Networking and Career Resources, Tuesday, Dec 11th: IEEE Dinner - Free for Students

You are invited to the following event, held by the IEEE Susquehanna Section.  The event was recently changed to include free dinner for students, and you do not need to be an IEEE member to attend.  However, you must RSVP by email to Larry Brown, lbrown0071@verizon.net, by Monday, December 10 at 3pm.

Title:          Networking and Career Resources
Date:    Tuesday December 11, 2012
Time:    6:30 PM
Location:     Penn State Harrisburg, Special Events Room, 1st floor, Olmsted Building

Program:
- Mr. Don Herres:  Why do I need a Network?
- Mr. Karl Martz:  Resources, Workshops, and More!


"Why Do I Need a Network?", Mr. Don Herres

Whether currently employed, unemployed and looking for a position, or employed and looking anyway, the most effective way to do this is through networking. A network consists of relationships you build over time and do not instantly turn on when it would be helpful. IEEE is an important resource for this. Don will discuss IEEE tools available with emphasis on employment networks and programs which have been effective in other Sections.

Don Herres is the IEEE Region 1 Employment & Career Activities Coordinator. He has been involved with Career Activities Workshops with IEEE for a number of years and was awarded an IEEE-USA Citation of Honor in 2006 for these efforts.

Don has a BSEE from SUNY Buffalo, MSEE from Syracuse University and is a licensed Professional Engineer in New York State. He has extensive experience in product design and manufacturing, holds 3 patents, and recently retired from his full time paying job to work on his unpaid volunteer jobs. He also does contract design work.

"Resources, Workshops, and More!", Mr. Karl Martz

Need help finding employment? Not sure of the resources available to you as a student or alumnus? Karl Martz will provide an overview of a variety of resources available to help increase your prospects of finding meaningful career opportunities. The resources covered will be specific to Penn State University, but similar resources and programs are available to students and alumni at institutions across the country.

Karl Martz has been the Director of Career Development at Penn State Harrisburg since November 1988. In addition to overseeing the operations of the Career Services Office, he is responsible for assisting students and alumni with career planning and career development. He meets with students and alumni to discuss career related issues, job search strategies, and interviewing.  He facilitates workshops and programs, and works with employers to develop career opportunities and linkages.

Karl is an active member of several employment consortia that plan and sponsor job, intern, and career fairs. He is also a long time member of the Eastern Association of Colleges and Employers, where he has served on the Board, the National Association of Colleges and Employers, the Pennsylvania Association of Colleges and Employers, and currently serves on the board of the Middle Atlantic Career Counselors Association.

Corporate Career Development is a strong interest of his, and he serves as a consultant to business and industry. Prior to coming to Penn State Harrisburg, Karl spent 12 years in Student Affairs at a private proprietary school where he served as the Coordinator of Counseling and Career Services, and later as the Director of Student Affairs.

He has a M.Ed. in Training and Development from Penn State University and a B.A. from Texas Lutheran University.

The Frumosu and Teodorescu-Frumosu Proof

You are invited to the following talk!

Title: The Frumosu and Teodorescu-Frumosu Proof
Speaker:  Dr James Sellers, Professor and Associate Head for Undergraduate Mathematics at Penn State University

Date and Time: Wednesday, 28 November 2012, 6pm
Location: 244E Olmstead Building

About the Talk

In the June 2012 issue of the MAA's MATHEMATICS MAGAZINE, Frumosu and Teodorescu-Frumosu proved that, for all integers m ≥2,

where the inner sum is taken over all p-term ordered partitions of m. Their proof is calculus-based, relying on power series manipulations. In this talk, we will show their original argument, and then we will provide a combinatorial proof of this identity (which Frumosu and Teodorescu-Frumosu requested at the end of their article). We then use the insights gained via this argument to prove numerous other results of a similar type. This is joint work with Jörn Olsson of the University of Copenhagen, Denmark.

FOOD WILL BE PROVIDED!

IEEEXtreme Results: Penn State Harrisburg Teams Place Second and Third in the Section Competition

Penn State Harrisburg teams placed second and third in the competition that IEEE Susquehanna Section sponsored as part of the IEEEXtreme 24-hour programming contest.  Over 1,900 teams participated in this world wide contest, which was held from 8pm October 19th to 8 pm October 20th  (EDT).  Teams were given 24 hours to solve 20 difficult programming challenges.

BadWolf Team at the Competition

The Penn State Harrisburg team of BadWolf, made up of Siddharth Dahiya, Mandeep Singh, and Yi Deng, placed second in the Susquehanna Section.  The team placed fourth in the IEEE Region 2, which includes southern New Jersey, Delaware, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Maryland, DC, and northern Virginia.  The team placed 56th out of all teams from the U.S.

The OverClockdUnderLovd Team at the IEEEXtreme

Close behind was the Penn State Harrisburg team of OvrClockedUndrLoved, made up of Tyler Derr, Jason Lee, and Viplav Patel.  Their team placed third in the Susquehanna Section, fifth in Region 2, and 66th out of all teams from the U.S.

Results for other Penn State Harrisburg teams, who also solved multiple problems, include:

• ManchegoChinchillas, comprised of  Skylar Jesse, Jose Fonseca, and Travis Stodter, placed 5th in the section, 7th in the region, and 84th in the country.
• goto, comprised of Manik Sinha and David Sagang, placed 7th in the section, 12th in the region, and 126th in the country.
• c0d3cFr3ak5, comprised of Kevin Joseph and Aymen Ben Salah, placed 9th in the section, 14th in the region, and 134th in the country.
• Echelon, comprised of Alicia Davis, Tyler Brown, and Jason Reynolds, placed 10th in the section, 15th in the region, and 159th in the country.

Congratulations to all of the teams!

More pictures from the competition are available at the PSH Math and CS facebook page.

2012 South Central Pennsylvania Robotics Competition

The 2012 South Central Pennsylvania Robotics Competition, sponsored by Penn State Harrisburg, HACC, and the IEEE Susquehanna Section was held on November 17 at HACC.  The competition was a great success, and was covered by the Patriot News and the Sentinel.  A big thank you to the Penn State Harrisburg CS, Math, and EE/EET students who volunteered as judges.

Patriot News Coverage of the Competition

Photo Album of the Competition in the Sentinel Newspaper

For information about past and future competitions, please visit the competition website.

Students Meet Nobel Prize Laureate John C. Mather

Members of the Penn State Harrisburg ACM Club went to the 2012 IEEE SmartTech Conference in Baltimore, Maryland.  In addition to talks on cybersecurity, a highlight of the trip was meeting Dr. John C. Mather, Nobel Prize in Physics laureate.

Star Maps

Output of Star Maps created by CMPSC 122 students, Steven Erb, Isaac Polinsky, Jeremy Saylor, and Gal Yaroslavsky.

Inspired by "Nifty Assignment: Star Charts and Constellations," by Prof. Karen Reid, University of Toronto.

Fractal Art

Students, in CMPSC 462: Data Structures, recently wrote programs that used recursive functions to generate variations of famous fractals. The programs generated these images by writing PostScript code, and, therefore, this approach is an example of metaprogramming in which a program writes another program.   Here is a small collection of their art.

Variation of a Sierpinksi Carpet - Aymen Ben Salah

Pythagorean Tree in Summer - David Solares

Pythagorean Tree in Fall - Dmitri Petanov

T-Square in Blank and White - Matthew Bretz

Multi-colored T-Square - Josh Pavoncello

Pythagorean Tree in Spring - Tanner Shaub

Barnsley Fern - Tyler Brown

Leaning Pythagorean Tree - Veronica Hull

Barnsley Fern in Fall - Travis Stodter

Press and Journal Publishes an Article on Euclid Project

The Press and Journal published an article on the Euclid project led by Dr. Boman.  Undergraduate students Siddharth Dahiya, Tyler Brown, Alexandra Milbrand, Viplav Patel, and graduate student Joseph Roberge have been working with Dr. Boman to visualize as a graph the inter-connections between Euclid's theorems.

"An Afternoon with Euler" Talk by William Dunham

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

“An Afternoon with Euler”
By William Dunham
Koehler Professor of Mathematics Muhlenberg College

Wednesday, 17 October 2012 244E Olmstead Building at 6pm

NOTE: This talk is accessible to anyone who has seen calculus.

About the Talk:

“Among history’s greatest mathematicians is Leonhard Euler (1707-1783), the Swiss genius who produced an astonishing 25,000 pages of pure and applied mathematics over his long and illustrious career.

In this talk, we sketch Euler’s life and describe a few of his contributions to number theory, algebra, and other branches of mathematics. Then we examine a particular derivation: his proof of “Euler’s Identity” using integral calculus. The argument is short and (yes) a bit strange, but it perfectly illustrates Euler’s mathematical brilliance.

Condorcet, in his Eulogy to Euler, wrote that “All mathematicians now alive are his disciples.” This talk should make it clear that Condorcet’s words are as true today as when first set down, over two centuries ago.”

Biography:

“William Dunham, who received his B.S. (1969) from the University of Pittsburgh and his M.S. (1970) and Ph.D.(1974) from Ohio State, is the Truman Koehler Professor of Mathematics at Muhlenberg College.

Dunham’s expository writing has been recognized by the MAA with the George Pólya Award in 1993, the Trevor Evans Award in 1997 and 2008, the Lester R. Ford Award in 2006, and the Beckenbach Prize in 2008. The Association of American Publishers designated The Mathematical Universe as the Best Mathematics Book of 1994.”

FOOD WILL BE PROVIDED!

If you have any questions regarding the talk to be done by Dr William Dunham, please contact Viplav Patel at vnp5004@psu.edu or Dr Boman at ecb5@psu.edu. 

Metaprogramming to Create PostScript Art

Students, in CMPSC 122: Intermediate Programming, recently wrote c++ programs in order to output PostScript code in order to create patterns from lines and circles.  This approach is an example of metaprogramming in which a program writes another program.

Optical Illusion, by Thomas Dippolito (CMPSC 122)

Multi-Colored Disks, by Gal Yaroslavsky (CMPSC 122)
Gal used multiple lines to create the multicolored disks.

Bulls-Eye, by Jeremy Saylor (CMPSC 122)

Master's Thesis Defense: Fast Skeletonization of Blood Vessels

You are invited to attend Aaron Croasmun's Master's Thesis defense on Friday, October 5th at 10am.  The defense will be held in Olmsted W209.  Details about Aaron's thesis can be found below.

Title:  Fast Skeletonization of Blood Vessels

Author:  Aaron Croasmun

Thesis Adviser:  Sukmoon Chang, Ph.D.

Abstract

The study of the morphological and rheological behaviors of intramural vessels plays a critical role in various clinical applications such as surgical planning and radiotherapy. To better understand the rheological behavior of vascular structures in relation to the network morphology, we must obtain the concrete measurements of the morphometric parameters of the vascular networks under various conditions. Morphometric parameters of the networks include vessel diameter, branching points, branch end points, branch length, and branching angles. Because of the complexity of blood vessel morphology, however, it is diffi cult to obtain accurate measurements. In this thesis, we present a novel and effi cient method for skeletonization of intramural vessel networks. The proposed method automatically skeletonizes the vascular network in a given image and constructs a graph structure that represents the branching structures of the network. Since the method processes a given image as a whole, the multiple vascular networks present in the image are automatically detected and skeletonized simultaneously. Moreover, since the skeletons are represented as graph structures, various morphometric parameters can be obtained automatically. We present the promising results of the proposed method applied to the complex structure of retinal vessel networks.

Programming Contest Announcement - Funding and Prizes Available (Part of the IEEEXtreme Programming Contest)

The IEEE PACE (Professional Activities Committees for Engineers) and Region 2 Susquehanna Section is sponsoring a section-wide contest as part of the IEEEXtreme 6.0, which is being held on October 20, 2012.  IEEEXtreme is a global challenge in which teams of IEEE student members – advised and proctored by an IEEE member – compete in a 24-hour time span against each other to solve a set of programming problems.  This contest is geographically spread out - you can create a competition site at your own institution.  Also, students do not need to stay up the entire time.  They leave the competition site to rest, and then return when they would like to continue.

For more information on the contest please visit the website: http://www.ieee.org/membership_services/membership/students/competitions/xtreme/index.html

The section is providing prize money for top teams and money for food for participants.  This is a "distributed" competition, in that we envision that students will compete at sites in their own schools.  The prizes will be awarded as follows:

• $100 per member of the first place team in the Section*
• $75 per member of the second place team in the Section*
• $50 per member of the third place team in the Section*

* Only teams participating from schools in the IEEE Region 2 Susquehanna Section are eligible for these prizes.  In addition, to be eligible, the teams must be registered with the Section by October 13th.  The rankings of teams will be based on the official results announced at the IEEEXtreme website.  Prizes will be awarded after the official results are posted.  Only one team per school is eligible for prizes, i.e. if two teams from U of Alice score highest, followed by a team from Bob College and one from Chuck U, the top team from U of Alice will be awarded the first prize, the team from Bob College will be awarded second prize, and the team from Chuck U will be awarded third prize.  The Executive Committee of the Susquehanna Section reserves the right to amend the rules as it deems necessary.  Decisions by the Executive Committee are final.

In addition, the Section is also making available a limited amount of funding for food for participants.  On a first-come basis, the section will provide up to $25 per contestant for food during the contest, with a limit of nine contestants per institution.  This funding is limited to the first 39 contestants that are registered.

Registration Details

If you are a Penn State Harrisburg graduate or undergraduate student interested in competing, please send an email to  jjb24@psu.edu.

In order to register a team from another school for the contest, please send the following information to Jeremy Blum, Treasurer of the Susquehanna Section, at jjb24@psu.edu:

Team Name
College/University Name
Student Names
Proctor's Name
How many of students and proctors are new IEEE members
Contact Name
Contact Email Address
Contact Address (where prizes would be sent for distribution to the students)

In addition, after the contest for each site, the contact provided at the time of registration will be asked to provide the following information:  Number of volunteers other than the proctor who assisted in the contest at that site, with counts for how many of the volunteers are IEEE members and how many are not.

If your school's teams register with the Section in time to be eligible for funding for food, you will send either an invoice or receipts to Jeremy Blum within 30 days of the contest.  You will be sent a check for the amount of the invoice or the receipts, up to the limit that was allocated for your school.

If you have any questions, please contact Jeremy Blum at jjb24@psu.edu.  Please also forward this announcement to others that you think would be interested.

New Research on Old Subject Draws Interest

Reposted from the Penn State Harrisburg News Archive.

Students are creating software to display the logical connections between the theorems of The Elements, a discourse on geometry.

Students at Penn State Harrisburg are gaining national attention from research they hope will bring new insights to the age-old study of geometry.

The group is creating software that displays the logical connections between the theorems of The Elements, the oldest written discourse on the study of geometry. The students are the first to extensively display these relationships using a visual technique, according to Dr. Eugene Boman, associate professor of mathematics, who is overseeing the project.

Siddharth Dahiya, of Camp Hill, and Tyler Brown, of Elizabethtown, both computer science and mathematical sciences double majors, received a Penn State Summer Discovery Grant for the project. The students, including Joseph Roberge, a graduate student in the Computer Science program, also received funding from Pi Mu Epsilon, the national mathematics honor society, and the college’s Mathematical Sciences program to complete their work, which began at the beginning of the year. Students Alexandra Milbrand, a mathematical sciences major, and Viplav Patel, a computer science major, also contributed significantly to the work. The students have presented their research in Madison, Wis. at MathFest, an annual nationwide mathematics conference, and at the regional Student Mathematics Conference at Moravian College, and will present at the Eastern Pennsylvania and Delaware sectional meeting of the Mathematical Association of America this fall.

The Elements, written in about 300 BC by Greek mathematician Euclid, begins by introducing five basic postulates, or foundational laws, that serve as the building blocks for later theorems. The students have gone through The Elementstheorem by theorem, mapped out the connections between them, and written the software that displays these connections in a visual and interactive form.

“I’m very proud of the progress [the students] have made,” said Boman. “Last January we started with nothing but an idea and now we have a fairly sophisticated piece of software that displays Euclid’s work in a completely original manner. Every colleague I’ve shown this to has been impressed, and we’re not finished with it yet.”

The software can be altered to display the connections of any set of interconnected ideas, according to Boman, who said the program can be generalized for applications in industry as well as in science and mathematics.

Integrated Undergraduate-Graduate Program in Computer Science

Integrated Undergraduate-Graduate Program in Computer Science:  Earn both a Bachelor's and Master's Degree in five years.

The Computer Science Integrated Undergraduate-Graduate (IUG) Program offers a limited number of academically superior Bachelor of Science candidates the opportunity to enroll in an integrated, continuous program of study leading to both the Bachelor of Science and the Master of Science in Computer Science. The ability to coordinate as well as concurrently pursue the two degree programs enables the student to earn the two degrees in five years.

As many as 12 of the credits required for the master's degree may be applied to both undergraduate and graduate degree programs. A minimum of 50 percent of the courses proposed to count for both degrees must be at the 500 level. Thesis credits may not be double counted.

Students have the choice of receiving the BS degree at the end of the fourth year or waiting until the end of the fifth year to receive both degrees. 

See the IUG page on the CS Program website for more information. 

Master's Thesis Defense: "SALIENT: Stochastic, Adaptive Latency Improvement for Event Notification Trees"

You are invited to attend Jason Long's Master's Thesis defense on Friday, September 7th at 2pm.  The defense will be held in Olmsted W231.  Details about Jason's thesis can be found below.

Title:  SALIENT: Stochastic, Adaptive Latency Improvement for Event Notification Trees

Author:  Jason Long

Thesis Adviser:  Jeremy Blum, D.Sc.

Abstract

A challenge in massively multiplayer online games (MMOGs) 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 broadcast the events to other peers. This paper describes and evaluates a new algorithm, Stochastic, Adaptive Latency Improvement for Event Notification Trees (SALIENT). SALIENT provides for the efficient broadcast of event dissemination in peer-to-peer MMOGs through a distributed algorithm for constructing and maintaining a peer-to-peer broadcast tree.

SALIENT consists of am MMOG event dissemination model requiring a zone coordinator to be chosen from all participants. Each participant sends their event data to that zone coordinator for the zone coordinator to serialize and then broadcast through a broadcast tree to all participants.

The aim of SALIENT is to decrease the experienced average latency of all participants. In order to accomplish this goal, SALIENT employs a number of independent mechanisms that work over time to incrementally make improvements to the structure of the broadcast tree. SALIENT incorporates randomized algorithms to continually explore alternate tree structures that might reduce average latency and evaluate those alternate tree structures. When an improved structure is found, SALIENT adopts the new structure.

SALIENT was found to greatly reduce experienced latency, typically as much as 30-50% reduction in event delays, as compared to a simple base case where the broadcast tree is randomly assembled. In addition, SALIENT has bandwidth management strategies that help increase the number of nodes that can be supported for nodes with very limited bandwidth. Compared to a base case where a flat broadcast tree is used and can only support 12 participants in total, SALIENT allows 60 or more participants to be supported.

Chancellor’s Award for Graduating Seniors from Penn State

Graduating seniors from Penn State Harrisburg can receive a Chancellor’s Award in the amount of $1000 for the first year in a graduate program at the college.  This award is also available to graduating seniors from six other Penn State Commonwealth campuses.

Penn State Harrisburg is known for its small class size, strong sense of community, and close interaction among students and faculty, qualities that are enhanced by the academic resources and reputation of a major research university.  We are committed to providing intellectual challenges and broad social experiences in a supportive environment where students realize their full potential.  The Chancellor’s Award demonstrates our interest in having our undergraduates join our learning community for a graduate education.

To receive this award, graduating seniors must submit a graduate application prior to July 1, 2012.  If admitted into the program selected, the award will be added to the student’s account at that time, and applied as $500 per semester. (Please note that if receiving a graduate assistantship, one will become ineligible for the Chancellor’s Award.) If you have questions about the award, please contact Robert Coffman, director of enrollment management, at 717-948-6250.

Johnson & Johnson Talk on Project Management

Penn State Harrisburg Career Services and the IST, ACM, and IT Clubs of Penn State Harrisburg
invite you to attend an event featuring:

Bill Bradley
Director, Johnson & Johnson

speaking on

Project Manangement

Mr. Bradley has had extensive experience managing large programs and projects throughout his career in Information Technology at J&J. Join us to hear about these experiences and learn how what you are learning in class directly relates to projects in the corporate environment!

Date: Tuesday April 24, 2011
Time: 12:00 PM – 1:00 P.M.
Location: E330 Olmsted

Jason Jones and Mary Constantine Honored at Student Awards Ceremony

Graduating seniors Jason Jones and Mary Constantine were honored at Penn State Harrisburg's Student Awards Ceremony on April 20, 2012.  Jason Jones received the Computer Science Outstanding Student Award.  Mary Constantine received the Mathematics Outstanding Student Award.  The students won the awards based on their overall academic performance.  

Math Club Talk: "What do those engineers do?"

This Tuesday April 17 at noon in TL 128, the Math Club is hosting the talk "What do those engineers do?" by Dr. Jim Davis of the University of Richmond. Dr. Davis has done research in the area of mathematical coding theory, including some research in connection with the technology company Hewlett-Packard. A brief abstract is listed below. Free food and drinks will be provided. I hope to see you there.

Abstract: Based on a sabbatical experience at Hewlett-Packard, I will describe some of the math I used to implement a wireless transmission scheme in the mid 1990s. This talk is rated G, meaning that anyone who has completed a high school trigonometry course will be able to understand the talk.

Calculus: The Musical

You are invited to attend the show "Calculus: The Musical," hosted by the Penn State Harrisburg Math Club. The show will be held on Thursday, April 19th, from 12-1 in the Community Center. Admission is free. Donations will be accepted for the Math Club Recycled Textbook Foundation.

You can view more information about the show here.

Students apply skills in programming competition

Check out the news item from the Penn State Harrisburg website about our recent programming competition.

SSET Seminar Series: Towards an Enhanced Software Safety

All faculty and students are invited!
Light lunch will be served.

Presented by Dr. Omar El Ariss, Assistant Professor of Computer Science
Date: Monday March 19, 2012, 12:00 to 1:00 PM
Room: E253 Olmsted

Abstract: Functional modeling and safety analysis are two important aspects of safety-critical systems. However, they are often conducted separately. Software vulnerabilities due to design errors, inconsistencies, incompleteness, and missing constraints can lead to hazards and safety failures. Our aim as Software Engineers is to design software that delivers correct services and evades faults that are capable of altering the behavior of the system, thus causing unwarranted side effects. This talk will focus on improving the quality of software by clearly defining and understanding safety concerns as the software is being designed. We will explore how the fault trees can be designed modularly and dynamically through the use of components and reusability.

Career Connections with the PA Dept. of Labor & Industry

Tuesday, March 13 at noon, in room E334.

Meet Sue Zehner, Recruiter with Labor & Industry, and learn about applying for information technology opportunities with the state of PA. They are recruiting for application developer positions, among others. Open to all students. Presented by the IT club and the Career Services Office.

Government Job and Internship Fair

Penn State Harrisburg’s Career Services office is hosting a Federal, State and Local Government Job and Internship Mini-Fair, Thursday, March 1, 2012, in the Olmsted Building. The event takes place from 10 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. in the Gallery Lounge.

Participating Organizations
AES / PHEAA
AOPC
Board of Probation and Parole
Bureau of Disability Determination
Bureau of Juvenile Justice -South Mountain Secure Treatment Unit
Cumberland County Juvenile Probation Office
Dauphin County Personnel
Department of Agriculture
Department of Conservation and Natural Resources
Department of Corrections
Department of Environmental Protection - Human Resources
Department of Labor & Industry
Department of Transportation
Harrisburg Semester Internship and Seminar Program - PSU
Letterkenny Army Depot
NAVSUP
NAVSUP- Bus. Enterprise
Office of Administration, Budget
Office of Administration, Office of Information Technology
Pennsylvania Capitol Police
Pennsylvania House of Representatives Archives
Pennsylvania House of Rep., Bipartisan Management Committee
Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission
Pennsylvania State Police
State Civil Service Commission
Victim Services of Cumberland County

2012 Penn State Harrisburg Programming Competition Results

The results of the 2012 Penn State Harrisburg Programming Competition are in. Thirty-five students participated in the contest, attempting to solve as many problems as possible in two hours. The problem set consisted of five challenging problems, and the solutions had to produce an exact copy of the expected output for a large number of tests, subject to constraints on running time, memory use, and coding standards.

The first place finishers in each category will receive a $100 prize, with a $50 prize for second place, and a $25 prize for third place. The top three finishers for the two categories are as follows:

Undergraduate Students
First Place: John Seaman
Second Place: Armand Soulliard
Third Place: Sylar Jesse

Graduate Students
First Place: Jason Long
Second Place: Yi Deng
Third Place: Christopher Jackson

In the Undergraduate Student category, the second and third place finishes were very close. Armand Soulliard and Skylar Jesse both answered the same number of questions correctly, with the tie being broken only by the total time taken to answer the questions.

In the Graduate Student category, there was a three-way tie for second place that had to be broken by the total submission time. Yi Deng, Christopher Jackson, and Allen Brubaker all answered the same number of questions correctly.

In a very impressive showing, Jason Long, the first-place graduate student, answered all questions with 15 minutes left in the competition.

Penn State Harrisburg Students Speak at the Moravian College Student Mathematics Conference

On Saturday February 18, several members of the Penn State Harrisburg Math Club, along with Dr. Boman and Dr. Walker, attended the Moravian College Student Mathematics Conference. The keynote speaker, Laura Taalman, gave a talk on the many mathematical problems regarding the design of sudoku puzzles and their many related variants. A variety of talks by students across the region were given over the morning and afternoon. One of the concluding presentations was given by Penn State Harrisburg students Joe Roberge, Tyler Brown, and Siddharth Dahiya, who spoke on their ongoing work in mapping out the dependencies of Euclid’s The Elements and creating a graphical utility to display this structure.

More pictures from the event are available at the PSH Math and Computer Science Facebook Page.

Penn State Harrisburg Forming Teams for the Dickinson Programming Competition

Penn State Harrisburg will be sending two (or if there is room three) teams to the Dickinson Programming Contest on Saturday March 24th, 2012. If you are interested in competing, please send an email to Dr. Blum as soon as possible.

Contest Details

Date: Saturday March 24th, 2012

Time: 11:00am - 5:30pm

Prizes: Individual and Team prizes for the top 3 teams.

Location: Tome Hall
Dickinson College
Carlisle, PA 17013

Directions: http://www.dickinson.edu/academics/programs/mathematics-and-computer-science/content/Driving-Directions/

Parking: There is parking behind Tome Hall and also directly across the street. There is also limited on street parking available. The lots indicate faculty parking only. However, this restriction is not enforced on weekends.

OS: Macintosh OS X (10.6.8)

Languages:
C/C++ (i686-apple-darwin10-gcc-4.2.1)
Java (1.6.0_22)

Editors:
emacs (22.1.1)
pico/nano (2.0.6)
vi/vim (7.2.108)
Xcode (3.2.6)
TextEdit (1.6)
BlueJ (2.5.3)
Eclipse (3.5.2)

Reference:
Students may use any printed references that they bring with them.
In addition teams will be permitted to access the following web sites:
http://download.oracle.com/javase/6/docs/api/index.html
www.cppreference.com
www.cplusplus.com/reference/

Schedule:
11:00-11:30 Registration
11:30-12:15 Introduction & Practice Problem
12:15-1:00 Lunch (Food & Beverage Provided)
1:00-5:00 Contest
5:30 Awards

Penn State Harrisburg Hosts MATHCOUNTS

On February 4th, Penn State Harrisburg hosted students from 16 area schools for the 28th annual MATHCOUNTS competition. The competition is part of a nationwide program that each year challenges more than 500,000 sixth, seventh, and eight-grade students. MATHCOUNTS builds mathematics skills, promotes strategic problem solving, and instructs students in dealing with complex problems. The regional event is administered by the Harrisburg Chapter of the Society of Professional Engineers, and spurs interest in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM)-related careers.

Pictured above Penn State Harrisburg Math and CS student volunteers who helped make MATHCOUNTS a success: Beverly Brown, Siddharth Dahiya, Tyler Derr, Viplav Patel, and Joseph Roberge.

Career Fair/Interviewing Tips and Federal Internships Workshops

Career Fair Preview And Interviewing Tips
Tues. Feb. 7, 4:30 – 5:20 pm, Lib 304

Ever been to a Career Fair?
Any idea what it will be like or what you should bring?
How do you introduce yourself to a recruiter?

Career Services is offering a brief workshop to help you do your best and prepare for the upcoming Job and Intern Fairs.

For more information, see the Career Calendar at:
http://harrisburg.psu.edu/calendar/event/career-fair-preview-and-preparation

________________________________________

Finding Federal Internships
Wednesday, Feb. 8 at 5:00 p.m. Room E308 Olmsted

This webinar will highlight a number of exciting positions across government, and show you how to research, find and apply for a federal internship that’s right for you.

All majors! All student levels! Everyone can attend!

Check the listing on the Career Services calendar at:
http://harrisburg.psu.edu/calendar/event/finding-federal-internships-webinar

NOTE: Some federal internships have early application deadlines! Don’t delay! Attend this session to learn about various public service options and how to make the most of your federal application.

For further information and to indicate your plans to attend, please contact PSH Career Services, Susquehanna Bldg., 948-6260 or cmg11@psu.edu.

Job/Intern Fairs in February -- Don't miss these opportunities to connect with employers/recruiters!

PSU Spring Career Days (over 250 companies)

Computer and Information Technology, Engineering, Health and Life Sciences, Physical Sciences, and Research Career Day
www.fairs.sa.psu.edu/spring
Tuesday, February 7, 11:00 a.m.-4:00 p.m.
Bryce Jordan Center, University Park
No pre-registration is required; bring your Penn State University Student ID for faster registration at the fair! Enter the BJC through gates A or B.

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PSH Co-sponsored Fairs

Cumberland Valley Consortium (CVC) Job and Internship Fair (over 50 companies) --www.cumberlandvalleyconsortium.com
Wednesday, February 8, 10:00 a.m.-3:00 p.m.
Holiday Inn Conference Center, Frederick, MD

Central Pennsylvania Employment Consortium (CPEC) Job and Internship Fair (over 70 companies) -- www.cpec.info
Thursday, February 16, 10:00 a.m.-3:00 p.m.
Radisson Penn Harris Hotel and Convention Center, Camp Hill, PA

You are not required to pre-register for the CVC and CPEC Fairs, however if you would like to receive a "Helpful Hints" handout to better prepare for the fairs, send an email to Colleen Monismith at cmg11@psu.edu or call 717-948-6260.
Include the following in your email --
• Your full name
• Which of the fairs your are registering for -- CVC, CPEC or Both
• Your major
• Your email address
• Your classification -- freshman, sophomore, junior, senior, or graduate student.

2012 Penn State Harrisburg Programming Competition

The 2012 Penn State Harrisburg Programming Contest will be held on Friday, February 24th, from 4:00-6:00 pm. The contest is open to all current Penn State Harrisburg undergraduate and graduate students.

Thanks to the School of Science, Engineering and Technology, there will be $350 in prizes! The first place undergraduate student and first place graduate student will receive $100 each. The second place undergraduate student and second place graduate student will receive $50 each. The third place undergraduate student and third place graduate student will receive $25 each.

There is no cost to participate, but advance registration is required. The registration deadline is Wednesday, February 22nd.

For more details, visit the contest website at: http://cs.hbg.psu.edu/contest.html.

Sun Lab Refrigerator

Welcome back everyone. At the end of last semester the ACM Club was able to procure a refrigerator for the Sun Labs to sell sodas to raise funds for the ACM. As of today the fridge is stocked! All sodas are 50¢. If we are getting low please let Amanda Minner know so she can restock. Her email address is alw5099 (at) psu (dot) edu.