Discovery

Staking our Claim

UMBC Researchers Explore the New Great Frontier – The Brain By Megan Hanks Illustrations by David Plunkert In the early 1960s, the prospect of being the first nation to plant a flag on the moon stoked America’s collective imagination, leading to a national commitment from scientists, engineers, and researchers – along with their funders – to explore and understand outer space. In similar fashion, researchers today are scrambling to explore a frontier that’s just as vast, though considerably closer to Earth – the human brain. “In some ways, what we have right now is an inner space challenge,” explains Karl… Continue Reading Staking our Claim

Wilderness Warriors

You’re hiking in the woods. A branch snaps…and suddenly you’re on the ground, immobilized by pain. As the sun begins to set, you wonder what you’ll do next, and who might come to your rescue… Wilderness Warriors It takes intense training to rescue and provide excellent medical care to patients under normal, predictable circumstances. To do the same thing in untamed wilderness? Well, that takes an extra layer of grit. That’s why each spring for the last 33 years, UMBC’s Emergency Health Services (EHS) program has sent a group of hardy students deep into the forest to learn the finer… Continue Reading Wilderness Warriors

Practicing What They Preach

Students come to UMBC’s Emergency Health Services program for many reasons. Some already work as EMTs or as physicians, while others hope to get into health policy or disaster relief. What brings them together, says program chair and professor J. Lee Jenkins ’97, biological sciences and EHS, M.S. ’99, EHS, is a shared desire to help people in need. “The students here are very altruistic, and they are the classic ‘Wanna change the world, wanna make it a better place,’ people with big ideas,” she said. “Being able to help people immediately and make a difference at a very stressful… Continue Reading Practicing What They Preach

Visual Arts Golden Ball

Creative costumes were all the rage at the Golden Ball hosted by the Visual Arts program and its alumni on October 15, 2016.

Discovery – Summer 2016

Magic Beans Like many students before him who have studied in the Albin O. Kuhn Library, Joseph Hyman ‘11, mechanical engineering, found himself craving a fresh, hot cup of coffee to help the pages fly by. Hyman pondered how to satisfy that immediate need for caffeine: Wouldn’t it be great if a travel mug could brew its own coffee? So he set out on a search for this mug of his dreams. When he discovered that that no one was manufacturing that mug of his dreams, he decided to create it himself – along with a talented team of UMBC engineering students… Continue Reading Discovery – Summer 2016

Bright Futures

UMBC’s growing reputation as a hub for research with powerful impact isn’t founded on the achievements of renowned scholars who have created laboratories or explored the limits of the arts, humanities and social sciences at the university alone. It is also built on a growing number of impressive younger scholars who have found a home for their work at UMBC. The pedigree of the scholars who will propel research and teaching at the university in its next 50 years can be measured in part by the number of early career teaching and research awards these up-and-coming faculty members have received.… Continue Reading Bright Futures

Music To Market

UMBC professors are navigating the startup economy – and finding harmony between research and commerce. By Elizabeth Heubeck ’91 UMBC professor of music Linda Dusman found herself sitting next to UMBC President Freeman A. Hrabowski, III at a UMBC Orchestra concert in 2010. Between movements, she whispered snippets of background information about the music to one of the orchestra’s biggest fans. Because Dusman is a musical composer with a deeply ingrained respect for the traditions of classical concerts, the experience provided a rare “aha” moment. What if there was a way to convey real-time information about the music and its… Continue Reading Music To Market

Making Medicine Mobile

UMBC researcher Govind Rao wants to bring the bounty of the information age to a drugstore near you. By Joab Jackson ’90 “You’re watching history being made.” I am in the basement of UMBC’s Center for Advanced Sensor Technology (CAST), speaking with its director, Govind Rao. The “history” that Rao speaks of is a large metallic suitcase, filled with snaking tubes and strange components, being attended to by a swarm of graduate students. The suitcase is an early prototype of a device that might, one day, be able to produce many medicines the world needs. What’s happening in this basement… Continue Reading Making Medicine Mobile

Discovery – Winter 2016

Safety First It happened at Target. It happened at JPMorgan Chase. It happened at the federal Office of Management and Budget (OMB). Hackers have relentlessly pilfered millions of social security numbers, financial records, and fingerprints, opening an abyss of anxiety about the future of privacy in a digital age. For Richard Forno, the director of UMBC’s graduate program in cybersecurity, each new computer breach is a testament to human folly. “The OMB hack hit close to home,” he says. “My information was there. My fingerprints were there.” Before arriving at UMBC in 2010, Forno worked for nearly two decades as… Continue Reading Discovery – Winter 2016

Finding a Voice

Biologists at UMBC were on the hunt for female songbirds. The world sat up and took notice when they found them. By Joel N. Shurkin Illustrations by David Plunkert Once upon a time – 60 million years ago or so in Australia – a small, perhaps brightly feathered descendant of the recently extinct dinosaurs opened its beak and produced a melodic set of notes. And while it is impossible to know if the creature was startled by the sound it produced (more likely the change was subtle), that moment was the prelude to all bird song. Kevin E. Omland, professor… Continue Reading Finding a Voice

Discovery – Fall 2015

Nimble Fingers Classical guitarist and UMBC affiliate artist Zane Forshee has lived a number of musical lives. First it was choosing an instrument. A well-meaning elementary school band teacher pegged the gangly, long-limbed boy as a trombone player. But borrowing an album that featured the nimble fingerpicking of Andrés Segovia from his local library soon had him considering other musical options. “It’s kind of cliché,” Forshee recalls. “But I heard Segovia, and I was completely smitten.” The young trombonist realized he wanted to play melody. A fledgling guitarist was born. Rock music also competed for Forshee’s heart as a teenager.… Continue Reading Discovery – Fall 2015

How To – Fall 2015

Know If the Junk in Your Attic is a Valuable Antique —With Robert Harrison ’80, history Robert Harrison ’80, history, is fascinated by material culture. He was happily pursuing an academic career in history, he recalls, until “life intervened” and forced a change in course. “People were so much more intrigued by the material aspect over the cultural,” he explains. “Everyone kept asking me what things were worth. So I decided I better learn how to appraise.” Harrison studied American decorative arts at the Museum for Early Southern Decorative Arts in North Carolina, and at the Winterthur Museum in Delaware.… Continue Reading How To – Fall 2015

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