Hold the date! The UMBC Game Developers Club will hold the gifth annual Digital Entertainment Conference from 10am to 5pm on Saturday April 30 in the Engineering and Computer Science building's lecture hall five. The free event will include speakers from from Firaxis, Pure Bang, Dream Rock Studios and other game development companies who will share their knowledge and experience and comment on new trends in the industry. Watch the UMBC GDC site for the agenda and more information.

Baltimore entrepreneur and computer programmer Mike Subelsky wants to help strengthen the IT startup community in Baltimore and has created Startup City to give it jolt. The effort will fund up to ten groups that will receive free space, seed money and mentoring to develop their ideas during the summer of 2011.

The planning document describes what the program will offer the ten groups:

• $15,000 in seed capital
• Weekly master classes with experienced entrepreneurs
• Regular access to mentors
• Introductions to potential customers and follow-on investors
• Free, beautiful office space collocated with the other participating companies
• Legal, accounting, marketing, and technical assistance from Baltimore’s Emerging Technology Center
• Vigorous coverage of their stories in our blog via video and written profiles
• Exposure to investors, journalists, and business leaders at a Demo Day occurring at the end of the 12 weeks

See recent articles in in bmore and the Baltimore Sun.

"Applicants to Startup City, who will be selected based on a YouTube video they submit to the program's website, can be from anywhere in the world — though Baltimoreans are equally encouraged to apply. The final ten, chosen by consensus of all the mentors and investors involved in the program (after Beeman and Subelsky narrow down the initial pool) can be anyone from a single person with an idea to a formed team or company. Startup City is looking mainly for those who will be able to execute a successful project in twelve short weeks."

CSEE Ph.D. student Karuna Joshi has received a IBM Ph.D. Fellowship award for the 2011-2012 academic year. Ms. Joshi's dissertation involves developing a new framework for automating the configuration, negotiation and procurement of services in a cloud computing environment using semantic web technologies. She is working with co-advisers Professors Yelena Yesha and Tim Finin.

The IBM Ph.D. Fellowship Awards Program is highly competitive and selects exceptional Ph.D. students who have an interest in solving problems important to IBM and their disciplines of study. The award provides a generous stipend and an education allowance covering tuition and other educational expenses and is renewable for up to three years.

Learn about degree and certificate options, course overviews, admission processes and credit requirements at an information session for the UMBC Engineering Management and Systems Engineering graduate programs. The session will be held 12-1pm Wednesday APril 13 in room 456 of the Information Technology and Engineering building.. Ted Foster, Assistant Dean of the UMBC College of Engineering and IT and Graduate Program Director of both programs, will be there to answer questions. RSVP by sending email to professionals at umbc.edu.

The Engineering Management Program at UMBC combines a practical business approach with an in-depth technical concentration and emphasizes how to manage people and complex projects. Courses are developed and taught by industry experts, and are designed to address real-world problems in the workplace. Both a Master’s Degree a Graduate Certificate program are offered.

The Systems Engineering program couples the experiences of the region’s top engineers with the expertise of UMBC’s world-class engineering faculty. This program designed in colloboration with some of the leading employers in this field balances practical application and theoretical understanding. Systems Engineering students experience a rich curriculum that covers all aspects of a system’s life cycle using state-of-the-art principles, practices, and technologies. Our Systems Engineering graduate programs are designed for working engineers, taught by the region’s top systems engineers from leading defense contractors and overseen by a board of faculty and industry leaders. Both a Master’s Degree a Graduate Certificate program are offered.

Classes in both Engineering Management and Systems Engineering are conveniently offered in the evening on the UMBC campus, located just five minutes from BWI Airport, with easy access from I-95 and the 695 Beltway.

See flyer.

UMBC will hold the first annual Women in Technology: Spring into Leadership event from 6:30-8:00pm on Tuesday, April 5, 2011 in the University Ballroom. The program will focus on the importance of building relationships and developing one’s inner leader. Ms. Myra Norton, CEO of Community Analytics and a member of the College of Engineering and Information Technology’s Advisory Board, will be the featured speaker and facilitator.

The event is sponsored by the Center for Women and Information Technology, the CWIT Student Council, the UMBC Student Chapter of the Society of Women Engineers, and the Information Systems Council of Majors. All students are welcome and women undergraduate and graduate engineering and IT majors are especially encouraged to attend.

The event is free but space is limited and registration is required by March 30. For more information about the event, contact Dr. Susan Martin, CWIT Associate Director, at 410.455.3109 or susan at @umbc.edu.

Telcordia and Ross Technologies will open offices in the bwtech@UMBC Research and Technology Park this spring with a focus on cybersecurity. Both companies will share space in the research park's newest building with Northrop Grumman’s Cync program, a new incubator that will nurture high-potential, early-stage companies as they develop tools to secure and protect the computer hardware, software and networks vital to national defense. The companies will join a growing cluster of businesses drawing on UMBC's resources and information technology expertise and the region’s strengths in security technology.

Telcordia, a global leader in communications software, will open an office to develop tools to support and protect vital communications networks. According to a UMBC News release:

“Telcordia has been heavily engaged with the cybersecurity community by ensuring and advancing the protection of critical infrastructure elements,” said Brent Greene, President, Advanced Technology Solutions, Telcordia. “bwtech with its cybersecurity focused programs and its local talent pool of highly qualified engineers, scientists and professors made our decision easy.”

Ross Technologies (RTGX) is a growing Maryland company that helps businesses and government agencies take a system-wide approach to securing computer systems. C-Volve, an cyber intelligence company focused cyber network defense and data breach security and risk mitigation that is being mentored by RTGX will also be based at bwtech. UMBC news release notes that

Armando Seay, who founded RTGX with Kathy Adams in 1997, said he is excited that the new location will put the company adjacent to the campus of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC), and within a short drive of national intelligence and cybersecurity resources at Fort Meade. “We are thrilled to be moving our headquarters to bwtech,” Seay said. “This location will help us find fresh talent coming out of UMBC and further our goal of innovating in the field of cybersecurity.”

A recent IEEE Spectrum article, Teaching Machines About Madness, mentions the research of CSEE alumnus Vince D. Calhoun (Ph.D. 2002) and his mentor Professor Tülay Adali on developing a machine-learning system that can distinguish between people with schizophrenia and those with bipolar disorder using multiple functional magnetic resonance imaging brain scans. These conditions can be difficult for doctors to distinguish and require different treatments.

Dr.Calhoun is currently Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Neurosciences, Psychiatry and Computer Science at the University of New Mexico. You can find our more about this and related research on the Web site of the Dr. Adali's Machine Learning for Signal Processing Laboratory.

UMBC's ACM student chapter will hold a meeting at Noon on Wednesday, March 9 in ITE201 to discuss chapter activities and hold elections for the chapter's executive committee.

ACM, the Association for Computing Machinery, is the the world’s largest educational and scientific computing society. It provides members with resources that advance computing both as a science and a profession. UMBC's chapter meetings are open to all undergraduate and graduate students of any major.

The main goal of the March meeting is to have a round-table discussion about where to take the chapter. It was created to bring students together to discuss interesting and relevant topics and share experiences. Come and share your opinions on the subjects that you would like to hear about in the coming semesters that will make the chapter exciting and relevant.

While you do not need to join ACM to be a part of the local chapter, the annual membership dues for students is only $19, heavily discounted from the non-student rate. See the ACM site for more information on student membership and its benefits.

The election will be held by ballot and the winner determined by plurality, i.e. the person with the most votes. According to the chapter bylaws, only members who are also members of the National ACM are eligible to vote, so bring some proof of your National ACM membership (membership card, print out of current information, etc.) if you want to vote.

If you have any questions, you can send them to the acmofficers at lists.umbc.edu.

There will be a free CloudCamp meeting in Baltimore from 6:000pm to 10:00pm Wednesday March 9th at the Baltimore Marriott Waterfront. Cloudcamps are participants-driven unconferences where users of Cloud Computing technologies meet to network and share ideas, experiences, challenges and solutions. The event is free but participants are asked to register to ensure there is enough food and refreshments. Here is the current, tentative schedule:

6:00pm – Registration & Networking (food/drink)
6:30pm – Opening Introductions
6:45pm – Lightning Talks (5 minutes each)
7:30pm – Unpanel
8:00pm – Organize Unconference
8:15pm – Unconference Breakout Session Round 1
9:00pm – Unconference Breakout Session Round 2
9:45pm – Wrap-up
10:00pm – Find somewhere for post-event networking

Contact the organizers if you are interested in giving a five minute lightning talk or lead breakout session.

UMBC will host a two day “Pre-Spring Break Dissertation House” on Friday, March 11 and Saturday, March 12, 2011. Breakfast, lunch, and a snack will be served daily. This Dissertation House session will be held in lieu of the annual Dissertation House and Community Building Retreats at Coolfont and Rocky Gap. The event will take place from 9:00am to 5:00pm in the UMBC Commons.

At Dissertation House, Ph.D. students from Maryland’s research campuses learn the skills of thesis-writing success. During the immersive twice-yearly four-day program, a group of about twenty graduate students share experiences, set transparent goals, and map out ways to get to the finish line of the doctoral dissertation.

Interested Ph.D. students should follow the application guidelines and apply by Friday, 4 March 4 2011. For more information see the Dissertation House Blog.