LUMACS at the University of Lethbridge



	MUSINGS March 23 2010. Where are the good jobs? Computer Science! CIO.com ran an article whose blurb said: "Here's a tip for incoming and current college students: If you want to have a high-paying job on graduation day, study computer science." The message is finally getting out! There was also another interesting quote: "We have seen a significant increase in companies in other industries that typically haven't recruited in computer science interested in our students. What a lot of our students are going to realize is that every industry has computer science needs." This was from the associate directory of external relations for the University of Illinois Department of Computer Science. EVERY INDUSTRY HAS COMPUTER SCIENCE NEEDS. Not just the game companies, Microsoft and Intel. Hospitals, banks, schools, foreign aid services, the military, art and multimedia, hospitality, ... they all need computer science. Good job prospects, coupled with the variety of ways in which your skills can be put to use; it's a combination that CS offers that really can't be beat! written by j.rice@uleth.ca. tags: careers, computer science, information technology, enrolment April 14 2009. Saving the Earth with reversible computing The Globe and Mail recently ran an article on Earth Hour entitled Forget the lights - shut down the friggin' computer. The subtitle was "What's eating one per cent of the world's electricity?" and of course the content talks about how Earth Hour (held March 28 this year) is a good idea but really isn't making much of a difference in our electricity consumption next to the increasing demand of all our electronics. I love to hear stories like this! Well, ok, I hate to hear how we're killing the earth, but aside from that this kind of story is perfect for me, because one of my research areas is in something called "reversible logic". The theory is that circuits designed with reversible logic have the potential to reuse close to 100% of the electricity that goes into powering them! That would mean far less power usage, and equally importantly far less heat created (so no more need for air conditioned warehouses for servers, for example). Wikipedia has an ok article about reversible computing and there's more here too: strange paths article on reversible computing. Always remember that web sources are ok as a starting point, but shouldn't be considered to be authoritative! written by j.rice@uleth.ca. tags: reversible computing, reversible logic, reducing power, Computer Science research, Earth Hour, green computing April 9 2009. Really Cool Robots IEEE Spectrum has just published this slideshow: Robots Gone Wild. It features a brief blurb on 12 different types of robots, including robots for destroying mines, fish-inspired robots for monitoring water pollution, and the cutest robot you've ever seen, designed for therapeutic interaction. How could anyone not be interested in robots after seeing this? written by j.rice@uleth.ca. tags: Robotics, girls and robots, engineering, IEEE April 7 2009. Get $$ Toward Tuition Did you know you can get some of your tuition paid for? If you write the Iverson Exaam and get a good mark you could win part of your ULeth, U of C or U of A tuition. written by j.rice@uleth.ca. tags: Computer Science, university, scholarships, Iverson March 31 2009. How to interest girls in CS Dr. Julita Vassileva, the Cameco NSERC Prairie Chair on Women in Science and Engineering visited us this week. She showed some fascinating statistics from the ROSE project (Relevance of Science Education) about youths' differing attitudes towards science based on country and based on gender (from this paper: Young people and science: Attitudes, values and priorities. It was quite clear that in all countries girls are more interested in helping people, and making a difference, than are boys. So I was thinking of how so many things in today's world rely on good computer support, and how many things we have today that have totally changed the world and wouldn't exist without computers. For instance, take this Globe and Mail article: The promise of real-time health care. The article talks about how we can scan the brain and determine the origins of emotions, and actually watch how the brain processes in real-time. It's totally amazing, and the expert being interviewed makes it sound really exciting. Clearly we can save lives with this! Unfortunately all of the experts referred to are medical doctors, and of course they really can't talk about the Computer Science side of this. The involvement of really good Computer Scientists in such a project is essential; the machines have to work properly, for starters; this means good software. Not Microsoft kind of software that requires updates and patches all the time but GOOD software, built by professional software engineers and project managers. They have to analyze the data coming from the scans in a variety of ways, and this means experts is image processing have to be involved. The machines have to be intuitive and relatively understandable for non-CS people to use; for good designs you need someone who is knowledgeable in HCI (Human-Computer Interfaces). And this doesn't even touch on the phyisicists and engineers who are involved in designing such a tool, as well as the Computer Scientists who came up with all of these new ideas in the first place. I personally would really think I had made a difference if I could contribute to an amazing machine like this, but without the Computer Scientists it simply wouldn't be possible. written by j.rice@uleth.ca. tags: Computer Science careers, attitudes towards science, what can I do with Computer Science?		LINKS news about Lumacs who are we? our history activities online resources musings volunteers sponsors Dept. of Math & CS University of Lethbridge ULeth Science Camps Iverson Exam
Lumacs Dept. Math & CS University of Lethbridge 4401 University Drive Lethbridge,AB T1K 3M4		Contacts: lumacs@uleth.ca Dept. Math & CS: 403 329-2470 Nicole Wilson: 403 329-5115 wilsln@uleth.ca

MUSINGS