Meet Zachary Neuhaus

Mon, 03 May 2021 07:30:25 -0400

B.S. INDS: Resilient Technologies and Disaster Management

Degree Mentors

Dr. Richard Forno, Cybersecurity

Aastha Jain, T. Rowe Price

Steven McAlpine, Individualized Study

Why did you choose to major in INDS?
I chose INDS because it allowed my creativity to flow more and gave me the ability to claim my education. It allowed me to select a unique set of classes to prepare me for the workforce better and solve a complex issue I am interested in. Studying & researching how Information Communication Technologies can impact disaster management requires a multidisciplinary approach, not just one individual discipline. INDS offered this opportunity by letting me design a degree that brought together political science and history, computer science and information systems, psychology, and emergency health sciences, which has already proven to understand the disaster management arena better and offer my input into creating disaster communication technologies.

What are your plans for after graduation, and how do you see using your INDS degree?
Once I graduate from UMBC with my Individualized Study degree in Resilient Technologies in Disaster Management, I plan to work as a member of an incident response team or intelligence field. Given the recent crises with COVID-19, extreme weather, and national security issues, I feel an urgency to serve my country as a disaster response team or intelligence agency member. I will seek positions where I can continue to grow my IT knowledge and cybersecurity skills to contribute to disaster relief and protection operations.

2021 URCAD Presenter
Disaster-Resilient information Communication Technologies For Disaster Management

EXTRACURRICULAR

UMBC Cyber Dawgs

Student Employee as Police Aide, UMBC Police Department, October 2017 – November 2020

VOLUNTEER

Information Technology Disaster Resource Center, TX, Fall 2017 - Current

Volunteer & respond to natural disasters to assess damage and repair critical information communication technologies. Reconnecting emergency management and survivors by establishing internet connections, computer setup, and communication equipment repairs or installs.

OFF-CAMPUS INTERNSHIPS
Project Owl, Wireless Engineer, Brooklyn, New York, May 2020 – July 2021

Research and Development work on innovative ad-hoc mesh communication technologies for both civilian communications post-disaster & military/governmental communications in the field. Developed a hybrid backhaul for IoT communications & sensor data gathering via a redundant backup via Iridium Satellites, WIFI, or LTE.

Parsons Cyber, Computer Science Intern, Columbia, Maryland, June 2019 - August 2019

Learned Scrum methodology and Jira and Confluence in a team environment to develop and sustain both frontend and backend applications for the company.