#SeidenbergPride in Washington DC

Seidenberg students and cybersecurity scholars Cynthia Shaw (BS/IT ’15), Anthony Martini (MS/CS ’16), and Luke Babak (BS/IT ’14) traveled to Washington DC in mid-January to attend the CyberCorps®: Scholarship for Service (SFS) Job Fair. The annual event is an opportunity for students in the SFS cybersecurity scholarship program to meet and network with federal employers with the scope of securing an internship or permanent position. The students had the chance to interact with representatives from over 40 federal agencies, and it is expected that they will get to parse through some interesting offers in the months to come. 

Seidenberg’s own SFS alum, Christopher White ’13, ’14, a Cyber Security Engineer with the Johns Hopkins – Applied Physics Lab, was one of the four alums to speak in the SFS Job Fair Alumni Panel.

So very proud of all of you!

CyberCorps Attendees

Pictured from left to right: Anthony Martini (MS/IT ’16), Cynthia Shaw (BS/IT ’15), Luke Babak (BS/IT ’14), and Li-Chiou Chen, Professor, IT WEST Department Chair and Cybersecurity Scholarship Program Director.

 

Zakiya Sims is on a mission to grow PCS!

Pace Seidenberg _ Digital Cloud
Zakiya Sims at Digital Cloud

This winter break I embarked on a quest to make the Pace Computing Society bigger than itself. In the process I was faced with challenges and disappointments but (kinda) accomplished what I set out to do. Over the intermission I wrote tons of emails, made several phone calls, and attended many events. With these activities I’ve learned how to make meaningful connections and get out there to make things happen.

I started my journey with the goal of getting guest speakers for every PCS meeting. I began by writing emails to celebrities who have invested in startup companies. I know it seems like an unreachable goal but I figured if you took a shot in the dark you might hit your target. Well, I didn’t hit my target but I did manage to graze a few people nearby. I emailed the managers of celebrities such as Nas, Andy Samberg, and Leonardo DiCaprio. That was when I was able to find their email. It was by pure luck and great search engine skills that I was able to find some of the managers’ contact info which I doubt were reliable.  I mean I found Nas’s cell phone number in a matter of seconds…I don’t think it was his number. I did not get a response from their managers which was expected so I lowered my standards a bit.

Pace Seidenberg _ WeWork
The WeWork office space in downtown, NYC

Next, I contacted the CEO’s of big companies such as Twitter, Spotify, and Tumblr. Spotify was the only company that responded. The CEO’s assistant essentially said no, but that was enough encouragement I needed to get out there and email more companies. I then proceeded to email local startup companies. I figured if I got in the “I help you, you help me” mindset, companies would send speakers to us. In the email I asked them the send a representative, which would be a great opportunity to promote their business and garner users and revenue through our students. The next few days were followed by emails from the companies explaining how they were unable to speak at our meetings. I did get some success, however. Someone from the partnership department at WeWork contacted me and forwarded the email to the Director of Business Development there! He was willing to speak for our first meeting. Next came several speakers from companies such as BuzzFeed, General Assembly, HATCH, UNICEF, Strolby, IBM, and Uncubed who were willing to come. With every person that responded there were two companies that didn’t and with every one that did responded, half said no. There were some people that said they were willing to speak at PCS but when I sent an email to follow up they never responded.

With several speakers confirmed for the spring semester my next step was to broaden our audience and reach people who weren’t PCS members to have them attend our meetings. One way to do this was to contact local high schools. I tried a few but they declined the offer. However, the adviser of the Girls Who Code chapter at Brooklyn Tech offered me hope. They weren’t able to attend our meetings because of the conflicting times, but offered for me to speak at their first meeting. We were allowed only 3 minutes, so we had to be concise. Kendra, vice-president of PCS, and I went there and delineated what Pace University had to offer in NYC and the tech field, and explained the Stem Camp and Summer Scholars program. Afterwards we offered them gifts. The teacher was very grateful and told me to send her more information on the summer programs. That event made me feel as though the publicizing of our club was an essential way to get us known to people who would not have known us otherwise. This motivated me.

Pace Seidenberg _ Brooklyn Tech
Zakiya Sims at Brooklyn Technical High School

My next mission was to get our name out there. I sought to do this by creating the PCS website and promoting the club’s events on Facebook page and Eventbrite. I also attended a Women Who Code front end development discussion group with Kendra. There we met female software development and coded in JavaScript… and raided their refrigerator. We were able to get the business card of one the employees which could be a potential opportunity. I continue on with the goal by accompanying Wilfredo, project manager for Seidenberg and Kendra to the WeWork headquarters. We got a tour from our first speaker, Jesse Middleton. He talked to us about the company’s goal which is to create a community through the work spaces. He also told us that there were a few “fast growing startups” that worked in the building and suggest that we can get a group of our members to tour their work spaces. It seemed like a great idea as several of our members’ are looking for jobs.

The break is starting to come to an end but I still aim to continue finding more speakers, events, and business opportunities for the members of PCS. This week I was planning on going to a Lunch Talk where I will practice my sketch noting skills in order to glean information to pass on to the members. Furthermore, I will be going to Playtest Thursdays at NYU Poly to perhaps procure more attendees for our events and get more ideas and connections. In addition, I will be attending a hackathon, sponsored by Spotify, to gain experience and exposure that I will share with other PCS members. I would not have thought a few months ago that PCS would be where it is now but I pulled a few strings, made it happen, and now we’re known by a bunch a girls at Brooklyn Tech, the speakers I’ve invited, people who saw me steal food at the WWC meeting, and soon the world.

-Zakiya Sims, 1st year Computer Science at The Seidenberg School & treasurer, PCS.

Grad School Applications *theme from ‘Psycho’ plays*

Cue the anxiety and additional stress to your already packed workload: it’s time to talk about applying to Grad school. Many of you may already be in full swing of applications for starting school next fall, or if not, and you’ve still got a year or so before you start, we’ll give you a bit of insight on the process from start to finish. We decided to call up our ole pal and recent Seidenberg graduate Daniel Rings (CS ’14) to ask him a little about his process that led him to the steps of The University of Michigan to study Computer Science and Engineering, his first choice out of the schools to which he applied.

Daniel Rings Dancin'In the start — an early start — Daniel suggests that you get all the preliminary paperwork and requirements out of the way. After deciding which schools you want to apply to (after visiting  campuses or researching schools you’re interested in), the next step is to  take care of the basics, like the GRE, gathering transcripts, getting a start on recommendations, and all the other generic paperwork that all applications will require. GRE testing is available all over the city — Rings took two practice tests leading up to the official exam.

When it comes to letters of recommendation, Daniel mentions that it’s crucial to ask your professors (the ones who have known you or worked with you at your best) as early as possible. Professors are busy people and — hate to break it to ya’ — your letter of recommendation is not going to be their first priority. Luckily, professors are understanding of the fact that your letters are important to you and your success, so giving your professors multiple reminders (constant, Daniel suggests. Daily, even) about the letters is definitely excusable.

Applications take time, for sure, and keeping on top of all their requirements while managing a full course load may be tough, but with a decent head start on the easy stuff (the aforementioned material), you’ll have plenty of time to focus each school’s own requirements. Schools vary on what they need for essays, portfolios (or Github for many of you), websites, interviews, and more. These are the harder parts, and Daniel mentioned the benefits of keeping a To-Do list to keep track of it all, and to have anyone at all read multiple drafts of your essays (even some rando on the train if need be). Time management is important, but Daniel says he didn’t sweat it too much; “On the days that I worked on the application, I played significantly less Smash Bros.”

In Daniel’s case, for many of his applications, he applied to the PhD tracks, since it’s understood that many universities are more willing to accept applicants who plan on sticking around for their PhDs. Even if  you’re not yet planning on picking up a PhD (though you totally should, eventually), you may have a better shot at being accepted, and not all of the PhD tracks require full commitment.

Use your resources (professors, peers, mentors, etc) and use your time wisely! If you’ve still got a few years before the application process, don’t forget to start boosting your resume by getting involved around school or town — you know the drill. Daniel specifically mentioned that “a combination of [his] personal projects/hackathons and [his] most difficult classes” prepared him the most for Grad-life. There’s a lot of work to be done when it comes to applying to Grad programs, but you have all of Seidenberg’s support when you decide to take on the challenge! 

NACTEL receives the Institutional Service Award from CAEL

The Seidenberg School of Computer Science and Information Systems offers terrific undergraduate and graduate degrees. However, did you know that they also have a unique online program for adults who are looking to start or complete a degree in Telecommunications? The NACTEL (National Coalition for Telecommunications Education and Learning) Program at Pace University has been providing Associate and Bachelor’s degrees in telecommunications since 1999. NACTEL students are primarily adults who work full-time and are located all over the United States and the world. Students work in a variety of fields within the telecommunication industry and some are also part of the military.

Last month, NACTEL students received the Institutional Service Award from CAEL (Council for Adult and Experiential Learning). The Institutional Service Award typically honors a college or a university for providing exemplary service to adults. NACTEL was given the award because they are an industry-education organization that has provided exemplary service to adults and has made significant contributions to the field of adult learning and workforce education for the past 15 years.

Pictured below is Pace University’s Ward Carpenter, Director of NACTEL, and Nancy Hale, Special Program Chair, accepting the award in Chicago, IL on November 12, 2014 at CAEL’s Annual International Conference.

(Left to right: Ward, Jim Spellane (IBEW), Nancy Hale, Pamela Tate(President and CEO of CAEL), Jeffery Batiste (Verizon), Susan Kannel (CAEL NACTEL Program Director), Rich Hake (Century Link) and Marianne Groth (Verizon).
(Left to right: Ward, Jim Spellane (IBEW), Nancy Hale, Pamela Tate (President and CEO of CAEL), Jeffery Batiste (Verizon), Susan Kannel (CAEL NACTEL Program Director), Rich Hake (Century Link) and Marianne Groth (Verizon).

In the past they have received multiple awards, which include:

  • In 2014 NACTEL was selected by G.I. Jobs magazine as a Military-Friendly School.
  • In 2013, U.S. News and World Report named NACTEL at Pace University #1 as the Best Online Bachelor’s Programs.
  • In 2013, U.S. News and World Report named NACTEL at Pace University as the top Online Bachelors program in the country AND the best Online Program for Veterans.

Hand on Technology Day Workshops, Part 2

The Hands on Technology Day Workshops (HOT Workshops) was back for round two on November 15th with new workshops. This time high school students attended workshops about Cyber Security, taught by Dr. Li-Chiou Chen and graduate student Jonathan Lee, and creating Apps, taught by Dr. Lixin Tao. In Dr. Li-Chiou Chen’s and Jonathan Lee’s workshop, participants did hands-on lab exercises that explored software and methods to achieve online security. In Dr. Lixin Tao’s workshop, participants built three android apps and learned the main principles behind the latest computing technologies including cloud and mobile computing.

Once again, we got a lot of wonderful feedback back, and all participants enjoyed the hands-on experience! We would like to thank all who helped out both in the workshops and behind the scenes. We would like to thank Tristan Pagliari, Justin Santore, and Kaitlin Elliott from the Pace University admissions office for being at our event. From the Seidenberg School, we would like to thank Prof. Li-Chiou Chen, Prof. Lixin Tao, Prof. Mary Courtney, Dr. Jean F. Coppola, Dr. Bernice J. Houle, Lynne E. Larkin, Elizabeth Foster, Nancy M. Treuer, Ronald G. Williams, Anthony Martini, Jonathan Lee, Patrick Prescott, Kaila Marie Letteri, Keke Gai, Mohammad Vahidalizadehdizaj and Matthew Poli.

Here are some pictures from the event:

HOT event 4 HOT event 3 HOT event 2 HOT event

These Are a Few of Our Favorite Things

It’s registration time! Choosing classes is both exciting but stressful, so here are a few recommendations that may be off the beaten path, just just as exciting:

ART 286 Design for the Internet, (22426) Jack Toolin, 3 credit hours — Undergraduate

Pace Students Brooklyn Bridge

Though this is technically an art course, the focus of this class will be centered around web development, just from an artistic perspective. “This course provides students with basic skills with which to design and code their own websites on the Macintosh platform. Focus is on the construction and design of screen interaction and navigation, and design for media-specific limitations. Instruction includes basic xHTML, and CSS structure, text, graphics and animation-introducing applications for the production of those various elements as well as their particular challenges,” according to the Schedule Explorer.

CS 398 Software Engineering, (22360), Christelle Scharff, 4 credit hours — Undergraduate

Dr. Scharff, a professor who has been highly involved in a range of software engineering, will be teaching the “principles of software engineering including requirements, analysis, design, coding, testing, verification, and maintenance.” Other focuses will include looking at the “strength and weakness of alternative software development processes.” The class will incorporate team work and effectively improve a student’s communication skills.

Data Structures/Algorithms, (23591), Sung-Hyuk Cha, 4 credit hours — Undergraduate

Learn about “concepts of abstract data types (ADT) including stack, queue, priority queue, hash table, and binary search tree.” Work through “problem-solving with the ADTs and tradeoffs of ADT implementation with arrays and linked lists.” Also, Cha will be teaching “basic sorting and searching algorithms and algorithm run-time analysis.” Personally recommended by senior CS major, Salvatore Torcivia.

Web Scripting, (23269), TBA, 4 credit hours — Undergraduate

“This course provides students with an introduction to scripting languages for use on the Internet and includes a client-side scripting language and a server-side scripting language. Students will use JavaScript, PHP, and MySQL to develop interactive Web sites.” Don’t let a TBA professor scare you away — schedules are very flexible up until about two weeks into the actual semester.

Responsive Web Development with HTML/CSS, (22688, 23714), Narayan Murthy, 3 credit hours — Graduate

Professor Murthy’s class is geared towards “specifying web presentation structure with HTML5, embedding contents, working with JavaScript objects and input validation. Also, specifying web styles with CSS3, working with tables, creating dynamic and client/server features with jQuery. The course will also focus on implementing web service features through Node.js, asynchronous operations using jQuery and WinJS, sommunicating by using WebSocket, supporting multimedia. Other topics will include drawing using scalable vector graphics, and making websites location-aware.” Highly recommended by current student, Vaibhav Dubey.  The course is run with two options, one being online the other being at the White Plains campus.

Info Sytems Design & Development, (20619), James Gabberty, 3 credit hours — Graduate

“Organizations depend on computer information systems and technology. This course first instructs students in current methods of analyzing business situations and systems to model complete and coherent definitions of systems requirements. Next, learning focuses on methods for developing logical and physical designs of these systems. Finally, these designs form the bases of systems development and implementation. The course emphasizes software engineering best practices in creating and implementing robust, reliable, and appropriate systems regardless of technology, size, scope, type, and geographic distribution.” Current Grad student Suhail Bhandari  heartily recommends this class.

 

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