In the latest Higher Education Research and Development (HERD) survey, UMBC has ranked among the United States’ top 100 public institutions in federal research support.

The annual survey aggregated federal research and development expenditures for fiscal year 2019. UMBC reported more than $80 million in research and development expenditures in 2019, the highest reported amount since 2012.

“It is an area of pride for us to make it into the top 100,” says Karl V. Steiner, vice president for research at UMBC. “We’ve now had year-over-year growth in the last six years. We grew our expenditures by 24 percent during that time—a very significant increase.”

Within the HERD rankings, UMBC is now #122 in overall research and development expenditures among public institutions, #145 in federal research and development expenditures among all institutions, and #169 overall in expenditures among all institutions. UMBC’s funding sources include NASA, the National Science Foundation (NSF), the Department of Health and Human Services, and many others.

“The expenditures are one key method to get a sense of our faculty and students’ research productivity,” Steiner notes. “These rankings also help us see how UMBC is progressing in meeting our public impact research goals.”

NASA-UMBC connection

UMBC continues to fortify its relationship with NASA, ranking #15 overall in NASA funding (#11 amongst public universities). Currently, more than 170 researchers who are UMBC faculty members and research scientists collaborate with NASA Goddard.

Zhibo Zhang discusses an image collected via satellite with his lab group.

Funding from NASA has contributed to many UMBC-led scientific ventures, including the work of Zhibo Zhang, associate professor of physics.His Aerosol, Cloud, Radiation, Observation, and Simulation (ACROS) research group analyzed data collected from instruments on aircrafts and NASA’s orbiting satellites such as CALIPSO, CloudSat, and MODIS.

They sought to better understand how tiny particles in the atmosphere, such as aerosols and cloud droplets, interact with each other and the radiations from the Sun and Earth, and how these interactions influence our weather and climate systems. 

Explorations in the urban environment

In geosciences, atmospheric, and ocean sciences, UMBC ranked #39 in federal funding. Amongst UMBC’s federally-funded projects is Claire Welty’s study exploring Earth’s “critical zone”—from treetops to weathered bedrock—in urban centers along the Eastern Seaboard. NSF awarded Welty and her team a $4.8 million Critical Zone Collaborative Network grant to execute this project over five years.

Welty is director of UMBC’s Center for Urban Environment Research and Education (CUERE) and a professor of chemical, biochemical, and environmental engineering (CBEE). She is collaborating with Andrew Miller, professor of geography and environmental systems, and researchers in four other East Coast cities.

Human influence on groundwater is one of the many issues they are exploring. “Groundwater is a hidden resource that feeds streams and rivers. In cities, people are typically not using wells for water consumption but groundwater is part of the hydrologic cycle that affects ecosystems,” Welty explains. “Streams lead to rivers and rivers go to potable water intakes for cities, so it’s all connected.”

Despite the COVID-19 pandemic slowing down many research initiatives, Welty and Miller have continued to move their work forward. The team has begun conducting field research that has included subsurface imaging of project field sites, collecting water samples from each of the targeted sites, and deploying water quality sensors. Welty is expecting to bring her first Ph.D. student onto the research team by this fall.

Interdisciplinary approach to environmental problem-solving

Tamra Mendelson, professor of biological sciences, received a $2.8 million NSF Research Traineeship (NRT) grant in 2019 as principal investigator for the Interdisciplinary Consortium for Applied Research in the Environment (ICARE). The training program is designed to broaden participation in the environmental workforce and empower the next generation of scientists to apply research to environmental problem-solving. 

ICARE will focus on the socio-ecological challenges facing the Baltimore Harbor. “The health of the Baltimore Harbor is improving, and I am hopeful that the work of ICARE will bolster ongoing efforts to make the Baltimore Harbor a model for the whole country,” says project partner Lee Blaney, associate professor of CBEE.

“It is my hope that the research focus on the Baltimore Harbor will set up ICARE and UMBC to make lasting, sustainable, and positive impacts in our city,” he notes. 

“ICARE was originally conceived as a way for ecologists and evolutionary biologists on campus to get together. The NRT added this component of engaging the community in our research,” Mendelson explains. 

“At UMBC we are all so invested in this mission of inclusive excellence,” she says. “The racial and ethnic diversity is really low in the environmental sciences, so we wanted to make a difference there as well.”

UMBC partners across five disciplines and three colleges used the time amid the pandemic to organize the program, which will be funded until 2024. Over the next few years, they expect that 30 students will participate. Each student will receive full funding toward a master’s degree. They will also have a chance to collaborate with UMBC faculty, community stakeholders, and scientists and engineers in government, non-profit organizations, and industry careers.

Social science research in action

In the social sciences, UMBC ranks #60 in overall funding sources and #30 in federal funding. Among public universities specifically, UMBC is #37 in overall funding and #20 in federal funding for the social sciences.

Since 2019, the NIH’s National Institute of Aging (NIA) has awarded Laura Girling, director of UMBC’s Center for Aging Studies, more than $750,000 to examine the experiences of people with dementia who live alone in community settings. Recently, Girling has used this funding to research how COVID-19 social distancing guidelines impact people with dementia. She also examines the ethics of including people living with dementia as research participants.

“The social sciences are a hallmark of the UMBC experience, and this is reflected in the funding,” says Steiner. “The excellence and national competitiveness of all of our research programs allows us to grow our research portfolio and pursue more funding for it.”

Photos by Marlayna Demond ’11 for UMBC, unless otherwise noted.

Article written by Adriana Fraser for UMBC.

The human hand is capable of exquisitely complex, coordinated movements. Ramana Vinjamuri hopes that, in the future, people will be able to control prosthetic hands and exoskeletons just as seamlessly, using signals from their brains. 

Vinjamuri’s research on the interconnections between the brain and the hand is very personal. His mother had a stroke in 2014 and developed paralysis in her right hand. “The very hand that taught me how to draw and how to write is now paralyzed,” he says.

To tackle questions about how the brain signals body movements, Vinjamuri, assistant professor of computer science and electrical engineering (CSEE) and director of Sensorimotor Control Laboratory, is gathering a team of UMBC researchers and corporate and government partners. He received an Industry University Cooperative Research Center (IUCRC) planning grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) in 2020, and he sees UMBC as perfectly situated to move this kind of high-impact research collaboration forward. 

While other U.S. universities near urban centers may also have industry partners in their areas, Maryland and Washington, D.C. uniquely host a large number of national institutes and federal agencies, in addition to companies. This includes the NIH, NSF, NASA, and others. And UMBC has a strong track record. The UMBC-led Center for Accelerated Real Time Analytics (CARTA) has already found success as an IUCRC composed of multiple universities, industry partners, and government agencies. 

Vinjamuri is proposing that UMBC join the Building Reliable Advances and Innovation in Neurotechnology (BRAIN) Center, a consortium led by Arizona State University and the University of Houston. His vision is to establish an East Coast BRAIN research hub to develop technologies that can help scientists better understand the nervous system and aid people with disabilities.

Benefits of collaboration

The NSF established the IUCRC program to offer academic researchers a framework for establishing long-term partnerships with industry and government agencies. In addition to providing funding, the program gives graduate students unique research experiences that can set them on a path to high-impact careers. 

“They learn how to work in a team, together with professionals from industry and the government,” says Yelena Yesha, distinguished university professor of CSEE and director of CARTA.

Corporate partners and government agencies also benefit since they gain the expertise of academic researchers. “It’s a win-win,” Vinjamuri says.

Dean Drake. Photo by Tim Ford for UMBC.

Representatives of each center’s member institutions meet twice a year to make updates to the consortium’s research goals. These meetings provide an opportunity for industry and government partners to highlight their priorities in particular areas, says Dean Drake, associate vice president for research at UMBC.

And the partners have a financial stake in the success of the IUCRC: Each year they pay membership fees that go toward the costs of research. 

From big data to actionable data

UMBC has been the lead university for CARTA, a multi-institution IUCRC, since its inception in 2018. The consortium’s roots are in the Center for Hybrid Multicore Productivity Research (CHMPR), founded in 2009. CHMPR aimed to develop advanced computing technologies to tackle complex problems of national priority, from human health to climate change. As large datasets gained widespread use, the researchers shifted their focus to new areas and CARTA was born.

“Big data by itself is trouble; what is really needed is actionable data,” Yesha says.

CARTA researchers are focused on real-time analytics, or how to interpret large amounts of data to make decisions quickly. For example, one project is exploring the use of blockchain, the distributed technology underlying bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, to optimize supply chains.

In addition to UMBC, CARTA includes higher education partners North Carolina State University, Rutgers University–New Brunswick, Rutgers University–Newark, and Tel Aviv University. Some of UMBC’s industry and government partners are the data management company Seagate Technology, financial services firm Morgan-Stanley, Department of Homeland Security, and NASA. 

“The challenges we examine require a convergence of technologies,” Yesha says. “Having the resources that come from all these different institutions at the table—as well as the brainpower—enables us to tackle these types of problems.”

Advancing neurotechnology

In proposing UMBC as a future BRAIN site, Vinjamuri hopes to connect with medical centers, companies, and government agencies specifically seeking to accelerate neurotechnology research. Neurotechnology is a broad discipline that includes everything from methods for measuring brain activity to tools for analyzing clinical data to human-centered computing, the focus of Vinjamuri’s research. 

The proposed UMBC BRAIN site will have three additional research themes: artificial intelligence, led by Nilanjan Banerjee, professor of CSEE and director of the Mobile, Pervasive, and Sensor Systems Lab; neural signal processing, led by Tülay Adali, distinguished university professor of CSEE and director of the Machine Learning for Signal Processing Lab; and virtual reality, led by Don Engel, assistant professor of CSEE and director of the Assistive Visualization and Artificial Intelligence Lab.

Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the planning grant timeline has been extended for an additional year. The funds will be used to hold a conference in upcoming fall 2021, to recruit potential industry and government partners for the proposed BRAIN site. Vinjamuri and colleagues will then prepare a formal proposal to join the BRAIN consortium.

“These collaborations across universities, industry, and government are critical to the success of carrying this research out to society,” says Drake, “to meet our most pressing needs.”

Banner image: 3D-Printed Prosthetic Hand, 2013. Photo by M.R.Nuckels. CC by 4.0. All other photos by Marlayna Demond ’11 for UMBC unless otherwise noted.

Article written by Jack J. Lee for UMBC News.

Anthony Johnson, a professor of both physics and computer science and electrical engineering (CSEE) at UMBC, has spent forty years investigating uses for ultrashort pulse lasers. Shrinking cancerous tumors, optimizing long-distance communications, inactivating viruses that commonly infect seafood species, developing new nanoscale materials—he seems to have done it all.

In addition to being an accomplished researcher, Johnson has successfully mentored dozens of students from all backgrounds as they pursued advanced degrees, maintaining contact and continuing to offer support long after graduation. And he’s held key leadership roles in his field, from co-chairing the annual Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics (CLEO) in 1992, to serving as president of the Optical Society in 2002 and as the editor-in-chief of Optics Letters, the premier peer-reviewed optics journal, from 1995 – 2001.

This year, Johnson’s long-term commitment has resulted in a new accolade: the Stephen D. Fantone Distinguished Service Award from the Optical Society. The award is presented each year to someone who has served the Optical Society in an “outstanding way” over an extended period.

Anthony Johnson. Photo courtesy Anthony Johnson.

Ever humble, “Being a past president [of the Optical Society], being on the board, and so forth, when I saw this email about this award, my initial thought was, ‘Ok, they want me to be on the committee to select the awardee,’” Johnson recalls. “It never occurred to me that it was for me. It was quite surprising, and it’s quite an honor.”

Inclusion imperative

Beyond his work within the Optical Society, Johnson was also recently named to the Committee on Diversity and Inclusion on the Technical Advisory Board of the Institute for Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). Johnson says there hasn’t been nearly enough change in the number of non-white and women physicists and engineers since he started in the 1970s, and he has made supporting inclusion in physics and engineering a cornerstone of his career.

“There’s still a lot to be done in our professional societies to build up and attract both women and minorities,” Johnson says. “We still have work to do to expand the opportunities to a broader set of people and bring in new ideas. So being on some of these committees is important.”

Closer to home, Johnson works hard to create an inclusive environment in his own research group. “I like to think of us as a family,” he says. 

Johnson knows how powerful it can be for young scientists to meet researchers with more experience and have opportunities to forge connections. With this in mind, he says, “I try to give my students as many opportunities as possible to go out and give presentations and be involved in the field of science.”

When working with students of all backgrounds, Johnson’s “kindness comes through,” says Stephen Fantone, after whom the award is named. Fantone has known Johnson for many years through the Optical Society, but has no role in the awardee selection process. He shares, “Anthony understands the role of nurturing students, helping them to find their inner spring and to fulfill their potential and their own personal dreams.”

Expert, colleague, friend

Students are not the only beneficiaries of Johnson’s support. “I gained many nuggets from his advice and leadership to the American Physical Society on graduate education and diversity, long before I made it to UMBC,” shares Belay Demoz, professor of physics and director of the Joint Center for Earth Systems Technology (JCET). “As another Black physicist at UMBC, he is my go-to guy for advice on how to handle delicate things; he is generous with his time and has a calming effect on me.”

Johnson’s colleagues recognize the range of important contributions he has made over the years. “The CSEE department is delighted to hear of these richly deserved honors for Dr. Johnson. He is a valued colleague in the department, and a world-renowned authority in the area of optics and photonics,” shares Anupam Joshi, professor and chair of CSEE. 

Joshi notes, “These awards recognize that in addition to being a great researcher, he embodies the service mission of a public university, addressing important societal challenges like diversity and inclusion through his service to the major professional organizations.” 

An exhilarating beginning

Johnson got his start in optics as an undergraduate at Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute (now the NYU Tandon School of Engineering) in the 1970s. A physics instructor encouraged him to pursue an internship at Bell Labs through the company’s Summer Research Program for Women and Minorities. The experience set Johnson’s entire career in motion.

“That’s where I really got my love of science and optics,” Johnson says. 

He earned his Ph.D. in physics from City College of New York, completing his doctoral research at Bell Labs. After his Ph.D., Johnson continued to work at Bell Labs for nearly 15 years, when the lab was in its heyday. “During my doctoral research at Bell Labs, I learned just how many celebrities in physics were there. I could walk down the hall and talk to people we put on pedestals,” Johnson remembers. “It was quite an experience.”

At Bell Labs, Johnson also had the opportunity to mentor interns coming through the same program that had gotten him started. His physics instructor’s impact on his trajectory was not lost on Johnson, and he made a concerted effort to pay it forward with his interns. Eventually, Johnson remembers, “I said, ‘You know, I could enjoy doing this at a university.’”

New home, same mission

So, Johnson made the move to academia. After eight years as a department chair at the New Jersey Institute of Technology, he joined UMBC in 2003. In 2006, he became the UMBC lead on the university’s very first inter-institutional research center when one of his former Bell Labs colleagues, now at Princeton University, suggested the idea.

NSF funded the Engineering Research Center (ERC), named Mid-Infrared Technologies for Health and the Environment (MIRTHE), for 10 years. The center supported research, graduate students, and an annual weeklong meeting where the students from the participating universities shared their progress and forged lasting connections. The six-institution collaboration was headquartered at Princeton, and Johnson served as one of two deputy directors.

The center’s work largely focused on medical applications of infrared technologies. For example, one of the group’s inventions included a breathalyzer-style device to detect ammonia, which can indicate liver and kidney problems.

Today, Johnson serves as the director of UMBC’s Center for Advanced Studies in Photonics Research (CASPR). “I’m cherishing being in academia and working with faculty and students, and, in particular, having students and graduating students pursuing advanced degrees,” Johnson says. “It’s really a satisfying process and enterprise, so that has been quite enjoyable.”

Distinctive approach to leadership

Colleagues also cherish their time with Johnson. In particular, Fantone says, Johnson is well-suited to handle challenging conversations. “In conversation, you can be on opposite sides of an issue, but he doesn’t adopt polarizing tactics,” Fantone says. “He wants to have civil discourse, which leads both parties in the discussion to a better place.” Fantone has seen this play out time and again in conversations with students and colleagues.

David Auston, one of Johnson’s first mentors at Bell Labs with a lengthy career in research and academic administration, is “thrilled” that Johnson is the 2021 award recipient. “Anthony is an outstanding scientist who has fulfilled many key leadership roles with distinction both in the Optical Society and in the scientific community at large,” Auston says. “This is a most deserving recognition of his numerous important contributions.” 

As he enters his fifth decade of professional life, it seems certain Johnson will keep on giving to his community by generating scientific advances, creating meaningful relationships, and inspiring others. As Fantone puts it, “Working with Anthony puts a smile on your face, even when you are working on serious problems. And when you work with Anthony, you have high confidence that the effort is going to be successful.”

“He’s just a person you want in the trenches with you,” Fantone says. “Anthony is an exemplar of a complete human being.”

Banner image: Johnson, right, examines a laser setup in his laboratory. Photo by Marlayna Demond ’11 for UMBC, taken 2017.

Starting out at UMBC, Meyerhoff Scholar Timothy Potteiger wasn’t certain what direction he wanted to take. However, he benefited from UMBC programs that brought the world to his doorstep, inviting universities to pitch him their summer research experiences. One conversation with Washington State University particularly resonated. They spoke about researching smart home sensor technologies to help improve the daily lives of older adults and people with disabilities. 

Potteiger ’14, computer engineering, was drawn to that purpose-driven approach. Little did he know that the program manager for that undergraduate research experience in 2013, Nirmalya Roy, would soon join UMBC’s faculty and expand research opportunities for even more undergraduates.

Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REUs) are critical for students like Potteiger. Roy, now associate professor of information systems at UMBC, is principal investigator leading a new REU in Smart Computing and Communications funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF). The program is accepting applications through March 31 for this summer from students nationwide. 

Potteiger is excited for students to take advantage of this opportunity. “I know Dr. Roy has a good vision on how to actually impact society with research,” he shares.

Transformative experience

The program will bring together ten undergraduate students in a paid 10-week, full-time research experience from June 7 to August 13. While the summer 2021 program will be remote, each student will work closely with a research group and mentor. They will receive guidance from Roy and co-PI Dmitri Perkins, as well as other information systems and computer science and electrical engineering (CSEE) faculty. 

In the final week, the students will have a chance to present their research through UMBC’s popular Summer Undergraduate Research Fest. They will also have the opportunity to develop peer-reviewed articles and continue their research throughout the year with faculty. 

“The idea of this experience is not only to give them exposure to hands-on research problems, but to also help undergraduates with professional development,” says Roy. “Developing a peer network and encouraging them to build confidence talking with professors and researchers in their field will be important for their careers.”

Real-world applications

One REU project will tackle privacy protection in COVID-19 contact tracing programs, while another will study a chatbox method for studying cryptocurrency. Roy will also give students the chance to optimize smart home sensors for seniors or work on the FloodBot project, a collaboration with nearby Ellicott City to create an early flood warning system after a 2018 flash flood caused catastrophic damage. 

Students can also work with Perkins, a CSEE professor, on research into wireless devices capable of “situational awareness,” the ability to switch from one frequency to the next along a limited radio spectrum highway. The interdisciplinary project is crucial to staving off what some experts fear is a looming, massive traffic jam for wireless devices globally.

“The hallmarks of all our projects is that they have public impact,” says Vandana Janeja, chair of information systems.

Expanding opportunity

Providing undergraduates with real, hands-on research experiences resonates personally with Perkins. He grew up in a no stop-light town in Mississippi and attended Tuskegee University, which had well-regarded academic programs but more limited lab research opportunities at the time. Perkins was able to gain research experience in a broader range of areas by participating in REUs at two other universities. 

Dmitri Perkins. Photo courtesy of Perkins.

Recognizing that many students come from similar backgrounds where research opportunities may be rare, the REU specifically encourages applicants from community colleges and groups traditionally underrepresented in the STEM fields. 

“With students from traditionally underserved communities, there is often some apprehension or insecurity about pursuing a career in research,” Perkins says. “Once students complete their UMBC summer experience, they will have more information, more understanding of what research looks like, and the knowledge that they can actually do this.”

Unique online experience

Jianwu Wang has also joined the wave of faculty from UMBC’s College of Engineering and Information Technology (COEIT) launching new REUs. Wang is assistant professor of data science and director of the Big Data Analytics Lab. With co-PI Matthias Gobbert, professor of mathematics, he’s just received NSF funding to launch an online interdisciplinary Big Data REU.

They will provide an 8-week summer online research experience to undergraduates from across the country. Students will explore “how to utilize modern data science and high-performance computing techniques to process and analyze big data in many science and engineering disciplines,” Wang explains. This includes fields ranging from atmospheric science to mechanical engineering to medicine. 

“We’ve designed the program to be purely online so it is particularly useful for students in remote areas or who might have health concerns or concerns about travel,” says Wang. “We also want to make sure it is accessible to students with family responsibilities and disabilities, who may not be able to leave their home for an extended period of time.”

Big data research

This program will combine formal instruction, team-based research, and experience disseminating that research. The goal is to ignite students’ interest in “how data science and high-performance computing techniques could help the scientific discovery process” while giving them essential hands-on research skills and preparing them for the workforce.

Students will learn how to identify research questions and conduct research using advanced cyberinfrastructure software technologies and hardware resources. Tentative research themes for summer 2021 research projects include big data and machine learning techniques for sea ice prediction and for medical image classification. 

The summer 2021 program will run June 7 through July 31. Applications are due by April 15, 2021, and the organizers invite undergraduates in all STEM fields to apply. Students who complete the fully-funded program will also be eligible for additional funds to present their research at conferences around the country.

Roy and Wang credit COEIT for encouraging their efforts to launch new REUs. Erin Lavik, associate dean for research and faculty development and professor of chemical, biochemical, and environmental engineering, describes the new programs as “fantastic.” She shares, “This is an exciting chance to connect undergraduates from across the country with unique UMBC student research experiences and our outstanding, innovative faculty.”

Featured image: Nirmalya Roy with a student in 2018. All photos by Marlayna Demond ’11 for UMBC unless otherwise noted.

Article written by Nick Ford for UMBC News.


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When Amanda Knapp heard last fall from Anupam Joshi, professor and chair of computer science and electrical engineering (CSEE), that his department wanted to offer online tutoring to students in their courses, she was ready to help make it happen. COVID or no COVID, she says, “It just made sense.”

Knapp is associate vice provost and assistant dean of Undergraduate Academic Affairs, and she manages UMBC’s Academic Success Center (ASC). “We already had an established system in place and could provide the administration, training, staffing, and assessment,” she explains. “CSEE provided the funding and identified potential tutors for a variety of computer science courses, and we did the rest.”

Just a few months after the partnership began, it expanded to include courses in information systems. And it continued to grow, with the support of College of Engineering and Information Technology (COEIT) Dean Keith J Bowman and Dean Katherine Cole, Undergraduate Academic Affairs. 

Now, the ASC’s new Computing Success Center offers tutoring for 21 courses from across COEIT. This support helps students of any major, from computing fields to the arts and life sciences, to learn coding and other computing skills. 

“The ethos of UMBC is to share knowledge and collaborate with others instead of being proprietary,” says Helena Mentis, associate professor of information systems. Mentis is COEIT’s associate dean of academic programs and learning, and one of the College leads on the partnership.

“At the end of the day,” she says, “our goal at UMBC is to ensure that there are multiple pathways for students to get the assistance they need to succeed and remove any barriers for access to help.”

How it works

Students can now visit the website for the new Computing Success Center to access trained and faculty-recommended peer tutors at their convenience. And the tutoring isn’t just a series of online videos—it’s live and interactive.

Britney Sarpong ‘21, computer science, taps into tutoring services twice a week for the CMSC 421: Operating Systems course she is taking. “I can easily log in and get help, and it’s usually the same tutor, so she and I have gotten to know each other really well,” she says. 

For the operating systems course, Sarpong is learning C programming, which she likens to learning a foreign language. “I am not familiar at all with the language and terms with C programming,” says Sarpong, “so my tutor explains it in a way that I can understand while I’m working on projects.”

Moving services online

The tutoring offered by the Computing Success Center is just one of the many student support services offered by the ASC that has transitioned online during the COVID-19 pandemic. “This has been essential to enable us to continue serving UMBC students,” says Knapp. 

The Academic Success Center hires around 200 students to provide peer support each year. In addition to being paid and getting teaching experience, these student tutors also access professional development training. 

Delana Gregg, director of academic learning resources, assessment, and analysis, says that the student tutors are integral to many of the services offered by the ASC. 

“Faculty members recommend a student who excelled in a particular course. Then we train them on the technology and identifying strategies to help fellow students better understand the course content,” says Gregg.

The ASC provides tutoring in a range of formats, from appointment tutoring to drop-in tutoring, in the Computing Success Center, Writing Center, and the Math and Science Tutoring Center. In Fall 2020 alone, students attended over 3,000 tutoring appointments across all formats.

Gregg adds that peer-assisted study sessions (SI PASS) remain the most popular service utilized. “These are for courses that are historically difficult for students, often in the STEM areas,” she says. “SI Pass Leaders are students who have taken a particular course before. They attend the course again, take notes, and then hold weekly study sessions for current students.” 

Emphasizing student success

The ASC also offers online learning resources for time management and study skills and academic alerts from faculty to students who are struggling in a course, to connect them with support. And the center is known for its academic advocates. They provide holistic support for students facing barriers to their academic success. These may include personal, academic, or financial issues.

“Sometimes students are unable to ask for help, are unaware that they are struggling academically, or are dealing with stress. Their stress may involve really complicated and challenging issues like the pandemic or racial inequality,” says Knapp. “We make sure they are cared for and heard.”

“UMBC students are very special, and here it’s cool to be smart,” says Gregg. “We have a large percentage of first-generation students who are very motivated to succeed, and the culture on campus emphasizes student success.”

Work like the partnership between COEIT and the Academic Success Center—where faculty and staff identify a problem and quickly partner with students to find a solution—is key to supporting student success. 

Mentis shares, “The collaboration was so welcomed by faculty, department chairs, and Dean Bowman. In my time here, I believe it was the fastest initiative ever completed. Everyone said, ‘yes.’”

Banner image: Amanda Knapp speaks with a student in the ASC in 2019. Photos by Marlayna Demond ’11 for UMBC unless otherwise noted.

Article by Gregory J. Alexander for UMBC.

Innovative technologies don’t have to be expensive or complicated. 

UMBC’s Govind Rao, professor of chemical, biochemical, and environmental engineering and director of the Center for Advanced Sensor Technology, has been developing a low-cost solution to improve the care of babies born prematurely. 

A standard incubator found in a newborn intensive care unit costs between $1,500 and $35,000—beyond the means of many hospitals in low- and middle-income countries. Research initiated by Rao and UMBC students has culminated in the successful clinical trial of an incubator that costs only $200.

“This will be a game-changer,” says Rajeev Seth, managing trustee of BUDS, a nonprofit that advocates for the health and welfare of children in India. 

Student project beginnings

The low-cost incubator traces its roots to a UMBC course on sensors in 2011. There, Rao asked students to come up with solutions for real-world problems. Kevin Tran ’12, chemical engineering, was part of a team that designed a low-cost infant incubator. He continued on the project that summer. 

“As an engineer, [when] you start something, you can’t leave it half-finished,” Tran says. He and his teammates tested out prototypes built with different materials, like wood and PVC. The team ultimately took a trip to India to visit various healthcare settings and receive feedback on their design.

Govind Rao, third from left, with UMBC students and research partners, during a trip to India. Photo courtesy of Kevin Tran.

The students encountered facilities that faced frequent power outages and lacked resources they’d taken for granted in the U.S. One healthcare center had broken incubators that sat unused, Tran says, because they couldn’t be maintained, even if it was a simple fix.

The team was accompanied by Geetha Mohanram, a retired elementary school teacher who acted as a translator. Mohanram now lives in the U.S. but is from Karnataka, one of the areas the team visited. She bridged the gap between the engineers and the nurses and doctors, not only through fluency with the local dialect, but also because of familiarity with the local culture. This helped the UMBC team access the medical staff’s observations and insights.

Feedback gathered during the trip guided updates to the design, such as smaller dimensions and cardboard construction for single use. The design work culminated in a paper published in the Journal of Laboratory Automation in 2014. It provided recommendations for a prototype suited to a clinical trial.

Cardboard incubator in action

An updated version of the cardboard incubator has now proven successful in a clinical setting. In an EClinicalMedicine study, published by The Lancet, the low-cost incubator maintained the body temperatures of premature babies as well as a more expensive, standard incubator over 48 hours.

The low-cost incubator is made up of a cardboard chamber, designed to be disposed of after use by one infant, and a reusable heating unit. The cardboard packs down flat, so it can be easily transported. It is straightforward to assemble—almost like a pop-up book, Rao says.

Careful monitoring

The clinical trial was a collaborative effort. It involved Rao; Phoenix Medical Systems, a commercial partner that provided the cardboard incubators; and researchers at Sri Ramachandra Institute of Higher Education and Research (SRIHER), who conducted the study.

The study involved 96 preterm babies, ranging from 32 to 36 weeks old, without health complications. By limiting the clinical trial to babies that were relatively well, the researchers were able to focus on the performance of the incubators, says Ashok Chandrasekaran, associate professor of neonatology at SRIHER. 

The babies spent 48 hours in either a standard or cardboard incubator, with continued monitoring by medical staff. Skin sensors tracked the babies’ temperatures and raised alarms if temperatures deviated over half a degree Celsius (0.9 degrees Fahrenheit) from 37 degrees Celsius (98.6 degrees Fahrenheit). Nurses also checked the infants using underarm thermometers every four hours and adjusted the incubator temperature as needed.

There were cases where the babies’ temperatures were slightly low with both incubators, as well as several instances of mild hypothermia. But, overall, the performance of the low-cost incubator was on par with the standard incubator.

Avoiding hospital-acquired infections

The surfaces of the low-cost and standard incubators were disinfected daily, but in two cases the standard incubator harbored bacteria responsible for hospital-acquired infections. None of the low-cost incubators were positive for surface bacteria. The disposable nature of the cardboard incubator would also prevent infectious outbreaks, since each chamber would only be used by a single infant. 

“One of the major killers of preterm babies in developing countries is infection,” Chandrasekaran says. “Especially hospital-acquired infections.”

Future studies will assess how well the low-cost incubator performs over longer periods of time and whether premature babies continue to gain weight, says Binu Ninan, director and professor of neonatology at SRIHER. Future iterations of the incubator could include sensors to track babies’ weight and cameras to monitor babies more closely.

“You don’t necessarily need to have very expensive interventions to improve outcomes,” Rao says. “You can come up with something simple that works, that can have a huge impact.”

Banner image: “Happy Foot” by Natesh Ramasamy, Flickr CC BY-NC 2.0.

Article written by Jack J. Lee for UMBC News