Many UMBC undergraduate students interested in AI have benefited from the free programs offered by non-profit AI4ALL. Their current online AI4ALL Ignite program is a comprehensive, no-cost virtual accelerator that prepares undergrads, especially those from historically excluded backgrounds, for successful careers in AI and machine learning. Through a combination of mentorship, hands-on projects, and career readiness training, participants gain the skills and connections necessary to thrive in the AI industry.
You can apply to the AI4ALL Ignite Fall 2025 cohort here by August 11. Admitted students will join over 800 participants from around the country in 2025 and get hands-on training to excel in their technical interviews and a launchpad to start a career in AI. Students can find out about upcoming online information sessions here.
UMBC Information Systems professor Yasmine Kotturi was one of the researchers selected in the Computing Research Association’s (CRA) new Trustworthy AI Research fellowship program which is sponsored by Microsoft. This new fellowship supports computing researchers with interdisciplinary training in the social sciences who are working to integrate ethical, societal, and human-centered considerations into the development of AI.
Over the coming year, the fellows will engage in interdisciplinary training and collaboration, contribute to the development of a national Trustworthy AI lexicon and framework, and help lead initiatives at CRA partner institutions.
Professor Kotturi designs and builds sociotechnical systems that support worker resilience, especially among those navigating precarious employment and entrepreneurship. Her work combines human-computer interaction with insights from labor studies and feminist theory to develop relational, community-driven approaches—such as community-based software engineering—that shift power in how AI systems are developed and used.
UMBC will host two research talks by visitors from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur on Monday, July 14, in ITE 325B and online via WebEx. Both speakers are experts in the broad areas of systems and control, networks, and motion planning.
Prof. Twinkle Tripathy, 10:45-11:45 on Leveraging Network Topology for Influence Modification in the Friedkin Johnsen Model
Prof. Bhargav Jha, 2:00-3:00 on Challenges in Motion Planning in Modern Scenarios
If you would like to meet with them in person, you can select a time on this sign-up sheet. Light refreshments will be provided. If you cannot attend the talks in person and want to join remotely, please do so by joining via this Webex link.
]]>The performance in June during the Movement, Music, and Brain Health NSF AccelNet meeting at UMBC was the brainchild of three UMBC faculty who have joined forces to explore whether and how dancing robots might offer humans new tools to improve their mental health. The research piggybacks off established practices of human-to-human dance/movement therapy, which can be used to treat some mental health challenges, such as schizophrenia, anxiety and depression.
The form that robotic dance therapy might take, and the range of mental health conditions it could treat, are still large open-ended questions for the team, which includes UMBC faculty Ramana Vinjamuri (CSEE), Andrea Kleinsmith (IS), and Ann Sofie Clemmensen (Dance).
Read more about this project in this article on UMBC News.
]]>UMBC Professor Eric Millikin’s film The Dance of the Nain Rouge has been selected for presentation at the Bali International AI Film Festival. The video, soundtrack, and voiceover were all created with custom artificial intelligence systems, programmed and trained on a hacked-up second-hand MacBook laptop to minimize environmental destruction and maximize class warfare. You can watch a short trailer here.
The film is based on the legend of the Nain Rouge (“Red Dwarf") of Detroit. According to folklore and urban legend, it is a shape-shifting native being who was brutally attacked by xenophobic colonists and has since been seen dancing as an omen of successful rebellions by the oppressed--reportedly manifesting before events such as the victory of Chief Pontiac at the Battle of Bloody Run in 1763 and the 1967 Detroit Rebellion.
Digital Journal published an article on the work of UMBC Alumna and current MS student Somya Singh and her work on developing AI-powered deepfake detection, especially for videos and audio, and their associated metadata. She was also recently featured in an article on Digital Watch. At UMBC, Somya received a BS in Information Systems in 2021 and returned in the Fall of 2024 to pursue a MS in Information Systems with a focus on AI, Data Science, and UX/UI Design.
The University System of Maryland and Google have partnered to give free access to online Google Career Certificates and AI training courses to UMBC and other USM campuses, with a special focus on supporting military students and veterans. By completing the online courses, you can gain job-ready skills that can help you succeed in today’s market.
The free Google Career Certificates that are available in six high-growth fields:
USM will also offer learners Google’s AI courses, designed and taught by AI experts at Google, to teach foundational skills in artificial intelligence technology.
A dataset released last week more than doubles the documented stream miles in the Chesapeake Bay Watershed, elevating the total from approximately 100,000 to over 200,000 miles. The Hyper-Resolution Hydrography Data used to generate the new stream maps stems from a collaboration between UMBC, the EPA’s Chesapeake Bay Program (CPB), and the Chesapeake Conservancy (CC), including UMBC alumni at CBP and CC.
The project lays a robust foundation for the sustainable management of one of North America’s most critical ecosystems, which spans six states and supports millions of residents and iconic wildlife, such as blue crabs and migrating shorebirds. The novel, AI-supported mapping method the research team used also dramatically reduces costs, time, and labor required for stream mapping, making it easy to update as additional data become available or apply in other watersheds.
“The landscape is shaped by running water. Stream networks are the primary conduit between the watershed and the Bay, and now we can characterize that connection in ways that we’ve never been able to before,” says Matthew Baker, UMBC professor of geography and environmental systems, and a lead on the mapping project.
Read more about this work on UMBC News.