Inquiring Minds – Up for the Challenge
UMBC takes a truly cross-disciplinary approach to research and creative achievement. That means bringing researchers together from different disciplines to explore questions in new ways while also living up to our university’s mission of inclusive excellence by creating welcoming spaces for the next generation. Inviting new perspectives makes all of our work stronger. We invite you to learn more about why – from AI and quantum technology, to protecting our air and water resources, and exploring the depths of creativity – UMBC is up for the challenge.
UMBC Research in Real Time
When it comes to enthusiasm for finding solutions to big challenges, nobody beats UMBC professors. Listen in and learn about exciting work straight from our researchers.
Up for the Challenge: Environment
In an era of evolving environmental challenges—shifting weather patterns, stressed ecosystems, and the need for sustainable growth—UMBC researchers are delivering practical, data-driven solutions that protect natural resources and strengthen communities.
Virtual Visit to the North Pole – Visitors to a new art exhibit at UMBC might feel a chill, not just from the walls of ice that seem to surround them, but also from the images of a coastal Maryland town submerged in flood water. The art illustrates the vital work of Vandana Janeja, Information Systems, and other UMBC researchers at the NSF-funded Institute for Harnessing Data and Model Revolution in the Polar Regions (iHARP), who seek to better predict when polar ice will melt.
Up for the Challenge: Harnessing Tech
UMBC researchers are at the forefront of today’s rapid technological change. They navigate the promises and pitfalls of new technology—pioneering innovations to meet pressing challenges, while keeping on guard for the unintended negative consequences of new tools. UMBC gathers experts in robotics, artificial intelligence, sensors, photonics, quantum technologies, and more.
Novel Dance Partners – UMBC researchers led by Ramana Vinjamuri are discovering building blocks of hand motions, aiming to improve physical therapy for humans and find better ways to program robots. They’ve turned to a unique source material for these gestures: classical Indian dance. They’ve also forged an interdisciplinary partnership to explore how dancing robots could help humans improve their mental health.
Up for the Challenge: Community
Community at UMBC is a vibrant network of intersecting groups that exemplify the Retriever spirit in every setting—whether online, in the kitchen or the classroom, in the lab, or throughout Baltimore and beyond. Named again this year as a Carnegie Community Engaged campus, UMBC has been recognized as an institution that promotes the mutually beneficial exchange of knowledge and resources in a context of partnership and reciprocity.
Sharing the Stage – UMBC theatre and acting majors recreate the hustle and bustle of New York City’s Penn Station terminal during the 2025 – 2026 season opener, Shakespeare in Harlem, directed by Gerrad Alex Taylor, Theatre, in celebration of the Harlem Renaissance’s 100th anniversary and in partnership with Baltimore’s Chesapeake Shakespeare Company. In 2026, UMBC remounted the play for a week’s run at the company’s stage in downtown Baltimore.
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