CSE Undergrad News

From: Yasaman Sefidgar <einsian@gmail.com>

Hello everyone,

We are exploring novel and intuitive techniques for programming robots and are recruiting participants of any background for a user study that involves the use of physical objects to provide instructions to a robot.

General Information

• The study happens at the Paul Allen Building.

• The study takes about 1 hour.

• You will receive a $10 Amazon Gift Card at the end of the study.

General Restrictions on Participation

• You should be between the ages 19 and 50 years old.

• You should not have any form of color blindness.

Please follow this link to sign-up: http://tinyurl.com/zao5c5y

Thanks a lot,

Yasaman, Prerna, Maya

On Wed, Aug 31, 2016 at 7:20 PM, Justin Huang <jstn@cs.washington.edu> wrote:

We are looking for participants to be in our user study about programming robots.

In this user study, you will write programs for the PR2 robot, performing tasks such as fetching items or interacting with users.

General information:

• Time: The study takes place over two sessions. Session 1 is 60 minutes long. Session 2 is 90 minutes long. Both sessions are required.
• Dates: September 5 – 18
• Location: Paul Allen Center, room 014.
• Compensation: $30-$40 Amazon Gift Card credit

Participants must meet the following criteria:

• At least 18 years old
• At least 2 years of experience programming with C-like languages (e.g., C, C++, Java, Python, JavaScript)
• Not a robotics researcher

How to sign up:

1. Review the available time slots here: https://calendar.google.com/calendar/selfsched?sstoken=UUNVZERpWkt1SEpsfGRlZmF1bHR8NDYxZjcyOWEwYzMyNGIxMTM4YmU0ZjNlMTk4MGZkYTU
2. Decide when you would like to do Session 1 (60 minutes) and Session 2 (90 minutes). These may be on the same day or on different days, but should be within 5 days of each other.
3. Email jstn@cs.washington.edu with your times, or add yourself in the above calendar.
4. More details will be sent after you sign up.

Thank you very much!

Justin Huang and Maya Cakmak

If you want a fun summer job sharing your love of CS with younger students, apply to be a CSE summer camp counselor!

Link to Application

We’ll host 6 weeks of summer camps between late June and late August, leaving you with plenty of free time to enjoy your summer. Counselors work only during the camps (dates below). Depending on staffing, counselors may be able to work some camps and skip others. Counselors should have completed Intro Programming and be enthusiastic about working with middle school students. No prior counseling or teaching experience necessary.

All summer camp dates are:

• June 27 – July 1
• July 11- 15
• July 18 – 22
• July 25 – 29
• Aug 15-19
• Aug 22- 26

Questions: Contact jmunroe@cs.washington.edu

Hello, CSE majors! We’re mentally preparing for CSE’s first-ever Peer Advisor Jack to leave us in June, and we need to hire his replacement. If you’re interested in helping students and working with the CSE Advising team, consider applying: Full position description here.

In brief: The CSE Peer Advisor works 8-15 hours per week during the quarter. They counsel individual students, present information, and help with occasional events; meet with high school students (and families), current UW pre-major students, and CSE majors; and discuss academic planning, what computer science/engineering is, CSE admissions, how to prep for industry, and how to connect with opportunities.  Our Peer Advisor brings the incredibly valuable expertise of actually studying computer science or engineering — something none of our professional advisors has done. 🙂

Hiring details:

Application open now, closing Monday May 2

Start date: Autumn quarter 2016
Training should take place in Spring and Summer 2016; exact dates are flexible  

To apply: Complete the online application here and send a resume to ravena@cs.uw.edu

Questions: Contact Raven about hiring logistics or advising in general, or contact current Peer Advisor Jack about his experience in this position.

Mark your calendars! It is time for the annual New Tech Seattle UW event! Please be sure to register.

4th Annual New Tech Seattle UW Event Featuring Presentations by:

DataBlade, Igneous, Wellpepper, KRNL Labs, Valant

Come discover the people, partners, organizations, and resources to help you connect to Seattle’s tech community at Seattle’s largest & most fun monthly event!

This is the place where you’ll  make great connections, enjoy great food and drinks, celebrate presentations of new tech being created by Seattle area companies, laugh, smile, and have a fun night out.

Tuesday, April 12th, 2016 – 5:00PM to 7:15PM

Paul G. Allen Center for Computer Science & Engineering at UW 185 Stevens Way University ofWashington, Seattle, WA

RSVP NOW at https://newtechseattle.com Tickets are

$10 online NOW or $20 at the door

includes admission, light appetizers and a no-host bar

Students attend for Free! Use Promo Code: ‘student’

The advisors encourage you to consider taking part in the following opportunities in the College of Engineering. Please let us know if you have questions!

Emerging Leaders in Engineering http://engr.washington.edu/curr_students/studentprogs/emergingleaders.html

What is it? A program designed to facilitate reflection about student leadership and development of leadership competencies.

Who should apply? Current undergraduate students in engineering departments interested in learning more about leadership (broadly defined). Application is due May 1st.

Application URL: http://tinyurl.com/ELE2016

College of Engineering Student Advisory Council http://www.engr.washington.edu/mycoe/committees/sac

What is it? The College of Engineering Student Advisory Council provides a student perspective on planning and budgeting matters for the College of Engineering.

Who should apply? Students (undergrad and grad) wishing to help with college-wide decision making regarding issues ranging from admission, budgets, space, teaching & learning, etc. Application is due May 1st.

Application URL: http://tinyurl.com/COESAC2016

Pair your ideas with funds to shape the Husky Experience!

The brand-new Husky Seed Fund, created by students for students, is accepting proposals for innovative projects that will enhance the student experience for all.

Your idea could become reality with a seed fund award of up to $5000 (with an average of $2500). Winning projects will be: Inclusive, Impactful and Practical.  What change would YOU like to see at the UW?  What could YOU do with some seed funding to make it happen?

See our facebook page https://www.facebook.com/huskyseedfund and  application (https://catalyst.uw.edu/webq/survey/seedfund/297310) for more details.

Undergraduate, graduate and professional students at UW Seattle are eligible to apply.

Questions? Contact HESAC members at seedfund@uw.edu.

Dear CSE undergrads,

Some of you might have seen or heard about a recent EE web page soliciting their students to sign a petition to change their department’s name to ECE — Electrical and Computer Engineering.

That page has now been taken down, but I’d just like to squash any rumors or confusion that may have resulted – in particular, we are not merging with EE and we will not be creating a joint EECS department at UW.

However, as you may already be aware, over the last few years we have been working jointly with EE on a set of computer engineering courses that would make sense for students in both departments, because students in both departments need basic computer engineering knowledge.   Many of you have already taken courses that have both CSE and EE students in them.    We have also done joint faculty hires between the two departments, which has been great for both of us.   Of course, we also have joint faculty with many other departments, including Statistics, Mathematics, Applied Math, and Genome Science.    Such joint hires have lots of advantages and we expect to see more in the future – it’s the way the world is going.

It is true that  EE has been thinking about a possible future name change in recognition of the fact that many of their students are already studying aspects of computer engineering (which is a broad field ranging from signals level hardware to high-level software systems, etc.).     The details have not been worked out at this point, but this would mainly be a change in name.    We are not changing our program, and EE will not dramatically change its program – they would simply change their name to reflect what they already teach.    When and if this idea is further along, we would certainly explain in advance what will happen and what it all means.

Most important, we do not expect that such a name change – if it does happen — would impact CSE students in any way or change “the world of CSE as you know it.”

Cheers,
Hank

Microsoft is committed to advancing women and minorities in technology, and are awarding diversity conference scholarships to qualified applicants. Students are selected based on their exceptional leadership work in the promotion of diversity in STEM disciplines at their university. Applications are due March 31.

The Details:

• Paid registration to one of the following diversity conferences. Applicants select their conference of choice.

o   Grace Hopper Conference (October 19-21, 2016 in Houston, Texas)

o   National Society of Black Engineers Conference (TBD, 2017)

o   Out for Undergrad Technology Conference (TBD)

o   Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers Conference (TBD)

o   Society of Women Engineers Conference (October 27-29, 2016 in Philadelphia, PA)

• Travel, hotel, and meal stipend in the amount of $1,200 USD.
• Microsoft will register the recipient to the awarded conference, and send a check directly to the recipient in the amount of $1,200 to cover travel, hotel, and meal expenses. These funds are not transferable to other individuals.

Criteria:

• Students must be enrolled full-time in a bachelor’s, master’s, or PhD program at a 4-year college or university in North America at the time the application is submitted.
• The scholarship is open to students pursuing Computer Science, Computer Engineering, or a related STEM degree.

Timeline:

• February 9 – March 31, 2016 Open for applications
• April 1 – April 8 2016: Review applications & select winners
• April 15, 2016: All applicants notified of results

Apply Today!

Apply for the scholarship: www.microsoft.com/scholarship

(scroll down to where it says “conference scholarship”)

Questions? Please email scholars@microsoft.com