CSE Undergrad News

Last year several CSE students won cash prizes, take a look below for more information.

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Are you working on a technology that has potential for commercialization — possibly from one of your capstone classes? Would you like a chance to win cash prizes?

If so, register now for the 5th Annual Science & Technology Showcase (STS) at https://catalyst.uw.edu/webq/survey/seba/117881. Last year we gave away EIGHT cash prizes ranging from $100 to $1,000. Applications are due by Dec. 19th. Finalists will be notified by Dec. 22nd.

– What: 2011 Science & Technology Showcase

– When: January 13th, 2011 from 4:00 pm to 7:30 pm

– Who: Individuals or teams representing a science- or technology-based innovation with commercial potential. It can be something you’ve worked on out of your garage, in your lab (with your adviser’s approval), or in collaboration with the Center for Commercialization (again, please seek approval from your Technology Manager). The idea can be at any stage from pre-proof of principle to completed product.

– Deliverables: A poster that explains the idea and its market potential and a one-minute “elevator” pitch. Note: SEBA & CIE will cover the cost of printing your poster.

– Why: Win money, gain experience, make contacts, and get feedback on your idea and pitch.

Please direct any questions to Jeff Chamberlain at president@uwseba.org. Good luck!

I want to remind everyone that the CSE department has strict recruiting policies for our students and for companies working with our students. We’ve been hearing that some companies are not holding to these rules. The first step would be to ask respectfully if they were aware of them, and if you have problems with a specific company, please let us know via email through ugrad-advisor@cs.  The recruiting policies can be found on the lower left hand column of the career page.

Additionally, you may find it helpful to see what students have been offered for full time offers in the past, you can view that on the graduation information page: http://www.cs.washington.edu/education/ugrad/current/Graduation.html

It’s on the Job Offer/Graduate School survey link.  We typically put ranges when there are varying offers. Pay attention to location, because places with a higher cost of living often equals a higher salary.

CSE Advising

———- Forwarded message ———-
From: Stuart Reges <reges@cs.washington.edu>
Date: Mon, Dec 6, 2010 at 9:52 AM
Subject:  IEEExtreme 4.0

Startup Weekends are 54-hour events designed to provide superior experiential education for technical and non-technical entrepreneurs.  Beginning with Friday night pitches and continuing through brainstorming, business plan development, and basic prototype creation, Startup Weekends culminate in Sunday night demos and presentations.  Participants create working startups during the event and are able to collaborate with like-minded individuals outside of their daily networks. All teams hear talks by industry leaders and receive valuable feedback from local entrepreneurials. The weekend is centered around action, innovation, and education.  Whether you are looking for feedback on a idea, a co-founder, specific skill sets, or a team to help you execute, Startup Weekends are the perfect environment in which to test your idea and take the first steps towards launching your own startup.

Redmond Mobile and Gaming Startup Weekend begins Friday, December 10th at 6 PM, and continues through Sunday, December 12th at 9 PM.  The event will be at Steptoe on the Microsoft Campus in Redmond.  The Thursday before the event Startup Weekend is partnering with Power of Play 2010 Conference.  Other partners include Washington Interactive Network.  We will have great local speakers, such as T.A. McCann and Andy Sack, as well as a entrepreneurial leaders serving on our judging panel for the Sunday night presentations.  Prizes, such as $15,000 of prototyping help for applications developed on the Windows 7 platform, are available to the winning team.  The event is open to entrepreneurs, gamers, developers, designers, startup enthusiasts and more!  Please go to redmond.startupweekend.org to learn more and to register.

At Facebook, there’s two things we love: hacking and competitions. Well, we’ve decided to combine those two things together and are very excited to announce the Facebook Hacker Cup!

The 2011 Facebook Hacker Cup is the first annual worldwide programming contest where hackers, programmers, and computer scientists compete against each other for fame, fortune, glory and a shot at being immortalized on the coveted Hacker Cup trophy.

The contest consists of three online rounds and a world finals round that will be held at Facebook’s headquarters. This is your chance to compete against the world’s best programmers and potentially win the title of world champion and other awesome prizes.

How to sign up
Visit www/facebook.com/hackercup to stay up to date with important announcements, rules, eligibility and timelines.

Registration opens 12/20/2010 and contestants can register here: http://www.facebook.com/hackercup

What prizes can be won?
The top 25 scoring contestants from Online Round 2 will be flown out to Facebook headquarters in Palo Alto, California, USA to compete in the World Finals. The World Finals will happen on Friday, November 12, 2010. Travel and accommodation will be covered by Facebook.

The finalists will be competing for:

1st place: $5,000 USD
2nd place: $2,000 USD
3rd place: $1,000 USD
4th – 25th place: $100 USD

The top 300 scoring contestants in Online Round 2 will get a Hacker Cup t-shirt.

How many rounds are there?

Qualification Round
The competition commences with a 72-hour Qualification Round on January 7, 2011 at 0:00 UTC (5:00 PM PT) to January 10, 2011 at 0:00 UTC (5:00 PM PT). All registered competitors will be presented with three problems. Only competitors who correctly solve at least 1 problem will advance to Online Round 1.

Online Round 1
Online Round 1 consists of 3 sub-rounds each lasting 3-hours in length that are offered at different times from January 14, 2011 at 14:00 UTC (7:00 AM PT) to January 14, 2011 at 0:00 UTC (5:00 PM PT). Competitors who advance to this round can participate in any of the 3 sub-rounds until they qualify for Online Round 2. The top-scoring 1,000 competitors from each of the 3 sub-rounds will advance to Online Round 2.

Online Round 2
Online Round 2 will begin on January 21, 2011 at 14:00 UTC (7:00 AM PT) and will end on January 21, 2011 at 17:00 UTC (10:00 AM PT). The top 3,000 competitors will have three hours to solve the presented problem sets. The top-scoring 300 participants from Online Round 2 will receive an official Hacker Cup t-shirt. The top-scoring 25 competitors from Online Round 2 will be notified via email that they have advanced to the Onsite Final Round.

Onsite Final Round
The top-scoring 25 competitors will be flown out to Palo Alto, California for final round of competition where a champion will emerge and be immortalized on the Hacker Cup trophy, along with some great cash prizes and other awesome goodies.

Thousands will enter, but only one will emerge as world champion. See you in the competition arena!

——— Forwarded message ———-
From: cheungm@uw.edu <cheungm@uw.edu>
Date: Thu, Dec 2, 2010 at 3:45 PM
Subject: Survey participants needed!!

Dear student,

Our group is conducting a Catalyst survey for our INFO470 class that examines how students in technical majors brainstorm/generate ideas when working in group projects.

We understand that you are very busy so we appreciate your consideration in taking our survey. The survey will take less than 10 minutes of your time and participants will be entered into a raffle for a $20 Amazon gift certificate.

The survey is open until this Sunday, December 5^th.

If you are interested, here is the link to take it: https://catalyst.uw.edu/webq/survey/skun/118410

Thank you!

-Michael Cheung

———- Forwarded message ———-
From: Gaetano Borriello <gaetano@cs.washington.edu>
Date: Thu, Dec 2, 2010 at 9:39 AM
Subject: [cs-ugrads] SPAM: On a more serious note re: new airport body scanners….
To: faculty – Mailing List <faculty@cs.washington.edu>, cs-staff@cs.washington.edu, Mailing List – cs-grads <cs-grads@cs.washington.edu>, Cs-Ugrads <cs-ugrads@cs.washington.edu>

a letter of serious concern about radiation exposure from the
full-body scanners in airports written last april by several UCSF
medical faculty.  I had not heard of a lot of these issues before
seeing this letter and thought others might be interested.

http://www.npr.org/assets/news/2010/05/17/concern.pdf

Hello All,

Quite a bit of the quarter has gone by without many notices, here are a few things to keep in mind!

1.) ACM Quarterly General Meeting: Friday December 3rd, 11:30pm-12:20pm, CSE 303

The ACM holds one of these meetings every quarter.  We provide pizza (w00t!), you tell us how we are doing and hopefully raise interesting discussion. This is your chance to tell us suggestions, praise (or complain) about the coke closet, and talk about any other odities in the department.

2.) Cleaning out THE Fridge

Veterans can affirm the student fridge in the ACM lounge has seen better days…  The old cleaning schedule will now take effect!  The student fridge will be COMPLETELY cleaned out sometime in the evening the first Sunday of each month.  EVERYTHING WILL BE THROWN AWAY, absolutely everything, no mercy, ie if you want anything don’t leave it in the fridge that day until the next cleaning notice has been posted on the fridge.  The first cleaning will be THIS SUNDAY 12/5, Moreover, please remember to

• Be curteous when using the small student fridge.  It is intended for temporary storage, 1-2 days maximum, not to load with food for the next week.
• DO NOT USE THE COKE CLOSET FRIDGE FOR PERSONAL ITEMS.  There are left overs from tech talks stored in the door but that is about it aside from inventory.
• If using the coke closet freezer is absolutely necessary (due to student freezer size), please mark your name on it and mark NOT INVENTORY.

3.) REDFIN CEO and Infosession, Thursday December 2nd, Mary Gates 134, 5:30-7:30pm

This is not an ACM event, but the CEO of the company will be present.  You can RSVP and find out  more information about this session and other sessions through www.huskyjobs.washington.edu/students/.  I wont necessarily be posting them all, its just another source.

4.) @uw_acm: Start following us on Twitter!

We’re hoping to put more comical updates in real time on here.  Like when a coke closet order has just came in, current state of the tech talk, and other random things! It only works if we have followers! So follow us!

Enjoy the final strech!

Chris Raastad

ACM Email Person