BYU CS News Feed

Check out our new eStore for BYU Computer Science gear!

Computer Science Department — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 10:55:39 -0700

The BYU Computer Science Department is excited to announce its new eStore through the BYU Bookstore. You can now go online to get great CS gear like hats, fleece blankets, tote bags, dress shirts, and polos, all priced at cost so that you get the very best deal possible. And new items and sizes will be arriving soon!

Check it out at http://www.byubookstore/cs

Welcome Back!

Computer Science Department — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 14:01:56 -0600

The Computer Science Department would like to issue a warm welcome to students returning for the Fall 2008 semester. We hope you had a good summer and are looking forward to a great semester!

A few important dates to keep in mind:

Tuesday, September 2: CS 598R Information Session, 11:00, 3365 TMCB

Monday, September 15: Add/Drop Deadline

Thursday, September 18: Opening Pizza Social!--6:00 pm, Kiwanis Park. All students and their families are invited to join us for a great evening with fun and lots of great food. Pick up your free tickets in the CS Department Office (3361 TMCB) by Monday, September 15

Tuesday, September 23: Career Fair Preview--12:00, 1170 TMCB--A handful of specially-selected companies will be in the department to give you information on the career opportunities they have available.

Stay tuned to the Computer Science Department Calendar for more upcoming events and important information

Technical Résumé Seminar - An Employer's Perspective

Computer Science Department — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 15:29:35 -0600

Tuesday, October 6, 2009 at 3 p.m.
3365 TMCB (CS Conference Room)

What are technical managers looking for in a technical résumé? What makes a résumé stand out? How can you create an opening? What are the10 deadly sins of interviewing? Discover the answer to these and other questions at this seminar by a hiring manager from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. The presenter will also be available following the seminar to look at résumés and give blunt one on one advice to students.

Darrel Whitney is the Software Quality Assurance Manager and Technical Recruiter at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Livermore,California. During his career he has been a student employee incomputational physics, software developer, software quality engineer, project leader, group leader, and division leader. He has extensive experience in the hiring process at LLNL. He has been recruiting at BYU since 2001. Darrel holds a BS in Physics from BYU, and two MS degrees from the University of California at Davis in Applied Science and Computational Science.

Career Fair Preview

Computer Science Department — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 15:25:07 -0600

Don’t miss the opportunity to meet personally with representatives from across the spectrum of the computer science industry. You can plan for your future, learn more about the opportunities awaiting you after graduation, begin the process of networking and making contacts in the industry, and grab a doughnut...all without leaving the Talmage Building! The Career Fair Preview will be Tuesday, October 6 at 12 noon in 1170 TMCB. Companies attending: Avalanche Disney Interactive Studios, LDS Church Department of Information and Communication, and National Instruments. For more information, contact the CS Department at csoffice@cs.byu.edu.

Demo Day Kick-off

Computer Science Department — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 14:24:47 -0600

So, you want to do a 598R Project so that you can get Credit while working on your Awesome Idea and be a part of Demo Day December 2009, but you need a Professor to sponser you or a Group that will join your project. Good thing there will be professors and students interested in doing a 598R project in one place at the

Demo Day Kick-off

September 3

at 11am in 1110 TMCB

For more information, contact the Computer Science office at csoffice@cs.byu.edu, 801-422-3027, or 3361 TMCB.

CS 401R: Introduction to Feedback Systems and Control

Computer Science Department — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 16:55:54 -0600

This course introduces the feedback interconnection of dynamical systems as the central abstraction of a computing machine, whether realized as silicon integrated circuitry, mechanical devices, biochemical reactions, economic exchange mechanisms, social organizations, or large heterogeneous networks of such systems. We present a theory of computation focused on the control of these systems, establishing principles, fundamental limitations, and tools for their analysis and design. Motivating examples include TCP and congestion control for the internet, economic supply chains, autonomous robotic systems, biochemical networks, ecological population dynamics, manufacturing systems, and even the bicycle.

Drawing from a new program developed at Caltech, the course is designed to introduce the deep theory associated with feedback control to a broad range of scientists, engineers, and economists without sacrificing rigor and without prerequisite material beyond calculus and linear algebra. Note that this text is the same as that used in ECEn 483 and ME EN 431. Objectives for the course include:

Understanding of the spectrum of dynamic system models, from automata to differential equations, and be familiar with a broad range of applications for such models.
Fluency in modeling linear systems in both the time and frequency domains.
Ability to simulate dynamic systems using Matlab and Simulink.
Know how to recognize and formulate a control, system identification, model reduction, or verification problem.
Ability to design feedback control systems to meet desired specifications, using both time and frequency domain techniques.
Ability to use the final value theorem to predict steady state behavior.
Understanding of the internal model principle.
Ability to characterize fundamental limitations of the performance of feedback systems.
Ability to linearize a nonlinear system and check stability using Lyapunov’s indirect method.
Ability to reduce performance robustness problems to stability robustness problems, and the ability to apply the small gain theorem to check stability robustness of a feedback system

CS Alumni Fall Social

Computer Science Department — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 09:56:33 -0600

Alumni may now register for the 2009 CS Alumni Fall Social. The social will be on Friday, October 30 at 6pm at the Hinckley Visitor Center. Register on the CS Alumni website.

CS 501 R: Multiprocessor Programming and Verification

Computer Science Department — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 10:56:42 -0600

The CS 586 course teaches the art of multi-processor programming and verification. The trend in modern processor architecture is clearly tending to multi-core architectures for both power and performance. As a result, programmers need to learn to utilize all of these cores in an effective and reliable way. Multi-processor programming is more complex than programming uniprocessor machines and requires an understanding of new computational principles, algorithms, and programming tools. The reality is that most programmers are not effective at reasoning about concurrent execution and even fewer are well versed in the best practices in parallel and concurrent programming. More importantly, only a small fraction of developers know how to test, analyze, and debug parallel or distributed programs. Although some developers have basic experience with concurrency in a uni-processor machines, many of the rules change in actual multi-processor environments where processor synchronization becomes critical. Synchronization done correctly yields sizable runtime advantages. When done incorrectly, programs deadlock or produce seemingly random results due to race conditions.

The intent of CS 586 is to demystify multi-processor programming and give developers the understanding and tools they need to aggressively use the forthcoming multi-core architectures. Our text is The Art of Multiprocessor Programming and the course largely follows a similar course offered by one of the book's authors Maurice Herlihy from the
Computer Science Department at Brown University. Our version of the course at BYU also include, however, program analysis and verification in terms of basic model checking and an emphasis on tools to test concurrent programs such as Microsoft's CHESS and IBM's conTest. We are also going to explore Intel's Threaded Building Blocks as another tool
for describing concurrency at a higher-level than threads. For more information, click here.

New Course Announcement: 601R Computational Creativity

Computer Science Department — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 09:53:07 -0600

Dr. Dan Ventura is offering a new course for the Fall 2009 Semester--CS 601R, Computational Creativity.

The course will be taught from 11:00-11:50 am, MWF, and is currently slated to be held in room 3718 HBLL.

A description of the course follows:

Creativity plays a key role in many aspects of (intelligent) behavior, including:

•   Problem solving
•   Scientific Discovery
•   Art (visual metaphor)
•   Music
•   Language (metaphor, narrative, poetry)
•   Design

Can we build computational systems that produce interesting/useful results through what must be attributable as creative means? If so, what does this mean? If not, why? Can these questions even be answered?

This course will begin to address these questions. Our approach will be project-based, with the main goal of the course being to produce a working system to which we can attribute creativity. We will also incorporate a series of readings on various aspects of computational creativity, including theory, philosophy, empirical studies and implemented systems.

The material is inherently inter-disciplinary and ill-defined. It will be intriguing and different and fun and challenging in a way that is likely unlike anything you’ve studied in CS to date.

For more information, contact Dan Ventura (ventura@cs.byu.edu).

Faculty advancements in the Computer Science Department

Computer Science Department — Wed, 27 May 2009 11:38:15 -0600

Four professors in the Computer Science Department were advanced during the University's most recent Rank and Status decisions. Dr. Cory Barker and Dr. Mike Goodrich were advanced to Full Professor, and Professor Paul Roper and Dr. Sean Warnick were granted Continuing Faculty Status and advanced to Associate Professor.

Dr. Barker and Professor Roper are professional faculty in the Computer Science Department. They each teach a number of undergraduate courses and sit on various committees. Dr. Barker has taught a wide variety of courses in the department, including CS 100, CS 142, CS 235, CS 236, CS 240, and CS 252. Professor Roper also teaches many courses, including CS 100, CS 124, CS 345, and CS 404. Professor Roper also serves as the department's undergraduate faculty advisor. Both professors are extremely popular teachers, and they each received their degrees in computer science at BYU.

Dr. Mike Goodrich and Dr. Sean Warnick are researching faculty in the department. In addition to teaching courses, they pursue cutting-edge research in their areas of expertise. Dr. Goodrich, who received his PhD in Electrical and Computer Engineering from BYU, directs the Human-Centered Machine Intelligence Laboratory in the department. Dr. Warnick, a graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, directs the Information and Decision Algorithm, or IDeA Labs, at BYU.