Computer Science | Grinnell College

As a service to the SIGCSE community, we are attempting to provide a list of all the positions posted to the SIGCSE-members mailing list. If you notice one missing or would like details updated, email Samuel Rebelsky.

School	Deadline	Type	Fields	URL	Notes
Grinnell College	Review of applications will begin on October 21, 2016	Tenure-Track	Open	http://www.cs.grinnell.edu/prospective-faculty/tenure-track-2017-ad	Notes
Seattle Pacific University	Review of applications will begin in November, 2016 and continue until the position is filled.	Tenure-Track	Prefer emphases in programming languages, algorithms and complexity, and/or operating systems.	https://spu.interviewexchange.com/jobofferdetails.jsp?JOBID=76261
Mississippi State University	Screening of applications will begin November 28, 2016 and will continue until the position is filled.	Tenure-Track	See ad	https://www.msujobs.msstate.edu
U.S. Air Force Academy	not specified	Visiting	For the 2017-2018 academic year, we are especially interested in candidates with expertise in cyber security, secure software engineering, autonomous systems, human-machine teaming, or artificial intelligence.	http://www.usafa.edu/df/dfcs/dfcs/dfcsjobs.cfm
U.S. Air Force Academy	not specified	Tenure-Track	The department is particularly interested in candidates with backgrounds in artificial intelligence, computer and network security, or unmanned aerial systems, but all candidates with a passion for undergraduate computer science teaching are encouraged to apply.	http://www.usafa.edu/df/dfcs/dfcs/dfcsjobs.cfm

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!

On Thursday, October 16, Professors Janet Davis and 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, applying (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), with the presentation and discussion to follow at 4:30 p.m. in Noyce 3821. All are welcome to attend.

Through 2004, the computer science and mathematics faculty within a combined Department of Mathematics and Computer Science at Grinnell College developed a statement of expectations for contract renewal, promotion, and tenure. Since a single policy was meant to apply to computer scientists, mathematicians, and statisticians, the statement was quite broad. Examples were used to illustrate how general statements might apply within the several disciplines.

When the combined department was restructured in 2006 to yield a Department of Computer Science and a Department of Mathematics and Statistics, the opportunity arose for a statement of scholarship expectations focused on computer science. As a result, the computer science faculty began informal discussions after the departmental restructuring. Then, between 2009 and 2011, the computer science faculty collaborated more formally to develop a revised document.

The resulting statement of scholarship expectations represents the collective thinking of the 2011 computer science faculty. The statement has been forwarded to the administration and Executive Council at Grinnell College, but feedback has not been received. In particular, this statement of scholarship expectations has not been endorsed as policy by Grinnell College.

The departmental document is attached to this page and made public, in case faculty and administrators at other institutions might find this statement helpful in developing similar policies elsewhere.

On October 27, members of the computer science department's faculty will share information on potential new major requirements and a discrete structures course.

Mathematics serves many purposes within the CS curriculum. Certainly, mathematical techniques are necessary for a wide variety of activities, including linear algebra in computer graphics, mathematical induction as a precursor to recursion, and a variety of techniques in artificial intelligence. In addition, in order to successfully analyze algorithms, an activity central to computer science, students need some mathematical sophistication, including an ability to read and write proofs.

For many years, Grinnell has relied on MAT 218, Combinatorics, to ensure that students had an appropriate background for the computer science major. However, the CS faculty have also been concerned about the effects on students of MAT 218's long prerequisite chain.

The Computer Science and Mathematics/Statistics departments are considering offering a new course entitled "Discrete Structures" that will serve many of the needs of CS majors and will approach many topics through both a mathematical and computational perspective. The new course is also likely to have prerequisites of MAT 131, Calculus I, and CSC 151, Functional Problem Solving. Dr. Stone's notes on a possible structure for that course appear here.

If this new course is offered, the Computer Science department is likely to change its requirements so that students may take either MAT 218 or this new course. Before we move forward further with these proposals, we would like to hear from our students.

We invite you to come meet with us to discuss the new course and the potential changes to the computer science curriculum. Refreshments will be served at 4:15 p.m. in the Computer Science Commons (Noyce 3817). The presentation and discussion will follow at 4:30 p.m. in Noyce 3821. Everyone is welcome to attend.