After participating in rigorous peer reviews of their online and hybrid courses, five UMBC faculty earned Quality Matters certification as part of the campus’ Quality Matters Impact (QMI) pilot. In partnership with the Provost’s Office, the QMI pilot launched in Fall 2021 as an extension of the award-winning PIVOT program to recognize exemplary course design. 

Faculty participants received feedback from certified Quality Matters peer reviewers at UMBC and other online learning experts in the QM community.

[read original story by UMBC's DOIT]

Dr. Pan was invited as a keynote speaker for the 5th International Caparica Symposium on Nanoparticles/Nanomaterials 2022 (https://www.isn2a2022.com/), held January 24-27, 2022 in Caparica Portugal. 

Dr. Pan's talk was titled 'Amplification-free Translatable Geno-sensing Approaches for COVID-19 with Single Virus Sensitivity using Mutationally Conserved Antisense Oligonucleotides'

[Dr. Pan's post on LinkedIn]

Bioprocessing 4.0 Depends on Advances in Optical Sensors

Team "Bananas” presented a solution to solve "Problem C: Submitted a Tweet, Now What?" in the SCUDEM VI 2021 competition, bringing home top honors.

Team members were:

• John Laporte, Chemical Engineering, Biotechnology & Bioengineering track; 
• Max Bobbin, Chemical Engineering, Environmental Engineering & Sustainability track
• Catherine Wraback, Chemical Engineering, Traditional track

The team worked on their solution to the problem between 23 October 2021, when the problems were released, and 14 November when the videos were submitted. See the team's approach to solving this problem via YouTube. During this time, team members successfully managed their academic responsibilities with this and other co-curricular activities, including the National AICHE Jeopardy competition. 

The team received the highest rating of 'Outstanding' for their solution for Problem C. They were one of eight who received this rating among the 26 submissions for Problem C. Only 26 teams received outstanding marks among all 106 participating teams during this year’s competition.

SCUDEM — SIMIODE Challenge Using Differential Equations Modeling is a 3-student group modeling challenge that runs over multiple days culminating in a 10 minute video which is reviewed by at least 3 judges. Teams and Coaches may meet remotely. Team submissions are judged to meet one of three outcomes: Outstanding, Meritorious, or Successful.

This is the third year CBEE students participated in the SCUDEM competition. Two teams participated in 2020, both earning a Meritorious rating. In 2019, three teams from CBEE participated at the in-person event at Bowie State and swept the podium (read more).