Undergraduate Advising

Ugrad Newsletter

Newsletter Archive

May 12, 2008

ANNOUNCEMENTS

1 :: Read the SoE Undergraduate Newsletter Online!

If you would prefer to read the newsletter in a different format, the SoE Undergraduate Newsletter is also available on the web!
http://www.soe.ucsc.edu/advising/undergraduate/news/index.html

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2 :: DROP-IN ADVISING HOURS

The following is a complete list of the SoE Undergraduate Affairs Office hours and some of the services we provide: Monday - Friday, 9:00 - 11:00 am: General SoE questions, drop off/pick up forms, schedule an appointment with an advisor
Monday - Friday, 1:30 - 3:30 pm: Drop-in Advising - Advisor on duty to answer quick questions, provide advice on class selection, help you fill out petitions, explain policies, etc.

Appointments are also made with students who need to meet with an advisor to answer more in-depth questions, discuss study strategies, etc.

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3 :: Participate in an important UC survey!!

Dear Students, Beginning last week you should have received an email asking you to participate in the online University of California Undergraduate Experiences Survey (UCUES). This survey is being administered at all of the UC campuses and is one of the most important ways that you can let the administration know about your experience at UC Santa Cruz. It gives you an opportunity to provide honest and confidential feedback about your undergraduate experience, what’s important to you, what’s working well, and what’s not working so well. Your feedback will be used as part of regular program evaluation of your major and can have an effect on policy decisions, so it’s critical that you complete the UCUES.

By completing the survey, you’ll be entered to win 1 of 14 cash prizes totaling $3,000.
You can access the survey at http://universityofcalifornia.edu/ucues

Don’t miss out on this chance to have your voice heard!

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4 :: Register to Walk in the SoE Graduation Ceremony!

Graduates must register by Sunday June 1, 2008 using the School of Engineering's 2007 graduation registration Web site.

To access the registration website from off-campus, please use the following login information:
Username: graduation
Password: slugs
(It's case-sensitive, so please enter them both in lower case.)

This year's ceremony will take place on Sunday, June 15, 2008 at 4:00 PM at the Engineering Courtyard (between the Engineering 2 and Jack Baskin Engineering buildings). A reception will be held immediately following the ceremony.

For more information, please see:
http://www.soe.ucsc.edu/events/graduation/

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5 :: Student Speakers Wanted for 2008 Graduation

The School of Engineering invites students of the graduating Class of 2008 to consider offering a speech for the graduation celebration.

Any seniors and graduate students who are interested in delivering a Senior or Graduate Student Address on behalf of their fellow members of the graduating Class of 2008 for the School of Engineering, must submit their name and major status, along with their written speech to Virginia Carrillo via email to virginia@soe.ucsc.edu as soon as possible but no later than Monday, May 19.

There is no written word-limit however speech presentations are limited to five-minutes. Depending on the number of candidates, the committee will select 1 or 2 undergraduate students for the Senior Address and 1 or 2 Masters/Ph.D. students for the Graduate Address.

The selection committee will be comprised of SoE faculty and staff as well as students. We invite graduating students (seniors and grads) who are NOT interested in being a speaker, to serve on the selection committee as a representative of their graduating class. Please send email to Virginia Carrillo, virginia@soe.ucsc.edu , indicating your interest to serve on this committee.

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6 :: UCSC Game Designers group on Facebook

If you're a UCSC student interested in computer game design, you can join the Facebook group "UCSC Game Designers". Unlike many Facebook affinity groups, real live actual useful information is occasionally posted here.

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7 :: Game Collection at Science & Engineering Library

Did you know the UCSC Science and Engineering library (not McHenry Library) has a lending collection of computer games and consoles? You can go to the checkout desk, and request a NES, SNES, N64, or PS2 for checkout (Wii coming soon). You can also ask at the checkout desk for the key to the library's game lab, which holds a range of classic game consoles (NES, SNES, N64, Genesis, Saturn, Dreamcast, PS One, XBox). There are also over 120 games available for checkout, including a deep collection of computer role playing games. Want to see a complete list? Go to: http://cruzcat.ucsc.edu/search/a?searchtype=m&searcharg=gvd&SORT=D&Submit=go

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8 :: Sign Up for the Undergraduate Hardware Lab

Weekly information and sign up sessions for the new Undergraduate Hardware Lab will be held on Monday 2:00-2:30pm, Wednesday 3:30-4:00pm, and Friday 4:00-4:30pm. A hardware lab manager will be on duty to answer questions and sign up any interested undergraduate engineers.

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UPCOMING EVENTS

9 :: ISM Faculty Student Lunch ("ISMFUL") - Wednesday, May 14 – 12pm

All ISM students are invited to the Spring quarter ISMFUL
Time: Wednesday, May 14, 12-1:00 PM (Lunch will be served)
Location: E2, Room 215
Topic: Faculty Research in Technology and Information Management

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10 :: CE Faculty Student Lunch (CEFUL) – Thursday, May 15 – 12:30pm

All CE Students are invited. A pizza lunch will be served.
Day/Time: Thursday, May 15 – 12:30pm
Location: E2-215

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11 :: Ruby on Rails Meetup – May 14th, 7pm

Speaker: Galen O'Hanlon
Topic: Ruby on Rails
Location: E2-280 (use the east E2 entrance if the building is locked)
Time: Wednesday, May 14th, 7pm

Join fellow technologists for an introduction to the Rails 2.0.2 web- framework and the Ruby programming language. See why Ruby is among the fastest growing languages, gain insight into why Rails has and continues to change the way web applications are built, and learn how you can use these tools to create better applications with less effort.

For more information about Galen O'Hanlon and the "Santa Cruz Ruby on Rails Meetup Group" visit:
http://ruby.meetup.com/86/

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12 :: Elements of Information Theory Workshop - May 16th

Stanford, May 16 2008
http://isl.stanford.edu/eit/

On the occasion of the 70th birthday of Prof. Thomas M. Cover, the Information Systems Lab of the Electrical Engineering Department at Stanford University will host the Elements of Information Theory Workshop (Coverfest!) on Friday, May 16, 2008, to honor Prof. Cover's past and ongoing contributions to the fields of information theory, communication, statistical learning, complexity, and portfolio theory.

The workshop will be held at the Packard Electrical Engineering Building Auditorium on the Stanford campus. The technical program includes talks by:
Andrew Barron, Yale,
Charles Bennett, IBM,
Imre Csiszár, Rényi Institute,
Abbas El Gamal, Stanford,
Peter Gács, Boston University,
Hal Stern, UC Irvine, and
Sergio Verdú, Princeton.

We are looking forward to seeing you in this celebratory event. For additional information and to register for the daylong workshop and the evening banquet, please visit http://isl.stanford.edu/eit/

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13 :: Spring BioINFormatics Free Faculty/Student Lunch – May 28 – 12 pm

Wednesday, May 28 12-1 p.m. in PSB 305

These events are for both undergrad and grad students---they are a great chance to get to know other students in the program and to talk informally with some of the faculty (not to mention the free food).

The May 28th meeting will be run by Dietlind Gerloff (Grad Director).

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14 :: Society of Women Engineers - fundraiser at Woodstocks Pizza –May 29 – 5pm

Society of Women Engineers is hosting a fundraiser at Woodstocks Pizza on 710 Front St(next to Trader Joe's). Stop by Thursday, May 29th, for some great pizza from 5-9pm and up to 25% of the proceeds will go to SWE, to help fund our activities. When you are ordering just mention that you are there to support SWE.

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15 :: SWE Meetings

Come join SWE for our weekly meetings
Wednesdays 7pm in JBE 318

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INTERNSHIP, RESEARCH, SCHOLARSHIP, & EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITIES

16 :: UCSC Summer Undergraduate Research Scholarship Opportunity

The Information Retrieval and Knowledge Management Lab at SOE@UCSC is looking for 1 or 2 undergraduates to join a National Science Foundation supported research on Proactive Personalized Information Integration and Retrieval. Each undergraduate researcher will receive $4800 scholarship supported by NSF. By working on this project, the student will have the opportunity to participate in research, as well as be exposed to the area of information retrieval, data mining and machine learning. The undergraduate researcher is expected to present the research in UCSC Undergraduate Research Symposium. The research will also be submitted for publication and the undergraduate researchers will have opportunity to be co-authors of the papers.
In particular, the undergraduate researchers will carry out research on integrating social network, content and collaborative learning for proactive information retrieval. We will need to gather information from the internet, create a new interface to display the recommendation alongside the trust network and carry out user studies to evaluate the system.

To qualify for the scholarship, you need to have very good programming skills and basic statistics background. To apply, please send your C.V. to Professor Zhang at yiz@soe.ucsc.edu. by May 31st. To ensure full consideration, applications must arrive by the deadline.

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17 :: Summer Undergraduate Research Assistant Position

We are looking to hire an undergraduate research assistant for ten weeks during the summer of 2008 through an NSF/REU program. The student will work with Prof. Eugene Zhang and possibly one of his graduate students on an ongoing research project in the area of computer graphics, scientific visualization, and geometry modeling. Preference will be given to students who are considering going to grad school.
We are looking for a student who is a good communicator, hard worker, and good learner. Other requirements include:
1. Gradepoint well above a 3.5.
2. Junior or sophomore.
3. Responsible, cooperative, serious student.
4. US citizen or permanent resident.
Specific requirements:
1. C/C++ required.
2. Interest in mathematics and physics a big plus.

The student is expected to work for 300 hours during the ten-week span. Specific responsibilities include literature search, algorithm design and implementation, and experimentation and evaluation. In addition, the student will mentor a high school student.

REU experience can make a big difference in helping a student get into good grad schools, and also to win fellowships and scholarships to pay for it, because it is a nationally-known, prestigious program. If you are considering applying, please send your application via email to zhange@eecs.oregonstate.edu by Thursday, May 15th. The application consists of your resume, a statement of purpose, transcript, date you can start working, and two references letters sent directly from the writers. Further details on the project are available by contacting Prof. Zhang (zhange@eecs.oregonstate.edu).

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18 :: ESA Foundation Computer and Video Game Scholarship Program

The Entertainment Software Association (ESA) Foundation is pleased to announce the ESA Foundation Computer and Video Game Scholarship Program. The program is open for online applications from women or minority students at your institution who will be enrolled in a full-time undergraduate course of study for the entire 2008-2009 academic year. Approximately fifteen (15) scholarships of $3,000 each will be awarded.

Applicants to the ESA Foundation Scholarship Program must be:
* Women or minority students,
* Pursuing degrees leading to careers in video game development,
* Enrolled in a full-time undergraduate course of study at an accredited four-year college or university, and
* Maintaining a grade point average of 2.75 or above on a 4.0 scale (or its equivalent)

Please visit the following website for additional information and to complete an application online: https://www.scholarshipamerica.org/ESAF The application postmark deadline is May 15, 2008.

The program is being administered by Scholarship America for the ESA Foundation. If you have any questions, please call (507) 931-1682 and ask for the ESA Foundation Scholarship Program

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19 :: Acumen, LLC Job Opportunities

Acumen, LLC, together with its affiliated non-profit firm The SPHERE Institute, offers candidates the unique opportunity to develop and apply software development skills to further the goals of social and health policy research. Acumen/SPHERE is fast paced and rapidly expanding with a casual work environment. We are in the unique situation of being a small organization with large clients, requiring all members to work on a diversity of projects and platforms. We are seeking highly motivated candidates to join our team. We offer full time salary positions with benefits, and flexible hours.

This position will develop systems for research and analysis to support both in house and client needs. All software developers will be expected to:
* Design and develop web applications to process and present information.
* Develop and maintain software used to collect and analyze information for a variety of projects.
* Develop and extend data systems supporting the operation of large-scale data center and project management activities.
* Work with government agencies and other organizations to access data and program information.
* Perform other responsibilities as required.

Programmers generally work in project teams, but may take lead responsibility for specific projects. With an appropriate background, programmer roles may expand into policy, data analysis, or system administration tasks if desired.

Qualifications * Fast learner with desire to excel
* BA/BS required; Computer Science / Engineering degree preferred, but others are suitable with appropriate experience
* Demonstrated experience in software design and development
* Experience with web / internet / networking technologies
* Familiarity with .NET Framework and / or Java
* Familiarity with COM, MS Office VBA desired
* Familiarity with ASP.NET desired
* Interest in health and social policy research

Apply by sending a cover letter and resume via email to jobs@acumenllc.com

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20 :: Electric Cloud - On Campus Job Interviews

Electric Cloud is Hiring Software Engineers and will be interviewing at UCSC on May 22, 2008.

To get more information and sign-up for an interview visit: http://www2.ucsc.edu/careers/jobs/oci.html
(Instructions for signing up are at the bottom of the page.)

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21 :: Career Center Internship Opportunities

To view internship descriptions and find out how to apply go to the UCSC Career Center Intern Connection database at: http://www.careercenter.ucsc.edu/internships

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