Greetings all!

It is so wonderful to be able to send this email out to SO many students. I hope you are all doing well. We have some new students joining us in the spring of 2026 and I'm thrilled to be able to welcome you all. Please read this email for some very important updates.

GRADUATE ASSISTANTSHIPS

While the final decisions about how many graders and/or graduate assistantships we will have to offer at the Erickson School are still being made, I highly recommend that students complete their profiles on Handshake. All job opportunities at UMBC are made public through this platform which can be accessed here: https://careers.umbc.edu/students/handshake/   

If you are a new student who has not yet registered for fall classes but have been accepted to ESAS, you can start your account. All features of Handshake will be made available to you upon completion of your registration. 

SPRING 2026 COURSE REGISTRATION

Registration for the Spring 2026 semester is starting. Your registration window opens according to how many credit hours you have completed. Here is the schedule:

Date                      Time           Students Eligible

10/27/2025           11:30am     30 or greater earned credits

10/27/2025           3:30pm       22 or greater earned credits

10/28/2025           11:30am     14 or greater earned credits

10/28/2025            3:30pm      .01 or greater earned credits

10/29/2025           11:30am     Continuing students with 0 earned credits

12/01/2025           11:30am     Newly admitted students with 0 earned credits

I have attached the course offerings flyer for our AGNG graduate courses to this email. If you are uncertain about which courses to take, please schedule an appointment with me prior to registering. I am always happy to meet and to review your degree progression.

IMPORTANT GROUPS TO ADD ON MYUMBC

For those of you who are new to UMBC, the "Groups" pages. I would highly recommend you subscribe to.

UMBC Graduate Student Association

https://my3.my.umbc.edu/groups/gsa/events

Please know my door is always open and I am eager to support you in your degree/certificate pursuits.

Sincerely - Lee Ann Steffen, PhD, Director of Graduate Programs, Erickson School of Aging Studies

lfergus1@umbc.edu

Strolling through campus, you might have noticed the blend of architectural styles, with a strong leaning toward brick brutalism (nicknamed “brickalism”), normalized in the 1960s; a typical look for a chemistry or engineering building. But you’ve probably wondered why the Fine Arts building doesn’t look so “artsy”?

From the outside, it may appear like a stereotypical late 60s/early 70s college building. But inside, you’ll find brilliant creative minds hard at work, taking photos, painting, or rendering animations. Now, thanks to UMBC’s new Arts+ initiative, a public art installation by the Cheeky Magpie Collective—made up of more than 20 alumni and current UMBC artists—is transforming the windows of the first four floors of the Fine Arts Building. The bold colors and patterns give visitors an idea of the artistic processes and world-expanding learning that’s going on behind the facade.

“The Fine Arts Building was really integral to our development, not only as designers but as growing students, and now alumni. All the effort we put into this design is a direct reflection of how amazing all the people in the building are,” says Thomas Hammond ’25, design, a member of the artist collective.

Funding for creative endeavors

This fall, UMBC launched Arts+ to celebrate and connect our vibrant and multifaceted arts scene throughout campus and with the region. Through this initiative, funding was allocated for a public art installation. The Cheeky Magpie Collective’s pitch to install a window treatment on the Fine Arts Building, where many of them spent most of their undergraduate career, was accepted. Collective members Gwen Knott ’25, design, and Jayden Rhodes ’25, design, were the lead designers of the project, with administrators Jalen Boyd ’25, design,Hammond, and Ni Truong ’25, design.

“I taught with the students who are now the Cheeky Magpie Collective in one of our capstone design classes,” says Kelley Bell, M.F.A. ’06, imaging and digital arts, the visual arts coordinator for Arts+. “It’s almost magical to see what we at UMBC have taught them in action. This was a fantastic opportunity for visual arts and UMBC to shine and give visitors to the campus and our UMBC community a new way to see our campus.”

Members of the collective say that by showcasing the Fine Arts Building in an attention-calling way puts a crack in the perception of UMBC as “just a STEM school,” bringing the groundbreaking art by UMBC students and faculty out into the light. The building and the faculty working inside were “great creative inspirations to the collective as student designers,” says Hammond. The art installation highlights this creativity, becoming a beacon of encouragement and inspiration for emerging artists.

A meaningful mark

“I knew this project would be perfect to support a group of alums who are doing something exceptional in forming this collective,” says Bell who was the coordinator and art director for the job, “but the design and thinking behind that design was all theirs,” she adds.

“It felt like we were able to really contribute to the university and leave a meaningful mark on what arts can do for a community and how we can use it to build up our already pretty great university,” says Boyd.

The visual style is a fusion of different inspirations, selected for their use of pattern, color, repeating motifs, and geometric and organic forms. The primary inspirations were the Arquitectonica style, and artist Sol LeWitt’s wall drawings which are characterized by their bold use of color and form and exacting geometric precision, and finally, in line with the modern influences of UMBC, the Memphis and post-modern style which was emblematic of the 1980s.

While the design was handled by the members of the Cheeky Magpie Collective, the print and installation was done by the UMBC Facilities Management Sign Shop on cut vinyl.

“UMBC is about the community,” says Truong. “It just makes you feel like it’s home because they’re always trying to give back and looking to support local companies and businesses like the Cheeky Magpie Collective. And this is our way of giving back.”

Picture the most advanced technology and certain qualities probably spring to mind: maybe metallic and sleek, with glowing lights and big digital screens. 

The researchers at the Center for Advanced Sensor Technology (CAST) at UMBC, however, have a different adjective they aim for when designing tech: dirt cheap.

For these scientists and engineers, inexpensive doesn’t mean low-quality—it means challenging traditional ways of thinking to produce affordable and reliable products that meet vital needs. Toward this end, a CAST research team recently debuted a new environmental sensor made out of simple balsa wood sheets—the kind you could buy at a craft store for a few dollars. The wood was cut and assembled to make a central well to hold samples and channels for the electrochemical components of the sensor to be inserted. The researchers coated the wood to make it waterproof and stuck it together with wood glue. 

Inexpensive and sustainable

Choosing wood served two purposes: making the sensor low-cost and also environmentally friendly. 

“Sustainability was very important to us,” says Revati Kadolkar, a Ph.D. student in chemical engineering who is working on the project. Kadolkar is advised by professors Govind Rao, who directs CAST, and Douglas Frey in the department of chemical, biochemical, and environmental engineering (CBEE). “Using wood instead of plastic for the structural skeleton of the sensor was a key step toward that sustainability,” she says.

In collaboration with another UMBC team from the Center for Urban Environmental Research and Education led by CBEE professor Claire Welty, the CAST team tested the sensor in the field by measuring nitrate levels in streams in the Gwynns Falls watershed near Baltimore. Nitrate is a pollutant, often linked to agricultural activities, that can cause gut cancer, birth defects and a condition called methemoglobinemia, also known as the blue baby syndrome. Its concentration in tap water in the U.S. is regulated by the Safe Drinking Water Act. The accuracy of the sensor’s readings was on par with traditional equipment that cost hundreds of times more money, the researchers say. 

Testing in the lab, the team also found the sensor worked well across a range of conditions, including wide variations in temperature and pH levels, and continued to operate well for more than a year. 

A more comprehensive view of the world

Driving down the cost of technology should drive up its impact. Cheaper sensors could be deployed in higher numbers, yielding a more comprehensive view of the world and spotting potential problems earlier. 

“Let’s say you want to map the whole Chesapeake Bay and know every hour if there is contamination and how it is traveling down the bay,” says Venkatesh Srinivasan, a research associate professor at CAST who also worked on the project. “You can get these details more easily if you have lower-cost sensors.”

Spreading the benefits of science and technology to resource-limited communities has been a driving force behind CAST research for decades. The team has also developed low-cost infant incubators and a suitcase-sized device to make medicine on-demand. 

For now, the sensor operates by analyzing droplets of water added to its central well. Going forward, the team would like to create a sensor that could be submerged in the water and report continuous measurements.  

They are already working with the Maryland company NanoForge Systems to commercialize the new nitrate sensor. 

“Translating science into innovative products that can help people is what really excites me about this work,” Kadolkar says.

Join the Economics Council and Mu Sigma Rho for an exciting Poker Night on TODAY from 6:00–7:30 PM in Commons 331!

Try your luck, test your strategy, and enjoy a fun night of games and good company.

♠️ Snacks will be provided,  don't fold on this event! ♥️