From neilbert at brynmawr.edu Tue Apr 7 07:22:24 2009 From: neilbert at brynmawr.edu (Natasha Eilbert) Date: Tue Apr 7 07:21:08 2009 Subject: [Compsci] Academic Fair: Represent CS to Prosbies! In-Reply-To: <675061442.7288171238968814236.JavaMail.root@ganesh.brynmawr.edu> Message-ID: <1465559149.7859601239103344381.JavaMail.root@ganesh.brynmawr.edu> Hi All, Want to lead the future for prospective CS students? On Sunday , April 19th, there will be an Academic Fair for prospective 2013 students from 5-6 in TGH. We need YOU, i.e. student representatives, both majors and minors, from various years to come chat with the prospbies about the CS program here, what's it's been like for you, and other random, happy, and encouraging things. If you'd be interested in volunteering, please let myself or Julia Kelly (jkelly@brynmawr.edu) know. It only takes an hour of your time and you get to meet potential incoming students and tell them about your awesome CS department/community! We hope you sign up!! Best, Your lovely CS major reps, Natasha and Julia From jkelly at brynmawr.edu Tue Apr 7 10:11:51 2009 From: jkelly at brynmawr.edu (Julia Kelly) Date: Tue Apr 7 10:10:36 2009 Subject: [Compsci] CS Shindig In-Reply-To: <1450666797.7934921239113413286.JavaMail.root@ganesh.brynmawr.edu> Message-ID: <1765859402.7935871239113511942.JavaMail.root@ganesh.brynmawr.edu> Hey Guys, Want to see more of your CS buddies, and meet new ones? We are all part of an awesome CS community of kind, friendly women (plus Jesse) who help each other out and have fun and insightful times together! But we still don't see each other nearly enough! So on Saturday, April 18 we're gonna go have a little get-together at Sushi Land. We'll meet at Pem Arch at 5pm and walk over together and should be back by 7:30pm (you can leave earlier if need be). This is not paid for by the department, so we're all going to have to pay for our own food. However, if money is an issue dissuading you from coming, please tell Julia or me and we'll work something out. Please let us know by next Monday (April 13) whether or not you can come so we can make arrangements. It's gonna be so fun and wonderful to see everyone, so we hope you can come!! All the best, Your lovely CS Major Reps, Natasha and Julia <(^_^)> <(^_^<) <(^_^)> (>^_^)> <(^_^)> From neilbert at brynmawr.edu Tue Apr 14 19:19:50 2009 From: neilbert at brynmawr.edu (Natasha Eilbert) Date: Tue Apr 14 19:18:04 2009 Subject: [Compsci] Shindig and Sunday Tabling.... CHANGES and such In-Reply-To: <1240617027.10484611239750930329.JavaMail.root@ganesh.brynmawr.edu> Message-ID: <1098547582.10485661239751190352.JavaMail.root@ganesh.brynmawr.edu> Hi CS Peeps, It's your friendly neighborhood BMC CS reps with announcement(s)! Firstly, the Preview Weekend is THIS WEEKEND (eep O_o)! If you have the time to table from 5-6PM on Sunday the 19th, please reply to Natasha or me soon (like, tomorrow would be great). Second, the informal shindig (or "informal CS tea" as Natasha calls it) is being MOVED to Saturday April 25th, 2009. As stated previously, we'll be meeting at Pem Arch at 5PM and will be back by 7:30PM. So make note that this is NO LONGER happening this Saturday the 18th. Please still let us know if you can come -- we hope you can! Which brings us to the... Third topic! Caitlin and a bunch of her awesome friends are in the Shakespeare Performance Troupe, which is putting on a show in the Sunken Garden that Saturday at 8PM (conveniently right after our tea)! If you'd like to support an up-and-coming CS gal, go see the play! Yours, Julia & Natasha From dxu at cs.brynmawr.edu Wed Apr 15 11:14:06 2009 From: dxu at cs.brynmawr.edu (Dianna Xu) Date: Wed Apr 15 11:12:18 2009 Subject: [Compsci] FLiCS Colloquium in Computer Science at Villanova University: James L. McClelland Message-ID: FLICS ("Fantastic Lectures in Computer Science") The Departments of Computer Science at Bryn Mawr, Haverford and Swarthmore College, and Villanova University, and the Cognitive Sciences Program at Villanova University present a Colloquium by James L McClelland, Stanford University - Center for Mind, Brain and Computation Title: Does Your Brain Use Symbols or Distributed Representations Abstract: I will describe research on semantic cognition that relies on distributed representations instead of symbols. I will describe models that use distributed representations to explain a lot of phenomena in child development, adult cognition, and the disintegration of conceptual knowledge in a disorder called semantic dementia. Among the aspects of semantic cognition addressed are differentiation and reorganization of conceptual knowledge in development, domain and context specificity of inductive inference, semantic illusions, and conceptual grounding of knowledge from one domain in knowledge from another domain. The approach will be compared with the symbolic structured Bayesian approach taken by others. Speaker Bio: Jay McClelland received his Ph.D. in Cognitive Psychology from the University of Pennsylvania in 1975. He served on the faculty of the University of California, San Diego, before moving to Carnegie Mellon in 1984, where he became a University Professor and held the Walter Van Dyke Bingham Chair in Psychology and Cognitive Neuroscience. He was a founding Co-Director of the Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition, a joint project of Carnegie Mellon and the University of Pittsburgh. He served as Co-Director until 2006. In that year he moved to Stanford University, where he is now Professor of Psychology and founding Director of the Center for Mind, Brain and Computation. Over his career, McClelland has contributed to both the experimental and theoretical literatures in a number of areas, most notably in the application of connectionist/parallel distributed processing models to problems in perception, cognitive development, language learning, and the neurobiology of memory. He was a co-founder with David E. Rumelhart of the Parallel Distributed Processing research group, and together with Rumelhart he led the effort leading to the publication in 1986 of the two-volume book, Parallel Distributed Processing, in which the parallel distributed processing framework was laid out and applied to a wide range of topics in cognitive psychology and cognitive neuroscience. McClelland and Rumelhart jointly received the 1993 Howard Crosby Warren Medal from the Society of Experimental Psychologists, the 1996 Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award (see citation) from the American Psychological Association, the 2001 Grawemeyer Prize in Psychology, and the 2002 IEEE Neural Networks Pioneer Award for this work. McClelland has served as Senior Editor of Cognitive Science, as President of the Cognitive Science Society, and as a member of the National Advisory Mental Health Council, and he is currently president-elect of the Federation of the Behavioral, Psychological, and Cognitive Sciences. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, and he has received the APS William James Fellow Award for lifetime contributions to the basic science of psychology. McClelland currently teaches cognitive psychology and cognitive neuroscience and conducts research on learning, memory, conceptual development, spoken language, decision making, and semantic cognition. Date: Wednesday, April 22, 2009 Time: 4:30 PM Location: Mendel Science Center 154, Villanova University Refreshments and conversation will be shared immediately after the colloquium in MSC 159. See http://csc.villanova.edu/events/colloquia and http://fantasticlecturesincomputerscience.blogspot.com/ for more information. From dblank at cs.brynmawr.edu Mon Apr 20 07:26:29 2009 From: dblank at cs.brynmawr.edu (Douglas S. Blank) Date: Mon Apr 20 07:24:20 2009 Subject: [Compsci] Talk today at Penn: Women in academic science and engineering: successes, failures, and where are we going? Message-ID: <55784.71.59.120.170.1240226789.squirrel@cs.brynmawr.edu> Today at Penn: Head to Levine 315 from 1-2 PM today to meet with jaw-droppingly amazing Dr. Ruzena Bajcsy, 2009 Franklin Medal winner, drink La Colombe coffee, and eat cheesecake! In 2002, one year after she "retired" from Penn, where she founded the General Robotics and Active Sensory Perception lab, Dr. Bajcsy was named one of the 50 most important women in science by Discover Magazine. After leaving Penn, Dr. Bajcsy went on to found the Center for Information Technology Research for the Interests of Society [CITRIS] at UC Berkeley, where she is now Director Emeritus. A beautiful writeup on Dr. Bajcsy and her illustrious and ground-breaking career in robotics and medical image analysis may be found here at the Franklin Institute web site. Who: Dr. Ruzena Bajcsy What: "Women in academic science and engineering: successes, failures, and where are we going?" When: Monday, April 20, 1-2 PM Where: Levine 315 **** La Colombe coffee and cheesecake will be served **** Co-sponsored by PGWISE From dkumar at cs.brynmawr.edu Mon Apr 27 16:02:33 2009 From: dkumar at cs.brynmawr.edu (Deepak Kumar) Date: Mon Apr 27 16:30:26 2009 Subject: [Compsci] Computer Science Thesis Presentations Message-ID: <49F60F59.30209@cs.brynmawr.edu> Greetings! I am writing to invite you all to attend the Computer Science Senior Theses Presentations on Friday, May 1 from 2:30p (Sharp!) until 4:30p in Room 230 Park Science Building. The following students will be doing their presentations in the order listed: Natasha Eilbert: Towards a Taxonomy of Recommender Systems (Advisor: Deepak Kumar) Shikha Prashad: Object Detection & Tracking Using Neural networks (Advisors: Douglas Blank & Paul Grobstein) Marwa Nur Muhammad: Visualizing Dance Formations: A Choreographer's Tool (Advisor: Dianna Xu) Simona Radu: Automatic Integration of Course Registration Information into a Personal Calendar (Advisor: Janet Scannel) Jesse Rohwer: TBA (Advisor: Douglas Blank) Julia Kelly: World of Warcraft (WOW): Is This For Real? (Advisor: Amanda Weidman) Teyvonia Thomas: Development of an Autonomous Hexapod Robot for Search & Rescue (Advisors: Douglas Blank and David Nice) Each presentation will be 12 min followed by 3-5 min of Q&A. Please feel free to forward this to all interested parties. Following the presentations you all are invited to the annual Computer Science Physics Picnic in front of the Science Building. There will be food, yard games, and other fun! Best, Deepak. -- Deepak Kumar Professor of Computer Science Bryn Mawr College, Bryn Mawr, PA 19010 dkumar@cs.brynmawr.edu, dkumar@acm.org http://www.cs.brynmawr.edu/~dkumar From dblank at cs.brynmawr.edu Mon Apr 27 16:52:50 2009 From: dblank at cs.brynmawr.edu (Douglas S. Blank) Date: Mon Apr 27 16:50:10 2009 Subject: [Compsci] CS Party, this Friday 4:30! Message-ID: <49F61B22.7030605@cs.brynmawr.edu> Friends, The annual CS Picnic will be this Friday, May 1, 4:30pm to 6:30pm. We will have an assortment of excellent food and drinks, plus games and fun! Invite a friend! The Picnic will start immediately after the Senior Presentations. Hope you can make it! -Doug -- Douglas S. Blank Director, Institute for Personal Robots in Education (IPRE) http://www.roboteducation.org Chair, and Associate Professor, Computer Science, Bryn Mawr College http://cs.brynmawr.edu/~dblank (610)526-6501 From dkumar at cs.brynmawr.edu Tue Apr 28 13:19:28 2009 From: dkumar at cs.brynmawr.edu (Deepak Kumar) Date: Tue Apr 28 13:23:01 2009 Subject: [Compsci] [Room Change]: Computer Science Thesis Presentations In-Reply-To: <49F60F59.30209@cs.brynmawr.edu> References: <49F60F59.30209@cs.brynmawr.edu> Message-ID: <49F73AA0.6060106@cs.brynmawr.edu> Due to a large turnout expected, the room for the event below has been changed to Room 338 Park Science Building. Please make a note of it. We will post flyers outside the old room just in case. Thank you, Deepak. Deepak Kumar wrote: > > Greetings! > > I am writing to invite you all to attend the Computer Science Senior > Theses Presentations on Friday, May 1 from 2:30p (Sharp!) until 4:30p > in Room 230 Park Science Building. > > The following students will be doing their presentations in the order > listed: > > Natasha Eilbert: Towards a Taxonomy of Recommender Systems (Advisor: > Deepak Kumar) > Shikha Prashad: Object Detection & Tracking Using Neural networks > (Advisors: Douglas Blank & Paul Grobstein) > Marwa Nur Muhammad: Visualizing Dance Formations: A Choreographer's > Tool (Advisor: Dianna Xu) > Simona Radu: Automatic Integration of Course Registration Information > into a Personal Calendar (Advisor: Janet Scannel) > Jesse Rohwer: TBA (Advisor: Douglas Blank) > Julia Kelly: World of Warcraft (WOW): Is This For Real? (Advisor: > Amanda Weidman) > Teyvonia Thomas: Development of an Autonomous Hexapod Robot for Search > & Rescue (Advisors: Douglas Blank and David Nice) > > Each presentation will be 12 min followed by 3-5 min of Q&A. Please > feel free to forward this to all interested parties. > > Following the presentations you all are invited to the annual Computer > Science Physics Picnic in front of the Science Building. There will be > food, yard games, and other fun! > > Best, > > Deepak. > > -- Deepak Kumar Professor of Computer Science Bryn Mawr College, Bryn Mawr, PA 19010 dkumar@cs.brynmawr.edu, dkumar@acm.org http://www.cs.brynmawr.edu/~dkumar From dblank at cs.brynmawr.edu Tue Apr 28 21:47:34 2009 From: dblank at cs.brynmawr.edu (Douglas S. Blank) Date: Tue Apr 28 21:44:51 2009 Subject: [Compsci] Late-funded NSF REU Message-ID: <59758.71.59.120.170.1240969654.squirrel@cs.brynmawr.edu> NSF REU Site at the University of Wisconsin - Oshkosh EXPLORING OPEN SOURCE SOFTWARE: DEVELOPMENT AND EFFICACY OF ONLINE LEARNING ENVIRONMENTS IN COMPUTER SCIENCE http://www.uwosh.edu/computer_science/reu-site-summer-2009 Co-Principal Investigators: David Furcy, 920-424-1182, furcyd@uwosh.edu Tom Naps, 920-424-1388, naps@uwosh.edu Application Deadline: May 11 or until all eight summer research positions are filled. Recipients will be notified by May 15. The enormous growth of open source software presents both challenges and opportunities for computer science research and education. Preparation for careers in computing will require new ways of thinking about software design that meet the needs of the open source community. The overarching theme of this REU site is the improvement of computer science instruction through the development of more effective open source online learning systems that address the unique requirements of Computer Science. The JHAVE algorithm visualization project (http://jhave.org), based at the REU site, is a highly interactive approach to online learning in computer science and will provide the foundation for the open source exploration. Within that context, two research threads will allow participants to create a project aligned with their interests: 1) Design and development focused on new features for JHAVE and its integration with other open source projects such as Moodle and 2) Experiments that evaluate the efficacy of these development efforts on instruction in computer science. Projects will incorporate interdisciplinary perspectives from computer science, software engineering, and education. Students from the computing disciplines are encouraged to apply, but our research projects also offer opportunities for educational psychology and education majors with strong computing backgrounds, specifically at least two semesters of object-oriented programming in Java. Through a variety of ongoing collaborations between the faculty mentors at Wisconsin -- Oshkosh and other developers worldwide, JHAVE has already proven itself to be interoperable with a variety of automated assessment, course management, and hypertextbook systems. Our REU program will focus on efforts to continue this interoperability and integration among systems. The developers on several of these other projects -- for example, Lab-centric instruction (WISE project) at UC-Berkeley, the Algo Viz Wiki at Virginia Tech, Jawaa at Duke, Animal at Darmstadt Technical University, Xaal and Matrix at the Helsinki University of Technology -- will collaborate with our participants both electronically and by visiting in person. The participants will become integral members of the very active open source software community currently working on these projects. The program will start on May 27th and run through July 22. Participants will receive stipends of at least $4000 for the eight-week period, travel expenses, and complete support for on-campus lodging and food. Interested students can apply by sending: * A one-page single-spaced statement in which they speak to their career intentions, how graduate school might play into those intentions, and how the project described in the summary above would be a good fit for those intentions * A copy of their transcripts -- unofficial copy is OK * A letter of reference/support from a faculty member * Ethnicity and gender information are optional. We strongly encourage underrepresented groups to apply to Tom Naps at naps@uwosh.edu. Postal mail applications will also be accepted and can be sent to: Tom Naps Dept. of Computer Science University of Wisconsin - Oshkosh 800 Algoma Blvd. Oshkosh, WI 54901 From jd at cs.haverford.edu Thu Apr 30 15:10:24 2009 From: jd at cs.haverford.edu (John Dougherty) Date: Thu Apr 30 15:52:39 2009 Subject: [Compsci] Re: [Room Change]: Computer Science Thesis Presentations In-Reply-To: <49F73AA0.6060106@cs.brynmawr.edu> References: <49F60F59.30209@cs.brynmawr.edu> <49F73AA0.6060106@cs.brynmawr.edu> Message-ID: Thanks Deepak -- I posted the thesis schedules at the link below for Bryn Mawr and for Haverford -- JD http://www.cs.haverford.edu/Thesis2009.html On Tue, Apr 28, 2009 at 1:19 PM, Deepak Kumar wrote: > > Due to a large turnout expected, the room for the event below has been > changed to Room 338 Park Science Building. Please make a note of it. We will > post flyers outside the old room just in case. > > Thank you, > > Deepak. > > Deepak Kumar wrote: >> >> Greetings! >> >> I am writing to invite you all to attend the Computer Science Senior >> Theses Presentations on Friday, May 1 from 2:30p (Sharp!) until 4:30p in >> Room 230 Park Science Building. >> >> The following students will be doing their presentations in the order >> listed: >> >> Natasha Eilbert: Towards a Taxonomy of Recommender Systems (Advisor: >> Deepak Kumar) >> Shikha Prashad: Object Detection & Tracking Using Neural networks >> (Advisors: Douglas Blank & Paul Grobstein) >> Marwa Nur Muhammad: Visualizing Dance Formations: A Choreographer's Tool >> (Advisor: Dianna Xu) >> Simona Radu: Automatic Integration of Course Registration Information into >> a Personal Calendar (Advisor: Janet Scannel) >> Jesse Rohwer: TBA (Advisor: Douglas Blank) >> Julia Kelly: World of Warcraft (WOW): Is This For Real? (Advisor: Amanda >> Weidman) >> Teyvonia Thomas: Development of an Autonomous Hexapod Robot for Search & >> Rescue (Advisors: Douglas Blank and David Nice) >> >> Each presentation will be 12 min followed by 3-5 min of Q&A. Please feel >> free to forward this to all interested parties. >> >> Following the presentations you all are invited to the annual Computer >> Science Physics Picnic in front of the Science Building. There will be food, >> yard games, and other fun! >> >> Best, >> >> Deepak. >> >> > > > -- > Deepak Kumar > Professor of Computer Science > Bryn Mawr College, Bryn Mawr, PA 19010 > dkumar@cs.brynmawr.edu, dkumar@acm.org > http://www.cs.brynmawr.edu/~dkumar > >