Computer Science @ CofC

Last Saturday, the College of Charleston hosted the 4th annual BarCampCHS conference. Many of our Computer Science students attended this unique conference featuring a variety of speakers and topics. Unlike traditional discipline meetings, the content of BarCampCHS is decided not by the coordinators, but by the participators. It is a time to share and learn from those in your field, and even those who are not, as it encompasses everything from digital artists, entrepreneurs, writers, and designers. BarCampCHS boasts a community driven environment and a great opportunity to network and interact with old and new friends. Our students and faculty love it, and are already looking forward to next year! Thanks to Logan Edwards for the great pictures. Here are some highlights:

The Computer Science Department is very proud to announce 2012-2013 recipient of the Boeing Scholarship, one of our own, Chad Hobbs! The Boeing Scholarship awards $2,500 to four students each academic year. We sat down with Chad to ask him more about himself, and the significance of this excellent honor!

Name: Chad Hobbs

Graduation Year: 2014

Hometown: Tipp City, Ohio

High School Attended: Tippecanoe High School

What made you decide to come to the College of Charleston?
The College of Charleston has been a perfect match for me. Ever since I took a tour of the campus and saw how great the Computer Science department is, there really wasn’t any other choice. The combination of location, instructor quality, and connection to the industry convinced me to get a degree at the College of Charleston.

Why did you decide to major in Computer Science?
I have had a love and aptitude for programming from an early age. Some of my friends had convinced me to try out Electrical Engineering initially and I found out right away that it just wasn’t as interesting as Computer Science. Majoring in CS has really stretched my ability to think critically and creatively to solve a wide variety of real-world problems.

Tell me about your favorite project you’ve worked on or been part of in the Computer Science department.
What I have really enjoyed while attending the College of Charleston has been the many extra-curricular events that have been sponsored by the Computer Science department. Being able to take part in field trips to local tech businesses, enjoying creative conferences like Barcamp, and competing in coding competitions all make me feel like a part of the community.

How will the Boeing Scholarship help you with your academic career at the College of Charleston?
The Boeing Scholarship will be able to help me focus more on my classwork and less on how I pay for my classes. Since I did not enter college straight out of high school, there have not been as many financial opportunities presented to me. To be able to find a great local company like Boeing that has scholarship programs such as theirs will help me succeed during and after my college career.

Do you have any plans for after you graduate? Any ideas of paths you’d like to pursue?
What really interests me is embedded systems. I like to use small micro-controllers and add programming logic to them to automate certain processes. They can be cheap, power-efficient, and easy to adapt to a lot of uses. They can be great for controlling autonomous drones, remote sensing stations, or wearable electronics. Companies like Boeing have been expanding their development of drones and that is an industry I could see myself in.

What’s your favorite part about living and going to school in Charleston?
I love downtown Charleston! Most of the things you would ever need are just a short walk away, and the campus is right in the middle of it all. The beaches are great, the food is excellent, and I get to attend an incredible school that is at the heart of downtown.

Anything else you want to share about your experience at the College of Charleston, in the Computer Science Department, or about receiving the Boeing Scholarship?
I would just like to say that there is an abundance of opportunity to be involved and to be successful at the College of Charleston. Do your best to communicate with teachers, advisors, and other students about academic and extra-curricular events that will provide valuable experience and enjoyment at the College. The Computer Science department and local companies like Boeing are here to help turn Charleston into something more than just a great place on the coast!

Three CofC computer science majors recently returned from the 2012 Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing in Baltimore, MD. The students: Lee Blackwell, Joye Nettles and Nadia Rodriguez were among 3000 technical students and professionals who attended the three-day event that included technical paper sessions, panels, workshops, interview opportunities that span the field of computing. Nadia comments:

“I really enjoyed the conference and I would recommend it to anyone in the technology field. My favorite session was the one presented by Lili Cheng, from Microsoft, entitled “Creativity, Learning and Social Software.” It was interesting to hear her story she is now a General Manager at Microsoft, after starting her career as an architect. Her presentation was on Kodu, software that allows kids to program a game with little to no knowledge of programming. Her team’s goal, for Kodu, is to inspire children’s interest in technology.”

Lee & Joye reported similar excitement after their return. Through her conference experience, Joye discovered a new area of computer science that she hopes to study, and Lee had three job interviews!

In the pictures below, on a break from the conference, Lee and Nadia consider visiting Ripley’s Believe it or Not, while Joye considers visiting Oriole Park, the home of the Baltimore Orioles.

The College of Computing and Informatics (CCI) at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte is looking for talented students to pursue graduate studies in computing. The college has a vibrant and nationally competitive research program. Our faculty explore a rich set of research projects ranging from fundamental discovery to society and industry driven innovations in many areas of computing, including: robotics, artificial intelligence, complex systems, computer vision, data mining, information visualization and visual analytics, human-centered computing, privacy and security, pervasive computing, and networking.  Through the Graduate School, we offer a variety of graduate degree options, including M.S. and Ph.D. and graduate certificate programs. Our graduate computing program is ranked in the Top 100 by U.S. News and World Report.

We will host students from across the region to attend GRAD 2012, a two day program designed to introduce promising undergraduates and master’s students to the possibilities of graduate school and the research opportunities available within the Department of Computer Science and the Department of Software and Information Systems at UNC Charlotte.  We are interested in recruiting curious and talented students with strong technical skills in Computer Science, Computational Science, Engineering, Information Sciences, Information Technology, Mathematics, or related disciplines to our graduate programs.

What: Graduate Research and Academic Discovery (GRAD 2012)
When: Friday, November 9 — Saturday, November 10
Where: University of North Carolina at Charlotte, College of Computing and Informatics
Details: Lodging for Thursday and Friday nights and all meals will be provided. Transportation to Charlotte is the responsibility of the student; however, travel costs up to $50 can be reimbursed for out-of-area students.

Students can find more information about this event and apply to attend GRAD 2012 at http://www.ccigrad.uncc.edu. The deadline for student applications for this event is October 31. If you or any of your students have any further questions, please feel free to contact Professor Jamie Payton at payton@uncc.edu.

The Cyber Infrastructure Research and Development Lab for the Earth Sciences (CIRDLES.org) and EARTHTIME (earth-time.org) today released important new versions of Dr. Bowring’s software products Tripoli and U-Pb_Redux, which together provide geochronologists in the US and internationally with state-of-the-art automation for data-handling, workflow management, publication, and cloud-based archiving that meets NSF’s standards. Details are available here.

Direct inquiries to bowringj AT cofc.edu.

Dear professor:
I have a great idea for a book. It will be a best seller and I cannot stop thinking about it! I’m writing to you because I think it would be a great project for one of your majors! Maybe a class project for good experience. When can we meet to talk about my idea? Let’s do lunch and I’ll bring my NDA for you to sign.

I could also use your expert advise and advisement on how to design the book, but I cannot write. I tried to learn how, but it’s too much trouble for me. I’m looking for someone who knows English and a development environment, such as MS Word. Reply soon!
Bob, Business Major

Interesting how when English is substituted for Programming, the message sounds ludicrous. Ideas are worthless if they cannot be codified. It’s time to learn how to code or you too can be Bob!

Dr. Starr participated with several of our students and alumni this past Friday evening in a programming competition here in the Department of Computer Science. See what he had to say about it:

Computer science is real! I mean, we have real computer scientists in our midst — people who would like to do (almost) nothing on a Friday other than to code. Twenty teams of computer science majors and I participated. Each team had up to three people and one computer. ACM rules, judging software and problems were used. There were so many students that both Long 220 and Long 221 had to be used. All submission and scoring was automated and worked flawlessly.

The first and second place teams won an expense-paid trip to the ACM-ICPC at Georgia Tech. Two of our faculty members will be going as coaches this year.

If a high school student is looking for a dynamic CS department that knows hot to have fun in code, the should look at the College of Charleston, here the high tech community walks the talk.

Results:

Photos below are compliments of student Mike Cole.