Visual representation of data m akes it easier to understand. This workshop provides a thorough exploratio n of charting with Excel. Participants create pie\, line\, stacked column\ , stock and scatter charts\, and learn the proper uses of each. Custom axi s formatting and trend lines are also covered. Previous Excel experience i s required.
\nThis workshop will take place in the Claire T. Carney Library\, room 128. Note that seating is limited. Please register if you would like to participate!
Event page: https://www.umassd
.edu/events/cms/7-15-26-excel-charts.php
Event link: https://u
massdartmouth.co1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_8wxgxAlRFpx9KLA
Learn how to look up budget balances and run monthly Revenue and Expe nse\, Open Encumbrance and Transaction Detail reports in PeopleSoft Financ e.
\nOpen to Faculty and Staff. Please register via email to receive zoom link and room details. email: jschlesinger@umassd.edu
Event page: https://www.umassd.edu/events/cms/7-15-26-pe
oplesoft-financial-reporting-and-budget-inquiry-training--.php
Even
t link: https
://www.umassd.edu/peoplesoftfinance/training/
Tattoos and piercings are commo n forms of body modification in adolescents and young adults. Their presen ce has been associated with various characteristics and behaviors\, such a s sensation seeking\, need for uniqueness/individuality\, self-expression\ , stressful/traumatic experiences\, and participation in risk behaviors (e .g.\, marijuana use\, sexual behavior\, mood problems\, suicide ideation/a ttempts). Moreover\, research has associated tattoos and piercings with se lf-injury\, suggesting their complex implications. Previous literature has suggested that tattoos and piercings may serve as a mediator or moderator for the relationship between trauma and unhealthy habits. This study aime d to explore motivations for obtaining tattoos and piercings and the media ting role these motivations may play in the relationship between trauma an d coping. The study collected self-reports on motivations for obtaining ta ttoos and piercings\, sensation seeking\, personality\, stressful/traumati c experiences\, and coping behaviors. Following the completion of the self -reports\, a sub-sample of participants was asked to participate in an int erview to discuss their responses further. Results indicated that tattoo a nd piercing motivations were partial mediators for the relationship betwee n stressful/traumatic life events and total coping behaviors. Other result s were discussed in the section below. The results of this study provide f urther information on the relationship between common body modifications o f tattooing and piercings\, with forms of nonsuicidal self-injury\, and th e functions they serve\, expanding on the limited research in this area.
Event page: https://www.umassd.edu/events/c
ms/7-15-26-exploring-tattoos-and-piercings-as-mediator.php
Event li
nk: https://umassd.zoom.us/m
eetings/97606446699/invitations?signature=CPvule1wjIHvXup0W6frByLYjR55mXQN
uRWLRnfyzl4
Open to Faculty and Staff.
Learn how to look up Budget Balances\, Revenue and Expense Det
ails\, Open Encumbrances and Transaction Detail using the Department Manag
ement dashboard for financials.
Please register. Email jschlesinger@umassd.edu to sign u p and receive location/zoom details.
Event page: https://www.umassd.edu/events/cms/20260716-summit-financial-repor ting-101.php
DTSTAMP:20260715T202327 DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260403T100000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260403T111500 LOCATION:Zoom SUMMARY;LANGUAGE=en-us:Summit Financial Reporting 101 UID:035c069b0a8dfa84bb19abce94a1925b@www.umassd.edu END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT CATEGORIES:Financial Aid DESCRIPTION:Financial Aid Services wants to remind all students to file the ir FAFSA! Join Financial Aid Services for Zoom FAFSA Help Labs on Fridays from 2-3pm for help filing your FAFSA and learning more about financial ai d.\nEvent page: https://www.umassd.edu/events/cms/7-17-26-summer-financial -aid-zoom-fafsa-help-labs-.php\nEvent link: https://umassd.zoom.us/j/93075 462260?pwd=JhUkTxOEnyX3q6xrQZN5LPHDFjqHOD.1 X-ALT-DESC;FMTTYPE=text/html:Financial Aid Services wants to remind all students to file their FAFSA! Join Financial Aid Services for Zoom FAFSA Help Labs on Fridays from 2-3pm for help filing your FAFSA and learning more about financial aid.
Event page: https://www.umassd.edu/events/cms/7-17-26-summer-financial-aid-zoom-fa
fsa-help-labs-.php
Event link: https://umassd.zoom.us/j/9
3075462260?pwd=JhUkTxOEnyX3q6xrQZN5LPHDFjqHOD.1
Target Audience: Faculty and & Staff
\nCategory: Thesis/Dissertation Defense
\nTitle of Defen se: Masters Thesis Defense by Younan Chen
\nTitle of Paper: The Effe ct of In-Person versus Remote Others on Moral Decision Making
\nAbst ract: People often assume that moral decisions reflect stable internal mor al values\, yet moral judgments can be context-dependent\, especially in h igh-conflict dilemmas that involve competing moral principles: utilitarian ism (i.e.\, maximizing the greater good) versus deontology (i.e.\, prevent ing intentional harm). One such context is perceived observation. Research suggests that perceived observation is associated with higher rates of de ontological judgments. Prior work\, however\, has relied on highly unrea listic hypothetical dilemmas in which the action is confounded with the ut ilitarian choice. In addition\, no study has compared the effects of rem ote versus in-person presence of others on moral decision making. The curr ent study examined (a) the effect of observation type on moral decision-ma king in the context of historical moral dilemmas\, (b) affective and cogni tive predictors of utilitarian preference\, and (c) the effect of dilemma framing on moral decision-making. Participants (N=136 undergraduate studen ts) were assigned to one of three conditions: Alone (in the laboratory\; n = 52)\, Remote Observation (3+ participants in a Zoom meeting with camera s on\; n =52)\, and In-Person Observation (3+ participants in the laborato ry room\; n = 32). Participants completed a survey consisting of 12 moral dilemmas and measures of mood\, arousal\, need for cognition\, reputation concern\, empathy\, and perspective-taking. Observation type did not signi ficantly affect utilitarian preference\, F (2\, 133) = 0.46\, p=.631\, η2 =.007. Utilitarian preference was significantly predicted only by reputati on concern and empathy. Specifically\, utilitarian preference was associ ated with higher reputational concern (β = .258\, p = .004) and lower emp athy (β = −.188\, p = .048). In addition\, participants were signific antly more likely to make utilitarian judgments for dilemmas in which the action coincides with the utilitarian option (M = .80\, SD = .21) than for dilemmas in which the action coincides with the deontological option (M=. 57\, SD = .24)\, t(135) = 9.68\, p < .001\, demonstrating a robust framing effect or an action bias. The results suggest that the mere presence of p eers (whether in person or online) may be insufficient to shift moral deci sion-making. Or\, compared to unrealistic hypothetical dilemmas\, ecologic ally grounded dilemmas may promote more internally driven moral judgments that are less sensitive to perceived observation. The associations betwe en utilitarian preference and both reputation concern and empathy align wi th dual-process theories of morality which propose that utilitarian judgme nts rely more heavily on “cold” cognitive processes\, whereas deontolo gical judgments are more strongly influenced by emotional responses. More broadly\, this study suggests that the effects of perceived observation ma y be more nuanced than previously assumed\, with individual differences in reputation concern and empathy emerging as reliable predictors.
\nK eywords: moral decision-making\, moral judgment\, moral dilemmas\, utilita rian preference\, deontology\, social observation\, peer presence\, reputa tion concern
\nAdvisor: Dr. Mary Kayyal
\nCommittee Members: D r. Trina Kershaw\, Dr. Nicholas Zambrotta
\nContact Email: mkayyal@u massd.edu
Event page: https://www.umassd.edu/eve
nts/cms/7-17-26-masters-thesis-defense-by-younan-chen.php
Event lin
k: https://umassd.zoom.us/j/93122572245?pwd=pAbPjoJ6be8iqBQkHyzu
b5lfYBOfWK.1
Advisor: Professor David Manke< /p>\n
Committee Members: Professor Catherine Neto and Professor Shuowei Cai
\nAbstract: Tryptamine natural products\, particularly serotonin
\, play important physiological roles and function as a neurotransmitter i
n mediating mood in humans through their interactions with serotonin recep
tors\, which are distributed throughout the central and
peripheral ne
rvous systems. While serotonin controls mood in the central nervous system
\, a vast majority of it is found in peripheral locations. There are many
tryptamine natural products found in nature\, including a variety of compo
unds that are maximally alkylated to generate quaternary tryptamines\, whi
ch\, due to their charged nature\, are unlikely to cross the blood-brain b
arrier. What (if any) role do these peripherally restricted compounds play
?
In this research work\, novel analogues of quaternary tryptammon ium salts are synthesized and characterized using NMR and single-crystal X -ray crystallography to advance the understanding of their impact.
Event page: https://www.umassd.edu/events/cms/7-20-26-ms-th esis-defense-by-harsh-bawa.php
DTSTAMP:20260715T202327 DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260720T100000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260720T120000 LOCATION:CCB-341 SUMMARY;LANGUAGE=en-us:MS Thesis Defense by Harsh Bawa UID:6337e3aa382ad8f4e2c18437c14b32fe@www.umassd.edu END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT CATEGORIES:Career Center,Student Affairs DESCRIPTION:Welcome to UMass Dartmouth! Are you ready to connect the dots b etween you and your path here at UMass Dartmouth and beyond? Explore your interests, strengths, values, skills, and goals as a foundation for making informed academic and career decisions. Start connecting who you are with possible majors, career paths, and campus opportunities. As a part of thi s session, you will be using a career assessment tool, TypeFocus. Please h ave your @umassd.edu email ready to go.\nEvent page: https://www.umassd.ed u/events/cms/7-20-26-first-year-career-academy-discover-your-path.php\nEve nt link: https://umassd.zoom.us/j/8793509621?pwd=bmdldFNTRHdDS1ZTcjRQdW9PZ FBtZz09 X-ALT-DESC;FMTTYPE=text/html:Welcome to UMass Dartmouth! Are you ready to connect the dots between you and your path here at UMass Dar tmouth and beyond?
\nExplore your interests\, strengths\, values\, s kills\, and goals as a foundation for making informed academic and career decisions. Start connecting who you are with possible majors\, career path s\, and campus opportunities.
\nAs a part of this session\, you will be using a career assessment tool\, TypeFocus. Please have your @umassd.e du email ready to go.
Event page: https:/
/www.umassd.edu/events/cms/7-20-26-first-year-career-academy-discover-your
-path.php
Event link: https://umassd.zoom.us/j/8793509621?
pwd=bmdldFNTRHdDS1ZTcjRQdW9PZFBtZz09
Did you know all Corsairs have a Handshake account connected to their UMD email? Ready to see what Handsh ake can do for your career journey?
\nActivate your Handshake accoun t\, set up your profile\, and learn how to find jobs\, internships\, event s\, and appointments.
Event page: https://www.umassd.edu/events/cms/7-21-26-first-year-career-a
cademy-handshake-101---your-campus-career-app.php
Event link: https://umassd.zoom.us/j/92788088761?pwd=HL1Sqtis2ceo937eTNOQzJ41xF48
6K.1
Target Audience: Faculty and St aff
\nCategory: Thesis Defense
\nTitle of Defense: Master’s Thesis Defense by Lacie T. Alt
\nDate of Defense: July 21st\, 2026\n
Location: Zoom https://umassd.zoom.us/j/98293078368?pwd=WhdJfK NhBePb3y2FbxmbTQBUO5qFL2.1
\nStart time of Defense: 1:00 PM
\nTitle of Paper: Personality\, Beliefs\, and Moral Disengagement in Moral D ecision-Making and Antisocial Behavior
\nAbstract:
\nMoral beh avior involves both how people judge morally relevant situations and how t hey respond when self-interest conflicts with moral standards. The present study examined how personality traits\, moral beliefs and attitudes\, and moral disengagement were associated with moral judgment\, low-stakes dish onest reporting\, and self-reported antisocial behavior in an online adult sample. Participants completed measures of Dark Tetrad traits\, empathy\, moral beliefs\, moral disengagement\, moral judgment\, dishonest reportin g\, cyberaggression\, and adult conduct problems. Findings provided partia l support for the study hypotheses. The strongest support emerged for anti social behavior\, particularly cyberaggression\, which was uniquely associ ated with psychopathy\, sadism\, moral disengagement\, moral identity\, an d intrinsic religiosity. Psychopathy also showed the most consistent assoc iation with adult conduct problems. Moral judgment findings were more task -specific\, and dishonest reporting was rare\, limiting conclusions about low-stakes dishonesty. Overall\, the findings suggest that moral judgment\ , dishonest reporting\, and antisocial behavior are related but distinct o utcomes within moral self-regulation.
\nAdvisor: Dr. Raina V. Lamade
\nCommittee Members: Dr. R. Thomas Boone and Dr. Mary Kayyal
\n< p>Contact Email: rlamade@umassd.eduEvent page:
https://www.umassd.edu/events/cms/7-21-26-masters-thesis-defense-by-lacie-
t-alt.php
Event link: https://umassd.zoom.us/j/9829307836
8?pwd=WhdJfKNhBePb3y2FbxmbTQBUO5qFL2.1
Title: Cranberry Leaf Extract s as a Tool Against Staphylcoccus aureus: Composition and Biofilm Inhibito ry Properties by Kyla Lockhart
\nAdvisor: Dr. Catherine Neto\, C hemistry & Biochemistry Dept.
\nCommittee Members: Dr. Shuowei Cai\, Chemistry & Biochemistry Dept. & Dr. Frank Scarano\, Medical Labrat ory Science
\nAbstract: Biofilm is a community of micro-organisms which forms as a means of protection. This community helps to protect the bacteria from its environment and to adhere to different surfaces. Staphy lococcus aureus is a common gram-positive bacterial pathogen bacteria whic h forms biofilm by producing extracellular polysaccharide (EPS). This proc ess allows these bacteria to spread and become harder to kill as the EPS m akes it more resistant to antibiotics. Cranberries are known for their ant ibacterial effects due to the proanthocyanidins (PACs) they contain. While there has been much research on the cranberry fruit\, there is less known about the chemistry and antibacterial properties of the cranberry leaves. Through bioassay-guided fractionation of leaf extracts using Sephadex-LH2 0 chromatography and LCMS and GCMS analysis we were able to characterize c ranberry leaf fractions and observe their anti-biofilm effects on S. aureu s. In the biofilm formation and eradication assays\, fraction EDII was the most effective\, with inhibition of 88% and 78% respectively at a concent ration of 12.5 µg/mL. EDII was found to contain isomers of the phenolic c ompound p-coumaroylquinic acid and was further separated into subfractions which were analyzed through LCMS and biological testing. The best result for biofilm inhibition was obtained for fraction F5 with 83% and the best biofilm eradication was obtained for fraction F4 with 68%. These fractions were found to contain 1-p-coumaroylquinic acid\, 5-p-coumaroylquinic acid and chicoric acid which may contribute to their anti-bacterial and antiox idant effects. ED fractions and subfractions were also tested for antioxid ant activity using the DPPH assay. Many of these fractions had promising f ree radical scavenging activity\, with the the most promising results obse rved for fractions EDVI and EDVII and subfraction F5 which had IC50 values of 3.64\, 1.21\, and 17.7 µg/mL respectively. Overall\, these findings d emonstrate that cranberry leaves contain strong anti-biofilm and antioxida nt properties which suggests they have potential as a natural antimicrobia l source and sets the foundation for future studies in isolation and chara cterization of active compounds and their activity.
Event page: https://www.umassd.edu/events/cms/20260721-ms-thesis-defense -by-kyla-lockhart.php
DTSTAMP:20260715T202327 DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260721T130000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260721T150000 LOCATION:SENG 307B SUMMARY;LANGUAGE=en-us:MS Thesis Defense by Kyla Lockhart, Cranberry Leaf E xtracts as a Tool Against Staphylcoccus aureus: Composition and Biofilm In hibitory Properties UID:d358e2d7d21394e84f1914f4ea7f0188@www.umassd.edu END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT CATEGORIES:Training DESCRIPTION:This workshop provides a thorough exploration of the use of tab les, pivot tables and pivot charts in Excel. Participants create pivot tab les to summarize hundreds of rows of transactional data in just a few clic ks, without complex formulas, or time-consuming grouping and reorganizatio n. Previous Excel experience is required. This workshop will take place in the Claire T. Carney Library, room 128. Note that seating is limited. Ple ase register if you would like to participate!\nEvent page: https://www.um assd.edu/events/cms/7-22-26-excel-pivot-tables.php\nEvent link: https://um assdartmouth.co1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_8wxgxAlRFpx9KLA X-ALT-DESC;FMTTYPE=text/html:This workshop provides a thorou gh exploration of the use of tables\, pivot tables and pivot charts in Exc el. Participants create pivot tables to summarize hundreds of rows of tran sactional data in just a few clicks\, without complex formulas\, or time-c onsuming grouping and reorganization. Previous Excel experience is require d.
\nThis workshop will take place in the Claire T. Carney Library\, room 128. Note that seating is limited. Please register if you would like to participate!
Event page: https://www.umassd.ed
u/events/cms/7-22-26-excel-pivot-tables.php
Event link: https:
//umassdartmouth.co1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_8wxgxAlRFpx9KLA
Now that you've activated your Handshake account\, are you ready to learn more about how it can help you on your career journey?
\nTake a deeper dive into using Handshake st rategically\, including searching for jobs and internships\, registering f or events\, following employers\, and identifying opportunities that match your interests and goals.
Event page: https://www.umassd.edu/events/cms/7-22-26-first-year-c
areer-academy-handshake-pro---get-noticed-by-employers.php
Event li
nk: https://umassd.zoom.us/j/99641565489?pwd=VIX6qneUIbO0Sc86SUw
Jhl46CkFdho.1
Thesis Advisor: Dr. Adnan El-Na san\, Computer and Information Science
\nCommittee Members:
\nAbstract:
\nIntroductory programming courses face challenges in providing scalable
feedback on students’ understanding of core programming concepts. Automa
ted grading shows whether the code passes its test cases\, but not the spe
cific gaps in the programming concepts that caused the errors. Knowledge T
racing models target those underlying concepts\, however\, they demand ext
ensive historical data\, machine-learning expertise\, and GPU hardware man
y instructors may lack access to.
This thesis introduces Knowledge Co
mponent-Constrained Diagnostic Prompting (KCDP)\, a framework that diagnos
es programming gaps through prompt design. KCDP directs a generic commerci
al Large Language Model to the concepts each problem is designed to test\,
requires it to reason through the code before naming any gap\, and maps e
ach root cause to an instructor's predefined Knowledge Components (KCs). H
uman experts and the model are restricted to the same KC vocabulary\, so t
heir diagnoses are directly comparable\, and their agreement can be measur
ed against each other. Given the prompting-oriented implementation\, KCDP
can potentially be deployed across different commercial LLM platforms usin
g standard access and an instructor’s existing course-defined KC taxonom
y. This provides an accessible approach for scalable\, concept-level diagn
osis in introductory programming education without requiring specialized m
achine learning infrastructure. KCDP was evaluated against two experts usi
ng Google's Gemini 2.5 Flash\, where it reached an F1 of 0.839 against the
human agreement ceiling of 0.885 (94.8% of human agreement) with a Cohen'
s κ of 0.557 against a human-human κ of 0.669. KCDP results held up when
run on a second\, unrelated model (DeepSeek)\, suggesting it is the promp
t design\, not the model\, that is doing the work. The gaps also proved to
be genuine in detecting recurring weaknesses. When KCDP flagged a struggl
ing student as weak in a specific concept\, that student failed the next p
roblem testing the same concept 77% of the time\, against a 26.4% chance r
ate\, while strong students were rarely flagged. This shows that the outpu
t carries real information about concepts students struggle in which could
be basis for triage and other downstream recovery tools.
For
further information please contact Dr. Adnan El-Nasan at aelnasan@umassd.
edu.
Event page: https://www.umassd.ed u/events/cms/7-23-26-diagnostic-promptingfor-automated-knowledge-gap.php
DTSTAMP:20260715T202327 DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260723T140000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260723T150000 LOCATION:Dion 311 SUMMARY;LANGUAGE=en-us:Knowledge Component-Constrained Diagnostic Prompting for Automated Knowledge Gap Detection UID:3fac9a1f74b38129edd1cf2677866649@www.umassd.edu END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT CATEGORIES:Financial Aid DESCRIPTION:Financial Aid Services wants to remind all students to file the ir FAFSA! Join Financial Aid Services for Zoom FAFSA Help Labs on Fridays from 2-3pm for help filing your FAFSA and learning more about financial ai d.\nEvent page: https://www.umassd.edu/events/cms/7-24-26-financial-aid-zo om-fafsa-help-labs-.php\nEvent link: https://umassd.zoom.us/j/93075462260? pwd=JhUkTxOEnyX3q6xrQZN5LPHDFjqHOD.1 X-ALT-DESC;FMTTYPE=text/html:Financial Aid Services wants to remind all students to file their FAFSA! Join Financial Aid Services for Zoom FAFSA Help Labs on Fridays from 2-3pm for help filing your FAFSA and learning more about financial aid.
Event page: htt
ps://www.umassd.edu/events/cms/7-24-26-financial-aid-zoom-fafsa-help-labs-
.php
Event link: https://umassd.zoom.us/j/93075462260?pwd
=JhUkTxOEnyX3q6xrQZN5LPHDFjqHOD.1
Topic: Modeling Spin-Dependent Detectability in Gravitational-Wave Astronomy with a Calibrated Normalizin g Flow
\nAbstract:
\nPopulation inference from gravitational-wave catalogs requires an accurate selection function\, the probability that a source with given parameters is detected\, because erro rs in this correction propagate directly into the inferred astrophysical d istributions. The standard semianalytic approach of Finn and Chernoff esti mates detectability from the leading-order post-Newtonian amplitude\, whic h depends on chirp mass\, luminosity distance\, and orientation but carrie s no dependence on component spin. Real waveforms are not spin-blind: alig ned spin modifies the inspiral through spin-orbit coupling\, delays merger via the orbital hang-up\, and raises the accumulated signal-to-noise rati o. A spin-blind selection function therefore misrepresents the detectabili ty of spinning binaries and the sensitive volume available to spinning pop ulations. This thesis quantifies that bias with a calibrated conditional n ormalizing flow trained on a large synthetic population of binary black ho le signals\, generated with a full precessing\, higher-harmonic waveform m odel for the Advanced LIGO-Virgo network at design sensitivity. Rather tha n classifying detection at a fixed threshold\, the flow models the full co nditional signal-to-noise distribution and remains evaluable at any thresh old. Benchmarked against the Finn-Chernoff baseline\, the flow recovers a strong dependence of sensitive volume on effective spin\, spanning a facto r of roughly 2.6 between strongly anti-aligned and strongly aligned system s\, whereas the baseline stays spin-independent by construction. This disc repancy is a spin-selection bias that must be accounted for in spin-popula tion inference as catalogs continue to grow.
\nAdvisor(s): Dr. Sarah Caudill\, Department of Physics\, (scaudill@umassd.edu)
\nCommittee members: Dr. Robert Fisher\, Department of Physics and Dr . Scott Field\, Department of Mathematics
\nNote: All PHY Graduate Students are encouraged to attend.
\n
Event page: https://www.umassd.edu/events/cms/20260727-physics-master-o
f-science-thesis-defense-by-sara-gholamhoseinian-.php
Event link: <
a href="https://umassd.zoom.us/j/97464617175?pwd=1sGVbiZIj8rZZtEWLohylHQto
ZQlt1.1">https://umassd.zoom.us/j/97464617175?pwd=1sGVbiZIj8rZZtEWLohylHQt
oZQlt1.1
Partial abstract
\nTriboelectric generators (TEGs) convert mechanical motion into electrical energy through contact electrification\, offering a simple\, li ghtweight\, and potentially low-cost approach to energy harvesting. Beca use TEGs can operate using common motions such as sliding\, rubbing\, vibr ation\, and human movement\, they are well suited for distributed power ge neration in situations where batteries are impractical. As a result\, TE Gs have growing potential for applications such as... For the FULL ABSTR ACT \, please contact: cshen2@umassd.edu or scunha@umassd.edu.
Eve nt page: https://www.umassd.edu/even ts/cms/7-29-26-mechanical-engineering-ms-thesis-defense-by-elijah-jope.php
DTSTAMP:20260715T202327 DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260729T100000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260729T120000 LOCATION:Library, Room 426 (LIB-426) SUMMARY;LANGUAGE=en-us:Mechanical Engineering MS Thesis Defense by Elijah J ope UID:20b682a1a212b78ea111e622c84eaee1@www.umassd.edu END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT CATEGORIES:Training DESCRIPTION:This intermediate Excel workshop covers a variety of built-in f unctions that can simplify complex calculations. Text manipulation functio ns are included, as well as absolute cell addressing, named cell ranges, c onditional statements, conditional formatting, and the XLookup function. P revious Excel experience equivalent to the Introduction to Excel workshop is required. This workshop will take place in the Claire T. Carney Library , room 128. Note that seating is limited. Please register if you would lik e to participate!\nEvent page: https://www.umassd.edu/events/cms/7-29-26-e xcel-formulas-and-functions.php\nEvent link: https://umassdartmouth.co1.qu altrics.com/jfe/form/SV_8wxgxAlRFpx9KLA X-ALT-DESC;FMTTYPE=text/html:This intermediate Excel worksho p covers a variety of built-in functions that can simplify complex calcula tions. Text manipulation functions are included\, as well as absolute cell addressing\, named cell ranges\, conditional statements\, conditional for matting\, and the XLookup function. Previous Excel experience equivalent t o the Introduction to Excel workshop is required.
\nThis workshop wi ll take place in the Claire T. Carney Library\, room 128. Note tha t seating is limited. Please register if you would like to partic ipate!
Event page: https://www.umassd.edu/events/cms/7-29
-26-excel-formulas-and-functions.php
Event link: https://umass
dartmouth.co1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_8wxgxAlRFpx9KLA
Partial abstract
\nTwo-phase flows are characterized by the co-existence of two im miscrible phases\, i.e.\, gas and liquid\, separated by an interface. They exist in various natural and industrial processes\, such as\, ocean waver s\, groundwater flows\, fluidized bed reactors\, fuel injection for intern al combustion engines\, oil recovery systems\, etc. A better understandi ng of those processes requires insights into the physics of two-phase flow s. For the FULL ABSTRACT\, please contact: mraessi@umassd.edu or scunha@ umassd.edu.
Event page: https://www.umassd.edu /events/cms/7-30-26-thesis-defense-by-mr-s-m-mahfuzul-hasan.php
DTSTAMP:20260715T202327 DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260730T090000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260730T110000 LOCATION:Library, Room 426 (LIB-426) SUMMARY;LANGUAGE=en-us:Mechanical Engineering MS Thesis Defense by Mr. S. M . Mahfuzul Hasan UID:3d7bc8a88cc1bb820623252fbd37a3f8@www.umassd.edu END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT CATEGORIES:Financial Aid DESCRIPTION:Financial Aid Services wants to remind all students to file the ir FAFSA! Join Financial Aid Services for Zoom FAFSA Help Labs on Fridays from 2-3pm for help filing your FAFSA and learning more about financial ai d.\nEvent page: https://www.umassd.edu/events/cms/7-31-26-summer-financial -aid-zoom-fafsa-help-labs-.php\nEvent link: https://umassd.zoom.us/j/93075 462260?pwd=JhUkTxOEnyX3q6xrQZN5LPHDFjqHOD.1 X-ALT-DESC;FMTTYPE=text/html:Financial Aid Services wants to remind all students to file their FAFSA! Join Financial Aid Services for Zoom FAFSA Help Labs on Fridays from 2-3pm for help filing your FAFSA and learning more about financial aid.
Event page: https://www.umassd.edu/events/cms/7-31-26-summer-financial-aid-zoom-fa
fsa-help-labs-.php
Event link: https://umassd.zoom.us/j/9
3075462260?pwd=JhUkTxOEnyX3q6xrQZN5LPHDFjqHOD.1
Thesis Advisor: Dr. Gökhan Kul \, Computer and Information Science
\nCommittee Members: Dr. Joshua Carberry\, Computer and Information Science and Dr. Yuchou Chang\, Compute r and Information Science
\nAbstract: Machine learning models deploy ed in consequential domains can become unfair toward protected subgroups a s the data they receive drifts over time\, yet the protected attributes ne eded to measure fairness directly are often unavailable at runtime due to privacy regulation and operational constraints. This creates a gap: existi ng fairness toolkits require protected labels and perform one-time audits\ , while generic drift detectors monitor continuously but cannot localize w hich subgroup a shift harms. This thesis develops a non-invasive fairness drift monitor that addresses this gap by repurposing Conformance Constrain ts\, a data-profiling primitive\, as a temporal fairness signal. The monit or learns per-subgroup distributional profiles at baseline\, using protect ed attributes only once\, and thereafter tracks violation of those profile s over incoming data batches without any runtime access to protected attri butes. Across three fairness benchmarks\, two classifiers\, and nineteen c ontrolled drift scenarios\, the conformance-constraint violation signals t rack fairness degradation more closely than KS and KL detectors under glob al drift\, and they remain competitive with them under group-targeted drif t. Subgroup localization provides its clearest advantage under global drif t\, where a minority-subgroup signal substantially outperforms both aggreg ate signals and the baselines. The correlations are modest in absolute ter ms\, indicating that the monitor functions as a screening instrument that flags fairness degradation for closer investigation rather than as a preci se estimator. The approach offers privacy-preserving\, subgroup-aware fair ness monitoring suited to regulated deployment settings.
\nFor furth er information please contact Dr. Gokhan Kul at gkul@umassd.edu.
Event page: https://www.umassd.edu/events/cms/20260803-non-invasive-fa
irness-drift-monitor-for-machine-learning.php
Event link: htt
ps://teams.microsoft.com/meet/245292205330763?p=xBhMejmhVBcZHQGSk6
Docusign is used to create and distribute forms to collect information and digital signatures. This works hop provides an introduction to Docusign features. Participants will creat e a simple form\, send it out via email for a signature\, and review their collected responses. They will also create a more complex form that gathe rs other types of information from the respondent\, and requires multiple signatures. No previous experience is required.
\nAccess to Docusi gn is managed by CITS. Please contact Steven Splinter at SSplinter@umassd. edu at least three business days prior to this workshop to request access. Docusign is available to employees only.
\nThis workshop will take place in the Claire T. Carney Library\, room 128. Note that seatin g is limited. Please register below if you would like to particip ate!
Event page: https://www.umassd.edu/events/cms/8-4-26-intr
oduction-to-docusign.php
Event link: https://umassdartmouth.co
1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_8wxgxAlRFpx9KLA
Thesis Advisor: Dr. Gokhan Ku
l - Computer & Information Science
Committee Members:
Abstract: Survey research depends on respond ents disclosing information that is identifying by design. Health studies require diagnoses and medication histories\, labor studies require employe r names and income\, and social science studies require demographic and im migration status. This necessity creates the protection problem. Virtually all federally funded human subjects research is governed by the Common Ru le (45 CFR §46) and IRB oversight\, with sector-specific statutes such as HIPAA\, GDPR Article 9\, CCPA\, FERPA\, GINA\, GLBA\, and others\, layeri ng additional obligations depending on institutional context. A single sur vey spanning health\, financial\, and demographic questions may trigger se veral frameworks at once\, and even absent a specific statute\, research e thics principles require protecting respondents from re-identification. An onymization resolves this by preserving the analytical utility while remov ing identifying elements\, but existing tools force a poor choice between regex pattern matching that misses contextual and combinatorial risk\, and cloud-hosted AI that cannot legally or ethically process PHI-adjacent con tent.
\nThis thesis presents a database-agnostic anonymization pipel ine that evaluates three detection methods under controlled\, reproducible conditions: a regex-only detector\, an AI-only detector using a locally h osted Ollama model for contextual risk assessment\, and a hybrid detector that merges both signals via an escalation-only design\, always selecting the higher-risk classification. Medical and PHI-adjacent content is routed exclusively to local models\; the pipeline operates uniformly across Mong oDB\, SQL\, and file-based sources through a shared interface\; and every classification maps to a four-tier anonymization-action framework (suppres s\, pseudonymize\, generalize\, keep) grounded in U.S. privacy law rather than abstract sensitivity alone.
\nEvaluated against a 300-question
ground-truth dataset spanning PII\, medical\, and benign content\, and val
idated against two independent external AI annotators (Claude and GPT\, wh
ich agreed with each other on 88.3% of labels\, kappa = 0.850)\, the three
pipeline detectors showed vastly different performance profiles. The rege
x-only detector achieved the highest overall accuracy among pipeline strat
egies (57.0%) and near-perfect benign recall\, but systematically under-cl
assified RELAXED and MODERATE content and under-flagged 31.5% of high-risk
fields. The local AI-only detector (llama3.1:8b) reached 47.3% overall ac
curacy and under-flagged 57.5% of high-risk fields\, the worst of the thre
e\, but demonstrated complementary value by catching contextual risk regex
missed\, including two STRICT financial identifiers regex scored only MOD
ERATE. The hybrid escalation only detector reached 46.7% overall accuracy
while reducing high risk under-flagging to 26.0%\, the lowest of any pipel
ine detector\, validating the escalation only design principle. External a
nnotators substantially outperformed all three pipeline detectors (76.7% a
nd 76.0% overall accuracy\, with only 9.6% and 13.7% high-risk under-flagg
ing)\, with the largest gap concentrated in medical content (16–20% vers
us 48–50%)—confirming that the models best suited to sensitive content
are precisely the ones that cannot legally be used on it.
The result
ing pipeline is intended for researchers\, institutional review boards\, a
nd data stewards who must anonymize survey data before storage or sharing
but cannot rely on cloud-hosted AI for regulatory or ethical reasons. Beca
use detectors are interchangeable behind a common interface\, institutions
can adopt regex-only\, AI-only\, or hybrid mode as a configuration decisi
on—trading speed and infrastructure cost against detection sensitivity
—rather than a redesign.
For further information please contact Dr Gokhan Kul at gkul@umassd.edu.
Event page: https://www.umassd.edu/events/cms/8-4-26-ai-powered-perso
nal-identifying-information-anonymization.php
Event link: htt
ps://teams.microsoft.com/meet/225470078366318?p=4hWIV8w4Us9lVFoi5g
Title: Synthesis of 2\,3-Disubs tituted Imidazo[1\,2-a] pyrimidines as Versatile Intermediates Toward Oroi din and Modified CK-666 Analogues
\nAdvisor/Committee Members:
\nAbstract:
\nNitrogen-rich heterocycles constitute privileged structural motifs in nat ural products and pharmaceuticals\, forming the core architecture of numer ous bioactive alkaloids\, antibiotics\, and approved drugs through their s elective interactions with diverse biological targets. Among these\, the i midazo[1\,2-a]pyrimidine scaffold is particularly valued for its recurrenc e in marine alkaloid synthesis in our research program and others\, exempl ified by oroidin\, clathroidin\, and hymenidin synthesis\, and its proven utility in cytoskeletal inhibitor design\, notably CK-666.
\nHerein\ , we describe the synthesis of 2\,3-disubstituted imidazo[1\,2-a]pyrimidin es toward two complementary objectives: (i) the total synthesis of oroidin \, a pyrrole-2-aminoimidazole alkaloid isolated from marine sponges of the genus Agelas possessing notable antimicrobial\, anti-fouling\, and anti-b iofilm properties\, along with its structural analogues\; and (ii) the des ign of modified CK-666 analogues through strategic functionalization of th e imidazo[1\,2-a]pyrimidine core. CK-666 inhibits the Arp2/3 complex—a s even-subunit assembly that nucleates branched actin filaments essential fo r cell motility—yet exhibits only moderate potency and modest binding af finity\, providing a clear impetus for structure-based optimization toward more efficacious derivatives.
Event page: htt ps://www.umassd.edu/events/cms/8-5-26-ms-thesis-defense-by-nikhil-bhagavat ula-.php
DTSTAMP:20260715T202327 DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260805T150000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260805T170000 LOCATION:VRB-210 SUMMARY;LANGUAGE=en-us: MS Thesis Defense by Nikhil Bhagavatula UID:ebf36445c8fd48ffddb1f8904dfed2c9@www.umassd.edu END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT CATEGORIES:Training DESCRIPTION:This workshop covers the use of Microsoft Word’s mail merge t ools, which are used to create form letters and email messages that are cu stomized for each recipient. Participants create a letter and merge it wit h names and addresses from a separate data document. Conditional if-then s tatements are covered, as well as using data from external sources such as Peoplesoft. Familiarity with the basic text-editing features of Word is r equired. This workshop will take place in the Claire T. Carney Library, ro om 128. Note that seating is limited. Please register if you would like to participate!\nEvent page: https://www.umassd.edu/events/cms/8-6-26-word-m ail-merge.php\nEvent link: https://umassdartmouth.co1.qualtrics.com/jfe/fo rm/SV_8wxgxAlRFpx9KLA X-ALT-DESC;FMTTYPE=text/html:This workshop covers the use of Microsoft Word’s mail merge tools\, which are used to create form lette rs and email messages that are customized for each recipient. Participants create a letter and merge it with names and addresses from a separate dat a document. Conditional if-then statements are covered\, as well as using data from external sources such as Peoplesoft. Familiarity with the basic text-editing features of Word is required.
\nThis workshop will take place in the Claire T. Carney Library\, room 128. Note that seati ng is limited. Please register if you would like to participate!< /p>
Event page: https://www.umassd.edu/events/cms/8-6-26-word-mail-merge.ph
p
Event link: https://umassdartmouth.co1.qualtrics.com/jfe/for
m/SV_8wxgxAlRFpx9KLA
Financial Aid Services wants to remind all students to file their FAFSA! Join Financial Aid Services for Zoom FAFSA Help Labs on Fridays from 2-3pm for help filing your FAFSA and learning more about financial aid.
Event page: https://www.umassd.edu/events/cms/8-7-26-summer-financial-aid-zoom-fafs
a-help-labs-.php
Event link: https://umassd.zoom.us/j/930
75462260?pwd=JhUkTxOEnyX3q6xrQZN5LPHDFjqHOD.1
Thesis Advisor: Dr. Gokhan Kul - Computer & Information Science
\nCommittee Members: Dr. Joshua Car berry - Computer & Information Science and Dr. Adnan El-Nasa n - Computer & Information Science
\nAbstract: The implicit a ssumption of stationary data built into our framework of training machine learning systems has increasingly been found faulty. There are many domain s where a model trained once and left to run in perpetuity loses classific ation accuracy over time as the data it encounters diverges from the speci fic character of the data used for its training. This phenomenon has a nam e\, concept drift. There has been an expanding body of work to combat it\, much of which relies on methods of continual learning\, using the new dat a to update the model to adapt to the drift as it is encountered. This wor k has a fundamental tension: how do we adapt to the changing character of the data while also retaining the original fundamental understanding the m odel contains. With this thesis we aim to explore how this adaptation open s up a new attack vector in these systems\, and how an adversary who can c ontrol a small fraction of the data stream can corrupt this adaptation pro cess\, crafting poison samples to slowly degrade the model's performance o ver time as well as aim to create a foundation to characterize the nature of this adversarial drift and how we can detect it. To this effect we demo nstrate a white-box frog-boiling attack on an autoencoder that uses the St rategic Selection and Forgetting (SSF) framework as its drift adaptation m echanism. The model acts as a traditional intrusion detection system\, tra ined to let benign\, regular traffic through while flagging packets that c onstitute network attacks. SSF maintains a continually updated buffer of s amples chosen to represent the current character of the data stream as fai thfully as possible\, and this buffer serves as the base of knowledge for continual retraining. The goal of the attack is to turn that adaptation me chanism against itself\, expanding the model's learned representation of b enign traffic outward round over round until it overlaps a chosen class of attack\, so that attacks of that class pass as benign while the model's j udgment of all other traffic is left largely untouched. Each round\, the a dversary submits poison the model still accepts as benign\, drawn a step c loser to the target class than the round before\, so that the buffer when retrained on\, induces a creep in the learned representation that marches steadily toward the attacker's goal. A straightforward interpolation betwe en benign and attack samples is shown to induce this effect but somewhat i nconsistently. Thus\, to make a reliable attack we adapt feature collision with watermarking\, a targeted clean-label poisoning technique\, into a f orm that drives the boil consistently across seeds. Detecting this attack directly is difficult because no single sample betrays it. Each poisoning step is minute and arrives through the same adaptation the model applies t o any drift. We find the attack only surfaces in the shape of the drift it leaves across many rounds. We characterize that drift against a synthetic benign-drift background and identify two signals that mark it as adversar ial. A Webb input-space directness measure captures the sustained\, direct ional path of a boil\, setting it apart from the aimless wandering of natu ral drift\, while a measure of the model’s contrastive loss catches the concentration of samples that don’t cleanly get folded into the benign r egion. Together these give early warning of a boil in progress before it h as degraded the model's accuracy\, laying a foundation for detecting this class of attack against continual learners.
\nFor further informatio n please contact Dr. Gokhan Kul at gkul@u massd.edu.
Event page: ht
tps://www.umassd.edu/events/cms/20260811-demonstrating-and-characterizing-
frog-boiling-poisoning.php
Event link: https://teams.microsof
t.com/meet/217648838909099?p=vkJbBE4Jvu6m4EWYJN
Financial Aid Services wants to remind all students to file their FAFSA! Join Financial Aid Services for Zoom FAFSA Help Labs on Fridays from 2-3pm for help filing your FAFSA and learning more about financial aid.
Event page: https://www.umassd.edu/events/cms/8-14-26-summer-financial-aid-zoom-fa
fsa-help-labs-.php
Event link: https://umassd.zoom.us/j/9
3075462260?pwd=JhUkTxOEnyX3q6xrQZN5LPHDFjqHOD.1
Financial Aid Services wants to remind all students to file their FAFSA! Join Financial Aid Services for Zoom FAFSA Help Labs on Fridays from 2-3pm for help filing your FAFSA and learning more about financial aid.
Event page: htt
ps://www.umassd.edu/events/cms/8-21-26-financial-aid-zoom-fafsa-help-labs-
.php
Event link: https://umassd.zoom.us/j/93075462260?pwd
=JhUkTxOEnyX3q6xrQZN5LPHDFjqHOD.1
Financial Aid Services wants to remind all students to file their FAFSA! Join Financial Aid Services for Zoom FAFSA Help Labs on Fridays from 2-3pm for help filing your FAFSA and learning more about financial aid.
Event page: https://www.umassd.edu/events/cms/8-28-26-summer-financial-aid-zoom-fa
fsa-help-labs-.php
Event link: https://umassd.zoom.us/j/9
3075462260?pwd=JhUkTxOEnyX3q6xrQZN5LPHDFjqHOD.1