ACM Programming Competition

The programming competition was fun. 95 teams participated in the Northwest regions. UI fielded two teams, and finished in the middle of the pack. A Stanford team was #1, and the University of British Columbia place second. This year’s theme was “heroes and villains”. There were ten timed programs in all. Contestants can write their code in C, C++ or Java. It's good practice.

ACM Programmin Competition Nov 5

The University of Idaho will enter at least two teams in the ACM Programming Competition Nov 5 at Eastern Washington University. UI students compete in the Pacific Northwest Region, which encompasses the area from northern California up through British Columbia. Students compete in teams of up to three, and try to solve several programming problems. The problems range from relatively easy to darn-near impossible! The languages that can be used include C, C++, and Java.

ACM Programming Competition meeting

ACM programming competition meeting this Wednesday, Oct 26, 6:00 PM, 3rd floor of JEB. We can field up to five teams this year. If you're interested in competing, come to the meeting, and we'll discuss logics and form teams.

Swing Devils dance

The band plays for the Swing Devils dance this Thursday, Sept 1, 9:00 PM - midnight. 1200 N. Main Street, Moscow, ID, above CJ's Night Club. Everone is invited, no partner required. $3.00, includes lessons.

Welcome Back Barbeque

Welcome Back BBQ, Thursday, Sept 1, 5:00 - 6:30 PM. Come by Ghourmley Park, just west of the UI Moscow Campus to visit with the students, faculty and staff. We will grill hamburgers and hot dogs, and have side dishes and sodas.

CS Graduates 2011

Congratulations to all our 2011 graduates! Here they are:

Master of Science in Computer Science

Achala Aryal, Kathmandu, Nepal

Damian Ball, Puyallup, WA

Dann Barnes, Rigby, ID

Yi Guo, Beijing, China

Keith Jeffery, Rathdrum, ID

Brandon Morton, Hayden Lake, ID

Cody Permann, Idaho Falls, ID

Timothy Tate, Kennewick, WA

Joel Weiss, Erie, CO

Bachelor of Science in Computer Science

Benjamin Adler, Nampa, ID

Jesse Brent, Boise, ID

Doug Drobny, Boise, ID

Stephen Fischer, Colbert, WA

Kaleb Houck, Idaho Falls, ID

Wenlong Huang,Wenzhou, Zhejiang, China

Zach Kimball, Port Townsend, WA

Cody Miller, Idaho Falls, ID

Aaron Phillips, Kennewick, WA

Josh Rubini, St. Charles, IL

Ryan Savage, Emmet, ID

Chris Smith, Troy, WA

Dallas Stinger, Greenleaf, ID

Mufaddal Shabbir Taj, Maharashtra, India

Seth Thompson, West Richland, WAS

Change of Location for ACM/CS BBQ

Due to weather concerns, the BBQ has been moved to the Janssen Engineering Building, JEB 211A. Sorry about the late notice!

End of the Year BBQ on Tuesday, May 3

The ACM student branch and Computer Science department will host a BBQ thisiTuesday, May 3, 5:00 -6:39 PM at Ghormley Park in Moscow, adjacent to the UI campus. There's always plenty to go around. If you're in the neighborhood, stop by.

Senior Design Project: Data Mining Tool

Computer Science students developed a software tool to help Idaho State Board of Education staff to search and retrieve text from archived documents. The Board has decades of documents recording minutes of past meetings, board decisions, and supporting data. Before a meeting, board members want to review past decisions and discussion, so they need lay their hands on the relevant text quickly, often without knowing the exact wording in the document. This tool employs “stemming” to look for different forms of a verb, and a thesaurus.

For more details check out the article at:

http://www.uidaho.edu/engr/newsevents/viewpost?name=student-expo-project-allows-state-board-of-education-to-mine-vital-data

Neural networks to make sensors smarter?

Prof. Milos Manic has been working with Idaho National Laboratory to develop smarter sensor networks and a smarter Smart Grid using Artificial Neural Network (ANN) technology. Based on the biological information processing works, neural networks can help us find order in complex systems. Check it out on the Idaho National Lab website through this link:

http://www.uidaho.edu/engr/cs/newsevents

What's a COTS BOT?

A roBOT built from Commercial Off-The-Shelf components. Professors Robert Heckendorn and Terry Soule and their students are putting laptop computers and smart phones onto commercial robots. Smart phones come with built sensors like cameras, microphones, compasses, GPS receivers and enough computing power to do really interesting things with the right software, in a very affordable package. The class is nicknamed the Skunk Works. Here’s the COTS BOTS web site: http://www.cotsbots.org

Welcome to the UI CS blog

Welcome to the new University of Idaho Computer Science blog. Late-breaking news items will go here and on our Facebook page.

Here's a not-so-new item. Last Fall the student chapter of the Association for Computing Machinery made a light display for homecoming by putting a computer-controlled light in every south-facing window of the Theophilus Tower, one of the on-campus residence halls. The lights blinked in synchronization to music, making a dynamic display. Check it out here:

http://www.vimeo.com/uiacm/videos

-- Greg Donohoe, CS Department Chair