Computer Science | Grinnell College

Thursday, February 11, 2016
4:15 pm in Noyce 3821

Visit with four CS alumni: Ian Young '08, Cassie Koomjian '05, Jonathan Koomjian '03, and Wes Beary '05. Each will give a short overview of their post-Grinnell careers, and then they will answer questions from students.

Refreshments at 4:00 in the CS Commons (Noyce 3817), followed by the discussion at 4:15 in Noyce 3821.

While many CS students may be aware of copyleft, DRM, and related issues, there are other interesting aspects of copyright law and practice that should generate vigorous discussion. The readings for this week includes three short articles, along with two brief background papers on fair use and copyright duration.

One good source of background material for our discussion this week is the overview of US copyright law at bitlaw.com. These brief descriptions of copyright law should be helpful: Duration of Copyrights; Fair Use in Copyright Law.

The primary articles (all short) are available here:

• How Mickey Mouse Keeps Changing Copyright Law. Steve Schlackman, Art Law Journal.
• The NFL wants you to think these things are illegal. Sherwin Siy, ArsTechnica.
• All-day Bowie and the Copyright Act. David Post, The Washington Post.

Computer science table (CS Table) is a weekly meeting of Grinnell College community members (students, faculty, staff, etc.) interested in discussing topics related to computing and computer science. CS Table meets Tuesdays from 12:00-12:45 in JRC 224C. Students on meal plans, faculty, and staff are expected to cover the cost of their meals. Visitors to the College and students not on meal plans can charge their meals to the department.

The first CS Table of the semester will be a discussion of Facebook's new efforts to bring Internet to the world. In Facebook's words:

"At the core of our efforts with Internet.org are non-exclusive partnerships with mobile operators to offer free basic internet services to people through Internet.org. This is a set of basic websites and services to introduce people to the value of the internet, and that we hope add value to their lives."

Apologies for the many loose readings, but this issue is new enough that there isn't a good, canonical resource out there describing both sides. Come to lunch having skimmed the links below and some sense of what the Free Basics controversy is about, and we'll discuss!

• Facebook announcing the internet.org platform
• Internet.org website
• Read up on Free Basics and its underlying platform
• The service being banned in Egypt
• Controversy in India
• Criticism of its limited services

Computer science table (CS Table) is a weekly meeting of Grinnell College community members (students, faculty, staff, etc.) interested in discussing topics related to computing and computer science. CS Table meets Tuesdays from 12:00-12:45 in JRC 224C. Students on meal plans, faculty, and staff are expected to cover the cost of their meals. Visitors to the College and students not on meal plans can charge their meals to the department.

Thursday, February 4, 2016
4:00 pm in Noyce 3813

In this workshop you will learn the basics of text formatting and typesetting with LaTeX. The workshop will start promptly at 4:00.

Thursday, January 28, 2016
4:15 pm in Noyce 3821

Computer Science faculty will discuss summer research opportunities at Grinnell.

Refreshments at 4:00 in the CS Commons (Noyce 3817), followed by the discussion at 4:15 in Noyce 3821.

Thursday, December 10, 2015
4:15 pm in Noyce 3821

Computer Science faculty will present the department's annual discussion of summer opportunities in CS.

If you enjoy computer science (or at least computer programming), summer is an opportunity to explore new approaches, to develop new skills, and perhaps even to make some money. But what kinds of things can you do? While students tend to focus on a few options (e.g., research with faculty), a wide variety of opportunities are available. In this session, we will discuss goals you might set for the summer and some opportunities that can help you achieve those goals. Handouts will be available for those who cannot attend the talk.

Refreshments at 4:00 in the CS Commons (Noyce 3817), followed by the talk at 4:15 in Noyce 3821.

CHANGES: BRING YOUR OWN LUNCH. MEET IN NOYCE-3821.

Instead of discussing deep technical topics, political issues, and the downfall of society, we’ll be reading (and discussing) comics about technical topics, political issues, and the downfall of society. There is no “assigned” reading this week, but please bring or email Prof. Curtsinger a link to a web comic. A good starting point for your comics search is XKCD (www.xkcd.com), but other comics are welcome.

Discussion starts at noon on Tuesday, December 8, 2015.

On Thursday, December 3, Giang Nguyen 2017 will describe her summer internship on bioinformatics, inferring phylogenetic relationships from protein and DNA sequences.

At 4:00 p.m., refreshments will be served in the Computer Science Commons. The talk, “Bioinformatics Research Internship at Michigan State University,” will begin at 4:15 p.m. in Noyce 3821. Everyone is welcome to attend!

This week in CS Table we'll discuss a light-hearted affair in comparison to the heavier topics we've discussed of late: The Story of Mel.

• Ed Nather. The Story of Mel. Posted May 21, 1983.

Come join the discussion on hacks, their beauty, and their repercussions!

We will be discussing the Trans-Pacific Partnership—specifically its implications for computing, intellectual property—at CS Table next week. There has been a lot of news coverage of this agreement recently, but we have selected a summary from the New York Times along with arguments in favor and against from Qualcomm and the Electronic Frontier Foundation, respectively:

• The Trans-Pacific Partnership Trade Accord Explained, by Kevin Granville. New York Times, October 5, 2015.
• Why the TPP Trade Agreement is Great for Wireless Technology. Qualcomm OnQ Blog, October 23, 2015.
• The Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement. Electronic Frontier Foundation, 2015.
I encourage you to look over these articles and follow some or all of the many linked documents that describe specific pieces of the agreement in depth. The Office of the United States Trade Representative has a summary of the entire agreement available online as well: https://ustr.gov/about-us/policy-offices/press-office/press-releases/201....