June 12, 2008 UMBC Receives Grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to Study Sickle Cell Disease New Connections Initiative seeks to link the Foundation to a new cadre of scholars FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: June 12 CONTACT: Kavan Peterson Phone: 410-455-1896 Email: kavan@umbc.edu BALTIMORE -- A grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) will support University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) Assistant Professor of Psychology Shawn Bediako in a study of how adults with sickle-cell disease manage workplace absenteeism and limited access to health care. The research is intended to inform policymakers on the types of social support services needed by adults with sickle-cell disease (SCD), a debilitating genetic blood disorder that disproportionately affects minorities. “Due to wide health care disparities among low-income minorities, adults with sickle-cell disease make up a particularly vulnerable and under-represented population,” said Bediako, who co-chairs the Maryland Statewide Steering Committee on Services for Adults with Sickle-Cell Disease. Although Maryland has an estimated 3,400 SCD patients, the state’s only service provider for adults with SCD is the Johns Hopkins Sickle Cell Clinic for Adults. Moreover, the state Department of Health and Mental Hygiene does not provide support services for SCD patients once they become adults. By exploring data from a national 10-year longitudinal study of SCD patients compiled by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Bediako will examine the employment status of adults with SCD and the rates at which they can access and use health care and mental health services. Bediako will use the data to create a computer model projecting unemployment rates among SCD patients in Maryland during the next decade. Social work intervention by certified genetic counselors and psychological counselors is critical to treating adults with SCD, Bediako said. Job counseling and support services are also important because many SCD patients lose their jobs due to illness-related absenteeism. Unemployment rates among SCD populations can reach 70 percent, he said. African-Americans are the largest high-risk group for SCD in Maryland. The state has the fourth largest African-American population in the U.S. Approximately 1-in-400 African-American babies is born with some form of sickle-cell disease and approximately 1-in-10 African-Americans is a carrier for abnormal hemoglobin that could lead to some form of sickle-cell disease in their children. The $55,000 grant Bediako received to conduct the study was awarded through RWJF's New Connections Initiative, created three years ago to expand the organization's diversity of research by supporting underrepresented scholars and research topics. Twelve such grants are awarded annually. New Connections is a competitive award for scholars who have historically been underrepresented in research activities. For more information about The New Connections Initiative, go to www.rwjf-newconnections.org About UMBC: UMBC is a medium-sized public research university of 12,000 undergraduate and graduate students who collaborate with faculty to address real-world challenges. Located just south of Baltimore near I-95 and the BWI airport, UMBC's residential campus houses state-of-the-art facilities in the sciences, engineering, arts, social sciences and humanities. UMBC combines the energy of a research university with the close community feel and attention to individual students found in liberal arts colleges. About RWJF The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation focuses on the pressing health and health care issues facing our country. As the nation's largest philanthropy devoted exclusively to improving the health and health care of all Americans, the Foundation works with a diverse group of organizations and individuals to identify solutions and achieve comprehensive, meaningful and timely change. The Foundation's Pioneer Portfolio supports innovative ideas and projects that may trigger important breakthroughs in health and health care. Projects in the Pioneer Portfolio are future-oriented and look beyond conventional thinking to explore solutions at the cutting edge of health and health care. When it comes to helping Americans lead healthier lives and get the care they need, the Foundation expects to make a difference in your lifetime. Posted by kavan April 30, 2008 ‘From Need to Know’ to ‘Need to Share’: UMBC to Lead Six Campus-Team to Turn 9-11 Commission Intel-Sharing Reforms into Technology System $7.5-million, Five-Year DoD Grant Partners UMBC With Purdue, Michigan, Illinois, Others CONTACT: Chip Rose, UMBC News 410-455-5793 crose@umbc.edu A six-campus team of computer scientists led by UMBC has been awarded a $7.5 million, five-year grant from the Department of Defense to turn the 9-11 Commission’s recommendations for better sharing of classified data between U.S. intelligence agencies, military and homeland security officials into a workable, secure technology network. The team is led by a principal investigator Tim Finin, a professor of computer science and electrical engineering (CSEE) at UMBC. It also includes UMBC professors Anupam Joshi, Yelena Yesha, Hillol Kargupta and Alan Sherman, who add expertise in advanced networks, data mining and information security. The UMBC team is partnered with researchers from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Purdue University, University of Michigan, University of Texas at San Antonio, and University of Texas at Dallas. The grant was awarded as part of the Department of Defense’s Multi-disciplinary University Research Initiative (MURI) program, which takes a more long-term, interdisciplinary approach to solving scientific problems. Many pieces of the 9-11 plot puzzle weren’t recognized until after the attacks due to inability or reluctance by intelligence agencies to share information. The 9-11 Commission Report recommended that the traditional U.S. intelligence culture of “need to know” be shifted to “need to share.” The goal is to build software and network systems that allow the Department of Defense, intelligence agencies, homeland security and other organizations to share information dynamically and securely. The project hopes to help the U.S. better defend against future terror attacks, while protecting intelligence sources and methods as well has enforcing appropriate privacy policies. According to Finin, the project will prove useful beyond the homeland security sphere. “There are plenty of real world problems that we can work on that are not classified, such as balancing patient privacy with making sure the right doctor in an emergency can quickly access their medical records,” Finin said. “Many of the principles of this research can apply to everyday scenarios where information is shared with the right people and protected from the wrong people, such as your family photo albums on Flickr or your credit history.” “We want to create the science behind the idea of need to share,” said Joshi. “We’ll be weighing what should be shared with whom and asking if we can balance the utility of sharing something with the risk of its getting disclosed.” “We want to find how to maximize our ability to share information while following pre-defined policies that protect privacy, ensure appropriate use and maximize accuracy,” said Finin. “It is a challenging task that will not be completely solved in the next few years, but we can make significant progress and advance the state of the art.” More info online: http://ebiquity.umbc.edu/ Posted by crose April 21, 2008 Plant Sensory Systems Receives SBIR Grant Funding Will Help Company Test Plant Modifications Deborah Shapiro Marketing Manager 410-455-1509 dshapiro@umbc.edu Plant Sensory Systems, a resident of bwtech@UMBC’s Incubator, has received a Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant from the National Science Foundation. The $100,000 grant, which is a six-month grant (referred to as Phase I) that takes effect July 1, will help the company test new genetic modifications on its laboratory plants. The research is a crucial first step in creating plants that are more productive and environmentally-friendly. Founded by the husband-and-wife team of Frank and Kathleen Turano last July, Plant Sensory Systems is focused on creating plants that are more nitrogen use-efficient as well as drought-resistant. More efficient use of nitrogen, the main ingredient in fertilizer, means less run-off into rivers and streams. Increased drought resistance could reduce crop losses significantly in drought years. Eventually, the Turanos hope to license their technologies to seed and biotechnology companies. This is the first grant the company has received and will enable the Turanos to test their hypotheses regarding a genetic modification to plants that will increase the production of GABA, an amino acid that has been shown to affect plants’ response to drought conditions as well as their nitrogen absorption. By increasing the amount of GABA, the plant could withstand drought better and require less nitrogen to grow. Currently, the Turanos’ experiments are being done on the Arabidopsis plant; if successful, they would start testing crop plants such as canola. If the Turanos experience success in their research and show their plant engineering concepts are valid, they will be eligible to apply for a Phase II, two-year grant from NSF once their Phase I grant period is completed. “We are confident our research will help us create better plants that will benefit the agricultural industry, consumers and the environment,” said Kathleen Turano. Added Frank Turano: “We are very pleased with this grant and the opportunity to take our research to the next level.” “Plant Sensory Systems is engaged in groundbreaking work in the field of agricultural technology,” said David Fink, director of entrepreneurial services at bwtech@UMBC. “We are pleased that NSF has recognized their potential with this award.” #### bwtech@UMBC is a 71-acre research and technology community at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC). It comprises the technology business Incubator and Accelerator, home to over 30 early-stage high-tech and life science companies, and the Research and Technology Park, with a total development capacity of 350,000 square feet of office and laboratory space. bwtech@UMBC offers collaboration with university faculty and students, and enjoys a strategic and convenient location, close to downtown Baltimore, BWI Thurgood Marshall Airport, and Washington, D.C. bwtech’s annual economic impact on the state is estimated to be over $300 million. UMBC is a medium-sized public research university of 12,000 undergraduate and graduate students who collaborate with faculty to address real-world challenges. Located just south of Baltimore near I-95 and the BWI airport, UMBC's residential campus houses state-of-the-art facilities in the sciences, engineering, arts, social sciences and humanities. UMBC combines the energy of a research university with the close community feel and attention to individual students found in liberal arts colleges. Posted by dshapiro April 7, 2008 Traxion Therapeutics Receives TEDCO Grant Funding Will Help Company Develop Pain Medications Deborah Shapiro Marketing Manager 410-455-1509 dshapiro@umbc.edu Traxion Therapeutics, a bwtech@UMBC Incubator company, has received a grant from the Maryland Technology Development Corporation (TEDCO), the state’s leading source of funding for seed capital and entrepreneurial business assistance for the development, transfer and commercialization of technology. The $74,018 award, from TEDCO’s Maryland Technology Transfer Fund (MTTF), will help finance the young company’s development of new medications to treat neuropathic pain. Currently, the company is working with pain researchers at the University of Maryland Dental School to assess the viability of its lead product, TXT-0200. Neuropathic pain afflicts more than 10 million Americans. Sales of prescription drugs for neuropathic pain are increasing at roughly 7 percent each year. Traxion has assembled a diversified portfolio of novel, proprietary small molecule products to address this market opportunity. These products use more selective, mechanism-based approaches which exploit recent scientific discoveries in order to develop more effective, better tolerated treatments for neuropathic pain. Traxion plans to take these products through to Phase II proof of concept studies and then enter worldwide corporate partnerships for later-stage development and commercialization. Founded in 2005, Traxion is yet another company successfully launched through the bwtech-affiliated ACTiVATE program. Traxion CEO Kerrie Brady is a member of the program’s class of 2005. ACTiVATE, which trains women with significant business or technical experience to start companies based on technologies developed at area universities and research institutions, has graduated 72 women and launched 15 companies since its inception three years ago. “Traxion is a pioneer in developing more effective medications to treat neuropathic pain and improve the lives of the people it afflicts. We are grateful for the support of TEDCO and look forward to eventually bringing our products to market,” said Brady. “Traxion is developing several new products for the treatment of intractable pain. We are pleased that TEDCO has recognized the potential of their work and is providing this stimulus for the growing health care industry in the Baltimore region,” said David Fink, director of entrepreneurial services at bwtech@UMBC. “TEDCO was created to help early stage companies with promising technologies grow and succeed. Traxion fits this purpose perfectly as there is a great deal of potential for the company to leverage research findings to develop groundbreaking medicines,” said Renée Winsky, president and executive director of TEDCO. “Already the company has made great progress and TEDCO is proud to support its ongoing work.” bwtech@UMBC is a 71-acre research and technology community at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC). It comprises the technology business Incubator and Accelerator, home to over 30 early-stage high-tech and life science companies, and the Research and Technology Park, with a total development capacity of 350,000 square feet of office and laboratory space. bwtech@UMBC offers collaboration with university faculty and students, and enjoys a strategic and convenient location, close to downtown Baltimore, BWI Thurgood Marshall Airport, and Washington, D.C. bwtech’s annual economic impact on the state is estimated to be over $300 million. UMBC is a medium-sized public research university of 12,000 undergraduate and graduate students who collaborate with faculty to address real-world challenges. Located just south of Baltimore near I-95 and the BWI airport, UMBC's residential campus houses state-of-the-art facilities in the sciences, engineering, arts, social sciences and humanities. UMBC combines the energy of a research university with the close community feel and attention to individual students found in liberal arts colleges. The Maryland Technology Development Corporation (TEDCO), an independent entity, was established by the Maryland General Assembly in 1998 to facilitate the creation of businesses and foster their growth in all regions of the State. TEDCO’s role is to be Maryland’s leading source of funding for seed capital and entrepreneurial business assistance for the development, transfer and commercialization of technology. TEDCO connects emerging technology companies with federal laboratories, research universities, business incubators and specialized technical assistance. For the fourth consecutive year, TEDCO was recognized as the most active early/seed stage investor in the nation in the July 2007 issue of Entrepreneur Magazine. Posted by dshapiro April 2, 2008 “Dust Busting” the Moon UMBC/NASA Goddard Scientist to Study Electrically Charged Lunar Dust to Aid Robotic and Human Exploration CONTACT: Chip Rose, UMBC News 410-455-5793 crose@umbc.edu Timothy Stubbs, a scientist at UMBC and NASA-Goddard Space Flight Center, has won funding for a project that sounds like equal parts Ray Bradbury and early David Bowie: studying how electrically charged dust moves across the moon and how it could be a hazard to humans and robots exploring the lunar surface. Stubbs was selected by NASA to join the science team for the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) mission, being built at Goddard and scheduled for launch later this year. The LRO is NASA's first step in plans to return humans to the moon by 2020. Stubbs is an assistant research scientist with UMBC’s Goddard Earth Sciences and Technology Center. Most of the evidence for a lunar dust “atmosphere” dates back to the Apollo mission era. NASA scientists analyzing images returned by the Surveyor landers noticed a ‘horizon glow’ close to the surface after lunar sunset, believed to be caused by sunlight scattered by ultra-tiny (smaller than a few microns – a millionth of a meter) dust particles. While astronauts in orbit observed a high-altitude horizon glow (over 62 miles high) just as their spacecraft was passing out of the shadow of the Moon. According to the “dust fountain” model developed by Stubbs and colleagues at NASA Goddard, the high-altitude dust grains inferred from the horizon glow are probably highly-charged and have been lofted upward by electric fields close to the lunar surface. Once above the lunar surface electric field, the dust grains then fall back toward the Moon under gravity, with their trajectories resembling the arc of a water fountain. Like the rest of the lunar soil, the dust was created over billions of years by the countless impacts of tiny meteorites. It gets its electrical charge from the sun’s ultraviolet light, X-rays and the moon’s surrounding plasma (electrified gas of ions and electrons) environment. The dust’s electrostatic charge makes it move about the moon’s surface and also gives it a static-cling stickiness that can be hazardous to astronauts and their equipment. The tiny dust fragments are sharp and jagged since there is no air or water on the moon to smooth them over time. The dust was a nuisance to the Apollo astronauts, sticking to their spacesuits and tracking inside their spacecraft. But what was a minor annoyance for the relatively brief Apollo missions could be dangerous during the next-generation, long-duration missions being planned by NASA. Astronauts who regularly inhale the sharp dust fragments over time could develop lung diseases similar to those caused by asbestos or coal dust. The dust could also cause problems with sensitive equipment and instruments. “I feel very fortunate to have the opportunity to be directly involved with NASA’s return to the moon, as well as very excited about all the great new science that will be achieved with this historic mission,” said Stubbs. Stubbs’ project will use instruments on the LRO and other spacecraft to measure how much lunar dust there is and map the moon’s electric fields to better understand when and where the dust is most likely to be a problem for the manned missions planned for 2020 and beyond. Posted by crose March 24, 2008 bwtech@UMBC Company Receives GBC Award Next Breath Honored for Innovation and Industry Leadership Deborah Shapiro Marketing Manager 410-455-1509 dshapiro@umbc.edu Next Breath, LLC, a bwtech@UMBC Accelerator company, received the Entrepreneurship Award at the Greater Baltimore Committee’s 3rd annual Bioscience Awards presentation on Tuesday, March 18 at the Renaissance Harborplace Hotel. Julie Suman, the company’s co-founder and president, accepted the award at the presentation, which was attended by approximately 150 leaders from the Baltimore region's bioscience industry and research community. Next Breath, a graduate of bwtech@UMBC’s incubator program, is a contract services provider to pharmaceutical, biotech and medical device companies that bring new inhalation and nasal products to market. It provides services ranging from pre-clinical formulation development to analytical testing, in support of submissions made to regulatory agencies. To date, 55 pharmaceutical companies worldwide have sought Next Breath’s services to support their drug development efforts. The company currently employs 17 people. Suman, a registered pharmacist who holds a Ph.D. in pharmaceutical sciences from the University of Maryland, School of Pharmacy, founded Next Breath in 2001 with partner and vice president Shailaja Somaraju. Suman was previously a pharmacist consultant with PAREXEL’s clinical pharmacology research unit, a research assistant at the University of Maryland’s Department of Pharmaceutical Science and an intern at Magellan Laboratories. Somaraju also holds a Ph.D. from the University of Maryland and was previously a project manager at the University Pharmaceuticals of Maryland. Winners of the 2008 Greater Baltimore Region Bioscience Awards were selected by a panel of judges from among 22 nominees submitted by businesses, bioscience advocates, higher education institutions and government agencies. The criteria for the Entrepreneurship Award included: goals reached through perseverance; a company orientation toward greater risk taking behavior; high utilization of a new system, products or best practices in achieving results; evidence of entrepreneurial leadership to achieve company goals; and commitment to the greater Baltimore region and/or business community. “Next Breath has always strived to be an innovator and an industry leader. It has been exciting to watch the company grow and achieve success. I am thrilled to see the company recognized by the local bioscience community for its achievements,” said Suman. “We’ve had an exemplary track record of success over the years with our bioscience companies. It’s an honor for our companies to be nominated, and certainly for Next Breath to win the entrepreneurship award against a very competitive field,” said Ellen Hemmerly, executive director, bwtech@UMBC Research and Technology Park. Other bwtech@UMBC nominees for the Bioscience Awards were Kris Appel, President & CEO of Encore Path, Inc. (Best New Product or Progress Award), Paul Silber, Former President/CEO & Founder of In Vitro Technologies, Inc. (President’s Award) and Stephen Auvil and the bwtech-affiliated ACTiVATE program (President’s Award). #### bwtech@UMBC (http://www.bwtechumbc.com) is a 71-acre research and technology community at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC). It comprises the technology business Incubator and Accelerator, home to over 30 early-stage high-tech and life science companies, and the Research Park, with a total development capacity of 350,000 square feet of office and laboratory space. bwtech@UMBC offers collaboration with university faculty and students, and enjoys a strategic and convenient location, close to downtown Baltimore, BWI Thurgood Marshall Airport, and Washington, D.C. bwtech’s annual economic impact on the state is estimated to be over $300 million. UMBC is a medium-sized public research university of 12,000 undergraduate and graduate students who collaborate with faculty to address real-world challenges. Located just south of Baltimore near I-95 and the BWI airport, UMBC's residential campus houses state-of-the-art facilities in the sciences, engineering, arts, social sciences and humanities. UMBC combines the energy of a research university with the close community feel and attention to individual students found in liberal arts colleges. Posted by dshapiro March 3, 2008 ACTiVATE Graduates Recognized for Business Plans Three Graduates Are Among Nine Finalists in Rockville Business Plan Competition Deborah Shapiro Marketing Manager 410-455-1509 dshapiro@umbc.edu Three recent ACTiVATE graduates, Kym Wong (Class of 2007), Loleta Robinson and Colleen Nye (Class of 2006), have been selected as finalists in the StartRight! Business Plan Competition. The competition, run by Rockville Economic Development, Inc. (REDI), is in its fifth year and recognizes top business plans from women entrepreneurs. Wong’s 3DeLux Images and Robinson and Nye’s Syan Biosciences are among nine businesses in the finals. Both businesses were launched upon their founders’ completion of the ACTiVATE, a UMBC program that trains mid-career women to start their own businesses based on technologies developed at area universities and research institutions. This is the first business plan competition Wong has entered. Her business, which focuses on using a scanning system developed at Johns Hopkins University’s Applied Physics Lab to create three-dimensional images for online retailers, is in the preliminary stages of development. If feasibility studies prove successful, she will move ahead with the licensing process. Wong has twenty years of experience in business, including e-commerce, and after spending much of her career building new businesses for others, she decided it was her turn. “When I heard about the ACTiVATE program, it seemed like a very good fit,” she says. After her successful presentation of her business plan at the conclusion of the program, the program’s faculty encouraged her to enter StartRight!. Nye and Robinson’s Syan Biosciences is working with a technology developed at the University of Maryland Biotechnology Institute to create a diagnostic platform that uses biomarkers to diagnose diseases such as cancer and heart disease. They are hoping to eventually license their technology to biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies. They also plan to make their own products based on the platform. Nye, a chemical engineer with an M.B.A. degree, and Robinson, a physician who also holds an M.B.A., entered StartRight! last year with a business plan based on a different technology that they were ultimately unable to license. Entering this year’s competition allowed them to receive advice on their new business model. “The competition is a great opportunity to get feedback and to network,” says Nye. “We knew the competition would be a good forum to get feedback on our new plan.” According to Lynne Benzion, the associate director of REDI and administrator of StartRight!, 33 entries were submitted for this year’s competition. She notes that the 4 criteria for judging the business plans are overall financial viability, the company’s management plan, the quality of an entrant’s market research and its marketing plan, and the degree of innovation and differentiation in the business model. To be eligible to enter, businesses must be at least 51% women-owned, operating for two years or less and located in Maryland, Virginia or Washington, DC. Entrants compete for cash and prizes: the first place winner earns $10,000, courtesy of sponsor Eagle Bank. The second place award is $5,000, courtesy of REDI, and the third place award is $2,500, courtesy of sponsor Foster, Soltoff & Love, a Bethesda-based financial planning and employee benefits consulting firm. The top three entrants also receive varying lengths of services from virtual office solutions provider Intelligent Office. Winners will be announced April 1 at the 2008 Women in Business conference at the Marriott North Bethesda Conference Center. Benzion notes the established partnership between REDI and the ACTiVATE program. In return for REDI’s publicizing of ACTiVATE in the Rockville area and referring candidates to the program, ACTiVATE encourages its graduates to enter the StartRight! competition. In addition to the opportunity to win seed money for their business, the competition deadline gives graduates a target by which to complete their business plans. “Working with ACTiVATE extends our reach up to Baltimore and gives us good competitors. Anytime we can connect to another area [of Maryland], it makes the competition better.” “We place an intense focus on helping our participants design sustainable businesses and solid business plans,” says Julie Lenzer Kirk, ACTiVATE’s lead instructor. “ACTiVATE graduates have created a force of technology entrepreneurs who have raised the bar for the StartRight! competition. We're hoping one day that ACTiVATE alumnae will take all three top spots.” #### UMBC is a medium-sized public research university of 12,000 undergraduate and graduate students who collaborate with faculty to address real-world challenges. Located just south of Baltimore near I-95 and the BWI airport, UMBC's residential campus houses state-of-the-art facilities in the sciences, engineering, arts, social sciences and humanities. UMBC combines the energy of a research university with the close community feel and attention to individual students found in liberal arts colleges Posted by dshapiro February 21, 2008 Gates Cambridge Scholarship to Send UMBC Physics Major on Path of Newton, Hawking Philip Graff is UMBC’s Second Consecutive Winner of Prestigious Full Scholarship to Cambridge CONTACT: Chip Rose, UMBC News 410-455-5793 crose@umbc.edu UMBC senior physics major Philip Graff will follow the path of science greats Isaac Newton and Stephen Hawking to Cambridge University as the second UMBC student in the past two years to win the Gates Cambridge Scholarship, one of the world’s most selective academic awards. Graff, who will pursue a Ph.D. in physics, was one of just 45 U.S. winners chosen from more than 600 applicants and 119 finalists. Graff is UMBC’s second consecutive Gates Cambridge Scholar, following alumnus Ian Ralby ‘02, who won in 2007. Other U.S. winners for 2008 included students from Harvard, Yale, MIT, Princeton and other prestigious universities. The Gates Cambridge was created in 2000 by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which donated $210 million to establish the Gates Cambridge Trust. The award fully funds one to four years of graduate study in any field at Cambridge University. The Gates Scholarship is too young to have become a household name like the Rhodes Scholars Program (established in 1902) or the Marshall Scholarships (established in 1954). But like the Marshall and Rhodes, the Gates only accepts the cream of the academic crop. The Gates Scholarship is expected to grow into one of the world’s most recognizable programs over time thanks to the high quality of its winners and the program’s unique emphasis on public service and research career paths. Graff, a native of Manalapan, NJ, came to UMBC on a full scholarship through the University Fellowship program and is a member of the Honors College. Graff, who maintains a 4.0 G.P.A., plans to attend Cambridge but was also accepted at other prestigious universities including MIT and the University of Illinois. After graduation and post-doctoral study, Graff plans a career as a university professor and researcher. For Graff, the Cambridge experience will be an opportunity to follow in the footsteps of some of history’s greatest physicists (such as Isaac Newton) and hopefully to meet a personal hero, Stephen Hawking of “A Brief History of Time” fame. “It’s said that Cambridge has been home to more Nobel Prize winners than all of France, so it’s an amazing honor to study there.” Graff said. “I consider Hawking one of the great minds in the field, so I really hope to meet him.” An astrophysicist, Graff studies what gravitational waves (caused by the interactions of binary stars and other massive bodies) can tell us about the large scale structure and history of the universe. He created a computer model of quasar radiation as an undergraduate at UMBC and worked with one of the world’s most sensitive scientific instruments, the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO), during a National Science Foundation fellowship at Caltech. His quasar work is the topic of a research paper currently under refereeing with the Astrophysical Journal. Graff has also been highly involved with campus life at UMBC, serving as president of Alpha Epsilon Pi fraternity, Director of Student Advocacy with the Student Government Association and a teaching assistant. In the little spare time he has, he enjoys playing video games, watching movies and playing ultimate Frisbee. Science runs in the family for Graff; his older brother is an aerospace engineer. “My parents always pushed us, but beyond a certain point it becomes self-motivated,” said Graff. “We had a pretty normal childhood; I played little league and was on the bowling team and my brother was active in Boy Scouts. But we did do pretty well in science fairs,” Graff said. Graff hasn’t had much time to reflect on his achievements to date, but does recall with amusement a favorite family report card story. “My first grade math teacher said I didn’t understand mathematical concepts but was just memorizing,” he said. “So I guess I showed her.” About the Gates Cambridge Scholarship Program: In October 2000, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation announced a donation to the University of Cambridge of $210 million to establish the Gates Cambridge Trust. The gift funded in perpetuity an international scholarship program to enable outstanding graduate students from outside the United Kingdom to study at the University of Cambridge. The Trustees are required to award scholarships on the basis of a person's intellectual ability, leadership capacity and desire to use their knowledge to contribute to society throughout the world by providing service to their communities and applying their talents and knowledge to improve the lives of others. Following interviews held in Annapolis, Maryland, on 8 and 9 February 2008, the Gates Cambridge Trust announced that scholarships for study at the University of Cambridge were awarded to 45 American students. Over 600 students from the United States applied for a Gates Cambridge Scholarship this year and 119 of them were interviewed at St John’s College and the United States Naval Academy. For more information about the Gates Cambridge Scholarship program, please visit www.gatesscholar.org. Posted by crose February 14, 2008 Plant Sensory Systems Joins bwtech@UMBC Company Developing Innovative Agricultural Technologies Deborah Shapiro Marketing Manager 410-455-1509 dshapiro@umbc.edu Plant Sensory Systems, an agricultural biotechnology company, has chosen the technology incubator at bwtech@UMBC as its headquarters. The company’s owners, Kathleen and Frank Turano, felt the services and support offered by bwtech@UMBC were an ideal fit for their young company’s needs. The Turanos founded Plant Sensory Systems in July and moved to the incubator at the end of December. Currently, the company is working on two projects: making plants that use nitrogen more efficiently and creating plants that can produce more sugar or plant oils to aid in the production of biofuels. “If we can make plants that use nitrogen more efficiently, then farmers won’t have to use as much fertilizer. Not only will this save costs, but there will be less nitrogen run-off into streams and rivers,” explained Frank Turano. At the moment, their focus is on genetic research using a laboratory model plant. Their long-term goal is to license their technologies and/or partner with seed or agricultural biotechnology companies to apply the technologies they develop to a variety of crops. They are currently talking to seed companies to establish relationships. The Turanos’ interest in biological research and sensory systems is an outgrowth of their professional experience: Frank is an associate professor of molecular biology and biochemistry at George Washington University (he has resigned, effective in May 2008) and Kathleen was formerly a professor of ophthalmology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. After interviewing at several incubators, they chose bwtech@UMBC as the place to launch their business. “They have a solid track record of launching companies and offer a host of business support services to help companies get off the ground,” said Kathleen Turano. Both Turanos plan to take advantage of the opportunity to obtain advice and share experiences with the CEOs of the other incubator companies at the variety of networking events offered at bwtech@UMBC. “Plant Sensory Systems represents exactly the type of early-stage company that we hope to attract to our incubator program”, said David Fink, bwtech@UMBC’s director of entrepreneurial services. “The Turanos bring strong scientific credentials from local research institutions. Their projects are very innovative and the company has great potential to benefit the Maryland economy.” About bwtech@UMBC: bwtech@UMBC (http://www.bwtechumbc.com) is a 71-acre research and technology community at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC). It comprises the technology business Incubator and Accelerator, home to over 30 early-stage high-tech and life science companies, and the Research and Technology Park, with a total development capacity of 350,000 square feet of office and laboratory space. bwtech@UMBC offers collaboration with university faculty and students, and enjoys a strategic and convenient location, close to downtown Baltimore, BWI Thurgood Marshall Airport, and Washington, D.C. bwtech’s annual economic impact on the state is estimated to be over $300 million. About UMBC: UMBC is a medium-sized public research university of 12,000 undergraduate and graduate students who collaborate with faculty to address real-world challenges. Located just south of Baltimore near I-95 and the BWI airport, UMBC's residential campus houses state-of-the-art facilities in the sciences, engineering, arts, social sciences and humanities. UMBC combines the energy of a research university with the close community feel and attention to individual students found in liberal arts colleges. Posted by dshapiro February 6, 2008 Amethyst Technologies Joins bwtech@UMBC Growing Company Seeks to Carve Out Market Niche Deborah Shapiro Marketing Manager 410-455-1509 dshapiro@umbc.edu Amethyst Technologies, a growing company specializing in services for life science companies and research organizations, has set up shop at bwtech@UMBC’s technology incubator. The company’s owner, Kimberly Brown, hopes to capitalize on the location and establish business relationships with the life science companies located at the incubator. Amethyst, originally founded as Cell Systems, Inc., in 1992, provides overall management, implementation, and execution of current Good Manufacturing Practices (cGMP) compliance systems. These services include equipment calibration and validation, quality management software, process validation, qualification and design services for clean rooms and high purity utility systems, and environmental monitoring system management. Its clients include hospitals, biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies, biological repositories, and federal government labs and research institutions. The Incubator and Accelerator at bwtech@UMBC is the headquarters for numerous early-stage life science companies, so the location presents multiple business opportunities for Amethyst. Setting up operations at bwtech@UMBC was a natural move for the company. Brown, who has owned Amethyst for about a year, is a recent graduate of UMBC’s ACTiVATE program, which teaches mid-career women with significant business or technical experience how to start companies using technologies developed at universities and other research institutions. A chemical engineer with a Ph.D. from the University of Maryland, College Park, Brown was unique among most ACTiVATE participants in that she already owned a company at the time she began the program. However, she notes that the knowledge of marketing, finance and intellectual property laws that she gained from ACTiVATE has been essential to her success as an entrepreneur: “ACTiVATE provided the knowledge and awareness to have a successful business. You can have a good product, but you also need to know how to run a company. Now I know how to protect my business.” In addition to the business opportunities for Amethyst at bwtech@UMBC, Brown and her company will benefit from the support and networking that the incubator provides. In addition to monthly networking events for CEOs and senior managers, the incubator offers an array of business support services that include market analysis and strategic planning guidance and assistance with grant funding applications. Companies also have direct access to UMBC’s technology transfer office and an abundant supply of students, graduates and faculty that are ready to serve early-stage companies. Brown’s long-term goals for her company are “to become an industry leader in both the private and public sector” as well as develop a product line focused on patient safety and environmental responsibility and provide “green” services to create environmentally friendly clean rooms and labs. #### bwtech@UMBC (http://www.bwtechumbc.com) is a 71-acre research and technology community at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC). It comprises the technology business Incubator and Accelerator, home to over 30 early-stage high-tech and life science companies, and the Research and Technology Park, with a total development capacity of 350,000 square feet of office and laboratory space. bwtech@UMBC offers collaboration with university faculty and students, and enjoys a strategic and convenient location, close to downtown Baltimore, BWI Thurgood Marshall Airport, and Washington, D.C. bwtech’s annual economic impact on the state is estimated to be over $300 million. UMBC is a medium-sized public research university of 12,000 undergraduate and graduate students who collaborate with faculty to address real-world challenges. Located just south of Baltimore near I-95 and the BWI airport, UMBC's residential campus houses state-of-the-art facilities in the sciences, engineering, arts, social sciences and humanities. UMBC combines the energy of a research university with the close community feel and attention to individual students found in liberal arts colleges. Posted by dshapiro January 16, 2008 UMBC’s ACTiVATE Program Receives Prestigious Award Recognition Affirms Program’s Status as a Leading Innovator in Educating Entrepreneurs CONTACT: Deborah Shapiro, Marketing Manager 410-455-1509 dshapiro@umbc.edu ACTiVATE, a program of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) that trains mid-career women to start and manage technology ventures, was honored by a leading national entrepreneurship organization last Saturday. The program received the U.S. Association for Small Business and Entrepreneurship’s (USASBE) award for Best Specialty Entrepreneurship Education Program. Presented at the organization’s annual conference in San Antonio, Texas, the award was based on each program’s innovativeness, uniqueness, quality, effectiveness, comprehensiveness, sustainability and transferability. Stephen Auvil, director of UMBC’s Office of Technology Development, Vivian Armor, director of UMBC’s Alex. Brown Center for Entrepreneurship, and Julie Kirk, ACTiVATE lead instructor, represented ACTiVATE at the conference. “The winner is the one program that demonstrates a fresh approach to adding new meaning to entrepreneurial education,” said judging panel member Stan Mandel, an executive professor at the Babcock Graduate School of Management at Wake Forest University and director of the school’s Angell Center for Entrepreneurship. “This was clearly demonstrated by UMBC in the ACTiVATE program—a great concept, implemented well, with outstanding participants.” “ACTiVATE has become a model of innovation for teaching and mentoring entrepreneurs, and we are thrilled to be recognized by a leading organization in the field of entrepreneurship,” said Ms. Armor. ACTiVATE is a year-long program that utilizes technologies developed by Maryland’s universities and research institutions and trains women with significant technical or business experience to start companies based on those technologies. In the first three years of the program, ACTiVATE has trained 72 women. To date, 15 companies have been founded by ACTiVATE graduates. Said David Fink, director of entrepreneurial services at bwtech@UMBC and the ACTiVATE program director: “We felt there was a need for a new way to teach entrepreneurship and increase the commercialization of technologies. In just three years, ACTiVATE has already had a tremendous impact on the local business community.” An acronym for Achieving the Commercialization of Technology in Ventures Through Applied Training for Entrepreneurs, ACTiVATE is a joint program among Alex. Brown Center for Entrepreneurship, bwtech@UMBC Research and Technology Park, Office of Technology Development and the Center for Women in Technology (CWIT). Sponsors include the National Science Foundation, Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, Maryland Technology Development Corporation, Whiteford, Taylor and Preston, Constellation Energy, Wachovia Bank, Lion Brothers and Corporate Office Properties Trust (COPT). “The ACTiVATE program is just one part of UMBC’s commitment to entrepreneurship, technology transfer and workforce development,” noted Mr. Auvil, who is also one of the program’s architects. “It encourages the development of new technology companies and supports women who are interested in pursuing an entrepreneurial career.” Classes are held on Monday evenings, from January through December, and one Saturday per month at the bwtech@UMBC Incubator near UMBC’s main campus in Catonsville. Six of the companies founded by ACTiVATE graduates have entered bwtech@UMBC’s incubator program. About UMBC: UMBC is a medium-sized public research university of 12,000 undergraduate and graduate students who collaborate with faculty to address real-world challenges. Located just south of Baltimore near I-95 and the BWI airport, UMBC's residential campus houses state-of-the-art facilities in the sciences, engineering, arts, social sciences and humanities. UMBC combines the energy of a research university with the close community feel and attention to individual students found in liberal arts colleges. Posted by crose January 3, 2008 bwtech@UMBC Expands Staff New Additions to Marketing and Business Development Team CONTACT: Deborah Shapiro, Marketing Manager 410-455-1509 dshapiro@umbc.edu bwtech@UMBC Research & Technology Park is pleased to announce the expansion of its marketing and business development team with the addition of Deborah Shapiro, Marketing Manager, and Alex Euler, Associate Director of Business Development. Shapiro will provide marketing support and strategy development to UMBC’s entrepreneurial initiatives, including bwtech@UMBC, the Alex. Brown Center for Entrepreneurship, the ACTiVATE program, and UMBC’s technology commercialization enterprise. She has a B.A. in Economics from Wellesley College and an M.B.A. in Marketing from the University of Maryland. Shapiro was previously the Public Relations Manager for Thomson Prometric, and has successfully developed marketing and promotional strategies with both online and traditional media. Euler will assist tenant companies with their marketing and business strategy needs, and will recruit tenants for bwtech@UMBC's properties. He will also facilitate interactions between the university and bwtech@UMBC businesses and work to increase overall awareness of bwtech@UMBC within the broader business community. Euler has a B.S. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from UMBC and is working on an M.S. in Biotechnology Management at the University of Maryland. He was previously the Communications Manager for MdBio/TCM, a statewide trade association for high-technology and life science companies, and has extensive experience working with regional economic development groups and administering programs designed to support early-stage biotech companies. About bwtech@UMBC: bwtech@UMBC (www.bwtechumbc.com) is a 71-acre research and technology community at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC). It comprises the technology business Incubator and Accelerator, home to over 30 early-stage high-tech and life science companies, and the Research and Technology Park, with a total development capacity of 350,000 square feet of office and laboratory space. bwtech@UMBC offers collaboration with university faculty and students, and enjoys a strategic and convenient location, close to downtown Baltimore, BWI Thurgood Marshall Airport, and Washington, D.C. bwtech’s annual economic impact on the state is estimated to be over $300 million. Posted by crose December 12, 2007 UMBC Among 12 Universities Chosen by HHMI to Launch Nationwide Science Education Initiative Professors Sandoz, Caruso to Give Freshmen Early Genomics Research Experience CONTACT: Chip Rose, UMBC News 410-455-5793 crose@umbc.edu BALTIMORE -- The Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) has chosen UMBC as part of a collaborative network of 12 colleges and universities to teach a new, hands-on genomics course aimed at involving more U.S. first-year college students in authentic research. The course is the first major initiative from HHMI's Science Education Alliance (SEA), which seeks to enhance science education and inspire new generations of scientists. The year-long research course will be part of the SEA’s Phage Genomics Research Initiative. HHMI received 44 applications and selected 12 institutions for the Initiative. UMBC biological sciences professors Jim Sandoz and Steve Caruso will work with UMBC’s Honors College to develop a fall 2008 course for freshmen science and non-science majors. Students in the class will collect soil samples on campus and use sophisticated lab and computer-based genomics and gene sequencing techniques to identify new bacteriophages. Bacteriophages, or phages for short, are common forms of viruses which infect bacteria and could offer insight into some types of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. “SEA takes the best ideas from the individual teaching experiments that HHMI has supported over the past 20 years and makes them broadly accessible to scientists and educators around the country,” said Michael Summers, professor of biochemistry and HHMI Investigator at UMBC. “UMBC has been at the forefront of science education, especially in enhancing retention rates among minority students, so it’s both exciting and appropriate that UMBC is part of these new efforts,” said Summers, who is the only HHMI Investigator at a Maryland public university. “We have a lot to learn from our colleagues in the SEA consortium, but we also have much to offer.” SEA represents a new, more active involvement by HHMI in catalyzing change in science education. HHMI is committing $4 million over the program’s first four years and staffing SEA with its own employees. SEA will provide up to three years of support from HHMI to assist with faculty training, computing and DNA sequencing services for the course. “The initial institutions we have selected represent a broad sampling of high quality higher education,” said Peter J. Bruns, vice president for grants and special programs at HHMI. “Although diverse in size and location, all participating schools share a desire to bring authentic discovery to freshman instruction. I am impressed by their commitment to the project and eagerly wait to see what a working alliance of such a diverse, yet commonly committed community, will yield.” The other universities chosen for the 2008-2009 program are: Carnegie Mellon University, The College of William & Mary, Hope College, James Madison University, Oregon State University, Spelman College, the University of California, San Diego, the University of California, Santa Cruz, the University of Louisiana at Monroe, the University of Mary Washington and Washington University in St. Louis. Based at HHMI's Janelia Farm Research Campus in Northern Virginia, SEA aims to build a collaborative network of U.S. scientists and educators to develop and distribute new instructional materials and methods while encouraging students to produce real research results. HHMI built SEA based on over two decades of supporting science education and research. For more information, please visit http://www.hhmi.org/grants/sea/ Posted by crose November 26, 2007 Ecologists Remap the Biosphere to Include Humans No Such Thing as Pristine Nature Any More, Say UMBC, McGill Researchers Photo Caption: Ecologist Erle Ellis has helped design a new way of mapping the Earth to include human impact. CONTACT: Chip Rose, UMBC News 410-455-5793 crose@umbc.edu BALTIMORE and MONTREAL – Pristine wilderness is a thing of the past and it’s time to adjust our vision of the biosphere accordingly, say a team of American and Canadian eco-geographers in new research published today. Erle Ellis, associate professor of Geography and Environmental Systems at UMBC, and Navin Ramankutty, assistant professor in McGill University’s Department of Geography and Earth System Science Program, used global data from satellites and land management statistics to map a new system of “anthropogenic biomes” or human biomes, that describe the biosphere as it exists today, the result of human shepherding and reshaping of ecosystems. Their map provides a 21st century challenge to the classic images of Earth's wild ecosystems that appear in nearly every ecology and earth science textbook. Their research will be published in the Nov. 26 issue of the journal Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment together with maps viewable in Google Earth and Google Maps at the Encyclopedia of Earth (a sort of Wikipedia for earth scientists and ecologists) and a printable classroom wall map for use by ecologists, educators and the public. “The fact that an area is now covered by forests depends more on human decisions than it does on climate” said Ellis, who has studied anthropogenic landscapes in the field across rural China since 1992. He was inspired to investigate human landscapes globally during a research sabbatical at the Department of Global Ecology of the Carnegie Institute of Washington at Stanford University. Photo Caption: Ellis has studied human biomes in rural China since 1992. “The classic biomes, such as tropical rainforests or grasslands, were based on differences in vegetation caused by on climate,” said Ellis. “Now that humans have fundamentally altered global patterns of ecosystems and biodiversity, these biomes are rarely present across large areas any more. It is time for our map of the biosphere to reflect this new reality- that nature is now embedded within human systems” said Ellis. Another key message from Ellis and Ramankutty was that ecologists should turn their focus to the changing ecosystems right underneath their feet. “A section of our paper is entitled ‘ecologists go home,’” said Ramankutty, an expert on global agriculture’s connection to environmental change. “Ecologists go to remote parts of the planet to study pristine ecosystems, but no one studies it in their back yard,” he said. “We can no longer study ecology while ignoring humans,” Ellis said. “Humans are now as much a part of nature as the weather and human and ecological systems are so intricately linked that focusing just on nature gets in the way of conserving nature for future generations. We need to sustain positive interactions between human systems and ecosystems, not avoid these interactions. Focusing on so-called wilderness areas ignores more than four-fifths of Earth’s ice-free land. Ecologists need to do more research in places where humans live,” said Ellis. Other key findings of the research: More than three-quarters of our ice-free land surface is human altered. Wildlands cover just 22 percent of ice-free land today, and most of this land is barren and relatively unproductive. Rangelands are the largest anthropogenic biomes, followed by cropland and forested biomes. More than 80 percent of people live in dense settlements and village biomes, though these cover just seven percent of the Earth’s ice-free land surface. Village biomes are about five times as extensive as urban biomes and are home to about a quarter of Earth’s human population. Anthropogenic biomes are mosaics. Instead of distinct vegetation or land-use types, anthropogenic biomes are complex mixtures of different land uses (settlements, crops, pastures, forests) that are classified by degree and type of human influence. For example, village biomes, which are found mostly in Asia and Africa, are crowded networks of towns and rural settlements embedded in intensively managed croplands and rice paddies alongside patches of less disturbed vegetation in hilly areas. UMBC’s national reputation for excellence in earth and environmental science is growing. 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 University and the Georgia Institute of Technology. UMBC ranks third nationally in NASA research funding and is home to two major collaborative NASA earth science research centers and the U.S. Geological Survey’s Maryland/Delaware/D.C. Water Science Center. Posted by crose October 26, 2007 UMBC’s ‘ACTiVATE’ Program to Receive National Award, TEDCO Funding Program Trains Female Entrepreneurs to Take Maryland Universities’ Technologies to Market CONTACT: Chip Rose, UMBC News 410-455-5793 crose@umbc.edu ACTiVATE, an innovative program based at UMBC that trains female entrepreneurs to take technologies developed by Maryland universities to market, will receive a national honor and an investment from the state today. The Association of University Research Parks (AURP) will award its 2007 Innovation Award to ACTiVATE today at the AURP’s national conference in St. Louis. Also today, the Maryland Technology Development Corporation (TEDCO) announced a $50,000 grant to help ACTiVATE continue its mission. “We are thrilled that UMBC and the ACTiVATE program was recognized by AURP with this year’s Innovation Award,” said Renée Winsky, president and executive director of TEDCO. “The program has proven to be instrumental in growing the number of women entrepreneurs commercializing groundbreaking research being developed in labs throughout the state and starting new businesses. In fact, we are so thrilled with the success of the program that TEDCO is providing a $50,000 grant award to UMBC to expand our continued support of the effort.” “It is wonderful to have TEDCO support this effective technology entrepreneurship training program,” said Ellen Hemmerly, executive director of the UMBC Research Park Corporation. “ACTiVATE gives opportunities to women who are underrepresented as entrepreneurs while strengthening tech commercialization from Maryland’s research universities. “AURP’s Innovation Award is a great honor for our program which we believe is well-deserved, since in the past three years, ACTiVATE has trained over 70 women who have formed 12 companies,” Hemmerly said. Hemmerly is a past president of AURP and was instrumental in the establishment of ACTiVATE. She also recently received the Catonsville Chamber of Commerce’s Business Person of the Year award for her efforts to grow the bwtech@UMBC Research and Technology Park, which includes a high-tech business incubator, accelerator, research park and other UMBC entrepreneurial ventures. Originally funded with a three-year grant from the National Science Foundation, ACTiVATE’s goal is to form start-up companies based on technologies developed at UMBC, the Johns Hopkins University (JHU), the JHU Applied Physics Laboratory, Towson University, the University of Maryland, Baltimore, the University of Maryland Biotechnology Institute and the University of Maryland College Park. In its first three years, ACTiVATE participants have evaluated 97 technologies from Maryland research institutions and formed 12 new companies. ACTiVATE was recently cited by the National Science Foundation's 2007 Government Results and Accountability (GRPA) Performance Assessment Report. The annual report highlights best practices and programs from all fields of science and engineering supported by the NSF. Companies started by recent ACTiVATE alumnae include: EncorePath, built on a unique rehab technology for stroke victims developed by University of Maryland, Baltimore physical therapists; Foligo Therapeutics, which has received significant funding as it focuses on new treatment therapies for ovarian cancer; and Traxion Therapeutics, a biotech firm developing new drugs for chronic pain. EncorePath recently received $74,345 from TEDCO’s Maryland Technology Transfer Fund (MTTF). EncorePath’s founder and president Kris Appel has won first prize in business plan competitions from the MIT Enterprise Forum of Washington-Baltimore and the Rockville Economic Development, Inc. (REDI). The ACTiVATE Program is recruiting for its next class beginning in February 2008. Women with substantial business or technical backgrounds interested in applying for the competitive entrepreneurship training program should visit www.umbc.edu/activate for more information. About ACTiVATE The University of Maryland, Baltimore County’s (UMBC) ACTiVATE* is a year-long program to train women with significant technical or business experience to be entrepreneurs and to create start-up companies from inventions from Maryland research institutions and federal agencies. It is funded by the National Science Foundation and the Maryland Technology Development Corporation (TEDCO) and is supported by Constellation Energy, Whiteford, Taylor & Preston and Wachovia Bank. Admission to the program is competitive. For additional information about the ACTiVATE program, please see www.umbc.edu/activate. *ACTiVATE – Achieving the Commercialization of Technology in Ventures through Applied Training for Entrepreneurs About Maryland TEDCO: The Maryland Technology Development Corporation (TEDCO), an independent entity, was established by the Maryland General Assembly in 1998 to facilitate the creation of businesses and foster their growth in all regions of the State. TEDCO's role is to be Maryland's leading source of funding for seed capital and entrepreneurial business assistance for technology transfer and development programs. TEDCO connects emerging technology companies with federal laboratories, research universities, business incubators and specialized technical assistance. For the fourth consecutive year, TEDCO was recognized as the most active early/seed stage investor in the nation in the July 2007 issue of Entrepreneur Magazine. For more information on TEDCO and its programs and resources, visit www.MarylandTEDCO.org. Posted by crose September 17, 2007 UMBC Biotech Entrepreneur Paul Silber Named Baltimore’s Extraordinary Tech Advocate for 2007 CONTACT: Chip Rose, UMBC News 410-455-5793 crose@umbc.edu Paul Silber, a biotech entrepreneur with roots at UMBC, has been named the 2007 “Baltimore’s Extraordinary Technology Advocate” award winner by the Greater Baltimore Technology Council (GBTC). Silber is the former President and CEO of In Vitro Technologies (IVT), one of the first companies to start and grow on campus through the UMBC incubator program. In 1990, Silber began IVT as a true, by-the-bootstraps startup in Texas and shortly thereafter moved the operation to UMBC. IVT has since grown to an international business with over 70 employees and remains the anchor tenant of UMBC’s high-tech business incubator facility, techcenter@UMBC, today. IVT, which provides an alternative to animal testing for biotech, drug and pharmaceutical firms, was sold to Celsis International in 2006 for $30 million but remains a vital part of UMBC and Baltimore’s entrepreneurial community. "In Vitro Technologies (IVT) truly started it all - bio in Greater Baltimore," said GBTC Executive Director Steve Kozak in a press release. "And Paul Silber has been an active leader, if not THE leader, of this region's biotech community for years. Entrepreneur, mentor, advisor, angel investor - he's been there…for everyone, always, all the time. The GBTC would like to congratulate Paul on this very well-deserved honor. We couldn't have picked a better leader or a better person for this prestigious award." "Paul Silber has grown In Vitro Technologies from two people in a trailer on the edge of our campus into a global success," said UMBC president Freeman Hrabowski, who is also a past recipient of the BETA award. "Along the way, Paul and IVT have truly helped put UMBC and Baltimore on the world's biotech map. "Even after achieving so much, Paul and IVT continue to give back to the community by mentoring other entrepreneurs, hiring UMBC graduates and sponsoring blood drives on campus," said Hrabowski. "The entire UMBC family is delighted to congratulate Paul on this well-deserved honor." Silber will be presented with the BETA Award at the GBTC’s signature annual tech showcase event, TechNite, to be held on Wednesday, October 24, 5:15 - 8:30 p.m., at the Baltimore Convention Center (One West Pratt Street in Downtown Baltimore). Tickets for TechNite are $155 for GBTC members and $185 for non-members. To register or for more information, contact the GBTC at 410-327-9148 or visit the TechNite website at: www.gbtechcouncil.org/technite2007. Posted by crose August 23, 2007 IBM Award to Help Establish Multicore Supercomputing Center at UMBC ‘Orchestra’ of Powerful Processing Chips Will Drive Geoscience, Medical Imaging, Aerospace and Financial Services Research CONTACTS: Chip Rose, UMBC News 410-455-5793 crose@umbc.edu Jason Stolarczyk, IBM 206-508-4785 jrstolar@us.ibm.com Photo Caption: According to UMBC computer scientists Milt Halem (left) and Yelena Yesha (right), the Multicore Computing Center will give UMBC researchers access to some of the world's most powerful information engines. Note to Media: High-resolution versions of these photos are available for download at http://www.umbc.edu/NewsEvents/PhotoGal/MC2Photos/ BALTIMORE — The University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) and IBM today announced a new collaboration to create The Multicore Computing Center (MC2), a unique facility that will focus on supercomputing research related to aerospace/defense, financial services, medical imaging and weather/climate change prediction. IBM awarded UMBC a significant gift to support the development of this new center, which researchers describe as an “orchestra” of one of the world’s most powerful supercomputing chips. The MC2 will bring to UMBC a high-performance computational test laboratory based on the Cell Broadband Engine (Cell/B.E.), jointly developed by IBM, Sony Corp., Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. (SCE) and Toshiba Corp. This ground breaking processor is used in products such as SCE's PlayStation3 and Toshiba's Cell/B.E. Reference Set, a development tool for Cell/B.E. applications, as well as the IBM BladeCenter QS20. Cells have a wide range of capability – able to serve as engines for image and video-intensive computing tasks like virtual reality, simulations and imaging for aerospace, medicine and defense; high-definition TV and high-speed video for wireless devices; and highly complex physics based computer models to better predict weather, climate change and biochemistry. Today’s announcement is the latest development in a strong, long-time partnership between IBM and UMBC. IBM employs over 100 UMBC alumni, and UMBC faculty have received numerous IBM research awards and fellowships over the past decade. The MC2 at UMBC is expected to focus on supercomputing research related to aerospace/defense, financial services, medical imaging and weather/climate change prediction. One of the challenges for researchers at the MC2 will be making clusters consisting of hundreds of the powerful information engines run effectively together. “Cell processors are groups of eight very fast, independent but simple PC’s with their own tiny memory all on a single chip each with its own leader,” said Milt Halem, director of the MC2 and professor of computer science at UMBC. “The challenge is choreographing all the chips to work efficiently in parallel. It’s like a distributed orchestra with 224 musicians and 28 conductors connected with head phones trying to play Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony together,” said Halem, who retired in 2002 from NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, where he served as Assistant Director for Information Sciences and Chief Information Officer. "The Multicore Computing Center highlights UMBC's role as a national leader in information technology research and education, and will contribute to Maryland's economic growth and national security," said Freeman Hrabowski, president of UMBC. “We are so pleased to become an early adopter of this revolutionary shift in semi-conductor chip design,” Halem said. “UMBC is committed to growing its computational science expertise and hopes this collaboration with IBM will allow the university to become a national leader in the applications of future multicore computers as they grow more massive.” UMBC is a member of IBM’s Academic Initiative, a program sponsored by IBM to upgrade IT skills for a more competitive workforce. Through the Academic Initiative, IBM works with more than 2,200 institutions, 11,000 faculty members and 650,000 students worldwide to build integrated business, science and technology skills to be applied in today’s global economy. "The opening of the UMBC Multicore Computer Center is yet another example of how IBM innovations are being used to help further the advancement of research and science that benefits business and our communities," said Rod Adkins, senior vice president of development & manufacturing, IBM Systems & Technology Group. "We are convinced of the endless possibilities that can, and will, emerge from this type of collaborative relationship, and are proud to play a role in the launch of the new information technology research center." In the future, UMBC and IBM officials plan to collaborate on new interdisciplinary research possibilities in chemistry, mathematics and other fields of engineering and information technology. The Multicore Computing Center is expected to be installed and operational by fall 2007. About the College of Engineering and Information Technology at UMBC: UMBC’s College of Engineering and Information Technology (COE&IT) is focused on becoming a national leader in engineering and IT education, research, entrepreneurship and diversity. According to National Science Foundation data, UMBC consistently ranks among America’s top research universities in undergraduate IT degree production. The College has built a national reputation for increasing IT gender diversity thanks in part to the Center for Women and Information Technology (CWIT), called “the best resource for women on the Web” by ABC News. In 2005, UMBC was honored by the Accredited Board for Engineering and Technology for producing more minority faculty than any other U.S. institution. The College is home to 2200 undergraduates in eight bachelor’s degree programs and nearly 800 graduate students enrolled in nine MS and eight PhD programs. The College’s talented, committed and accessible faculty secure over $13 million in annual research expenditures to advance the frontiers of discovery and innovation and make UMBC a powerful force in engineering and information technology. For more information please visit www.umbc.edu/engineering About IBM: For more information about IBM, please visit http://www.ibm.com. Posted by crose July 19, 2007 UMBC Graduate Student’s Team Wins Top Prize in Global Voting System Design Contest Punchscan Team Wins $10,000, HP Laptop at “VoComp” CONTACT: Chip Rose, UMBC News 410-455-5793 crose@umbc.edu Punchscan, a team including UMBC computer science graduate student Rick Carback, took the grand prize in VoComp, an international voting system design contest held July 16-18 in Portland. The Punchscan team, which also includes undergraduate and graduate students from George Washington University and the University of Ottawa, received $10,000 donated by voting tech firm Election Systems & Software (ES&S), a laptop computer donated by Hewlett-Packard and other prizes. Punchscan also took the awards for best presentation, best critique of a competition system, best election technology component and best implementation. The contest was organized by UMBC professor of computer science and information assurance expert Alan Sherman. Punchscan faced off against teams of researchers from the U.S., Canada, Poland and the U.K. The first-of-its-kind competition was sponsored by the National Science Foundation, ES&S and Hewlett-Packard. For the complete results and more information about VoComp, please visit www.vocomp.org. Posted by crose July 13, 2007 UMBC Student in Global Contest for Most Trustworthy and Accurate Voting System “VoComp” Offers International Research Teams Over $10,000 in Prizes from Voting & Tech Firms CONTACT: Chip Rose, UMBC News 410-455-5793 crose@umbc.edu PORTLAND, Oregon – Four teams of researchers from the U.S., Canada, Poland and the U.K. face off July 16-18 at the Portland Hilton in the finals of the VoComp University Voting Systems Competition, a global search to make voting machine technologies more trustworthy and accurate. The first-of-its-kind competition is sponsored by the National Science Foundation, the voting technology company Elections Systems & Software (ES&S) and Hewlett-Packard (HP). The winning team will receive a $10,000 grand prize provided by ES&S along with other prizes from HP. UMBC computer science graduate student Rick Carback is a member of Punchscan (www.punchscan.org), a team that also includes members from George Washington University and the University of Ottawa. Oregon Secretary of State Bill Bradbury will give introductory remarks at VoComp and will invite attendees at the National Association of Secretaries of States annual summer meeting (held at the same venue) to visit the competition. VoComp marks the first time a major voting company has supported this type of open-ended academic research. “VoComp is stimulating innovation and student involvement in the technology of democracy.” said Alan Sherman, a professor of computer science at UMBC and the organizer of VoComp. In the spirit of transparent democracy, each of the four finalist voting systems is open-source, meaning the computer code is published and thus able to be verified as secure and improved upon, similar to the popular grassroots computer operating system Linux. “This is something that has been called for by many but not realized until now,” Sherman said. “The competition framework also serves to demonstrate what may be a better way to vet and choose voting systems,” said Sherman, who also teaches a course on electronic voting systems. At the competition finals, each team will carry out a mock election and critique the other systems in front of the judges. All sessions are free and open to the public. Three of the VoComp systems are based on a new, end-to-end (e2e) secure technology, which enables each voter to verify that his or her vote was correctly recorded and tabulated. This new technology promises to increase assurance in voting results compared to popular paper trail technologies such as precinct-count optical scan. The VoComp conference will also offer the introductions of several other new voting technologies from some of the top academic and corporate researchers in the field. For more info please visit www.vocomp.org. Posted by crose July 12, 2007 UMBC IT Enrollments on Rebound Outreach Efforts to High School Students, Counselors Have Fall Enrollments Up for Freshmen & Females CONTACT: Chip Rose, UMBC News 410-455-5793 crose@umbc.edu Undergraduate enrollments in UMBC's Department of Information Systems (IS) are on the upswing for fall 2007, particularly among young women. The enrollment increase is a positive sign in light of a recent national decline in college students entering information technology majors and is partly due to the department’s efforts to educate high school students and counselors about the various IT disciplines of study, the truth about outsourcing and the improved job market for IT majors. Nationwide, newly declared computer science majors plummeted to 8,000 in the fall of 2006, from 16,000 in 2000, according to the Computing Research Association. According to UMBC IS department figures, the fall 2007 semester will bring a 40 percent increase in new freshmen (41 enrollments) over the department’s previous four-year average (28). Equally noteworthy is the fact that the department’s fall freshman class will comprise 41 percent women up from a 23 percent average over the previous four years. In an industry that is still typically dominated by men, the number of women enrolling as first year students in UMBC IS programs is up approximately 150 percent from the past four years. UMBC is one of the largest producers of undergraduate IT degrees in the nation, according to the U.S. Deptartment of Education’s National Center for Education Statistics. Historically, UMBC’s Center for Women and Information Technology (CWIT) has worked to close the IT gender gap through education and outreach efforts. One of CWIT’s primary goals has been to encourage more women and girls to prepare for careers and become leaders in information technology. Andrew Sears, chair of information systems at UMBC, believes the enrollment jump is due in part to his department’s advocacy and outreach initiatives over the past two years. Many universities and companies have been working to get the message out that IT industry demand for skilled graduates has rebounded strongly from the dot-com crash and economic downturn of the 90’s. A recent American Electronics Association report said the U.S. technology industry added 150,000 jobs in 2006 and starting salaries for new college graduate with computing degrees average about $52,000 a year. “We believe there is a serious disconnect between the reality of today’s strong job market for information tech majors and the perceptions of many high school counselors, educators and the families of would-be IT students, so we’ve been working hard to reach them,” said Sears. “This year’s fall enrollments in our B.S. in Information Systems and B.A. in Business Technology Administration programs combined are encouraging and nearly equal our 2002 high water mark, so we are hopeful that the message is getting through,” said Sears. UMBC’s Information Systems department has embraced a proactive, grass-roots approach to IT education advocacy. “We felt it was important to talk with high school education professionals about what IT is really all about, the number and variety of jobs that are available and how our degrees prepare students for these exciting opportunities,” said Sears. “In the last two years we have devoted departmental energies and resources not to hype IT, but to share facts.” The IS department held its first “IT Discovery Event” in 2006, where high school career and college counselors and technology education leaders were invited to a half-day seminar covering topics like the difference between information systems and computer science and the IT job growth projections and variety of career options in the industry. Nearly 50 high school counselors from the Baltimore/DC region attended and more than one-third expressed interest in scheduling separate group visits to the IS department for their students. The department also has had representatives invited to events that, in the past, were reserved for college admissions professionals to talk about IT curricula and job prospects. Sears defines his department’s hands-on approach pretty simply. “No one can tell our story like we do,” he said. “Our goal is to get the facts into the hands of guidance and career counselors, prospective students, and the parents of these students. This will help them better understand the vast array of opportunities that are available, the skills that they really need to succeed and the fact that an IT career is much more than sitting in front of a computer all day.” Posted by crose June 25, 2007 Two UMBC Students Receive Prestigious NSF Graduate Research Fellowships Columbia Natives Patricia Ordóñez, Jason Reid to Pursue Ph.D.s at UMBC, MIT CONTACT: Chip Rose, UMBC News 410-455-5793 crose@umbc.edu Note to Editors: Click on photos below to view or download high-resolution version of image. BALTIMORE — Patricia Ordóñez, a UMBC second year graduate student, and Jason Reid, a UMBC class of 2007 graduate, both from Columbia, MD, have received National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowships (NSFGRF), which are among the most competitive and prestigious academic awards for American college students as they begin graduate studies. Both students are products of UMBC’s College of Engineering and Information Technology. The NSFGRF is a three-year award that funds tuition and an annual stipend to support graduate studies for students showing the potential to contribute significantly to research, teaching and innovations in science and engineering. About 1,000 were awarded across the U.S. this year. Ordóñez, who received a B.A. in Hispanic and Italian Studies in 1989 from Johns Hopkins University, began to pursue her career in computer science attending UMBC part-time in the fall of 2001. She was admitted to the graduate school full-time in the fall of 2005 and will remain at UMBC to pursue a Ph.D. in her field as well as continue research developing medical applications using pervasive computing to help personalize operating rooms for patients and surgeons. “I would be crazy to leave such an encouraging and supportive environment,” she said. “I love being somewhere where the president of the university greets you as he walks by and takes a personal interest in the students.” Reid, who received a B.S. in mechanical engineering, will attend the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to pursue an M.S./Ph.D. in mechanical engineering and conduct research in the use of robotics to accelerate rehabilitation in stroke and spinal cord injury patients. “The NSF award is great because you can work on pretty much anything that interests you,” said Reid. “While I look forward to embarking on the new experiences and challenges of the future, I will always appreciate my time spent at UMBC.” A Meyerhoff Scholar, Reid also received a Society of Automotive Engineers Scholarship, the UMBC Mechanical Engineering Alumni Award and the Hillel of Greater Baltimore President’s Award. Reid’s winning research proposal for the NSFGRF came from his work in the lab of UMBC mechanical engineering professor Dwayne Arola, with whom he studied ways to improve dental tools and practices for senior citizen patients as the enamel of their teeth grows brittle with age. For Ordóñez, the award makes her doctoral dreams obtainable. “Without it I think I would have settled for the masters rather than the PhD because I am 40 years old and have the financial responsibilities of a 40-year-old,” she said. “Now I have the financial support I need to focus solely on my research.” Ordóñez, part of the UMBC computer science and electrical engineering department’s eBiquity Research Group, thanked UMBC faculty members Anupam Joshi, Marie desJardins, Renetta Tull, Tim Finin, Penny Rheingans, Janet Rutledge, Charles Nicholas, Krishna Sivalingam, and Marc Olano for supporting her in her graduate studies and Shon Vick in her undergraduate studies. Posted by crose May 29, 2007 UMBC/NASA Study Shows Increasing Snowmelt in Greenland New Area the Size of Maryland Starts to Melt Each Year; Long-term Satellite Data Showed First-Ever High Altitude Melting in 2002 CONTACT: Chip Rose, UMBC News 410-455-5793 crose@umbc.edu Some sobering findings on the extent of Greenland's melting ice sheets were published today as part of a long-term study of earth observing satellites’ data by researchers with the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) and NASA-Goddard Space Flight Center. Marco Tedesco, a scientist at the Joint Center for Earth Systems Technology (JCET) of UMBC and NASA-Goddard Space Flight Center, was lead author of a study published in the American Geophysical Union's journal Eos. By using a new method for detecting melting snow from satellites, Tedesco found that in 2006 Greenland experienced more days of melting snow and at higher altitudes than the previous trends from the past 18 years. Tedesco used a new method for detecting melting snow based on readings from the Special Sensor Microwave Imaging radiometer (SSM/I), an instrument aboard the U.S. Air Force’s Defense Meteorological Satellite Program spacecraft. The SSM/I can see through clouds and can measure data without sunlight. Tedesco has tracked the data annually since 1988, allowing him to study big-picture trends in the duration and extent of Greenland's snowmelt. Certain areas of Greenland were melting over 10 days longer than average in 2006. Greenland’s 2006 melt index, or the number of melting days times the melting area, continued on an upward trend seen in data from 1988 to 2005. Results from another study by Tedesco published on Geophysical Research Letters on January 2007 show that the year 2002 showed signs of extreme melting. “We identified an extreme melting event in June 2002 that showed for the first time in 18 years snow melting in inner Greenland at high altitudes,” said Tedesco. “During the same year, over 80 percent of the entire Greenland ice sheet surface experienced at least one day of melting. This corresponds to an area the size of France, Spain and Italy put together,” he said. The area experiencing at least one day of melting has been increasing since 1992 at a rate of 35,000 square kilometers per year, or about two percent of the entire Greenland surface. “That means that, on the average, every year since 1992 an area equivalent to the state of Maryland has been subject to new melting,” Tedesco said. Left: UMBC JCET Researcher Marco Tedesco According to Tedesco, tracking melting snow in Greenland, which contains enough water to raise global sea level by approximately 7 meters, is important for several reasons. “Although wet and dry snow look similar, they absorb sun’s radiation in a different way, with melting snow absorbing three to four times as much energy as dry snow, greatly affecting Earth’s energy budget,” said Tedesco. “Also, melting snow produces liquid water that will seep down to the interface of ice and bedrock, lubricating the ice sheet and increasing the speed with which ice moves,” Tedesco said. “This means that ice might react to a warm climate faster than thought, contributing more rapidly to sea level than previously thought.” Posted by crose March 27, 2007 Virtual Middle School Girl 'Jennifer Webb' to Headline Computer Mania Day, May 5 at UMBC Actors, Animators to Bring Digital Role Model to Life for Hundreds of Middle School Girls, Parents, in Day of Hands-on, High-Tech Fun Middle school girls of Maryland, the star of the show is a digital version of you! Jennifer Webb is her name and even though she is a 3-D, digitally animated puppet, she can flip her ponytail, IM, download and prepare for a career in computer technology. In fact she is just like the hundreds of middle school girls from around the state who will be able to interact with her live at Computer Mania Day at UMBC on Saturday, May 5 from 9 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Computer Mania Day is an annual day of free, hands-on, high-tech, fun activities for adults and kids sponsored by UMBC’s Center for Women and Information Technology (CWIT). The half-day event helps to get girls interested in technology and computing careers while helping parents and teachers learn how to help prepare their kids for college and technical careers and keep them safe online. While boys are welcome, the focus is on girls because of their continuing under-representation in engineering and information technology fields. While fashion designers, astronauts, and journalists have been celebrity keynote speakers at past Computer Mania Days, this year the program decided to take a cue from UMBC’s Imaging Research Center (IRC). The IRC recently combined their computer animation and digital puppetry skills with the wit and pen of former Baltimore Sun and current Economist magazine political cartoonist Kevin “KAL” Kallaugher to transform his drawings of President George W. Bush into 3-D, interactive, English-mangling life. IRC faculty and student animators led by visual arts professor/filmmaker Lee Boot will team with faculty and student puppeteers and actors led by theatre professor/master puppeteer Collette Searls to make Jennifer Webb come alive. The development team will study videotape of middle school girls from previous Computer Mania Day events to get the slang, mannerisms and fashions of their target audience down pat. “Jennifer Webb represents cutting edge technology that can figuratively and literally talk to girls to get the message across that technology is fun,” said Claudia Morrell, director of CWIT. Jennifer Webb will address and take questions from a panel of business leaders representing Northrop Grumman, AT&T, and Dell as well as attendees at 10:30 a.m. in the UMBC Retriever Activities Center. Later in the day, animators will discuss how bringing Jennifer Webb to life taught real-world lessons with a panel discussion, behind-the-scenes video, and for a few lucky girls, a chance to make the puppet come to life! Research shows that the information technology (IT) gender gap opens as early as the middle school years, when girls are most image-conscious and do not want to be labeled as “geeks” or “nerds.” Girls also make up only 14 percent of Advanced Placement students in computer science, a key to success in IT-related fields at the college level. At Computer Mania Day, students can sign up for hands-on workshops led by positive female role models from UMBC along with business, government and education leaders. The day is designed to give a broad introduction to how various careers use information technology. Girls’ events highlights include “Get Down With Robomaniacs,” “Google’s Googol of Opportunities,” and “Great Pictures From Pixels.” All attendees will have the chance to win great giveaways including a laptop computer. Computer Mania Day also offers resources for parents and teachers, including workshops on how to prepare your kids for college, getting girls interested in tech careers and keeping kids safe online. Admission to the event is free, but registration is required in advance. Adults and children should visit www.computer-mania.info to register. NOTE TO MEDIA: Hi-resolution, color images of Jennifer Webb and the Computer Mania Day logo are available online at: http://www.umbc.edu/NewsEvents/PhotoGal/JenniferWebb.jpg http://www.umbc.edu/NewsEvents/PhotoGal/CMDlogo.jpg Posted by crose March 26, 2007 UMBC Dean of Engineering & Information Technology Receives International Honor Society of Manufacturing Engineers Recognizes Warren DeVries’ Accomplishments with Albert M. Sargent Progress Award CONTACT: Chip Rose, UMBC News 410-455-5793 crose@umbc.edu Photo Caption: Warren DeVries. Click on the image above to download a high-resolution photo of Dean DeVries. The Society of Manufacturing Engineers (SME), the world's leading professional society serving the manufacturing industry, named Warren R. DeVries, dean of engineering and information technology at UMBC, the 2007 winner of the SME Albert M. Sargent Progress Award today for his significant accomplishments in the field of manufacturing processes, methods and systems. The SME recognized the recipients of the 2007 SME International Honor Awards at its International Awards Gala which took place in conjunction with SME's Annual Meeting and WESTEC 2007 Exposition and Conference. “To be recognized by your colleagues is always a great honor. During a time of change in the world and in the manufacturing profession, receiving the Albert M. Sargent Progress Award makes me eager to take up the challenge of education and innovation as the engines that will drive 21st century manufacturing enterprises,” said DeVries. DeVries is a leader in the national push for excellence in engineering education and is also well known in his field for his pioneering research in material removal processes and manufacturing systems. Prior to coming to UMBC to lead its College of Engineering and Information Technology, he served as the National Science Foundation’s Division Director for the Division of Design and Manufacturing Innovation. DeVries came to the NSF on assignment from Iowa State University, where he was a professor and then chair of the department of mechanical engineering. He has also held faculty positions at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, University of Michigan and University of Wisconsin-Madison. DeVries has served on the Board of Governors and as Senior Vice President for Engineering for the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) and on the Board of Directors and as President for the North American Manufacturing Research Institution of the Society of Manufacturing Engineers (SME). He is a Fellow of both the ASME and the SME. About the SME International Honor Awards: The SME International Honor Awards recognize exceptional personal accomplishments and contributions to the field of manufacturing engineering in the areas of manufacturing technologies, processes, technical writing, education, research, management or service to the Society. SME members and non-members are encouraged to nominate individuals from industry, academia and government who have made a notable impact in these areas. Posted by crose | TrackBack February 22, 2007 Cash-Prize Contests, Lessons from Pros to Mark Entrepreneurship Week at UMBC Erickson Speech, Business Idea Contests Highlight Events as UMBC Spreads Entrepreneurial Spirit Across Campus Photo Caption: Read more about UMBC's entrepreneurial community online. CONTACT: Chip Rose, UMBC 410-455-5793 crose@umbc.edu Real world lessons and real cash prizes will highlight Entrepreneurship Week USA activities at UMBC next week as the University builds on momentum from a recent $2 million grant from the Kauffman Foundation to spread entrepreneurship education and training across campus. Two business idea competitions for a total of $4,000 in cash prizes kick off the week on Monday, Feb. 26. The first contest is a student business plan competition with $1,000 at stake. Later that day the “Fillmaster Challenge” begins. The contest offers a $3,000 prize for the best idea on an alternative market niche for a precision purified water dispenser system developed by Fillmaster Systems, Inc. The device currently helps pharmacists prepare reconstituted drugs more accurately and safely, but could easily adapt to other uses. Real-world lessons from experienced entrepreneurial experts fill out the rest of the week as Retirement community and media entrepreneur John Erickson, founder and CEO of Erickson, Inc., will speak to students. Erickson’s latest venture, Retirement Living TV, a network aimed at those ages 55 and older, recently expanded to reach over 26 million households nationally through DirecTV as his retirement communities continue to expand nationwide. Erickson speaks from noon to 1 p.m. on Wed., Feb. 28, in UMBC’s Commons building room 312. Earlier in the week, Ellen Hemmerly, executive vice president of the UMBC Research Park Corporation, will speak on the successful growth of techcenter@UMBC and bwtech@UMBC, the University’s on-campus, high-tech business incubator and accelerator programs. The incubator and research park have grown from concept to a high-demand location for startup and emerging tech companies in the region. A recent, independent economic impact study of the techcenter and research park documented 841 direct jobs at the two facilities, which support more than 2,000 total jobs statewide and generate $2.1 million in income and property taxes for counties in the Baltimore region. Hemmerly will speak in The Commons room 331 from 2 to 3 p.m. on Tues., Feb. 27. "The Kauffman grant allows us to take entrepreneurship programming to the next level," said Vivian Armor, director of the Alex. Brown Center for Entrepreneurship at UMBC. Armor hopes the week’s activities expand awareness that entrepreneurship can be found beyond traditional definitions of business. “Entrepreneurship can play an important role in all disciplines," Armor said. "Faculty and students pushing the envelope in science and technology, breaking new ground in the creative arts or crafting new solutions to society's problems can all be entrepreneurs. Some people don't even realize what they are doing is entrepreneurial." For a full schedule of Entrepreneurship Week USA events at UMBC, please visit www.umbc.edu/entrepreneurship. Posted by crose February 7, 2007 Andrew Sears, UMBC Information Systems, Discusses Booming IT Job Market on Maryland Public Television Andrew Sears, chair and professor of UMBC's Information Systems department, was recently an in-studio guest for Maryland Public Television's "Business Connection." Sears discussed how the information technology (IT) job market is doing much better than conventionally thought. According to Sears, trends like decreased outsourcing, increased hiring and even signing bonuses for talented IT grads all add up to a booming IT job market for the Class of 2007. Sears was invited by the show's producers based on UMBC's growing reputation as a statewide and national leader. According to the January 2007 issue of Computing Research News, UMBC ranks # 2 in IT degrees awarded by major US research universities. UMBC also continues to be the largest producer of information technology graduates in Maryland. To watch the video online, visit the UMBC Informations Systems department's website. Posted by crose November 27, 2006 UMBC Astronomer Helps Discover Possible New Black Hole Previously Unknown Black Hole’s Speed, Power Surprises NASA, European Space Agency Team Illustration Caption: An artist's impression of a possible new black hole ripping gas and matter from the star it orbits. Click on the illustration to view a European Space Agency gallery of images and animation related to this story. CONTACT: Chip Rose, UMBC 410-455-5793 crose@umbc.edu An international team of astrophysicists including Volker Beckmann of UMBC/NASA-Goddard has discovered a possible new black hole near the center of the Milky Way galaxy. The previously unknown black hole surprised scientists by suddenly “switching on,” emitting strong pulses of radiation as it began consuming gas from the star it orbits over 26,000 light years away from our solar system. The discovery, detailed in a letter published in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics, was made using NASA and European Space Agency (ESA) satellites. In an ESA press release, Roland Walter, an astronomer at the INTEGRAL Science Data Centre and lead author of the research results, said "The galactic center is one of the most exciting regions for gamma-ray astronomy because there are so many potential gamma-ray sources.” Beckmann, a research assistant professor at UMBC’s Joint Center for Astrophysics and NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, was part of the team who used NASA's Swift satellite and ESA's INTEGRAL satellite to spot the tell-tale gamma ray outburst. The research team includes scientists from Switzerland, France, Belgium, Poland, the United States and Spain. According to Beckmann, potential new black holes are scarcer than commonly thought. “We know about 10 stellar systems in which we’re pretty sure that there's a black hole involved, and 10 more are good candidates,” he said. “What really surprised us was the intensity of the radiation it emitted and how quickly it became an obvious black hole candidate.” The team found that the black hole’s unusually strong gravitational pull ripped off layers of the star it orbits, drawing them into its maelstrom. “We’re not sure why this black hole is letting off occasional bright outbursts of radiation instead of a steady stream,” said Beckmann, “But we suspect these powerful emissions are caused by big chunks of the star’s matter falling into the black hole.” "This detection was possible because of the capability of NASA's Swift satellite to respond quickly to new objects showing up in the sky,” said Neil Gehrels, chief of NASA/Goddard’s Astroparticle Physics Laboratory and leader of the Swift satellite team. The possible new black hole has drawn the attention of the international astronomy community, having been viewed by all major X-ray telescopes in space including: NASA's Chandra telescope, the Japanese JAXA and NASA collaboration Suzaku and the ESA's XMM-Newton X-ray satellite. Posted by crose November 20, 2006 Erickson Technology, Broadcast Divisions to Build at UMBC Research Park CONTACT: Chip Rose, UMBC 410-455-5793 crose@umbc.edu BALTIMORE – The University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) announced today that Erickson Retirement Communities will construct a $20 million building at the university’s on-campus research and technology park bwtech@UMBC. Erickson will move its information technology (IT) department, its adult living national broadcast network Retirement Living TV (RL-TV) and its private charitable foundation to the 110,000 square-foot building, expected to be completed by mid-2008. The move will increase research collaboration and internship opportunities between the Erickson organization and UMBC students and faculty in The Erickson School and visual arts, communications and information technology programs. The Erickson School at UMBC grew out of Erickson founder John Erickson’s vision for interdisciplinary research and education to improve life for older adults. Since its start in January 2005, the School has launched an undergraduate major in management of aging services, expanded an executive education program for senior housing and care professionals and is planning a professional master’s program. Current research partnerships between The Erickson School and the Erickson organization include developing new computer technology applications for seniors’ housing, support for three gerontology doctoral students’ studies of older adult health and well-being and proposals to make selected Erickson communities National Institute on Aging research sites. "We look forward to expanding our partnership with UMBC in a way that will help us to more effectively shape the future of aging studies in the United States and to enhance the operational components of our company that will help to redefine it," said John Erickson, chairman and CEO of Erickson Retirement Communities. “UMBC is delighted to strengthen our relationship with Erickson Retirement Communities,” said UMBC President Freeman Hrabowski. “To