Calling All TCNJ Computer Science Alumni!
Events
Annual Barbara Meyers Pelson Lecture: April 2
On Tuesday, April 2, Dr. Youngmoo Kim, Director of the Expressive and Creative Interaction Technologies (ExCITe) Center at Drexel University, will give a talk entitled “Pathways for Disciplinary Integration in Higher Education“. An abstract of the talk can be found below.
Please join School of Science faculty and students in Education Building 212 from 12:30 – 1:30 PM for this talk.
Lunch reception will follow.
Abstract:
The recent National Academies report, “Branches From the Same Tree” (2018), examined an important trend in higher education: integration of the humanities and arts with sciences, engineering, and medicine at the undergraduate and graduate level—which proponents argue will better prepare students for work, life, and citizenship. Integrative models intentionally seek to bridge the knowledge, modes of inquiry, and pedagogies from multiple disciplines—the humanities, arts, sciences, engineering, technology, mathematics, and medicine—within the context of a single course or program of study. As one of 22 members of the committee for this report, Dr. Kim will share findings and experiences from the process, as well as some of their work at the ExCITe Center of Drexel University to facilitate greater integration and collaboration across a diversity of academic disciplines.
Bio:
Dr. Youngmoo Kim is Director of the Expressive and Creative Interaction Technologies (ExCITe) Center, an institute at Drexel University for transdisciplinary research and discovery connecting technology and communities, and Professor of Electrical & Computer Engineering. His research group, the Music & Entertainment Technology Laboratory pursues AI for music and sound, human-machine interfaces and robotics for expressive interaction, and K-12 outreach for maker and STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts & Design, and Mathematics) education. He is co-author of the National Academies report “Branches from the Same Tree” on the integration of the Humanities & Arts with Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine in Higher Education, released May 2018, and recently co-edited a special issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences focusing on creativity and collaboration. Youngmoo also co-authored “Making Culture: A National Study of Education Makerspaces” recently presented at SXSW EDU. He received Drexel’s 2012 Christian R. and Mary F. Lindback Award for Distinguished Teaching, took “Scientist of the Year” honors at the 2012 Philadelphia Geek Awards, and is a member of the Apple Distinguished Educator class of 2013. His research has been supported by the National Science Foundation, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, and the NAMM Foundation, among others.
School of Science Invited Speaker Colloquium: March 26
On Tuesday, March 26, the School of Science and Computer Science Department will host Dr. Janice E. Cuny, Program Director for Computing Education, Directorate for Computer & Information Science & Engineering (CISE) at the National Science Foundation. Dr. Cuny will give a talk entitled “Towards a More Diverse and Inclusive Computing Community”. An abstract of the talk can be found below.
Please join faculty and students in Education Building 212 from 12:30 – 1:30 PM for this talk.
Lunch reception will follow.
Abstract:
All students should have the opportunity to take rigorous computer science (CS) courses that are relevant to their lives and their interests, courses that engage and inspire them. Whether they are to become software engineers, scientists or educators, architects or engineers, journalists or historians, musicians or artists, today’s students will need to be computationally savvy. They will need to understand the fundamental concepts of computation and their application to problem solving, the basics of cybersecurity, and the social and ethical implications of computing. Further, it is essential that we as educators show the potential for computing to transform the world, that we will give our students the opportunity to experience the “passion, beauty, joy and awe of computing.” [Grady Booch, 2007]. And finally, as we make changes in CS education, it is incumbent on us to also address computing’s longstanding lack of diversity. This talk briefly looks at efforts by the National Science Foundation (NSF) that integrate research and innovation on preK-20 CS education and broadening participation in computing (BPC). It also covers two new efforts. The first supports collaborations of colleges and universities as they begin the process of re-envisioning computing in undergraduate education in light of its increasingly ubiquitous role in interdisciplinary work. The second is a requirement currently piloted in NSF’s Computer and Information Science and Engineering Directorate (CISE) that aims to dramatically increase engagement in BPC activities throughout the computing community.
Bio:
Dr. Janice E. Cuny, is a program officer at the National Science Foundation (NSF) where she leads the Computer and Information Science and Engineering Directorate (CISE)’s efforts on broadening participation and education in computing. Her work led to the establishment of the national BPC-A Alliances that together address underrepresentation in computing from elementary school through the research and professional levels. She spearheaded NSF’s efforts to get inclusive, rigorous, academic computing courses into U.S. schools, leading to the development and scaling of several new and exciting high school CS courses (including Exploring Computer Science and AP CS Principles) and laid the foundation for the 2016 launch of President Obama’s CS for All Initiative. More recently, she leads efforts to re-envision the role of computing in undergraduate education and to engage a large proportion of the community in efforts to improve diversity in computing.
For her efforts with underserved populations, Dr. Cuny has received a number of awards including the 2006 ACM President’s Award, the 2007 CRA A. Nico Habermann Award, the 2009 Anita Borg Institute’s Woman of Vision Award for Social Impact, the 2015 NSF Distinguished Service Award, and the 2016 SIGCSE Distinguished Educator Award.
HackTCNJ 2019 News Roundup
Congratulations to the participants of HackTCNJ 2019!
This year’s event was hosted by TCNJ’s chapter of the Association of Computing Machinery (ACM), in partnership with Major League Hacking (MLH). HackTCNJ’s 200-plus participants gathered from high schools and colleges in the tri-state area over the February 23-24 weekend. Teams of participants hunkered down in the Education Building and worked on their projects over the 24-hour period. In between long stretches of hacking, students stopped to enjoy meals and snacks from Campus Town restaurants, participated in a competitive cup-stacking game, networked with peers and employers from local businesses (like Local Wisdom and Tabula Rasa), and took some much-needed naps.
ACM President Sophie Goldberg (Class of 2020) was interviewed by Princeton Info before the hackathon. She encouraged students who want to pursue a career in computer science to never stop developing and practicing their skills, especially since technology changes quickly in the industry. Participating in hackathons, like HackTCNJ, is one such way for students to apply their skills, learn something new, and work on their dream projects in a collaborative environment.
We hope to see you all again at HackTCNJ 2020!
HackTCNJ Instagram Account
https://www.instagram.com/hacktcnj/
CBS Philly News Article:
CBS Philly News Segments:
Gallery of Photos (Taken by ACM & Computer Science Department Faculty)
Spring 2019 Internship Information Sessions
REMINDER: All CS Majors are required to attend one internship information session before they can apply for internship (CSC 399) for credit.
Contact Dr. Papamichail for more information.
Internship Information Sessions: Spring 2019
Two internship information sessions will be held this semester for students who intend to take CSC 399 during their undergraduate career. All CS majors are required to attend one informational session at any time during their studies prior to applying for an internship for credit.
Information sessions will highlight departmental policies and prerequisites for applying for internships. In preparation for the session, students should review Dr. Papamichail’s informational web page and come to the session prepared with questions.
This semester, info sessions will be held on:
* Wednesday March 6, 5:00 – 5:45 PM in Forcina 424
* Wednesday March 27, 2:00 – 2:45 PM in STEM 112
Please contact Dr. Papamichail for more information.
Fall 2018 Colloquium Speakers
Please join the Computer Science Department at the fall 2018 colloquium events. Lunch will be provided. Hope to see you there!
Sean Devlin (TCNJ)
Deep Reinforcement Learning: The fundamentals of how AI wins games and beyond
12:30 – 1:30 PM
Tuesday, September 18, 2018
Location: SCP 101
Abstract: It was once believed that if a computer could beat a chess champion, then AI would be achieved. This belief was later changed from chess to go and now that go has been tackled, much more complicated games like Dota 2 are in the cross hairs with general artificial intelligence still in the distance. This talk will provide the fundamentals of deep reinforcement learning, the primary field of AI being used to accomplish these feats. We will start with an intro to reinforcement learning, dig into Google Deep Mind’s seminal 2013 paper “Playing Atari with Deep Reinforcement Learning”, and conclude with the directional vector of this very hyped field of research.
Speaker Bio: Sean Devlin: First and foremost a modern family man. Currently an Entrepreneur in Residence at TCNJ. Previously a technical co-founder at Front Rush.
Sharif Mohammad Shahnewaz Ferdous (TCNJ)
Virtual Reality and Serious Games
12:30 – 1:30 PM
Friday, November 2, 2018
Location: SCP 101
Abstract: Virtual Reality (VR) is a computer-generated simulation that uses visual, auditory and other sensory feedback to provide a user with an immersive experience. While visual feedback is the most important component of a VR experience, other sensory feedback plays important roles too. A well composed VR system has many usages including serious games. While a VR system can be used for entertainment purposes, in serious games, we focus on education, health care, emergency management, city planning, engineering, scientific exploration, politics etc. VR is being used in rehabilitation of stroke patients, balance impairments, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), pain management, and so on. It is also being used for military training, surgical training, car modeling, etc. This talk will discuss the prospects and the presenter’s experience on of using VR in serious games. It will also provide some aspects of the presenter’s current work on assessing gender bias on self-reported cybersickness – a sickness induced by using VR systems for a long time.
Speaker Bio: Dr. Sharif Mohammad Shahnewaz Ferdous is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Computer Science of The College of New Jersey. He earned his Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA). Prior to that, he completed his bachelor’s degree in Computer Science and Engineering from Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET), Bangladesh. His research interests include Virtual Reality, Mixed Reality, Augmented Reality, Serious Games, 3D User Interfaces, Interactive Computer Graphics, and Human-Computer Interaction. His Ph.D. dissertation was focused on Improving accessibility of Virtual and Augmented Reality for people with balance impairments.
Davide Schaumann (Rutgers University)
Buildings, People, and Human Behavior
12:30 – 1:30 PM
Tuesday, November 20, 2018
Location: SCP 101
Abstract: The computational tools that architects use to design buildings provide a static representation of built environments, which does not consider the people who will inhabit the spaces, and their future activities. In this talk, we will explore our efforts to produce dynamic representations of buildings in use, prior to their construction and occupancy. Our goal is to help architects analyze human-building interactions during the design phase, when design issues can be discovered and addressed. In particular, we will discuss computational methods to model and simulate human behavior patterns in not-yet-built environments, their applications for designing complex buildings (like hospitals), and initial results from integrating them within established architectural design tools to conduct static and dynamic human behavior analyses and to optimize the building design with respect to human-related performance criteria. Additionally, we will discuss the potential application of human behavior simulation methods to explore how IT-enhanced environments may affect the behavior of building occupants at the building and city scale.
Speaker Bio: Davide Schaumann is a Postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Computer Science at Rutgers University. He received his PhD from the Faculty of Architecture and Town Planning at the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, and he holds MSc and B.A. degrees in Architecture from the Politecnico di Milano, Italy. Davide’s research lies at the intersection of Architectural Design, Artificial Intelligence, and Human Behavior Science with a mission to apply digital technologies for analyzing the dynamic interactions between people, the spaces they inhabit, and the activities they engage in. Davide won several prices and was recently awarded the Murray Fellowship to support his Postdoctoral position.
Computer Science Colloquium, February 20
On Tuesday, February 20, the Computer Science Department will host its secondcolloquium of the Spring 2018 semester. Dr. Bharathwaj Muthuswamy, visiting professor in the CS Department, give a talk entitled “CUDA and OpenCL: Programming GPUs“. An abstract of his talk can be found below.
Please join CS faculty and students in Education 113 from 12:30 – 1:30 PM for this talk.
Abstract:
In this talk, Dr. Muthuswamy will go through a high level overview of parallel programming, specifically using (NVIDIA’s) Compute Unified Device Architecture (CUDA) and Khronos Group’s OpenCL (Open Computing Language), for programming Graphics Processing Units (GPUs). We will show examples of parallel programming in practice, starting from the classic “hello, world” to nonlinear dynamics simulations. We will start with CUDA but primarily focus on OpenCL, since the specification is hardware independent.
Bio:
Dr. Bharathwaj “Bharath” Muthuswamy is currently a visiting professor of computer science at The College of New Jersey (TCNJ). Prior (2015 – 2017) to TCNJ, he was a software engineer for Tarana Wireless, working on implementing real-time network layer code for non-line of sight wireless backhaul devices. Prior (2000 – 2015) to his Tarana Wireless position, Dr. Muthuswamy has worked in both academia (University of California, Berkeley; Milwaukee School of Engineering) and industry (Los Alamos National Laboratory, SUN Microsystems, National Semiconductor and National Instruments). His primary research interests are in nonlinear dynamical (chaotic) systems and embedded (FPGA systems). He is also very passionate about undergraduate, high school and middle school education. He holds a BS (2002), MS (2005) and PhD (2009) all in EECS from the University of California, Berkeley, advised by Dr. Leon O. Chua. His primary PhD contribution was in the design and implementation of a “Muthuswamy-Chua” circuit (system) – the simplest possible chaotic circuit involving only the fundamental circuit elements – an inductor, capacitor and memristor in series.
Computer Science Colloquium, February 2
On Friday, February 2 the Computer Science Department will host its first colloquium of the Spring 2018 semester. Mr. Marc Wintjen from Bloomberg LP will give a talk entitled “Data Modeling and Visualization“. An abstract of his talk can be found below.
Please join CS faculty and students in Education 115 from 12:30 – 1:30 PM for this talk.
Abstract:
The true business value from big data comes from understanding how to answer questions before they’re delivered. Once the data is accessible, what techniques are used to visualize data to help tell a story? This talk will discuss the process used to gather requirements, the methods used to define how to structure data, and the best practices used to create a UI (User Interface) so business users can make data-driven decisions.
Bio:
Marc Wintjen is a big data architect and data visualization evangelist in the Engineering Business Intelligence team at Bloomberg, LP in Princeton, NJ. He has over 18 years of IT experience in various roles, including project management, Business Intelligence consulting and delivery management in the financial services, pharma and banking industries.