Exelon Internship

Congratulations to Mitch Cannon, Junior, Information Technology, on landing the Exelon Internship at the LaSallle County Generating Station.  He passed the initial screening process and then did a phone interview with his soon to be manager, Paul Carlson, USF Information Technology alumnus.   We're looking forward to hearing about the internship.  Great job, Mitch.

On campus job interviews

Simplex Investments is coming on campus the afternoon of Tuesday, April 5th to interview for internships and entry level developer positions.  They also have positions for experienced personnel if any alumni are interested. 

 http://www.simplexinvestments.com/careers/

We’re very excited to have them interviewing on campus and they’re here specifically for Computer Science students.   Kristi Kelly of Career Services, kkelly@stfrancis.edu, is handling the interview schedule.

Opportunities abound

Email has been kept busy early this semester as various opportunities in the Computer Science/Information Technology fields kept cropping up.

Thanks to Paul Carlson, Information Technology alumnus, for contacting us with an internship opportunity at Exelon Corporation for the summers. 

Brian Sharp’s (Computer Science alumnus) company , Bridgepoint Technologies, is looking for experienced Network Techs and Web Designers, (although entry level Web Design will be considered). 

Nestle Purina is looking for new grads and soon-to-be new grads in Computer Science and Information Technology for Information Systems Management Trainee program.

Will County Forest Preserve was looking for an IT person. Joe Bozen of our own IT department hooked us up with that one.

The Illinois Student Assistance Commission is looking for interns in IT.  Thanks to Tim Archer, alumnus and also in our IT department heard about this one.

Bullet Communications was looking for an intern who knew Dreamweaver.  Prof Terre Rosner of the Mass Communications department passed this one along.

If you have missed the emails on any of these opportunities, they’re in the USF Careerlink system.   This system is available to students and alumni.   Here’s the Career Services homepage: https://www.stfrancis.edu/about/employment/career-services/studentsalumni/

If you need help with  the USF Careerlink system, please contact Kristi Kelly of USF Career Services.  Remember this is available for both students and alumni.

If you have other leads you'd like to share, or to talk about some of these postings, please contact Ruth Weldon.

Winter Graduation

Congratulations to our latest Computer Science Department graduates.

For Computer Science we had Larissa Kries, Michael Murray, and Caleb Piggott graduating although they could not make the ceremony.

In Information Technology we were proud to see David Gingerich and Nicholas Morris walk in Commencement exercises.

Our good wishes follow all our latest graduates. Please be sure and stay in touch.

We’ll look to hear from you and all our alumni in April at our annual Alumni Student Networking and Resume Tips meeting.

Christmas and CompSci

It wouldn't be Christmas if we didn't have a Computer Science department get-together.  Save the date Dec 8th, Noon, the Computer Lab A119.

Pizza will be provided, a chance to chat and catch up on the latest happenings in the department.

Mike Dembeck & Rob DeLong will give us the scoop on the wireless communication project they've been working on with USF's IS department.  


So be there for a fun and informative time.  As always alumni and USF staff are always welcome!

Apps, Bernie and WiMax!

There really is an app for that!

Our first Mobile App Programming Seminar was a big hit!   Students from all over the university, alumni, staff, and other schools came together to learn about the wave of the future.  Programming for mobile phones.  Thanks to Sprint and Motorola we already have a jump start with the donation of mobile phones for our testing.   Due to the efforts of Tim Archer, USF Computer Science alumni and Director of Information and Administrative Services here at USF we had a wonderful event.  

Carlo Angelo of Sprint was kind enough to join us and give us a background of the cell phone and insight into the different technologies that we use.  Mr. Angelo let us know why we care about the GSM, WiMax, CDMA.

Tim  introduced the programming concepts behind mobile phones and introduced us to the framework that supports the Droid.   Then it was time for some hands-on work.   A number of participants had agreed to request access to the Google AppInventor project.

This is a programming interface that uses a building blocks approach to creating mobile apps.  The project is currently in a beta status so approval to join the project takes about a week. 

AppInventor Screen

Once a driver is installed on the PC for your phone you can download the AppInventor interface.

Thanks to the efforts of Tim Archer, T.J. Eakle, Computer Science Alumnus and Applications Programmer,  &  Dave Senior Information Technology Alumnus and Microcomputer Support Specialist, and Luis Escorz, Information Technology senior and intern, the computers in the A102 lab were setup to use Google AppInventor and our new donated phones ahead of time.   


With Tim Archer’s expert guidance the participants built their own ‘Pet Bernie’ app.  When the screen with Bernie’s picture on it is touched or shaken, Bernie barks.  As an added bonus, Tim also showed us how to use the bar code scanner logic.

Everyone attending left wanting to come back for more.  So stay tuned for more events this coming Spring.  

And if you want to get set for the future, plan on enrolling in Comp 494 – Programming for the Droid, Fall 2011.  A prerequisite of either Comp 140, Computer Science I (C++) or Comp 253 Java will be needed.  

Tim Archer

Thanks to Tim Archer, Computer Science alumnus and Director of Information and Administrative Services here at USF for coordinating and presenting such a great and successful event.

Here at USF Computer Science we are the sum of our people and we have very good people, indeed!

Game Programming Contest

    
We're delighted to announce our first ever game programming contest.  The University of St. Francis is partnering with Joliet Junior College to offer an opportunity to college and high school students to design and develop their own games.


The computer game must be created using the Game Maker software which may be downloaded from http://www.yoyogames.com/gamemaker/

 GameMaker is an innovative product which is available for a free download and includes tutorials to help you get started.  You can design adventure style games, first person shooter games, maze style games.   Many levels of game play can be developed, high scores tracked, games can be set to increase difficulty as play continues.  Music and sound effects can be added to improve the play.  By the way, GameMaker does NOT require prior programming experience.





You'll create rooms and fill them with objects that can interact with each other.  A graphical interface makes it easy to setup everything from bouncing when an object hits a wall to being destroyed, with the appropriate sound effects, when being shot.


A game developed for which a developer was paid, is not eligible.

All games should adhere to the current legal requirements concerning copyright, first amendment, trade work, and civil rights.

Check out all the contest rules and register at: http://www.jjc.edu/academics/divisions/career-technical/cios/game-contest/Pages/default.aspx

Entries are due by March 14th.   The awards dinner is May 11th.

So have some fun and design a game the way you think it should be played.