computer science – Page 3 – Seidenberg School News

Check out Seidenberg’s own Artificial Intelligence Club!

The Seidenberg School’s very own Artificial Intelligence (AI) Club kicked off the new semester with a meeting to gather new members last week. They held a party to welcome new and returning students to the club, and gather ideas for AI projects.

Milind Ikke, the AI Club’s social media chair, explains that the club (which has been active for a while now) was “created by some graduate students with a lot of passion for AI.”

“They wanted to create a community where great AI minds can come together and work towards [solutions to] different projects,” Milind states. “They also wanted to create an AI awareness, [since] AI has become a major part of today’s technology and will continue to grow [over] time.”

Now, the club wants to branch out and involve more of the Seidenberg community. They’re looking to reach individuals with an interest in AI and a willingness to learn from the numerous resources the club provides for its members—like the Tech Talks.

Milind explains that for the Tech Talks, the club “get[s] speakers from excellent AI companies, and they not only talk about what they do in their job but also guide the students on how to achieve their goals.”

Guidance from industry professionals is a fantastic resource for students who are looking to expand their network into the technology industries, so joining the AI Club gets students access to people who can further their careers!

Milind explains that students can benefit from the club in many other ways: “they can benefit from our club by building a community where ideas related to AI are discussed, … learn from the frequent speakers who come and give the talks, … get a platform to share their projects and other research work, … [and present] their work [to] enhance their presentation skills.

If anyone wants to start an AI project but doesn’t really know where to start, that’s where the AI Club comes in! “[Students] can meet people who would like to be a part of their project and can find people who can guide their project,” explains Milind.

If anyone would like to know more about AI in general, the AI Club can help! The club is looking to be an innovative part of the Seidenberg community.

If you’re a student (or faculty member) interested in learning more about what AI is all about, or if you have an idea for an AI project, you are welcome to attend the AI Club’s weekly meetings on Tuesdays at 4:30pm in the Seidenberg Conference Room. Follow them on Facebook, Instagram, or email them at aiclub3@gmail.com!

Seidenberg goes to the International Conference on Information Systems

During the week of December 13^th, 2018, several Seidenberg students and faculty traveled to San Francisco to attend the International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS). ICIS, the leading conference in the academic information systems field, is held annually in the middle of December at a new location. Seidenberg community members had the opportunity to travel to California for last year’s prestigious conference.

Attendees of the conference—Dr. Daniel Farkas, Dr. Namchul Shin, Dr. Li-Chou Chen, student Tianyu Wang, Dr. Yegin Genc, and Dr. Isaac Vaghefi—hosted workshops, presented talks, and papers, and won some pretty amazing awards.

Dr. Farkas and Dr. Shin hosted a GIS workshop during the conference. The half-day workshop on Location Analytics and Location of Things brought in scholars from around the world interested in this area to discuss their professional experiences and research.

Left to right: Dr. Namchul Shin, Dr. Dan Farkas and a colleague from University of Redlands, CA, who is one of the co-organizers of the workshop held at ICIS.

Dr. Farkas also worked with Dr. Chen to present a TREO talk on the topic of “Individual Attitude, Trust, and Risk Perception towards Blockchain Technology, Virtual Currency Exchange, Cryptocurrency Transactions and Smart Contracts.” This talk opened up dialogue about each of these subjects at the conference.

Tianyu, who is in the process of obtaining a Ph.D., presented a paper, co-authored with Dr. Chen and Dr. Genc, titled “An N-gram-based Approach for Detecting Social Media Spambots.” Tianyu won the Doctoral Research Award from the PRE-ICIS SIGDSA symposium for the paper.

Lastly, and most impressively, Dr. Vaghefi won an award for the highly competitive “Paper-A-Thon,” in which he competed against 15 international teams. The paper submitted by Dr. Vaghefi, “DIGITAL DETOX? Understanding Users’ Abstinence from Social Network Sites Use,” was selected as the best paper to be presented at the conference. Overall, the paper “embeds a series of mixed-method studies to understand how social network users can take a break from technology and its positive outcomes,” according to Dr. Vaghefi.

With Tianyu’s Doctoral Research Award and Dr. Vaghefi’s winning “DIGITAL DETOX?” paper, Seidenberg had some major wins at the ICIS. The Seidenberg community continues to create leaders in the information systems field.

If you’re interested in attending the ICIS this coming December, get in touch with one of the previously mentioned faculty members and get started on your ideas!

Pace University Seidenberg students visit IBM for artificial intelligence insights

On October 24th, students from Pace University’s Seidenberg School of Computer Science and Information Systems visited the IBM TJ Watson Research Center for an eye-opening field trip into the world of research and tech.

The audience in attendance included faculty, undergraduate and graduate students. One of these students attending was Charlotte Coffin, a senior majoring in computer science, who is currently working on her honors thesis titled, “An Introduction to Quantum Computing using the Number Guessing Game on QISKit.” QISKit is IBM’s open source platform for quantum computing, so the trip was particularly useful for Charlotte!

During the trip, students learned about the types of research taking place at IBM and identified potential research collaboration opportunities. IBM’s researchers discussed technological topics including quantum computing, blockchain, IoT wearables, artificial intelligence, and big data analytics.

Students spent the day in Thinklabs, research rooms, and with IBM professionals who introduced them to the real-world version of what they are studying at Pace University. For many students, getting an inside look at a company like IBM was a glimpse at the future.

Tianyu Wang, a PhD Computer Science student nearing graduation, noted that the trip was “a really great experience.”

“The researchers at the Research Center work on speech recognition, machine learning, natural language understanding, and information retrieval products, among others,” said Tianyu. “I particularly appreciated witnessing the collaborative working environment. The company supports various researchers that work in both small and large teams. I can see the researchers had a great time doing their work; most [of] them were absolutely top-notch and super-accessible and friendly.”

Tianyu, along with the rest of the group in attendance, also had the chance to see an innovative project in the works by IBM: artificial intelligence generating movie trailers.

“An example of a recent artificial intelligence research project is generating movie trailers automatically using machine learning algorithms,” Tianyu explained. “After training a couple of movies with label data, the program can generate a trailer automatically, within one day. This approach saves the cost of producing a trailer. Through this example, I could certainly see the real implementation of supervised learning solutions, and how artificial intelligence can impact the business.”

Andreea Cotoranu, Assistant Dean of Academic Innovation at Pace University, highlighted how grateful she and her students were for the field trip opportunity.

“The Seidenberg School is grateful for its dedicated adjunct faculty, especially Professor Stephan Barabasi, as well as for the passionate and generous team at the IBM Research Center for continuing to facilitate collaboration and discussion on key research topics and promote continued learning within the Seidenberg faculty and student body,” she said.

The IBM trip was another fantastic learning experience provided by the Seidenberg School of Computer Science and Information Systems. Keep your eyes peeled for future events with major technology companies!

Hey New York Times! Still looking for seats in a computer science class?

Look no further.

The New York Times published an article on January 24, 2019, stating that the toughest part about getting a degree in computer science was getting a seat in class.

According to journalist Natasha Singer, the degree program is so popular that demand far exceeds the capacity of many universities around the country to accommodate them.

Well, we at the Seidenberg School of Computer Science and Information Systems at Pace University wanted to let you know that we have seats available for you! While it’s true that our “little” School has been growing steadily over the past five years, we have gone to lengths to ensure that there are classes at decent times, with great faculty, and in the hottest topics in tech, for our students to take.

In fact, one of the best things about the growth of the Seidenberg School, of our student body, and of the range of classes we offer – like our brand new Design Thinking and Innovation Class, our UX/IX classes, our cybersecurity courses, our algorithms and database courses, and much more – is that we are training more students than ever to enter an ever-growing workforce. Alongside the NYT’s article on a growing need for technology education are plenty of others about the increasing need for tech workers – for example, the November 14, 2018, article by Steve Lohr entitled “New York Is a Genuine Tech Hub (and That Was Before Amazon)” – and what does that mean? The more students we educate, the more we can address that need together.

Need a seat? Seidenberg students Kenton, Dhruv, and Krutika have got you covered!

So while many other universities across the USA may be at capacity, the Seidenberg School continues to welcome new students for our undergraduate degree programs in computer science and information systems, our master’s degree programs (with new programs in Data Science, Cybersecurity, and UX coming soon), and our prestigious PhD in Computer Science that continues to boost our research and innovation in cutting edge technology.

We welcome students from Manhattan to Mumbai, from Stamford to Senegal, from Tarrytown to Texas, and from California to Canada. Our students are smart, ambitious, scrappy, and entrepreneurial – and they will always have a place to call home at Pace University.

Want to learn more about our programs? Check out our program page here.

Ready to grab a seat in the entering class of Fall ’19? We’ll have one waiting for you – click here!

Send us your photos! Tag us on social media with your #saveaseat pic! Links below!

Computer Science Education Week – Dec 4th to Dec 10th

We’re so excited about Computer Science Education Week next week that we’re starting early! Check out these awesome events leading up to next week’s celebrations.

Pleasantville Campus Events

Seidenberg Tech Collective – Wed, November 29th

Guest Speaker: Brian Brunos, developer and entrepreneur at Swapity

Goldstein Academic Center, Room G300.

Our special guest speaker, Brian Brunos, will be speaking about his experience of successfully developing and launching a cryptocurrency exchange that does not require user accounts and pays 100% dividends through cryptocoin, Swapcoin.

Harley the Cybersecurity Dog – Thurs, November 30th

A K9 presentation of Harley the Cyber Dog, who can detect devices that may contain illegal content. This is a great event for the entire #PaceU community! No cybersecurity knowledge required, only a love of puppies.

Social Innovation Hackathon – Saturday, December 2nd

The Social Innovation Challenge is a 12-hour long hackathon open to ALL majors and skill levels. The theme is social innovation, however you may bring your own problem as well! For more information, please visit: https://hackday.mlh.io/Pace%20University%20Pleasantville%20Campus

Robotics Demonstration – Monday, December 4th

Seidenberg professor of Computer Science, Dr. Rick Kline, will give a demonstration on our new robot overlords.

12:10-1:10 in Goldstein G300.

Seidenberg Special Interest Tour – Westchester Campus – Wednesday, Dec 6

Pace University Welcome Center – Marks Hall

This campus tour is available for prospective undergraduate students interested in Computer Science and Information Systems majors. In addition to a general campus tour, visitors will have the opportunity to meet an academic representative, tour the facilities used by the program, and whenever possible, will be guided around campus by a current student majoring in the academic discipline.

Seidenberg Tech Collective – Wednesday Dec 6th

Goldstein Academic Center Room G300

Returning and interested members welcome! The Seidenberg Tech Collective is an organization that is committed to enriching the lives of students and promotes interest in technology. Join us for the last STC meeting of the Fall 2017 Semester!

New York City Campus events

Pace Computing Society – Wed, Dec 6th

Seidenberg Lounge, 163 William St 2nd Floor – 12:10-1:10

Peer Mentoring and Mentee Event

Join PCS and guests – Seidenberg advisors Stephanie Elson and Matt Brown – to talk about our Peer Mentoring Program. Open to all current and interested members.

PCS is a club that aims to promote the interest in modern computing and design by hosting interactive workshops as well as inviting industry speakers to show what the real world experience is like. Any student with an interest in design and technology is invited to join us during our meetings. During this week’s meeting, peer mentor/mentee event with Stephanie and Matt

Cybersecurity Club Metasploit Workshop – Friday, Dec 8th

12:00pm-3:00pm Seidenberg Classroom Room 237

163 William Street, 2nd Floor New York, NY

The Cybersecurity Club in NYC is hosting a series of workshops and guest speaker events throughout the Fall of 2017. All events are open to any Pace student, but must sign up for the club during the event. Students who are current members have first priority for the workshop. Metasploit Workshop Metasploit is a framework that is used to deliver exploits and payloads to victim computers. This workshop will teach students how to ethically and effectively use Metasploit for conduction penetration tests.

More info and more events to come so stay tuned!

Stay updated on Seidenberg events with our Calendar.

Computer Science students showcase mobile apps

On Tuesday, September 20th 2016, Pace graduate Computer Science students showcased their projects from the computer science classes they had been taking. Dr. Christelle Scharff, the Chair of Computer Science in New York, curated the projects from different courses. The presentations were attended by fellow students in the Seidenberg and the Pace community, and were a way for students to share what they had learned and accomplished, and encourage other students to build fantastic projects when they take the classes for themselves.

Undertaking projects in classes useful for getting the hands-on experience of building something, but it’s also great for job interviews. “It is important for students to use courses they take to build innovative projects; they can use these projects for their portfolios,” Dr. Scharff said.

The showcase was an excellent demonstration of some of the projects students realized in their classes. Here’s some of what our students shared:

City Access

William Dickerson, who had taken CS 641 Mobile Web Content and Development with Professor Haik Sahakian, used Ionic and D3 to develop an app that helped people become better informed of how accessible New York City is from the user’s location.

“I want people to have a, ‘this is where I am, how accessible is my city?’ feel” William explained. “For example, like Google Maps, City Access will guide you to the nearest subway stations; however, it will also include nearby restaurants, parks or anything in your area you live in that you should know about.”

Multiplayer Maze Game

In the SE 765 Distributed Software Development class taught by Dr. Tamer Avcilar, Ersin Akkaya used Java and socket technology to develop a multiplayer maze game. The program has several available mazes. The mazes contain coins that users need to connect without intersecting. Students could even play the game during the presentation.

Stooper

Tony Chen and teammates Greg Goldberg and Jones Rawles, built an app that allows New Yorkers to get free things! Stooper shows listings and locations of places nearby that are giving away items that you can take without spending a penny.

The team split the tasks to ensure the app will be developed during the 3-week project. Tony created the login, contact, register and listing screens. Greg worked on the the splash screen, navigation drawer and the Google Maps integration. Jones Rawles was in charge of creating the donation page, where users can donate money to a charity. This app was the result of taking CS 639 Mobile Application Development with Dr. Scharff.

BizList

In Professor Chernak’s capstone course, CS 691 Computer Science Project I, teammates Harshada Gothankar, Akash Khedekar, Akanksha Gupta, Alex Lieberman, Ayesha Imran and Bijen Khakkhar developed a web app that serves as a commercial real estate portal. “It’s a very unique project in that it relates to finding commercial spaces,” says the team.

Users pick a location they are interested in finding commercial real estate space in and, depending upon the type of business, the app will come up with potential locations within budget and provide with information about the type of environment the space is located in (e.g., parking space).

These capstone courses (Computer Science Project I & II) present students with opportunities to work on projects they are passionate about. It’s a great chance to come up with innovative ideas such as this one!

The CS graduate showcase is a recurring event, taking place at the beginning of each semester. If you are interested in learning more, talk to a professor about it or get in touch with Dr. Scharff.

Mobile app and web development is a big deal at the Seidenberg School, so it was fantastic to see so many students presenting their work in that area! Follow the Pace Mobile Lab on Facebook to learn more about what we get up to in tech.

Congratulations to all of the students for their creative work!