Category: CSU Channel Islands

AWS update

Recently, Computer Science at CI, has made several new connections with AWS:

  • We are an approved member of the AWS Academy and we are authorized to deliver the AWS Academy Cloud Computing Architecture curriculum. I am the Central Point of Contact (CPOC), so if anyone is interested in being nominated to be an AWS Academy instructor at CI, please get in touch with me. [letter]
  • We are part of the AWS Educate initiative, and we were able to offer our COMP 529 students accounts with some credit. Note that an issue with AWS training accounts is that they close after the course is finished; to those students who are able, I would suggest to open your own (or your company’s) account so that as you learn the material you can build your own permanent infrastructure. A compromise is to build the initial infrastructure on a training account, and use “CloudFormation” to export it for re-instatement elsewhere.
  • Almost finished teaching COMP 529, “Cloud Computing,” for the first time using the AWS resources. We used the AWS Certified Solutions Architect official study guide .
  • I have been selected for the AWS Cloud Ambassador program, which offers educators recognition, professional development, and exclusive benefits for helping students learn about the cloud.
  • I have completed by own AWS certification as a Solutions Architect.

Chase McIntyre at Yardi

Chase Mcintyre, Software Development Engineer at Yardi

Graduating with a BS in computer science and a minor is Mathematics in May 2019. While at CI, worked as a PLTL leader for Comp 105, 150, 151, and 162. He was most known for his mastery of the Comp 162 material. His capstone is the development of an Android based business networking application, utilizing Near Field Communication hardware. His adviser is Jason Issacs.

In Chase’s words: I love studying psychology, religion, philosophy, and history in my off time. (I’m a big fan of Dr. Peterson’s work, Dr. Haidt’s work, and many others). I hope to one day work with machine learning/artificial intelligence, to build machines focused around communicating and interacting with humans. This is, and has been, my dream since I was in high school. I’m currently taking 20 units of upper division stem classes and working two jobs – totaling to 70-85 hours a week depending on my homework load. I think AJ and Anna are amazing professors, their challenging classes defined me as a programmer, and forced me to greatly expand my skills. Their experience has been invaluable to me.

Career Fair April 2019

We are preparing to host our Career & Internship Fair on April 17, 2019. Currently, we have 21 employers registered to attend the fair who indicated they will be recruiting from Computer Science and Information Technology.

For a full list of organizations, download Career Fair Plus on your smartphone or table and get real-time information including participating employers, industry, types of positions being recruited, and more. You can also filter based on your career interest, position type, and location.

  • County of Ventura
  • GBL Systems Corporation
  • Haas Automation
  • NAVAIR,NAVFAC, NAVSEA
  • Yardi 
  • The Trade Desk

Career Fair: Wednesday, April 17, 2019

Time: 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Location: Broome Library Plaza

Website: go.csuci.edu/fairinfo

Video Guide – a short video that provides a number of tips to help guide students through the event. How to Prepare for Career Fair Video (YouTube) How to Prepare for Career Fair Guide (PDF, 87.3 KB)

Talk by Robert Westberg on Leadership in Engineering

Technical-Leadership

Books recommended at the talk:

  • Lincoln on Leadership, by Donald T. Phillips
  • The Founding Fathers on Leadership, by Donald T. Phillips
  • The one minute manager builds high performance teams, by Ken Blanchard
  • The Serving Leader, by Ken Jennings and Stahl-Wert
  • The Secret, by Ken Blanchard and Mark Miller
  • Leading Change, by John P. Kotter
  • The Leadership Challenge, by James M. Kouzes and Barry Z. Posner

Brandon Artner software developer at Yardi

Brandon Artner is a Software Development Engineer at Yardi Systems. He graduated from CSUCI with a degree in Computer Science and Mathematics in 2018. While he was an undergraduate at CSUCI he was an Intern Software Engineer with TRAX International hosted by GBL Systems. He also worked at the STEM Center for four years as a CS and Math tutor. During his studies, he also contributed to research projects involving shape analysis and thin coat instrumentation. His senior capstone project was developing a cryptographic voting system under the guidance of Professor Soltys.

Invitation to the HAAS/CSUCI Cybersecurity conference

This event is now at capacity; if you didn’t get a spot, we hope that you can join us on October 7th, for the 2nd biannual HAAS/CI Cybersecurity conference.

I would like to invite you to the first meeting of the HAAS and CSUCI Cybersecurity Conference on February 11, 2019. This is going to be a biannual conference, to be held this year at HAAS on Feb 11, and at CSUCI on Oct 7.

This conference aims to serve Ventura, Santa Barbara and LA Counties. There is a lot of interest and need in the area of cybersecurity. We have local groups that work in

  • business & industry security
  • Navy security
  • digital forensics
  • compliance, policy and law
  • research & education

but it will serve all of us well to have a venue where we can all meet, learn about the latest software tools, best practices and certifications, and speak to fellow IT experts who are being proactive in defending businesses and infrastructure.

Please come and attend our first meeting at HAAS in Oxnard, and circulate this flyer among your colleagues and friends. As I said, a flyer with more information, in particular a registration email, will be circulated in January.

Computer Science 3rd Advisory Board meeting

On November 29, we held our 3rd biannual Computer Science Advisory Board Meeting.

There were two parts to the meeting, a lunch with presentations by CI faculty and administration, and the Capstone Showcase, which takes place at the end of each term:

1:00-3:00 Lunch and Presentations

  1. Chris Meissner welcome & introductions
  2. Richard LeRoy, Advancement
  3. Amanda Carpenter, Career Development
  4. Jason Isaacs, Mechatronics with
 Alberto Venegas, Ethan Warner and Mark Getzinger
  5. Brian Thoms, ABET
  6. Zane Gittins, HAAS & MSCS
  7. Michael Soltys, Chair’s report

After Chris Meissner’s welcome, and introductions of all present,

Richard LeRoy on the mission of the board

Advisory Board 11.29.2018

Brian Thoms on ABET

Brian Thoms distributed a draft of the departmental ABET document, and  asked our board members to comment on our PEO (Program Educational Outcomes), which describe what we expect from our graduates 5 years after graduation (they are different for our 3 undergraduate programs: Computer Science, IT and Mechatronics). Please read the PEOs, and send your comments to Brian Thoms <brian.thoms@csuci.edu>.

Presentation slides of Brian Thoms:

ABET-BrianThoms-slides

Jason Isaacs on Mechatronics

MechatronicsEngineering_AdvisoryBoard

Zane GIttins on Cybersecurity

CSUCI_Advisory_Board

Michael Soltys Chair’s report

AdvisoryBoard-Nov29-2018

Pictures from Capstone Showcase

Comp Sci alum Joel Helling working as a Software Engineer at GBL in Camarillo

Joel Helling is a Software Engineer at GBL Systems Corporation and part-time lecturer at CSUCI. He started working at GBL Systems, a government contractor based in Camarillo, in 2014 working on various projects from automated website design, implementation, and testing to desktop application development. Currently, he develops Test and Evaluation tools for the Test Resource Management Center (TRMC) and supports the development of the Testing and Training Enabling Architecture (TENA) Software Development Activity (SDA) including maintaining and updating legacy applications, and designing and implementing new software tools.

Joel completed his Master’s in Computer Science in 2018. His Master’s Thesis, under the advisement of Dr. Soltys, discussed the intersection of stringology and graph theory by relating indeterminate strings with undirected graphs and proving some properties of the indeterminate string and its associated alphabet size. The paper was later published in the Journal of Theoretical Computer Science. Currently, Joel is also working as a part-time lecturer for CSUCI. See here for details.