SFSU Computer Science Department

Advising DayAugust 2008

Prof. D. Petkovic

dpetkovic@cs.sfsu.edu

08/21/08

WELCOME

Outline

• SW trends driving markets, jobs and education• About CS Department• What is NEW• About the program• About this semester• QA

• For specific questions see advisors today

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.

• 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

About the Department• Main CS WWW site www.cs.sfsu.edu• Mission and Objectives

– http://cs.sfsu.edu/mission.htm

• About 400 undergrads and about 100 graduates• 12 full time faculty and about 9 lecturers

– http://cs.sfsu.edu/People/people.html

• Strong accomplishments and nationally recognized faculty– http://cs.sfsu.edu/RecentAccomplishments.htm

• Strong links with local industry• Strong research activity http://cs.sfsu.edu/externalpubs/2004pubs.htm• Center for Computing for Life Sciences

http://cs.sfsu.edu/ccls/index.html

Motivation for updating the curricula with new types of skills• ACM study on SW outsourcing and globalisation

specifically mentions the need to train SE students in so called “soft skills”, teamwork, communication, SE process organization and issues related to globalisation

Aspray W., Mayadas F., Vardi M.Y., Editors: “Globalisation and Offshoring of Software, A Report of the ACM Job Migration Task Force”, ACM 2006, http://www.acm.org/globalizationreport/

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

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

Some basics• CS Office TH 906• CS WWW site – must visit regularly

www.cs.sfsu.edu• Read office e-mail and newsletters• If questions, look at CS WWW, then ask office• Classes start 08/26/08• Get advising often, there is also mandatory advising

checkpoint for CSC 213, CSC 413 enrolment• 1 unit = 2 hours of work/week

New in Fall and recently

• Initiatives in serious games and sensor arrays• Lab remodeling and lab Committee and student

helper• Student Advisory Board• WWW site redesign• Grad program

– MS Concentration in Computing and Business– Revision of all other MS concentration better coverage and

flexibility– Group Project Cluster requirement to ensure you get SW

development team experience

Group Project Cluster

• 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 polices (as of Spring 08)

Advising has been shown to significantly increase success in studies

NEW:• 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 upon

enrolment in 413 and 213 – check with the office on who to see• Peer advising by CS students (does not replace faculty advising)• CS Advising page

http://cs.sfsu.edu/advising.html

Reminder: plagiarism polices

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

• Zero tolerance, policies will be enforced!

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

Other developments• Student Advisory Board formed.

http://cs.sfsu.edu/People/StudentAdvisoryBoard.htm– Excellent forum to give us feedback

• Lab and faculties improved:– Improving lab management, WWW site for tracking

problems admin@minkay.sfsu.edu– Lab committee, Student helper hired– Lab remodeling: TH 331, undergrad lab, grad lab

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

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

• For specific questions see advisors today

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

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 ability to work independently, to write and to present

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

About the Department• Main CS WWW site www.cs.sfsu.edu• Mission and Objectives

– http://cs.sfsu.edu/mission.htm

• About 400 undergrads and about 100 graduates• 12 full time faculty and about 9 lecturers

– http://cs.sfsu.edu/People/people.html

• Strong accomplishments and nationally recognized faculty– http://cs.sfsu.edu/RecentAccomplishments.htm

• Strong links with local industry• Strong research activity http://cs.sfsu.edu/externalpubs/2004pubs.htm• Center for Computing for Life Sciences

http://cs.sfsu.edu/ccls/index.html

Some basics• CS Office TH 906• CS WWW site – must visit regularly www.cs.sfsu.edu• Read office e-mail and newsletters• If questions, look at CS WWW, then ask office• Classes start 08/26/08• Get advising often• Clear conditions early (including English proficiency)• 1 unit = 2 hours of work/week• Foreign students: observe OIP rules

New in Fall and recently

• MS Concentration in Computing and Business• Revision of all other MS concentration better

coverage and flexibility• Lab remodeling and lab Committee and student

helper• Initiatives in serious games and senor arrays• Student Advisory Board• WWW site redesign

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.

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

Motivation for updating the curricula

• ACM study on SW outsourcing and globalisation specifically mentions the need to train SE students in so called “soft skills”, teamwork, communication, SE process organization and issues related to globalisation

Aspray W., Mayadas F., Vardi M.Y., Editors: “Globalisation and Offshoring of Software, A Report of the ACM Job Migration Task Force”, ACM 2006, http://www.acm.org/globalizationreport/

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

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

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

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

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

this Fall

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

starting NOW• 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)

Revision of MS Concentrations: General, SW Eng, Comp. For Life Sciences

• To ensure better coverage and flexibility

• SW Eng, Conc. requires a PM course from BUS School CSC 663

• Details– http://cs.sfsu.edu/grad_2008_revisions.html

• New students must take this new program, old students can chose, see grad advisor

Some areas of focus• 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

Serious Games for Nursing Education - NEW

• NEW CCLS project between CS Department, School of Nursing and Industry and design

• Combines CS, graphics, game concepts• Faculty contact Prof. I. Yoon, M. Wong

(CCLS)• Money for research work and culminating

experience projects available

Cluster Computing

• 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…)

Consult CS WWW page all the time

• Before asking the office or advisors, check our WWW page

• It has all the info, forms and policies

• Check WWW page at least once a week

• Check e-mail from the office and Chair’s welcome message from the WWW page

• NEW: Read CS newsletters

Advising - NEW• 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• Those planning for Ph. D. program see CS Chair in

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

Graduate seminar (formerly Pernet)

• 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 all seminars in one Semester

• 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 September – check CS WWW page

• http://www.cs.sfsu.edu/news/Fall-2004-Pernet-Requirments.html

Miscellaneous• Conditionally classified graduate students: please focus on

clearing your conditions first. • Those who have SCI 614 as a condition must enroll in it during

their first semester. Those with SCI 614 as a condition who wish to waive it must receive a grade PASS (not Marginal Pass) from GET test before enrolling in any graduate level courses.  

• In case you need more depth in learning Java or basics of WWW development, we do recommend you take our “service” courses like CSC 203 and CSC 317 with cover Java and Intro to Web development, respectively.

•  Due to popular demand, we are offering CSC 825 Advanced Automata Theory now. May not offer CSC 810 in Spring 09

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

Reminder: plagiarism polices

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

• Zero tolerance. Policies will be enforced!

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

• President: Eric Gregory

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”.

• See 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

• Conditional graduate students should chose CR/NC option for conditional courses where possible: in case they get NC they do go on probation but do not lose work permit. Department will enforce conditions but this gives us greater flexibility

• No external full time work approved in Fall and Spring

• No CPT if on reduced course load (OIP rules)

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!