CSC eNewsletter

Welcome to the online edition of CSC eNews, a monthly electronic newsletter for alumni and friends of the Department of Computer Science at NC State University.

If you are a CSC alum and wish to be added to the email distribution list, click here. Corporate or individual friends of the department may be added to our distribution list by sending an email request to Ken Tate, Director of Development & External Relations for the NCSU Department of Computer Science.

May 31, 2006

Williams Receives Outstanding Teacher Award

Dr. Laurie Williams, assistant professor of computer science at NC State University, has received an Outstanding Teaching Award from the NC State Office of the Provost. Along with the award, Williams has been named to the Academy of Outstanding Teachers. Membership in the Academy is open only to recipients of the award and lasts for as long as the faculty member remains at NC State. more

Four Department Icons to Retire

The faculty and staff of the Department of Computer Science at NC State University wish to extend our deepest gratitude and appreciation to Joyce Hatch, and Drs. Ed Davis, Robert Funderlic, and David McAllister, who have announced their retirements this year. Please join us in celebrating the incredible achievements of these departmental icons, and in recognizing them for their outstanding service to our department, NC State University, and the state of North Carolina. more

Departmental Research Grants, Gifts, and Support

Thanks to Ling Tai for contributing $1,500 to the KC Tai Memorial Endowment, bringing the total value of this fund to almost $37,000. This contribution represents royalties from a book the late Dr Tai co-authored with NCSU alum, Dr. Richard Carver (MS '85, Ph.D. '89). Carver has also committed a portion of the profits from the book, entitled "Modern Multithreading: Implementing, Testing, and Debugging Multithreaded Java and C++/Pthreads/Win32 Programs", to be directed to the Tai Endowment.

Cisco Systems has renewed its commitment as a Super ePartner for the 2006-07 academic year, providing the department a $25,000 unrestricted gift.

The department has benefited from several gifts and awards from Microsoft recently. Dr. Jaewoo Kang will receive $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 have been 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". And finally, Microsoft has provided a $5,000 "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.

Concert Technology has provided the department a $5,000 gift in support of our Senior Design Center program.

Lucent Technologies has provided the department a $5,000 gift in support of our Senior Design Center program.

Drs. Peng Ning and Injong Rhee have been awarded $108,105 by the Army Research Office in support of their proposal titled "WiSeNeT: Wireless Sensor Network Testbed for Research and Education". The award will run from May 1st, 2006 through April 30th, 2007.

John Skuce has provided the department a cash gift of $5,000 in support of the Joyce Hatch Scholarship Endowment. To date, approximately 30 alumni, friends and relatives have contributed almost $10,000 and pledged almost $24,000 to this new endowment.

Senior Design Team Qualifies for IEEE International Competition

For the third time in four years, the IEEE Computer Society International Design Competition (CSIDC) has selected an NC State Computer Science Senior Design Center project as one of the top ten in the world. Approximately 300 universities submitted entries to this year's competition. The student team responsible for this project will be traveling to Washington, DC at the end of June to participate in the CSIDC 2006 World Finals. more

123 Receive Degrees in Spring Diploma Ceremony

On May 13, 2006, approximately 1,000 relatives and guests watched in pride as 123 degrees were conferred by the department during our Spring Diploma Ceremony held in the beautiful Meymandi Concert Hall in downtown Raleigh. The graduating class included seven PhDs, 42 MS degrees, and 74 BS degrees, expanding the department's alumni base to approximately 4,900. Of the 74 undergraduates, 15 will pursue their graduate degrees, while 38 have firm job offers in hand - a very strongindication of a strengthening economy and job market for computer science graduates. Mr. Matthew Szulik, Chairman, CEO and President of Red Hat, served as guest speaker for the event, providing an energetic and inspiring address. Thanks to Tekelec for sponsoring this very special event. more

Derbinsky & Lucas Receive 2006 Engineering Senior Awards

Congratulations to CSC seniors, Nathaniel L. Derbinsky and Blake C. Lucas, for winning two of the four 2006 Engineering Senior Awards presented during a special awards ceremony on April 20th. Derbinsky received the 2006 Leadership Award, while Lucas (a dual major in ECE) received the 2006 Scholarly Achievement award. more

Fall Recruiting Events

Corporate recruiters are advised to reserve the following calendar dates for important recruiting events at NC State:

Oct 2 - Minority Career Fair - 1-7 pm in Reynolds Coliseum. This is the only non-college specific career fair on campus and one of the largest! Last year, more than 125 companies and over 2,000 students participated. Companies are advised to register early to reserve a spot (link)

Oct 3 - Engineering Career Fair - 9:30 am - 4:00 pm in the McKimmon Center. This is one of the largest career fairs in the country held specifically for engineering students. More than 180 companies and almost 2,100 engineering students participated in this fair last spring. Corporate registration is capped due to space limitations, and more than 30 companies were turned away last fall. Early registration for this event is a must! (link) NOTE - Due to incredible demand and corporate requests, this popular recruiting event historically held in the spring, will now be held in both the fall and spring. If you plan to participate in both, the spring date will be February 1, 2007.

Oct 4 - ePartners Career Connection Event - 10 am - 2:30 pm in EB2. This popular recruiting event is offered exclusively for our ePartner companies, and offers them a more intimate environment to dialogue with our computer science students. Last year, more than 300 CSC students participated in the event. Hold the date, as more information will be sent to our ePartners in the coming months. If you are not currently an ePartner and would like more information, contact Ken Tate.

Raleigh Ranks High on Forbes' Top 10 List

Looking for the top cities in the US to do business or have a career? According to the May 22nd issue of Forbes magazine, Raleigh ranks 2nd on their list of business and career friendly cities, behind Albuquerque, NM. This is the first year that Forbes has separated Raleigh and Durham, previously recognized on the list as the Triangle. Durham placed 8th on the list, and Asheville placed 24th, making North Carolina the only state with three cities in the Top 25 rankings.

Wolfline Bus Stop Moves

Effective May 15th, the Centennial Campus Wolfline bus stop previously located at the intersection of Varsity Drive and Partners Way (next to the Red Hat parking deck) has moved to the front of EB2 in the main circle off Oval Drive. This convenient stop is not only more convenient, but also features a new enclosed wait center to shelter students during inclement weather.

Panoramic Views of Engineering Buildings 1 & 2

Click on the links below for an interesting panoramic view of Engineering Buildings 1 & 2, as seen from the top of the Centennial Campus "oval", around which the College of Engineering complex is being built. Special thanks to Dr. Jon Doyle for providing these views created by Firmtools Panorama Composer.

Panorama Photo Only (6.2MB JPG file)

CSC Faculty / Staff News

Congratulations to Dr. Jon Doyle, SAS Institute Distinguished Professor of Computer Science, on the recent release of his new book, "Extending Mechanics to Minds: The Mechanical Foundations of Psychology and Economics", published by Cambridge University Press. more

Dr. Laurie Williams' article entitled "Debunking the Nerd Stereotype with Pair Programming", was published in the May 2006 issue of IEEE's Computer Magazine. The article explores how use of pair programming can be a way to attract and retain students in computing majors. more

Dr. Michael Young served as moderator for a distinguished panel of academic and industry gaming experts at the Council for Entrepreneurial Development's (CED) "Game Night" on May 17th. The event showcased how collaborative PC-game technology, rich 3D multimedia and instructional design are being blended to teach individuals to perform complex tasks, operate equipment and make quick decisions.

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