Careers in Computer Science Opportunities at UAB

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Careers in Computer Science - Opportunities at
UAB

• Jeff Gray, Ph.D. - Associate Professor
• Alabama Professor of the Year
• UAB CIS Department
• gray_at_cis.uab.edu
• http//www.cis.uab.edu/gray

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The Benefits of a Diverse Education

• You dont need to be a Pulitzer Prize winning
  novelist to appreciate an English class

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Software is Everywhere

• Think of some of the things that entertain and
  enrich your daily life

• All of the above are driven by software
• Software developers equipped with a computer
  science degree have opportunities to work on
  exciting and cutting-edge projects

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Software is Everywhere

• 98 of all microprocessors control devices other
  than desktop computers
• Automobiles, airplanes, televisions, copiers,
  razors
• These devices also need software and often
  require strong technical skills to develop

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Meteoric Opportunities
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Alabama Technology Leaders
Jimmy Wales Wikipedia Founder Huntsville Native

• The biggest multilingual free-content
  encyclopedia on the Internet.
• Since its creation in 2001, nearly 10 million
  articles in over 250 languages.
• Over 680 million visitors each year 75,000
  active contributors.

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Intellectual Opportunities

• the software industry is going to make more
  breakthroughs in these next 10 years than it's
  made in the last 30 software is really going to
  transform not just what we think about as the
  computer industry, but the way that everything is
  done

Quantum computing
Transforming all fields of science and engineering
Re-architecting the Internet
Prosthetics / augmentation / access
Harnessing parallelism
Transforming the nations defense
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The Demand for Computer Scientists

• Offshore hysteria Many companies with high
  paying jobs within the US are unable to fill
  positions with computer scientists.

Source http//money.cnn.com/magazines/moneymag/be
stjobs/top50/index.html
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The Demand for Computer Scientists

• Computer Science occupations are projected to
  grow twice as fast as the average for all
  occupations.

• Between 2006-2016 a projected 822,000 new jobs
  will be available in Computer Science occupation
  areas in the United States alone.

Source http//www.bls.gov/opub/ooq/2007/fall/art0
2.pdf
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The Demand for Computer Scientists

• Among the fastest growing occupations, software
  engineers had the highest median annual salary -
  79,780.

Source http//www.bls.gov/opub/ooq/2007/fall/art0
2.pdf
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The Demand for Computer Scientists

• Computer science has the highest engineering
  salary and the fastest growing salary increase.

Source IEEE Spectrum, August 2008
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Communications of the ACM, July 2008, pg. 32.
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The Demand for Computer Scientists

• According to the Bureau of Labor and Statistics,
  5 of the top-10 growing jobs have a computer
  science focus.
• (Reprinted with Permission from onInvesting)

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The Demand for Computer Scientists

• National Job Outlook
• 61,407 is the average starting salary for
  computer science degrees in the class of 2009
  (among top 3 highest starting salaries) 9.7
  increase over 2007 offers
• 1000s of openings each at Microsoft Game Studios,
  Electronic Arts, Epic Games, Google
• Epic Games President We do not hire anyone
  under 100k

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The Demand for Computer Scientists

• Local Job Outlook
• In Birmingham, there was a recent need for 200
  Java programmers exceeded universitys ability
  to deliver employees
• CTS hiring several new developers each month
• Summary of recent openings in Birmingham
• JAVA/J2EE/EJB (60/hr), Peoplesoft (95/hr), SAP
  Technical (85/hr), SAP Functional (95/hr),
  Corba (55/hr), Oracle DBA (70/hr), DB2 DBA
  (70/hr), Sybase DBA (75/hr), .Net,vb.net,C,asp.
  net (60/hr), C/C (55/hr), Cobol (55/hr)

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The Potential for Alabama

• Per capita, Huntsville is one of the top five
  cities in the US with concentration of software
  developers, and 1 in terms of total engineers.

• Cummings Research Park is the second largest in
  the United States and the fourth largest in the
  World.

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Myth of Computer Science

• According to the Alabama Learning Exchange
  (ALEX)1, computing is equated to learning
  Microsoft Word and various mechanical tasks this
  is not Computer Science!

1 http//alex.state.al.us/standardAll.php?grade9
subjectTCsummary2
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Computer Science in Alabama

• Number of schools passing AP CS audit

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Georgias Success Story

• Number of students taking AP CS exams

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High School Outreach at UAB CIS
Mentoring for Science Fair Competitions
Summer Camps

• Weekly mentoring at UAB throughout academic
  year students treated like a PhD student with
  office space

• 6 weeks High School 1 weeks Middle School
• Tuition Scholarships Available
• Taught by UAB Faculty
• Topics include Java, robotics, graphics, game
  programming, scientific computing
• In 2009, over 65 students attended

www.cis.uab.edu/gray/Pubs/jerrod-sutton.pdf
Programming Contest and Alice Festival

• May 2010
• Over 150 students and parents from across Alabama
• Prizes Laptop, Xbox, software, books, gift
  certificates
• Alice Film Festival!

www.cis.uab.edu/progams/camps www.cis.uab.edu/heri
tage
www.cis.uab.edu/progams/hspc www.cis.uab.edu/proga
ms/alice-festival
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ALADDIN
Drawing the GENIEous out of the kid emPowering
the next generation for information technology

• 1,080,000 from National Science Foundation
• In collaboration with Birmingham City Schools
• UAB CORD, Computer Science, Mathematics,
  Education, and Mechanical Engineering
• Three-year engagement of 60 students per year
• 10th grade Game Programming with Alice Linear
  algebra
• 11th grade Java and Robotics Advanced
  mathematics
• 12th grade Computer Visualization Science fair
  project
• Teachers Training of BCS teachers in parallel
  with student camps
• Seeking students and teachers for Fall08/Summer09

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Field Trips to the CIS Department
http//www.cis.uab.edu/field-trips

• The UAB CIS Department offers outreach
  opportunities to local high schools through
  hosted field trips. The 3-hour field trip
  provides students with a broad range of exposure
  to computer science concepts, such as
• Career Opportunities in Computer Science
• Computer Chess
• Introduction to Game Programming with Alice
• Tour of UAB CIS (including "Fastest Computer in
  Alabama" and visualization wall)
• Pizza lunch featuring demonstrations of Lego NXT
  Robots

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Guest Lectures for Technology Clubs

• An Introduction to Alice at Gardendale High
  School
• The Technology Club at Gardendale High School,
  which is sponsored by faculty member Juanita
  Vann, has invited Dr. Jeff Gray to conduct a
  series of talks to the club members. The club
  will meet twice a month throughout the school
  year to learn how to program in Alice. The
  Technology Club members will create projects in
  Alice that will be submitted to the Alice Film
  Festival, which will be held at the UAB High
  School Programming Contest on May 12, 2007.

http//www.cis.uab.edu/news/details.php?event_id1
00
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Alabama K-12 Computer Workshop

• July 31, 2006 16 state-wide participants
• Purpose To discuss critical issues needed to
  raise awareness of computing within Alabama
  schools.
• Participants
• Public Bob Jones High School, Vestavia Hills
• Magnets ASFA (Birmingham), ASMS (Mobile)
• Private Tuscaloosa Academy
• K-5 Cameron McKinley (AL Teacher of Year)

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CS 201

• CS 201 is our introductory programming course in
  Java
• Greatly speed up mentoring experience in Fall
• Prepare students for programming contest next May
• Concurrent/Dual enrollment agreement
• Requirements 3.0 GPA and 25-ACT (1140-SAT)
• Receive 4 college credit hours over summer for CS
  201
• Approximate tuition 700
• However - A deal to consider
• We will pay for 1/3 tuition for this course
  upfront for those who qualify for Concurrent
  enrollment
• If you later commit to UAB CIS, we will reimburse
  the full amount
• Those not qualifying for Concurrent enrollment
  may still sit in on the course, but without
  receiving credit hours

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Possible Mentoring Ideas

• LEGO NXT is a great experimental platform
• Exciting new capabilities include wireless
  communication and vision
• At UAB, we have 15 of these robots for
  experimentation purposes

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Possible Mentoring Ideas

• Self-Parking Robot
• Simulates a car that identifies open spaces and
  parallel parks
• Target Recognition in a Rescue Mission
• A group of coordinated robots will work together
  to conduct a search/rescue mission
• Sniper Identification
• A group of autonomous robots will be used to
  isolate the location of sniper fire in a military
  application (using triangulation)
• Speech and Vision Recognition
• Voice controlled commands to a robot that also
  can use the vision camera to avoid colliding with
  objects
• Game Playing Robot
• Tic-tac-toe Othello
• 2-on-2 soccer
• YOUR IDEA HERE!
• Of course, we encourage creativity if you have
  new ideas!

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Reasons to Consider UAB CIS

• Scholarship Availability
• For outstanding high school students, UAB offers
  several scholarships to incoming freshmen (from
  2000-8000 per year)
• The CIS Department offers the Joseph Fontana
  Scholarship each year to two CIS students
  (typically awarded to Junior and Senior
  students). This scholarship provides 4,000 over
  the academic year.
• The recently established Joyce Iannuzzi
  fellowship provides 2,000 to a CIS undergraduate
  each year.
• The new S-STEM scholarship is designed to
  increase retention and graduation rates of CIS
  majors. This award provides up to 10,000 per
  year for a two year maximum to help students with
  unmet financial need.

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Reasons to Consider UAB CIS

• Outstanding Faculty
• The 12 professors and instructors in the CIS
  Department obtained their degrees from the top
  schools in the country (e.g., Cal Tech, Cornell,
  Northwestern, Pennsylvania, and Vanderbilt). In
  addition to being leaders in their fields, our
  professors are dedicated to spending time with
  students.

• Outstanding Facilities
• Among the fasters computers in Alabama!
• Computer visualization wall

UAB CIS recently acquired a 128 node compute
cluster which has been benchmarked at 1.41
teraflops per second. This is the fastest general
purpose supercomputer in the state of Alabama.
UAB CIS recently acquired a 13 megapixel, nine
tile visualization wall that measures
approximately 10' wide by 8' high.
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Reasons to Consider UAB CIS

• Excellence in Research and Service
• UAB is the largest employer in the state of
  Alabama and is the only school in Alabama with
  the highest research rating (RU/VH), which is
  based on grant funding and PhD production. The
  University has over 430M in external funding
  this year, which is several times that of all
  other universities in Alabama combined.
• Research in the CIS department is funded by the
  Army Research Office (ARO), Defense Advanced
  Research Projects Agency (DARPA), International
  Business Machines (IBM), National Science
  Foundation (NSF), National Institutes of Health
  (NIH), and the Office of Naval Research (ONR).

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Reasons to Consider UAB CIS

• Undergraduate Research Opportunities
• For undergraduate students with a high GPA, there
  is an opportunity to do Honors research with
  faculty members. There is a special course
  available that allows a student to be mentored by
  a faculty member in a manner that provides the
  student a taste of the graduate school
  experience. Students participating in CIS Honors
  receive a special designation on their diploma at
  graduation.
• The CIS department has an Undergraduate Honors
  Research Lab to host those students participating
  in Honors research. The students in this special
  lab will have exclusive access to high-end
  computers, with accommodations similar to those
  of doctoral students.

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Reasons to Consider UAB CIS

• Undergraduate Research Opportunities
• CIS undergraduates are awarded summer internships
  to participate in special research programs
  sponsored by the National Science Foundation. The
  students participating in these opportunities
  continue their research throughout the academic
  year and prepare research talks and papers that
  are published at regional conferences. Over the
  past two years, CIS students placed in the top 3
  at the ACM Mid-southeast conference in
  Gatlinburg, Tennessee.

3 First Place Winners UAB CIS students have
received first place in all categories
(Undergrad, Masters, PhD) amid students from 7
states. Freshman Research Undergraduate Amos
Smith presented his research as a true Freshman
(first in conferences 30 year history), and was
awarded first place as a Sophomore.
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Reasons to Consider UAB CIS

• Programming Contest Team
• Each year, the CIS department sends our top 9
  students to compete in the annual ACM programming
  contest (held the last few years in Melbourne,
  Florida). To prepare students for this
  competition, a new course has been introduced in
  the curriculum that teaches students problem
  solving techniques not typically covered in core
  courses.

The 2008 UAB CIS Competitive Programming teams
placed 1st and 2nd at their contest site for the
ACM International Computer Programming
Competition, beating all other schools in Alabama
and Mississippi and producing UAB's best-ever
finish in the Southeast region overall (5th and
13th place overall in Southeast).
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For more information
UAB Main Web Site
UAB CIS Web Site
www.cis.uab.edu
www.uab.edu
Summary of K-12 Outreach Activities (videos and
photos)
www.cis.uab.edu/gray/outreach/outreach.html
You all are invited to come take a tour and visit
our department!
Questions?