SFU Programming Competition - New Year's MASH Programming Contest
posted by Mitchell Gale on Dec. 20, 2022, 7:37 p.m.
SFU Computing Science Student Society
SFU Computing Science Student Society
Announcements:
posted by Mitchell Gale on Dec. 20, 2022, 7:37 p.m.
Hi All,
It is my pleasure to announce New Year's MASH Programming Contest (Computing Science Student Society x SFU's Competitive programming club), a free programming competition for all levels.
Eventbrite registration link: https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/new-years-mash-programming-contest-csss-x-competitive-programming-club-tickets-489319155767
Discord for event: https://discord.gg/7uA9FfQHeA
Sincerely,
Mitchell Gale
Computing Science Student Society President
posted by Oliver Xie on Dec. 20, 2022, 12:41 a.m.
Hi everyone!
Today, Dec 19 is the day many awards and scholarship applications open!
CS Undergrad Student Society (CSUSS) Award
Up to 5 awards of $3000 each are available!
Application window: Dec 19 - Jan 9
Eligibility: CGPA >= 2.0; enrolled in 9+ units in Spring 2023 (6+ if registered with CAL)
Award criteria: Enrolled full-time in a bachelor's program in the School of Computing Science; in good academic standing; demonstrated outstanding volunteer or community service to the University
How to apply:
For more information, see the linked CourSys form. If you have been involved in any club, student society, SFU initiative, or similar group (examples: HIVE Leader, Peer Tutoring, club/DSU exec), please strongly consider applying for this award.
Go SFU Scholarships/Awards
You can apply for select scholarships and adversity-based awards on Go SFU. More information, including what scholarships/awards are available for Spring 2023, the monetary amounts, and how to apply, can be found at https://www.sfu.ca/students/financialaid/undergrad/scholarships.html.
For the full list of all scholarships, bursaries, and awards administered by SFU, see https://awards-search.sfu.ca/. Note that this database is not 100% accurate, especially regarding the terms some funding opportunities are currently available.
Happy holidays!
Oliver Xie
Director of Events | Computing Science Student Society
Simon Fraser University
8888 University Dr, Burnaby, BC V5A 1S6
posted by Mitchell Gale on Dec. 18, 2022, 5:49 p.m.
Hi All,
The Computing Science Student Society is meeting with the Director of the School of Computing Science next week. We would love for you to let us know what questions you might have regarding computing science at SFU.
Please fill out this Survey by Monday December 19th, 11:59AM. Please fill it out once for each question (feel free to ask multiple questions)
http://websurvey.sfu.ca/survey/427752636
Similar to last time we will follow up with answers to as many of these questions as we can get to.
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Answers from last time:
Thanks for all your questions.
"What is the plan for remote course offerings for upper division CMPT?"
Plan is for most courses to be in person.
"ASB Renovation updates"
Advising, School of Computing Science office moved upstairs.
"Despite the big seating size, some classes, such as CMPT 295, 300 and other "choke point" classes still have issues with having hundreds of people on the waitlist every semester. Do you intend to fix this?"
Often the courses fill up during enrollment have some free seats once the semester starts. Surrey often has extra free seats during offerings too.
| Spring 2022 | CMPT 300 D100 | Operating Systems I | 135/150 | Imran, Hazra | Burnaby |
| Spring 2022 | CMPT 300 E100 | Operating Systems I | 51/150 | Khangura, Harinder | Surrey |
| Fall 2021 | CMPT 300 D100 | Operating Systems I | 75/150 | Khangura, Harinder | Surrey |
| Fall 2021 | CMPT 300 D200 | Operating Systems I | 60/150 | Imran, Hazra; Regan, Janice | Burnaby |
| Summer 2021 | CMPT 300 D100 | Operating Systems I | 141/150 | Khangura, Harinder | Surrey |
| Spring 2021 | CMPT 300 D100 | Operating Systems I | 151/151 | Wang, Tianzheng | Burnaby |
| Spring 2021 | CMPT 300 D200 | Operating Systems I | 99/150 | Imran, Hazra | Burnaby |
| Spring 2022 | CMPT 295 D100 | Intro. to Computer Systems | 195/200 | Lavergne, Anne | Burnaby |
| Fall 2021 | CMPT 295 D100 | Intro. to Computer Systems | 199/200 | Lavergne, Anne | Burnaby |
| Fall 2021 | CMPT 295 D200 | Intro. to Computer Systems | 77/200 | Shriraman, Arrvindh | Surrey |
| Summer 2021 | CMPT 295 D100 | Intro. to Computer Systems | 185/200 | Shriraman, Arrvindh | Burnaby |
| Spring 2021 | CMPT 295 D100 | Intro. to Computer Systems | 200/200 | Lavergne, Anne | Burnaby |
| Fall 2020 | CMPT 295 E100 | Intro. to Computer Systems | 192/200 | Shriraman, Arrvindh | Burnaby |
| Spring 2020 | CMPT 295 D100 | Intro. to Computer Systems | 163/182 | Lavergne, Anne | Burnaby |
| Spring 2020 | CMPT 295 D200 | Intro. to Computer Systems | 136/147 | Khangura, Harinder | Surrey |
"Will there be more course offerings for programming languages, specifically the theory behind them and how to design one?"
Hired another professor to teach how to design programming languages and theory on that.
"When do you recommend students try and find their first co-op?"
~2.5 years of school then find first co-op.
Sorry for the delay in response to these questions.
Thanks,
Mitchell Gale
SFU Computing Science Student Society President
You can unsubscribe by going to https://maillist.sfu.ca and removing yourself from `cmpt-students` mail list.
Hi All,
The Computing Science Student Society is meeting with the Director of the School of Computing Science next week. We would love for you to let us know what questions you might have regarding computing science at SFU.
Please fill out this Survey by Sunday June 5th, 11:59PM. Please fill it out once for each question (feel free to ask multiple questions)
http://websurvey.sfu.ca/survey/427752636
Similar to last time we will follow up with answers to as many of these questions as we can get to.
See below the previous announcement during the Summer 2021 & Fall 2021 semester with questions/answers discussed during that meeting.
Thanks,
Mitchell Gale
Computing Science Student Society President
Hi All,
Thank you for your patience, one of the questions lead to action that is still currently ongoing, so I let the discussion go for a bit before following up.
Here are my summarized, high-level notes from out meeting with the Director as well as other information I know from within the department.
Courses:
"Will there be an increase in course offering in Surrey?"
Yes, there will be increases in the course offerings in Surrey.
"Will courses continue to have recording lectures?"
The option of recording lectures is left to the individual instructors.
"CMPT 105w and CMPT 376w seem to have a lot of overlap in material"
Since students still are in the middle of transitioning requirements from not requiring CMPT 105w to requiring it, there is some overlap. The plan for 376w is to make it more technical in the future.
"Are there plans to continue offering online courses?"
Some select course offerings may be offered online, but a vast majority will be in person. Instructors will need to justify why their class will be better, if taught online.
"CMPT 405 covers similar material to CMPT 307"
Initially parts of the course may be similar as it is a grad course (CMPT 705) as well, but once a foundation is made for undergraduate and graduate students the topics should dive deeper than CMPT 307.
Course enrollment issues (specifically CMPT 105W/CMPT 295)
There have been 700 seats of CMPT 105W offered between Spring 2021 and Spring 2022. Issue could resolve itself as students catch up on taking it. There have been 1000 seats offered of CMPT 295 between Spring 2021 and Spring 2022 which is already a lot of offerings and a lot of seats.
"When will the new courses such as Web Development I/II, Mobile Computing and others be offered?"
Offerings will start in Summer 2022 and will happen in various semesters for various courses.
Admin:
"Why was the 2.4 GPA requirement added to enroll in so many CMPT courses?"
The requirement has been in the school for a number of years but just started being enforced. Students with low GPA often struggled in higher level CMPT courses. Quality of courses also lowered because classes may have needed to support students who did not have as good of a foundation.
Question about students making ethical decisions for the companies they choose to do a co-op at.
Discussions were sparked within the FAS Co-op office as well as on a course offering level on how to better educate and cover the wide range of ethical situations students may face throughout their careers. These ethical situations can be from the standpoint of the choices/actions made by the company at, large as well as the individual tasks required for their jobs. The School of Computing Science is trying to add it to both the Co-op and the general Computing Science requirements where it makes sense.
Thanks,
Mitchell Gale
Computing Science Student Society President
Hi All,
The Computing Science Student Society is meeting with the Director of the School of Computing Science next week. We would love for you to let us know what questions you might have regarding computing science at SFU.
Please fill out this one question survey by end of day Thursday December 16th, 2021.
http://websurvey.sfu.ca/survey/415802770
Similar to last time we will follow up with answers to many of the questions.
See below the previous announcement during the Summer 2021 semester with questions/answers discussed during that meeting.
Good luck on your remaining finals.
Thanks,
Mitchell Gale
Computing Science Student Society President
Hi All,
Thank you for your many questions.
I asked the Director your questions and provided a summary of responses below.
Bold are the questions.
non-bold are a summary of the response/discussion had.
Indented sections are my comments on them.
As many of you know the remote course offering list can be found here. https://www.sfu.ca/students/support/classes-2021/remote-classes-fall.html
Some notes about Covid-19 and on campus learning.
- Ventilation is being inspected and improved as well as additional filtration systems
- Bulk of courses are in person
- Instructors are being recommended to record lecture slides/voice and host online. In most cases this won't be a room recording as some lectures previously had, but likely a screen capture and audio recording. For in person classes, exams are going to be in person, so being close to SFU is important.
"CMPT courses have awarded the lowest average grades in SFU over the last 10 years, as well the lowest average grades for 2019/2020 (both lower and upper division courses). Are there any plans to deal with this at all, in regards to scholarship acquisition, grad school applications, and how our transcripts look to employers?"
Computing Science Courses are around the average grade given by SFU for the over the past 3 years (time frame they looked into this for).
He showed me the differences and it was exceptionally close to the SFU average for the past 3 years, within a few hundredths of a grade point.
"When is ASB construction set to end"
Scheduled to be done around the end of the Fall term.
"Can there be more evening classes?"
Evening classes are not offered often, they need to work with the instructors schedule. They also can make the course less accessible to people taking early courses causing large gap between their classes.
"Do concentrations still exist within Computing Science"
http://www.sfu.ca/students/calendar/2021/fall/programs/computing-science/major/bachelor-of-science-or-bachelor-of-arts.html (Look near the bottom of the page)
"Taking courses CMPT courses abroad is difficult in terms of transferring of credits."
If not all the same topics are taught in a course at SFU it is possible that the course will not transfer over. There are lots of Universities and their courses change, so it's not practical to have a list of all Universities and which courses can be transferred.
"Will CMPT 318 (Cyber Security) be turned into a regular course"
Yes, it will be turned into a regular courses with a unique course number.
"Are there plans to be more Cyber Security courses in the future?"
Yes, there are plans to have more Cyber Security courses in the near future."Can CMPT 376w be made more technical"
Apparently the course is in a bit of a shift due to the addition of CMPT 105w some of the material now covered in CMPT 376w will be taught in CMPT 105w leaving CMPT 376w to see coverage change.
"What is happening with the removal of CMPT 127"
CMPT 127 is being combined with CMPT 125.
"Why do some upper division courses in the AI column not have CMPT 310 as a per-requisite?"
The school does not like making unnecessary per-requisites to courses as they can act as "gate-keepers".
"Will Cryptocurrency/Blockchain be added to coverage of courses"
They are important technologies and they likely will have components taught in future.
When exactly courses covering these technologies will be taught, it's not yet know.
We will do this again in the Fall.
Thanks,
Mitchell Gale
Computing Science Student Society Presidentposted by CS Student Society President on Dec. 14, 2022, 2:21 p.m.
Hi All,
I am passing along the message below on behalf of Heesu and Stephanie from FAS.
This is a new and really unique opportunity to learn from mentors. Deadline is today so please apply soon!
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Dear CS/SOSY Students,
It is with great pleasure we wish to announce the launch of our new FAS Mentorship Program! This program is intended to pair students in Faculty of Applied Sciences with mentors who currently work in the field, ultimately helping you navigate the transition from university to the workforce.
To learn more about the program, eligibility requirements, and submit your application please visit our webpage: http://www.sfu.ca/fas/current-student/GetInvolved/Mentorship.html
Application Deadline: Wednesday, December 14, 2022.
Due to limited number of mentors available for the inaugural offering, participants will be selected on a competitive basis. While we cannot guarantee we will be able to find a 100% perfect match for every student, we will do our best to pair you with a mentor based on interest in a specific job functional area and/or industry.
Selected participants in Computing Science and Software Systems major programs will be contacted in January 2023 and will be provided with next steps.
Should you have any questions, please do not hesitate to connect with us.
Best,
Stephanie & Heesu
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Best,
Mitchell Gale
Computing Science Student Society President
posted by Mitchell Gale on Dec. 13, 2022, 11:19 a.m.
Hi All,
I am passing along the message below from Dr. Ouldooz Baghban Karimi, one of our great members of the computing science faculty here at SFU.
I'll add on top of the great list of resources above with Here2Talk, a creation from the BC Government (Press release https://news.gov.bc.ca/releases/2020AEST0048-001658).
Best of luck on your remaining exams.
Best,
