CECS Newsletter 4 for AY 2009/10

November 17 2009

by Dr. Alvaro Monge

The 3rd Annual CSULB Distinguished Speaker Series will feature William D. Cohan, a former Wall Street Banker and Award-Winning Author on Wednesday November 18, 2009 at 7:30pm.

The CSULB Society of Women Engineers is having a fundraiser on Wednesday, November 18th, from 5PM - 9PM at BJ's Restaurant on Belmont Shore. The proceeds will be used to help pay for the costs of attending next year's Women Engineers Annual Conference in Florida. The restaurant requires diners to present a flyer in order to have partial profits go to SWE. You can pick up flyers from the CECS department office or flyers can be downloaded from the SWE website.

The October issue of The Engine Ear, the AESB Newsletter can be found on the AESB's web site listing their newsletters

This Friday November 20th is the deadline to drop without the college dean's signature. In almost all cases, withdrawal in the last three weeks of classes (after November 20th) will involve total withdrawal from all classes due to the serious nature of an illness or injury. Also in most cases, withdrawal during this period is accomplished using the Medical Withdrawal Form available from the Office of Enrollment Services. The student's physician must submit a statement confirming the serious illness or injury. If the request for total withdrawal is approved, the student will be withdrawn from all classes and the transcript will reflect a 'W' for each course. Students should go to the Office of Enrollment Services in situations of serious illness or injury.

• Enrollment for Spring 2010 has started. Students are encouraged to enroll during their assigned enrollment appointment. Enroll in the classes you need in order to continue progress towards graduation. The department may be asked to cancel classes that have low enrollment, so it is critical that all students enroll in order to be counted in the roster and thus show strong numbers in order for the department to avoid canceling classes.

• Computer Science students who are ready to enroll in CECS 3xx classes (i.e. CECS 323, 326, 328, and 343) should consult the web page describing the information used by the department to schedule BSCS electives. Determine which electives you would like to take in Fall 2010 and then be sure to enroll in the prerequisites of those electives in this coming Spring 2010 semester. For example, CECS 451 is offered only in Fall semesters so any student interested in taking that class must first complete CECS 328.

• Students having difficulty enrolling in Spring 2010 classes should follow the instructions sent via e-mail. There's been a number of problems with the system, most due to the implementation of new policies regarding repeating classes. The policies were programmed incorrectly in the system so many students are facing errors that are unfounded. Please follow the instructions sent via e-mail, in particular if you get an error message, be sure to click on the fix errors button when viewing your enrollment shopping cart. If difficulties enrolling persist, then contact the Office of Enrollment Services at 562-985-5471.

• CECS 423 is a senior-level elective for computer science students. It is a course that satisfies the major capstone requirement for students who started in Fall 2007 or later. The course is project-driven and teams will be organized within the first two weeks. Teams will propose, design, implement, and document a web application that is data-intensive. Technologies to be used include: database transaction management, Java EE, Web, etc. You can read more information about CECS 423 or contact Dr. Monge via e-mail if you have any questions. The skills learned in this course are highly sought-after as they have been listed as desired and/or required in many of the job opportunities received by our department.

• CECS 492 is a senior-level elective for computer science students that also satisfies the major capstone requirement. The students will be involved in completing a semester-long project on computer networks. Contact Dr. Englert for more information. Changes: the prerequisites for this class will be modified to require only CECS 327, rather than CECS 474. Stay tune for the changes.

The Psychology department is offering a new GE course (GE Designation: D2 I) in Human Factors. This should interest many of you, especially those who are interested in design and manufacturing. This class would be an ideal combination with CECS 448: User Interface Design. Here is some information about the course.

• Psychology 327I: Introduction to Human Factors
• Class number: 10741
• Meets: MW 2-3:15PM
• Instructor: Dr. Tom Strybel, he is a Professor of Psychology, Director of the Center for Human Factors in Advanced Aeronautics Technologies, and founder of the Masters of Science, Human Factors Psychology Program.
• An introduction to the field of human factors. Human factors is a discipline concerned with designing products and systems that are easy to use, easy to learn to use, and safe for humans using the products. This course is designed for non-psychology majors, and is designated as Upper Division Capstone - Interdisciplinary. GE AREA: Social & Behavioral Sciences
• Topics covered:
  • Overview of the human factors' profession.
  • Presentations of products with good and bad human factors design.
  • How/why human factors can improve product design.
  • User-center design and the role of human factors in the product design lifecycle
  • Introduction to usability methods such as heuristic analyses and usability lab testing

• Minority Students Earned Greater Number of Academic Degrees in Fiscal Year 2006: This new NSF report also shows that overall, computer sciences made the largest gains among doctoral students at 53.2 percent, but the field also showed the steepest decline among bachelor's and master's degree students, falling 24.6 percent and 16.4 percent respectively.

• HTML 5 Progresses Despite Challenges: Development of HTML5 is progressing, but the highly anticipated upgrade to the Web language still faces some major hurdles, particularly its lack of a standard video codec.

• PlayPower: 1980s computing for the 21st century: 8-bit computers shaped the west - now one firm is taking the same spirit of exploration to children in India and China.

• Computer Science Provides a More Sound Way to Test for Sleep Apnea: A computer scientist from the University of Houston and a doctor of sleep medicine at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston have teamed up to create a new, less invasive method of diagnosing sleep apnea. Their findings appear in the November issue of the journal Sleep.

• Computer Programmers Accused of Aiding Madoff: The programmers are accused of designing the software that generated thousands of fake customer account statements as well as fraudulent trading confirmations from the London Stock Exchange and fictitious clearinghouse records showing transactions that had never occurred.

The Ronald E. McNair Postbaccalaureate Achievement Program is a federally funded program under the TRIO umbrella aimed at enhancing the population of low-income, first-generation, and underrepresented groups entering graduate programs, and eventually becoming members of the faculty. The program supports students in their research, and provides a six-week summer program aimed at communication (both written and oral) skills and research experience.

This program is for citizens and permanent residents, and eligible students must have be undergraduates with a graduation date after Summer 2010.

The program supports undergraduates who come from a low-income and first-generation background, or students from underrepresented groups in higher education (Latino, African American, Native American, or Pacific Islander).

Application forms are available in LA3-100 for students to pick up, The application deadline is Dec. 10. The program website provides more details, including eligibility requirements and also information about the application process.

The Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science (SC) Graduate Fellowship program supports outstanding students to pursue graduate training in basic research in areas of physics, biology, chemistry, mathematics, engineering, computational sciences, and environmental sciences relevant to the Office of Science and to encourage the development of the next generation scientific and technical talent in the U.S.

The Fellowship award provides partial tuition support, an annual stipend for living expenses, and a research stipend for full-time graduate study and thesis/dissertation research at a U.S. academic institution for three years.

The application deadline is November 30, 2009. Visit the DOE SCGF's program website for complete details including how to apply.

Internet Brands is a publicly traded company (NASDAQ: INET) that operates a diverse range of social networking, community, wiki and ecommerce internet businesses – from CarsDirect.com to WikiTravel.org. The sites generate over 650 million page views each month, and reach an audience of over 45 million people. A partial list of our sites can be found at the Internet Brands website

Interning at Internet Brands would be a unique opportunity for CSULB students: our interns write code that is seen by millions of people. While doing project based development work, interns will be exposed to agile-style methodologies, and moreover, interns get exposure to working in professional teams including business partners, project managers, QA engineers and technical mentors - actual work experience that will help prepare them for full time careers after school. The internship program is competitive, and is open only to students enrolled in BS, MS and PhD programs. We have a limited number of positions, and we evaluate intern candidates against several criteria including: knowledge of computer science fundamental principals; analytical ability; communication skills; and eagerness to learn and grow in a professional setting. We have created this internship program specifically for students like those at CSULB: we hope that by working with talented local students that we might be able to offer our interns full-time employment after graduation.

Students interested in this program should contact Justin Johnson by email

Vita Interactive Inc. is a start up company looking for the most talented and brightest minds to grow along with us and are interested in working with students who show potential to be the leading innovators in the world of tomorrow.

Vita is looking for two types of programmers:

1. User Interface
   • Experience in: Python, PHP, MySql, CSS, HTML, XML
   • Highly Desired: experience in UI design (GTK), experience with Twisted engine
   • Candidate will create network applications using Twisted, create GUI using pyGtk, create and update websites: back-end as well as front-end.
2. Graphics content
   • Excellent skills in working with PHP, Flash, Java and CMS (Content Management System) such as Drupal, Joomla
   • Candidate has to have good communication skills, initiatives, self-motivated. He will work directly with designers and has to have good knowledge of graphic formats and be flexible in image manipulation programs(e.g. Adobe Photoshop).
   • Interest in poker is a plus.

Interested students should contact Addison Martinez via e-mail, she is the Director of Business Development.

There's no place like 127.0.0.1

T-shirt logo As found in Best Programmer T-Shirts.