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NSF Recognizes IJIMS Project During CS Education Week
Recently, the National Science Foundation (NSF) recognized the research work of Drs. Wolz and Pulimood (Computer Science) and Kim Pearson (English) via their Interactive Journalism Institute for Middle Schoolers (IJIMS). Released during the recent Computer Science Education Week, the Foundation’s press release overviewed the project which teaches students computer science skills by creating an online magazine. For more information about the project or the story, please refer to the links above.
TCNJ Students and Alumni Take Home Prizes From Philly Game Development Competition
PHOENIXVILLE, PA … A team containing three alumni of The College of New Jersey and one current student was awarded one of two major awards and a prize package valued at about $9,000 during the Philly Game Jam, a forty-eight hour game development contest.
Three teams from TCNJ competed at the event, which hosted ten teams including professional, student, and amateur entrants competing for the same awards. The three teams, TCNJ Red, TCNJ Blue, and TCNJ Yellow, were comprised of twenty-four members including four TCNJ alumni and eighteen current TCNJ students.
The Philly Game Jam began at noon on Oct. 23 amidst the GameX Industry Summit in Phoenixville, just an hour away from the college. Ten teams were each challenged with designing and developing an original computer game in only forty-eight hours. Prizes were awarded for “Most Innovative Game” and “Best Adherence to Contest Theme,” the latter of which was awarded to TCNJ Yellow’s game.
The game, simply titled “Yellow,” was developed by Mike Testen (TCNJ ’09), Jeff Rupert (TCNJ ’09), Samantha McLaughlin (TCNJ ’09), Akash Barot (UPenn ’09), Steve Testen (Drexel ’10), and Brian Bagdzinski (TCNJ ’10). All development, including design, programming, art, and sound, was done on-site at the competition during the two-day time period.
The inspiration for the trip came in the summer when several students who shared a class in the Spring 2009 semester heard about the contest and started e-mailing one another. By contacting classmates, friends, and various members of the campus community with an interest in game development, the group planned the trip completely independently and continued to gain members. The twenty-four students who attended the Game Jam represent a wide variety of majors, and include freshmen all the way through recent alumni.
The 2009 Philly Game Jam was just one part of the GameX Industry Summit, which was organized by International Game Developers Association chapters located in New Jersey, Philadelphia, New York, Baltimore, and Boston, and supported by NBC Local Media in Philadelphia. The summit brought professionals from the industry at both ends of the East Coast to Philadelphia for two days of lectures, round-tables, and keynotes. Attendees also had the chance to play the games developed during the Game Jam, and TCNJ’s students had the opportunity to develop connections with local potential employers and increase the college’s profile in the game development community.
TCNJ Programming Teams Compete in Regionals!
Print Two student programming teams from TCNJ participated this past Sunday in the ACM Regional Collegiate Programming Contest, and they were in the usual good company (several teams from Cornell, Yale, Columbia etc). Out of 52 teams, team TCNJ1 (Autumn Breese, Stephen Sigwart, Brian Bagdzinski) placed 17th, while team TCNJ2 (Rich DeFrancisco, Mark Whitty, Mike Murphy) placed 29th. Congratulations to all of our participants for representing our college and program so well!
ACM Announces Upcoming Workshop Series
The TCNJ student chapter of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) has announced a fall 2009 workshop series. Each workshop is designed to provide insight and technical knowledge in a specific area. The workshops will take place during regularly scheduled ACM meetings, Wednesdays at 4PM in Holman 252.
The current workshop schedule is show below. Additional workshops are planned and will be announced by the ACM and on the department home page.
9/23 – Hardware and basic diagnosisThis workshop will explore the physical hardware of a desktop PC, including basic components such as RAM, power supply, etc. how to remove/replace components, and standard tells that a part may be faulty.
10/7 – Windows 7Thanks to the MSDN all CS majors have early access to the newest version of Windows. Basic overview, what’s different from XP, why it is better than Vista (although that doesn’t take much), and fun new tricks.
10/21 – Remote desktop and virtual networksAs many students have machines at home or in some other location with a dynamic IP address, vLAN connections offer a solution to allow remote desktop connections. Why are remote connections useful, other DNS services available.
NASA Aeronautics Scholarship Program
The NASA Aeronautics Scholarship Program which is administered by the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) is officially accepting applications for the 2010 Aeronautics Scholarship Program. It is expected that approximately 20 two-year undergraduate, and 5 two-year with an option of a third year graduate scholarships will be awarded annually to students pursuing aeronautical engineering and related fields such as Mechanical Engineering, Chemical Engineering, Physics and Mathematics. Total allocated award amounts are up to $40,000 for undergraduates and up to $125,000 for graduates. These funds will go towards tuition and related costs, as well as to provide paid summer internship opportunities at a NASA research center.Competitive applicants interested in this amazing opportunity should begin completing application materials immediately. A completed application will consist of profile information, academic background (including transcripts), a resume, an essay for undergraduates, a proposal for graduates, letters of recommendations, and any test scores, such as GRE’s, when appropriate.
Completed applications will be collected electronically from September 1, 2009 through January 11, 2010. To learn more about eligibility requirements, award benefits, application instructions, and to apply online, visit https://nasa.asee.org, or contact nasa.asp@asee.org with any questions regarding this program. For additional information on NASA’s aeronautics research and other opportunities please log on to http://aeronautics.nasa.gov.
CS Students Active During the Summer
Do you sometimes wonder what our students do during the summer break? Some head to the shore, and some take vacations. However, a number of CS majors will be heading out to National Science Foundation (NSF) funded research programs, internships, or other research projects to continue their exploration of computer science. Listed below are the names and destinations of a number of our students. If you are currently a CS student and are participating in an REU, research program, internship or other interesting summer experience, do email us and let us all know!
Participating in a Summer Research Program
- Autumn Breese (’10) – REU at Texas A&M University
- Rich DeFrancisco (’10) – REU at Rochester Institute of Technology
- Tom Parisi (’10) – Summer computer security workshop (SISMAT, Dartmouth College) and internship (TBD)
- Julius Reyes (’10) – Summer research at TCNJ: Broadening participation in computing grant
- Chris Hallberg (’11) – Summer research at TCNJ: Broadening participation in computing grant
- Timothy Sanders (’12) – Summer research at TCNJ: Broadening participation in computing grant
- Bogdan Copos (’13) – Summer computer security workshop (SISMAT, Dartmouth College) and internship (TBD)
- Shane Mullin (’13) – Summer computer security workshop (SISMAT, Dartmouth College) and internship (TBD)
- Mateus Oliveira (’13) – Summer computer security workshop (SISMAT, Dartmouth College) and internship (TBD)
Undertaking an Internship
- Michael Norris (’09) – Internship at Educational Testing Service (Princeton, NJ)
- Sean McCaffery (’10) – Internship at General Dynamics C4 Systems (Needham, MA)
- Tom Parisi (’10) – Internship at LDiscovery, LLC (Fort Washington, PA) – Digital Forensics and Electronic Discovery of Information
- Ryan Sydnor (’10) – Internship at dBm Corporation (Oakland, NJ)
- Matthew Tom-Wolverton (’10) – Internship at Apple, Inc. (Cupertino, CA)
- Eric Day (’11) – Student Career Experience Program – Ft. Monmouth (Ft. Monmouth, NJ)
Entering Masters Programs
- Michael Sancilardi (’09) – NJIT M.B.A. Program in eCommerce
Entering Ph.D. Programs
Alumni
- Jason Gionta (’06) – North Carolina State University
- Elizabeth Carter (’07) – Lehigh University 2009
Graduates
- Andrew Chiusano (’09) – New York University (Law)
- Steve Lombardi (’09) – Drexel University
- Chris Neylan (’09) – The University of Maryland
- Dan Tilden (’09) – Virginia Tech
- Andrew Timmes (’09) – Rutgers University
Juniors Breese and Dannenfelser Presenting Research in D.C.
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.
Web Development Summer Position Available
A summer-based job position is now available for a student who is knowledgeable in web development efforts. Knowledge of web development tools is required and content based system work is preferred. This is for work on a new website targeted towards high school students that is being done by a local internet web development business that has been involved in numerous web efforts and start-ups in the past. Work can be done remotely and schedule is flexible.The company in question is looking for someone with HTML experience and can do web design and coding. Looking to do a rework of their main page, the candidate will need to translate designs into a working page. For more information about the position, please contact:
Jack Tatar
GEM Research Solutions
34 Shara LanePennington, NY 08534
609.818.0899
www.GEMResearchSolutions.com