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The UNT Department of Computer Science and Engineering was one of eight
finalists nominated for the Texas Higher Education Star Award, established
by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board to recognize exemplary
contributions toward closing the educational gaps that challenge the state.
The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board recognized the CSE department
for its recruiting and retention efforts. Dr. Krishna Kavi credits the
recognition to two innovative programs sponsored by grants from the Texas
Technology Workforce Development program. Dr. Kavi says, "We have been
named a finalist based on our summer RoboCamp program for young women in
high school to encourage them to consider careers in computers and
technology. Also, we have been recognized for the CSEagles program where
female computer science majors help at recruiting events, talk about their
experiences, and serve as mentors to other students."
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Dr. Huang Involved in Multidisciplinary NSF Environmental Research Project |
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The proposal titled "Engaging Local Governments, Teachers and Students in
Cyber-Infrastructure for Environmental Monitoring and Modeling" has been
recently funded by the National Science Foundation ($249,419). This project
is a multidisciplinary effort involving researchers from the College of
Engineering and the College of Arts and Sciences (CAS). Participant
departments include Electrical Engineering (Co-PIs: Dr. Shengli Fu and Dr.
Xinrong Li), Geography and Institute of Applied Sciences (IAS) (PI: Dr.
Miguel Acevedo), Computer Science (co-PI: Dr. Yan Huang), Biology and IAS
(co-PIs: Dr. Ruthanne Thompson and Dr. Tom Waller). It includes support by
the Computing and Information Technology Center (CITC), CAS Computing
Support Services, the Center for Distance Learning (CDL), and the Elm Fork
Education Center. In addition the project includes collaborations with the
City of Denton, Texas, the National Weather Service (Fort Worth Office),
Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, and the Lewisville Independent School
District.
This project expands the application of the Environmental Sciences ECOPLEX
web site and propels it into the Texas Environmental Observatory (TEO). The
newly funded NSF project aims at demonstrating how to empower local
governments, policy-makers, students and K-12 teachers to take advantage of
cyberinfrastructure (CI) in the environmental arena. Educational modules
will be developed and centered on innovative CI integration of new
technologies for environmental monitoring and modeling. Research activities
based on innovative development will include: a wireless sensor network to
monitor soil moisture over a watershed; a low-cost total column ozone
automated monitor; and a web portal that supports sophisticated analysis and
modeling tools. ↑
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Dr. JungHwan Oh's Research Team Wins 2006 Governor's Award for Best Paper |
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New CSE faculty member, JungHwan Oh, was on the research team that won the
Governor's Award for Excellence in Clinical Research at the 2006 Annual
Scientific Meeting of the American College of Gastroenterology. The leaders
of the study were Piet de Groen, M.D., and William Sandborn, M.D. of the
Mayo Clinic Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology. Other members of
the research team included Dr. Oh, Wallapak Tavanapong, Ph.D., and Johnny
Wong, Ph.D., Department of Computer Science, Iowa State University.
This research collaboration developed a new method to digitally capture,
store, and analyze a complete video stream file created during colonoscopy.
Using these new research applications, there is the potential to improve
colonoscopy, which is the best diagnostic tool in use for early detection of
colon cancer. This collaborative work began four years ago and was funded
in part by a National Science Foundation grant. More details about the work
of this research team is available here
in this Mayo Clinic news release.
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Dr. Kavi Presents Keynote Speech at PDCS-2006 |
Conference Chair, B. Earl Wells of the University of Alabama at Huntsville, presents
Dr. Kavi with a plaque in appreciation for his presentation. |
Dr. Krishna Kavi delivered the Keynote address at the 19th International
Conference on Parallel and Distributed Computing Systems (PDCS-2006), held
in San Francisco, CA, September 19-22, 2006. The title of Dr. Kavi's
presentation was "Is it time to revive dataflow as a model of parallel
computing?" PDCS-2006 is a major forum to address, explore and exchange
information in all areas of Parallel and Distributed Computing Systems,
their modeling and simulation, design, use and performance, and their
impact.
During the Fall 2006 semester, Dr. Kavi gave two other presentations. On
October 18, Dr. Kavi presented a seminar on Multicore Low Power
Architectures for the IEEE Long Island Section Computer Society in
Farmingdale, NY. On October 19, Dr. Kavi presented a colloquium for the
Department of Computer Science and Engineering at Penn State University
entitled "Billion Transistor Chips--How to Garner the Silicon Real-Estate for
Improved Performance." In both presentations, he examined several
inter-related research projects currently underway at UNT.
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David Keathly Invited to Present at TACRAO |
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David Keathly, CSE Lecturer and Undergraduate Advisor, was invited to speak
at the 85th Annual TACRAO conference held in Austin during the first week in
November. He gave a presentation entitled "Using Summer Academic Camps for
Recruitment" that focused on the CSE department's experience with RoboCamp
during the past two years. TACRAO is the Texas Association of Collegiate
Registrars and Admissions Officers.
Faculty and admissions staff members from Texas universities and colleges at
this conference session talked about programs targeting under-represented
populations. Summer camps that target these students can be a useful
recruiting tool for academic programs. David Keathly's presentation
explored how summer camps and other learning opportunities can help engage
faculty to develop these kinds of recruitment programs for students.
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Exit Surveys Help Improve Undergraduate Program |
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As the semester draws to a close, it is a good time to step back and
evaluate what you have accomplished. The Computer Science and Engineering
department is doing the same as part of our continuing assessment and
improvement effort.
To ensure the quality of our program and to determine how it should be
changed and improved, we seek information from a number of sources including
our recent graduates, our advisory board, area employers, and most
importantly, from you, our current students. You have a unique perspective
that is crucial to this effort.
Earlier in the semester, you were asked to fill out an evaluation of your
instructor. This information is used by the department to evaluate the
effectiveness of instructors, to recognize outstanding teaching and to
identify and correct any problems that may exist.
After Thanksgiving, undergraduate students will be asked to fill out an exit
survey which asks for an evaluation of how effective the course has been in
helping you achieve the desired outcomes for that course. Some instructors
have chosen to do the survey online and other surveys will be completed on
paper in the classroom.
Each course has outcomes which are measurable skills or activities that you
should accomplish during the course. The outcomes of all the courses in the
curriculum are designed to ensure that, by the time you graduate, you will
have mastered the objectives of the degree. The course exit survey lets us
know how you think you are achieving these outcomes and lets you tell us how
you think the course could be improved.
Both faculty and course evaluations give you the opportunity to do more than
just check boxes. Your written comments are taken seriously when reviewed by
the department. Please take the time to let us know what's on your mind.
You don't have to wait until the end of each semester to give feedback. At
any time you can send an email or letter to the department chairman or to
the undergraduate or graduate coordinator.
In a discipline such as ours, where things change rapidly, it is important
that our courses and activities change too. Your input, along with the
information we gather from other sources, is the way we make sure that the
changes improve the overall quality of the program.
One of the requirements of our accreditation by ABET (the Accrediting Board
for Engineering and Technology) is that we have a program of continuing
assessment and improvement. Your part in this is very important. We will be
letting you know on the department web site and through newsletters what
changes we are making and why they will improve the program.
Thank you for participating and helping to improve our CSE department.
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CSE Programming Teams Compete |
UNT flskhuv (L-R): Hector Cuellar, John Rizzo, Michael Mohler. |
Four UNT programming teams competed in the 2006 ACM South Central USA
Regional Programming Contest at the University of Texas at Arlington on
November 4, 2006. The top UNT team finished in fourth place with 6 problems
solved out of 8 in 711 minutes. The fourth place winners were UNT flskhuv
with John Rizzo, Michael Mohler, and Hector Cuellar. This team also won an
award for finishing one of the 8 problems first.
Other UNT teams competing were UNT pwnz0rz (Ben Cloutier, Richard Lundberg,
Deanna Peterson), UNT BSoD (Tze-I Yang, Andrew Ellis, Tyler Cole), and UNT
segfault (core dumped) (William Garner, Jordan Bonn, Vincent Liguori).
In the TopCoder Collegiate Challenger 2006, three of our top students
competed individually (John Rizzo, Michael Mohler, and Hector Cuellar) in an
initial field of about 2000 competitors worldwide. All three made it to the
second round, and two made it to the third round which narrowed a field of
2000 down to 450. One student, John Rizzo, qualified for the fourth and
final round which was narrowed to 150 participants. John finished 130
overall, ninth in the U.S. John and the other third round student, Michael
Mohler were the #1 and #2 rankings in Texas.
Another programming competition, Google Code Jam 2006, started with about
6000 competitors worldwide. Two UNT students, John Rizzo and Michael Mohler,
advanced to the second round, which narrowed the field to 1000 participants.
Rizzo finished 113th place overall and 6th in the US, and #1 in Texas in a
field which included both students and professional developers. Students
from UTD, UT-Austin, Texas A&M and Trinity competed from Texas. It is
worth noting that Rizzo finished ahead of the two top ACM Team members
from MIT. ↑ |
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Advisor's Corner |
CSE student Ryan Hamilton confers with CSE Wizard and Undergraduate Advisor,
David Keathly, on Halloween. |
Class Schedules - There were a lot of questions this semester about
instructors, class schedules, and other concerns. You have many resources
available to help you. The printed schedule of classes is often not very
accurate because it is prepared at least a semester in advance. Many times
and classes change and instructors offer special topics classes that do not
make it into the print catalog. The schedule available on the CSE website at
http://www.cse.unt.edu is usually much more accurate. Also you can find
printed copies of the schedules for the current and future semesters on the
table at the front of the main CSE office in NTRP F201.
Academic Alert, Probation, and Suspension - Although we all hope it never
affects you, sometimes circumstances are such that your grades slip and you
find yourself on Academic Alert, Probation, or Suspension. If you are
having problems in a course be sure to come speak to one of your advisors,
the earlier the better. Perhaps we can avoid these circumstances. If you
find yourself in this situation, come and talk to us about how to relieve it
as quickly and painlessly as possible. Often we can help you adjust your
schedule to get you off of alert or probation quickly.
Catalog Years - Each of you has, or will have a degree plan. The degree plan
is tied to the requirements for a certain academic year catalog. In 2005 we
changed the requirements for the Computer Science Degrees. For some of you
it may be beneficial to "upgrade" to the more recent catalog. You can only
do this once and in the forward direction; you cannot go back later. The new
2005 degree plan is actually 3 fewer hours at 131 than previous plans at
134. The new plan requires CSCE 4410 Software Development I, but only
requires one Advanced Technical Writing course. Other course requirements
will depend on when you upgrade and what courses you have already completed
at that time. Stop by and we will discuss all the differences in more
detail, or make an appointment with an advisor to review your situation.
A degree plan (or degree audit) is an official document describing the
classes that you have and those you still need to take in order to fulfill
your degree requirements. You must have a degree plan on file before you
graduate, and it is a good idea to get one early if you have CS transfer
credit or want to get a better idea of the classes to take next semester.
Computer Engineering Specializations - Some of you in Computer Engineering
are having concerns about the courses for your specialization. As with any
new program, sometimes certain courses may not achieve the required
enrollment in a particular semester. Be sure to check the CSE website for
the rotation schedule. This will tell you which semester(s) each class will
be offered. Since these cancellations sometimes occur and could affect your
graduation plans, be sure to visit with one of your advisors to arrange
possible replacement courses within your specialization or other adjustments
to your degree plan so that you can still finish on time.
Feel free to come by and see us for any career or degree related problems or
questions. We are here to help you! Call 940-565-2767 to make an
appointment.
Ryan Garlick and David Keathly, your Undergraduate Advisors.
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Spring 2007 CSE Courses |
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CSCE 2410.001 — PHP Programming |
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PHP is a powerful, object-oriented programming language that was originally
developed as a web-based scripting language -- a tool designed to simplify
the development of dynamic webpages.
PHP has since been used for a variety of other programming tasks, including
file management and graphic image manipulation. Its main claim to fame,
however, is still its simple, structured syntax and its superior ability to
integrate with HTML to building websites.
The major topics for this course include:
- Introduction to web-based programming, HTML, forms processing, scripting
- Basic PHP syntax and its integration with HTML in webpages
- Variables and types in PHP; special features providing because of PHP's
interpreted (rather than compiled) nature
- PHP Data Structures, with emphasis on Associative Arrays
- Working with HTML forms data in PHP, including multiple-selection fields;
URL encoding, handling multiple submit buttons, techniques for detecting
forms submission
- PHP functions, include/require operations
- PHP and File and Directory processing, including error checking and
low-level file operations
- PHP classes
- Uploading local files using PHP
- Introduction to PHP Regular Expressions and mySQL
- Advanced output techniques
- Introduction to AJAX and PHP
Students will be given an opportunity to write a series of programs that
utilize the various features of PHP that are discussed in class. Students
are free to use their own provider's website capabilities (if PHP is
supported), or they have full access to the department's UNIX systems and
the student server to develop their applications.
This course will be taught by Don Retzlaff on Tuesdays and Thursdays from
4:00 to 5:20 p.m. in NTRP B158. Don has had over six years of programming
experience with PHP and over ten years of web-based programming experience.
Don has developed and managed a variety of applications and webpages with
PHP, including his class websites, commercial websites, his personal
websites, and the CSE department's website.
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Computer Engineering Senior Design Courses |
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For Spring 2007, both CSCE 4910 and CSCE 4915 will be offered. Computer
Engineering students who are approaching graduation should be aware that the
Senior Design I and II sequence is a required component of the degree. The
first students are currently completing CSCE 4910 this Fall and they will be
completing their project in CSCE 4915 in the Spring. It is required that you
take the two courses in consecutive semesters. For more information contact
David Keathly at dkeathly@cse.unt.edu
who is the instructor for the courses.
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CSCE 4930.001 — MATLAB Special Topics Class |
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MATLAB is a user-friendly computing environment and powerful programming
language designed for scientific and engineering applications. In addition
to built-in numerical methods and computer graphics, it includes toolboxes
for applications such as signal processing, control systems, image
processing, and simulation. It combines the power of a high-level language
with the efficiency of C or Fortran, and has replaced the latter as the
primary language for scientific computing. Familiarity with MATLAB is
essential to every engineer and computational scientist. This course allows
students to earn three semester hours of upper division credit while gaining
that familiarity.
The course will cover the fundamentals of floating-point computation and
error control, but the emphasis will be on imparting a detailed in-depth
knowledge of MATLAB rather than numerical methods.
Dr. Renka will teach this course on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 9:30 to
10:50 a.m. in NTRP B192. Prerequisites for the course are junior or senior
standing in math, science or engineering. If you have any questions, please
contact Dr. Renka at renka@cs.unt.edu.
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CSCE 4930.002 — Introduction to Computational Sciences |
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This course will provide a survey treatment of the applications of computational
paradigms in the natural and physical sciences. The course will be designed to have
a broad appeal to the natural and physical science students as well as the computer
science students. Team projects and research will be integrated into the course
in such as fashion as to encourage interdisciplinary collaboration among the
students from different departments and background. The survey course on application
of computer and computational science paradigms in the natural sciences will
introduce students to problems and topics including:
- Agent based simulation of societies and population
- Mathematical modeling
- Computational Chemistry
- Computational Biology
- Models in Environmental Science
- Computational Epidemiology
- Geographic Information Systems
- Remote Sensing and Image Analysis
- Supercomputing
- Grid and Cluster Computing
- Modeling and Simulation
- Data Visualization
Guest lectures by scientists and professionals in the corresponding fields
will facilitate the understanding of specific computational requirements and
applications. Students will have the opportunity to explore different
computational paradigms that are deemed suitable for addressing and solving
a problem from a specific domain.
This course will meet Tuesday and Thursday from 5:30 to 6:50 pm and will be
co-taught by David Keathly and Armin Mikler. Please see one of them for
further details or questions.
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CSCE 4930.003 — Game Development Class Offered —
Graduates Receive High Marks |
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Dr. Ian Parberry will teach "Topics in Game Development" during Spring
2007 on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 1:00 to 2:20 p.m. in NTRP B158.
Prerequisites for the course are CSCE 4210 and CSCE 4220 or consent of the
instructor.
These classes are for the advanced game programming student at the
undergraduate and graduate level. A selection of advanced topics in game
development will be covered, possibly including but not limited to character
animation, procedural content generation, shader techniques, and graphics
special effects. The class will read and discuss articles from the recent
academic and technical literature on game development and related material
from relevant computer science areas. Assessment will be a combination of a
written project, a programming project, and an oral presentation.
Several of Dr. Parberry's graduates have gone on to work for game companies.
John O'Keefe, Studio Director, of Terminal Reality, a game programming
company said this about UNT's graduates, "Dr. Parberry's game programming
class consistently knocks out very high quality programming candidates.
Every single programmer that we have hired from Dr. Parberry's class has
gone on to become critical developers on our game projects. This trend has
continued over the years as we hire programmer after programmer. The
candidates we have hired in the past have gone on to become our principal
programmers leading technology, our technical director, our lead programmers
and our senior programmers. You cannot ask for any greater proof of the
quality of programmers that we get from Dr. Parberry's class." For more
quotes on specific graduates of Dr. Parberry's Laboratory for Recreational
Computing (LARC), go to http://larc.csci.unt.edu/quotes.html
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CSCE 5200.001 — Information Retrieval & Web Search |
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In Spring 2007, Rada Mihalcea will teach a course on "Information
Retrieval and Web Search" (CSCE 5200) on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 1:00 to
2:20 p.m. in NTRP B157. The course will cover the basics of information
retrieval, including various search algorithms for offline and online text
collections, and it will introduce you to the fascinating world of search
engine technologies.
The course will also cover advanced topics in intelligent information
retrieval, and aspects relevant to the new Web 2.0 - covering wikis, blogs,
social networks, and other forms of online resources. Students who complete
this course will have the knowledge required to build their own search
engine.
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CSCE 5933.007 — Digital Image Processing |
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This course is designed to give graduate students a fundamental understanding
of digital image processing techniques, including image enhancement, restoration,
coding, and low level image analysis. This course is project-oriented. Students
will gain knowledge from both class and mini projects. Topics to be covered
include:
- 2-D signals, sampling and filtering
- Sensor modality and digital encoding
- Filtering and image enhancement, spatial domain, frequency domain
- Image restoration and filtering
- Region and edge segmentation
- Image registration
- Image compression
Dr. Xiaohui Yuan will lead this special topics class on Monday and Wednesday
from 2:30 to 3:50 p.m. in NTRP B157. Please contact Dr. Yuan at
xyuan@cse.unt.edu for more information
about this course. ↑
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College of Engineering News |
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SWE Panel Scheduled for November 28 |
From L to R, Carol Bachman, Project Engineer for Peterbilt, is the UNT SWE
Professional Advisor and SWE Region C Professional Leadership Coach; Telissa
Townsend, Construction Engineering major, is the SWE Treasurer; Laura Gonzalez,
Computer Engineering major, is the SWE Vice President of Communications;
Elena Lassandro, Computer Engineering major, is the SWE President; and
Michelle Clarke, Manufacturing Engineering major, is the SWE Vice President
of Fundraising. |
The UNT collegiate section of the Society of Women Engineers (SWE) will
host an information panel on Tuesday, November 28, 2006, from 12:00 noon to
2:00 p.m., in Room B185. The SWE panel of female graduates will answer
questions from all College of Engineering students about their jobs,
experience at UNT, career ambitions, how family can/cannot conflict with
their jobs, role of women, etc.
Ms. Leticia Anaya, the UNT SWE faculty advisor, says, "This will be an
opportunity for our current students to ask our former students all the
questions that are in their minds. It will give them a chance to see other
role models who have made it through the program too." Look for posters
that will give more details about the location of the panel.
The UNT College of Engineering held its first informational meeting about
forming a collegiate section of the Society of Women Engineers (SWE) on
October 17, 2006. Carol Bachman, Project Engineer for Peterbilt, and
Susanne Nickerson, Associate Design Engineer for Peterbilt, spoke about
forming a SWE collegiate section at UNT.
The objectives of SWE are:
- To inform young women of the qualifications and achievements of
women engineers and the opportunities open to them.
- Assist women in preparing themselves for the work force.
- Serve as a center of information on women in engineering.
- Encourage women engineers to attain high levels of education and
professional achievement.
- Establish network opportunities for student engineers with
professional engineers.
To form a SWE collegiate section, UNT must have a minimum of 10 students who
are freshmen, sophomores, or juniors to join SWE. Seniors and graduate
students may also join, but they cannot be counted towards the minimum
number to be a collegiate section. Male students are also invited to join.
Student membership in SWE is only $20 and students can join at
http://www.SWE.org.
For more information about UNT SWE at the College of Engineering, please
contact Ms. Anaya at Lanaya@unt.edu or
(469) 831-2453. ↑
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CENG Students Participate in UNT Homecoming |
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| Dean Oscar Garcia (L) and UNT Provost Howard Johnson
(R) enjoy Homecoming 2006 |
Students from the Department of Computer Science and Engineering
participated in the College of Engineering's Homecoming festivities on
October 7, 2006. CENG students built a float for the Homecoming parade that
was powered by a Nitrogen-fueled car designed and built in the Department of
Engineering Technology. Dean Garcia rode in the car that towed a float with
the Mean Green Scrappy Eagle in a boxing ring with a Panther, the mascot of
Florida International University.
Students from the Council of Engineering Organizations were excited about
building the first-ever float for the College of Engineering. Mitra
Mahdavian, one of the student organizers, said, "It was fun and exciting to
get engineering students to work together on something other than class
projects!" Another student, Danny Hall said "There are a lot of students and
people in the community that don't even know that UNT has a College of
Engineering - now they will!"
After the parade, the float was driven to the Mean Green Village where the
College of Engineering had a tent to showcase the accomplishments of the
CENG departments. The Department of Computer Science and Engineering had
larger robots waving UNT flags and smaller robots from RoboCamp doing
RoboArt. To see more pictures and a video about College of Engineering's
activities during the UNT Homecoming, please go here.
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Thanks to these students for their Homecoming participation:
Maria Asencio - CSE
Enkh-Amgalan Baatarjav - CSE
Brittany Bruno - CSE
Dustin Cassidy - CSE
Sri Edpuganti - CSE
Laura M. Gonzalez - CSE
Danny Hall - CSE
Michael Ham- PHYS
Jessica Hayden - CSE
Santosh Kumar Kandhukuri - CSE
Elena Lassandro - CSE
Jose Macias - CSE
Mitra Mahdavian - CSE
Walter Maranon-ETEC
Thomas North-ETEC
Toyin Ayodele Orokotan - CSE
Claudio Paris-MFET-BSET
Mark Pickens-ETEC
Raul Platas - CSE
Matteo Prister-MFET-BSET
Luis Robles-MEET
George Snitz-MEET
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The CSE Student Email Newsletter was assembled and produced by
Genene Murphy and Don Retzlaff. It is a publication of the
UNT Computer Science and Engineering Department. Contact the department
at newsletter@cse.unt.edu.
http://www.cse.unt.edu UNT
Computer Science and Engineering Department - November 2006
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