Congratulations to Computer Science Ph.D. student Yasaman Haghpanah, who will be receiving one of three prestigious Dissertation Fellowships from UMBC’s Graduate School to help complete her Ph.D. dissertation this summer.

Originally from Iran, Yasaman began her Ph.D. studies at UMBC in Spring 2009. Her dissertation, entitled “A novel trust and reputation mechanism through behavioral modeling of reviewers,” focuses on trust and reputation modeling for online markets.

“My research interests lie in the broad area of trust and reputation modeling and their effect on various domains such as online markets, supply chain management, auctions, social networks, smart grids, and e-commerce applications,” explains Yasaman. She credits the success of online auction site eBay to its reputation system: “Feedback Forum.” “I have extensively modeled trust and reputation through behavioral modeling of the reviewers using formal probabilistic modeling. My model is general and can be applied to several domains.”

Planning to defend her dissertation in August 2012, Yasaman credits the fellowship with helping her to wrap up her research over the summer. Once she graduates, she will be looking for postdoc positions or work in a research lab. She aspires to one day become a professor.

Russia-based anti-virus firm Kaspersky Labs has described a new cyber attack toolkit dubbed Flame (Worm.Win32.Flame) which they describe as "what might be the most sophisticated cyber weapon yet." Their analysis suggests that Flame is a state-supported effort rather than one created by hacktivists or cybercriminals.

"Flame shares many characteristics with notorious cyber weapons Duqu and Stuxnet: while its features are different, the geography and careful targeting of attacks coupled with the usage of specific software vulnerabilities seems to put it alongside those familiar 'super-weapons' currently deployed in the Middle East by unknown perpetrators. Flame can easily be described as one of the most complex threats ever discovered. It’s big and incredibly sophisticated. It pretty much redefines the notion of cyberwar and cyberespionage."

Flame appears to be designed "to systematically collect information on the operations of certain nation states in the Middle East, including Iran, Lebanon, Syria, Israel and so on." Initial infection can be from an infected USB drive, spear phishing or an infected web site. Here’s a map of the top seven affected countries.

More information is available in articles on Wired (Meet ‘Flame’, The Massive Spy Malware Infiltrating Iranian Computers) and the BBC (Flame: Massive cyber-attack discovered, researchers say).

The UMBC student chapter of the ACM met last week to elect a new slate of officers for the 2012-13 academic year. Outgoing preseident Yasaman Haghpanah officiated the election meeting. Elected were Varish Mulwad as President, Lisa Mathews as Vice-President, Ravendar Bhojwani as Secretary and Prajit Kumar Das as Treasurer.

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.

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 ACM UMBC student chapter will continue to organize the weekly hi-tea event in the upcoming year. It will also be working on inviting speakers (from industry and academia) to present on topics such as preparing for a career in the industry to pursuing graduate school. If you have any questions about the UMBC chapter or suggestrions for activities for the coming year, you can send them to the acmofficers at lists.umbc.edu.

The most relevant was the Electronics Lab I took at UMBC. We learned about all these separate pieces of circuitry throughout the course, and during the summer I was asked to create a circuit using all of these pieces. To be able to apply exactly what I had learned towards something useful and new was exciting.

Read more about Daniel's research by visiting the link below...

Outstanding Achievement in Computer Science
Outstanding academic achievement or service in the Department of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering

Clay Alberty

Laura J. Anzaldi

Madeleine R. Sparling-Sedlak

Nathaniel K. Lam

Menal G. Modha

Lauren J. Won

Outstanding Achievement in Computer Engineering
Outstanding academic achievement or service in the Department of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering

Thomas M. Christovich

Stephen G. Harvey

Kristopher N. Lamont

Linh R. Pham

Adam P. Page

Daniel Park
 

Congratulations to graduating seniorsThomas Christovich andTimothy Burke, who were awarded Student Leadership Awards by the Computer Science and Electrical Engineering Department. The pair was recognized for this honor at yesterday's Pre-commencement Breakfast & Awards Reception.

A Computer Engineering graduate, Thomas Christovich (pictured left) has been part of UMBC's Amateur Radio Club for four years, first as president (2009-2011), and more recently as treasurer (2011-2012).  "Amateur Radio is a good opportunity to play with electronics and understand a little more about how radio works," says Christovich, who especially enjoyed competing in "good-natured" contests like the School Club Round Up, where the goal is to communicate with as many schools across the country as possible. Christovich was also active in athletics, playing intramural flag football every semester.

After graduation, Christovich is embarking on an across-country road trip with some friends–his "last hurrah" before he starts working full-time in Columbia.They plan to visit landmarks like Mount Rushmore, Yellowstone, and Yosemite as they make their way to the West Coast for a stop in San Francisco.

As he says goodbye to UMBC, Christovich's advice to other Computer Engineering graduates is to not be afraid to ask for help. "The Computer Engineering department has some of the most approachable professors I have ever known and they are always willing to help people that ask," he says. His second bit of advice is to get to know your classmates. There's nothing more helpful, he explains, than having a friend help you work through a problem from a different perspective.

A Computer Science graduate, Timothy Burke (pictured right) is a Center for Women in Technology (CWIT) Scholars in Information Technology and Engineering (SITE) Scholar, a tutor in the Computer Science Help Center, and a peer mentor.

"Being involved with the CWIT community was an immeasurable benefit to me during my time at UMBC," says Burke, who transferred to UMBC from CCBC Catonsville and found a network of support within the CWIT community. Through CWIT, Burke volunteered with First Lego League and the USA Science and Engineering Festival. Thanks to relationships fostered by CWIT, Burke  was part of the CSEE Department Promotion and Tenure Committee for the 2010-2011 academic year and participated in interviews for new faculty.

Burke also finds his time as a tutor especially valuable. "I greatly enjoyed my time tutoring other students in the Computer Science Help Center–it was great fun helping others learn and understand what they are studying," he explains. "That experience left a strong impression on me and has given me a desire to teach in the future."

After graduation, Burke will begin a full-time position as a software engineer at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory. In the Fall, he will begin pursuing his Ph.D. in Computer Science at UMBC. Studying under Dr. Penny Rheingans, Burke's research will focus on Data Visualization and Human Computer Interaction.

Burke's advice to current Computer Science undergraduates includes the old standbys–like start your assignments sooner and ask for help when you need it–paired with a few specific pearls of wisdom: "Go sit by a lake when faced with obscure error codes," "If a job offer comes and you are told you will be working on 'legacy applications,' do not simply walk away, RUN", "Take a class that is way, way out of the major for a change of pace" (in his case HIST 387: Medicine and Healthcare in China), and "Find a slightly smarter friend to take Algorithms with."

Meet Yu Wang, a graduate student pursuing her Ph.D. in Computer Science. Originally from China, Yu came to UMBC in 2009 to study for her Master's in Computer Science. She's part of UMBC's VANGOGH research lab and the UMBC High Performance Computing Facility (HPCF). Once she graduates, Yu hopes to one day work in a research position at the R&D group of the Weta Digital visual effects studio in Wellington, New Zealand.

Click here to learn more about Yu and to hear what she has to say about UMBC.

Computer Science PhD Dissertation Proposal

Online Unsupervised Coreference Resolution for
Semi-Structured, Heterogeneous Data

Jennifer Alexander Sleeman

1:00pm Tuesday, 22 May 2012, 325b ITE, UMBC

Coreference resolution, determining when an instance represents a real world entity, has been widely researched in multiple domains. Online coreference resolution that supports heterogeneous data is not as well researched though these aspects of coreference resolution are incredibly important. With the complexities of computing environments today, a more flexible coreference resolution algorithm is required to support data that is processed over time rather than all at once. We present an online unsupervised coreference resolution framework for heterogeneous semi-structured data. We describe a two phase clustering model that is both flexible and distributable. We also describe a multi-dimensional attribute model that will support robust schema mappings. As part of this framework we propose a way to perform instance consolidation that will improve recall measures by addressing data spareness. We also outline how our framework will support ’cold start' knowledge base population.

Committee: Professors Tim Finin (chair), Anupam Joshi, Charles Nicholas, Tim Oates, Yun Peng, and Dr. Rafael Alonso (SAIC)

Forbes ranked metropolitan areas on increased tech-related jobs based on their employment growth in the sectors most identified with the high-tech economy and STEM. Among the top five are DC at #2 and Baltimore at #5.

• No. 2: Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV
  Amid a surge in government spending, the capital area has enjoyed 20.6% growth in tech employment since 2001 and 20.8% growth in STEM jobs. Over the past two years, employment in both categories expanded about 4%. The Washington area boasts the second-highest proportion of tech and STEM jobs among the cities we surveyed, at 2.9 and 2.2 times the national average, respectively. There is a broadness to the tech economy in the greater D.C. area; as the Valley has become dominated by trends in web fashion, the Washington tech complex include substantial employment in such fields as computer systems design, custom programming, and private-sector research and development.




• No. 5: Baltimore-Towson, MD
  The Baltimore metro area has benefited from the expansion in federal spending, logging 38.8% growth in tech jobs over the past 10 years and 17.2% growth in STEM.