Science Academy Students Construct Virtual Bobbleheads

jmf323 — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 11:46:07 -0400

Bobble, shimmy or bounce?

These were the choices Williamstown High Schoolstudents had after they created bobbleheads during an activity Drexel’s Computer Science Department hosted Wed., June 25, 2008.

Fourteen students of Williamstown High School’s Computer Science Academy, ranging from incoming freshmen to juniors, took to the drawing board—or in this case, tablet PCs—and produced a personalized bobblehead Web page.

With the assistance of Dr. Jeremy Johnson, department head of Computer Science, and Mary Peacock, Computer Science Academy advisor and business teacher at Williamstown, students learned basic computer graphic and programming techniques during this activity.

(Above) Dr. Jeremy Johnson explains the activity to students in the Computer Science Academy before they begin the project themselves.

To make their bobbleheads, each group used tablet PCs, which were equipped with a variety of specialized software including Macromedia Fireworks, an image editing software, and Dreamweaver, a web design program.

(Above) The tablet PC allows users to write or draw using a pen on the screen.

After getting their pictures taken and downloaded onto the PCs, students used Fireworks and a snipping tool to separate their head and body. They then resized both images to replicate the bobblehead “physique”—a small body and larger head—and created the Web page in Dreamweaver.

According to Peacock, all the students had fun and enjoyed using the tablet computers, especially Dreamweaver, a program that they will not be using again until their junior or senior year.

(Above) A group of students take turns creating their individual bobbleheads on the tablet PCs.

The Computer Science Academy, which includes 21 students for the 2008-2009 year, is a special program at Williamstown which includes a unique curriculum that introduces students to computing and prepares them for advanced study in Computer Science. The bobblehead activity was part of the summer seminar that kicks off the academy.

Through an agreement with Drexel University, the Computer Science Academy students at Williamstown are granted automatic admission if they follow an academic track approved by Drexel. Aside from participating in the seminars, students following this track must also receive a 1200+ SAT score (550 minimum in math) and rank in the top 20 percent with a GPA of 89 or better.

Have some fun yourself! Click here, here and here to sample the bobbleheads from a few students!

Posted 06/02/08

CS Department Awards Students with First and Second Honors

jmf323 — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 13:50:41 -0400

Challenging. Enlightening. Life-changing. Pioneering. Irreplaceable. First-rate.

These words describe the academic experiences of four seniors who achieved First and Second Honors in the Computer Science and Software Engineering programs at Drexel University’s Computer Science Department. Students are recognized with the honors for maintaining the highest grade point averages throughout their academic career at Drexel.

(Above) James Thiel’s entire Drexel University experience exceeded all his expectations.

James Thiel was awarded First Honors in Computer Science, achieving a 4.0 GPA at the end of his undergraduate career. Thiel has accepted a position from Towers Perrin, a global professional services firm located in Central Philadelphia, where he will be performing software development and maintenance tasks.

Focusing on his career presently, Thiel has yet to make a choice of pursuing graduate school in the future, but he’s keeping the option open.

(Above) Elizabeth Thomson stands with Dr. Jeremy Johnson, department head of Computer Science, before graduation.

Elizabeth Thomas, who graduated with a 3.93 GPA, was awarded with Second Honors in Computer Science. For Thomas, her experiences at Drexel provided the skills required for a job after graduation. She is now preparing to work for a consulting group in Washington, D.C., and plans to pursue a Masters degree at the University of Maryland in the fall.

(Above) Matthew Burkholder surpassed his (as well as his parents) expectations by graduating with the highest GPA in the Software Engineering program.

As the first in his family to graduate college, Matthew Burkholder concluded his years at Drexel University by receiving First Honors in Software Engineering, attaining a 3.88 GPA. Currently, Burkholder is preparing to begin his new job at Lockheed Martin Advanced Technology Laboratories, where he will be working in the Distributed Systems lab. He also wants to pursue his Master’s degree.

Believing that graduating from Drexel University is simply the next step toward reaching greater goals, Burkholder’s future ambitions include completing his Ph.D., traveling the world and publishing a novel.

(Above) John Fish believes it’s never too late to go back to school and receive a degree.

Despite the fact that many courses he took were quite challenging throughout his years at Drexel, John Fish graduated with Second Honors in Software Engineering with a 3.73 GPA. In the midst of making new plans for the future now that graduation has passed, Fish will soon begin his employment at Lockheed Martin.

The CS Department congratulates these students on their achievement.

CS Department Congratulates Seniors on Receiving Their Degree

jmf323 — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 13:33:06 -0400

It was a momentous day for students as they concluded their undergraduate and graduate career in the Computer Science (CS) Department during the College of Engineering’s Commencement Ceremony, Saturday, June 14, 2008, at Drexel University.

In addition to a BS and BA degree received in Computer Science, this year marks the graduation of the inaugural class in the Bachelor of Science program in Software Engineering.

(Above) Undergraduates of Software Engineering anticipate their degrees. L-R: Charbel El-Beyrouty, Nicholas Emanueli, Brandon Bloom, Paul Moyer, Edward Fedeli, Anthony Ambriz, John Fish, John Spivak and Matthew Burkholder.

Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter was this year’s guest speaker, receiving an honorary degree, Doctor of Public Service, for his dedication to improving the community of Philadelphia throughout his career. Nutter encouraged students to return to Philadelphia and contribute to its vitality, hoping to make it the best city in the country.

(Above) During his speech, Mayor Nutter indicated that he once began his college eduation in biomedical engineering. He was honored to be recognized by the College of Engineering.

To see more pictures of the CS Department’s graduation, visit Dr. Jeffrey Popyack’s website, Instr. Kurt Schmidt’s website and the CS graduation Flickr group here.

The Computer Science Department congratulates the following students upon receiving their degree:

Bachelor of Science in Computer Science
Ryan N. Adams
Umut Akdag
Oguzhan Ayakta – Cum Laude
Gregory Bajgier
Vijay Bihari Balchandani
Michael Patrick Bartholomew – Cum Laude
Thomas J. Bennett – Cum Laude
Alfred Robert Beyer III
Boris Block – Magna Cum Laude
John Wesley Buffington III – Magna Cum Laude
Benjamin Joseph Burton – Magna Cum Laude
Sundja Z. Buruschkin
Daniel Joseph Cardillo
Kai Ming Chan
Derek Michael Ciocca – Cum Laude
Andrew John Cross
Kathleen Ericson
Paul Fryzel
Daniel Grossman – Cum Laude
Kirill Gutsol
Steven Guyardi – Magna Cum Laude
Nicholas Hahn
Tzvi Heit
Michael William Higgins
Iris K. Howley – Summa Cum Laude
Douglas F. Jones, Jr. – Summa Cum Laude
James F. Kent
Vitaliy Koval
Michael William Kozak – Cum Laude
Erik Krajnikovich
Frederick P. Kramer III – Magna Cum Laude
Joseph F. Krell
Stephen G. Krenzel
David Kruszewski
Alexander K. Lapinski
Joseph C. Lee
Justin Lee
Ping-Ho Lee
Vincent Leonardy Liong
Lorenc Fotaq Liti
Brian Lutz – Magna Cum Laude
Kevin M. Lynch – Summa Cum Laude
Sean McCole
Samuel H. McKeeman V
James Allen Mosley
Quang Minh Nguyen – Cum Laude
Cosmin Nicolaescu
Ioannis Nicolaou – Cum Laude
Arthur Nugmanov
Kevin Nyman
John Francis O’Meara
Somil S. Parikh
Colleen Partyka
Sugnesh M. Patel
Jeffrey E. Patti
John T. Perkins, Jr. – Cum Laude
Davis D. Pham
Brian D. Pyles, Jr. – Summa Cum Laude
Alexander David Rines – Magna Cum Laude
Jorge Luis Rodriguez III – Cum Laude
Jeremy David Rosenberg
Michael Scott Sachs – Cum Laude
Shivani Saini – Magna Cum Laude
Shashank Sharma
Dimitry Daniel Shchupak
Maxim Shevertalov – Magna Cum Laude
Kulvir Singh
Matthew Mack Stocum
Raymond M. Stopa
Min Lee Tang
James Edward Thiel – Summa Cum Laude
Elizabeth R. Thomas – Summa Cum Laude
Ryan Traband
Marcin C. Trela
Olga Treyger – Magna Cum Laude
Evangelos Varvarezis
Sara Vijain
Thomas Wise
Bernard Wolff – Cum Laude
Min Yaung – Magna Cum Laude

Bachelor of Science in Software Engineering
Anthony Joel Ambriz
Brandon Bloom – Cum Laude
Matthew Burkholder – Summa Cum Laude
Charbel El-Beyrouty – Cum Laude
Nicholas Emanueli
Edward J. Fedeli, Jr. – Cum Laude
John Thomas Fish – Magna Cum Laude
Paul Zygmunt Moyer – Cum Laude
Francis Salvatore
John J. Spivak, Jr.

Bachelor of Arts
Michael Justin Angstadt
Philip Eric Kellner
Joseph Pace
David M. Rudy

Masters of Science in Computer Science
Ronald Andrew Alleva
Henry Qiang Chen
Mark E Dane
Simon Galperin
Michael J Grauer
Haritha Haridas
Delbert Harry
Robert Nelson Lass
Jie Li
Thu M Nguyen
John M Novatnack
Mayank Pradeep Patel
Ranjana Rajesh Shah
Pranab Ganesh Shenoy
Maxim Shevertalov
Jasper Zhineng Zhang

Master of Science in Software Engineering
Mukta Arvind Ghalsasi
Robert W Lendler
Joy Mathew
Robins Mathew
Nayanjeet Medhi
Raghuram Ponnaganti
Emily Reider
Michael F Shelmet
Iva Sherman

Doctor of Philosophy Degree
Jeff Abrahamson
Dissertation Title: Optimal Matching and Deterministic Sampling
Supervising Professor: Ali Shokoufandeh

Inversion Takes Second Place in Senior Design Group Competition

jmf323 — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 18:54:30 -0400

Cross-platform multiplayer video game Inversion won second place at Drexel University’s College of Engineering’s Senior Design Group Competition, Wed., June 4, 2008, winning a prize of $1,000.

Inversion was selected as this year’s Computer Science Department’s Outstanding Senior Project and went onto compete in the final contest against seven other student teams within the College of Engineering.

(Above) The group wins their award. L-R: Thomas Bennett, Brandon Bloom, Kate Ericson, Andrew Cross, Doug Jones, Charbel El-Beyrouty and Kevin Nyman.

Taking the simple “capture the flag” concept to a new level, Inversion integrates the technology of PCs and cell phones so that players on computers can observe their teammates in the field through a global positioning system (GPS), and contact them by text messaging.

In the game, team members can run across a digital, 3-D replica of Drexel University’s main campus, which was created using pre-existing tools, such as My Maps of Google Maps, for location identification. As members from each team reach a highlighted area, which can be seen on the PC screen, they gain possession of the region.

(Above) Mario, Drexel University’s mascot, located at Market and 33rd Streets, is one of the 3-D replicas the team produced in their video game.

“We just wanted to make something fun,” Kate Ericson, who was part of the mobile development team for the game, said. “We thought, ‘wouldn’t it be fun to run around with cell phones?’ We just put it together with a PC.”

Brandon Bloom, system architect for Inversion, said the game was designed with the intent of being reusable and accessible.

“It can do unique and interesting things; it’s a system that’s original,” Bloom said.

(Above) Team members Kevin, Kate, Charbel and Tom begin their presentation. The “angry face” image on screen is Kevin’s personal logo.

“Most teams do a fantastic job and Inversion put lots and lots of work into this and came up with a good project,” Dr. Jeremy Johnson, professor and department head of Computer Science, said. “Most importantly is the notion of combining real and virtual worlds where parties can communicate. I can see this becoming more popular in the future.”

Inversion was the creation of a three-term software engineering project, required of all seniors majoring in computer science and software engineering. Team members include Thomas Bennett (Team Lead), Brandon Bloom, Andrew Cross, Charbel El-Beyrouty, Kate Ericson, Doug Jones and Kevin Nyman.

Dr. Frank Lee, assistant professor of Computer Science, Dr. Paul Diefenbach, assistant professor of Digital Media, and Dr. Greg Hislop, associate professor of Information Science and Technology advised the team.

Presentations were held in the Mitchell Auditorium in the Bossone Research Center between 8:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m. Seven other senior design teams within each department of the College of Engineering introduced their projects, including:

Biodiesel from Free Fatty Acid Feedstock (Department of Chemical & Biological Engineering)
Micropatterned Assay Plate for High-Throughout Screening of Three-Dimensional Epithelial Cell Cultures (Department of Biomedical Engineering)
Human Electric Hybrid Vehicle (Department of Mechanical Engineering & Mechanics)
Green Energy from Landfills (Department of Civil, Architectural & Environmental Engineering)
Hermes: Wireless Shopping Solution for Mega Stores (Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering)
Artery Stress Analysis Chamber (Department of Mechanical Engineering)
Composite Solar Lighting – A Fiber Optic Daylighting Solution (Department of Materials Science & Engineering)

Composite Solar Lighting won first place, with a prize of $2,000, and Human Electric Hybrid Vehicle placed third, winning $500. All other teams were runners-up and received $300.

Eight judges, each from corporations within the southeastern Pennsylvania and northeastern Maryland region, evaluated the presentations.

Experience Inversion yourself: check out a high-resolution version of Inversion’s trailer here (uses h264 codec) or a low-resolution version here.

Inversion Wins Top Honors in Outstanding Senior Project Competition

jpopyack — Wed, 28 May 2008 01:31:01 -0400

In an especially tight competition, Inversion was selected as this year’s Outstanding Senior Project. Inversion is a cross-platform multiplayer video game experience allowing players on both PC’s and cellular phones to participate in a team game. Cellular players take part in user-defined missions tied to specific GPS locations that are tracked and overseen by the PC player. Set on three blocks of the Drexel campus that have been digitally modeled and accurately located with Google Maps, the mobile players are tracked in real time and are coordinated with their PC counterparts who can monitor player movement and communicate via text messaging. For their efforts, Inversion wins First Prize of $1000 and moves on to represent the Department of Computer Science in the College of Engineering Senior Design Contest on June 4.
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Second prize ($500) was earned by Terminus Security, an affordable PC-controlled home security system which integrates with various control and sensor devices to provide a simple but feature-rich, standards-compliant web interface with security alerting, status sensing, camera recording, and home automation.
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Third and fourth prizes ($250 each) were awarded to

V²HDL, which allows a user to generate circuit diagrams using a drag-and-drop interface and output a corresponding VHDL program that can be used to simulate and synthesize the hardware,
[asset|aid=180|format=image|formatter=asset|title=V2HDL.JPG|width=501|height=334|align=none|resizable=true]
and
HCDocs, a document management system which electronically stores, organizes and manages healthcare documents and provides fast, security-controlled, HIPAA compliant access to these documents.
[asset|aid=181|format=image|formatter=asset|title=HCDocs.JPG|width=501|height=334|align=none|resizable=true]

The teams will be recognized on the CS Department’s senior project plaque.

Additionally, four teams were cited for Honorable Mention in the competition -

Hades, a software discrete event simulator framework with a GUI toolkit;
SYLAR, an outdoor remote robot that algorithmically traverses a specified area while performing metal detection;
Global Basketball Network, a web resource for underprivileged children and college basketball coaches to highlight skills of players who normally would not be seen by coaches;
Show and Tell, a tool providing a handwriting interface for multi-platform synchronous communication between math teachers and students.

The finalists and honorable mentions were selected on the basis of their performance in their three-term software engineering projects (CS 491-2-3), the capstone experience required of all seniors majoring in computer science and software engineering. Team members, advisors and outside stakeholders are listed below. The 2007-8 Senior Design home page contains information for all of this year’s teams. Final Four winners were selected by a panel of external judges representing local industry, including many Drexel CS alumni. See below for a list of all judges.

The competition was held on Tuesday, May 27 2008 from 6-9 PM in Disque 103, and was open to all students, faculty and guests, preceded by a light dinner from 5-6 PM in the same location. Among the 75+ attendees were members of the competing teams and many representatives from other senior teams, family and friends, faculty and outside stakeholders, graduate students, and approximately 20% of the freshman computer science class.

Afterwards, the judges commented on how impressed they were with the complexity and scope of the projects and how much harder their selections were than in previous years. "I would not have expected that level of maturity from someone without significant industrial experience," said Wright, acknowledging the value and importance of the students’ co-operative education experiences. The judges also agreed that the entire evening ran very smoothly.

The finalists:

Inversion:
Thomas Bennett (Team Lead), Kate Ericson, Kevin Nyman, Doug Jones, Charbel El-Beyrouty, Andrew Cross, Brandon Bloom
Advisors: Paul Diefenbach , Frank Lee
Terminus Security:
Cosmin Nicolaescu (Team Lead), Kai Chan, John O’Meara, Shrinidhi Shamasunder, Steve Krenzel, Shivani Saini
Advisor: Spiros Mancoridis
Visual VHDL:
Ben Burton (Team Lead), Iris Howley, Jeff Patti, Tom Wise
Advisor: Jeremy R. Johnson
Health Care Management System:
Somil Parikh (Team Lead), Dhruv Salhotra, Greg Bajgier, Min Yaung, Bernard G Wolff
Advisor: Jeff Salvage
External Stakeholder: Paul Seelaus

Honorable Mention was awarded to:

Hades:
James Thiel (Team Lead), Marc Winners, Vitaly Koval, Felix White, Arthur Nugmanov
Advisor: Spiros Mancoridis
Sylar:
Jocelyn Ntaba/Mike Higgins (Team Leads), Min Lee Tang, Ryan Traband, Davis Pham, Jeremy Rosenberg
Advisor: Jeffrey L.Popyack
External Stakeholder: Frank Jacquette
Show and Tell:
Paul Fryzel (Team Lead), Oz Ayakta, Joshua Kim, Steven Guyardi, Vincent Liong, Marcin Trela
Advisors: Jeremy Johnson, Bruce Char, Werner Krandick
External Stakeholder: Michael Bartholomew
Global Basketball Network (two teams):
David Kruszewski (Team Lead), Sam McKeeman, Sundja Z Buruschkin, Dimitry D Shchupak, Tim Anderson, James Cotton
Alex Rines (Team Lead), Jorge Rodriguez, Phil Kellner, Brian David LeGrow, Tom Panebianco
Advisor: Jeff Salvage
External Stakeholder: Joe Martone

The judges:

Michael Ciliberti — President of Integrated Network Consulting, Inc. , Adjunct Professor of Computer Science at Drexel, Drexel Class of ‘93 (B.S. in Computer Science)
Ravindar Gujral — Senior Software Engineer, Siemens Medical Solutions USA, Inc. , Drexel Class of ‘04 (M.S. in Computer Science)
Brian Mitchell — Enterprise Architect at CIGNA Systems , Adjunct Associate Professor of Computer Science at Drexel, Drexel Class of ‘90 (B.S.), ‘97 (M.S.), and ‘02 (Ph.D.)
Doug Wright — Fixed Income/Commodities Technology at Susquehanna International Group (SIG) , Drexel Class of ‘88 (B.S.)
Matthew Dormond — Senior Consultant at SMART Business Advisory and Consulting, LLC , Drexel Class of ‘03 (B.S.), ‘05 (M.S.).
Eric Martin — Lead Architect/Sr Director Engineering at Siemens Medical Solutions USA, Inc. .

We would also like to acknowledge and thank Mike Kain, who is a judge for the College of Engineering Senior Design Competition on June 4, 2008.

Mike Kain — Software Engineer at Unisys Adjunct Associate Professor of Computer Science at Drexel, Drexel Class of ‘96 (M.S. in Computer Science)