CSE Undergrad News

The Graduate School Office of Fellowships and Awards & the Office of Merit Scholarships, Fellowships & Awards will offer the following information sessions this spring:

• In person:

o   Thursday, March 31, 1:30-3:00 p.m., Allen Auditorium (room 181L)

o   Tuesday, May 10, 2016; 10:30 a.m. – 12 noon, Allen Auditorium (room 181L)

• Webinars (To Register )

o   Tuesday, April 12, 2016; 3:30-5:00 p.m.

o   Wednesday, April 27, 2016; 7:00-8:30 p.m.

o   Tuesday, June 21, 2016; 4:00-5:30 p.m.

NSF GRFP is one of the premier opportunities to fund graduate study.  It provides 3 years of funding that you can use in a 5 year time frame.  This includes a $34,000 annual stipend and full cost of tuition/fees covered.

For UW graduate students, GAIP health insurance is also covered.

Eligible fields include the “usual suspects” (e.g., life sciences, engineering, math, etc.), but there are also a surprising number of social science disciplines included in the eligibility list, including STEM education, Political Science, Public Policy, Communication, Anthropology, History, and Sociology, among others. We encourage all students in these fields (or planning to be in) for their graduate research to consider applying for this fellowship.

Seniors and alumni who are planning to attend graduate school can apply in the fall and take the funding with them to whatever school they attend.  UW graduate students who will are starting graduate school in autumn 2016 are also eligible as are (usually) graduate students beginning their second year of studies in autumn 2016.  This year’s application cycle will be for funding starting in fall 2017.

The information sessions will cover the application process, strategies for successful applications and more details regarding how the fellowship operates.  Application deadlines are usually late October.

Even though the official announcement may not come out until August, students are encouraged to start early on this process.

Basic eligibility criteria:

*research in an eligible NSF research area (includes several of the social sciences)

*US citizens or permanent residents by the application deadline

*students in their first year of graduate study or at the beginning of their second year of graduate study (with some limitations)

*students who have not earned a previous graduate degree

*graduating senior undergraduates and alumni who plan to apply to begin graduate studies in fall 2015

Additional details are available at http://www.nsfgrfp.org/ and http://www.grad.washington.edu/students/fa/nsf/index.shtml.

Please feel free to contact us for questions and application support, based on your student status:

Undergraduate students:   Robin Chang, scholarq@uw.edu

Graduate students: Marilyn Gray,  megray@uw.edu

Hi everyone!

Here’s a quick outline of this weeks events.

• Tuesday, Feb 23 – Mock Interviews with Palantir: CSE023 12-5 p.m., CSE 025 9am-5pm

  • Are you interested in working in Silicon Valley, but unsure about what to expect or how to prepare? Come meet with a few of our Engineers to participate in a Mock Interview. We’ll discuss resumes, technical interviews, and debunk or confirm crazy rumors about Valley culture. Bring your hardest questions–you won’t get meaningless answers.

    Interviews will be scheduled in 023 and 025 on Tuesday, February 23rd. To schedule a time, please email uwashington@palantir.com.

• Tuesday, Feb 23 – Palantir Challenge: 6-8:30 p.m., EEB125
• Thursday, Feb 25 – Amazon office hours, 1-2:30 p.m., Atrium
• Thursday, Feb 25 – KRNL Labs office hours, 2:30-3:30 p.m., Atrium
• Thursday, Feb 25 – Code in the Dark, 5:30-6:30 p.m., EEB125
  • http://codeinthedark.com/

As usual, check out the ugrad advising calendar for more information.  Also, perhaps the most important event of the entire week:

THE GREAT GATSBY WINTER BALL IS ON FRIDAY.  COME AND GET WEIRD.

Love,

John

Hi everyone!

I wanted to remind you all that next Friday from 6-8 is the long-awaited, much-anticipated Great Gatsby Winter Ball.  This event is going to be fire in its classiest form.  While you’re free to rock the daily tech-T, I would highly recommend something a little shnazzier to really set the mood, perhaps a 3-piece suit, tuxedo, or a dress made of bacon.  We will be providing alcohol (21+) and snacks/beverages (0+).

This event is FREE (that’s right.  Free) for ACM members, $5 at the door for non-ACM members/guests who are in CSE, and $10 otherwise.  You can get your tickets here.

Just a reminder that all ACM members, UW CSE undergraduates, graduates, alumni, faculty, staff and their +1s are welcome to attend. If you are not sure whether you are one of these, feel free to contact us directly (though you most likely are if you can read this post…).

Tbh pretty sad I can’t be there to turn up with you guys, but I hope you all can make it.  Check out the Facebook event or email us if you have any more questions.

Love,

John

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.

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

Happy Valentine’s Day everyone!  And Presidents’ Day (turn up?)

I hope you all had a nice weekend.  Here are some events followed by some super cute Valentine’s day GIFs because because.

Office Hours:

• Thursday, Feb 18 – Amazon office hours, 1 – 2:30pm, Atrium
• Thursday, Feb 18 – KRNL Labs office hours, 2:30 – 3:30pm, Atrium

More info can be found here on the undergrad calendar.

Love,

John

And because we can’t totally ignore Presidents’ Day….

Hi everyone,

Happy Chinese New Year!  Here are some events going on this week:

General:

• Feb 10 -Google #SpreadAndroidLove, 3:30 – 4:30pm, Atrium

Office Hours:

• Feb 11 – Amazon office hours, 1 – 2:30pm, Atrium
• Feb 11 – KRNL Labs office hours, 2:30 – 3:30pm, Atrium

Please check out the undergrad calendar here for more information.

Love,

John

The Noble Lab in the Department of Genome Sciences is recruiting one undergraduate CSE major to help in the development of software for analyzing high-throughput sequencing data. The project involves implementation and validation of a tool for making sense of Hi-C data, which measures the 3D conformation of DNA in the nucleus. The project will involve ~10 hours/week for research credit, starting in spring quarter. Ideally, the student will be familiar with Python and the Unix operating system. Interested students should send a transcript and resume to Dr. Kate Cook (kate.cook@gmail.com) byFriday, Feb. 19.

CRA-E (The Computing Research Association’s Education Committee) has a website called Conquer (http://conquer.cra.org) that provides a listing of summer research opportunities searchable by sub-discipline and geographic region. We encourage you to take a look!

Hi everyone!

There are a lot of opportunities to connect with companies this week.  Check out the schedule below for more information.

Info Sessions/Talks:

• Feb 2 – Qualtrics tech talk, 6pm, EEB125
• Feb 4 – Redfin tech talk, 6pm, EEB125

Office Hours:

• Feb 3 – Cisco office hours, 10 – 11:30am, table in Atrium
• Feb 3 – Voyager office hours, 11 – 12 noon, table in the Atrium
• Feb 4 – Amazon office hours, 1 – 2pm, table in Atrium
• Feb 4 – KRNL Labs office hours, 2:30 – 3:30pm, table in the Atrium

Another important note: we have recently submitted our STF proposal to purchase some more equipment for the labs.  You can view the proposal here.  If you feel that the items outlined in the proposal will be beneficial to you, you can fill out the endorsement form supporting our request here.  Note that this is to support the proposal, so if you don’t thing that the proposal is particularly effective, please ignore the endorsement form.

Love,

John

Hi everyone,

This is a big week if you’re still looking to figure out your internship plans for the summer.  There are two career fairs going on, one for smaller startups and another for established companies.  Be sure to check them both out.  See below for all the details.

Career Fairs:

• Jan 27 – Startups and smaller companies, 1:30 – 5pm, Atrium
  • company list
• Jan 28 – Established companies, 1:30 – 5pm, Atrium
  • company list

Info Sessions/Talks:

• Jan 27 -Pacific Northwest National Laboratory info session, 12:30 – 1:20pm, Physics Tower (6^th floor Data Science Studio)
• Jan 28 – The Honest Company info session, 5:30 – 6:30pm, EEB105
• Jan 29 – VMWare panel session, 6:30pm, EEB125

Good luck to everyone getting hired!  Please check out the undergrad calendar here for more information about stuff happening this week.

Love,

John