Scholarship Philosophy

My research philosophy is firmly grounded in the use of statistical methods and data analysis to inform decision-making and enhance public welfare. I strongly believe that a thorough understanding of risk and the ability to predict outcomes are crucial for ensuring public safety and national security, particularly in the face of complex challenges such as extreme weather events and the far-reaching impact of global climate change.

Throughout my academic journey, my dissertation research focused on investigating the policy, economic, and social implications of the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) and the Flood Mitigation Assistance (FMA) programs. This in-depth exploration underscored the significance of applying statistical methods to government initiatives and public policy matters. By delving into the complexities of the NFIP, a Federal insurance program with a staggering $1 trillion coverage, which provides flood insurance in regions where private alternatives are scarce, my research shed light on the inherent challenges and opportunities associated with such programs. The findings emphasized the critical importance of effective risk management strategies in mitigating the impact of floods.

Building upon this foundational research, my work has evolved to span multiple disciplines, including science, policy, and technology. Guided by the needs of those around me, I actively seek opportunities to apply statistical methods in diverse areas to address real-world challenges. My expertise has been instrumental in conducting risk analyses of flood insurance, developing models to track and forecast the population of Earth-orbiting satellites, predicting disruptive events, and advancing our understanding of small business cybersecurity. In each of these domains, my aim has been to leverage statistical training and methodologies to make meaningful contributions towards solving complex problems.

As a researcher, I embrace agility and adaptability. I firmly believe that adopting a multidisciplinary approach enables me to make significant contributions across various fields and tackle intricate issues from multiple perspectives. By actively collaborating with experts from different disciplines, I continually expand my knowledge and explore new avenues of inquiry.

The value of disseminating research findings to a wide audience is deeply ingrained in my work. I am passionate about sharing knowledge and fostering interdisciplinary collaboration to advance scientific understanding and generate practical solutions for real-world problems. My dedication to this principle is evident in my authorship of books and edited volumes, which serve to make research accessible to diverse audiences. Moreover, I actively seek opportunities to engage with fellow researchers, policymakers, and the general public to promote dialogue, foster innovation, and drive positive societal change.

In essence, my research philosophy revolves around the application of data-driven analysis and critical thinking to support evidence-based decision-making and enhance public welfare. Through the application of statistical methods to a wide range of issues, I am committed to cultivating a comprehensive understanding of the world and making a positive impact on society. Whether addressing public health concerns, global security challenges, or advancements in space science, my unwavering dedication to advancing knowledge and utilizing it to effect meaningful change drives me to contribute to a better future for all.

Publications and Presentations

  1. James P. Howard, II, “Decoding Time’s Mysteries for Better Predictions,” Keynote Lecture, Fall Fourier Talks 2023, College Park, Maryland, October 26, 2023.
  2. James P. Howard, II, “Citizen Soldiers and American State Defense Forces,” Domestic Preparedness Journal, vol. 19, no. 9, 2023.
  3. Ivan Stanish, Jane E. Valentine, Damon C. Duquaine, Joseph D. Warfield, Ariel M. Greenberg, and James P. Howard, II, “Agent-Based Modeling for Evaluation of a Wearable-Sensor-Based Disease Surveillance Network,” SPIE Defense + Commercial Sensing, Orlando, Florida, May 1, 2023.
  4. Mina Sedaghatjou, Janette Hughes, Minnie Liu, Francesca Ferrara, James P. Howard, II, and Maria Flavia Mammana, “Teaching STEM Online at the Tertiary Level During the COVID-19 Pandemic,” International Journal of Mathematical Education in Science and Technology, vol. 54, no. 3, 2023, pp. 365–381, doi:10.1080/0020739X.2021.1954251.
  5. Ivan Stanish, Joseph D. Warfield, Jane E. Valentine, Damon C. Duquaine, Ariel M. Greenberg, and James P. Howard, II, “Agent-Based Modeling for Evaluation of a Wearable-Sensor-Based Disease Surveillance Network ,” 2022 Joint Statistical Meetings, Washington, DC, Aug. 8, 2022.
  6. James P. Howard, II, “Pushed Ahead by Pain,” The Tattooed Buddha, May 16, 2022.
  7. Anna L. Buczak, Benjamin D. Baugher, Christine S. Martin, Meg W. Keiley-Listermann, James P. Howard II, Nathan H. Parrish, Anton Q. Stalick, Daniel S. Berman, and Mark H. Dredze, “Crystal Cube: Forecasting Disruptive Events,” Applied Artificial Intelligence, 2021, doi:10.1080/08839514.2021.2001179.
  8. James P. Howard, II, “The Unexpected Pain of Unexamined Lives,” The Tattooed Buddha, Jul. 16, 2021.
  9. James P. Howard, II, and Anna C. Svirsko, “Modelling Demand for Medical Resources,” Open Science Grid All-Hands Meeting, Virtual, Mar. 1, 2021.
  10. Mina Sedaghatjou, James P. Howard, II, and Minnie Liu, “Pedagogy of Care: A New Dimension for Online STEM Teaching Proven by COVID19-Pandemic,” Fields Institute MathEd Forum, Virtual, Jan. 31, 2021.
  11. James P. Howard, II, “Ethics for an XR World,” xR21, Virtual, Jan. 13, 2021.
  12. James P. Howard, II, Arthur O. Tucker, IV, Stephen A. Bailey, James L. Dean, Michael Boyle, Christopher D. Stiles, and William C. Woodcock, “Mixed Reality for Post-Disaster Situational Awareness,” Johns Hopkins APL Technical Digest, vol. 35, no. 8, pp. 205-210, 2020.
  13. James P. Howard, II, “GURPS Disasters: Hurricane: Designer’s Notes,” The Path of Cunning, no. 3, pp. 22-23, Nov. 2020.
  14. James P. Howard, II, “Election Security and Policy Concerns,” 2020 INFORMS, Virtual, Nov. 9, 2020.
  15. Maria Vachino and James P. Howard, II, “Exploding Blockchain Myths,” UMBC Data Science Meetup Talk, Oct. 13, 2020.
  16. James P. Howard, II, “Phonetic Spelling Algorithm Implementations for R,” Journal of Statistical Software, vol. 95, no. 8, pp. 1-21, 2020, doi:10.18637/jss.v095.i08.
  17. James P. Howard, II, “Ebolavirus Transmissibility in the 2018–2020 Kivu Epidemic,” 2020 Joint Statistical Meetings, Virtual, Aug. 5, 2020.
  18. James P. Howard, II and John F. Beyers, Eds., Teaching and Learning Mathematics Online. Boca Raton, Florida: Chapman and Hall/CRC, 2020.
  19. James P. Howard, II, “Math that is Out of this World,” Oakland Mills Online, Virtual, May 4, 2020.
  20. Natalie M. Scala and James P. Howard, II, Eds., Handbook of Military and Defense Operations Research, ser. Series in Operations Research. Boca Raton, Florida: Chapman and Hall/CRC, 2020.
  21. James P. Howard, II, “World Religions Month: Hinduism,” ser. Scorpion Speaker Series, Oakland Mills High School, Columbia, Maryland, Jan. 31, 2020.
  22. James P. Howard, II and Maria E. Vachino, “Blockchain Compliance with Federal Cryptographic Information Processing Standards,” IEEE Security & Privacy, vol. 18, no. 1, pp. 65–70, 2020, doi:10.1109/MSEC.2019.2944290.
  23. James P. Howard, II, Hurricane ser. Gurps Disasters, Steve Jackson Games, Austin, Texas, 37-1711, 2019.
  24. David C. Challener, Maria E. Vachino, James P. Howard, II, Christina K. Pikas, and Anil John, “Blockchain Basics and Suitability: A Primer for Program Managers,” Journal of Information Technology Management, vol. 30, no. 3, pp. 33–44, 2019.
  25. Jeffrey Craig, Rohit Mehta, and James P. Howard, II, “Quantitative literacy to new quantitative literacies,” in Shifting Contexts, Stable Core: Advancing Quantitative Literacy in Higher Education, Luke Tunstall, Gizem Karaali, and Victor Piercey, Eds., ser. MAA Notes. Washington: Mathematical Association of America, ch. 2, pp. 15–25, 2019.
  26. James P. Howard, II, “Blockchain Applications for Distributed Data,” in Abstracts of Papers Presented to the American Mathematical Society, Joint Mathematics Meetings, vol. 40, Baltimore, p. 278, 2019.
  27. James P. Howard, II, “Distributed Snake Oil: Second Thoughts on the Blockchain Revolution,” INFORMS 2018, Phoenix, Arizona, Nov. 4, 2018.
  28. Don Thibeau, Heather Flannery, Adam Migus, and James P. Howard, II, “Identity and Trust,” 2018 ONC Interoperability Forum, ser. Security Track, Washington, Aug. 7, 2018.
  29. James P. Howard, II, “Forecasting Artificial Earth Satellite Populations,” 2018 Joint Statistical Meetings, Vancouver, British Columbia, Jul. 30, 2018.
  30. Nathan H. Parrish, Anna L. Buczak, Jared T. Zook, James P. Howard, II, and Brian J. Ellison, “Crystal Cube: Multidisciplinary Approach to Disruptive Events Prediction,” in Advances in Human Factors, Business Management and Society, Jussi Ilari Kantola, Salman Nazir, Tibor Barath, Eds., ser. Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing, AHFE 2018, vol. 783, Cham: Springer International Publishing, pp. 571–581, 2018.
  31. Lorraine Black, Natalie M. Scala, Paul Goethals, and James P. Howard, II, “Values and Trends in Cybersecurity,” in Proceedings of the 2018 Industrial and Systems Engineering Conference, Kash Barker, Diana Berry, Chase Rainwater, Eds., Orlando, Florida: Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineers, pp. 1820–1825, 2018.
  32. James P. Howard, II, “Phonetic Algorithms in R,” Journal of Open Source Software, vol. 3, no. 22, p. 480, 2018, 10.21105/joss.00480.
  33. James P. Howard, II, “Two Fields Separated by a Common Language,” in Abstracts of Papers Presented to the American Mathematical Society, Joint Mathematics Meetings, vol. 39, San Diego, p. 511, 2018.
  34. James P. Howard, II, “The Overhype Cycle of Data Science,” SEMS Says, Industrial Management, vol. 60, no. 1, pp. 8–9, 2018.
  35. James P. Howard, II, “Hurricane Harvey Dramatizes Flood Insurance Problems,” Greensboro News & Record, Sep. 3, 2017, reprinted from The Conversation.
  36. James P. Howard, II, “The Problem with Offering Flood Insurance Subsidies,” Columbia Flier, Jul. 27, 2017.
  37. James P. Howard, II, Computational Methods for Numerical Analysis with R, ser. Numerical Analysis and Scientific Computing. New York: Chapman and Hall/CRC, 2017.
  38. James P. Howard, II, “Virtual Bumblebees Artificial Life Simulation,” Journal of Open Source Software, vol. 2, no. 13, p. 256, 2017, 10.21105/joss.00256.
  39. James P. Howard, II, “The Needs of the Many and the Needs of the Few,” Baltimore, Maryland: NerdNite Baltimore #8, Apr. 18, 2017.
  40. James P. Howard, II, “And Behind Door #3…,” in Abstracts of Papers Presented to the American Mathematical Society, vol. 38, Atlanta, Georgia: Joint Mathematics Meetings, p. 394, 2017.
  41. James P. Howard, II, “Review of Political Analysis Using R by James E. Monogan III,” Journal of Statistical Software, vol. 74, no. 1, pp. 1–3, 2016, doi:10.18637/jss.v074.b01.
  42. James P. Howard, II, “Economics of Martian Infrastructure,” Mars Society, Washington: 19th Annual International Mars Society Convention, Sep. 25, 2016.
  43. James P. Howard, II, “Retrospective Social Discount Rates,” 2016 Joint Statistical Meetings, Chicago, Illinois, Aug. 2, 2016.
  44. James P. Howard, II, “Public Financial Management,” Syllabus, vol. 5, no. 1, 2016.
  45. James P. Howard, II, Socioeconomic Effects of the National Flood Insurance Program, 1st ed., ser. SpringerBriefs in Political Science. Cham, Switzerland: Springer International Publishing, 2016.
  46. James P. Howard, II, “Maryland’s Suburban Stormwater Problem,” Baltimore, Maryland: Ignite Baltimore #18, Apr. 21, 2016.
  47. James P. Howard, II, “Review of Meta-analysis with R by Guido Schwarzer, James R. Carpenter, and Gerta Rücker,” Journal of Statistical Software, vol. 70, no. Book Review 1, pp. 1–3, 2016, doi:10.18637/jss.v070.b01.
  48. James P. Howard, II, “Numerical Analysis in R,” Statistical Programming DC, Washington, Dec. 8, 2015.
  49. James P. Howard, II, “Review of Uncertainty Quantification and Stochastic Modeling with Matlab by Eduardo Souza De Cursi and Rubens Sampaio,” Journal of Statistical Software, vol. 67, no. Book Review 7, pp. 1–3, 2015, doi:10.18637/jss.v067.b07.
  50. James P. Howard, II, “Review of Data-driven Modeling & Scientific Computation: Methods for Complex Systems & Big Data by J. Nathan Kutz,” Journal of Statistical Software, vol. 67, no. Book Review 1, pp. 1–3, 2015, doi:10.18637/jss.v067.b01.
  51. James P. Howard, II, “Why this Hammer Costs $435,” Columbia, Maryland: Ignite Howard County #2, Sep. 11, 2015.
  52. James P. Howard, II, “Planning for Martian Polity,” Mars Society, Washington: 18th Annual International Mars Society Convention, Aug. 14, 2015.
  53. James P. Howard, II, “Virtual Bumblebees,” MathFest 2015, Mathematical Association of America, Washington, Aug. 5, 2015.
  54. James P. Howard, II, “Why Congress Should Keep the Imperiled Export-Import Bank”, The Conversation, Jun. 23, 2015.
  55. James P. Howard, II, “Texas Floods Highlight Need to Reform Key Insurance Program”, The Conversation, Jun. 2, 2015.
  56. James P. Howard, II and Scott Beaumont, “Analysis as a Service,” in Digital Leaders. London: BCS, the Chartered Institute of IT, pp. 20–21, 2015.
  57. James P. Howard, II, “Kanban Methods for Agile Course Delivery,” University of Baltimore Fall Teaching & Learning Day, Baltimore, Oct. 17, 2014.
  58. James P. Howard, II, “Social Benefits and Costs of the National Flood Insurance Program,” Dissertation, University of Maryland Baltimore County, Baltimore, Maryland, Apr. 22, 2014.
  59. James P. Howard, II, “Using Agile Methods for Course Management and Delivery,” Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management Spring 2014 Conference, Washington, Apr. 12, 2014.
  60. James P. Howard, II, “Private Applications of Local Government Risk Metrics,” American Society for Public Administration 2014 Annual Conference, Washington, Mar. 14, 2014.
  61. James P. Howard, II, “Augmenting the Classroom with Web-based Interactive Demonstrations,” in Abstracts of Papers Presented to the American Mathematical Society, Joint Mathematics Meetings, vol. 35, Baltimore, p. 413, 2014.
  62. James P. Howard, II, “Create a Simple Predictive Analytics Classification Model in Java with Weka,” IBM developerWorks, Nov. 1, 2013.
  63. James P. Howard, II, “Implications of Coarse Data Allocation Methods for Flood Mitigation Analysis,” in JSM Proceedings, Government Statistics Section, Alexandria, Virginia: American Statistical Association, pp. 2997–3001, 2013.
  64. James P. Howard, II, “Implications of Coarse Data Allocation Methods for Flood Mitigation Analysis,” 2013 Joint Statistical Meetings, Montréal, Québec, Aug. 6, 2013.
  65. James P. Howard, II, “Our Boo-Boo,” Significance, vol. 10, no. 4, p. 44, 2013, doi:10.1111/j.1740-9713.2013.00685.x.
  66. James P. Howard, II, “Estimating the Net Social Benefits of the National Flood Insurance Program,” Increasing the Utility of Benefit-Cost Analysis, Fifth Annual Conference and Meeting of the Society for Benefit-Cost Analysis, Washington, Feb. 21, 2013.
  67. James P. Howard, II, “Measuring the Impacts of the National Flood Insurance Program,” Eleventh Graduate Research Symposium, College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, Virginia, Mar. 21, 2012, published.
  68. James P. Howard, II, “Trigonometric Functions for a Right Triangle”, Wolfram Demonstrations, Nov. 3, 2011.
  69. James P. Howard, II, “Using Computable Documents for Online Mathematics Instruction,” Wolfram Research Technology Conference 2011, Champaign, Illinois, Oct. 21, 2011.
  70. Christina Ayiotis, James P. Howard, II, Peter Van Buren, “Collaborative Development and Social Media in Government Agencies,” in Knowledge Management Conference and Exposition, Tysons Corner, Virginia, May 2, 2011.
  71. James P. Howard, II, “The MacOS X Command Line,” BSD Magazine, pp. 40–41, May 1, 2011.
  72. James P. Howard, II, “Setting Up Git and Mercurial Servers,” BSD Magazine, pp. 34–35, Mar. 1, 2011.
  73. James P. Howard, II and Peter Van Buren, “Using DVCS Frameworks for Homogenous Systems Management,” Columbia, Maryland, Jan. 12, 2011.
  74. James P. Howard, II, “Review of R Cookbook by Paul Teetor,” Journal of Statistical Software, Book Reviews, vol. 40, no. Book Review 3, pp. 1–3, 2011, doi:10.18637/jss.v040.b03.
  75. James P. Howard, II, “Letter to the Editor,” Los Angeles Times, Mar. 13, 2008.
  76. James P. Howard, II, “SGA Election Rules Fly in the Face of Free Speech,” University of Maryland Diamondback, Apr. 13, 2007.
  77. James P. Howard, II, “The Little Red Menace,” University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland, May 3, 2001,
  78. James P. Howard, II, “The Culture of Affluence Looks at the Cold War,” University of Maryland Undergraduate Research Day, College Park, Maryland, Apr. 25, 2001.
  79. James P. Howard, II, “The BSD Family Tree,” DaemonNews, Apr. 1, 2001.
  80. James P. Howard, II, “An Introduction to FreeBSD Ports,” DaemonNews, Jun. 1, 2000.
  81. James P. Howard, II, “The American Invasion of Russia,” University of Maryland College Park Scholars Capstone Conference, College Park, Maryland, May 13, 2000.

Grants and Support

  1. Co-Principal Investigator, Data Dashboards for Individual Risk of Covid-19—Integrating Local and Population Levels of Data, Johns Hopkins Institute for Data Intensive Engineering and Science (Co-PI: Tom Woolf), Seed Funding Program 2022, ($25,000).
  2. Principal Investigator, Travel Grant, Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, Janney Energize Award 2019, (INFORMS 2019, $6,500).
  3. Principal Investigator, Development Grant, Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, Ignition Grant 2018, ($10,000).
  4. Principal Investigator, Europa Lander Orbital Tours, Extreme Science and Engineering Discovery Environment (XSEDE), Startup Allocation TG-DBS170012 National Science Foundation (NSF), 2018, (33,562,428 NUs, $13,652.86).
  5. Co-Investigator, Crystal Cube—The Future Is Here. Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, (PI: Anna Loskiewicz-Buczak), Propulsion Grant 2018, ($500,000).
  6. Co-Investigator, ANTICS—Advanced Network Technology for Integrating Communications in Space, Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, (PIs: Dave Copeland and Ed Birrane), Propulsion Grant 2018, ($500,000).
  7. Co-Investigator, Dynamic Causal Decision Trees for Explainable AI, Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, (PI: Mark Matties), Combustion Grant 2018, ($50,000).
  8. Principal Investigator, Defense and Security Applications for Blockchain Conference, Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, Janney Energize Award 2017, ($40,000).
  9. Co-Investigator, Blockchain for Supply Chain Management and Tracking of National Security Assets, Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, (PI: Jaime Arribas Starkey-El), Ignition Grant 2017, ($20,000).
  10. Principal Investigator, Phonetic Spelling Approaches to Indexing Large Populations, Extreme Science and Engineering Discovery Environment (XSEDE), Startup Allocation TG-DBS170012 National Science Foundation (NSF), 2017, (4,655,650 NUs, $1,346).
  11. Co-Investigator, Marco Polo. Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, (PI: Romina Nikoukar), Propulsion Grant 2017, ($250,000).
  12. Co-Investigator, Crystal Cube—The Future Is Here. Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, (PI: Anna Loskiewicz-Buczak), Propulsion Grant 2017, ($350,000).
  13. Co-Investigator, ANTICS—Advanced Network Technology for Integrating Communications in Space, Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, (PIs: Dave Copeland and Ed Birrane), Propulsion Grant 2017, ($350,000).
  14. Principal Investigator, Blockchain-Assured Network Name Service, Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, Combustion Grant 2017, ($50,000).
  15. Augmenting the Classroom with Web-Based Interactive Demonstrations. University of Maryland University College, Center for Teaching and Learning Professional Development Grant 2014, (2014 Joint Mathematics Meeting, $508).
  16. Estimating the Net Social Benefits of the National Flood Insurance Program. UMBC Graduate Student Association, Travel Grant 2013, (Fifth Annual Conference and Meeting of the Society for Benefit-Cost Analysis, $500).
  17. Measuring the Impacts of National Flood Insurance Program. UMBC Graduate Student Association, Travel Grant 2012, (William and Mary Graduate Research Symposium, $500).

Image by Michael D Beckwith / Flickr.