Thursday, April 28, 2011

Potato Gun. Really?!

The programming took a break to shoot potatoes from a potato gun today.  The videos made it look like great fun and, apparently, only one evil person hit the power lines!


From left to right: Chris Medykiewicz, David Kelly, Steve Bussey, Jessica Burns, Danielle Leonard, Emily Bruckart, Philip Diffenderfer, Jimmy Quinn, Chris Beggs.

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Sunday, April 10, 2011

PACISE Conference

This weekend we hosted the annual PACISE Conference.  PACISE is an organization of the computer science and information systems departments in the State System schools, but I was happy to see participation from other schools like Dickinson and American University, too.  Turnout was very good (about 140 participants).  Here we are at dinner.


The programming contest was very well attended:  26 teams!!  Dickinson and Millersville took first and second.  Our best placement was Jessica Burns, Danielle Leonard and Steve Bussey in sixth place.  The problem set was pretty tough and the competition was very good.

The keynote speaker was Clif Kussmaul from Muhlenburg College and his talk was on Using Free and Open Source Software in the Classroom.  It was relevant and insightful.  I'm hoping to leverage some of it in my selected topics course this summer.

Thursday, April 7, 2011

Computer Engineering is Approved!

Yesterday, Dr. Briggs and I had to get all dressed up to present our department's proposal for a B.S. in Computer Engineering.  Much to my surprise, my students didn't make fun of it at all (they didn't even seem to notice!).  The presentation went well even though there were so many suits in the room that I got nervous.  Here we are in our fancy clothes:


Today, the Board of Governor's gave the final vote of approval required for the creation of our new B.S. in Computer Engineering.  We couldn't be more excited and we owe thanks to the Dean (Dr. Mike), the Associate Provost (Dr. Schoolcraft), the Provost (Dr. Lyman), and the President (Dr. Ruud).  

Check out the official announcement!