I'm looking for a female roommate for a master bedroom with a private 1/2 bathroom in my 2-bedroom apartment in Catonsville. Rent is $747.5/month, and the deposit is $500.

The room is bright and spacious, and it has two full closets. 

This is a great 2-bedroom apartment in Catonsville in a safe, quiet, and convenient area. The UMBC bus stop is right across the street; it's 5 minutes to UMBC if you drive (parking is available), and the MTA bus to Downtown Baltimore stops on the corner of the street. The current roommate is a UMBC student. The apartment has utilities, including internet, a heating and cooling system (around $80/mo), and a full kitchen. The living room is furnished. The laundry is shared in the building. Surface lot parking is available. 

I am a PhD student looking for a clean and well-mannered roommate.  If interested, email me at ssemsar1@umbc.edu

Please message me for more information and to schedule a visit.

-Everything is furnished except the bedroom.

Requirements: 

- No smoking 

- No pet

Are you interested in pursuing a PhD in the biomedical sciences after graduation from UMBC If so, please join the U-RISE Program Interest Meeting on Monday, December 1st, at 12:00 p.m. in ILSB, Room 118.

U-RISE Scholars receive:

• A scholarship for partial tuition, fees and housing

• Year-round participation in research with a mentor

• Summer research stipend 

• Special advising, seminars & workshops 

• Funds to travel to & present at conferences 

• Help with graduate school applications 

• Experience presenting at URCAD & other national meetings 

This Interest Meeting is intended for sophomores, and transfer students. If you cannot make the Interest Meeting live, we will share the link to the recorded session. Applications for next year's cohort will open December 5, 2025, in Scholarship Retriever, and close January 22, 2026. To learn more.

U-RISE at UMBC is a preeminent undergraduate research training scholarship program with the goal of increasing the number of students from underrepresented groups who pursue Ph.D. degrees and research careers in the biomedical sciences. This program, primarily for juniors and seniors, is funded by the National Institute of General and Medical Sciences (NIGMS) of The National Institutes of Health (NIH). 

You can also email Dr. Jackie King, Associate Director of U-RISE (jking3@umbc.edu), with any questions or concerns.

Attention Student Org Leaders! 

We're gathering insights on how student org leaders use digital tools for communication, event planning, and organization management. Your voice will guide improvements. 

Register here: https://signup.com/go/vOxybxs 

Orgs that participate will be entered into a raffle for $500!

On November 15, more than 120 engineering and computer science professionals and students convened on the UMBC campus for the 2025 IEEE Baltimore Technical Colloquium, co-sponsored this year by the Department of Information Systems. It was the second IEEE Baltimore Technical Colloquium, and saw approximately 20 percent growth in attendance compared to the inaugural event.

The colloquium focused on innovation and leadership in cutting edge areas such as artificial intelligence, data analytics, quantum computing, computational medicine, trustworthy computing, and more. The event, held in the Interdisciplinary Life Sciences Building, was a chance for academic experts, industry leaders, and students from around Baltimore to share their research, network, and find new inspiration.

Chinonso Ezeobi, M.S. ’22, electrical engineering, and a current Ph.D. student, served as conference vice chair. “Curating programs for our IEEE professional community has been incredibly rewarding,” he said. “Serving as chair has provided invaluable opportunities to expand my network and develop my leadership capabilities.”

The event attracted major area universities, companies, and organizations including the Army Research Lab, Northrop Grumman, JP Morgan Chase, and the National Institute of Standards and Technology. Ezeobi delivered opening remarks and, along with several other UMBC students and faculty, presented research. Student and alumni volunteers helped keep the program running smoothly. 

Jeanne van Briesen, dean of the College of Engineering and Information Technology, delivered keynote remarks on how engineers and scientists can tackle complex, modern problems, such as reverse engineering the human brain and preventing nuclear terror. In these so-called “wicked problems,” engineered, natural, and data systems interact with human and social systems, creating situations where there is no clear, single solution and oftentimes attempts to fix the original issue create new problems. 

Van Briesen described how “convergence research,” which integrates knowledge, methods, and expertise from different disciplines to form novel frameworks that catalyze new discoveries and innovations, can help humanity tackle its most intractable problems. She gave examples of convergence research at UMBC addressing challenges such as improving mental health, increasing the safety of first responders and soldiers, and making medicine cheaply and on-demand. 

“A wicked problem is sometimes described as a problem that cannot be fixed—but never tell an engineer something can’t be done,” she said.

Tyler Josephson, an assistant professor in the Department of Chemical, Biochemical, and Environmental Engineering, was selected as a 2025 Pivot Fellow by the Simons Foundation. The fellowships support top researchers as they pivot to making contributions to a new discipline.

At UMBC, Josephson leads the AI & Theory-Oriented Molecular Science Lab, which develops computational methods to simulate the behavior of molecules and, potentially, to automate the discovery of new scientific theories. His current research includes National Science Foundation-funded projects to digitize chemical theories using a programming language developed by researchers at Microsoft called the Lean theorem prover and a DARPA-funded project to develop AI tools that can check the feasibility of scientific claims.

During his Pivot fellowship, Josephson will join the research group of Jeremy Avigad, a professor of philosophy, computer science, and mathematics at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, where he’ll study advanced topics at the intersection of formal mathematics and computer science. He plans to formalize statistical thermodynamics derivations in Lean, develop computational workflows for auto-formalizing science using AI, and build molecular simulation software integrated with formal proofs of mathematical correctness.

The skills, knowledge, and connections Josephson develops will strengthen his ongoing work with his UMBC students and colleagues.

“As an engineer, I didn’t formally study these topics in school. I’m really excited by the opportunity to dive deeper and learn new things,” he says.

We’re gathering insights on how student org leaders use digital tools for communication, event planning, and organization management. Your voice will guide improvements. 

Register here: https://signup.com/go/vOxybxs 

Orgs that participate will be entered into a raffle for $500!

As International Education Week 2025 comes to a close, we’ve rounded up a few of the many ways Retrievers engage globally through their work and studies. Even though it has been a particularly trying time for international students, “…more UMBC students studied abroad in Academic Year 2024 – 25 than ever before. Our students are discovering new perspectives, building global connections, and transforming their futures through these life-changing experiences,” says Katie Heird, director of education abroad and global learning at UMBC. Here are a few ways international students and Retrievers who have gone abroad play a role in the lifeblood of UMBC.

1. Who is Fulbright material?

UMBC’s six 2025 – 2026 Fulbright U.S. Student Program recipients share their not-so-secret recipe for success. Deciding to apply for a Fulbright is just the first step, and with the support of UMBC’s Center for Global Engagement, which hosts Fulbright information sessions in the spring for undergraduate, graduate, and recent alumni. Retrievers can apply to earn a master’s, conduct research, or be an English Teaching Assistant in more than 160 countries. With the UMBC 2025 – 2026 Fulbrights already settled in Taiwan, Norway, and Indonesia, Belgium, Israel, and Germany, these alumni are eager to share tips to inspire and prepare the next generations of Fulbright Retrievers.

Additionally, this year, four UMBC faculty and staff members received highly competitive Fulbright U.S. Scholar awards to teach, conduct research, and foster cross-cultural connections globally. The recipients span all three UMBC colleges and comprise three faculty members and one staff member. The UMBC awardees are connecting with international partners in areas of shared interest. Augusto Casas, an associate teaching professor of information systems, is working in Colombia; Cynthia Wagner, a teaching professor of biological sciences, went to Kyrgyzstan; Irene Chan, a professor of visual arts, is in Romania; and Tom Penniston, M.A. ’09, TESOL, Ph.D. ’14, language, literacy, and culture, the coordinator of learning analytics in the Division of Information Technology, is working in Croatia.

2. Building intentional international connections

A six-person UMBC team built international connections at the “PIWOT – World of Technology” conference, held in early 2025 in Mumbai, India. The science and technology conference is organized by the alumni association for graduates of the prestigious Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), and attracts many of the leaders in science and technology in India and around the world. The CEO of Alphabet, Inc. (Google’s parent company), the co-founder of Sun Microsystems, and the CEO of IBM are all graduates of IITs. 

This year’s PIWOT conference focused on the impact of technology across multiple dimensions of life, from the professional to the personal. UMBC’s Anupam Joshi, acting dean of the College of Engineering and Information Technology, took part as a speaker on a panel about the impact of technology on education, and the UMBC booth also displayed the low-cost infant incubator developed by Professor Govind Rao.

3. International research collaboration challenges assumptions

Thanks to funding from the German Academic Exchange Service, Lorenz Kopp and Björn Michelmann, mechanical engineering students from Germany’s Regensburg University of Applied Sciences, came to UMBC to conduct research with UMBC’s mechanical engineering professor, Paris von Lockette. The project was part of a bigger assumption-questioning enterprise—in particular, probing the behavior of materials called soft magnets. Kopp’s and Michelmann’s advisor at Regensburg University of Applied Sciences knew von Lockette through the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, and together they arranged the details of the two-month visit with the help of the Office of International Students and Scholars at UMBC. 

While Kopp and Michelmann spent plenty of time in the lab during their visit, they also had chances to explore the areas surrounding UMBC on weekends. They visited the National Aquarium in Baltimore, took in a Baltimore Ravens football game, and drove to Shenandoah National Park in Virginia. They also enjoyed campus life, attending Homecoming weekend, and regularly visiting the Retriever Activity Center to work out.

4. Exploring politics in a global context, virtually

Professor Filomeno’s 2024 Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) Brazil project on climate change equips students with the technical and interpersonal skills to thrive in professional online international and intercultural environments. COIL makes international scholarship and intercultural learning accessible by removing barriers of cost and travel while preparing students with essential skills for future in-person exchanges. COIL Brazil was part of Filomeno’s Global Citizenship class in collaboration with former colleague Clarissa Dri, a professor of international relations at his alma mater, the Federal University of Santa Catarina, in southern Brazil.

The ongoing Virtual Tandem Conversation project was created by Susanne Sutton, a teaching professor of German, and Talke Macfarland, a visiting lecturer of German in UMBC’s Department of Modern Languages, Linguistics, and Intercultural Communication. They established the program during COVID-19 to help UMBC students learning German and German students learning English socialize while continuing to improve their language skills.

The actual tandem meetings are entirely student-driven and take place outside of the classroom—each tandem pair arranges virtual meetings according to their schedule. Tandem participants have gone beyond the virtual classroom, such as UMBC Golden ID Program student Rebecca Smith, who, while on a recent trip to France, hopped over to Germany to visit Gertrud Krause-Traudes, her partner in UMBC’s Virtual Tandem Conversation project. After three semesters of virtual conversations in German and English, Smith was happy to meet Krause-Traudes in person.

5. Science that bridges two worlds

In 2020, as the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted lives worldwide, Greema Regmi began her Ph.D. in UMBC’s atmospheric physics program. Studying remotely from her home in Nepal, she navigated a grueling schedule due to the time difference. Now in her fifth year, Regmi’s perseverance has earned her NASA’s prestigious Future Investigators in NASA Earth and Space Science and Technology (FINESST) fellowship, which will provide up to $50,000 annually for up to three years to fuel her research on atmospheric dust.

Regmi has been able to accomplish so much in part because of the supportive community she found at UMBC, after finally arriving on campus in fall 2021. Regmi’s journey bridges her unique perspectives as a student in Nepal and the U.S. At UMBC, she’s embraced broader opportunities. “I think here you can push the limit. I don’t even know what the limit is in the U.S. Here you can dream more and be more experimental,” she observes.

Grounded in the UMBC physics department’s community of support, Regmi’s confidence has only grown since her arrival in Maryland. “There’s always a place for my opinion, which is very nice. Because of that, and all of the experiences I’ve had, now I have the confidence to start my own project,” she explains. “And that’s why I think now I’m confident to go back home, lead something there, and be helpful in some small way.”

Learn more about UMBC’s international opportunities.