Hello CSC members!
I have been informed by Justin Wan that over the past couple of years there
has been a decline in CS students applying for scholarships. Some of
the scholarships are specifically for CS students and some are competed
between CS and other programs. He says "it is disappointing that
these scholarships are either unclaimed or offered to students of
other programs because of a lack of qualified CS applicants."
The list of upper year scholarships can be found at
http://safa.uwaterloo.ca/scholarships/currentawards.html#mathematics
It has all the application and deadline information.
Sincerely,
The CSClub Executive
Hello everyone,
This term, in addition to the prof talks and out of town speakers we will
once again also run member talks. If you would like to present a talk,
please send in a proposed title and an abstract (1-2 paragraph
description). The deadline is this Thursday at 5:00pm. There are currently
4 slots scheduled for member talks. If I receive more proposals than that,
the program committee and I will decide which ones to accept, and notify
submitters of the decision by 5:00pm Friday. Talks are typically 1 hour in
length, please keep this in mind when planning your abstracts.
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
Hello, the CSC is hosting two talks this week.
The first is entitled 'In the Beginning'
and will be on 2010-09-21 at 04:30 PM in MC4061.
It will be presented by Dr. Prabhakar Ragde,
Cheriton School of Computer Science.
Abstract:
I'll be workshopping some lecture ideas involving representations of
numbers, specification of computation in functional terms, reasoning
about such specifications, and comparing the strengths and weaknesses of
different approaches. No prior background is needed; the talk should be
accessible to anyone attending the University of Waterloo and, I hope,
interesting to both novices and experts.
The second is entitled 'Cooking for Geeks'
and will be on 2010-09-22 at 06:00 PM in MC4045.
It will be presented by Jeff Potter.
The CSC is happy to be hosting Jeff Potter, author of "Cooking for Geeks"
for a presentation on the finer arts of food science. Jeff's book has been
featured on NPR, BBC and his presentations have wowed audiences of hackers
& foodies alike. We're happy to have Jeff joining us for a hands on
demonstration.
But you don't have to take our word for it... here's what Jeff has to say:
Hi! I'm Jeff Potter, author of Cooking for Geeks (O'Reilly Media, 2010),
and I'm doing a "D.I.Y. Book Tour" to talk about my just-released book.
I'll talk about the food science behind what makes things yummy, giving you
a quick primer on how to go into the kitchen and have a fun time turning
out a good meal. Depending upon the space, I’ll also bring along some
equipment or food that we can experiment with, and give you a chance to
play with stuff and pester me with questions.
If you have a copy of the book, bring it! I’ll happily sign it.
Hope to see you there.
If you have any questions about the event e-mail the executive
or check http://csclub.uwaterloo.ca.
Hello Members,
Welcome to the Fall 2010 term. In this message we hope to give you a
preview of what the club will be doing this term, and let you know how you
can help out if you so choose.
-- Membership
Remember to renew your membership! If you can't remember if you have paid
dues for this term just ask. Note that you can pay for several terms in
advance.
-- Election Results
Our election for Fall 2010 was last Tuesday, the following were
elected/appointed:
President: Jacob Parker
Vice President: Edgar Bering
Treasurer: Rebecca Putinski
Secretary: Kyle Spaans
Systems Administrator: Jeremy Roman
Office Manager: Sayed Khader
Librarian: Matthew McPherrin
-- Talks
Each term we run a bunch of talks. This term we're planning to have a
seminar every Tuesday at 4:30, starting next week. The seminar will have a
mix of local professors, members, and out of town speakers presenting. If
you have suggestions for speakers to invite, e-mail the program committee
(progcom(a)csclub.uwaterloo.ca). If you would like to give a talk, the Vice
President will be sending out instructions on what to do in the next few
days.
-- Unix Tutorials
New to Unix? Need a hand in figuring out what to do? We will once again be
running our popular Unix tutorials. Experienced with Unix and want to help
teach? We can always use more tutors, e-mail progcom(a)csclub.uwaterloo.ca to
find out how to help.
-- Trips, Socials, Code Parties, etc.
Last winter we promised a "CSC Invades U of T" or similar trip, but plans
fizzled. We're going to try again. As you may or may not be aware, TRON:
Legacy comes out this December. If there is enough interest we will look
into going to a showing as a club, possibly getting discount tickets. We're
also planning a code party or two, and there's a possibility there will be
mini-contests at them. Stay tuned.
-- And More!
This is quite an ambitious program. If you would like to help run events
or have an idea for an event you'd like to run with the help of the club,
contact the Vice President (veep(a)csclub.uwaterloo.ca) and ask about helping
out with the program committee, who run the events.
In addition to events, the club maintains an office, and we'll be looking
for good office staff once again. Stay tuned for information on how to
become an office staffer. Office staff keep the office functioning and
clean, as well as check out library books and sign up members and are
otherwise helpful to people coming by.
If systems administration is more your bent, contact the Systems
Administrator (sysadmin(a)csclub.uwaterloo.ca) for information on how to join
the systems committee, who administer the club's computing environment.
-- Fall 2010 Executive
Elyot Grant is giving a talk on Tuesday July 20th at 4:30pm in MC2066. The
information follows below: Title: The Incompressibility Method Abstract:
Heapsort. It runs in $\Theta(n \log n)$ time in the worst case, and in
$O(n)$ time in the best case. Do you think that heapsort runs faster than
$O(n \log n)$ time on average? Could it be possible that on most inputs,
heapsort runs in $O(n)$ time, running more slowly only on a small fraction
of inputs? Most students would say no. It "feels" intuitively
obvious that heapsort should take the full $n \log n$ steps on most inputs.
However, proving this rigourously with probabilistic arguments turns out to
be very difficult. Average case analysis of algorithms is one of those icky
subjects that most students don't want to touch with a ten foot pole; why
should it be so difficult if it is so intuitively obvious? In this talk, we
shall explore the incompressibility method---an interesting and extremely
powerful framework for determining the average-case runtime of algorithms.
Within the right background knowledge, the heapsort question can be answered
with an elegant 3-line proof. The crucial fact is that an overwhelmingly
large fraction of randomly generated objects are incompressible. We can show
that the inputs to heapsort that run quickly correspond to inputs that can
be compressed, thereby proving that heapsort can't run quickly on average.
Of course, "compressible" is something that must be rigourously
defined, and for this we turn to the fascinating theory of Kolmogorov
complexity. In this talk, we'll briefly discuss the proof of the
incompressibility theorem and then see a number of applications. We won't
dwell too much on gruesome mathemtical details. No specific background is
required, but knowledge of some of the topics in CS240 will be helpful in
understanding some of the applications.
Edgar Bering will be giving a talk tomorrow in MC2066 at 4:30pm.
Title: Halftoning and Digital Art
Abstract:
Halftoning is the process of simulating a continuous tone image with small dots
or regions of one colour. Halftoned images may be seen in older newspapers with
a specled apperance, and to this day colour halftoning is used in printers to
reproduce images. In this talk I will present various algorithmic approaches to
halftoning, with an eye not toward exact image reproduction but
non-photorealistic rendering and art. Included in the talk will be an
introduction to digital paper cutting and a tutorial on how to use the CSC's
paper cutter to render creations.
--
Brennan Taylor b4taylor at uwaterloo dot ca
Computer Science Club http://csclub.uwaterloo.ca/~b4taylor
University of Waterloo Waterloo, Ontario CANADA N2L 3G1
There is a CSC Code Party Friday starting at 7:00PM (1900) until we get bored (likely in the early in morning). Come out for fun hacking times.
--
Brennan Taylor b4taylor at uwaterloo dot ca
Computer Science Club http://csclub.uwaterloo.ca/~b4taylor
University of Waterloo Waterloo, Ontario CANADA N2L 3G1
The question has been passed onto us here at the CSC. How do students want to
hear about the opportunities they have for their upper-year education?
In the past a number of approaches have been attempted:
1) Professors teaching the classes will give a 10 minute introduction and answer
questions.
2) Students will answer questions and talk about their experiences.
3) A couple of Professors will talk about upper-year courses in general.
How would you like to hear about the upper-year courses?
Do you want to know the horrors of Real-Time? The shininess of Graphics? The
ridiculous things compiler writers do?
Send your responses to veep(a)csclub.uwaterloo.ca please!
--
Brennan Taylor b4taylor at uwaterloo dot ca
Computer Science Club http://csclub.uwaterloo.ca/~b4taylor
University of Waterloo Waterloo, Ontario CANADA N2L 3G1
Tell your friends!
Again the talk is Tuesday July 6th, 4:30pm in MC2054.
Nomair A. Naeem - Dataflow Analysis
=== Abstract
After going through an introduction to Lattice Theory and a formal
treatment to Dataflow Analysis Frameworks, we will take an in-depth
view of the Interprocedural Finite Distributive Subset (IFDS) Algorithm which
implements a fully context-sensitive, inter-procedural static dataflow
analysis. Then, using a Variable Type Analysis as an example, I will outline
recent extensions that we have made to open up the analysis to a larger variety
of static analysis problems and making it more efficient.
The talk is self-contained and no prior knowledge of program analysis is
necessary.
--
Brennan Taylor b4taylor at uwaterloo dot ca
Computer Science Club http://csclub.uwaterloo.ca/~b4taylor
University of Waterloo Waterloo, Ontario CANADA N2L 3G1
There is a talk coming up Tuesday June 22 at 4:30pm. It is in MC2066. Light
refreshments will be supplied.
The title is: Compiling To Combinators
Abstract:
Number theory was thought to be mathematically appealing but practically useless
until the RSA encryption algorithm demonstrated its considerable utility. I'll
outline how combinatory logic (dating back to 1920) has a similarly unexpected
application to efficient and effective compilation, which directly catalyzed the
development of lazy functional programming languages such as Haskell. The talk
is self-contained; no prior knowledge of functional programming is necessary.
--
Brennan Taylor b4taylor at uwaterloo dot ca
Computer Science Club http://csclub.uwaterloo.ca/~b4taylor
University of Waterloo Waterloo, Ontario CANADA N2L 3G1