Fall 2013 – Seidenberg School News

The ‘Dark Horse’ of Seidenberg Initiatives

Of Seidenberg’s four initiatives, we often don’t get around to talking about Distributed Teams, in comparison to how much we talk about the other three. So let’s talk about it.

Distributed Teams, also commonly referred to as ‘Virtual Teams’ or ‘Remote Teams,’ are groups of people who collaborate on one project together, except not all the team members are in one location. Now that the world is becoming more and more connected through the internet, but physically getting from place to place still takes time and money, people are continuously improving ways to work together from a multitude of locations. These locations can be as close as our two Pace campuses, or locations can be dispersed across the world (see: Design Factory).

This method of collaboration is still relatively new, and requires constant TLC, which Seidenberg has been researching and testing through various projects. Seidenberg chooses this field as one of our top four initiatives because it offers students, alumni, and faculty a global experience. Students, alumni, and faculty can all benefit from partnerships with universities around the world, as well as companies who choose to incorporate global perspectives when designing or distributing a product. Distributed Teams as a method of collaboration is rapidly gaining importance in the professional world, and we here at Seidenberg prefer to stay on top of the changes and innovations in the field.

Student Creates Mobile App at Developer’s Conference in South Korea

Every now and then, students from the Seidenberg get to head off on an adventure across the globe. Recently, we had an update about a team of students traveling to Finland (read about it here)– today’s post is about one student’s recent trip to South Korea.

Alexander Gazarov (right), a graduate student studying computer science, is the latest of many Pace students to experience the international tech world. He has just returned from a developer’s conference in Seoul, South Korea, where he built an app with developers from all around the world. Gazarov found out about the conference – the Tizen Developer’s Summit – through another conference he attended here in the United States, the Samsung Developer’s Conference in San Francisco.

The app Gazarov worked on in Seoul is currently known as Benefit Society. It can be used to determine how much each person in a group should pay at a bar. For those of us who have experienced how difficult it can be to work out the tab during a night out, as well as the arguments that can come with it, the app does all the hard work for you and ensures the night remains fun and confusion-free. Its simple interface means even the hardest of partiers can benefit. Working alongside developers from Russia and South Korea, Gazarov used the language C++ to develop the Benefit Society app. At Seidenberg, we are extremely proud to have a student like Alexander Gazarov representing Pace internationally and creating apps that will help make life a little bit easier – at least at the bar.

Timothy Clancy at Pace to Talk About Cyber Security Policy

Earlier this afternoon, Timothy Clancy of Arch Street LLC gave a presentation on Cyber Security at Pace. Cyber Security is one of Seidenberg’s 4 academic initiatives and an incredibly fruitful field for academics and careers.

Clancy spoke of Cyber Security in terms of 5 paradigms under the umbrella of Critical Infrastructure Protection. These paradigms include Law Enforcement, Military, Intelligence, Diplomacy, and Economics with economics being the focal point of Clancy’s presentation.

Clancy described Cyber Security as a socio-technical issue rather than just a technology issue. The faults can lie in many aspects of a program, and breeches in security are surrounded by ambiguity. Everyone wants to know: who is organizing the attack, what are they attacking, from where, how, and what are the consequences? And to answer those questions, Clancy prompts: ‘Who ya gonna call?’ The Ghostbusters won’t help in most cases, so who is available? DHS? DoD? CISCO? DOJ? Or are they (like CISCO, for example) the ones selling vulnerabilities in a box? These are the problems that engineers and policymakers are up to their necks in. In response to these issues, Clancy mentions Dan Geer’s statements (Dan Geer is a Computer Security and Risk Management specialist associated with MIT and CertCo) about problems engineers must tackle when programming, “Fast, Cheap, Reliable. Choose two,” and similarly for policymakers, “Freedom, Security, Convenience. Choose two.”

On a graph, the space between network complexity over time and security over time has grown exponentially since the mid 1980s. If this pattern continues (which has a high likelihood), Clancy states that Cyber Security will provide “jobs for life if [one is] willing to go into it,” and the most useful tools for tackling issues of governance, liability, and insurance against security attacks are research and education. Both research and education of Cyber Security are held at high importance here at Seidenberg.

Orange Healthcare Infographic Champions Telehealth

In a world where millions of people are connected to the web through various technologies, it makes sense to take advantage in a meaningful way.Telehealth is a promising industry that connects patients with healthcare professionals via the web, reducing the strain on doctor’s offices and hospitals, helping to treat illnesses during their early stages, and helping to streamline the healthcare process so that more patients can be seen and receive treatment in less time.

A new infographic by Orange Healthcare gives a colorful insight into telehealth and its successes over the last year. It includes information on how much telehealth has been implemented around the globe and how many patients benefited from it, as well as projecting future figures – such as how an estimated 1,800,000 patients will receive remote monitoring care in 2017.

Other details on the infographic include the notion of more technology being designed to monitor, collect, and communicate health information securely to health providers so they can act immediately. Finally, the improvement of life quality is touched upon, with Orange Healthcare stating that 168 million hospitalization days could be saved, as well as 158,000 years of life, with the implementation of telehealth on a greater scale around the globe.

Telehealth is one of Seidenberg’s four initiatives that form a crucial part of our research. Our research into telehealth includes exploring issues related to technology, the law, public policy, and business. Together, faculty and students work to advance the enormous potential telehealth has to change the field of healthcare.

Computer Science Grads Take On High Starting Salaries

Good news for Seidenberg’s graduating Class of 2013 – a new salary survey by the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) has revealed that Computer Science majors can expect a higher starting salary than last year’s graduating class. The increase is an impressive 3.1 percent, making the average starting salary $64,100.

According to the survey, the average salary for Class of 2013 graduates across all disciplines (Business, Communications, Computer Science, Education, Engineering, Humanities & Social Sciences and Math & Sciences) is $45,327, with Computer Science being the third highest paid after Business and Communications. So Computer Science majors going into graduate employment can expect to earn a whopping $20k above the average.
The prospect of receiving a higher starting salary applies to graduates who majored specifically in Computer Science. Other majors in the Computer Science discipline, such as Information Sciences & Systems, didn’t see an increase – but with an average starting salary of $55,200, it’s still a respectable figure well above the average for all disciplines.

Even though 2013 has been a golden year for Computer Science salaries, the different needs of the market mean that next year could be the winner for your major: between 2009 and 2010, the average starting salary for Information Sciences & Systems graduates leapt up by $3,000! So let’s keep working toward our degrees – Seidenberg students are in a great position for a good starting salary, no matter what.

First Week Back to School

We are officially into the Fall 2013 semester of class. This post is to recap all the things that are going on around NYC and Pace for you to enjoy before classes get serious.
First off, it’s Broadway Week for anyone interested in seeing some excellent performances. Broadway Week means all shows are doing a 2 for 1 ticket deal, but it only lasts until the end of the week! Seats are disappearing fast, so grab some before they’re gone!

From left to right, Dr. Richard Kline, Dr. Christelle Scharff, Kalevi Ekman, Dean Amar Gupta, Dr. Jonathan Hill, and professor Bryn Haffey all stand together, prepared for Fall 2013.

Quick note on classes that you may have been to that you’re already dreading. Our advice: drop them and substitute another. You have a few weeks to do this without penalty or before you miss too many hours of the class you may switch into. If you don’t like a professor or the syllabus makes the upcoming weeks seem dreary abort the mission. It’s not worth your time and effort to suffer through terrible classes and there are enough options available for you to switch without mussing your schedule. College is meant to be flexible and enjoyable. Some classes you will eventually have suffer through, but at least ease your pain by waiting until a decent professor comes along.

In Seidenberg news, the Finns have struck again. If you haven’t met our partners from Aalto University (including Peter Tapio who was here during the Summer Scholars Experience), they’ve been around for the last few days and leave this evening, unfortunately. They will be back eventually, so catch them while they are around. They are all a wonderful resource available to learn about project development in many fields.

The aforementioned workshop with Kalevi Ekman was a delightful afternoon. Photos from the event and a video that showcases Kalevi’s lessons on design will be available for viewing on Thursday. He himself is another one of our Finnish partners, also a head professor for the PDP (Product Development Project) program that Seidenberg takes part in. This program is an incredible opportunity for students and also gives students involved the chance to visit Aalto University in Helsinki, Finland.

Lastly, don’t forget that Computing Society meets on Wednesdays and there will be free pizza, just so ya’ know.