Computer Science | Grinnell College

Thursday, February 21, 2019
4:15 p.m. in Science 3821
Refreshments at 4:00 p.m. in the Computer Science Commons (Science 3817)

Developing Soft and Technical Skills Through Multi-Semester, Remotely Mentored, Community-Service Projects

Professor Samuel A. Rebelsky will present a talk discussing the design rationale for CSC 321/22 (now CSC 324/26), in preparation for a talk that he and Dr. Janet Davis will be giving at the 50th SIGCSE Technical Symposium in Computer Science Education.

Join five Grinnell CS alumni for an informal talk about careers in software design and development.

Friday, February 8, 2019
12:00-12:50 pm
Noyce 2022

After the presentation, they will hold informal "office hours" and be available to talk to students in the CS commons, 1:00-1:50 pm.

Thursday, October 4, 2018
4:15 p.m. in Science 2022 (note the room is different than usual)

Careers in Computer Science and Informal Talk by Grinnell CS Alumni
Cassie Koomjian '05, Ian Young '08, Terian Koscik '12, and Alex Leach '06 talk about their careers and experiences in the software design and development field.

Wednesday, February 14, 2018
4:15 p.m. in Science 2021

Note the different location and different day of the week: WEDNESDAY in Noyce 2021.

The CS department and the CLS are co-sponsoring an alumni panel on Life and Career and Diversity and Inclusion after Grinnell in Tech. The cast of players will include CSC 322 Mentors Cassie Koomjian '05, Alex Leach '06, Ian Young '08, and Terian Koscik '12; and Megan Goering '08 of Human Centered Design and her partner Joe Mellin of Microsoft. They will all give a brief description of their life and careers and then have time for questions and answers.

TUESDAY, October 10, 2017
4:15 p.m. in Science 3821
Refreshments at 4:00 p.m. in the Computer Science Commons (Science 3817)

Come meet with Wes Beary '05, Cassie Koomjian '05, Terian Koscik '12, Alex Leach '06, and Ian Young '08, the alumni mentors for CSC 321. They will discuss issues they have encountered as computing professionals and answer questions you have about life after Grinnell.

Thursday, April 27, 2017
4:15 p.m. in Science 3821
Refreshments at 4:00 p.m. in the Computer Science Commons (Science 3817).
Everyone is welcome to attend!

Project Gadfly: Students and Alums Coding for Social Good

Over spring break, six mentors and eight Grinnell students created Project Gadfly, a system designed to help U.S. residents contact their elected representatives. With Gadfly, users can create sample call scripts and share them with friends using QR codes. Anyone who sees these codes can scan them with the app and have the script and a button to call their representatives at their fingertips. The students created a web client, two native app clients, a database, a server, an API, and an Iowa non-profit in 12 days, balancing security and design decisions with rapid development. Students who worked on Project Gadfly will discuss both the design of the system and what it was like to work with mentors on a rapid-learning, rapid-development project.

Thursday, April 20, 2017
4:15 p.m. in Science 3821

• Do you want to know how to talk about your 151 final project on your résumé?
• Do you want to know how to write about your upcoming summer experience on your résumé?
• Does your 3-year-old résumé need some pizzazz?

This Thursday Extra will be a résumé peer-review session. Students of all years are welcome to share feedback with one another about their résumés. We have also asked some CS professors and alumni to join in and share their wisdom during the session. Please bring 5 copies of your résumé to share if you want respectful and meaningful feedback from other participants.

One of the alums who will be joining us wrote a great article targeted at seniors and recent grads that might be helpful to some of you: Your Career is a Startup: What every recent grad needs to know.

It's time to celebrate and connect!

Did you know that ...

• Henry Walker is moving to senior faculty status? (He'll be teaching about one course per year for the next five years.)
• Computer science has been its own department for a decade?
• We've had a computer science major for twenty-five years?

We are having an affinity reunion on November 18 and 19, 2016 to celebrate all of these events and more. The reunion will be a chance for alumni from various years and current students to come together and talk about Grinnell, computing, and more.

We've prepared a tentative schedule so that you can see what you have to look forward to.

Send questions to Samuel A. Rebelsky.

Register here!

This is the near-final draft schedule for the Fall 2016 Grinnell Computer Science Affinity Reunion. It is intended to give potential attendees some sense of what the reunion will look like. Confirmed speakers are listed. So many of our alums are doing cool things that it was very difficult to put together a program. I feel bad that I could not find spaces for more of you to speak.

Register for the reunion here!

Friday, 2016-11-18

The reunion primarily starts at 4:15 p.m. on Friday with Henry Walker's opening. However, alumni who choose to arrive earlier will be able to tour campus, visit classes, and have lunch with students and fellow alums.

8 a.m. to 5 p.m.	Registration desk open
8 a.m. to 4 p.m.	Class visits available
1 p.m. to 4 p.m.	Campus tours and tours of the CS department available
Noon	Lunch in marketplace with current students
4:15 p.m. to 5:15 p.m.	Opening Talk - A History of the CS Department (Henry Walker) - ARH 302 Open to the public
5:15 p.m. to 6:00 p.m.	Alumni Panel: Technology Futures: AR, VR, and Beyond (Robert Gehorsam '76 and Rachel (Heck) Rose '01) - ARH 302 Open to the public
6:00 to 7:00 p.m.	SFS reception for Henry Walker
7:00 to 8:30 p.m.	Dinner
8:30 to 10:00 p.m.	Pub Quiz

Saturday, 2016-11-19

The main day of the reunion. We've tried to offer a wide variety of talks and panels, as well as a job and internship fair. If you'd like to recruit Grinnell students or alums, contact Nathan Dobbels and he'll help you get set up with a table.

8:30 a.m. to noon	Registration desk open
9:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m.	Continental Breakfast with CS Faculty (current and former) - JRC 101
10:00 a.m. to 10:15 a.m.	The Current State of the CS Department (Samuel A. Rebelsky) - JRC 101 Open to the public
10:15 a.m. to 11:00 a.m.	Alumni Panel: Perspectives on Computer Security (Ian Atha '09, Helen Dougherty '16, Jonathan Wellons '04) - JRC 101
11:00 a.m. to noon	Job and internship fair; a chance to for students and faculty to mix - JRC 2nd Floor
Noon to 1:15 p.m.	Lunch in marketplace with current students
1:15 p.m.. to 1:45 p.m.	Personal Projects and having fun writing Twitter 'bots (Terian Kosick '12) - JRC 101
1:45 p.m. to 2:30 p.m.	Faculty talk: Keeping Stuff (John Stone) - JRC 101
2:30 p.m. to 3:15 p.m.	Students + Alumni: Making a Difference in Software Design (Wes Beary '05, Nora Bresette Buccino '16, Blake Creasey '16, Janet Davis, Cassie (Schmitz) Koomjian '05, Alex Leach '06, Ian Young '08) - JRC 101
3:15 p.m. to 3:45 p.m.	Faculty talk: Digital Humanities at Grinnell (Erik Simpson) - JRC 101
3:45 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.	Student Initiatives: AppDev (Alex Mitchell '17), Pioneer Weekend (Lea Marolt Sonnenschein '15), VR Club (Anita DeWitt '17) - JRC 101
4:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m.	Research in Computer Science at Grinnell (CS faculty + Research Students) - JRC 101
5:30 p.m. to 6:00 p.m.	Break
6:00 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.	Dinner - Quad
7:30 p.m. to 8:15 p.m.	Closing keynote: Trying to make a difference, a career in computing (Nathaniel S. Borenstein '80) - Quad
8:15 p.m. to 10:00 p.m.	Optional Social events

Sunday, 2016-11-20 - Unofficial Events

Affinity reunions are normally only Friday/Saturday. However, we expect that some alums will want to stick around on Sunday for some additional fun. We're considering an un-conference, but you have other suggestions, we'd love to hear them!

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.