Spring 2019

The Kinetic Sculpture team prepares the shark before the race. Photo by Marlayna Demond '11.

Fish out of Water

/ 9 minutes of reading

The challenges of building a human-powered amphibious sculpture include working with nary a blueprint in sight, avoiding flying sparks from your professor’s power tools, returning to the theatre department’s dumpster again and again seeking out items to upcycle into an ever-changing design, and—oh yeah—not sinking in Baltimore’s Inner Harbor when all is said and done. By Randianne Leyshon ’09 Race day photos by Poulomi Banerjee ’16, all other images by Marlayna Demond ’11, unless otherwise noted. A dismembered hammerhead shark takes up most of the office space. Professor Steven McAlpine proudly holds up the dorsal fin and other grey body… Continue Reading Fish out of Water

Behind the Lens: Photographing UMBC Swimming & Diving

/ 3 minutes of reading

UMBC Magazine‘s longtime photographer Marlayna Demond ’11 is used to going to great lengths to get her shot. A former Linehan Scholar, she climbs on tables and ladders to achieve the right angle. She waits quietly in the cold for the right moment to snap the shutter. (Here’s one example of that.) She takes hundreds—and sometimes thousands—of photos to get the one perfect for print. And who even knows how many squirrel portraits she’s captured over the years, simply because we asked? In short: she’s a true team player. So, when we decided to write a feature on UMBC’s award-winning… Continue Reading Behind the Lens: Photographing UMBC Swimming & Diving

Karyn and Lyric Swann. Photo courtesy of UMBC Athletics.

Double Dribble

/ 4 minutes of reading

Lyric had no idea when she was cheering at her mother’s alma mater’s Homecoming games or attending UMBC Nike Basketball Camp in 8th grade that she would one day leave her own legacy on the same court. Continue Reading Double Dribble

All illustrations by Brucie Roth.

Urgent Care

/ 13 minutes of reading

UMBC researchers are tackling disparities related to healthcare and changing the way people around the world access health technologies. Continue Reading Urgent Care

Flood waters on Main Street in Ellicott City, 1972. Photo from the Howard County Historical Society.

Learning from Ellicott City

/ 8 minutes of reading

In the aftermath of two “1000-year” floods in three years, can experts, officials, and residents agree on a way to prevent the next big one while preserving this historic town? By Sarah Hansen M.S. ’15 Ellicott City, Maryland, rests in a steep, narrow valley at the confluence of the Tiber River, its smaller unnamed tributaries, and the much larger Patapsco River. All that water power made it the perfect place to build a mill town—as brothers Jonathan and George Ellicott did beginning in 1772. The mill town flourished in the 1800s and was the first stop on the Baltimore and… Continue Reading Learning from Ellicott City

EHS workers respond to the scene in Ellicott City. Permission from Baltimore Sun Media. All rights reserved.

An Ounce of Prevention

/ 7 minutes of reading

Recovery from the flooding in Ellicott City has been long and difficult, and communities have often been left with more questions than answers. UMBC Magazine sat down with experts in public policy and emergency health services for some insight into policy issues and options for flood hazard management. Included are Susan Sterett, director of the School of Public Policy, on the role of public policy in natural disasters; John Rennie Short, public policy, researcher of urban infrastructure; Ryan Miller’99, emergency health services (EHS), former director of emergency management director and deputy chief of fire and rescue for Howard County; and… Continue Reading An Ounce of Prevention

Freeman Hrabowski and Robert Meyerhoff

Up on the Roof – Spring 2019

/ 4 minutes of reading

In 1989, Baltimore philanthropist Robert E. Meyerhoff sat down with then-UMBC vice provost Freeman Hrabowski with a bold vision for the University—to create a program that would offer high-achieving African American men a doorway into STEM scholarship at the highest levels. Thirty years later, the Meyerhoff Scholars Program is a national leader on the forefront of efforts to increase diversity among future leaders—both women and men—in science, engineering, and related fields. Because of that, UMBC is also the leading producer nationally of African American undergraduates who go on to earn M.D./Ph.D. degrees. This spring, as the program celebrates its 30th… Continue Reading Up on the Roof – Spring 2019

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