Coalition to Diversify Computing’s Collaborative Research Experiences for Undergraduates Computer Science Students Invited to Present Research at U.S. CapitolEwing, NJ – Junior computer science students Autumn Breese and Ruth Dannenfelser, both from The College of New Jersey, have been selected from a national pool of undergraduate research students representing all academic disciplines, to travel to Washington, DC and present their current research efforts. The students have been participating in the Coalition to Diversify Computing’s Collaborative Research Experiences for Undergraduates (CREU) program, which supports student research at their home institutions.
Under the supervision of their advisor, Dr. Peter DePasquale, the students have created a unique educational tool, the Comment Mentor (or COMTOR) that provides analysis and feedback on Java source code commenting. COMTOR was conceived in mid-2005 as an educational tool to assist both seasoned developers and new programmers learn better source code-level documentation strategies. Current conventions for documenting at the source level are not well codified. Because of this lack of standards, it is hard to empirically measure the “quality” of a comment, and therefore difficult to objectively measure comment quality over time or in relation to the developing code base. COMTOR attempts to address these difficulties by providing a tool that automates the grading process. Not only does it assist the grader, it can assist the student or developer before code is submitted to their instructor by making sure comments are at some threshold level of quality.
Sponsored by the Council on Undergraduate Research (CUR), the event will help members of Congress understand the importance of undergraduate research by talking directly with the students whom these programs impact. Representatives from several federal-level funding agencies and foundations are being invited to attend the poster session. Additionally, Breese and Dannenfelser will be meeting with Congressional Representatives and Senators to talk about their undergraduate research.
The Posters on the Hill event will take place on May 4th and 5th, and will include a keynote address to all student researchers, and include a tour of the Library of Congress and the National Archives. Poster presentations will take place on Tuesday, May 5th in the Rayburn House Office Building. Information on the Posters on the Hill event can be found at http://www.cur.org/postersession.html)
About the Coalition to Diversify Computing
http://www.cdc-computing.org/
The Coalition to Diversity Computing (CDC) is a joint organization of the ACM, CRA, and IEEE-CS. Its mission is to address the shortfall in computing professionals through the development of a diverse community that can effectively meet the computing demands of an evolving society. Information about CREU and other CDC programs can be found at http://www.cdc-computing.org/programs.html.