What is the Preview Weekend?
The Biomedical Sciences Graduate Programs Preview Weekend is an all expenses paid visit to the University of Minnesota campus for prospective graduate students interested in one or more of the following Ph.D. programs:

• Biochemistry, Molecular Biology & Biophysics (BMBB)
• Integrative Biology & Physiology (IBP)
• Microbiology, Immunology & Cancer Biology (MICaB)
• Molecular, Cellular, Developmental Biology & Genetics (MCDB&G)
• Neuroscience (NSCI)
• Pharmacology (PHCL).

When will the Preview take place?
The campus preview weekend will be September 27th - 30th, 2012.

Who is eligible to attend?
Those who will be invited to the Preview must be US citizens or permanent residents who will be applying for entry into graduate school in Fall of 2013. The program is most interested in students enrolled at institutions outside the upper midwest who may be unfamiliar with the outstanding training environment provided by the University of Minnesota. Students from under-represented racial and ethnic groups, low-income family backgrounds, first-generation U.S. citizens, and students with disabilities are especially encouraged to apply.

What are the benefits of attending?
The Preview activities will provide opportunities for students to meet informally with the directors of graduate study, faculty and current graduate students of the six biomedical sciences doctoral programs. There will be tours of campus that will let students gain a feel for the research and laboratory environments where they would work. There will be time for the attendees to learn about the graduate programs so that they can decide which one might best meet their career goals and interests. There will also be activities to introduce you to the quality of life in the metropolitan area of Minneapolis - St. Paul. Any participants who apply to one of the biomedical sciences graduate programs will have their application fee paid. They will also be invited to participate in the admission interview weekend for the program they apply to.

What is the Cost to Attend?
All visit expenses (including travel, lodging, and on-campus meals) are provided for those who are selected to attend. Slots for talented students to preview the University of Minnesota PhD graduate programs are limited to 15 so be sure to apply early.

Application & Selection Timeframe
The online application will be available in spring 2012 and the application deadline is August 20, 2012. Applications will be reviewed as they are received. Applicants will be notified by early September if they have been selected to attend the Preview weekend.

Be the Change You Wish To See in the World!

Apply to become an AmeriCorps VISTA

with UMBC’s Service-Learning Program!

Through partnership with the Maryland-Washington, DC Campus Compact (MDCCC), the AmeriCorps VISTA position will provide leadership in the design and implementation of the Service-Learning & School-Family Connections MDCCC-VISTA project and will serve as the liaison between UMBC and its school partner.  The MDCCC-VISTA will meet with teachers and administrators to devise a plan for increasing student engagement in the Homework Club and will create surveys and assessments to ensure that data is measured on a regular basis.  The Information Workshops for parents will address the school’s commitment to provide school-family support.  The MDCCC-VISTA will meet with school administrators and parents to create a curriculum plan for the sessions that she or he will also implement and facilitate; surveys and other assessments will be created to ensure that data from sessions is assessed.  The MDCCC-VISTA will also recruit UMBC students to participate in service-learning activities that leverage the resources of the campus to meet the volunteer needs of local community programs.   

What is AmeriCorps VISTA?

• AmeriCorps VISTA is the national service program designed specifically to fight poverty. 
• VISTA members serve as full-time volunteers, organizing and implementing programs that build the capacity of organizations while making resources available to communities in need.

What are the benefits of serving as an AmeriCorps VISTA?

• The VISTA member will receive health insurance, a travel allowance (for work-related meetings and events), and a taxable living allowance of approximately $13,000 for their year of service.
• After successfully completing the service year, the VISTA will be eligible to receive either $1,200 in cash or an AmeriCorps Education Award of $5,550 that can be used toward the repayment of student loans or school tuition.  

What are the eligibility requirements to be a VISTA?

• A Bachelor’s Degree and driver’s license is required by the start of the VISTA year.
• Commitment to provide one year of full-time service (8/15/12-8/14/13).  
• Desire to work on-campus and with a local school partner to combat poverty.

How can I apply?

• Complete the enclosed Intent to Apply Form and email it to Clare Greene (clare6@umbc.edu) in the Service-Learning Program at The Shriver Center at UMBC.  Only emailed submissions will be accepted.  Eligible applicants will be contacted for an interview.
• For more information about the AmeriCorps VISTA program, visit: http://www.americorps.gov/for_individuals/choose/vista.asp.

ALL INTENT TO APPLY FORMS MUST BE EMAILED TO clare6@umbc.edu

By 5pm on Friday, April 27^th, 2012.

UMBC's Cyber Defense Team is looking for new members. This semester the team competed in the Collegiate Cyber Defense Championship. In this competition, each team defended a mock corporate network against a horde of professional hackers in a fast-paced, real-time event over the course of two days. These competitions are a great way to network with government agencies and key companies in the security industry.

The UMBC Cyber Defense Team provides a great opportunity to gain practical, hands-on experience in information security, intrusion detection, cybersecurity, and network security. The team practices both penetration and defense of isolated networks similar to real business environments. The group meets at 7:00pm on Mondays in ITE 367 and will have special events that will be announced also. No experience is required, but you should be motivated to learn about computer networks and systems security.

You can find additional information and how to join our mailing list at the UMBC Cyberdawgs website. Contact Marc Warfield (marc9 at umbc.edu) for more information.

Changing the Landscape of Voting and Voter Registration through Universal Design

Dr. Juan E. Gilbert
School of Computing
Clemson University

12:00-1:00pm Wednesday, 28 March 2012
room 459 ITE Building, UMBC

Subsequent to the debacle of the 2000 U.S. Presidential election, it became abundantly clear that America’s archaic voting system was in dire need of a major overhaul. Consequently, Direct Recording Electronic (DRE) voting machines were purchased by several states. The use of these machines has not been without controversy with respect to security, trust and ease of use. Professors and security research teams have found several vulnerabilities in current voting technologies. In 2002, the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) was created to provide all citizens equal access to participate in the electoral process, regardless of ability. The Prime III voting system, http://www.PrimeVotingSystem.com , is a secure, multimodal electronic voting system that takes a universal design approach to address security, trust and ease of use. Dr. Gilbert and his research team were recently awarded a $4.5 million dollar grant from the U.S. Election Assistance Commission to conduct research on accessible voting technologies.

Dr. Juan E. Gilbert is an IDEaS Professor and Chair of the Human-Centered Computing Division in the School of Computing at Clemson University where he leads the HCC Lab. He is also a Professor in the Automotive Engineering Department at Clemson University. Dr. Gilbert is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement Science (AAAS), an ACM Distinguished Scientist, National Associate of the National Research Council of the National Academies, an ACM Distinguished Speaker and a Senior Member of the IEEE Computer Society. In 2011, Dr. Gilbert was given a Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Engineering and Mathematics Mentoring by President Barack Obama.

Interaction with Virtual Environments

Tabitha C. Peck
Event Lab, University of Barcelona

1:00pm Tuesday 27 March 2012, ITE32bb, UMBC

Immersive virtual environments (VEs) enable user-controlled interactions within a computer-generated virtual world, such as head-controlled point-of-view, user-controlled locomotion, and user-controlled self-avatars. In this talk I will present three projects focusing on the development of VE systems through understanding human interactions within the VE. The first project presents a VE system that enables users to really walk through VEs that are larger than the tracker-space by manipulating the imprecisions of the human visual system. The remaining two projects focus on virtual embodiment. The theory of embodiment is based on the plasticity of the human mind and its ability to accept a virtual avatar’s body as its own. One theory as to why embodiment works, following the same underlying principles thought to cause the “rubber hand illusion” from cognitive psychology, is that when given appropriate visual and/or haptic stimuli, people will accept an external representation of a body part as their own. This effect has been shown to extend to full-body avatars in virtual environments. I will present one project that demonstrates, through electroencephalography (EEG), that people respond to a virtual avatar as if it is their own body, and a second project that explores harnessing the powers of embodiment to reduce racism and study other psychological issues.

My name is Tabitha C. Peck and I am a post-doctoral researcher at the Event Lab in Barcelona, Spain working with Professor Mel Slater. I received my PhD from The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill under the supervision of Professors Henry Fuchs and Mary C. Whitton. My PhD research focused on locomotion interfaces in virtual environments and enabling people to physically walk in small spaces while walking in much larger virtual spaces. I am currently working in the European project, Virtual Embodiment and Robotic Re-Embodiment (VERE), and my current research focuses on the psychological effects of embodiment in virtual environments. My research interests include immersive virtual environments, virtual embodiment, human-computer interaction, 3D user interfaces, locomotion, navigation, system design and evaluation, and human perception.

Securing Cyber-Physical Systems

Alvaro Cardenas
Fujitsu Laboratories of America

1:00pm Monday 26 March 2012, ITE 325b, UMBC

Our critical infrastructure systems are being modernized with information and communication technologies to face the operational requirements and efficiency challenges of the 21st century. The smart grid in particular, will introduce millions of new intelligent components to the electric grid, buildings, and homes within the next decade. While this modernization will bring many operational benefits to infrastructure systems, it will also introduce new vulnerabilities, a larger attack surface, and raise privacy concerns.

This presentation will be divided in three parts. The first part of the talk will cover the unique and fundamentally new challenges and solutions required for securing cyber-physical systems. The second part of the talk will focus on new mechanisms for securing cyber-physical systems. The final part of the talk will cover my other research interests in intrusion detection and future plans for big-data security.

Alvaro A. Cárdenas is a research staff engineer at Fujitsu Laboratories of America. Prior to this he was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of California, Berkeley working in securing critical infrastructure systems. His research focuses on network security, the smart grid and other cyber-physical systems, intrusion detection and big data security. He has received numerous awards for his research including a best paper award from the U.S. Army Research Office, a best presentation award from the IEEE, a fellowship from the University of Maryland, and a Distinguished Assistantship from the Institute of Systems Research. He has also been an invited visiting professor at the University of Cagliari. Alvaro holds M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Maryland, College Park, and a B.S. from Universidad de los Andes.

See http://csee.umbc.edu/talks for more information

Addressing failures in wireless sensor networks

Krasimira Kapitanova
University of Virginia

1:00pm Wednesday 28 March, 2012, ITE 325b, UMBC

Wireless sensor networks are now being used for a growing number of applications, from mission critical applications, including fire-fighting, emergency response, infrastructure monitoring, and medical application, to smart home applications, such as home automation, energy efficiency, and home security. These applications must operate reliably and continuously due to the high costs associated with system failure and maintenance. However, continuous and reliable operation of sensor networks is notoriously difficult to guarantee due to hardware degradation and environmental changes, which can cause operating conditions that were impossible for the original system designers to foresee. Recent studies have found that low-cost sensors suffer from many types of faults. Inexpensive nodes can break and battery-powered nodes lose power. Furthermore, sensor network installations suffer from a large number of non-fail-stop faults in which the sensor does not completely fail. Instead, it continues to report values, but the meaning of the values changes or becomes invalid. This talk will discuss a number of new run-time techniques that use application-level semantics to detect, assess, and adapt to sensor node failures.

Krasimira Kapitanova is a PhD candidate of Computer Science at the University of Virginia. Her research focuses on wireless sensor network, in particular using formal approaches for event description and detection. She is also interested in how testing and machine learning techniques can be used to improve the reliability of sensor network applications.

Host: Tim Finin

Suffix trees for very large strings

Dr. Marina Barsky
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

1:00pm Friday, 30 March 2012, ITE 325b, UMBC

The seminar is dedicated to the construction of suffix trees in external memory. A suffix tree is a compact index of all substrings of a given text. While being asymptotically linear in the size of the input, in practice, suffix trees can easily be 50 times larger than the input. As such, suffix trees often exceed typical main memory sizes, even when the input does not. As most existing algorithms are designed for RAM, their performance severely degrades when the tree and/or input do not fit in main memory. So far, this has prevented the wide application of suffix trees for the analysis of massive string collections.

We will look at new advanced methods of suffix tree construction which circumvent memory concerns and allow us to construct suffix trees for inputs of any size using secondary storage (magnetic disks). We will also discuss how this disk-based index can be used for facilitating the pattern discovery in sequential data.

Dr. Marina Barsky is currently a Post-Doctoral fellow in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, IL. She received her PhD in Computer Science from the University of Victoria, British Columbia, Canada in 2010. A large part of her post-graduate research was dedicated to pattern discovery in string data, primarily in massive DNA databases. She is currently expanding her expertise in database systems to new areas such as index management and data mining. Her research interests include data mining of sequential data, information networks, and teaching of computer science through interactive interfaces.

Host: Richard Chang

Judea Pearl has won the 2011 A.M. Turing Award for "fundamental contributions to artificial intelligence through the development of a calculus for probabilistic and causal reasoning." Pearl pioneered the use of Bayesian networks and causal modeling as an approach to reasoning with uncertain knowledge and made man other contributions to probabilistic approaches to artificial intelligence. He has been a Professor of Computer Science at UCLA since 1970.

The Turing Award is ACM's most prestigious technical award and given for major contributions of lasting importance to computing. The award is sometimes referred to as the "Nobel Prize" of Computing and is named in honor of the British mathematician and computer scientist Alan Mathison Turing.