Department of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering

Photo by Ryan Pierse/Getty Images

Computer Scientist Sir Tim Berners-Lee participated in the 2012 Olympics opening ceremony this evening. He was honored as the inventor of the World Wide Web, although the NBC commentators wondered who he was. As part of the ceremony, @timberners_lee tweeted: "This is for everyone #london2012 #oneweb #openingceremony @webfoundation @w3c".

7/28 update: Good catch by UMBC IS PhD student Hal Martin:  Tim Berners-Lee apparently used a ancient NeXT computer when entering his tweet at the Olympic Games opening ceremony.  He has used a NeXTcube at CERN to implement the first Web browser.

Photo courtesy bgr.com

Attention Apple fans: the company's much anticipated OS X Mountain Lion is finally available to download starting today, reports Mashable.com. The latest OS update boasts over 200 new features including full iCloud integration, built in sharing to social media outlets like Facebook and Twitter, and Messages, an instant message tools that connects users on any Apple device for free. Available from the App Store for $19.99,  the new OS is free for anyone who bought a new Mac after June 11, 2012.

What feature of the new OS are you most excited about?

MS Thesis defense

Dynamically Reconfigurable Layered Filesystem

Sunil Venkatesh

10:00am Thursday, 26 July 2012, ITE 325b

Traditionally, all files and directories in Linux and UNIX-like systems have been organized in a hierarchical fashion under the root directory “/” adhering to the Filesystem Hierarchy Standard (FHS). Although there is sufficient flexibility in how the filesystem hierarchy is structured given it satisfies the FHS, there is little straightforward means to customize the filesystem structure to suit an individual user’s or a set of users’ needs without affecting rest of the users on a shared system. Our approach aims to eliminate such a restriction by providing isolated environments to individual users with the help of data being organized in the form of layers. Such an environment also provides an important advantage from security perspective by reducing the risk involved in unwarranted access to files by carefully choosing the layers a user has access. Maintainability at the layer level is another key advantage of our approach over the fine-grained approach of dealing with individual files.

Committee: Drs. John Dorband (Chair), Yelena Yesha, Mohamed Younis

"I owe you a beer" is a phrase that's thrown around a lot with very little follow through.

UMBC Alumnus Sean Kennedy (Information Systems '06) created a smartphone application that could change that. BeerGivr allows you to virtualy send your buddy a brew. When a friend wants to buy you a drink but can't make it to the bar, he can send a text message with a code that's currency in some local bars. As of now twenty bars participate in the BeerGivr project, among them Alewife, No Idea Tavern, and Bond Street Social.

You can read about the conception of Sean's app in a recent profile on InTheCaptial.com.

Did you know that Computer Science isn’t a required course in most Maryland High Schools (or colleges for that matter)? For most students, a lack of exposure early on translates to total avoidance once they reach college. For a subject as ubiquitous as computing, it is essential to Maryland's continued success as a technology leader that we make a commitment to improve access to and quality of the computing curriculum across the state.

That’s why the folks behind Computing Education for the 21st Century (CE21) aim to do something about it. One way is through their upcoming Computer Science Education Mini-Summit, to be held August 8, 2012 throughout the Information Technology/Engineering (ITE) Building on UMBC’s main campus.

The free mini-summit invites high school teachers, college professors, and anyone else interested in expanding Computer Science offerings in Maryland high and middle schools to attend. “We hope to explore what is currently being done to increase student interest in computer science and what can be done in the future,” explains the website.

Summit attendees can expect to do the following:

1. Learn more about computer science high school education across the state of Maryland;
2. Network with others with an interest in computer science education;
3. Exchange strategies with other education professionals; and
4. Plan with others to help expand student interest and to increase the number and diversity of students studying computer science in Maryland.

Take a look at the summit schedule:

Those interested in attending must register here. For more information, visit the CE21 website, or contact .

Take a look at the latest infographic from Edudemic.com. (Click here for a version that you can actually read.)

It's called "Components of a 21st Century Classroom" and it looks at how technology, like computers, tablets, and other mobile devices, are being increasingly incorporated into the classroom.

With number like "1 in 5 students have used a mobile app to keep their coursework organized" and "Almost a third of all college students take at least one online course", it appears that the trend toward supplementing teaching with tech devices, social media, and computer programs will only gain steam as time goes on.

What do you think about the role of technology in the classroom? Are mobile devices a distraction, or an asset? What type of technology is used most in your classes?

In a recent essay in the Baltimore Sun, James M. Purtilo, a professor in the Computer Science Department at the University of Maryland, College Park, outlines the myriad ways that Maryland is failing to support Computer Science education at the High School level.

First, Purtilo cites the state's failure to require Computer Science as a graduation requirement–or even allow it to fulfill the required "Science" or "Technology Education" credits. Second, Maryland refuses to define CS curriculum. And, third, there is little regulation surrounding who can teach CS courses, which means that under-qualified teachers end up teaching a wide range of material.

(You can read the full essay here.)

These three problems are seriously contributing to a decline in enrollment in Computer Science classes in high schools, argues Purtilo. Which is a problem, he says, that will only get worse.

What do you think? Are high schools doing their best to encourage students to study Computer Science? Or, are curriculum and regulation changes necessary?

(Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

"Despite the growing numbers of successful women in once male-dominated professions like medicine and law, computer science remains overwhelmingly a boys club."

So says a recent NPR article that discusses the arrival of Marissa Mayer as Yahoo's new president and CEO. As one of Google's first employees, Mayer helped develop Gmail, Google Maps, and Google's iconic homepage. She worked at Google for thirteen years, and launched more than 100 features and products that you probably use on a daily basis.

In the NPR interview, Mayer says she never really noticed that she was the only woman in her Computer Science classes. At Stanford, Mayer studied Symbolic Systems as an undergraduate, and left with her Master's in Computer Science.

According to NPR, Mayer's success has the potential to become a source of inspiration for other women in Computer Science. What do you think? Are you inspired by Mayer's story? Why do you think there aren't more powerful women in the Computer Science field?

MS Thesis Defense

Federating Disjoint Wireless Networks
Using a Mix of Stationary and Mobile Nodes

Ahmad Abbas

12:00PM Thursday 26th July 2012, Room ITE 325b

In many applications need arises to connect a set of disjoint nodes or segments. Examples include repairing a partitioned network topology after failure, federating a set of standalone networks to serve an emerging event, and connecting a sparsely located data sources. Contemporary solutions either deploy stationary relay nodes (RN) to form data paths or employ one or multiple mobile data collectors (MDCs) that pick packets from sources and transport them to destinations. In this thesis we investigate the interconnection problem when the number of available RNs is insufficient for forming a stable topology and a mix of RNs and MDCs is to be used. We present two algorithms for determining where the RNs are to be placed and planning optimized travel routes for the MDCs so that the data delivery latency as well as the MDC motion overhead are minimized. The performance of the algorithm is validated through simulation.

Committee: Professors Mohamed Younis (chair), Ryan Robucci and Tinoosh Mohsenin

MS Thesis Defense

On MIMO Channel Modeling and Capacity
Using the Channel Correlation Matrix

Anush Chandrasekaran

1:00pm Wednesday, 18 July 2012, ITE 325b

Communication systems have always been affected by multipath propagation that causes a delay and distortion in receiving the signal, with a different delay for each path. Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO) communication systems were developed to combat this problem and use multipath propagation to their benefit. A MIMO communication system contains M transmitter antennas and N receiver antennas that are used to improve either the robustness of transmission or the throughput.

We assume an exponential channel correlation matrix R model for the MIMO channel with J = M = N and use it to compute the channel H-matrix, the receiver (RRx) and transmitter (RTx) correlation matrices, and the ergodic MIMO channel capacity (CH). We propose two algorithms to obtain RRx and RTx from R, which have been used to estimate/bound CH. We investigate and compare three ergodic MIMO channel capacity estimation/bound methods for our MIMO channel model in this thesis. The first two existing estimation/bound methods use the Kronecker model and an RRx-based bound, respectively. The third method is a novel method we propose and study to estimate the ergodic MIMO channel capacity using specific eigenvalues of RRx. The behavior of the eigenvalues of R and RRx are analyzed to identify the eigenvalues that can be used in this method. This method achieves less relative-error compared to the RRx-based bound. It is better than the Kronecker model for specific values of J and the correlation parameter r.

Committee: Drs. Joel M. Morris (Chair), E. F. Charles LaBerge, Mohamed Younis and Tinoosh Mohsenin