2010 Denison Programming Contest

March 14th, 2010

On February 27th, two OCCS programming teams participated in Denison University’s spring programming contest, along with 9 other teams from 6 other schools (Denison, Albion, Baldwin-Wallace, Muskingum, Ohio Wesleyan, and U of Akron).

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Congratulations to our teams for placing second and sixth! Joaquin Ruales, Michael Stevenson, Zach Levine and Joe Kramer-Miller of the O(bees) solved 4 of the 6 problems, and Brendan Chambers, Thomas Ramfjord, Emma Conner and Siyang Wu of Foo of Oberlin solved 3 problems.

If you are interested getting involved in programming contests, get in touch with either Professor Donaldson or Wexler (the coaches) or check out the Competitive Programming Exco!

See more photos in the gallery:
2010 Denison Programming Contest

OCCS 25th Anniversary

March 9th, 2010

Our 25th Anniversary Symposium will be held April 23-25, 2010.  We’re inviting all our CS alumni and other interested folks to join us.  You’ll have a chance to meet with the current faculty and students and catch up with your old friends. All events will take place on the Oberlin College campus.

If you’re thinking of joining us, please register by filling out the following form: OCCS 25th Anniversary Registration.

To celebrate our 25th anniversary, the Department is establishing an endowed fund to support Oberlin student / faculty research, and to fund visits by outside speakers to campus.

If you’d like to contribute to our departmental development fund, you can submit a pledge here, or just view the pledges so far.

25th Anniversary Tentative Schedule

March 9th, 2010

Here is the schedule for our upcoming 25th anniversary weekend:

(more…)

On-campus summer research opportunities in Security and Systems

March 4th, 2010

Professor Kuperman is looking for students interested in doing paid, on-campus research work in CS this summer. Funding is for 8-10 weeks of work, up to 40 hours per week, with some flexibility as to scheduling.

I have 3 different projects I’ll be working on this summer. They are all systems or security related:

1. Testing and releasing a security monitoring tool as an open-source project

2. Refining an isolated virtual network lab environment for the security course

3. Network measurement and troubleshooting (in conjunction w. Case Western)

Useful background could include C/systems programming, Linux/Unix experience, Python programming, shell scripting, security topics, system administration, and/or computer networking. Each project has different needs, and you only need a subset of these topics and motivation to learn more to be able to help.

If you are interested in any of these projects send me an email (Benjamin.Kuperman@oberlin.edu) letting me know which projects you are interested in and your relevant background. Also email me if you have questions or just want more info. Graduating seniors are eligible to participate.

Computational Thinking Across the Curriculum: The Power and the Peril

March 2nd, 2010

Computational Thinking Across the Curriculum: The Power and the Peril

by Robert M. Panoff
Shodor Educational Foundation

Place: Craig Lecture Hall

Time & Date: Monday evening, March 15 @ 7:30

Refreshments to follow

Sponsored by the Oberlin Modeling Initiative & Sigma Xi

ABSTRACT: Students and faculty at all education levels are clearly spending much more of their days interacting with computing and communication tools than with each other. Is this good? Are all uses of technology in education helpful, and if not, how does one separate the benefits from the burdens?  We will explore how technology enables dynamic representation in the sciences, arts, and humanities, giving us the opportunity to be more fully human as we seek new knowledge in service to society.

Moving “beyond PowerPointless-ness,” we have the opportunity to demonstrate that effective use of computing really matters. Computing “matters” because quantitative reasoning, computational thinking, and multiscale modeling are the intellectual “heart and soul” of 21st Century science and therefore are the essential skills of the 21st Century workforce.  Computing “matters” because we can apply the power of interactive computing to reach a deeper understanding and of math and science and their role in understanding the world.

We will explore a transformation in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) education, supported by interactive computing resources, promoting a dynamic encounter with our world through guided discovery. A world-class education requires world-class resources, and all math and science teachers should be able to bring interactive modeling environments to their own teaching practice. We will explore a variety of free and low-cost sources for modeling tools from the Computational Science Education Reference Desk, a pathway project of the National Science Digital Library (http://www.nsdl.org).