Computer Science eNewsletter

Menzies Makes a PROMISE He Doesn’t Plan to Keep, Not All to Himself Anyway

Dr. Tim MenziesEven before the advent of online information, great discoveries were made through the sharing of information, ideas, and research. Without information sharing, where would we be? That is the question Dr. Tim Menzies, NC State professor of computer science, asked himself and a colleague almost a decade ago, when he realized that in software engineering, computer data mining was almost a rarity. Menzies and his colleagues set out to change things with the creation of the PROMISE data repository that started as a grassroots effort 10 years ago and is growing by leaps and bounds today, thanks to support from NC State’s computer science department and its upgrade to terabyte size. more

Study Finds Key Molecular Mechanism Regulating Plant Translational Activity

Plants can’t get up and run away when they’re being attacked by insects or harsh weather conditions. So they need mechanisms to rapidly respond to a stressful event – being eaten by a bug, for example – and then quickly transition back to “normal” conditions when the stress level subsides. Dr. Steffen Heber, associate professor of computer science, is a key player in this fascinating multi-disciplinary research effort. more

Fidelity Investments Series Presents Vivek Wadhwa

Vivek WadhwaPlease join us on November 17, 2015 at 5:30 pm in the Hunt Library Auditorium for our final fall 2015 talk in the Fidelity Investments “Leadership in Technology” Speakers Series. Our special guest speaker will be Vivek Wadhwa, technology entrepreneur, academic, researcher, and writer. Wadhwa is a frequent guest on network TV news and in 2013, TIME Magazine listed him as one of The 40 Most Influential Minds in Tech! The topic of his talk will be “Our Star Trek Future and Why it is Time to Become an Entrepreneur". more

Welcome New Student Ambassadors!

We are kicking off our fourth year of the Computer Science Department’s Student Ambassador Program with seventeen new talented undergraduates. The program promotes leadership and life skills by offering the Ambassadors the opportunity to represent our department at a variety of academic, social and networking events held throughout the academic year, and through personal interface with prospective students through our outreach efforts. Ambassadors are the first point of contact for many visitors to NC State, so they are required to promote the University, the College of Engineering, the Computer Science Department, and the computer science discipline. more

NC State Joins Coalition to Improve College Application Process

A diverse coalition of public and private colleges and universities including North Carolina State University, is coming together with the goal of improving the college admission application process for all students. The Coalition for Access, Affordability, and Success is developing a free platform of online tools to streamline the experience of planning for and applying to college. The initial iteration of the planning tools will be available to freshmen, sophomores and juniors in high school beginning in January 2016. more

Solar Tree Sprouts at Hunt Library

Solar Tree Thanks to Parks Scholars, including our very own Xavier Primus, for this wonderful Legacy Gift and new visual icon on Centennial Campus. Each class of Park Scholars chooses a legacy gift to leave the university. When the members of the Class of 2015 began brainstorming gift ideas, the solar tree was among several sustainability-related ideas that emerged. With a 1,500-watt solar array atop a recycled steel base, the solar tree offers outlets from which users can power laptops, phones and other devices. more

NC State Scores Big Jump in National Rankings

NC State again made big gains on one of the most closely watched rankings of the nation’s colleges and universities, achieving high scores for academic excellence, graduation and retention rates, faculty resources and alumni giving. The 2016 “Best Colleges” rankings, published by U.S. News & World Report, placed NC State No. 89 among national universities and 37th among public schools, up six spots from last year in both categories. more

Goodnight Scholars Program Reaches for Stars

Based on both merit and income, NC State's unique Goodnight Scholars Program provides important opportunities for students - and for the community the scholars serve. more

Woodsons to Faculty and Staff: Thanks a Million

WoodsonsSince their arrival at NC State in 2010, Chancellor Randy Woodson and his wife, Susan, have demonstrated their leadership in many ways, including embracing and promoting the importance of philanthropy for the university’s future. The latest example of the Woodsons’ deep commitment and outstanding leadership is their $1.15 million gift to help launch the NC State Employee Dependent’s Tuition Scholarship. Their donation, a combination of cash and deferred gifts to provide immediate and ongoing support, will be combined with additional private money to provide $2,000 annual scholarships starting in the fall 2016 semester. more

NC State Big Part of Bonds Package

Chancellor Randy Woodson joined N.C. Gov. Pat McCrory, and other leaders from around the state on October 21st to sign a referendum for the Connect NC Bonds Act, a $2 billion package that residents across the state will vote on next March. The bond will provide half of the funds–$75 million—to complete the College of Engineering’s move to Centennial Campus, with the other half coming from the NC State Engineering Foundation. more

Departmental Gifts & Research

Boeing has donated $25,000 to the department in support of the ePartners Program and the Senior Design Center.

Citrix has donated $10,000 to the department in support of the ePartners Program.

Arista Networks has donated $5,000 to the department in support of the ePartners Program.

Eastman Chemical has donated $8,000 to the department in support of the ePartners Program and the Aspirations Scholarships Program.

Bandwidth has donated $5,000 to the department in support of the Senior Design Center.

Ipreo has donated $5,000 to the department in support of the Senior Design Center.

Principled Technologies has donated $5,000 to the department in support of the Senior Design Center.

Infusion has donated $5,000 to the department in support of the Senior Design Center.

Northrup Grumman has donated $1,000 in support of the WiCS Student Organization, as part of a larger donation to support diversity-related groups and initiatives in the NC State College of Engineering.

Alum, Tony Brown, has donated $10,000 as part of a multi-year pledge to establish the Kathryn Eskew Brown Endowment Fund, which will support student-defined entrepreneurial projects in the department’s Senior Design Center.

Dr. Tiffany Barnes has been awarded $500,000 by the National Science Foundation (NSF) to support her research proposal entitled “BJC-STARS: Scaling CS Principles Through STARS Community and Leadership Development.” more

Dr. Steffen Heber has been awarded $428,901 by the National Science Foundation to support his research proposal titled “Identification of Translational Hormone-Response Gene Networks and Cis-Regulatory Elements.” This is part of a multi-disciplinary research efforts with a total projected award amount over the life of the project to approach $3.2M. more

Dr. Sarah Heckman has been awarded $406,557 by the National Science Foundation (NSF) to support her multi-campus collaborative research proposal entitled “Transforming Computer Science Education Research Through Use of Appropriate Empirical Research Methods: Mentoring and Tutorials." The total amount of the award is $1.4M. more

Dr. Ben Watson and his collaborator, Mr. Patrick FitzGerald, have been awarded $50,000 by the National Science Foundation (NSF) to support their research proposal entitled “Recognize – An Application to Support Visual Learning.” more

Dr. Kemafor Anyanwu Ogan has been awarded $278,271 by the National Science Foundation (NSF) to support her research proposal entitled “Creating Semantically-Enabled Programmable Networked Systems (SERPENT).” more

Dr. Blair Sullivan has been awarded $69,001 in supplemental funding by the Oak Ridge National Laboratory to support her joint faculty appointment with NC State and Oak Ridge National Laboratories (ORNL). Total funding for the project is $205,145. more

Congratulations to Drs. Sarah Heckman and Jessica Schmidt on receiving NC State DELTA Grants for Course Redesign. They will be making improvements to two Critical Path computer science courses, CSC116 and CSC216. Heckman’s grant, “Incorporating a Laboratory to Support Student Learning of Software Engineering Best Practices in CSC216”, is valued at $18,965. Schmidt’s grant, “Critical Path Course Redesign: CSC116: Introduction to Computing-Java”, is valued at $18,778. more

Drs. Xipeng Shen and Frank Mueller have been awarded $470,000 by the National Science Foundation (NSF) to support their research proposal entitled “Improving Memory Performance on Fused Architectures Through Compiler and Runtime Innovations.” more

CSC Wolf Bytes

Please join us in welcoming two new additions to the department - Ms. Brianna Lofton as our IT Web developer and Ms. Terri Martin-Moss as our Financial Officer. Brianna will be working on the future redesign, development, implementation and maintenance of our department Web site and various internal Web apps. She has a B.S. in computer science from UNC-W and comes to us from Fayetteville State University, where she was a Technology Support Administrator. This is a homecoming of sorts for Terri, as she has over 20 years of experience in accounting and human resources (holding both administrative and management positions) in the private section as well as at NC State, including having worked in the department of computer science.

Congratulations to CSC alum, Dr. David Cox, who recently won a seat on the Raleigh City Council, unseating eight-term councilman John Odom.

Our condolences go out to retired department staff member, Margery Page, on the recent loss of her husband Ron who passed away on October 24th.

Our ‘Girls Code & Create’ summer camp run by Dr. Tiffany Barnes and others here at NC State was featured recently in a special video segment on UNCTV's North Carolina Now. Check it out, starting at the 8:10 mark. here

Great story here about a special camp started by CSC alumna, Khalia Braswell! more

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.

The Alumni Association has partnered with the University Career Development Center to make ePACK available to NC State alumni. If you are a current Alumni Association member, update your online profile by visiting the Wolfpack Connect (alumni directory) and click on the ‘Update My Info’ tab on the upper right side of the page. Select the ‘Career Connections’ tab and then choose ‘yes’ beside the question, ‘Do you want access to ePACK?’

To access ePACK you must be a member of the Alumni Association and you must be an alumnus/alumnae of NC State. If you are not a member of the Alumni Association, you can join online. Once you have received an email confirming your membership, you will be able to register for access to ePACK.

Questions: Contact Career Services Counselor Catherine Tuttle at catherine_tuttle@ncsu.edu