CSE Undergrad News

Posting from Kathleen Tuite:

Hi Everyone,

I’m excited to announce (at the last possible minute) that PhotoCity is live and needs you to participate!

http://photocity.cs.washington.edu/fb.php

Essentially, this is a week-long competition between our school and Cornell to take a lot of photos and reconstruct models of both campuses.  As it turns out, Cornell has some nice-looking buildings, AND a Mr. Noah Snavely who is involved in this project and is also responsible for PhotoTourism and Photosynth back when he was at UW.

To play, take photos and add them to the game before December 20th. Your photos have to connect up to the existing virtual models, so please check out the map on the main page (http://photocity.cs.washington.edu) to figure out where to go. Only daytime photos work right now. Conveniently, the game has been seeded with many buildings near CSE! Later in the week, we should begin allowing you to submit your own ‘seeds’/buildings, but there is no guarantee that we’ll be able to add your seed to the game.

Requirements to play:
– a camera! nothing too fancy, even your iphone will work
– a web browser, with which to upload photos to the game
– walking around outside with your friends
– gloves! not required, but probably recommended, as it has been awfully cold outside

Also, check out a video of the 3D models we’ve already created: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZP5DOylc3Q
As you can see, some of the buildings are quite sparse and ghostly, and your photos can help fill them in.

If you have questions about this game or would like to try it on your iPhone (we have an app but it’s not yet available through the App Store), please email me!

Thanks!
– Kathleen & the PhotoCity team

Just a reminder: the deadline for signing up for the OneBusAway Winter of Code is tomorrow!  More details below.

Hey Team,

Last year, ACM sponsored review sessions for midterms and finals with snacks and candy, and it seemed to be a hit. Since finals are coming up, we are looking for volunteers from each CSE class to:

1) Pick a time, date and location for your review session.
2) Contact the ACM officers and let them know when and where you’re meeting. (email acm-officers@cs)
3) Stand up in front of your class or write an email and tell everyone where to meet.

For volunteers, to make the most out of your study group, you might try one of the following things (beyond the required 3 steps above):

* Schedule some time to meet with an ACM officer and pick up a few free snacks if your group is meeting in the Allen Center.
* Invite your professor or TA to make an appearance and answer some questions
* Collect sample exams and problems
* Collect resources for notes and examples

Please note that these groups are to be announced to your entire class and open to everyone – many people already have friends they might start studying with, but we’d like to make this open to everyone, even people who may not have too many friends in your section.

Good luck on your finals!

– your friendly neighborhood ACM officers

NEW Winter 2010 Course

EE 425, BIOE 425, CSE 488: Laboratory Methods in Synthetic Biology

This course in an introduction to the practice of synthetic biology: building artificial biochemical reaction networks and devices in bacteria. Synthetic biochemical devices and organisms have applications in cell and tissue engineering, gene therapy, biologically derived drugs and materials, alternative fuels, biosensors, and much more. In this course, you will learn how to program cells with DNA, learn to build genes, make your own transgenic bacteria, and characterize your constructions using PCR, flow cytometry, fluorescence microscopy, plate reader assays, DNA sequencing, and more.

Prerequisites: Engineering/Natural Science background is helpful, but not required. The course does not assume a background in biology (although such background would be very helpful). We do assume a basic course in chemistry.

Hey Everyone,

Just a heads up as we head into Project Week (and before we all go a little crazy together)…

Please DO:

• Be nice, courteous and friendly to everyone in the lab.
• Invite friends or even random classmates out to dinner with your group – because we all know that many of us will be in the lab past dinner time, wishing we’d started our projects weeks earlier.
• Share your favorite gdb command with that sophomore next to you who is struggling to debug their C code.
• Schedule a finals study session with your classmates and head to your favorite breakout. Ask the ACM officers about whiteboard markers and supplies.
• Work hard and have fun!

Please DO NOT:

• Sleep in the building.
• Imply that anyone is dumb or doesn’t know what they’re doing – we’re all pretty smart around here.
• Vandalize the building, make a mess in the the lab, or mess with someone else’s backpack/notes/computer.
• Shout obscenities or rude comments – even just to your friend, when you’re joking, it might make other people uncomfortable.

We have an awesome lab culture because there are so many awesome people in our department – let’s all work to keep it that way.

Good luck on projects and finals!

ACM-W Spambot

The overload request form is open for all CSE Majors’ courses now. http://www.cs.washington.edu/education/ugrad/current/overloading.html

If you would be so kind as to consider dropping any courses you are currently holding that you don’t plan to take,  it would be greatly appreciated.

CSE advising