Game Programming Contest

This year the USF Computer Science Department joined forces with Joliet Junior College to host a Game Design Competition open to both high school students and college students in the area.  Winners were announce in May, 2011.

Three high school area students were awarded scholoarship money to attend USF.  The students are: Kyle Gunderson, Nick Prueter, and Tayler Baird.  Congratulations to our winners and to all who entered the contest. 

We're looking forward to next Spring's contest.

Awards

Congratulations to Nick Zelinkski who received the Joan Nahas Ramuta award Spring 2011 for all his work in the computer lab, his academic excellence, his assistance with tutoring.  This award is given each year to an outstanding senior in the Computer Science Department.  Our thanks Nick for all your work.  Nick is picture here with his mother and father at the awards ceremony on May 5th.

 Luis Escorza was also honored with the Meritorious Service Award for his work in the computer lab, with the Greening of the Campus committee's website.  He was a valued intern for USF’s IT department.  Last Fall, he helped prep the computers so that Google App Inventor could be used in the A102 lab with our donated smart phones for the Mobile Phone Seminar.  This semester Luis has also been involved with a project to improve wireless access for students in the dorms.

 

Graduation's here

Congratulations to all our Spring 2011 grads.  May 7, 2011

In Information Technology: Rob DeLong, Mike Dembeck, Luis Escorza, Jordan Parcel walked down the aisle

In Web Application Development: Matt Nosbisch, Brandon Rusnak.








Not pictured are Larissa Kries and Mike Murphy from Computer Science who could not make the ceremonies.

Ring up one for Alex!

Congratulations to Alex Schmid, Computer Science, Senior, on landing an internship with AT&T  for the summer of 2011.  He came out ahead of several candidates from other schools, so now he’ll be learning his way around Hoffman Estates.  

Good job, Alex!

Hello World, Android is here.

T.J. Eakle, Computer Science Alumnus, and member of the USF IS Department spent some time on Thursday, April 7th evening showing students, alumni, and other interested guests how to set up the development platform for the Android. 

T.J.’s step-by-step slides made it easy to follow and after the seminar he provided a copy of the slides which were emailed to all in case they weren’t able to attend or wanted a copy to keep.   The presentation is also available on the Presentations & Seminars link from this blog.

The opportunity to learn, whetted the appetites of the attendees for the upcoming class T.J will teach this Fall on Wednesday nights.   Jordan Parcel, Information Technology Senior, also helped out with the setup of the lab in preparation for the seminar and he helped guests sign on to the lab machines.  Thanks to T.J. and Jordan for all their work.  It was a great event.

Alice in Dirksenland

On Wednesday morning, April 6th, fifty 7th and 8th graders from Dirksen Junior High came to USF to learn about programming. Using Alice, a graphical programming language, the Computer Science department introduced these bright, engaged students to the concepts behind writing computer code and everyone had fun doing it.


The students saw a demo of a graphical scene and then walked briefly through the included tutorial in Alice. Then they learned that avatars weren’t just a name for a movie. Each student built their own avatar and then learned how to make it interact with other objects. They learned about sequencing of instructions, about how to force concurrency of instructions and how to create loops. And maybe most of all, that an object can cluck like a chicken.

But the best sound that was heard was the buzz of activity as they learned what they could do and that programming was fun and a way to be creative.



Helping the students with their discovery were Ross McCallister, Kevin Healy, and Nick Zelinski. Before the students got there, Alex Schmid pitched in to help with the set up of the two labs, and then had to leave to make his class. All four students are Computer Science majors.

                                                      Thanks for all your help.

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.