IMPORTANT Advising Information for SWENG Students

Attention Software Engineering Students:

–          CMPSC 431 is NOT a prerequisite for SWENG 431

–          Prerequisite for SWENG 431 is STAT 301

–          Either CMPSC 431 or MIS 336 can be taken to satisfy the degree

–          Since CMPSC 431 and MIS 336 are full, please take MIS 336 in Spring 2018, unless you need the course to graduate in Fall 2017.

If you have any questions, please contact Dr. Su or your adviser.

Thank you,

Caitlyn Catalfu

Administrative Support Assistant

School of Engineering

Penn State Behrend

CSSE students continue winning honors in HackPSU

A group of our ACM students had participated in the Hackathon organized by University park last Saturday (April 8th). The group won one of the challenges. Below are some details. 

Project:    Convoke

An application integrating the Canvas course system with the Amazon Echo. You can request your current grades in your classes, ask for the grade a specific class. Find out all upcoming assignments or ask for upcoming assignments in for a specific class.

This project won the “Jetbrains | Best Java Hack” challenge

Group Members(from left to right in the picture):    Appa Hardner,  Ryan Seipp, Matthew Benkart and Corey Zalewski

Play video game made by engineering students

Students from the GAME 480 Game Development Senior Project course have released a trailer for their new game: Escargo: The Great Snail Escape.

On Thursday April 20 at 5pm, come to Burke 152 to play their game. Open to the public. All are welcome.

Game credits: Daria Cook, Josh Dickey, J. Appa Hardner, Ryan Kelley, Greg Louchart, Mike Ragaini, Rachel Rattay

A Scholarship Opportunity

Bill & Diane Barley and Sam & Valerie Krauss and John J. Cahir
2017-2018 Achievers’ Scholarships

The Office of Undergraduate Education will award eleven students the Bill and Diane Barley and Sam and Valerie Krauss and John J. Cahir Achievers’ Scholarships in the amount of $1,000 each for the 2017-2018 academic year. Units are eligible on a rotating basis to select one scholarship recipient. Those eligible for 2017-18 are:

College of Earth and Mineral Sciences
College of Arts and Architecture
Smeal College of Business
College of Engineering
College of the Liberal Arts
College of Nursing
Penn State Abington
Penn State Altoona
Penn State Beaver
Penn State Berks
Penn State Behrend

Each college and campus should identify one student. Recipients must be full-time students and may be an incoming or current first-year student or current sophomore. Selection of recipients must be based upon the following guidelines:
1. Evidence of leadership engagement in high school and college
2. Service to others
3. Employment experience, presumably contributing toward the costs of education
4. Academic achievement, considered in the context of well-rounded civic leadership and work engagement leading to an earned or predicted GPA within the range of 2.5 and 3.2

Note that the donors’ intent is to recognize students whose contributions to others, community leadership, and employment towards their own education are considered elements of a well rounded individual and just as important as GPA, hence the focus on students who are not in the first tier of academic performance and therefore may not be eligible for other awards.

Selections must be made and submitted by Friday, May 19, 2017.

CSSE students, please contact CSSE faculty for the application.

Our students ROCK in Hackathons

Our ACM chapter students had participated in two hackathons that were organized by RIT in February. They did really well. Below is a summery of their accomplishments.

1. Brickhack at RIT February 11-12 (https://brickhack.io/)

Won: #HackHarassment

They developed Omniclad, it is designed to be a chat bot/moderator running in Discord to create streamlined communication and to eliminate bullying and harassment. Omniclad uses Microsoft Cognitive Services API to power the functionalities it was created for. It uses the Microsoft Azure services provided to function with machine learning, integrates translating of various world languages straight into Discord, and the filter feature screens for racy, adult, NSFW content and removes such content.

2. WiCHacks (Women in Computing Hackathon) at RIT Feb 25-26 (http://wic-hacks.rit.edu/)

Members who attended: Rachel Rattay, Allison Steinmetz, Katie Chuzie, Karlene McCleary, Alexa Foo

Won: Most Novel (each member received an Amazon Echo Dot and MLH medal) and Best Domain Name (each member received a domain.com gift bag)

They developed “KickHerassment” a workplace harassment simulation to bring awareness to types of harassment that have been recently brought into light at companies such as Uber

Picture: The team alongside the CEO and Cofounder of the Major League of Hacking who presented us our awards

Students at the Game Developers Conference 2017

Eight engineering students went to the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco from February 27 to March 3. The Game Developers Conference is the world’s largest professional interactive games and virtual reality event attracting over 27,000 attendees a year. The students are enrolled in the course GAME 495 and are working towards a minor in Game Development at Behrend.

Undergraduate Student Academic Year Grants (Electronic Submission Procedure)

CSSE students, please notify this opportunity and talk to us about it. – Dr. Su

Proposals for the Penn State Behrend Undergraduate Student Summer Research Fellowship are due electronically on Friday, April 14, 2017. Grants up to $1,000 are available for Penn State Behrend majors.  

Proposals must be uploaded at https://secure2.bd.psu.edu/index.php?q=student-grant using the Word document template.  Links to the proposal requirements and the proposal template can be found on that page.  Proposals may be uploaded by the faculty mentor or the student.  

Erie Hack – Water Innovation Competition

 

Kick-off party for this at Radius CoWork today at 5pm for the Erie Hack water innovation competition

Look at this:   

http://eriehack.io/challenge/

  • Summary: Teams compete with their solutions to the water related challenges listed in the website above.
  • The timeline is short, but they don’t expect perfection. They’re offering incubation as a part of the rewards, so further development and implementation can proceed.
  • Five people on a team. No age/student/professional restrictions.
  • Innovation Commons will offer itself as a resource for the competing Erie teams and as an incubation site for the Behrend teams as they develop their plans.
  • Wide range of skill sets are relevant.
  • Prizes are substantial.

A kick-off party for this event (http://eriehack.io/challenge/) is coming up on March 1st at Radius CoWork, downtown, see below. Teams do NOT need to be formed to attend. Part of the purpose of the kick-off is team building. I will be there. If they haven’t already heard about this, I would expect some students and professors to be interested given the wide scope of the challenges. Innovation Commons can serve as a location for any Behrend teams to work on their plans while they compete, and the Commons will be offering itself as a resource for any Erie teams that are in need of its capabilities. The kick-off is not required for competition, but I recommend interested students/professors/whoever to go. There’s really a play for a large number of skill sets here.