UMBC Honors and ACHIEVEMENTS

RESEARCH Achievements
In terms of funding, UMBC is among the fastest-growing research universities, fueling knowledge creation through strategic partnerships and interdisciplinary discoveries.

The University’s research funding has grown to more than $87 million, up from $36 million in 1996.

UMBC researchers are leading a six-university team on a $7.5-million, five-year Multi-Disciplinary University Research Initiative (MURI) grant from the U.S. Department of Defense. The UMBC group, collaborating with colleagues from Purdue, the University of Illinois, University of Michigan, and University of Texas at Dallas and San Antonio, is working to translate recommendations by the 9-11Commission for more effectively sharing classified information into a technology network that both works and is secure. 

Over 25 new technology companies have been created through UMBC’s ACTiVATE (Achieving the Commericialization of Technology inVentures Through Applied Training for Entrepreneurs) Program, and over 90 women have been trained to date in technology entrepreneurship. ACTiVATE is a collaboration among the public, private and academic sectors. The program received a 2007 Innovation Award from The Association of University Research Parks and the U.S. Association for Small Business and Entrepreneurship’s 2008 award for Best Specialty Entrepreneurship Education Program. The program is being replicated at other U.S. universities such as Texas State University, San Marcos.

According to Thomson Scientific's Science Watch, UMBC's geoscience research ranked third nationally in citation impact for 2001-2005. The only other U.S. universities producing more frequently cited geoscience research papers were Harvard and the Georgia Institute of Technology.

The University is one of 22 select institutions, including Yale, Cornell and Duke, to receive a three-year grant from the Council of Graduate Schools (CGS) to support increased completion rates in doctoral programs. UMBC will use the grant to collect and submit data on doctoral completion and attrition implement such support strategies as mentoring and financial assistance and develop rigorous assessment tools to measure the impact of these efforts.

UMBC’s research park and technology incubator are playing a direct role in Maryland’s economic development. A study of the economic impact of bwtech@UMBC, the University’s research park, and techcenter@UMBC, its technology incubator, shows 841 direct jobs at the facilities generating more than 2,000 total jobs in Maryland and an $11 return on each state dollar invested.

Plant Sensory Systems, which is housed in UMBC's Incubator and Accelerator, won a 2008 Innovator of the Year Award for genetically engineering plants to be better for the environment. Sponsored by the Maryland Daily Record, these awards honor thinking outside of the box in many ways with different discoveries, inventions, new studies and innovations throughout Maryland in 2008.

UMBC’s Research and Technology Park has grown rapidly. Currently housing more than 500,000 square feet of office and lab space, bwtech@UMBC is home to nearly 50 companies. These companies employ nearly 100 students and 50 alumni and have engaged in more than 100 formal interactions with the faculty and facilities at UMBC.

College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences

UMBC historians have a long record of excellence in scholarly research and publication. Within the past decade the department (with an average of just 16 full-time tenured and tenure-track faculty) has produced more than 50 books. More than simply prolific, publishers include the most prestigious presses in academic publishing (Oxford, Princeton, Harvard, the University of North Carolina, the University of Illinois, Johns Hopkins and many others).

Exhibitions organized by the Center for Art, Design and Visual Culture have traveled to the International Center for Photography, the Studio Museum in Harlem and the Chicago Cultural Center. Albin O. Kuhn Library Gallery exhibitions have traveled to the American Institute for Graphic Arts, Carnegie Mellon University, Columbus Museum of Art and the University of Pennsylvania.

Andrew Miller, associate professor of geography, and Claire Welty, director of the Center for Urban Environmental Research and Education, both serve on the Maryland Commission on Climate Change.

The Albin O. Kuhn Library’s Photography Collections contain more than 1.8 million images documenting the development of photography from daguerreotypes to digital imaging. Holdings that have influenced public thought or legislation include the 5,400 photographs of child labor made by Lewis Hine and the mining photographs (1870-1895) of George Bretz.

The Center for Art, Design and Visual Culture won its third American Association of Museums Publication Design award for Museums of Tomorrow: A Virtual Discussion, designed by Franc Nunoo-Quarcoo, professor and chair of visual arts.

College of Engineering and Information Technology

Gary Carter, professor of computer science and electrical engineering, has been elevated to a IEEE Fellow for “contributions to understanding nonlinear and polarization effects in optical fiber communication systems,” effective January 2009.

Marie des Jardins, assistant professor of computer science and electrical engineering, and Haijun Su, assistant professor of mechanical engineering, both recently received NSF Career Awards, which recognize a young researcher's dual commitment to scholarship and education. 

Associate Professor of Computer Science Hillol Kargupta received the 2008 IBM Innovation Award for his work on distributed data stream mining.

Professor of Computer Science Curtis Menyuk has been elected a fellow of the American Physical Society. His research interests lie at the intersection of engineering, physics, applied mathematics and computational methods.

College of Natural and Mathematical Sciences

UMBC faculty are consistently among the winners of the NSF Career Awards, grants made to young scientists who show exceptional promise in their research. In recent years (2001-06), 10 UMBC faculty received these prestigious awards, a rate of success that compares favorably to Georgetown, Brandeis and Tufts.

UMBC ranks second among U.S. universities in NASA research funding, according to U.S. Census Bureau data. The university’s NASA-funded centers are the Joint Centers for Earth Systems Technology, the Joint Center for Astrophysics, Goddard Earth Systems and Technology Center and the Center for Research and Exploration in Space Science and Technology.

Raymond Hoff, professor of physics, serves on the Maryland Commission on Climate Change.

*Last updated 12/18/2008