CECS Newsletter 1 for AY 2011/12

September 8 2011

by Dr. Alvaro Monge

Hello everyone! This is a newsletter that I edit and which is meant for all CECS students. It is posted on the CECS department website on the CECS News section. I encourage everyone to read the newsletters as they usually contain important information about our curriculum and also job or internship positions that I've been informed about. If you have a newsworthy item to post, let me know via e-mail.

There will be an Engineering, Science & Technology Job Fair on Thursday, September 29, 12:00 - 4:00pm in the University Student Union. The Career Development Center has more information about this job fair.

• 2011 Salary Survey: Staff and Entry-level Positions - by Computerworld: See a table listing salary information for entry level positions like database developer, web master, programmer, software developer, software engineer, network engineer, etc.
• Navigate the Booming Computer Science Market: published by US News and World Report: computer science students with either bachelor's or master's degrees are in demand now and are expected to be for the next decade. According to a U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics report, there will be an estimated 1.8 million new IT jobs by 2018, a 22 percent jump from today's market
• The future of work? Hiring yourself out online.: an article published by The Next Web discussing several online services where people sign up to carry out jobs posted by others. Self-service labor markets, in which people buy and sell services from individuals, are rising in importance as a way of reallocating labor.
• When computer programming was 'women's work': An interesting article discussing some of the history of women in computer science, explaining how at one point women made up 37% of those seeking computer science degrees.
• MentorNet Opens its Doors to Students from All Campuses: MentorNet is announcing this week that its program is now open to all STEM students, especially woman and minorities, from any campus. Students participating in MentorNet report more confidence in their success in science or engineering and also a greater desire to pursue a career in their field

I recommend that new (as well as returning) students seek to get involved with student organizations. We have several in the department and in the college, including: ACM, ACM-W, EAT, WDC, SWE, SHPE, MAES, etc. Check out those flyers you see posted around the department, go to their meetings and check them out! You'll get some valuable information, meet students in the department in a setting other than your classes, and get fed for free at the same time!

Get a chance to compete in the world's largest and most prestigious programming competition. The International Collegiate Programming Contest (sponsored by ACM and this year by IBM) is a chance to show off your skills and what makes you stand out in today's tough job market. Training meetings will be Thursdays at 7:30pm in ECS 416. The ACM Southern California Regional Programming Contest is usually held on the second Saturday in November and teams representing CSULB are selected from those students participating in the weekly meetings.

The CECS advisors are available to help students. Visit your advisor to assist you in the decision process of selecting electives, scheduling classes for a timely graduation, academic difficulties, career choices, etc. This year's advisors are:

• Dr. Monge for BSCS students. Note, advising availability will be changing, check home page.
• Dr. Chelian for BSCpEng students
• Dr. Lam for MSCS students

Students who have been unable to pass the WPE are strongly encouraged to enroll in ENGR 310 a GWAR-certified course. While there are other GWAR-certified courses, ENGR 310 exists to serve College of Engineering students.

NOTE: CECS students cannot use ENGR 310 to satisfy requirements in the major. It is to be used to satisfy the GWAR after unsuccessful attempt in the WPE.

Here are some general notes of advise for all students…

• Always review the University catalog for official requirements for graduation. Be sure to check the correct year. While you may share classes with friends and share tips on what classes to take, your requirements may not be the same as curriculum can change from one year to the next. Thus, students should always check their official requirements as listed in the catalog and/or their degree audit. The most recent CSULB catalogs area easily accessible online.
• Review your Degree Progress Report (Degree Audit) using MyCSULB. This shows you the requirements you've completed as well as the ones in progress and the ones you've yet to satisfy. If you detect inconsistencies, you should contact the University Center for Undergraduate Advising with assistance on General Education requirements and your major advisor for assistance on requirements in your major.
• If you've taken classes at community colleges and they are not listed in your degree audit, it may be because you've not submitted a transcript from that college. You'll need to request official transcripts from the college and submit them to Enrollment Services.
• Review past CECS Newsletters for explanations on changes in curriculum in the department. You can use Google to quickly search the newsletters. For example, a Google search of “site:csulb.edu cecs newsletter electives” will return results that include information about electives – such as when to take CECS 3xx classes in order to be eligible to take certain electives.

Students who are near graduation need to file a request to graduate. Enrollment Services maintains a page that explains the Graduation Filing Process. This includes instructions on how to file a request to graduate, which must be preceded with a visit to your major advisor.

University Policy requires that all undergraduates complete their degrees within 120% of the units required for their majors and file a Request to Graduate form with the Office of Enrollment Services by the time they have completed 100% of the units required for their majors.

The deadline to file for a Spring 2012 graduation is October 15th. Students should visit their advisors much earlier and then file your request to graduate.

Are you a recent graduate with a passion for Internet and its genres? Do you keep up to date with the latest Web technologies? This dynamic international Web Media Design and Development Company has exceptional opportunities for you to launch your career. Strong writing skills in both English and Japanese are essential. We offer a pleasant working environment and opportunities to grow with the company

Positions available:

• Web Designer: The candidate must exhibit a great degree of autonomy and artistic ability. Fundamental proficiencies include an aptitude for design, photo and video encoding and editing and video formats for the WEB. Competency with HTML5/CMS; ADOBE CS5 WEB Premium and ADOBE Flash. SEO is mandatory. Adobe Photoshop and Dreamweaver skills are a plus. A college degree or vocational training in graphic design and video editing or comparable education and training are strongly preferred.
• Web Master: The successful candidate will create and manage the daily operations of the network of interactive websites including tubes. Good artistic approach and balance multiple projects simultaneously. You should have a good understanding of front end and back end development along with TCP, galleries and tube sites. Competency in HTML5/CMS/JavaScript and SEO is mandatory. Skills with PHP; FTP Clients; Adobe Flash and Adobe CS6 WEB Premium are important. Familiarity with Photoshop and Basic Image and Photo Editing is beneficial. A Bachelor's Degree in Computer Sciences or related technical field is requisite

The company is willing to sponsor a work visa for the right candidates. To apply please send your resume via e-mail to hr@digitalmrc.com. Digital Media Resources Co. is located in Irvine, CA.

Life Technologies, a biotechnology company in Carlsbad, CA in partnership with the American Indian Science and Engineering Society (AISES) is currently seeking a student interested in fulfilling a full-time fall internship. The internship positions being sought for are a Software Engineer intern or Bioinformatics intern. Below is a description of the two internship opportunities. Only one internship position available and the actual project selected from the two below will be based on skill level of the student selected.

• Position Title: Software Engineering Intern. Opportunity for exceptional software developer with high performance computing experience, who is highly creative and productive, lives to code, and wants to build and ship software for a disruptive technology. Essential skills and background include:
  • Experience working in Linux development environment.
  • C and C++ skills including pthreads and STL.
  • Math and statistics background.
  • Experience with high performance computing and GPUs desirable
• Position Title: Bioinformatics Intern. Opportunity for exceptional data analyst with large-dataset experience, who is highly creative and productive, enjoys inventing and implementing new techniques and working with scientists from other disciplines to develop a disruptive technology. Essential skills and background include:
  • Training in a data-focused numerical discipline such as applied math, statistics, computer science or physics.
  • Experience with higher-level exploratory data analysis and visualization software such as S, R or Matlab. C and C++ skills.
  • Experience with huge datasets and ability to implement methods in efficient C++ code to handle.
  • Experience with high performance computing and bioinformatics considered a plus.

If you are interested in applying for this internship opportunity, you must complete the following steps:

• Apply to Life Technologies (links provided below) on Life Technologies' intern/student opportunities website:
  • Intern-Software Engineer
  • Intern-Bioinformatics
• Apply to AISES Internship Program. Please contact Liz Encinias, AISES Program Officer, by email at liz@aises.org to complete the required AISES application and paperwork.

Application deadline is September 30, 2011. For additional details about these internship opportunities, please contact Belinda Mekdara at belinda.mekdara@lifetech.com.

A funded, California based startup is looking to fill two positions. We are looking for some gifted developers and engineers to join our team as we build this project from the ground up. This is a chance for an independent contractor who can help us create unique user experience to get involved. You will be collaborating with other creative people to produce a great product in an incredibly popular space: video.

• Rails Developer Needed. Qualifications:
  • Ruby on Rails Expert
  • SQL Experience
  • iPhone/iPad experience a plus
  • Strong communication skills
  • Ability to work independently
  • Innovative problem solving mindset

• Database & Web Scraping Engineer Needed. Qualifications:
  • Strong Understanding of Database Concepts
  • SQL Expert
  • DBA Experience
  • Web Scraping (HTML/XML/JSON/RSS)
  • Python/Ruby/Perl or other scripting language experience
  • Linux Experience
  • Strong communication skills
  • Ability to work independently
  • Innovative problem solving mindset

Salary based on experience. Please send resume and work samples via e-mail to devjob2011@gmail.com. Your samples can be links, PDFs, or images.

Earth Science Associates is a small GIS firm in Long Beach. We produce the leading 2D and 3D GIS used in oil and gas exploration and production. We have pioneered development of 3D subsurface applications and integration of geologic, engineering and geophysical data from a wide variety of data sources and platforms. We hire undergraduate and graduate students on a regular basis. Typically, we seek students with GIS skills who also have some programming skills. We currently have a relationship with the Geography Dept. at CSULB where we hire a student for an internship with our company for a semester or two and the student in turn receives highly marketable GIS skills. We also have positions for students with higher level programming skills and want to expand our internship relationship to include the Computer Science department.

The company seeks qualified students for positions in:

• Database/GIS creation: This position entails conversion of existing data in multiple formats (delimited text, KML, shapefiles, Access databases) to GIS formats (File geodatabase and SDE).
  • Required: Experience with database architecture, Oracle, MS Access, MS Excel; Knowledge of data manipulation and aggregation
  • Preferred: Experience with ArcGIS.
• GIS programming/development: This position entails developing tools to maintain and update data used with ArcGIS, using VB.NET and/or Python.
  • Required: Excellent programming skills and experience in VB.NET; programming experience with Python
  • Preferred: Knowledge of/experience with ESRI's ArcObjects.

The projects are underway and we are looking for candidates who can start as soon as possible. The assignments will last through the end of 2011 (with possible extension on subsequent projects). Hours are flexible.

Qualified candidates should send a resume and an email addressing their ability to meet the needs above to Earth Science Associates at contactesa@earthsci.com.

Art Center College of Design is an international center for art and design education located in the hills above the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California. We are an independent, nonprofit, four-year college offering a Bachelor of Fine Arts or Bachelor of Science degree in ten specialized programs, and graduate degrees in four art and design disciplines.

Art Center offers a full benefits package of medical, dental, vision, LTD and life insurance plans. There is a generous leave time benefit in addition to paid time off between Christmas and New Year's Day. Additional benefits include a retirement savings plan, tuition remission, and flextime options.

We are currently recruiting for a Software Engineer for our team of 10 technology specialists in Application Services, which functions within a vibrant and dedicated IT department of 24 staff members. This is a high-caliber team who collaborates with every department across the College as an integral part of Art Center's long-term vision. If you are interested in contributing your programming and problem-solving talents in a dynamic team environment, join us and help move Art Center's mission forward: “Learn to create. Influence Change.”

The Software Engineer will be responsible for designing, creating, and managing various web applications, client/server infrastructure, and information systems related to the development, architecture, and support of educational technology systems for the College. The successful candidate will have the ability to analyze, design, develop, test, and implement effective solutions across diverse platforms and complex systems.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, or equivalent discipline
• 5 to 7 years of experience
• Excellent communications and interpersonal skills
• Strong knowledge and proficiency with various technologies, methodologies, and third-party systems such as: Moodle, PHP, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, Windows Server, Oracle/SQL/MySQL, HTML, Apache Tomcat, virtual server infrastructure, web services integration, Object-Oriented design and development, open source development, software development methodology, CAS, and Oracle Waveset
• Knowledge and proficiency with mobile device development for various platforms such as iOS, Android, and BlackBerry
• Experience in higher education industry a plus

Essential Functions

• Design, develop, support, and administer the College's educational technology systems, customized enterprise software, and web-based applications, including, but not limited to, Learning Management System, Portal, Online and Low Residency systems, Single Sign-On (SSO/CAS), LDAP, e-Portfolio, and other specialized software applications
• Architect and develop various types of web sites/applications using best-of-breed technologies such as object-oriented PHP, PHP Namespaces, Moodle, Apache software, and Tomcat; Create and develop leading edge portal applications for all constituencies, including, but not limited to, staff, faculty, and students, for deployment across multiple platforms and devices
• Manage the integration of various educational technology tools, and availability of such disparate systems, including, but not limited to, iTunes U, lynda.com, and equipment reservation system
• Build and ensure system integration, managing system performance, scalability, load balancing, availability, and software maintainability through server optimization, QA controls, and adherence to standard software development life cycle (SDLC) methodologies
• Collaborate with technical peers and administrative staff to design and implement a strategy aligned with institutional goals, and fulfill educational/administrative requirements of the client's application in Production, Test, and Development environments; research a variety of internal customer requests and manage system enhancements and changes
• Perform overall systems analysis such as testing new system integrations, proof of concept implementations, and re-factoring efforts
• Apply project management principles to project planning, execution, reporting, and documentation; lead or actively participate in technology projects and implementations

To apply, send resume with cover letter stating salary history or salary expectations via e-mail to hr@artcenter.edu or send hardcopy to Attn: Human Resources, Art Center College of Design, 1700 Lida St, Pasadena, CA 91103. EOE.