Department of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering

ACM Mid-Atlantic Special Interest Group on Accessibility

User Interface Design and Functional Gains from Cognitive
Assistive Technology: Treading on the Frontiers of Neuroscience

Dr. Elliot Cole
Institute for Cognitive Prosthetics

1:30pm Thursday, 4 April 2013, ITE 404, UMBC

Assistive Technology can and should be viewed as a therapy modality, by increasing functioning as a technology effect, and sometimes by an increase in underlying abilities through one or more neuroscience mechanisms. User interface design has been a core technique in achieving gains in the cognitive dimensions. Patient-Centered Design was developed as a methodology to help achieve these gains. This methodology seems to be a close relative of Ability-Based Design. Case studies will help demonstrate effects achieved with Patient-Centered Design. Older psychological and the emerging neuroscience paradigm will be presented.

Elliot Cole, PhD is the founder of the Institute for Cognitive Prosthetics. He brings his training in human-centered computing to developing technology and techniques which address cognitive disabilities from brain injury. The Institute's successful R&D efforts came from a multidisciplinary staff from clinical and computing specialties working closely together and focusing on the rehabilitation needs of the individual patient. This approach has generated deep knowledge of the cognitive disabilities computing domain. For over a decade, the Institute had a "lab" brain injury cognitive rehabilitation facility. Dr. Cole was an associate professor at Drexel University and a research associate at the University of Pennsylvania, where he is currently a Visiting Scholar. His book Patient-Centered Design of Cognitive Assistive Technology for Traumatic Brain Injury Telerehabilitation is being published in April by Morgan and Claypool as part of the series Synthesis Lectures on Assistive, Rehabilitative, and Health-Preserving Technologies.

The UMBC Computer Science and Electrical Engineering department will hold its annual day-long research review from 9:00am to 4:00pm on Friday April 12, 2013 in University Center Ballroom.  Faculty, research staff and students will present their latest research results in talks, posters and demonstrations. Refreshments and a free buffet lunch are provided.  Submit poster and talk abstracts by April 8.  The public is welcome. 

The UMBC Center for Women in Technology will hold its 3rd Annual CWIT Spring into Leadership event on Thursday evening, April 11, 2013 in the University Center Ballroom at UMBC. Space is limited and registration is required. Register online by Monday, April 8.

Schedule
   6:15-6:30 Check-in and Refreshments, UC 3rd floor
   6:30-7:00 Networking Activity, Dessert will be served!
   7:10-7:30 Keynote Speaker's Story: Tina Kuhn, Northrop Grumman Corporation
   7:30-7:45 Discussion Activity and Q&A with Ms. Kuhn
   7:45-8:00 Wrap-Up & Evaluations

Keynote Speaker:

Ms. Tina Kuhn
Vice President, Security and Information Operations
Cyber Intelligence Division
Northrop Grumman Information Systems

Ms. Kuhn will share information about her career path and offer advice and wisdom based on her personal experiences as a successful technical leader.

Tina Kuhn is vice president of Security and Information Operations (S&IO) in the Cyber Solutions division of Northrop Grumman’s Information Systems sector. The S&IO business unit provides intelligence-related systems and services to U.S. government and international security customers. The organization’s focus is on full-spectrum cyber solutions that protect critical national systems and support the nation’s information dominance. S&IO also is a premier supplier and integrator of net-centric, next-generation signal processing solutions for specialized customers. Ms. Kuhn brings more than 25 years of management experience to her current position. She joined Northrop Grumman from General Dynamics, where she served as vice president of its Intelligence Systems line of business, leading three business units that addressed the cyber and intelligence communities. Prior to that, she was the vice president/director of programs for the Intelligence and Information Solutions business unit for SAIC in Columbia MD. Ms. Kuhn began her career at General Electric and also held positions at GTE Corp. Ms. Kuhn has a bachelor’s degree in information systems management from the University of Maryland and also is a certified Program Management Professional.

The event is co-hosted by the Center for Women in Technology, CWIT Student Council, IS Council of Majors, SWE, ASME, and the WISE graduate student organization. Contact Dr. Susan Martin, Associate CWIT Director as susan at umbc.edu if you have any questions about the event or registering online.

UMBC Information Systems Distinguished Speaker

The Potential of Technology Systems for Enhancing the
Independence and Quality of Life for Older Adults

Dr. Sara J. Czaja

Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences
and Department of Industrial Engineering
University of Miami

10:00am Thursday, March 28, 2013, ITE 456, UMBC

Sara J. Czaja is a Leonard M. Miller Professor in the Departments of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and Industrial Engineering at the University of Miami. She is also the Scientific Director of the Center on Aging at the University of Miami and the Director of the Center on Research and Education for Aging and Technology Enhancement (CREATE). The focus of CREATE is on making technology more accessible, useful, and usable for older adults. Dr. Czaja has extensive experience in aging research and a long commitment to developing strategies to improve the quality of life for older adults. Her research interests include: aging and cognition, aging and healthcare access, family caregiving, aging and technology, and functional assessment. She is a fellow of the American Psychological Association and the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society and the Gerontological Society of America. She served as a member of the Technical Advisory Panel of the APA Presidential Task Force on Integrative Healthcare for an Aging Population. In addition, she is a member of the National Research Council/National Academy of Sciences Committee on Human Factors and Home Health Care.

The Problem with Print: publishing born digital scholarship

Professor Helen J. Burgess
Department of English, UMBC

4:00pm Monday, 25 March 2013
7th Floor, A. O. Kuhn Library

Dr. Burgess will discuss some of the difficulties for academics seeking to work and publish outside traditional "print-bound" models of humanities scholarship – including issues of professional evaluation and distribution – and show some examples of "born digital" works that would benefit from a new model of publishing. A reception, sponsored by the Libby Kuhn Endowment Fund, will follow the program.

Helen J. Burgess is an Assistant Professor of English in the Communication and Technology track. Dr Burgess received her BA(Hons) and MA(Dist.) in English Language and Literature from Victoria University of Wellington, in New Zealand, and her PhD in English from West Virginia University. She is active in the new media research community as editor of the online journal Hyperrhiz: new Media Cultures, and technical editor of Rhizomes: Cultural Studies in Emerging Knowledge. Dr Burgess is coauthor of Red Planet: Scientific and Cultural Enounters with Mars and Biofutures: Owning Body Parts and Information, both titles published in the Mariner10 interactive DVD-Rom series at the University of Pennsylvania Press. She has interests in multimedia and web development, open source and open content production, electronic literature, and science fiction.

UMBC will host a free two-day workshop April 11-12 for faculty, researchers, and students from all disciplines who are interested in learning how to incorporate high performance computing, advanced data analysis, modeling and simulation and data visualization into their teaching and research.

The workshop will be given by representatives from XSEDE, an NSF-sponsored distributed resource for high performance computing and data storage that is available for UMBC faculty and students to use for their research. The workshop will be held in room 120 of the Meyerhoff Building on the UMBC campus, starting at Noon on Thursday April 11 and ending at 4:00pm on Friday, April 12.

Workshop participants get information on gaining access to XSEDE resources and hands on training one a topics including computational thinking, parallel computing, scientific visualization, research data management, using Unix and adding computational science to curricula. The XSEDE resources are a natural "next step" for applications that have outgrown the cluster computing facilities available at UMBC, such as HPCF and MC2.

While the workshop is free, you must pre-register online — start by creating an account via the SIGN IN link. Registration closes on March 25 and space is limited, so if you are interested, register as soon as possible.

For more information about the workshop and XSEDE, see the workshop flier or contact Andrew Raim (), Linda Akli () or Prof. Ian Thorpe ().

Teaching & Research with Mathematica 9 and Wolfram|Alpha Pro

2:30-3:45 Tuesday, 9 April 2013, 401 Math/Psyc Building, UMBC

This talk by staff from Wolfram will illustrate capabilities in Mathematica 9 that are directly applicable for use in teaching and research on campus. Topics include the folowing

• Free-form linguistic input & predictive interface features
• 2D and 3D visualization
• Dynamic interactivity & On-demand scientific data
• Example-driven course materials
• Symbolic interface construction
• Statistics & Data anaylsis
• Digital Image Processing, Parallelization, and Control Systems functionality

The new Wolfram|Alpha Pro website will be featured, demonstrating the following capabilities.

• built-in CDF interactivity
• automatic creation of interactive models
• ability to upload data (spreadsheets, data, text) for instant and
• thorough analysis
• step-by-step solution guide to many problems
• specialized keyboard for mathematical and scientific symbols
• export results to over 60 formats

Current Mathematica users will benefit from seeing improvements and new features of Mathematica 9 as well as Wolfram|Alpha Pro but prior knowledge of Mathematica is not required.

UMBC's Training Centers is offering a new Certificate in Cyber Operations that is designed to help move participants from a basic competence with computers and technology up to the level of a competent, entry-level professional as a Cyber Analyst or Operator.

Homer Minnick, the Training Centers' director for Cybersecurity training, will host a free webinar on the certificate program from 12:00-1:00pm on Wednesday March 27, 2013. It will include the following topics.

• What is the Cybersecurity Academy?
• Is the Certificate in Cyber Operations right for me?
• How does the Certificate in Cyber Operations contrast with other certifications from UMBC Training Centers?”
• What are the education and experience eligibility requirements?
• Which industry certifications are included in this program?
• What is the value this certification brings to my organization?
• How do you apply for the program?
• What is the next step? Where do I get more information?

  If you are interested in participating, please register online for the free webinar.

Privacy and Security in Online Social Media (PSOSM)

Ponnurangam Kumaraguru ("PK")
Assistant Professor
Indraprastha Institute of Information Technology, Delhi, India

10:30-12:00 Monday, March 11, 2013, ITE 325b, UMBC

With increase in usage of the Internet, there has been an exponential increase in the use of online social media on the Internet. Websites like Facebook, Google+, YouTube, Orkut, Twitter and Flickr have changed the way Internet is being used. There is a dire need to investigate, study and characterize privacy and security on online social media from various perspectives (computational, cultural, psychological). Real world scalable systems need to be built to detect and defend security and privacy issues on online social media. This talk will give you a preview of what we do at PreCog in the area of PSOSM. I will describe briefly some of the cool ongoing projects that we have: ChaMAILeon, PhishAri, Twit-Digest, U2P2, and OCEAN. Much of our research work is made available for public use through tools or online services. Our work derives techniques from Data Mining, Text Mining, Statistics, Network Science, Public Policy, Complex networks, Human Computer Interaction, and Psychology.

In this talk, I will focus on the following: (1) Twit-Digest is a tool to extract intelligence from Twitter which can be useful to security analysts. Pro-cursor to this work is published at PSOSM 2012, this work also obtained second best award at IBM ICARE 2012. (2) OCEAN: Open source Collation of eGovernment data and Networks. Here, we show how publicly available information on Government services can be used to profile citizens in India. This work obtained the Best Poster Award at Security and Privacy Symposium at IIT Kanpur, 2013. (3) Privacy in India: Attitudes and Awareness V 2.0 U2P2, this is one of the largest ever done privacy study in India. This has been in media recently; if you are interested search for #privacyindia12 on Twitter. This work obtained the third Best Poster Award at Security and Privacy Symposium at IIT Kanpur, 2013.

Ponnurangam Kumaraguru ("PK") Assistant Professor, is currently the Hemant Bharat Ram Faculty Research Fellow at the Indraprastha Institute of Information Technology (IIIT), Delhi, India. He received his Ph.D. from the School of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU). His research interests include developing technological and inter-disciplinary solutions to detect and prevent computer crime, in particular, these days be has been dabbling with complex networked systems (e.g. social web systems like Twitter, Facebook, and telephone logs). He is also very passionate about issues related to human computer interaction. As Principal Investigator, PK is currently managing research projects value of about 2 Crores INR. PK is a Co-Principal Investigator in a project that is approved at the Europe Union FP7 which is about 5.3 million Euros. PK has received research funds Government of India, National Science Foundation, industry bodies in India, and International Development Research Centre. He is serving as a PC member in WWW 2013, AsiaCCS 2013 and he is also serving as a reviewer for International Journal of Information Security and ACM's Transactions on Internet Technology. PK’s Ph.D. thesis work on anti-phishing research at Carnegie Mellon University has contributed in creating a successful start-up company, Wombat Security Technologies. PK founded and manages PreCog, a research group at IIIT-Delhi. PK can be reached at .

Dynamically Reconfigurable Layered Filesystem (DLFS)

Dr. John Dorband

Research Associate Professor
Computer Science and Electrical Engineering
University of Maryland, Baltimore County

1:00pm Friday, 8 March 2013, ITE 227, UMBC

The standard filesystem paradigm is based on a hierarchy of directories and files. The Dynamically reconfigurable Layered Filesystem (DLFS) adds a new dimension to filesystem organization that of filesystem layers and the ability to make custom configuration of them. The DLFS filesystem consists of many layers where each layer is mounted transparently on the root, ‘/’, directory. It is dynamic in the sense that every user can have a customizable list of layers that are included in a personalized view of the filesystem. We present in here the concept of a dynamically reconfigurable layered filesystem. We also present how it can be used, such as how it facilitates security and system management.

Dr. John E. Dorband received his PhD in Computer Science from Penn State University in 1985. He worked for NASA GFSC from 1985 until 2007. He currently is a Research Associate Professor at UMBC. Dr. Dorband was one of the builders of the first Beowulf system, constructed at GSFC in the fall of 1994. In the 80’s, he pioneered work in the generalized use of extremely parallel SIMD fixed-routing grid architectures through the use of sorting to implement generalized routing methods. This facilitated such application areas as image processing, graphics rendering, symbolic processing, database operations, and other irregular applications on parallel architectures that lacked generalized routine hardware. Dr. Dorband has been an innovator in the area of parallel programming language paradigms as a means of simplifying the implementation of applications on parallel computers. His professional specialties include designing and prototyping high-performance computer architectures; designing and implementing languages for simplified implementation of applications on parallel computers; designing and implementing algorithms for parallel computers; applying highly parallel architectures to image processing, signal processing, and data processing; and applying highly parallel architectures to computational science.