The Nebraska Summer Research Program is a consortium of NSF funded Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) and other summer research opportunities programs (SROP).

One unique feature of the Nebraska Summer Research Program is the partnership between the REU and SROP programs and the Office of Graduate Studies. Students benefit in having a community of scholars in which to learn and to share research with.

This intensive summer research experience provides mentoring and research experiences while allowing scholars to preview graduate school life. Students with a strong interest in graduate programs are particularly encouraged to apply, as are those from populations traditionally underrepresented in graduate education.

Loyal.Constant.

Strong and Resilient.

Season to Season.

Survival.Growth.

These are just some of the many qualities of the Wye Oak Tree – Maryland’s state tree – and so many of the same qualities we find in the Women’s Center at UMBC. For some, a tree provides shade to rest under on a hot summer day. To others it provides leaves that fall to the ground to play in on a crisp autumn day. In the winter months, we look at trees covered in frost and snow with wonder and awe until we finally see the earliest buds come to life once again on the first days of spring. The tree is many thingsto many people, just like the Women’s Center is to the UMBC community. We are a place to find comfort, a listening ear, and friendship. Much like the tree, we seek to be strong but flexible, loyal but open to growth, courageous to challenges but loving with support. Our roots dig deep into the grounds of feminism and our many limbs reach further towards social justice, activism, and the honoring all of our intersecting identities.  

This new logo reflects our ongoing growth and evolution as a women’s center which is grounded in our steady core values and reliable strengths so many UMBC community members have come to know and love. As always, and much like the great Wye Oak beckons, all are welcomed in our space, so long as they respect each other, their stories, their experiences, their potential.

Many thanks to UMBC’s Creative Services for designing our new logo which is modeled after UMBC’s very own Wye Oak Tree.

The Yale University Astronomy Department is pleased to invite applications for the first annual Hoffleit Undergradate Astronomy Research Scholarship. This program serves as an opportunity for keen undergraduates in STEM fields with a strong interest in pursuing astronomy to spend 6-8 weeks performing astronomy research in with Yale rearchers.

Research topics cover a wide range, from the characterization and discovery of exoplanets, the study of the Sun and stars, to the origin and evolution of small and large galaxies. Yale’s astronomy department is located in New Haven, CT, near historic downtown and the East Rock neighborhood. New Haven is a vibrant city in the summertime; home to the Arts and Ideas festival, many cafes and restaurants. The undergraduate students will be housed together in the beautiful campus residential colleges where they will have the opportunity to interact with undergraduate scholars from other departments.

The program encourages undergraduates from all nationalities to apply, particularly, those with a strong desire to continue to graduate school.

To apply or find out more, visit http://www.astro.yale.edu/vlg8/hoffleitfellowship.html

And direct any questions to  valerie.robalino@yale.edu Subject: Hoffleit Queries

See www.midas.pitt.edu/srp

The University of Pittsburgh Models of Infectious Disease Agent Study (MIDAS) National Center of Excellence summer research opportunity in computational modeling and simulation of infectious diseases.

Through this ten-week Summer Research Program, participants will gain an appreciation of major research questions being raised at the intersection of public health, biological science, and computer technology and become acclimated to the rigors of scientific research and graduate education.

For the Ninth year, UMBC hosted the Maryland State FIRST LEGO League Championship on March 1^st, 2014 in the RAC. This year, nearly 350 teams competed in 17 qualifiers around the Maryland area to earn one of the 72 championship slots. Teams performing well in all three judged areas (Project, Robot Design and Core Values) and scored in the top 40% of the Robot rounds at their qualifier, were invited to compete. Maryland FLL is currently run out of the College of Engineering and IT, Mechanical Engineering Department. Several Departments and scholar programs (Meyerhoff, CWIT, Sherman) continue to support the program through volunteering at many of the qualifiers and the state championship.

A video of the state championship can be found here.

FIRST® LEGO® League (FLL®) introduces young people, ages 9 to 16* (grades 4-8), to the fun and excitement of science and technology while building self-confidence, knowledge, and valuable career and life skills. FLL challenges kids to think  like scientists and engineers. Alongside adult Mentors, FLL teams research and design their own solutions to a current scientific question or problem using  engineering concepts, presentation techniques, and build autonomous LEGO robots.  In this year’s challenge, NATURE’S FURY’S, students explored the awe-inspiring storms, quakes, waves, and more that we call natural disasters. Teams discovered what can be done  when intense natural events meet the  places people live, work, and play.

For more information about Maryland FLL, please visit www.mdfirst.org.

CSEE professor Tim Finin has been appointed as a co-editor of the Viewpoints section of the Communications of the ACM, the monthly magazine of the Association for Computing Machinery. ACM was founded in 1947 and is the world’s largest educational and scientific computing society with the mission of providing resources that advance computing as a science and a profession.

The Communications of the ACM was started in 1957 and is sent to all ACM members (currently over 100,000) and is considered “the leading print and online publication for the computing and information technology fields”. CACM’s Viewpoints section is publishes short articles expressing opinions and views that pertain to issues of broad interest to the computing community, covering a wide range of topics, including scientific, technical, educational and social. Each month a handful of articles are published from those contributed by a set of distinguished ACM columnists and submitted by ACM members and computing professionals.

Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) Program Description

LearnLab at Carnegie Mellon and the University of Pittsburgh has an exciting summer research opportunity available to undergraduate students. This research program encourages applications from students who would like to conduct research in the fields of psychology, education, computer science, human-computer interfaces and language technologies.  This program seeks broad participation, including members of underrepresented groups as defined by the National Science Foundation (African American, Hispanic, Native American) who may be considering pursuing further graduate study in the learning sciences.

LearnLab's REU program allows talented undergraduates to spend 8 weeks during the summer in a research laboratory at Carnegie Mellon University, the University of Pittsburgh, or one of our research partners. The REU program aims to make LearnLab's programs more visible to students not traditionally exposed to our fields. The REU program supports LearnLab's commitment to training a diverse set of science, technology, education, and psychology leaders.

Applications are encouraged from students who wish to learn to conduct research in a modern academic research laboratory under the guidance of experienced scientists and engineers and experiment in real classroom environments. The REU program will expose students to the excitement and opportunities of a research career. This experience will provide excellent preparation for students interested in subsequently pursuing a Masters or Ph.D. degree. Although students from other years may apply, this opportunity is most fitting for a student at the end of the junior year of undergraduate studies.

Each student will receive a fellowship stipend of $4000 for the eight-week REU program. Food, housing and travel will also be provided. Students will conduct research in an area matched to the interests expressed in the student's application. Guidance and supervision of the research project will be provided by the faculty member as well as, in some cases, a postdoctoral fellow and/or advanced graduate student.