SFSU Computer Science Department

Advising DayJanuary 2009

Prof. D. Petkovic

dpetkovic@cs.sfsu.edu

WELCOME UNDERGRADS

Outline

• SW trends driving markets, jobs and education• About CS Department• What is NEW• About the program• About this semester• QA• Advising day and party at 4:30

http://cs.sfsu.edu/advising/AdvisingDaySP09Flyer.pdf

Trends in Computer Science R&D and jobs

• Global development of computer software through international cooperation and outsourcing are the main characteristics of current and future software engineering development process

• Increased emphasis on building SW from components and services developed globally

• Everything is getting connected with WWW and wireless• Critical need for making systems easy to use, on time and budget, and with

adequate performance, with geographically dispersed teams• Open source software community is another example of global

collaborative approach to SW development.• Students must posses technical (hard) and organizational, teamwork and

communication (soft) skills

• New areas: games, sensor networks, biotech, personal devices…

Mission and Objectives

• To prepare students for careers as software professionals

• To prepare students for graduate studies in Computer Science

• Important learning objectives used in order to achieve the above goals– http://cs.sfsu.edu/mission.htm

Jobs

• Jobs are plenty• Demand very strong!• CS one of the best careers

– http://education.yahoo.net/degrees/articles/featured_8_sure_fire_hires.html

– http://computingcareers.acm.org/

BUT– New skills are needed

Motivation: more than technical skills required – example job adv.

• Sr. Software Engineer • Job Description

The Software Engineer will work as part of an agile multi-disciplinary team to develop the software components of an enterprise-scale hospital information system. The individual must be a team-player and willing to function as a designer, developer, tester, and an analyst as required to achieve the goals of the team.

• Specific Responsibilities: • • 5+ years of professional experience developing commercial or enterprise-scale

software products• 3+ years of development experience with Java and J2EE (EJB, Servlets, and JSP) • XP, Agile development experience is preferred• Healthcare domain knowledge is preferred• Exposure to multiple DBMS systems is preferred • Understands concepts of the software development lifecycle • Ability to function as a designer, developer, tester and to some degree, an analyst • Must possess strong organization and communication skills • Must exhibit a sense of and demonstrate responsibility, focus on delivery, and ability to work independently with appropriate technical direction• Comfortable in a fast-paced, team-oriented environment• Strong written and verbal skills from both business and technical perspectives

Key resources/communication• CS WWW pages

– www.cs.sfsu.edu – home page – visit daily– http://www.cs.sfsu.edu/undergrad/undergraduate.html – main

page for undergrads– www.sfsu.edu

• Office staff: Niki, Marc• E-mail, newsletters from CS office • Advising http://cs.sfsu.edu/advising/undergrad.html• Your fellow classmates• Instructors• CS Chair

New in Spring 09

• Full program in spite of budget woes• Limits on course repeats• Course fees

http://cs.sfsu.edu/research/ResearchLabs.htm• Improved labs and lab support• New 210 section added

Improved labs

• TH 331 remodel, new projector• More supplies, larger print quota, new HW and SW

coming• Lab assistant Poushali cslabs@sfsu.edu• Poushali: Tutoring about SFSU basic SW

environment in SCI 254 Tuesday 2:30-3:30; Wednesday 3-4

• Report lab issues cslabs@sfsu.edu• Labs page

http://www.cs.sfsu.edu/research/ResearchLabs.htm

Reminder: Group Project Cluster – started Fall 08

• Ensures that all students starting Fall 08 graduate by taking at least one of the team-intensive courses:

• CSC 630, Computer Graphics Systems DesignCSC 631, Multiplayer Game DevelopmentCSC 640, Software EngineeringCSC 658, Programming CaféCSC 667, Internet Application Design and DevelopmentCSC 668, Object Oriented Programming

Satisfies the learning objective: “Students will be able to solve problems working in group settings”.

New advising policesAdvising has been shown to significantly increase

success in studies• Attend Chair’s welcome group meeting at the beginning of

each semester during CS Advising Day • No more general SFSU advising day• Mandatory advising for new and transfer students in CSC210

and CSC313 for enrolment in 213 and 413 – will get e-mail on this

• Advising in CS office for basic issues – does not replace faculty advising

• CS Advising pagehttp://cs.sfsu.edu/advising.html

Plan your studies carefully

• Mix GE and CS courses• Check CS WWW site for recommended sequence

of study• Get timely advising• If classes full:

– Talk to the instructor– See Prof. Hsu– Get alternative classes– Preference to those who must graduate or are

conditional grads

Reminder: plagiarism and IT resource use polices

• Cheating and plagiarism policieshttp://www.cs.sfsu.edu/plagarism.html

• Zero tolerance, policies will be enforced!

• IT resource usage polices– http://www.sfsu.edu/~itpolicy/aup.html

Important links• Undergraduate WWW page• http://cs.sfsu.edu/undergrad/undergraduate.html• Major program• http://cs.sfsu.edu/undergrad/under-major.html• Prerequisite chart• http://cs.sfsu.edu/undergrad/under-prereq.html• Suggested plan of study• http://cs.sfsu.edu/undergrad/under-rec-sequence.html• CS Advising page• http://cs.sfsu.edu/advising.html• DARS report: http://www.sfsu.edu/~admisrec/reg/dars.html• Cheating and plagiarism

http://www.cs.sfsu.edu/plagarism.html

Internal job opportunities for students

• CS WWW page for jobs: external (full time, part time), internal http://cs.sfsu.edu/jobs.html

• Get involved in some project with graduate students• Check internal jobs: at SFSU, at CS Department (TAships,

research grants)• Individual or team projects get you great experience and

help you get the job• Center for Computing for Life Sciences – IT and cluster

management - contact Mike Wong http://cs.sfsu.edu/ccls/index.html

• Check also: http://computingcareers.acm.org/

Join student chapter ACM

• Meet new friends• Get tutoring• Attend seminars (I.e. on job search)• Get connections with industry during industry

visits• Advanced Programming Studio club

• http://sfsu.acm.org/

Don’t forget to have fun and get to know other students Good luck

Think of grad program too

Tell your friends about us!

Welcome graduate students!

Outline• SW trends driving markets, jobs and education• About CS Department• What is NEW• About the program• About this semester• Foreign students• QA• Advising day and party at 4:30

http://cs.sfsu.edu/advising/AdvisingDaySP09Flyer.pdf

Mission and Objectives

• To prepare students for careers as software professionals

• To prepare students for advanced graduate studies in Computer Science

• Important learning objectives used in order to achieve the above goals– http://cs.sfsu.edu/mission.htm

Trends in Software Development• Global development of computer software through international

cooperation and outsourcing are the main characteristics of current and future software engineering development process

• Increased emphasis on building SW from components and services developed globally

• Everything is getting connected with WWW and wireless• Critical need for making systems easy to use, on time and budget, and with

adequate performance, with geographically dispersed teams• Open source software community is another example of global

collaborative approach to SW development.• Students must posses technical (hard) and organizational, teamwork and

communication (soft) skills

• New areas: games, sensor networks, biotech, personal devices…

MS Degree?• MS degree becoming a key for advancement

• Combination of general CS skills, domain depth and “soft” skills is critical– Program concentrations ensure breath and depth. Thesis

ensures depth, ability to work independently, to write and to present

• Ability to work with geographically dispersed teams and with multidisciplinary teams is increasingly important

Jobs

• Jobs are plenty

• Demand very strong!

• CS one of the best careers– http://education.yahoo.net/degrees/articles/featured_8_sure_fire_hires.html

– http://computingcareers.acm.org/

BUT– New skills are needed

Motivation: more than technical skills required – example job adv.

• Sr. Software Engineer • Job Description

The Software Engineer will work as part of an agile multi-disciplinary team to develop the software components of an enterprise-scale hospital information system. The individual must be a team-player and willing to function as a designer, developer, tester, and an analyst as required to achieve the goals of the team.

• Specific Responsibilities: • • 5+ years of professional experience developing commercial or enterprise-scale

software products• 3+ years of development experience with Java and J2EE (EJB, Servlets, and JSP) • XP, Agile development experience is preferred• Healthcare domain knowledge is preferred• Exposure to multiple DBMS systems is preferred • Understands concepts of the software development lifecycle • Ability to function as a designer, developer, tester and to some degree, an analyst • Must possess strong organization and communication skills • Must exhibit a sense of and demonstrate responsibility, focus on delivery, and ability to work independently with appropriate technical direction• Comfortable in a fast-paced, team-oriented environment• Strong written and verbal skills from both business and technical perspectives

Key resources/communication• CS WWW pages

– www.cs.sfsu.edu – home page – visit daily– http://www.cs.sfsu.edu/grad/graduate.html - main page for grads– www.sfsu.edu

• Office staff: Niki, Marc• E-mail, newsletters from CS office • Advising http://cs.sfsu.edu/advising/undergrad.html• Your fellow classmates • Instructors• CS Chair• Foreign students: OIP

New graduate students

• Resource for you– http://cs.sfsu.edu/grad/new_grad_helpnotes.html

New in Spring 09 and recently

• MS Concentration in Computing and Business started Fall 08

• Updates on English proficiency (see WWW page for new grads)

• Initiatives in serious games and sensor arrays

Graduate program descriptionhttp://cs.sfsu.edu/grad/grad_program.html

• General; SW. Engineering; Computing for Life Sciences Concentrations– Breadth 9-12 units– Concentration core 9 units– Electives 3-6 units– Practicum option 3 units (optional)– Culminating Experience 6 units

• Total 30-33 units• PLUS NEW Conc. in Computing and Business

(started Fall 08)

NEW MS Concentration in Computing and Business – with SFSU BUS school – started

Fall 08• 3 core CS courses• 3 required CS courses as designated in the General Concentration• 1 CS elective course • 1 Business elective course, approved by advisor. These are drawn from

700- or 800-level courses in Business, Management, Finance, Decision Sciences, or Marketing (3 units)

• 3 required business courses (8 units) – BUS 780- Accounting– BUS 788 Mng. Principles– BUS 784 Political, Social and legal Environment

OR BUS 787 Marketing

• Equivalent of 2 courses for thesis/project; the thesis/project must have a business component. The student’s culminating experience committee will be composed of 2 CS faculty and one Business faculty.

Total 38-41 units

Benefits of new MS Concentration in Computing and Business

Graduates with this concentration will have the skills to • Perform R&D in the computing field • Possess the skills and knowledge to manage software development

teams or start their companies• Assume management responsibilities in organizations that require

managers who understand both the computing and business aspects of information technology.

• Assist with high-tech entrepreneurship ventures - assist in understanding and relating the technical feasibility of new ideas

• Speak to both high-tech groups, and communicate technical ideas and concepts to non-technical groups in the business organization

• Contribute to organizations that provide strategy consulting services to high technology companies (staff at these companies needs to have strong backgrounds in both technology and business)

Some areas of focus in our CS Department

• Data management, databases, informatics• Visualization• HCI, usability• Internet applications• Global and practical SW Engineering, teamwork• Bioinformatics, computing for life sciences • Image processing, multimedia, AI• Games• Computing and Business• Sensor networks

Center for Computing for Life Sciences (CCLS)

• CCLS is an official multidisciplinary SFSU Center for addressing problems in broad area of Computing for Life Sciences such as: bioinformatics, imaging, collaborative tools, UI, visualization, databases, computational biology and chemistry, applications in drug discovery, collaborative tools, algorithms etc.

• Goal is to develop CCLS into signature “marquee” program of SFSU

• CCLS is joint collaboration between Computer Science, Biology, Chemistry and Biochemistry, Math, Physics and Astronomy– http://www.cs.sfsu.edu/ccls/index.html

Cluster Computing in CCLS

• New 40 node DELL Cluster operational in CCLS – http://ccls.lab.sfsu.edu/bin/view/Cluster/DellPowerEdg

eCluster

• For projects in computational biology and life sciences

• For education (distributed and parallel computing, data mining…)

Advising• Must see advisor upon start of the program• Must attend first Graduate Seminar during the first term

(CS Chair will overview grad program and faculty will overview projects) – Wednesdays 5:30

• Should attend Chair’s welcome group meeting at the beginning of each semester

• Get timely advising as often as you need (at least once per semester)

• Those planning for Ph. D. program see CS Chair in the first semester

• Advising page http://cs.sfsu.edu/advising.html

Graduate seminar• Brings outstanding speakers from academia an industry.

Every Wednesdays 5:30 in TH 331. Exposes students to great topics and great speakers, helps give ideas for projects and jobs

• Each graduate student must attend 10 seminars in one or multiple Semesters

• First two seminars by Prof. D. Petkovic: about graduate program and about department research

• CS faculty will overview their projects – excellent place to get ideas for culminating experience Starts mid February – check CS WWW page

Improved labs

• TH 331 remodel, new projector• More supplies, larger print quota, new HW and SW

coming• Lab assistant Poushali cslabs@sfsu.edu• Poushali: Tutoring about SFSU basic SW

environment in SCI 254 Tuesday 2:30-3:30; Wednesday 3-4

• Report lab issues cslabs@sfsu.edu• Labs page

http://www.cs.sfsu.edu/research/ResearchLabs.htm

Plan your studies carefully

• Check CS WWW site for recommended sequence of study

• Get timely advising• Conditional grads: get rid of conditions first• If classes full:

– Talk to the instructor– See Prof. Levine– Get alternative classes– Preference to those who must graduate or are

conditional grads

Jobs• Consult our employment page for internal, TA and

external openings http://www.cs.sfsu.edu/jobs.html• Attend ACM seminars on jobs search and use SFSU

Career Center• Start looking for internships now! • Look also for SFSU jobs and research grant funded jobs in

CS Department• Foreign students: there are rules that must be strictly

observed. CS Department only recommends, SFSU OIP applies for, UC Government is the one which issues permits to work

• Check also: http://computingcareers.acm.org/

Reminder: plagiarism and IT resource use polices

• Cheating and plagiarism policieshttp://www.cs.sfsu.edu/plagarism.html

• Zero tolerance, policies will be enforced!

• IT resource usage polices– http://www.sfsu.edu/~itpolicy/aup.html

Important stuff• Visit WWW site and read e-mail• Program description http://

www.cs.sfsu.edu/grad/grad_program.html• For new grads http://

www.cs.sfsu.edu/grad/new_grad_helpnotes.html• Graduate page http://cs.sfsu.edu/grad/graduate.html• Check new schedule

http://cs.sfsu.edu/schedules/07/sp07.htm• Importance of early advising. New students MUST see

advisor http://cs.sfsu.edu/advising.html• Recommended sequence of study, selection of concentration

– second semester; finding the advisor http://cs.sfsu.edu/grad/grad_recom_sequence.html

More…• Graduate seminar series requirement

http://cs.sfsu.edu/news/Fall-2004-Pernet-Requirments.html• Internships – new polices on 893 (practicum) – important for

foreign students• All steps in preparing culminating project forms

http://cs.sfsu.edu/forms/aboutculminatingproject.html• Culminating experience http://

cs.sfsu.edu/grad/new_grad_culminating_req.html• How to write culminating project report

http://cs.sfsu.edu/grad/writing_cpr.html• Cheating and plagiarism http://www.cs.sfsu.edu/plagarism.html• International program – Fulda, Germany http://

cs.sfsu.edu/news/SFSUFulda.htm• Forms http://www.cs.sfsu.edu/forms/forms.html

Join student chapter ACM

• Meet new friends

• Get tutoring

• Attend seminars (I.e. on job search)

• Get connections with industry during industry visits

• Advanced Programming Studio club

• http://sfsu.acm.org/

Welcome foreign students!• Keep GPA and class load above the minimum - Overall GPA >= 3.0,

class load 9 units minimum

• Take CSC 893 for summer internships, must be at SFSU for at least 2 semesters. Covered by new “practicum option”.

• Practical training info http://cs.sfsu.edu/forms/student%20forms/opt_cpt_letter_instructions.html

• Post completion training allowed only when thesis is more than 95% complete, need confirmation by the advisor. http://cs.sfsu.edu/forms/student%20forms/opt_cpt_letter_instructions.html

• No external full time work approved in Fall and Spring

Welcome foreign students!

• Learn about USA: customs, culture, geography• Bay Area is one of the bets areas in USA:

geographically, culturally, for education and technology

• Get internships with local industry• Visit places, talk to people• Learn English (reading, writing)• Have fun!

Don’t forget to have fun and get to know other students Good luck Think of Ph. D. program

Tell your friends about us!