CSE Undergrad News

Lisa Dodd, an instructor at Juanita High School in Kirkland was interested in having a couple of students come share their experiences in her honors math course next Wed. Other days are possible too, Wed was just one option.

If you’re interested email me and I’ll connect you.

Additionally, if you’re headed home for the winter break and want to visit your high school, you can ask Ciara at the CSE front desk for some brochures for the undergraduate program.  You can also take a look at our prospective student page for some helpful links.

We’ll be developing a more formal outreach program to put into place this spring, but I wanted to mention this for winter break in case anyone was interested.

Drop me a quick line if you decide to visit your high school so we know what areas our students our covering.

For Spring 2011, CSE 457 will have a prerequisite of CSE 303 or 351 and 326 or 332.  Math 308 is recommended.  In the future 333 will still most likely be the required prerequisite, so if you plan to take 457 in fall, take 333 in spring.

This spring there is an exception since 333 is not being offered until spring quarter.

Here is the link to the rest of the new prerequisite courses: http://www.cs.washington.edu/education/ugrad/current/CSE_prereqs.html

CSE Advising

Application is due SUNDAY, Dec 12! – Pam Tufts

UW Environmental Innovation Challenge – Prototype Funding Due Sunday, December 12!

WE HAVE A CHALLENGE FOR YOU.

If you’ve got a passion for clean-tech, the smarts to play in the emerging green economy, and the desire to leverage your engineering background to make an impact, the UW Environmental Innovation Challenge can provide just the platform (and the funding!) you’ve been looking for.

HOW IT WORKS

For the UW EIC, interdisciplinary student teams will define a clean-tech problem, design and develop the solution, and work together to produce both a prototype (or proof of concept or computer simulation) and a business summary that outlines the market opportunity.

We have $25,000 available for prototype funding. In the Challenge on March 31, 2011, students will pitch their concepts and demonstrate their product/idea to a group of judges that includes technologists, entrepreneurs, and investors. Teams are judged on their prototypes, business summaries, and potential for impact. The grand prize is $10,000.

HOW DO YOU GET FUNDING?
The College of Engineering has provided $25,000 to help teams develop their prototypes.  The deadline for funding applications is midnight December 12, 2010! You can use this funding for purchasing materials to build your prototype, renting equipment, purchasing safety equipment, and hiring short-term work beyond your team’s capacity. (You cannot pay team members).

We prefer to see requests between $1,500 and $4,500 but will consider both smaller and larger amounts. Funding will be announced by January 4, 2011 and is to be used by March 31, 2011. Any unspent development money must be returned. Who can apply? Any team with at least one engineering student can apply, but the application must be submitted by the engineering student(s).  Please note: teams that receive funding agree to participate in the Challenge March 31.

Prototype funding Application

Key Dates for the UW EIC
Prototype Funding – Application due December 12
February 17 – Intent to Submit due
March 3 – Business Summary due

March 27 – 1 Page Business Summary and 1 PowerPoint Slide due
March 31 – Challenge pitches and presentations, reception and awards ceremony

Questions?
Pam Tufts, UW Environmental Innovation Challenge (EIC)
Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship
ptufts@uw.edu 206.685.3813

——— Forwarded message ———-
From: Richard Ladner <ladner@cs.washington.edu>
Date: Wed, Dec 8, 2010 at 2:57 PM
Subject: [cs-ugrads] FW: CMD-IT Undergraduate Student Competition
To: cs-ugrads – Mailing List <cs-ugrads@cs.washington.edu>

How would you like to design your own project for a class like CSE 142 or 143 that has broad appeal?  Here is your chance to do so and maybe win some money and get some recognition.

Please take a look at this competition.

Richard Ladner

Boeing Professor in Computer Science and Engineering

Do you have some experience with either FIRST robotics or C++ programming?

Some of your fellow undergraduates are hosting a workshop for about 40 high school students this Saturday in room 305 of the Allen Center and they could use your help. The event runs from 1-5pm.   There will be a brief meeting Friday night to plan.

There will be another workshop with the same students next week on the 18th from 1-5PM which could also use some volunteers.  If you can help out, please fill out this survey asap.  We’ll send additional information out to all who sign up.

Thank you!

CSE Advising

Last year several CSE students won cash prizes, take a look below for more information.

—

Are you working on a technology that has potential for commercialization — possibly from one of your capstone classes? Would you like a chance to win cash prizes?

If so, register now for the 5th Annual Science & Technology Showcase (STS) at https://catalyst.uw.edu/webq/survey/seba/117881. Last year we gave away EIGHT cash prizes ranging from $100 to $1,000. Applications are due by Dec. 19th. Finalists will be notified by Dec. 22nd.

– What: 2011 Science & Technology Showcase

– When: January 13th, 2011 from 4:00 pm to 7:30 pm

– Who: Individuals or teams representing a science- or technology-based innovation with commercial potential. It can be something you’ve worked on out of your garage, in your lab (with your adviser’s approval), or in collaboration with the Center for Commercialization (again, please seek approval from your Technology Manager). The idea can be at any stage from pre-proof of principle to completed product.

– Deliverables: A poster that explains the idea and its market potential and a one-minute “elevator” pitch. Note: SEBA & CIE will cover the cost of printing your poster.

– Why: Win money, gain experience, make contacts, and get feedback on your idea and pitch.

Please direct any questions to Jeff Chamberlain at president@uwseba.org. Good luck!

I want to remind everyone that the CSE department has strict recruiting policies for our students and for companies working with our students. We’ve been hearing that some companies are not holding to these rules. The first step would be to ask respectfully if they were aware of them, and if you have problems with a specific company, please let us know via email through ugrad-advisor@cs.  The recruiting policies can be found on the lower left hand column of the career page.

Additionally, you may find it helpful to see what students have been offered for full time offers in the past, you can view that on the graduation information page: http://www.cs.washington.edu/education/ugrad/current/Graduation.html

It’s on the Job Offer/Graduate School survey link.  We typically put ranges when there are varying offers. Pay attention to location, because places with a higher cost of living often equals a higher salary.

CSE Advising

———- Forwarded message ———-
From: Stuart Reges <reges@cs.washington.edu>
Date: Mon, Dec 6, 2010 at 9:52 AM
Subject:  IEEExtreme 4.0

Startup Weekends are 54-hour events designed to provide superior experiential education for technical and non-technical entrepreneurs.  Beginning with Friday night pitches and continuing through brainstorming, business plan development, and basic prototype creation, Startup Weekends culminate in Sunday night demos and presentations.  Participants create working startups during the event and are able to collaborate with like-minded individuals outside of their daily networks. All teams hear talks by industry leaders and receive valuable feedback from local entrepreneurials. The weekend is centered around action, innovation, and education.  Whether you are looking for feedback on a idea, a co-founder, specific skill sets, or a team to help you execute, Startup Weekends are the perfect environment in which to test your idea and take the first steps towards launching your own startup.

Redmond Mobile and Gaming Startup Weekend begins Friday, December 10th at 6 PM, and continues through Sunday, December 12th at 9 PM.  The event will be at Steptoe on the Microsoft Campus in Redmond.  The Thursday before the event Startup Weekend is partnering with Power of Play 2010 Conference.  Other partners include Washington Interactive Network.  We will have great local speakers, such as T.A. McCann and Andy Sack, as well as a entrepreneurial leaders serving on our judging panel for the Sunday night presentations.  Prizes, such as $15,000 of prototyping help for applications developed on the Windows 7 platform, are available to the winning team.  The event is open to entrepreneurs, gamers, developers, designers, startup enthusiasts and more!  Please go to redmond.startupweekend.org to learn more and to register.

At Facebook, there’s two things we love: hacking and competitions. Well, we’ve decided to combine those two things together and are very excited to announce the Facebook Hacker Cup!

The 2011 Facebook Hacker Cup is the first annual worldwide programming contest where hackers, programmers, and computer scientists compete against each other for fame, fortune, glory and a shot at being immortalized on the coveted Hacker Cup trophy.

The contest consists of three online rounds and a world finals round that will be held at Facebook’s headquarters. This is your chance to compete against the world’s best programmers and potentially win the title of world champion and other awesome prizes.

How to sign up
Visit www/facebook.com/hackercup to stay up to date with important announcements, rules, eligibility and timelines.

Registration opens 12/20/2010 and contestants can register here: http://www.facebook.com/hackercup

What prizes can be won?
The top 25 scoring contestants from Online Round 2 will be flown out to Facebook headquarters in Palo Alto, California, USA to compete in the World Finals. The World Finals will happen on Friday, November 12, 2010. Travel and accommodation will be covered by Facebook.

The finalists will be competing for:

1st place: $5,000 USD
2nd place: $2,000 USD
3rd place: $1,000 USD
4th – 25th place: $100 USD

The top 300 scoring contestants in Online Round 2 will get a Hacker Cup t-shirt.

How many rounds are there?

Qualification Round
The competition commences with a 72-hour Qualification Round on January 7, 2011 at 0:00 UTC (5:00 PM PT) to January 10, 2011 at 0:00 UTC (5:00 PM PT). All registered competitors will be presented with three problems. Only competitors who correctly solve at least 1 problem will advance to Online Round 1.

Online Round 1
Online Round 1 consists of 3 sub-rounds each lasting 3-hours in length that are offered at different times from January 14, 2011 at 14:00 UTC (7:00 AM PT) to January 14, 2011 at 0:00 UTC (5:00 PM PT). Competitors who advance to this round can participate in any of the 3 sub-rounds until they qualify for Online Round 2. The top-scoring 1,000 competitors from each of the 3 sub-rounds will advance to Online Round 2.

Online Round 2
Online Round 2 will begin on January 21, 2011 at 14:00 UTC (7:00 AM PT) and will end on January 21, 2011 at 17:00 UTC (10:00 AM PT). The top 3,000 competitors will have three hours to solve the presented problem sets. The top-scoring 300 participants from Online Round 2 will receive an official Hacker Cup t-shirt. The top-scoring 25 competitors from Online Round 2 will be notified via email that they have advanced to the Onsite Final Round.

Onsite Final Round
The top-scoring 25 competitors will be flown out to Palo Alto, California for final round of competition where a champion will emerge and be immortalized on the Hacker Cup trophy, along with some great cash prizes and other awesome goodies.

Thousands will enter, but only one will emerge as world champion. See you in the competition arena!