Computer Science @ CofC

Dear Colleagues,

We would like to make you aware of an expansion of the Fulbright
Scholars Program for post doc’s, faculty and professionals in Brazil for
2013-14. The Fulbright Science Without Borders is an exciting
opportunity in STEM fields. Since the application deadline is August 1,
2012, it is important that the word spread as quickly as possible.
Perhaps you could forward the following announcement to persons in your
institution who would be interested in this program. Knowledge of
Portuguese or Spanish is desirable but not required for this grant
category.

FULBRIGHT – SCIENCE WITHOUT BORDERS

The U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural
Affairs and the Council for International Exchange of Scholars (CIES)
are pleased to announce that 49 grants are available in the 2013-14
Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program competition for U.S. academics,
professionals, and early and mid-career researchers to teach and/or
conduct research in Brazil.

Emerging from the Education Partnership for the 21st Century, the
governments of the United States and Brazil, through the U.S.-Brazil
Fulbright Commission, have expanded teaching and research exchange
opportunities for mid-career researchers and senior faculty in the U.S.
in the areas of science, technology and innovation through the new
Fulbright-Science Without Borders Core and Distinguished Chair awards.

U.S. scholars will be affiliated with top Brazilian universities and
research centers in their areas of specialization, fostering increased
cooperation and institutional collaboration between applied researchers
in the fields of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics
(STEM). Proficiency in Portuguese or Spanish is not required for
Fulbright Science Without Borders applicants.

A new Postdoctoral Research Award designed for early career candidates
from any discipline of study, will allow scholars to conduct research in
support of their professional development while advancing the scholarly
mission of the hosting institution.

Other opportunities for U.S. academics and professionals include a
Social Sciences and Humanities award, as well as four Distinguished
Chair awards in the following fields: American Studies; Environmental
Sciences and Engineering; Oil and Gas Sciences and Engineering; and
Visual Arts.

CIES will host a webinar on Fulbright Opportunities for U.S. Scholars to
Brazil on Thursday, May 17, 2012. To learn more about these
opportunities and how to apply to the 2013-14 Fulbright U.S. Scholar
competition, please contact Katrin DeWindt at kdewindt@iie.org or visit
http://www.cies.org/us_scholars/us_awards/

The deadline to apply for the 2013-14 Fulbright U.S. Scholar competition
is August, 1, 2012.

Regards,

Walter Jackson
U.S. Student Programs

Computer science majors:
Forbes has published “Best cites for jobs in the U.S.,” and in the article has the Charleston region ranks number five among mid-size cities and #29 overall, up from number eight in 2011.

Charleston is becoming a draw for young, talented and hard working software developers. Venture capitalists know that investing here is now less expensive than SFO and Austin, and software folks like you don’t mind living in a nice geography in a city alive with arts, food and creative people. There is a untapped potential for startup investing in Charleston as well according to a recent study by Ted Zoller from the Kauffman Foundation.

In May 2011, 84% of the graduates from the CS department at College of Charleston found a career position or started a software company in Charleston rather than heading back to their hometowns. Software professionals today can pick their city and lifestyle then find a career path that supports them.

Austin is certainly at the top for high tech jobs second only to The Valley (OK, and Boston), but Austin has no ocean or beach to speak of. Times are so good here and getting even better. Keep studying, the potential for your future is here.

Why the College of Charleston will prosper and large universities are on a different path…

The core values of Computer Science at the College of Charleston have always been about engagement, coaching and personalization of student learning. We value:

Undergraduate education
Quality programs
Innovation in teaching, research and service
Student learning
Faculty who are teacher-scholars
Intellectual vitality of faculty, staff, students and alumni
Collegiality among faculty, staff, students and alumni
Diversity among faculty, staff, students and alumni
Integrity of faculty, staff, students and alumni
Mentoring and advising
Extracurricular engagement
Service and leadership
Small class sizes (25 max)
No grad student instructors
Computing as a liberal art

These values were consider by some in the 20th century to be hindrances to success at building a large and successful university. Today and moving further into the 21st century the core values of the computer science department at the College of Charleston are clearly assets for student and university success. So what has changed?

When all of the university curriculum can be found using a Google search, universities are no long the exclusive repositories of information. And no longer is the classroom the place for one-way information transfer. Universities now are in the business of adding value. No longer should bright students put up with universities that put them into 200 seat classes and in recitation sections by grad students. The education for the best students will be at universities like the College of Charleston that understand and deliver, at least in the case of Computer Science, on the value of seminar classes, project based learning, faculty interaction, semesters abroad at no extra cost, research lab experiences leading to publications, and faculty interaction with students by name at the local coffee shops, software incubators, and even on our fleet of sailboats on Charleston Harbor.

As Dr. Pistone articulated so eloquently, real-time feedback and assessment, dynamic modeling, design, philosophical and rhetorical debate, acting, active listening, adaptability, and even practical skill building, are best done at enlightened universities like the College of Charleston that deliver on the 21st century learning experience. More specifically, in computer science we support the model of classroom coaching with projects and continuous feedback, portfolio reflection, software artifact development, summers of code, design competition, and professional mentoring. While other universities are still trying to come to grips with the changes brought about by the Internet, the College of Charleston is already experienced with delivering what the best students will seek.

For more information about computer science at the College of Charleston: http://compsci.cofc.edu

For more information about the College of Charleston: http://cofc.edu

While the University of Florida decides to move away from computer science, South Carolina welcomes talented computer science students, alumni and faculty. The College of Charleston’s Computer Science Department is alive and thriving thanks to new investments in computer science and entrepreneurship in Charleston, SC. We invite you to join us now. The climate for young, high-tech students in a creative liberal arts setting has never been more favorable than it is today in Charleston, South Carolina. Let’s invest together in your education and in your future career path. Students can transfer their computer science courses and not loose time toward graduation. Faculty openings are posted and new tenure track and instructor positions are anticipated. compsci.cofc.edu

Dr. Christopher Starr, Chair Computer Science, College of Charleston

While it now appears that UF has reversed its decision, the offers still stand.

Kentucky native and College of Charleston student Nora Grossman will be spending her summer at the Google headquarters in Mountain View, California. Grossman will be part of the Freshman Engineering Practicum, a 10-week internship program for rising college sophomores. Her internship will include working with a team of three or four interns alongside a full-time Google employee who will serve as their mentor. Their project could range from video to search to advertising. The Freshman Engineering Pracitcum includes approximately 30 interns total.

On Tuesday, April 17 at 4:00 pm, Automated Trading Desk (ATD) will hold an information session on campus at the Hawkins Center in Buist Rivers Residence Hall.  Students will have the opportunity to meet and network with ATD employees, learn about the company, internships, and potential employment.

Dr. Starr encourages computer science majors to attend saying, “ATD provides excellent computer programming internships and career opportunities for computer science majors specifically from the College of Charleston.”

Based in Mt. Pleasant, SC, ATD, a Citi Company, provides automated trading technology that executes some of the fastest trading on Wall Street.  ATD accounts for well over 6% of the daily NASDAQ volume and 6% of the NYSE volume. Over 99% of these trades are done in a completely automated fashion, through the use of their price prediction algorithms.

If you are interested in career opportunities with ATD and cannot attend this session, send an email with your resume and transcripts to: interns@atdesk.com.

For more information about ATD/Citi, visit www.atdesk.com and www.citi.com.

This even is open to students of all majors and years.

This summer, computer science student Clayton Turner will be working with computer science faculty member, Dr. Paul Anderson on a research project called Learn2Mine. Learn2Mine is an integrated learning and data mining system for scientists and students. Funding was awared to Dr. Anderson and Clayton by the Undergraduate Research and Creative Activities’ SURF Program.  Clayton and Dr. Anderson recently made a trip to Utah where they attended the National Conference on Undergraduate Research. While there Clayton had the opportunity to present his poster on the research done to-date for Learn2Mine.

Students in the Department of Computer Science at the College of Charleston are consistently exposed to fantastic research opportunities. The department has ongoing research in the areas of computer music, bioinformatics, software innovations, and cyber infrastructure research and development for the earth sciences. To learn more about research being done in the deparment, click here.

Congrats again to Dr. Anderson and Clayton on receiving funding towards their summer research!

Dr. Bowring’s CSCI 462 course, Software Engineering Practicum, provides students with hands-on experience in the practice of group-based software development. Student teams utilize development tools and techniques to implement software solutions to moderately complex problems. This project-based component provides a framework in which students can gain both understanding and insight into the application of software engineering principles.

Throughout the semester, one of the requirements of the course is that students keep their own blog and write a blog post of approximately 500 words before each class. We wanted to share those blogs with you so you could take a peek into the work of some of our upper-level students. Check out the blogs here:

http://csci462-2012.wikispaces.com/

Feel free to leave us your thoughts on the topics presented in the blogs. We’d love to hear from you!

Here in the Department of Computer Science at the College of Charleston we are already busy preparing for the Fall semester. The demand for computer sciences courses is growing (awesome!!) and so, we are in search for qualified individuals to join our team as adjunct faculty.

Here are the requirements:

-Completed Master’s Degree (or higher) from an accredited university
-18 graduate credit hours in computer science courses

If you are interested in potentially teaching a course, please do send your resume or CV to our Office Manager, Kristi Kratzer at kratzerkn@cofc.edu. And of course, if you know somebody else who’d be interested and qualified for this type of work, please share the information with them!

(Original blog post written by Nandini McCauley)

The collection of projects, entitled “Visual Soundscapes,” is an exploration and synthesis of 21st-century media: the merging of the visual, the aural, and the algorithmic.

The free exhibition opens Friday, April 6 and closes Monday, May 7, in the rotunda of the College of Charleston Marlene and Nathan Addlestone Library, 205 Calhoun St. These works are sonifications of digital images through computer programming. Students enrolled in two Computing in the Arts (CITA) courses selected beautiful or compelling images and then designed a set of musical parameters through which these images could be realized in sound. Musical parameters included pitch and scale, dynamics, timbre, and instrumentation. Inspiration and models were drawn from musical traditions such as Minimalism, Jazz, Rock, Serialism, and Aleatory Music. Students were free to select different parts of the image for specific musical functions.  Not all parts of the images were necessarily sonified, yet most of the sound comes from numeric data (pixels) inside these images. Changes in sound reflect a scanning of the image from left-to-right, up-to-down, center-to-corners, or diagonally. Sometimes sound comes from averaged regions of the image, and at other times complex sequencing rules are used, like those found in Living Systems.

In the end, visual, musical, and algorithmic processes become intimately intertwined.  None is subservient to another. Through these works, the visual, aural, and algorithmic become one.

Student artists were part of the Fall 2011 “Computer Music and the Quest for Beauty” Freshman Learning Community.

Students: Caroline Bowman Daniel Anderson Marissa Croop Jordan Freeman Sam McCants Forrest Hammond Kenneth Hanson Hudson Jones Elizabeth Koury Katherine May Stephen Rainey John Thevos Dylan Walsh

Faculty: Bill Manaris, Computer Science Blake Stevens, Music Jarod Charzewski, Studio Art (Exhibition Coordinator)

Thanks To: Claire Fund, Administrative Coordinator, Addlestone Library Susan Kattwinkel, Director of the First-Year-Experience (Fall 2011) James Williams, Associate Dean, Addlestone Library

Credits: This work has been funded in part by the National Science Foundation (DUE #1044861)

Computing in the Arts (CITA): Computing in the Arts (CITA) is an integrated program in the sciences and the arts at the College of Charleston. The program is an inter-disciplinary B.A. degree offered by the Department of Computer Science in the School of Science and Mathematics along with the Departments of Art History, Music, Studio Art, and Theatre in the School of the Arts.