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.

ACM Club Visits Silicon Valley

Over Thanksgiving break, the ACM club visited Sillicon Valley. Their trip included tours of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, the Intel Museum, and Google, among others. Pictures from the trip are available on the Math and CS program Facebook page.

Bulgarian Solitaire & Garden of Eden Partitions

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

Title: Bulgarian Solitaire & Garden of Eden Partitions
Speaker: Dr. James Sellers
Date/Time: Thursday, December 1, 6-7 pm
Location: TL 128, Science and Technology Building, Penn State Harrisburg

We consider a game closely related to partitions known as Bulgarian Solitaire which was popularized in the early 1980s in Scientific American by Martin Gardner. We will briefly discuss a few results proven about this game around the time of the appearance of Gardner's article. We will then quickly turn to a question recently posed by Brian Hopkins and Michael Jones about finding an exact formula for the number of Garden of Eden partitions (which are closely associated with Bulgarian solitaire and which I will define in the talk). I will prove such an exact formula which was developed a few years ago when I first met Brian Hopkins and learned of this problem. The talk will be completely self-contained and the proof of the main result will follow in an elementary fashion from Dyson's generating function for the number of partitions of n with fixed rank r.

Accessible to a wide ranging audience, from undergraduate students to faculty members.

The Dirichlet Problem for Various Types of Boundaries and Boundary Data

Presented by: Dr. Ronald Walker, Assistant Professor of Mathematics

Date/Time: Thursday, November 17, 2011, 12:00 to 1:00 PM
Location: W212 Olmsted

All faculty and students are invited!
We look forward to see you…
Light sandwiches & refreshments will be served.

Abstract: The Dirichlet problem is a classic boundary value problem in partial differential equations. Given continuous boundary data, Dirichlet solutions are guaranteed to exist and to be unique for a broad class of domains. Also it is known that if the domain is the unit disk (or more generally an ellipse), then polynomial boundary data will yield polynomial Dirichlet solutions. In this talk, we will explore several generalizations and variations of this latter result, such as cases where the boundary data is rational or entire, or over other domains.

Faculty Seminar Series: Computer Security Threats to Critical Infrastructure

You are invited to attend the following seminar.

Title: Computer Security Threats to Critical Infrastructure
Speaker: Dr. Jeremy Blum
Date/Time: Wednesday, Nov. 16, 12:00-1:30
Location: Gallery Lounge, Olmsted Building, Penn State Harrisburg

Synopsis:

Computer security attacks against critical infrastructure present a significant and growing global threat. This talk will focus in particular on the threats to the nation's power grid. Using anecdotal evidence and recent survey data, this talk will begin by providing an overview of the current threat landscape. Then, the talk will present current research at Penn State Harrisburg on the development of honeypot systems to mitigate the threat of computer security attacks on substation automation equipment.

Penn State Harrisburg Team Places Third in Site at ACM Regional Programming Contest

Penn State Harrisburg students Christopher Jackson, Jason Jones, and John Seaman placed third in site at the Shippensburg University site of the ACM Regional Programming Contest. Their team, Super Mega Death Worm, competed against more than 20 teams, including from as far away as Washington and Lee in Virginia. Congratulations!

If you are interested in participating in future programming contests, please let Dr. Blum know. Penn State Harrisburg will be holding an individual programming contest and will be sending teams to the Dickinson College contest in the Spring.

IEEEXtreme Programming Contest Recap

Penn State Harrisburg hosted 14 students on five teams competing in the IEEEXtreme 24-hour programming contest. This year more than 4000 undergraduate and graduate students participated in this world-wide contest, held from 8pm (EDT) Friday October 21 until 8 pm Saturday.

Dickinson College sent one team, called TUX, and Penn State Harrisburg (PSH) fielded four teams. The PSH teams included:

• goto made up of David Sagang and Manik Sinha
  
• PSH1 made up of Siddharth Dahiya, Amanda Minner, and Mandeep Singh
  
• SuperMegaDeathWorm made up of Christopher Jackson, Jason Jones, and John Seaman
  
• Voraciously Boolean made up of Tyler Derr, Viplav Patel, and Brad Steinbacher
  

Despite the grueling nature of the contest, students enjoyed the challenge and the camaraderie. You can see photos from the contest on the PSH Math and CompSci Facebook page.

Congratulations go out to all participants who successfully competed in this grueling contest. Special congratulations to Christopher Jackson, Jason Jones, and John Seaman for coming in first out of all of the PSH teams. In addition, David Sagang, Manik Sinha, and Mandeep Singh deserve endurance awards for staying awake throughout the entire contest.

Special thanks to the IEEE Susquehanna Section for providing food for participants, the Math and Computer Science program at PSH for allowing use of their labs, and Prof. Julie Lobur for proctoring the contest during the graveyard shift.

Penn State Harrisburg and IEEE Susquehanna Section to Sponsor IEEE Xtreme 24-Hour Programming Competition Site

Penn State Harrisburg and the IEEE Susquehanna Section are sponsoring a site for the IEEE Xtreme 24-hour Programming Competition. The competition will run from 8pm Friday, October 21st until 8pm Saturday, October 22nd. Funding for food for participants will be graciously provided by the IEEE Susquehanna Section. A description of the contest follows:

"Think you can code? On 22 October 2011 00:00:00 UTC, you can prove it. The IEEEXtreme Programming Competition 5.0, hosted by IEEE, is an innovative global online competition in which you and a team of up to two other IEEE Student Branch members can test your collective coding expertise simultaneously against other student programmers around the world. Solve and win the world's most Xtreme programming challenge and your team will be able to claim ultimate bragging rights, be recognized as some of the world's top up-and-coming programmers, and win an all-expense-paid trip to the IEEE event or conference of the team's choice – anywhere in the world. Other prizes will include cool gear from our sponsors."

If you are an undergraduate or graduate student interested in participating on a team, please contact Jeremy Blum (jjb24@psu.edu). The deadline for registering for the event is October 7.

We also need IEEE Members to help proctor the event. Please contact Jeremy Blum (jjb24@psu.edu) if you are willing to volunteer for part of the contest.

First ACM Club Meeting

The ACM club is the student-run club for students interested in Computer Science-related topics. The first meeting Thursday, September 1st from 12:30 to 1:15 in Olmsted 210W. We will be discussing some upcoming events and other potentials for the year. These events include programming contests, guest speakers, movies, and a club trip.

One event that is coming up quickly is the Silicon Valley Trip with IEEE from November 19-22nd. If you are, or intend to be, a member of the ACM and are interested in going on the trip, please come to the first meeting. There is funding for 10 students from the ACM club to go on this trip. The funding includes plane tickets, tour cost, hotel, and rental cars. You would only be responsible for paying for meals. Currently, the agenda for the trip includes tours of the IBM Museum, the Intel Museum, Stanford University, and potentially several others.

If you have questions about the club, please email Amanda Minner you can e-mail either Amanda Minner (alw5099 (at) psu (dot) edu) or Tyler Derr (tsd5037 (at) psu (dot) edu).

Computer Science-Related Occupations Projected to be Among Fastest Growing

In projections for 2010-2018, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics found that demand for Computer Scientists will remain strong. According to the report:

Two of the fastest growing detailed occupations are in the computer specialist occupational group. Network systems and data communications analysts are projected to be the second-fastest-growing occupation in the economy. Demand for these workers will increase as organizations continue to upgrade their information technology capacity and incorporate the newest technologies. The growing reliance on wireless networks will result in a need for more network systems and data communications analysts as well. Computer applications software engineers also are expected to grow rapidly from 2008 to 2018. Expanding Internet technologies have spurred demand for these workers, who can develop Internet, intranet, and Web applications.

The top twenty fastest growing occupations are listed in the table below:

Table 1. Occupations with the fastest growth

Occupations	Percent change	Number of new jobs (in thousands)	Wages (May 2008 median)	Education/training category
Biomedical engineers	72	11.6	$ 77,400	Bachelor's degree
Network systems and data communications analysts	53	155.8	71,100	Bachelor's degree
Home health aides	50	460.9	20,460	Short-term on-the-job training
Personal and home care aides	46	375.8	19,180	Short-term on-the-job training
Financial examiners	41	11.1	70,930	Bachelor's degree
Medical scientists, except epidemiologists	40	44.2	72,590	Doctoral degree
Physician assistants	39	29.2	81,230	Master's degree
Skin care specialists	38	14.7	28,730	Postsecondary vocational award
Biochemists and biophysicists	37	8.7	82,840	Doctoral degree
Athletic trainers	37	6.0	39,640	Bachelor's degree
Physical therapist aides	36	16.7	23,760	Short-term on-the-job training
Dental hygienists	36	62.9	66,570	Associate degree
Veterinary technologists and technicians	36	28.5	28,900	Associate degree
Dental assistants	36	105.6	32,380	Moderate-term on-the-job training
Computer software engineers, applications	34	175.1	85,430	Bachelor's degree
Medical assistants	34	163.9	28,300	Moderate-term on-the-job training
Physical therapist assistants	33	21.2	46,140	Associate degree
Veterinarians	33	19.7	79,050	First professional degree
Self-enrichment education teachers	32	81.3	35,720	Work experience in a related occupation
Compliance officers, except agriculture, construction, health and safety, and transportation	31	80.8	48,890	Long-term on-the-job training
SOURCE: BLS Occupational Employment Statistics and Division of Occupational Outlook