Jeannette is Retiring

Jeannette Radcliffe, who has been with the CS Department since 1999, will retire at the end of December.  There will be a reception in Jeannette's honor from 2 p.m. - 4 p.m. on Monday, December 20th in the Leigh Lounge.  Please drop by and thank Jeannette for all of her wonderful contributions.  We will miss Jeannette greatly and hope to see her back on a part-time basis in the future.  [December 2010]

Computer Science Education Week

December 5th - December 11th is Computer Science Education Week.  Please visit this website to learn more!  [December 2010]

Spring 2011 Infrequently Offered Courses

CS 204, Multimedia - Hunter Lloyd
CSCI 441, Computer Graphics - Denbigh Starkey
CSCI 442, Robot Vision - Hunter Lloyd
CSCI 491, Cryptography and Cryptology - Mike Rosulek (UM)
CSCI 541, Computer Graphics - Denbigh Starkey
CSCI 591, Reasoning Under Uncertainty - John Sheppard

SRI

Mike Frandsen, a graduate of the department and current employee of SRI Helena, will be at the Fall Career Fair on October 14.  SRI Helena has both full-time and internship opportunities available for CS students.  Please drop by the booth!  [October 2010]

New Website Theme

A big thanks to Scott Dowdle, our system administrator, who converted the department's Drupal-based website to use the new MSU theme.  If you notice any problems, please e-mail Scott at admin@cs.montana.edu [October 2010]

EchoStar Information Session

Come learn about EchoStar! Phil Bullock and Lindsey Jones will present an overview of the company - Internships and Careers, what to expect in an interview, do’s and don'ts and interview etiquette. Refreshments will be served. October 15th from 12-1 p.m. in 608 Cobleigh Hall.

Fast Enterprises Information Sessions

Fast Enterprises will hold the following two sessions for students who want to learn more about employment opportunities.  Fast Enterprises will also be at the Fall 2010 Career Fair.

Tuesday, October 12th from 3:30 p.m. - 5:00 p.m.  Drop-in session in EPS 350.
Tuesday, October 12th from 5:00 p.m. - 7:00 p.m.  Pizza and information session in EPS 347.

Future of Humanity and Technology - October 7

Some of the world's greatest minds in science and technology will participate in a free, public panel discussion entitled "The Future of Humanity and Technology" on October 7th at 7:00 p.m. in the SUB ballrooms.  One of the speakers is Turing Award winner Barbara Liskov.  Dr. Liskov has made seminal contributions to modern programming languages. More information.  [October 2010]

2010 Local Programming Contest Results

The ACM Local Programming Competition, sponsored by Golden Helix, was held on Thursday, September 30th.  The winning team of Saiichi Hashimoto, David Stevens and Nick Wills solved all three problems and will represent MSU at the ACM Regional Programming Competition at The University of Colorado on October 30th.  A big thanks goes to Gabe Rudy, Sam Gardner and Mike Thiesen who are all Golden Helix employees and alumni of the department.  More information.  [September 2010]

Two Faculty Positions Open

We are seeking two tenure track faculty to join us in Fall 2011 as either the RightNow Technologies Distinguished Professor (associate or full professor) or a RightNow Technologies Professor (assistant professor).   More information.  [September 2010]

Summer 2011 Kyoto Study Abroad Trip

The Computer Science Department will offer a study abroad course in Kyoto, Japan during the first six week summer session of 2011.  Students will learn problem solving techniques in the context of ACM Programming Contest problems.  The course is open to all undergraduates with a pre-requisite of CSCI 132 or one year of programming.   If you want to be informed of upcoming informational sessions and the like, please e-mail John Paxton.  More information.  [September 2010]

Local Programming Contest

The ACM Local Programming Contest will be held on Thursday, September 30th from 6:45 p.m. - 10:00 p.m. in EPS 254.  Teams of three should register with John Paxton no later than the preceding day at 5 p.m.  Golden Helix will sponsor the contest and provide pizza, soda and prizes.  The winning team will compete in the ACM Regional Programming Contest at The University of Colorado on Saturday, October 30th.  More information.  [September 2010]

Research Assistant Sought

Clem Izurieta is currently looking for an MS student to do research in Ecological Modeling.  The position requires a demonstrated interest in modeling ecological systems as well as significant experience in OOP and design patterns.  You should be fluent in UML, Java, and have excellent communication (speaking and writing) skills.  In addition, you must be enrolled in the thesis option of the MS degree. If you have an interest, please send Clem your CV.  [September 1, 2010]

Ecosystem Forecasting Grant

Congratulations to Clem Izurieta and Geoff Poole (LRES) who were awarded a 3 year, 425K grant from NSF to model carbon and nitrogren cycling in coastal wetlands.  Clem and his students will develop a framework called NEO (Network Exchange Objects) that supports the modeling.  The goal of the research is to better understand how climate change and salt water intrusion alter ecosystem dynamics.  [August 2010]

CS Alumni Network

There is a departmental linkedIn group entitled Montana State University Computer Science Alumni Network.  The group is open to alumni of the department, as well as current and former faculty, staff, advisory board members and supporters.  If you are a member of one of these groups, please consider joining!  [July 2010].

Research Expenditure Record

The Computer Science Department set a record for research expenditures during fiscal year 2010 (July 1, 2009 - June 30, 2010) of 733K.  The previous high water mark was 428K, set in fiscal year 2009.  Congratulations to all faculty, students and staff who made this possible!  [July 2010]

NASA NSPIRES

Congratulations to Hunter Lloyd, who will be participating in a 3 year project entitledEngaging Women in Engineering Through an 8-Week, Interdisciplinary Payload Design Project.  The project is funded at 54K per year and begins in 2011.  The project involves Brock LaMeres (PI, ECE), Robb Larson (ME) and Hunter. Hunter will be contributing robotics expertise to the project.  [July 2010]

Syracuse Bound

Jian (Neil) Tang will be joining Syracuse University this coming Fall Semester and will be leaving Bozeman at the end of July.  Neil is the department's first ever NSF Career Award recipient and we know that he will continue to do great things at Syracuse.  Please join us in wishing Neil farewell on Wednesday, July 28th at 4 p.m.  Weather permitting, the event will be held outside on the west side of Cobleigh Hall.  The backup venue is EPS 347.  [July 2010]

MSU Robot Wins NASA Competition

Montana State competed in and won a NASA sponsored Lunar Regolith Excavator Student Competition held at Kennedy Space Center on May 28.  The multidisciplinary engineering team from MSU included student Chris Ching and faculty advisor Hunter Lloyd from the Computer Science Department.  Congratulations!  More information.  [May 2010]

Former Student Succeeds in Imagine Cup

Cal Coopmans, a 2006 graduate from MSU and a former ACM president, was on a team that placed second in the 2010 Imagine Cup.  Cal's team developed an application that will make it easier for people to invest in entrepreneurs in developing countries who are seeking microloans.  Article.  [May 2010]

New Course Numbers

Can't find the Fall 2010 course you want to take?  The statewide Common Course Numbering (CCN) initiative has hit Computer Science.  CS courses can now be found under the following rubrics: CS (Computer Science), CSCI (Computer Science), SE (Software Engineering) and CAPP (Computer Applications).  [May 2010]

2010 Day of Student Recognition

Congratulations to the following Day of Student Recognition honorees [April 2010]:

Sandeep Reddy Gurram was selected to be one of seven 2010-2011 Septemviri members.  Membership is based on scholarship, leadership and service to MSU.
Brandon Norick received the Alpha Lambda Delta Junior Award for being the junior with the highest GPA at MSU.

2010 Departmental Awards

Congratulations to the following 2009-2010 award winners [April 2010]:

Outstanding Teaching Assistant: Aaron Hall
Outstanding Master's Student Researcher: Richard McAllister
Outstanding Ph.D. Student Researcher: Neal Richter
Outstanding Service: Rocky Ross
Outstanding Research: Rafal Angryk
Outstanding Instructor: Clem Izurieta

2010 Excellence in Outreach Award

Congratulations to Hunter Lloyd who has been selected to receive the 2010 MSU Excellence in Outreach Award.  The award is in recognition of Hunter's body of robotics outreach work that spans the gamut from local elementary school children to prospective college students.  More information.  [April 2010]

Montana Standard Article

This article describes how Clem Izurieta's ecosystem research is taking advantage of the Rocky Mountain Supercomputing Center in Butte.  [March 2010]

Summer 2010 Courses

The CS Department is pleased to offer the following courses during Summer Semester 2010, provided that the enrollment in a course reaches at least 10 students [April 2010]:

CAPP 120, entire summer session, online
CS 221, first six week session - CANCELLED as of April 27th
CS 222, first six week session - CANCELLED as of April 27th
CS 223, second six week session

2010 Advisory Board Meeting

A big welcome to our advisory board members who will be meeting with the CS department on Friday, February 26th, the day after the Almost Spring Career Fair.  At the annual board meeting, board members provide us with valuable feedback and industry trends that helps us improve our program.  More information.  [February 2010]

Award for Excellence

Congratulations to Chris Conlon who received an Alumni Association / Chamber of Commerce Award for Excellence.  The awards are given to the top 40 graduating seniors.  Chris is majoring in Computer Science and minoring in Management of Information Technology while serving as an Engineering Ambassador and running his own business, Type7 Solutions.  MSU article.  [February 2010]

2010-2011 Scholarship Applications due 2/1

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 College of Engineering application - due Monday, February 1, 2010.
The Computer Science application - due Friday, Feburary 5, 2010.

If you are eligible, we strongly encourage you to apply.  Last year there were unclaimed scholarships!  For more information, see scholarships. [January 2010]

Advanced .NET Debugging

Mario Hewardt, a 1998 B.S. graduate of the Computer Science Department published Advanced .NET Debugging in November of 2009 to great reviews.  Mario's first book, Advanced Windows Debugging, was published in 2007.  Nice work, Mario!  [January 2010]