From ttthomas at brynmawr.edu Tue Sep 1 10:26:56 2009 From: ttthomas at brynmawr.edu (Teyvonia Thomas) Date: Tue Sep 1 10:16:06 2009 Subject: [Compsci] TA's Needed for CS110 Message-ID: Welcome Back Everyone! My name is Teyvonia Thomas and I very recently graduated from BMC (May '09) with a major in Physics and a minor in Computer Science. I will teaching the lab sections for CS110 this semester and I would love the assistance of some very enthusiastic TA's for this class. The main requirements for this job are as follows: > Must have prior experience with Python and Myro (It would be great if you've taken CS110 before) > Must be able to TA two 2-hr periods every week starting next week > Must be enthusiastic about the class and willing to help and encourage students > Must provide me with a brief report (via e-mail preferably) every week about the number of students that were present at each lab session and needed your assistance, and the concepts/issues they needed help with If you're interested in the position, please let me know as soon as possible i.e. by 5pm Tomorrow (Wednesday, September 2). Thanks, Teyvonia "The hardest thing is to go to sleep at night, when there are so many urgent things needing to be done. A huge gap exists between what we know is possible with today?s machines and what we have so far been able to finish." - Donald Knuth -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://emergent.brynmawr.edu/pipermail/compsci/attachments/20090901/a2ae6c20/attachment.htm From jkelly at brynmawr.edu Wed Sep 2 09:49:30 2009 From: jkelly at brynmawr.edu (Julia Kelly) Date: Wed Sep 2 09:38:22 2009 Subject: [Compsci] The CS Board Message-ID: <4b3376430909020649u1b829c55x27812e8ce6861179@mail.gmail.com> Hi CS group, Hope you're all well! I don't know if people noticed, but across the hall from the graphics lab is our lovely CS board. As of right now it is lacking in CS articles and such! Please help out and post cool articles or pictures. (Also, at some point the CS majors might want to post more recent photos?) I think AshGavs said something about wanting to maintain the board along with Marissa? I believe they are the CS reps this year, so you should probably pass what you post with them first... Yours, Julia -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://emergent.brynmawr.edu/pipermail/compsci/attachments/20090902/17dc4aba/attachment.htm From agavin at brynmawr.edu Wed Sep 9 13:47:41 2009 From: agavin at brynmawr.edu (Ashley Gavin) Date: Wed Sep 9 13:35:59 2009 Subject: [Compsci] ACM Programming Team Message-ID: <1393787309.5819061252518461619.JavaMail.root@ganesh.brynmawr.edu> Hey CS majors! Anyone interested in being on the programming team? The ACM competition is in October and we are already registered! If you want to be on the team (no experience necessary!) please email me the following information: Name, Year, # of CS classes, languages known, and TIMES YOU ARE AVAILABLE! We are trying to be much more organized and prepared this year, so we really need one big chunk of time when we can meet and practice like crazy! Hope to hear from you! --Ashley From dblank at cs.brynmawr.edu Fri Sep 11 11:52:21 2009 From: dblank at cs.brynmawr.edu (Douglas S. Blank) Date: Fri Sep 11 11:40:31 2009 Subject: [Compsci] [Fwd: MIT Lincoln Laboratory's Career and Summer Opportunities] Message-ID: <4AAA7235.8010008@cs.brynmawr.edu> For those of you who were at the Summer Science Poster session last Friday, you'll recall that there was a fellow from MIT Lincoln Labs. I just received this message, no doubt as a follow-up to meeting some of you. If you are interested in this, let me know, and I can give you some additional details about MIT LL. -Doug -------- Original Message -------- > Subject: MIT Lincoln Laboratory's Career and Summer Opportunities > Date: Fri, 11 Sep 2009 08:33:13 -0400 > From: Wood, Kristi Greetings, MIT Lincoln Laboratory will not be conducting interviews at your campus during the fall semester; however, we would appreciate your making the following information available to your students. The Laboratory offers scientists and engineers the opportunity to work on challenging problems critical to national security. A Department of Defense federally funded research and development center (FFRDC), Lincoln Laboratory has a focused commitment to research and development, with an emphasis on building prototypes and demonstrating operational systems under live test conditions that meet real-world requirements. Three areas constitute the core of the work performed at the Laboratory: sensors, information extraction (signal processing and embedded computing), and communications, all supported by a broad research base in advanced electronics. The research and development activities at the Laboratory are encompassed under six primary mission areas: space control; air and missile defense technology; communications and information technology; intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance systems and technology; advanced electronics technology; and homeland protection. For more information about MIT Lincoln Laboratory, please visit www.ll.mit.edu . The Laboratory has career opportunities for theoretical investigation as well as work with experimental systems in the field. Due to the highly complex nature of our work, we have the greatest need for graduate engineers with an MS or a PhD in Electrical Engineering or Physics and for BS or MS-level software engineers and scientific programmers. *Due to our contracts with the Department of Defense employment at the Laboratory requires U.S. citizenship.* We are actively recruiting undergraduates and graduate students for our Summer Research Program. You can find the Eligibility requirements, program details, and the application process at http://www.ll.mit.edu/college/summerprogram.html. Our 2009-2010 Technical Seminar Series offering is available at http://www.ll.mit.edu/college/techseminars.html. Costs related to the staff members' visits will be assumed by the Laboratory. Please review our website to obtain the process for requesting a seminar. We hope you will encourage your students to apply for our career opportunities at http://www.ll.mit.edu/college/oncampus.html. If you have questions, please feel free to contact me. Sincerely, Gary Hackett Human Resources Representative College Relations Program MIT Lincoln Laboratory 244 Wood Street Lexington, MA 02420-9108 (781) 981-7056 (voice) (781) 981-7086 (fax) www.ll.mit.edu -- 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 dblank at cs.brynmawr.edu Wed Sep 16 08:36:08 2009 From: dblank at cs.brynmawr.edu (Douglas S. Blank) Date: Wed Sep 16 08:23:58 2009 Subject: [Compsci] Poster session at Villanova Message-ID: <50777.71.59.120.170.1253104568.squirrel@cs.brynmawr.edu> [This just in. If you have an interesting project you are working on, consider this! Great way to meet people, and put on your resume. -Doug] There is still time to submit a poster abstract for CCSCE 2009, the Consortium for Computing Sciences in Colleges 25th Annual Eastern Conference! The poster abstract submission deadline is Wednesday, September 30th The conference will take place at Villanova University, Villanova, PA, on October 30th and 31st, 2009. Submissions by undergraduate student presenters are especially encouraged. CCSCE is an ideal venue for students to present their research results. Submissions from faculty are also welcome. More information can found at the conference web site: http://ccsce09.villanova.edu/posters.shtml To submit a poster abstract (max 300 words), email it to dhovemey@ycp.edu Thank you for your attention, and I hope to see you at the conference. David Hovemeyer York College of Pennsylvania CCSCE 2009 Posters Chair From dblank at cs.brynmawr.edu Wed Sep 16 08:43:18 2009 From: dblank at cs.brynmawr.edu (Douglas S. Blank) Date: Wed Sep 16 08:31:06 2009 Subject: [Compsci] We're looking for some help Message-ID: <38764.71.59.120.170.1253104998.squirrel@cs.brynmawr.edu> Current BMC students, We are looking to hire a couple of students to work on the Unix-side of our department. You don't need to have any experience with Unix/Linux, just the desire to learn! Hours are flexible, and your work can help make the computing systems in CS even better. Interested students should send a note to Matt Rice (mrice@brynmawr.edu) letting him know of your interest or questions. Thanks! -dsb From dblank at cs.brynmawr.edu Wed Sep 16 23:50:28 2009 From: dblank at cs.brynmawr.edu (Douglas S. Blank) Date: Wed Sep 16 23:38:15 2009 Subject: [Compsci] Venture Capitalist on Technology Startups Message-ID: <47412.71.59.120.170.1253159428.squirrel@cs.brynmawr.edu> [This just in, regarding a talk Friday on technology startups. Thought you might be interested. -Doug] On Friday from 10:30 to 12:00 in the campus center room 300, the owner of one of the colleges venture capital investment firms is coming to speak to students who are interested in careers in finance. Since his firm mentors entrepreneurs who are starting technology companies, this may be of interest to some the students in you computer classes. One of the companies he is currently working with (and we are invested with) is a new search engine Cuil (http://www.cuil.com/). David is very interesting so please pass this on to anyone who is interested in technology carers. David G. Whorton In March 2006, Mr. Whorton founded Tugboat Ventures, a venture capital firm, and has been Managing Director since that time. From February 2003 to December 2005, Mr. Whorton was a Managing Director of TPG Ventures, a venture capital firm. Mr. Whorton founded Good Technology, Inc. and Mr. Whorton served as its Chief Executive Officer from January 2000 to December 2000. From December 2000 to May 2003, Mr. Whorton served as the Executive Chairman of Good Technology's Board of Directors. From May 1997 to March 2000, Mr. Whorton was an Associate Partner of Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, a venture capital firm. Mr. Whorton holds an M.S. in mechanical engineering from the University of California, Berkeley and an M.B.A. from Stanford University Graduate School of Business. Tugboat Ventures: Philosophy and Mission Though Tugboat Ventures comes from the venture capitalist world, they are not exactly ?venture capitalists?. Tugboat Ventures prefer to think of themselves as ?mentor capitalists?. Today, most venture capitalists target ventures chasing big markets with disruptive technologies, existing reference-able consumers and an experienced management team. Tugboat focuses earlier tipping the odds of success in their favor in 4 ways- 1. Through extraordinarily careful evaluation of the entrepreneur and idea ahead of time 2. By helping to optimize the market opportunity 3. By being dedicated and thorough business partners with a disciplined approach to company building 4. By encouraging capital efficiency, using appropriate financing and investing through liquidity From dblank at cs.brynmawr.edu Thu Sep 17 09:10:28 2009 From: dblank at cs.brynmawr.edu (Douglas S. Blank) Date: Thu Sep 17 08:58:12 2009 Subject: [Compsci] Interesting Talks in the Philly Area Message-ID: <33899.71.59.120.170.1253193028.squirrel@cs.brynmawr.edu> [As many of the BMC students and faculty are interested in vision, graphics, and 3D geometry, thought you might enjoy this research talk at Penn on "Scene Understanding". -Doug] Penn GRASP Seminar 11 AM Friday 9/18 Wu and Chen Auditorium Antonio Torralba Massachusetts Institute of Technology "Understanding Visual Scenes" Abstract: Human visual scene understanding is remarkable: with only a brief glance at an image, an abundance of information is available - spatial structure, scene category and the identity of main objects in the scene. In traditional computer vision, scene and object recognition are two visual tasks generally studied separately. However, it is unclear whether it is possible to build robust systems for scene and object recognition, matching human performance, based only on local representations. Another key component of machine vision algorithms is the access to data that describe the content of images. As the field moves into integrated systems that try to recognize many object classes and learn about contextual relationships between objects, the lack of large annotated datasets hinders the fast development of robust solutions. In the early days, the first challenge a computer vision researcher would encounter would be the difficult task of digitizing a photograph. Even once a picture was in digital form, storing a large number of pictures (say six) consumed most of the available computational resources. In addition to the algorithmic advances required to solve object recognition, a key component to progress is access to data in order to train computational models for the different object classes. This situation has dramatically changed in the last decade, especially via the internet, which has given computer vision researchers access to billions of images and videos. In this talk I will describe recent work on visual scene understanding that try to build integrated models for scene and object recognition, emphasizing the power of large database of annotated images in computer vision. Biography: Antonio Torralba is associate Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) at MIT. Following his degree in telecommunications engineering, obtained at the Universidad Politecnica de Catalunya, Spain, he was awarded a Ph.D. in Signal, Image, and Speech processing from the Institut National Polytechnique de Grenoble, France. Thereafter, he spent post-doctoral training at the Brain and Cognitive Science Department and the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory at MIT. From dblank at cs.brynmawr.edu Mon Sep 21 11:31:45 2009 From: dblank at cs.brynmawr.edu (Douglas S. Blank) Date: Mon Sep 21 11:19:15 2009 Subject: [Compsci] Many-Weirdnesses of Quantum Mechanics Message-ID: <4AB79C61.10505@cs.brynmawr.edu> [A lecture you might be interested in this evening at BMC. -Doug] The Departments of Physics and Philosophy invite you to a joint colloquium cosponsored by the Class of 1902 Lecture fund: Professor Guy Blaylock, University of Massachusetts at Amherst "The Many-Weirdnesses Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics" Monday 21 September 2009 Dorothy Vernon Room, Haffner Hall Dinner 5:30-6:30 pm, followed by the colloquium 6:30-7:30 pm. Abstract: The 'many-worlds' interpretation (MWI) of quantum mechanics posits that every possible result of every physical interaction exists in its own world, which in turn inhabits an infinity of worlds that make up the multiverse. Over the years, this theory has been a source of amusement for conservative scientists as well as steady employment for science fiction writers. However, in recent years it has gained popularity as a serious scientific framework, particularly among cosmologists (although some consider this dubious support). The aim of this talk is to understand the attraction of the many-worlds interpretation in the context of philosophical quantum issues such as non-locality, indeterminacy, non-realism, Schroedinger's cat paradox, and the measurement problem. I will argue that MWI is: (1) not as weird as it's made out to be, (2) no more weird than required by the mathematical formalism of quantum mechanics, and (3) noticably less weird than the orthodox interpretation of quantum mechanics. -- 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 dblank at cs.brynmawr.edu Thu Sep 24 16:49:11 2009 From: dblank at cs.brynmawr.edu (Douglas S. Blank) Date: Thu Sep 24 16:36:28 2009 Subject: [Compsci] Healthcare Software Development Job Message-ID: <4ABBDB47.9050309@cs.brynmawr.edu> [This just in... I know nothing about them. -Doug] Dear Douglas Blank, My name is Katie, and I work for Epic in Madison, Wisconsin. Epic is a national leader in software development for healthcare systems, and we support some of the largest and most respected healthcare organizations in the country. Each year we receive resumes from students at Bryn Mawr, and we are very impressed by the caliber of these applicants. It is clear that the professors and staff from your school are doing a wonderful job. We are currently looking for talented individuals for our Software Development position and would like to consider any bright students that you can recommend to us. Software Developers at Epic work on small teams and participate in all aspects of the development process, from meeting customers and designing cutting-edge functionality through implementation, quality assurance, and delivery. To qualify, they must have a BS/BA or MS in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or Math, plus a track record of academic excellence. Because Epic sponsors visas for qualified applicants, this position is open to international students. If you could help me by forwarding this opportunity on to any of your students whom you think would be interested I would greatly appreciate it. You can also direct them to our website at www.careers.epic.com where they can learn more about our company, available positions, and state-of-the-art campus. For fastest consideration, we ask that students please apply online at http://www.epic.com/forms/application.php We look forward to seeing more great resumes from your students! Thank you, Katie Terry -- 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 dblank at cs.brynmawr.edu Thu Sep 24 22:15:09 2009 From: dblank at cs.brynmawr.edu (Douglas S. Blank) Date: Thu Sep 24 22:02:23 2009 Subject: [Compsci] Anyone lose a ring? Message-ID: <54562.71.59.120.170.1253844909.squirrel@cs.brynmawr.edu> I found a silver and diamond ring on the floor of the lab today. If you have lost a ring, please let me know the phrase on the side of the ring and I'll get it back to you. -Doug