The Women's Center is excited to announce that the Returning Women Students Scholarships Application for 2017-2018 is now available. The deadline for submission is Friday, March 30, 2018.

This common application enables eligible students to apply for more than one of the Returning Women Students Scholarships using the same application. The four available scholarships are:

• Charlotte W. Newcombe Scholarship & The UMBC Scholarship for Mature Students
• AEGON Scholarship
• The Richard & Roselyn Bryson Neville Memorial Fund for Returning Women Scholarship
• The Rosalie Tydings Business and Professional Women’s Scholarship

All undergraduate students over the age of 25 and with at least 60 credits may be eligible. You must be completing your first undergraduate degree. Each scholarship has additional eligibility requirements which can be found on the common application instructions. 

The application is attached to this announcement. Please be sure to read over the eligibility requirements before applying. 

If you have any questions concerning the application process or the scholars program requirements, please contact the Women's Center director, Jess Myers, at womenscenter@umbc.edu. 

We will also be hosting 3 different information sessions related to the application process and scholars program requirements on: 

• Wednesday, February 21st from 4-4:45pm in the Women's Center
• Tuesday, February 27th from 2:30-3:30pm at Universities of Shady Grove in Building III- 4156
• Thursday, March 15th from 4-4:45pm in the Women's Center  

Each year, applicants submit applications with errors that often impact their consideration for a scholarship. We highly encourage all applicants to attend an info session before submitting their application. 

Applications are due Friday, March 30, 2018.

Did you know?
The first modern version of the seat belt was invented at Cornell University. Cornell Aeronautical Labs did some of the first crash testing of automobiles, and in 1957 Cornell teamed with Liberty Mutual Insurance to build an unusual looking concept car that incorporated the lessons learned in testing. The car did not actually run, but it featured ideas like seat belts, head rests, and padded interiors that are incorporated into today's cars. Since then, engineers have worked to enhance the modern three-point belt, which was first introduced by Volvo. It is estimated that the seat belt has saved more than one million lives in the four decades since it was introduced. In the United States alone, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, seat belts save more than 11,000 lives each year.

Want to conduct research and create something innovative? Become a URA Scholar!
Undergraduate Research Awards provide up to $1,500 to undergraduate students to support their research or creative work with a UMBC faculty mentor on an original project. UMBC students of all years and disciplines are invited to apply, as long as they will remain enrolled at UMBC long enough to complete the proposed work. 

Apply by Feb. 16: https://ur.umbc.edu/ura/

Contact Dr. April Householder at aprilh@umbc.edu for more information.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology's (NIST's) Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) program is for students majoring in science, engineering, and mathematics. The program is hosted at NIST’s Boulder, Colorado, campus and NIST's Gaithersburg, Maryland, campus.

Applications for participation in the SURF program are accepted only from colleges or universities and not from individual students or faculty. Contact Devon Fick at dfick1@umbc.edu to apply. Applications are due to Mr. Fick by Jan. 29, 2018.

• SURF Program:
   https://www.nist.gov/surf

Application due date:

Monday, February 12, 2018 

Eligibility Requirements:

• Be a U.S. citizen and Permanent U.S. Resident with a valid green card
• Must be enrolled as a full-time undergraduate (freshman, sophomore, junior, or senior) at a U.S. College or University during the time of application; seniors graduating in May 2018 are eligible to apply.
• Majoring in biochemistry, biological sciences, chemistry, computer science, engineering, materials science, mathematics, physical sciences, physics, and/or statistics  
• Have a 3.0 G.P.A. or above
• Considering pursuing a graduate degree or career in a STEM discipline

Research Opportunities Matching

• Students applying to the SURF Boulder program will be matched to opportunities in the Boulder divisions:

    Applied Chemicals and Materials Division

        Public Safety Communications Research Division

        RF Technology Division

        Applied Physics Division
        Quantum Electromagnetics Division
        Time and Frequency Division

• Students applying to the SURF Gaithersburg program will be matched to opportunities in the Gaithersburg laboratories:

       Center for Nanoscale Science and Technology (CNST)

       Communications Technology Laboratory (CTL)

       Engineering Laboratory (EL)

       Information Technology Laboratory (ITL)

       Material Measurement Laboratory (MML)

       NIST Center for Neutron Research (NCNR)

      Physical Measurement Laboratory (PML)

For additional information and application materials about the NIST SURF Program, please visit:https://www.nist.gov/surf

Or register for an upcoming webinar (open to students and university staff):

• January 10, 2018- https://cc.readytalk.com/registration/#/?meeting=vwgijlct4rqq&campaign=iuuyhx2z5e3w
• January 17, 2018- https://cc.readytalk.com/registration/#/?meeting=b2hmwdfq9xgc&campaign=wws2myp9hz25

Global Game Jam at UMBC

For the 10th(!) year in a row, UMBC is the Baltimore host site for the Global Game Jam!

Where: Engineering (ENG) building on the UMBC campus
When: 5 PM January 26 – 5 PM January 28, 2018
Cost: Free, but advance registration is required (register at globalgamejam.org)

What is a Game Jam?

In a game jam, participants come together to make a video game. Each participant joins a small team at the jam, and over a couple of day period creates a new, unique and creative video game according to the rules of the jam.

Game Jams are a great way to meet other developers, beef up your resume, or just learn what it takes to make a game. Teams need designers who can come up with a creative game idea according to the jam constraints, artists, programmers and testers, so there is something to do for participants at all levels of experience.

So what is the Global Game Jam?

The Global Game Jam takes place in the same 48 hours all over the world! The first year there were 53 host sites in the US, Canada, Brazil, Costa Rica, Venezuela, Belgium, Denmark, England, France, Germany, Ireland, Israel, Lithuania, The Netherlands, Norway, Scotland, Spain, Turkey, Wales, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa. Last year had hundreds of host sites across the world.

The Global Game Jam will start 5 PM local time Friday, January 26th and end 5 PM local time Sunday, January 28th, 2018. All participants in the Global Game Jam will be constrained by the same theme and set of rules. After the theme is announced, participants will have the chance to brainstorm game ideas and pitch them to other participants to form development teams. After a couple of mad days of game development, all the games are demoed and submitted to the global game jam site.

Even if you don’t participate, you can track the action on twitter #ggj18 and #umbcggj, and try out the game submissions after the event is over.

For the full list of sites, more Global Game Jam information, and information on the keynote speaker and other exciting developments, be sure to visit the main Global Game Jam site.

UMBC Site Information

The UMBC Global Game Jam site will close from 11 PM to 7 AM each Friday and Saturday night. Non-local participants should plan accordingly.

We’ll have a mix of computers and development platforms:

• Windows
• Mac
• WiFi (with your own laptop)

These have a mix of the following software (not all software on all platforms)

• Visual Studio
• Unity
• Unreal Engine
• Maya
• NVIDIA PhysX
• Adobe Creative Suite

What you should bring

Yourself. Your creativity.

Don’t come with a pre-planned team. Teams will be formed on-site after the game pitches are made. Also, don’t bring pre-made content (art, code, sounds, etc.) that is not publically available. The idea is not to see how well you anticipate the constraints, it is to see what each team can create during the Jam!

The post Global Game Jam, UMBC, 26-28 January 2018 appeared first on Department of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering.

UMBC’s new Public Research for Public Good site features videos that highlight faculty research that provides real impact on the communities they are working with. In one, CSEE Professors Nilanjan Banerjee and Ryan Robucci discuss their research on developing wearable sensors to help people with limited mobility, allowing them to more easily interact with things in their environment. The sensors are built out of conductive fabric that can be sewn into sheets or clothing. The uniqueness of their project stems from the the team assembled to carry it out, which includes faculty and students who design low-level hardware, implement interactive software systems, rehabilitation specialists and end users.

The post Professors Banerjee & Robucci on developing wearable sensors for people with limited mobility appeared first on Department of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering.