The UMBC ACM Student Chapter Committee invites CSEE students, faculty and staff to its sixth annual Welcome Back Picnic. For more information, contact ua20019 at umbc.edu.

Hi All,

To the old timers, welcome back to UMBC! Hope you guys had a great summer! To all the new ones, welcome to UMBC! specifically to CSEE!

Before the semester takes its toll, we @ ACM Student Chapter and CSEE department, would like to invite you to our welcome back picnic (= free food).

It’s a opportunity to socialize with everyone and for the faculty and students to meet each other.

What: Sixth annual CSEE Welcome Back Picnic
Who: Limited to CSEE faculty, staff and students
Date: Wednesday, September 9th, 2015
Time: 1:00pm to 2:30pm
Location: University Center, Room 312

So get ready to dig into some good food and conversations. Have an amazing year ahead! Welcome once again,

UMBC ACM Student Chapter Committee and CSEE department

Programming Robotic Agents: A Multi-tasking Teleo-Reactive Approach

Keith Clark, Imperial College London
University of Queensland, University New South Wales
joint work with Peter Robinson, University of Queensland

2:00pm Friday, 2 October 2015, ITE325b

We present a multi-threaded/multi-tasking message communicating robotic agent architecture in which the concurrently executing tasks are programmed in TeleoR, a major extension of Nilsson’s Teleo-Reactive Procedures (TR) guard ~> action rule language for robotic agents.

The rule guards query rapidly changing percept facts, and more slowly changing told and remembered facts, using fixed facts, relation and function rules (the agent’s knowledge) in the agent’s deductive BeliefStore. Its operational semantics makes the languages well suited to robot/robot or human/robot co-operative tasks.

TeleoR extends TR in:

• being typed and higher order,
• having a typed higher order LP/FP language, QuLog, for encoding BeliefStore knowledge,
• having extra forms of rules and actions, and o having task atomic procedures to control the deadlock and starvation free sharing of several robotic resources by concurrently executing tasks.

Its use is illustrated in the video at http://bit.ly/teleor. It is being used at UNSW to write the control program for a two armed Baxter robot working in co-operation with a person concurrently engaged in several assembly tasks.

Keith Clark is Emeritus Professor of Computer Science at Imperial College London, England and a Visiting Professor at the University of Queensland and the University New South Wales. He has lectured in both mathematics and computer science.

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Upcoming talks and directions

Used with permission by Nature Publishing Group

CSEE chair Anupam Joshi was interviewed and quoted in a news article What could derail the wearables revolution that appears in the current issue of Nature (v525n7567). The piece discusses on two issues caused by the rapid uptake of wearable technology: “finding improved ways to transmit data to and from wearables, and keeping all that information safe.”

The article described research on FaceBlock, a prototype application developed in UMBC’s Ebiquity Lab that can enhance personal privacy in environments with wearable devices like Google Glass.

“It’s a cliché that whenever there’s a new technology we start talking about Huxley and A Brave New World, but with wearables — and what’s loosely termed the Internet of Things — we truly are entering into a new era, and we have to start thinking of these issues,” says Anupam Joshi, head of the Center for Cybersecurity at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County.
…
In another high-profile incident, the introduction of Google Glass headsets two years ago triggered concerns that users would capture images of passers-by without their knowledge. Researchers at the Center for Cybersecurity took this opportunity to apply their work on computer codes that enforce privacy policies. They built the wryly named FaceBlock app, which blocks out the faces of people who have requested privacy from photographs taken by Google Glass. But for this to work, a Google Glass owner would have to opt in by installing the app. So the only way for such a system to reliably provide privacy would be for manufacturers to make it standard and implement it with dedicated hardware, says Joshi. “Let’s say that Google was to build in a feature like this into every Google Glass so that it would automatically obey these kinds of commands — then it would work.”

More information on the FaceBlock prototype and related UMBC research on privacy for wearable technology can be found in these papers.

• Roberto Yus, Primal Pappachan, Prajit Kumar Das, Eduardo Mena, Anupam Joshi and Tim Finin, FaceBlock: Privacy-Aware Pictures for Google Glass, 12th Int. Conf. on Mobile Systems, Applications, and Services, (demonstation paper), ACM, June 2014.
• Primal Pappachan, Roberto Yus, Prajit Kumar Das, Tim Finin, Eduardo Mena, and Anupam Joshi, A Semantic Context-Aware Privacy Model for FaceBlock, Workshop on Society, Privacy and the Semantic Web – Policy and Technology, held at Int. Semantic Web Conf., Oct. 2014.
• Roberto Yus, Primal Pappachan, Prajit Das, Tim Finin, Anupam Joshi and Eduardo Mena, Semantics for Privacy and Shared Context, Workshop on Society, Privacy and the Semantic Web-Policy and Technology, held at Int. Semantic Web Conf., Oct. 2014.
• Prajit Kumar Das, Tim Finin and Anupam Joshi, Energy efficient sensing for managing privacy on smartphones, Workshop on Society, Privacy and the Semantic Web – Policy and Technology, held at 2013 Int. Semantic Web Conf., Oct. 2013.
• Dibyajyoti Ghosh, Anupam Joshi, Tim Finin, and Pramod Jagtap, Privacy control in smart phones using semantically rich reasoning and context modeling, IEEE Workshop on Semantic Computing and Security, pp. 82-85, May 2012

Savannah is the Career Center's #UMBCintern Twitter contest winner!

Name: Savannah Steinly

Internship, Co-op or Research Site: Doris Duke Conservation Scholars Program

Position Title: Conservation Scholar

Major(s)/Minor(s): Chemical Engineering on the Environmental Track

Expected Graduation Year: 2018

Briefly describe your internship, co-op,  or research opportunity, including your day-to-day tasks, responsibilities, and assignments.

I participated in a multi-year program that emphasizes learning about conservation, social and environmental justice, and how to diversify the current conservation movement. The first year is structured as a course that entails exploring Washington state and coming face to face with conservation issues across a variety of landscapes and communities. We connected themes including food, water, biodiversity, and climate to culture and the PPIA model (power, privilege, identity and agency). In the process, I hiked up mountains, trekked through deserts and forests, and toured cities while reflecting, discussing, and learning how to become an environmental change-agent.  

Describe the process of obtaining your internship, research, or co-op opportunity.

I am drawn to adventure, travel, and learning new things, so I began searching for summer internship opportunities over winter break that would allow me to do so. As a freshman, I initially struggled to find opportunities that I was interested in and also had the qualifications for. Amidst this search, I received an email from the Undergraduate Research group on myUMBC outlining the Doris Duke Conservation Scholars program. The description immediately piqued my interest, and I began my application right away. While the process was somewhat lengthy (it required responses to six essay questions, a few letters of recommendation, a resume, and various other components) the effort was well worth it!

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

Of course, I’ve loved the variability of the program and the beautiful, eye opening sites that I’ve been privileged to travel to. The program would switch gears every week or so, and we would always experience something totally new. I encountered many different “firsts;” my first time traveling to the west coast, running through a desert (and spotting a coyote and a rattlesnake on the same day!), standing on a glacier, camping, spending the night in a Native American reservation and taking part in tribal traditions, and so much more. However, I’ve also greatly valued getting to know an amazing group of scholars from different backgrounds around and outside of the country. I found that I learned nearly as much from listening to them as I did from the program itself. 

How do you believe you have made an impact through your work?

I want to believe that I’ve made an impact during the span of the program. I think that  in terms of performing small-scale environmental remediation work and day-to-day interactions with others, I have. However, I’ve found that the main objective of the first year is to discover how to make the largest positive impact as a conservation professional, and how to make these efforts as effective and inclusive as possible. I am still searching for where I fit into the growing environmental conservation movement and how I can apply my current goal of becoming an environmental engineer or doing related work. Next year, I will make a more direct impact by undergoing the second part of this program, which involves interning for a department or organization around Seattle and undergoing a conservation research project. 

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

Although it may sound cliche, don’t be discouraged by the lengthiness of the application processes, and don’t count yourself out. While applying for this internships, I recognized that the odds of acceptance were not particularly high. However, someone has to get accepted, so I thought, why not me? I also think it is important to show those reviewing the application that you are very interested in and passionate about the purpose of the position you are applying for. I think that my passion for environmental conservation and the way I portrayed that through writing was a notable factor in my acceptance. 

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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!

Attention Juniors and Seniors with a 3.3 GPA or above.  Hershey is interested in hiring UMBC students at the junior or senior level for the following position:  Intern, Advanced Capabilities (Global Knowledge and Insights) (51966)

This position will begin in September/ October 2015 and run through May 2016 with the potential to continue through the summer

The selected candidates will work at Hershey's on-campus office at UMBC in Baltimore.

Apply HERE:

https://career4.successfactors.com/career?career_ns=job_listing&company=Hersheys&navBarLevel=JOB_SEARCH&rcm_site_locale=en_US&site=VjItZy84VGQ5U1B5c09CRGlJeTlzUHdlZz09&career_job_req_id=51966&selected_lang=en_US&jobAlertController_jobAlertId=&jobAlertController_jobAlertName=&_s.crb=OlZCb9pbOxqJzWYkaAwxBBvmODk%3d

Summary:

This role is part of a global analytics organization that discovers insights to benefit consumers, shoppers and retailers. You’ll be a part of a team that goes beyond basic analysis, exploring traditional and non-traditional data sets while leveraging new and innovative technologies.

Responsibilities:

You will help conduct extensive analyses on multiple, disparate data sources and, in the process, develop a deep understanding of the retail and consumer package good landscape. On this team, you’ll strengthen your analytical abilities, leadership, and communication skills, while gaining exposure to a wide variety of departments within Hershey.

Qualifications:

• A current undergraduate junior or senior with a 3.3 cumulative GPA or higher
• Candidates should be pursuing an undergraduate degree with a quantitative background (e.g. engineering, psychology, computer science, mathematics or economics)
• Strong degree of analytical acumen
• Ability to solve problems, think critically, and communicate clearly
• Ability to work independently and as part of a team
• Demonstrated leadership and academic achievement in student and extracurricular activities
• Previous internship experience is a plus
• Must be proficient in Microsoft applications

The Hershey Company is an Equal Opportunity Employer. The policy of The Hershey Company is to extend opportunities to qualified applicants and employees on an equal basis regardless of an individual's race, color, gender, age, national origin, religion, citizenship status, marital status, sexual orientation, gender identity, transgender status, physical or mental disability, protected veteran status, genetic information, pregnancy, or any other categories protected by applicable federal, state or local laws.

The Hershey Company is an Equal Opportunity Employer - Minority/Female/Disabled/Protected Veterans

September 9, 2015

Commons Room 329

12-1pm

There will be a light lunch served