Provost's Award for Undergraduate Research and Creativity Mentoring

Congratulations to Dr. Clem Izurieta, who receives this university-wide award at a special ceremony in January!  The award recognizes the 100+ undergraduates that Dr. Izurieta has mentored in (1) our interdisciplinary-option capstone courses, (2) the Software Factory and (3) software engineering research projects.  [December 2016] 

Army Corps of Engineers Project

Congratulations to Dr. Clem Izurieta, who received a $105,000 extension to continue assisting the Army Corps of Engineers' Construction Engineering Research Laboratory (CERL) through September 2017.  The project involves evaluating the structures, models and capabilities of CERL's Sustainment Management System.  [November 2016]

Undergraduate Recognition

Computer Science minor Maia Grudzien and Computer Science major Justin O'Dea each received a Presidential Emerging Scholars Grant.  Computer Science major Angus Tomlinson was named a McNair Scholar for the work he does applying persistent homology to the analysis of music with Dr. Brittany Fasy and Dr. Dave Millman.  Congratulations!  [November 2016]

US Fish and Wildlife Service Grant

Congratulations to Dr. Mike Wittie who is part of a team of researchers who received $138K from the US Fish and Wildlife Service for a project entitled Federal Lands Wildlife-Vehicle Collision Data Coordination.  The goal of the project is to facilitate coordination between the National Park Service (NPS) and the US Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), for collecting, storing, mapping, sharing, and analyzing Wildlife-Vehicle Collision (WVC) data, in coordination with surrounding transportation networks and entities. [November 2016]

ACM Regional Programming Contest

Congratulations to Bridger Howell, Sage Smith and Joe Whitney who competed in the ACM Regional Programming Contest as the Paragram Falcons.  The Paragram Falcons finished first at the Colorado School of Mines site and fifth out of 60 teams in the region.  More information. [October 2016]

Spring 2017 Special Offering: ASP + Angular

  • CSCI 491-003, 1 credit, Instructors: Jack Whitehouse and Andy Rowse
  • Prerequisite: CSCI 232
  • This course will focus on web technologies used by local businesses. The goal will be to provide a working knowledge, though not a mastery, of ASP MVC (C#), REST APIs and AngularJS. The skills gained during this course will enable for quick prototyping of web based applications and a foundation for full product development.

Spring 2017 Special Offering: Software Engineering Applications

  • CSCI 491-002, 3 credits, Instructor: Upulee Kanewala
  • Prerequisite: ESOF 322
  • Application of software engineering techniques and methodologies acquired in previous courses to solve an open-ended software engineering problem provided by stakeholders. Students will use a team based approach to requirements gathering, designing, implementation, testing, integration and delivery of the software solution developed by them.  

Spring 2017 Special Offering: Bioinformatics

  • CSCI 491-001 / CSCI 591-001, 3 credits, Instructor: Indika Kahanda
  • Prerequisites: CSCI 232 and CSCI 246
  • Recommended: CSCI 447 or machine learning background recommended
  • Due to the recent explosion of biological data such as DNA/protein sequences of many organisms, computer scientists need to play an increasingly important role in helping biologists analyze these data. Important problems such as finding genes to identifying functions of gene products needs to be provided with efficient computational solutions. This course will start by providing the necessary biological background and will move on to introduce important problems in computational functional genomics such as determining protein function and standard solutions to those problems.

Spring 2017 Biennial and Other Offerings

  • CSCI 246, 3 credits, Discrete Structures, Instructor: Jici Huang (normally offered Fall Semester)
  • CSCI 442, 3 credits, Robot Vision with our new Tango Bots, Instructor: Hunter Lloyd
  • ESOF 522, 3 credits, Empirical Software Engineering, Instructor: Clem Izurieta
  • CSCI 548, 3 credits, Reasoning Under Uncertainty, Instructor: John Sheppard
  • CSCI 566, 3 credits, Advanced Networking, Instructor: Mike Wittie

Chronicle of Higher Education Article

This article describes the impact of Montana State University's NSF ADVANCE grant and how the Gianforte School of Computing benefited by being able to recruit a more diverse faculty. [October 2016]

Undergraduate Scholars Program Funding

The following computer science majors have received USP funding to undertake research projects: Alex Calderwood (Applying domain-specific natural language understanding techniques to film), Rostik Mertz (Bike Networking), Ryan Thompson (Applying Techniques from Topological Data Analysis on a Celestial Data Set: The Bigger Picture) and Angus Tomlinson (An Investigation of Musical Structure with Persistent Homology).  Congratulations to all! [October 2016]

Best Graduate Student Talk

Congratulations to Computer Science M.S. student Janette Rounds!  Janette received the Best Graduate Student Talk award for presenting Systematic Testing of Genetic Algorithms: A Metamorphic Testing-based Approach at the Rocky Mountain Celebration of Women in Computing Conference in Salt Lake City.  The work presented was a collaboration with Dr. Upulee Kanewala.  Congratulations! [September 2016]

White House Computer Science For All Involvement

The Gianforte School of Computing is among 200 organizations that are featured by the White House for helping to advance Computer Science education in the P-12 system.  In January, we will pilot a new course at Bozeman High School called The Joy and Beauty of Data.  Next summer, we will train up to 20 Montana high school teachers so that the course can be offered throughout the state.  These initiatives are made possible through the generous support of the Gianforte Family Foundation.  [September 2016]

IHEEP Student Awards

Two students received presentation awards at the International Highway Engineering Exchange Program Conference.  Civil Engineering sophomore Maia Grudzien won the student presentation award for Safer Roads Tomorrow Through Analyzing Today’s Accidents.  Computer Science Ph.D. student Sam Micka won the second-place student presentation award for Efficient Monitor Placement for Multipath Traffic Flows.  Research collaborators include Dr. Brittany Fasy, Dr. Brendan Mumey, Dr. Mike Wittie and Sean Yaw.  Congratulations!  [September 2016]

AUTOTESTCON Best Paper Award

Congratulations to Logan Perreault, Monica Thornton, and Dr. John Sheppard who received the inaugural Oscar W. Sepp Best Paper Award at IEEE AUTOTESTCON for their paper "Valuation and Optimization for Performance Based Logistics Using Continuous Time Bayesian Networks." The award was established in honor of Oscar Sepp who died in October 2009 following a long career in military aerospace and automatic test. [September 2016]

NSF CS10K Project

Qing Yang is the co-PI on a $1,000K grant entitled CS10K: Expanding Computer Science Curriculum, Diversity, and Teacher Preparedness.  The grant enables the development of new computer science curriculum for Montana high schools and provides teacher training.  The MUS effort includes the University of Montana (Yolanda Reimer, PI), Montana Tech (Jeff Braun, co-PI) and Salish Kootenai College (Tim Olson, co-PI).  Congratulations! [August 2016]

Sit With Me Video

Montana State University's Sit With Me Video is featured on the national sitwithme.org website.  The video encourages more women and girls to acquire computing knowledge and skills.  Please share and distribute! [August 2016]

Vehicular Networks Grant

Qing Yang (PI) and Binhai Zhu (co-PI) received a two-year, $180K EAGER (EArly-concept Grant for Exploratory Research) grant from NSF for a project entitled Intelligent Information Dissemination in Vehicular Networks based on Social Computing. The project will investigate how to disseminate information in a trustful, intelligent fashion using social computing algorithms. Congratulations! [August 2016]

CTO Enterprise Award

Neal Richter, Rubicon Project Chief Technology Officer (CTO), received the Los Angeles Enterprise CTO Award in June.  This award is given to a technology leader of a company that has 500 or more employees.  Neal earned both a B.S. in Computer Science and a Ph.D. in Computer Science from Montana State University.  Congratulations, Neal!  [July 2016]

Microsoft Word National Champion

Incoming Computer Science student Nick O'Donnell, a Belgrade High School graduate, is the Microsoft Word 2013 National Champion.  The competition was held in Orlando, Florida and Nick competed with 107 other finalists, who were selected from more than 300,000 applicants.  Congratulations!  More information. [July 2016]

NSF Hazard Preparedness Grant

Clem Izurieta is a co-PI on a three-year, collaborative, $550,000 grant entitled The Impacts of Narratives-based Risk Communication on Hazard Preparedness from the National Science Foundation.  Approximately $100,000 will support Clem and a graduate student, who will investigate how sentiment analysis algorithms can improve the narratives for communicating hazardous events in rural communities.  Congratulations!  [July 2016]

NSF Algorithmic Foundations Grant

Brittany Fasy is the Principal Investigator on a two-year, collaborative, $153,000 grant entitled Geometric and Topological Algorithms for Analyzing Road Network Data from the National Science Foundation.  The project aims to develop theoretically grounded, effective methods for analyzing data associated with road networks -- using graphs that represent road networks as a framework for analyzing network data.  Congratulations! [July 2016]

Workshop for Women in Computational Topology

Brittany Fasy, Lori Ziegelmeier and Erin Chambers received $30,000 from the National Science Foundation to sponsor an inaugural Workshop for Women in Computational Topology.  Congratulations!  [June 2016]

Gianforte School of Computing

For five years, the Computer Science Department has aspired to become a School of Computing.  This new moniker better reflects the pervasive nature of computing in today's world and sets the stage for a broader set of degrees to be offered.  Recently, Greg and Susan Gianforte stepped forward with a generous naming gift that will enable the School of Computing to better serve its diverse students and constituents.  The Gianforte School of Computing will launch in Fall 2016.  A big thank you to Greg and Susan for this show of confidence!  More information.  [May 2016]

College of Engineering Outstanding Advisor Award

Sharlyn Gunderson-Izurieta received the College of Engineering's 2016 Outstanding Advisor Award for providing Computer Science students with high quality advising.  Congratulations!  [May 2016]

2016 Departmental Awards

  • Outstanding Ph.D. Researcher: Utkarsh Goel
  • Outstanding M.S. Researcher: Monica Thornton
  • Outstanding Teaching Assistant: Fred Vollmer
  • Outstanding Course Assistant: Caleb Bryson
  • Outstanding Faculty Research: Mike Wittie
  • Outstanding Faculty Service: Qing Yang
  • Student Selected Professor of the Year: Qing Yang

Demand Generation Initiatives

The Gianforte Family Foundation has generously provided $104,475 to enable the CS Department to continue its partnership with Montana schools to raise interest in computer science.  Outcomes from this one year project include (1) a new course, entitled "The Joy and Beauty of Data", that will be piloted at Bozeman High School during Spring 2017, (2) teacher training for the new course and (3) a teaching minor proposal, developed in collaboration with MSU's Department of Education.  [April 2016]

Code|24

The Computer Science Department helped sponsor a Code|24 competition.  Waylon Roberts, a CS major, was one of the event organizers and several CS students competed.  More information.  [April 2016]

Sustainability Management Systems Project

Clem Izurieta and John Sheppard have secured $146,000 through TechLink to continue researching and developing new technologies in sustainability management systems.  Funding comes from the Construction Engineering Research Laboratory and includes support for two graduate students and six undergraduate students.  Congratulations!  [April 2016]

Zoot Enterprises Research Support

Zoot Enterprises is providing the Software Engineering Laboratory $50K of additional support for the research and development of quality assurance methods for crediting solutions.  Graduate students Bonnie Enix and Derek Reimanis will carry out the work under the supervision of Dr. Clem Izurieta and Dr. Upulee Kanewala.  Congratulations!  [April 2016]

Undergraduate Scholars Grant

A CS minor majoring in Civil Engineering received funding from MSU's Undergraduate Scholars Program to undertake a Summer Semester research project.  Maia Grudzien will work on a project entitled "Road Network Analysis" under the mentorship of Dr. Brittany Fasy.  Congratulations!  [April 2016]

Fall 2016 Notable Offerings

  • CSCI 232, Data Structures and Algorithms, 4 credits.  CSCI 232 is normally only offered in the spring.
  • CSCI 291, Special Topics (Applied Scientific Computing), 3 credits.  Students will learn how to tackle real-world scientific problems in domains such as neuroscience using computational tools such as MatLab.  The course will be taught by Dr. Nick Dotson (nicholas.dotson@montana.edu) whose Ph.D. is in neuroscience.  The prerequisite for CS majors is CSCI 132.
  • CSCI 446, Artificial Intelligence, 3 credits.  This course is offered once every two years and will be taught by Dr. John Sheppard.
  • CSCI 550, Data Mining, 3 credits.  This course is offered once every two years and will be taught by new CS faculty member Dr. Dave Millman.
  • CSCI 565, Wireless and Mobile Networking, 3 credits.  This course is offered once every two years and will be taught by Dr. Qing Yang.
  • LSCI 491, Contemporary Approaches to Community Building Using Social Media, 3 credits. 

Summer 2016 Offerings

The following summer courses might be of interest to CS students.  Generally, they are offered if 10 or more students enroll:

  • CSCI 112, Programming with C, 3 credits - first six week session
  • CSCI 132, Basic Data Structures and Algorithms, 4 credits - first six week session
  • CSCI 215 Social & Ethical Issues in Computing, 3 credits - first six week session
  • CSCI 477 (co-listed as EIND 422), Simulation, 3 credits - first six week session
  • CSCI 111, Programming with Java, 4 credits - second six week session
  • CS 145, Web Design, 3 credits - second six week session
  • CSCI 232, Data Structures and Algorithms, 4 credits - second six week session
  • EELE 261, Logic Circuits, 4 credits - full twelve week session

Undergraduate Publication

Computer Science majors MacKenzie O'Bleness and Mike Trenk are co-authors on a paper entitled The Effectiveness of Software Development Instruction Through the Software Factory Method for High School Students that has been accepted by ASEE (the American Society for Engineering Education).  The students were funded by MSU's USP Program and were overseen by Dr. Clem Izurieta and Demand Generation Coordinator Sharlyn Izurieta.  Congratulations!  [March 2016]

Award for Excellence

Computer Science senior Clint Cooper was recognized as one of 40 outstanding seniors at the MSU Alumni Association / Bozeman Chamber of Commerce Awards for Excellence banquet on February 16th.  Recipients excel academically and through service.  Clint selected Mike Wittie as his inspirational mentor.  Congratulations!  [February 2016]

MIT Battlecode Finalists

Computer science undergraduates Fred Kneeland, Josh Leger and David Bell are among 16 finalists in MIT's international Battlecode Competition.  They competed in a round-robin competition at MIT on Saturday, January 30th and their entry, The Simple Soldier, finished in the 9th - 12th category.  Congratulations!  [January 2016]

GitHub Workshops

  • Friday, February 12th from 4:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m. in EPS 126.  A high-level overview of Git and GitHub, how young professionals use Git and GitHub, open source contribution, recommended profile settings, tips on ways to keep up with the latest and greatest trending tech on GitHub
  • Saturday, February. 13th from 10 a.m - noon and 1:00 p.m. - 3:00 p.m. in EPS 254.  Effective ways to use web platform, proper development flow, collaborating well with teams in group projects

Undergraduate Scholars Program Grants

Two CS majors received funding from USP to undertake Spring Semester research projects.  Ryan Thompson's project is entitled Applying Techniques from Topological Data Analysis on a Celestial Data Set and Sawyer Payne's project is entitled Analysis of Prostate Cancer with Persistent Topology and Homology.  Both students will be mentored by Dr. Brittany Fasy.  Congratulations!  [January 2016]

CRA-W Graduate Workshop

Congratulations to Ph.D. students Jici Huang and Yi Xu, who were selected to participate in a Computing Research Association (CRA) Women Graduate Cohort Workshop.  The workshop will take place in April in sunny San Diego.  [January 2016]

New Administrative Associate

The Computer Science Department extends a warm welcome to Suzie Hockel, who joined us as our administrative associate on January 11th.  Please drop by the CS Office and say hello!  [January 2016]

International Software Engineering Research Network

The Software Engineering Laboratory (SEL), co-directed by Dr. Upulee Kanewala and Dr. Clemente Izurieta, was accepted into the International Software Engineering Research Network (ISERN).  This distinction is shared by approximately 50 organizations across the world and provides a framework for collaborative research, as well as a set of standards and literature that underlie Software Engineering.  To become an ISERN member requires sponsorship from an existing member and a rigorous review.  Congratulations!  [January 2016]

Meritorious Technology and Science Award

Congratulations to John Sheppard, who is the recipient of Montana State University Vice President for Research's Meritorious Technology and Science Award.  The award will be presented to John at the Spring Convocation on January 12th at 9:30 a.m. in Reynolds Recital Hall in Howard Hall.  [January 2016]