Department of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering

UMBC students interested in learning more about pursuing a graduate program in a STEM area should consider taking advantage of a free GEM GRAD Lab event to be held at the University of Virginia on Saturday, September 28th. UMBC is a co-sponsor, along with UVA and VA Tech and will provide free bus transportation. See here for more information and details about how to reserve a seat on the bus. The event will cover topics that include why go to graduate school, how to apply to graduate school, how to fund graduate school and voices from the field.

Dr. Tom Narock (Goddard Planetary Heliophysics Institute) and Professor Tim Finin (CSEE) are part of a team that receive a one-year, $300,000 award from the National Science Foundation to apply semantic technologies to support the data representation, discovery and integration needs in EarthCube, an NSF program that aims to transform geoscience research by developing community-guided cyberinfrastructure.  The collaborative project involves researchers and students from UMBC, Columbia University, Wright State University, and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI). Narock (PI) and Finin (CO-PI) head the UMBC effort.

A wide spectrum of maturing methods and tools, collectively characterized as Semantic Web Technologies, enables machines to complete tasks automatically that previously required human direction. For the Geosciences, Semantic Web Technologies will vastly improve the integration, analysis and dissemination of research data and results. This collaborative project will conduct exploratory research applying state-of-the-art Semantic Web Technologies to support data representation, discovery, analysis, sharing and integration of datasets from the global oceans, and related resources including meeting abstracts and library holdings. A key contribution will be semantically-enabled cyberinfrastructure components capable of automated data integration across distributed repositories.

The image above shows a pyramid-shaped multicorer on the deck of the R/V Melville off Santa Barbara in October 2012. Multicorers collect seafloor sediment samples without disrupting the uppermost sediment layers and the single-celled organisms living in them. The system sends real-time images of the seafloor to scientists aboard, allowing them to guide the sampler, and collects high-resolution images that are stored in the camera for downloading on recovery. (Photo by Ellen Roosen, WHOI).

UMBC Center for Information Security and Assurance

Computer-Assisted Reasoning In Digital Forensics

Dr. Eoghan Casey

Noon-1:00 Friday, 20 September 2013

Cyber Defense Lab, room 228 ITE, UMBC

The primary challenge in digital forensics today is uncovering not the right answer, but the right question. As in any scientific discipline, the formation of viable hypotheses that ultimately uncover meaning in available evidence is a central problem in digital forensics. Such hypothesis formation, based on intuition and experience, involves an underlying mental process that can be substantially aided by computers. This seminar delves into the cognitive science of investigative reasoning, and how research in artificial intelligence can help humans find the right questions in large quantities of data. The implications of this work for digital identity and privacy, as well as its potential uses in other areas, such as medical diagnosis and virtual learning environments, are also discussed.

Eoghan Casey is an internationally recognized expert in digital forensics and data breach investigations. For over a decade, he has dedicated himself to advancing the field of digital forensics. He wrote the foundational book Digital Evidence and Computer Crime, now in its third edition, and he created advanced smartphone forensics courses taught worldwide. He has also co-authored several advanced technical books including Malware Forensics, and is Editor-in-Chief of Digital Investigation: The International Journal of Digital Forensics and Incident Response. Dr. Casey received his Ph.D. from University College Dublin, and has taught digital forensics at the Johns Hopkins University Information Security Institute.

Dr. Casey has worked as R&D Team Lead at the Defense Cyber Crime Center (DC3) helping enhance their operational capabilities and develop new techniques and tools. He has also helped organizations handle security breaches and analyzes digital evidence in a wide range of investigations, including network intrusions with international scope. He has testified in civil and criminal cases, and has submitted expert reports and prepared trial exhibits for computer forensic and cyber-crime cases.

Host: Dr. Alan T. Sherman,

On Wednesday, September 25, from 6:30 – 7:30PM,  Dr. Rick Forno, Cybersecurity GPD and Assistant Director of UMBC’s Center for Cybersecurity, will host an evening webinar discussing UMBC’s graduate cybersecurity programs. Topics to be discussed include:

• Program design and curriculum  (both MPS degree & Certificate)
• Eligibility and Application Information
• UMBC’s approach to graduate cybersecurity education for working professionals
• Cybersecurity scholarship opportunities
• UMBC’s many resources for cybersecurity students

Additionally, Dr. Forno will give updated details about the upcoming Maryland Cyber Challenge (MDC3) which is part of the CyberMaryland 2013 conference in October.

Interested persons may RSVP for the free webinar here.

Professor Tinoosh Mohsenin received a research award from the National Science Foundation to develop multi-physiological signal processing architectures for seizure detection. The award will provide $100,000 over a two year duration to support Dr. Mohsenin and her students in the Energy Efficient High Performance Computing Lab working on this project.

The research will explore an approach to overcome problems of sensor noise, false detection, and energy/power constraints by combining the analysis of multiple physiological signals through specialized hardware implementing a multi-layer classification technique comprised of signal processing and machine learning functions. The hybrid architecture will leverage common operations and communication patterns between digital signal processing and machine learning to support these computations more efficiently than traditional approaches. The prototype system will be evaluated for use in wearable seizure detection devices by using traces of EEG and other physiological sensor data obtained from the Epilepsy Center at University of Maryland Medical Center.

The research could significantly enhance the ability to robustly and efficiently monitor multi-physiological patient data and take appropriate actions. For epilepsy, it could enable automatic seizure detection and caregiver alerts, which are critical at night, when seizures can happen without someone to help nearby. Longer term potential impacts extend to human-centered cyber-physical systems, cyber-security, and unmanned vehicles.

CSEE Professor Gymama Slaughter received a two-year research research award from the National Science Foundation to develop and evaluate nanoelectrode probe arrays to better detect and extract intracellular signals. Data from these signals will help in restoring functional loss of limb control of individuals with spinal cord injury or stroke.

Conventional neural interfaces consist of microelectrode arrays (MEAs) that are in close contact with neurons to record extracellular potential or stimulate electrical activity. However, due to the relative large microelectrode size, these MEAs are not capable of extracting intracellular signals, which is of particular interest in restoring functional loss of limb control of individuals with spinal cord injury or stroke. MEAs electrophysiological recordings still faces two major challenges, the inherent noisy data and the limited spatial resolution. These problems especially limit the accuracy and reliability of the movement parameter due to the unreliable spike recording for long durations.

The objective of this research is the fabrication and characterization of independently addressable nanoelectrode arrays (NEAs) and nanoelectrode probe arrays (NEPAs) for high-throughput recording of extracellular and intracellular electrophysiological measurements of neural activity.  These will allow, for the first time, simultaneous extracellular and intracellular characterization of large number of neurons while maintaining high spatial resolution, high signal-to-noise ratio, and excellent selectivity of neural interfaces.

The NSF award,  a novel parallel extracellular and intracellular nanoelectrode and nanoelectrode probe array for high throughput electrophysiological recording, will provide over $150,000 over the next two years to fund Dr. Slaughter and her students research on this project.

CSEE's Dr. Richard Forno, Cybersecurity GPD and Assistant Director of UMBC's Center for Cybersecurity, has received an $84K grant from the National Security Agency (NSA) to fund the prizes for student winners at the 2013 Maryland Cyber Challenge and Competition (MDC3) finals that will take place at the CyberMaryland 2013 conference in Baltimore on October 8 & 9.   

The Maryland Cyber Challenge aims to build excitement around pursuing education and careers in the cybersecurity field by bringing together teams of students and cyber practitioners to compete in a series of ever-more-complex cybersecurity challenges. To date, approximately 700 competitors across 115 teams have participated in the past two competitions. With the generous support of NSA, UMBC has provided more than $160,000 in monetary prizes to highly skilled and talented computer science students over the past two years. 

As in years past, first place team members each will receive $5K and runners-up receive $2K each to contribute toward their higher education and training in the cybersecurity and computer science fields. Identical prizes are awarded both in the high school and college divisions.

Dr. Forno and UMBC are co-founders of MDC3, which is a partnership with SAIC/Leidos, the Maryland Department of Business and Economic Development (DBED), the National Cyber Security Alliance (NCSA), and the Technology Council of Maryland (TCM).

The Baltimore Chapter of IEEE Electron Devices and Solid-State Circuits is co-hosting a free, one-day Colloquium on Sensor Devices from 10:00 to 5:00 on Wednesday, September 25. The event will be held in the Benjamin Banneker Room (2212) of the Stamp Union Building at the University of Maryland, College Park.

Invited speakers include Dr. Philip Perconti (Army Research Laboratory), Prof. M. Alam (Purdue University), Dr. Parvez Uppal (Army Research Laboratory), Prof. Mark Reed (Yale University), Dr. Herbert Bennett (NIST), Prof. Michael Shur (RPI), Dr. Anupama Kaul (National Science Foundation) and Prof. Agis Iliadis (UMCP).

Attendance is free. To register please contact: Dr. Naresh C. Das (naresh.c.das2.civ at mail.mil), Dr. Victor Veliadis (victor.veliadis at ngc.com).

Hi Tea is back with a bang! Registration is now open for the Fall 2013 CSEE Hi Tea Competition. Hi Tea is a student-run social event held (nearly) every Friday from 3:00 to 3:30 in the third floor hallway of the ITE building outside the CSEE Department suite (325 ITE). All students, staff, faculty and friends of the CSEE Department are welcome to attend. Each week, a group of students will plan and assemble simple refreshments for the event. This Fall we will repeat the popular competition used in the Spring (see some photos).

Let's come together to cheer and vote for the competitors, have some food, mingle with old friends and make new ones. Here are the rules:

• Form groups of one to four members. Teams do not have to have all members from the same lab. So feel free to form a group with any of your friends from the CSEE Department.
• Create a name for your team.
• The winning team will be chosen from a weighted combination of votes. One vote will result from attendees. Another vote will come from faculty judges. Ties will be resolved by faculty judges.
• Each team should limit their presentation to $15. Therefore, each team will be reimbursed up to $15. Each team must save their receipts and submit them to Jane Gethman to obtain their reimbursement.
• Teams will be judged on creativity, presentation, and budget planning. It is preferred that you list how you managed your expenses for the judges to verify limit-to-$15 rule.
• Each week, two teams will compete against each other (). The winner will proceed to the next round.

Hi Tea will proceed for eight weeks. After that, the winner, first runner-up, and second runner-up will receive a $100, $75, and $50 gift certificate, respectively.

The following dates are reserved for fun-filled special editions of Hi Tea. No teams will compete on these days. Stay tuned for more details!

• 25-Oct-2013: Halloween
• 1-Nov-2013: Diwali
• 22-Nov-2013: Thanksgiving

For questions, comments, and registration, email the following Hi Tea committee members:

• Raghavendra Shruti Rao ( )
• Genaro Hernandez Jr ()
• Rukmini Ramakrishnan ()