Announced in fall 2023, The Provost’s Do Good Innovator Awards sought to recognize faculty and staff members across UMD’s Do Good Campus who have been hard at work tackling the grand challenges of our time. 

From left to right: Larry Washington, Jacqueline Dwyer-Xec, Archana Khurana, and Doron Levy Images courtesy of same.

The Innovator Awards highlight the incredible members of our campus community who create, nurture, expand and amplify social impact throughout education, programs and research, both inside and outside the classroom. Over the past academic year, members from the Do Good Campus Strategic Leadership Council received nominations from across their unit and selected up to three awardees. Congratulations to the awardees from the College of Computer, Mathematical, and Natural Sciences!

Jacqueline Dwyer-Xec, Administrative Coordinator, Mathematics

Dwyer-Xec is the face of the Department of Mathematics, using her office to create an environment where every student feels they can belong. For several days at the start of the semester, Dwyer-Xec sets up a table at the entrance decorated with balloons in Maryland colors, greets students as they enter, hands out candy and hand sanitizer, and gives directions to their classrooms.

Archana Khurana, Senior Lecturer, Mathematics

Khurana received almost two-thirds of the college’s nominations, all from students who recognize her compassion, going the extra mile to support students and creating an engaging learning environment. This recognition is even more impressive considering STAT100 has more than 300 students. As one student stated, "She exemplifies diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging."

Six researchers from the University of Maryland have been selected to receive Department of Defense Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative (MURI) Program Awards:

COMPUTER SCIENCE TEAM WINS PRESTIGIOUS DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE MURI GRANT FOR CUTTING-EDGE RESEARCH

The University of Maryland's Department of Computer Science is part of a cross-institutional team selected by the Department of Defense for the 2024 Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative (MURI) program. This initiative will support the team's project, "Algorithms, Learning and Game Theory: The Foundations of Multi-Agent Systems," focusing on theory and algorithms for learning and decision-making in multi-agent systems. Selected projects for the MURI program are expected to receive an average of $7.5 million over five years, encouraging collaborative research across various academic disciplines.  

Collaborators on the project from UMD include Computer Science Professor Mohammad Hajiaghayi and Associate Professor Soheil Feizi. 

“I am truly excited to have won this MURI grant, especially in one of the most competitive areas, given the popularity of machine learning and game theory,” shared Hajiaghayi, who holds the Jack and Rita G. Minker Professorship. “It appears we were the top choice in our category. The team, comprising exceptional individuals from Columbia, MIT, CMU, UCSD, and UMD, was already outstanding in previous collaborations. And now we have an even greater opportunity to work together over the next five years.” 

Since its inception in 1985, the MURI program has been instrumental in promoting interdisciplinary research efforts addressing the unique challenges of the Department of Defense. By encouraging teams of investigators from different disciplines to collaborate, the program has facilitated the development of innovative technologies and contributed significantly to military capabilities and commercial sector applications.

“It’s an honor to be a part of such an interdisciplinary team aiming to make principled connections between deep learning and game theory in the multi-agent learning context,” Feizi said. “The opportunity to collaborate with experts from other institutions enriches the project, bringing a wide array of perspectives and expertise to the table.”

The MURI program is highly competitive and complements the DoD’s single-investigator basic research grants. Over the years, it has been responsible for numerous achievements with broad-ranging impacts. Notable contributions include advancements in cold-atom quantum methods, which hold promise for quantum sensing and communication, and breakthroughs in pulsed magnetic field propagation and Doppler radar detection that have led to new landmine detection physics. 

Original news story by Samuel Malede Zewdu, Department of Computer Science

BALACHANDRAN, CAMERON, YU RECEIVE 2024 MURI AWARD

A team led by Minta Martin and Distinguished University Professor Balakumar Balachandran has been selected for a Department of Defense Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative (MURI) Program Award, with sponsorship by the Office of Naval Research (ONR).  

Balachandran is leading researchers from four universities on a project entitled "Disorder-Influenced Collective Dynamics of Nonlinear Oscillator Systems." Other members of the team from UMD include Wilson Elkins Professor Miao Yu (mechanical engineering/Maryland Robotics Center/Institute for Systems Research),  and Professor Maria Cameron (mathematics). Participating universities also include the San Diego State University, University of California, Irvine, and the University of California, Los Angeles. 

The overall research goal is to develop a comprehensive framework informed and enabled by dynamical systems theory, experimental investigations, and brain-inspired computing paradigms, to understand and harness disorder-influenced collective dynamics in nonlinear networks.

Collective dynamics of oscillator networks is relevant to many areas and applications, including networks of gyroscopes, precision timing devices, miniature antennas, and enhanced multi-functional sensing networks. Material advances have spurred researchers to envision, design, and fabricate smaller, faster, and energy-efficient devices. As device advancement needs grow, network systems have become attractive for overcoming limits of fundamental performance. Although the promise of harnessing collective dynamics of networks is appealing, disorder effects that arise due to parameters and/or noise remain to be fully investigated. Furthermore, a well-developed theoretical framework is necessary to better understand disorder-influenced collective dynamics of networks of nonlinear oscillators.

The team plans to employ equivariant bifurcation theory, study different network models with disorder, construct mathematical and computational tools for large oscillator networks, and conduct experimental studies with Josephson junction networks, optomechanical oscillator networks, heterogeneous optical resonator networks, and mechanical oscillator arrays.

The research outcomes, which will include the development of a  foundational basis to understand disorder-influenced dynamics in complex systems, can benefit a wide range of systems and applications (e.g., optical sensing systems, coupled inertial navigation sensor systems, precision timing systems, chip scale nano-photonic devices, fluxgate magnetometers, Superconducting Quantum Interference Devices (SQUIDs), and communication devices).

Professor Balachandran is a faculty member of the UMD Department of Mechanical Engineering and the Applied Mathematics and Scientific Computing Program. He is a recipient of major  honors from the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (Melville Medal, Den Hartog Award, Lyapunov Award), the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (Pendray Aerospace Literature Award), and the American Society of Civil Engineers (Robert Scanlan Medal). His publications include a Wiley book entitled Applied Nonlinear Dynamics: Analytical, Computational, and Experimental Methods (1995, 2004). He is a Fellow of ASME, AIAA and the Royal Aeronautical Society. Balachandran chaired the UMD mechanical engineering department, which is part of the A. James Clark School of Engineering, from 2011 to 2023.

The MURI program supports interdisciplinary science and engineering research, with the goal of stimulating innovation, accelerating research progress, and expediting the transition from research to application.  This year, the DoD will distribute $221 million in awards to 30 teams from 73 academic institutions.

Original news story published by the A. James Clark School of Engineering

EDO WAKS RECIPIENT OF 2024 MURI AWARD

Professor Edo Waks has been awarded a Department of Defense Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative (MURI) Program Award.  His proposal will be sponsored by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR).  This year, the DoD will distribute $221 million in awards to 30 teams from 73 academic institutions.

Waks will lead a team of researchers from multiple universities on a project titled “Piezoelectric Control of Quantum States in Solid-State Defects (PIQS)”.  The goal of their research is to interface piezoelectric materials with semiconductors for integrated quantum systems.

Quantum properties of solid-state defects can be manipulated and enhanced by electromechanically active materials that directly modify their quantum state. Control of electron and nuclear spin is vital for spin-based quantum information processing.  To create optimal applications though, thin-film electromechanical actuators must be integrated with spin-host materials with exceptional optical and spin properties.  The electromechanical actuators must be able to withstand cryogenic temperatures, where solid-state defects are most apparent.

The team plans to create next-generation, multi-functional hybrid devices composed of optically active solid-state spin qubits integrated with superior host materials that efficiently interface to cutting-edge thin-film electromechanical actuators.  These devices enable direct control of the quantum states of optically active spin defects, enabling mechanical manipulation of electronic and spin states.  Using optimal and compatible spin hosts and actuator materials will result in exceptional mechanical strain transfer to the solid-state defect.   

Ultimately, the project will lay a foundation for future development of large arrays of solid-state spin qubits with long coherence times and the ability to emit indistinguishable photons that mediate quantum entanglement.  These applications will be relevant to the development of solid-state quantum information processors and quantum networks.  

Professor Waks is the Associate Director of UMD’s Quantum Technology Center. He holds joint appointments with the Institute for Research in Electronics and Applied Physics, the Joint Quantum Institute and the Department of Physics.  In 2023, he won the UMD Quantum Invention of the Year Award with Uday Saha (ECE Ph.D. ’22) for their Low Noise Quantum Frequency Conversion Scheme for Trapped Ion Quantum Network. Other awards include a DURIP Award for Research Instrumentation, a Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, and a NSF CAREER Award.  He is a Fellow of APS and NFS and a member of Tau Beta Pi.

Original news story published by A. James Clark School of Engineering

Jonathan Poterjoy and Kayo Ide, both from the Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Science, will lend their expertise to the new $6.6 million initiative.

The University of Maryland joined a $6.6 million consortium to improve weather predictions and train the next generation of atmospheric scientists.

Recommended for funding by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) through the federal Inflation Reduction Act, the new Consortium for Advanced Data Assimilation Research and Education (CADRE) will focus on improving data assimilation—the science of using observations to improve model predictions of natural systems, like Earth’s atmosphere, over time. The initiative will also bring students up to speed on a complex area of study that few people have mastered, creating a high demand for data assimilation specialists.

“The U.S. has some catching up to do in terms of data assimilation implementations,” said Jonathan Poterjoy, an assistant professor in the Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Science (AOSC) who studies data assimilation and was named UMD’s principal investigator for this collaboration. “The U.S. has a massive shortage of students coming from grad schools to fill positions at places like NOAA and push the boundaries of what we can do with our current models.”

Although weather forecasts have vastly improved in the last several decades, the computer models used to create them need to be continuously upgraded to reflect new mathematical and technological developments. A recent example underscoring these shortcomings was the sudden onset of Hurricane Otis, which struck Mexico’s southern Pacific coast last fall and caused catastrophic damage.

“We had a very high-profile event this last hurricane season where a major hurricane made landfall right off the coast of Acapulco and there was very little lead time,” Poterjoy said. “The storm went from virtually nothing to a major hurricane in less than a day, and none of the models got it right. That’s something that shouldn’t happen.”

Extreme weather events are also becoming more common, creating an urgent need for more accurate forecasts. 

“The U.S. is experiencing nearly six times more major weather and climate disasters per year than it did 40 years ago, and the Biden-Harris Administration is committed to ensuring we have the most accurate data possible to mitigate the impact of these disasters and fight climate change,” said U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo.

“This investment, made possible thanks to President Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act, will upgrade and improve NOAA’s technology for numerical weather prediction capabilities to ensure accurate and timely information is available to the public and public safety officials in the face of extreme weather and climate events—making our communities more climate resilient.”

AOSC Associate Professor Kayo Ide, a data assimilation expert who teaches a course on the subject, also joined the UMD team participating in CADRE. Ide has appointments in AOSC, the Department of Mathematics and the Institute for Physical Science and Technology.

In addition to UMD, the CADRE collaboration includes five other universities: Colorado State University, Howard University, Pennsylvania State University, the University of Oklahoma and the University of Utah. Most of these institutions will focus on land surface or atmospheric applications, but Poterjoy and Ide will explore ways to improve data assimilation for two lesser-studied parts of global weather systems: the ocean and cryosphere.

“On the UMD side, we’re focusing primarily on marine applications, so that’s one thing that’s unique to us,” Poterjoy said. “We’re focusing on changes in ocean ice over relatively short timescales—days to weeks—because it’s becoming increasingly important to get a good handle on what sea ice looks like to forecast Arctic weather, which then has an impact on mid-latitude weather.”

Data assimilation can help paint a more accurate picture of what’s happening in a weather system and can lead to more accurate predictions of tropical cyclone intensity, rainfall, snow depth, thunderstorm wind speeds and more. It corrects a weather model in real time by taking new observations into account, and models such as the Global Forecast System—used by NOAA to produce weather forecasts—rely on these constant updates.

By identifying better numerical weather prediction systems and data assimilation methods, CADRE’s collaborators hope to more accurately predict the weather with the Unified Forecast System (UFS), a community-based and comprehensive Earth modeling system.

“The more precisely you can characterize what’s happening in the atmosphere right now, the more accurately you can predict in the future,” Poterjoy explained. “Any improvements you make in data assimilation can lead to better forecasts."

Experts from around the world will be tapped to solve this issue. CADRE will foster collaboration, student training and an exchange of expertise between NOAA, participating universities and the Joint Center for Satellite Data Assimilation.

Support from additional academic partners, including minority-serving institutions and international institutions such as the Met Office in the UK with its Met Office Academic Partnership and the new Transatlantic Data Science Academy, will further support improvements in weather and climate modeling. CADRE will also work closely with NOAA’s Earth Prediction Innovation Center to put new data assimilation science into practice within the UFS.

Poterjoy said he’s most excited to get UMD graduate students and postdocs involved in this collaboration, which he believes will strengthen their scientific expertise and career opportunities in the long-run.

“You’re going to end up with students graduating from our program with a better understanding of data assimilation as well as some of these outstanding issues with modeling,” Poterjoy said. “And if you’re graduating from our program with expertise in data assimilation, you’re going to have excellent job prospects.”

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This article is adapted from text provided by NOAA.