ACM ICPC Local

By Vijeta on October 22, 2009

I was a member of the team that went to the local competitions in Potsdam. I found out tonight that our team was selected to compete in the Regional competition in Rochester, New York on October 31st. I am proud of our team. Nice work Sandy, Henk, and Matt (who was there in spirit). Special thanks go out to our coaches: Dr. Constantinides and Alex Vallée.

The competition consisted of seven problems. We had five hours to solve them and access to only one computer.

I will post the pdf with the problems we encountered during preliminaries once it is available. If I have free time, I will write a post discussing our solutions, what we could have done better, and what we were prepared for.

Now it’s back to studying for midterms (four left) and putting off assignments.

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October Events

By Vijeta on October 3, 2009

Spice Up Your Life was a success. It started a bit late and there were no spoons but the samosas were delicious and there was a good turnout. It was great talking to the professors. A special thanks to Skrud for stopping by and telling us about life after graduation.

Last night was the Engineering Games Lizard Lounge. ÉTS, Polytechnique, and McGill showed up. I’ll have to find and post a picture of the official ÉTS beer pong table. It’s made out of 3300 beer caps and is a fantastic work of art.

With the first month out of the way, it’s time to think about some more important things. Sure, you can worry about midterms, but you can also procrastinate those studies by spending some time with your fellow engineers. Here’s what I’ll be covering in this post:

Academic

  1. Problem Solving Sessions
  2. Programming Summer Camp
  3. Tutors on Duty

Events

  1. SCS Gaming Day
  2. Career Fair
  3. Beer and Nacho Cheese
  4. SCS Lizard Lounge

Tutorials

  1. SCS Eclipse Tutorial
  2. SCS Shell Scripting Tutorial

Academic

1. Problem Solving Sessions
Concordia’s ICPC team for this year has been chosen. It would be good to start a regular group that gets together and solves algorithmic and math programming problems together. Those interested are planning to meet once every two or three weeks. If you join the group, the meetings are not mandatory, just come whenever you have free time. If you’re interested, please e-mail me at cse@ecaconcordia.ca and send me your availability.

2. Programming Summer Camp
Dr. Chvátal (yes, he has a Wikipedia page) is planning a camp geared for CÉGEP students to teach and get them excited about programming. This would be for next summer, around June. If you’re interested in helping out, please e-mail me at cse@ecaconcordia.ca or contact Dr. Chvátal.

3. Tutors On Duty
The Faculty of Engineering and Computer Science is offering this service to all undergraduate students. The program aims to help first- and second-year students by providing tutors for their discipline at certain times. The tutors will be third- and fourth-year undergraduates. The CS/SOEN tutors are available at the following times:

  • Tuesday from 14:00 to 17:00
  • Wednesday from 14:00 to 17:00
  • Thursday from 11:00 to 14:00
  • Friday from 11:00 to 14:00

They’ll be in H-806-01 and H-806-02.
More information can be found on the Tutors on Duty website.

Events

4. SCS Gaming Day
Date: Tueday, October 6th, 2009
Time: 12:00 – 17:00
Location: B-annex
If you were around during Frosh, you’ll remember SCS had consoles set up in the B-annex. They’re doing it again. It’s a great way to kill time if you’re on a break.

5. Career Fair
Date: Tueday, October 6th and Wednesday, October 7th
Location: Hall 7th floor
Time: 10:00 – 16:00
Update: Facebook event page.
I’ll update once I have the full details about the location and time. I do know that there will be 16 different companies each day so come with you CV ready.
Also, if you’re interested in greeting and helping the companies set up, e-mail Athena with your availability at external@ecaconcordia.ca

6. Beer and Nacho Cheese
Date: Wednesday, October 14th, 2009
Time: 17:30
Location: B-annex
Free drinks and nachos. Last year the B-annex was packed. the food was great and it was so much fun. Definitely not to be missed.
Corny joke time: What do you call cheese that isn’t yours? Nacho cheese! (Not your… get it?)

7. SCS Lizard Lounge
Date: Friday, October 23rd, 2009
Location: Reggie’s
Time: 17:00 – 20:00

Tutorials

8. SCS Eclipse Tutorial
Date: Wednesday, October 7th, 2009
Location: Hall 929
Time: 18:00 – 20:00
This tutorial will cover Eclipse basics such as creating a project, uses of the different views and perspectives. I’ll also delve into some of the refactoring capabilities as well as look at the java Debugger. Finally, we’ll look at installing plug-ins.

9. SCS Shell Scripting Tutorial
Date: Wednesday, October 21st, 2009
Location: Hall 929
Time: 18:00 – 20:00
Shell scripting is an important weapon in your arsenal of programming skills. I learned bash over the Summer while working and I wish I had taken the time to learn it earlier.

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ACM ICPC Participants

By Vijeta on September 24, 2009

SCS is looking for students to send to the ACM International Collegiate Programming Contest. The ICPC is a programming competition involving tough algorithmic problems. Last year Concordia passed the preliminaries in Montreal and made it to the regionals in Rochester!

This year the preliminaries are not being held locally, but in Potsdam, New York on October 17th (that’s a Saturday). Please e-mail SCS at scs@ecaconcordia.ca as soon as possible if you are interested and meet the following requirements:

  • You must be able to travel to the US. Click for details.
  • You must either be born in 1986 or later, or have first started post-secondary studies (this includes CEGEP) in 2005 or later. See also “Basic Requirements” and “Period of Eligibility” on the competition website.

I encourage applying if you are in your first or second year. This way, even if you may not know how to solve the problems now, you will know what to expect when you participate in future years.

Note: It will take two and a half hours to drive there (and the same amount of time to drive back). The competition lasts 4-5 hours. We should be able to make the entire journey in one day.

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Spice Up Your Life

By Vijeta on September 23, 2009

spiceupyourlife_poster

Spice Up Your like is happening on Thursday, October 1st in EV 2.184 from 4:00 – 5:30pm.

What is Spice Up Your Life? It’s an event organized and hosted by SCS that brings together the CS/SOEN faculty with students. It’s a great way to get to know your teachers and ask them about their research, debate with them about the courses offered, and share your love of spicy food (mild food will also be served).

Alumni are also invited to this event. So, if you have moved on to a career or graduate studies, please feel free to join us and share your experiences.



SCS is also offering tutorials all semester on various topics. These are introductory tutorials aimed at 1st and 2nd year students. They will happen every other Wednesday in H-929 from 6:00 – 8:00pm.


The dates and topics are:


    

  • Sep 23: Intro to Linux (happening today)
    • 

  • Oct 07: Using Eclipse
    • 

  • Oct 21: Bash scripting
    • 

  • Nov 04: Perl
    • 

  • Nov 18: Version Control
    • 



All tutorials are given by third or fourth year students in Computer Science or Software Engineering. I’ll be giving the one on Eclipse.

									


				
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First Week Over
By Vijeta on September 15, 2009

				

					
Update July 21st, 2009: The IBM info session has switched location. It will now be in EV 3.309.


This is a copy of the e-mail that was sent out on Tuesday, September 15th, 2009


I hope your first week went alright. Just a few notes and reminders:


    

  1. Introduction
    2. 

  2. Office Hours
    3. 

  3. IBM Info Session
    4. 

  4. Iron Ring
    5. 

  5. CSE Seminar
    6. 

  6. MSDNAA – Free Microsoft Software
    7. 

  7. Random Thoughts
    8. 



Introduction


My name is Vijeta and I am your computer science and software engineering representative. I am here to answer your questions about the ECA, the curriculum, and the CSE department. I can help you get involved, address your complaints, or anything really. You can reach me at cse@ecaconcordia.ca 


Office Hours


I will be available in the ECA Office (H-838) every Monday from 11:30 to 13:00.


IBM Info Session


There will be an IBM info session on September 24th, from 17:00 to 19:00 in EV 3.309. This session is geared towards students who will be graduating soon. That means people in their last year only. This is not an info session for coop students. Once again: NO INTERNS.


Iron Ring


You can now fill out the official registration form for the Fall 2009 Iron Ring Ceremony. They must be submitted to the ECA Office in the Hall Building (H-838) by September 18, 2009 Monday to Friday, 10:00 AM – 5:00PM.


The official registration form is available at http://ecaconcordia.ca/files/ironring/RegistrationForm.doc


E-mail Harley Cooper, VP Academic at academic@ecaconcordia.ca for further details, but first take a look at the Iron Ring information pages.


CSE Seminar


A couple years ago, the CSE department used to have a half-day seminar where some selected professors would talk about their research. Dr. Mudur, the chair of the department, and I think it might be a good idea to bring it back. This event, if it occurs, will take place in the winter semester. If you have any suggestions (i.e. professor or area of research you may be interested in) please let me know.


MSDNAA – Free Microsoft Software


As an ENCS student, you can get free Microsoft software (legitimately) from the MSDNAA (including Windows 7 Pro). Just check out the AITS MSDNAA website.


Random Thoughts


Note: This was not part of the e-mail.

ECA frosh week is pretty much over. Orientation, corn roast, pub crawl, end everything else went pretty well. If you missed out on these events, there is still DUSTED happening this Friday. See you there!

SCS will be having a teacher meet-and-greet scheduled for next Thursday. The details are not finalized yet but I’ll keep you updated.

									


				
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