And the winner is….

USF!   In May 2013  we held our annual Convocation where we celebrate the honors our students have received for the 2012-2013 year.  

 We give the Joan Nahas Ramuta Award annually to honor the memory of Joan and this year we are honoring the memory of Jarrod Cupps, Web Application Development, who has been designated this year’s recipient.  We lost Jarrod too soon, but we want to acknowledge the joy and the meaning he added to our lives.

Our students have been involved all over campus in many activities, but none more so than Jarrod.  As a lab assistant and tutor, he shared his knowledge with patience and understanding to those who came to him for help.  Jarrod was a Web Application Development major and was one of the two students who redesigned the Greening of the Campus website a year ago.  Jarrod was one of our presenters in March of 2012 on Android Mobile Programming.  This past February he worked with one of our USF alumns presenting an informative seminar on HTML5 Mobile Programming.

Also honored as this year’s recipient of the Meritorious Service was Andrew Johnson, Information Technology,  who helped make our virtual server environment a working reality, building an Active Directory environment for sign-on security for the Computer Science lab machines.  Drew is always willing to answer questions and help resolve problems. 

Drew began his USF career by offering a presentation on recovering data from damaged servers at a very well attended Saturday morning seminar.  

Drew wiling lends his knowledge and expertise to others, as it was most recently shown when he spoke to students working on a senior project for a local food pantry and told them about the TechSoup project where they could help the food pantry get access to software for little or no cost.

Resumes were the order of the day

A great time was had by the USF alumni and USF students who were able to attend the Sixth Annual Alumni/Student Event.  A certificate commemorating the Meritorious Service award was given to Andrew Johnson for all his work on the USF CompSci lab and server configurations. 

  

Inducted into the Epsilon Delta Pi (EDP) Computer Science Honor Society were Edward Adkisson,  Michael Cisarik, Dana Hill, Steven Jensen, William McCluskey, Maximilian Thurner, and Michael Voss.

College of Business and Health Adminstration Dean Chris Clott stopped in to welcome everyone.    Career Services sent handouts to all.  

Because of the last minute weather related cancellation the prior week it was a bit of a scramble to get folks there.   But after a general conversation about interview questions and what to put on a resume, students and recent alumni got individual help with their resumes and over refreshments a lot of visiting and catching up took place.

Thanks to all who could make it this year.  We’ll be back again with our event next Spring.  In the meantime, as always, we’ll keep you informed about events and presentations as they occur.

Food for Thought

(L-R )Michael Cisarik, William McCluskey, Michael Voss, Tyler Pinta, and Edward Adkisson

Senior project students developed a complete system for St John the Baptist Food Pantry (SJFP) that will enable the volunteers to more easily track the clients they serve and generate the reports necessary for other agencies.   The Senior Project team was:  Edward Adkisson, Michael Cisarik, William McCluskey, Tyler Pinta, and Michael Voss.

We were pleased to welcome representatives of St. John the Baptist Food Pantry to our presentation, Marianne Manley, Janet Lombardi, and Maisie Buss.

The students were given the task of taking the information currently kept on index cards, one for each of the 650 families in their system. Updating of the information on a per visit basis, adding new families to their system, searching on a variety of conditions and generating different reports are some the tasks that SJFP needed to be able to perform

The studentsl not only developed and implemented a database system, but created a user friendly interface to accomplish the tasks since SJFP are not IT professionals.  PHP was used so that a browser interface was feasible.  Apache and MySQL were installed on the system donated by USF’s IT department.

Our Senior Project students also considered maintenance and security building in signon features and scripts to handle backups and common system tasks. The students provided training and documentation. 

They began the project with requirements gathering and identifying what exactly would be needed.  Along the way they provided information about suggested hardware requirements so that SJFP could apply for a technology grant.  They assisted SJFP with a survey of the potential for Internet access and an internal network.    The system was planned and developed so that it could be further enhanced as more equipment became available.  

In the last month of the semester a user acceptance test was completed with members of SJFP.  User training on the system took place a week before the presentation and seven members participated.  They were very pleased with the system that addressed their needs.  The system was then delivered to the home of one of the members so she could begin entering their client information.   A technical training session was given to Prof Ruth Weldon, Prof Tony Zordan, and three students to help them provide support over the summer and into the Fall semester.

At the Senior Project presentation bound copies of the user documentation and a back up CD were given to St. John the Baptist Food Pantry as well as a box of food collected from attendees at the event. 

Thanks to Prof Tony Zordan and USF’s IT department.

Congratulations to Edward, Mike C., Bill, Tyler,  and Mike V on a job well done.

RAIN OUT

With flooded streets, viaducts, basements and all sorts of weather related challenges we've decided to postpone our CompSci Student/Alumni event until next week.   We're sorry for the last minute change. 

 
So now we're hosting our 

Sixth Annual Computer Science Department 

Student/Alumni Event 

on

Thursday, April 25th, 2013

6:30 PM - 8 PM

Room A102

St. Albert's Hall

 

We still want to see you and hope you can make it next week.   Hopefully all around the area the water will recede.  

IN MEMORIAM

Jarrod Cupps, 1980-2013

It's with a very heavy heart that I must let you know that Jarrod Cupps, one of our students, passed away recently. He had a heart condition. Jarrod was a veteran from the US Air Force. His family is planning a private service in California, where much of their family is, at a veteran's national cemetery.  His parents wanted us to know how much he enjoyed USF, working with other students and being part of our Computer Science program.

Jarrod was a Web Application Development Senior and also worked as a Lab Assistant helping out with maintaining the lab and tutoring students. He was involved in a number of Computer Science department events, including presentations on Mobile Apps and Robotics here at USF.   Jarrod was a popular Computer Science tutor because of his patience in helping students.   You could frequently find Jarrod in the Computer Science lab working or talking with students.

Last summer he taught the Lego Summer Camp for USF Solutions. He worked with several Boy Scout troops on robotics badges.  He was designated the Joan Nahas Ramuta Computer Science Award winner for 2013.

A memorial service is planned for Wednesday, April 17th, at noon in the St. Joseph’s Chapel in the Motherhouse on the USF Joliet Campus.

We want to express our condolences to Jarrod’s family.   I know we'll all miss him.  Rest in peace, Jarrod.

Website creation pays

Eddie Orellana, Computer Science junior, answered the call from Ray Semplinski to help out the local political organization with their website.  This was a project for pay but more importantly Eddie knew it was an opportunity to put a real world bullet on his resume.  Ray knew he could count on St. Francis students since he’d hired two of them to develop a website about four years ago.  

In a meeting with Ray and one of the town clerks, they mentioned they liked the look of a page from another political organization and wanted something similar.  They knew they wanted a Donation Page and a general info page.

Eddie created a web site with three simple pages on it.    The customers were very happy with the finished product.  They mentioned that after the "win" they would like some content added and changed.

Eddie was delighted to have his first professional website creation to add to his resume. 

Eddie transferred to USF in Fall 2012, a great way to complete his first year here.  And it's getting paid isn't bad either!

 

Networking to the 6th power!

You're invited.

We're hosting our Sixth Annual Computer Science Department Student/Alumni Event on

Thursday, April 18th, 2013

6:30 PM - 8 PM

Room A102

St. Albert's Hall

It's our sixth time around!  It's always a lot of fun. A great chance to reconnect with others who went to USF (or College of St. Francis). We have a new crop of students, so once again we're asking our alumni to talk about the interview and resume process for those who are looking for Programming or IT jobs.   And we'd like you to share your experiences.  We value your knowledge and expertise!

Based upon alumni suggestions, students should bring their resumes so they can get expert advice on how to best present a good technical resume.  If we have students and alumni who'd like to participate we can also hold mock interviews. 


There will also be time to meet and chat with everyone.  You can look forward to another fun evening.

Some topics we'll cover in our meeting are:

• What works on a technical resume.
• What should a candidate emphasize on a resume
• What should be in a cover letter.
• Questions that interviewers ask.
• Questions candidates should ask.
• Information that a candidate should have about the company before an interview.

Anything else you think would be relevant is also welcome.

This is an informal discussion, a sharing of insights and tips, so we'll provide some snacks and beverages.

We would really like to have you join us to share your knowledge.   Because of the informal nature of the program, please consider dropping in even if you can't make it right at 6:30 PM or if you have to leave early.

It will be a fun, interactive experience and a chance to see old friends. 

We'll announce the Joan Nahas Ramuta Award winner and our department winner for the Meritorious Service Award. 

Please let us know if you can join us.