Date: Wed, 12 Sep 2007 17:10:27 -0400 From: Margrit Betke To: cs-ugrads@cs.bu.edu Cc: cs-staff@cs.bu.edu, cs-instructors@cs.bu.edu Subject: [Cs-ugrads] CS Department Newsletter to Undergraduate CS Students Dear CS Student: Welcome back to the CS Department! There have been some changes in our Department's administration. Prof. Stan Sclaroff is our new Department Chair, Prof. John Byers the Associate Chair. I will be serving as the Director of Undergraduate Studies. Charles Willis is our new staff member in the Department Office at 111 Cummington. We have planned some events for CS students this semester and would also like to make you aware of some academic and job related issues: o Pizza Party for CS students: Sep 20, 5 pm o TCL scholarships ($2,600) and internships for BU CS students o New student talk series in CS o Tutoring Hours o Help needed advising new CS students: Sept 28 and/or Oct 22-26 o CRA Outstanding Undergraduate Award: Oct 1 o Goldman Sachs Technology recruiting visit: Sep 19 o VMWare recruiting visit: Oct 9, 5 pm o Finding a job or internship o Going to Graduate School o CS degree requirements: Have you taken 7 background courses? o Programmers needed for our Camera Mouse Project Details are below. Best regards, Margrit Betke Director of Undergraduate Studies Computer Science Department, Boston University ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Pizza Party for CS Students Thursday, September 20, MCS 135, 5-6 pm. Please join me to welcome our incoming CS students and use this opportunity to network with fellow CS undergraduates. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- TCL scholarships ($2,600) and internships for BU CS students Transition Consulting Limited (TCL) (www.TransitionConsulting.co.uk) and the Computer Science Department at Boston University are launching scholarship and internship programs this fall. To compete for one of the three scholarships ($2,600 each), you need to submit an essay by October 15, 2007 to Jonathan Wright (jonathan.wright@transitionconsulting.co.uk) (no more than 800 words) on one of the following subjects 1. What is the future of software testing? 2. How does static testing improve development projects? 3. When is a product ready to go live? Winners will be offered the opportunity of taking a summer internship with TCL in Great Britain in summer 2008, although winners are not obliged to take an internship. http://www.cs.bu.edu/TCL_scholarships.html ---------------------------------------------------------------------- New student talk series in CS Kyle Burke, a graduate student in our department, proposed to organize a talk series directed towards undergraduate students in computer science. Speakers will be graduate students and faculty in our department. Scientists from industry would also be invited to explain of some of the technology used by their company (and not just come for recruiting). If you are interested in attending talks and have suggestions for topics and/or companies, please let Kyle know (paithan@cs.bu.edu). ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Tutoring Hours The CS Department offers tutoring to help individual students with their homework. This is in addition to the office hours by faculty members and teaching fellows. Tutoring is held in the CS Department Undergraduate Laboratory at 730 Commonwealth Avenue. The Fall 2007 Schedule for tudors is at http://www.cs.bu.edu/resources/tutoring.shtml ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Help needed advising new CS students: Sept 28 and/or Oct 22-26 I am looking for students interested in talking to other BU students about their experience as computer science students during the First Annual Majors Expo on Friday, September 28, 2-5 pm, which is hosted by the Student Union and the Office of Career Services. Volunteers would receive a $30 coupon for books. We also need help with student advising during the 12th annual Major Choices event (sometime during the week of Oct 22-26). If you are interested in helping out at one of these events, please email me at betke@cs.bu.edu. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- CRA Outstanding Undergraduate Award The CRA Outstanding Undergraduate Award Program has contacted our department to nominate undergraduate students with significant published research contributions (see www.cra.org/Activities/awards/undergrad). I requested nominations from the CS faculty, but also encourage self-nominations. If you are interested in competing, please email me a summary of your research contributions and publication information by October 1 (at most 1 page). An award includes a cash prize of $1,000, and probably much more valuable recognition in the computer science research community. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Goldman Sachs Technology visit: Sep 19 Goldman Sachs Technology is looking to hire graduating CS students and will visit Boston University and September 19, 4-6 pm. Location: School of Management. Refreshments will be served. To register for the event, please click the following link and RSVP by 5 pm on Thursday, September 15th. Please include your full name, school, month and year of graduation, major, GPA, and attach a copy of your resume. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- VMWare visit: Oct 9 VMWare will visit our department for a recruiting event on October 9, 2007, 5 pm, MCS 135. Refreshments will be served. http://www.vmware.com/company/ ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Finding a job or internship If you are looking for a job or internship, please check the binders "CS Jobs" and "Internship Opportunities" in our Department's main office, 111 Cummington St. Our staff keeps track of the numerous announcements sent to our department. Note that you may receive only some of these announcements via email, since we are trying to reduce the traffic on the "cs-ugrads" email list. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Going to Graduate School If you are thinking about going to graduate school in Fall 2008, you are probably already planning to take your GRE and have talked to your professors about what you need to do to help them write you a strong letter of recommendation. You typically will NOT have to pay for your PhD education, since it is usually paid by research or teaching assistantships or scholarships. An MA education is often paid by the student, his or her company, or a scholarship. There are a number scholarship opportunities provided by government agencies and non-profit foundations, e.g., http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2007/nsf07576/nsf07576.htm http://www.npsc.org http://www.krellinst.org/csgf http://www7.nationalacademies.org/fellowships Applications are due soon. There is a $10,000 scholarship that targets current junior and senior female CS students (http://www.google.com/anitaborg). Additional opportunities for women students are listed at www.cs.bu.edu/women . Please talk to your faculty advisor if you would like help in applying for these fellowships. ----------------------------------------------------------------- CS degree requirements: Have you taken 7 background courses? Some of our seniors have not fulfilled the background-course requirements for the BA degree in CS and may not be aware of this problem. To graduate, you need 7 background courses, 4 300-level courses, and 4 400+ level courses = 15 courses. If you are a senior and have not taken CS 113, you need to take a 5th 400 level course. You also need to write a petition asking for the substitution (email me at betke@cs.bu.edu and CC your faculty advisor). ----------------------------------------------------------------- Programmers needed for our Camera Mouse Project The Camera Mouse is a video-based program that enables users to control the mouse pointer on the computer screen just by moving their head. It is designed to help a person with severe disabilities, who cannot move his or her hand, to control a mouse. The Camera Mouse was developed by Prof. Margrit Betke, her students and collaborators, and is available for free at http://www.cameramouse.org. The website gets about 6 downloads a day from all over the world. We are looking for students interested in developing application software for people with disabilities who use the Camera Mouse. Students would receive academic credit via a "directed study" or be paid as research assistants. Please contact Prof. Betke at betke@cs.bu.edu. _______________________________________________ Cs-ugrads mailing list Cs-ugrads@cs.bu.edu http://cs-mailman.bu.edu/mailman/listinfo/cs-ugrads