STUDENT NEWSLETTER
Spring 2009
Division of Mathematics & Computer Science
Senior Notice
By now, all Computer Science, Digital Arts and Science, and Mathematics
seniors should have received a letter from the Departmental Office indicating
your current enrollment and any requirements that have not been met.
Career Development
Mark your calendars - the Spring Career Fair is scheduled for January 29 th or
planning to go co-op? Looking ahead to summer employment? Everyone should visit
the Career Development Center – even freshmen and sophomores. Staff maintain a
database of student resumes and subscribe to an on-line service that lists job openings.
The Career Center is located in the ERC, x6477.
Spring Open House
Spring Open House is scheduled for April 4. This is an opportunity for accepted
students to visit campus. We need students to help represent the department. Any
students interested in participating can contact Mike Felland (x2383) or Jan
Searleman (x2377).
Actuarial Studies
The closest date for Actual Exam P/1 is March 10-19. Exam Registration is open till
January 29. The next exam date is May 12-21. For more information you can visit the
society of actuaries website at www.soa.org and/or contact Prof. Alhakim.
Attn: Juniors & Seniors
The NSF supports several Research Experience for Undergraduates sites, including one at
Clarkson-Potsdam! In the typical program, you spend eight weeks of the summer doing
research in a small group and receive a stipend of $3,300 plus free room and travel. Summer
research is a big plus on your resume, especially if you plan to go to graduate school. Please
take a look at the offerings posted on the bulletin board across from the Department Office.
www.clarkson.edu/mcs/reu.html Deadlines: Application review begins March 7!!
Mathematical Olympiad
Clarkson will be taking part in the 3rd annual Rochester Mathematical Olympiad. The 3 hour
exam will be given on Saturday, March 28th (administer here). Prizes: First--$250, Second $200, Third - $150. Interested students should contact Mike Felland (SC 365, x2383).
Interested in Teaching? Graduate & Undergraduate K-12 Teaching Opportunities
In addition to financial support, the program offers: interdisciplinary project-based learning
and teaching experiences and opportunities to gain invaluable experience in leadership,
project management, teaching, and communications. One particular activity for which we
need student volunteers is act as (paid) coaches for local middle school mathletes helping
them to prepare for our own contest as well as the national MATHCOUNTS events.
Students typically go into the schools once per week in the season. Later in the year we will
also be seeking students to help with the IMPETUS Roller Coaster project which is funded
by NY State Education Department. Contact: Peter Turner (pturner@clarkson.edu) or
Katie Fowler (kfowler@clarkson.edu).
Like Math, Bowling, Gambling? Come join us!
You are cordially invited to join the Clarkson Student Chapter of the Association for
Women in Mathematics—also informally known as the ‘math club’ since 2004. Meetings
are open to ALL students regardless of gender (most of our members are male)! We are also seeking
new members for the Clarkson Student Chapter of the Society for Industrial and Applied
Mathematics (SIAM). These meetings and activities expose students to the world of professional
mathematics, help students obtain information about graduate school and careers, and develop
leadership skills through service to the University and local community. Past events include inviting
speakers from industry, sponsoring an essay contest for local middle school students, creating a pi-day
celebration for over 70 local middle and high school students (this year we will host 300!!!), and
events such as Casino Night and Bowling to Beat the Laptop. We are always looking for some new
folks to join in! Check your email soon for a pizza party mixer to learn more about what we do or
contact Professor Fowler at kfowler@clarkson.edu or sunj@clarkson.edu.
Pi Day Celebration: Call for help
As part of the NYSED IMPETUS program, Profs. Turner, Fowler, and Mondal from MCS and Profs.
Wick and Ramsdell from Physics will be hosting the third annual Approximate Pi Day Celebration on
March 11th (3.11) for middle and high school students. Last year, approximately 70 local students and
teachers attended the event, which took place in Cheel on the Clarkson campus. The event consisted
of approximately 11 creative, interactive booths that investigated the history and applications of the
number 3.14. The activities and booths were designed and managed by 30 Clarkson students who
volunteered their efforts. The middle and high school students enjoyed the light competition of
exploring all the booths in the allotted time, and were rewarded for their efforts with a pie. Everyone
in attendance including teachers and students all greatly enjoyed the event. This year, the event will
be greatly expanded to accommodate roughly 300 local students. We need YOUR help in
designing and running new booths. Please contact Prof. Fowler (kfowler@clarkson.edu) if you
are interested in volunteering.
Saint Lawrence Valley Mathematics Symposium Comes to Clarkson
On Monday, March 9, 2009 the Associated Colleges of the Saint Lawrence Valley is sponsoring the
Saint Lawrence Valley Mathematics Symposium. This year’s presentation, bringing together
undergraduate mathematics students from Saint Lawrence University, SUNY Potsdam, and Clarkson
University is titled “What’s the Story? An Undergraduate Workshop on Writing and Presenting
Mathematics.” This hands-on workshop, organized by Assistant Professor Aaron Luttman of Clarkson
University and Assistant Professor Rachel Schwell of Central Connecticut State University, will
consist of activities designed to teach the art of formulating the story to tell different audiences – both
orally in writing – about mathematical results. This can help with writing papers or giving
presentations for math classes or for writing and presenting undergraduate research projects. There is a
limited amount of space, but all mathematics students are encouraged to register, as this will be a great
opportunity to learn some techniques for communicating mathematics as well for meeting and
socializing with mathematics students from the other universities in our neighborhood. There will be
food too! Contact Aaron Luttman (aluttman@clarkson.edu) for details!
Potsdam-Clarkson Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) in Mathematics
Applications are sought from undergraduates interested in spending their summer participating in
mathematics research projects. For more information, see
http://people.clarkson.edu/~tino/reu.html or contact tino@clarkson.edu.
Clarkson Student Chapter of the ACM?
The Association for Computing Machinery or ACM (www.acm.org), is the world's largest
educational and scientific computing society. Student members of the ACM get access to
hundreds of free online books and courses, reduced rates to conferences, electronic subscriptions,
information about graduate programs in CS, and much more. The ACM offers the best
computing research and career resources available anywhere!
Clarkson’s student chapter of the ACM has sponsored research talks and sent programming
teams to regional competitions. This semester we are please to thank Lockheed Martin for a very
generous gift of $1,750.00 to support our running a local programming contest. If you would like
to get involved with this activity or any other, contact Jan Searleman (jets@clarkson.edu).
COSI and ITL
Interested in joining the Clarkson Open Source Institute or the Clarkson Internet Teaching Laboratory? The meetings
will be held Wednesday evenings in the Applied CS labs (SC 334 and 336), starting at 7:00 pm. There are often talks
before and after the lab meetings on a wide variety of topics (See a list of presentations at
http://docs.cslabs.clarkson.edu/wiki/Main_Page). Feel free to stop by any time the lab is open to look around and/or
email: jnm@clarkson.edu if you would like to be on the mailing list for future activities. Bring your own ideas and a
willingness to both learn and teach others. Course credit is available.
IDEA Club & Student Chapter of SIGGRAPH
Our student chapter of the ACM special interest group on Computer Graphics, Animation and Interactive Techniques
(SIGGRAPH) is locally called the IDEA club. If you have an interest in developing video games, creating animations,
digital art, or emerging interactive technologies, come to our meetings on Thursdays at 6:00 in the CEC.
This semester we are planning an Ironman version of creating a short animation, similar to the FJORG! competition
sponsored by SIGGRAPH. We also are involved with the IGDA (International Game Developers Association), and are
planning trips to game companies in Montreal. For further information, contact Chad Smith (smith@clarkson.edu) or
Jan Searleman (jets@clarkson.edu).
Clarkson Zootoo Challenge
Leslie Russek from the Physical Therapy department is looking for volunteers to help with the webpage for Clarkson’s
Zootoo Challenge, to benefit the Potsdam humane society. The current webpage is:
http://people.clarkson.edu/~lnrussek/CUZootooChallenge.htm which includes links to the actual zootoo site, and
changes would include the ability to enter scores and to display the top 10-20 scores. To find out more, contact Leslie
at lnrussek@clarkson.edu.
Digital Arts and Sciences Announcements (D. Beck)
New Digital Arts & Sciences Home Page
If you visit www.clarkson.edu/digitalarts, you might be in for a surprise. Thanks to the Clarkson web team (of
which the majority of student workers are DA&S majors!), the site is filled with videos, game downloads, student
portfolios and websites, and student experiences. Be sure to check it out if you haven’t already!
Animation by DA&S Seniors Featured in Local Film Festival
Congratulations are in order for DA&S seniors Jacob Swain and Spencer Nowak. Their 3D animation, “Stopping
All Stations”, was chosen to be in the 2nd Annual North Country Film Festival. Jacob and Spencer created this
animation for a project in DA 300: Digital Imagery & Animation. The festival took place on January 9th – 11th, at
the Roxy Theater in Potsdam. Their film was part of the Short Film Competition. The competition features local
and student filmmakers competing for cash prizes with a wide variety of short fiction and documentary entries.
Video Game Designed by Clarkson Alums Accepted into Prestigious Festival
“Snapshot” is a video game that was co-designed by ’08 Clarkson alums Kyle Pulver and Peter Taylor Jones for
their senior thesis project in DA 492: Senior Studies. That same game was accepted into the prestigious
Independent Games Festival (igf.com), which takes place during the internationally known Game Developers
Conference, held in San Francisco from March 23 – 27. The IGF honors games from around the world, and gives
independent developers a chance to get their names and ideas into the professional game design industry. Over
220 entrants were judged by a range of industry professionals, from game journalists to industry veterans.
Snapshot is a two-dimensional side-scrolling game in which the player controls both a character named “Pic” and
a camera that can take photos of the game environment. Photos can capture objects such as boxes, enemies, and
other things. The player can then use these photos to move objects around in the world to complete each level.
New Equipment for the Digital Arts & Sciences Program
The DA&S program is proud to announce the installation of new equipment in the CEC. All 24 computer
workstations in the front of the lab now have dual monitors. The advanced-student side lab is also now
equipped with dual-widescreen monitors, as well as 3D mice and Wacom Tablets. Just as the quality of student
work grows, our facilities do as well!
Digital Arts & Sciences Faculty Search Underway
The DA&S program is currently searching for a faculty member to teach 2D courses in the major,
starting next fall. Keep your eyes out for guest lectures by some of the final candidates in the coming
weeks – we value your interest and opinion in this matter, so we hope you’ll make a special effort to
attend these events.
Faculty Offices
Computer Science
C. Lynch
J. Lynch
A. Maciel
J. Matthews
J. Searleman
J. Stahl
C. Tamon
377
381
379
389
375
383
373
x2384
x2374
x2385
x6288
x2377
x2387
x6521
clynch@clarkson.edu
jlynch@clarkson.edu
alexis@clarkson.edu
jnm@clarkson.edu
jets@clarkson.edu
jstahl@clarkson.edu
tino@clarkson.edu
Snell 176
Snell 172
Snell 178
x4205
x3974
x6713
dbeck@clarkson.edu
ebeck@clarkson.edu
davisju@clarkson.edu
x3831
x3885
x2307
x2383
x2376
x2379
x2372
x2204
x2373
x6496
x6415
x2360
x2369
x2388
x2372
x2386
x2399
x2334
aalhakim@clarkson.edu
barlowns@clarkson.edu
bolltem@clarkson.edu
felland@clarkson.edu
kfowler@clarkson.edu
fulton@clarkson.edu
laryg@clarkson.edu
helenbrk@clarkson.edu
ajerri@clarkson.edu
aluttman@clarkson.edu
smondal@clarkson.edu
smorriso@clarkson.edu
cnavasca@clarkson.edu
tnishika@clarkson.edu
dpowers@clarkson.edu
ssanyal@clarkson.edu
jskufca@clarkson.edu
pturner@clarkson.edu
Digital Arts & Science
D. Beck
E. Beck
J. Davis
Mathematics
A. Alhakim
N. Barlow
E. Bollt
M. Felland
K. Fowler
S. Fulton
L. Glasser
B. Helenbrook
A. Jerri
A. Luttman
S. Mondal
S. Morrison
C. Navasca
T. Nishikawa
D. Powers
S. Sanyal
J. Skufca
P. Turner
361b
366
369
365
361a
367
267
camp
349
363
371
314
391
385
267
339
387
355
Spring Semester Dates
Jan. 8 – Classes Begin
Feb. 11 (6:00p) February Break
Feb. 16 (8:00a) Classes resume
Mar. 13 (6:00p) Spring Break
Mar. 23 (8:00a) Classes resume
Apr. 1 – Enrollment for Fall
Apr. 27 – Final Exams
May 1 – Finals end
May 10 – Commencement
Summer School 2009
May 18 – June 20 Session I
June 29 – Aug. 1 Session II