UMBC’s commitment to STEM education and increasing diversity in engineering and computing fields is a trademark of the university. Five mechanical engineering faculty are continuing to expand this work through a nearly $1 million grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) S-STEM program, which focuses on retaining and graduating STEM students via scholarships and activities.

Liang Zhu, PI on the grant and professor of mechanical engineering, explains that the grant will enable UMBC to continue boosting support for diverse students in the major, to propel them toward success in mechanical engineering careers. Zhu is collaborating on the grant with Deepa Madan, assistant professor of mechanical engineering; Ronghui Ma, associate professor of mechanical engineering; Chuck Eggleton, professor of mechanical engineering; and Tim Topoleski, interim chair and professor of mechanical engineering.

This is UMBC’s third round of S-STEM funding since 2010. After the initial grant in 2010, Zhu and her collaborators received a second grant in 2014 for over $500,000 to support student scholarships. The latest round of funding extends the program another five years, and includes collaborations with UMBC’s Meyerhoff Scholars Program, Career Center, student life, and financial services, to connect students with a broad range of resources and supports.

“Scholarships, mentoring, academic support services, internships, research, and professional development opportunities all play a role in this,” says Zhu. “We are excited to test and document how effective these different approaches are at increasing mechanical engineering students’ level of engagement and success.”

Since the program began in 2010, UMBC’s mechanical engineering department has seen an increase in diversity among students in the major. According to data from the NSF, among the 20,000 students who earned bachelor’s degrees in mechanical engineering nationally between 2002-2012, 12% were women, 3% identified as African American, and 8.2% identified as Hispanic. Before the program launched, UMBC’s numbers were similar to the national figures: about 12% of students in the major were women, 11% identified as African American, and 2% identified as Hispanic. Currently, about 19% of students in the major are women, 12% identify as African American, and 5.5% identify as Hispanic. Zhu recognizes there is still a long way to go and hopes to further improve representation in the major over the next five years. Zhu estimates that the new round of funding will be used to support approximately 45 students over the course of the grant, while they earn their undergraduate degrees in mechanical engineering at UMBC.

The S-STEM program is open to incoming freshmen, transfer students, and current students who are pursuing mechanical engineering degrees, provided they maintain a specific GPA and have financial need. Students selected for the program will participate in a variety of activities to enhance their education, including research experiences, faculty and peer mentoring, community-building activities, lectures and other events, and professional development activities.

Zhu has been most energized, recently, by her collaboration with local community colleges, where she and the co-PIs travel to speak about opportunities within UMBC’s mechanical engineering program. There, she highlights unique research opportunities and internship possibilities available for UMBC’s mechanical engineering students, which are major draws for prospective students.

Ongoing support from NSF motivates Zhu to continue in her outreach work with prospective students and mentorship of current undergraduates. “Attracting community college students to our mechanical engineering program and improving the retention and graduation rates of our scholars are two key approaches to supporting the diversity of tomorrow’s engineering workforce,” says Zhu. “Receiving this grant for the third time is an indication of the high quality of our program and affirmation that we’re on the right track.”

UMBC ME S-STEM website: me-stem.umbc.edu

UMBC news link: https://news.umbc.edu/nsf-grants-umbc-nearly-1-million-to-expand-supports-for-mechanical-engineering-students/

The National Science Foundation recently awarded UMBC a Major Research Instrumentation (MRI) award totaling more than $550,000 to expand the university’s High Performance Computing Facility (HPCF). The funding will go toward upgraded hardware and increased computing speeds for the interdisciplinary core facility, which supports scientific computing and other complex, data-intensive research across disciplines, university-wide. As part of the NSF grant, UMBC is required to contribute 30 percent of the amount that NSF is providing to further support the project, meaning a total new investment of more than $780,000 in UMBC’s High Performance Community Facility.

Meilin Yu, assistant professor of mechanical engineering, is the principal investigator on the grant. He replaced Matthias Gobbert, professor of mathematics, who served as principal investigator on previous grants for the core facility in 2008, 2012 and 2017 on behalf of the 51 faculty investigators from academic departments and research centers across all three colleges.

Matthias Gobbert, left, and Meilin Yu in UMBC’s High Performance Computing Facility. Photo courtesy of Meilin Yu.“The MRI grant will allow us to upgrade the UMBC HPCF with state-of-the-art computing nodes and networks,” explains Yu. “It will boost sustained growth in research and education relating to computational science and engineering, including but not limited to, high performance computing, cybersecurity and big data, atmospheric physics, environmental science and engineering, and life sciences.”

Through the facility, researchers can run simulations with a range of applications, including industrial designs and weather prediction. UMBC faculty will utilize the upgraded system to complete simulations and modeling tasks significantly faster than the current system allows, explain Yu and Gobbert. The updated technology includes accelerated graphics processing units that, in addition to speeding up calculations, will “improve the quality of digital visualization,” says Yu.

The HPCF governance committee is working with UMBC’s Division of Information Technology to purchase and implement the upgraded hardware, including central processing units, which completes computing tasks, graphics processing units, which manages the visual displays on computers, and cores. “We hope to have at least 72 nodes in service to the UMBC community by spring 2018, with 16 core Central Processing Units, Graphics Processing Units suitable for integer/single-precision and double-precision arithmetic, and cutting-edge many-core Intel Xeon Phi KNL processors with 68 cores,” Gobbert explains, adding that by increasing the number of nodes, UMBC’s HPCF is worth more than $2 million.

UMBC faculty are able to use the facility for their research at no charge, and they receive technical support from graduate assistants as well as staff in UMBC’s Division of Information Technology. The upgraded facility will support projects from researchers in more than a dozen academic departments across all three colleges at UMBC. Gobbert shares that he expects this community of scholars will expand further as the core facility continues to grow. “I am most proud of the fact that such a large number of faculty total put their trust in me to lead the writing and management of this proposal,” he said. “Our success at the NSF validates that the strong interdisciplinary cooperation of many researchers from across the campus is valued there.”

The HPCF was established in 2008 in response to a university-wide need for technology to support high-performance computing. The initial system had 35 nodes, and was funded by UMBC’s Division of Information Technology, the Office of the Vice President for Research and faculty contributions. Over the past nine years, the HCPF has grown to include over 300 nodes, and has been used by more than 400 researchers and students for their work. The facility has led to more than 250 publications, including 100 in peer-reviewed journals, in addition to 30 theses. The recent funding will support the expansion of the facility to include 84 nodes, which individually communicate with each other, and cutting-edge processors. The oldest portion of the HPCF will be replaced with with more powerful nodes.

The original story can be found here: http://news.umbc.edu/umbc-upgrades-high-performance-computing-facility-through-new-nsf-grant-expanding-possibilities-for-data-intensive-research/

Apply for the CWIT Sponsorship to the

Grace Hopper Celebration 2017

Orlando, Florida

Total Value of the Sponsorship:$1,300

Description:

The Center for Women in Technology (CWIT) at UMBC is sponsoring a small group of students to attend the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing (GHC), which will be held from October 4th-October 6th in Orlando, Florida. GHC is a great opportunity to connect with other women in computing and innovative organizations, hear stories from peers and experts, and get quality career advice specific to your needs. Please visit the conference website at www.gracehopper.org to learn more. Contact us at deramo@umbc.edu if you have questions.

Date of Conference:October 4-6, 2017 (Travel October 3-7)

Application Deadline: Tuesday, April 25, 2017

Application Link: https://goo.gl/forms/jl7WOoituxZ7fPGA3

Sponsorship Details:

-- Paid and organized BY CWIT:

•          $450: Conference registration fee

•          $150: Hotel: 4 nights of lodging with 4 students per room at the conference hotel

    --  Paid and organized BY STUDENT and reimbursed after the conference with proper receipts. You will be reimbursed for the amount shown on the receipts as long as it is not above the maximum amounts shown below:

•          $230-$400: Roundtrip flight: Baltimore Washington International, DC (BWI) to Orlando International, FL (MCO). Depart BWI on 10/3/17 and Return 10/7/17. (Coach class only will be reimbursed).

•          $180: Meals (Reimbursement at UMBC per diem rate for meals, $45 per day)

•          $120: Airport parking fees and other transportation from airport to hotel and back

Timeline of Expectations if Selected:

1.    ON 5/12/17: Attend a meeting on Friday, May 12^th, noon - 1 PM in ITE 237 to meet other conference attendees and learn more about what to expect at the conference. There will be another meeting in September to go over the reimbursement procedures for your expenses.

2.    BY July 1: Book your flight to Florida by July 1st. You should plan to depart on Tuesday, October 3, and return on Saturday morning, October 7.

3.    BY 9/5/17: Communicate with your faculty about attending the conference and making arrangements for any missed coursework.  We will provide a letter saying that you are being sponsored to help you have these conversations.

4.    IN SEPTEMBER 2017: Attend a meeting in September to discuss reimbursement procedures, sign up to volunteer at the CWIT table at the conference, and review final trip details.

5.    POST CONFERENCE: Attend a debriefing meeting after the conference to talk about what you learned.

6.    FALL or SPRING SEMESTER: Attendees will also be asked to share their experiences with other students at a CWIT event later in the school year.

7.    ALWAYS: Respond promptly to e-mails from us about the conference and complete the necessary paperwork required for travel and reimbursement according to UMBC policies and deadlines.

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Note: Students who have applied for a scholarship to attend the GHC already through the Anita Borg Institute (an opportunity that was promoted by CWIT) and students who have never attended the GHC before will receive priority.  Students who do not meet these criteria are still eligible, though, so do still apply!

Questions? Contact Erica D’Eramo at deramo@umbc.edu

Do you love loud music?

Do you find robots particularly intriguing?

Do we have a deal for you!

We are looking for volunteers for the Maryland State FIRST LEGO League tournament to be held on Saturday, February 25th in the RAC. Over seventy teams of kids descend on the RAC to test their bots in a thrilling competition!

We need people to help the setup on the night before both Feb 24th and Feb 25th.

Benefits to you: FREE FOOD! FREE T-SHIRT! A great feeling for volunteering

your time! Did I mention FREE FOOD?

Please go to the following site to register and read what is available:

 ●      FLL: Sat. Feb. 25 - UMBC, Catonsville, MD  FIRST LEGO League MD State Championship Sign Up

 Looking forward to seeing you there!

For questions, please email Ms. Beth Goodman at bethgood_2000@yahoo.com