UMBC’s Cyber Defense Team, known as the Cyber Dawgs, emerged the national champion team in the U.S. Department of Energy’s fifth annual CyberForce Competition. The Cyber Dawgs earned first place overall out of more than 100 teams from universities across the country.

Ten national laboratories hosted competing teams this year, November 15 – 16. UMBC competed at the Argonne National Laboratory near Chicago, Illinois, while other teams traveled to sites like the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Washington state and Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee. Competing teams hailed from a broad range of institutions, including Virginia Tech, Carnegie Mellon, Georgia Tech, Texas A&M and the U.S. Air Force Academy.

The competition tasks students with defending critical energy infrastructure during simulated cyberattacks. The scenarios are designed to be realistic, focused on water and power systems and including real-world constraints, such as insufficient budget for system upkeep and limited information on system needs. During the competition, “red teams,” including industry professionals, attack the system, while the students work to ensure that the infrastructure is available to their customers, or “green teams,” who test system usability. 

The teams receive points based on how successfully they address attacks, while still allowing users to access the infrastructure they need. The teams are also awarded points for innovative defense tactics and ideas. This year’s competition saw several leading teams with neck-and-neck scores until the final round, when UMBC’s Cyber Dawgs pulled ahead for the victory.

The competition offers students a unique opportunity to develop their cybersecurity skills in relation to critical infrastructure, and have hands-on experience in a realistic cyberattack situation.

“The CyberForce competition is the most unique of our annual events, allowing us to experiment with network configurations to defend an industrial control system against adversaries while playing the roles of an IT organization,” explains RJ Joyce ’18, M.S. ’20, computer science, a member of the winning team. “The hard work, dedication, and creativity that each member brought to the team lifted us from a regional win last year to a national win this year.”

In addition to Joyce, last weekend’s winning team included Anna Staats ’20, computer science; Drew Barrett ’20, computer science; Grant Spencer ’20, computer science; Cyrus Bonyadi, Ph.D. ’23, computer science; and Seamus Burke ’20, computer science.

“The team’s second national championship in three years shows the enthusiasm, grit, and tenacity of our students in demonstrating their technical cyber expertise in a competitive arena,” says Rick Forno, senior lecturer of computer science and assistant director of UMBC’s Center for Cybersecurity. 

Forno advises the Cyber Dawgs with Charles Nicholas, professor of computer science and electrical engineering. “It’s an awesome thing not just for the team and university,” he says, “but for each competitor individually, as they prepare to enter the cybersecurity workforce after graduation.”

UMBC students have a strong record in state and national competition. In 2018, UMBC computer science and information systems students won the top prize at the Maryland Cyber Challenge. A year earlier, the UMBC Cyber Dawgs won the National Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition. 

Update: In early December 2019, the Cyber Dawgs won the 2019 Maryland Cyber Challenge, with a team comprised of Staats, Spencer, and Burke. They competed against several skilled challengers, including a team from the U.S. Air Force Academy.

Banner image: The Cyber Dawgs at the CyberForce competition. From left, Charles Nicholas, Anna Staats, Drew Barrett, Grant Spencer, Cyrus Bonyadi, and Seamus Burke. Photo courtesy of Argonne National Lab.

Any new coach at any college will want to make changes. New UMBC women’s basketball coach Johnetta Hayes hopes to do just that—but not only on the basketball court. 

Hayes comes to the Retrievers from Texas Southern, where she posted a 115-73 record in six seasons and led that team to four post-season appearances, including a trip to the NCAA Tournament in 2017. UMBC is coming off a difficult 10-20 season, and Hayes is looking to turn things around on the court while creating a new culture of family within the program. 

On the court, the Retrievers under Hayes will play a faster-paced game than in recent years. That is going to be a big difference. Off the court, Hayes wants the student-athletes in the program to feel the team is a family and that they can turn to teammates and others for help in any situation—regarding basketball or life. 

“It’s really, really important for me,” Hayes said. “From the day I walked in here until now, I can see the difference. They had each other already. It’s a bond they’ll have forever at UMBC, and we want the four seniors to leave out of here in [the spring] feeling like the way we started and the way we ended was definitely different. Once they leave, they can always come back home.”

Hayes said she wants to create an environment where those who played for UMBC in the past can mentor those currently playing at the school. If a student-athlete needs contacts for jobs or career advice upon graduation, they could turn to one of the former players for help in that area. 

Building this, though, takes time and effort. 

“They are their own sorority, and when they leave here, they [will] feel like they have something to come back to every year,” Hayes said. “I want the four seniors leaving to know every year in October, we come back. We celebrate with our families, and we mentor the young ladies who are on the team.”

Right now, the biggest type of change probably involves Hayes and her coaching staff as all 14 Retrievers return from last year’s team, which is unusual in collegiate athletics. So the new coaching and operations staff needed to get to know and understand the players. 

Acting athletics director Jessica Hammond-Graf has noticed Hayes working hard to connect with the student-athletes, not always an easy task for a new coach. 

“She’s spending a lot of time with them outside of practice to get to know them…to help them grow,” Hammond-Graf said. “It’s not just about basketball with her. It’s the larger picture and helping everybody grow and develop and become future leaders. She had to come in and recruit the players that are already here.”

Senior guard Tyler Moore said there’s no question that Hayes is driving this team and trying to adjust their outlooks on basketball and other things. Moore said the Retrievers definitely appreciate it. 

“I think I can speak for my team in saying that we love how she pushes us to be better than we were the day before,” Moore said. “Standards are high and we have no choice but to rise to them.”

Hayes said her biggest change involved the move from Texas and getting her two young daughters (ages 7 and 4) situated. Now, they often come to where their mother works and are growing comfortable as Retrievers. 

So, the new coach, staff and players all have spent the off-season working on changing the way they play and the culture around the team. Hayes wants the student-athletes to understand and deal with change in basketball and life—after all, the games don’t go on forever.

“You’re going to get a new boss,” Hayes said. “Things will change. How do you adjust? How do you adapt? Change is good. It may not feel good at first, [but] it can be [later on].”

– Jeff Seidel ’85

***

All photos, including header, by Marlayna Demond ’11.

In this first year of Baltimore’s mash-up of eclectic and electric art festival Light City and the annual book festival—a hybrid called Brilliant Baltimore—UMBC shone brightly.

Several UMBC authors took to the stage, including our very own President Freeman Hrabowski, to promote the launch of his newest book. The Empowered University, co-authored with Provost Philip Rous and Peter Henderson, details how the UMBC community has come together to tackle some of higher education’s most intractable challenges and become a national model for inclusive excellence along the way.

Another literary panel included the editors of Baltimore Revisited: Stories of Inequality and Resistance in a U.S. City, a book of essays that reflects Baltimore’s complex history and efforts to address the city’s pervasive inequalities. In a panel with the editors—Nicole King, associate professor and chair of the Department of American Studies; Kate Drabinksi, lecturer in Gender, Women’s, + Sexuality Studies; along with Joshua Clark Davis, an assistant professor of history at the University of Baltimore—discussion ranged from community health, to the history of development, and protests throughout the years.

Other UMBC light and literary work was on display at the SPARK Gallery. Curated by UMBC’s Catherine Borg, a Baltimore artist tracing shifting narratives in American culture in photo and video based artworks and installations, the exhibit featured UMBC and Towson artists. A luminous, surreal puppet show, several musical scores, animated short films, and more populated this creative space that encouraged participants to interact with the installations.

Additional UMBC events included a conversation with artists and writers who’ve collaborated with each other in the past 10 years of The Light Ekphrastic (TLE), a zine published by UMBC Magazine‘s own editor, Jenny O’Grady. Co-hosted with Timothy Nohe, professor visual arts at UMBC, the group discussed the method of responding to existing art to create something new, which is the mission of TLE.

Discussion with Hrabowski about his newest book

Baltimore Revisited panel

SPARK Gallery reception and performances

The Light Ekphrastic panel

Brilliant Baltimore

****

All photos by Marlayna Demond ’11.

The plan began percolating in early 2017, when UMBC entrepreneurship professor Gib Mason ՚95, economics, presented a challenge to his Innovation, Creative Problem-Solving, and the Socialpreneur class. Local business and community groups had asked UMBC for ideas on how to better connect the University and its surrounding communities. That class assignment evolved into a student-led enterprise that could benefit UMBC and its neighbors for years to come. 

After more than two years of planning, construction, relationship-building, and first-hand experience with the ups and downs of starting a business from scratch, the project has become a reality. The doors of OCA Mocha—a coffee shop and community gathering space in downtown Arbutus—opened at 6 a.m. on November 4, 2019. More than 100 students, UMBC faculty and staff, and members of the community attended a grand opening celebration that afternoon.

From class project to brick and mortar business

Student co-founder and recent UMBC alumna Krishna Gohel ՚18, biological sciences, called the grand opening “a dream come true.” When the project began in the spring of 2017, she and her classmates “knew UMBC needed something…and that the surrounding communities needed something…[and] we realized that [we] needed the same thing: unity.”

Gohel called OCA Mocha “the missing piece of the puzzle,” a sentiment expressed repeatedly during the grand opening festivities.

Michael Berardi ՚19, media and communication studies, student co-founder and current OCA Mocha general manager, noted that “dozens of minds” helped conceive of OCA Mocha “and hundreds of hands have touched this project.” He reflected, “It’s truly been incredible.” 

Berardi and other speakers told the assembled crowd about OCA Mocha’s roots as a place where members of the UMBC and local communities could gather. This new space is now a hub for them to connect with and learn from each other, enjoy some coffee, and attend university- and community-sponsored events. It all centers around the unique core vision for OCA Mocha—creating a university-community relations effort located not on campus, but in the community.

Locally made

The OCA Mocha team worked to refine its business plan and to transform commercial space that the University leased on East Drive in Arbutus. What began as an empty shell full of potential became a warm, welcoming space with a coffee bar, a community meeting room, and a stage for live music, open mic nights, and other entertainment. The space also includes a gallery for rotating art exhibits by members of the UMBC and local communities.

Renovations began in March 2019, with Joe Regier, executive director of UMBC Transit and community connections, serving as UMBC’s on-site lead and liaison with the construction crew. The team sought to support the community by using local contractors and vendors whenever possible. 

The wooden detailing on the coffee bar was created by craftsmen Michael McAuliffe and Bill Carter ՚98, interdisciplinary studies. Like so many others in the community, they donated their time and talents to the project. OCA Mocha partnered with Chesapeake Bay Roasting Company as its sole coffee supplier because of the company’s commitment to giving back to its local community and to supporting efforts to preserve the Chesapeake Bay.

Where coffee meets community

OCA Mocha’s tagline, “Where coffee meets community,” speaks volumes. Bettina Tebo, president of the Greater Arbutus Business Association, is one of the project’s earliest supporters. At the grand opening event, she called OCA Mocha “just the beginning of the amazing things that can happen from this relationship…and from the connections that we’re building.”

Vrinda Deshpande ՚20, biological sciences, UMBC Student Government Association (SGA) president, said OCA Mocha is “a very special place to be”—an example of the “power that [students] have to make change.” SGA has provided funding for the project and plans to use the community meeting room for meetings and programming.

UMBC President Freeman Hrabowski told the crowd, “I don’t know when I’ve seen this kind of excitement.” He noted, “we believe in southwestern Baltimore County,” calling OCA Mocha “another step in building the partnership we’ve had for 50 years.”

Baltimore County Executive John Olszewski, Ph.D. ՚17, public policy, presented the OCA Mocha team with a citation that reads, in part, “Your determination in creating a place where the community of Arbutus can repose and meet while further advancing the overall aesthetic of the community is greatly commendable.”

The team also received a resolution from the Baltimore County Council, presented by staff for Councilman Tom Quirk, “extend[ing] its respect, admiration, and sincere congratulations to OCA Mocha upon their grand opening.” Maryland General Assembly District 12 Senator Clarence Lam and Delegates Terri Hill and Jessica Feldmark, and District 44B Delegate Pat Young, also attended the celebration.

Wrapping up the formal program, student co-founder Deep Patel ՚19, biological sciences and financial economics, who is now a co-owner of the private investment group that runs the coffee shop, led a ceremonial ribbon-cutting featuring members of the OCA Mocha team, UMBC and community leaders, and public officials.

The day of firsts continued into the evening as the SGA Senate convened its weekly meeting in the community meeting room.

Patrons viewed the inaugural OCA Mocha gallery exhibit, featuring artwork by students from nearby Lansdowne High School and students who participated in the UMBC Choice Program’s “Youth in Action” event. 

As the baristas, many of whom are UMBC students, continued to serve patrons, the OCA Mocha stage featured its first live act, local musician Jeremy Gilless. He was followed onto the stage by Matt Davenport ՚18, music technology; Tyler Moonlight; and Sushito, featuring Fayo Ojo ՚20, computer science, and led by OCA Mocha student co-founder Chris Roa ՚19, interdisciplinary studies.

OCA Mocha is open daily. For information on hours, events, and how to reserve the community meeting room, visit OCA Mocha’s website.

With Dan Eiskant ’19, media and communication studies

Faster than a speeding bullet! More powerful than a locomotive! Able to leap tall buildings at a singlebound! It’s…a Mama’s Boy? 

Most of us are guilty of saying “I could do that” while watching feats of strength on TV from the comfort of the couch (possibly with a snack in hand). But Dan Eiskant ’19, media and communication studies, took the challenge head-on and started his journey to become the next American Ninja Warrior. 

American Ninja Warrior is a competition where athletes race against the clock to conquer various obstacles. At each qualifying stage, the playing field is whittled down and competitors (often with larger-than-life personas) advance as they complete increasingly grueling courses. The pinnacle for any American Ninja Warrior is making it the final stage—a rope climb. But this is not your gym class rope climb. Competitors must claw their way to the top of a 75-foot rope within 30 seconds to take home the cash prize and bragging rights. So how do you even begin to train for something like this? We decided to ask the expert. 

Tools of the Trade
    
    1. Determination and humility 
    2. Several gym memberships
    3. Ability to rest
    4. Vocal fans to cheer you on
    5. Camera to capture these gravity-defying feats 
    
    
 

Step 1 – Find someone who will catch you when you fall

Even though American Ninja Warrior is a solo competition, it’s impossible to do well without support from the sidelines. “It’s important to surround yourself with friends who will encourage you and push you to be your very best,” says Eiskant, whose entourage includes some pint-sized fans and  campus crooners. 

Eiskant works at a local Ninja gym teaching school-aged kids the ropes…and jumps…and climbs. “When I came back after the episode aired, I had a bunch of my students coming up saying they watched me on TV and they were so excited,” he says. “I love helping them develop these techniques early on because they’re good at it! They have no fear.” 

In addition to this legion of little fans, Eiskant relies heavily the friends he made as part of UMBC’s all-male a capella group, the Mama’s Boys. On air, the group joined Eiskant at the starting line, sending him off with their own rendition of “Danny Boy.”

“I actually had stage fright before I joined the group and they helped me get over that, so getting to sing with them like we normally do, but at the starting line of the qualifiers, just helped me get rid of all of my nerves,” says Eiskant.

Step 2 – Make the world your jungle gym

A lot of hard work goes a little way when it comes to training for American Ninja Warrior. Eiskant is in the gym up to six days a week training and the end result is running a course that sometimes is the length of a commercial break. But you still have to give it your all to get there, and that means thinking outside the box for fitness.

“More so than grip strength and finger strength, it’s a mental game,” explains Eiskant. “Rock climbing provides a lot of real-time problem solving skills that you don’t get in other workouts. It helps when you’re tackling a course you’re not familiar with.”

Since competitors don’t see the course until they get to qualifying, Eiskant suggests that ANW-hopefuls check out different gyms, pursue other athletic hobbies, and familiarize themselves with various challenges to improve their odds on the ever-changing course. 

Step 3 – Sing for your supper

Now that you have the skills to run up a nearly vertical Warped Wall and propel your body up a Salmon Ladder, what do you do with them? Time to put it all in action and apply for American Ninja Warrior. 

Eiskant has been a fan of the show since he was 15, but the rules require all contestants to be a certain age. He took his cues and started working out with an eye toward landing on a spot. He started rock climbing with a group and, once he turned 21, he felt like he was ready to compete. 

It’s a highly selective process to be chosen to run on American Ninja Warrior. All hopefuls have to fill out an extensive questionnaire and submit a video showing their personality and what sets them apart. Eiskant kept it in the family and leaned on the Mama’s Boys to help out. 

“I focused on my music and singing and being part of the Mama’s Boys. You have to be interesting and engaging and be sure you have a story to tell.”

Step 4 – Don’t let the odds deter you

Anyone applying for American Ninja Warrior has to be prepared for failure. Only a handful of athletes advance each during the final stage and only two have walked away with the million dollar prize. 

Eiskant was one of the lucky ones selected the very first year he submitted in 2018 to run in Philadelphia. Even though he was eliminated, he tried out again and had his run featured in our own Baltimore backyard in 2019. He advanced to city finals and fell short but hasn’t let that discourage him.

“Watching everyone compete, you realize this person is no better than me just because they can do that. Anything can happen, you just have to keep pushing at it,” he reflects.

The Ninja community is a supportive one and Eiskant emphasizes that, even though it’s a competition, “it’s more like a family environment. Everyone is just helping each other be better versions of themselves.”

In fact, Eiskant has been so encouraging and determined, he’s even inspired someone very close to him to try out next year—his dad. 

*****

If you missed it, catch Dan’s episode online now or check out the teaser clip below!

https://www.facebook.com/umbcpage/videos/447351479163646/

All photos by Marlayna Demond ’11 unless otherwise noted.

UMBC’s Aaron Smith is now thinking “bigger picture” about how his lab’s research can support human health at the molecular level thanks to $1.5 million in new research funding. 

Smith, assistant professor of chemistry and biochemistry, focuses on how biological systems take up and process iron. Last winter he received a significant grant for research on developing new antibiotic targets. Now, he’s earned a prestigious $500,000 National Science Foundation CAREER Award and $1 million from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences, a division of the NIH. The work he and his students are doing is at the molecular level, but it has implications for everything from cardiovascular disease to embryonic development.

Opening the molecular toolbox

Smith’s bioinorganic chemistry lab works to understand how metals function in biological systems, with a particular focus on iron. While it may be strange to think about metals functioning in our bodies, they are critical. “For biological systems to expand the types of chemistry that they can do, they need metal ions,” Smith says. “Metals open up the toolbox for the protein to be able to accomplish so much more.” 

The NSF and NIH funding will allow Smith’s lab to increase understanding of how iron is involved in adding molecules to proteins after they are made. This process is known as post-translational modification. 

“Post-translational modifications are incredibly important,” Smith says. Even the most complex organisms don’t have more than a few tens of thousands of genes that provide instructions for unique proteins, but proteins perform many times that many functions in the body. Post-translational modification “really diversifies the number of functions that proteins can serve,” Smith says. 

Smith’s lab is studying a specific post-translational modification called arginylation. An enzyme known as ATE1 carries out arginylation, by attaching the amino acid arginine to proteins. Then, “the arginine functions as a molecular flag that says, ‘I should be degraded,’” Smith explains. The ability to break down the right proteins, and then use their building blocks to rebuild other cellular materials, is crucial for the healthy functioning of our bodies over time.

“ATE1 is very impactful, but we don’t know a lot about how it does what it does,” Smith says. Even the structure of ATE1 is unknown, as well as the mechanism by which it adds arginine to proteins. Smith says his lab has an idea, “but my guess is it’s going to be much more complex when we figure this out.”

Smith’s research niche: the atomic level

Research on arginylation is increasing rapidly, and Smith believes his lab has a particular role to play. Most labs are looking at arginylation at the cellular level and up, asking questions like how it affects different processes in a cell or even an entire organism. But Smith is taking things to another level by studying the atomic structure of individual ATE1 enzymes and the proteins they interact with. 

“We think that we fit in very nicely in this research space,” Smith says, “We’re filling a niche that remains really uncovered at this point.”

Smith’s group is looking at how ATE1 is regulated, such as how it knows which proteins to add arginine to or how it responds to changes in the cell. They’ve already gotten some promising results related to iron’s role in regulating ATE1. And they’re getting close to revealing the enzyme’s complete molecular structure, which would provide big clues into how it works. The NIH and NSF funding will help answer these questions.

Once the structure and mechanism are in hand, it will be time to explore applications. For example, “Could we think about then making this protein a target for therapeutic development?” Smith asks. “Given how important it is in these various cellular processes, if we understood better the structure and the mechanism, we could think about ways to develop small molecules that could help with diseases associated with arginylation.”

Representation in research

In addition to aiding the progress of his research, Smith is excited that both grants will allow him to expose more students to bioinorganic chemistry. His CAREER Award proposal “has an additional education component that’s about specifically trying to leverage the diversity efforts already going on here at UMBC, and to help increase diversity in bioinorganic chemistry.”

To that end, Smith will introduce all of the first-year chemistry courses at UMBC to bioinorganic chemistry. He’s also developing a new upper-level elective on bioinorganic chemistry. Smith hopes that by taking the course, students may then “consider going into a research career for a field that they didn’t even know existed, that helps tackle some of the most important chemical transformations on the planet.”

“I’m proud to think that my lab reflects the diversity that we see on UMBC’s campus, and I’m happy to continue moving forward with that,” Smith shares. “It’s important to have a lab that reflects this university and the country, to benefit from a broad range of perspectives and to train the researchers of tomorrow.”

This new funding will significantly expand the opportunities available to Smith and his students, and it’s reshaping how they think about the work. Having strong funding “affords you the ability to imagine more,” he says, “to think bigger picture about different avenues you might pursue.” Now, Smith and his students will be dreaming big as they steward this new research funding to better understand arginylation, metal transport, and their roles in human health.

Banner image: Aaron Smith works with his students in the lab. From left to right: graduate students Alexandrea Sestok, Verna Van, and Nathan Max. All photos by Marlayna Demond ’11 for UMBC.

What is the future of W.E.B. Du Bois? Nimi Wariboko, the featured speaker at UMBC’s 41st annual W.E.B. Du Bois lecture, aims to address this question. “I want to bring Du Bois’s rich and complex concept of consciousness to the study of citizenship and epistemology in Africa,” says Wariboko, the Water G. Muelder Professor of Social Ethics in the School of Theology and chair of the philosophy, theology, and ethics department at Boston University.

The lecture bridges generations who may not be familiar with Du Bois’s work with scholars whose research is significantly influenced by him. “W.E.B. Du Bois’s foundational work on black consciousness, citizenship, and racial inequality is as relevant today as it was in 1903,” shares Maleda Belilgne, assistant professor of Africana studies and English. “The future of Du Bois is the striving for a global order that recognizes the intrinsic value and unlimited potential of every black life.”

The 41st W.E.B. Du Bois lecture will take place on November 13, 6 p.m. – 8 p.m., in UMBC’s University Center Ballroom. Find out more about the lecture, organized by the Africana studies department, at the Dresher Center for the Humanities.

Banner image: W. E. B. Du Bois. Photo from creative commons. 

Although it’s been 15 years and he now works in Silicon Valley, Rahul Razdan ’05, information systems, Hilltop Society Member, can still hear UMBC database management instructor Richard Sponaugle’s lessons echoing in his current work. 

“I still talk about normalizing a table,” he says. “A lot of what I learned at UMBC applies to what I do today.” 

Razdan lives in San Jose and works as a senior business process architect for Intuitive, a global company that produces minimally invasive surgery technology, most notably the da Vinci Surgical System. The system translates the surgeon’s hand motions inside the patient’s body using a miniaturized surgical camera and wristed instruments (i.e., scissors, scalpels, and forceps). Because the doctors are seated while they use the systems, they can perform longer, more complicated procedures. 

Entering new markets in new countries, each of which has its own regulations, is where Razdan comes in. “I work with the legal and regulatory teams to interpret the standards into business requirements,” he says. The fundamentals of his work, according to Razdan, are rooted in his time at UMBC, where he studied information systems on the Shady Grove campus. 

“It’s the foundation of my career today,” says Razdan, “The systems analysis and design focus in my undergrad taught me to deconstruct problems into smaller parts and apply root cause analysis. I had such an amazing experience.”

Making a home at Shady Grove

Karen Archambault, a former program coordinator at UMBC, isn’t surprised by Razdan’s accomplishments. “He didn’t just focus on credits and classes,” she says. “He took advantage of the full experience at UMBC.” 

As a transfer student from Montgomery College, Razdan knew about UMBC’s reputation from its number one ranking in chess. “I thought, ‘That’s pretty awesome. They brag about chess.’ But you know what? Nerds get paid in the end,” says Razdan, with a chuckle. 

On the Shady Grove campus, Razdan distinguished himself outside of the classroom. As president of the Universities of Shady Grove Student Association, he organized a job fair and started a dining discount program with nearby restaurants. 

“This wasn’t just a place to take classes [for Razdan],” says Sponaugle, senior lecturer and associate undergraduate program director of UMBC at Shady Grove. “Any college experience is going to be what you make of it. He stood out, and really applied himself to his studies too.” 

Razdan says he was struck by the genuineness of his classmates and professors. “They were really humble and genuinely inviting,” he says, adding that he always felt welcome on the main campus in Catonsville. 

“I never felt like a stepchild. I never felt apart,” says Razdan. “I could go to Catonsville and watch a basketball game or catch a lacrosse match.” 

Staying connected from the West Coast

Before Razdan graduated, he’d already completed an internship at the Washington Post and had a job waiting for him at a software company when he graduated. 

After earning a master’s degree from the George Washington University in information systems technology, in 2014, Razdan moved to California with his wife. He’s stayed connected to UMBC from afar in a variety of ways.

Razdan’s gifts to the university have earned him a membership in the Hilltop Society. One program he donates to is the Center for Women in Technology. “It’s a great way to give back to my school that gave me so much,” says Razdan, “and while doing so, support women entering the science and technology space. We need a more diverse group of people at the table talking about problems affecting us today, and I find this is one way to address that problem.”  

Razdan still follows the news from his undergraduate alma mater, and particularly enjoyed bragging from the West Coast about UMBC’s NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Tournament upset in 2018. Even more fun, he said, was getting together with fellow Retrievers earlier this year at a UMBC alumni event in California. “It was great,” Razdan says. “I’d love to get together once a year and build on this network.” 

— Laura Cech

*****

Header image: Razdan with the DaVinciX system. Photo courtesy of Razdan.

In the early morning hours of  Saturday, November 2, a few hundred guests at the NASA Wallops Flight Facility gathered at the VIP launch viewing site—a grassy pad near a large tent. Sitting on metal bleachers and in camping chairs, they gazed upward. The NASA Antares rocket and Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus capsule stared back at them from two miles away, more than 14 stories high and loaded with supplies for the International Space Station (ISS). Also on board were more than 30 “cubesats”—small satellites no bigger than large loaves of bread—all of them containing scientific instruments their makers hoped would contribute to a better understanding of our world.

One cubesat, the Hyper-Angular Rainbow Polarimeter (HARP), has been a labor of love for a small group of dedicated UMBC scientists and engineers for the last five years. There were times when they weren’t sure if HARP would ever get to space, but the big moment had finally arrived. Today, HARP was headed up. Way up.

Around 9:55 a.m., the crowd quieted. Their thoughtful silence spoke to years of late nights, early mornings, sighs and tears, hugs and high-fives. They thought back to team meetings with frantic napkin scribbling, spacecraft models made of children’s toys when an idea struck at home, and big dreams.

UMBC’s Roberto Borda, one of the core engineers for HARP, stood at the front of the viewing area, his arms around his wife. “It’s happening, it’s happening!” he whispered excitedly in her ear. Other team members stood nearby with their spouses, children, and friends.

The crowd collectively held its breath and squinted across open fields at the rocket, which was backed almost directly by the low morning sun. And then, finally, it got loud. Really loud. The silent guests watched as Antares and Cygnus roared to life, 440,000 pounds of oxygen fueling eight massive explosions generating upwards of a million pounds of thrust.

At exactly 9:59:37, right on schedule, the rocket burst from its restraints and bolted upward into the sky. Cheers erupted, and the nervous tension dissipated as the rocket rose ever higher. Within four minutes, it was 100 miles above the Earth, headed to the space station at 17,000 miles per hour.

A few minutes later, champagne bottles popped and the celebration began.

Observing particles in Earth’s atmosphere

The HARP satellite’s unique sensors will collect new kinds of information about clouds and tiny particles in Earth’s atmosphere, such as wildfire smoke, desert dust, and human-generated pollutants. These particles, collectively known as aerosols, have a multitude of effects on the global climate and the health of organisms. For example, rain droplets condense around the particles, so they play a role in global precipitation. The particles can also reflect light away from Earth as well as trap energy inside Earth’s atmosphere, which both affect climate. And pollutants can lead to various respiratory ailments in humans and other animals.

With its innovative design, HARP is able to observe the particles from many angles at once to give scientists a more comprehensive view of what’s going on in the atmosphere. The new data will equip scientists with information they need to better understand climate and air quality concerns. 

“HARP is really a technology demonstration mission,” explains Vanderlei Martins, the lead researcher on HARP and director of UMBC’s Earth and Space Institute, “but our goal is to also do some science with the data.”

The team is comprised of engineers, physicists, and mathematicians. “As an engineer, I’m looking to develop technology that can make the science happen,” says Dominik Cieslak, an assistant research scientist with the Joint Center for Earth Systems Technology (JCET), a UMBC partnership with NASA. Other team members are developing algorithms to effectively analyze the data that will eventually be arriving in huge quantities. Cieslak notes that the data could be used in new ways for years to come as researchers develop new algorithms and computing power continues to grow.

Awaiting “first light”

“We’re going to celebrate every step,” Martins said on the morning of the rocket launch. He is careful to note that the launch is just one step—a particularly exciting one—in a still-lengthy sequence. Only when the satellite is orbiting Earth and sending back data will he and his team know if HARP is working the way they intended.

Cieslak shared Martins’ cautious optimism. “There are many ways for things to go wrong,” he said, “but there is only one way for everything to go right.”

To increase the likelihood of things going right, the team tested HARP many times on two different kinds of aircraft that fly at high and low altitudes, to ensure the instrument is working properly. But still, says Borda, “It’s a different beast going in a plane versus going to space.”

On Monday, November 4, the Cygnus capsule made it safely to the ISS. Another step completed. In about a month, astronauts will launch it and its cubesat companions into space. If that goes smoothly, the satellite will stabilize and enter low-Earth orbit. Then, Earth-bound instrumentation will need to successfully establish a connection with the satellite for transferring data. 

If that succeeds, the team will anxiously await the first images from the satellite, which Martins refers to as “first light.” “I’ll really really celebrate when we get the first light,” Martins says.

An important day

Despite the additional steps to come, the launch “is a big milestone,” says Brent McBride ’14, physics, a current Ph.D. student in atmospheric physics. With the setbacks the project has experienced over five years, to arrive at launch day “is a wonderful thing.”

“We’re all really invested in the spacecraft and the work that will come out of it,” says Ryan Martineau, from the Utah State University Space Dynamics Laboratory, which partnered with UMBC on HARP, and “there’s still more to do.”

Karl Steiner, UMBC’s vice president for research, was thrilled to witness his first NASA rocket launch, especially after being inspired by the moon landing and Apollo missions as a child. “To have seen Vanderlei and his team work on this as long as I’ve known them, and know the amount of work and sacrifice they’ve put in, the chance to be with them on this important day…” He trailed off, brimming with emotion. “It’s a very special day for the team and for UMBC.”

At a pizza party after the launch, the team members reminisced about the time they’ve spent together—some as many as 15 years on other projects and five years on HARP—as the excitement of making it to this next big step began to sink in.

“Life can surprise you. Even five years ago I couldn’t have imagined I’d be here today. So keep dreaming,” said Cieslak. “Keep dreaming.” 

Banner image: Vanderlei Martins, Roberto Borda, and Dominik Cieslak with HARP at UMBC. Photo by Marlayna Demond ’11 for UMBC.

UMBC students like Jackelyn Flores are increasingly taking advantage of high-impact programs at The Universities at Shady Grove (USG), a Montgomery County campus UMBC shares with eight other Maryland public universities. Opportunities for her and other UMBC-Shady Grove students are expanding even further today with the opening of a new Biomedical Sciences and Engineering (BSE) Education Facility on the popular campus.

Flores ’21 is one of the first students to pursue UMBC’s new degree in translational life sciences technology (TSLT), launched at Shady Grove this fall. Fascinated by biotechnology, she completed her associate’s degree in the field at Montgomery College (MC) while working full-time in the cell therapy department at Lonza, a biotech company near Frederick, Maryland. She’s now enhancing her biomedical sciences knowledge and lab skills through the UMBC program, in a region with particularly high demand for biotech professionals. 

Access to state-of-the-art science

At USG, UMBC offers both the new TLST bachelor’s degree and a master’s of professional studies in biotechnology that relaunched exclusively at USG last year. Three new teaching labs in the BSE will greatly increase opportunities for students in these programs to develop their skills with state-of-the-art lab equipment, from liquid chromatography to bioreactors to high-end microscopes.

“Because it’s top-notch equipment, this is what they’ll see when they go work at a biotech company,” says Annica Wayman ’99, mechanical engineering, M6, associate dean for Shady Grove affairs in UMBC’s College of Natural and Mathematical Sciences (CNMS). “They’ll be more prepared for those jobs because they’ll already be familiar with the equipment.”

The fact that many disciplines will offer courses in the building will also help students prepare for the workforce. “This building symbolizes an opportunity to bring the disciplines together to address societal problems,” Wayman says, “and to discover how they can work together to address the biggest challenges.”

Wayman hopes the building will be a resource for companies in the area, whether that means project-based courses where students tackle real industry needs, or startups renting time on the equipment for their own projects. These connections would benefit students, too, who will get the chance to work more closely with biotech professionals while completing their degrees. 

Blazing a trail in student training

The path that Jackelyn Flores took from Montgomery College to UMBC is one purposefully designed through a collaboration between the two institutions. “CNMS is a trailblazer in keeping our education programs up to date with the rapid pace of science and technology development, and in making sure students have the skills the biotech industry needs now,” Wayman says. “We also work closely with MC so the program pairs well with their very hands-on biotech program. We created this program to build on that.”

As she prepared to transfer from MC to UMBC, Flores found a supportive community that gave her the information and resources she needed to be successful. “UMBC offered plenty of open house sessions where I was able to meet directly with UMBC staff who answered all of my questions, and UMBC staff maintained active communication throughout the application process,” she says. “It was extremely reassuring to know that the school cared and was offering so much help.”

“The program at Montgomery College did an amazing job in helping me develop the lab skills necessary for the industry,” Flores says. “The TLST program is enhancing my lab and critical thinking skills while also reinforcing my knowledge of the biomedical industry.”

Growing Maryland’s STEM workforce

UMBC plans to continue to grow its already robust STEM presence at USG. Beyond offering TLST at the undergraduate level, UMBC offers graduate programs in biotechnology, cybersecurity, data science, geographic information systems, and technical management. Additional STEM programs matching the needs of local employers are on the horizon. Complementing all of these are popular programs in psychology, social work, political science, and history.

“One of the goals of CNMS and UMBC being at Shady Grove is to contribute to workforce development for the state, particularly in STEM,” Wayman says, “The new building provides USG and UMBC the opportunity to greatly expand training students and develop the workforce in high-demand STEM careers.”

It’s working for Flores. “The BSE will open doors for students to network and become involved in the industry while establishing critical connections,” she says, like the one she has with Lonza. “I can’t wait to see what the rest of the TLST program has to offer.”

Banner image: The entryway to the new Biomedical Sciences and Engineering Facility at The Universities at Shady Grove. The new space will facilitate growth in STEM programs offered by UMBC and other institutions at USG. Photo courtesy Universities at Shady Grove.