CSC News
June 30, 2006Microsoft Support Tops $300,000
A diverse and dynamic partnership has emerged between Microsoft and the NCSU department of computer science, as support provided by the worldwide software giant grew to approximately $300,000 during the 2005/06 academic year.
Ken Tate, Director of Development and External Relations for the department, credits Vargas for the success of this growing partnership. “We are so thankful to Microsoft for their interest and support in our department,” Tate says. “In particular, we thank Juan Vargas for his tireless efforts in building strong and meaningful working relationships with our faculty. He has built a very effective network through his ongoing engagement and interaction, and the results speak for themselves.”
As summarized below, Microsoft’s support for the department during the 2005/06 academic year spans numerous projects and initiatives:
- Dr. Michael Young was awarded $100,000 in unrestricted funding to support his project titled “Scriptboard: a Tablet Storyboarding Tool for Machinima”. Earlier in the year, Dr. Young was awarded $3,000 to help build Planet Academic, a new web-based community centered on the integration of computer game technology with teaching and research efforts in schools around the world.
- Dr. Jaewoo Kang received $128,000 in unrestricted funding to support his project titled “Enabling Large-scale Comparative Analysis Across Disparate Science Data”.
- Drs. George Rouskas and Rudra Dutta were awarded $50,000 in unrestricted funding to support their Trustworthy Computing project titled “Integration of Network Survivability Concepts in an MS in Computer Networking Curriculum”.
- $5,000 was donated to Dr. Laurie Williams in support of her proposal entitled: CSEE&T Sponsorship.
- $5,000 was donated as “Gold” level sponsorship for ISSRE 2006 (IEEE’s International Symposium on Software Reliability Engineering), which will be held in Raleigh on November 6-10, 2006.
- A $5,000 award is in process in support of a spring 2006 Senior Design Center student project.
- Finally, earlier in the year, Microsoft gave the department a copy of Visual Studio Team System 2005 software to the department. The software, which was designed to support complex programming efforts involving large teams of developers, has been made available to all faculty and students via the Virtual Computing Lab (VCL) platform.
In addition, Vargas represents Microsoft as an engaged and productive member of the department’s Strategic Advisory Board.
Department Head, Dr. Mladen Vouk, says the growing partnership is significant as the department approaches its 40th year. “As we mature as a department and a discipline, the emergence of such strong corporate partnerships will be a differentiating factor of our future success. I want to express our sincere gratitude and appreciation to Microsoft for their support and confidence in our department. We are, indeed, honored.”
In consideration of their support, we are proud to recognize Microsoft as a Super ePartner for the 2006-07 academic year.
About ePartners
The ePartners Program provides a framework for developing and nurturing meaningful collaborative relationships between the global business community and NC State's Department of Computer Science. Its primary focus is to foster ongoing communication and interaction between students, faculty and our corporate partners, to help shape the department’s future. Funding and support generated by the program allow our department to continue to grow in emerging areas of computer science technology while providing the highest quality education for our students.
In recognition of their generous support, our ePartners have access to an extensive portfolio of engagement and interaction options across several recognition levels, all designed to meet their specific needs and interests.
For more information, contact Ken Tate, Director of Development & External Relations at 919-513-4292 or tate@csc.ncsu.edu.
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