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Academic Skills Project – Workshop 1A: Securing Internships and Job Placements

This is the first part of a 4-part workshop. Details are as follows:

Date and time: 24th Sept 4.30PM – 6.30PM

Venue: Jack Cole 1.33A/B

Workshop Leader: Shyam Reyal (smr20)

Sign up here: http://goo.gl/forms/RfnaQhZSB2 (Only 3 days left)

 Workshop 1A (24th September) Contents:

  • Introduction to the internship recruitment process
  • Panel discussion on the most important aspects of securing an internship/job placement
    • Facing the programming interview
    • Enhancing your required skills and CV
  • Sharing internship experiences by current/returning Computer Science Honours and PhD students
    • Shyam Reyal, Peter Josling, Robin Nabel (Google)
    • Simone Conte (Adobe)
    • Ilia Shumailov (Microsoft, JPMorgan Chase)
    • Gala Malbasic (Makers Academy)
    • Maria Kustikova (Soliton Systems)
    • Nick Tikhonov (Amazon)
  • Informal networking session

Some points of discussion are highlighted below:

  • What to expect during the recruitment / selection process
  • How to enhance your resume/portfolio to boost your chances of getting an interview
  • How to prepare for ‘the programming interview’
  • What skills/qualifications should be developed to improve your chances, and how

Future Workshops:

Workshop 1B – 1st Oct

  • Detailed workshop on enhancing your online presence and portfolio, preparing for ‘the programming interview’

Workshop 1C – 19th Nov

  • Interactive session on solving interview style programming problems in a time constrained scenario

Workshop 1D – 26th Nov

  • Practice/mock interview session with feedback for improvement

Our ultimate objective is to see our students secure more, high quality internships/job placements in high-end tech companies and/or start-ups!

This workshop is targeted at honours and masters students. However, keen sub-honours students and PhD students are welcome. We believe it is never too early or too late to start looking for internships and developing your skills. Refreshments will be provided!

 

Contact aef6@st-andrews.ac.uk for more information.

 

Academic Skills Project

The Academic Skills Project – sponsored by the School of Computer Science and CAPOD – will commence in week 2 and run every Thursday evening in JC 1.33a/b, with workshops covering a range of topics from internships to writing technical reports. The workshops will be targeted at undergraduates, but postgraduates are welcome to attend. For details for each workshop, please see posters on the notice boards, and sign-up sheets for each workshop session will be available on notice boards two weeks before the workshop session. For more information, contact aef6@st-andrews.ac.uk.

Poster

Scottish Programing Languages Seminar

The School of Computer Science of the University of St Andrews is organizing the next Scottish Programing Languages Seminar which will be held on Monday 15th June 2015 in Lecture Room 2 of the Gateway. In the meantime you can keep up-to-date by following the SPLS website.

For further enquiries please contact Frantisek Farka.

Event details

  • When: 15th June 2015 11:30 - 18:00
  • Where: Gateway Bldg
  • Format: Seminar

April 28th, seminar by Mel Woods: Future Cities: Co-creating Future City Design Fictions in the Wild

The School of Computer Science welcomes Mel Woods from Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design, University of Dundee.

Abstract:

mel_woodsBlue heritage plaques pepper the UK landscape expounding officially validated narratives celebrating past events, people, and buildings. This seminar will discuss a novel method that draws on this specific cultural context to generate reflective, nano-stories, documenting them through populating a place, physical space, and an online data repository. The guerrilla blue plaque method was designed to support people to reflect on possible futures, in this instance the theme of future cities. The seminar will demonstrate how using critical design artefacts can help support understanding of future hopes, needs, and goals for individuals and communities. It will also discuss the method as a feedback mechanism for participatory design, citizen engagement and emergent outcomes from the latest deployment.

This work was initially developed as part of a UK arts and digital media festival and exhibited recently at Microsoft Research Lab, Cambridge at RTD 2015.

Bio:

Mel is Reader at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design, University of Dundee. In her research she has developed and explored interaction between people to support discovery, foster creativity and affect. Throughout her academic career she has sustained a critical enquiry in art and design, creating digital artefacts, interfaces, prototypes and exhibits using novel methods and evaluation techniques.

This seminar is part of our ongoing series from researchers in HCI. See here for our current schedule.

Event details

  • When: 28th April 2015 14:00 - 15:00
  • Where: Cole 1.33a
  • Format: Seminar

CNC Router Test PCB Made

The first real test of the CNC Router milling a printed circuit board took place this week and the results so far are very encouraging.

Scienceduino PCB

The PCB design is part of a suite of hardware required for a research project. This involves the development of a Science grade Arduino we have called Scienceduino , it will be used to log analogue data with a high degree of accuracy and traceability , in terms of readings and time logging. The picture of the complete PCB shows the complexity and general layout of the components , these will be mostly surface mount. Surface mount technology is being used to help reduce the overall size of the system and to allow automated manufacture.

PCB Microscope Image

The microscope webcam picture shows a circular pad which is 1.0mm in diameter , track width of 0.35mm and track spacing of 0.35mm. The copper flakes in the gaps on the PCB will be cleaned away with water and detergent. So all in all this is good news for the School’s ability to manufacture PCB’s for various research projects.

A New CNC Router

CNC6040
A new CNC Router has just been undergoing its initial testing and calibration procedures. Its purchase was jointly funded by the School and the Research Groups of Professor Al Dearle , Professor Simon Dobson and Dr Miguel Nacenta. The router will be used for the manufacture of printed circuit boards , it can also be used to machine Plastic and Aluminium parts for research and student projects using suitable 3D CAD software such as FreeCAD. All the software used thus far has been Open Source and is as follows LinuxCNC for the machine controller , KiCAD for PCB design , pcb2gcode for the conversion of the Gerber file generated by KiCAD into GCode for the CNC Router. This allows one to manufacture PCBs using the copper isolation method , this is done using the Router cutter to create individual tracks on the blank copper PCB material using the generated GCode of the PCB design.

A PCB

The image above shows a newly made PCB that has been routed and is also drilled ready for electronic components to be inserted.

Simone Conte: Lockheed Martin Software Engineer of 2014

Yesterday evening, in front of a crowd of about 750 people (as part of ScotSoft, the largest yearly Software and IT meeting in Scotland), one of our School graduates received the Lockheed Martin Software Engineering Award, for an outstanding project demonstrating excellent software engineering skills.

Simone Conte receiving award from Scotland IS chair of the Board - Robert Campbell

Simone Conte receiving award from Scotland IS chair of the Board – Robert Campbell

Simone was awarded this prestigious award for his Senior Honours project, which involved the design, construction and implementation of a haptic device for people with visual disabilities. The project was chosen among the final undergraduate projects of all Scottish Computer Science departments, and has been awarded for the last 25 years by Scotland IS. The selection panel includes senior software engineers and CEOs of top companies in Scotland and beyond, including Amazon, SmarterGrid, Microsoft, RBS, Chevron, Scottish Life, Skyscanner and, of course, Lockheed Martin.

An early version of the HaptiQ

An early version of the HaptiQ

The prize consists of a trophy and a check. Other awardees from the night include Blair Archibald from the University of Glasgow, Andrews White from Strathclyde and Heather Ellis from Dundee.

MSc in Dependable Software Systems (DESEM) Summer School

The summer school has the purpose of gathering together the students, lecturers, scholars and industries involved in DESEM, and provide a framework for interaction through talks, presentations, field-trips and social activities.

This year’s summer school is hosted by the University of St Andrews, in Scotland, from the Tuesday 1st July, to the Monday 7th July.

http://desem.cs.st-andrews.ac.uk/index.html

Event details

  • When: 1st July 2014 09:15 - 7th July 2014 12:30
  • Where: Cole 1.33a
  • Format: Summer School