Recent News & Accomplishments
2025
In most situations, University of Maryland scientist Guangyang Fang would advise you not to walk into a lightning strike. But now, he’s encouraging everyone to dive right into a thunderstorm – in virtual reality, that is. Fang has recently released “Faraday Lightning Safety”, a mixed-reality game now available for free at the Meta Store. The game demonstrates how the Faraday cage effect – the phenomenon where an enclosed conductive structure shields its interior from external electric fields by redistributing charges and blocking electromagnetic waves – protects people from lightning during a... read more
Research and innovation combining wearable technologies and artificial intelligence (AI) could soon revolutionize how we engage with the world—creating smarter, more intuitive systems that not only understand their environment, but are able to respond to said environment in real time. Yang Bai, a fifth-year computer science doctoral student at the University of Maryland, is active in this area, developing micro-robotic systems and advanced wearable devices that are based on sensing technologies. Her research, which consistently pushes the boundaries of what’s possible, could have a big impact... read more
In the ever-evolving world of computational biology, one of the greatest challenges has always been deriving knowledge and insight from the massive amount of both DNA (double helix) and RNA (single helix) data through which scientists must sift. For example, for those that remember, it took almost 13 years (1990–2003) to sequence and assemble the first near-complete draft of the human genome. New advances in biotechnology, along with concordant computational advances, have dramatically shortened the timeline for such analyses, with a process known as “long-read sequencing”—equate it to... read more
Agarwal finds success in competitive programming in cybersecurity and blockchain tracks.
Vitthal Agarwal , a freshman double majoring in computer science and mathematics at the University of Maryland, has quickly established himself in the hackathon circuit. The international student has competed in several high-profile events, securing first-place finishes in the blockchain category at HackMIT and the cybersecurity track at Hacklytics 2025. Agarwal and his team, which included students from Georgia Tech, developed "Phisherman," a cybersecurity training platform that uses artificial intelligence to simulate phishing attacks. Built with React, Next.js, Python and Flask, the... read more
Emojis—those expressive yellow faces and diverse icons that many of us use in texts and emails—offer a fun and quick way for people to share sentiments, convey emotions, and establish aspects of their identity that can’t easily be communicated through plain text. But for some, including researchers in the University of Maryland’s Computational Linguistics and Information Processing (CLIP) Lab, those smiling faces and fire emojis are not just conversational spice, but instead represent powerful data points that can improve machine learning and natural language processing (NLP) models. The UMD... read more
In a Q&A, Chen shares insights from his startup journey with FiscalNote and Nitra at the Mokhtarzada Hatchery Speaker Series.
The path to entrepreneurship is rarely straightforward. For many, hands-on experience in building projects, learning from failures and adapting to challenges can be just as valuable as formal education. University of Maryland Department of Computer Science alum Jonathan Chen (B.S. ’14, computer science) knows this firsthand. From co-founding FiscalNote to leading Nitra , Inc., a fintech company focused on financial solutions for healthcare providers, Chen has experienced the realities of launching and scaling startups. On March 13, Chen participated in the Mokhtarzada Hatchery Speaker Series... read more
A University of Maryland expert in machine learning has been awarded funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to explore how autonomous systems can learn from each other and make decisions together in complex, real-world environments. Kaiqing Zhang , an assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering and an affiliate assistant professor of computer science, is the principal investigator of a National Science Foundation Faculty Early Career Development Program (CAREER) award, which provides approximately $540,000 in funding over five years. This highly competitive award,... read more
University of Maryland, College Park was awarded 71 patents in 2024.
The University of Maryland has again earned a spot among the world's top academic institutions for turning research and discoveries into patents, according to a new report released Tuesday by the National Academy of Inventors (NAI). Together with other schools in the University System of Maryland (USM), the University of Maryland, College Park (UMCP) ranks eighth among U.S. public institutions—up one spot from the previous year—and 22nd in the world for patents awarded in 2024. According to the report, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office last year granted a total of 114 patents to five USM... read more
Lin is the first Asian American woman to oversee the Computing Research Association’s financial affairs.
Ming Lin , a Distinguished University Professor at the University of Maryland’s Department of Computer Science, has been elected the Treasurer of the Computing Research Association (CRA) and a member of the Executive Committee of CRA Board of Directors. She will assume the position on July 1, 2025. Lin, who has served on the CRA Board since 2023, has also been actively involved in the CRA’s Committee on Widening Participation in Computing Research (CRA-WP), contributing as a board member and program co-chair for the National Science Foundation’s Distributed Research Experiences for... read more
In an age where the internet is woven into our daily lives, privacy concerns are on the rise. From cookies tracking online behavior to geolocation services pinpointing a person’s location, the digital age has increasingly become a double-edged sword. Erik Rye, a fourth-year Ph.D. student in computer science at the University of Maryland, is aware of these issues, noting that as technology evolves, so do novel methods used to collect, analyze, and sometimes exploit personal data. To help counter these threats, Rye is focusing his doctoral studies on security and privacy, even though his... read more