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!

Possibilities

Incoming students often ask me how the job market is.  For Computer Science students, it is surprisingly strong as evidenced by this recent story on NPR.  I have to admit that I haven't heard tales of shrimp cocktail, but I believe all of last year's graduates have software development jobs that are productive and interesting.  They have been hired by places locally, in Pittsburgh, and outside Washington and many had multiple opportunities.  It's a good time to be a geek!

Council of Trustees Approves Computer Engineering

Our Computer Engineering proposal passed one more milestone today: the Council of Trustees approved it.  Check out the University's news release.  This means we have one more hurdle to pass: the Board of Governors.  Dr. Briggs and I will be presenting it at their next meeting on April 6th or 7th.  We are hopeful and I will keep you posted on our progress!

CS Games Results

The Programming Team/WiCS have returned from their great adventures north of the border.  You can find results at Ship's news and The Programming Team's website and the CS Games website.

It was a great experience and I'm proud of how well they adapted to a completely different kind of contest than we are used to.  Thank you to everyone who bought a shirt and to the alumni who supported this trip. The students learned a lot!

Changes to CSC110 Computer Science I

We have made a significant change to our Computer Science I course that we are very excited about.  It is currently a four-credit four hour class and our classes run almost full to 32 students per class.  We were concerned because 32 students makes it difficult to get to everyone when we are doing hands on activities, so we have decided to split the course into separate lab and lecture sections in much the same way other science classes are run.  The lecture section will be a normal three-credit three hour class and the lab will be a smaller section (limited to 22 students) containing the hands on work.

In addition, we are creating two versions of the lab: a three hour lab for majors and a two hour lab for non-majors. We hope this will improve things for both student populations.  For non-majors, this will let us focus on the challenges the material provides to students whose skills and focus may not be in this area.  For majors, we are going to use the extra hour to provide a freshman seminar experience including material about potential careers, study skills, college life skills, team building, etc.

This is a big change that was initiated as the result of our assessing the retention and failure rates in CS1 and we are hopeful that we will see significant improvement in both of those measures as a result.

Update on Shirts and Travel

Today, the programming team is creating their "flash" video for the CS Games.  Here they are in their team shirts:

David Abrams, Danielle Leonard, Brian Ettinger, Emily Bruckart, Rob Koch, and David Kelly (not pictured: Jada Williams, Logan Kennedy, and Steve Bussey)

And their team name:  Getting Our Codon!

(look up codon if you don't know what it is . . .)

The department shirts will look like theirs without the special team name on the back.  They are still available if you want one . . .

Programming Team Travel and Department T-Shirts

The Programming Team is traveling a bit further than usual this spring.  They will be going to The CS Games at Concordia University in Montreal.  This event lasts three days and includes a wide variety of competitions.  Nine of our students will be competing as a team led by Dr. Armstrong.  It will be an adventure and I will let you know how it goes.

While we are supporting this trip with moneys from our alumni and the Dean has offered his support as well, not all of the expenses are covered.  The team has designed department T-shirts to raise some money.  Check out the cool designs!  The QR codes take you to are department's web site. White shirts are $10 and red ones are $15.  If you are interested, let me know what to order!

On a side note, Steve Bussey (pictured with the white shirt above), is the member of a jazz band: Jive Turkeys on the Loose.  They will be performing at  McFeely's lounge in the lower level CUB, this Saturday from 9pm to 11pm.  The band will be performing some jazz standards for the first 50 minute set and doing a more impromptu "jam" style performance for the second 50 minute set.  The music will be a mix of  blues, bebop, funk, and ambient styles.