Month: March 2016

18th Annual Women in Computing Day

laurie

The Association for Women in Computing (AWC) hosted the 18th Annual Women in Computing Day on Friday, April 1st.  About 80 middle school girls from five area schools attended. This  year, Abigail Bartolome and Angel Pak co-chaired the event. Marina Kiseleva (AWC chapter president), Jisu Park (AWC chapter vice president), and Deborah Tatar (AWC faculty advisor) were also instrumental in making the event successful. A special thanks is due to our friends from IBM who offered their time, to professor Wu Feng who led one of the demonstrations, and to all the graduate and undergraduate student volunteers.

Click here to read about the 2015 event.

 

 

AWC Computing Day 4-1-16 052 AWC Computing Day 4-1-16 053 AWC Computing Day 4-1-16 057 AWC Computing Day 4-1-16 059 AWC Computing Day 4-1-16 060 AWC Computing Day 4-1-16 061 AWC Computing Day 4-1-16 062 AWC Computing Day 4-1-16 063 AWC Computing Day 4-1-16 064 AWC Computing Day 4-1-16 065 AWC Computing Day 4-1-16 066 AWC Computing Day 4-1-16 067 AWC Computing Day 4-1-16 068 AWC Computing Day 4-1-16 069 AWC Computing Day 4-1-16 070 AWC Computing Day 4-1-16 072 AWC Computing Day 4-1-16 073 AWC Computing Day 4-1-16 074 AWC Computing Day 4-1-16 075 AWC Computing Day 4-1-16 076 AWC Computing Day 4-1-16 077 AWC Computing Day 4-1-16 078 AWC Computing Day 4-1-16 079 AWC Computing Day 4-1-16 080 AWC Computing Day 4-1-16 081 AWC Computing Day 4-1-16 082 AWC Computing Day 4-1-16 083 AWC Computing Day 4-1-16 084 AWC Computing Day 4-1-16 085 AWC Computing Day 4-1-16 086 AWC Computing Day 4-1-16 087 AWC Computing Day 4-1-16 088 AWC Computing Day 4-1-16 089 AWC Computing Day 4-1-16 090 AWC Computing Day 4-1-16 091 AWC Computing Day 4-1-16 092 AWC Computing Day 4-1-16 093 AWC Computing Day 4-1-16 094 AWC Computing Day 4-1-16 095 AWC Computing Day 4-1-16 096 AWC Computing Day 4-1-16 097 AWC Computing Day 4-1-16 098 AWC Computing Day 4-1-16 099 AWC Computing Day 4-1-16 100 AWC Computing Day 4-1-16 101 AWC Computing Day 4-1-16 102 AWC Computing Day 4-1-16 103 AWC Computing Day 4-1-16 104 AWC Computing Day 4-1-16 105 AWC Computing Day 4-1-16 106 AWC Computing Day 4-1-16 107 AWC Computing Day 4-1-16 108 AWC Computing Day 4-1-16 109 AWC Computing Day 4-1-16 110 AWC Computing Day 4-1-16 111 AWC Computing Day 4-1-16 112 AWC Computing Day 4-1-16 113 AWC Computing Day 4-1-16 114 AWC Computing Day 4-1-16 115 AWC Computing Day 4-1-16 116 AWC Computing Day 4-1-16 117 AWC Computing Day 4-1-16 118 AWC Computing Day 4-1-16 119 AWC Computing Day 4-1-16 120 AWC Computing Day 4-1-16 121 AWC Computing Day 4-1-16 122 AWC Computing Day 4-1-16 123 AWC Computing Day 4-1-16 124 AWC Computing Day 4-1-16 125 AWC Computing Day 4-1-16 126 AWC Computing Day 4-1-16 127 AWC Computing Day 4-1-16 128 AWC Computing Day 4-1-16 129 AWC Computing Day 4-1-16 130 AWC Computing Day 4-1-16 131 AWC Computing Day 4-1-16 132 AWC Computing Day 4-1-16 133 AWC Computing Day 4-1-16 134 AWC Computing Day 4-1-16 135 AWC Computing Day 4-1-16 136 AWC Computing Day 4-1-16 137 AWC Computing Day 4-1-16 138 AWC Computing Day 4-1-16 139 AWC Computing Day 4-1-16 140 AWC Computing Day 4-1-16 141 AWC Computing Day 4-1-16 142 AWC Computing Day 4-1-16 143 AWC Computing Day 4-1-16 144 AWC Computing Day 4-1-16 145

Read More

Kurt Luther contributes to Civil War Weekend

laurie

The 25th anniversary of the Civil War Weekend will be held at The Inn at Virginia Tech the weekend of March 18. Kurt Luther, an assistant professor in computer science, will offer tips for solving photographic mysteries. One example he likes to use is an iconic poster used to recruit African American soldiers into the Union Army. Investigations by a series of Civil War historians led to the discovery that the image was based not on the artist’s imagination, as had been assumed for nearly 150 years, but on an actual photo. Further research helped debunk a version of the photo that had been altered to misrepresent the recruits as Confederate soldiers.

Luther’s own contribution was in scrutinizing both biographical details and visual cues – a cap insignia, a set of whiskers, a single row of buttons – to identify the white officer pictured. This finding, he hopes, will help him identify the other soldiers in the photo. “The discovery process is one of the great joys of photo sleuthing,” said Luther, who supplements his more traditional detective work with crowdsourcing techniques and facial recognition software. “It allows us to restore meaning to images and personal histories that would otherwise remain forgotten.”

 

Read Full Story

 

Dr. Kurt Luther
Dr. Kurt Luther

Read More

SeeMore headed to SXSW

laurie

Dr. Kirk Cameron and a group of CS students are heading to South by Southwest in Austin, Texas this month.  SeeMore, an animatronic sculpture designed by sculptor Sam Blanchard and computer scientist Kirk Cameron to illustrate the concept of parallel computing, will be featured at the trade show March 13-16.  The name is a reference to supercomputing pioneer Seymour Cray.  SeeMore is designed to simultaneously educate and inspire computational thinking, SeeMore is part kinetic sculpture and part giant parallel computer. Built with 256 single-board computers, called Raspberry Pis, the living sculpture physically demonstrates conceptual elements of computer science, showing how a parallel computer carries out many calculations simultaneously. As a computation propagates and evolves across the surface of the form, it visually represents the architecture modern supercomputers use, helping people understand the abstract concepts involved.  Read more about Virginia Tech at South by Southwest Here

SeeMore was also one of the centerpieces of the 2015 World Maker Faire in New York City. Read More

 

Kirk Cameron, Seemore, Sam Blanchard (SOVA), and Ebon Upton (Founder and CEO of Raspberry Pi Foundation).
Kirk Cameron, Seemore, Sam Blanchard (SOVA), and Ebon Upton (Founder and CEO of Raspberry Pi Foundation).

 

 

Read More