UMBC mechanical engineering senior and Meyerhoff Scholar Caly Ferguson was selected for the National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE) "25 Under 25" award in March 2026 based on his research and service. The award specifically recognizes young professionals and students who demonstrate outstanding leadership, innovation, and community advancement.

Since his freshman year, Ferguson has been conducting research in CSEE Professor Ramana Vinjamuri's lab, where he is helping to develop a prosthetic forearm and hand that uses machine learning to interpret electrical nerve signals from the arm and translate them into specific movements. Caly served as the finance chair of the UMBC NSBE chapter and became its president at the beginning of the 2025-2026 academic year.

Read more here.

Fabio Anza, an assistant professor in UMBC's Department of Physics, Quantum Science Institute and Cybersecurity Institute, has won an Amazon Research Award to develop Physics Co-Pilot—a scientific AI assistant that combines large language model orchestration with reliable computational algorithms to address critical bottlenecks in modern physics research.
Physics Co-Pilot takes a fundamentally different approach from current AI code generation systems. Rather than having language models write code—which can produce unreliable results—the system uses LLMs only for natural language understanding, while delegating all computational work to pre-written, validated algorithms.
Read more about his award and project here.

UMBC CBEE professor Tyler Josephson was selected as a 2025 Pivot Fellow by the Simons Foundation.  At UMBC, Prof. Josephson leads the AI & Theory-Oriented Molecular Science Lab (ATOMS), which develops computational methods for molecular simulation and automated discovery of scientific theories. 

Techniques used in the ATOMS Lab include quantum chemistry, Monte Carlo, symbolic regression, and formal theorem proving using Lean. His research is currently supported by the NSF and the DoD, including an NSF CAREER Award for "Automated Reasoning to Advance Chemical Theory" and an Army HBCU/MSI Early Career Award for "Simulation methods for reactive adsorption of emerging water pollutants."

The Simons Foundation Pivot Fellowship is open to faculty in the natural sciences, mathematics, engineering, data science, and computer science at academic institutions or equivalent positions elsewhere. Fellows receive salary support, as well as funding for research, travel, and professional development. At the end of their fellowship year, they are invited to apply for a research award of up to $1.5 million over three years. Read more about the 2025 Pivot Fellows.

UMBC CSEE professors Konstantinos Kalpakis and Dong Li received research funding from the University of Maryland, Baltimore’s Institute for Clinical and Translational Research to collaborate with UMB partners to develop innovative healthcare technology.

Professor Kalpakis and his colleagues are developing a new approach to help trauma physicians make better-informed treatment decisions quickly. The team is working on a machine-learning framework that can help ER doctors predict medical outcomes, such as which patients will experience severe complications from trauma and what their blood transfusion needs may be.

Professor Li's work will use AI technology to develop a reliable method to monitor blood pressure on a smartphone outfitted with ultrasound sensors to measure blood flow and using the built-in microphone to record heart sounds. The partnership with UMB will allow the team to conduct clinical trials, with both healthy individuals and those with hypertension, to rigorously evaluate the system’s accuracy and effectiveness.