The Synapse

Happy Valentine's Day! The February issue of The Synapse highlights Loyola's ranking on a national survey, updates on NAS building renovation and addition, key annual events such as Loyola's Engineering Week, Center for Humanities Sponsored Events, the Celebration of Science happening in March, and faculty scholarly and student outreach activities. We also showcase student and faculty opportunities on campus and beyond. The month of February is also when we celebrate the Black History Month.

"There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man; true nobility is being superior to your former self.” - Ernest Hemingway

Share your news, photos, inspiring stories, and upcoming events for a future issue. Please send any feature suggestions to sciences@loyola.edu.

Loyola University Maryland has been ranked No. 51 among the 2025 Best Online Master’s in Information Technology Programs by U.S. News & World Report. The U.S. News evaluated schools in the Online Programs Rankings based on a variety of factors, such as student engagement, faculty credentials, and services and technologies.

Loyola College of Arts and Sciences offers a fully online Master of Science in Data Science and Micro-credential program designed for working professionals from all academic backgrounds.

A group of five students chaperoned by Dr. Suzanne Keilson, Chair of the Engineering department installed solar panels in Adjuntas, Puerto Rico.

The five students partnered with a nonprofit organization, a U.S. solar developer, and a local solar energy company to install solar panels on a single-family house in the town of Adjuntas, providing the resident with access to a clean, reliable energy source. The project took a Jesuit approach to education by integrating academic concepts with real-world applications and a humanitarian purpose.

Read the full story

On March 14, 2025, the STEM Academic Excellence event will be marking the start of Science Week (March 14-21). This special event will honor five groups of outstanding graduating STEM scholars: Choudhury Sarkar-Dey Medal finalists, Hauber Fellows, Haig Scholars, Hyman Science Scholars (formerly CPaMS Scholars), and Health Outreach Baltimore (HOB) Fellows. The 2025 NAS Alumni Awardee will also be recognized.

The University President (to be confirmed), Provost, and Dean of LCAS will be attending. We encourage NAS students, student organizations, and departments to actively participate in the festivities. For more details about the Celebration of Science Week events, including the STEM Academic Excellence event, please contact Julieta Guerra or Bahram Roughani.

Let's come together to celebrate the achievements and contributions of our STEM community!

The Donnelly Science Center has been the hub for Loyola’s science programs since 1978. As part of the University’s strategic plan Together We Rise: Loyola University Maryland's Strategic Plan for 2030, we aim at enhancing our STEM offerings, thus, university is making significant investments to strengthen STEM and health programs including extensive renovation and expansion of Donnelly Science Center.

More info and to view the Donnelly Science Center Addition & Construction Livestream.

Interested to support our Growth: To learn about making a gift to the Donnelly Science Center project, contact Mary Lineburger, '99, assistant vice president for major gifts, at mlmazzuca@loyola.edu or 410-617-2797.

Everyone is welcome to join the Engineering Department for an engaging evening of intrigue and innovation as we screen "Ex Machina", a psychological thriller that explores the boundaries of AI and humanity. The screening will take place at the LNDL Auditorium on February 20th, from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.

A panel of six Loyola Engineering alumni will speak to our Engineering Capstone Design class about their careers and their reasons for going (or not going) back to get a master’s degree a few years after graduation, while they worked. The alums range from the classes of 2008 to 2023 across a variety of industries. Other students are welcome to attend.

The event will be held on Tuesday, 2/18/25, from 4:30 p.m. to 5:45 p.m. in Knott Hall 003

Students will have an opportunity to see, to hear, to witness the environmental violence of 77+ stationary toxic facilities in Baltimore’s Curtis Bay. Due to the cumulative impact of stationary toxic facilities, this community has some of the highest cases of respiratory illnesses in the entire country.

Tour: 9:00 AM – 3:00 PM

Bus transportation and free lunch will be provided.

Loyola students will have an opportunity to plug into roundtable discussions about the ongoing work in South Baltimore. One table will focus on legislation and policy, another will focus on alternative housing and the third table will focus on environmental justice and youth education. There will be popular education and activities to get them thinking about their own interests and talents and how this can feed into the grassroots organizing work. Nicole Fabricant is Professor of Anthropology at Towson University in Maryland. She teaches courses on resource extraction, environmental justice, and the climate crisis.

This year's Humanities Symposium student-faculty colloquia is scheduled for Wednesday, March 12 and/or Thursday, March 13 in McManus Theatre.

Students and faculty from different disciplines will gather to discuss this year's text, The Great Derangement: Climate Change and the Unthinkable by Amitav Ghosh. A few faculty will provide very brief remarks on their disciplinary perspective of the text and then students and faculty will discuss the book, raising questions and sharing ideas. If anyone is interested in sharing remarks, please indicate this on the registration form. For faculty, use the quantity box to tell us how many students you will be bringing during each time slot.

Please register on The Bridge. For questions, please contact Billy Friebele.

The 25th Undergraduate Student Research & Scholarship Colloquium will be held on campus on Friday, April 25, 2025, from 3 to 6 p.m. Undergraduate students wishing to present their research at the Colloquium should submit a brief proposal by Friday, March 21, 2025. Please see the Application tab or the FAQ tab for more info.

Join the Simon Center for the Greyhound Pitch Competition powered by Y Center on February 22 - 23! This two-day program takes participants through breaking down a complex problem, developing ideas, defining actionable solutions, and creating a business model. Space is limited. Grab your spot TODAY!

In addition to cash prizes, one Greyhound team will be selected to participate in the Hult Prize global business pitch competition in Boston in March 2025 with an opportunity to qualify for a $1M global award and trip to London this summer!

For more info, contact Professor Jon Weinstein at jweinstein1@loyola.edu.

Join us for a lecture on Introduction to Statistical Meta-Analysis with an application by Professor Bimal Sinha, from the University of Maryland Baltimore County on Wednesday, March 19, 2025, 3:00 p.m., Knott Hall-309.

This talk will be accessible to students. Refreshments will be served.

For questions, please contact Dr. Sudeshna Basu.

Abstract:

Statistical Meta-Analysis (SMA) deals with developing valid statistical methods which can be used to combine results from several independent studies all with a common goal. Applications of SMA abound in the literature. In this talk, I will present a variety of scenarios requiring SMA and discuss one application in detail, which is the celebrated common mean problem based on samples from independent normal populations with unequal and unknown variances.

The National Library of Medicine (NLM), a component of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), is seeking exceptional candidates to join in Summer 2025 for the NLM Data Science and Informatics (DSI) Scholars Program!

The NLM welcomes undergraduate and graduate students to apply for the DSI Scholars Program. The academic backgrounds include computer science, engineering, statistics, information science, mathematics, physics, and biology.

The application is now open, and will be accepted through Wednesday, February 19, 2025. Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis starting in January. Additional details, including full eligibility and application instructions, are available on the DSI Scholars Program website.

Please reach out to NLMDSI@nih.gov with any questions.

Dr. Sudeshna Basu was invited to deliver a keynote at the International Conference on Basic Science and Applications at B K Girls College, Howrah, and during the 39th Annual Conference on Ramanujan Mathematical Society at Christ University, both in India.

We are proud to congratulate our new Ignatian data scientists who graduated from the Master of Science in Data Science program in January 2025. Thank you for allowing Loyola University Maryland to be a part of your post-graduate academic journey!

Join us for an upcoming information session to learn more about Loyola University Maryland's Online Graduate Data Science program. The academic program director and the director of program operations will be present to answer your questions regarding program formats, application requirements, and the admission process.

By attending any of our information sessions, you can save yourself from paying the $60 graduate application fee.

Join us and explore the opportunities that await you! Please register here.

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