Date: Mon, 14 Jan 2008 14:51:48 -0500 From: Margrit Betke To: cs-ugrads@cs.bu.edu Subject: Newsletter to CS Students Cc: cs-grads@cs.bu.edu, cs-faculty@cs.bu.edu Dear CS Students, Happy New Year and welcome back to a snowy Boston! Hope you all had a great winter break. Please check out the news below: * CS Spring 2008 Courses * Academic Advising * CS Connections Brings Career Opportunities to CS Students and Alumni * Join Boston University Computing Alumni Network (BUCAN) on Facebook * BU's Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP) * Programs for Women in Computing * Graders Needed * Tutoring Hours * Preparing to go to Graduate School * Funding your Graduate School Education * 8th Annual Industrial Affiliates Program Research Day on March 19, 2008 * Student Advisors needed for the incoming freshmen this summer * Finding a job or internship * BattleCode AI Programming Competition Best regards, Margrit Betke Associate Professor Director of Undergraduate Studies Computer Science Department Boston University ------------------------------------------------------------------- * CS Spring 2008 Courses This semester we are offering CS 101, 103, 105, 108, 111, 112, 212, 232, 235, 332, 350, 455, 460, 480, 492, 511, 538, 552, 585. If your major concentration is CS, you need to take four 400+ courses towards your CS BA degree. Consider this to be a lower bound -- to receive a good education CS, you may want to take additional courses. There are open seats, for example, in - Computer Networks - Object-Oriented Software Principles - Intro to Operating Systems - Image and Video Computing Check out the course webpages at http://www.cs.bu.edu/education/CS_Course_Web_Pages.shtml You can find our department's course listing at http://www.bu.edu/link/bin/uiscgi_dept_class_sched?Sem=SPRG&Year=08&Col=CAS&Dept=CS Note that "CS 492 Directed Study" is also offered. The professor who will serve as your project advisor will help you sign up for CS 492. * Academic Advising Professors Gacs, Homer, Reyzin, Teng, West, and Xi are on sabbatical this semester. If you are an advisee of Profs. Gacs, West, or Xi, you should have another CS professor assigned to you as your temporary advisor (see www.bu.edu/link). Advisees of Profs. Teng and Homer will soon be reassigned. Prof. Reyzin will be able to meet with his advisees this semester. * CS Connections Brings Career Opportunities to CS Students and Alumni This Fall, the CS Department launched the CS Connections program which is designed to facilitate communication between our students and potential employers. Over the years, we have been contacted by many potential employers; the CS Connections program is intended to provide a central organization of such contacts about job and internship opportunities for our students. Students may join the mailing lists and view archived opportunities as well as attend events starting in spring 2008 to learn more about the companies and distribute their resume. We welcome you to check out more about CS Connections at http://www.cs.bu.edu/news/CSConnections.shtml. * Join Boston University Computing Alumni Network (BUCAN) on Facebook Interested in connecting with CS alumni? With social networking, it is now easier than ever! Just join the BUCAN group on Facebook at http://bu.facebook.com/group.php?gid=8070122974 and spread the word! * BU's Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP) Provides direct support to students in the form of stipends (up to $2,000 during the academic year, and $3,500 during the summer). Summer UROP deadline Thursday, March 20th, by noon http://www.bu.edu/urop/ If you are interested in the program, I can give you advice on your application and help you find a CS mentor (I am serving on BU's UROP selection committee). * Programs for Women in Computing Distributed Mentor Project for Undergraduate Women in Computing Research Project during Summer 2008 Application deadline: February 15, 2008. http://www.cra.org/Activities/craw/dmp/index.php CREU: Collaborative Research Experience for Undergraduate Women in Computer Science Research Project during AY 2008/9 Application deadline: May 2, 2008. http://www.cra.org/Activities/craw/creu/index.php If you are interested in one of these programs, please contact me (betke@cs.bu.edu). I have participated in both programs, e.g., http://www.cs.bu.edu/faculty/betke/research/CRA-W-project.html http://www.cs.bu.edu/faculty/betke/women/CRA-Summer2003/report.html Check out the 2008 Google Workshop for Women Engineers http://www.google.com/jobs/students/workshopforwomen Application Deadline: January 22, 2008 !!! * Graders Needed We are now accepting applications for graders for the spring semester. Graders are compensated at a rate of $650 for the semester. If you are interested in grading, please complete an online application http://www.cs.bu.edu/faculty/snyder/graders/graderapp.html. * Tutoring Hours The CS Department offers tutoring to help individual students with their homework. This is in addition to the office hours by faculty members and teaching fellows. Tutoring is held in the CS Department Undergraduate Laboratory at 730 Commonwealth Avenue. The Spring 2008 Schedule for tutors will soon be available at http://www.cs.bu.edu/resources/tutoring.shtml * Preparing to go to Graduate School If you are thinking about maybe going to graduate school in Fall 2009 or 2010, you should consider working with a CS professor on a research project during Summer 2008 or the academic year. Check out our department's research projects at www.cs.bu.edu/groups and talk with your advisor. You can receive course credit (CAS CS 492 which counts as an 400+ elective towards the CS BA degree) or become a research assistant with financial support via your advisor's research grant, BU's UROP, or CREU/DMP (see above). * Funding your Graduate School Education You typically will NOT have to pay for your PhD education, since it is usually paid by research or teaching assistantships or scholarships. An MA education is often paid by the student, his or her company, or a scholarship. There are a number scholarship opportunities provided by government agencies and non-profit foundations, e.g., http://www.krellinst.org Application Deadline: January 16, 2008 !!! http://www.nsf.gov http://www.npsc.org http://www7.nationalacademies.org/fellowships * 8th Annual Industrial Affiliates Program Research Day on March 19, 2008 The main event in our department's IAP Research Day is a Poster Session, which will be held in the CS Research Lab. During this poster session, attendees are invited to walk through the lab, browse through the dozens of posters on display, listen to on-demand brief presentations and demonstrations by graduate students, and chat with faculty members. Undergraduates are invited to visit the lab during 1-2 pm. * Student Advisors needed for the incoming freshmen this summer We are looking for CS students interested in staying on campus this summer and working as advisors to incoming freshmen. Please contact me (betke@cs.bu.edu) to find out more about this opportunity. * Finding a job or internship If you are looking for a job or internship, please check the binders "CS Jobs" and "Internship Opportunities" in our Department's main office, 111 Cummington St. Our staff keeps track of the numerous announcements sent to our department. Note that you may receive only some of these announcements via email, since we are trying to reduce the traffic on the "cs-ugrads" email list. * BattleCode AI Programming Competition Some of our CS students are participating in the MIT tournament: BattleCode 2008: http://battlecode.mit.edu/2008/contestants/tournament Best wishes for success!