Dean's Update - May 2012

COMMENCEMENT

On May 12, SPSU held its 103rd commencement ceremony. Some 430 students graduated, including more than 90 from the School of Computing and Software Engineering.

As has become customary, CSE hosted a reception for its spring and summer graduates and their family and friends the evening before commencement. The reception was very well attended with almost 200 people at the event. The reception was sponsored by UPS and I am of course grateful to UPS and Jeff Jones, a member of the CSE Dean’s Development Council, for their sponsorship.

We also used the reception to have our graduating students take the pledge of the computing professional, a project that Dr Dasigi has been working on (http://www.computing-professional.org/). We received sponsorship for this from BlueWave Computing, and I would like to thank BlueWave Computing and its CEO Dr Steve Vicinanza, another member of the CSE Dean’s Development Council, for their support.

ANDY WANG LEAVING CSE

Dr Andy Wang, chair of the Department of Information Technology, will be leaving SPSU over the summer to take up a position as dean of the College of Applied Sciences and Art at Southern Illinois University, Carbondale. Andy of course deserves our heartiest congratulations on this. I am sure that he will make an enormous contribution to his new institution.

I also wanted to take this opportunity to thank Andy for his tremendous service to SPSU in general and CSE in particular. Under his leadership, enrollment in and, more importantly, the number of graduates from our various IT programs has grown dramatically. For example, the MSIT is now the largest graduate program at SPSU. At the same time, he has also ensured that the quality of our programs in IT has further improved, as witnessed by the ABET CAC accreditation for the BSIT program.

However, Andy's contribution has not been limited to IT. For example, it was Andy who first suggested that we try to get a program in Computer Game Design and Development.

Andy's departure will no doubt leave a big hole, and we will have to determine how best to fill this hole. In the meantime, I am pleased to announce that Becky Rutherfoord will step in as interim department chair.

ANDERSON RECEIVES DOD INFORMATION ASSURANCE SCHOLARSHIP

Brian Anderson, a student enrolled in our MS Computer Science program, recently received news that he has been awarded a scholarship under the Department of Defense (DoD) Information Assurance Scholarship program. The program was started by the DoD to make sure that the US would have the personnel capable of defending its cyber-infrastructure. In addition to a generous scholarship, Brian will also be offered a position with a federal agency. Brian of course deserves our congratulations, as does the Center for Information Security Education, which was instrumental in helping secure the scholarship.

MCVEY NAMED AS TOP TEN WOMAN IN TECHNOLOGY

Lisa McVey, a member of the CSE Dean’s Development Council, was named as one of the top ten women in technology for 2012 by little PINK book. (http://littlepinkbook.com/resources/pink-list/top-women-tech). Little PINK Book was established to help professional women advance in their careers.

Lisa of course deserves kudos for yet another recognition of her achievements.

STUDENTS PRESENT AT TECHNICAL CONFERENCE

A group of 5 students, who had been working under the tutelage of Dr Kai Qian, recently presented a paper at the ACM South East Conference in Tuscaloosa in Alabama. The students were Li Zhengzhe, Teng Zhao, Dong Ren, Yang Zhang, and Lei Wang, and their paper was entitled “Learning Applications of Multi-tasking Signal Analysis of Fourier Transform Based on Smart Mobile Devices”. Both the students and Dr Qian are to be congratulated on this important achievement.