Courses are taught on weekday evenings to accommodate work schedules and students have the opportunity to earn a master's in less than two years.

The University of Maryland’s Science Academy saw major enrollment growth this fall in its data science and machine learning programs for working professionals.

The programs, which are only in their second year, enrolled 54 new students, including 24 UMD alumni. The incoming class ranged in age from 20 to 54 years old and was 39% female. 

“The growth we’ve seen in our professional programs validates our commitment to diversifying educational offerings that are both of high value and of academic excellence,” said Amy Chester, director of the Science Academy. “As we navigated a new reality this fall, shaped in part by COVID-19, we shifted our programs from in-person to hybrid and online to meet our students’ needs.”

Thirty-eight of the new students enrolled in the data science and analytics master of professional studies and graduate certificate programs. The master of professional studies program in machine learning welcomed 16 new students.

Students in the data science programs learn to design, conduct, interpret, and communicate data analysis tasks and studies using methods and tools of statistics, machine learning, computer science and communications. 

Students in the machine learning program master the methods and techniques of creating models and algorithms that learn from and make decisions or predictions based on data. They also explore advanced topics such as deep learning, optimization, big data analysis and signal/image understanding.

Science Academy courses are taught on weekday evenings to accommodate working professionals. With this schedule, students have the opportunity to earn a master's in less than two years, while continuing to work. Instructors include faculty members in UMD’s Departments of Computer Science, Electrical and Computer Engineering, and Mathematics. Fall course topics included probability and statistics with Mathematics Professor Leonid Koralov, principles of data science, deep learning, and research methods and study design. 

The application deadline for Fall 2021 enrollment in the data science or machine learning programs is March 12, 2021 for international students and June 30, 2021 for domestic students.

The Science Academy plans to expand its offerings in 2021 with executive education programs on climate finance and quantum computing.

“These new offerings will be short, high-impact experiences where participants can gain skills quickly and then apply what they learn to their professional work,” Chester said.

Written by Abby Robinson

Program lightens the load on students and strengthens ties with regional high schools

Two years ago, when Doron Levy served as the undergraduate chair of the University of Maryland’s Department of Mathematics, he had a question: Why not let the most advanced high school students take the final exam for second-year college math courses? If they pass and then enroll at UMD, they could earn credits for the course and the grade could be registered on their transcript. 

Advanced Placement exams already enable high school students to earn credits for freshman-level calculus I and II (MATH 140 and MATH 141). But Levy knew that students enrolled in STEM magnet schools, international baccalaureate programs and accelerated math programs often exceed that level before their junior year. Some even take multivariable calculus and linear algebra, both college sophomore-level subjects, before graduating high school. But very few colleges and universities allow students to start as freshmen with such advanced standing.

Levy, who became chair of the department in 2019, thought partnering with schools to allow credit by exam would not only benefit students, but open opportunities for recruitment. He and Mathematics Professor Lawrence Washington reached out to high schools in the region and worked with the college administration to get the ball rolling. Since then, 273 high school students have taken a mathematics exam for UMD course credit and nearly three dozen are now enrolled at UMD.

“The program has been extremely successful on many fronts,” Levy said. “It required the schools to align their curriculum to ours, which has made for a very smooth transition for students, and it has already attracted a remarkable cohort of students to Maryland.”

Of the 148 high school students who took the MATH 241: Calculus III exam in 2019, 120 passed, 35 enrolled at UMD and six are current mathematics majors. In 2020, the department added an exam for MATH 240: Linear Algebra. In total, 125 high school students took one of the two exams offered, and 112 passed. Levy expects many of them will choose to come to UMD when they graduate.

Four schools in Montgomery County, Maryland, currently participate in the “credit by exam” program—Montgomery Blair High School in Silver Spring, Richard Montgomery High School in Rockville, Poolesville High School in Poolesville and Georgetown Preparatory School in Bethesda. Teachers from these schools received mentoring from UMD faculty and access to previous exams through the math department’s test bank. 

The exams students take are selected from previous years’ unused alternate exams, which are held in the department under lock and key for administering to students who are unable to take their finals at the designated time. Using one of these exams ensures that students who earn credit by exam are on an equal footing with their peers.  

“Many students have commented to me afterward that they didn't really believe me when I said they're succeeding in a college course, but their comfort and success with UMD's exam drove it home,” said Jeremy Schwartz, a teacher in the Mathematics and Computer Science Magnet Program at Montgomery Blair High School. “These students are more confident about soon navigating the transition from high school into college.”
Ensuring the alignment of high school curricula with UMD’s math program has multiple benefits.

“There is always this disconnect between what high schools think students need to know and what we think they need to know,” Washington said. "And this helps get everyone on the same page. But also, some of these really advanced students, like physics majors and engineering majors, have so many credits proscribed in advance, anything that eases the course load and frees them up for electives can give them a real advantage. And that’s a great recruiting and marketing tool for us.” 

Schwartz said his students see credit by exam as a way to fit more advanced courses into their schedule when they get to college.

“Many of our students are chomping at the bit to dig into higher- level college courses,” he said. “In effect, these students don't cut a class out of their requirements. They replace Calc 3 with a higher-level course. For those in math, they more quickly get to the real ‘meat’ of their math major. For those in related fields, this allows them an additional space in their schedule for their primary passion.”

According to Levy, colleges across the country have waived their multivariable calculus course requirement for students who passed the UMD exam, and that benefits more than just the students. 

“The program has been very successful in making our department and university visible to the outside world,” Levy said. “Major schools throughout the country have recognized our unique approach to encouraging top talent.”

Levy plans to expand the program in the future by offering it to all Maryland high schools and possibly schools in the District of Columbia that teach advanced math classes. 

Written by Kimbra Cutlip

A pilot calculus course that launched this fall in 10 Prince George’s County Public Schools (PGCPS) is being taught by a University of Maryland mathematics faculty member, coordinated by the College of Education and provided free of charge to students. The online course is underway at geographically and demographically diverse PGCPS high schools, some of which do not routinely offer calculus, a key factor in college admissions.

Fifty students are enrolled in the class, which is offered synchronously and asynchronously to high schoolers who meet prerequisite criteria. A collaboration among PGCPS and UMD’s College of Education and College of Computer, Mathematical, and Natural Sciences (CMNS), the calculus course is fully funded by the President’s Office at UMD.

“The pilot calculus course fulfills two key university goals—preparing a scientific workforce for the state and prioritizing minority enrollment at UMD, particularly from Prince George's County,” said UMD President Darryll J. Pines.

The calculus course is one of several dual enrollment programs available to PGCPS students and is part of a broader effort to support innovative partnerships between PGCPS and the University of Maryland. As a pilot, the course is a learning opportunity on how to best coordinate  curriculum, instruction and academic policies across multiple institutions.

“Building on our longstanding partnership with Prince George’s County Public Schools, this pilot aims to expand access to UMD courses through virtual teaching models,” said College of Education Dean Jennifer King Rice. “We hope this pilot calculus course will lay the foundation for additional virtual course offerings that will prepare high schoolers for college and attract diverse students from local schools to UMD.”

Under the leadership of Mathematics Chair Doron Levy, the department quickly reconfigured its four-credit MATH 140: Calculus I for PGCPS students. This included replacing the traditional textbook with an open-source textbook, redesigning the instructional model and identifying Department of Mathematics Senior Lecturer Nathan Manning to teach the course along with four experienced teaching assistants—all in less than two months. The students’ academic progress is regularly monitored by PGCPS teachers.

"We are very proud of this new program, which expands access to college-level mathematics for talented high-school students in Maryland, and in Prince George's County specifically,” said CMNS Dean Amitabh Varshney. “By bringing our expertise in mathematics education to local area high schools, we hope this program will open these students’ eyes to the world-class college education they can receive at the University of Maryland."

College of Education Professor of Practice Segun Eubanks is organizing the calculus course pilot and serving as the university liaison working to develop a long-term, broad-based agreement to provide UMD college courses to PGCPS students through the PGCPS dual enrollment program.

“This partnership allows our students the opportunity to access rigorous math content while earning college credits," said Dr. Monica Goldson, CEO of PGCPS. "Many of our students are unable to travel to the campus to take courses due to the distance or other priorities. We are hoping to create a replicable model for other courses blending the content provided by the university and support from the school.”

The pilot program allows UMD and PGCPS to use a small-scale project to address the challenges of coordinating curriculum, instruction and academic policies between the institutions. It also allows PGCPS to adjust its internal academic support system as it applies to individual students who are receiving advanced instructional opportunities outside of the school system. The project’s assessment will be used to construct a model for expanding this UMD-PGCPS partnership to more PGCPS schools.

The UMD online calculus course is currently being offered at Bowie, College Park Academy, DuVal, Eleanor Roosevelt, High Point, International High School at Langley Park, Northwestern, Oxon Hill, Parkdale, and Surrattsville High Schools in Prince George’s County.

Written by Audrey Hill