UMBC is excited to host this unique Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) Site in scientific, parallel, and statistical computing, all extremely hot areas of current research. Participants will work in teams on projects brought in by high caliber researchers from academia and industry, closely supported by experienced graduate students and faculty members in collaboration with the Center for Interdisciplinary Research and Consulting. The participants will acquire the skills necessary to perform hands-on high performance computing on a state-of-the-art distributed-memory cluster in the UMBC High Performance Computing Facility.

For the Summer 2016 program, see the Program Details and Detailed Schedule for more information, and apply using the Online Application. The deadline is March 1, 2016, but screening of applications will start in early February. This description tries to give the most realistic and concrete impression of the activities throughout the program from a student perspective. We even have our own YouTube Movie with opening remarks by our university president and testimonials from two 2010 participants that the UMBC New Media studio graciously produced for us.

See our Partners page for acknowledgments to our collaborators and funding sources, in particular the NSF, the NSA, and the DOD. For general information, please check back regularly at this webpage to see updates and news items posted. For specific questions, do not hesitate to send e-mail to hpcreu@umbc.edu.

Eating a ton of food. Binge-watching every single Netflix show. Not changing out of pajamas. Not knowing what day of the week it is.

I’m realizing that for at least the first week of break this will be all of us. We deserve it! Finals and deadlines put our nervous systems to the ultimate test, so afterwards it’s so nice to decompress! But I also know that we’ll probably all start getting antsy when January rolls around. This extra time is actually the perfect opportunity to reflect and work on things you have no time to during the semester. Whether you’re a freshman, senior, or alumni, there are options for you to jump-start your professional life! It can actually feel really good to evaluate yourself and decide if your major is right for you, or what kind of experience you want to gain in the future. I want to help you find some of the right options for you this break, so here are some tips (and a lot of these you can still do while watching Netflix):

1.       Work on your resume, cover letter, and LinkedIn Profile

Now that you’ve completed more courses and perhaps completed an internship, it’s the perfect time to look back and evaluate how your experiences can be put on your resume as experience in your major. For example, can you list some of your courses from this fall as a “Relevant Courses” section on your resume? Did you join a new club or gain volunteer experience that you can list? Do you have new job or internship experience that need more details? Also, if you’re a freshman, you’ll have a GPA from your first semester grades to list on your resume! If you’re having trouble formatting these kinds of details, I highly recommend checking out our website here, and our career guide, where you can find a lot of helpful tips and examples to help you. If you’re on or near campus this winter break, come by the Career Center for drop-in hours! We’ll still be here from 2-4pm Monday-Friday all of January.

LinkedIn is a great way of establishing connections from your previous or recent employers, classmates, advisors, faculty, and family/family friends. You can even look at all of the alumni from UMBC and see what people from your program have found a career in! Even if you don’t feel like you have a lot to put on LinkedIn right now, I think it’s a great idea to create a profile and fill it in the best you can. As you gain more experiences and connections, you’ll be able to keep filling in your profile more and more. If you check the Career Center’s website, we have a very helpful page for creating a profile, connecting, and internship/job searching. You can find that page here.  LinkedIn also has a lot of helpful videos and tip sheets on how to build your profile as well. You can check out their resources here. 

2.       Sign up for the Dependable Strengths Workshop

On January 8th there is a workshop completely dedicated to YOU finding your strengths (um, best workshop ever?). Whether you’re a freshman, alumni, or graduate student, this all-day workshop is an awesome opportunity for you to identify what you’re good at and love to do, learn how to articulate with an employer, and learn how to make contacts in a field whenever you’re ready to make them! Doing this during winter break can make you feel so prepared and confident as you enter the spring semester. This could help you decide on classes, internships, attending career fairs, and making connections. Come on, take a break from relaxing and do something nice for yourself! If you’re a current UMBC student, it’s completely free to go. You can register online here.

3.       Find out more about your major

Use the Career Insider Portal on the database Vault, LinkedIn, and the website for your academic department to check out some of the fields of work you might be interested in going into for your major. Vault has a lot of contact information for organizations in various different fields of work, so it might also be nice to research those organizations too.

Like I said, we all deserve a break! But it’s important to remember that you’re going to school so you can land your dream job and succeed in your field, so all of this other stuff is important too. Believe me, I’ll still have Gilmore Girls and/or House of Cards on my TV in the background, but I’ll also feel a lot better going into the Spring semester knowing that I’ve caught up on some of my professional documents. I just want you to feel the same relief!

The Library of Congress is seeking applicants for its 2016 Junior Fellows Summer Internship Program—a 10-week paid fellowship for undergraduate and graduate students.

For a stipend of $3,000, the 2016 class of Junior Fellows will work full-time with Library specialists and curators from May 31 through Aug. 5, 2016, to inventory, describe and explore collection holdings and to assist with digital-preservation outreach activities throughout the Library. The program aims to increase access to collections and awareness of the Library’s digital-preservation programs by making them better-known and available to Members of Congress, scholars, researchers, students, teachers and the general public.

The fellows will be exposed to a broad spectrum of library work, including but not limited to: collection processing, digital preservation, educational outreach, access, standards-setting and information management. The 2015 class of Junior Fellows processed rare treasures and played an integral part in completing substantive project work. They indexed and rehoused the Library’s Harry Houdini collection; conducted archaeological research on Mesoamerican jade to determine its origins; and analyzed NBC’s Radio Collection from 1950 to 1970, which uncovered broadcasts about the launch of Sputnik and the death of former President Dwight Eisenhower. Additionally, the fellows improved the Library’s description of its World War I sheet music collection by assigning subject headings based on musical presentation format, form/genre and lyrical content.

Applications will be accepted online only at www.usajobs.gov, keyword: Junior Fellows from Monday, Dec. 7, 2015, through midnight Friday, Jan. 22, 2016.

For more details about the program and information on how to apply, visit loc.gov/hr/jrfellows/. Questions about the program may be sent to juniorfellows2016@loc.gov.

Project details, and application information can be found at:

https://www.usajobs.gov/GetJob/ViewDetails/423248100

During the winter break and term, the Women's Center will be operating under limited hours and the Center may be closed during times that UMBC community members need access to the lactation room.

In order to ensure access to this safe and private space for nursing parents, the Women's Center is partnering with the Commons CIC. If you plan on using the lactation room over the winter term, please contact Jess Myers (jessm@umbc.edu, 410-455-2714) for details and next steps.