Computer Science | Grinnell College

Thursday, September 15, 2016
4:15 p.m. in Science 3821
Refreshments at 4:00 p.m. in the Computer Science Commons (Science 3817)

Summer Internship and Research Experience in Computer Science
Already, many of the big companies are reaching out for internship opportunities for next semester. At this week's Thursday Extra, Toby Baratta '17, Alex Mitchell '17, Ying Long '17, Larry Boateng Asante '17, Sooji Son '18, and Maddie Kirwin '19 will go over how they got their respective internships and research opportunities, the process and planning, what they did during their experience, and whether they liked what they were doing. They will spend the first half of the session discussing what they all did and how, and the second half answering questions about their positions and experiences. Come with questions!

Grinnell's computer science department is pleased to announce that we have a new opening in the department. You can find the position description at http://www.cs.grinnell.edu/prospective-faculty/tenure-track-2017-ad, additional information about being a faculty member at Grinnell at http://www.cs.grinnell.edu/prospective-faculty/overview, and answers to questions about the position at http://www.cs.grinnell.edu/prospective-faculty/tenure-track-2017-faq.

For the CS Table on September 13, Peter-Michael Osera would like to discuss data collection and privacy in a place we normally don’t consider: higher education. In efforts to streamline operations and better the student experience via data analytics, universities are frequently turning to the cloud for answers. Does this have implications for how we as students and faculty manage our data? Read these two articles:

• Goldie Blumenstyk. "As Big Data Comes to College, Officials Wrestle to Set New Ethical Norms”. In The Chronicle of Higher Education. June 28, 2016. http://www.chronicle.com/article/As-Big-Data-Comes-to-College/236934 (Original link, paywall) http://www.chronicle.com.grinnell.idm.oclc.org/article/As-Big-Data-Comes-to-College/236934 (Stable link through Grinnell’s proxy, free)
• Emin Gün Sirer. "Outsourcing in Higher Ed Considered Harmful”. In Hacking, Distributed. August 29, 2016 http://hackingdistributed.com/2016/08/29/outsourcing-in-higher-ed-considered-harmful/

Printed copies of the readings will be available after noon on Friday at Charlie Curtsinger’s office (Noyce 3827). In addition to the readings, there is a short “homework” activity to get you in the spirit of the discussion. Try to answer these brief questions:

1. What FERPA is and how does it relate to your personal information? Read more about FERPA here: US DOE. "Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA)”. http://www2.ed.gov/policy/gen/guid/fpco/ferpa/index.html
2. Grinnell employs a number of third-party services that handle our (digital) data in various ways. List as many as you can.
3. Why can these third-party services handle sensitive data that would otherwise be protected by FERPA? Look to FERPA FAQ, US DOE. “FERPA Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)”. http://familypolicy.ed.gov/faq-page#t62n218

Completing this homework isn’t required to attend CS Table, but we will start the discussion by tackling these questions. So please come prepared if you have the time!

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 12:00-1:00pm in JRC 224B. Contact the CS faculty for the weekly reading. 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, September 8, 2016
4:15 p.m. in Noyce 3821
Refreshments at 4:00 p.m. in the Computer Science Commons (Noyce 3817)

Programming Assistance for Type-Directed Programming
Type-directed programming is a powerful programming paradigm where rich types dictate the structure of the program, making design largely automatic. While mechanical, this paradigm still requires manual reasoning that is both tedious and error-prone. In this talk, Assistant Professor of Computer Science Peter-Michael Osera will explore type-directed program synthesis techniques to build an interactive programming assistant for type-directed programming. This tool bridges the gaps between simple auto-completion engines and program synthesis, complementing the strengths of each. He’ll demonstrate a current prototype of the tool as well as discuss next steps for transforming the prototype into a usable programming assistant.

Thursday, September 8, 2:00-3:50 p.m. in Science 3821.

All students are invited to attend the Learning from Alumni talks, whether or not you are registered for the class. This week Jeff Dickey-Chasins '81 (English major) talks about his long and varied career with many stints in technology and computing-related businesses.

Biography: The Job Board Doctor is Jeff Dickey-Chasins, a veteran of the job board, publishing, and e-learning industries. He provides consulting services for job boards and online recruiting companies. Jeff was the original marketing director for Dice.com, growing it from $7 million to $65+ million in three years. He has worked with 450+ job boards and HR-related sites and startups over the past 20 years, in almost every sector, including finance, technology, education, health care, sales and marketing, energy, and specific geographic regions. He has published research, e-books, and blog posts on almost every aspect of the industry. He also speaks at industry conferences on key topics in the online recruiting industry, and has conducted numerous seminars and workshops.

The first Thursday Extra will be a panel discussion about Graduate School in Computer Science: What it's like, what it's for, and how to apply.

Thursday, September 1, 2016
4:15 p.m.
Noyce 3821

Professors Charlie Curtsinger, Peter Michael Osera and Titus Klinge 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, applying (for computer science or related fields in particular), and other related issues attendees may be interested in.

Refreshments will be served at 4:00 p.m. in the computer science commons (Noyce 3817). Everyone is welcome to attend!

On Tuesday, September 6th, we will continue CS Table with a discussion of security practices, including the ongoing debate over passwords versus passphrases, multi-factor (or two factor) authentication, and general security practices. There are three short readings for this week:

• Before decrying the latest cyberbreach, consider your own cyberhygiene. Arun Vishwanath, The Conversation. February 24, 2015.
• Passphrases only marginally more secure than passwords because of poor choices. Dan Goodin, Ars Technica. March 24, 2012.
• Two-factor authentication: What you need to know (FAQ). Seth Rosenblatt and Jason Cipriani, CNET. June 15, 2015.

Tuesday we’ll begin CS Table anew for the semester! For those that are unaware, CS Table is the department’s weekly lunch-and-reading-group where we discuss current issues in technology and society. Everyone, irrespective of major, is invited to attend!

Our initial CS Table meeting will be a meet-and-greet along with content planning for the semester. If you have any hot topics that you’d like to discuss this semester, feel free to volunteer them up on Tuesday or email Charlie Curtsinger and Peter-Michael Osera with your suggestion.

This semester, CS Tables will be on Tuesdays, 12:00–1:00 pm, in JRC 224 B. Students on meal plans, faculty, and staff are expected to cover the cost of their meals. Students not on meal plans can charge their meals to the department.

The Computer Science majors of the class of 2016 are:

• Reverend John Harding Baker
• Vasilisa Arkadyevna Bashlovkina (with honors; Joseph F. Wall '41 Scholarship)
• John M. Brady (with honors)
• Leonora Bresette Buccino (with honors)
• Evan Bernard Bruns
• Fiona Elaine Byrne
• Erin Merrick Callaway
• David Cambronero Sanchez
• William Blake Creasey
• Tyler Jackson Dewey (with honors)
• Helen Thérèse Dougherty (with honors)
• Ezra J. Edgerton (Inez Henely '14 Memorial Prize in Art; SGA Purchase Prize)
• Daniel Patrick Goldstein
• Justus Goldstein–Shirley
• Alexandra Nuranissa Greenberg (James C. Randall '94 Memorial Fellowship)
• Mira Elise Hall (with honors)
• Renn Warren Jervis
• Caleb Victor Kumar
• Mark Christopher Lewis (with honors)
• Emma Tabitha Liddell
• Evan Frank Manuella
• Shaun Simba Mataire
• Camila Mateo Volkart
• Elias Mulhall
• Daniel Nanetti–Palacios
• Khoa Anh Nguyen
• Tiffany Thanh Nguyen (with honors; Ladies Education Society Award)
• Albert Owusu–Asare
• Noah Dylan Schlager
• Phineas Robinson Schlossberg
• Ameer Shujjah
• Ashwin Sivaramakrishnan
• Christine M. Tran (with honors)
• Victoria Wei Tsou
• Alexander Matt Turner
• Earnest Ray Wheeler (with honors)
• Zoe Grace Wolter (with honors)
• Shen Zhang

Congratulations to all!

This week we'll look back at some of the topics we've covered this academic year, think about topics we would like to include next year, and open the table up for general discussion. (No reading)