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.

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.