Blog – Page 3 – Michael Soltys

Algorithmic work of Tyler King from Newbury Park Highschool

During the summer 2021, I was contacted by a high-school student from Newbury Park High School, Tyler King. In his email Tyler said that over the previous summer (2020) he completed a research project on pathfinding algorithms, and that he wanted to share his results with me.

Tyler and I discussed his paper online, and I was really impressed with his work which he titled: Minimum Path Star Topology Algorithms for Weighted Regions and Obstacles. I gave Tyler some feedback, but the work was original and interesting – Tyler’s incredible mathematical maturity made me think that I was lucky to be engaging with a modern day Évariste Galois!

We met a few times, and Tyler invited me to be his co-author, although the work in the paper is his. Tyler is now a student at Cornell university, and his work can be read here: https://arxiv.org/abs/2109.06944.

Sam Mazarei at GBL

Sam has always been interested in puzzles, riddles, and brain teasers. When he was young, he enjoyed taking everything apart to see how it worked, often forgetting to put things back together. As he got older this desire to understand how things work became a fascination with tech in general, so when the time was right he enrolled in community college to study Computer Science.

Sam is now a Senior in Computer Science at CI, graduating in December 2021. During the summer 2021, Sam did an internship as a Software Developer at GBL Systems, where he participated in a large scale software development effort, using the Agile methodology, and CI/CD. Sam became enthusiastic about programming, and has contributed several tickets, and many technical solutions, to the project.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/sdmazarei

Travis Chamness at GBL

Travis Chamness is a software development intern at GBL systems, assisting in the review of active systems.

Travis is a senior student at CI, majoring in Computer Science. His LinkedIn profile can be seen here, and he has an active GitHub repository that can be visited here.

I discovered computer science to be the most interesting major I had investigated after switching my academic major seven times. What resonated with me about computer science was the depth of knowledge needed, the creativity employed, and a need for deep work. These characteristics are what drive me in all of my hobbies whether it is surfing, guitar, culinary, or anything else I choose to do with my time. While in my undergraduate program at CI I worked as a peer-led team leader for COMP 105, 150, and 151. This was opportunity for me to share knowledge and passion as well as to help bond the Channel Islands computer science community.
Travis Chamness

Jason Morgan at GBL

Jason Morgan is a graduating Computer Science student from CI, who started an internship position at GBL Systems as a Software Developer.

Jason’s LinkedIn page can be seen here; Jason is an AWS Cloud Academy graduate, with a course in Architecting and a course in Developing. Jason is also a music educator, specializing in percussion.

Job opportunity for IT-related fields in Foreign Service

Discover this great opportunity for students majoring in IT-related degree programs to have a clear path to a career in the Foreign Service and to receive up to $75,000 in academic funding over two years and two summer internships. This fellowship can be used for the junior and senior years of an undergraduate program or a two year graduate program. The U.S. Department of State will open the application for the Foreign Affairs IT Fellowship program this fall.

Join the State Department and The Washington Center for a live one-hour webinar on August 12, 2021, 11am-noon PDT, designed for college and university faculty, staff and advisors who want to help their students learn about this unique opportunity. If you know talented students in IT-related majors who would love to have a career in the Foreign Service, representing the United States and supporting diplomacy with technology, register today for the webinar.

Click the Register Today button below to read more details about the webinar.

U.S. State Dept. IT Fellowship Opportunity:
Academic Funding, Internships, and a Foreign Service Career
Free Webinar | Aug. 12, 2021 | 11am-noon PDT

Speakers on this one-hour webinar include:

Patti Boerner, Program Manager for the FAIT Fellowship, U.S. Department of State
Allen Dubose, Diplomat in Residence, U.S. Department of State
Blessing Rutonesha, Assistant Program Manager, FAIT Fellowship, The Washington Center

You’ll be able to ask questions during the Q&A session. If you register for the webinar, but are unable to attend, you will receive a link to access the replay of the webinar 24/7.

Here are some links for more information:

The U.S. Department of State is seeking to attract top technology talent to the Foreign Service that reflects the diversity of the United States. Based on the fundamental principle that diversity is a strength in our diplomatic efforts, the program values varied backgrounds, including ethnic, racial, gender, and geographic diversity. Women, members of minority groups underrepresented in the Foreign Service, and those with financial need, are encouraged to apply to this challenging and rewarding program.

We hope to see you at the upcoming webinar!

If you have any questions in the meantime, feel free to email: FAITFellowship@twc.edu.

Enrollment Predictions with Machine Learning

Happy to announce that our joint paper, Enrollment Predictions with Machine Learning, co-authored with Hung Dang, Ginger Reyes Reilly and Katharine Soltys, has appeared in Volume 9, number 2, of the Strategic Enrollment Management Quarterly (SEMQ).

In this paper a Machine Learning framework for predicting enrollment is proposed. The framework consists of Amazon Web Services SageMaker together with standard Python tools for Data Analytics, including Pandas, NumPy, MatPlotLib and Scikit-Learn. The tools are deployed with Jupyter Notebooks running on AWS SageMaker. Based on three years of enrollment history, a model is built to compute — individually or in batch mode — probabilities of enrollments for given applicants. These probabilities can then be used during the admission period to target undecided students. The audience for this paper is both SEM practitioners and technical practitioners in the area of data analytics. Through reading this paper, enrollment management professionals will be able to understand what goes into the preparation of Machine Learning model to help with predicting admission rates. Technical experts, on the other hand, will gain a blue-print for what is required from them.

This paper has been made possible in part by the AWS Pilot Program in Machine Learning where California State University Channel Islands was one if the participating institutions.

Sarah Hassan at Apple

Sarah Hassan is a 2021 graduate with a BS in Computer Science and a minor in both Visual Media Communication and Mathematics. During her years at CSUCI, Sarah was working part-time at her local Apple Store as a Technical Specialist. While working at Apple and being a fresh graduate, she was granted the opportunity to partake in what is known as a Career Experience, an opportunity for employees to experience a new role while contributing to important projects at Apple. Her role is a Siri Experience Prototyper in the Siri Conversational Interaction team. Sarah believes that her Capstone project (an iOS application) was able to leave a good impression during her interviews along with her graphic design knowledge. She was able to share her link to her Capstone project and discuss technical/design challenges she’s faced while also sharing graphic design work she has done at CSUCI.

Computer Science 8th Advisory Board Meeting

Previous Advisory Board Meeting (7th)

most Important: CaPstone Showcase

Please help us make our students’ Virtual Capstone Showcase a special occasion by visiting the sites of their projects, and leaving a comment. Our students have worked hard to meet the demands of a senior capstone project, in difficult circumstances, and they are facing a challenging job market (although Computer Science is doing relatively well even in the COVID19 economy). It will encourage them to have your feedback, as industry leaders.

Here is the list of all the Capstone projects:

Summary of the Meeting

Enrollment challenges: a dip of about 50% in CS, IT and Mechatronics Engineering students.
Philanthropic success: SCE, HAAS, B. Johnson and Meissner Filtration gifts. We are very grateful!
Faculty write papers, participate in conference and events, write grants.
AWS first year of certificate: we are very happy with hosting so many programmers and software engineers in our classes.

Slides

AdvisoryBoard-May7-2021

Top 10 Tech Job Skills Predicted To Grow The Fastest In 2021

According to Burning Glass Technologies, the two tech job skills paying the highest salary premiums today and in 2021 are IT Automation ($24,969) and AI & Machine Learning ($14,175).

Source: Top 10 Tech Job Skills Predicted To Grow The Fastest In 2021

Programming languages: This old favourite tops the charts again | ZDNet

What’s the top programing language? Is it JavaScript for the web? Or do data scientists rule the roost these days with Python? No. According to Swiss software house, Tiobe, the nearly 50-year old language C is the top language today. C hails from Bell Labs and was created nearly 50 years ago, back in 1972, by American computer scientist Dennis Ritchie. He also co-created the Unix operating system.

Source: Programming languages: This old favourite tops the charts again | ZDNet