As a nation, the United States appears to be becoming more and more sleep deprived. And it may be our busy lifestyle that keeps us from napping. While naps do not necessarily make up for inadequate or poor quality nighttime sleep, a short nap of 20-30 minutes can help to improve mood, alertness and performance. Nappers are in good company: Winston Churchill, John F. Kennedy, Ronald Reagan, Napoleon, Albert Einstein, Thomas Edison and George W. Bush are known to have valued an afternoon nap. (https://sleepfoundation.org/sleep-topics/napping)

Six members of the UMBC community, including one current undergraduate and five recent alumni, have received highly competitive National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowship Awards for 2016.

“Through the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program, the nation invests in those individuals who have shown great potential to excel in STEM graduate programs and become the next generation of research leaders,” explains Janet Rutledge, vice provost and dean of the Graduate School at UMBC.

The high number of UMBC students and alumni who receive NSF Graduate Research Fellowship awards demonstrates national recognition of the quality of a UMBC education, which is particularly well regarded for providing robust research experiences for undergraduate and graduate students alike.

Gaurav Luthria ‘16, bioinformatics; Nicholas Rogers ‘15, chemical engineering; Akua Nimarko ‘15, biological sciences and psychology; Abraham Beyene ‘08, chemical engineering; Abigail Jackson ‘15, biochemistry and molecular biology; and Hythem Sidky ‘11, chemical engineering, all received fellowships for 2016. The three-year-long awards support students pursuing master’s and doctoral degrees in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields.

Luthria will use the fellowship funding to support a Ph.D. in bioinformatics and integrative genomics at Harvard Medical School, beginning in the fall. “Since coming to UMBC, I have received tremendous support and exposure to a wide array of research projects,” he says. “I am very excited for graduate school and hope to conduct significant research and develop computational tools to help doctors, scientists, and patients understand, diagnose, and treat human disease.”

Rogers received offers from ten Ph.D. programs, and is now deciding where he will pursue his degree.“The NSF GRF is a tremendous honor for me. It reflects my growth as a researcher and the mentorship that has guided me along this path,” he says. “Many others who have won this fellowship before me have emphasized that the impact of this award stretches beyond what I can see now, and I am very excited to see what opportunities it provides!”

Nimarko, pursuing a Ph.D. in neuroscience at Stanford University School of Medicine, shares, “I am grateful for the opportunities at UMBC that allowed me to successfully compete for this fellowship.”

Image: Akua Nimarko. Photo by Marlayna Demond ’11 for UMBC. 

Virtual Reality Design for Science: Integrating Research, Communication, and Learning for Interdisciplinary Training – A team led by Jian Chen, Assistant Professor of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering, will harness the growing interest and popularity of virtual reality through the creation of a new course designed to challenge graduate and senior undergraduate students to collaboratively write, review, and critique research proposals. The project-oriented class will introduce students to the use of hybrid reality displays, 3D modeling, visualization, and fabrication to conduct and analyze scientific research. The new course embraces the university's goal of advancing interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary research activity.

Designing and Developing Effective Mobile Applications – A team led by Viviana Cordova, Assistant Professor of Visual Arts, and Nilanjan Banerjee, Associate Professor of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering, will create a new interdisciplinary project that teaches both designers and developers the life cycle and project management of mobile application development. Working with professional clients, visual arts and computer science students will use teamwork to tackle real-world projects with deadlines, milestones, and budget constraints. Throughout the semester, students from the Advanced Interface Design and Mobile Programming classes will collaborate to apply their design and programming experience to develop smartphone applications for clients.