Computer Science | Grinnell College

At this week's Computer Science Table (at noon on Friday, October 18, in Rosenfield 224A), we will read a variety of 'blog posts about programming in the real world. The readings were suggested by our alumna Eryn O'Neil 2007. Eryn writes:

I've come up with a How To Program In the Real World series. They're short blog posts, not 5-10 page readings, but that's secretly part of the theme, too -- in the industry, the new ideas are circulated by blog, and if you're not reading them, you're behind.

Here is her list of suggested readings:

• Spolsky, Joel. Advice for computer science college students. Joel on software, January 2, 2005.
• Ringel, Matt. You must try, and then you must ask. The Akamai blog, October 4, 2013.
• Jorgenson, Greg. How to develop unmaintainable software. Typical programmer, October 14, 2013.

And, as a bonus (Eryn: I recommend skimming, not reading, but it's a classic):

• Green, Roedy. How to write unmaintable code: ensure a job for life ;-). The hacker's choice, October 29, 2006.

On Thursday, October 17, Max Mindock will describe his summer internship on weather radar systems.

Refreshments will be served at 4:15 p.m. in the Computer Science Commons (Noyce 3817). The talk will follow at 4:30 p.m. in Noyce 3821. Everyone is welcome to attend!

From the September 27 edition of the S&B:

"Last weekend, a group of seven Grinnell students went to the annual MHacks “hackathon” event, organized by the University of Michigan. This was the first time students from Grinnell participated in such an event as a group. With approximately 1200 participants from over 100 schools across the country, this was the biggest hackathon of the year."

Read more: http://www.thesandb.com/news/grinnellians-attend-hackathon.html

There will be a special pre-release screening of the documentary Codebreaker on Friday, October 11, beginning at 7 p.m., in Harris Cinema. Codebreaker tells the story of Alan Turing, a mathematician and cryptanalyst who was one of the founders of computer science. The title refers both to his highly successful contributions to breaking the Germans' primary military cipher system during the second world war and to his unwillingness to conform to arbitrary and cruel social conventions.

A question-and-answer session with Patrick Sammon, the executive producer of Codebreaker, will follow the screening.

On Thursday, October 10, Professor Jerod Weinman will discuss what graduate school in computer science is like, why you might consider it, what opportunities there are for graduate education, employment after graduate school, the application process (for computer science or related fields in particular), and other related issues attendees may be interested in.

Refreshments will be served at 4:15 p.m. in the Computer Science Commons (Noyce 3817). The panel, Graduate school in computer science: what? why? how? when? who? will follow at 4:30 p.m. in Noyce 3821. Everyone is welcome to attend!

At this week's Computer Science Table (at noon on Friday, October 4, in Rosenfield 224A), we will consider attempts to write code that reflects the law (e.g., providing legal advice).

Lauritsen, Marc. “Are we free to code the law? ” Communications of the ACM 56 (2013), issue 8, 60–66.

The emergence of interactive online services for legal self-helpers has triggered suppression efforts by the legal profession, as well as by state government officials in the U.S. While couched in terms of consumer protection, and at least partly motivated by such concerns, these efforts are also seen by some as blatant turf management by a profession anxious to avoid further erosion of its monopoly over legal advice and representation.

Often neglected in these discussions is whether restricting the distribution of software is within the legitimate scope of government action. No one would contend that attempts to suppress books, pamphlets, and speeches on how the legal system works and what forms one needs to interact with it would pass constitutional muster. Is providing software that helps people meet their legal needs an activity the state can prohibit under the U.S. Constitution?

Here, I explore ways software-based legal-assistance systems can be understood for purposes of public policy and constitutional analysis. The focus is on circumstances in the U.S., but many other countries face the same issues.

On Thursday, October 3, Adam Arsenault 2016, Jordan Yuan 2015, and Shaun Mataire 2016 will describe their summer work in MathLAN system administration:

Over the summer, we pursued a series of projects relevant to the general maintenance of a GNU/Linux network:

• configuring Puppet, an open source configuration management tool, which provided a way of centralizing package management and system configuration on all the machines in the network;
• creating and maintaining a way of installing Debian over the network to the machines in MathLAN, which dramatically sped up installation times; and
• researching new programs which would be beneficial to our end users, both the novices and the power users, and refreshing the list of system applications.

Refreshments will be served at 4:15 p.m. in the Computer Science Commons (Noyce 3817). The talk, “MathLAN system administration,” will follow at 4:30 p.m. in Noyce 3821. Everyone is welcome to attend!

On Thursday, September 26, Jennelle Nystrom 2014 will describe her summer work experience. She writes:

In this presentation I will cover my experience working as a Program Manager at Microsoft over the summer. Specifically, I will talk about my experiences coordinating Scrum with a team of developers, and describe how different feature teams work together within the company.

Refreshments will be served at 4:15 p.m. in the Computer Science Commons (Noyce 3817). The talk, “My Microsoft internship,” will follow at 4:30 p.m. in Noyce 3821. Everyone is welcome to attend!

For this week's Computer Science Table (at noon on Friday, September 27, in Rosenfield 224A), the reading is a classic short story about a “real programmer,” providing some historical perspective on the practice of programming:

Nather, Ed. “The story of Mel.” Usenet, 1983.

For this week's Computer Science Table (at noon on Friday, September 20, in Rosenfield 224A), the reading is a recent work on pair programming:

Wray, Stuart. “How pair programming really works.” IEEE computer 27 (2010), 50–55.

Come and learn more about why we teach our classes the way we do (and how to do better when working in a pair)!