Research Highlights
Our faculty, alumni, and partners contribute to a broad range of exciting discoveries and research. Our mission is to advance research and innovation to discover new knowledge. The spotlights below are a few examples of our research collaborations, TEDx style talks, and video spotlights that showcase innovation and excellence. UMBC and COEIT is a diverse and inclusive environment where we produce graduates who are highly valued and in demand, poised to deliver solutions to global challenges and responsive to the region and beyond.
Publication and Presentation Spotlights
- Researchers use AI to help businesses understand Code of Federal Regs, other legal docs
- Researchers speed up analysis of Arctic ice and snow data through AI
- New graph-based statistical method detects threats to vehicular communications networks
- New research on how fungal cells respond to stress
- Theater improvisation techniques show promising results for science classroom engagement
- Navigation preferences across people with a diverse range of disabilities
- New way to analyze fMRI data offers path to improving treatment for schizophrenia
- Researchers identify healthcare data defects, create software for easier defect detection
- UMBC gaming researchers develop a new way to render characters with realistic skin
- Researchers to study COVID-19-related discrimination against Chinese Americans
- DIY tools TalkBox and SenseBox help people with disabilities to communicate
- New research uses optical solitons in lasers to explore naturally-occurring supramolecules
- New X-ray technology could revolutionize how doctors identify abnormalities
- Communication support technology for training surgeons has promising results
News Spotlights
UMBC-led team receives Dept. of Energy grant to advance nuclear fusion energy research

UMBC’s Carlos Romero-Talamas is leading a group of researchers in designing and building a machine to produce nuclear fusion energy. The project is one of just 15 new initiatives selected for support through the U.S. Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy program. The researchers will use the $4 million grant to develop and build a centrifugal mirror that can conduct electricity and will generate energy from fusion reactions.. Read more about this research.
Read more about the inquiring minds of our UMBC community.
UMBC’s Foad Hamidi receives NSF RAPID grant to expand free, secure internet access in Baltimore during COVID-19 and beyond

During the COVID-19 pandemic, internet access has become more critical, with people relying on it to work, learn, and connect with family and friends. However, the internet is not equally accessible to all people. UMBC’s Foad Hamidi recently received a collaborative Rapid Response Research (RAPID) grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to increase high-speed wireless internet access to communities in Baltimore. Read more about this research study.
Read more about innovative research happening across campus.
UMBC researchers work to support first responders through NSF-funded stress-response technology

Researchers from UMBC’s departments of information systems (IS) and emergency health services (EHS) are joining forces to help improve the lives of first responders. Through a $370,000 grant from the National Science Foundation, they are using a wristband to collect stress level information from first responders during simulations that mimic on-call situations. The researchers are developing a visual display system for the data to aid first responders in understanding and reflecting on how they react to stressful situations. Read more about this research.
Read more about the inquiring minds of our UMBC community.