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Students Awarded R.E. Lee Scholarships for Summer CS Research

Even though classes aren’t in session, W&L CS students and faculty will be collaborating on several projects.

Daniel Thornton ’10 will be working with Dr. Simon Levy on a custom-built robot platform to implement the visual map-seeking circuit (MSC) algorithm for real-time robot navigation. This is the first time that anyone has attempted to apply the MSC algorithm to this task, so it looks Daniel has a challenging summer ahead!

Will Richardson ’11 will be working under the direction of ProfessorsTom Whaley and Frank Settle to develop a searchable website that indexes online resources on nuclear energy. This website will be an important component of the National Energy Education Development project headed by Dr. Frank Settle of Washington and Lee and Dr. Charles Ferguson of the Council on Foreign Relations and funded by Mr. Gerry Lenfest. The website will be used by middle school, high school, and college educators as well as the general public. Will’s work will include design and implementation of a database for the backend of the system as well as the user interface and search engine. This work will be done with input from educators from the target audience. Last summer Will developed a prototype that was well received and led to the current project.

Camille Cobb ’12 and Carrie Hopkins ’12 will be working with Dr. Sara Sprenkle on automating the web application testing process. To supplement their R.E. Lee Scholarships, Carrie and Camille were selected to participate in the CRA-W‘s Distributed Research Experiences for Undergraduates program. Camille, Carrie, and Prof Sprenkle will be traveling to the University of Delaware to collaborate with Dr. Lori Pollock on their research.

In addition, Camille was awarded a Summer Undergraduate Science Research Fellowship from the Virginia Foundation for Independent Colleges

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CS Students Present at SSA

Nine students presented their computer science projects at SSA, the W&L student research conference.

Two groups of students gave presentations. Senior Alex Jackson presented his research on “Parallel Computing in the Python Programming Language”, while Junior Bena Tshishiku, Sophomores Jack Ivy and Will Richardson, and first-year Eric Gehman presented their SLogo project, from the CS209: Software Development course.

The SLogo team presented their application in the morning.
The SLogo team (Jack, Eric, Bena, and Will) presented their application in the morning.
A Screenshot from the SLogo Demo
A Screenshot from the SLogo Demo

Three groups of students presented posters.

Anne presents Duo to a fellow student
Senior Anne Van Devender presents her pair-programming tool, Duo, to another student
Nicole and Josiah pose for the camera
Senior Nicole Carter and junior Josiah Davis presented their Web-based Symbolic Logic Tutorial.
Sophomore Lucy Simko presented her research on automatically generating test cases for web applications.
Sophomore Lucy Simko presents her work on automatically generating test cases for web applications

Video: Nicole and Josiah discuss their Symbolic Logic Tutorial Web Applications
Video: Lucy discusses her web application testing project

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Van Devender Awarded NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship

Senior computer science major Anne Van Devender was recently awarded an NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship to pursue her Ph.D. in Computer Science. The scholarship provides $7500 for one year of school.

The W&L News Story

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Two Computer Science Majors Inducted into Phi Beta Kappa

Today, senior Anne Van Devender and junior Josiah Davis were inducted into the Phi Beta Kappa National Academic Honor Society. Anne and Josiah join senior Mariya Miteva, who was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa last year. Today’s convocation featured an inspiring speech from Steven Squyres, who talked about the adventures of working on the Mars Rovers, Spirit and Opportunity.

Congratulations, Anne and Josiah!

The W&L News Story

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CS Students Win Conference Travel Scholarships

Seniors Nicole Carter and Anne Van Devender were recently awarded scholarships to attend conferences.

Nicole Carter will be attending the Richard Tapia Celebration of Diversity in Computing in Portland, OR in April. The conference focuses on students from under-represented groups in computing, supporting students through special mentoring sessions and providing them with networking opportunities.

Anne Van Devender will be attending CHI–the premier computer-human interaction conference–in Boston in April. Anne will learn about cutting-edge research with help from funding awarded by the ACM-W.

Congratulations, Anne and Nicole!

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CS Students to Present @ SSA

Science, Society, and the Arts (http://ssa.wlu.edu) conference has been scheduled for FEBRUARY 27, 2009. Computer Science students will be presenting as follows:

8:30 a.m. – 10:30 a.m., Poster Session I
Location: Science Center Great Hall
“Duo: An Integrated Development Environment Designed for Pair Programming”
Anne Van Devender

“Web-based Logic Tutorial”
Nicole Carter and Josiah Davis

8:30 a.m. – 10:00 a.m., Studies in Math, Computer Science and Science
Location: Reid Hall 111
“Parallel Computing in the Python Programming Language”
Alexander Jackson

“SLogo Drawing Software”
Eric Gehman, John Ivy, William Richardson, Bena Tshishiku

2:30 p.m. – 4:30 p.m., Poster Session II
Location: Science Center Great Hall
“An Empirical Study of Statistical Data Models for Effective Automated Testing of Web Applications”
Lucy Simko

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Anne Van Devender Teaches Middle School Girls

841300191Senior Anne Van Devender teaches girls from Maury River Middle School Computer Science.  As a member of WITS (Women in Technology and Science),  Anne introduced the girls to the basics of HTML through creating their own web pages.

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T-Shirt Design Competition

The Computer Science Department is having a t-shirt design competition!

Rules (subject to change):

  • short or long-sleeve t-shirt
  • one color printed on a solid color t-shirt
  • options for printing are front/back/sleeve (probably only 2 of those 3)
  • keep it clean!

Submission (subject to change): Send the images (in some commonly used format, like jpg, png, tiff) to Derek Pinkham (pinkhamd@wlu.edu)   Include explanation, if necessary, such as which image is on the front and which is on the back.

Please let us know if you have any other ideas/suggestions.  You’ve been coming up with some great ones!

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HCI REU Program

The Human Computer Interaction Graduate Program at Iowa State University hosts a summer Undergraduate Research Experience, sponsored by the National Science Foundation. This is a ten week internship where students take short courses in HCI and work in interdisciplinary teams on research projects. Housing and meals are provided, as well as a stipend. More information about this program can be found at http://www.hci.iastate.edu/REU/

The application deadline is February 15, 2009.

Note that the program starts May 27, which may cause a problem with your spring courses.