- csc-general - CSC Mailman

Lecture by Joe Marks from Disney, Employment Opportunities
by Computer Science Club 23 Mar '11

23 Mar '11

Joe Marks, Vice-President Research and Development at The Walt Disney Company, is at the university Thursday and Friday of this week. The primary reason for his visit is to give a lecture in the Cheriton School of Computer Science Distinguished Lecture Series. This talk will be given Thursday, March 24th in the Theatre of the Arts, which is located in the Modern Languages Building. It starts at 4.15 pm and is open to all. Joe also asked to discuss employment opportunities at Disney with undergraduate students. The discussion will take place at 11.30 on Friday in MC 4020, and is open to all, modulo the capacity of the room. *Biography:* Joe Marks grew up in Dublin, Ireland. He earned three degrees from Harvard University. His areas of interest include computer graphics, human-computer interaction, and artificial intelligence. He has worked previously at Bolt Beranek and Newman and at Digital's Cambridge Research Laboratory. Prior to his current position as VP Research and Development, he was the Research Director at Mitsubishi Electric Research Labs in Cambridge, Massachusetts, from 2000 to 2006.

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CSC Talk - Software Patents by Stanley Khaing
by Computer Science Club 15 Mar '11

15 Mar '11

Hi CSC, If you're interested, come out to Stanley Khaing's talk this Thursday at 4:30pm in MC2034. He is a lawyer from Waterloo whose areas of practice are software and high technology. He will be discussing software patents. He'll be speaking about the requirements for obtaining a patent and whether or not software should be patentable. Cheers, Jenny Wong Vice President W2011 Computer Science Club University of Waterloo

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Call for Member Talks
by Computer Science Club 16 Feb '11

16 Feb '11

Hi all, The CSC will be running three or so member talks this term. If you've been doing interesting CS-related research or just happen to know a lot about something cool and want to share, send an email to progcom(a)csclub.uwaterloo.ca by Monday Feb 28 with a proposed title for your talk and a 1-2 paragraph summary of what you intend to talk about. Keep in mind that member talks usually last about an hour. Thanks, Jenny Wong VP Winter 2011

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This Week: Perl Talks, CSC goes to Grad Ball, Watson on Jeopardy
by Computer Science Club 14 Feb '11

14 Feb '11

Hello everyone, There are several things happening in the CSC this week. --- Perl Talks --- First of all, we will be holding Perl Talks with the KW Perl Mongers. The talks will be on Thursday, Feb 17, from 7:00pm - 8:30pm in MC2017. Several short talk will be presented. These talks are intended for programmers who are curious about the Swiss Army Chainsaw of languages, Perl. Tyler Slijboom will present: * Prototyping in Perl, * Perl Default Variables, * HOWTO on OO Programming, and * HOWTO on Installing and Using Modules from CPAN Daniel Allen will present: * Coping with Other Peoples' Code Justin Wheeler will present: * Moose: a Modern Perl Framework Light refreshments will be provided, or possibly heavy refreshments, courtesy of the Perl Mongers. --- CSC Goes to Grad Ball --- The fine folks at the Mathematics Graduation Committee have saved us a table at the Grad Ball. The ball will be on March 5th at St. George's Hall. MGC adds this: Not graduating? Doesn't matter --- come party with your friends who are. Many prizes are up for grabs, including gift certificates. For more information go to: http://www.mgc.uwaterloo.ca/grad-ball/ If you are interested in attending please contact me (ebering(a)csclub.uwaterloo.ca) We have 8 places, tickets are $50 per person (discount off of the single price), and you must confirm with me by this Friday. --- Watson on Jeopardy --- IBM's Watson will be appearing on the quiz-show Jeopardy this week, competing against the great human champions. This could be as landmark as Kasparov v. Deep Blue in terms of demonstrating the state of the art in machine learning and natural language processing, if possible we will organize a screening of the match. For more information go to: http://www.ibm.com/innovation/us/watson/ -- Edgar Bering, President ebering at uwaterloo dot ca Computer Science Club http://csclub.uwaterloo.ca/~ebering Mathematics Society MC 3036, (519)888-4567,x33870 University of Waterloo Waterloo, Ontario CANADA N2L 3G1

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Code Party this Friday
by Computer Science Club 02 Feb '11

02 Feb '11

Hey CSC, Come one, come all to the Code Party happening in the Comfy Lounge this Friday. The event starts at 7:00PM and will run through the night. Why sleep when you could be hacking on $your_favourite_project or doing $something_classy in great company? Join us for a night of coding and comraderie! Food and caffeine will be provided. -Jenny AKA Emily Veep W11

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Winter 2011 Office Training
by Computer Science Club 19 Jan '11

19 Jan '11

Hello CSC members, Winter 2011 office training will be held in the CSC office at 4:00 PM on Saturday, January 22. All members are welcome to attend. I will be selecting several new office staff, and distributing up to five office keys. Marc Burns CSC Office Manager Winter 2011

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Call for Member Talks
by Computer Science Club 17 Jan '11

17 Jan '11

Hi all, The CSC will be running three or so member talks this term. If you've been doing interesting CS-related research or just happen to know a lot about something cool and want to share, send an email to progcom(a)csclub.uwaterloo.ca by 10:00pm this Thursday with a proposed title for your talk and a 1-2 paragraph summary of what you intend to talk about. Keep in mind that member talks usually last about an hour. Thanks, Jenny Wong VP Winter 2011

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Winter 2011 Executive
by Computer Science Club 12 Jan '11

12 Jan '11

The elections have concluded, and the new executive are: President: ebering Vice President: jy2wong Treasurer: kspaans Secretary: ehashman Sysadmin: pbarfuss m4burns was appointed Office Manager and asbumste was appointed Librarian. Thanks for coming out! Sean Hunt Chief Returning Officer

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Nominee error
by Computer Science Club 12 Jan '11

12 Jan '11

I apologize again for the error, folks. I accidentally listed b4taylor as being a nominee for Vice-President. This is not the case. m4burns is the nominee, along with ssalbiz and jy2wong. My apologies. Sean Hunt Chief Returning Officer

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My apologies
by Computer Science Club 12 Jan '11

12 Jan '11

In the last message, I accidentally left out that you can submit votes by email to cro(a)csclub.uwaterloo.ca up until the election meeting as well. -scshunt

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Elections Tomorrow
by Computer Science Club 11 Jan '11

11 Jan '11

Hey all, Winter 2011 elections are tomorrow at 4:00 PM in the Comfy, and the nominees are: * President: ebering * Vice President: ssalbiz, jy2wong, b4taylor * Treasurer: kspaans, qxi, mspang, d2huo, a42ahmed * Secretary: kspaans, d2huo, ehashman If you believe (maybe because you were paid) that one of them should be elected (or not elected), then you should come out and cast a vote for (or against) them. If you don't, you have no right to complain when ctdalek exterminates us. Sean Hunt CRO Winter 2011

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Elections for Winter 2011
by Computer Science Club 06 Jan '11

06 Jan '11

Elections are coming for Winter 2011 executive! Nominations are open - nominations can be made by sending them directly to me or by writing them on the whiteboard in the Club office. Nominations close at 4:30 PM on Tuesday, January 11. Elections take place in the Comfy at 4:00 PM on Wednesday, January 12. We currently have no nominees for Vice-President. The Vice-President is needed to run events including the awesome talks. Please come out and volunteer! Thanks, scshunt CRO

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Eduroam Quiz
by Computer Science Club 10 Dec '10

10 Dec '10

Hello CSCers! There appears to be a large group of students that have trouble with the eduroam wireless network. To help IST debug the problems we have created the following poll: https://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?hl=en&formkey=dENpTGE3QmhLZGQtT1Ay… We will email the results (minus names) to IST on Monday, so get your answers in soon. We will be giving out 4 free pop (retail value $2!) to 1 person, at random, who answers this quiz. You may share this link with other, non-CSC UW members. This quiz was not in any way written by IST. Thanks

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The CSC Goes Clubbing!1!!
by Computer Science Club 08 Dec '10

08 Dec '10

Greetings, As the fall 2010 term winds down a close and we get ready to start exams, the CSC will be having one more final event. No, it's not an invited talk or a code party; this time, it's THE CSC GOES CLUBBING! On Friday, December 10th, our very own CSC member Elyot Grant will be behind the decks at Waterloo's Revolution Nightclub, playing electronic dance music as a special guest DJ inside The Purple Room. In the past, Elyot has given many theory talks for the CSC on topics like approximation hardness and incompressibility, but this Friday, he'll be letting the music do all the talking. The event poster is here: http://csclub.uwaterloo.ca/~egrant/PurpleRoom13_Dec10th2010.jpg There is NO COVER BEFORE 11pm (in other words, it's FREE!!!) Come join us as we march out to the purple room in full force to support Elyot and dance our asses off to his selection of chiptastic beats. Here's a word from Elyot himself: "Hi everyone! If you want an idea of what I might play, there are some DJ mixes of mine at: http://soundcloud.com/elyot and some additional music I made over at: http://www.student.cs.uwaterloo.ca/~egrant/ As a special treat for the CSC, I will try to drop some chippy tracks: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b172UA1smO0&t=3m20s http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F21aifX0lZY&t=2m06s http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v10GkrLbgKE&t=3m17s The facebook event is: http://www.facebook.com/#!/event.php?eid=145655702152203 You must be 19+ to attend and must bring your ID (health card doesn't count; driver's license, passport, or LCBO card are all fine.) Cover is free before 11pm and $5 afterwards. My set time is 11:30pm - 1:00am. The party usually lasts until about 2:45am. There is a guestlist available, which enables you to bypass the line anytime before 12am (so you get in more quickly). If you arrive before 10:45, there is usually not too big of a line. But if you arrive later than that, you may have to wait outside for a while, so you might want to consider guestlist if you think you'll be coming any later than that. Then, instead of getting in line to get in, you just talk to the guy with the clipboard who finds your name, checks it off, and lets you in right away. If you wish to be guestlisted, email me at egrant(a)uwaterloo.ca with your full name and number of guests before Friday at 6pm. Rev is a short walk from the #12 and #7 bus routes and has free parking. I don't think there's a dress code other than "no athletic wear" (essentially, no jerseys, baseball caps and gangsta stuff). You don't have to dress up; most people (including me) will be wearing normal clothes. The crowd is friendly, there is room to dance, there are lasers, and there are big (but not deafening) speakers. Cheers! Hope to see you Friday. ~ Elyot" -- Edgar Bering, Vice President ebering at uwaterloo dot ca Computer Science Club http://csclub.uwaterloo.ca/~ebering Mathematics Society MC 3036, (519)888-4567,x33870 University of Waterloo Waterloo, Ontario CANADA N2L 3G1

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Mathematics and aesthetics in maze design
by Computer Science Club 15 Nov '10

15 Nov '10

Hello, the CSC is hosting a talk entitled "Mathematics and aesthetics in maze design" on 2010-11-17 at 04:30 PM in MC4061. It will be presented by Craig S. Kaplan. Abstract: For thousands of years, mazes and labyrinths have played an important role in human culture and myth. Today, solving mazes is a popular pastime, whether with pencil on paper or by navigating through a cornfield. The construction of compelling mazes encompasses a variety of challenges in mathematics, algorithm design, and aesthetics. The maze should be visually attractive, but it should also be an engaging puzzle. Master designers balance these two goals with wonderful results. In this talk, I discuss the role of the computer in the process of designing mazes. I present some well known algorithms for maze construction, and more recent research that attempts to novel mazes with non-trivial mathematical or aesthetic properties. Hope to see you there. If you have any questions about the event e-mail the executive or check http://csclub.uwaterloo.ca.

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Grad School at UofT
by Computer Science Club 12 Nov '10

12 Nov '10

In case you're interested in grad school: Graduate Opportunities at the University of Toronto Speaker: C.C. Gotlieb, University of Toronto Date: Wednesday Nov 17 Time: 4:30 pm Location: DC 1304 ================== Bio.: Calvin C. (Kelly) Gotlieb has been called the "Father of Computing" in Canada. He received his MA in 1944 and his PhD in 1947 from the University of Toronto. In 1948, he was part of the first team in Canada assembled to design and construct digital computers and to provide computing services. In that year, he co-founded the original Computation Centre at the University of Toronto. He established the first university credit course on computing in Canada in 1950, and offered the first Canadian graduate courses in computing in 1951. In 1964, he founded the first graduate department of Computer Science in Canada, at the University of Toronto. Professor Gotlieb has over a hundred publications in many areas of Computer Science and Information Processing, and has co-authored four books: "High Speed Data Processing", "Social Issues in Computing", "Data Types and Structures", and "The Economics of Computers". Professor Gotlieb has dedicated much of his professional work to the promotion of information science and technology and the advancement of national and international cooperation in this field. He has been a consultant to the United Nations on Computer Technology and Development, and to the Privacy and Computers Task Force of the Canadian Federal Department of Communications and Justice. He was a founding member of the Canadian Information Processing Society in 1958, and served as Canada's representative at the founding meeting of the International Federation of Information Processing Societies in 1959, and from 1960-1966. He is a former Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of the Association of Computing Machinery, and a member of the Editorial Advisory Board of Encyclopaedia Britannica and of the Annals of the History of Computing. Professor Gotlieb is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, the British Computer Society and the Association for Computing Machinery. He received honorary DMath and DEng degrees from the University of Waterloo and the Technical University of Nova Scotia respectively. In 1994, he was awarded the Isaac L. Auerbach Medal by the International Federation of Information Processing Societies, and in 1996 the Order of Canada award. He is currently Professor Emeritus in Computer Science and in the Faculty of Information Studies at the University of Toronto.

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REMINDER: Toronto Trip
by Computer Science Club 04 Nov '10

04 Nov '10

Hello everyone, This is a reminder that we are going to Toronto on Nov. 13. We will be meeting UofT's CSSU and going to the pub with them to discuss computer science and other things after touring some subset of their facilities. The bus leaves from in front of DC at 1pm, and we will leave Toronto at 11pm. Space is limited so please sign up in advance. The price for the bus is $2 per member. To sign up come to the office in MC3036. -- Edgar Bering, Vice President ebering at uwaterloo dot ca Computer Science Club http://csclub.uwaterloo.ca/~ebering Mathematics Society MC 3036, (519)888-4567,x33870 University of Waterloo Waterloo, Ontario CANADA N2L 3G1

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Hackathon
by Computer Science Club 03 Nov '10

03 Nov '10

Hello, the CSC is hosting a Hackathon on 2010-11-05 at 07:00 PM in C&D Lounge (MC3002). Come join the CSC for a night of code, music with only 8 bits, and comradarie. We will be in the C&D Lounge from 7pm until 7am working on personal projects, open source projects, and whatever else comes to mind. If you're interested in getting involved in free/open source development, some members will be on hand to guide you through the process. Hope to see you there. If you have any questions about the event e-mail the executive or check http://csclub.uwaterloo.ca.

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CSC Goes to Math Charity Ball
by Computer Science Club 03 Nov '10

03 Nov '10

Hello everyone, In case you weren't aware, our friends across the hall at MathSoc have cordially invited us to their Charity Ball, on Saturday Nov. 20th starting at 6pm. The event will include a three course dinner and a charity auction as well as a dance DJ'd by DJ Phat Albert. The CSC has reserved two tables for our members, if you are interested in attending with our group please contact either Gwynneth Leece (gnleece(a)csclub.uwaterloo.ca) or the executive as soon as possible before Friday morning to reserve a place. Tickets are $20 per person, and we only have a limited number reserved. Thanks, -- Edgar Bering, Vice President ebering at uwaterloo dot ca Computer Science Club http://csclub.uwaterloo.ca/~ebering Mathematics Society MC 3036, (519)888-4567,x33870 University of Waterloo Waterloo, Ontario CANADA N2L 3G1

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Code Party Call for Projects
by Computer Science Club 28 Oct '10

28 Oct '10

Hello fellow members, Do you want to write some code for outside class? Ever wanted to participate in the open source software movement? Maybe you've got some bug in a program that you want to fix, but you're not sure where to get started. Sometime soon, the CSC will be having one of our famous code parties. Join us in the MC comfy for a night of writing code, playing games, eating snacks, and solving puzzles. If you've never been to one before, you should come out. And if you have, then come again! Details will be announced soon, but first, we need you to help us organize the event. During the code party, there's going to be plenty of code writing on lots of projects. If there's an open source project, or one of your own, that you know you'll be working on and you'd like others to work with you, let me know now so we can get some stuff prepared ahead of time. Ideally we'll have a couple projects with a bunch of people working together on, and we'd like to get some support for those projects ahead of time. If there's anything else you want to do, let me know too. There's lots of other things you can do besides write code at our parties too. You could test software, edit Wikipedia, debate technology topics, watch movies, play games, or just chat with all the other members. Tell me what you're interested in, and we'll make it happen! More details with things like the date will follow soon. See you there, Matthew McPherrin University of Waterloo Computer Science Club

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CSC Goes to Toronto
by Computer Science Club 26 Oct '10

26 Oct '10

Hello everyone, We (as promised some time ago) are finally organizing an invasion of Toronto. On Saturday, November 13th at 1pm we will board a bright yellow combat transport (school bus) and head to the UofT campus to tour their CSSU (CS Student Union), have lunch, meet them, and go get beer. We'll return that night, leaving Toronto at 11pm. If you would like to go, the bus will be $2 per member, sign up in advance in the club office, MC3036. If a friend would like to go and they are not a member, encourage them to join the club. As usual if you have any questions e-mail the executive. Thanks, -- Edgar Bering, Vice President ebering at uwaterloo dot ca Computer Science Club http://csclub.uwaterloo.ca/~ebering Mathematics Society MC 3036, (519)888-4567,x33870 University of Waterloo Waterloo, Ontario CANADA N2L 3G1

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This Week: Elyot Grant
by Computer Science Club 25 Oct '10

25 Oct '10

Hello everyone, We have a light week this week, with just the Tuesday talk. Member Elyot Grant will be presenting Tuesday at 4:30pm in MC4040. Title: Analysis of randomized algorithms via the probabilistic method Abstract: The probabilistic method is an extremely powerful tool in combinatorics that can be used to prove many surprising results. The idea is the following: to prove that an object with a certain property exists, we define a distribution of possible objects and use show that, among objects in the distribution, the property holds with non-zero probability. The key is that by using the tools and techniques of probability theory, we can vastly simplify proofs that would otherwise require very complicated combinatorial arguments. As a technique, the probabilistic method developed rapidly during the latter half of the 20th century due to the efforts of mathematicians like Paul Erdos and increasing interest in the role of randomness in theoretical computer science. In essence, the probabilistic method allows us to determine how good a randomized algorithm's output is likely to be. Possibly applications range from graph property testing to computational geometry, circuit complexity theory, game theory, and even statistical physics. In this talk, we will give a few examples that illustrate the basic method and show how it can be used to prove the existence of objects with desirable combinatorial properties as well as produce them in expected polynomial time via randomized algorithms. Our main goal will be to present a very slick proof from 1995 due to Spencer on the performance of a randomized greedy algorithm for a set-packing problem. Spencer, for seemingly no reason, introduces a time variable into his greedy algorithm and treats set-packing as a Poisson process. Then, like magic, he is able to show that his greedy algorithm is very likely to produce a good result using basic properties of expected value. Properties of Poisson and Binomial distributions will be applied, but I'll remind everyone of the needed background for the benefit of those who might be a bit rusty. Stat 230 will be more than enough. Big O notation will be used, but not excessively. Light refreshments will be served. Everyone is welcome and I hope to see you there. -- Edgar Bering, Vice President ebering at uwaterloo dot ca Computer Science Club http://csclub.uwaterloo.ca/~ebering Mathematics Society MC 3036, (519)888-4567,x33870 University of Waterloo Waterloo, Ontario CANADA N2L 3G1

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FYI: 2011 Anita Borg Memorial Scholarship
by Computer Science Club 21 Oct '10

21 Oct '10

Hello female CSC'ers Just a heads up - make sure to apply for this! *2011 Google Anita Borg Memorial Scholarship - Deadline to Apply is February 1, 2011* Dr. Anita Borg (1949-2003) devoted her life to revolutionizing the way we think about technology and dismantling the barriers that keep women and minorities from entering the computing and technology fields. In honor of Anita's vision, Google is proud to announce the 2011 Google Anita Borg Memorial Scholarship, awarding a group of female students each a $10,000 scholarship for the 2011-2012 academic year. All finalists and scholarship recipients will also be invited to attend a 3-day Scholars' Retreat at the Googleplex in Mountain View, CA in 2011. *Who Should Apply? * Applicants must satisfy the following eligibility criteria: • Be a female student entering her senior year of undergraduate study or enrolled in a graduate program in the 2011-2012 academic year at a university in the United States • Be enrolled in a Computer Science or Computer Engineering program, or a closely related technical field as a full-time student for the 2011-2012 academic year • Maintain a cumulative GPA of at least 3.5 on a 4.0 scale or 4.5 on a 5.0 scale or equivalent in your current program For complete details, please visit us at http://www.google.com/anitaborg/us/ Deadline to apply: Tuesday, February 1, 2011 Questions? Email us at anitaborgscholarship(a)google.com The Google Anita Borg Scholarship program is also available to students studying computer science in Asia, Africa, Australia, Canada, Europe, the Middle East, and New Zealand. Visit www.google.com/anitaborg for complete details. For more information about Google's scholarship programs, please visit www.google.com/jobs/scholarships.

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CSC Wear 2010
by Computer Science Club 20 Oct '10

20 Oct '10

Hi all, This year the CSC will be producing more black t-shirts and potentially some fantastic boxers to wear (no pants day!). In short, essentially the same as last year's shirt with a slight change in the logo on the reverse. The front is "University of Waterloo \n Computer Science Club" in courier with CSC logo on reverse. Men's are $10, Women's are $11. Please direct your favourite web browser to: http://csclub.uwaterloo.ca/wear to fill out the form and view a sample. Please do so by October 29th, 2010 noon. Thanks! Rebecca Putinski CSC Treasurer 2010

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This Week: Shai Ben-David & Gathering 4 Gardner
by Computer Science Club 17 Oct '10

17 Oct '10

Hi everyone, This week we have two events. The first will be our usual talk, on Tuesday at 4:30pm in RCH 306. Dr. Shai Ben-David will be presenting a talk entitled "Machine learning vs human learning - will scientists become obsolete?". Light refreshments will be served and all are welcome. The second event is Thursday at 5:30pm in MC5158. We will (in concert with the PMC) be holding a Gathering 4 Gardner. For those who don't know, Martin Gardener passed away this year. He was a well known and much loved mathematician, writer, and skeptic, and for many years wrote the 'Mathematical Games' column in Scientific American where he discussed puzzles and recreational mathematics. At this event we will explore and present the many things Martin enjoyed, puzzles, paradoxes, and maybe even some Alice in Wonderland. This is not a memorial, just a chance to become acquainted with the fascinating things that fascinated Martin. If you can't wait until Thursday and would like to get a taste of things to come, try reading the MAA's in focus on him: http://maa.org/pubs/focus/mg.html Or if you just want a cool illusion to play with, try the Dragon illusion: http://www.g4g-com.org/storage/Dragon-Illusion-GG2010.pdf I hope to see you there. If you have any questions please check http://csclub.uwaterloo.ca/ or contact the executive (exec(a)csclub.uwaterloo.ca)

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