All posts by: Magazine Editor

Isaac Kinde ’05, biological sciences, has been named to Forbes magazine’s “30 Under 30: The Rising Stars Transforming Science And Health” list, a group of young scientists who “reflect the way that the health care landscape is transforming for the better, opening up to revolutionary new ideas and new approaches.” Kinde is currently an M.D./Ph.D. candidate at the Johns Hopkins University.

Forbes reports that: “Kinde is developing techniques to improve the accuracy of DNA sequencing technology and demonstrating that it might be used to detect cancers arising from the colon, pancreas, and ovaries in a simple, noninvasive manner. Already, several patents have been applied for and he’s been published in Science Translational Medicine, Nature and other journals.”

See the Forbes listing here.

A member of the 13th cohort of Meyerhoff Scholars and a member of the Honors College, Kinde helped conduct significant research as a student. During his time as a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Scholar, he helped conduct HIV research, which he presented at UMBC’s 2005 Undergraduate Research and Creative Achievement Day. He contributed to two articles on his research published in the Journal of Molecular Biology and the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Kinde was also a researcher in one of the University of California, San Francisco’s medical laboratories. He was awarded a Pfizer Undergraduate Summer Research Fellowship and received the Faculty Award of Excellence in the Biological Sciences. He was also a Minority Access to Research Careers Scholar, a member of UMBC’s Institutional Review Board and president of the Golden Key International Honor Society, as well as a member of Phi Beta Kappa. Kinde received two first place awards for presentations at biomedical and chemical and biological sciences conferences. His community service activities included St. Vincent’s Children Center Reading Days and the Kaplan Test Drive.

UMBC Computer Science Alumni Donald Miner ’06, Ph.D. ’10, and Adam Shook ’09 (M.S. expected ’13) have written a book on the popular MapReduce paradigm that has revolutionized the way collections of computers are used to process large amounts of data in parallel. Their book, MapReduce Design Patterns Building Effective Algorithms and Analytics for Hadoop and Other Systems, was published by O’Reilly Media in December.

“Adam and I were teaching Hadoop classes and we saw a gap: students would pick up on how hadoop worked mechanically, but struggled to understand how to solve problems with it,” explains Donald, who now works as a Solutions Architect at EMC Greenplum. “This book is intended for people who have a basic understanding of Hadoop, but want to start solving their problems effectively.”

Adam and Donald met in fall 2008 during an Artificial Intelligence class at UMBC. Donald, a Ph.D. student working with Dr. Marie desJardins on machine learning and multiagent systems research, was teaching the class. Adam, an undergraduate Computer Science student, was taking the class. Later, the pair ended up working together at ClearEdge IT Solutions.

“We worked well together and our skills and interests complemented each other well, so when I had the opportunity to write this book I knew it would be a much better book doing it with him than doing it alone,” says Donald.

Now Adam works with big data technologies like Hadoop, Accumulo, Pig, and ZooKeeper as a Software Engineer at ClearEdge IT Solutions. He is working towards his Master’s in Computer Science at UMBC under Dr. Tim Finin. His research deals with developing an efficient in-memory distributed database for Semantic Web applications.

“I don’t know how I do it,” says Adam about working full time, being in graduate school, and writing a book. “Caffeine helps.” He plans on finishing up his degree in 2013.

In the meantime, Adam and Donald have started working on Mapreducepatterns.com. Still in its infancy, the website is meant to be a Wikipedia style site where the Hadoop community can rally around a well-defined set of standard MapReduce design patters.

– by Anissa Elmerraji ’11

This story originally appeared on the CSEE website.

The David Mikow Art Gallery — which opened this fall in the Catonsville home of UMBC political science professor Carolyn Forestiere — will feature an array of “Images in Print,” all created by UMBC alumni and students. The show is co-curated by visual art professors Calvin Custen and Irene Chan, and opens this Friday, December 7, 5-7 p.m.

The work of the following alumni will be shown (all visual arts majors, unless noted): Sandy Chiang ’11, Elizabeth Guidara ’11, polisci, Erin Johnson ’12, Boram Lee ’12, Ka Lai Lou ’11, Brittney Nichols ’12, Sohee Oh ’11, Pat Sedlander ’12, Jenna Ullrich ’10, Laura (Meg) Viar ’11, psychology, Kayla Vlahos ’11, Jessica Voss ’12. A selection of work by the following students will also be displayed: Samantha Warren, Karina Alcazar, Heather Brown, Alexandra Buyalos, Judy Caracofe, Wyatt Jaster, Sharon Kusiak and Jingfei Lu.

For directions and more information about the show, please visit the gallery website.

The gallery featured alumnae photographers at its first show. Read more about the opening here.

Nearly 90 current students and UMBC alumni talked life after college at the annual “Sweeten Up Your Network” speed networking event on November 28. Sponsored by the Student Alumni Association, the event allowed alumni from a variety of backgrounds to share their real-world expertise with students looking to hone their networking skills.

“The SAA students and I are very happy with the outcome of Sweeten Up Your Network this year,” said Cindy Greenwood, alumni programming coordinator.  “The event grew from about 50 attendees last year to nearly 90 this year and we have received great feedback about the conversations that students and alumni were able to have through this event.  We look forward to continuing to grow and improve the event in future years.”

See photos from the event here.

Formed in 2011, the Student Alumni Association is a student organization focused on connecting students with alumni and encouraging tradition and school spirit on campus. Read more about the group here.

Katrin Patterson ’11, a double major in anthropology and gender and women’s studies, was featured this month on the Volunteer Maryland website for her role with Ardmore Enterprises, through which she will launch a volunteer program that will bring more awareness to the capabilities of individuals with intellectual or developmental disabilities

Read the Volunteer Maryland story here.

Patterson, who graduated cum laude, was a France and Merrick Scholarship and the Walter Sondheim Maryland Non-Profit Leadership Scholarship, as well as a member of the President’s Commission for Women. After graduation, she traveled to the University of Botswana on a Fulbright research grant to study the gendered and psychosocial dynamics of HIV transmission. In addition to her work with Ardmore, she’s also in the process of applying to graduate schools of public health.

We asked Katrin to answer a few questions about her experiences.

Q:  How did you wind up working with Ardmore Enterprises?
A:  I didn’t choose Ardmore so much as they chose me. I applied very late in the application cycle, and Ardmore was one of the last (Volunteer Maryland) partner sites that had not yet chosen a Volunteer Maryland Coordinator. After interviewing with and being accepted by Ardmore, I took the contract because I felt like it would be an interesting and challenging experience. I have no formal experience working for or with individuals with developmental or intellectual disabilities so I was curious to see how I would grow through the experience. Even within the first couple of months, I have been confronted with all manner of personal and professional learning experiences; at times frustrating, at others enlightening, there’s rarely a dull moment at Ardmore as we work to develop and implement a volunteer program and gear up for our 50th anniversary next year!

Q:  What are your plans for the future?
A:  I would love to go into health education. Both my time as a Fulbright Student and as a VMC have shown me that there are a lot of misperceptions and misinformation about health and illness, and I am eager to rectify the situation. I am particularly interested in community-based health programs and health education for women, and so am looking to build upon and connect the two BAs I have from UMBC in either a Master’s or doctorate program. Health is not a uni-dimensional aspect of a person or their community, and public health is a field that recognizes this.

Q: Did any experiences at UMBC especially prepare you for what you’re doing now?
A:  I would definitely say that UMBC helped to impart a strong sense of service and civic responsibility to me. I lived in the Shriver Living-Learning Community for my first two years at UMBC (the first year as a resident, the second as the Community’s resident assistant), and all of the service I completed shaped the way I approach service now. I had a lot of opportunities to develop leadership skills by participating in an ASB to West Virginia, participating in a STRiVE retreat, and being an undergraduate teaching assistant for the GES department. I remember feeling very supported and empowered by both individuals and organizations on campus (the Women’s Center comes to mind!), and all of those influences have come together to allow me to approach my current position as a VMC with confidence, creativity, and empathy.

Katrin was also profiled in a feature on UMBC’s Class of 2011. Read it here.

“Ace of Cakes” star baker Jeffrey “Duff” Goldman ’97, history, was spotted blending into the crowd for Baltimore city jury duty today, the Baltimore Sun reported. Although, from the sound of it, he was a bit upstaged by fellow Baltimore star Olympian Michael Phelps.

Read the Baltimore Sun story here.

Goldman, who was named a UMBC Outstanding Alumnus of the Year in the Humanities in 2009, spent at least part of his day of civic duty tweeting about hot dog water, the Sun story said.