CSE Undergrad News

Hi everyone,

It’s that time of the year again… Yes, our reign as Tyrannical ACM officers is coming to a close…  as many of us will be graduating we need
to elect new ACM and ACM-W officers!

That is where you come in!  This is a great oppertunity to take on a Leadership roll and get more involved in the department! Nominate people you think are worthy to take the reigns of ACM by going to: https://catalyst.uw.edu/webq/survey/jtmasaki/127261 This survey is anonymous and can be taken as many times as you like for each person you wish to nominate.  Please submit nominations by Thursday March 17th. A great ACM officer is a good Leader, fast at typing (you will send and answer many emails), willing to take responsibility for ugrad/department manners, and enthusiastic to make CSE a better place for all!

For now we are just seeking at large nominations.  Although the officer positions will be roughly the same as this year, (President, VP, Internal Relations, Membership Coordinator, Treasurer x 2, Webmaster), there is discussion to modify the responsibility of the roles slightly and add a 1-2 more positions.  On Tuesday 3/29 at a time TBA, the first tuesday of spring quarter, we will have a ACM General Members meeting to introduce the candidates   (There will be free pizza!)

Starting that Wednesday we will start opening polls to elect officers, there will be one election per day, and elections will continue on into the second week of the quarter.  Candidates will get an email closer to spring break with more details about the exact positions.

Happy Studying,
Your Outgoing ACM Officers

———- Forwarded message ———-
From: Tracy Erbeck <tracy@cs.washington.edu>
Date: Mon, Mar 7, 2011 at 3:37 PM
Subject: [cs-ugrads] warmth
To: cs-staff – Mailing List <cs-staff@cs.washington.edu>, faculty – Mailing List <faculty@cs.washington.edu>, visitors – Mailing List <visitors@cs.washington.edu>, cs-ugrads – Mailing List <cs-ugrads@cs.washington.edu>

———- Forwarded message ———-
From: Ed Lazowska <lazowska@cs.washington.edu>
Date: Mon, Feb 14, 2011 at 6:14 PM
Subject:  First day of Jeopardy ends in a tie
To: Faculty <faculty@cs.washington.edu>, Cs-Grads <cs-grads@cs.washington.edu>, Cs-Ugrads <cs-ugrads@cs.washington.edu>, cs-vgrads@cs.washington.edu, Staff <cs-staff@cs.washington.edu>

_______________________________________________

———- Forwarded message ———-
From: Tracy Erbeck <tracy@cs.washington.edu>
Date: Mon, Feb 7, 2011 at 10:55 AM
Subject: [cs-ugrads] custodial staff shortage this week
To: cs-staff – Mailing List <cs-staff@cs.washington.edu>, faculty – Mailing List <faculty@cs.washington.edu>, cs-ugrads-general – Email Alias <cs-ugrads-general@cs.washington.edu>, cs-grads – Mailing List <cs-grads@cs.washington.edu>

We are without one of four person custodial team this week.    The supervisor is working to have staff from another building cover, but we might see less than perfect coverage ( in particular, the 5^th floor and the lower level).  At a minimum, the restrooms must be cleaned and stocked-  if there are issues please contact me and I’ll work to have resolved.

Tracy Erbeck

Facilities Manager, CSE, University of Washington

tracy@cs.washington.edu

206.543.9264 (office)

206.543.2969 (fax)

Typically I won’t post anything on this blog that isn’t directly CSE related, but this is an important topic that some of you may really need help with, so here you go.

Event: Money 101 – Credit Reports & Scores
When:   Thursday, February 10, 2011 2:30 PM – 3:30 PM
Where:  Odegaard 220
Description:    Your credit report summarizes your history of credit usage and present financial position. It provides lenders with an idea of how much risk they might have in lending money to you. Your credit history is reviewed and a score calculated that is used by lenders and banks to determine your potential approval and interest rates. Employers may also review your credit report as part of any hiring decision. Consequently it is important that you understand how credit reports and scores work.

Facebook still has plenty of Bagels, Coffee, and Juice to give away in the Atrium! They’ll be there for another hour! Go check it out, chat about facebook, drop off a resume, or just say hi.

Chris

———- Forwarded message ———-
From: Ed Lazowska <lazowska@cs.washington.edu>
Date: Thu, Jan 20, 2011 at 12:33 PM
Subject: Congratulations to Krysta Yousoufian!!!!!
To: Faculty <faculty@cs.washington.edu>, Staff <cs-staff@cs.washington.edu>, Cs-Grads <cs-grads@cs.washington.edu>, cs-vgrads@cs.washington.edu, Cs-Ugrads <cs-ugrads@cs.washington.edu>

Each year, the University of Washington selects a Freshman, Sophomore,
and Junior Medalist — essentially, the most accomplished student in
the previous year’s freshman, sophomore, and junior class.

This years UW Junior Medalist is our very own Krysta Yousoufian.

http://www.washington.edu/news/articles/uw-announces-president2019s-medalists-for-2009-2010

CSE has a considerable string of UW Medalists, going back more than 20 years:

http://www.cs.washington.edu/education/ugradscholars/allawards.htm

This is testimony to the extraordinary accomplishments of CSE
students.  To be in a major this challenging and emerge at the top of
the 5000-7000 students in your class is a mind-blowing accomplishment.

Congratulations to Krysta!

Hey all,

A group of CSE Students put together this useful web service together to better find cheap textbooks.  They requested to share it with everyone else!

http://myuwbooks.com/

Enjoy!

Chris and ACM Officers

Happy Holidays ACM Members,

You haven’t heard from us for a while, not much has gone on, but that will change very soon. Here are a few random items.

1.) The Labs

Support was experimenting with new lab arrangements this quarter.  From discussion at the general meeting in December and observations of lab activity we have compiled the following opinions from students. Any comments can or suggestions can be sent to a reply to this message or to the acm-officers email address. We will forward comments to support.

• “We need more Linux Machines”

In general, people come to the labs to hang out and use their laptop or use a linux machine.  This is the software most preferred in the labs and most used for upper level courses.  Priority is very high for these.  Support suggested using Virtual Machines for this, but this doesn’t provide the speed, performance, and feel of the real box.  We flat out need more of these, hopefully few windows boxes or laptop stations can convert to linux.

• “The laptop stations are nice, but 8 in 002 is overkill… They are detracting from more useful Linux boxes.”

It’s common that people work on their laptops without being wired up to these stations.  Some get used, they are a nice addition, but the proportions are a bit off.  Four in 006 is fine.  8 in 002 is absolute overkill, 2-4 would be much more appropriate.  022 is fine as is (none).  It would be nice to have widescreens for all these stations (see blog topic #2 for possible solution).

• “The workstation geometry of 002 is an improvement!”

Great! We no longer have to ninja hop a table or feel like we are running around in circles to escape the lab.

• “Tables are popular.”

These are used frequently in 006 and 022.  002 misses its tables.  The middle area arrangement works for laptop usage, but it would be nice to have a table somewhere if it fits (it doesn’t need to be wired up).  Tables tend to get used for quick lap top usage, food, and study groups (when the rooms and breakouts are full).

• “What happened to the Linux log in screen?”

Is this an OS change or a global setting? The new login scheme is a little time consuming, requiring way more clicks and time for the lookup since it automatically starts up on password entry for the first user.  It’s not critical but if this could be changed it would be nice.

2.) STF Lab Proposal

You may notice our lab machines are a little outdated… 2007 Omniboxes? The ACM officers are in the process of putting in an STF proposal for new lab machines.  The proposal is due January 23rd. We are totally up for suggestions, just send the acm officers an email.  We are thinking of the suggesting the following.

• Updated boxes (quad cores)
• All Widescreen Monitors
• Some double screen monitors?

3.) Winter Events

There is ALOT going on starting the 2nd week of the quarter in terms of tech talks and contests. The second round of recruiting and Career Fair two will be focused on internships.  We’ll get the calendars out soon.

Enjoy the last few days of break,

GO HUSKIES!!!

Chris — ACM