Computer Science | Grinnell College

On Thursday, 17 November 2011, Jillian Goetz '10 will join us for an informal CS extra. Jillian, who is in her second year in a graduate program in bioinformatics, will talk about the transition from Grinnell to graduate school and will answer questions students have about her experiences in applying to graduate school, starting graduate programs, and working in an interdisciplinary field.

Refreshments will be served at 4:15 p.m. in the Computer Science Commons (Noyce 3817). An informal discussion will continue at 4:30 p.m. in the same location. Everyone is welcome to attend.

This Friday, November 11, at CS Table, Josh and Benji will be leading a discussion about Diagnostic Aids for Practitioners. The readings can be found at the following link: http://foswiki.cs.grinnell.edu/foswiki/bin/view/Courses/HealthCareAndCom... We'll meet at noon in JRC 224A. Please feel free to e-mail [raymondw] if you have any questions!

On November 10, the computer science department's faculty will discuss summer opportunities for computer science students.

It's never to soon to think about what you're going to do next summer! While summer may seem far away, taking advantage of some of the better summer opportunities requires advance planning - for example, some programs have deadlines in January or February.

At this session, members of the CS department and the Career Development Office will discuss typical summer options available in computer science - research, internships, and more. They will also suggest strategies for developing your applications. At a separate session, to be held early next semester, the CS faculty will describe summer research opportunities available at Grinnell.

Refreshments will be served at 4:15 p.m. in the Computer Science Commons (Noyce 3817). the talk and discussion will follow at 4:30 p.m. in Noyce 3821. Everyone is welcome to attend.

This Friday at CS Table, Liyan and Martin D. will be leading a discussion about Dr. Google vs. your Practitioner. The readings can be found at the following link: http://foswiki.cs.grinnell.edu/foswiki/bin/view/Courses/HealthCareAndCom... We'll meet at noon in JRC 224A. Please feel free to e-mail [raymondw] if you have any questions!

On Tuesday, November 1 at noon, Gábor Bojár, President of the Aquincum Institute of Technology (AIT), will give a presentation on their study abroad program in Noyce 3821.

An upcoming talk will be presented on campus to encourage students to consider a great new study abroad program, Aquincum Institute of Technology BUDAPEST, for students interested in computing, design, computational biology, and IT entrepreneurship.

About AIT: The AIT program has a first-rate faculty including professors such as Erno Rubik (inventor of the Rubik's Cube and recent recipient of the U.S. Outstanding Contributions to Science Education Award), an innovative curriculum including courses such as "Computer Vision for Digital Film Post-production" taught by faculty affiliates from Colorfront Studios (recent recipients of an Academy Award for technical contributions), and a guest lecture series that brings prominent speakers to campus.

All classes are conducted in English at AIT's state-of-the-art campus on the lovely banks of the Danube River. Students live in vibrant neighborhoods of Budapest and have ample opportunities to interact with Hungarian students and explore Hungary and the region.

AIT is small and friendly, with typical class sizes of 5-15 students. Recent U.S. AIT students have come from Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering, Harvey Mudd College, Northeastern University, Pomona College, Princeton University, RPI, Skidmore, Smith, Swarthmore and Williams Colleges. The program also includes a small number of Hungarian students. (AIT Alumni).

The AIT website and APPLICATION materials are available on-line.

This Friday at CS Table, Kim and Radhika will be leading a discussion about Online Health Communities. The readings can be found at the following link: http://foswiki.cs.grinnell.edu/foswiki/bin/view/Courses/HealthCareAndCom... We'll meet at noon in JRC 224A. Please feel free to e-mail [raymondw] if you have any questions!

On October 27, members of the computer science department's faculty will share information on potential new major requirements and a discrete structures course.

Mathematics serves many purposes within the CS curriculum. Certainly, mathematical techniques are necessary for a wide variety of activities, including linear algebra in computer graphics, mathematical induction as a precursor to recursion, and a variety of techniques in artificial intelligence. In addition, in order to successfully analyze algorithms, an activity central to computer science, students need some mathematical sophistication, including an ability to read and write proofs.

For many years, Grinnell has relied on MAT 218, Combinatorics, to ensure that students had an appropriate background for the computer science major. However, the CS faculty have also been concerned about the effects on students of MAT 218's long prerequisite chain.

The Computer Science and Mathematics/Statistics departments are considering offering a new course entitled "Discrete Structures" that will serve many of the needs of CS majors and will approach many topics through both a mathematical and computational perspective. The new course is also likely to have prerequisites of MAT 131, Calculus I, and CSC 151, Functional Problem Solving. Dr. Stone's notes on a possible structure for that course appear here.

If this new course is offered, the Computer Science department is likely to change its requirements so that students may take either MAT 218 or this new course. Before we move forward further with these proposals, we would like to hear from our students.

We invite you to come meet with us to discuss the new course and the potential changes to the computer science curriculum. Refreshments will be served at 4:15 p.m. in the Computer Science Commons (Noyce 3817). The presentation and discussion will follow at 4:30 p.m. in Noyce 3821. Everyone is welcome to attend.

This Friday, October 14, Kyle and Martin E. will be leading a discussion about Online Health Information Systems. You can find links to the papers for this week at http://foswiki.cs.grinnell.edu/foswiki/bin/view/Courses/HealthCareAndCom... As usual, we'll meet around noon in JRC 224A. Hope to see you there!

This Friday, October 14, Kyle and Martin E. will be leading a discussion about Online Health Information Systems. You can find links to the papers for this week at http://foswiki.cs.grinnell.edu/foswiki/bin/view/Courses/HealthCareAndCom... ng/OHIS As usual, we'll meet around noon in JRC 224A. Hope to see you there!

On October 13, Brady Garvin from the University of Nebraska at Lincoln will present a talk in the Thursday Extra series:

Developers are increasingly building large software in the form of highly configurable systems, systems with features that can be toggled on and off. The major risk for highly configurable systems is that some bugs, called configuration-dependent faults, only cause failures when certain features are combined, being invisible otherwise. My talk will first discuss the techniques we currently have to combat configuration-dependent faults and show that they all exploit a common idea, which we term feature locality. I will then present some newly discovered forms of feature locality and explain how they are helping us better prevent, find, mitigate, and repair configuration-dependent faults.

Refreshments will be served at 4:15 p.m. in the Computer Science Commons (Noyce 3817). Mr. Garvin's talk, "Configuration-dependent faults and feature locality," will follow at 4:30 p.m. in Noyce 3821. Everyone is welcome to attend.