Friday really was a big day!

Friday lived up to its billing! First, the posters of our senior research projects went up in the halls.




Check them out - and don't forget to look at the one behind Helena's desk.

Second, our Industrial Advisory Council met on Friday. They reviewed some changes we are considering in our Masters degrees and gave us some solid feedback on our ten year plan. We certainly have some things to think about as a result of their visit! Here they are talking with Professors Mao, Briggs, Lee and Girard:


From left to right: Lanorde Wheeler, Todd Moyer, Ben Breech, Steven Mentzer and Brian Cozzens.

These alumni are incredibly valuable to our program and we thank them for their feedback and all the other ways they interact with our students and faculty!

Upsilon Pi Epsilon

Tonight was our annual induction in our chapter of the Upsilon Pi Epsilon Honor Society. These students are our top performing students as demonstrated by their grades or other achievements. Our faculty select them carefully and we are very proud of their accomplishments! Here are this year's students inductees with the current UPE Officers:



Front row: Andrew Richwine, Cella Sum, and John Yackovitch
Back row: Peter Fisher, James Dibble, Vince Sockalosky, Joshua Buzzard, Justin Devage, Wesley Gibson, John Seth Theileman, Andrew J. Hoffer, and Tim Sherrald.

This year's honorary inductee was Todd Moyer. He is a 1999 graduate from our graphics concentration whose work involves developing the software for air traffic control systems. He has served on our industrial advisory board for five years and helped our WiCS team produce a podcast on air traffic control software. We are pleased to honor him this way.



Our officers (James Dibble, Vince Sockalosky, and Tim Sherrald) did a wonderful job of leading the ceremony:


Here is Professor Briggs bragging about the interesting projects he's been able to do with this batch of students:


It was a wonderful night. I always enjoy meeting the parents and talking with the alumni that come back to visit. I'm looking forward to next year's ceremony and the people that I expect we'll be inducting then . . .

WiCS Field Trip to PEMA and the Capital

Today was an exciting day for our WiCS team. Two weeks ago, James Powers, Pennsylvania's Director of Homeland Security, came to campus to give a seminar on the technology behind homeland security. When the WiCS team expressed interest in producing a podcast on this technology, Mr. Powers offered to take us on a field trip to gather more information. So, today, we went on a two-part field trip.

First, we visited the Emergency Operations Center at the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency where we learned about the technology they leverage to deal with emergencies as they happen.



Second, we visited the capital building. After seeing the wonderful architecture, the House and Senate in action, we met with the Lieutenant Governor who expressed enthusiasm about our podcasts and our interest in homeland security.



Watch for our next podcast episode as it will have more of the details of what we learned today!

Friday will be a big day

This Friday, our Industrial Advisory Council will be visiting. The council is made up of alumni and people from local industrial partners. They come once or twice a year to review what we are doing to help us ensure that our programs maintain their quality as technology moves. This time, they're going to look at our ten year plan, and some curriculum revisions we are considering.

While they are here, they also review our senior research projects, so you will see those appearing on the walls of the halls this week. Read and enjoy them!

In addition, they like to meet with students to get their impressions of our programs and the directions in which we are moving. If you would be interested in visiting with them, please email me your availability for Friday and I'll try to pick the time when the most students are available.

WiCS Podcast Passes 1000 Dowloads!!!

The "Where is the Software?" podcast produced by our Women in Computer Science team has passed a significant milestone: as of this morning, we have 1003 downloads! Our six episodes have an average of 167 downloads. The Malware episode is leading with a total of 250 downloads.

Check out all of the episodes at http://webspace.ship.edu/wics and use the comment section to give them your feedback!

BitLeap wins Technology Provider of the Year

In March, BitLeap was awarded Technology Provider of the Year by the Technology Council of Central Pennsylvania. This is important news for us because their two lead engineers, Lindsay Snider and Ian Berry, are alumni of our program and one of their interns, Seth Theileman, is a current student. The criteria for the award is "Company must be a developer of current technologies and must have at least one product line that has achieved or has the potential to achieve a significant market impact, and/or the status of a transforming technology for future innovation."

We are very proud of BitLeap! Check them out!

Start of a department news blog

I have to admit that keeping up with the department video podcast has been overwhelming. Taking the time to write the script, record it, and edit it is keeping me from spreading important news about our department and our alumni. Therefore, I'm going to try this route of communication as an alternative.

We are always looking for feedback, so please engage in the conversations here - let us know what you like and what you think we could do better. To start, how do you like a blog as opposed to a podcast?