Open Data

For people who are interested in data mining, you can find many places with meaning data online. For example:
NYC Open Data

Also, officially 'data scientists' is more fashionable than 'statisticians' according to Google Trends, a big data/data mining tool itself.

BHSAI Software Developer Position

BHSAI has very high expectation for its software developers. On the other hand, it is one of few 'ideal' places for people who have their hearts in programming. Highly recommended!

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Henry M. Jackson Foundation
Biotechnology High Performance Computing Software Applications Institute
Frederick, MD, USA

Job Opening: Software Developer

We are looking for entry, mid- and senior-level Software Developers to join the U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command’s Biotechnology High Performance Computing Software Applications Institute (BHSAI). The Software Developer will be responsible for developing and maintaining software applications for biomedical research. The candidate should have a Bachelors or Masters degree in computer science or a related discipline, and experience with object oriented analysis and design (OOAD); Java/J2EE with knowledge of one or more of servlets, JavaServer Pages (JSP), or JavaServer Faces (JSF); Web technologies, including HTML5, CSS, XML, and JavaScript; relational database management system (RDBMS) concepts and SQL. Additional skills desired but not mandatory include: Eclipse, Liferay Portal, Tomcat, Oracle, and Hibernate; and knowledge of C/C++, Perl, Python, and PHP.

Please submit resume to:
Biotechnology High Performance Computing Software
Applications Institute
U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command
Email: careers@bhsai.org

CS 599 in place of Math 505 for Spring 2014

The Graduate School just approved CS 599 to be offered in Spring 2014.

Math 505 is a prerequisite course in the MS in CS program. However, it is dropped from Spring schedule by the Math Department. CS 599 Discrete Structures is intended to be used in place of Math 505 for students who need it in the Spring. This course can not be used as an elective course in Computer Science.

This is a good news for CS students, because we will be able to tune this course more towards the needs of computer science students, and incorporate new trends and thoughts into it.

The instructor for Spring 2014 is Dr. Chang. Dr. Chang graduated with a PhD in Mathematics, but has been a computer science professor over the past 40 years. She is in a uniquely fitting position to present an integrated introductory math course for computer science students.

CS 599 will be offered on Wednesday evenings, in HT 226.

Blue Waters Internship Program 2014

https://bluewaters.ncsa.illinois.edu/internships/

Highlights:
$5,000 stipend,
two-week intensive high-performance computing workshop in May 2014
Blue Waters Symposium 2015 trip

Programming knowledge is related to age

Not really,...

Some highlights of this paper:

1) programmers can remain active; as a matter of fact, their activities keep climbing in their 40s and 50s.
2) older programmers are as active in embracing new programming trends as younger programmers.

Spring 2014 Schedule

Spring 2014 Schedule (as captured on 11/12/2013)

Course	Category	Schedule	Location	Instructor	Available
CS 503: Algorithms & Programming I	Prerequisites	T	HT 113	Salem	2 of 4
CS 504: Algorithms & Programming II	Prerequisites	MW 1:00 - 2:45 PM	HT 113	Dong	5 of 6
CS 508: Computer Organization and Design	Prerequisites	W	HT 316	Pierce	4 of 6
CS 519: Advanced Data Structures	Prerequisites	R	HT 319	Liu	6 of 6
CS 520: Algorithm Analysis	Core	R	HT 235	Dimitoglou	0 of 6 6 waiting
CS 525: Software Testing & Quality Assurance	Elective	T	HT 316	Faculty	20 of 24
CS 530: Intro to Database Management Systems	Elective	M	HT 319	Dong	4 of 10
CS 543: Machine Learning	Elective	M	HT 316	Ford	5 of 12
CS 564: Operating Systems	Core	M	HT 236	Liu	2 of 6
CS 598D: SpTp:Computer & IT Incident Response	Elective			Hamner	10 of 10
CS 599: SpTp:Discrete Structures for CS	Prerequisites	W		Chang
CSIT 532: Computer Forensics	Elective	R	HT 113	Jim	13 of 24
CSIT 534: Network and Internet Security	Elective	W	HT 237	Jim	9 of 20
CSIT 555/01: Info Systems Security	Elective	TR 3:25 - 4:40 PM	HT 319	Salem	14 of 24
CSIT 555/02: Info Systems Security	Elective	W	HT 113	Salem	21 of 24
IT 514: Contemporary Issues in Info Tech	Elective	R	HT 114	Ford	19 of 24
IT 515: Object Oriented Methods	Elective	F	HT 316	Lateef	21 of 24
IT 518: Systems Engineering & Integration	Elective	W	TA 226	Maher	8 of 24
IT 521: Info Assurance & Risk Assessment	Elective	M	HT 235	Hamner	0 of 24 2 waiting
IT 548: Telecommunications and Networking	Elective	R	HT 212	Salem	13 of 24
ITMG 533: Managing Technical Project Teams	Elective	M	HT 131	Giri	18 of 24

Notes: 1) CS 599 Discrete Structures can only be used as a prerequisite course, in replace of Math 505 (not scheduled in Spring 2014).  It can not be used as an elective course; 2) After we start offering CS 530, IT 530 will no longer be counted as an elective for CS students.

Video game playing found beneficial for the brain

http://www.kurzweilai.net/video-game-playing-found-beneficial-for-the-brain

Video game playing found beneficial for the brain

Playing the Super Mario 64 video game causes increased size in brain regions responsible for spatial orientation, memory formation and strategic planning as well as fine motor skills, a new study conducted at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development and Charité University Medicine St. Hedwig-Krankenhaus has found.

In Sept. 2013, researchers at UC San Francisco found a 3D video game called NeuroRacer that got progressively harder as seniors played improved seniors’ multi-tasking abilities and boosted a neurological network responsible for goal-oriented processes to the point they resembled brains of younger people on tests.

March 2012, researchers at North Carolina State University found older adults who played video games reported better emotional health, social functioning and higher levels of well-being compared to people who don’t play video games.

Quora: How to Keep Your Programming Skill Sharp

This is mostly for elder folks, like myself, but young programmers should also keep it in mind.

Quora

Workshop: Clemson U Broadening Participation in Visualization

Travel and Lodging Expenses Paid to Attend:1st CRA-W/CDC Broadening Participation in Visualization Workshop
Feb 10 - 11 2014
Hosted by Clemson University, Clemson SC

Applications due Fri Nov 29 2013 11:59 PM EST
http://citi.clemson.edu/bpviz2014

US Citizens only.

NASA-UV: Intensive Summer School in Computing for Environmental Sciences

ISSCENS

The University of Virginia Alliance for Computational Science & Engineering (UVACSE), in cooperation with the Department of Environmental Science and NASA, is sponsoring

The NASA-University of Virginia

Intensive Summer School in Computing for Environmental Sciences

What is ISSCENS?

The Intensive Summer School for Computing in Environmental Sciences (ISSCENS) is an exciting opportunity for students interested in working with computational applications for atmospheric, ocean, climate, and other environmental sciences.  Students will acquire hands-on computing experience and basic training in software engineering and high-performance computing.
The program is open to graduate students and to undergraduates in their last year.  Motivated third-year students who plan to go to graduate school are also encouraged to apply.  A total of 20 students will be selected for the Summer School, of which 10 will go on to 8-week internships at NASA centers. No previous programming experience is required as we will teach it starting from the basics, but students should be interested in computing and intend to use it in their future research.
Students selected to attend the Summer School may be foreign nationals, but only US citizens can be NASA interns.
 

Applications:

• US Citizens:

If you are a US citizen, please register an account at our application site, then please complete an application at NASA’s OSSI site whether or not you think you will be interested in the internship.  Be sure to use the same email address at both sites.

• Non-US citizens:

Please complete our application form.

Required Application Materials:

• Information about specific courses or informal transcript as requested on application form.
• Emails addresses for two references. Once the applicant’s part is completed and submitted, references will receive private URLs to access the recommendation forms.
• Statement of intent: the applicant should write a short explanation of how the Summer School and Internship will fit into his or her personal career goals.

Dates for Summer 2014:

Summer School: May 28th-June 13th

Internships: June 16 – August 8

The Summer 2014 program should be scheduled for the same time frame.

Application Deadline

Submit Internship Application for Summer 2014 Session by

March 1, 2014

Entry Level Position at AAI corp in Timonium

A Biology faculty, whose friend is hiring, passed this to us.  I believe he sent the information to every CS faculty.  If you are interested, contact any of your computer science professors for contact info.

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The Systems Analyst is a member of a team that designs, develops, and maintains the enterprise Product Lifecycle Management System (Enovia) for the AAI Business Unit of Textron Corporation.

Job Description:

Implement Business processes through:

• Customization of the user front end
• Development of integrations between software tools
• Unit and System testing
• Detail Design
• Gathering/refining user requirements
• Documenting Processes
• Supporting end users

Qualifications:

• Programming skills
  • Preferably Java, JavaScript, Visual Basic, shell scripting
• Database application knowledge SQL,
• Basic personal computer skills (e.g. Word, Excel, PowerPoint).
• Good communications skills, both written and oral.

Library Books

There is still a need for a real library in the digital era, and we are still acquiring books with significant expenses.  Faculty at the CS department recommended books to buy, and occasionally helped the library to decide books to give away.

For example, the library notified us they just receive this book: Yau, 2013.  Data Points: Visualization that means something, Wiley.

I encourage you to check out the Hood library.

Also, take advantage of the ACM Digital Library subscriptions for papers and proceedings.

Professional Development Institute

The Graduate Council voted to run a pilot program of a Professional Development Institute.  Topics will include career mentoring, team building, communication and other key skills on path to successful professional career or entrepreneurship.

This will be offered with no cost to students. Application will be capped by discipline.

KDD 2013

Some highlight of a mining of the KDD 2013:

Best Paper:

• Edo Liberty, Simple and Deterministic Matrix Sketching

Innovation Award: Jon Kleinberg (HITS Algorithms) 

Hot topics (by order):

1. User Modeling
2. Scalable Methods
3. Unsupervised Learning
4. Supervised Learning
5. Recommender Systems
6. Probabilistic Methods

vised Learning

Supervised Learning

Recommender Systems

Probabilistic Methods

The CUDA Teaching Center at Hood College granted renewal

We are pleased to be notified that the CUDA Teaching Center at Hood College had passed a performance review and granted a renewal.  It also came with a hardware improvement grant of $6,500.

This renewal will enhance our capability to offer courses and student research in High Performance Computing and Big Data areas.

Hood College is the third higher institution in the state of Maryland to raise to a CUDA Center status in July 2010, following Johns Hopkins University (CUDA Excellence Center), and University of Maryland College Park (CUDA Research Center).

Council Meeting

Some interesting notes from yesterday's Graduate Council meeting:

1) We are lucky to have some high calibre researchers in the filed to help out as adjunct professors in areas we are need their expertise.  We deeply appreciate their commitment and dedication to our students.  However, it was such a shock to learn another department has 114 adjuncts.

2) The Dean of the Graduate School will meet with BOA on the 11th, and BOT on the 17th.  Anything in particular you want her to pass to the two boards?

3) There are 101 graduate students studying at Hood College, coming from 21 countries.  In additional to international students who are mostly on full-time schedule due to immigration regulations, we have 55 domestic full-time students at this time.  Combined, full time students represents 42% of credits counts and 25% of FTE equivalent headcounts.  All while we do not have much resources specifically allocated to serve full time students.  We must change to adapt.

4) The Graduate School is having its web contents under its own control, or so we were told.

5) We would love to have current students, graduates and alums to step forward and help us in promoting our programs.

NSA Intern Opportunity

Internship at the Council on CyberSecurity

At the Council on CyberSecurity there are immediate openings for paid internships. Candidates need to have good GPA, good analytic and writing skills, and be collaborative, with good interpersonal skills. This is a great opportunity for one or two Hood students with strong interest in cyber security. At least 8 hours per week commitment is required and depending on the nature of the work, an agreement could be reached regarding receiving Hood credits. The internships likely would last for a semester, and have both a virtual and locational aspect--with the farthest distance being Rosslyn, Virginia. While the work description is still evolving, typical work could include doing background web research on companies in cyber that are doing certifications and publishing best practices among other tasks. The Council will also be starting an initiative to rate schools across the U.S. on their ability to prepare the cyber workforce of the future. This latter work would enable a Hood intern to learn a great deal about cyber security disciplines and approaches.


The Council is also interested and open to considering well-rounded candidates so majors in economics, political science, and other social and natural sciences might also be accepted if they were great students.

If interested, send your resume and cover letter to Maurice Uenuma (m.uenuma@counciloncybersecurity.org) and Deirdre Durrance (d.durrance@counciloncybersecurity.org).

Prerequisite Dependency Flowchart for Courses in MS in CS Program

Prerequisite courses: green;
Core courses: blue;
IT courses: red;
CS 503 has Math 505 as a prerequisite, but concurrent enrolment is allowed

Graduate School Leave of Absence Policy

2013-2014 is the first year we opted in the Graduate School's Leave of Absence policy to better keeping track of whereabouts of our students.  Three CS students are taking LoA for personal and work related reasons.

Course Lists

Course lists for MS in CS:

Prerequisite: CS 503, 504, 508, 519, Math 505

Core: CS 520, 524, 528, 564, 561/571

Elective: CS 525, 530, 536, 542, 543, 544, 545, 550, 553, 557, 565, 566,

              CSIT 532, 534, 537, 540, 555, 583

IT Elective: IT 514, 515, 518, 521, 530, 535, 548, 581

                  ITMG 527, 533

Special Topics CS/CSIT 598, 599

Other: CS 575, 580, 585, 595

Examples of two year compeltion schedule for a full time student

Examples of 2 year completion schedule for a full time student:

AI Track:

Fall: 524, 528, 571

Spring: 520, 525, 542

Fall: 543, 544, elective

Spring: 564, elective

ND Track:

Fall: 524, 553, 561

Spring: 520, 564, 525

Fall: 566, 528, elective

Spring: 536, elective

General study with Thesis/SE Project option:

Fall: 524, 528, 561

Spring: 520, 525, 564

Fall: 530, 571, 553

Spring: thesis, thesis

With all prerequisite courses:

Fall: 503, 505, IT 514

Spring: 508, 519, elective

Summer: elective, elective

Fall: 524, 528, 571

Spring: 520, 564, elective

Summer: elective

With a Cybersecurity Certificate:

Fall: 524, 530, 553

Spring: 520, 528, 555

Fall: 532, 571, 535

Spring: 564, 537

Unofficial 2 year course projection

Two Year Projection

Prefix	Course #	Fall	Spring	Fall	Spring	Note
Math	(207) 505	x	x	x	x	Prerequisite
CS	284-503	x	x	x	x
	287-504	x	x	x	x
	326-508	x	x	x	x
	419/519	x	x	x	x
	520		x		x	Core
	524	x		x
	428/528	x		x
	464/564		x		x
	461/561	x
	571	x		x
	525		x			Electives
	530	x		x
	536				+
	542				x
	443/543		x
	544		x
	445/545				x
	450/550	+
	453/553	x		x
	557			+
	565		+		x
	466/566			x
CSIT	532	x		x	x
	534		x
	537				x
	540	x	x
	555		x		x
	583			x
CS/CSIT	598				+
	598
	599	+	+	+
	599
Total:		15	15	15	15

x: courses we should offer on schedule:

+: courses we should offer on schedule, but often subject to student enrollment