Results of the March Madness Data Science Competition

The results of the March Madness Data Science Competition are in! Contestants from Penn State Harrisburg created models to predict the probability for winners in all possible match ups for the Men’s NCAA Basketball Tournament. The submissions were ranked based on the outcomes of the games that were actually played.

More than 40 students participated in the workshops leading up to the tournament. A special thanks to Dr. El Ariss, Dr. Hsu, and Dr. Blum for organizing the workshops.

Prizes are awarded for the top 3 submissions. Congratulations to the winners:
1st place: Alexander Bouril
2nd place: Bradley Westhafer
3rd place: Shane Hall

If you are interested in participating in next year’s competition, look for announcements for the

Computer Science Students take Second Place at the Capstone Design Conference

Computer Science students Ngan Nguyen, John Michael Deebel, Clarence Brett Lashier, and Brandon S. Davis won the second place prize at the Penn State Harrisburg Capstone Design Conference.  Their project was entitled "LionHub", a cross-platform mobile app that assists students and new faculty in discovering various services available both on campus and online that are offered through the Penn State Harrisburg.

The client for the project, who generated requirements for the project, was Donna J. Howard, the Associate Director of International Student Support Services and Campus Life and Intercultural Affairs. The capstone course was taught by Dr. Sukmoon Chang.

You can download the Android app from Google Play.

Spring 2016 Bot!Battle! Results

On April 29th, twenty -seven bots were entered in to the Spring 2016 Bot!Battle! Tournament at Penn State Harrisburg.  In the tournament, players wrote programs, or bots, that play a game of strategy, based on the "Save the Island" game.

The top three finishers were:
1) Jack Lee McFann
2) Shane Hall
3) Emily Mras

Congratulations to all of the competitors!

More about the Bot!Battle game can be seen in the video link below.  In addition, a team of 15 senior students has been hard at work developing the next generation of the Bot!Battle! system.  This new system will debut this summer.

Career Fairs (Job & Internships) and Related Events

“Walk-Up” Workshops - Resumes reviewed on the spot! (NO appointment needed!)

Thurs. Jan. 28

11 am - 1 pm, Olmsted Lobby

Engineering Career Fair
Wed. Jan. 27, 1:00 pm — 6:00 pm
Nittany Lion Inn

http://www.engr.psu.edu/career/ecw/Students/fair.aspx

IST Future Forum

Thurs. Jan. 28, 10 am – 4 pm

IST Building, University Park

For more information go to: http://ist.psu.edu/students/careers/network/fairs

ASCE Career Fair

Wed. Feb. 3, 12:00- 4:00 pm

Days Inn, State College

http://www.pennstateasce.com/career-fair.html

Government Job & Internship Mini Fair

Thurs. Feb. 4, 10 am — 1 pm

Olmsted Main Lobby, Olmsted Building

No registration required!  To view the list of participating agencies go to: https://harrisburg.psu.edu/page/government-agency-web-addresses

SPRING CAREER DAYS

Tues., Wed., Feb. 9 & 10, 11 am – 4 pm

Bryce Jordan Center, University Park

For more information go to: http://careerfairs.psu.edu/spring/

CPEC Job & Internship Fair

Tues. Feb. 16, 10 am – 3 pm

Radisson Hotel, Camp Hill

For additional information and to register for the fair go to: https://cpecfair.eventbrite.com

WORKSHOPS AND INFORMATION SESSIONS
Resume Writing
Thurs.  Jan. 28            11:30 am – 12:30 pm              Room 206 Educ Act

Using Nittany Lion Career Network
Wed.    Feb.  3             12:20 pm – 1:10 pm                Room 206 Educ Act

LinkedIn
Thurs.  Feb. 11            11:30 am – 12:30 pm              Room 206 Educ Act

Interviewing Skills
Wed.    Feb. 3               4:30 pm – 5:30 pm                 Room 206 Educ Act

Prepare for the Career Fairs
Tues.   Feb. 2              11:30 am - 12:30 pm              Room 206 Educ Act
Fri.       Feb. 5              12:20 pm -   1:10 pm              Room 206 Educ Act

Grad School Week
Thinking About Grad School?
Mon. Feb. 22, 12:15pm - 1:15pm: Gallery Lounge

Pre-Health Professions Info Session

Tues. Feb. 23, 11:30 am -12:30 pm, Room 103 EAB

Grad School Info Table
Tues. Feb. 23, 11:00am - 1:00pm: Olmsted Lobby

Financing Your Graduate School Education
Wed. Feb. 24, 12:15pm - 1:00pm: 203 Educ Act Bldg.

Pre-Law Information Session

Thurs. Feb. 25, 11:30 am -12:30 pm, Room 103 EAB

A Day in the Life of a Grad Student
Fri. Feb. 26, 12:15pm - 1:15pm: Gallery Lounge

  

Registration is requested for all workshops and information sessions!  To register email <Ask4CareerAdvice@psu.edu> with your full name, PSU email, and the name of the workshop or info session, with the date and time.

Nittany Lion Career Network

All Penn State students are assigned a free account in the Nittany Lion Career Network.  To access your account go to:  https://harrisburg.psu.edu/career-services

Job Postings and Internships (J)

Employers who are not conducting On-Campus Interviews but are still targeting Penn State students, will post full-time, internship, and part-time employment opportunities for students in all academic colleges. These jobs are viewable through the NLCN.

On-Campus Interviewing (OCI) 

Apply for interviews with employers visiting campus to conduct interviews

Penn State Harrisburg computer science students, Havard Andersen, Shane Hall, and Pranav Jain win top honor at HackPSU contest!

From the News Item at http://harrisburg.psu.edu/…/penn-state-harrisburg-students-…

A team of five students won the ‘hack challenge’ during Penn State’s 24-hour HackPSU competition. Three of the students are from Penn State Harrisburg’s School of Science, Engineering, and Technology, one is from Penn State Harrisburg’s School of Business Administration, and one is from the School of Engineering at University Park. 

The team was tasked with completing a challenge, posed by event sponsor Invent Penn State, to solve a problem or build a resource for incubator and co-working spaces. This challenge was presented in direct relation to theirLaunchBox business accelerator program.

Members of the team included:

• Shane Hall, computer science
• Pranav Jain, computer science
• Howie Anderson, computer science
• Michael Li, information sciences and technology
• Emily Burke, electrical engineering

The students wanted to provide a platform for individuals to be able to quickly connect with interesting projects and collaborators in their area. Their winning project, People2Projects, is a multi-platform mobile application developed for iOS and Android which expedites the initial interaction between these parties. A person that's either looking for collaborators to their own project or to join another person's project may use People2Projects to instantly start the search for existing endeavors or available expertise in their surrounding area, and commit to their motivation essentially on command.

It will allow individuals to search up local projects at any time, which makes it a potential utility to many groups of people including college campuses, larger companies, and one's surrounding community in general.

The app also serves as a tool for the "project creator" users to quickly discover interest and enthusiasm for their ideas, should it exist. 

The students began developing their idea while attending the mobile app development workshops offered at the hackathon, where they were instructed on the basics of developing software in Android Studio. At the end of the workshops they had agreed on a challenge, and started developing something originally envisioned as a "Tinder-style matching application" between people and projects, where users feeling motivated to find new productive uses of time could start a search, and be presented with a list of general project layouts, one at a time. They would then swipe left to pass on the opportunity and go to the next option, or swipe right to indicate interest and have the app communicate contact information between the user and the project's creator for immediate correspondence.

The team said that the next big step in the development of People2Projects will be to integrate the iOS and Android parts of the application through a common database.

IEEEXtreme Results are In!

The results from the IEEEXtreme contest are in. Nine teams from Penn State Harrisburg competed in the contest, in teams of 3, against teams of undergraduate and graduate students from around the world. More than 2400 teams from around the world registered for the contest, and approximately 2000 earned a spot in the final rankings.

All of the teams from Penn State Harrisburg performed very well. The top three teams from Penn State Harrisburg included:

ILLUMINATI was comprised of Aymen Ben Salah, Andrew Brady, and Gal Yaroslavsky. ILLUMINATI finished 196th in the world, 17th in U.S., and 3rd place in the IEEE Region 2. In Region 2, this team finished just behind teams from Johns Hopkins University and Carnegie Mellon University.

UtterNonsense was comprised of Brandon Davis, Thomas Dippolito, and Clarence LaShier. UtterNonsense finished 252nd in world, 28th in the US, and 4th place in Region 2.

NoExceptions was comprised of Krishna Gadia, Shane Hall, and Robert Levin. NoExceptions finished 394th in world, 45th in the US, and 6th place in Region 2.

Congratulations to all of the participants! A special thanks to Prof. Julie Lobur and Dr. Wanda Kunkle who served as proctors for the teams!

INTERNSHIP & JOB FAIR: CAPITAL REGION

Thursday, October 1st
10:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m.
Capital Union Building (CUB - Gym)
For ALL Majors & Class Years

Hosted by Career Services ~ (717) 948-6260 ~ Ask4CareerAdvice@psu.edu

Register & View Employers at https://fallinternfair.eventbrite.com

Resumes & Professional Attire Required

Fall 2015 Career Services Events and Workshops

Fall Career Days
T, W, TH, Sept 15 - 17, 11 am – 4 pm
Bryce Jordan Center, University Park

Wed.          Internships and Co-ops
Thurs.        Technical Career Day - STEM majors full-time
careerfairs.psu.edu/fall

“Meet the Interns” panel discussion
Tues. Sept. 22, 11:30, Olmsted, Gallery Lounge


Capital Region Intern/ Job Fair
Thurs. Oct. 1, 10 am – 3 pm
CUB Gym, PS Harrisburg
Register at: https://fallinternfair.eventbrite.com

Senior Transitions Conference – open to Dec. 2015 and May/Aug. 2016 Grads
Saturday, November 7 – Sunday, November 8, 2015
Red Lion Hotel Harrisburg East - Harrisburg, PA
Co-sponsored by Penn State Harrisburg Career Services

Learn key skills to survive and thrive in the real world after graduation – evaluating job offers & benefit packages, networking, job search, grad school options, LinkedIn, mock interviews, finances 101 and more!

Registration deadline October 9, 2015.

For conference information and registration, visit
http://career.mansfield.edu/conference
 
Deloitte Consulting Information session
For Info Systems, IST, Compuer Science, and Software Engineering
Thurs. Oct. 8, 5:30 pm, Gallery Lounge


WORKSHOPS

Interviewing Skills
Thurs. Sept 10, 11:15 am, 206 Educ Act

Using LinkedIn
Fri. Sept. 11, 11:15 am, 207 Educ Act.
Mon. Sept. 21, 5:00 pm, 207 Educ Act

Career Fair Preparation
Tues. Sept. 29, 4:15 pm, 102 EAB (north)

Exploring Majors and Careers
Tues. Sept. 29, 11:15 am, 206 Educ Act

Student Capstone Projects Receive Awards and Special Recognition

Congratulations to all of the Computer Science Seniors who presented their Capstone Projects at the School of Science, Engineering and Technology’s 2015 Penn State Harrisburg Capstone Design Conference.  Sixty three student groups presented their capstone projects at the conference

Three Computer Science groups received special recognition.  The team of Austin Barket, Steven Erb, and Randall Hudson received Third Place out of all projects at the conference for their Bot!Battle! system.   The team of Zachary Schultz, Michael Toole, and Yasmine Williams and the team of Matthew Houseman, Sujay Kallamadi, and Kyle Melton received special recognition from Governor Tom Wolf for their projects developed in collaboration with the Office of Administration, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

Descriptions of these projects are below.

Project name: Bot!Battle!
Team Members: Austin Barket, Randall Hudson, Steven Erb

Bot!Battle! is an application designed to support and encourage students to gain an early enthusiasm for computer science and programming. Students write small “bots”, or simple programs that are designed to play a game. Bot!Battle! will host tournaments in which the students’ bots will compete for the title of most awesome bot.   Also, Bot!Battle! is extensible in that it allows new games to be developed and then uploaded for use in new tournaments.

Project Name: Book a Space
External Organizations: Office of the Budget, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania; Office of Administration, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
External Advisors: Sandra Mateer, Director
Team Members: Zach Schultz, Michael Toole, Yasmine Williams

Yearly leases are incredibly expensive, renting employee workspace as needed is an opportunity for huge savings. The Book a Space application allows employees to reserve workspaces including cubicles, offices, and conference rooms. The application handles workspace scheduling, reservation confirmation, billing and receipt generation. Book a Space features calendar views for workspaces, easy administration, and usage reports.


Project Name: Blueplate
External Organizations: Department of General Services, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania; Office of Administration, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
External Advisors: Sarah Shaffer, IT Project Manager
Team Members: Matt Houseman, Sujay Kallamadi, Kyle Melton

The focus of the project is to provide a reliable and easy-to-use software solution to fit the needs of the Pennsylvania Commonwealth. The application seeks to provide simple and accessible location services for Pennsylvania state employees to locate nearby Vehicle Services (eg. gas stations, rental facilities, and service stations). The application will provide driving distance and relevant information about individual services, as well as providing directions based on the user's GPS location.

Spring 2015 Bot!Battle! Tournament Results

The Spring 2015 Penn State Harrisburg Bot!Battle! Tournament was held on May 1, 2015.  Twenty seven people developed bots, and 23 bots were entered into the tournament.  The tournament consisted of two rounds.   In the first round, each bot played every other bot twice, once as player 1 and once as player 2.  The top 8 teams from the first round then advanced to a single elimination tournament which determined the first, second, and third place finishers.

Here were the results after the first round:

Place	Bot Name	Bot Creator	Record
1 (tie)	Bob	Tamara Epelbaum	30-16
1 (tie)	SiddiqueBot	Taha Siddique	30-16
1 (tie)	WilfordBot	Joshua Wilford	30-16
4	PavoncelloBot	Joshua Pavoncello	29-17
5	DuddingBot	Nathan Dudding	27-9
6 (tie)	LoBot	Wei Hsien Lo	26-10
6 (tie)	Enma	Jack Lee McFann	26-10
8 (tie)	NguyenBot	Ngan Nguyen	25-11
8 (tie)	SingletonBot	Thomas Singleton	25-11

There was a play-in match between the Nguyen Bot and the SingletonBot to determine the last seed in the second round.  SingletonBot won this match 2 games to zero.

In the second round, each match consisted of six games, in which each bot played as player 1 three times.  If there was a tie after the six games, additional rounds consisting of a pair of games would be played (with each bot playing as player 1 and player 2) until the tie was broken.

In the single elimination tournament round of 8, LoBot prevailed in a match over Bob by a score of 5 games to 3.  PavoncelloBot prevailed over DuddingBob 5 to 1, SiddiqueBot prevailed over Enma 4 games to 2, and WilfordBot beat SingletonBot 4 games to 2.

In the round of 4, PavoncelloBot beat LoBot 5 to 1, and SiddiqueBot beat WilfordBot 5 games to 3.

For the third place game, after numerous tie breakers, WilfordBot prevailed over LoBot 7 games to 5.

In the championship game, PavoncelloBot continued its roll, beating SiddiqueBot by a score of 4 games to 2.

The top three finishers, who won prizes based on their bots, were:

First Place:  Joshua Pavoncello

Second Place:  Taha Siddique

Third Place:  Joshua Wilford

The bracket for the second round is below:

Congratulations to everyone who participated!  A special thanks to Austin Barket, Steven Erb, and Randall Hudson for their work in creating the Bot!Battle! arena.

Math and Computer Science Students Honored at 2015 Student Awards Ceremony

Congratulations to Isaac Polinsky, Timothy M. Noll, and Timothy R. Julian, who were honored at the 2015 Student Awards Ceremony! Isaac Polinsky received the Computer Science Outstanding Undergraduate Student Award. Timothy M. Noll received the Computer Science Outstanding Graduate Student Award. Timothy R. Julian received the Mathematics Outstanding Student Award.

Bot!Battle! Tournament: Friday, May 1st

Seniors Austin Barket, Steven Erb, and Randall Hudson have created a Bot!Battle! system for the CMPSC 488: Computer Science Project course.  The system enables you to write a program to play a game similar to the one at:

http://www.mindjolt.com/save-the-island.html

We will be having a tournament on Friday, May 1st, at 2:30 in the Sun lab, with the bots that people have written to play the game.  Prizes will be available!  (Note that you do not need to be present at the tournament to participate).

In the test arena that Barket, Erb, and Hudson created, you can play as a person against your bots, play your bots against a preloaded bot, or play different bots that you write against each other.  For the URL of the test arenas or more information, please contact Dr. Blum (jjb24 (at) psu (dot) edu).

Long and Blum Receive Best Paper Award at CNS 2015

Jason Long, a former PSH graduate student now with Google, and Dr. Jeremy Blum received the best paper award for the Communications and Networking Simulation (CNS) Symposium at SpringSim '15 for their paper "SALIENT: Stochastic, Adaptive Latency Improvement for Event Notification Trees."

The abstract for the paper follows:

A challenge in massively multiplayer online games is the need for game event information to be quickly disseminated to all participants. Because of the cost and scalability limitations of centralized servers, peer-to-peer technologies have been adopted in which peers serve both to reconcile conflicting actions and to relay the events to other peers. This manuscript introduces Stochastic, Adaptive Latency Improvement for Event Notification Trees (SALIENT), which provides a method for constructing and maintaining a peer-to-peer event notification tree. SALIENT is a distributed algorithm that uses a number of independent mechanisms that work over time to incrementally make improvements to the event notification tree. In random networks of various sizes, SALIENT was found to greatly reduce experienced latency, typically as much as 40-60% reduction in event delays. In addition, SALIENT has bandwidth management strategies that help avoid situations of bandwidth overload, allowing many more participants to participate despite limited participant bandwidth.

Talk: Physically Based Modeling

You are invited to our next "Pizza with a Professor" talk!

Here are the details:

Topic: "Physically Based Modeling"
Speaker: Dr. Sukmoon Chang

Day & Time: Tuesday (4/14/15) from 11:15am - 12:45pm
Location: Olmsted W212

Formal Methods, Social Networking, and Code Generation

You are invited to our next "Pizza with a Professor" talk! 

Here are the details:

Topic: "Formal Methods, Social Networking, and Code Generation"

Speaker: Dr. Tim Wahls, Dickinson College

Day & Time: Tuesday (4/7/15) from 11:15am - 12:45pm

Location: Olmsted W212