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.

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.