November 28, 2022

Dear members of the Hajim School community,

Our department newsletters are a great way to communicate with alumni and friends. This year’s edition of Multicast from the Department of Computer Science is a good example. This past year was a particularly eventful one for our largest department, with unprecedented staff and faculty departures balanced by exciting new hires. Michael Scott does a great job of putting it in perspective in his Message from the Chair.

The issue includes tributes to departing faculty members Henry Kautz and Sandhya Dwarkadas, a welcome to four new faculty members and four new staff members, in-depth interviews with alumni Benjamin Van Durme ’01 (PhD) and Russell Bent ’00, and a story from Zhen Bai and Ehsan Hoque about their successful efforts to recruit a diverse group of undergraduate researchers. There is additional news about students, faculty, staff, and alumni.

Thanks to Lane Hemaspaandra, Ehsan, Ted Pawlicki, and Sara Klinkbeil for putting together this issue. I encourage you to check it out!

STUDENTS, TELL US YOUR PLANS

We’re getting great news from some seniors and masters students that they have already accepted a job or admissions offer for next year. If you’ve confirmed your plans for after graduation, we would love to hear from you! Please take 5 minutes to let us know what your current plans are after graduation by completing the Career Outcomes Survey.

If you haven’t quite figured out what’s happening after May, that’s okay too. Feel free to complete the survey and pick “still looking,” and we’ll connect you to someone who can help in your final semester!

Why report your plans?

1. It helps others understand who our top employers and grad school programs are.
2. It assists in the fight for pay equity by showing all students what starting salaries may look like in your field.
3. You will be entered to win a $250 gift card from Amazon.

To submit just go to https://tinyurl.com/4yv6j8ra

STUDY ABROAD

WHAT IS THE BEST MAJOR FOR YOU?

Are you a current or prospective student considering an academic path in engineering or computer science? Check out our annual Full Spectrum series of brief online lectures from faculty members describing each of our programs, their research, the types of challenges members of their field work to solve, and their path to becoming an engineer or computer scientist. Join host Nick Valentino, assistant director of undergraduate studies, for our latest installments on YouTube: conversations with Marc Porosoff about chemical engineering, Michael Scott about computer science, and Ajay Anand and Lisa Altman about data science.

EDUCATIONAL IT INNOVATION GRANTS

The Educational IT Committee is providing Innovation Grants of $5,000 to $6,000 to support University faculty members, graduate students, and staff members in adopting new technologies in their teaching. The innovations could be applied any current formal coursework, learning experiences, training programs, and/or faculty and staff development. Ideally, projects should involve multiple faculty members from multiple schools with potential impact on a significant number of learners, including specialized learner populations. Proposals are due December 16. Find additional information at http://www.rochester.edu/online-learning/edtechgov/index.html

FAMILY NIGHT AT THE INSTITUTE

It’s back! After a hiatus due to the pandemic, Family Night returns at The Institute of Optics from 4-7 p.m. Saturday December 17 at Goergen Hall, 480 Intercampus Drive. The event, an Institute tradition since 2011, is an opportunity for families to introduce their children to the magic of light, accompanying them through an array of tabletop optical demonstrations, letting them peek into labs, see an electron microscope in action, and even create their own holograms.

“We’ve had kids ranging from toddlers all the way to 95-year-olds,” says Institute Director Thomas Brown. Tom came up with the idea as a way for parents working in the local optics industry to introduce their children to the science behind the work they do. Now the event welcomes families throughout the community.

“It’s always a lot of fun,” Tom says. “We run it as an open house. There’s a map people can follow to find different exhibits.” The only requirement is that all children be accompanied by an adult as they tour the exhibits. Click here to register. Details, including parking, can be found here.

COURSES FOR SPRING

In developing and manufacturing products, engineers need to manipulate different parameters to produce goods that meet customer aims while reducing performance degradation in the users’ hands.  Javier Bautista, visiting assistant professor of statistics, encourages Hajim students to consider taking STAT 215: Design and Analysis of Experiments, which examines statistical methods to help determine the optimal setting of those parameters to achieve customer requirements. Learn more.

Nancy Ares, associate professor of teaching and curriculum at the Warner School, is offering two courses on anti-racist curriculum development next spring for faculty, instructors, adjuncts, post-docs and doctoral students, with Warner generously covering tuition expenses beyond what employees’ benefit plans cover.

EDE490a: Anti-Racist Curriculum Development in Higher Education will help participants develop knowledge and skills to create anti-racist curriculum through the revision of an existing course syllabus.

EDE490b: Advanced Anti-Racist Curriculum and Teaching in Higher Education is a follow up course using a curriculum review rubric to revisit and further revise the syllabus used in the first seminar or revise another course syllabus. Feel free to contact Nancy if you have questions.

MEET A GRAND CHALLENGES SCHOLAR

Our Grand Challenges Scholars (GCS) program invites undergraduates to pick one of 14 “grand challenges” of the 21st century, identified by the National Academy of Engineering (NAE). Students then tailor their academic experiences to address the challenge they’ve chosen, engaging in five key competencies: research, entrepreneurship, interdisciplinary studies, global experience, and service.

Hesham Elshafey of electrical and computer engineering will describe his experiences from 1 to 3 p.m. this Thursday at the iZone.

REMINDERS

Students have until this Wednesday to apply to participate in the December 2 UR NextGen Challenge, a one-day event for teams of STEM students to tackle an industry problem with D3 engineering. Email Rebecca.crocker@rochester.edu with your class year and major. You will receive registration information.

The deadline to nominate students for the student Changemaker category of the Presidential Stronger as One Diversity Awards is this Wednesday, Nov. 30. Faculty and students are invited to nominate undergraduate and graduate students and post-doctoral fellows whose actions have supported the five institutional equity, diversity, and inclusion priorities. Email your nominations to ioei@rochester.edu.

Have a great week!

Your dean,
Wendi Heinzelman