Undergraduate Publication

Sarah Morrison-Smith, a junior in Computer Science, contributed to a research effort that resulted in a Journal of Applied Physics article entitled Paramagnetic defects in electron-irradiated yttria-stabilized zirconia: Effect of yttria content.  Congratulations, Sarah!  [December 2011].

Denbigh is Retiring

Denbigh Starkey is retiring at the end of 2011.  Denbigh joined the CS Department in 1984 and served as department head until 2002.  We appreciate the positive impact that he has had on our organization and the many students whom he has taught.  Please join us in wishing Denbigh a retirement that is full of adventure, powder days and trophy-sized trout!  [December 2011]

CS Education Week: 12/4 - 12/10

Computer Science Education Week (CSEdWeek), designated by the U.S. House of Representatives as the week of Grace Murray Hopper’s birthday, recognizes the transformative role of computing and the need to bolster computer science at all educational levels. Please see http://www.csedweek.org for detailed information including background information, resources, suggestions on how to participate, and more.  [December 2011]

ACM Regional Programming Contest

Saiichi Hashimoto, David Stevens and Nick Wills competed in the ACM Regional Programming Contest at Colorado State University on Saturday, October 29th.  This team of CS seniors finished first at the CSU site and 5th in the region.  This is the best finish ever by an MSU team.  Congratulations!  More information.  MSU article.  [November 2011]

AAC Contract

Richard Wolff, Brock Lameres  from Electrical and Computer Engineering and Brendan Mumey from Computer Science were recently awarded a $175K contract from Advanced Acoustic Concepts (AAC) to develop algorithms and refine efficient implementations of some of AAC's computational ocean models for naval applications.  [October 2011]

Spring 2012 Registration Information

Advising for Spring 2012 begins on Monday, October 24th.  Registration begins on Tuesday, November 1st.  Please complete the Advising Contract (PDF),  as completely as possible before meeting with your advisor.  The following four courses are opportunities for undergraduates that are not regularly offered:

CSCI 455, Robotics, 3 credits, will feature 8 NAO soccer playing robots
CSCI 491, Cryptography, 3 credits, taught remotely by Mike Rosulek of UM
CSCI 494-001, Search Engine Optimization and Marketing, 1 credit, taught by Sean Golliher of Future Farm
CSCI 494-002, iOS Mobile App Development, 1 credit, taught by John Bender of General UI

Navy Phase II STTR Contract

The Computer Science Department’s Numerical Intelligent Systems Laboratory, under the direction of Professor John Sheppard, recently was awarded a Phase II Small Business Technology Transfer Research (STTR) contract titled, “Dynamic PHM Modeling.” MSU's small business partner is Impact Technologies. MSU will receive approximately $287,000 over 27 months to develop approaches for health assessment and system-level prognostics of electronics. The joint research includes developing strategies for combining data-driven and physics-based models for electronics prognostics as well as incorporating the results of the research into standardization projects within the IEEE. This project is funded by the US Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) out of Lakehurst, NJ.  [October 2011]

International Engineering Certificate

The Board of Regents recently approved an International Engineering Certificate that may be earned by any student majoring in Computer Science.  More information.  [October 2011]

2011 Career Fair

The Career Fair will be held from 9:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m. in the SUB Ballrooms on Thursday, October 6th.  Please consider taking advantage of this opportunity to discuss job and internship opportunities with potential employers.  [October 2011]

LeafSnap Inventors

Peter Belhumeur (Columbia University), David Jacobs (University of Maryland) and John Kress (Smithsonian Institution), inventors of the first mobile app for plant identification, will visit the CS Department during the afternoon of Thursday, October 6th.  They are on campus to receive E.O. Wilson Biodiversity Technology Pioneer Awards.  A graduate student forum will be held at 2:10 p.m. in the CS Conference Room and an undergraduate student forum will be held at 3:10 p.m. in EPS 103.  [October 2011]

Programming Contest Results

The ACM Local Programming Contest was held on September 24th.  10 teams competed, including teams from Carroll College, Montana Tech, The University of Montana and UM College of Technology. Golden Helix sponsored the contest.  The top MSU team, who finished second overall, solved all five problems and consisted of Saiichi Hashimoto, David Stevens and Nick Wills.  This team will represent MSU at the ACM Regional Programming Contest at Colorado State University on October 29th.  More information.  [September 2011]

IEEE AUTOTESTCON 2011 Best Paper Awards

PhD student Shane Strasser and Prof. John Sheppard received the Diagnostics and Health Assessment Track Best Paper Award at AUTOTESTCON in Baltimore, MD for their paper, “Diagnostic Alarm Sequence Maturation in Timed Failure Propagation Graphs.” PhD students Michael Schuh and Shane Strasser received the Best Student Paper Award at AUTOTESTCON for their paper, “Ontology-Guided Knowledge Discovery of Event Sequences in Maintenance Data.” This latter paper was also co-authored by Profs. John Sheppard, Rafal Angryk, and Clemente Izurieta. AUTOTESTCON is the premier conference on automatic test systems for the aerospace and defense industries. Congratulations to all!  [September 2011]

VOEIS Grant Leadership

Clem Izurieta has been appointed as the lead MSU PI for an EPSCoR Track II National Science Foundation grant entitled Virtual Observatory and Ecological Informatics System or VOEIS.  VOEIS includes both public sector and industry partners from Montana and Kentucky.  Cyberinfrastructure is being updated to support an ecological informatics system and integrated water quality sensors.  MSU's portion of the grant this year is 570K.  Congratulations, Clem!  [September 2011]

Local Programming Contest

The ACM Local Programming Contest will be held on Saturday, September 24th from 10:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m. in EPS 254 and will include teams from Carroll College, Montana Tech and The University of Montana.  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 top MSU team will compete in the ACM Regional Programming Contest at The University of Colorado in late October.  More information.  [September 2011]

Drupal 7

Have you noticed anything different about our website?  At the start of fall semester, a Drupal 7 version of the site was rolled out.  A big thanks to our system administrator, Scott Dowdle, and undergraduates David Householter and Nipun Muddasani for making this possible.  [August 2011]

NAO Robots

The CS Department recently acquired 8 NAO Humanoid Robots.  These robots are the standard platform for the International RoboCup soccer competition.  If you would like to help program these robots to play soccer, or to perform in other humanoid challenges, please contact Hunter Lloyd.  The robots will also be used in the Spring 2012 offering of CSCI 455, Robotics.  [August 2011]

Fall 2011 Networking Seminar

Qing Yang and Mike Wittie will offer a seminar to discuss the latest and greatest in networking research. Topics will include social networks, green networking, cloud computing, network economics, vehicular networks, wireless networks, and mobile computing.  The seminar will meet Tuesdays from 4:10 p.m. - 5:00 p.m. in EPS 350.  All students are welcome to freely participate or to register for 1 credit of CSCI 594, section 11 or 12. [August 2011]

Visiting Scholar - Tan Tran

The CS Department is delighted to welcome Tan Tran as a visiting scholar from Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology in Viet Nam this summer.  Tan earned an M.S. in Computer Science from his school in 2010. He will observe summer courses, discuss ABET Accreditation and collaborate on a sampling design research project with a math professor.  Tan's office is EPS 348.  [July 2011]

Visiting Scholar - Zhihui Liu

The CS Department is delighted to welcome Zhihui (Dane) Liu as a visiting researcher from Shandong Institute for Business & Technology in China this summer.  Dane earned a Ph.D. in Information Science from Jiln University in 2003.  He is collaborating with Brendan Mumey and Binhai Zhu on the computational biology problem of reconstructing optimal genomic scaffolds.  Dane's office is EPS 351.

ASEE Best Paper Award

Congratulations to Hunter Lloyd who co-authored a paper with Brock LaMeres, Ahsan Mian and Robb Larson entitled The Montana M.U.L.E.: A Case Study in Interdisciplinary Capstone Design.  The paper received a Best Paper Award in the Multidisciplinary Engineering Division at ASEE 2011.  [June 2011]

New Faculty Member - Mike Wittie

We are delighted to announce that Mike Wittie will join the CS Department as a RightNow Technologies Assistant Professor in Fall 2011.  Mike will finish his Ph.D. in the area of network scalability from UC Santa Barbara in July 2011.  Welcome, Mike!  [June 2011]

COE Excellence in Teaching Award

Congratulations to Denbigh Starkey who was awarded the 2011 College of Engineering Excellence in Teaching Award.  Students have benefitted from Denbigh's care and commitment for the past 27 years.  Congratulations to Denbigh on a well deserved honor!  [May 2011]

Faculty Candidate - Mike Wittie

Mike Wittie will interview for a Fall 2011 RightNow Technologies Assistant Professor position on Monday, May 9th. Mike will earn a Ph.D. in network scalability from UC Santa Barbara later this year.  Everyone is encouraged to attend the following:

A 15 minute teaching demonstration in the CS Conference Room at noon. Informal discussion with students will follow. Pizza will be served.
A research seminar at 4:10 p.m. in the CS Conference Room.

Please attend one or both of these events to meet Mike and provide feedback to the search committee.

Google I/O Extended Conference

The Google IO Extended Conference will take place May 10-11 at the Burns Technology Center.  Interested students or faculty can register.  If you need an email to register with Google, please use techranch@techranch.org

Faculty Candidate - Allison Regier

Allison Regier will interview for a Fall 2011 RightNow Technologies Assistant Professor position on Thursday, May 5th. Allison will earn a Ph.D. in bioinformatics from Notre Dame later this year.  Everyone is encouraged to attend the following:

A 15 minute teaching demonstration in the CS Conference Room at noon. Informal discussion with students will follow. Pizza will be served.
A research seminar at 4:10 p.m. in the CS Conference Room.

Please attend one or both of these events to meet Allison and provide feedback to the search committee.

New Faculty Member - Qing Yang

We are delighted to announce that Qing Yang will join the CS Department as a RightNow Technologies Assistant Professor in Fall 2011.  Qing finished his Ph.D. in Wireless Vehicular Networks from Auburn University earlier this summer.  Welcome, Qing!  [April 2011]

New Faculty Member - Clem Izurieta

We are delighted to announce that Clem Izurieta will join the CS Department as an assistant professor in Fall 2011.  Clem earned his Ph.D. in Software Engineering from Colorado State University in 2009 and has 17 years of industry experience with Hewlett-Packard and Intel.  Welcome, Clem!  [April 2011]

Prognostics and Health Management Editorship

The Board of Directors of the Prognostics and Health Management Society has appointedDr. John Sheppard and Dr. Abhinav Saxena to be the new Co-Editors in Chief of theInternational Journal of Prognostics and Health Management. According to the journal website, “The International Journal of Prognostics and Health Management (IJPHM) is the premier online journal related to multidisciplinary research on Prognostics, Diagnostics, and System Health Management. IJPHM is the archival journal of the Prognostics and Health Management (PHM) Society.” His appointment took effect on April 11 and also makes him a non-voting member of the PHM Society Board of Directors.  [April 2011]

Goldwater Scholarship - Honorable Mention

Congratulations to David Stevens, a Computer Science junior who received Honorable Mention in the 2011 Goldwater Scholarship Competition.  The Goldwater Scholarship is extremely competitive and is the most prestigious scholarship that a U.S. undergraduate can win in the areas of science, math or engineering.  David's research mentor is Brendan Mumey.  More information.  [March 2011]

Special Seminar: Why JavaScript Matters

When: Wednesday, April 20th from 4:00 p.m. - 5:30 p.m.
Where: EPS 103
Who: Doug Crawford, internationally renowned JavaScript practitioner and Architect at Yahoo!
More information

Four Fall 2011 Advising Notes

Computer Architecture, CSCI 361 and Networks, CSCI 466 are now 3 credit courses.  If you need an extra upper division CS credit, consider taking CSCI 495.
John Sheppard will offer a new 3 credit course entitled Machine Learning: Soft Computing, CSCI 447.
Denbigh Starkey will offer a one-time, 1 credit special topics Perl Seminar, CSCI 494.  Prior programming experience is required.
The Computational Biology courses, CSCI 451 and CSCI 551, are unlikely to be opened.

TicketPrinting.com and TicketRiver.com Scholarships

The Computer Science Department is delighted to announce two new scholarship opportunities for students.  The $750 scholarships are generously provided by TicketRiver.com and TicketPrinting.com.  Full press release.  [March 2011]

Employee Recognition Award

Congratulations to Jake Dolan, a 2003 graduate of the CS Department, who was one of four MSU employees to receive a 2011 Employee Recognition Award from MSU.  Jake is the Web Communications Director for MSU.  [March 2011]

Faculty Candidate - Ziliang Zong

Ziliang Zong is the sixth of six candidates to interview for a Fall 2011 RightNow Technologies Assistant Professor position. Ziliang earned a Ph.D. in high performance computing from Auburn University in 2008 and is currently an assistant professor at The South Dakota School of Mines and Technology. Ziliang's on-campus interview is Friday, March 11th. Everyone is encouraged to attend the following:

A 15 minute teaching demonstration in the CS Conference Room at noon. Informal discussion with students will follow. Pizza will be served.
A research seminar at 4:10 p.m. in Roberts 312.

Please attend one or both of these events to meet Ziliang and provide feedback to the search committee.

Computer Scientists Sing in Close Harmony

On March 4 and 5, students and faculty from the Computer Science Department participated in the annual show of the Bozeman Chord Rustlers Barbershop Chorus. Departmental members in the chorus include Professor John Sheppard (lead) and PhD students Patrick Donnelly (baritone), Richard McAllister (tenor), Shane Strasser (tenor), and Liessman Sturlaugson (baritone). They were also joined by John's son Jesse Sheppard (bass), who is an undergraduate student in the Mathematics Department. As a featured part of the show, John, Jesse, Shane, and Liessman sang together as The Quaternions Quartet, singing Java Jive and Follow the Drinking Gourd. The Chord Rustlers and The Quaternions will be singing again as part of the 2011 American Legion Music Series on April 2 at Grace Bible Church.  [March 2011]

Faculty Candidate - Tom Dillig

Tom Dillig is the fifth of six candidates to interview for a Fall 2011 RightNow Technologies Assistant Professor position. Tom will earn a Ph.D. in program verification from Stanford University in June 2011. Tom's on-campus interview is Monday, March 7th. Everyone is encouraged to attend the following:

A 15 minute teaching demonstration in the CS Conference Room at noon. Informal discussion with students will follow. Pizza will be served.
A research seminar at 4:10 p.m. in EPS 108.

Please attend one or both of these events to meet Tom and provide feedback to the search committee.

Faculty Candidate - Isil Dillig

Isil Dillig is the fourth of six candidates to interview for a Fall 2011 RightNow Technologies Assistant Professor position.  Isil will earn a Ph.D. in program verification from Stanford University in June 2011.  Isil's on-campus interview is Friday, March 4th.  Everyone is encouraged to attend the following:

A 15 minute teaching demonstration in the CS Conference Room at noon.  Informal discussion with students will follow.  Pizza will be served.
A research seminar at 4:10 p.m. in Roberts 312.

Please attend one or both of these events to meet Isil and provide feedback to the search committee.

Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition

A team of MSU CS students recently competed and finished 4th in the North Central Regional Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition held at Dakota State University.  The MSU students included Seth Berardinelli, Josh Erickson, Josh Kuhn, Ryan Nix, Stephani Schielke, Shane Strasser, Liessman Sturlaugson (advisor), Mason Weber and Jason Welch.  Congratulations to all!  [February 2011]

Fall 2011 Fulbright

Brendan Mumey was awarded a Fulbright Distinguished Chair Award to spend Fall 2011 at Aalto University in Finland.  While there, Brendan will collaborate in the area of green networking.  Green networking is a timely research area with the potential for significant practical impact in reducing global energy consumption. The Internet has become a major source of power consumption due to the fast growth of network users and new applications (such as video streaming) that inject a large volume of traffic into the Internet infrastructure.  Congratulations, Brendan!  [March 2011]

Fast Enterprises Information Session

Fast Enterprises, a member of our Industry Affiliates Program, is sponsoring an information session in anticipation of the Almost Spring Career Fair.  The information session is at 5 p.m. on Tuesday, February 22nd in the CS Conference Room.  Pizza and soda will be served!  [February 2011]

2011 Advisory Board Meeting

A big thanks to our advisory board members who met with the CS department on Friday, February 25th, the day after the Almost Spring Career Fair.  At the annual board meeting, board members provided us with valuable feedback and industry trends that help us improve our program.  More information.  [February 2011]

2011 Award for Excellence

Congratulations to Melissa Dale who was awarded an Alumni Association / Chamber of Commerce Award for Excellence.  The awards are given to the top 40 graduating seniors.  Melissa is double majoring in Computer Science and Spanish, minoring in Physics, serves as an Engineering Ambassador and is involved with AWC.  Melissa chose Denbigh Starkey as an inspirational faculty member.  Congratulations to both Melissa and Denbigh!  [February 2011]

Faculty Candidate - Wei Le

Wei Le is the third of six candidates to interview for a Fall 2011 RightNow Technologies Assistant Professor position.  Wei earned a Ph.D. in software engineering from The University of Virginia in December.  Wei's on-campus interview is Monday, February 28th.  Everyone is encouraged to attend the following:

A 15 minute teaching demonstration in the CS Conference Room at noon.  Informal discussion with students will follow.  Pizza will be served.
A research seminar at 4:10 p.m. in EPS 108.

Please attend one or both of these events to meet Wei and provide feedback to the search committee.

Faculty Candidate - Qing Yang

Qing Yang is the second of six candidates to interview for a Fall 2011 RightNow Technologies Assistant Professor position.  Qing will earn a Ph.D. in wireless vehicular networks from Auburn University in 2011.  Qing's on-campus interview is Friday, February 18th.  Everyone is encouraged to attend the following:

A 15 minute teaching demonstration in SUB 235 at noon.  Informal discussion with students will follow.  Pizza will be served.
A research seminar at 4:10 p.m. in Roberts 312.

Please attend one or both of these events to meet Qing and provide feedback to the search committee.

Visiting Scholar

Suresh Venkatasubramanian from The University of Utah's School of Computing will visit campus on Friday, February 11th.  Dr. Venkatasubramanian is being hosted by Brendan Mumey and will present a seminar at 3:10 p.m. in Roberts 101 on the topic of Dimensionality Reduction for Probability Distributions.  Everyone is invited to attend.

Faculty Candidate - Clem Izurieta

Clem Izurieta is the first of six candidates to interview for a Fall 2011 RightNow Technologies Assistant Professor position.  Clem earned a Ph.D. in software engineering from Colorado State University in 2009.  Clem's on-campus interview is Friday, February 11th.  Everyone is encouraged to attend the following:

A 15 minute teaching demonstration in SUB 235 at noon.  Informal discussion with students will follow.  Pizza will be served.
A research seminar at 4:10 p.m. in Roberts 312.

Please attend one or both of these events to meet Qing and provide feedback to the search committee.

Tutors Needed

Student Support Services is looking for students who can tutor lower division computer science courses.  If you are interested, please pick up an application in SUB 185.  [January 2011]    

Computer Science Guide

The MSU Libraries recently created a Computer Science Guide.  If you have suggestions, please contact our reference librarian, Sheila Bonnand at sbonnand@montana.edu [January 2011]

2011-2012 Scholarship Applications Due 1/31

The CS Department is pleased to offer the following scholarship opportunities forundergraduate computer science majors:

2 RightNow Technologies scholarships - $6000 each
20 Sonderegger scholarships - $500 and $1000
2 Zoot scholarships - $6000 and $1000.
In order to apply for any of these scholarships you must complete
The College of Engineering application - due Monday, January 31, 2011.
The Computer Science application - due Friday, February 4, 2011.

If you are eligible, we strongly encourage you to apply.  For more information, see scholarships. [January 2011]