Meyerhoff Graduate Natasha Wilson was interviewed during Papal visit. See article.
Users often must make security and privacy decisions, yet are rarely equipped to do so. In my research, I aim to understand both computer systems and the humans who use them. Armed with this understanding, I design and build tools that help users protect their security and privacy.
In this talk, I will describe how I applied this research approach to password security and usability. As understanding what makes a password good or bad is crucial to this process, I will first discuss our work on metrics for password strength. These metrics commonly involve modeling password cracking, which we found often vastly underestimates passwords’ vulnerability to cracking in the real world. We instead propose combining a series of carefully configured approaches, which we found to conservatively model real-world experts. We used these insights to implement a Password Guessability Service, which is already used by nearly two dozen research groups. I will then discuss our work on another key step to helping users create better passwords: understanding why humans create the passwords they do. I will focus on the impact of password-strength meters and users’ perceptions of password security. By combining better metrics with an understanding of users, I show how we can design tools that guide users toward better passwords.
Blase Ur is a Ph.D. candidate at Carnegie Mellon University’s School of Computer Science, where he is advised by Lorrie Cranor. His research interests lie at the intersection of security, privacy, and human-computer interaction (HCI). In addition to his work on password security, he has studied numerous aspects of online privacy and the Internet of Things (IoT). Previously, he obtained his A.B. in Computer Science from Harvard University. He is the recipient of an NDSEG fellowship, a Fulbright scholarship, a Yahoo Key Scientific Challenges Award, the best paper award at UbiComp 2014, and honorable mentions for best paper at both CHI 2012 and CHI 2016.
]]>4th year Chemistry doctoral student and IMSD Meyerhoff Graduate Fellow, Flaire Macazo received a first-authored publication (1 of 3 first authored publications) accepted in JACS (The Journal of The American Chemical Society). Flaire is also an invited speaker at the 2016 Pittcon Meeting (SEAC Session) in March in Atlanta Georgia. For more information on her talk see: https://ca.pittcon.org/…/…/72DB2DC13BA41A2585257EBE0051E932…
In “A passion for research” the Baltimore Sun highlights how undergraduate students at Baltimore area colleges and universities benefit from robust research opportunities across disciplines, including through an exciting new partnership connecting environmental scientists at UMBC with colleagues around the nation.
The Urban Water Innovation Network (UWIN), featured in the article, is one of several multidisciplinary partnerships in which UMBC is actively participating. It was recently created through a $12 million commitment from the National Science Foundation to unite the work of more than a dozen academic institutions studying the challenges that threaten urban water systems. UMBC undergraduates are closely involved in research working toward UWIN’s goal of creating solutions to help communities become more prepared to respond to water crises.
“It’s a nice opportunity to play a part in a project of national scope. It’s quite an honor,” Claire Welty, professor of chemical, biochemical and environmental engineering (CBEE), director of the Center for Urban Environmental Research and Education (CUERE), and the lead researcher at UMBC for the UWIN grant told the Baltimore Sun.
Andrew Miller, professor of geography and environmental systems, shared, “UMBC has been doing research like this” for years, but being invited to join UWIN felt like “a baseball player getting to be involved in a world series.”
“The idea is to create a network of scientists to help solve environmental problems,” explains Chris Swan, professor of geography and environmental systems. He adds that many universities within the network are including undergraduate and graduate students who can benefit from the networking opportunities the partnership creates.
Miller says that ultimately this intensive collaboration will lead to improved research outcomes, noting, “It’s a big interdisciplinary project with networks of people working together who combine a variety of expertise.”
“One person is not going to solve these types of problems,” Miller explains. “We will all learn from each other and do things we couldn’t do on our own.”
Read the full article on The Baltimore Sun.
Image: Claire Welty and two students conducting research in the field. Photo by Chris Hartlove.
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For the last three years, UMBC students and faculty have been working on a project to safeguard the heritage of the Sparrows Point Steel Mill community and to amplify the voices and stories of the people who worked there.
As part of the ongoing project, Michelle Stefano, visiting assistant professor of American studies, Bill Shewbridge, professor of the practice of media and communication studies, and their students have recorded interviews with Sparrows Point workers and community members. The work has transformed into a documentary in response to feedback from the community to contextualize the individual steelworker stories and to build a broader narrative about what life was like at Sparrows Point.
The documentary Mill Stories has been screened at film festivals both domestically and internationally. Most recently, On March 6, the film was screened in Baltimore at the Museum of Industry and it was covered in the local news media by WYPR’s Maryland Morning and the Baltimore Sun.
“It’s about promoting and keeping alive this living heritage,” Stefano told WYPR’s Tom Hall. “The significance of the mill and its history lives on in the minds and hearts of those who knew it.”
Read more about the ongoing project on the Mill Stories website.
Image: Sparrows Point employee interview. Photo by Bill Shewbridge.
]]>Make your mark in Broadcasting. Sinclair Broadcast Group, Inc is one of the largest and most diversified television broadcasting companies in the nation, programming 162 stations located in 79 geographically diverse markets after pending transactions. Our success is the result of extraordinary employees and an exemplary management team who believes in a vision and is dedicated to making Sinclair Broadcast Group, Inc a communications powerhouse.
We are advancing the world of Broadcasting and we want YOU to join our winning team!
As a part of our commitment to community service and educational enrichment, ABC 7-WJLA-TV & NewsChannel8 (Rosslyn Location) offers a limited number of highly-sought unpaid internships aimed at providing a springboard for college students interested in developing careers in broadcast and/or cable television, sales, and human resources. These internships are offered to selected participants currently enrolled institutions of higher learning. Student interns will experience all phases of a major market television station's day-to-day operations as a supplement to their academic curriculum.
Internship Areas
Required Skills
ABC 7 & NewsChannel 8 internships are made available to juniors and senior registered in a four-year undergraduate program at an accredited college or university. Graduate students and students entering their second year in a two-year junior or community college program may also be considered. Applicants should possess declared majors in communications, journalism, broadcast production techniques, sales or some similar related area (applicants interested in a Weather internship must possess declared majors in Meteorology, Atmospheric Science, or closely related area). Applicants must be at least 18 years of age. The applicant must receive academic credit for the internship experience.
Read more and apply through this careers page, or search "WJLA" in UMBCworks.
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The Office of the Vice President for Research (OVPR) has awarded Summer Faculty Fellowships (SFFs) to 11 faculty across disciplines. The SFF program supports non-tenured, tenure-track UMBC faculty pursuing research and scholarly projects during the summer. Supplemental funding for the program was provided by the College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences (CAHSS) for an additional 11 awards. OVPR funded seven awards for CAHSS, two for the College of Natural and Mathematical Sciences (CNMS), and two for the College of Engineering and Information Technology (COEIT).
“UMBC is excited about the impactful scholarship which our Summer Faculty Fellowship recipients will be pursuing this summer,” says Vice President for Research Karl Steiner. “I am confident that many of these projects will lead to externally funded, long-term endeavors which will contribute significantly to the recipients’ respective disciplines.”
A brief description of each 2016 SFF project is found below:
Jasmine Abrams, assistant professor of psychology, will research how stress influences cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk among black women, a group that is disproportionately affected by the disease, to inform future research and prevention strategies.
Ian Anson, assistant professor of political science, was awarded SFF funding to investigate how media narratives shape citizens’ attributions of responsibility for national economic conditions.
William Blake, assistant professor of political science, will examine voting behavior on ballot measures and state constitutions to broaden theories of economic voting behavior.
Colleen Burge, assistant professor of marine biotechnology, was awarded funding through the SFF program to measure oyster immune responses to an emerging disease to be used a biomarkers for oyster health.
Eric Campbell, assistant professor of philosophy, received support to publish a journal article that explains subjectivism, the idea that a person’s reasons for action are justified by their desires and attitudes, is ultimately a question about how to conduct ethical discourse and explores why the quasi-realist strategy to save moral discourse is self-undermining.
Chris Curran, assistant professor of public policy, received SFF funding to study the influence of states, school boards, principals, teachers, and other stakeholders on school discipline policies while assessing variations across school populations. The results will inform policymakers as they work to improve equality in disciplinary outcomes for students.
Thania Muñoz Díaz, assistant professor of modern languages, linguistics, and intercultural communication, was awarded funding to support research on the representation of Mexican migration from the perspective of women, translation, and cultural memory.
Matthew Fagan, assistant professor of geography and environmental systems, received SFF funding to use aerial and satellite imagery from NASA’s G-LiHT imager to improve the ability to predict how forest structure and composition will respond to landscape fragmentation.
Bronwyn Hunter, assistant professor of psychology, received support to examine discrimination and rejection experiences among formerly incarcerated adults.
Renée Lambert-Brétière, assistant professor of modern languages, linguistics, and intercultural communication, was awarded funding through the SFF program to write a book that aims to empower indigenous people of Quebec to develop, manage, and maintain their own language documentation projects.
Jiyoon Lee, assistant professor of education, received SFF funding to investigate U.S. public school teachers’ knowledge, understanding, and competencies related to assessment in K-12 classrooms.
Tania Lizarazo, assistant professor of modern languages, linguistics, and intercultural communication, was awarded funding to reimagine and develop a digital storytelling project she collaborated on with activist women to capture visual narratives about survival in Columbia.
Daniel Lobo, assistant professor of biological sciences, will use SFF funding to address the problem of discovering bacterial integrated regulatory-metabolic networks involved in the degradation of carbon sources.
Susan McCully, assistant professor of theatre, received support to write a companion piece to her critically acclaimed production of Kerrmoor to be performed as a stand-alone tragedy, or as the second act of the longer play.
Elizabeth Patton, assistant professor of media and communication studies, was awarded SFF funding to research the politics of media representations of family, privacy, race, gender and class, the politics of media practices in relation to work and play, and the politics of space.
Bryce Peake, assistant professor of media and communication studies, received funding to complete a book project that examines the ways that media sciences and listening practices are historically implicated in British colonial forms of masculinity in Gibraltar.
Hamed Pirsiavash, assistant professor of computer science and electrical engineering, received an SFF to build a machine learning tool that can map sensory data from modalities such as natural images, clip art, and spatial text into a common semantic representation.
Sarah Sharp, assistant professor of visual arts, was awarded SFF funding to develop the “Whole Earth Codex,” a multi-component interactive sculptural artwork that complicates understanding of utopian communities.
Nathaniel Sinnot, assistant professor of theatre, received support to research methods to enhance the theatrical design process through computer programming and innovation.
Michelle Stites, assistant professor of education, was awarded funding through the SFF program to study mathematical interventions for students with learning disabilities.
Christine Yee, assistant professor of economics, received SFF funding to assess the impact of school accountability on the mental health of youth.
Meilin Yu, assistant professor of mechanical engineering, received support to understand the impact of turbulent flow physics on mechanisms of drag reduction in efficient fish locomotion.
For more information about the Summer Faculty Fellowship program, visit the SFF website.
Image: Bryce Peake presents his research at a Dresher Center Faculty Micro Talks event. Photo by Marlayna Demond ’11 for UMBC.
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