Discovery

How secure is your data when it’s stored in the cloud?

/ 4 minutes of reading

By Haibin Zhang, Assistant Professor of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering Header photo:SWEviL/Shutterstock.com As cloud storage becomes more common, data security is an increasing concern. Companies and schools have been increasing their use of services like Google Drive for some time, and lots of individual users also store files on Dropbox, Box, Amazon Drive, Microsoft OneDrive and the like. They’re no doubt concerned about keeping their information private – and millions more users might store data online if they were more certain of its security. Data stored in the cloud is nearly always stored in an encrypted form that would need… Continue Reading How secure is your data when it’s stored in the cloud?

Video Q&A with Playwright Professor Susan McCully

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So much goes into the making of a play. From conception to production — and all the twists and turns in between — the willingness to bend and change with the living, breathing work makes all the difference. In her new show, “All She Must Possess,” UMBC assistant professor Susan McCully explores the lives of Baltimore’s Cone sisters, Etta and Claribel, who together built an impressive collection of more than 3,000 pieces of art, including 500 by Henri Matisse. The show, which recently closed out its world premiere at The Rep Stage in Columbia, MD, was part of the 2018 Women’s… Continue Reading Video Q&A with Playwright Professor Susan McCully

Shakespearean theater from London to UMBC

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From time to time, UMBC Magazine will highlight interesting research being done by Undergraduate Research Award (URA)-winning students. Today, we hear from Jolee Cohen, a Linehan Artists Scholar pursuing a BFA in Acting, who will graduate this spring. Her research involved participating in a Summer Shakespearean Study in London, England. This post originally appeared on the URA myUMBC page. Describe your project: Over the summer, I studied at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art in London, UK, where I was introduced to classical acting and research techniques for working with and performing Shakespeare. Now, I take what I learned… Continue Reading Shakespearean theater from London to UMBC

Making Skis Strong Enough for Olympians to Race on

/ 5 minutes of reading

What’s inside Olympians’ skis? AP Photo/Luca Bruno by Marc Zupan, University of Maryland, Baltimore County Olympians expect top-notch performance from their minds and bodies, but they get crucial advantages from the very best equipment for their sports and the weather conditions they’re competing in. Skis, for example, must stand up to near-constant changes in stress during races. The ideal ski provides a stiff and rigid platform for skiers’ boots to attach to, flexes to carve through turns, doesn’t break under the pressure of jumps and landings and is light enough not to slow the athlete down. But that’s not all: Skis… Continue Reading Making Skis Strong Enough for Olympians to Race on

Our People, Our Land, Our Images: AOK Library Gallery Through March 18

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Above image: Erica Lord, Athabaskan/Inupiaq (b. 1978), Untitled (I Tan to Look More Native) from the series Tanning Project, 2006, Inkjet C-print. Opportunities to view indigenous peoples through the eyes of indigenous photographers are rare and recent. Through March 18, UMBC’s Albin O. Kuhn Library Gallery presents Our People, Our Land, Our Images, a landmark exhibition bringing together 26 indigenous photographers from throughout the United States, Canada, Peru, and New Zealand. Distinctive in its historical reach, the exhibition includes newly discovered 19th-century trailblazers, members of the next generation of emerging photographers, and well established contemporary practitioners varying in style, from straightforward documentary… Continue Reading Our People, Our Land, Our Images: AOK Library Gallery Through March 18

Studying circadian rhythms in plants and their pathogens might lead to precision medicine for people

/ 7 minutes of reading

Hua Lu, Associate Professor of Biological Sciences, UMBC, and Linda Wiratan, B.S. Student of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, UMBC Above photo: CC BY-ND At dusk, the leaves of the tamarind tree close, waiting for another dawn. Androsthenes, a ship captain serving under Alexander the Great, made the first written account of these leaf movements in the fourth century B.C. It took centuries longer to discover that he was describing the effects of the circadian clock. This internal time-sensing mechanism allows many living organisms to keep track of time and coordinate their behaviors along 24-hour cycles. It follows the regular day/night and seasonal… Continue Reading Studying circadian rhythms in plants and their pathogens might lead to precision medicine for people

How To be a Critical Consumer of Media

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With Jason Loviglio, Founding Chair and Associate Professor, Media and Communication Studies The phrase “ fake news” may sound current, but as long as there have been written and visual media, readers and audiences have puzzled and debated over how to interpret what is true. With The War of the Worlds, Orson Welles created one of the best-known early examples of broadcast audiences mistaking fiction for fact, when a small fraction of listeners tuning in to the 1938 radio broadcast reacted with panic, certain that aliens, or Germans, were invading. Today’s media consumers must filter input from various sources quickly… Continue Reading How To be a Critical Consumer of Media

The Big Build

/ 3 minutes of reading

Seniors in Neil Rothman’s capstone mechanical engineering class experience the ups and downs of designing for real-life clients. By Megan Hanks In the real world, the more projects and problems an engineer works on, the better they get at coming up with solutions that actually work. That’s why, during the final year of UMBC’s mechanical engineering curriculum, students spend a semester working through the “hard knock design experiences” they need to succeed as engineers. The projects are presented to the class at the beginning of each semester by Neil Rothman, professor of practice of mechanical engineering, and come from a… Continue Reading The Big Build

Gun Show

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For decades, artist David Hess has assembled life-size sculptures of assault rifles from what he calls “rescued” objects — everything from an old black sneaker and vintage turquoise sewing machine, to a raggedy crutch and pink Barbie bike frame — to foster dialogue about one of the most volatile issues of our time. UMBC’s Center for Art, Design and Visual Culture hosted “Gun Show,” the first-ever display of all 112 sculptures, this fall, as curated by Kathy O’Dell, associate professor of visual arts and special assistant to the dean for education and arts partnerships.

Beyond Coding

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The sun is pouring through the large windows in the Performing Arts & Humanities third floor dance studio. About 20 girls, 7th – 9th graders, are sprawled out on mats following the movements of the yoga instructor at the front of the room. They are learning about flexibility, how to “think outside the box, kind of like there’s no set answer to the question.” These girls are not at UMBC exclusively to learn yoga, however, but rather to challenge their computing skills. How Girls Code: Mind, Body, and Coding summer camp at UMBC is an extension of the after-school program… Continue Reading Beyond Coding

Broadcast Ready

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For most in sports media, working for ESPN is a dream, but UMBC has made that dream a reality for several students. Through a partnership with the America East Conference, UMBC’s Department of Athletics streams many athletic events live on the online channel ESPN 3, and students make up a large part of the broadcast team. Starting in 2016, UMBC’s Director of Athletics Tim Hall and head of athletic communications Steve Levy ’85, interdisciplinary studies, reached out to UMBC alum Eli Eisenberg ’86, interdisciplinary studies, the president of VPC (a video production company based in Owings Mills, Md.), to create… Continue Reading Broadcast Ready

Space Station-Bound

/ 3 minutes of reading

A white box the size of a refrigerator, called Cosmic Ray Energetics and Mass (CREAM), headed to the International Space Station (ISS) in August, thanks to the work of UMBC astrophysicist Jason Link and colleagues. Inside, four scientific detectors will work together to detect cosmic rays coming from far flung regions of the universe. The instruments will transmit the data from the ISS to Earth, to scientists reckoning with the tantalizing question, “What is the universe made of?” Link, an astrophysicist with UMBC’s Center for Space Science and Technology, part of the recently-renewed Center for Research and Exploration in Space… Continue Reading Space Station-Bound

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