Computer Science eNewsletter
July 2012
In This Issue
- Middle School Girls Learn About Gaming in Summer Camp
- Cisco Renews Support of NC State Internship Program
- Clickjacking Rootkits for Android: the Next Big Threat?
- Summer Camp – There Must Be An App for That!
- Robotics Team Making Waves
- NC State's VCL is Now an Apache Top Level Project
- Donor Giving Sets Record
- Pedestrian Safety Drives Campus Changes
- Packapalooza Packs a Punch
- Olympic Pack
- Departmental Gifts & Research
- CSC Wolf Bytes
- Follow the Department on Facebook, LinkedIn & Twitter!
- Personalized Job Search Agent in ePack
Middle School Girls Learn About Gaming in Summer Camp
A group of 24 middle school girls attended a new Middle School Girls Computer Science Camp the week of July 16 as part of the College of Engineering’s Summer Programs. The camp focused on engineering design challenges including learning about and designing computer games, and working with other computer applications. The camp was coordinated by Dr. R. Michael Young, professor of computer science and director of the Digital Games Research Center at NC State, and PhD student Lucy Shores was the camp's team leader. more
Cisco Renews Support of NC State Internship Program
Cisco Systems, Inc. has given an additional $32,000 to the NC State Computer Science Department to support an internship program that originated in July 2011. This is a pilot internship program between NC State and Cisco for four undergraduate students to learn through working part-time on real-life problems for Cisco with the hopes that this pilot program will grow and develop into a long-term working relationship. more
Clickjacking Rootkits for Android: the Next Big Threat?
Mobile security researchers have identified an aspect of Android 4.0.4 (Ice Cream Sandwich) and earlier models that clickjacking rootkits could exploit. A research team led by Dr. Xuxian Jiang at NC State has been trying to identify potential weaknesses in various smartphone platforms as part of an overall effort to stay ahead of attacks from “black hat” attackers. more
Summer Camp – There Must Be An App for That!
What happens when you put 60+ high school students from North Carolina, Florida, Virginia, New Jersey, and Tennessee together with Android phones and AppInventor? You get some really creative applications (apps) like: “Interactive Periodic Table” (you tap on an element group and get expanded information), “Don’t Hit State!” (an interactive ball tossing game where hitting the UNC logo gives you two points; hit Duke’s logo and you get one), “Melody Magic” (an app requiring you to mimic musical notes), or “PacMan’s Revenge” (you play as “Blinky” the ghost to avoid PacMan). more
Robotics Team Making Waves
It’s not easy: Designing a robot that can operate underwater, be autonomous, move through a gate, glide between buoys and use a camera to navigate. But that’s what 15 members of the Underwater Robotics Club (URC) have been grappling with since last July. And now with the national RoboSub Competition looming in San Diego on July 17, the engineers must have Seawolf V, their 65-pound robot and its microcontroller, performing in peak form. “The pressure is on,” admits URC captain and computer science major, Chris Thunes. more
NC State's VCL is Now an Apache Top Level Project
On June 20, 2012, the Apache Software Foundation board voted to graduate the NC State Apache Virtual Computing Lab (VCL) from the Apache Incubator to an Apache TLP (Top Level Project). This is a significant milestone in the life of VCL. VCL production use on the NC State campus started in the fall of 2004. It is arguably the first Academic Cloud Computing environment in production use in the country, and in the world. more
Donor Giving Sets Record
NC State added some icing to the cake for its 125th anniversary, reporting a record-breaking year for its fund-raising efforts. The university received gifts and pledges totaling more than $111 million in the 2012 fiscal year ending June 30, a significant increase over the previous year’s record of $107 million. more
Pedestrian Safety Drives Campus Changes
To improve pedestrian safety and transit efficiency, NC State’s transportation department is instituting some changes across campus that will put into action its new Campus Transit Mobility Plan, including the installation of a pair of gates at the railroad tracks on Dan Allen Drive. more
Packapalooza Packs a Punch
For homecoming parades, game-day victories and graduation photos at the Belltower, Hillsborough Street is the place where NC State celebrates. So what better place to throw the biggest party of the year in honor of the university’s 125th anniversary? Come over to Hillsborough Street from 2 p.m. to 10 p.m. on Saturday, Aug. 18, for Packapalooza, a block party and street festival capping off Wolfpack Welcome Week. more
Olympic Pack
The Wolfpack is well-represented at the Summer Olympic Games in London. Swimmer Cullen Jones, a 2006 graduate, has already won a silver medal as part of the United States men’s swimming team. On Sunday, he and three teammates finished second in the 4×100-meter freestyle relay. more
Departmental Gifts & Research
Fidelity Investments has donated $30,000 to the department in sponsorship of the Fidelity Investments ‘Leadership in Technology’ Executive Speakers Series and the department’s Sr. Design Center.
Cisco Systems has donated $25,000 to the department in support of the ePartners Program and the department’s Sr. Design Center.
WebAssign has donated $2,500 to the department in sponsorship of the ACM Regional Programming Contest Teams.
Suzanne Gordon has donated $14,000 to the Gordon Family Scholarship Endowment.
Brian Hnat has made a $500 pledge to Dr. Thomas Honeycutt Scholarship Endowment. If you would like more information on how to give, click here.
Dr. Tao Xie has been awarded supplemental funding by the National Science Foundation (NSF) to support his research proposal titled “Constraint-based Generation of Database States for Testing Database Applications.” This $8,000 supplement brings the total funding for this project to $257,880, and extends the award period to August 31, 2013. more
CSC Wolf Bytes
The department is very pleased welcome Camille Cox to our finance team where provide support for the accounting and temporary human resource/payroll functions. She comes to us with over 14 years of accounting and human resources experience in both the public and private sectors.
Please join us in welcoming two outstanding new faculty to the department starting in 2012-13 academic year: Dr. Tiffany Barnes, Associate Professor, Intelligent Tutoring, Data Mining and Dr. Lina Battestilli, Teaching Assistant Professor, Networks, Cloud Computing!
Follow the Department on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter!
Alumni, students, faculty, staff, and corporate partners of the NC State Department of Computer Science, interested in networking to foster collaboration, entrepreneurship, partnerships, career development and professional growth are invited to follow us on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter.
Personalized Job Search Agent in ePack
If you are a CSC student or recent graduate (within 12 months post-graduation) and would like to receive email notifications when new jobs are posted on ePack matching your profile, you can set up your own customized job search agent to receive just the postings you desire (intern vs. full time, etc). For a short video tutorial on how to create your own personalized job agent, click here. Experienced alumni looking for career assistance are encouraged to take advantage of NC State's Alumni Career Service.