Academic Orientation
Computer Science Majors
Friday, August 22, 2008
Advising Team
- Dr. Mirela Damian (MSC 167A)
- Dr. Frank Klassner (MSC 160C)
Jobs of the Advisor
- Plan the choice of courses for the next several semesters
- Help build the schedule for the next semester
- Approve registration for Villanova and for courses taken elsewhere
- Help modify schedules
- Consultant for
- Internship ideas
- Study abroad
- Career planning
- Summer opportunities
Schedule Information
- Current semester: no advanced placement
- Algorithms and Data Structures I (Java)
- Calculus I
- Core Humanities Seminar
- Foreign Language
- Humanities or Social Science
Important Dates
- Drop/Add deadline: F, Aug 29
- Labor Day: M, Sep 1 -- no classes
- Fall break: M, Oct 13 - F, Oct 17
- Midterm grades: W, Oct 22
- WX deadline: W, Nov 12
- Spring registration: F, Oct 31
- Thanksgiving break: no classes W-F, Nov 26 - 28
- Final exams: Sa, Dec 13 - F, Dec 19
Universal Information Source
The fantastic, all-powerful, information rich CS Department web site:
csc.villanova.edu
Degree Requirements
- Computer science
- 13 Required courses
- 3 Elective courses
- Mathematics
- 3 Required courses
- 11 credit hours
- Science
- 12 credit hours
- Total of 26 credit hours of math and science
- 17 humanities and social science courses
- Free electives (as needed)
Value Added Courses
- Cognitive science
- Bioinformatics, computational molecular biology
- Summer Business Institute
- Minors such as mathematics, communication, English, business
- Study Abroad
- Internship for academic credit
- BS/MS 5-year program
Opportunities
- ViCS Program
- Scholarships
- Programming contests
- Problem solving contests
- Paper or poster presentations at conferences
- Study abroad with internship
- Rome and the Vatican Web Office
Computing Community
- ACM Student Chapter
- Monthly meetings
- Workshops
- Social events (lose to faculty in volleyball)
- Upsilon Pi Epsilon
- Computing honor society
- National past president, Villanova alumna
- Villanova Mac Users Group
- Service Projects - Computer recycling: TeamChildren
- Spaces
- Department library (MSC 159)
- Halls
- Projects (Software Engineering) lab (MSC 158)
- Intelligent Systems lab (MSC 156)
- CEET Center (St. Mary's N110)
Working for the Department
- Work-study and regular
- Application form
- Hiring documents to complete I-9 form
- Passport
- Driver's license AND social security card
Department Jobs
- Lab support
- Office support: individual faculty members and department office
- Research assistance
- Web site maintenance and development
Research Topics
- Study of programming languages for robotic system control using Mindstorm robots
- Contexts for optimum web search strategies
- Algorithm taxonomy: examples from traditional games
- Web site taxonomy and focused design principles
- Packing spheres into an ellipsoid: heuristic search strategies
- Code optimization: 20Kb vs 20Mb program space
- Virtual reality in interdisciplinary projects
- Web services: development, description, deployment
- Ad-hoc wireless network topologies
- Dynamic wireless network topologies
- Folding and unfolding polyhedra
Will Rogers says
?I believe in college since it gets young people out of the house just at the time when they start asking difficult questions.?
Keys to Success
- Talk to your instructors, once a week at least
- Talk to your advisors
- Study with your peers
- Become involved in the computing community - ACM student chapter
- Exhibit responsibility
- Manage time wisely: at least 40 hours study time per week
- Come to class every time
- Read before class
- Endorse student-centered learning and active class participation
- Start assignments early
- When asking for help, tell Instructor/TA what you tried before coming to help
Exercises
- By next Thursday (August 26) visit each member of your advising team
- Introduce yourself
- Describe your high school
- Relate your summer activities
- By next Friday (August 29) check that your Wildcard opens MSC 156 and MSC 158
Things to Remember
- The 7 fastest growing occupations are in the field of Computing
- Computer Scientists are needed as leaders in virtually all other fields
- Computer game design is a driving force in the growth of computing
- Knowledge and skills gained by studying Computer Science can lead anywhere
