Academic Orientation
Computer Science Majors
Friday, August 20, 2010
Advising Team
- Dr. Anany Levitin (MSC 162B)
- Prof. Barbara Zimmerman (MSC 160B)
- Dr. Tom Way (MSC 160A)
Jobs of the Advisor
Consult for
- General insights into college life
- Schedule planning
- Internship ideas
- Study abroad
- Career planning
- Summer opportunities
The Advisor and Your Courses
- 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
- Give you a registration PIN
Schedule Information
- Current semester: no advanced placement
- Algorithms and Data Structures I (Java) [CSC 1051]
- Calculus I [MAT 1500]
- Core Humanities Seminar [ACS 1000]
- Foreign Language
- Humanities or Social Science [maybe PHI 1050]
More Schedule Information
- Advanced Placement
- Previous college credit
- Courses at your high school
- Courses at the nearby college
Important Dates
- Drop/Add deadline: Sun, Aug 29
- Labor Day: M, Sep 6 -- no classes
- Fall break: M, Oct 11 - F, Oct 15
- Midterm grades: W, Oct 20
- WX deadline: W, Nov 11
- Spring registration: F, Oct 29
- Thanksgiving break: no classes W-F, Nov 24 - 26
- Final exams: Sa, Dec 11 - F, Dec 17
- Final grades: M, Dec 20
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
- 8 credit hours (for science majors)
- Total of 26 credit hours of math and science
- 17 humanities and social science courses
- Free electives (as needed)
Value-Added Requirements
In subsequent semesters, talk to your advisor about:
- Writing Intensive courses
- Writing Enriched courses
- Diversity courses
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
- Contests
- Research
- 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)
- Competitions
- MIT Battlecode programming competition
- International Collegiate Programming Contest
- Microsoft ImagineThat
- Google Summer of Code
- And more as they are announced
- Upsilon Pi Epsilon
- Computing honor society
- National past president, Villanova alumna
- National Center for Women in Information Technology (NCWIT)
- Villanova Mac Users Group
- Service Projects
- Spaces
- Department library (MSC 159)
- Halls
- Projects (Software Engineering) lab (MSC 158)
- Intelligent Systems lab (MSC 156)
- CEET Center (St. Mary's N110)
- CS Help Desk (MSC 292)
Introductions
- Meet your fellow majors:
- Form a line ordered by birthday: all those born on the 1st, regardless of month come 1st, then those born on the 2nd, etc.
- Introduce yourself to the two people next to you (one on each side).
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
- Research assistance
- Web site maintenance and development
- Lab support
- Office support: individual faculty members and department office
Research Topics
- Programming languages and systems control for 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
- Non-visual interfaces
- Virtual reality in interdisciplinary projects
- Web services: development, description, deployment
- Constructing and maintaining wireless network topologies
- Folding and unfolding polyhedra
- Programming games and applications for the iPad, iPhone, and iPod Touch.
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
Exercises
- By next Thursday (August 24) visit each member of your advising team
- Introduce yourself
- Describe your high school
- Relate your summer activities
- By next Friday (August 27) check that your Wildcard opens MSC 156 and MSC 158
- By next Friday review the slides from today and follow the links
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
