In cooperation with

The Association for Computing Machinery
Special Interest Group on Computer Science Education
Presents

The CCSCNE brings together faculty, staff, and students from academic institutions throughout the Northeast for exchange of ideas and information concerning undergraduate computing education.

A Note from the Conference Co-Chairs

Welcome to the 8th Annual CCSC Northeastern Conference.  In the name of all the members of the conference committee and the members of the Board of the Northeastern region, we welcome you to our Spring extravaganza.  These people have had two long planning meetings and have exchanged more emails than you want to know about and the result is this conference.  Our aim is to present you with ideas that will help you teach computer sciences, to provide you with panels that will provoke you to talk about teaching, to give you hands-on experience in methods others have used to teach, and to provide your students with a chance to show their work.  In short, we are about teaching.  We hope and expect that you will find something here to change your teaching.

Also, welcome to Providence and to Rhode Island College.  Despite the budget constraints that are part of being a state college in the current fiscal mess, the dedicated faculty of Rhode Island College’s Department of Mathematics and Computer Science have been able to host this conference.  Enjoy our campus and, if you get a chance, visit the restaurants of Federal Hill and Downtown Providence and enjoy the ambience of our well-preserved colonial heritage.

And when you leave, resolve to come to the next CCSCNE at Union College in New York.  And next time, plan to speak or to sponsor student posters or a programming team.  We need you.

Frank Ford and Rod Rodrigues
CCSCNE-2003 Conference Co- Chairs
 
 

Conference                               confchair@ccscne.org
Frank Ford, Providence College  (401) 865-2635
Rod Rodrigues, Rhode Island College  (401) 456-9672

Papers                                      papers@ccscne.org
Karl Wurst, Worcester State College  (508) 929-8728
Lawrence D’Antonio, Ramapo College of NJ  (201) 684–7714
Hemant Pendharkar, Worcester State College  (508) 929-8969

Undergraduate Posters           posters@ccscne.org
Michael Gousie, Wheaton College (508) 286-3969 

Panels/Tutorials/Workshops    panels@ccscne.org
                                                 tutorials@ccscne.org 
                                                 workshops@ccscne.org
Roger Simons, Rhode Island College  (401) 456-9865
Dale Fish (508) 929-8136

Speakers                                 speakers@ccscne.org
Mary Russell, Providence College   (401) 865-2630

Publicity                                  publicity@ccscne.org
Frank Ford, Providence College    (401) 865-2635
Charles Welty, Univ. of Southern Maine   (207) 780-4240

Vendors                                  vendors@ccscne.org
Bill Taffe, Plymouth State College  (603) 535-2530
Paul Chiasson, Worcester State College  (508) 929-8560

Registration                           registration@ccscne.org
Ying Zhou, Rhode Island College  (401) 456-9759
Ann Moskol, Rhode Island College (401) 345-9761

Programming Contest            pgmcontest@ccscne.org
Tim Huang, Middlebury College   (802) 443-2431
Jim Schaefer, Rhode Island College (401) 456-9758

Local Arrangements              local@ccscne.org
Kate Sanders, Rhode Island College    (401) 456-9634
Pat Hays, Rhode Island College  (401) 456-8803

We gratefully acknowledge these sponsors who have helped make this conference possible:

Microsoft Corporation for a grant to help defray the costs of providing an affordable conference at the regional level, for its support of the Programming Contest, and for special support of the poster contest session.

Upsilon Pi Epsilon for its support of the student poster contest.

Course Technology  and  Turing’s Craft for support of the coffee breaks.
 
 

Our vendors will present two special sessions.  We hope that you will find these informative.

Friday, April 25, noon – 12:45: Apple Presentation
Mac OS X: The Ultimate Java Platform

With Java now firmly established as a popular language for Computer Science education, Mac OS X brings capabilities to the Computer Science community never before available on any platform. Put simply, Mac OS X, with its integrated Java development environment, is the best platform for developing and teaching with Java.

The unique way in which Java is integrated into the operating system brings unparalleled ease-of-development, tool integration, and performance on Mac OS X. We will discuss these benefits and explore the details behind the implementation of Java on Mac OS X, including the Aqua look-and-feel as well as the Apple-innovated shared VM technology. We'll briefly touch upon the tools that Apple and third parties provide to make Java easy to develop and use on Mac OS X. 

Friday, April 25, 2:15 – 3:15: Microsoft Presentation
An Introduction to Visual Studio .NET 2003

Visual Studio 2003 consists of a variety of improvements and extensions to VS.NET.  You will learn about the new features and functionality in VB.NET 2003.  This 'hands-on' presentation will step through code, use VB.NET, C#, J#, as well as mobile controls and mobile device application development.

Name	School	Name	School
Brian Adams	Franklin & Marshall College	Mark LeBlanc	Wheaton College
Don Allison	SUNY College at Oneonta	David Levine	St. Bonaventure University
George Antoniou	Montclair State University	Aparna Mahadev	Worcester State College
Ziya Arnavut	SUNY Fredonia	Scott McElfresh	Carnegie Mellon University
Frances Bailie	Iona College	Jeanine Meyer	Purchase College
Norman Bashias	Manhattanville College	Robert Noonan	College of William & Mary
Jonathan Blake	Quinnipiac University	Edward O'Neill	Fairfield University
Douglas Blank	Bryn Mawr College	Eileen Peluso Hassan	Lycoming College
Mary Courtney	Pace University	Pournaghshband	Southern Polytechnic State University
Ellen Dauwer	La Salle University	Catherine Ricardo	Iona College
Peter Drexel	Plymouth State College	Ingrid Russell	University of Hartford
Michael L. Gargano	Pace University	Joel Silverberg	Roger Williams University
Stephen Hartley	Rowan University	Evelyn Stiller	Plymouth State College
Mark Hoffman	Quinnipiac University	William Taffe	Plymouth State College
Donald Hsu	Dominican College	Goran Trajkovski	Towson University
Carol Huie	Hostos Community College	John Trono	Saint Michael's College
Chih-Cheng Hung	Southern  Polytechnic State University	John Vaughn	Hobart and William Smith Colleges
Scott Hunter	Siena College	Ellen Walker	Hiram College
Lubomir Ivanov	Iona College	Richard Wyatt	West Chester University
Danny Kopec	Brooklyn College	Marsha Zaidman	Mary Washington College

Friday, April 25, 2003

Programming Contest Results

PROGRAMMING CONTEST ..................................................8:00 a.m.-12:45 p.m.
                                                          (Co-Sponsored by Microsoft)
     Breakfast ........................................................................................8:00 a.m.-8:45 a.m

REGISTRATION .............................................................................8:30 a.m.-5:00 p.m.

PRE-CONFERENCE WORKSHOPS ............................................9:00 a.m.- Noon

Creating Interactive Course Material Using Adobe Acrobat’s PDF

Jonathon Blake, Quinnipiac University, CT
Pattie Belle Hastings, Quinnipiac University, CT
 (See description later in program.) Room 163, Gaige Hall

Donald R. Chand, Bentley College, MA
Sri Vasudevan, Bentley College, MA
 (See description later in program.) Room 168, Gaige Hall

VENDOR DISPLAYS ..................................................................10:00 a.m.-6:30 p.m.

WELCOME ................................................................................1:00 p.m.-1:15 p.m.

PLENARY SESSION I ..............................................................1:15 p.m.-2:15 p.m.

BREAK .........................................................................................2:15 p.m.-3:00 p.m.

CONCURRENT SESSION 1 ................................................. 3:15 p.m.-4:30 p.m.

Session 1A:Papers: Architecture

Session 1B: Papers: Computer Science I/II

Session 1C: Panel

Session 1D: Tutorial

BREAK .............................................................................................4:30 p.m.-4:45 p.m.

CONCURRENT SESSION 2...................................................... 4:45 p.m.-6:00 p.m.

Session 2A: Papers: Bioinformatics

Session 2C: Panel

Session 2D:Tutorial

STUDENT POSTERS/SOCIAL HOUR ............... ...................... 6:00 p.m.- 7:00 p.m.

BANQUET ......................................................................................7:00 p.m.-9:00 p.m.

Saturday, April 26, 2003

CONTINENTAL BREAKFAST............................................... 7:30 a.m.-8:30 a.m.

REGISTRATION .........................................................................8:00 a.m.-10:00 a.m.

VENDOR DISPLAYS  .................................................................8:00 a.m.-10:30 a.m.

CONCURRENT SESSION 3.................................................... 8:30 a.m.-9:45 a.m.

Session 3A: Papers: Extra-Course Topics

Session 3B:  Papers:  Data Structures

Session 3C: Panel

Session 3D: Tutorial

PLENARY SESSION II ...........................................................  9:50 a.m.-10:50 a.m.

BREAK........................................................................................... 10:50 a.m.-11:15 a.m.

CONCURRENT SESSION 4..................................................... 11:15 a.m.-12:30 p.m.

Session 4A: Papers: Projects

Session 4B: Papers: Curriculum

Session 4C: Panel

Session 4D: Tutorial

LUNCH .........................................................................................12:45 p.m.-2:00 p.m.

MEMBERSHIP MEETING.............................................................. 2:00 p.m.-2:30 p.m.

BOARD MEETING .......................................................................... 2:30 p.m.-4:00 p.m.

Creating Interactive Course Material Using Adobe Acrobat’s PDF
  Jonathon Blake, Quinnipiac University, CT
  Pattie Belle Hastings, Quinnipiac University, CT

Description
This will be an active workshop, with participants working on computers using Adobe Acrobat 5. The first part of this workshop will discuss how to generate PDFs using tools available in Microsoft Windows, MacOS, and flavors of the Unix operating system. We will cover techniques for generating PDFs from a variety of sources that result in attractively formatted documents whether viewed on the screen or printed. The majority of our time, however, will be spent introducing Adobe Acrobat 5 (available for both the Windows and Mac platforms).  What Acrobat does is provide an author with the ability to add a full suite of user interface widgets to a PDF. Each of these elements can have Javascript attached to it. Furthermore, these scripts can access each other, providing yet another level of interactivity. In addition to the user interface elements, it is also possible to attach Javascript code to pages of the document, as well as the document itself. All of these scripts can be triggered by any one of a number of events at a variety of levels. Adobe Acrobat provides us with a way to produce simple, interactive documents that serve as excellent interactive teaching tools. Furthermore, these tools are readily available to the students because of the ubiquitous nature of Acrobat Reader.

Presenters
Pattie Belle Hastings is an artist, an author, and an educator. She is an Assistant Professor of Interactive Digital Design at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, CT. She has taught art and design for more than a decade in courses and workshops, and is co-owner with her husband of a design studio in New Haven, CT. She has taught many workshops on PDFs and interactivity, and is an Acrobat 5 Adobe Certified Expert. She is an active participant in the international PDF developer community, and is co-author of Adobe Acrobat 5 Master Class: Interactivity & Multimedia for PDF. She also has extensive experience developing interactive PDFs as a teaching tool (http://www.designu.org/~zen/).
Jonathan Blake is an Associate Professor of Computer Science at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, CT. He has been teaching Computer Science for more than 13 years, covering classes from Computer Literacy to Software Engineering, and from Introductory Programming to Artificial Intelligence. A strong advocate of the use of technology to foster active learning, he has augmented many courses using Web-based course management tools and is in the process of developing a suite of interactive PDFs to support concepts taught in the CS1/CS2 sequence.

Use Case Modeling
  Donald R. Chand, Bentley College, MA
  Sri Vasudevan, Bentley College, MA

Description
The Use Case approach, invented by Jacobsen [1], is becoming the preferred approach for requirements modeling and systems development. Some of the reasons for the popularity of use cases for requirements modeling are: (1) Use cases are built on very simple and understandable primitives that enable effective communication with the user but are at the same time precise enough for the analyst to correctly capture requirements and communicate them to the developers; (2) Use cases are part of the unified modeling language (UML), which is widely adopted as the industry standard for object-oriented systems engineering; (3) Use cases provide a natural and integrated input to object modeling, interface specification and object testing; (4) The evolution of Web-based, network-centric information technology has dramatically altered the functionality and complexity of traditional business applications, and compared to data flow diagrams, the use cases are more effective in capturing the complex and dynamic requirements of Web-enabled applications. 
The objective of this workshop is to teach Use Case modeling and bring out the issues that make use case modeling a rich and deep area of study. The approach taken is illustrative.  That is, practical applications will be used to introduce the key concepts and basic issues in use case modeling.

Presenters
Don Chand’s teaching and research interests are in the areas of systems analysis and design, software project management, software process management and advanced design methodologies. Dr. Chand has published extensively and his articles have appeared in such flagship journals as the Communications of the ACM, Journal of ACM, IEEE Software, and the Journal of Management Systems.  He has been a keynote speaker at regional, national and international conferences.  He served as associate editor of the Journal of Information Technology Management and on the editorial board of the Journal of Information Systems Education. He has been an ACM lecturer, computer science program evaluator for CSAB (Computer Science Accreditation Board), and professional development lecturer in advanced design methodologies for both ACM and IEEE.
 Sri Vasudevan’s teaching and research interests are in the areas of eBusiness system architectures, application design and implementation, distributed system architecture and technologies like J2EE, Java, C++ and CORBA. Dr. Vasudevan has extensive industry experience in Information Technology and he has taught in the corporate environment for several companies inclusing IBM, Sun, Citicorp and Sprint. He has led several technical seminars on a worldwide basis in topics like CORBA, Websphere, OOA&D and Use Cases. He is the creator of several software titles and web sites including www.yourpace.com and elrond.bentley.edu.

PLENARY SESSION I ..................................................................1:15 p.m.-2:15 p.m.

How to Beat Children at Their Own Games

John H. Conway, John von Neumann Distinguished Professor of Mathematics, Princeton University, Fellow of the Royal Society, Member, A.A.A.S.

Presenter
World-famous mathematician John Horton Conway is the author or co-author of at least ten books, and many expository articles which have had substantial impact not just on research mathematicians but on mathematical amateurs as well. Conway has a rare gift for naming mathematical objects, and for inventing useful mathematical notations. His joy in mathematics is clearly evident in all that he writes.

Educated at the University of Cambridge, Conway got a job at Cambridge as a mathematical logician upon graduation. He taught at his alma mater for many years before joining the Princeton faculty in 1986, and remains an honorary fellow of Gonville and Caius College.  He is the recipient of numerous distinguished awards:

•  Berwick Prize, London Mathematical Society, 1971
•  Polya Prize, London Mathematical Society, 1987
•  Frederic Esser Nemmers Prize, 1999
•  Leroy P. Steele Prize, American Mathematical Society, 2000
•  Joseph Priestley Award, 200 
• Conway received an honorary Dsc. from the University of Liverpool (his         hometown) on July 4, 2001.

PLENARY SESSION II ....................................................................9:50 a.m.-10:50 a.m.

Abstract
The last several years have seen a widespread interest in multimedia animations for helping students understand programs and algorithms.  This is not surprising, given that drawing pictures is a time-honored method to help students understand abstract concepts, and that technology can be used to animate the pictures and enhance their educational potential.  Oddly, despite years of interest in the area, we are still not sure how or why students benefit when this kind of technology is introduced into their learning environment.
Clarity about the educational objectives of the software when designing and using multimedia is one of the most important factors influencing the efficacy of the technology.  We will discuss some of the challenges encountered in designing pedagogically-oriented software from an educational perspective.

Presenter
Linda Stern joined the Department of Computer Science at The University of Melbourne in 1991, where she discovered the rewards of teaching. Since 1998 she has been in charge of the Algorithms in Action project, which has produced software to support the teaching of searching and sorting algorithms.  Her teaching innovations have been recognized with the award of the inaugural Kelvin Medal and of the Dean's Teaching Excellence Award.  Her research interests are in the area of bioinformatics, particularly sequence analysis.