Newsletter
Spring 2010
STATE
OF THE
DEPARTMENT
Dr. Wolf-Dieter Otte – Associate Chair of EE/CS
Please visit our web site
http://www.cefns.nau.edu/Academic/CS/
INSIDE THIS ISSUE
1
State of the CS Department
2
CS Careers
2
Student Chapter of ACM
3
Graduate Program in Computer Science
4
CS Course Redesign
4
Game Production with Visual Communications
5
Taking the Show on the Road
6
JavaGrinder Update
Hello and welcome to our 2010 edition of the CS
program newsletter! This academic year, Professor Eck Doerry
is on sabbatical in Germany. I started to take Eck’s place in the
summer last year, as an Associate Chair of the combined
Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Department. You
will wonder: what is the impact of a new, combined EE/CS
department? Well, last year we decided to merge with the
Electrical Engineering Department. This was a deliberate
decision, providing us with many synergy effects and, most
importantly, with more political clout, which is critical in these
unstable times. On the other hand we will still retain most of our
autonomy, e.g. program/curricular authority, budget matters,
etc. At this time we are represented by our chair Dr. David
Scott, the former chair of the Electrical Engineering
Department. In the future, we will be “rotating” chairs every two
years.
You will remember that our first newsletter was just bursting
with new initiatives. All of these contributed to a better visibility
of our program and greater stability within our department. This
also translated into increasing enrollment. Our CS program has
seen a spectacular enrollment growth of about 20% since last
year!
Naturally, you will want to know how we were affected by the
budget crises. Amazingly enough, NAU has weathered the
crisis really well, so far. Our president and the upper
administration did a very competent job at protecting academia,
by carefully saving and reallocating funds. No drastic measures,
like cutting departments, programs or faculty positions had to
be done so far.
On the other hand, the storm is not over yet. Currently, NAU’s
state budget is $131M (we used to have $161M at our peak
time), which might need to be reduced by another $16M, if the
election in favor of the sales tax increase fails in May. In 2012
we will likely lose another $13M as the federal stimulus money
runs out. No matter what your position is, please make sure to
vote in May.
(Cont. on Page 2)
NAU Computer Science Newsletter 1
(CONT.)
An a more personal note, we are pleased to announce that
our dedicated faculty does not spare any effort to provide
NAU with new, potential students. In December last year,
my wife Sandy gave birth to our little girl. In January,
Professors Dan Li and Kefei Wang also had a baby girl.
Admittedly, our girls are too young to make a decision on
what major to pick yet, but we will work on it!
I hope you enjoy our newsletter; we are committed to get
one letter out every year in the future. If you are ever in the
area or passing through Flagstaff, please drop by. We are
always happy to reconnect with our friends and alums and
the ACM club is always looking for speakers to share
insights.
All the best in 2010,
Wolf-Dieter Otte, Associate Chair
CS CAREERS
by Steven M. Jacobs, Adjunct Professor
Computer Science majors are again heading
into an excellent career. The “Best Careers in 2010” lists
from U.S. News and World Report, Wall Street Journal
online, and others point to computer science, software
engineering, and related careers as still being in demand.
Often these careers appear on lists of well-paid entry-level
positions, an added bonus (pun intended).
I encourage students to create and maintain a current
resume. Make sure you take advantage of NAU-provided
resources to aid you in your job search, such as seminars
(resume writing, interview techniques, etc.) and campus
recruiting events. Get a hold of the “Job Search Guide”
from the NAU Gateway Student Success Center.
Keep in mind many of the jobs may not be precisely what
you hoped for – for example, you may be asked to develop
software in C++ when you really wanted to do Java, or you
may be asked to upgrade a web site using web
development tools when you really wanted to build
database applications. You may be asked to maintain (i.e.
enhance or improve) a large portion of existing, operational
code. The key to success in the marketplace is flexibility
both in assignments and often geographical preference. It
is important to be willing to learn new things and take on
new challenges.
STUDENT CHAPTER
BY
OF
ACM
MEAGHAN WINFIELD
NAU ACM PRESIDENT
NAU ACM is the NAU chapter of the Association for
Computing Machinery. Computer professionals and
enthusiasts are welcome to join, where they will learn about
fascinating new technologies and gain a deeper
understanding of existing technologies. Members of ACM
have easy access to tutoring and study materials, and have
a quiet area conducive to studying and completing
assignments. ACM also provides unique opportunities for
members, such as building and programming a robot,
creating video games for the ACM game cabinet, and
competing in national programming competitions.
NAU ACM is well known for its "Demo & A Movie" series,
which features a lecture and technical demo given on a
range of subjects such as programming languages,
robotics, hardware and much more. Students are
encouraged to become involved and ask questions, and
after they are treated to a movie or special activity to
encourage a friendly, relaxed atmosphere. The Digital
Carnival events held by ACM are campus wide video game
competitions, where members are encouraged to create
custom features for tournaments, participate in the planning
of a large event, and make friends and connections through
shared interests. ACM also holds CS BBQ social events to
provide a chance for engineering students to meet and
interact with their peers and faculty.
Weekly ACM meetings are open to everyone, and are held
in room 105 of the engineering building at 6:00 every
Thursday. See http://www.nau.edu/acm for more details!
Your learning does not stop at NAU. You will be learning
new skills and applications on the job throughout your
career.
(Cont. on Page 3)
NAU Computer Science Newsletter 2
STUDENT CHAPTER
OF
ACM
GRADUATE PROGRAM IN
COMPUTER SCIENCE
(CONT.)
DR. JOHN C. GEORGAS
One very exciting development for the computer
science program is our new master’s degree offering. This
newly instituted Master of Science in Engineering (MSE) is
focused on two key themes: environmental sustainability
and scientific computing. These themes mean that the kinds
of projects that students pursue for their degree revolve
around the application of computer science techniques,
such as modeling and computer analysis and simulation, to
improving our understanding of climate and minimizing
human impact on the environment around us.
The ACM room.
A place for CS majors to relax, meet, and work on projects.
____________________________________
PLEASE TRY OUR GAME CABINET IN
THE ATRIUM OF THE ENGINEERING
BUILDING 69.
ALL COMERS ARE INVITED TO SAMPLE
GAMES PRODUCED BY NAU CS MAJORS!
____________________________________
This MSE program is a two-year multi-disciplinary course of
study: During their time in the program, our students have
the opportunity to study advanced topics in computer
science, such as parallel and distributed computing,
advanced user interfaces, computer networks, and
advanced design and architecture, while also studying
topics in environmental sustainability and advanced
engineering design. For NAU graduates, this program is
particularly appealing: A number of courses that students
take in their senior year can be used to satisfy MSE degree
requirements! In addition to these studies, students will also
craft a master thesis that is focused on a research topic of
their choosing in which they will have a chance to create a
novel solution to one of the many challenges facing our
discipline.
While the specific research topic of a student’s thesis may
vary greatly, our faculty members have significant expertise
in a number of areas, including:





Human-computer interaction and userinterfaces;
Databases and data-mining;
Distributed systems and parallel computing;
Computer graphics and modeling; and,
Software engineering and architecture.
In all of these areas of research, there is amazing potential
for using the techniques and tools of computer science
outside the classroom in service to our community and the
natural world around us.
The best way to get a better feel for our MSE program is to
look at a specific student and his work. Ryan Middleton is
an NAU graduate that earned his bachelor’s degree in
computer science and transitioned into the MSE program.
His thesis work is focused on software engineering for wind
turbines, by working on improving the manner in which the
software systems that control the operation of small wind
(Cont. on Page 4)
NAU Computer Science Newsletter 3
JOHN GEORGAS
(CONT.)
turbines are designed and developed. “I chose the MSE
program at NAU because of the program’s emphasis on
sustainability and design. This multidisciplinary aspect is a
unique experience not offered in many other graduate
programs,” Middleton said.
GAME PRODUCTION TEAMS
COMPUTER SCIENCE WITH
VISUAL COMMUNICATIONS
DEPARTMENTS
BY
ABE PRALLE, CS LECTURER
For more information about the MSE program, you can look
at http://www.cefns.nau.edu/Academic/MSE/ or contact Dr.
Otte at Dieter.Otte@nau.edu.
Professors Abe Pralle (Computer Science) and
Chris Johnson (Visual Communications, a.k.a. VisCom)
have teamed up this semester to offer the co-convened
"Game Production" class as an upper-level elective for both
majors.
CS COURSE REDESIGN
BY
DR. KEFEI WANG
CS122 (Programming for Engineering and
Scientists) is a large enrollment, lower-division course. The
course is required for majors in both Electrical Engineering
(EE) and Mechanical Engineering (ME). It covers
introductory computer science concepts including
algorithms, and gives the student hands-on experience with
MATLAB and C++ programming languages.
One of the instructional bottlenecks in the course is the
limited lab space. In Fall 2009 semester, there were two
sections of the class with 150 students total. However, the
facility in the lab room can only support 30 students at any
given time. The other problem in the course is the
inadequate real-world problem solving contents. Students,
esp. from EE & ME, need more opportunities to solve data
analysis problem from their domain so that they could be
better prepared for further study in their discipline.
A group of CS faculty members, Dr. Wang, Mr. Jacobs, and
Dr. Otte, is working on the redesign of this course. A varied
pedagogy will be implemented in the redesign: varying
methods of lecture, in-class hands-on exercises with the
Clickers system; Elluminate® system to provide a “Virtual
Lab” environment; online office hours; more on-line
resources and activities to help students better understand
concepts; and open source alternatives to reduce the cost
for both students and college.
These methods have been proved to better fit today’s
students who perform better and learn more with varied
instructional media and presentation formats.
Game Production is a project-based course where teams of
VisCom artists pair up with CS programmers to create three
digital games over the course of the semester. Each team
designs and implements its own games, with the first two
games requiring the teams to choose among constraining
themes and mechanics (such as "winter" and "radial
motion") and the final project being totally open-ended.
"At least half of Computer Scientists originally chose their
major to make games," Professor Pralle says. "Then they
find out there are all these fundamentals to learn and then
their career focus tends to shift over the years. It's nice to
see them revisiting their original passion as they finish up
their college career."
To form the initial teams, each student pitched a game idea
and then everyone ranked the games they'd like to work on
in order of preference. For the second game teams were
preassigned, and for the third game the students chose their
own teams. "The first teams were aligned by common
interest, the second by our own estimates of compatibility,
and the third by the students' experiences in their first two
teams," Professor Pralle recalls. "It's worked out pretty
well."
"It's been great professional experience," Professor Johnson
says, "working and communicating with teams on these
fairly large-scale projects and generating a large body of art
- on a deadline - that's consistent and to spec."
Professor Pralle agrees. "Games are perfect capstone
projects. Not only do you draw on everything you've learned
as a CS student – data structures, algorithms, languages,
file formats, user interfaces, etc. - but you have to make it
fast and efficient.
Both professors are happy with the way the class is working
out and hope to offer it again down the road.
NAU Computer Science Newsletter 4
TAKING
BY
THE
SHOW
ON THE ROAD
DR. ECK DOERRY
In the beginning, there was darkness. Ok, ok,
not quite darkness, but certainly twilight: training in
computer science and the other engineering disciplines at
NAU, as elsewhere around the world, focused exclusively
on core disciplinary skills. For us computer scientists, that
meant a narrow focus on computer languages,
computational theory and programming, programming,
programming. There was little focus on the practical skills
that are crucial for actually bringing these disciplinary skills
to bear in modern computer science practice: teamwork,
oral and written technical communication, client-centered
design, and project planning and management. As I’ve told
students in CS486, Capstone Design, for years, you can be
the most brilliant programmer with the most brilliant ideas,
but if you can’t communicate and sell those ideas, you’re
doomed to being a mere worker bee for the rest of your
career.
About 15 years ago now, our industrial partners brought this
fact to the attention of the then-Dean, and asked if we
couldn’t work with them to develop a novel approach to
engineering education that integrates extensive training in
precisely these “soft skills” as a complement to the already
rigorous disciplinary training. The result was the
Design4Practice (D4P) program, a curricular concept that
focuses on continuous application of core disciplinary skills
in applied scenarios: team projects, pseudo-realistic clients,
interdisciplinary collaboration, intensive focus on oral and
written communication, and exposure to project
management. If you graduated from our program in the last
10 years, you know all about this: written deliverables,
design review presentations, rigorous team projects, and
Gantt charts galore. The D4P program won national
acclaim, was awarded the prestigious Boeing Outstanding
Engineering Educator prize in 1999, and has been a model
for similar programs at other institutions ever since.
involves as many disciplines as possible, (b) poses roughly
equal challenges for each disciplines, and (c) represents a
relevant and inspiring problem will do. The biodiesel plant
project meets these criteria: we have including chemical
engineers (chemical process design), mechanical engineers
(designing the core physical unit of tanks, pumps, hoses,
etc.), electrical engineers (sensor systems and automation),
computer scientists (control logic and user interfaces),
business students (marketability, business plan, costs), and
architects (building, layout, community integration).
So far, the project has been an incredible learning curve for
both me and my colleague Bridget Bero (Chemical
Engineering), who is collaborating with me in organizing the
project. We’ve survived the incredible German bureaucracy,
fought our way through social and traditional inertia,
organized people and funds, and recruited a vibrant group of
20 Senior and Masters level students from across six
disciplines to work on the project. For me personally, it’s
been a challenge to bring my German skills up to a point
where I can function effectively as a professor…not easy!
It’s been a tough road, but we are ready to go! The actual
project semester started on March 15; I’ll report of how it all
panned out in the next issue! If you’d like to know more…
and are up for practicing your German… you can check out
the project website at: http://www.htwdresden.de/~edoerry/iCubed/ Note that you can find a fairly
good project description in English under the “Berichte...”
link on the site, where various documents about the project
are listed.
The problem is that the rest of the world is still stuck
in…well…”twilight”: in European engineering schools,
calcified tradition and age-old walls between the various
engineering disciplines have prevented the introduction of
D4P like courses: interdisciplinary, team-based, and
oriented around a realistic project. The goal of my
sabbatical project is to change all of this, to share some of
the “light” from our program with our partner school, the
University of Applied Sciences, in Dresden, Germany. At
the same time, we are hoping to explore some potential
improvements to our own D4P program. Project iCubed
seeks to pioneer a fully interdisciplinary project-based
course at the senior or graduate level. As a topical focus for
this first offering, we’ve chosen the design and
implementation of a small- to medium scale, fully-automated
biodiesel plant. The project topic itself is, in principle, not
important; criteria are merely a design problem that (a)
NAU Computer Science Newsletter 5
JAVAGRINDER UPDATE
BY
DR. JAMES PALMER
One of the challenges in early CS education is
mastering unfamiliar tools and complex frameworks in order to
work on even very simple Java exercises. Dr. Palmer has
sought to improve this situation by developing JavaGrinder, a
web-based platform for introductory CS classes in Java.
JavaGrinder emphasizes small bite-sized problems that can
range from only a few lines long to involving the construction
of multiple classes and whole programs. Since the entire
environment is made available online students don’t have to
install special software and the Web 2.0-styled interface has a
minimal learning curve. Stripped of the development tools and
onerous minutia students can concentrate on the core
concepts and problem solving skills which we think are the
real core of computer science.
JavaGrinder Screenshot
A recent award from the National Science Foundation is
enabling Dr. Palmer and NAU Masters of Science in
Engineering student Joe Flieger to explore how JavaGrinder
can develop problems that are both accessible and realistic by
incorporating modern software engineering processes and
real-world inspired programming problems. The next iteration
of this software will be launching next semester in CS126.
OUTSTANDING FACULTY WHO
CARE
Classroom in Dresden, Germany
where Prof. Doerry is on Sabbatical
The Computer Science faculty has varying professional
specialties, but all are united by a strong commitment to
teaching. Among the special interests of the faculty are
Groupware Systems and Intelligent Interfaces (Doerry), Data
Mining (Li), Optical Networks and Security (Wang), Graphics
and Computational Geometry (Palmer), Distributed Systems
and Web Technologies (Otte), Software Engineering and
Robotics (Georgas), Games and Virtual Worlds (Pralle), and
introductions to software development and user interfaces
(Jacobs).
Please come see us anytime, make an appointment, ask
questions, try our interesting classes, sponsor a project, make
a donation, join NAU ACM, tell a friend. There a many ways to
get involved.
See more about our program at:
http://www.cefns.nau.edu/Academic/CS/http://www.cefns.
nau.edu/Academic/CS/
NAU Computer Science Newsletter 6