Rachel Decker and Derek McNeil (pictured above) are UNK student interns at the Buckle in Kearney. (Please click on the picture to enlarge)
Congratulations to the Department of Computer Science and Information Systems (CSIS) who received a $150,000 gift from The Buckle, Inc. This gift endows two $3,000 scholarships for two new CSIS students who meet certain academic requirements each year. For a full story please click on the link:
http://stories.nufoundation.org/node/1061
The CSIS Department recently was informed that NorthWestern Energy will be providing a $1000 per year scholarship for a CSIS student at UNK beginning this fall. This scholarship will help support an upper-level CSIS student who has maintained a cumulative GPA of 3.0 or above.
A new agreement between the University of Nebraska at Kearney and Kansas State University (KSU) will put some students on a fast-track to graduate school.
The UNK Department of Computer Science and Information Systems (CSIS) and KSU Department of Computing and Information Science (CIS) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding that will speed up the admissions process for UNK students entering the KSU
master of science in computer science (MS-CS) or the
master of software engineering
in computer science (MSE-CS) programs. UNK computer science graduates will be considered for the master’s in computer science, while information technology students will be considered for the master’s in software engineering.
Dr. Sherri Harms, UNK CSIS chair, sees the agreement as an opportunity for both universities and for businesses in the region. “The MOU offers a high-quality graduate program for UNK
students," she said. “It provides KSU with regional students prepared for graduate-level research, and it provides the Midwest with computer science professionals who will likely stay in the Midwest.”
Dr. David Gustafson, professor and Graduate Program director for the Kansas State CIS department said, "We are very excited about the prospect of UNK graduates entering our graduate program in computing and information sciences."
UNK computer science students with a 3.65 GPA or higher after their junior year will be eligible for the program. As a part of the agreement, those students will not be required to take the Graduate Record Examination (GRE). In addition, once the students join a KSU-CIS graduate program, they will be reimbursed for the KSU application fee.
Dr. Harms noted that there is a high demand for computer science professionals in the United States. According to
statistics from the U.S. Department of Labor, employment of computer scientists is expected to grow by 19 percent through 2020.
“For the past several years, we have had 100 percent placement for our
students,” she said. This trend can be seen in the growth of the CSIS
program at UNK. According to Dr. Harms, the
number of students in CSIS classes has more than doubled since 2007.
The UNK CSIS program has a similar MOU with the University of
Nebraska - Lincoln computer science and engineering department. “Having
two excellent graduate programs actively seeking UNK CSIS students
illustrates the quality of our programs,” Dr. Harms said.
Below is an
excerpt from the website:
“The
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Mary has
over 30 years of management and consulting experience.
Two of the UNK robots competed in the robotics competition at the
Midwest Instruction and Computing Symposium (MICS) in Cedar Falls, IA on
April 13th, 2012. The robot designed and
implemented by Rikiya Ishizaki took third place at the MICS regional
competition. Shown below is Jeonghoon Yun, Dr. Sherri Harms, and Rikiya
Ishizaki at MICS.
The text below is from an March 1, 2012 Kearney Hub article, http://www.kearneyhub.com/news/local/article_f64197ca-63ce-11e1-b7e5-001871e3ce6c.html. The text in brackets has been added.
Two seniors in the department of computer science and information systems at the University of Nebraska at Kearney have designed and programmed an Android map application of the UNK campus. Michael Sall of Holdrege and Joel Meyer of Norfolk created the app to help people find buildings, departments and student services offices on campus. “When started, this app will capture the user’s current GPS location and through menus, allow the user to choose a destination on campus,” said department chair Sherri Harms. “The person can then follow the sidewalks or roads to reach their destination.”
The app, called Wobini MApps, is built upon the Android Software Development Kit and uses the Google Maps Application Programming Interface to display the map and geo-locations, according to Meyer. The app is available for $.99 at www.wobinimapps.com. There is also a quick response code and printed material on the website so the app can be provided to others.
“Wobini is capable of a variety of advertising elements built into the system,” Meyer said. “These capabilities are available to the individual customer and allow for the MApp (Map App) to provide a source of revenue and to quickly gain a return on investment.” “It is important for new technology to be tested by real users and feedback provided to the student developers for improvements,” Harms said. To provide feedback about the app, contact info@smbtc.us.
["Wobini" is a German slang word for "where am I?" Also in the spring of 2012, 10/11 news interviewed students about the UNK map application created by Joel and Mike. Their goal is to develop this kind of application for businesses, other schools, real-estate offices, etc.]
The CSIS Department, together with the MIS and Telecommunications programs, once again sponsored an Information Technology breakfast for students and business professionals on the morning of the spring UNK Career Fairs in February 2012. Over thirty companies were in attendance—the largest number of companies yet. Companies represented included: Buckle Inc., Cabela’s, Chief Industries, Diamond Plastics, ESU-10, Intellicom, Inc., MIPS Inc., NPPD, Sandhills Publishing, and Xpanxion. This event is always a great opportunity for students to seek internships and full-time employment. Kelsey Bard, CSIS student, served as the CSIS MC for the event.
Rob Harbols, Manager of Web Systems Development at Buckle Inc., was awarded the Friend of the CSIS Department
for 2012. This award goes to a person or organization that has gone above and beyond in support of our programs and students.
Rob is a member of the CSIS Advisory Council. He has employed numerous CSIS students and alumni. Rob started the Buckle IT-careers internship program. He also observes and evaluates CSIS student project presentations and has made classroom presentations. The CSIS faculty is truly appreciative of all the ways Rob is a friend of the CSIS Department.
- Jeffrey D. Blackmon, CISSP, CBCP, MBCI , ITIL(F) and UNK alumni presented “Information Collection Creep" on March 2, 2012 to the UNK campus. He discussed demographic data collection and where we possibly may be heading in the very near future if we are not careful. His presentation was well attended by faculty and students from across campus.
- Garrett Kearney, a web developer for Buckle Inc. and a CSIS student, provided a demonstration on Selenium to CSIS faculty and students on Dec 7, 2011. Selenium software is a web testing software used by many companies.
- Robert Harbols, Manager of Web Systems Development at Buckle, Inc. discussed IT-related careers and expectations from employers on November 17, 2011. Rob has worked for several companies including Kohlor, General Electric, and the Institute for Human and Machine Cognition before coming to the Buckle, Inc. Rob has several years experience as both a developer and as a manager/leader of developers. Rob has a BS in Computer Science from the University of West Florida. His presentation was well attended by CSIS faculty students.
Older CSIS News:
2011 Newsletter
CSIS Interactive and Generative Art Exhibition
CSIS held a free, public Interactive and Generative Art Exhibition on May 3, 2011. This exhibition was a diverse showcase of unique projects completed this semester by CSIS students. Projects included a motion-sensing Nerf turret, electronics built into clothing and augmented reality air hockey.
A "Made in Nebraska" NTV video describing the event is available at: http://fb.me/Zxjvz0Hq.
UNK students who exhibited their projects are listed below alphabetically by hometown: Amherst- Tyler Adelung; Columbus- Tyler McConville; Cozad- Ryan Levell; Elm Creek- Garrett Kearney; Gering- Patrick Mooney; Grand Island- Jennifer Dieckhoff and Joshua Wilson; Kearney- Paden Hogeland, Jason Webb and Adam Zheng; and North Platte- Scott Tallmage II. More information on these projects can be found at cs.unk.edu/~csis495.
New Agreement puts UNK CSIS Students on Fast-Track to Graduate School
A new agreement between the University of Nebraska at Kearney and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln will put some students on a fast-track to graduate school.
CSIS and the UNL Department of Computer Science and Engineering (CSE) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) in January 2011 that will speed up the admissions process for UNK students who enter the UNL-CSE graduate program.
Dr. Sherri Harms, UNK CSIS chair, sees the MOU as an opportunity for both universities and the state. “The MOU offers a high-quality graduate program for UNK students," she said. “It provides UNL with in-state students prepared for graduate-level research, and it provides Nebraska with computer science professionals who will likely stay in the state.”
Dr. Harms pointed out that there is a high demand for computer science professionals in Nebraska. “For the past several years, we have had a 100 percent placement rate for our students. The jobs are rewarding and diverse,” she said.
This trend can be seen in the growth of the CSIS program at UNK. According to Dr. Harms, there has been a 71 percent increase in student credit hour production since 2007.
"It's the people that I've been working with for many years, and we felt that the programs were aligned enough to streamline the admission process similar to what they'd been doing for their own students at UNL," Harms said.
UNK computer science students with a 3.65 GPA or higher after their junior year will be eligible for the program and will have the Graduate Record Evaluation (GRE) requirement waived. In addition, the UNL application fee will be reimbursed once the students join the UNL-CSE graduate program.
The related Omaha World-Herald article is available at: tinyurl.com/UNKUNLMOU. The TV Channels 10/11 story is available at: tinyurl.com/fastTrackUNL
CSIS ANDROID DEVELOPMENT
Dr. John Hastings and the CSIS Department received 15 Verizon DROID phones from Google's AndroidEDU program in the spring of 2010. Teams of students in the software engineering class this fall developed Android applications using these phones. The two projects were a campus tour application and a location-tracking workout application (both with GPS).
Jay Powell, 2011 UNK Student Research Day (SRD) Luncheon Speaker
The 2011 UNK Student Research Day guest presenter was Dr. Jay Powell. Dr. Powell graduated from UNK with a Bachelor of Science degree in 2004. He majored in computer science and mathematics, with a minor in philosophy. He received a Master of Science in Computer Science from Indiana University in 2007 and earned a Ph.D. from Indiana University in February of 2011. His research work at Indiana focused on artificial intelligence and data mining. Jay has also worked at the United States Naval Research Laboratory under the Student Temporary Employment Program as a Computer Scientist. Following graduate school, Jay began work at PerkinElmer in the research and development division in Downers Grove, IL. At PerkinElmer Jay works with software that interfaces with equipment designed to assist researchers in health and life sciences laboratories.
While a student at UNK, Jay spent four years developing software for Ward Laboratories, Inc., a local agricultural laboratory. Jay also delved into artificial intelligence research with Dr. John Hastings. This work, in partial collaboration with fellow students Brandon Hauff and Siva Kommuri, was presented at several top-tier national and international conferences. These conferences include the National Conference on Undergraduate Research (NCUR-05), the Nineteenth National Conference on Artificial Intelligence (AAAI-04), the Sixth International Conference on Case-based Reasoning (ICCBR-05), and the Twenty-First National Conference on Artificial Intelligence (AAAI-06).
2010 CSIS News
2009 CSIS News