Weekly Download, August 31, 2021

FROM THE DEAN

Welcome new and returning students! I am thrilled to begin the new year with all of you! Our return to campus promises to be full of in-person activities and events -- social events, research seminars, professional development training, artistic performances, and more.  I hope you take advantage of as many as possible to connect with faculty, staff, and fellow students. Studying is obviously paramount, but being engaged is also important. As always, we will make it easy for you to stay up to date on what’s going on through the college’s social media accounts and the Weekly Download.

In addition, the start of a new academic year is the perfect time to celebrate our recent successes. For example, did you know that we have added eight new tenure-track faculty over the last two years, and that we were one of just six universities to join the National Science Foundation CyberCorps Scholarship for Service Program? Both directly impact our students. Read about all the other cool stuff that happened last year on our Welcome 2021 webpages. 

Finally, I want to hear your thoughts. I love meeting with students and I have open office hours every Friday from 2 to 3 pm (Rekhi 221) to make it easy for us to chat. I hope to see you there.

 

Dennis Livesay, PhD
Dave House Dean of Computing

COVID-10 VACCINE CLINICS AND TESTING

• Free, walk-in COVID-19 testing for students and employees will be conducted throughout the fall semester from 9 am to noon, Mondays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays, in the Datolite Room (MUB). Tests are available whether or not you have COVID-19 symptoms.
• COVID-19 vaccine clinics for students and employees, in partnership with the Upper Great Lakes Family Health Center, will be conducted September 1 and September 2 in the Rozsa Center Lobby from 3-5 pm.
• If you have questions about COVID-19 testing and vaccinations at Michigan Tech, visit the MTU Flex Testing webpage or email mtuflex@mtu.edu.

STUDENT EVENTS AND ACTIVITIES

• Dean Livesay 's Open Office Hours resume Fri., Sep. 3, 2-3 pm, in Rekhi 223. Dr. Livesay is available for conversation every Friday afternoon from 2-3 pm when classes are in session. All faculty, staff, and students who wish to chat with him are invited to "drop in" his office in Rekhi 223. Appointments are not needed.
• Study Abroad Virtual Fair, Sep. 13-15, At the three-day virtual fair, you 'll have opportunities to meet with study abroad professionals, learn about your options, and start planning your study abroad adventure.
• Florida Hacks with IBM, Creating Solutions to Combat Climate Change, 
  Sep.13 to Nov 29.

LECTURES AND SEMINARS

• MTRAC Info Seminar, Sept 10, !2 pm, GLRC 202 
• ICC Distinguished Lecture: Dr. Philip E. Bourne, Fri., Nov. 5, 3 pm, virtual
• ICC Distinguished Lecture: Dr. Doina Caragea, Fri., Oct. 22, 3 pm, on-campus

BLUE MARBLE SECURITY ENTERPRISE

The Blue Marble Security Enterprise (BMS) is recruiting new members for the fall 2021 semester. Interested? An in-person info-session is Thur. Sep. 2, 7-8 pm, in Dow 642. Pizza and drinks will be served.

BMS is a student enterprise virtual company that takes on sponsorships from a variety of businesses and the U.S. government and military. BMS students gain real life experience working on dynamic teams. The wide variety of projects that Blue Marble takes on means almost any major will find a place.

For more information, contact BMS president, Austin Trudeau or BMS VP of communications, Robert Fairchild.

MULTIPLANETARY INNOVATIONS ENTERPRISE (MINE)

Interested in robotics? Autonomy? Subsea, Lunar, or Mars Exploration? The Multiplanetary INnovations Enterprise is focused on giving students hands-on experience designing, building, and testing autonomous vehicles built for extreme environments, including a competition build for a NASA annual competition. The group will host info sessions on Sep. 1 and 2 and Sep. 8 and 9, from 6-7 pm. 

MINE (formerly Mining Innovations Enterprise) is a student-led group that works on designs for vehicles, and robotics in extreme environments. The enterprise offers students independence in their learning and strengthens their skills in communication, project management, problem solving, presentation and technical writing skills, time management, leadership, and software. While our hands-on projects focus on building skills and learning concepts, we emphasize small groups, collaboration, and teamwork. For more info, contact Tim Hamilton, Enterprise Manager.

CAREER AND EMPLOYMENT

INTERNAL POSITIONS

• College of Computing Social Media Assistant
  This work-study student position will help the communications director increase social media engagement on College of Computing social media channels. Contact Karen Johnson with questions. Apply on Handshake.
• Hourly Paid Research Assistants
  The Security and Privacy Lab has openings for hourly-paid research assistants. The student will work on working on IoT security, mobile security, or cloud computing security. The student is expected to be eager to solve problems, and familiar with programming (C is preferred). Interested, please send resume to Dr. Bo Chen.
• Undergraduate Paid Research Positions
  Dr. Junqiao Qiu is seeking undergraduate research assistants who are 1) enrolled in CS or a closely related discipline at Michigan Tech, and 2) U.S. citizens, U.S. nationals, or permanent residents of the United States. RAs will work on a research project about GPU-accelerated FSM/graph computations with advanced speculation. For details and to apply, email your resume to Dr. Qiu (junqiaoq@mtu.edu). The positions run from September 2021 through mid-April 2022.
• Graduate Research Position
  Dr. Sidike Paheding, Applied Computing, is seeking a fall 2021 graduate student to assist with a research project. Pay rate: $15/hour, 10 hours/week, September 2021 through December 2021, with an extension possible. The research assistant will have  experience in the Unity development platform and Virtual/Augmented Reality; knowledge in machine learning/AI is a plus. To apply, email Dr. Paheding.
• Research Assistant
  The Aerosol-Biosphere-Climate Interaction (GMES) is looking for a student with Python programming background to work on a newly-funded NASA project. The student will lead the development of a scalable Python script to create a structured dataset by merging ground-based and satellite observations of air pollutants. The following libraries are expected to be used: numpy, pandas and others for reading/writing Hierarchical Data Format. The student will gain experience in applying NASA's space and ground observation assets to address changes in the atmospheric composition and associated impacts on air quality and climate. Contact Dr. Xin Xi if you are interested.
• View all the positions here.

EXTERNAL POSITIONS

• Staff Writer, Computer Science (Quanta), Simons Foundation, full-time. Reporter to identify and cover newsworthy developments in machine learning, quantum computing, computational complexity, algorithms, cryptography and other areas of theoretical computer science. View the position.

COMPUTING LEARNING CENTER

Stuck on syntax or unsure about algorithms? The team of CCLC coaches is here to help! All of us enjoy sharing our knowledge, and we hope you’ll become as excited about programming and computing as we are. From CS 1121 to AI, we have coaches here to answer your questions. So, please stop by and ask!

• CCLC webpage
• CCLC schedule
• Discord server
• Canvas page: self-registration
• Canvas page link

ACADEMIC CALENDAR

View the full Academic Calendar

FALL 2021

Monday, Aug 30, Instruction Begins
Monday, Sep 06, Labor Day Recess
Friday, Sep 10, 12 p.m., K-day Recess
Monday, Sep 13, Classes Resume
Wednesday, Sep 22, 10 a.m., Virtual Career Fair
Thursday, Sep 23, 10 a.m., Virtual Career Fair
Friday, Oct 01, 3 p.m., Homecoming Recess
Sunday, Oct 24, 12 p.m., Spring/Summer Registration Begins
Sunday, Nov 07, 11:59 p.m., Spring/Summer Registration Ends
Friday, Nov 19, 10 p.m., Thanksgiving Recess Begins
Monday, Nov 29, Classes Resume
Friday, Dec 10, Last Day of Regular Classes
Monday, Dec 13, Final Exam Period
Friday, Dec 17, Fall Semester Ends
Saturday, Dec 18, Midyear Commencement