University Of Maryland, Baltimore County Research Articles

The horizontal tensor complementarity problem

This article explores a new type of nonlinear complementarity problem, namely the horizontal tensor complementarity problem (HTCP), which is a natural extension of the horizontal linear complementarity problem studied in Sznajder [Degree-theoretic analysis of the vertical and horizontal linear complementarity problems [Ph.D. Thesis]. University of Maryland Baltimore County; 1994]. We extend the concepts of R 0 , R and P pairs from a pair of linear transformations given in Chi et al. [The weighted horizontal linear complementarity problem on a Euclidean Jordan algebra. J Global Optim. 2019;73:153–169] to a pair of tensors. When a given pair of tensors has these properties, we use degree-theoretic tools to discuss the existence and boundedness of solutions to the HTCP. Finally, we study a uniqueness result of the solution of the HTCP.

Undergraduate Economics Program Enhancements to Increase Doctoral Program Participation by Under-Represented Students

The economics profession as with STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) disciplines has recognized that it faces a “pipeline” problem of low numbers of under-represented minorities (URM) completing PhDs. The ancillary described in this article addresses the economics pipeline problem by using strategies modeled after University of Maryland Baltimore County’s (UMBC’s) STEM focused Meyerhoff Scholars program. These strategies include identifying URM students in early stages of their undergraduate careers with the ability and motivation to pursue graduate work, providing information about career opportunities for those completing PhDs, guidance on course selection and on undergraduate research opportunities. UMBC’s Predoctoral Fellows in Economics Program prepares students for successful admission into well-regarded PhD programs by enhancing their likelihood of successful applications to predoctoral programs in economics. URM undergraduates who maintain strong grades in mathematics, statistics, and economics and who engage in productive undergraduate research experiences and produce high-quality research output should find exciting predoctoral, doctoral and career opportunities.

Simultaneous retrieval of aerosol and ocean properties from PACE HARP2 with uncertainty assessment using cascading neural network radiative transfer models

Abstract. The University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) Hyper-Angular Rainbow Polarimeter (HARP2) will be on board NASA's Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, ocean Ecosystem (PACE) mission, scheduled for launch in January 2024. In this study we systematically evaluate the retrievability and uncertainty of aerosol and ocean parameters from HARP2 multi-angle polarimeter (MAP) measurements. To reduce the computational demand of MAP-based retrievals and maximize data processing throughput, we developed improved neural network (NN) forward models for spaceborne HARP2 measurements over a coupled atmosphere and ocean system within the FastMAPOL retrieval algorithm. To this end, a cascading retrieval scheme is implemented in FastMAPOL, which leverages a series of NN models of varying size, speed, and accuracy to optimize performance. Two sets of NN models are used for reflectance and polarization, respectively. A full day of global synthetic HARP2 data was generated and used to test various retrieval parameters including aerosol microphysical and optical properties, aerosol layer height, ocean surface wind speed, and ocean chlorophyll a concentration. To assess retrieval quality, pixel-wise retrieval uncertainties were derived from error propagation and evaluated against the difference between the retrieval parameters and truth based on a Monte Carlo method. We found that the fine-mode aerosol properties can be retrieved well from the HARP2 data, though the coarse-mode aerosol properties are more uncertain. Larger uncertainties are associated with a reduced number of available viewing angles, which typically occur near the scan edge of the HARP2 instrument. Results of the performance assessment demonstrate that the algorithm is a viable approach for operational application to HARP2 data after the PACE launch.

Inclusive excellence online: Pandemic lessons learned supporting traditionally underserved students

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit and all higher education pivoted to online learning, the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) created ‘Finish Line’, a programme designed to help former students with some college, but no degree to complete their studies, often several years after they had left the institution. More than 200 students have done so to date, which was a surprising pandemic silver lining for an institution with fewer than 5 per cent of all courses delivered online before 2020. But was Finish Line just a temporary strategic initiative to get through a global health crisis? Or could it also be a proof of concept for how to meet and support ‘non-traditional’ adult learners where they are — and want to go? In this reflective case study, we offer candid lessons learned to go beyond the logistics of an enrolment management strategy of ‘re-recruiting’ former students through the affordances of online education to reassessing and redefining our ‘inclusive excellence’ mission in a post-pandemic, often digital-first world.

Baltimore SCIART: A Fully Virtual Undergraduate Research Experience at the Interface of Computational Chemistry and Art

From its inception in 2016 through 2019, the Baltimore SCIART Consortium offered an annual 10-week interdisciplinary summer research program for undergraduate students. Each year, the program mentored approximately 10 students, many from primarily undergraduate institutions including minority serving institutions and historically black colleges and universities. Throughout the sessions, the students were exposed to the career paths of art conservation and art conservation science as they worked in the laboratories of scientists, engineers, art conservators, and art conservation scientists at the University of Maryland Baltimore County, Johns Hopkins University, and the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore. Preparations for the 2020 program were underway when the COVID-19 pandemic shifted the undergraduate research paradigm to a virtual experience. An in-person, laboratory-based program was no longer an option, and this challenged the SCIART team to investigate novel ways to offer a rigorous, engaging undergraduate research program in a fully virtual setting. The result was an intensive, three-week pilot program in which four SCIART students learned about and successfully applied open-source periodic density functional theory software packages to explore the interactions between small molecule adsorbates and mineral-based surfaces relevant to art conservation. This case study exemplifies how educators and research leaders were able to strategically pivot and provide an adapted curriculum for a unique, interdisciplinary, and fully virtual undergraduate research experience. The implication is a potential (scalable) model for culturally engaging research opportunities for historically underrepresented students in STEM, both during and beyond the COVID-19 pandemic.

Evaluation of STEM Engagement Activities on the Attitudes and Perceptions of Mechanical Engineering S-STEM Scholars.

Since 2009, the mechanical engineering (ME) scholarship-science technology engineering and mathematics (S-STEM) Program at the University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC) has provided financial support and program activities to ME undergraduate students aiming at improving their retention and graduation rates. The objective of this study is to identify program activities that were most effective to help students for improvements. Current ME S-STEM scholars were asked to complete a survey that measures their scientific efficacy, engineering identity, expectations, integration, and sense of belonging, as well as how program activities impact their attitudes and perceptions. Analyses of 36 collected surveys showed that scholars reported high levels of engineering identity, expectations, and sense of belonging. However, further improvements were needed to help students in achieving scientific efficacy and academic integration into the program. Results demonstrated that pro-active mentoring was the most effective method contributing to positive attitudes and perceptions. The implemented S-STEM research-related activities and internship were viewed favorably by the scholars in helping them establish their scientific efficacy and engineering identity, and understand their expectations and goals. Community building activities were considered helpful for them to integrate into campus life and improve their sense of belonging to the campus and program. Scholars identified mentoring, research related activities, internships, and social interaction with faculty and their peers as important factors for their retention and graduation. Although the sample size was small in the study, we believe that the cost-effective activities identified could be adopted by other institutions to further improve students' retention and graduation rates in engineering programs.

Editor's Note

Editor's Note Marion Rust For the second issue of 2021, we have many exciting awards to announce. The Early American Literature Book Prize for 2020 has been awarded to Lindsay DiCuirci, an associate professor of English at UMBC (the University of Maryland, Baltimore County), for Colonial Revivals: The Nineteenth Century Lives of Early American Books, published by the University of Pennsylvania Press in 2019. A full statement regarding this award can be found on page 323 of this issue. Congratulations, Professor DiCuirci! The Modern Language Association Forum on Early American Literature has awarded its 2019 Richard Beale Davis Prize, which honors the best essay to appear in Early American Literature in a single year, to two cowinners: Reed Gochberg, for "Circulating Objects: Crèvecoeur's 'Curious Book' and the American Philosophical Society Cabinet," and Ana Schwartz, for "Mercy as Well as Extremity": Forts, Fences, and Fellow Feeling in New England Settlement." Both essays appeared in EAL 54, no. 2 (2019). A full statement regarding this award can be found on page 325 of this issue. Congratulations, Professors Gochberg and Schwartz! Congratulations are also due to Ajay Kumar Batra, doctoral candidate in English at the University of Pennsylvania, on winning the American Literature Society's yearly 1921 Award for Best Essay in American Literature (untenured category) for "Reading with Conviction: Abraham Johnstone and the Poetics of the Dead End." This essay appeared in Early American Literature's special issue "Beyond Recovery" (55, no. 2), guest edited by Professors Steffi Dippold and Lauren Coats. Thanks to the ALS for sponsoring this award, to the guest editors for including it in their special issue, and to Ajay Kumar Batra for his fine work. The EAL issue here is hard to sum up. Its four essays in the field of Black studies address crowd action (Betsy Erkkila), multispecies narrative (Kyle Keeler), scholarly projection (Rio Bergh), and embodied Black knowledge (Samantha Pinto). Two other contributions correct long-standing [End Page 327] misappraisals of key texts in the field: early seventeenth-century iconoclast Thomas Morton's May Day poem (Robert Hudson Vincent) and the anonymous post-Revolutionary "Panther Captivity" narrative (Alex Gergely). A revisionary assessment of fictional interventions in eighteenthcentury theories of consciousness (Matthew Rebhorn), a teasing out of literary nationalist satirical employments of the British Gothic (Ellen Bulford Welch), a review of new methodologies in the study of natural history (Elizabeth Polcha) and a cowritten twenty-first-century "beast fable" in the voice of a raven and a bobolink (Chi-Ming Yang and Sarah Rivett) round out the list. Taken together, these works overlap in their engagements with animal studies, Black studies, cognitive literary studies, gender studies, genre studies, natural history studies, settler colonial studies, textual criticism, Wampanoag studies, and more. This issue attests to the range, as well as quality, of work now going on in the capacious field of early American literary studies. I commend it to your attention. [End Page 328] Copyright © 2021 The University of North Carolina Press

Steering an Age-Friendly University (AFU) Initiative: Insights from Directors of Aging Centers

The pioneering Age-Friendly University (AFU) initiative, endorsed in 2016 by GSA’s Academy for Gerontology in Higher Education (AGHE), calls for institutions of higher education to respond to shifting demographics and the needs of our aging populations through more age-friendly programs, practices, and partnerships. Over 65 institutions have joined the AFU network and adopted the 10 AFU guiding principles. This symposium will feature leaders at AFU campuses representing centers on aging and gerontology programs who will discuss why their institution joined the initiative, their age-friendly campus vision, and their recommendations for mounting an AFU initiative. AFU Director Charness (Florida State University) will describe launching an AFU initiative from the perspective of a state university, with a focus on critical discussion points, the concerns of upper administration, and the timeline for completion of the process. AFU Director Porter (University of Manitoba) will discuss how the Centre on Aging has been using its mandate as a research centre to advance the age-friendly movement through research, knowledge mobilization, training, and partnership initiatives. AFU Director Schumacher (University of Maryland Baltimore County) will talk about how the AFU framework has served as a platform for new and constructive synergies among gerontology programs, centers on aging, health systems, and higher education. AFU Director Gugliucci (University of New England) will discuss strategies for leading health professions education programs within an AFU framework, with special attention to AGHE resources available to support these efforts. Directors of Aging Centers Interest Group Sponsored Symposium.

Establishing the Need to Broaden Bioengineering Research Exposure and Research Participation in Mechanical Engineering and Its Positive Impacts on Student Recruitment, Diversification, Retention and Graduation: Findings From the UMBC ME S-STEM Scholarship Program.

The objectives of this study were to evaluate the current status of exposure to bio-engineering research in community college (CC) students and University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC) students, and to estimate relationships between research activities sponsored by the Mechanical Engineering (ME) S-STEM Scholarship Program and improvement in student enrollment/diversification, retention rates, and graduation rates. The analysis drew on data from ME undergraduate academic records at UMBC from 2008 to 2019. A survey was designed to assess the research exposure of CC and UMBC students and their evaluation of the research components included in recruitment and curriculum activities. Results show that exposure to research measured by attending a research seminar was low for the participants, around 37% for CC students and 21% for ME students at UMBC. The survey results indicate the positive impact of the scholarship programs at UMBC on the research exposure and research experience. The impact is more evident in students who originally transferred from a CC. The large increase in recruited female and CC students over the past 10 years indicated that the research-related activities of the ME S-STEM program played an instrumental role in those increases. Because of the research-related activities, the ME S-STEM program achieved retention and graduation rates higher than those in the ME undergraduate program (89% versus 60% for the 6 year graduation rate), as well a higher percentage of students enrolled in graduate school (30% versus 10%). We conclude that there is still a need to implement research-related activities in the ME undergraduate program, starting with student recruitment and continuing through the academic program. Results suggest that there is a positive impact of ME S-STEM research activities on student diversification, retention rates, and percentage of our graduates who are pursuing graduate degree.

Parallel Performance Studies for a 3-D Elliptic Test Problem on the 2018 Portion of the Taki Cluster

The hardware used in the computational studies is part of the UMBC High Performance Computing Facility (HPCF). The facility is supported by the U.S. National Science Foundation through the MRI program (grant nos. CNS–0821258, CNS–1228778, and OAC–1726023) and the SCREMS program (grant no. DMS–0821311), with additional substantial support from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC). See hpcf.umbc.edu for more information on HPCF and the projects using its resources. Co-author Carlos Barajas was supported by UMBC as HPCF RA.

8 th Symposium on Mechanics of Slender Structures 2019 (MoSS2019)

8 th Symposium on Mechanics of Slender Structures 2019 (MoSS2019)

Spatial distribution of cloud droplet size properties from Airborne Hyper-Angular Rainbow Polarimeter (AirHARP) measurements

Abstract. The global variability of clouds and their interactions with aerosol and radiation make them one of our largest sources of uncertainty related to global radiative forcing. The droplet size distribution (DSD) of clouds is an excellent proxy that connects cloud microphysical properties with radiative impacts on our climate. However, traditional radiometric instruments are information-limited in their DSD retrievals. Radiometric sensors can infer droplet effective radius directly but not the distribution width, which is an important parameter tied to the growth of a cloud field and to the onset of precipitation. DSD heterogeneity hidden inside large pixels, a lack of angular information, and the absence of polarization limit the amount of information these retrievals can provide. Next-generation instruments that can measure at narrow resolutions with multiple view angles on the same pixel, a broad swath, and sensitivity to the intensity and polarization of light are best situated to retrieve DSDs at the pixel level and over a wide spatial field. The Airborne Hyper-Angular Rainbow Polarimeter (HARP) is a wide-field-of-view imaging polarimeter instrument designed by the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC), for retrievals of cloud droplet size distribution properties over a wide swath, at narrow resolution, and at up to 60 unique, co-located view zenith angles in the 670 nm channel. The cloud droplet effective radius (CDR) and variance (CDV) of a unimodal gamma size distribution are inferred simultaneously by matching measurement to Mie polarized phase functions. For all targets with appropriate geometry, a retrieval is possible, and unprecedented spatial maps of CDR and CDV are made for cloud fields that stretch both across the swath and along the entirety of a flight observation. During the NASA Lake Michigan Ozone Study (LMOS) aircraft campaign in May–June 2017, the Airborne HARP (AirHARP) instrument observed a heterogeneous stratocumulus cloud field along the solar principal plane. Our retrievals from this dataset show that cloud DSD heterogeneity can occur at the 200 m scale, much smaller than the 1–2 km resolution of most spaceborne sensors. This heterogeneity at the sub-pixel level can create artificial broadening of the DSD in retrievals made at resolutions on the order of 0.5 to 1 km. This study, which uses the AirHARP instrument and its data as a proxy for upcoming HARP CubeSat and HARP2 spaceborne instruments, demonstrates the viability of the HARP concept to make cloud measurements at scales of individual clouds, with global coverage, and in a low-cost, compact CubeSat-sized payload.

The AROURA Project: Discoveries in Central Greece, 2010–2014

1. In addition to the archaeologists and support staff of the Ephorate of Antiquities of Boiotia, two prior Directors of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens (ASCSA), by which the official collaboration was vetted, Jack Davis and James Wright, deserve the greatest thanks. The Institute for Aegean Prehistory (INSTAP) sustained the project with generous financial and material support. Research would not have been completed on schedule without GIS Specialist Wes Bittner; Assistant Geophysical Specialist Allison Cuneo; and undergraduate trainees from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) and the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, the latter supervised by Giorgos Vavouranakis. Jost Knauss of the Technische Universitat Munchen cannot be praised enough for providing, in the spirit of academic altruism, copies of his fieldnotes and original plans and drawings. Finally, the authors thank the anonymous reviewers who provided invaluable substantive, critical, and structural comments.

Social Responsibility and Civic Readiness as Critical Higher Education Outcomes

Throughout my 25 years in higher education leadership, overseeing two campuses and two university systems, I have maintained a strong connection to the Coalition of Urban and Metropolitan Universities (CUMU), both philosophically and in practical terms.
 Early on in my tenure as president of San Jose State University, I established the overarching goal of making San Jose State the Metropolitan University of Silicon Valley. Complementing the institution’s geographic location, size, and mission, all of which positioned it ideally for this role, I also saw a student population, a community role, and an ethos of service that spoke to the institution’s responsibility as an urban citizen.
 This same perspective was part and parcel of my approach at Towson University (TU). As president, I actively created a vision and an identity for the institution, focusing on its role as the Metropolitan University of Maryland. I established external partnerships with focuses on education, economic and workforce development, arts and culture, and social change.
 As president of the 5-campus University of Massachusetts System (UMass) I oversaw two CUMU member institutions, UMass Lowell and UMass Boston. The University System of Maryland (USM), where I currently serve as chancellor, is itself a CUMU member, as are several of its component institutions, with Towson and the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) “founding members” of CUMU as a formal organization.
 Throughout these years, I also had a very direct connection to CUMU, serving on several committees, on the Board of Directors, as a vice president, and, from 2006-2011, as CUMU president.
 With this background, I know first-hand the distinctive perspective and unique tools that our comprehensive institutions can use to address social challenges and bring about meaningful change. In addition, I also recognize the special obligation our comprehensive metropolitan and urban universities have to be active and engaged in the communities they serve. These are the primary, 4-year, “access” institutions, not just in terms of the sheer numbers of students they educate, but also in terms of the composition of those students, serving as a vital higher education pathway for women, underrepresented minorities, and first-generation college students. Beyond that, our comprehensive universities stand as bridges, with numerous graduates going on to advanced degree programs at research universities.

Phishing in an academic community: A study of user susceptibility and behavior

We present an observational study on the relationship between demographic factors and phishing susceptibility at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC). In spring 2018, we delivered phishing attacks to 450 randomly selected students on three different days (1,350 students total) to examine user click rates and demographics among UMBC’s undergraduates. Participants were initially unaware of the study. We deployed the billing problem, contest winner, and expiration date phishing tactics. Experiment 1 impersonated banking authorities; Experiment 2 enticed users with monetary rewards; and Experiment 3 threatened users with account cancelation. We found correlations resulting in lowered susceptibility based on college affiliation, academic year progression, cyber training, involvement in cyber clubs or cyber scholarship programs, time spent on the computer, and age demographics. We found no significant correlation between gender and susceptibility. Contrary to our expectations, we observed a reverse correlation between phishing awareness and student resistance to clicking. Students who identified themselves as understanding the definition of phishing had a higher susceptibility rate than did their peers who were merely aware of phishing attacks, with both groups having a higher susceptibility rate than those with no knowledge whatsoever. Approximately 70% of survey respondents who opened a phishing email clicked on it, with 60% of student having clicked overall.

Project-Based Learning Inspires Cybersecurity Students: A Scholarship-for-Service Research Study

Over four summer days in 2017, cybersecurity students at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) analyzed the security of a targeted portion of the UMBC campus network, discovering numerous flaws, creating proof-of-concept exploits, and providing practical recommendations for mitigation. We report on this novel summer research study; its technical findings; and takeaways for students, educators, and Information Technology Departments.

The SFS summer research study at UMBC: Project-based learning inspires cybersecurity students

May 30–June 2, 2017, Scholarship for Service (SFS) scholars at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) analyzed the security of a targeted aspect of the UMBC computer systems. During this hands-on study, with complete access to source code, students identified vulnerabilities, devised and implemented exploits, and suggested mitigations. As part of a pioneering program at UMBC to extend SFS scholarships to community colleges, the study helped initiate six students from two nearby community colleges, who transferred to UMBC in fall 2017 to complete their 4-year degrees in computer science and information systems. The study examined the security of a set of “NetAdmin” custom scripts that enable UMBC faculty and staff to open the UMBC firewall to allow external access to machines they control for research purposes. Students discovered vulnerabilities stemming from weak architectural design, record overflow, and failure to sanitize inputs properly. For example, they implemented a record-overflow and code-injection exploit that exfiltrated the vital application programming interface (API) key of the UMBC firewall. This report summarizes student activities and findings and reflects on lessons learned for students, educators, and system administrators. Our students found the collaborative experience inspirational; students and educators appreciated the authentic case study; and IT administrators gained access to future employees and received free recommendations for improving the security of their systems. We hope that other universities can benefit from our motivational and educational strategy of teaming educators and system administrators to engage students in active project-based learning centering on focused questions about their university computer systems.

A Laboratory Experiment for the Statistical Evaluation of Aerosol Retrieval (STEAR) Algorithms

We have developed a method for evaluating the fidelity of the Aerosol Robotic Network (AERONET) retrieval algorithms by mimicking atmospheric extinction and radiance measurements in a laboratory experiment. This enables radiometric retrievals that use the same sampling volumes, relative humidities, and particle size ranges as observed by other in situ instrumentation in the experiment. We use three Cavity Attenuated Phase Shift (CAPS) monitors for extinction and University of Maryland Baltimore County’s (UMBC) three-wavelength Polarized Imaging Nephelometer (PI-Neph) for angular scattering measurements. We subsample the PI-Neph radiance measurements to angles that correspond to AERONET almucantar scans, with simulated solar zenith angles ranging from 50 ∘ to 77 ∘ . These measurements are then used as input to the Generalized Retrieval of Aerosol and Surface Properties (GRASP) algorithm, which retrieves size distributions, complex refractive indices, single-scatter albedos, and bistatic LiDAR ratios for the in situ samples. We obtained retrievals with residuals less than 8% for about 90 samples. Samples were alternately dried or humidified, and size distributions were limited to diameters of less than 1.0 or 2.5 μ m by using a cyclone. The single-scatter albedo at 532 nm for these samples ranged from 0.59 to 1.00 when computed with CAPS extinction and Particle Soot Absorption Photometer (PSAP) absorption measurements. The GRASP retrieval provided single-scatter albedos that are highly correlated with the in situ single-scatter albedos, and the correlation coefficients ranged from 0.916 to 0.976, depending upon the simulated solar zenith angle. The GRASP single-scatter albedos exhibited an average absolute bias of +0.023–0.026 with respect to the extinction and absorption measurements for the entire dataset. We also compared the GRASP size distributions to aerodynamic particle size measurements, using densities and aerodynamic shape factors that produce extinctions consistent with our CAPS measurements. The GRASP effective radii are highly correlated (R = 0.80) and biased under the corrected aerodynamic effective radii by 1.3% (for a simulated solar zenith angle of θ ∘ = 50 ∘ ); the effective variance indicated a correlation of R = 0.51 and a relative bias of 280%. Finally, our apparatus was not capable of measuring backscatter LiDAR ratios, so we measured bistatic LiDAR ratios at a scattering angle of 173 degrees. The GRASP bistatic LiDAR ratios had correlations of 0.71 to 0.86 (depending upon simulated θ ∘ ) with respect to in situ measurements, positive relative biases of 2–10%, and average absolute biases of 1.8–7.9 sr.

Technology-Enhanced Project-Based Learning: A Platform for Graduate Student Research and Outreach on Campus and in the Community

Linguists are well positioned to carry out community engagement work, not only as individual scholars but also through our teaching, in ways that can be particularly appealing to and beneficial for underrepresented students. I describe my work in the interdisciplinary PhD program in Language, Literacy & Culture at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC), where the graduate population consists of substantial numbers of underrepresented and nontraditional graduate students. Many of our students work in the K-12 arena, on local college and community college campuses, in government organizations, and in nonprofits; as a result, they are often eager to engage in academic work that promotes social justice and seeks to address the social inequalities they confront in their personal and professional lives. To that end, I discuss how my doctoral sociolinguistics seminar, “Language in Diverse Schools and Communities” (LiDSC), is designed as a launch pad for graduate students to carry out projects that raise awareness of linguistic issues among the broader public, in general and in higher education, that also engage students in direct academic research. Students in LiDSC, structured to follow the principles of Project-Based Learning (PBL), are guided to engage in active, inquiry-based learning that often results in tangible, applied products. In two iterations of the course, my students and I produced four podcasts based on original research about language variation and a short film that highlighted linguistic diversity on campus. Through these projects, students learned firsthand the processes of sociolinguistic data collection, from research design and ethical considerations to selecting appropriate methods and communicating findings to broader audiences. In addition, by integrating the use of technology into the PBL experience, students produced shareable products that appeal to the public and thereby serve as an effective means for raising awareness of language variation, both inside and outside of academia.

Cyber-Physical Security Research at UMBC's Eclipse Lab

This article focuses on the research and development work at the Eclipse Research Cluster at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) to address cybersecurity challenges. The research team is seeking to address cybersecurity challenges by employing a diverse set of specialty areas including Computer Science, Computer Engineering, and Electrical Engineering. This group is looking at leveraging physical relationships to provide a diversity of measurement and reporting to not only improve anomaly detection, but also make decisions about how to keep critical functions operating even if only in a degraded mode. By exploiting the physical relationships between pressing a brake pedal and the operator’s leg position and the power consumption of a sensor and the instructions being run in it, this group proposes to provide new indicators that can be used to increase resilience to cyberattacks. This concept describes an example for a small section of a typical vehicle system. This group’s future research is seeking to expand this general approach of using the physical relationships of sensors to the properties they are measuring or actuators and the cause or effect of their action.