CSE Undergrad News

———- Forwarded message ———
From: Ed Lazowska <lazowska@cs.washington.edu>
Date: Sat, Mar 9, 2019 at 1:38 PM
Subject: [Professional-staff] [Cs-staff] Allen School VR installation/opening in Art Building, Tuesday at 5:30
To: Researchers <researchers@cs.washington.edu>, Staff <cs-staff@cs.washington.edu>, Cs-Ugrads <cs-ugrads@cs.washington.edu>

Barbara Mones and her students have created a VR installation that will celebrate its opening on Tuesday March 12 at 5:30 in the Jacob Lawrence Art Gallery in the Art Building. (The installation will be open until the 17th, 10-12 or 2-5.)
It’s a great collaboration between Barbara, her creative and hard-working students, and the School of Art.

To register for the event, please visit the website.

_______________________________________________

This letter from Rafael Reif to the MIT community is well worth reading.

From: “L. Rafael Reif” <office-of-the-president@mit.edu>
Date: October 30, 2018 at 11:39:34 EDT
To:
Subject: Consoling each other and helping to heal the world

To the members of the MIT community, As our nation once again confronts heartbreaking mass violence, sending this annual reminder of MIT’s policies against harassment may feel to some as inconsequential and almost irrelevant. Yet these policies could not have greater consequence, because they embody our conviction that the ultimate measure of our community is how we treat one another. By reminding us that violence, racism, harassment and bullying are out of bounds – period – our policies can help lead us from error. Yet they cannot lead us towards the light: the essential duty to treat each other with respect, sympathy, decency, humility and kindness; the responsibility each of us has to make sure that everyone at MIT can truly feel at home; the challenge of finding a way to repair our fractured nation. This work we must do for ourselves. Our policies also demonstrate that official statements matter – for good or ill. For instance, a recent draft of a government policy would redefine gender in a way that would erase the dignity and lived reality of well over a million transgender Americans, including many members of our MIT community. And next week in Massachusetts, the civil rights of these Americans are up for a vote. Let me be clear: No matter how government policy may change, it will not change or weaken MIT’s commitment to protecting the rights and safety of every member of the MIT community. Ultimately, nothing we do or say at MIT can reverse the fact that, from Pittsburgh to Jeffersonville, Charleston to Orlando, a baseball field in Maryland to the Boston Marathon, fellow human beings have been targeted and killed for being themselves. Against the backdrop of our daily lives, such hatred and violence are much too frequent now. But we can and must fight the numb helplessness that might allow these acts to ever feel “normal.” We must keep ourselves alive to the shock and the pain, and stay focused on finding a better path for our society. Tomorrow our community will come together to honor those killed or injured and those who helped them, and to console each other. Vigil for Hope in the Face of Hate Wednesday, October 31 12:30 PM Steps of the Student Center (W20) I am grateful for the way we live and work together at MIT. I am proud that we do not fear each other or the world. As one can see any day in the Infinite Corridor, our openness to talent from every faith, culture, nation and background is central to our success, and central to our humanity. We should never forget the value and strength of this deeply American idea. In this difficult time, we must use the strength, ingenuity and optimism of our community to help heal the world. Sincerely, L. Rafael Reif

_______________________________________________
Cs-ugrads mailing list
Cs-ugrads@cs.washington.edu
https://mailman.cs.washington.edu/mailman/listinfo/cs-ugrads

AMAZING turnout in the Hub yesterday! I’ve attached a panorama of the
knapsack drop around 2 pm.

See you in the Atrium tomorrow with the smaller companies and startups!
_______________________________________________
Cs-ugrads mailing list
Cs-ugrads@cs.washington.edu
https://mailman.cs.washington.edu/mailman/listinfo/cs-ugrads

Please be sure to check the undergrad calendar for more information on upcoming events: https://www.cs.washington.edu/academics/ugrad/advising_calendar

Monday – Friday, 10-11:30 a.m. & 1:30-4 p.m. – Atrium

Pick up your name badge and lanyard

Monday, October 15^th, 11:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m., Atrium

Okta Meet & Greet

Monday, October 15^th, 6 p.m. – ECE 125

Rover tech talk

We’re so excited to be speaking at UW and we’d love to meet you! Please come join us at 6pm on Monday, October 15th for dinner and a combined info session and tech talk.

We are passionate about our amazing mission — enabling more people to experience the unconditional love of a dog — and we’ll tell you all about how we’re accomplishing that. We’ll discuss our values, our culture, our marketplace, and our software. Philip Kimmey, one of our Co-Founders and Director, will talk in detail about the technical and business challenges of our newest service, Rover Now, enabling dog owners to rely on Rover to line up a perfect dog-walker at a specific time and place. Phil will also share some of the hallmarks of our engineering culture, such as how we utilize machine learning, experimentation, split testing, and data analysis to formulate data-driven decisions and strategies

Tuesday, October 16^th, 6:30-7:30 p.m. – ECE 125

Zillow tech talk
RSVP: http://tinyurl.com/y7dpzrje

Wednesday, October 17^th, 6-7 p.m. – ECE125

NVIDIA tech talk

Sign Up: bit.ly/nvtalkuw 
Title: Stereo Cameras on Drones: End-to-end Deep Neura lNetworks for Reliable Depth Perception
Speaker: Nikolai Smolyanskiy

Wednesday, October 17^th, 6:30-7:30 p.m., ECE037

Think Outside the Valley: Two Sigma Quant talk

At Two Sigma, our community of scientists, technologists and academics collaborate to solve some of the most challenging economic problems.

We rely on the scientific method, rooted in hypothesis, analysis, and experimentation, to drive data-driven decisions, to manage risk, and to expand into new areas of focus. In this way, we create systematic tools and technologies to forecast the future of global markets.

If you’re interested in hearing more about the scientific method to modeling, please join our Quant Talk. There will be food and refreshments provided. Please register for a spot here. We hope to see you there!

Thursday, October 18^th, 6-7 p.m., ECE125

Microsoft Tech Talk

More information to follow

Friday, October 19^th, 1-3 p.m., table in the Atrium

Microsoft office hours

Stop by and chat with team members from Microsoft.

———- Forwarded message ———
From: Hank Levy <levy@cs.washington.edu>
Date: Thu, Oct 11, 2018 at 10:27 AM
Subject: [cs-ugrads] Please sign our card for Paul Allen (in reception area)
To: Researchers <researchers@cs.washington.edu>, Staff <cs-staff@cs.washington.edu>, <cs-ugrads@cs.washington.edu>

Hello Allen School community,

As you may have heard, Paul Allen’s non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, which has been in remission since 2009, has returned. While this is not welcome news, Paul is not only a brilliant innovator and philanthropist, but also a fighter. He already defeated cancer once, and he is determined to come out swinging once again.

We wanted to find a way as a school to wish Paul well as he undergoes treatment. To that end, we invite you to stop by reception and sign your name to our jumbo greeting card. We are asking for signature only – we would prefer people to refrain from adding personal messages, to allow sufficient room for all who want to add their names.

The card will be available for signing today and tomorrow, at which point we will deliver it to Paul to let him know we are thinking of him.

Thanks,

Hank

Hello, Allen School undergrads!

I hope your first couple weeks of Autumn have gone well.

I’d like to introduce myself. As a member of the Allen School advising team, I work alongside your advisors, but I focus on projects related to diversity and inclusion: broadening interest in CS through K-12 outreach, promoting an inclusive community, and helping make our policies and programs equitable. I work with a lot of student leaders, including our K-12 outreach Ambassadors, ACM-W, the Student Advisory Council, our new Q++ organization supporting LGBTQ undergrads. I also work with the Allen School Diversity Committee and many other people across the Allen School.

We also rely on you to make our program inclusive! This includes welcoming your peers, contributing through student leadership roles, and letting us know where we can improve. To quote Allen School Director Hank Levy, “The most important thing we can do to promote inclusiveness is to listen to the people we want to support and to respond in tangible ways to the needs of students. The leadership of the Allen School believes that all students have the potential to be interested in computer science, and we believe that our ongoing efforts to promote an inclusive community help students of all backgrounds and identities succeed.”

If you’re interested in supporting diversity in the Allen School, being active in your student organizations is a great option. Many of you already do other things to support an inclusive community: volunteering as a tutor or a mentoring new students, for example, contribute to a supportive culture in the Allen School.

Some students may also be interested in one of these email lists:

New email list for people who identify as a member of an underrepresented group*:
This list is used to share opportunities and resources for undergrads who identify with groups that are often underrepresented in tech.
https://mailman.cs.washington.edu/mailman/listinfo/diverse-opportunities
* “underrepresented” can mean different things, but most opportunities are intended for students who are: Black, African American, Latinx, Hispanic, Native American, Pacific Islander, Southeast Asian, LGBTQ, students with disabilities, and students from lower-income and socioeconomically disadvantaged backgrounds.

Undergraduate women’s email list:
This list is used to share opportunities and resources for aimed at women and gender diversity in tech.
https://mailman.cs.washington.edu/mailman/listinfo/ugradswomen

On a personal note, I was not interested in “diversity issues” when I was younger. I became more aware of social inequalities late in college and in grad school, and I felt education was the best place for me to help improve opportunities for all people. While many of you are already active in supporting diversity and inclusion, I know that others feel like I used to: you may think these issues are not personally relevant, or that we talk too much about diversity. If you feel this way, I want to say that my job in the Allen School still serves you. I believe strongly that the best “diversity” work is that which has a positive overall impact on our whole community — in ways that benefits everyone. I hope you’ll see the benefits of this work now, or when you reflect on your UW experience later.

Thanks, and happy Autumn!

Raven

RAVEN AVERY
Assistant Director – Diversity & Outreach
Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering
ravena@cs.uw.edu

ACM is excited to introduce you to the new CSE Undergrad Slack!
You can join the slack at Uw-cse-ugrad.slack.com.

We hope the Slack will be a good way for you to to find your community in the Allen School. To keep this chat inclusive, we have also made some rules for the space.

1. Be respectful to each other. Don’t harass anyone in the chat. It’ll lead to immediate banning. You can notify the ACM leadership if you see any behavior that you would like to report.
2. Abide by the academic policies of your classes and of CSE. Some examples of violations are academic misconduct, posting to trade spots in classes, offering incentives for a spot in a course, and more. All posts that violate academic policies will be deleted.
3. We have created channels for CSE courses offered this quarter. Feel free to join them and find your study buddies! However, be warned that Slack is not approved for FERPA data. Joining the channels and making posts about your classes are public data and we are not liable for the privacy of your activity in this workspace.

Take some time to browse the channels! Introduce yourself on #introductions and get to know other CSE undergrads. Join channels related to courses you’re taking or interested in such as #cse311. Also check out the channels for your admit cohorts, or fun channels like #pawgawwlen. If you don’t see channels you’d like to join, you are welcome to add new ones 🙂

We’d love to hear any feedback about the slack which you can send to acm-officers@cs.washington.edu.