Student Design Team Places 3rd in CSIDC Competition (7/25/2003)
Congratulations to the Senior Design Team of Nathan Green, Jeremy Maness, Buck Webb and J.R. Wilson and their mentors, Dr. Bob Fornaro and Ms. Margaret Heil for placing third in the Fourth Annual IEEE Computer Society International Design Competition (CSIDC) World Finals held in Washington, DC, June 29th - July 1st. The team's project showcased their "Diet Download" invention, a system which uses a bar code scanner coupled with a PDA to assist grocery shoppers following a diet plan. Being the only US university to qualify for the World Finals and winning 3rd place in such a prestigious international competition is a truly outstanding achievement! Both the students and the University received $6,000 awards. For a list of the finalists, see http://www.computer.org/csidc/CSIDC2003Winners.htm. The story of this team's incredible achievement was picked up by the AP wires and has gotten some very positive exposure around the globe. Press samples include:
NCSU press release: http://www.ncsu.edu/news/press_releases/03_06/178.htm.
CoE news: http://www.engr.ncsu.edu/news/coverage/dieters3.html
Charlotte Observer Article: http://www.charlotte.com/mld/charlotte/living/health/6238047.htm
San Jose Mercury News: http://www.bayarea.com/mld/mercurynews/6243712.htm (Thanks to alum David Perkins for seeing and forwarding us this!)
The Salisbury Post: http://salisburypost.townnews.com/articles/2003/07/08/news/08-students_calorie_computer.txt

Departmental Research Grants, Gifts, and Support (7/25/2003)
Congratulations to Dr. Matt Stallmann and his PhD student, Xiao Yu Li, for being selected as one of twelve pairs from the US to participate in Microsoft's pilot program called "Preparing for the Future Professorate". As part of the program, Li and Matt (as his mentor) each receive a tablet PC and nominal stipends valued at approximately $3,500. Li participated in a training session in Redmond, Washington last month, and next summer both will go there to share their ideas about using new technology in the classroom. Li is the only computer science student among the twelve. Three other students from NCSU were chosen. One each from Applied Math, Forestry, and Poultry Science. IBM has selected Dr. Rada Chirkova as a recipient of a 2003 IBM Faculty Award valued of $40,000. This highly competitive award recognizes the quality of Rada's program and its importance to the industry. Microsoft has recently donated $10,000 in support of Dr. Christopher Healey's graphics curriculum development and related research. This completes a $25,000 commitment Microsoft made to the development of this graphics course several months ago, and brings Microsoft's total support provided to the department this calendar year to over $50,000 in cash and equipment. Once again, the ePartners Program and the Council for Entrepreneurial Development will partner in support of the CED's annual InfoTech event. Support provided to the department from the CED is valued at approximately $1,200 for the year. CED's InfoTech 2003 will be held on October 27th at the Sheraton Imperial Hotel & Convention Center. Visit www.cednc.org/infotech for program details, registration and sponsorship information.

Project Sponsorship Slots Still Available (7/25/2003)
With the start of the fall semester just weeks away, we have just a few slots available for Senior Design Center project sponsorship. You provide the business problem, and one of our student teams will work with you to provide a solution. To learn more about how this program can deliver great value to your business, while helping our students develop stronger communications, collaboration, and leadership skills, visit us at http://epartners.ncsu.edu/sdc.htm, or contact Ken Tate at 919-513-4292 or kmtate2@ncsu.edu.

Priority 'Naming Rights' for ePartners (7/25/2003)
The official groundbreaking ceremony for our new 100,000 sq. ft, $41M state-of-the-art teaching and research facility on Centennial Campus is tentatively planned for October 24th. At the same time, we plan to launch the official Naming Rights Campaign. While the details of this campaign are still being finalized, we expect naming opportunities to range from $25,000 to over $1M. Premiere naming spaces include an expansive atrium and a series of terraces designed to host events of all sizes, as well as labs, classrooms, conference rooms, and faculty offices. Our ePartners will have priority naming rights opportunities. More information will be released officially on this campaign in the coming months, but if you have questions or would like more information, please contact Ken Tate at 919-513-4292 or kmtate2@ncsu.edu.

Faculty/Staff Promotions & Honors (7/25/2003)
Congratulations to Dr. Peter Wurman for being elected the first Secretary-Treasurer of the ACM Special Interest Group on E-Commerce. The other elected officers are Michael Wellman (Univ. of Michigan), Chair, and Danny Menasce (George Mason Univ.), Vice-Chair. Congratulations to Linda Honeycutt for being elected to a two year term to represent the staff of the College of Engineering in the University Staff Senate. Linda's term begins in August. More information on the Staff Senate may be found at http://www.ncsu.edu/staff_senate/homepage.php.

New Faculty/Staff Member Announcements (7/25/2003)
The Office of Graduate Programs is very pleased to welcome Vilma Berg to the Department where she will serve as our Admissions Specialist and Counselor. Vilma has a BA in English from Vilnius University in Lithuania and a MA in Linguistics from New Hampshire University. She has been Assistant Director and Transfer Counselor at Georgia Court College, Lakewood, NJ; Assistant Director at Lado International College in Washington, DC where she advised international students on immigration and visa concerns; and she has taught ESL (English as a second language) in NJ and in Lithuania. She has also been the Information Officer at the Lithuanian Embassy in Washington DC. Finally, she has been an international graduate student herself and has experiences similar to many of our graduate students. She replaces Chery Rousseau, who retired recently after serving many years as a very valuable asset to the Graduate Program and to our graduate students. We are confident Vilma will carry on this great tradition of knowledgeable service to our faculty and students! Please welcome Jason Corley, our new UNIX Systems Administrator. Jason most recently was a Linux and UNIX Systems Administrator for TogetherSoft / Borland Software. He will manage the department's infrastructure including the Sun and Linux servers, and provide teaching, e-mail, database, and web platform support. Jason moved to Raleigh from Charleston, SC and is an RHCE, a Sun Certified Security Administrator, and has a CSC degree from the University of Minnesota-Morris. He has an extensive computer collection, which he is slowly reducing to only machines that boot, one of which impressively is a fully functional NeXT cube running NeXTStep 1.0! Jason will be located in EGRC 405

Rudy Puryear Added to CoE Gallery of Achievers (7/25/2003)
Congratulations to alumnus, Rudy Puryear (BS CSC ’74), for being honored as a new member of the NCSU College of Engineering "Gallery of Achievers". Since his days at NCSU, Rudy has achieved "rock star" status as he is regarded as one of the world's top IT consultants. To read more about Rudy and his accomplishments, se http://www.engr.ncsu.edu/news/achieve/gallery.html and scroll down to his section.

eCommerce Practicum Leverages IBM's new EPAL (7/25/2003)
IBM recently introduced Enterprise Privacy Authorization Language (or EPAL), significant in that they say it is "the first computer language to provide enterprises with a way to automate the enforcement of privacy policies among IT applications and systems." And according to the article, "A team of students at North Carolina State University has developed the first tool to help developers leverage EPAL -- the Privacy Authoring Editor". The new tool helps companies author and edit privacy policies using EPAL while allowing for the expression of richer and more complex privacy rules than current standards allow, IBM points out." To read the entire article, go to http://www.engr.ncsu.edu/news/news_articles/epal.html.

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