Photo Courtesy robotonomous.com

It’s time to start thinking about summer research opportunities. And, If Robotics is what you love, then you’re in luck. In June, the University of Pennsylvania’s General Robotics, Automation, Sensing & Perception (GRASP) Laboratory is offering a Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) Site called “Perception, Planning, Mobility, and Interaction for Next Generation Robotics.”

Funded by the National Science Foundation, the program will support eight undergraduate students studying engineering or computer science who are interested in pursuing research in the field of robotics. The paid ten-week program will immerse students in ongoing research projects in the GRASP Lab by pairing them with a GRASP faculty member and student mentor to work on a research project that matches their interests.

In addition to offering students a $5,000 stipend, the research program provides travel reimbursement, free housing on the University of Pennsylvania campus in Philadelphia, and partial support for meals. Students will also be eligible for a $250 prize awarded to the best REU research project of the summer.

All undergraduate students who are U.S. citizens are encouraged to apply. The program is especially interested in applicants who are generally underrepresented in the fields of science, technology, and engineering, including: women, racial minorities, low-income, and first generation college students.

Priority Deadline: Wednesday, April 4, 2012

To apply for the program, click here.

For more information, click here.

Be sure not to miss CSEE alumnus Delali Dzirasa speak during the Raymond V. Haysbert, Sr. Entrepreneurship Lecture tomorrow, March 28, at noon in Commons 329.

After graduating from UMBC with a B.S. in Computer Engineering in 2004, Dzirasa went on to found Fearless Solutions, LLC, a team of software engineers and web developers that help clients solve problems through Data Visualization, Web Application Development, Software Engineering, and Rapid Prototyping.

Located in UMBC’s cybersecurity incubator at Bwtech, Fearless Solutions functions according to the values of “The “Fearless 5”: Passion, Excellence, Integrity, Improvement, and Innovation. The company currently employs UMBC alumni and students. In 2011, Dzirasa’s success earned him the Alumni Association’s Young Alumni Rising Star award.

Another speaker of note is Ryan Bricklemyer, co-founder of BeerGivr.com. Bricklemyer graduated from UMBC in 2006 after receiving a B.S. and M.S. in Information Systems. Last October, he and business partner Sean Kennedy launched the website BeerGivr.com, which allows you to virtually buy your friends a drink.

If you owe your pal a drink but can't join him at the bar, BeerGivr sends him a text message with a gift code that can be redeemed for a frothy brew. BeerGivr currency is already accepted at sixteen local haunts, including Alewife and Bond Street Social in Baltimore and Frisco Taphouse & Brewery in Columbia.

Sponsored by UMBC’s Alex. Brown Center for Entrepreneurship, the Raymond V. Haysbert, Sr. Entrepreneurship lecture also features Dr. Sheldon Broedel (Ph.D. and M.S., Microbial and Molecular Genetics, ’90), Chief Executive and Science Officer of Athena Environmental Sciences, Inc. and Nancy Krebs (B.A. Theatre, ’72), founder of The Voiceworks Studio.

For more information, see the event flyer.

Photo Courtesy www.bwtechumbc.com

Potential good news for internship and job seekers. The Baltimore Sun reported that four tech-focused companies have just taken up shop at bwtech@UMBC. The companies are:

Communications Scientific International, a communications systems and technologies company. Communications Scientific International “provides communications and information systems for satelliete, airbone and ground applications to the Department of Defense,” says the Sun.

Tech Edge USA, an IT solutions company.

Assured Information Security (AIS), a small business that specializes in Information Operations, including Network Operations, Electronic Warfare, and Computer Network Operations. AIS works closely with the Department of Defense.

Clovis Group, a technology staffing and consulting services firm.

EE Graduate Seminar

High Power Mid-Infrared Quantum Cascade Laser
Arrays for Standoff Photoacoustic Chemical Detection

Xing Chen, PhD (EE) Student
Computer Science and Electrical Engineering, UMBC

11:30am-12:45pm, Friday, 30 March 2012, ITE 237

Quantum cascade lasers (QCLs) are compact, powerful, mid-infrared, Semiconductor laser sources. High power QCLs are very important to infrared counter measures (IRCM) and standoff chemical detection applications, as well as others. The performance of such systems critically depend on the amount of power that QCLs can produce. One way to achieve high power operation is to use multi-emitter phase-locked laser arrays.

The first part of the seminar presents the issues and challenges to design, fabricate, and characterize multi-emitter phase-locked QCL arrays for achieving high power operation. The second part of the seminar discusses using high power mid-infrared QCLs to perform standoff photoacoustic (PA) chemical detection. The PA effect is a photo-matter effect involving generation and detection of an acoustic signal when a gas sample absorbs electromagnetic energy (particularly of light).

In recent years, with the help of the development of mid-infrared QCLs, significant progress has been made in their use for PA chemical detection, and sensitivity has been improved significantly. Our theoretical and experimental studies of standoff photoacoustic chemical detection, using QCLs as the laser source, will be presented.

Xing Chen received the BS degree in Opto-Electronics Engineering from Huazhong University of Science and Technology in 2007, and the MSEE degree from UMBC in 2009. He is currently a PhD (EE) candidate at UMBC. Mr. Chen's research interest includes design and fabrication of high power mid-infrared phase-locked QCL arrays and application to standoff photoacoustic chemical detection.

Host: Prof. Joel M. Morris

Maryland DNR, Aquatic Resource Education Department is excited to participate in the Chesapeake Bay Trust’s Chesapeake Conservation Corps, in which an opportunity exists for a stipend Volunteer to spend a one-year term of service working with the department. The intern would support  programs for schools such as Raising Horseshoe Crabs in the Classroom, Maryland Envirothon, Green Eggs and Sand curriculum; developing new activities and updating current programs to incorporate climate change and invasive species data;  outreach events such as wade ins, the Maryland Seafood Festival, and professional conferences; and other educational opportunities.  In addition, the Volunteer will participate in activities with the full Corps.  The purpose of the Corps is 1) to enable stipend volunteers to work with host organizations and communities throughout Maryland to implement on-the-ground restoration and energy conservation projects, and 2) to provide leadership and training opportunities for young adults pursuing environmental and conservation careers. 

Interested applicants should apply directly through the Chesapeake Bay Trust by following instructions at www.cbtrust.org/chesapeakeconservationcorps; however, they are encouraged to contact us as well at 410-260-8775 or by email at sepperson@dnr.state.md.us.  The application deadline is May 14, 2012, with the one-year service term to begin in late August, 2012.

From the White House

Apply to be a Fall 2012 White House Intern

We are reaching out to remind you that the application for the Fall 2012 program is now open. If you or anyone else you know is interested in the program, we encourage you to forward this information and apply by April 1, 2012 at: http://www.whitehouse.gov/about/internships/apply/application

White House Interns have the chance to work with government officials in offices such as the Office of the First Lady, the Office of the Chief of Staff, the Office of Public Engagement and Intergovernmental Affairs, the National Economic Council and the Domestic Policy Council. Assignments vary dependent on an intern’s office, but interns conduct research, attend meetings with officials, write memos and requests, participate in speaker series’ with senior staff members, engage in service projects, and staff and plan events. By dedicating their time, talents, energy and service, interns become part of the White House team and work to improve the community and the nation.

Ph.D. Defense

Multivariate Time Series Analysis
of Physiological and Clinical Data

Patti Ordóñez Rozo

1:00pm Thursday, 29 March 29 2012, ITE 325b UMBC

The complexity and volume of collected medical data is greater now than at any point in the history of medicine. Medical providers are expected to examine large volumes of data and identify correlations among parameters based on their own clinical experience to detect significant medical events or conditions. The information overload that providers may face may hinder the diagnostic process. Most existing visualizations of the data to assist the provider in analyzing the information consist of a table or plot of values for a particular parameter as a function of time. Automated techniques for discovering these correlations not only may assist the provider in making a diagnosis but may help to identify hidden patterns within the data associated with specific medical conditions or events. Current visualization and machine learning techniques show promise for extracting this information.

This dissertation presents three novel representations and two visualizations to assist in the analysis of multivariate time series data. It focuses on physiological and clinical data, in particular, because this type of data captures the complexity of a human being, and thus, the multivariate time series in this type of data are more interdependent and synchronized than most. The three representations are the Multivariate Time Series Amalgam (MTSA), the Stacked Bags-of-Patterns (Stacked BoP), and the Multivariate Bag-of-Patterns (Multivariate BoP). Each provides an integrated, multivariate approach for representing multivariate time series data. An evaluation of the latter two techniques against two techniques that use univariate techniques of multiple variables, Ensemble Voting with Bag-of-Patterns and Multivariate Piecewise Dynamic Time Warping in five diverse datasets yields interesting insights into the classification of multivariate time series.

The MTSA representation is the foundation for two visualizations – the MTSA Visualization and the Fixed Dual MTSA Visualization. These animated visualizations capture the rate of change of provider-selected parameters and the relationships among them. While both visualizations were created for the medical domain, they generalize to domains where multiple variables measure the state of an entity as a function of time. An evaluation of the Fixed Dual MTSA Visualization was carried out with 23 pediatric residents at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. The results indicate that the visualization merits further investigation for use as a diagnostic tool.

Committee

• Dr. Tim Oates (co-chair)
• Dr. Marie desJardins (co-chair)
• Dr. Anupam Joshi
• Dr. Jim Fackler, JHMI
• Dr. Christoph U. Lehmann, JHMI

• Positions Howard County Library System (HCLS) as a major component of public education for all ages
• Effectively lives the Seven Pillars of HCLS' strategic plan (Authentic Values, Strategic Vocabulary, Everyone a Leader, Winning Teamwork, Community Partnerships, The Power of Us, and Fiercely Loyal Customers) motivating others to do so as well
• Fully embraces HCLS’ educational mission, effectively communicating our curriculum, which comprises Three Pillars (Self-Directed Education, Research Assistance & Instruction, Instructive & Enlightening Experiences)

• Leads STEM projects that are focused on digital media
• Promotes the HiTech STEM digital learning lab collaborative and youth-focused methodology
• Encourages youth to explore the technologies and space around them
• Assists students with ideas, as well as exploring and using technology
• Provides hands-on support of software and hardware tools to enable students to create videos, animations, and games
• Assists students in video and animations production
• Researches and troubleshoots digital production issues and responds to (youth) customers
• Provides recommendations for continuous improvement of processes
• Collaborates with youth and staff to update websites and blogs
• Remains current on network and system procedures, updates and routines
• Collaborates with co-workers, consultant and youth
• Moderates group on-line environment
• Regularly performs other duties as assigned
• Participates in professional training and development
• Maintains regular and predictable attendance
• Adheres to all policies and procedures
  

• Pursuing or Earned Four-year college degree
• People skills – ability to work effectively with others and enjoy it
• Demonstrated interest in working with teens and tweens
• Demonstrated experience instructing and/or training teens
• Experience with music and/or video production
• Exemplifies extraordinary customer service skills and professional attitude
• Strong attention to detail and high degree of speed and accuracy
• Demonstrated ability to develop and maintain effective, collaborative working relationships
• Demonstrated ability to communicate technical information in layman’s terms to youth customers
• Demonstrated ability to analyze and solve problems, to develop new processes and procedures in response to changing customer expectations and system-wide goals
• Excellent communication skills, both written and oral
• Experience troubleshooting hardware and software
• Experience updating web pages and creating online and/or mobile tools
• Experience with digital design and graphics art tools
• Experience in windows (PC/MAC), and Linux
• Current valid driver’s license

• Job allows for some variance in work routine and considerable amounts of standing, walking, bending, reaching, pushing, pulling and sitting
• In addition, strenuous activity is required, such as carrying bags or boxes of books (weighing up to 30 lbs.) or arranging rooms for classes and events.

• Grade 9; systemwide position(s) located initially chiefly at the Savage Branch
• Works under the supervision of the Grant Project Manager(s) & Director of IT
• Part-time: 20 hours/week, typically Monday through Friday from 2:30 pm to 7:30 pm, weekends periodically required
• May be required to participate in LATI

• To apply for this position, please fill out an application available at www.HCLibrary.org (click on Employment at the bottom of the page).
• HCLS staff members may complete the internal application on SI.
• Please deliver your application to:

Howard County Library System takes pride in providing
equal employment opportunities.