Ann Zsilavetz | Department of Computer Science

Google Comes to Campus: October 7

Posted on October 1, 2015 by Ann Zsilavetz • 0 Comments

Attention Students: Google is coming to campus on Wednesday, October 7!

Come attend the Lightning Tech Talk and the “Meet N Greet” hosted by Google’s engineers. Attendees will gain an understanding of the Google culture and opportunities, and will learn how to better prepare for corporate careers. Refreshments will be provided. Please note: all students who are interested in attending must upload their resume to LionsLink and complete the Google Form (https://goo.gl/DlQnA4) before October 7.

Time: 5:00 – 6:30 PM
Location: Education Building 212

Please see the event flyer for more information on these events.

Other Google Events on October 7

Women in Computer Science Lunch (closed event)
Time: 12:00 – 1:30 PM
One-one-One with a Google Engineer (closed event, application required)
Time: 2:00 – 4:30 PM

CS Student Organizations Host Ice Cream Social

Posted on September 17, 2015 by Ann Zsilavetz • 0 Comments

Article written by Kyle Davis, senior CS major

On Wednesday, September 9, the students of ACM, WICS, and UPE hosted the Computer Science department ice cream social at the Science Complex fountain. The celebration boasted one of the department’s biggest turnouts for an event that did not offer extra credit. Ice cream and drinks were offered, and students had a water balloon toss that was much appreciated on such a hot day.

“I got my exercise for the year!” Leanna Stecker, a senior in the department, said in regards to the event’s activities. Many of the department’s faculty attended to talk with their students; however, none participated in the water balloon toss.

Afterwards, many of the freshmen stayed to chat with the upperclassmen, hoping to get the scoop on what to expect from their classes and the computer science program at TCNJ. Returning students were more than happy to impart their wisdom and to offer suggestions on how to tackle some of the tough courses that the major requires. Many of the students viewed it as an excellent opportunity to connect with their professors outside of class, or to make a few new friends in the department.

Overall, the celebration was a huge success – it was an excellent way to make the new students feel more at home in the department and the returning students more comfortable with their new professors and classes.

Dr. Salgian to Present at 2015 International Computer Music Conference

Posted on September 16, 2015 by Ann Zsilavetz • 0 Comments

Dr. Andrea Salgian will be presenting a research paper at the International Computer Music Conference, held between September 25 and October 1, 2015 at the University of North Texas, in Denton TX. The paper, titled “Automatic Transcription of Japanese Taiko Drumming using the Microsoft Kinect”, was written with Willian Hua, who graduated from the Computer Science department in May 2015.

Taiko is a form of Japanese drumming that contains choreography and sudden bursts of energy in the form of shouts called “kiai.” The notation for Taiko, called the “kuchishoga”, expresses notes and rests using Japanese syllables. The paper describes a system that transcribes Taiko arrangements into eight of the most basic kuchishoga notes using the Microsoft Kinect. The system was tested on 320 notes in six different arrangements, and achieved a 96.56% accuracy.

Computer Science Colloquium: September 15

Posted on September 14, 2015 by Ann Zsilavetz • 0 Comments

The first Computer Science Colloquium of the semester will be held on Tuesday, September 15. Dr. Vinayak Elangovan, Visiting Assistant Professor in our CS Department, will give a talk entitled “Human-Vehicle Interactions (HVI) Recognition Using Spatiotemporal Analysis”. An abstract of his talk can be found below.

Please join CS faculty and students in Forcina Hall 408 from 12:30 – 1:30 PM for this talk. Pizza and refreshments will be provided.

Abstract:
Improved Situational awareness in Persistent Surveillance Systems (PSS) is an ongoing research effort of the Department of Defense and Department of Homeland Security. Most PSS generate huge volume of raw data (imagery data) and they heavily rely on human operators to interpret and inference data in order to detect abnormal activities. Many outdoor apprehensive activities involve vehicles as their primary source of transportation to and from the scene where a plot is executed. Vehicles can be used as a disguise, hide-out, and a meeting place to carry abnormal activities. Analysis of the Human-Vehicle Interactions (HVI) helps us to identify cohesive patterns of such activities representing potential threats. In this lecture, the approach used in detection and recognition of HVI activities are discussed. A taxonomy of HVI is developed for this approach, as a means for recognizing different types of HVI activities. HVI taxonomy may comprise multiple threads of ontological patterns. By spatiotemporal linking of ontological patterns, a HVI pattern is hypothesized to pursue a potential threat situation. At start of this lecture, an introduction to computer vision and machine learning is briefed for better understanding of the approach. The practical applications of this approach in various other domains are also discussed in this lecture.

Bio:
Vinayak Elangovan (Visiting Assistant Professor of Computer Science) is an active researcher specializing in computer vision, sequential data analysis, and digital image processing. He earned his Ph.D. in Computer Information Systems Engineering at Tennessee State University (TSU). He continued his research and teaching as a Post Doc in the engineering department at TSU. He also has considerable work experience in engineering and software industries. His primary research focus is in the area of computer vision and machine vision with keen interest in software applications development and database management. He has worked on number of funded projects related to Department of Defense and Department of Homeland Security applications.

CS Ice Cream Social: Wednesday, September 9

Posted on September 4, 2015 by Ann Zsilavetz • 0 Comments

Attention: Computer Science Students

Please join members of ACM, WICS, and UPE at the Computer Science Ice Cream Social on Wednesday, September 9. The event will take place at the Science Complex Fountain and will run from 1:30 PM – 3:00 PM. All Computer Science students are invited to attend.

We hope to see you there!

CABECT Presentation at Dow Jones in Princeton

Posted on July 15, 2015 by Ann Zsilavetz • 0 Comments

cabect-150x78 On June 12, Professor Monisha Pulimood (Computer Science) and Professor Kim Pearson (Journalism) presented at a workshop on promoting collaborations between journalism and computer science students to foster computational thinking in the classroom and, later, the newsroom. The workshop, hosted by the Dow Jones News Fund at the Dow Jones Kilgore Campus in Princeton, NJ, was attended by twenty media and computer science college professors from across the mid-Atlantic region.

Professor Pulimood and Professor Pearson, along with Professor Diane Bates (project evaluator), shared the findings of their NSF grant-funded project in a presentation entitled “Collaborating Across Boundaries: Preparing Students for the New Newsroom”. Prof. Pulimood and Prof. Pearson led participants through hands-on activities designed to share tools and pedagogy for bringing computational thinking to the classroom.

For more information on the Dow Jones workshop, see News Fund’s article: https://www.newsfund.org/uploads/CabectWorkshop509.htm

For information on Dr. Pulimood and Dr. Pearson’s CABECT project, see: http://pulimood.pages.tcnj.edu/research/cabect/

Computer Science Department Awards: May 6, 2015

Posted on May 8, 2015 by Ann Zsilavetz • 0 Comments

Congratulations to the winners of the 2014-2015 Computer Science Department Awards, Computer Science Service Awards, and the Charles Goldberg-Norman Neff Scholarship Prize in Computer Science!

The Computer Science Department awardees are selected by the faculty based not only on their exemplary performance in CS courses, but also on their significant contributions to the department.

Freshman Award – Elisa Idrobo and Brittany Reedman

Sophomore Award – Angela Huang and Matthew Rasa

Junior Award – Kylie Gorman and Brandon Gottlob

Senior Award – Leah Lewy and Robert Preuss

Computer Science Service Awards are given to students who have taken part in the organization of department events and whose leadership efforts have enriched the TCNJ CS community. This year, Kevin Bohinski, Hank Harvey, Andrew Miller, and Nadya Peña received CS Service Awards.

The Charles Goldberg-Norman Neff Scholarship Prize in Computer Science goes to a graduating senior who has been accepted into a Ph.D. program and completes an application for the award. Conor Kelton was this year’s winner.

Spring 2015 Celebration of Student Achievement

Posted on May 5, 2015 by Ann Zsilavetz • 0 Comments

On Wednesday, May 6, the Computer Science Department will host the Celebration of Student Achievement in Forcina Hall (4th floor). All TCNJ students and guests are invited to attend the luncheon and poster presentations.

The schedule of events is as follows:

11:30 AM – 1:00 PM: Department Luncheon

12:30 PM: Computer Science Awards (FH 408)

12:45 PM: Presentation of Goldberg Neff Award (FH 408)

1:00 – 3:00 PM: Presentation of Posters & Project Demonstrations

3:15 – 3:45 PM: UPE Induction Ceremony (FH 407)

Please view the list of presentations and student evaluators for this event by clicking the links below.

We look forward to seeing you on Wednesday!

CSC 470 Students Visit Net Access Data Center

Posted on April 27, 2015 by Ann Zsilavetz • 0 Comments

A select group of students recently accompanied Dr. Peter DePasquale to the Net Access Parsippany I data center. There they viewed first hand the security, power, cooling, fail safe and logistics operations that entail running a large scale data center. This 30,000 square feet facility provides 20kW high density fully closed computing cabinets for leading companies to co-locate their computing assets on site. The tour was offered as part of the Spring 2015 Cloud Computing Special Topics class and allows the students to engage with computing professionals outside of the campus bounds.

Founded in 1995, Net Access is an industry leading provider of data center services delivering secure, reliable and flexible colocation, cloud, network and managed solutions to IT intensive businesses.

(CLOSED) Fall 2015 Registration Wait-list

Posted on March 18, 2015 by Ann Zsilavetz • 0 Comments

UPDATE (4/25/2015): The Fall 2015 registration wait-list is now closed. If you would are still interested in taking CS courses, please monitor PAWS over the summer for any that may become available.

The registration period for Fall 2015 courses is April 7 – 17, 2015. Some seats have been reserved for CS majors in all of the upper level courses. Please check the registration newsletter for additional information on options courses offered in Fall 2015. After your registration windows open, if the class you need is closed, put yourself on the waiting list using the form here:

https://tcnj.qualtrics.com//SE/?SID=SV_9Rym83NpF8nkv9r

Be sure read all directions and to enter all the information requested.

As seats open up during the registration window, we will enroll students in order based on their registration times and time they registered on the wait list.

Please be sure that your intended course does not conflict with a course in your schedule and that you are willing to drop conflicting courses to make the change. We will not automatically drop a course unless you include the course number in the “Drop” field of the wait list.

Email cs [at] tcnj [dot] edu if you have further questions.

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