Penn State Harrisburg Team Programming Team Places 120th in the World (out of 1838) and 17th in the USA (out of 251)

The IEEEXtreme 7.0 Programming Contest is 24-hour programming contest, which was held on October 26, 2013.  More than 1,800 teams competed in this worldwide contest, including more than 250 teams from the United States. 

The official results, which were just released, show that the Penn State Harrisburg team of Austin Barket, Isaac Polinsky, and Siddharth Dahiya placed 120th in the world, and 17th in the USA.  Congratulations!

Penn State Harrisburg teams have competed in the IEEEXtreme contest for the previous three years.  This year, Penn State Harrisburg fielded thirteen teams, each comprised of three undergraduate or graduate students.

The official results for the IEEEXtreme contest can be viewed at:http://www.ieee.org/membership_services/membership/students/competitions/xtreme/index.html

In addition to hearty congratulations for all of the participants, we would also like to thank the proctors:  Prof. Julie Lobur, Dr. Omar El Ariss, and Dr. Jeremy Blum.

Robotics Competition Sponsored by Penn State Harrisburg and HACC is featured in the Patriot News

The South Central PA Robotics Competition was covered in the Patriot News.  Thank you to the Computer Science students, who served as mentors and judges for the competition, including Christopher Cope, Siddharth Dahiya, Tyler Derr, Kevin Joseph, Viplav Patel, and Isaac Polinsky.

http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2013/11/results_are_in_for_todays_sout.html

For more information about the contest, please see the contest website.

Penn State Harrisburg Students Mentor Local High School Students for Robotics Competition

Penn State CS students Tyler Derr and Siddharth Dahiya are mentoring Middletown Area High School (MAHS) students in preparation for the upcoming South Central Pennsylvania Robotics Competition. As described in the MAHS blog post below, this competition is sponsored by Penn State Harrisburg, HACC, and local high schools. The event has also received support from the IEEE and local industry.

Robots Invade MAHS

More information about the Robotics Competition can be found on the competition website.

IEEEXtreme 7.0

From 8 pm October 25th through 8 pm October 26th, teams from Penn State Harrisburg competed in the IEEEXtreme 7.0, a 24-hour programming contest.  The Penn State Harrisburg teams included 39 students in 13 teams, who competed against almost 1700 teams in this global competition.

Photos from the competition can be viewed on the PSH Math and Computer Science Facebook page.

Career Development Workshop Recap

On October 4, the ACM Student Chapter at Penn State Harrisburg organized a Career Development Workshop. Four recent graduates shared their experiences with the job search and interviewing process. The presenters were Nazia Latif from Intel, Mandeep Singh from Microsoft, Ben Leto with IBM, and Peter Okosun from Intel.

Pictures from the event are available on the PSH Math & Computer Science Facebook Page.

Fun with Fibonacci: Using Matrices to Prove Identities for Recurrent Sequences

You are invited to the following talk presented by the Penn State Harrisburg Math Club:

Speaker:  Dr. James Sellers 

When/Where:  W338 Olmstead 4:30 pm October 1, 2013

About the talk:

"In this talk, we will return to one of my favorite topics - Fibonacci numbers. We will "discover" a number of identities which are satisfied by the Fibonacci numbers, and then we will look at an extremely effective way of proving many such results using elementary facts we know about matrices. The talk will be completely self-contained and accessible to anyone interested in mathematics.”

About Dr James Sellers:

Dr Sellers is a Professor and the Associate Head for Undergraduate Mathematics at Penn State University at University Park. He has contributed to well over 75 mathematical publications in years past. 

Open to campus community. Funded by SAF.

Food will be provided.

Questions? Contact Alex Milbrand at anm5469 (AT) psu (DOT) edu

Game Development Workshop

The ACM Student Chapter at Penn State Harrisburg is holding a Game Development Workshop, open to all.  The workshop will be held on Friday, September 27 from 5-8pm.  The workshop is open to anyone 18 or over, and there is no cost to attend, but preregistration is required.  More details can be found at the website:

http://psh.acm.org/activities/game-development-workshop

Capital Region Internship Fair

Meet with representatives from over 85 Central Pennsylvania organizations!

Check out hundreds of opportunities for Spring and Summer!
Distribute your resume to prospective employers!

Date:  Tuesday, October 1, 2013
Time:  10:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m.
Location:  Capital Union Building, Penn State Harrisburg

For more information, see www.messiah.edu/crif

Check the web often – Employer list updated frequently!

Vint Cerf Talk on "Reinventing the Internet"

Vint Cerf, one of the "fathers of the Internet," will be addressing the DC Chapter of the ACM on Monday, May 13th at 6:30 pm.  His talk is entitled "Reinventing the Internet."  The talk will be held at Google DC at 1101 New York Ave NW at 6:30 pm.  If you are interested in attending, you will need to preregister at:

http://meetup.dcacm.org/events/106916812/?eventId=106916812&action=detail

Also, if you are interested in attending if a carpool can be arranged, let Dr. Blum know.  He will be helping to organize transportation.

Math and Computer Science Students Honored at Student Awards Ceremoney

Congratulations to math and computer science students who were honored at the 2013 Student Awards Ceremony on April 19, 2013.  Mark Romanak received the Computer Science Outstanding Student Award.  Beverly Brown received the Mathematics Outstanding Student Award.

Math and Computer Science Students Win First Place in the Undergraduate Research Exhibition

Congratulations also to Siddharth Dahiya and Tyler Brown.  Their poster at the annual Penn State Harrisburg Undergraduate Research Exhibition won first place in the physical sciences category.  Their poster was titled "Mapping Through the Elements" and was about the project they began last spring with Joseph Roberge. Alexandra Milbrand and Viplav Patel also worked on the project.

Penn State Harrisburg Students Present at Talks at EPaDel Spring 2013 Meeting

Congratulations to Alexandra Milbrand and Tyler Derr who both gave talks at the spring meeting of the EPaDel section of the Mathematical Association of America, on April 6th, 2013. 

Alex's talk was titled, "Truncated Pyramid: A Problem from the Moscow Papyrus."

Tyler's was "Archimedes and his Approximation of the Square Root of 3."

For speaking at the meeting, each was given a one year membership to the MAA.

Using Ants to Solve NP-Hard Combinatorial Optimization Problems

You are invited to the next seminar in the Penn State Harrisburg Seminar Series.

Title:  Using Ants to Solve NP-Hard Combinatorial Optimization Problems

Speaker:  Thang Bui, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Computer Science and Mathematical Sciences; Interim Associate Director, School of Science, Engineering and Technology

Date:  Wednesday, March 20, 2013

Time: Noon-1:30 p.m.

Location: Gallery Lounge, Olmsted Building

Preparing for Computer Science Interviews

Current students, alumni, and faculty share interview questions and other resources to help you prepare for your interviews.  Hopefully, you will find this helpful!  If you have any questions or tips that you would like to share, please contact Dr. Blum (jjb24 (at) psu (dot) edu).

ACM Club visits Seattle

The ACM Student Chapter visited Seattle over Spring Break.  Their trip included stops at Microsoft, Amazon.com, and Boeing Headquarters, as well as tourist destinations.  Congratulations to graduating student Mandeep Singh, who will be starting with Microsoft's Xbox development team after graduation!

More pictures from the trip can be found at the Program Facebook page.

Spring Career Days

Career Fairs at University Park

344 Employers

No preregistration needed. Just bring your student ID and resumes; dress professionally.

Wednesday, Mar. 20, 11 am - 4 pm at the Bryce Jordan Center.
Business & Finance, Communications & Design, General Management, Human Services, Liberal Arts, and Sales & Marketing career day.

Thursday, Mar. 21, 11 am - 4 pm at the Bryce Jordan Center.
Computer & Information Technology, Engineering, Health & Life Sciences, Physical Sciences, and Research career day.

Check out the attending employer list and other helpful information at: http://careerfairs.psu.edu/spring

Government Career Fair Events

Prepare for the Government Career Fair

Presented by Sue Zehner of the PA Dept. of Labor & Industry

Tuesday, February 26, 2013, 12:00pm - 1:00pm Library Room 302 

Alumni, undergraduate students, and graduate students of all majors are encouraged to attend this event for an insider's look at careers with the Pennsylvania government.

Guests will learn about: 

• How to present yourself to recruiters
• How to learn about specific opportunities
• Benefits of working for the state
• The Civil Service application and hiring process

For further information and to indicate your plans to attend, please stop by Penn State Harrisburg Career Services in the Susquehanna Building, call 717-948-6260, or emailcmg11@psu.edu.

Pennsylvania State (plus Local and Federal) Government Job & Intern Mini-Fair

Thursday, February 28, 2013, 10:00am - 1:30pm, Olmsted Gallery Lounge

This is an opportunity to meet with recruiters from some the departments and agencies of state government for both civil service and non-civil service career opportunities. Alumni and students from all majors should plan to attend! Internships and full-time positions will both be represented. Bring your resumes and be prepared to network with recruiters! Don't miss this chance to find out about employment procedures and opportunities with the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

The federal, state, and local agencies who have already signed up for our fair are:

1.    Administrative Office of PA Courts

2.    County of York

3.    Cumberland County Adult Probation and Parole

4.    Dauphin County Personnel

5.    Drug Enforcement Administration

6.    Executive Offices – Office of Human Resources     

7.    Lebanon VA Medical Center

8.    Letterkenny  Army Depot

9.    Pennsylvania  Board of Probation and Parole

10.   Pennsylvania Bureau of Administrative Services – Office of Inspector General

11.    Pennsylvania Capitol Police

12.    Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture

13.    Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources

14.    Pennsylvania Department of Corrections

15.    Pennsylvania Department of Corrections - SCI Camp Hill

16.    Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection

17.    Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry

18.    Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry, Office of Equal Opportunity

19.    Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare

20.    Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Agency

21.    Pennsylvania Historical Museum Commission

22.    Pennsylvania House of Representatives – Bipartisan Management Committee

23.    Pennsylvania House of Representatives Archives

24.    Pennsylvania Office of Administration – Office of Information Technology

25.    Pennsylvania Office of Budget

26.    Pennsylvania State Civil Service Commission

27.    Pennsylvania State Employees’ Retirement System

28.    Pennsylvania State Police

29    Pennsylvania State University Harrisburg - Semester Internship and Seminar Program

Penn State Harrisburg visit to Duck Duck Go

On Feb 15th, a group of students visited the headquarters of Duck Duck Go (DDG), a search engine with new approaches to solving the search problem.  We had a lively discussion about the increasing personalization of web content and the problem of the filter bubble, Duck Duck Go's approach to this problem specifically and search in general.  There was a great discussion about startups, and we also learned about DDG's open source approach to developing search features, with a demonstration of how we can create new features for the DDG search engine.

“Ask not what STATISTICS can do for BIOLOGY; Ask what BIOLOGY can do for STATISTICS"

You are invited to the following talk, sponsored by the Penn State Harrisburg Math Club.


Speaker:  Dr Oclay Akman
                Professor of Mathematics, Illinois State University

Date and Time:  Tuesday, 19 February 2013 at 6 pm
Location:  257E Olmsted Building at 6pm

About the Talk:
For eons, biologists have used statistics to analyze the data they collected through field
studies or lab experiments. Now it is time to turn the tables and see how biology can contribute
to the advancement of statistics.  In this talk, I will show how a common regression model
selection can be improved by leaps and bounds by implementing the principles of natural
selection and evolution.

Biography:
Dr. Akman received his B.Sc. (1983) and M.Sc. (1986) in Statistics from Middle East
Technical University and his M.S. from the University of Connecticut in 1986. He received his
Ph.D. from the University of Maine. He is currently a Math professor at Illinois State
University. Before Dr. Akman taught at Illinois State he was a professor at College of
Charleston, Cornell University, Utah State University, and Coastal Carolina. Dr. Akman’s
research includes modeling for lifetime data, weighted distributions, selection models, and
statistical computing. He is also an Associate Editor for Frontier in Systems Biology, Advanced
and Applications in Statistics and Journal of Applied Statistical Science.

FOOD WILL BE PROVIDED!

If you have any questions please contact Viplav Patel at vnp5004 (at) psu (dot) edu or Dr. Boman at ecb5 (at) psu (dot) edu.

Penn State Harrisburg Hosts 2013 MathCounts

Penn State Harrisburg hosts MathCounts. Congratulations to the winners, and a big thanks to all of the volunteers from the Math and Computer Science programs.  For coverage of the contest, follow this link to the Patriot News article.

Visit to DuckDuckGo

What is DuckDuckGo.com?  Why would an entrepreneur launch a search company to take on Google?  What's it like to work for an Internet startup?

Join Dr. Blum for a visit to find out what is behind the Internet search start-up DuckDuckGo (DDG).  The business model behind DDG's search engine is radically different than other search engines like Google's.  DDG places a premium on protecting users' privacy and purposefully does not tailor search results based on users' past history.  Not only is privacy protection an important goal in and of itself, DDG argues that these tailored search results create a "filter bubble" that limits the information that a user is able to access.

The trip will take place this Friday, February 15th.  We will take the 11:10am train from Middletown, and arrive at DDG's headquarters in Paoli around 12:30 pm.  DDG will provide lunch for us, give us a tour of their headquarters, and talk to us about the philosophy behind DDG.  We will be able to find out what it is like to work for an Internet startup, and, also, how we can contribute to DDG, including by creating new search capabilities.  At 4:10 we will depart Poali, and arrive back at the Middletown Amtrak station at 5:10 pm.

While this trip is part of the Distingished Honors Faculty Program (DHFP), there are a limited number of slots that are available on a first-come, first-served basis for Computer Science students.  All expenses will be paid by the DHFP and DDG.  If you would like to join the trip, send an email to Stephanie Ponnett (slp29 (at) psu (dot) edu).

Career Services Workshops and Events: January and February 2013

Pre-registration to attend a workshop is preferred!  To pre-register email Colleen Monismith at <cmg11@psu.edu> or call 717-948-6260

Create or Improve Your Resume
Wed. Jan. 16, 12 – 1 pm, Library 302
Tues. Jan. 22, 4:30 – 5:30 pm, Lib 302
Thurs. Jan. 24, 12 -1 pm, Lib 302

Learn to use PSU’s on-line job board: Nittany Lion Career Network
Thurs. Jan. 17, 12 1 pm, Lib 302
Wed. Jan. 23, 12 -1 pm,  Lib 302
Fri. Jan. 25, 11am – 12 pm, Lib 302

Resume Clinic and Career Info Table
Tues. Jan. 29, Wed. Jan. 30 and
Thurs. Jan. 31, 11:30 am – 1:30 pm
Olmsted Lobby and Gallery Lounge

Prepare for the Career Fairs
Tues. Feb. 5, 12 - 1 pm,  Olmsted E307

Pre-Health Professions Info Session
Tues. Feb. 12, 12- 1 pm, Olmsted W231

Prepare for the Government FairTues. Feb. 26,  12 – 1 pm, Library 302

Upcoming Career Fairs  -- Mark your calendar and plan to attend!

CVC Job and Internship Fair
Wed. February 13, 2013, 10:00 am -3:00 pm
Holiday Inn Conference Center, Frederick, MD Preview employers at : http:/www.cumberlandvalleyconsortium.com

CPEC Job and Internship Fair
Tues. February 19, 2013 10:00 am - 3:00 pm
Radisson Hotel, Camp Hill, PA
Preview employers at : http:/www.cpec.info

Federal, State and Local Government Mini-Fair
Thurs. Feb. 28, 10 am – 1:30 pm, Penn State Harrisburg, Olmsted Lobby