Snow Leopard reviewed from a CS perspective

Apple recently released the latest version of their operating system called Snow Leopard. If you’ve already installed it, you might be asking yourself, “What’s the big deal?” It doesn’t really look all that different compared with Leopard, (their previous release) but that’s exactly the point.  Apple is as obsessed with perfection inside their OS as they are with the look and feel of their products.  John Siracusa of Ars Technica recently published an in-depth, 23-page article on Apple’s new OS.  He doesn’t just cover the obvious feature enhancements.  He takes the reader on an in-depth tour of the underpinnings of OS 10.6, it’s history and why Apple has made many of the changes in this release.  The article also gives you a glimpse of where Apple and MacOS are headed in the future.  Whether you’re interested subjects like compilers, threading and filesystem internals or just curious about some of the features and history of the OS, there’s something here for everyone.

Got talent? Creative? Consider a career in gaming!

Though I am in no way a “gamer” – or even a real fan of video gaming – I do find it interesting how all of those little worlds are created and built and packaged together.  Having the ability to go beyond just envisioning a virtual world, to creating one, seems like a pretty cool talent.  And to do that for a living?  And a good living?

While many recent college graduates are having a difficult time finding jobs in the US, computer science grads have one up on those with other degrees.  Furthermore, the gaming industry wants to hire innovative, creative thinkers who are passionate about the industry – and who are of a younger crowd.

For those of you interested in gaming – or who have enjoyed the computer science department’s course “Building Virtual Worlds (CSCI120)” – perhaps a career in this field is the right fit for you.

For more info on this subject, read the #4 article on the following page: http://www.naceweb.org/spotlight/2009/c090209.htm.

Google will even hire an Archaeologist!

…But not just any archaeologist. The archaeologist needs to know something about Bayesian statistics,  analytics and programming. Check out a recent article from the New York Times,

For Today’s Graduate, Just One Word: Statistics

One quote in the NYT article stands out:

“I keep saying that the sexy job in the next 10 years will be statisticians,” said Hal Varian, chief economist at Google. “And I’m not kidding.”

The statistics referred to by Varian his not just POS (plain old statistics). He is referring to inferential statistics, predictive modeling and machine learning algorithms. In computer science, these are referred to collectively as a branch of Artificial Intelligence.

Where can students go when the United States to understand how to position themselves to be competitive in a data-rich society?  They can come to the College of Charleston and major in Discovery Informatics or Computer Science. Discovery informatics includes the knowledge and skill set that that archaeologist, Carrie Grimes, needed to know to land that job at Google in Mountain View.

In addition, the computer science faculty at the College of Charleston continue to work on another, new and innovative degree program called Business Informatics. Business Informatics will emphasize business analytics, social network analysis and the technologies that support  these areas, which include XML technologies, scripting, Web services, service oriented architecture, and business process modeling.

So whoever your roommates are, clue them in before it’s too late! If they are creative, like to work with people and love to solve problems, then they can prepare themselves for an amazing career with an education in computing, computational thinking or discovery informatics at the College of Charleston.   And they can still call themselves an archaeologist for that matter, albeit a digital archaeologist.

I know not everyone is up to the challenge. Jumping into the dynamic and creative fields of computer science and discovery informatics takes energy, creativity and intelligence. So we don’t expect these high-power majors to be the largest on campus. But that’s okay. We will still need the service-class people, i.e., undergraduate majors who do not understand or use computational concepts and tools, to assist those of us in the creative class, so that we may enjoy the fruits of our labor in the conceptual age.

References:

Richard Florida (service class,  creative class concepts)

Daniel Pink (information age, conceptual age concepts)

Get Creative

What is computer science at CofC?

For one example, read this blurb from a feature story in the latest College of Charleston Magazine:

“Though it’s one of the smaller departments at the College, with 15 to 30 graduates each year, and its cutting-edge culture may seem at odds with a campus that prides itself on history, it was a perfect fit for Nafees. The computer lab became a second home. There, the upperclassmen were inviting, and the professors friendly. Classes were small and intimate. ‘It was like getting coffee,’ Nafees says of lectures.”

As if you need another reason to see where a degree in computer science (and specifically one from the College of Charleston) can get you, check out this story on CS graduate Nafees Bin Zafar.

AP Computer Science

Is AP Computer Science (APCS) doing anything to broaden participation in computer science? I’ve been thinking about this question lately and even more after reading Mark Guzdial’s Amazon Blog on the topic < http://www.amazon.com/gp/blog/post/PLNK1FSG5UQJ2R5MK >.

I used to think of APCS as the solution (in the 1990s) then as a benign anachronism (in the 2000s). I now believe that APCS unnecessarily constrains capable high school computer science teachers in order to prepare students for the exam. I also believe that students in APCS have already self-selected into the discipline thus APCS offers little power to broaden participation. So I respectfully disagree with Dr. Guzdial. Offering APCS in more high schools may only broaden participation linearly at best. 

As chair of a computer science department, I relish new freshmen with APCS coursework, don’t get me wrong, but the value is in the experience not the exam or the transfer credit. Engaging and motivating students in the 8th and 9th grades through computer science courses built around problem contexts, multiple disciplines and current technologies may do more to broaden participation than all of the APCS we could ever offer.

To that end, a group of computer scientists in South Carolina are working together to broaden computing experiences in public and private high schools. We aim to excite students about computer science through a more relevant and broader exposure to computing principles (Peter Denning) and computational thinking (Jeannette Wing). APCS will be promoted too, but without constraining resources or the political will to do so much more for our students than we are doing today with APC

Chris Starr

Current students and graduates:

The CS Department website and this blog display listings of jobs that are specifically focused toward computer science students.  Though the job postings to our website are a little less abundant over the summer than during the school year, employers are continuously searching for employees with computer science backgrounds.

Also, the College’s Career Center has a few really great documents on how to search for jobs, prepare your resume and cover letter, and even tips on how to avoid your future employer finding anything… dissuasive… on your Facebook page.
Check it out.

May the force be with you.

-Kala

Pecha Kucha Three

No, I am not fully aware of what awaits me tonight as I attend my first Pecha Kucha.

However, with the continued help of CS faculty and staff, I know to expect a wonderfully smooth (technically speaking) and exciting experience viewing the presentations of each… presenter.

See this link for more info!

Let’s be truly open.

Today, I saw in my google reader that Standford is offering its iPhone development class for free on iTunesU. Anyone can log on, follow along with the class, and learn how to program for free! So I logged on to iTunes, and found that many other colleges also offer their classes free.

I can take a Java class at Cornell, or a Machine learning class at MIT. The professors upload the homework assignments that they hand out in class, so the people following at home can do them. While you might not get “college credit” for the class, you get valuable knowledge from great professors.

Here is my challenge to the College of Charleston and the Computer Science department specifically. Step up with the big boys like MIT, Stanford, and Duke. Before I graduate in 2010, I would love to see a College of Charleston Computer Science class offered for free on iTunes. I believe we have great professors at CofC, so let’s show them to the world.

And now, a word from Microsoft Research

This video offers a fun look into just a portion of the capabilities of computer scientists.

Ada Lovelace Day

Each month I receive a newsletter from the Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology. This month’s newsletter mentioned Ada Lovelace Day. Although I am not a blogger, (in fact this is my first blog entry ever) I immediately sent an email out to the CofC students and staff and took a pledge to participate. I was excited because I knew exactly whom I had in mind to write about…

Recently I read the book, The Last Lecture, written by Randy Pausch. I received it as a birthday gift from my friend, Ellie, who knows that I love to read and thought it was perfect for me because of Pausch’s computer science background and especially because he was one of the originators of the Alice Project at Carnegie Mellon. Ellie is aware of my obsession with Alice because we baby-sit the same six-year-old girl that I have gotten hooked on Alice. She constantly begs to play that “Alice computer learning game thing” whenever we go over. Although she still needs a little help with it, she has so much fun and even learns concepts such as loops with my help.

I think our department should require all professors and students to read
The Last Lecture. Everyone can benefit from Randy Pausch’s story and advice whether they are young or old, a professional or a student, a computer scientist or not. I always circle, underline, highlight, and make notes in all of my books. Usually there is a note every couple of pages… a string of words that stands out to me or maybe a thought that I like. In my copy of the last lecture, I have marked up almost every page! Chapter 27, The Promise Land, is only three pages long, and on those pages I have a total of 8 stars, 1 heart, 1 circle, 7 underlines, and 2 strings of sentences highlighted. This chapter is about the Alice program, which for me was so exciting! No, Alice is not my woman in technology pick for Ada Lovelace day… it is the only other female mentioned in this chapter, Caitlin Kelleher.

I immediately identified with and was greatly inspired by Kelleher. Even after reading such a touching and inspiring book, I was just as equally inspired by this woman mentioned just briefly.

After thinking back on my experience in computer science, I wish I had had the opportunity to use a program such as
Storytelling Alice that Kelleher created as part of her doctoral work in Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon. She has described Storytelling Alice as “a programming environment that introduces middle school girls to computer programming as a means to the end of creating 3D animated stories,” in the paper Storytelling Alice Motivates Middle School Girls to Learn Computer Programming. Dr. Kelleher is currently a professor at Washington University in St. Louis.

My first computer class was not until my sophomore year of college. Needless to say I felt inferior to the other boys in the class, some who have been programming since they were about six years old (Hopefully when the girl I baby sit is a CS major, she will be able to say the same thing because of me!). There was a computer programming class at our high school, but I wasn’t even aware of it until after I graduated. Even if I had known about it, as I’ve heard, there’s nothing really exciting about it. Looking back at middle school, we were not required to take any technology classes and I doubt there were any offered. In elementary school, my favorite time of the week was when we went to the computer lab where we created stories and made books using a program where you pick your background and stamp your characters and objects on top. Afterwards, we would write text in the bottom section to create the story and then print it, bind it, color it, and take it home to our parents. Because of my past and my interests, you can see why I am obsessed with the idea of Alice and Alice Storytelling. It’s so similar to what I enjoyed so much as a child but takes it a step further allowing animation and actually teaching you CS concepts!

I have a younger sister in high school now, so I can see how obviously technology is being incorporated into the classroom more and more each day. Although this is great, I have still not seen a change in actively motivating students to take actual programming classes. I’m so grateful for Caitlin Kelleher’s work and progress in this area because it gives girls and even boys a gateway into the field of technology and a new way of thinking. The only reason I was able to realize I liked computer science was because my mom (also in the computer science field) mentioned trying out a class to see if I liked it. If it weren’t for her I wouldn’t have realized I enjoyed it so much; it never really crossed my mind as an option. I don’t want this to be a reason that girls aren’t interested in technology… just because they don’t know or think about computer science as an option, and Kelleher has taken strides in avoiding this from happening. Computer science is fun, and we just need girls to see that at an earlier age and to show them that it is an option! As Randy Pausch stated, “Through Alice, millions of kids are going to have incredible fun while learning something hard. They’ll develop skills that could help them achieve their dreams.”

So thank you Caitlin Kelleher, for whom this post is dedicated, because your vision is inspiring others and allowing them to dream.

Link to the Ada Lovelace Day pledge:

http://www.pledgebank.com/AdaLovelaceDay