Join MEEC - Microsoft - Frostburg State University for a day of learning and networking.

• October 29th, 2019 9:30 – 3pm. (9:30 – 12pm “Best of Office 365”, 1-3pm “Creating an Inclusive and Accessible Environment”
• Intended Audience: MEEC Members especially any Frostburg, western Maryland and K-12 educators, faculty and staff

Best of Office 365 for Education, 9:30am - 12pm:

Capture the benefits of modern classroom collaboration with Office 365. Learn best practices from Microsoft experts on how to maximize efficiency in Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, Excel, Teams. Real-time collaboration in Office Online, Word Resume Assistant, and PowerPoint Presentation Coach are just a few examples of time saving tools you’ll learn to use in this interactive session.

Creating an Inclusive Classroom and Work Environment, 1-3pm:

One in five people have a disability. Accessible technologies empower people with disabilities to unlock their potential at school, work, and in modern life. Take a deep dive on Accessibility and learn to use free Microsoft tools that support classroom engagement for students with physical and cognitive disabilities. Tools such as live captioning, real time translation, reading tools and more help create a compliant and inclusive workplace for your entire organization.

MEEC - Microsoft - Frostburg State University Event

• October 29^th, 2019 9:30 – 3pm. (9:30 – 12pm “Best of Office 365”, 1-3pm “Creating an Inclusive and Accessible Environment”
• Intended Audience: MEEC Members especially any Frostburg, western Maryland and K-12 educators, faculty and staff

Best of Office 365 for Education:

Capture the benefits of modern classroom collaboration with Office 365. Learn best practices from Microsoft experts on how to maximize efficiency in Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, Excel, Teams. Real-time collaboration in Office Online, Word Resume Assistant, and PowerPoint Presentation Coach are just a few examples of time saving tools you’ll learn to use in this interactive session.

Creating an Inclusive Classroom and Work Environment:

One in five people have a disability. Accessible technologies empower people with disabilities to unlock their potential at school, work, and in modern life. Take a deep dive on Accessibility and learn to use free Microsoft tools that support classroom engagement for students with physical and cognitive disabilities. Tools such as live captioning, real time translation, reading tools and more help create a compliant and inclusive workplace for your entire organization.

This story was written by Sarah Hansen and first appeared on news.umbc.edu

Scientists understand many of the body’s processes, like breaking down sugars and generating energy for the cell, pretty well. They know what chemical reactions are involved, what molecules they produce, and in what order everything happens. Complex maps even exist of how the different processes interact with one another. There’s a problem, though: the maps are two-dimensional, and cells are three-dimensional. Add the element of time, and you’re up to four dimensions.

Minjoung Kyoung, assistant professor of chemistry and biochemistry, has never been satisfied with 2D maps of 4D processes. “I’ve always been interested in how proteins are working in the real system, in real time, in real action,” she says.

To address the limits of current understanding, Kyoung and her graduate student, Erin Kennedy, ordered parts to build an innovative type of microscope, found in just a few labs around the world. This new tool gave them the rare ability to look at entire living cells at exquisite resolution, as they change in real time. Finally, they could move forward with constructing  a 4D map of cellular metabolic pathways.

Kyoung’s preliminary results with the new instrument are promising. Now, with a five-year, $1.6 million grant from the National Institutes of Health, she’s poised to make serious breakthroughs in how we understand the functional relationship between metabolic pathways. Her first targets will include essential basic processes like glucose metabolism (sugar breakdown) and cellular respiration (energy production for the cell, which relies on glucose). Both are fundamental to diseases like diabetes, cancer, and obesity.

Anticipating disease

One thing Kyoung’s early results suggested is that the enzymes important for breaking down glucose and for generating energy are physically close together in the cell—but only when both pathways are functioning normally. “So when they are functionally linked, they are spatially related,” Kyoung says. Her continuing research will try to determine how and why that happens, by looking very carefully at what’s going on in whole cells at various time points and under different cellular conditions.

Minjoung Kyoung and Erin Kennedy work on the lab’s unique microscope. Photo by Marlayna Demond ’11 for UMBC.

Kyoung also finds the glucose pathway itself to be fascinating. It takes place in the cytoplasm, the watery fluid that fills cells. But somehow, the enzymes required to break down glucose form dense clusters, which Kyoung has dubbed “condensates,” even though the clusters don’t have a formal boundary. “The fundamental mechanism for how these condensates are reversibly assembled and disassembled is one of the specific aims that we’re going to study,” Kyoung says.

The enzymes for the cellular energy pathway also cluster, but they are enclosed inside mitochondria, a structure surrounded by a membrane. A single cell can contain from zero to thousands of mitochondria, depending on the cell’s job. Kyoung explains, “Mitochondria are very important for various metabolic diseases—cancer, diabetes, obesity, and so on. How these mitochondria relate to glucose metabolism is the most important part. So, by understanding them, I truly believe that we can get much, much closer to understanding how these diseases are caused, thus promoting therapeutic intervention.”

“My dream is to be able to predict disease before symptoms occur,” she shares. “That would be the best.”

Ready for a challenge

Getting to the point of recognizing disease before symptoms are apparent won’t be easy. The imaging techniques Kyoung, Kennedy, new graduate student Tao Zhang, and UMBC collaborator Songon An, associate professor of chemistry and biochemistry, are employing are so new, and so difficult, Kyoung anticipates many challenges.  

“There is no previous data whatsoever. There is no technical approach whatsoever. There is no approach to data analysis whatsoever,” says Kyoung. She describes being at this cutting edge as both exciting and intimidating. To even successfully collect useful data, “many things have to go right,” Kyoung says.

Minjoung Kyoung explains a result to her students. Photo by Marlayna Demond ’11 for UMBC.

To see what they want to see inside the cells, such as a particular enzyme, Kyoung’s team will need to tag it with a fluorescent protein, a process that is successful in 50 to 60 percent of cells. That’s not a problem when you use a conventional microscope, because you can see lots of cells at once. But the microscope that enables observing living cells with the resolution Kyoung needs can only see a few cells at a time. So finding the tagged cells has been the first challenge.

After the images are collected, a complex mathematical process called “deconvolution” removes the distortion that the microscope’s light beam itself generates in the images. That takes several hours for a single cell. And then they can actually analyze the images to see which enzymes are where, when. This process takes several days for one cell. Only at that point do they know if the experiment worked.

And, “Because no one has done this type of research before, we have to figure out how we are going to validate our results, too,” Kyoung says. “There is no precedent.” Despite all these challenges, Kyoung is excited to get to work. She believes the kinds of relationships they’ve started to see between glucose metabolism and mitochondria are only the tip of the iceberg as far as spatial relationships between metabolic pathways in the cell.

“Just a start”

“This is just a start. So far we have focused on these two metabolic pathways, but I believe this phenomenon is not limited to just these two,” Kyoung says. “So I envision that this will be the beginning for a big 4D map of all the metabolic networks.”

Kyoung and her team have significant funding from NIH to support their work, the microscope they need to do it, a healthy sense of optimism, and a commitment to helping answer some of the fundamental questions surrounding emerging epidemics like cancers, diabetes and obesity. With the key elements in place, they are bound to make breakthroughs that move the needle on tackling some of today’s most challenging diseases.

Banner image: Minjoung Kyoung and her UMBC lab group. From left to right: Keynon Bell, Minjoung Kyoung, Erin Kennedy, Manuel Huerta-Alvarado, and Tao Zhang. Photo by Marlayna Demond ’11 for UMBC.

This story was written by Megan Hanks and first appeared on news.umbc.edu

UMBC’s Lee Blaney and research partners have published a landmark study on contaminants of emerging concern in the Chesapeake Bay. Their article in Science of the Total Environment is the first research study that quantifies concentrations of antibiotics, estrogenic hormones, and UV-filters in multiple locations of the Bay.

Blaney, an associate professor of chemical, biochemical, and environmental engineering, conducted the research with Ke He, Ph.D ‘17, chemical engineering, and Ethan Hain ‘21, chemical engineering. They also partnered with collaborators at the U.S. Forest Service and the Maryland Department of Natural Resources. 

Underway since 2016, their work highlights the importance of understanding how previously unexamined chemicals impact the environment. The project has been primarily funded by Maryland Sea Grant through a Program Development Fund to Blaney, and a Graduate Research Fellowship to Hain.

The researchers studied the prevalence of contaminants of emerging concern in water, sediment, and oyster tissue collected from the Eastern Shore of the Chesapeake Bay. Their study of how accumulated UV-filters negatively impact the environment is the first of its kind. UV-filters are one of the primary ingredients in personal care products, such as sunscreen and cosmetics. The accumulation of these UV-filters can impact organisms and animals.

Maintaining a healthy Chesapeake Bay 

While the Chesapeake Bay is one of the most well-studied ecosystems in the United States, Blaney says that little is known about the sources, occurrence, and impacts of contaminants of emerging concern in this important estuary. 

“As the health of the Chesapeake Bay continues to improve due to recent nutrient and sediment regulations, it is important to consider new threats from specialty chemicals like antibiotics, hormones, and UV-filters,” he explains. “The first step to ensuring the safety of the Chesapeake Bay is to measure the concentrations of these contaminants in water, sediment, and tissue.”

Lee Blaney. Photo by Marlayna Demond ’11 for UMBC.

The discharge of antibiotics into the Chesapeake Bay may speed up the spread and development of antibiotic resistance, a global public health challenge, explains Blaney. He adds that estrogenic hormones and UV-filters are considered priority chemicals of concern due to reported toxicity and other effects on reproductive systems in aquatic and marine organisms. 

Over the past two years, Blaney and his team have continued to collect data throughout the Chesapeake Bay to better understand differences in contaminant levels. They have found relatively high levels of antibiotics in the Chesapeake Bay, and the reported concentrations are in the range that can select for antibiotic resistant bacteria. In addition, most samples have contained UV-filters, including two common in sunscreens that were recently banned from being sold in Hawaii due to concerns that they are toxic to corals. 

The researchers argue that their findings suggest a need to improve municipal wastewater treatment and agricultural waste management to remove contaminants of emerging concern and prevent their introduction to the environment. In this regard, Blaney and his collaborators are actively working on a number of technologies to improve the transformation of contaminants into benign molecules that do not have antibiotic or estrogenic properties or other toxicity concerns. 

Continuing to expand the research

In 2017, Blaney received a CAREER Award from the National Science Foundation to study contaminants of emerging concern and their effects on the urban environment. That research focused on the Gwynns Falls watershed in Baltimore, and the Chesapeake Bay research is an extension of that work. In addition to the public and ecological health concerns highlighted in the current article, Blaney also continues to examine issues like antimicrobial resistance and the impact of agricultural runoff.

Blaney was recently named associate director for sustainability engineering and liaison to the University System of Maryland (USM) vice chancellor for environmental sustainability. In this capacity, he will work closely with collaborators at the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science and will lead additional sustainability-focused research projects within the USM. 

Banner image: Lee Blaney, left, working with a student in the lab. Photo by Marlayna Demond ’11 for UMBC. 

This story was written by Catalina Sofia Dansberger Duque and first appeared on news.umbc.edu

Preminda Jacob, visual arts, has been named the new associate dean of research and community engagement for UMBC’s College of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences (CAHSS). She will join the current team of associate deans in providing support for the College’s many departments, programs, and research centers. Together they will continue to implement CAHSS’ strategic goals and objectives, focusing on projects around recruitment and retention of diverse faculty, promoting interdisciplinary collaboration, and further developing community engagement work. 

Scott Casper, dean of CAHSS, is excited about the level of expertise Jacob brings to the team. “Preminda Jacob brings a wealth of experience as a scholar, teacher, and UMBC citizen, and leader to the Dean’s Office,” says Casper. “I am delighted that she has joined our leadership team and look forward to her continued contributions to the College and the University in this new role.”

Jacob at graduate commencement.

Engaging faculty

Jacob will begin by joining the team of associate deans in working to further foster the current research community within CAHSS and build broader awareness of CAHSS research. One way Jacob hopes to share faculty research is by collaborating with campus partners on updating the university’s current faculty research database capabilities. This digital tool will help academics, researchers, educators, and students from around the world more easily access information about UMBC researchers and their areas of study.

“I see part of community engagement as an accessibility issue,” explains Jacob. “UMBC faculty conduct top-level research. A searchable database elevates our commitment to provide research-based answers to the world’s most pressing questions by placing the research within everyone’s reach.”

Jacob will also help faculty better connect with each other across departments, including for research that involves community partnerships. She looks forward to working with faculty who have research expertise on community engagement by exploring topics through existing brown bag lunch series and working groups in the five CAHSS research centers as well as across UMBC’s colleges. 

Engaging the community

Prior to joining the Dean’s Office, Jacob served as chair of visual arts from 2015 to 2018. As a professor of visual arts specializing in art history and visual culture, she worked to connect her passions for research and community engagement.

Jacob recalls a four-year partnership between the Benjamin Banneker Historical Park and Museum in Catonsville and her Space, Place, and Public Art class as a particularly significant collaboration. Jacob partnered students with the museum’s staff to create public art pieces from start to finish in one semester. “Students were excited to work directly with a local organization and leaders within the organizations were equally excited to serve as guides and mentors in the process,” she says. 

Over the years, Jacob’s students have created object and wall labels, interactive and interpretive recordings, and works of art for the museum. They produced a video featuring interviews with local leaders and archaeologists talking about the archaeological dig conducted by the Maryland Historical Trust in the 1980s on Benjamin Banneker’s property.

Museum exhibit three teams of students helped design.

Victor Pineda ‘15, visual arts, who went on to serve as a museum intern after participating in Jacob’s class, helped record an actor’s interpretation of the voice of Benjamin Banneker. The recording became part of an interactive device in the Banneker Gallery. Today, visitors can listen to Benjamin Banneker discuss his letter to Thomas Jefferson. 

Pineda recording audio for interactive exhibit at the museum.

“Through the museum’s partnership with the visual arts department at UMBC,” says Willa Banks, the museum’s former director of education and curatorial affairs, “Dr. Jacob’s public art class provided a phenomenal service that not only benefited UMBC faculty and students but also the museum and the general public as well.”

Jacob plans to work with faculty already engaged with community partners in the Baltimore region to amplify relationships like this one. She is also dedicated to opening pathways for new community engagement opportunities, in the greater Baltimore region and beyond. 

Banner Image: Preminda at MFA celebration. All images by Marlayna Demond ’11 for UMBC with the exception of the images of student work at the Benjamin Banneker Historical Park and Museum which were courtesy of Willa Banks.

This story was written by Kait McCaffrey and first appeared on news.umbc.edu

According to the recent QS World University Rankings 2020, UMBC is one of the top 500 universities in the world overall and among the best of the best in a key measure of faculty scholarship.

This new ranking recognizes UMBC as a state, national, and global leader in the area of citations per faculty member. In this category, UMBC is #48 globally, #17 overall in North America and #1 in the state of Maryland.

The directors of UMBC’s NASA partner centers (l-r): Jan Merka (Goddard Planetary Heliophysics Institute), Jane Turner (Center for Space Science and Technology), and Belay Demoz (Joint Center for Earth Systems Technology).

UMBC’s strength in scholarship

The World University Rankings list is produced annually by the British firm Quacquarelli Symonds (QS). It was initially developed through a collaboration with Times Higher Education. In recent years it has been recognized as one of the most widely-read global university rankings.

To inform its competitive World University Rankings list, QS takes into account six metrics: academic reputation, employer reputation, faculty/student ratio, citations per faculty, international faculty ratio, and international student ratio.

Deepa Madan, assistant professor of mechanical engineering, with her student Karla Negrete.

In addition to recognizing UMBC’s particular strength in citations per faculty, the report also categorizes UMBC’s research output as “very high.”

“I share with our colleagues in the pride that their publications are so highly cited,” says Karl Steiner, vice president of research. “This is a welcome indicator that UMBC’s scholarly work is widely recognized and has a growing and long-lasting impact on the broader scientific community.”

Quickly rising to prominence

In addition to the newly announced QS ranking, Times Higher Education has again recognized UMBC as one of the world’s top young universities as part of the Golden Age University Rankings. This year, UMBC ranks #86 on the list—one of 12 U.S. universities in the world’s top 100.

This list highlights visionary institutions that have quickly risen to prominence on the world stage—over decades rather than centuries. It specifically includes institutions established 1945 – 1967.

“UMBC’s continued recognition as a Times Higher Ed Golden Age University is affirming, indeed. It speaks to what we, as members of this community, know and experience about UMBC on a daily basis—that this is a vibrant, dynamic, exciting and forward-moving place,” says Yvette Mozie-Ross ’88, vice provost for enrollment management.

UMBC is the only school represented from the state of Maryland.

Banner image: UMBC campus in the spring. All photos by Marlayna Demond ’11 for UMBC.

Name: Agatha Turyahikayo

Internship, Co-op or Research Site: Apple

Position Title: Software Engineering Intern

Major(s)/Minor(s): Computer Science Major, Music Minor

Current Class Level: Junior

Work Term: Summer 2019 

Tell us about your internship, co-op, or research opportunity, including your day-to-day responsibilities.

I was an intern on the Mail Team, which develops the Mail app for macOS and iOS. All of my work was under a non-disclosure agreement, but I was working on the Mail Frameworks team, which does all the backend engineering. I was working with the programming languages Swift and Objective-C. I also used Github to do source control related things, like pull requests and code review.

Describe the process of obtaining your position. When did you hear of the position and submit your application?

I went to the Grace Hopper Celebration, the world’s largest conference for women in tech, in September 2018 with a sponsorship from the Center for Women in Technology (CWIT). The conference has a big career fair, so I went to a ton of company booths and gave them my resume and elevator pitch. One of the engineers at the Apple booth gave my resume to her manager and by the end of the 3-day conference I had 2 technical interviews and was extended an internship offer. To prepare for the technical interviews, I did mock whiteboard interviews, practice problems on websites like Hackerrank and Leetcode, and read through a lot of a book called Cracking the Coding Interview. 

What have you enjoyed the most about your position or organization? 

Learning about macOS and iOS development for the first time at Apple was a really unique opportunity, because I sat and worked alongside engineers who have worked at Apple for many years. These engineers have developed fundamental software features, frameworks, and paradigms that currently exist in Apple devices. I also enjoyed seeing the scale of the software development process at Apple, since it affects billions of active devices and millions of customers worldwide.

How do you believe you have made an impact through your work?

I had all of the weight for making critical decisions for my intern project, so it allowed me to have a lot of freedom in how I chose to implement it.

What advice would you give to another student who is seeking an internship or similar experience? 

Apply to every internship you can. Bring a ton of resumes to career fairs and have an elevator pitch prepared. Talk to companies you don't think you have a chance with.

Connect with Agatha: agatha3@umbc.edu

Like the Career Center on Facebook

Follow us on Twitter and Instagram

#UMBCintern

Want to be the next Intern of the Week? Make sure to fill out this form and stay tuned. New interns are announced every Friday!

In their work with communities in Baltimore, the Latino Racial Justice Circle (LRJC) observed a recurring issue: immigrant, white American, and African American communities share faith-based spaces but rarely engage in community dialogue. As a result, members of these communities may never get to know each other – or may even live in fear of each other. 

Through a partnership with LRJC, UMBC’s Felipe Filomeno, professor of political science and global studies, a member of LRJC, and Tania Lizarazo, assistant professor of modern languages, linguistics, and intercultural communication and global studies, worked to develop, design, execute, evaluate, and disseminate the Honest Conversations on Immigration project. Through a course of dialogue, interviews, and digital storytelling, the program aims to foster dialogue between U.S.-born citizens and immigrants.

“Our goal as researchers was to use dialogue and digital stories as two ways to bring different communities together around religion, race, and immigration,” explains Filomeno, “and through that process create the potential to change the relationships within individuals, and between communities and society for the better.”

Community intersections

The Latino Racial Justice Circle (LJRC) is a volunteer, faith-based, immigrant support group based in Baltimore. It funds legal services, scholarships, and advocacy for federal immigration reform on behalf of Latino communities. This new project – similar to one addressing racism that has been implemented in more than 18 Catholic parishes in Baltimore – aims to bring faith-based groups from different backgrounds together to reveal their commonalities and build on shared strengths.

“We fear what we don’t know. And what we need to learn is vast,” shares Ryan Settler, president of the Maryland Chapter of Call To Action (CTA), a progressive social justice organization that created the Racial Justice Circle (RJC ) five years ago. “Immigrant and refugee stories in the media leave us confused, concerned, and even fearful.  Honest Conversations begins to address those concerns.”

Through the Honest Conversations projects, volunteers from the LRJC, immigrants, and U.S.-born citizens in faith communities agree to engage in dialogue about perceptions of immigration and race. These initial steps towards understanding highly politicized issues can lead to collective action for racial justice and immigrant rights. 

“Our project crosses boundaries between the humanities and the social sciences, academia and community, between immigrants and U.S.-born citizens, inner-city and suburbs,” explains Filomeno.

https://youtu.be/YFAKEE-X3EQ

Defining dialogue

The goal of the Maryland Humanities-funded project is for communities to move from confusion and anger to collaboration. For that to happen, participants first took part in two group dialogues consisting of 12-14 members from three faith-based communities. The dialogues were followed by the collection and sharing of personal experiences of religion, race, and immigration in Baltimore through digital storytelling. Both processes centered around the power of community dialogue to create respectful places in which difficult conversations might be had.

“Dialogue is a process of listening to others with the purpose of understanding. It does not aim to pass judgment, ‘just talk,’ mediate, debate, or negotiate,” explains Filomeno. He led the scientific implementation of structured dialogue and provided a framework for active listening. He also served as the facilitator at four churches in and around Baltimore: St. Ann’s Catholic Church; St. Michael the Archangel Catholic Church; Church of the Annunciation; and St. Clement Mary Hofbauer Church.

“Because the dialogues happened in a familiar shared faith space the participants began with prayer, which was an entry point into a shared experience,” explains Filomeno. “I was then able to support where the participants wanted to take the conversation and guide them through clarifications,” he reflects.

Giuliana Valencia, co-chair for the LRJC, found the structured talks powerful and hopes other faith-based organizations will begin the program in their communities. “We recognize dialogue is the best way to change the human heart,” Valencia shares. “No matter how controversial the topic, you can always find common ground.”

Dialogue through digital storytelling

Digital storytelling is another key aspect of community-engaged research because it shifts the focus from the researcher creating information towards information being created by the community.

“Collaborative audiovisual pieces can share personal perspectives. These not only complement academic writing but help disrupt mainstream narratives as the only sources of knowledge,” explains Lizarazo. They can also create new ways for academics to think about primary sources. “Digital stories can serve as primary sources in different fields because they engage audiences and give access in ways writing doesn’t.” 

This type of community-based digital storytelling also addresses the issue of access. Lizarazo explains how academic journals, while useful in academic circles, also limit who shares in the knowledge. The power of digital storytelling is in its accessibility – often opening spaces for nonacademic conversations through social media networks. “These stories where the narrative and the message is controlled by the community member can be used for pedagogical and research purposes,” notes Lizarazo. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3PNZi3PyZyE

The digital stories Lizarazo helped create for Honest Conversations on Immigration present personal experiences of faith, race, and immigration in Baltimore. Some delve into the first reactions of relocation to Baltimore. Others focus on employment experiences as well as how faith-based organizations supported their transition into Baltimore.

The research also shows lived experience is linked to scholarship and the context in which it’s produced, explains Lizarazo, who brings a personal component to her work. “As a Colombian immigrant, I understand first-hand global hierarchies of passports that affects mobility. I also know how stereotypes affect people’s daily life and recognize the privilege a tourist, student, and work visa brings.” 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z5AzE_wQszA&authuser=1

Romi Pal ‘20, assisted Lizarazo in recording, transcribing, and producing the video testimonials along with a multimedia story for the overall project. Pal appreciated the opportunity to see the theories about race and immigration, learned through her global studies and political science majors, play out first-hand in a unique and relevant project.

Similar to Lizarazo, Pal was drawn to the project because of her immigrant background. “The dialogue emphasized how immigrant communities are not a monolith,” notes Pal. “As the daughter of immigrants myself, it made me feel thankful for the sacrifices my parents made when they came to the U.S. Baltimore still has a long way to improve race relations within religious communities.” 

Lessons from Baltimore communities help others 

After the talks, Filomeno and Lizarazo presented the research results to the general public at the Enoch Pratt Southeast Anchor Library in Highlandtown. The data revealed that private structured group dialogues had great advantages.

With the support of faith leaders and in collaboration with familiar community organizations, Honest Conversations on Immigration helped facilitate critical dialogue about controversial topics in a respectful manner. Participants also developed empathy toward each other and organized a multi-parish potluck as an initial step to collaborate across differences.

This initial project serves as a foundation for organizations across the United States who are working with similar issues and need support. Filomeno has created a digital guide for communities outside of Baltimore to implement their own Honest Conversations on Immigration project.

“As xenophobic discourses become mainstream,” notes Lizarazo, “I’m committed to learning and collaborating with members of immigrant communities. I want to help produce knowledge and show the nuances of our experiences.”

Learn more about Honest Conversations on September 10, 4 – 5:30 p.m., in the Theatre Rehearsal Space of the Performance Arts and Humanities Building (PAHB 127) at UMBC.

Banner image: (L-R) Pal getting ready to record and Lizarazo storyboarding with participant.  All images and digital stories courtesy of the Honest Conversations project.

UMBC Technology Catalyst Fund

FY20 Request for Proposals 

Announcement Date – August 13, 2019

Deadlines: An initial draft proposal must be submitted by Wednesday, September 25, 2019.  The final deadline for proposal submissions is Wednesday, October 16, 2019. Please be advised that several preliminary steps must be completed prior to final submission and applicants are advised to contact OTD at least 3 weeks in advance of the first deadline.

Background: The UMBC Office of Technology Development (OTD), under the Office of the Vice President for Research, is continually seeking ways to help bridge the funding gap – support that can be difficult to obtain from traditional funding sources. With support provided by the State of Maryland, we are happy to announce the FY 2020 UMBC Technology Catalyst Fund, which is designed to advance innovations originating from UMBC research to more commercially viable technologies. Additional proof-of-concept studies, extending data collection and prototype development are examples of the essential steps needed to demonstrate commercial potential.

A total of $100,000 is available annually for this initiative. UMBC plans to make several awards up to $25,000. Projects will be funded at the level deemed necessary to achieve the goals outlined in the proposal. Awards will be for a six- to twelve- month period and only proposals that can demonstrate achievable milestones within that time period will be selected for funding.  One-time, no-cost extensions may be granted, subject to approval by the review committee. No overhead will apply.

Requirements: All UMBC members with Principal Investigator status are eligible to apply as long as the technology to be developed has been previously disclosed to OTD. We welcome projects from all disciplines and encourage interdisciplinary collaborations.

Criteria:  All proposals will be reviewed by a committee comprised of faculty, administrative research personnel and outside reviewers from the business community, and will be held confidential. PI’s whose proposals are selected to continue onto the final round of evaluation will be notified, and the PI will be invited to give a presentation to the Review Committee. Finalists must be available to present their proposals to the review committee on Friday, November 15, 2019.

The evaluation criteria will include factors such as:

·       Significance of the market need and opportunity to impact the public.

·       Competitive advantage the technology presents over current solutions.

·       Probability that the project will result in additional funding or licensing.

·       Probability that the research results will strengthen the patent position.

·       Probability of reaching milestones within the time frame and budget.

Deadlines: An initial draft proposal must be submitted by Wednesday, September 25, 2019.  The final deadline for proposal submissions is Wednesday, October 16, 2019. Please be advised that several preliminary steps must be completed prior to final submission and applicants are advised to contact OTD at least 3 weeks in advance of the first deadline. Awards will be announced in the fall with an anticipated starting date of January 1, 2020.

Contact: Interested applicants should contact Wendy Martin, Director, OTD at wmartin@umbc.edu or call 410.455.3658 to request the Proposal Process and Executive Summary Checklist and the Cover Form.