Meet Stephanie,

She is a double major student working on her degrees in Computer Science and Psychology. She is a member of the Honors College, the Vice President of the Computer Science Education club, a member of the Retriever Robotics Club, a CWIT affiliate, and the Curriculum Development Coordinator for the Creative Coders Program. She is also a Research Assistant for CS Matters in Maryland and a Research Assistant for the Multi-Agent Planning and Learning (MAPLE) lab. Previously, she was the Secretary of QUMBC. Her future ambitions are to continue researching Artificial Intelligence or a related field and to continue with outreach in computer science education.

Stephanie's research will explore a recently developed method of hierarchical planning: a hierarchy of abstract Markov decision processes (AMDPs). AMDPs seek to address the immensely challenging problems that decision-making agents face when operating in large environments to solve complex tasks. A hierarchy of AMDPs provides a framework for decomposing such problems into distinct, related subtasks. Her previous tasks for research in this area were to design an AMDP hierarchy for a house-building domain and to collaborate with her lab members to research and write a paper combining the R-MAX algorithm with AMDPs. Currently, she is working with her lab members to research and write a paper on constructing and reasoning over composite objects.

Read more about her research here…

UMBC CSEE Seminar Series

Phase synchrony in heart-brain interactions predicts personality and emotions

Ehsan Shokri Kojori
NIH, National Institute on Alcoloh Abuse and Alcoholism

1:00-2:00pm Friday, 17 March 2017, ITE 231

Despite the historical interest in the link between brain and heart, it is unknown whether brain and heart interactions provide meaningful information about emotions and personality. Here we studied the phase and amplitude of coherence between cardiac pulse and resting state fMRI signals in 203 subjects. We show low-frequency (LF, < 0.1 Hz) components of the resting-state networks (RSN) share significant content with corresponding components in physiological recordings. We found LF cardiovascular components precede those in RSNs, and LF respiratory components follow those in RSNs. Phase dispersion (in LF) between cardiac (but not respiratory) and RSN signals predicted a main positivity-negativity dimension of personality (r = 0.31, p < 0.0001) and emotions (r = 0.24, p = 0.001). Specifically, higher phase dispersion between cardiac and brain RSNs predicted higher tendency toward negative inclinations. In summary, these results provide evidence that brain-wide sensitivity to cardiovascular signaling predicts a main dimension of personality and emotions. Finally, our analysis of phase dispersion may have diagnostic value in specific neuropsychiatric disorders.

Dr. Ehsan Shokri Kojori joined the Laboratory of Neuroimaging at the NIH National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism
 as a postdoctoral IRTA fellow in August 2014 and became a Research Fellow in May 2016. He earned a PhD degree in cognitive neuroscience from the University of Texas at Dallas in Spring 2014. Ehsan also has a background in electrical engineering and signal processing. His interests include combining brain imaging modalities (e.g., fMRI, DTI, and PET) and behavioral measurements to understand the neurocognitive underpinnings of goal directed behavior. His current work involves studying how addiction and alcohol abuse affect efficiency and energetic cost of the brain networks. He is also working on developing novel methodologies to better characterize anatomical and functional brain connectivity indices.

The post talk: Phase synchrony in heart-brain interactions predicts personality and emotions, 1pm 3/17 appeared first on Department of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering.

A reflection by Women’s center staff member, Kayla Smith.

Full disclosure: I’m a Beyonce stan. I support pretty much everything she does. There are very few things Beyonce can do that I wouldn’t damn near worship. Needless to say when she released pictures from her maternity shoot I was ready to bow down.

Beyonce’s pregnancy announcement on Instagram

I scrolled through her website looking at all the maternity pictures in awe. The symbolism of a black woman evoking the Virgin Mary and the goddess Venus was not lost on me as I looked through the pictures feeling overjoyed for her and hopeful for my own future. She looked regal and glowed  with pride. This pregnancy announcement was radically different from her first, and was shrouded in much less mystery. I was reminded that in 2015 Beyonce suffered a miscarriage and I was so happy that she could announce another pregnancy with confidence. I even lamented to my boyfriend hoping that I would be as beautiful as Beyonce whenever I decide to have kids.

Beyonce as the Goddess Venus, pictured with a bust of Nefertiti.

To my surprise, outside of the BeyHive bubble, not everyone responded to the maternity shoot in the same way I did. Comment threads are filled with comments that call the maternity shoot “tacky,” “extra,” and “self absorbed.” Articles were written criticizing not just the image, but Beyonce and the announcement itself.

I can understand criticism, and I’m sure Bey can handle it. But one article in particular really felt like something was off. The author calls the Instragram picture “a brave woman who has the optimism to kneel down in front of a million flowers, get their wedding veil back on again, and know that bar the bump, the rest of their body is in perfect condition. People, this is not what pregnancy looks like.” A stranger, telling the public that Beyonce’s actual pregnancy isn’t what a pregnancy looks like. The author invalidates the actual pregnant woman, who is controlling her exposure and the narrative surrounding her pregnancy, by saying that, because it doesn’t look the way she expects pregnancy to look, it isn’t valid. In the days following the announcement I found myself falling down the rabbit hole of reading more and more articles criticizing Beyonce and her announcement. My excitement for her began to fade, and I wondered if maybe she should have avoided the criticism all together by being less flashy, or less “extra.”

Beyonce being pregnant on a car. I’m not sure why, but I’m here for it.

I started to think about women who hide their pregnancies in order to avoid backlash from their employers and peers and the expectations thrust onto women about the proper way to compose themselves during their pregnancies and once they become mothers. In 2016, when Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie gave birth to her child, she didn’t tell anyone when she was pregnant because she didn’t want to “perform pregnancy.” She’s quoted saying, “I just feel like we live in an age when women are supposed to perform pregnancy. We don’t expect fathers to perform fatherhood. I went into hiding. I wanted it to be as personal as possible.” Knowles-Carter and Adichie are both controlling the narrative around how much access the public has to their pregnancies.

I know I’m not nearly as famous as Beyonce or Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie so I’m probably not going to have any articles written about me whenever I get pregnant, but I will still be a black woman carrying a child in a society where people feel entitled to comment on a woman’s appearance and police how she carries herself. Black women are not only harshly criticized for their appearance, we are also subjected to racist perceptions around black pregnancy. There is the assumption that black women are someone’s “baby mama” or that the pregnancy was an accident. Black women are not afforded the same respect as other women when they decide to bear children.

Beyonce and her first child Blue.

I still have a lot of life to live before I have children, but in the digital age I wonder about what my own pregnancy announcement will look like, if I have one at all. Would I be willing to weather the storm of criticisms thrown at me or would I be more private? I often wonder what kind of mom I will be on social media. Will I be Beyonce, performing pregnancy from the day of my pregnancy announcement to the child’s birth or will I be Adichie, and keep the public away from the very personal and miraculous process that is pregnancy?

Two years ago, when I decided I wanted to have kids one day, I fantasized about telling anyone who would listen about my pregnancy; however, after seeing the backlash women of color face online it’s easy to understand why it would be tempting to keep a pregnancy quiet altogether.

Beyonce being flawless during her Grammy’s performance.

This is where I come back to Beyonce. Instead of covering her pregnant belly up when she performed at the Grammys, she evoked the image of a Nigerian fertility goddess. She performed covered in gold and jewels, literally beaming like the sun. She took every criticism about being over the top and threw it all right back at her critics.

Women of color are already told how to act, how to sound, how to dress, and how to treat other people;however, like Beyonce, I refuse to let society tell me how to carry a child.

Apply for the CWIT Sponsorship to the

Grace Hopper Celebration 2017

Orlando, Florida

Total Value of the Sponsorship:$1,300

Description:

The Center for Women in Technology (CWIT) at UMBC is sponsoring a small group of students to attend the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing (GHC), which will be held from October 4th-October 6th in Orlando, Florida. GHC is a great opportunity to connect with other women in computing and innovative organizations, hear stories from peers and experts, and get quality career advice specific to your needs. Please visit the conference website at www.gracehopper.org to learn more. Contact us at deramo@umbc.edu if you have questions.

Date of Conference:October 4-6, 2017 (Travel October 3-7)

Application Deadline: Tuesday, April 25, 2017

Application Link: https://goo.gl/forms/jl7WOoituxZ7fPGA3

Sponsorship Details:

-- Paid and organized BY CWIT:

•          $450: Conference registration fee

•          $150: Hotel: 4 nights of lodging with 4 students per room at the conference hotel

    --  Paid and organized BY STUDENT and reimbursed after the conference with proper receipts. You will be reimbursed for the amount shown on the receipts as long as it is not above the maximum amounts shown below:

•          $230-$400: Roundtrip flight: Baltimore Washington International, DC (BWI) to Orlando International, FL (MCO). Depart BWI on 10/3/17 and Return 10/7/17. (Coach class only will be reimbursed).

•          $180: Meals (Reimbursement at UMBC per diem rate for meals, $45 per day)

•          $120: Airport parking fees and other transportation from airport to hotel and back

Timeline of Expectations if Selected:

1.    ON 5/12/17: Attend a meeting on Friday, May 12^th, noon - 1 PM in ITE 237 to meet other conference attendees and learn more about what to expect at the conference. There will be another meeting in September to go over the reimbursement procedures for your expenses.

2.    BY July 1: Book your flight to Florida by July 1st. You should plan to depart on Tuesday, October 3, and return on Saturday morning, October 7.

3.    BY 9/5/17: Communicate with your faculty about attending the conference and making arrangements for any missed coursework.  We will provide a letter saying that you are being sponsored to help you have these conversations.

4.    IN SEPTEMBER 2017: Attend a meeting in September to discuss reimbursement procedures, sign up to volunteer at the CWIT table at the conference, and review final trip details.

5.    POST CONFERENCE: Attend a debriefing meeting after the conference to talk about what you learned.

6.    FALL or SPRING SEMESTER: Attendees will also be asked to share their experiences with other students at a CWIT event later in the school year.

7.    ALWAYS: Respond promptly to e-mails from us about the conference and complete the necessary paperwork required for travel and reimbursement according to UMBC policies and deadlines.

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Note: Students who have applied for a scholarship to attend the GHC already through the Anita Borg Institute (an opportunity that was promoted by CWIT) and students who have never attended the GHC before will receive priority.  Students who do not meet these criteria are still eligible, though, so do still apply!

Questions? Contact Erica D’Eramo at deramo@umbc.edu

TIC Gums is consistently ranked as America’s #1 preferred supplier of hydrocolloids to the food industry. We are seeking students who are currently pursuing a Food Science/Nutrition degree for an upcoming intern opportunity for this summer. These opportunities are for Lab Technicians in the R&D Department of our Texture and Innovation Center in our White Marsh, MD location.

In this role, you will be preparing lab samples, assisting in lab experiments, and performing research. You will be performing tests including viscosity, pH, mesh, moisture, and gel strength. You will also gain skills required to safely and properly operate specified lab instrumentation such as Brookfield viscometer, Texture Analyzer, pH meter, and ash oven according to listed work instructions. You will be responsible for maintaining a laboratory notebook to record the results of your work, and for tabulating and submitting results in a timely manner. You will also prepare and deliver a presentation of your overall findings and results.

Students should possess the following skills and experience: Taken a food chemistry and/or food processing class, fundamental courses & labs in food science; have worked in a lab and familiar with good laboratory practices; performed research projects; ability to perform experiments with limited supervision; strong communication skills; familiar with the process of product development/experiment design; experience with emulsion and particle size testing/analysis.

Each internship position will have specific goals and project objectives that the student will be responsible for accomplishing during the internship. Students will be assigned a department supervisor who will provide guidance on day-to-day tasks, as well as expose the student to the working environment of TIC Gums.

Throughout the summer, HR will sponsor several seminars on resume writing, interviewing techniques and transitioning to the job world after school.

Our internship program runs during the summer months – approximately the end of May through August. Students must have a minimum of 3.0 GPA in order to apply and be pursuing a degree in a related field of study to the position.

Each internship is a paid position that offers a challenging opportunity. Positions are limited. Interested candidates should submit their resume to Michelle Magliocchetti @ internships@ticgums.com.

You can also visit our website at: http://www.ticgums.com/careers/internships.html