Welcome to the e-newsletter from Drexel's CS Department. Every quarter we plan to keep in touch with our alumni by sending student, faculty and alumni news and achievements. For more information about alumni events and activities, please visit our Alumni Website. |
Where are they now?
 Sean Durkin
Class Year: 2006
Degrees: BS in Computer Science and Math
Currently: Sean work as a product manager at Financial Software Systems, an international provider (located in Horsham, PA) of capital markets software. His primary focus is on risk management and valuation of derivatives. As a part of his responsibilities, Sean recently spent two months in the Singapore office. Outside of work, he enjoys playing poker and watching baseball.
|
Zikria Syed
 Class Year: 1989
Degrees: MS in Computer Science
Currently: Zikria is the Co-founder & CEO of NextDocs Corporation, the worldwide leader in compliance software for the life sciences industry and one of the fastest growing software companies in America. Prior to founding NextDocs in 2006, Zikria founded another software company. Prior to that, he worked at Microsoft for over ten years. He lives in Malvern, PA his wife Vatsala, also a Drexel graduate, and their daughters Jasmine & Sara.
|
Read more news about our alumni here.
|
|
Drexel Celebrates 3rd Annual National CS Education Week
 For the third consecutive year, the nation celebrated the importance of Computer Science as a vital part of society and raised awareness of its critical role in education, innovation and economic growth. Drexel held its National Computer Science Education Week events and activities Nov. 28-Dec. 4, 2011 and welcomed new faces while showcasing the field for guests. Events included:
Fundamental Principles of Game Design Workshop w/ Ernest Adams
 To kick-off the celebration Monday, Nov. 28, Ernest Adams, best known as a former lead designer and audio/video producer for the Madden NFL Football series and founder and former president of International Game Developers Association (IDGA), hosted this game design workshop. It explored the basics of the craft, covering core mechanics, gameplay, user interface design, concept art, level design, and even a small story.
The Future of Computer Entertainment to 2050 w/ Ernest Adams
Ernest concluded his day at Drexel presenting "The Future of Computer Entertainment to 2050," a fun, fact-filled talk that examined significant advancements in computer entertainment over the next half-century, highlighting the key changes expected to take place, and how they will affect the development and sales of interactive entertainment.
CS-themed Quizzo Night
The Math and Computer Science (MCS) Society hosted a CS-themed Quizzo game Tuesday, Nov. 29. Teams answered a series of questions on computer science and other related fields. The winning team won a one year ACM membership.
Xbox Kinect Software Lecture and Game Night
Drexel's Women in Computing Society (WiCS) continued celebrating Wednesday, Nov. 30 with an evening playing a variety of XBox Kinect games and discovered the vision/machine learning techniques behind the popular games, a lecture presented by CS Ph.D. student Gabe Schwartz.
"Resurrect Dead" Documentary and Technology Discussion
Upsilon Pi Epsilon (UPE) took up the mantel Thursday, Dec. 1 with a screening of "Resurrect Dead," a documentary about the mysterious Toynbee tiles located all over Philadelphia and other cities around the world, and discussed how computing technologies have enabled groups with specific interests come together.
Random Hacks of Kindness Philadelphia
 Michael Brennan, CS Ph.D. candidate, led the second 2011 Random Hacks of Kindness (RHoK) Philadelphia Dec. 3-4, 2011, which also concluded Drexel National CS Education Week events. USAID, OpenDataPhilly, Voxeo Labs and NASA were among the project leaders and hackers that weekend. RHoK is dedicated to developing software solutions for global human challenges. The featured tool from the event was Sheltr.org, a mobile-friendly web application to display nearby housing and food services for needy residents. Learn more here and here.
View pictures of all the events here.
|
|
Drexel CS Lab Releases Two Authorship Recognition Tools
The Privacy, Security and Automation Laboratory (PSAL), which is led by Dr. Rachel Greenstadt, assistant professor of computer science, has released two authorship recognition tools, JStylo and Anonymouth. JStylo is an authorship analysis tool that enables researchers to identify the author of a document based on writing style. Anonymouth is a writing style anonymizer that aids a writer in modifying his or her writing style such that authorship recognition tools will have difficulty revealing the true author.
These tools were originally prototyped by two College of Engineering senior design project teams and have been rebuilt from the ground-up utilizing the lessons learned in that process. Ariel Stolerman, CS Ph.D. student, and Andrew McDonald, undergraduate computer engineering major, are the lead developers for JStylo and Anonymouth, respectively.
Michael Brennan and Sadia Afroz, two CS Ph.D. candidates in PSAL, presented the tools at the 28th Chaos Communication Congress in Berlin, December 2011. Watch the video of the presentation here. The tools have already been featured in the New York Times Bits blog, Boing Boing, and Der Spiegel (in German).
|
CS Students Advance to the Microsoft Imagine Cup Finals
 Two Drexel University teams comprised of computer science majors advanced to the Microsoft Imagine Cup finals with their respective projects: a Windows phone game to help elementary students enjoy learning math and a software program to manage volumes of healthcare information.
Matt Lesnak, Keith Ayers, and Taylor Mullen are "The Drexel Dragons" and they created "Math Dash," an entertaining, fast-paced game for elementary school students to reinforce math skills. This game is also part of the team's senior design project. "Team Beta Max," consisting of Daniel Sullivan and his teammates from Temple and Penn State, are expanding Sullivan's entry from last year's competition--a software design project that provides technology for monitoring community health and keeping track of patients seen every day.
Both teams will compete at the U.S. Finals, held in Seattle, Wash. in April; winners will advance to the Worldwide Finals in Sydney, Australia in July. Read more.
|
Mateusz Stankiewicz Receives 2011 UPE Scholarship
Mateusz Stankiewicz, junior computer science major, was named one of the four students in the nation to receive the Upsilon Pi Epsilon (UPE) scholarship award of $1,000.
He was extremely happy to be chosen as a winner for the award. "I hope that my contributions to our community inspire others to perform with the same pillars of excellence and professionalism," Stankiewicz said.
Stankiewicz, who plans to graduate in June 2013, is currently enrolled in the accelerated B.S./M.S. program and completing his required senior design project early. Working closely with the Overbrook School for the Blind, Stankiewicz and his group are developing a mobile application that will assist visually impaired people. They also hope this tool will raise awareness for the need of such projects.
|
|
Dr. Santiago Ontañón Joins the CS Department Faculty
 The Department of Computer Science is happy to announce the arrival of Dr. Santiago Ontañón as a new assistant professor.
His research focus lies in the intersection of artificial intelligence, computer games, machine learning, and case-based reasoning. He has published over 80 scientific articles in these areas.
Dr. Ontañón received his Ph.D. from the Autonomous University of Barcelona. He spent three years at the Georgia Institute of Technology as a postdoctoral researcher, and two years as a researcher at the Artificial Intelligence Research Institute (IIIA) in Barcelona, Spain, before moving to Drexel. Learn more about his research, publications and interests here.
Dr. Ontañón is currently teaching a graduate course on AI and Gaming and he will teach a similar course for undergraduates during the spring term.
|
|
Fourth Annual UPE Alumni Research Reception and Dinner
All Upsilon Pi Epsilon (UPE) alumni are invited to share an evening with fellow members of the international honor society for the computing and information disciplines. The CS Department will host a reception from 6 to 7 p.m., featuring a variety of award-winning student research. Afterward, current UPE members will host a dinner and discussion. Details are below. Registration is open and available here.
Date:
Friday, March 9, 2012
Times:
6 to 7 p.m. - Research Reception
7 to 9 p.m. - Alumni Dinner
Location:
The University Club
Drexel University
MacAlister Hall, 6th Floor
33rd and Chestnut Streets
Philadelphia, PA 19104
Cost:
Alumni and guests: $15 per person (limit one guest per alumnus/alumna)
Please consider registering for the UPE Alumni Dinner at one of the following sponsorship levels, which will be used to support student membership to UPE, graduation stole rental, and future UPE events. You will receive a UPE mug as a token of our appreciation.
Level 11 Sponsorship
This includes the $15 per guest dinner and any contribution you would like to give.
Level 10 Sponsorship
This includes the $15 per guest dinner and $60 membership fee for students invited to join UPE.
Level 01 Sponsorship
This includes the $15 per guest dinner and $25 UPE stole rental for graduating students.
If you would like to reserve parking on campus, please contact Julie Fisher at 215-895-6275 or jmf323@drexel.edu no later than Wednesday, Feb. 29. Pictures of the previous dinners are available at the CS Department's Facebook page.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Note from the Department Head |
 |
|
I would like to wish everyone a happy 2012. As you can see there is much happening in our department, ranging from the widely reported research of Professor Rachel Greenstadt and her Privacy, Security and Automation Lab (PSAL), and the hiring of Professor Santiago OntañónVillar, an expert in artificial intelligence and machine learning, to Drexel's celebration of CS Education Week and the advancing of our students to the Microsoft Imagine Cup finals. We have also continued our community outreach through the sponsorship and hosting of Random Hacks of Kindness in December, broadening the promotion of using computers and software to help solve society's problems. Please continue to keep us updated with your activities and join us at various upcoming alumni events. In particular, we will be hosting the Fourth Annual UPE Alumni Dinner. If you sign up at one of the sponsorship levels, helping students join UPE and supporting events, we will provide you with a UPE mug as a token of our appreciation.
Sincerely,
 |
The CS Department thanks all alumni, faculty and staff for attending the Drexel Men's Basketball Game, January 12, 2012. Check out pictures of the event here!
|
Please contact the editor, Julie Fisher, for any questions or information
about the Department
of Computer Science and its newsletter. |
| Computer Science
3175 JKF Blvd
Philadelphia, PA 19104
215-895-2669
|
|
