Carla Guarraia, Ph.D. ’06, molecular and cellular biology, has received a Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching for her work at the Park School in Baltimore. Only one award is given per state per year, and Maryland is an extremely competitive region.

In 2017, Guarraia proposed and coordinated a complete redesign of the science curriculum for ninth and 10th graders at Park in close collaboration with colleagues. The new ninth grade course, first implemented in 2019, integrates physics, engineering, and computer science content, and the 10th grade course brings together concepts from biology, chemistry, and data analysis. In addition to covering content, the courses emphasize skill-building and opportunities for memorable and authentic project-based experiences that inspire excitement about science. Park juniors and seniors are then prepared to pursue an array of electives in all five disciplines and interdisciplinary topics.

An external evaluator lauded the resulting curriculum, which Park calls its “Core Program,” for its alignment with the Next Generation Science Standards, differentiated learning approach for students with a range of needs, emphasis on mastery learning and a growth mindset, prioritization of active learning, and the faculty’s commitment to caring for their students. 

Expanding her view

Guarraia, who as of the 2024 – 2025 school year is the upper school science department chair at Park,  studied for her Ph.D. under the mentorship of Philip Farabaugh, professor of biological sciences. Then she completed a postdoctoral fellowship with Jennie Leach, associate professor of chemical, biochemical, and environmental engineering. 

“Phil Farabaugh supported my growth as an academic, and as a citizen of the world. He consistently showed respect for me and built up my confidence that I could be smart and fun while not only teaching science but caring for the people around me. As a mentor for life, I have learned from Phil that if I am my authentic self my life will be most successful,” Guarraia says.  

Leach “shares my passion for teaching, and in Jennie I continue to have a role model for pursuing ambitious exciting science while also being a working mom,” Guarraia adds. 

“UMBC is a really special place that shaped my view of Baltimore, as the campus focus was on rigorous education, inclusion, and excellence, and it was my first experience with a truly international community,” Guarraia says. “I am forever grateful for how UMBC, Jennie, and Phil expanded my view of the world and of myself.”

Meet Michael Brazda ’06, anthropology, M.A. ’08, applied sociology, and Ph.D. ’24, gerontology, an adjunct professor who is passionate about both asynchronous and synchronous online learning. Drawing from his experiences as a student and a working professional, he understands the flexibility needed while earning a degree. Now, he focuses on helping students who require that same level of flexibility to balance their education with work, family, and other life responsibilities. For Michael, the ability to access virtual learning is a game-changer for lifelong learning. Thanks for sharing your enthusiasm, Michael!

Q: Briefly introduce yourself.

A: I am an adjunct professor in various institutions across Maryland. I teach sociology at Mount St. Mary’s University and Frederick Community College and gerontology, sociology, and women’s studies at the University of Maryland Global Campus.

Q: What was your academic journey?

A: I graduated from UMBC’s doctoral gerontology program in December 2024. I took a long circuitous route to get here. In 1987, I earned my first bachelor’s degree in computer studies and went to work as a telecommunications technician and network administrator. Sixteen years later, I was laid off which led to a lot of soul-searching. I realized I didn’t like certain aspects of the tech industry and decided to explore other fields.

Q: What’s one essential thing you’d want another Retriever to know about you? 

A: I started at UMBC, earning a second bachelor’s degree in anthropology followed by a master’s degree in applied sociology. I took a two-year detour in the public policy doctoral program and finally found my home in gerontology. In part, because it provided a capstone to my life up to that point. I was always interested in the social sciences. Gerontology, being multidisciplinary, allowed me to tie together my interests in sociology and anthropology. 

Q: What do you love about your job?

A: I don’t like living in the past. I like encountering new things and understanding how and why people behave a certain way. Some of the music that I’ve learned to appreciate is because of the assignments I have given, like songs by Billie Eilish. We analyze their lyrics and relate them to sociological concepts. I have taught online at more than five universities and community colleges in the area because it allows me to work with and learn from a diverse group of students, which is something I really enjoy. Through this experience, I have become an advocate for lifelong learning.

Q: Why are you passionate about lifelong learning?

A: Lifelong learning comes more from the desire to learn new things and get involved in different areas that interest me. Online learning plays into this because it expands what’s available academically. With online learning, I’m not limited to what the colleges or universities in my area may offer. I can look at or get involved with academic programs around the country. When I returned to college in 2003, I could only access universities near my home, UMBC being one of those. Otherwise, I would have to drive to D.C., further into Baltimore, or Pennsylvania. Online learning helps students, who need more than a traditional institution offers, to have a holistic college experience. 

Online teaching became my modality of choice because it allows me to teach at a wider range of schools. Trying to make a living as an adjunct professor while traveling from campus to campus for classes eats up a lot of time. In contrast, the ability to teach online eliminates that overhead. It allows me to devote more time to teaching, learning, and developing my classes in new ways.

Q: Since you’ve been a part of the UMBC community, how have you found support of your WHY?

A: Although I’ve been teaching for many years, I’m always learning how to become a better educator for my students. While at UMBC, I took advantage of UMBC’s Graduate Students Association PROF-it: Professors in Training seminar. This program helped refine my teaching skills enabling me to better meet my students’ needs.

The UMBC community has supported me in ways that I reflect in my teaching today. The welcoming faculty, both in teaching and research, made me feel like a part of the team. As a student, this was particularly important—working with researchers who encouraged me to develop my ideas and explore topics of interest to me, while still allowing me to call the work my own. At the same time, they involved me in every aspect of the research process, helping me learn, expand, and grow as a researcher. Faculty in sociology, anthropology, and public health like Robert Rubenstein, emeritus professor,  Ann Frankowski, senior research scientist in the doctoral gerontology program; and J. Kevin Eckert, emeritus professor, among others, created a comfortable and supportive environment.

* * * * *

UMBC’s greatest strength is its people. When people meet Retrievers and hear about the passion they bring, the relationships they create, the ways they support each other, and the commitment they have to inclusive excellence, they truly get a sense of our community. That’s what “Meet a Retriever” is all about.

Learn more about UMBC’s Ph.D. in gerontology.

Mechanical engineering Ph.D. student Md Badrul Hasan has received the 2025 Professor Kirti “Karman” Ghia Memorial Award from the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA), for his research modeling the fluid flow inside hurricanes with physics-informed machine learning. 

The award recognizes an international graduate student in the U.S. who has developed an innovative approach to computational fluid dynamics, in which computers are used to analyze and predict how fluids flow, with applications in aerospace engineering, weather forecasting, and more. Hasan, who is from Bangladesh, is the inaugural recipient of the award. His research explores new ways to improve the modeling of energy flow in hurricanes.

Machine learning for better weather forecasting

Hasan and his UMBC mentors—Meilin Yu, mechanical engineering, and Tim Oates, computer science and electrical engineering—looked at the layer of atmosphere in a hurricane that is directly above the ocean surface. Called the hurricane boundary layer, it is where turbulent flows bring heat and moisture from the water into the air, and it plays a crucial role in determining a hurricane’s intensity and track.

Traditional modeling of this layer fails to account for ways that energy within the smaller eddies in a flowing fluid can feed back into larger scale eddies. Hasan, Yu, and Oates explored how physics-informed machine learning models—which analyze large datasets to spot patterns—could better capture this phenomenon. Ultimately, they are looking to integrate their machine learning models into larger physics-based hurricane simulations to improve the simulations’ accuracy.

“This work sets up the cornerstone of our ongoing research towards more accurate numerical simulation of hurricane boundary layer flows at the scale of tens to hundreds of miles,” says Yu. “It is also a key step in our renewable energy research, where improving offshore wind farms’ resiliency to tropical storms is our ultimate goal as mechanical engineers. Badrul’s hard work pays off, and we are very proud of him.”

Hasan accepted the award for his work at the 2025 AIAA SciTech Forum, held in early January in Orlando, Florida, where he also presented his research. He says that while the community is filled with many researchers specializing in the traditional physics-based simulations, there is more and more interest in machine learning. 

Hasan says he is grateful for the guidance of Tim Oates, from the computer science and electrical engineering department, in selecting and understanding the machine learning models. 

“It was a great team effort between mechanical engineering and computer science—really productive and rewarding for both sides,” he says.

On the surface, it may appear that there isn’t much of a connection between rapper Kendrick Lamar and abolitionist Harriet Tubman. But in his debut book, UMBC Assistant Professor of English and musician Earl Brooks, argues that the rhetorical power of music—specifically music created by Black artists—is what bridges the two cultural figures, and many others, together. 

Brooks’ On Rhetoric and Black Music (Wayne State University Press, 2024), begins with a vignette describing Tubman singing spirituals to calm the nerves of the enslaved folks she led to liberation for the Union Army in 1863 as the first woman to plan and lead an armed attack for the American armed forces. The effect of the singing, Brooks writes, “brought composure to the crowds of people, leading to a safe evacuation.” Brooks explains how Tubman used music as a form of strategic communication, utilizing the same rhetorical tools he teaches his students at UMBC.

Tubman understood that the mode of sound, Brooks argues, would be the most expedient way to signal her authenticity and credibility, an example of what it means to understand the rhetorical function of Black music and its historical use as a mode of communication.

“On Rhetoric and Black Music recognizes the role that music has played in shaping public discourse in America,” says Brooks. “To understand where Black music is right now, you have to understand the musical history that the book engages.”

“The sonic lexicon of Black music”

Brooks ends On Rhetoric and Black Music with a comparison of Kendrick Lamar, who won a Pulitzer Prize for Music in 2018 for his critically-acclaimed album Damn., and composer Duke Ellington, who would have won the award in 1965 but was rejected because of his race. Brooks argues that Lamar and Ellington’s music had seismic impacts on American culture, and Lamar’s win represented a significant step forward for the public recognition of Black music’s influence in America. Lamar, who will be headlining the 2025 Super Bowl LIX halftime performance in February, is the first and only rapper in history to be a Pulitzer Prize recipient. 

Beyond Lamar, Tubman, and Ellington, On Rhetoric and Black Music examines the artistry of iconic Black figures in music spanning a variety of genres and eras. Those artists include Scott Joplin, Mary Lou Williams, John Coltrane, and Mahalia Jackson. Brooks explains the historical context of these artists and how they shaped Black political and social discourse in the 19th and 20th centuries. Brooks argues that there would have been no such movements like the Harlem Renaissance, Civil Rights Movement, or Black Arts Movement as we know them without Black music.

Through rhetorical studies, archival research, and musical analysis, On Rhetoric and Black Music establishes the “sonic lexicon of Black music,” which Brooks defines as a “distinct constellation of sonic and auditory features that bridge cultural, linguistic, and political spheres with music.”

“The core of the book is reframing how we think about Black musicians. They’ve been shaping not just how we think about the world around us, but how we think about critical issues like freedom, identity, and community,” says Brooks, who is also the associate director of UMBC’s Dresher Center for the Humanities. 

For Brooks himself, his understanding of Black music’s impact on shaping public discourse began when he met renowned trumpeter, composer, and music instructor Wynton Marsalis during his senior year of high school in Topeka, Kansas. At the time, Brooks was a budding saxophone player who had not yet determined where his musical ability would take him.

“It was really transformative to hear how Marsalis conceptualized music history and American culture as one coherent thing. I hadn’t experienced that before,” Brooks recalled. “Meeting him was huge in terms of motivation.”

As an undergraduate student at the University of Kansas (KU), Brooks was a dual major in music performance and American studies. It wasn’t until attending a lecture on writer Ralph Ellison by acclaimed scholar Arnold Rampersad that Brooks began to seriously consider studying the intersections of music, culture, history, and politics. Brooks joined KU’s McNairs Scholars Program in 2009 where he first began his exploration into researching music history. The McNair program, he shares, introduced him to the research process and further motivated him to attend graduate school to advance his education in music history. 

Brooks later attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he was introduced to the field of African American rhetoric. After receiving his master’s degree in African American literature at UNC-Chapel Hill, Brooks then went on to receive his Ph.D. in rhetoric and composition from Penn State University, where his ideas around the rhetorical implications of Black music began to take shape. 

“Most folks acknowledge that music lyrics can be a really important form of communication, but we often don’t think about the music itself,” Brooks said in a local tv news segment last year. “We don’t often think of [composers] as seeking to be public intellectuals and contributing to public discourse on critical matters. The point of [On Rhetoric and Black Music] is to really give readers a deeper insight into just how entangled American history is with Black music.”

The power of sound and mentorship

In 2017, Brooks joined UMBC’s English department and currently teaches courses in sound studies, African American rhetorical traditions, media literacy, rhetorical theory, and composition. Brooks was awarded the university’s Summer Research Faculty Fellowship grant in 2018 to further develop his project “Black Sonority: Rhetoric and Black Music,” which later spawned into what is now On Rhetoric and Black Music. 

In the classroom, Brooks’ lessons are expanding how students think about the power of sound: “I love to open students’ minds to how interwoven their lives are with sound and music, and how that shifts so many things in their lives even if they’re not aware of it,” he says.  Brooks teaches his students critical analyses of audience expectations, the pros and cons of various communicative mediums, and understanding how social and cultural landscapes can construct what successful persuasion looks like. 

In 2022, Brooks and the students in his “Sounds Like Social Justice” course collaborated with the Meadow Community Fellowship Church in the nearby Beechfield and Irvington communities to document their experiences during and after the 2016 and 2018 floods with the “Underwater/Underserved” podcast. The podcast’s production was supported through the Dresher Center’s Inclusion Imperative, a six-year humanities studies initiative funded by the Mellon Foundation that concluded in 2023. Brooks was then named as one of the Dresher Center’s 2023 Residential Faculty Research Fellows and was also a recipient of UMBC’s College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences Early Career Excellence Award. 

One of the things he’s most proud of, Brooks emphasizes, is helping the next generation of researchers from underrepresented backgrounds as a UMBC McNair Scholars faculty mentor and advisory board member. He fondly recalls meeting his McNair mentor, Dr. Maryemma Graham, a renowned African American literature scholar and the University Distinguished Professor in the department of English at KU, during his undergraduate years. Brooks says Graham’s presence was instrumental throughout his academic and professional journey. 

“Dr. Graham was so warm and engaging, and I had not yet experienced that in college. She took an interest in something I was interested in and helped me make sense of it—that was a really big turning point for me.”

Now, Brooks is elated to be the one helping to guide emerging academics. “The McNair Program was critical for me, and it’s been amazing to experience being on the other side of things as a faculty member.”

A space of refuge

One of the functions of Black music, Brooks adds, is its ability to be a space of refuge during times of panic, chaos, and misery. He noted the significant role of music “as a place for dialogue and connection during a time of isolation” amid the COVID-19 pandemic, which coincided with a months-long wave of nationwide protests against police brutality and other related injustices against Black Americans. 

Black music, he says, was one of the resources people utilized to cope with that time of mass devastation. In 2020, millions of viewers from around the world virtually tuned into the phenomenon of DJ D-Nice’s “Club Quarantine” and the “Verzuz” music series in which legendary hip hop, R&B, and gospel artists and producers battled against one another, highlighting their chart-topping discographies.

“That’s the role that music has played for [Black people] historically. On Rhetoric and Black Music speaks to the complete continuum of Black music,” says Brooks. “It’s a form of deliberation and a space where we make sense of the world around us.”

More stories on research from UMBC’s College of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences

U.S. News and World Report has recognized UMBC’s online master’s degree in information systems as #32 on their national list of 2025 Best Online Master’s in Information Technology Programs. The program moved up two spots from last year’s ranking. 

U.S. News evaluates programs based on qualities such as strong faculty credentials, a good reputation among peer institutions, and the opportunity for students to use diverse online learning tools and engage with their instructors and classmates.

The UMBC program prides itself on its flexibility, industry-relevant curriculum, and specialization options. Working professionals can choose to pursue a degree on a full-time or part-time basis, depending on their career and personal goals. Students looking to narrow their focus can choose a specialization track in data science, cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, or UX design.

New this semester, the program is expanding the student experience for online learners by offering tailored events and networking opportunities, such as virtual networking events, industry-specific webinars, and guest speaker sessions. “These initiatives will help foster a sense of community, even from a distance,” says James Foulds, the director for the online information systems master’s program. “Students can connect with peers, faculty, and alumni in meaningful ways to support their academic and professional growth.”

Foulds himself will participate in the first such event—the new “Midday Mingle” series offering students the chance for informal online chats with program faculty and alumni. In February, Foulds will discuss his research specialty: the ethical and responsible uses of AI.

Naghmeh Karimi, an associate professor in the Department of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering, was recently granted more than $300,000 in funding from the Semiconductor Research Corporation (SRC) to study the security of promising hardware components that speed up the computing process. 

SRC brings together technology companies, academics, and government agencies to tackle large scientific and technical challenges, and Karimi’s research will be funded by three leading technology companies: IBM-Research, AMD, and Siemens. 

Karimi and her team, including graduate students and a collaborator from Arizona State University, will study computer chips whose design and structure allows computing-in-memory (CiM), where data processing happens directly within the computer’s memory. CiM architectures are promising for speeding up the use of machine learning algorithms because they consume less energy.

Different types of CiM devices (such as RRAM, MRAM, and SRAM) each have their own strengths and weaknesses in terms of performance, power use, and size, and to get the best results, engineers need to combine different CiM devices into one system. Building these systems in 3D layers can further improve their efficiency and performance. However, the security of these 3D architectures has received little attention to date. 

Karimi’s team will study the security of 3D CiM technologies used in AI applications. In particular, the research will focus on evaluating the security vulnerabilities of the technologies and developing mitigation strategies. 

“I’m excited about this project because the topic is very timely,” says Karimi. “The support from three leading companies in the AI field shows the importance of the problem and the promise of the solutions we are working on.”

The team aims to enhance the security of CiM-based AI accelerators against physical attacks that adversaries might launch to leak sensitive data or induce malfunctions. The researchers will work closely with the funding companies over the next three years in this area.

UMBC and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) have signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) establishing a strategic partnership to increase public service career awareness and diversify workforce opportunities. This collaboration can include internships, mentorships, shadowing experiences for UMBC students, and joint outreach events to boost awareness of HHS as an employer of choice.

“We work very hard to make sure that we do not just have a culture that is great, but we also have representation in places where students can see themselves and imagine who they can be and what they can contribute,” said Cheryl R. Campbell, the assistant secretary for administration for HHS.

HHS’s mission is to enhance the health and well-being of all Americans by providing effective health and human services and fostering sound, sustained advances in the sciences underlying medicine, public health, and social services. This MOU will enhance recruitment efforts, support career development programs, and share resources to broaden federal employment pathways for UMBC students, particularly in public health, research, and engineering. 

“When you talk about how do we change the conversation, how do we change and improve the health disparities? Well, you have to have people at the table that come from those environments,” said Campbell. “That’s why it’s critically important that we sign these memorandums of understanding to bring the next generation of Black and brown professionals into government service. Because if you want to affect change, you have to have a seat at the table to impact policy.”

This news is inspiring for Michael Ack. He joined UMBC as a Meyerhoff Scholar and earned a John H., Sr. and Althea Griner Scholarship for outstanding first-year undergraduate students committed to the advancement of minorities in the sciences and who intend to pursue biological sciences as a major. Ack is now a junior and in his second year at the National Institutes of Health Undergraduate Scholars Program (UGSP), which is part of HHS. Ack notes how these programs provided him access to invaluable financial support, mentorship, and a strong community of peers, faculty, and alumni. Last summer, Ack shadowed researchers working on understanding the development and continued survival of cancer cells. After graduation, Ack will complete his UGSP service obligation by working as a full-time NIH employee in an NIH Intramural Research Laboratory.

“This MOU will serve as a pathway for UMBC students to pursue meaningful careers in public service and make meaningful contributions to our society,” said Ack. “And through the various opportunities that this partnership promises, more UMBC students will be able to see the benefits of working for HHS, such as I have, and will empower more of us to dream big.”

For more internship and career information visit UMBC’s Career Center and listen to their UMBC Careers Unleashed podcast.

UMBC’s Ethics Bowl team won third place at the 2024 Chesapeake Regional Ethics Bowl competition in December. The team competed at UMBC against 15 teams from the Mid-Atlantic region, all vying for one of three qualifying spots in the 2025 Association for Practical and Professional Ethics Intercollegiate Ethics Bowl National Competition. UMBC will join Virginia Tech, first-place winner, Salisbury University, second-place winner, and 33 qualifying teams across the country at the national competition in February 2025.

“Activities like the Ethics Bowl engage students to think more critically about their own values and decisions, and thereby be better able to engage with those whose views differ,” says Jessica Pfeifer, associate professor of philosophy and department chair. “This will make them better scientists, doctors, programmers, entrepreneurs, lawyers, parents, and citizens.”

Six weeks before the competition, teams receive detailed information about the topics they will discuss, allowing them to prepare and strategize their arguments. Students must be ready to answer judges’ questions and defend their responses to the opposing team in just a few minutes. Each team competes in four preliminary rounds to advance to the semifinals and finals.

Greg Ealick, a philosophy lecturer, has coached the undergraduate team 15 years. He meets with the team year-round to hone their critical thinking skills, debate challenging ethical issues across all disciplines, and develop strategies for conveying their research respectfully and succinctly. Ealick knows what it takes to make it to the top. In 1988, Ealick ’89, philosophy, helped lead UMBC’s debate team to number one in the United States and to the Parliamentary Debate Association world finals in Australia, where he was ranked as the number one American speaker. Over the 15 years Ealick has coached the Ethics Bowl team, UMBC has qualified for nationals seven times, most recently in 2023 and 2020.

“Qualifying means a lot since it is a testament to all our hard work throughout the semester. We spent several hours each week preparing for these cases, which were sometimes incredibly difficult to hash out,” says Tafat Boudif, a political science junior. Boudif helps Retrievers engage with government, politics, and policy-making as a political engagement intern at UMBC’s Center for Democracy and Civic Life. She also serves on the Student Government Association’s Appeals Board. “There are also so many additional things that we have to take into account, such as tone, confidence, etc. So I’m super proud of our team for being able to juggle all these things against some pretty tough teams!”

This year’s achievement comes shortly after UMBC’s new Center for Ethics and Values, home to the UMBC Ethics Bowl team, announced it would be a new host in the national line-up for the Association for Practical and Professional Ethics regional competitions. The event was co-hosted by UMBC’s Department of Philosophy and made possible with over 50 former Ethics Bowl team members and community members who helped to run, moderate, and judge the tournament, which took place on December 7, 2024, in the Performing Arts and Humanities Building. 

This is what keeps former Ethics Bowl team member Stephanie Ferrone ’09, physics, returning to UMBC—her role as a coach. She notes that the skills she developed in Ethics Bowl continue to guide her thinking and communication as a physicist at the Underwater Electromagnetics Sensors branch of the Naval Surface Warfare Center.

“Coaching Ethics Bowl has been a joy; past the highs and lows of competition, there is a true delight in sitting in a room in the PAHB every week to help students talk through all aspects of Ethics Bowl, from Beauchamp’s principles of biomedical ethics to the importance of signposting in public speaking,” says Ferrone. “It’s even more meaningful of an experience to know how deeply this is likely to affect these students—this type of experience is one that shapes a college career and crafts friendships and connections that truly last.”

Learn more about UMBC’s philosophy department.