Department of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering

The elections for both the IEEE Undergraduate Student Branch and IEEE Graduate Student Branch Executive Boards have been scheduled for Friday, April 19th, 4.00pm to 5.00pm, room TBA. This is our regular meeting time. Below you will find more information on the election process, including the procedure to run for an Officer position.

IEEE Undergraduate Student Branch Officer positions include the following.

• Chair: Will be responsible for leading the IEEE Undergraduate Student Branch overall. S/he will also be responsible for representing the IEEE USB in General Body meetings and Executive Board meetings, and delegating responsibilities for various task. Events and activities must be approved by the Chair before sent to committees and funds must be approved before being forwarded to the Treasurer.
• Vice-Chair: Will be responsible for assisting the Chair in leading the IEEE USB and helping to run the branch smoothly. If the Chair is not present, the VP will take upon her/his responsibilities.
• Secretary: Will be responsible for taking minutes at meetings, keeping track of undergraduate student attendance and reporting the activities to the branch. S/he will be the point person for external relationships.
• Treasurer: Will manage the accounts and funds for the IEEE USB. S/he’ll be responsible for attending the SGA treasurer training session, and working with the Executive Board to generate a budget plan.
• Member At Large: Will support the other executive board members by facilitating their responsibilities as well as managing member recruitment/retention, managing fundraising activities in cooperation with the Treasurer and developing and managing projects.

IEEE Graduate Student Branch Officer positions include the following.

• Chair: Will be responsible for leading the IEEE Graduate Student Branch overall. S/he will also be responsible for representing the GSO in the GSA Senate meetings and external events. Funds must be approved by the Chair before being forwarded to the Treasurer.
• Vice-Chair: Will be responsible for assisting the Chair in leading the IEEE GSB and helping her/him to run the branch smoothly.
• General Secretary: Will be responsible for reporting the activities to the IEEE SB GSA. S/he will be the point person for external relationships.
• Treasurer: Will manage the accounts and funds for the IEEE GSB. S/he’ll be responsible for the annual budget report along with the payments.

To run for one of the above positions you must be a grad/undergrad student in good academic status, be subscribed to our mailing list, and send me () a small description (no more than 100 words) about you and why should other members vote for you, no later than next Thursday, April 11th, by 12.00pm (noon). You can only run for one position.

These descriptions will be compiled and sent out to the entire mailing list no later than the following Friday, April 12th. Each candidate will be given two minutes during that Friday's meeting to make a brief speech.

The election process will be supervised by our advisor, Dr. Choa.

IMPORTANT

• if you win, you MUST be an official IEEE member or become one within a week after the election date.
• to vote, you must present your UMBC ID and the email that you used to subscribe to our mailing list.

Please come and vote on the 19th to ensure that your voice is heard, and consider running for one of the positions. If you have any concerns or questions about the election process, please let Jorge Teixeira () know ASAP.

On behalf of the UMBC IEEE GSB and UMBC IEEE USB Executive Boards,

UMBC IEEE Student Branch, Chair
Jorge Teixeira

UMCB CMSC alumnus Golois Mouelet is recruiting for software developers for RDA Corporation at 5pm-6:30pm on Tuesday, April 9th in troom 331 of the Commons.  He would like to meet with seniors and juniors.

RDA is launching a new software development center in Hunt Valley MD. They are looking for software developers who would like to expand their skills while learning from industry experts, and work on a variety of leading edge solutions (e.g. Web, Portal, Cloud, Mobile, and more) in a collaborative environment. They seek candidates with a strong desire to learn, a passion for technology, and a commitment to quality. Ideally, you will have a minimum of one year of development experience and a bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, but if you are excited about software development, have a go-getter personality, and skills you can demonstrate, they would like to meet you.

See this flier for more information: RDA information and recruiting

Tresys Technology, a provider of technology and engineering services for customers with high-security requirements, announced the "Tresys Technology Scholarship" for UMBC students. The merit-based scholarship is intended to support incoming sophomore or junior computer science majors at UMBC with demonstrated financial need and who have obtained or transferred a grade point average of 3.0 or greater. There is a preference given to students interested in computer security. The scholarship, managed by the UMBC Foundation, may be renewed for a second year, contingent on the student’s academic performance and continued financial need. Scholarship recipients are also invited to apply for paid internship positions at Tresys.

Tresys also announced the first two recipients: UMBC Computer Science juniors Sven Rivera and Sean Hoover, who both received scholarship awards of $2,500. Sven transfered to UMBC after attending Carrol Community College and Howard Community College and Sean came to UMBC as a transfer student from New Mexico State University.

For more information or to apply for future awards of the Tresys Technology Scholarship scholarship, visit the COEIT scholarship page.

Congratulations to the nine CSEE undergraduate students will have oral or poster presentations in UMBC's 17th Annual Undergraduate Research and Creative Achievement Day on Wednesday, 24 April 2013

• Andrew Battisti, "Experiences in Group Game Development", Poster presentation, 12:30pm-3:00pm, UC Ballroom, Mentor: Dr. Marc Olano
   
• Michael Berlin, "Using Machine Learning to Classify Trouble Tickets", Poster presentation, 10:00am-12:30pm, UC Ballroom, Mentor: Dr. Tim Finin
   
• Kenneth Derda, "Puzzle Box: Video Game to Challenge Spatial Perception through Three-Dimensional Puzzles", Poster presentation, 12:30pm-3:00pm, UC Ballroom, Mentor: Dr. Marc Olano
   
• David Eisen, "Mid-Infrared Optical Stimulations for Non-Contact Neural Excitation", Oral Presentation, 11:00am, UC 310, Mentor: Dr. Fow-Sen Choa
   
• Julian Feild, "A High-Performance, Low-Power Many-Core Processor for DSP Applications", Poster presentation, 10:00am-12:30pm, UC Ballroom, Mentor: Dr. Tinoosh Mohsenin
   
• Thomas Hervey, "Lights, Camera, Motion, Action: The Dance Application of Microsoft's Kinect and Intelligent Stage Lighting", Artistic Performance, 11:15am, FA 317, Mentors: Dr. Marc Olano and Carol Hess
   
• Thomas Hervey, "Lights, Camera, Motion, Action: The Dance Application of Microsoft's Kinect and Intelligent Stage Lighting", Poster presentation, 12:30pm-3:00pm, UC Ballroom, Mentors: Dr. Marc Olano and Carol Hess
   
• David Mai, "Detached, Video Game", Poster presentation, 10:00am-12:30pm, UC Ballroom, Mentor: Dr. Marc Olano
   
• Jonathan Moriarty, "Derelict, An Experiment In Virtual Reality Game Development", Poster presentation, 10:00am-12:30pm, UC Ballroom, Mentor: Dr. Marc Olano
   
• Alexander Morrow, "Comparison of Dimension Reduction Techniques", Oral Presentation, 3:00pm, UC 310, Mentor: Dr. Marie desJardins

The UMBC Council of Computing Majors (CCM) will hold a general meeting from 3:00pm to 4:00pm this Wednesday, April 27, in the CSEE Department conference room, ITE 325b.

Come discuss service opportunities, CSEE speakers, and upcoming CCM events.  Several professors have generously agreed to lecture on tools and topics in computer science.  Dates and details will be announced at the meeting.

The Council of Computing Majors is a student organization for CMSC and CMPE majors and other students interested in computing.  Come if you are interested in joining or just finding out more about the CCM.

For questions of more information, send email to .

The Institute for Creative Technologies (ICT) offers a 10-week summer research program for undergraduates in interactive virtual experiences. A multidisciplinary research institute affiliated with the University of Southern California, the ICT was established in 1999 to combine leading academic researchers in computing with the creative talents of Hollywood and the video game industry. Having grown to encompass a total of 170 faculty, staff, and students in a diverse array of fields, the ICT represents a unique interdisciplinary community brought together with a core unifying mission: advancing the state-of-the-art for creating virtual experiences so compelling that people will react as if they were real.

Reflecting the interdisciplinary nature of ICT research, we welcome applications from students in computer science, as well as many other fields, such as psychology, art/animation, interactive media, linguistics, and communications. Undergraduates will join a team of students, research staff, and faculty in one of several labs focusing on different aspects of interactive virtual experiences. In addition to participating in seminars and social events, students will also prepare a final written report and present their projects to the rest of the institute at the end of summer research fair.

This Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) site is supported by a grant from the National Science Foundation. The site is expected to begin summer 2013, pending final award issuance.  For questions or additional information, please contact reu at ict.usc.edu.  

Research Labs
When you apply, we will ask you to rank your top three interests from the labs listed below. We encourage applicants to explore the lab websites to learn more about the individual research activities of each group.

	MxR Lab Research areas: virtual reality, interactive media, human-computer interaction, gestural user interfaces, spatial illusions, human perception
	Graphics Lab Research areas: image-based lighting, 3D scanning, surface reflectometry, image-based modeling, 3D displays
	Multicomp Lab Research areas: human communication, machine learning, facial and body gestures, verbal content, prosodic signals
	Natural Language Dialogue Group Research areas: human-human and human-machine dialogue, dialogue management, speech recognition, natural language understanding, natural language generation, expressive conversational speech synthesis, information retrieval
	Narrative Group Research areas: social media, information retrieval, natural language discourse, storytelling, triangles
	Virtual Worlds and Avatars Group Research areas: activities in virtual worlds that promote health, avatar identity, avatar emotions, web-based virtual worlds, social support spaces
	Computational Emotion Group Research areas: affective computing, emotion and decision making, cognitive modeling, virtual humans, human-computer interaction, media psychology
	Embodied Cognition Group Research areas: studying the relation between cognitive and emotional processes and physical behavior with the goal of creating more life-like animated virtual humans
	MedVR Lab Research areas: resilience training, allostatic load, psychophysiological assessments, advanced statistical analysis, post-traumatic stress disorder

Location and Housing
The ICT facility is located in the Playa Vista community of West Los Angeles, about 10 miles west of the main USC campus, and includes a 150-seat theater, game room, and gym. There are numerous restaurants and stores within walking distance, including the Westfield Culver City mall, and the beach is only a 10 minute drive away. The university also provides free shuttle service between the institute and the downtown USC campus.  Since ICT is located in its own separate facility, summer students typically live in apartments near the institute rather than on-campus dorms. We will direct accepted students to a number of resources for locating nearby housing and provide a stipend to support the cost of living.

Benefits

• Participate in a unique multidisciplinary community that combines academic research with the creative talents of Hollywood and the video game industry.
• Work with some of the leading researchers in human-computer interaction, computer graphics, and virtual humans.
  Receive a total of $5000 over the ten week program, paid as an hourly wage.
• Receive an additional $2800 stipend for housing and living expenses.
• Travel will be reimbursed up to $600 for students living 95 miles or more outside of the Los Angeles area.

Eligibility

• U.S. citizenship or permanent residency is required.
• Students must be currently enrolled in an undergraduate program.
• Students must not have completed an undergraduate degree prior to the summer program.

Important Dates

• Application deadline: March 31, 2013
• Notification of acceptance begins: April 12, 2013
• Notification of declined applicants: April 30, 2013
• Start Date: June 3, 2013
• End Date: August 9, 2013

How to Apply
Step 1: Application Form
Fill out the online application. You must first complete this form before the rest of your application materials will be reviewed.

Step 2: Submit Additional Materials
Email the following materials to :

• The most recent unofficial transcripts from all undergraduate institutions you have attended.
• A one page personal statement. This may include your research interests and how you came to be interested in them, your previous research experiences, your reasons for wanting to participate in the research at the ICT, and how this participating in this experience might better prepare you to meet your future goals.

Step 3: Recommendation Letter
Please direct a faculty member to email a letter of recommendation directly to .

Make friends and talk code!  The UMBC Council of Computing Majors will hold its first meeting of the year at 3:00pm on Wednesday, February 20 in ITE 210 on Main Street in the Commons.  CCM is an undergraduate student organization dedicated to promoting the fields of computer science and computer engineering. All majors are welcome!  Come if you are interested in joining or just finding out more about the CCM.

For more information send email to .

It was a case of lab envy that inspired professor Marie desJardins to dream up ACTIVE, the new dynamic laptop lab that will sprout up in the Engineering/Computer Science building next fall.

The culprit? CASTLE, the Active Science Teaching and Learning Environment created by the College of Natural and Mathematical Sciences in 2010 (pictured below). While teaching in the space for one of her courses, she looked at the low-profile computer screens, wall-mounted monitors, and circular workstations and thought: “Why don’t we have one of these?”

When the Hrabowki Fund for Innovation was announced, Dr. desJardins and a team of CSEE professors including Penny Rheingans, Tim Finin, and Charles LaBerge submitted a proposal to make a similar lab space a reality. This February, the team was awarded a Hrabowski Innovation Implementation and Research Grant to create ACTIVE (Active Computing Teaching and InnoVation Environment), a new classroom that will make group work and active learning a priority.

This semester, the future site will be transformed from an abandoned classroom to a “dynamic laptop laboratory”. desJardins and co. envision a room with movable furniture and easily-accessible floor power outlets. The idea is to create an open space that will make it easy for students to collaborate and for teachers to interact with students. This physical re-design is being supported by a grant from BAE Systems and the Northrop Grumman Foundation.

Instead of filling the space with bulky, expensive desktop computers that will be outdated in a few years, the lab will network students’ personal laptops using special software. It will allow for screen and application sharing between computers, an instant messaging tool between teachers and students, the ability to edit and create documents collaboratively, and more. desJardins explains it as a virtual infrastructure laid over the physical space.

“The key innovation is that courses that have traditionally been taught in a primarily lecture-based format will be able to take advantage of the physical space and software support to incorporate group activities, collaborative online problem solving and programming, real-time quizzes, and interactive laboratories that are interspersed with mini-lectures,” says Dr. desJardins. These teaching techniques will ultimately help students learn better.

A section of Dr. desJardins’ CMSC 101:  Introduction to Computing is one of four pilot courses that will be taught in ACTIVE come fall 2013. Others include Dr. Rheingans’ CMSC 346: Data Visualization, Dr. Finin’s CMSC 331: Programming Languages, and Dr. LaBerge’s CMPE 450: Computer Engineering Capstone.

Some classes have been begging for such a set up. CMSC 101 relies on group activities to help students—especially women and underrepresented minorities—feel engaged and incorporated into the Computer Science community. Last year it suffered when taught in a traditional computer lab, where the rows of cumbersome computers made it impossible for students to see the board or to break into teams. ACTIVE will make Dr. LaBerge’s Computer Engineering Capstone even more true to working in the industry by emulating state-of-the-art industrial research and development companies like Apple and Microsoft.

This summer, all four professors will re-design their classes to best make use of the space.

Dr. Tim Finin says that adapting his Principles of  Programming Languages class will “be a challenge,” but, a worthwhile one. Increasing active learning in the class will help transfer students —who typically take it in their first semester—with the often-difficult adjustment. Dr. Finin is considering techniques like “Pair Programming” and having students program in-class.

He sees the new space as a “step in trying to understand how we can teach better by exploiting new technology.” Finin thinks that the relationship between technology and education is bound to grow. “[Technology] could potentially have as big an impact on education as online-shopping had on retail sales, or as the web had on the news industry,” he says.

desJardins predicts that ACTIVE will help professors learn how to teach better, switching the focus from teaching content to teaching skills. Throughout the semester, the team will evaluate the effectiveness of their classes and share their findings at the Provost’s Teaching and Learning Symposium. They hope to share their experiences, and the space, with other professors at UMBC—professors who one day might say to themselves: “Why don’t we have one of these?”

UMBC alumnus Professor Eric Eaton (BS '03, PhD '09) has positions for undergraduate and graduate summer research internships in Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning at Bryn Mawr College in suburban Philadelphia. Apply by March 1, 2013 for full consideration.

Spend ten weeks of your summer working on exciting projects in artificial intelligence and machine learning at Bryn Mawr College! We have openings for several undergraduate or graduate research assistants to work on two grant-sponsored research projects this summer. Student participants will join a research team with other students, Prof. Eric Eaton, and one postdoctoral researcher to carry out a detailed program of research toward scholarly publications. Students will present the results of their research during the final week of the program at Bryn Mawr College, and (if appropriate) at their home institutions and/or other academic venues, such as research conferences.

All students who are beginning their junior or senior undergraduate year in Fall 2013 or who will graduate during the Spring 2013 semester, and all graduate students are eligible to apply. To be considered, you should have a background in either computer science, mathematics, physics, or statistics and have strong grades in your major. Although it is not required, it would be beneficial if you have taken and done well in at least one course related to artificial intelligence, machine learning, robotics, statistics, or topology.

On-campus housing and meals are available for student participants, along with a variety of professional development workshops and summer activities. Application instructions and further details are available online.

The Center for Women in Technology (CWIT) welcomes Cindy Greenwood as their new Assistant Director. Ms. Greenwood will spearhead the new Cyber Scholars Program which kicks off this fall.

Cindy Greenwood loved college so much that she never wanted to leave.

So she didn’t.  

When an Advertising and Public Relations internship during her senior year of college showed Ms. Greenwood that it wasn’t the career for her, she switched gears. She let her heart decide.

“I felt like I could make more of a difference by going into higher education,” she says.

Greenwood knows first-hand the difference that the college experience can make. Raised in Ishpeming, Michigan–a small town of no more than 7,000 people that is “half the size of UMBC,” she says—Ms. Greenwood thought it would always be her home. That is, until she left for Grand Valley State University.  

“A college campus is like no place else. You can do anything,” says Ms. Greenwood. “You can go from a cultural event where you’re trying food from Cambodia, to a dance party with glowsticks.” The atmosphere of possibility urged her to try new things, like studying abroad in Australia.

Afterwards, a master’s program in Higher Education Administration at the Leadership Center of Washington State University beckoned to her. After graduating, Ms. Greenwood spent eight years working for and with college students, first at Ferris State University in Michigan, and then at the University of South Florida.

In 2011, she joined UMBC as the Alumni Programming Coordinator in the Office of Institutional Advancement. Here, she started the Student Alumni Association to help connect current students with alumni. Hungry for more one-on-one time with undergraduates, Ms. Greenwood volunteered to be the advisor for the UMBC Vegetarian Student Group.

It’s the chance to work with students on a daily basis that drew her to the Assistant Director position in the Center for Women in Technology, she says. Ms. Greenwood will coordinate the new Cyber Scholars Program, which is run in partnership by CWIT and the UMBC Center for Cybersecurity. Her duties include overseeing the Cyber Scholars Living Learning Community, planning events, advising scholars, and teaching a seminar and bridge program for Cyber Scholars.

“The scholars programs are really interesting [at UMBC] because they really touch on every part of students’ lives,” says Greenwood.

An advocate of social justice and equality, Ms. Greenwood says she identifies with CWIT’s mission to bolster support for women in the male-centered fields of Engineering and Information Technology. She is a co-chair of UMBC’s Presidents Commission of Women. In the end it all comes back to her experience in college.

“I’ve had some good female mentors throughout my career,” says Ms. Greenwood, “and I definitely hope to be that to other females as well.”

*Ms. Greenwood joins CWIT as Assistant Director on January 28, 2013.