Information Technology. The upgraded facility will support projects from researchers in more than a dozen academic departments across all three colleges at UMBC. Gobbert shares that he expects this community of scholars will expand further as the core facility continues to grow. “I am most proud of the fact that such a large number of faculty total put their trust in me to lead the writing and management of this proposal,” he said. “Our success at the NSF validates that the strong interdisciplinary cooperation of many researchers from across the campus is valued there.”

The HPCF was established in 2008 in response to a university-wide need for technology to support high-performance computing. The initial system had 35 nodes, and was funded by UMBC’s Division of Information Technology, the Office of the Vice President for Research and faculty contributions. Over the past nine years, the HCPF has grown to include over 300 nodes, and has been used by more than 400 researchers and students for their work. The facility has led to more than 250 publications, including 100 in peer-reviewed journals, in addition to 30 theses. The recent funding will support the expansion of the facility to include 84 nodes, which individually communicate with each other, and cutting-edge processors. The oldest portion of the HPCF will be replaced with with more powerful nodes.

The original story can be found here: http://news.umbc.edu/umbc-upgrades-high-performance-computing-facility-through-new-nsf-grant-expanding-possibilities-for-data-intensive-research/

Richard is an American Studies major who will graduate this May. Over the summer, he worked with Dr. Simone Chambers, Dr. Michael Tesler, and Dr. Davin Phoenix at the University of California, Irvine, Political Science Department, during the Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Program of the UCI Graduate Division. His research focuses on the intersections of culture and politics and the effects of political rhetoric on voting patterns and election outcomes.

How did you know this was the project you wanted to do? I had worked on the origins of this project the previous summer, but I learned from these professors and incorporated new statistical insights. In this study, a cultural and linguistic approach was used to analyze the effect that speeches by members of the right-wing Tea Party Caucus have had on conservative political discourse. The rhetoric of these politicians after their ascendance in the 2010 congressional elections was compared to the rhetoric used by John McCain, the Republican nominee in 2008, and Donald Trump, the Republican nominee in 2016, to understand their effect on conservative discourse. This shift in discourse was studied using speech analysis to code for instances of negative discourse and establish a comparison between the election years while also noting rhetorical shifts among mainstream conservative politicians.

How much time do you put into it? I worked on this project for at least 10 hours each week this past summer, but I also worked on it during last summer at UMBC as a McNair Scholar in their Summer Research Institute, and during the winter semester. I received credit through the Career Center’s internship practicum (PRAC).

How did you hear about the Undergraduate Research Award (URA) program? I have worked with Dr. Householder in the past, when she advised me as a McNair Scholar, and my mentor on my previous project was Dr. Kathy Bryan (American Studies). Both have been very supportive of my research, and encouraged me to continue working on this topic through the UCI program.

How much did your mentor help you with the application? My mentors assisted me greatly in developing a strong application. They are a key part of the process.

What has been the hardest part about your research? The hardest thing was finding speech transcripts for some of the Tea Party congressmen and women.

What was the most unexpected thing? I didn’t think the increase in harmful discourse usage by Republicans would be that stark, but I found a fivefold increase from 2008 to 2016.

How does your research relate to your work in other classes? I have done rhetorical analyses in multiple American Studies and Political Science classes. This project is a continuation of the research I did last year entitled, “It’s Just A Jump To The Right: How The Tea Party Has Affected Conservative Discourse.” (abstract available here: https://ur.umbc.edu/home/our-researchers/research-profiles-16-17/richard-elliott/)

What else are you involved in on campus? I am currently the President of UMBC Progressives and I assist the College Dems as well.

What is your advice to other students about getting involved in research? Don’t be afraid to follow up. Don’t be afraid to email professors twice. Use all your leads to try and get the best opportunities you can.

What are your career goals? I would like to be an academic/issue advocate in the Baltimore area.

Have Mentor-led research and want to be featured as a Researcher of the Week?  Email aprilh@umbc.edu.

Learn more about how to fund your research and become a URA scholar: https://ur.umbc.edu/ura/

The fifth annual Critical Social Justice explored opportunities for building individual and collective resistance and resilience. Events throughout the week, the theme of Rise, challenged us to think about how we can do better, do more, and persist in doing it when it comes to working towards positive social change and activism. Take a look back at some of highlights from throughout the week and catch up on anything you missed!

Leading up to the week, we were SUPER PUMPED for Critical Social Justice to get started – and so was the rest of UMBC!

You can see many of the other “I rise for…”

We kicked of CSJ on Monday with Chalking for Change on Academic Row before CSJ 101.

While people were writing what they rise for outside, CSJ 101 was taking place directly inside where students, faculty, and staff were encouraged to learn about Resistance and Resilience in social change and activism.

Those who attending brainstormed what they resisted for and how they can practice resilience.

Tuesday brought our keynote speaker, Dr. Adrienne Keene of the Cherokee nation to UMBC!

Her first stop was the Women’s Center for an intimate lunch and discussion with students and staff.

After lunch, Dr. Keene presented a workshop entitled, Responding to Campus Racism,  that covered her work with racism and cultural appropriation. Using a case study of a themed party that relied on harmful stereotypes of Native Americans, Dr. Keene encouraged students to think about how they would respond to the incident from an individual and institutional perspective. Through brainstorming, students learned from each other about campus resources and departments that could be helpful in responding to the issue, in addition to working on ways to prevent an incident like this happening in the future at UMBC.

Later that night Dr. Keene gave her keynote presentation entitled, “Native Appropriations, Indigenous Social Media, and Responding to Racism,” to a standing-room only crowd in the UC Ballroom.

To conclude her presentation and with Halloween quickly approaching, Dr. Keene gave us all some homework to help reduce cultural appropriation through the call to “don’t dress as (or let your friends dress as)  an “Indian” for Halloween.”

On Wednesday, faculty and staff participated in a panel and discussion called “Rising Tensions and Teachable Moments” that explores the ways in which faculty and staff could talk about hard issues both in and outside the classroom with not only students but their colleagues.

Later that evening, the Mosaic Center hosted “Rising in Times of International Tragedies: The Impact of Oppressive Symbols,” which was a panel of faculty and staff centering European, Jewish and African-American voices discussing their shared, intersectional perspectives connected to historically oppressive symbols.

Panel members from the Rising in Times of International Tragedies: The Impact of Oppressive Symbols event. 

Although the threat of rain meant the Monument Quilt Display was cancelled on Thursday, the Women’s Center still hosted two workshops surrounding sexual violence and support for survivors. During the quilt making workshop, participants spent time talking about the #metoo movement and how the online activism and story telling surrounding the hashtag showed up for them in their own lives.

Friday concluded CSJ with the Baltimore Walking Tour led, for the third year in a row, by Dr. Kate Drabinski from Gender + Women’s Studies.

Thanks again to all our partners and everyone who attended CSJ last week – You all made the fifth year of Critical Social Justice: Rise possible! We’re excited for next year, but let’s be sure to keep the momentum going. Critical Social Justice isn’t just a week but a year long commitment!

So to keep that momentum going:

• Follow the Women’s Center and Mosaic Center via myUMBC and our social media accounts to stay up-to-date about all of our social justice programming throughout the year. The Women’s Center is on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.
• A great round-up of diversity and inclusion resources can also be found at UMBC’s Diversity and Inclusion website and the Race, Equity, Inclusion, and Justice myUMBC page.
• Tell us what you think! Participate in the CSJ: Rise survey. Your feedback is important to us.

The HHS Office of Inspector General is recruiting for the 2018 Summer Internship program.  You can help us with our efforts to reach a diverse applicant pool by sharing this information with others across your respective networks who might be interested in applying.  Thank you.

Who May Apply:  Current students enrolled or accepted for enrollment in an accredited college (including 4-year colleges/universities, community colleges, and junior colleges); professional, technical, vocational, and trade school; advanced degree programs; or other qualifying educational institution pursuing a qualifying degree or certificate.

Appointment Type:  These are excepted service appointments under the OIG Internship Program.  The Internship will begin May 2018 and is not to exceed September 30, 2018.  These appointments do not allow for non-competitive conversion to a term or permanent appointment in the federal service.

To view a complete list of current OIG vacancies on the USAJOBS web site, please click View All Opportunities.

Note:  All required documentation must be received by the closing date of the announcement.  This includes, for example, SF-50s (Notice of Personnel Action), veterans' preference documentation (DD-214), CTAP or ICTAP documentation, and transcripts if applicable and as specified in the vacancy announcement.  All applicants, internal or external, are held to the same standard, so if an applicant is missing documentation or incorrectly answers an application question, they will be marked ineligible.  If you have any questions concerning application requirements, please contact the HR Specialist or OIG HR HelpDesk as noted on the vacancy announcement prior to the closing date of the announcement.

Questions?  Please contact:

OIG HR HelpDesk | (855) 291-2284 | hr.questions@oig.hhs.gov

Human Capital Division on the OIG intranet | http://oigportal/HCD/