CSE Undergrad News

Hello! The BS/MS application is now open.

A couple of notes about the application:

• We will contact your faculty recommenders after the application closes. You should talk to them in advance, but do not need to coordinate the actual recommendation process.
• You may not find a person you want to use as a reference in the drop down menu. If that is the case, it may be that:

1. 1. They are a graduate student with whom you have been doing research. In that case, we generally encourage them to work with their faculty adviser to submit on their behalf. Please let us know if this is problematic. Graduate students who have taught courses are fine to have as references and should be on there.
   2. They may be a guest lecturer. In that case, if we still have contact with them we will try to include them.  Contact us with questions.
   3. They may be affiliate faculty and may not be in our system yet. Let us know and I’ll have it updated.
   4. They may be totally unaffiliated with CSE. If you would still like to use them as references, please email Jen.

The application is linked from the BS/MS application page: https://www.cs.washington.edu/academics/bsms/application

Here are the timelines for this application cycle:

May 20 – June 9th: Application Open
June 9th 11:59pm: Application Deadline
Decisions emailed early July

Questions? Email Jen <jenifer@cs.uw.edu>

Present your posters at the 2019 Allen School Spring Poster Fair!

Present your posters at the 2019 Allen School Spring Poster Fair!

Hello Allen School undergrads and 5th year masters students!

 

We are excited to announce our annual Paul G. Allen School Spring Poster Fair! All students who have participated in any capstone, project courses, or research this year are encouraged to apply to present their posters.

The Event

The 2019 Allen School undergraduate poster session will be held on Thursday, June 13th, from 3:30-5 p.m. in the Zillow Commons in the Gates Center. The poster session is open to all BS and BS/MS students who participated in a capstone course (such as 475, 481, 441, etc) or project course (such as 440 or any other 400 level project course) or research during the 2018-19 academic year.

 

This will be a more formal event, with high profile Allen School alumni and friends coming to view your work. Presenting students are welcome to bring family members, as it will be the day before our CSE commencement ceremony.

 

There is a short registration process. We encourage you to show off your work! Our goal is to present a wide range of ‘cool’ projects from multiple courses to the Allen School alumni/friends that will join us for the poster fair.

Why participate?

 

1. There will be a prize! A panel of judges in attendance will vote on the 2019 Project of the Year. Presenters of the winning poster, in addition to all the kudos associated with being the awardees, will receive $1,000 to split among the group.
2. You can have another chance to show off that project you have worked so hard on. Presenters will get to meet and talk about their projects with smart, talented friends of CSE.

The Details

 

• At least one member of the team must be at the poster session to represent the poster.
• At least one member of the team who will be present at the event must be enrolled as a CS, CE, or CSEM student.
• Fall 2018, Winter 2019, and Spring 2019 capstone, project courses, and research are all eligible to participate.

Registration Process (you will be notified by June 3rd if your project is chosen)

Fill out this short form: https://forms.gle/vuLWGjxHr7Vv6TH48

Applications are due by end of day on May 31st

Presenters will be notified by June 3rd.

Questions? Email Kay at kbeck@cs.washington.edu or the advisors  at ugrad-advisor@cs.washington.edu

Hello folks!

The *tentative* teaching schedule for the upcoming year 2019-2020 CSE courses is now online.  We don’t have instructors’ names listed yet.  We will have more information in the next few days on the new courses that are posted, such as cryptography this fall. We do know the prereqs for that crypto course will be 332 and 312, description will follow.

Tentative Teaching Schedule 2019-2020

The Allen School is hiring peer advisers for the 2019-20 school year! We hope you will consider applying, or encourage friends to apply (you can nominate someone here!).

Peer Advisers are an important part of the Allen School community. They assist with quick questions and student appointments, give presentations, help staff our front desk, and represent our school at events across campus. Peer Advisers help students with course planning, academic exploration, admissions, the career search, and more! They also create resources for students and offer the professional advising staff and faculty an important perspective. It is a fun job that can make a big impact.

Apply Here!

Applications are due Friday March 22nd. We encourage students of all years and backgrounds to apply!

Start Date: Formally Autumn Quarter (some training will take place during Spring Quarter)

Weekly workload: 5 – 12 hours a week (Varies depending on special events and time of the quarter). Hours are flexible depending on your course schedule.

Questions? Email Jenifer <jenifer@cs.uw.edu>

---

Job Duties

-Speak with prospective students and their parents (via phone, email and in-person) about the field of computing, the Allen School, and the University of Washington.

-Advise UW students who are pre-majors on course planning, academic exploration, admissions, and opportunities outside of the classroom.

-Advise Allen School students on a variety of topics dependent on your year in school and relevant experiences

-Present at information sessions and represent the Allen School at academic fairs and recruitment events

-Help students, prospective students, and parents who come to the CSE reception desk with undergraduate-related questions.

-Work on various projects based on your strengths and interests!

Required Qualities & Experiences

-Empathy and compassion towards students and families of all backgrounds

-Trustworthy with confidential student information

-Good conversation and presentation skills

-Ability to work well on a team and independently

-Ability to have difficult conversations in a compassionate and approachable way

-Making satisfactory progress towards a CS or CE degree (you don’t need to be a perfect student!)

-Demonstrated involvement outside of the classroom at UW. Prior involvement within the Allen School is helpful but not required.

-Willingness to learn and speak about other tech-related majors and opportunities at UW

-Ability to represent the Allen School and the UW in a professional manner

-Willingness to provide and receive feedback

We’re really at a loss on how to solve the problem of students hoarding courses.  I know that some of you have very good reasons – you’re not the ones we’re referencing.

I just ran the statistics again, and this winter 3 students took 4 CSE courses and 157 took 3 CSE courses (out of over 1300 total students – most take only 1 or 2).  Right now for spring, 21 students are registered for 4 CSE courses and 252 are registered for 3.  That means we have at least 100 spaces in courses that are likely not actually going to be used by the people who are registered.

If at all possible, please try to make up your mind on courses you don’t plan to take. Your fellow students will thank you.

In more positive news we are working hard to adjust course limits for 446 and several 300 level courses, so stay tuned for more openings.

Feel free to write to ugrad-adviser@cs with suggestions on how you think we could fairly remedy this conundrum. 

Dear CSE Students,

As a reminder, the Computing Research Association (CRA) is interested in career development among students in computing fields. To that end, I encourage you to complete their survey, which will take about 20 minutes to complete. This survey will close on January 31, 2019 at 11:59 PM.

We’ve had about 217 responses thus far, but considering we have 1300+ students, we’d love to have more!

Your contribution to this research helps us understand factors related to academic retention and persistence.

In exchange for your time, you will be given the opportunity to enter a raffle for a $100 gift card to Amazon in addition to winning some sweet CSE swag!!!

If you have not already completed the survey, please follow the link below:
https://cerp.co1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_dm0rvqb8dwyTast

Note that if you completed a survey for CRA in the past, you may have been contacted directly by CRA. If you have already completed this survey, please disregard this message.

Many thanks!

Dear CSE Students, welcome back to UW!

This is an exciting week as we open our new building to the public for the first time!  You’ll notice we’re still settling in and there is a lot of activity in the new Gates Center, but we hope you enjoy your new labs, they are beautiful!

A few start of the quarter notes:

1. CSE Ugrad SLACK Channel: Uw-cse-ugrad.slack.com now has an #asktheadvisers channel monitored by the staff advisers, so please feel free to utilize that space.  You will need to join with your @cs email address. Your posts are public and not FERPA compliant, so you should use this system for general questions only.
2. We have a career fair on Monday (1/14) and Tuesday (1/15) next week, please pay careful attention to Kim and Kay’s emails on this subject as there are some changes this year.
3. There are several feedback channels you should be aware of, first, you can always come to your CSE advising team with any course related concerns. You can also give feedback on line: https://www.cs.washington.edu/students/ugrad/give_feedback
4. The deadline to apply to graduate this winter if you haven’t already filed online is January 16th. You should go to the graduation page for all the details on filing.
5. Our advising team has moved to the Gates Center, most of you have found us already, but just a reminder in case you haven’t yet. Some of the building is still under construction, but the first floor (your floor!) is open for business.
6. We have a team of 7 peer advisers who would love to talk to you more about courses, extracurricular opportunities, and any other advising questions you might have. They are at all quick question sessions and at the advising front desk from 10-12 and 1-5 most days. Stop by and say hi!
7. And finally, hopefully you are all getting into the courses you need. We expect there will be some drops in the next few days so sign up on Notify if you’re still trying to get a space. If you are not signed up for any CSE courses, or need a course to graduate this quarter, please get in touch with the advising team so we can try to help you out.

The application to participate in a CSE Exchange to Sweden, Switzerland, or Germany is now open! You have until Jan 22nd to complete the application (though you must apply by Jan 15th to be considered for scholarships):

Apply HERE through the Study Abroad Portal. You can also apply for study abroad scholarships through this same application.

Application Details:

• If you want to apply to multiple schools, you must apply separately to each. Please indicate your ranked preferences on your application, if you have them.
• We have removed the letter of recommendation option from the study abroad application. I apologize for this late change. Please contact me if you have any questions or concerns.
• Please include in your essay:
  • Whether you will have finished your  required 300-level CSE coursework and why, if not.
  • Your CSE GPA, which can be found on your degree audit. This can just be added at the bottom of your essay.

Application timeline for CSE Exchanges in the 2019-20 school year:

• NOW: CSE Exchange Application opens
• January 15: Deadline to apply for Study Abroad Scholarships
• January 22nd: Deadline to apply for 2019-20 CSE Exchanges
• Feb 15: Applicants notified of decisions via email
• Feb 23: Selected students must commit to the exchange (including intended semester, if going abroad for one semester)

You can read this page with LOTS of details on CSE exchanges. Here are some quick answers to common questions:

• CSE exchanges are open only to CSE majors.
• Students must be at least sophomore standing by credits by the start of winter quarter to apply.
• No foreign language skill is required, though it may be useful.
• Exchanges are designed to last a full year, but one semester is possible.
• CSE majors pay regular UW tuition while abroad, along with expenses like airfare and insurance.
• Interested CSE students apply through CSE in January. Students are selected based on their academic and personal preparation for an exchange.
• CSE students must have completed at least one 300-level CSE course by the time they apply, and should plan on completing most/all 300-level CSE courses prior to their departure.
• All/most of your exchange courses can fulfill CSE requirements, assuming you select courses carefully.

So far we have 110 out of 1300+ugrads who have responded to this survey, please try to take a few minutes to help us out.

__________________________________________________________

Dear all CSE Majors!

We have a favor to ask all of you. (And there is possibly some swag involved)

The Computing Research Association (CRA) is interested in career development
among students in computing fields. To that end, I encourage you to complete their
survey, which will take about 20 minutes to complete. (something to do while sitting taking a break from finals)

Your contribution to this research helps us understand factors related to academic
retention and persistence.

In exchange for your time, you will be given the opportunity to enter a raffle for
some swanky Allen School SWAG!

If you are interested in completing the survey, please follow the link below:
https://cerp.co1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_dm0rvqb8dwyTast

Note that if you completed a survey for CRA in the past, you may have been contacted
directly by CRA this month. If you have already completed this survey, please disregard
this message.

Thank you!

CSE Advising

Hello CSE ugrads,

As we head into finals week, your CSE advising staff just wanted to remind you of some of the resources available to you all.

• We have a listing of places to get help on our internal site  with links to the UW counseling center and the Hall Health Mental Health providers.
• If you need help after business hours, you can always call the Crisis Clinic at (206) 461-3222 or toll-free at 1-866-427-4747, or 911 if it’s a life threatening emergency.
• You can text the word HOME to 741741 if you’re experiencing any sort of crisis and need help.  https://www.crisistextline.org/texting-in/

We also want to remind you that the satisfactory progress policy here in CSE is meant to help students succeed, not to terrify you.  One bad grade isn’t going to get you removed from the program.  The more proactive you can be the better. Reach out to instructors and TA’s or reach out to advising via ugrad-advisor@cs or through our appt. scheduling.  If you get a grade below a 2.0, just send us a quick email, let us know what is happening before we reach out to you, or make sure to respond when/if we do reach out so we can work together moving forward.

Life happens, sometimes you struggle, one quarter of grades does not define you as a person.

Please take care of yourselves this week and watch out for your friends too.  This is often a challenging week and we want you all to know that we care about you.

Hope you can get some rest in the coming weeks,

Sincerely,

CSE advising: Crystal, Raven, Jenifer, Maggie, Chloe, Leslie, Kim and Pim.