On Friday, February 27th, the department's annual advisory board meeting takes place.  We thank our advisory board members for taking time out of their busy schedules to help us strengthen our program.  More information. [February 2009]

Bovard Tiberi and Heidi Tynes, CS seniors, both received an MSU Alumni Association / Bozeman Chamber of Commerce Award for Excellence on Tuesday, February 17th.  These awards are given to top seniors who have demonstrated academic excellence, community service and campus leadership.  Bovard chose Rocky Ross as his faculty mentor and Heidi chose Denbigh Starkey as hers.  In addition, Heidi received a Student of Achievement Award from The Women's Center

Congratulations to Neil Tang who has been awarded a National Science Foundation Career Award.  The NSF Career Award is one of the most prestigious grants for an early career researcher to win and it marks the first time that someone in the CS Department has won this award.  Great job, Neil!  MSU article. NSF_Information.

The CS Department has several scholarships that are available to undergraduate computer science majors:

• 2 RightNow Technologies scholarships - $6000 each
• 20 Sonderegger scholarships - $500 and $1000
• 1 Telesoft scholarship - $6000
• 2 Zoot scholarships - $5000 and $1000.

In order to apply for any of these scholarships you must complete

The Computer Science Department and the Art Department are pleased to pilot a course on the topic of Web Design during Spring Semester 2009.  The 3 credit class will be team-taught by Michael Newhouse (Graphic Design) and John Paxton (Computer Science).  The course is cross-listed as CS 145 and ART 145. [October 2008]

There are several special CS course offerings that you should know about:

Congratulations to Shayan Hashimoto, Max Smiley and David Wax who competed in the ACM Regional Programming Content at The University of Colorado on Saturday, October 25th.  They solved four of the eight problems in the time allotted, finished second out of 11 teams at their site and finished in the top 10 teams out of 51 teams in the region overall.  Great work! [October 26, 2008]

The computer science minor has recently been revised so that it provides more flexibility.  This will allow a student to strategically tailor a CS minor to better complement his or her major.  Requirements. [September 2008]

Congratulations to Shayan Hashimoto, Max Smiley and David Wax - winners of the 2008 Local Programming Contest. These students will represent Montana State at the 2008 Rocky Mountain Regional Programming Contest at The University of Colorado on Saturday, October 25th. Congratulations also goes to Mateo Jara and Brandon Norick (second place) and Grant Nelson, Michael Paulson and Randall Reynolds (third place). [October 28, 2008]

Congratulations to Clem Izurieta, course instructor for CS 351, who completed the Grand Targhee 100 Mile Ultra Marathon over Labor Day weekend.  Clem finished first in his age category with a time of 30 hours, 40 minutes - this time includes 5 minutes spent in an aspen tree to avoid a charging cow moose. [September 2, 2008]

Jeff Sharkey, who completed his Master's degree in Computer Science in May, has been named one of the 10 grand prize winners in Google's Android Programming contest.  The contest received more than 1800 entries from individuals and programming groups around the world. For his efforts, Jeff will receive a $275,000 award.  MSU article. [July 2008]

Have you noticed anything different about our website lately? On August 18, we converted our old website to Drupal, thanks to an independent study project by two seniors: Mateo Jara and Evan Johnson. If you have any comments or suggestions, please send them to admin@cs.montana.edu or paxton@cs.montana.edu. [August 18, 2008]

A big welcome to John Sheppard, who joins our department in the fall as the RightNow Technologies Distinguished Professor.  For more information, see http://www.cs.montana.edu/faculty/john-sheppard [August 2008]

Starting in Fall of 2008, undergraduate students will be able to pursue one of two B.S. options: the professional option or the interdisciplinary option. To learn more, see this website or speak with your advisor.  On September 30, the MSU website featured the interdisciplinary option with this article.