CSC eNewsletter

Welcome to the online edition of CSC eNews, a monthly electronic newsletter for alumni and friends of the Department of Computer Science at NC State University.

If you are a CSC alum and wish to be added to the email distribution list, click here. Corporate or individual friends of the department may be added to our distribution list by sending an email request to Ken Tate, Director of Development & External Relations for the NCSU Department of Computer Science.

November 30, 2005

Please join us on the "Pathway to the Future"

With the opening of Engineering Building II (EBII), the College of Engineering reaches another critical milestone in its vision for a complete transition onto Centennial Campus. We invite you to help us build the engineering "pathway to the future" by laying a personalized brick for the EBII walkway on the oval. Each brick will hold three lines of text with up to 18 characters per line. Any combination of characters--uppercase, lowercase, spaces, or punctuation--may be used.

These commemorative bricks require a donation of $150, and can be ordered through this printable online order form.

By ordering your personalized brick, you will not only become a permanent part of our campus history, you will be contributing to the University's $1B Achieve Campaign, providing much needed funding to support the educational goals of NC State and our department. Ordering before December 31, 2005, will ensure that your brick is in place for EBII's official dedication event in April 2006. more

Departmental Research Grants, Gifts, and Support

Network Appliance, a world leader in unified storage solutions headquartered in Sunnyvale, CA, has renewed its commitment as a Super ePartner with a $25,000 unrestricted cash gift. As their presence in the RTP area has grown, so too has their relationship with the department. Since becoming a founding Super ePartner with the department in 2001, NetApp has provided equipment and cash donations to the department valued at over $350,000. In addition to sponsoring and benefiting from numerous Senior Design Center student projects, NetApp has also sponsored several high-profile events in the life of the department, including the Groundbreaking Ceremony for the EBII facility on Centennial Campus. According to local executive, Ken Hibbard, NC State is one of NetApp's top sources for new grad talent, and should continue to be so as their local operation continues to grow. Hibbard comments, "NC State's computer science program produces well-grounded and productive talent who are quick to make real contributions". Hibbard, himself, maintains a very active role in the partnership, serving as a member of the department's Strategic Advisory Board and frequently speaking to student organizations and classes. The department extends its deepest gratitude to NetApp for its ongoing support and continued commitment to collaboration.

Another Super ePartner, John Deere, has renewed its commitment to the program and the department with an unrestricted gift of $10,000 and a commitment for an additional $15,000 to come from the John Deere Foundation. John Deere is headquartered in Moline, IL, but has a large presence locally in the Cary area. We extend sincere appreciation to John Deere for their continued support.

Microsoft Corporation recently provided the department an unrestricted gift of $1,250.

Congratulations to Dr. Christopher Healey for having his proposal titled "Visualizing Network Data and Environments" funded for $40,000 by the NCSU Center for Advanced Computing & Communication. The award will run from January 1st, 2006 through August 31st, 2006.

Congratulations to Dr. Rob St. Amant for having his proposal titled "Toward Cognitive Habile Agents" funded for $375,266 by the National Science Foundation. The award will run from January 1st, 2006 through December 31st, 2008.

Congratulations to Dr. Vincent Freeh for being selected by Corporate Friend, IBM, to receive a 2005 IBM Faculty Award valued at $30,000. This highly competitive award recognizes the quality of Dr. Freeh's program and its importance to the industry.

CSC Faculty and Staff Move to EBII is Underway

The much anticipated move to Engineering Building II (EBII) on Centennial Campus has officially begun for Computer Science faculty and staff. Those in Withers Hall were among the first to move, paving the way for a major renovation of Withers over the winter. Among those making the move in early November - the department's administrative staff, undergraduate advising, and the external relations staff. Scheduled moves for other faculty and staff will continue into early January. more

Candidates Sought for Alumni "Wall of Fame" in EBII

As we move into EBII, our new home on Centennial Campus, we have set aside some prime space to honor the accomplishments of our alumni. Our distinguished alumni include innovators with patents and software applications which have changed our lives, founders of large Fortune 500 companies, individuals who have made significant contributions to National Security and space exploration, winners of prestigious awards, recognized leaders in business and academia, and so much more - some we know of, but many we do not. If you are an alum of the department, or know of an alum with extraordinary accomplishments you feel are worthy of recognition on our "Wall of Fame", please contact Ken Tate at 919-513-4292 or kmtate2@ncsu.edu.

CSC Corporate Partners Well Represented at NCTA Awards Banquet

Congratulations to all those companies recognized by the North Carolina Technology Association (NCTA) for outstanding contributions to the technology industry in North Carolina during their NCTA 21 Awards Banquet on November 17th. Winners with strong ties to the department include:

Communications Company of the Year: Tekelec
Corporate Citizenship of the Year: Progress Energy
Corporate Education: EMC Corporation
Large Company of the Year: Red Hat
Top Customer Service Company of the Year: SAS

Diploma Ceremony Planned for Meymandi Concert Hall on December 14th

Our fall diploma ceremony will be held on Wednesday, December 14th at 1:30 pm in beautiful Meymandi Concert Hall at the Progress Energy Center for Performing Arts in downtown Raleigh (directions). Dr. Don Bitzer, Distinguished University Research Professor and inventor of the plasma display panel, will provide the keynote address. Special thanks to Super ePartner, Progress Energy, for their sponsorship of this very special event. Approximately 100 graduates are expected to receive their degrees during the ceremony. For the convenience of our guests who might require overnight accommodations, we suggest the Sheraton Capital Center located at 421 S. Salisbury Street adjacent to the Civic Center. For reservations, call the hotel at 919-834-9900 and ask for the $89 NCSU rate

"Posters & Pies" Event to Showcase Senior Projects - Dec 5th

You are cordially invited to the NCSU Computer Science Senior Design Center's "Posters & Pies" event on Monday, December 5, 2005 from 1:00 - 3:30 pm. This semester, the event will be held at Stewart Theatre in the Talley Student Center and will be hosted by Super ePartners, EMC and SAS. In a fast-paced and stimulating format, each of our student teams will give a concise 2-minute presentation on their senior design projects in the main theatre. After the presentations, attendees will have the opportunity to visit the Ballroom for refreshments and access to hands-on demonstrations and displays. Companies interested in sponsoring future projects are welcomed and encouraged to attend. Please register your planned attendance at http://www.csc.ncsu.edu/rsvp/posters-pies/ by Nov 30th, so that we may properly plan for this special event.

Due to an unexpected increase in enrollment, we have a limited number of project slots which have just opened up for the spring semester. If you are interested in securing one of the remaining spring 2006 project slots, please contact Ken Tate at 919-513-4292 or kmtate2@ncsu.edu as soon as possible.

CSC Faculty / Staff News

Dr. Harry Perros, Alumni Distinguished Graduate Professor of computer science, and program coordinator of the MS degree in computer networks at NC State, is among a very select group of world-renowned networking researchers and technologists named by the National LambdaRail (NLR) to its NLR Networking Research Council. The council has been assembled to help guide, direct, and promote NLR's support of networking research. more

Dr. Annie Antón, associate professor of computer science, has agreed to serve on the Intel Privacy and Security Policy Advisory Board.

In mid-November, Dr. Michael Young, assistant professor of computer science, served as a guest speaker at the e-Learning Summit in Memphis, TN. His presentation was entitled "Computer-Supported Story Construction for Narrative Learning Environments: Lessons Needed". He also served as one of the keynote speakers at IE2005 - Australasian Conference on Interactive Entertainment, held in late November in Sydney, Australia. His keynote was entitled "Building Blocks for a Computational Model of Interactive Narrative". more

Ginny Adams, faculty secretary, has been selected by the College of Engineering as one of the recipients of the October 2005 Pride of the Wolfpack Awards. Congratulations Ginny. Thank you for all your hard work and dedication.

Theresa-Marie Rhyne, Director of the Center for Visualization and Analytics, will be listed in the 2006 - 2007 edition of Marquis Who's Who of American Women - the 25th Silver Anniversary Edition. Rhyne is Coordinator of Special Technology Projects with the Distance Education and Learning Technology Applications (DELTA), and she is currently on a two year assignment with the Computer Science Department to establish a Center for Visualization and Analytics (CVA).

We regret to announce the departure of two staff members this month - Vilma Berg and James Robinson. Vilma, who served as graduate office admissions specialist and counselor, has accepted a position in the Graduate Office of the Communication Studies Department at UNC-CH. James, a senior technical staff member in our Centennial Networking Lab (CNL), has accepted a senior information systems engineer role with CALS here at NC State. In this new role, James will be the lead architect on a large multimillion dollar project called the National eXtension Initiative. Please join us in thanking both these individuals for their outstanding service to the department and wishing them well in their new roles.

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