In less than two weeks, beginning Friday, Apr. 22, through Sunday Apr. 24, UMBC will be bustling with life and activity as the campus’ annual Quadmania gets underway. With this event just around the corner, many students wait with eager expectation as to what the festival, specifically the highly anticipated Fetty Wap concert, will have to offer.

For those unfamiliar with the annual spring event, Quadmania begins at 6 p.m. on Friday, Apr. 22, with an assortment of free Quadmania 2016 swag and food followed by fireworks from The Commons Garage. As if this wasn’t enough, Saturday will be filled with games, a chance to win prizes, more food and music provided by DJ’s, student artists as well as local bands performing on, you guessed it, the Quad. Then at 7 p.m. on Sunday, the doors open at the RAC for the highly anticipated Fetty Wap concert. All in all, it promises to be a great weekend filled with fun and activities.

Freshmen in particular are excited about this weekend of enjoyment as this will be their first opportunity to experience an event of this caliber at UMBC. Adam Ballantyne, a freshman mechanical engineering major, said that he “is extremely excited” about the Fetty Wap concert. “Fetty Wap is one of my favorite rappers,” said Ballantyne. “I think overall that Quadmania is going to be a very exciting event, probably the long-awaited sequel to Welcome Week. The tickets have been flying off the shelves and everyone I know is eagerly anticipating all the fun-filled events to come.”

Ballantyne is not the only freshman excited about this major event. Josh Youn, a freshman mathematics major, expressed his genuine excitement for this highly anticipated weekend. “As a freshman, I haven’t experienced Quadmania, so I have to rely on word of mouth,” said Youn. “I don’t know specifically what to expect, but from what I’ve heard, UMBC is the place to be during that weekend and I made sure to get Fetty Wap tickets and everything so I could have the ultimate freshman Quadmania experience. I just hope that it’s as hype as everyone is making it out to be.”

Freshman may be looking forward to their first Quadmania experience most, but those who have been on campus longer are still excited for the concert. Said senior mechanical engineering major Tony DiGennaro, “Quadmania and the concert have been steadily getting better and better with every year.”

“This year is the first time in a while that it’s sold out,” said DiGennaro, who is a veteran Quadmania attendee, “Which really says something about the hype this event is gonna generate. I can’t wait.”

Those who planned the event are just as excited about the sold out show. Selling all the tickets in advance is unusual for a UMBC concert, and it’s a vote of confidence from the student body.

“This is the first time the Quadmania concert has sold out within the past couple of years,” confirmed Logan Stanley, a body member of the Student Events Board, and a sophomore mechanical engineering major.

“It’s gonna be an awesome night for everyone,” Stanley continued. “Don’t forget to come out to the festival day too for food trucks, rides, games, student orgs and amazing student performances.”

The post Student body is ready for Fetty appeared first on The Retriever.

Here in the Office of Institutional Advancement, we are always working hard to support the university and connect our donors with causes they care most about. We would like to introduce our donors — to whom we are so grateful — to the people who help make those things happen. Today, we’ll be hearing from Leanna Powell ’08, English, who has just returned to UMBC as our Assistant Director of Annual Giving. 

Photo by Marlayna Demond ’11.

Name: Leanna Powell

Job Title: Assistant Director of Annual Giving

Focus Area: Student philanthropy, crowdfunding, direct mail

Years at UMBC: .5 as staff, 4 as a student

Grad Year: 2008

Where are you from originally? I grew up in southern Maryland near D.C., but I consider myself a Baltimore gal now after 10+ years in the city.

What do you love most about UMBC? In a city so packed with higher ed institutions, UMBC feels like a well-kept secret. The campus is serene, the people are sweet and low-key, and yet you see student and alumni achievements popping up all over the state in the arts, research sciences, and public policy. Light City is a great example — I’m excited to get to rep for my college at the Inner Harbor.

What’s your favorite thing about your job? I majored in writing, but immediately got swept up by nonprofit work, so I’m glad to have the chance to put all of my professors’ hard work to good use (shoutouts to Chris Corbett, Jody Shipka and Orianne Smith!). I have also spent a lot of time working with student philanthropy on the nonprofit beneficiary side, so I’m glad to get the chance to apply that experience in helping Retrievers fundraise for their own amazing projects through our campus crowdfunding site.

Who do you admire and why? Tina Fey and Amy Poehler are two of my biggest idols. To me, they represent a generation of women who are comfortable being smart, funny, and supportive of one another — and aren’t afraid to speak up or to take criticism.

Have you ever done anything crazy or out of the ordinary? Now that we’re in short-sleeves weather, some of the first things people notice about me are my tattoos. Most of them have a lot of personal significance, but I did get one on impulse one afternoon with a friend — matching dinosaurs, to remind us not to take ourselves too seriously.

Tell us what you loved most about UMBC on Retriever Stories!

[April 11, 2016 on Hrabowski Fund for Innovation website]

UMBC is proud to announce the projects awarded grants in the fall 2015 round of the Hrabowski Fund for Innovation competition.

IMPLEMENTATION AND RESEARCH GRANTS

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.

Winners from the spring 2016 submission will be notified sometime in May. Proposals for the next round of Innovation Fund grants are due by October 14, 2016. Please consider submitting an application. For more information about the fund, visit innovationfund.umbc.edu.

The Hrabowski Fund for Innovation, developed with support of major grants from the Carnegie Corporation of New York and the Heinz Awards, is a testament to our strong track record of finding novel approaches to teaching and scholarship. The Fund exemplifies our commitment to being a leading public university through investing in faculty initiatives that fuel creativity and enterprise and challenging students to take an active role in their education.

UMBC is truly inspired by the creative ideas heard each day and are delighted to be able to support more of them through this fund.

UMBC is excited to offer a variety of fun and stimulating academic programs this summer for middle school and high school students. The Summer Enrichment Experience (SEE) will bring the college experience to these students by offering a variety of opportunities in science, engineering, technology, the arts and humanities led by UMBC faculty, industry professionals and undergraduate students. These experiences are designed to spark participants’ passions and interests in these fields and tap into their creative talents, expand technical skills and hone their academic skills.

Please review the SEE Descriptions to learn more about each of the academic experiences. All the Information on the length of each experience, the dates, the instructors, program details and directions to our campus, as well as information on parking and mass transit transportation is included in their website.