Featured – Page 36 – Seidenberg School News

Seidenberg’s Richard Kline appointed as Faculty Fellow

“The Office of the Provost is pleased to announce the NYC Faculty Fellow appointments of Professor Richard Kline, for the 2015-2016 Academic Year, and Professor Andriy Danylenko for the 2016-2017 Academic Year. These appointments became available as Dr. Brian Evans from the School of Education completed his term. Professor Evans has been a valuable team member in helping establish a plan to increase enrollment for Summer 2015 and Brian is the Coordinator of the Pace Path, overseeing the program’s formal implementation.

Dr. Richard “Rick” Kline is an Associate Professor of computer science and program chairperson for Software Engineering in the Seidenberg School of Computer Science & Information Systems. He served as an associate dean of Seidenberg from 2009 to 2011.

Dr. Kline’s research and service activities are focused on increasing interest in STEM learning among K-12 students. For the past ten years, he has been a team member of the Seidenberg Scholars Summer Experience program for high school students. He was a faculty advisor, alongside outgoing Faculty Fellow Brian Evans, in the Verizon-funded Pace STEM Collaboratory in 2012-13. Dr. Kline has served as director of the Hudson Valley FIRST Tech Challenge robotics program, which has reached more than 2,000 students in grades 7-12 since 2009. He has taught more than 400 students in the civic engagement course, Problem Solving Using LEGO Robotics. He was awarded the Jefferson Award for Public Service Bronze Medal in 2012.

Dr. Andriy Danylenko is a Professor of Russian and Slavic linguistics in the Department of Modern Languages and Cultures in Dyson College of Arts and Sciences.

He is the editor and author of several books on Slavic linguistics and philology as well as dozens of studies on a wide array of topics ranging from Indo-European to the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth to standard Ukrainian. Among his books are Slavica et Islamica: Ukrainian in Context (Munich, 2006) on aspects of East Slavic and Ukrainian philology, and most recently, Grammaticalization and Lexicalization in Slavic languages (Munich, Berlin, Washington, DC: Otto Sagner; in co-editorship). Dr. Danylenko has been a recipient of several prestigious fellowships, including Fulbright (Harvard University, 1997; Warsaw University, Poland, 2016), Eugene and Daymel Shklar (Harvard University, 2008), Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (Hokkaido University, 2013). He is an editorial board member of several journals, a reviewer for numerous scholarly publications and programs in North America, Europe, and Japan.

Professors Kline and Danylenko will help facilitate the implementation of several projects aimed at enhancing the academic excellence of Pace University. These projects will involve exploring ideas to further the Pace campus mission foci of teaching, learning, research, scholarship, and civic engagement. Pace Faculty Fellows bring an important faculty perspective to the University-wide planning and implementation process, and we look forward to their partnership.”

This message was originally published in a note to the Pace Community from Uday Sukhatme, Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs at Pace University.

Pace team takes home the prize at VR Hackathon

Tisch Interactive Telecommunications Program — NYU’s Tisch building where the hackathon was held.

Over the weekend of July 10-12, a team of four Pace students competed against 19 other groups in the NYC Virtual Reality Hackathon, a hackathon that took place as part of the LoNyLa/TimeWave Festival. The Pace team won the Best Wow Factor VR category and brought home a $500 prize!

Pace students and alums Taranjyot Singh Multani (MS CS ’15), Dhruvil Gandhi (MS CS ’16), Avery Leider (PhD CS ’18) and Syed Adil Hasan (MBA Financial MGMT and IS ’16) joined up with Zeev Kirsh, a litigation staff attorney at Paul, Weiss, and Guilherme Pena Costa, a Brazilian programmer who works at McCann Advertising Agency, whom they had met at a Sony sponsored Mega-Meetup the night before the hackathon. The diverse team used their individual skills to dominate in their category during the hackathon – just the kind of interdisciplinary focus we love to see!

The theme of the hackathon focused on “Mythos and Moxie,” an idea derived from the way technology changes constantly and rapidly while storytelling fundamentals have remained the same. The teams were challenged to create a VR platform that transcends technology and opens up users to a more human experience of storytelling, exploring the possibilities of VR technology while doing so.

The team decided to create a kind of virtual island that would incorporate musical features, which users could alter according to their own liking using their movements. The island played four different kinds of music in each corner, and users navigated the island using the Oculus Rift. Depending on how they moved, the music would change in volume, intensity or balance. Users could move around the island to figure out which kind of music they most wanted to hear. The team had originally planned to make movement possible through Dhruvil’s Leap Motion, but faced a big challenge in getting the software and hardware to interact seamlessly. Eventually, they had to cut out the Leap Motion and focus just on using the Oculus Rift and game controllers for movement. Even so, their product was a great success with each of the five judges.

After all the groups showed off their projects, the Pace team received high praise from their category’s judge Chaki Ng, who is also General Manager for Viacom Labs. He stated that the team had successfully captured the essence of the hackathon with their project, and that their project was the most developed and complete out of the presentations that weekend. It turns out that music is a great way to provide an emotionally tangible experience for a user in a virtual environment. The team was delighted to hear this, especially considering the setbacks they had faced during their project. Nevertheless, their story and their content was strong enough to earn them their prize, and we hope they can continue to build on this project in the future to include all the cool features with Leap Motion that they originally wanted to use!

Sponsors for the event included: EEVO, Fake Love, Sony, Freedom 360, Leap Motion, Littlstar, Oculus, Unity 3D and VISR.

A note from GE Capital President, Thomas Gentile

Recently, Thomas Gentile was presented with the Leadership and Service in Technology (LST) award here at Pace University. The award aims to recognize those who have made outstanding achievements in technology by demonstrating their commitment to development, innovation, research, and application within the field.

On receiving his award, Mr. Gentile gave a presentation during which he discussed the crucial need for technology professionals, particularly in the field of cybersecurity.

Mr. Gentile had these remarks regarding the award and GE’s partnership with the Seidenberg School of Computer Science and Information Systems:

“It is an honor for me to accept the Leadership in Service Award from Pace University. And GE Capital is proud to partner with Seidenberg School of Computer Science and Information Systems on the important initiative of improving the access of young women to STEMC academic studies and careers.

“Seidenberg has been a leader in promoting STEMC studies, and this partnership will help pave the way for future leaders to enter these important fields. We are also delighted to have the opportunity to work closely with Dean Amar Gupta. Dean Gupta has been a thought leader and innovator in emerging technical areas like tele-medicine and cyber security which are very important to GE’s global strategy to become the one of the world’s leading infrastructure company. His passion and energy have facilitated important collaborations between industry and academia which are taking STEMC studies to the next level.”

10th Annual Summer Scholars Experience

Every summer for the past 10 years, Seidenberg has hand-selected some of the highest-achieving high school students across the nation to be a part of the Seidenberg Summer Scholars Experience (SSSE). SSSE brings these scholars together on our campus in New York City for a week of mobile hacking that will prepare the scholars for a bright future in computer programming. The camp includes an intensive hackathon that challenges their skills in team work, ideation, programming, execution, and – dauntingly for some – presenting and displaying each step of their process to their peers and mentors. For students preparing for their final year of high school, it’s a big and exciting undertaking for the summer.

What is even more enriching in the Scholar Experience is that each summer we challenge the scholars to create an application that has the potential to help a cause. In some years this has been a call for apps that augment STEM education; in other years we focused on Cyber Security and User Experience. This year, we asked the scholars to create an app around the Billion Oyster Project, a project which Seidenberg has become proudly affiliated with over the past year through a generous grant awarded to the school by the National Science Foundation (NSF).

Of course, along with the challenge of hacking for multiple hours a day, the Scholars Experience is always balanced with a collection of the best adventures in New York City. The scholars get a curated tour of the tech scene, including tours of Google and Microsoft’s headquarters. They also enjoy intimate visits to startups like AppFigures, which have been pioneered by Summer Scholars of the past, as well as Seidenberg alumni. Then, just to be absolutely certain that this experience is unforgettable, the Scholars are also treated to performances like Fuerza Bruta and some of the delicious cuisine that this city has to offer.

Not only are mentors and professors shocked every year by what these scholars can accomplish in just a week, but the scholars themselves surprised even themselves with their skills! One of our scholars from Staten Island, Nicole Budzinski (top right), expressed that her own abilities surprised her, as she hadn’t taken on a project quite like this before. On the experience overall, Amanda Zeitlin and Nicole Feygin (top left and bottom right) both laughingly agreed that they were surprised to have found such good friends at “nerd camp.” With a week’s worth of days filled with fun, vigor, and excitement, the scholars are able to form long-lasting friendships with their team mates from across the States. On top of that, participants will always have a direct connection to the heart of NYC through their mentors and professors at Seidenberg.

For more information on this year’s scholars, take a look at our video introducing each scholar! Plus, this year we’ve made daily videos that can be found on our YouTube channel.

(Pictured from top: Amanda Zeitlin from NY, Nicole Budzinski from NY, Brandan Ingram from OK, Beck Fuga from PA, Nicole Feygin from MI, and Joe Redling-Pace from NJ. Photography credit belongs to Noura Boustany Jost).

More photos of the experience can be found on the Seidenberg Facebook page.

Leadership and Service in Technology Awards: The Coverage

This year’s Seidenberg School’s Leadership and Service in Technology Award Reception honored not one but two distinguished individuals in the field of technology. On June 22, 2015, Seidenberg School Dean Dr. Amar Gupta gave awards to President and COO at GE Capital, Thomas Gentile, and President of Tata Consultancy Services Limited, Surya Kant.

The Leadership and Service in Technology (LST) award aims to recognize those who have made outstanding achievements in technology by demonstrating their commitment to development, innovation, research, and application within the field.

Dean Amar Gupta hands Mr. Thomas Gentile his LST Award

As a GE executive, Mr. Gentile has experience across a variety of disciplines and has been extremely successful in healthcare and finance. During the reception, he gave a presentation during which he spoke about the importance of science, technology, engineering, math, and computing skills (STEMC) in today’s world. He explained that around 20% of jobs today require some knowledge of STEMC disciplines, and that the number of jobs with this requirement is expected to grow by over 9 million in the next ten years – and that’s just in the USA!

Mr. Gentile also spoke about GE’s involvement with the STEMC community, particularly in its development. The GE Foundation, which is the philanthropic organization of GE, has invested over $250 million in k-12 education for STEMC initiatives. This includes projects across the nation, as well as around the world.

One such initiative includes the partnership with Pace University’s Seidenberg School of Computer Science and Information Systems. Together, GE and the Seidenberg School will be launching a new program that aims to promote STEMC studies and careers to high school girls. This will be done through a series of workshops, boot camps, and other opportunities that will allow high school girls to see the world of opportunities in STEMC studies and careers.

Not all was optimistic, though. Mr. Gentile talked about the growing challenges related to cybersecurity in an increasingly connected world. However, he was confident that Pace and the Seidenberg School would take a big part in the fight against cybercrime with the creation of cybersecurity innovations and the production of highly skilled cybersecurity graduates. He said that he looks forward to working with Dean Gupta and others to develop new cybersecurity approaches that involve persons from government, industry, and academia.

Mr. Surya Kant receives his LST Award from Dean Gupta

Surya Kant is the President of Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), the largest global information technology consulting and services company headquartered in India. Mr. Kant heads the company’s operations in North America, the United Kingdom, and Europe. His achievements in the global software industry, where he has made significant contributions, earned him the LST award this year. Specializing in software quality assurance and delivery center management, Mr. Kant is also involved in cybersecurity – which is where his and TCS’ partnership with the Seidenberg School comes into play.

Not only does TCS share synergies with the Seidenberg School in cybersecurity, but global software development is a key initiative, too. Collaborations between the Seidenberg School and the honorees and organizations extend to a multitude of areas: support for STEM, STEAM or STEMC outreach, research collaborations, corporate education programs, and student internships and hiring – Seidenberg students, take note!

The Seidenberg School is honored to have hosted Mr. Gentile and Mr. Kant at the reception, as it is contributions from luminaries like them and their organizations that sustains the school and helps to prepare our students for rewarding careers in tech. Their involvement and inspiring stories helps us aim for success even more.

PhotoJournal: HBO-Sponsored Write/Speak/Code Conference

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Seidenberg recently hosted a conference for women in tech with our friends over at Write/Speak/Code. We’ve rounded up a few of our favorite shots from conference! Take a look at what Write/Speak/Code is doing to help make our women the best professionals/creatives/go-getters they can be! Also — we’d like to send out a huge thanks to HBO sponsoring the event.

WSC-14 — Conference organizer, founder of WSC, and winner of all hair awards ever, Rebecca Miller Webster kicks off the conference with an intro about WriteSpeakCode and the plans for the day.

WSC-150 — “I’m an expert at…” attendees practice their 30 second pitch of what they are an expert at.

WSC-338 — Pace student Mariana Gomes da Motta Macedo and Caria Souza from Spotify were speaking in Portuguese about technology around the world!

WSC-180 — Ladies from HBO Careers represent Pied Piper for Silicon Valley

WSC-90 — Attendees created a timeline of their goals for the next month, 3 months, 6 months and 1 year

WSC-224 — Attendees were able to network with other women in tech from around the city!