Information Systems

Illustration by Rebecca Bradley, featuring colorful overlapping hands grabbing for wine glasses and mugs over a green picnic blanket.

Grab a Seat at the Table

/ 13 minutes of reading

These days, it’s tempting to grow numb to the polarization of society and the breakdown in public discourse and to retreat into our silos of solidarity. But a liberal arts education has the potential to offer an antidote to these seemingly inevitable fates—through modeling and practicing empathy. At UMBC, students are invited to the table to share their stories and listen to their peers. These acts of educational hospitality help Retrievers find their why and pursue the public good. It’s the first day of class. You’re looking around, bright-eyed and a little nervous, and then your instructor smiles at the… Continue Reading Grab a Seat at the Table

A family gathers around a matriarch in a wheelchair

Caregiving Goes Both Ways

/ 4 minutes of reading

For more than a decade, Rita Choula was the primary caregiver for her late mother who lived with frontotemporal degeneration (FTD), a lesser known form of early onset dementia that typically affects people under the age of 60. “My mother started saying things like ‘I don’t feel like myself. I feel like I’m losing my mind.’ She used to be someone that was really engaged and outgoing and she started to pull back a bit. She used to be very empathetic, very people-loving, and showed a lot of concern, and it reached a point where that empathy went straight out… Continue Reading Caregiving Goes Both Ways

Digital collage of abstract and illustrated imagery.

Open to Interpretation

/ 9 minutes of reading

What if you could ask yourself a big question and then use your intuition to follow it wherever it led for as long as it took? It would take a certain kind of guts, right? But, with a willingness to get lost on a tangent, to joyfully put themselves in positions of not knowing, truly creative thinkers can find new ways of translating the world around them. Enter the following: A dancer who makes beautiful movement from fish research. An information systems professor who turns poetry into wine. A data visualizer who draws connections while splattering paint. A mapper and… Continue Reading Open to Interpretation

Abstract illustration by David Habben, depicting artificial intelligence.

Building AI We Can Trust

/ 13 minutes of reading

The AI apocalypse is coming. Or it isn’t. Depending on what you read, you might get confused. One thing is certain: Humans are fired up about smart machines. Much of the attention has focused on ChatGPT, an “artificial intelligence language model designed to generate human-like responses to natural language prompts” (in its own words). ChatGPT gets coy if you ask whether its existence should be cause for human concern. “It’s important to recognize that I am a tool and not inherently good or bad. It’s how people choose to use me that can have positive or negative consequences,” it says. … Continue Reading Building AI We Can Trust

A young woman with dark hair smiles at the camera, posing with a statue of a dog

Class of 2023 reflects on UMBC as a community that values and supports the whole person

/ 5 minutes of reading

Kayla Tomas ‘23, information systems, maintained a challenging schedule during her undergraduate years. There were days she rose early, studied, and attended classes in the morning and afternoon, headed to volleyball practice in the late afternoon, paused a half hour for dinner, and then dashed off to lead a dance class in the evening. “It was the support of my friends, my family, and the mentors here at UMBC that made it easier,” she says. Continue Reading Class of 2023 reflects on UMBC as a community that values and supports the whole person

A group of people are seated around a dining table. They smile at the camera.

UMBC’s vibrant learning community helps students discover careers to fit their passions

/ 5 minutes of reading

Performers of the music piece “Corporel,” by the French-Slovenian composer Vinko Globokar, must use their own body as a percussion instrument. To Brandon Gouin ’23, music performance, learning the work was a highlight of his time at UMBC. Gouin credits his teachers and mentors with helping him reach that moment on stage—as well as with helping him find his career path as an artist. Other Class of 2023 graduates say they encountered similar opportunities for growth and expression at UMBC. Continue Reading UMBC’s vibrant learning community helps students discover careers to fit their passions

A nursing home resident using a wheelchair receives an injection from a health professional

CIDER program supports new approach to measuring nursing home quality, plus more research collaborations

/ 5 minutes of reading

Assessing the quality of nursing home care has historically been a challenging and complex process that considers only a portion of the factors involved—generally, clinical indicators reported by the nursing homes themselves. UMBC researchers are collaborating on a new measure of nursing home quality that combines care experiences with clinical data. And they are doing it with funding from a new UMBC program designed to support novel research across different teams.  Continue Reading CIDER program supports new approach to measuring nursing home quality, plus more research collaborations

Information systems student Anthony Rivera explains his research to another researcher

Meet a Retriever—Anthony Rivera, information systems major and student researcher

/ 5 minutes of reading

Meet Anthony Rivera, a senior information systems (IS) major and a first-generation college student. When he’s not working on research related to improving equity for Medicaid recipients, you can also find him exploring his creative side through photography and a minor in theatre. Take it away, Anthony! Q: Tell us about how you wound up at UMBC. A: Hello, my name is Anthony Rivera and I am a senior information systems (IS) major, theatre minor student using he/him pronouns. I study IS because I am fascinated by the way people interact with technology and seeing those trends in human activity.… Continue Reading Meet a Retriever—Anthony Rivera, information systems major and student researcher

Some of the UMBC iHARP team observes research being done on a shared computer screen.

How UMBC’s humanistic approach to AI creates positive community change

/ 7 minutes of reading

Artificial intelligence, or AI, is all over the news these days. For those who aren’t working in this sphere, it might feel mysterious or even like a science fiction film. However, for researchers at UMBC, AI is just another tool in a growing collection of instruments that can make life better for their fellow human beings. AI-driven thinking opens up possibilities for improvements and problem solving in health care, the environment, civil engineering, and beyond. It can make previously unthinkable amounts of data easy to analyze. But work of this magnitude also calls for an ethical approach, both in how… Continue Reading How UMBC’s humanistic approach to AI creates positive community change

Headshot of Nate Dissmeyer in a grey suit with a yellow tie and pocket square.

Meet a Retriever—Nate Dissmeyer ’07, alumni leader and recurring donor

/ 5 minutes of reading

Meet Nate Dissmeyer ’07, information systems, a program manager with Galapagos Federal Systems, providing Army IT support at the Aberdeen Proving Ground. Dissmeyer finds fulfillment in helping to develop IT professionals and supporting the Department of Defense community. And UMBC really gave him the skills to succeed in his position, he says. Dissmeyer, who is a recurring donor and a member of the Alumni Association Board of Directors (AABoD), found his way at UMBC through involvement with the Habitat for Humanity chapter and as a member of Triangle Fraternity.  Q: What’s the one thing you’d want someone who hasn’t joined… Continue Reading Meet a Retriever—Nate Dissmeyer ’07, alumni leader and recurring donor

© UMBC: A University System of Maryland
Member Institution
Scroll to Top