Mentoring the Next Generation of Researchers
Last month, assistant professor of sociology Shelia Cotten was named the first recipient of the Graduate Student Association’s UMBC Recognition for Graduate Research and Educational Advisor or Teacher Award (UR GREAT Award). The award, presented at the GSA’s last Senate meeting of the year, was established to honor those who strive to aid graduate students in their academic and professional pursuits during their time at UMBC.
Cotten’s philosophy on graduate teaching and mentoring draws her students into academic life from the very beginning. “I believe that graduate students should be fully engaged in the research process and the life of the department,” she says. “Engaging students allows them to get more out of their graduate school experience and leaves them more well-prepared to use their new skills in a work environment.”
To achieve this goal, Cotten works closely with her graduate students on their research, often co-authoring articles or presenting at conferences with them. Cotten’s own research has focused on the relationship between stress, psychosocial resources and well-being and the social impacts of technology usage, but her work with graduate students has also included topics such as the impact of alcohol abuse among college students and prenatal information given to women.
In addition to including students in her research, Cotten has also made significant efforts to ensure that graduate students have opportunities to be full participants in the life of their department. She recently created a professional seminar course for first-year graduate students designed to integrate them into the field of sociology and their department while also introducing the grad students to faculty and their research.
Cotten’s efforts are clearly noticed by her students. Says Brian Ward, one of seven students who wrote recommendations supporting Cotten’s nomination, “Dr. Cotten’s obvious passion for teaching inspires me to do my best work. It would not be an exaggeration to say that she has been the biggest academic and professional influence in my life.”
“It was a great honor and surprise to be the first recipient of the UR GREAT Award,” says Cotten. “I teach the way I do because I love sociology and I want my students to love it just as much, not because I expect any special recognition. It was wonderful to see that my work has made a difference in the lives of my students.”
(6/29/04)
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The Class of 2004
This academic year, UMBC awarded degrees to over 1500 undergraduates and over 300 graduate students from the Class of 2004.
UMBC�s Class of 2004 includes students headed to prestigious graduate programs at universities including Princeton, Stanford, NYU, Johns Hopkins, University of Maryland Schools of Law and Medicine, UNC-Chapel Hill, Boston, William & Mary, Rice, Emory, Indiana and Columbia.
Other students have secured jobs across a wide spectrum of corporations, nonprofits and government agencies, including IBM, Northrop Grumman, Booz Allen Hamilton, ABC News, National Cancer Institute, Titan Systems, T. Rowe Price and SAIC. Many will teach at public schools across Maryland.
Addressing the graduates at the University�s May commencement ceremonies were two speakers who are leaders in their fields. Dr. William A. Haseltine, chairman and chief executive officer of Human Genome Sciences, Inc. (HGSI), was the Graduate School�s keynote speaker, while Xerox Corporation�s Ursula Burns, president of business group operations and corporate senior vice president for Xerox, shared her five �keys� to a successful career at the Undergraduate Commencement ceremonies.
Click here to read more about the Class of 2004.
(6/10/04)
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Mentoring the Next Generation of Researchers
Last month, assistant professor of sociology Shelia Cotten was named the first recipient of the Graduate Student Association’s UMBC Recognition for Graduate Research and Educational Advisor or Teacher Award (UR GREAT Award). The award, presented at the GSA’s last Senate meeting of the year, was established to honor those who strive to aid graduate students in their academic and professional pursuits during their time at UMBC.
Cotten’s philosophy on graduate teaching and mentoring draws her students into academic life from the very beginning. “I believe that graduate students should be fully engaged in the research process and the life of the department,” she says. “Engaging students allows them to get more out of their graduate school experience and leaves them more well-prepared to use their new skills in a work environment.”
To achieve this goal, Cotten works closely with her graduate students on their research, often co-authoring articles or presenting at conferences with them. Cotten’s own research has focused on the relationship between stress, psychosocial resources and well-being and the social impacts of technology usage, but her work with graduate students has also included topics such as the impact of alcohol abuse among college students and prenatal information given to women.
In addition to including students in her research, Cotten has also made significant efforts to ensure that graduate students have opportunities to be full participants in the life of their department. She recently created a professional seminar course for first-year graduate students designed to integrate them into the field of sociology and their department while also introducing the grad students to faculty and their research.
Cotten’s efforts are clearly noticed by her students. Says Brian Ward, one of seven students who wrote recommendations supporting Cotten’s nomination, “Dr. Cotten’s obvious passion for teaching inspires me to do my best work. It would not be an exaggeration to say that she has been the biggest academic and professional influence in my life.”
“It was a great honor and surprise to be the first recipient of the UR GREAT Award,” says Cotten. “I teach the way I do because I love sociology and I want my students to love it just as much, not because I expect any special recognition. It was wonderful to see that my work has made a difference in the lives of my students.”
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UMBC’s 2004 Valedictorian
Anthony Hoffman, UMBC�s 2004 valedictorian, has maintained a 4.0 GPA while earning a bachelor�s degree in physics�with departmental honors�and a minor in mathematics.
This fall, he will begin Princeton University�s Ph.D. program in electrical engineering on a Princeton Graduate School Endowed Fellowship. He also received fellowship offers from Yale and Penn State Universities.
Hoffman says he chose to attend UMBC because he saw an opportunity to conduct research in the new Physics building�s excellent facilities, but even more so because �The professors here seemed the most welcoming. They aren�t just teachers; they reach out to mentor students.�
Now he is graduating with some impressive accomplishments in research. Hoffman received the 2003-04 Langenberg Undergraduate Research Award for his senior thesis on electro-optic effects in organic polymers. This summer he will present his work at a meeting of the American Chemical Society. In addition, he has conducted research with a team in Dr. Michael Hayden�s Laboratory for Nonlinear Optical Studies of Macromolecular Photonic Materials.
Hoffman uses his skills in physics and mathematics to tutor and to participate in other charitable activities through the Knights of Columbus. �Service makes a person whole,� he says. �Part of academics is communicating results with the rest of the world. It�s important to keep in touch with the world and make it a better place at the same time.�
For his outstanding academic work and service, Hoffman has been elected into numerous honor societies: Phi Beta Kappa, Phi Kappa Phi, Sigma Pi Sigma, Pi Mu Epsilon and the Golden Key International Honor Society. He has been a member of the Provost�s Student Advisory Council, the Society of Physics Students and the Newman Club.
A voracious fiction reader (William Faulkner is his favorite author), outdoor sports enthusiast and student pilot, Hoffman�s ultimate goal is to be a NASA astronaut. �You can run many different types of applications in space,� he explains. �It�s a huge platform for research.� However, after receiving his Ph.D., he�d like to gain additional experience at a government lab or in industry before returning to higher education to teach future researchers.
(5/17/04)
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Linking Graduate Education and Service
Joby Taylor, fourth-year Ph.D. candidate in UMBC�s Language, Literacy and Culture Program, is the director of the Shriver Peaceworker Program at UMBC�s Shriver Center. This prestigious fellowship program is specially designed for returned Peace Corps volunteers and follows a service-learning model for graduate education. It is named for R. Sargent Shriver, first director of the Peace Corps and architect of numerous public service programs such as Head Start, VISTA and Special Olympics.
�It�s a really thoughtful and innovative program because it links graduate study with community service and ethical reflection,” says Taylor, a former Peace Corps worker in Gabon, Africa, and recipient of the Peaceworker fellowship for the past three years.
“There are 14 fellows�full-time graduate students across a range of disciplines�who work 20 hours a week in community service internships,” says Taylor. “Every Friday we have seminars about social change and ethical issues. These seminars are key because they integrate what our fellows are doing in their service internships and what they are learning in their graduate programs. That�s service-learning in a nutshell!”
The director�s position seems almost tailored for Taylor who, during his own fellowship, helped UMBC faculty members design and implement new service-learning courses. Taylor explains, “These courses integrate experiential learning opportunities for students into the traditional classroom components of reading, writing, lecture and discussion. They involve the students in appropriate community service placements throughout the semester, and design assignments that help them to critically reflect upon their course content and their experiences of service.”
“The service-learning model is great because it provides students with the opportunity to put their classroom learning into practice, while, at the same time, contribute their time and skills to meeting real social needs,” adds Taylor. “It is my hope for the Shriver Peaceworker Program that, in the spirit of Sargent Shriver, we will raise up a new generation of leaders who have the knowledge, skills and experience to build a more caring and just world.�
(5/11/04)
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Girl Power Times 500
On May 8, UMBC will welcome 500 sixth through eighth-grade girls and one of the nation’s most visible women journalists for Computer Mania Day 2004, a day of hands-on, fun learning designed to close the information technology (IT) gender gap.
500 middle school girls from Baltimore City and a dozen surrounding counties will be inspired by keynote speaker Soledad O’Brien, anchor of CNN’s “American Morning.” Computer Mania Day connects the girls (boys are welcome too) with female role models from Baltimore-area companies, schools, government agencies and UMBC for fun, hands-on workshops that explore the science behind cell phones, hot air balloons, code-breaking and many other topics.
Computer Mania Day is a hands-on extension of the mission of UMBC’s Center for Women and Information Technology (CWIT), which ABC News.com has named “the best resource on women and technology on the Web.”
Research shows that the IT gender gap opens as early as the middle school years, when girls are most image-conscious and do not want to be labeled as “geeks” or “nerds.” Girls make up only 14.3% of the students who take Advanced Placement courses in computer science, a key to success in IT-related fields at the college level.
“Computer Mania Day brings businesses, educators and community members together to show girls that whatever their career choice, they’ll need to use technology, and that technology is cool,” says CWIT Director Claudia Morrell.
A parallel parent and teacher program will complement the day by providing information about causes for girls’ low enrollment in technology courses and what parents can do to encourage girls to embrace technology.
The 2003 event hosted by UMBC drew 300 students from Baltimore and Howard County schools. This year’s event is scheduled to include 500 participating girls from the following public school systems: Anne Arundel County, Baltimore City, Baltimore County, Calvert County, Cecil County, Harford County, Howard County, Montgomery County, Prince George’s County, Queen Anne’s County, Somerset County, and St. Mary’s County.
Morrell is currently leading efforts to address the IT gender gap at the state level through legislation that will develop a task force to study the issue. “As Maryland looks to become a national leader in the high-tech economy, we need to make sure that everyone participates and everyone benefits,” says Morrell.
For more information on Computer Mania Day, please go to the online news release.
Press Kit Components Available Online for Download (Adobe PDF files):
Facts About Technology & Mentoring at UMBC
Video from Computer Mania Day 2003
(5/04/04)
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Accolades for UMBC Film/Video Makers
When the doors open for the 2004 Maryland Film Festival (May 6-9 in Baltimore), the work of UMBC faculty, students and alumni will take center stage. Among the highlights of the Festival will be a new feature film, Saved!, by Brian Dannelly (Visual Arts �97, Magna Cum Laude), which had been featured in the 2004 Sundance Festival and is scheduled for national theatrical release later this month.
Dannelly credits UMBC with much of his success. After receiving his bachelor’s degree from UMBC, he went on to become a directing fellow at the prestigious American Film Institute (AFI), the preeminent national organization dedicated to advancing and preserving film, television and other forms of the moving image. “It was absolutely amazing for me,” Dannelly says. “I never would have gotten into AFI if it weren’t for my experience at UMBC.”
In addition to Saved!, UMBC�s contributions to the Maryland Film Festival include Fulton Fish Market by Mark Street (assistant professor, visual arts); Overpass by Alan Price (assistant professor, visual arts); Site Visits by Carol Hess (associate professor and chair, dance), which features a sound score by Timothy Nohe (associate professor, visual arts); Bludren by Jill Johnston-Price (adjunct assistant professor, visual arts); Today is Thursday and Warp & Weft by Jo Israelson (IMDA �04); L�Invitation and Love and a �61 by Nick Prevas (visual arts �03); Method for Self-Defense Against Scorpions by Tanner Almon (visual arts �03); and Remission by Dan Stack (undergraduate, visual arts).
The recent attention on UMBC�s film and video makers hasn�t limited to the Maryland Film Festival. At April�s 2004 Rosebud Film Festival, an annual festival and competition founded in 1990 to promote independent film and video in Washington, Maryland and Virginia, UMBC faculty and students took three of the five prizes. Among the recipients were Alan Price for Overpass, which won the �Best of Show� award; Jo Israelson for Warp & Weft; and IMDA graduate student Renée Shaw for Blood, Breast and Other Strange Events. And in May 2004, a comedic film by May Tam (visual arts �03), Inverval, will be included at the DC Underground Film Festival.
Mark Street�s film At Home and Asea screened at the American Film Institute Silver Theatre in April. The film was shown at the Museum of Modern Art in New York last October, where another of Street�s films, Fulton Fish Market, played in March�and that film was recently invited to play at the Tribeca Film Festival in May.
Associate Professor Hollie Lavenstein�s most recent short film, Cleave (2000), starring Wendy Salkind (associate professor and chair, theatre) has received accolades at the Chicago International Film Festival (Silver Hugo Award), the South by Southwest Film Festival (Best Narrative Short Runner-up Award), the Sidewalk Moving Picture Festival (Best Short) and the Ann Arbor Film Festival (Lawrence Kasdan Best Narrative Short). Additionally, the film has been broadcast on the Sundance Channel and has been screened at the Denver International Film Fest, the Slamdance Film Festival, the Humboldt International Short Film Festival, the Seattle International Film Festival, the Maryland Film Festival and the AFI Fest.
Alan Price�s Overpass won an award at the 2004 Humboldt International Short Film Festival, and received second prize at the Black Maria Film Festival, which is currently on tour. The film will be screened at the Rochester International Film Festival in May, where it will receive an award. Overpass has or will be screened at many other festivals, including the Big Muddy Film Festival (Illinois), the Festival Arcipelago (Italy), the Filmstock International Film Festival (England), the Melbourne International Animation Festival, the Seattle International Film Festival, the Philadelphia Film Festival, the Crossroads International Festival (Mississippi), the Fargo Film Festival, the Texas Film Festival, the Independent Film Festival of Boston, the Trenton Film Festival, the Blackpoint Film Festival (Wisconsin), the Antelope Valley International Film Festival (California) and the Langbaugh Film Festival (Portland).
Jill Johnston-Price�s animation, Bludren, won the Grand Jury Prize in Animation at the DC Independent Film Festival, and it received the GB Hajim Juror�s Choice Award at the 2004 Humboldt International Short Film Festival.
UMBC alumni who are active in the field include Joanna Raczynska (IMDA �00), the media arts director and curator at Hallwalls in Buffalo, New York, and Kristen Anchor (visual arts �02, Summa Cum Laude), the director of the Creative Alliance MovieMakers in Baltimore.
(4/30/04)
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Focusing On Cyber Security
Whether we�re banking, shopping, voting or working, as American life becomes more dependent on information technology (IT), the security of that information becomes more vital every day.
April 26-30 is Information Assurance (IA)Awareness Week at UMBC, with a slate of speakers and hands-on demonstrations to alert faculty, staff and students to possible threats and to show them how to secure their computer systems.
This event, the first of its kind at UMBC, is a collaboration between Alan Sherman, director of the UMBC Center for Information Security and Assurance (CISA), and associate professor of computer science; and Jack Suess, UMBC chief information officer; the OIT Helpdesk; and students from Sherman�s CMSC-491/691 IA class.
CISA has a three-fold mission to promote research, education and best practices in IA. Reflecting UMBC�s university-wide commitment to information assurance, it comprises faculty, staff and graduate students from the Departments of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering, Information Systems, Public Policy, Mathematics and Statistics and Physics, as well as the Department of Professional Education and Training and the Office of Information Technology.
The week�s activities include hands-on demonstrations of various ways to defend against hackers, computer viruses and other threats.
�For most members of the UMBC Community, the major threats are malicious code� including worms, viruses, and spyware�and identity theft,� says Sherman. �Our work at CISA aims to develop better technology and procedures and to make security easier to use.�
According to Suess, who also co-chairs the National Higher Education Computer and Network Security Task Force, information security and awareness is a top priority at every higher education institution, including UMBC. �This partnership between OIT and CISA is unique and just one example of how students in CISA are using their skills to enhance security at UMBC,� says Suess.
In April, UMBC was re-designated as a Center of Academic Excellence in Information Assurance Education for 2004-2007 by the Department of Defense. An award recognizing this achievement will be presented on June 8 during the annual conference of the (http://www.ncisse.org/index.htm) Colloquium for Information Systems Security Education at the U.S. Military Academy, West Point, NY.
Later that week at the associated West Point IA Workshop, Sherman will present joint research with his students Brian Roberts, William Byrd, Matthew Baker, and John Simmons on new hands-on educational exercises they developed using UMBC�s Mobile Cyber Defense Lab.
IAAW kicks off on April 26 with a lecture by Avi Rubin (technical director, Information Security Institute, Johns Hopkins University), a noted expert, author and researcher on cybersecurity. Rubin will discuss security issues with electronic and Internet voting in light of the 2000 presidential election debacle in Florida. The talk will be held in at 1 p.m. in Lecture Hall V.
Students from CMSC-419/691 IA will staff activity tables on Main Street in The Commons Monday, Tuesday and Friday from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Also, there will be hands-on educational cyber defense exercises on firewalls, intrusion detection and computer forensics in the Information Technology Engineering Building, room 237, Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 2 to 3:15 p.m. (limited seating).
A complete schedule of activities for Information Assurance Awareness Week is available online.
(4/26/04)
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Fieldwork with the O’s
While spring brings the return of baseball season and Baltimore�s beloved Orioles, the O�s avian namesakes aren�t due to migrate back to Maryland for another few weeks. But when they do come back, it�s a sure bet that Meyerhoff Scholar and biological sciences and chemistry double major Elizabeth Humphries will be watching.
For the many undergraduates involved in research at UMBC, the return of warm weather means it�s time for fieldwork. For Humphries and other students under the mentorship of evolutionary biologist Kevin Omland, spring is the time to trade lab coats for binoculars.
But this type of bird-watching is no leisure activity. �I�ve been bitten by a horse during a nest watch and I couldn�t do anything because that would ruin the data. Fieldwork is rough,� she says.
Humphries and other students in Omland�s lab are studying the oriole population to try to help answer why Northern, migratory species (like our Baltimore orioles) have brightly-colored males and dull-colored females, while Southern, non-migratory species have both brightly-colored males and females.
Humphries is focused on the �parental care� theory, which suggests that the difference in coloring is due to the fact that males are the protectors, while females are the caretakers and thus need to blend in with the environment.
Her research is part of Omland�s larger, ongoing project on the evolutionary history and family tree of orioles. �There are really quite a few possible theories and we�re trying to go through and address them one at a time,� says Omland.
Omland�s experience with undergraduate researchers has been very positive. �Undergraduates are an integral part of our research. They are total intellectual participants in the lab. It really puts us in a position where I and the graduate students can learn from them.� Omland says.
Undergraduates also benefit from the experience. �You get to see whether or not something is really as fun as you think or whether you�re really interested in the subject,� Humphries says.
�I�m really glad I got to do research because it�s so much fun,� she says. �I love my lab and the people who work there. I love the work I�m doing. It makes my Tuesdays and Thursdays.�
Omland is amazed at the amount of self-motivation that Humphries possesses. �Liz is incredibly dedicated. She�s here because she wants to be here, not because she�s putting in her 10 hours a week to earn her two credits.�
All that hard work is paying off, because in June, Humphries will travel with Omland and Roland Cheung, another undergraduate researcher, to Mexico to establish field sites.
On April 28, Humphries will present her research results at this year�s Undergraduate Research and Creative Achievement Day (URCAD), a campuswide celebration of undergraduate research and creativity. URCAD 2004 will feature student oral presentations, poster sessions and artistic exhibits and performances. The annual event emphasizes UMBC�s commitment to promoting student-faculty interaction and undergraduate participation in research
(4/20/04)
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From Grad School to Google
Computer science doctoral student and Graduate Student Association (GSA) Vice President Tom Armstrong has a very full calendar for the rest of the spring, followed up by a summer internship with one of the Web�s hottest companies: Google.
As a second year Ph.D. student, Armstrong fills the bulk of his time with research in the intersection of computer science and linguistics at the CORAL (Cognition, Robotics and Learning) Lab, led by Professor Tim Oates. But like many graduate students, Armstrong also juggles his own coursework with teaching undergraduates (a section of Computer Science 203, Discrete Structures) and involvement with student organizations like the GSA.
Armstrong, who did undergraduate work at U. Massachusetts Amherst, came to UMBC and the CORAL Lab after meeting Oates, a fellow UMass Amherst alum. �We study what�s called language acquisition or language learning,� says Armstrong. �We look at ways a robot with sensors�much like a human baby�could learn language by being immersed in an environment. Children learn language by interacting with and listening to adults speaking normally. We want to make a robot do the same thing.�
This summer, Armstrong will be in California working at one of Google�s research labs. �I�ll be part of a team helping to improve Google�s machine translation function. When you Google something and get a result from a foreign-language Web page, I�ll be working to help make the �translate this page� link in your search results work better.�
Armstrong is one of a growing number of UMBC grad students who have gone on to work at the research and development labs of prestigious IT and Web companies like Hewlett Packard, IBM, Nokia and Amazon.
This semester, Armstrong has been busy as vice-president of the GSA, which supports and promotes UMBC�s growing graduate student population. Armstrong is chair of the 26th annual Graduate Research Conference (GRC) between UMBC and the University of Maryland Baltimore (UMB), to be held at UMBC on April 23. The annual event, which UMB and UMBC take turns hosting, is open to the entire campus community and is a good place to learn more about the real-world impact of graduate student research at UMBC.
Despite the difficulty of arranging logistics for 150 presenters and 70 judges, Armstrong is excited about hosting the conference. �It�s an opportunity to showcase grad student research to the UMBC community and beyond,� says Armstrong. �Plus it gives grad students practice giving presentations on their work before going to a conference in their field, which can be somewhat of a lion’s den.”
According to Armstrong, events like the GRC help build UMBC�s national research reputation. �Higher visibility for graduate programs trickles down to a higher quality of undergraduate applicants, which over time will help UMBC rise in the national graduate program ratings.”
For more information on the 2004 Graduate Research Conference, visit http://www.umbc.edu/gradschool/research//grc04.html
(4/12/04)
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