Garima spent her summer working in the heart of Manhattan at MetLife

Garima Kulkarni
Garima shows off her view of the NYE Ball!

1) Who are you working with this summer? (…and what do they do?)

I am currently interning at MetLife Insurances, NY as an IT Internal Audit Intern. MetLife is one of the global providers of insurance, annuities, and employee benefit programs, with 90 million customers in over 60 countries. MetLife is the largest life insurer in the United States also serves 90 of the largest Fortune 500 companies.

2) Can you tell us a little about what you are doing?

I work for the GTOA (Global Technology and Operational Audit) department, Team RAD Americas under Nancy Hom (AVP). The profile has the following responsibilities:

1) Ensure compliance to MetLife Policy & Procedures, leading practices, procedural efficiency, risk management and accuracy;

2) Ensure IT compliance to regulatory standards and best practice; and

3) Ensure IT compliance to IT Risk and Security standards and practices, where applicable to audits.

3) Is there a particular class or professor at Seidenberg that has helped you prepare specifically for your current internship?

So many, Professors at Pace have been really helpful and friendly especially being an international student. I took Overview Of Information Technology (IT 603) under Prof Narayan Murthy, then Project Management (IS 637) under Prof James Gabberty. These subjects

really helped gain the knowledge areas required for the field in which I am interning. Also, special thanks to Svetlana and the Career Services office for keeping me motivated from time to time be it with my resume approval or help with getting CPT application procedures in on time. Also, to Dean Amar Gupta who has helped me get motivated and supported me with his guidance.

4. Does your new office have a favorite restaurant/hangout they go to after work?

So many perks of working right in the middle of Times Square. The area is flooded with different cuisines restaurants and Bars. To pick one would be difficult, but I mostly pick my lunch from Kobeyaki – it’s a Japanese cuisine restaurant. Bryant Park is also one of my favorite places to hangout with colleague interns.

Garima Kulkarni is a student at Seidenberg working towards her degree in Information Systems.

 

Pace University names Dr. Jonathan Hill as the Interim Dean of the Seidenberg School

10626830_10100548699389017_3518251505382213470_nIt is our greatest pleasure to announce that Pace University has named Dr. Jonathan Hill as the Interim Dean for the Seidenberg School of Computer Science and Information Systems. Dr. Hill has been at the roots of this flourishing Seidenberg community for over a decade, and as Dean, we’re sure that his passion and ingenuity in the field of technology will continue to advance the Seidenberg School for many more years to come.

We offer Dr. Hill the most heartfelt of congratulations for the recognition of his success in this school, and we look forward to all that he has to offer as our Dean!

Niamh spent her summer at this tiny company called… Foogle? Gooble? Oh right – Google!

Nooglers Niamh and Megan
Niamh (L) and her fellow intern, Megan, wearing their ‘Noogler’ hats on their first day at Google.

1. Who are you working with this summer? (…and what do they do?)

 I am working for Google at their New York office this summer and they do a lot.

2. Can you tell us a little about what you are doing? (We might not understand the technicalities, but we’d love details!)

I am an Engineering Practicum Intern (EP), working on an internal mobile and web application in a division that creates apps for Googlers. I work on a team with full-time Google employees and one other intern. My summer project is to create a search feature for the application so I have been working on both the server and on android.

Through my work I have gotten to learn about how programming happens at Google. I have also learned a lot about the Google culture throughout the summer by going to events, lunches, and a Google Women Engineers conference.

3. Is there a particular class or professor at Seidenberg that has helped you prepare specifically for your current internship?(Clearly, we’re all about shout outs this summer!)

Although my work at Google is different than what I have learned in the classroom, the support I received from the Seidenberg community as I went through the process toward my internship was a great help!

4. Does your new office have a favorite restaurant/hangout they go to after work? (No! we’re not going to show up like proud parents!)

The New York office has five cafeterias that each offer a variety of cuisines as well as micro kitchens so there is no real need to go outside of the office frequently for food. The desserts and smoothies are my favorite, especially the frozen yogurt.

Niamh Fitzsimon is now a Sophomore here at the Seidenberg school, pursuing her bachelor’s degree in Computer Science. 

In prep for Agile Day 2015, Agile explained

In a little over a fortnight, Pace university will be hosting Agile NYC again, this time for its 6th annual Agile Day. On September 17th, the day-long event will feature workshops, talks, and exercises that all aim to teach and promote ‘agile methodologies,’ a working methodology that is used in many of the workplaces where Seidenberg students will end up working after graduation. For most who have not been introduced to or worked with agile methodologies, the concept of the agile approach can seem a bit abstract, and  while abstraction might be intimidating at first, agile is something you’ll want to understand concretely before looking for work! 

Agile NYC Pace UniversityAgile NYC’s coordinator Joe Krebs, in answering a few of our questions about agile, mentioned that a company using the agile approach will expect its employees to be familiar with the methodologies before they are hired. So how does a student go from zero experience in agile to being a pro when it’s time for job interviews?

Well, you won’t have to be pro, but having some experience with agile will be necessary in your field. Luckily for most of you, gaining experience isn’t too hard around here, since Pace is one of Agile NYC’s closer partners. Agile NYC’s events are often in and around the university, like Agile Day on the 17th, and participating in these events will get you up to speed. Then, if you still want more practice, you can gain hands-on experience by joining teams like Seidenberg Creative Labs, who will use the agile approach in their projects, or taking certain classes that implement agile techniques on classroom projects. Having a rich understanding of agile will really give you the edge you need when employers compare you to you your competition.

Agile, in the simplest terms, is a product development methodology, specifically for programmers. Many careers in programming lead to projects where someone (or a company) will consult a team of programmers to build what they need. While the programmers do their thing and the ‘bosses’ do their own, often times problems arise from start to finish. The agile method of working through a project helps avoid a lot of these problems or provides simplified methods of solving said issues as they arise — and they will arise.

From its official conception in 2001, when the Agile Manifesto was created, agile’s values are described as,

“Individuals and interactions over processes and tools.
Working software over comprehensive documentation.
Customer collaboration over contract negotiation.
Responding to change over following a plan.
That is, while there is value in the items on the right, we value the items on the left more,” (agilemanifesto.org).

This set of rules directly opposes the more traditional methodology known as the Waterfall method. Agile emphasizes the importance of personable teamwork that moves forward as a cohesive effort, rather than a group of separated workers working towards a common goal. To do this successfully, agile encourages daily meetings for teams to discuss issues before or as they arise rather than after. Not only are daily meetings valuable for avoiding issues, they also stimulate creativity and brainstorming between team members. More often than not, these meetings take on an informal tone and promote a sort of playfulness to offset stress or idea blockage.

Now that you’re on your way to becoming an agile pro, you can now focus on the real meat of Agile day and feast on its workshops and networking opportunities. You can register to attend here, but we’re also looking for volunteers to help out at the event. If you wish to volunteer, send a brief explanation of your interest to lt80933n@pace.edu. Volunteers do not have to pay to attend the event, and still have great chances for networking. At last year’s Agile Day, graduate student Virali Jhaveri left Agile Day with the right contacts that scored her an internship later on! Volunteer spots fill quickly, so take care not to delay your email letting us know you’re interested.

 

NYVR Meetup co-organizer DJ Smith answers our questions about VR

DJ Smith

At the same New York Virtual Reality Meetup mentioned in the previous blog post, Seidenberg students Avery Leider and Harpreet Singh Wasan were able to interview a few of the other attendees and founders to pick their brains about the VR industry as it’s suddenly growing as software and hardware are becoming easier to access by the day. By attending Meetups in the NYC tech scene, Avery and Harpreet hope to gain substantial knowledge on the state of the industry as it’s expanding and also to experience the various developments that people are bringing to these Meetups, both hardware and software related.

In this next interview we hear from DJ Smith of Morristown, NJ, NYVR’s co-organizer since the beginning of 2014. Smith is also a member of the Washington DC VR Meetup, but between Meetups he works as an engineer, builder, artist, and entrepreneur. Here are his responses to our students’ queries:

Harpreet: From the time you started with Virtual Reality until now, what, in your opinion, is the most exciting development in VR?

Smith: Now, the Social VR Apps, obviously, because I just presented on it, that has really excited me for two reasons – one, the freedom to basically create the worlds, and then, two, to be able to share those worlds with other people and communicate with them directly. I think both of those things are wonderful aspects of VR Social Apps and I am anxious to see how far they will go.

H: Is there anything else that comes to your mind that is also about to take off?

NYVR

S: Right behind Social VR Apps, I really like what people have been doing with the actual live video aspect of it. So, basically, to be able to film in 360 degree video or 180 degree 3-D video, and in being able to view an event in a headset that is around your entire body, you just get that sense of presence, and I think the future of media is going to be just that. It’s going to be an all-encompassing thing. So, I think Social VR apps and then the 360 degree and maybe 3D live video – however they will be incorporated into the public – those will be the two main focuses.

H: What is your advice to Pace University students who want to get into VR?  How should they go about getting into the industry?

S: Come to New York VR Meetups!

Avery: So, if Pace University students wanted to help you in your Virtual Meetup room, to add our Pace University assets to your VR world, what do you recommend we do?

S: Wow, if I could get a bunch of college kids to build my virtual room, that would be awesome! The VR Chat room that I created [for the Meetup], NYVR Room, is built in Unity. I’m a very basic developer without a lot of advanced knowledge. It’s relatively easy for a newcomer – just download Unity, start messing around, and reach out to me. If there are students who are willing to contribute, I’m happy to incorporate their stuff and give them small tasks. Or, better yet, go on VR Chat, build your own thing, that would work, too. And invite me, because I want to see it!

So there you have it. It doesn’t take solid groundwork of experience to get started in VR development. This is our challenge to other students at Seidenberg who have caught an interest in VR: start playing with it and share something at the next NYVR Meetup!

Helena has been spending her summer interning at Infor

Helena Santiago

1. Who are you working with this summer? (…and what do they do?)

I work with Infor, a cloud software company that provides software solutions to other businesses. The apps they create are not the same as your regular mobile apps. Their software products perform on a much bigger scale since they streamline the system of different businesses.

2.Can you tell us a little about what you are doing? (We might not understand the technicalities, but we’d love details!)

Infor typically works with other businesses, but my project is more internal. Another intern from Pace, Preston Rollins, and I are working on an application for the Education Alliance Program. The Education Alliance Program is a department at Infor that works with various institutions to help students with internships and schools with software solutions. Pace University is one of the member institutions. For our application, we use a software called Mongoose, which is a software framework similar to Visual Studio. The special thing about Mongoose is that it is terrific at handling relational databases. What we do is plan out the structure of the database, design the user interface, and further enhance the look and functionality with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. I am also pretty excited for our official presentation to demo our app to the CEO by the end of August.

 infor logo3. Is there a particular class or professor at Seidenberg that has helped you prepare specifically for your current internship? (Clearly, we’re all about shout outs this summer!)

Aside from self-learning HTML, CSS, and JavaScript through CodeAcademy, I have received additional training in these languages through Professor Julia Khan-Nomee’s class, Web Authoring and Digital Media.

4. Does your new office have a favorite restaurant/hangout they go to after work? (No! we’re not going to show up like proud parents!) 

Not really, but during my first month, my manager brought our team to this place called Tre Dici Steak. Their appetizers were delicious and their steak was succulent. Also, Madison Square Park is located just a few blocks away from the office. It is the perfect spot for lunch breaks, plus there is a Shake Shack in the park!

 Helena Santiago is currently working towards her bachelor’s degree in Information Systems.

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