Elena and two students, Kevin Arhelger and Fernando Trinciente, spent last week at OOPSLA (Object-oriented programming systems, languages, and applications – one of the largest and most influential programming languages conferences in the world). As well as presenting some very cool work on optimizing Java generics (which we hope to have more on here later), they also got to see some very exciting talks by some of the big names in the field, and rumor has it that they’ll be sharing stories at today’s CSci tea (4:30pm in the lab tea room). This is a great opportunity to hear about the cutting edge thoughts of some of the Cool Kids in Computing, so definitely swing by!

Four UMM CSci teams competed today in the 2009 ACM North Central Regional programming competition and had another fine showing. 203 teams competed in this year’s regional, with 21 (including our four) competing at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities campus. Based on the (currently unofficial) on-line results, two of the UMM teams placed in the top 10% in the region, and all four placed in the top half:

• Nuclear Unicorn (Stephen Adams, Jason Biatek, Justin Mullin) placed 14th, with 5 of the 10 problems solved
• Teamcube (Eugene Butler, Brian Goslinga, Chad Seibert) placed 20th, with 4 solved
• Corrupt Code (Jared Grommesh, Eric Laska, Jared Grommesh, Tim Snyder) placed 82nd with 2 solved
• Infinite Monkeys (Katie Froiland, Nathan Dahlberg, Chris Larson) placed 92nd with 2 solved

This is a really excellent showing for any school, and especially for a small public liberal arts college. Only one other strictly undergraduate school (Northwestern College) placed in the top 20 (with a very impressive 3rd). All the other schools in the top 20 have graduate programs, and almost all of the top 20 teams are from large research institutions, and trend that continues through the top part of the table.

The U of M system also did very well as a group. While the 11 U of M teams (4 from Morris and 7 from the Twin Cities) only represented around 5% of the region, they accounted for nearly 1/3 of top 20 teams: 2 from Morris and 4 from the Twin Cities campus. One of the Twin Cities teams is currently listed in 4th, and may qualify to go to the international finals in China – best of luck to them!.

The folks at the Twin Cities campus were again excellent hosts, providing a nice work environment, good support, and some excellent greek food for dinner afterwards. (There were some obnoxious parking issues because there was also a home football game today, but we’ll blame that on athletics :->.) Many thanks to them for putting on a fine event.

This marks the end of the fall competition season, which means we can all go back to our normal academic lives for a while. Next Spring, though, is the annual MICS event, complete with both programming and robotics competitions, so we’ll have to stay in shape for that.

Congratulations to our teams on their excellent showing, and to all the teams that competed today!

UMM CSci 2009 graduation photo

We have quite a lot of photos from graduation taken by various people, and I (Nic) had grand ambitions of collecting together the bunch. Life interfered, though, and that got all backed up. Every journey begins with a single step, however, so here’s all of us on graduation day!

Michael Korth takes photos of each discipline’s faculty and graduating students at the Science Division’s graduation reception, and this is us minus a few students that couldn’t make graduation for one reason or another.

From front to back, left to right: Jay Jech, Arthur Aarberg, Michael Deragon; Jeremy Bleichner, Joe Rader; Haakon Poulsen, Adam Hendrickson; Kyle Roth, Eli Mayfield; Elena Machkasova, Peter Dolan; Kristin Lamberty, Nic McPhee.

Brian Goslinga, Justin Mullin, and Jason Biatek (seated) go over their submissions with a Digi-Key employee

UMM CSci again sent two teams to the annual Digi-Key Collegiate Computing Competition. Of the 15 teams from the region at this year’s competition, Leaves on the Wind (Jason Biatek, Brian Goslinga, Sara Lahr, Justin Mullin) placed 5th and Super Regex Foo (Stephen Adams, Kevin Arhelger, Nathan Dahlberg, Katie Froiland) placed 6th.

They also did really well at the “Blenders” (competitions that combine speed and trivia skills). Leaves on the Wind took first in both Blenders, and Super Regex Foo (Stephen Adams, Kevin Arhelger, Nathan Dahlberg, Katie Froiland) took second on one of them.

Thanks again to Digi-Key for another fun day full of problem solving, pizza, and swag, and congratulations to our students for another fine performance!

Nathan Dahlberg, Katie Froiland, Stephen Adams, and Kevin Arhelger working hard at Digi-Key 2009

Sara Lahr and Jason Biatek reviewing their final solutions at Digi-Key 2009

Brian Goslinga celebrating as he and his teammates (Justin Mullin, Jason Biatek, and Sara Lahr) go up to receive their awards for winning the second of the two Blenders competitions

Fernando (along with Sara Lahr and Katie Froiland) at Digi-Key 2008

Elena Machkasova (UMM CSci faculty) and Fernando Trinciante (UMM CSci student, and graduate of Ridgewater College) will be visiting Ridgewater tomorrow (Monday, 19 Oct 2009) to meet with Kevin Halvorsen’s computer science students. We’ve had a number of excellent students transfer to UMM after two years at Ridgewater, so this will be a nice opportunity for us to meet with the current group of Ridgewater students, and for them to learn more about us and our program.

Thanks to both Elena and Fernando for devoting a day of their Fall Break to this visit!

This Wednesday (14 Oct) this semester’s Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) class will be having a poster session from 1-2:05pm in Sci 2185. Three groups will share their project ideas for HCI class:

• Keeping track of groups, friends, and events (mostly contact information)
• Help in the kitchen (recipe choosing, food prep, and shopping guides)
• Registration helper (find your prereqs, figure out your plans)

These sound like some pretty cool projects, and the students will greatly appreciate your feedback, so come on by!

UMM CSci folks at a meet-up last year

Friday (9 Oct) Nic and a group of about 10 students will be making an early morning run to the Cities for the Seventh Biennial Open House hosted by the U of M TC Computer Science and Engineering Department. We’ve had the pleasure of attending this twice in the past (‘05 and ‘07) and it was a really good experience. If you’re also going to attending keep an eye out and say “Hi!”.

This weekend is also homecoming here at UMM, and KK and Lambo have generously offered to host a gathering for UMM CSci folk (alums, current students, families, etc.). Their event will run Saturday (10 Oct) from 7-10pm at the Lamberty house. (If you don’t know where that is get in touch and we’ll hook you up.)

Computer Science Homecoming Gathering

Saturday, October 10, 2009
7pm-10pm

Join us for an evening of networking (the social kind) and visiting with UMM Alumni, current students, faculty, and families.

We will provide snacks and beverages, along with at least some of Lambo’s famous pulled pork. (Funding for food and beverages courtesy of DigiKey programming contest winnings from previous years.)

Hope to see you there!

Nummy drinks!

For those who missed these, we get together informally every Wednesday (including tomorrow!) from 4:30pm to 5:30 or 6 in the tea room in the CSci lab. Everyone who’s interested is welcome to join us.

Not sure when the next ACM/CSci club meeting will be, but we’ll post it here and/or Twitter it when we know. Also, if you’re not on the mailing list, contact any of the officers or faculty, or the DIY types can use the instructions tacked on the cork board in the tea room to add themselves.

Looking forward to seeing lots of folks again tomorrow!

Join us for CSci tea, every Wednesday in the CSci lounge at 4:30!

The beginning of the year is always full of important (and less important) dates and reminders, so we’ll throw a few on the pile as well!

• The Student Activities Fair is Tuesday, 25 Aug, from 5:30-7pm. This is a chance to see at least parts of the newly remodeled Food Service building. Be sure to swing by the ACM/CSci Club table to learn about upcoming events (game nights perhaps?) and get your name on our mailing list for info on events, internships, jobs, and the like. And there are free corn dogs. ‘Nuff said.
• The Science Division safety training session is Thursday, 27 Aug, from 4-5pm in the Science Auditorium. This is mandatory for students working in the Division (which includes graders and other TAs, as well as research students getting paid by programs like MAP and UROP).
• This semester’s CSci teas are scheduled for Wednesdays from 4:30pm until people drift away (probably between 5:30 and 6pm), in the CSci lounge. The first tea will be the first day of classes, 26 Aug, and there are rumors of free snacks (coooooookieeeees!). These are totally informal, and all CSci types and allies are welcome.

Again, welcome (back) and stay tuned for more announcements as the year ramps up!

Below is an edited quote from a recent e-mail I received from a recruiter at a health tech company in Wisconsin:

My name is [snip] and I am a recruiter at [snip]. We have had the pleasure of interviewing [a recent UMM CSci graduate], who listed you as a reference. We are very impressed by the quality of your student and have extended an offer for one of our positions. It is clear that the students graduating from The University of Minnesota – Morris are of a high caliber and the professors and staff are doing a wonderful job. We would love to see more of your students in our interview process so we are asking for your recommendations.

We know our students are wonderful, but it’s always a pleasure to hear that other people feel the same way :-).

The full e-mail with the details of the company, etc., have been sent to the ACM/CSci Club e-mail list, so check there if you’re interested in contacting these folks.

Health tech seems to be a booming area that really likes hiring our students; I don’t think we have hard numbers, but it seems that quite a substantial percentage of our graduates in the last 5 years are now working in health related fields.