2007 PClassic Questions Available for Download

While we’ve had some server trouble, I’ve uploaded the questions to last year’s contest to the web. They’re accessible here:

http://www.seas.upenn.edu/~evansmf/questions2007.pdf

Computer Science Curriculum and Experience Discussion

 

The Dining Philosophers and WICS, Penn’s clubs for undergrads in computer science, are proud to announce a roundtable discussion.

 

WHAT: Come talk about computer science at Penn, the department, the curriculum and what it means to you. Complain about the classes, or share ideas for the future. Give input of any kind.

We’ll turn the output of the evening into an official position paper to be published and shared. Undergrads only – no grad students, no faculty, no staff. Everyone is free to speak all they want – no ideas will be turned away.

 

WHEN: Wednesday, December 5, 2007. 6:30 to 8:30 PM

WHERE: Levine 307 (the big conference room)

FOOD (free, of course) will be served! Please RSVP if you can, so we know how much food to order

 

Topics to be discussed (just the beginning…): curriculum, advising, careers, social experience, teaching, anything!

 

Matt Evans

President, Dining Philosophers

 

Penn CIS Whitepaper

We're currently planning to publish a position paper about the state of computer science education at Penn. Every CIS student is invited to join the meeting, and share his or her thoughts about computer science at Penn.

The event is scheduled to be held:
Wednesday, December 5th, 2007 at 6:30pm in Levine 307. Hope to see you there!

Philadelphia Classic

Our annual programming contest, Philadelphia Classic, is on its way. This year, we plan to hold the contest on either Saturday, February 9th, or Saturday, February 16th, 2008. Are you interested in competing in the contest? Watch this space, and post a comment to let us know of your interest.

The contest is a day long contest at the University of Pennsylvania. High schools can submit teams of 4 students who will compete to answer 8 programming questions.

All Philadelphia-region high schools are invited.

Join the Android Challenge!

CIS students,

I wanted to draw your attention to a new contest Google is sponsoring. In the past couple of days, you may have heard of the Google mobile phone “operating system”. Although Google isn’t coming out with the GPhone just yet, they’ve created a platform that is going to be launched on mobile devices from many manufacturers, on several carriers.

The platform is called “Android” and it’s based on Java. It uses familiar technologies, like SQL and some C/C++ libraries along with newer device capabilities like 3G, Bluetooth, cameras and GPS. The platform is easy to use and develop in, and it really gives a lot of flexibility.

We thought that Penn CIS students might be interested in this new contest. Google is giving away prizes ranging from $20,000 all the way to $275,000 for applications that use the Android SDK. Many entries will be eligible for prizes, and you can get some major publicity from Google.

You download the SDK, develop a program, and submit it by March 3, 2008. A panel will review your entry, and hopefully award prizes!

Ars Technica (a great tech blog) has a great write-up about the contest available at http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20071112-google-announces-10-million-contest-for-android-devs-early-look-sdk.html

Additionally, the Google press release is available: http://www.google.com/intl/en/press/pressrel/20071112_android_challenge.html

I hope some of you can enter into this contest and show off your skills. Who knows – maybe a fellow Penn engineer will develop the next big cell phone app – bigger than Snake, even.