In cooperation
with
The Association
for Computing Machinery
Special
Interest Group on Computer Science Education
Presents
NINTH ANNUAL
CONSORTIUM FOR COMPUTING
SCIENCES IN
COLLEGES
NORTHEASTERN
CONFERENCE
HOSTED BY
UNION COLLEGE
Schenectady , New York
Statement
of Purpose
The
CCSCNE brings together faculty, staff, and students from academic institutions
throughout the Northeast for exchange of ideas and information concerning
undergraduate computing education.
Welcome to the 9th
annual CCSC Northeastern Conference and to
collection of student
presentations of their work. We hope that whether you are on the program
or in the audience, your participation will enrich both the two days of
meetings and your activities when you return home.
Our
committee and the CCSCNE board members have worked hard to compose the program
through two meetings and much email. We accepted 25 of 53 papers for a
rate of 47%. We gratefully acknowledge the help of our reviewers, whose
careful reviews were conducted with full anonymity on both author and reviewer
sides to promote objectivity in the refereeing process. Each paper
received at least three reviews and
the average was four per
paper. We are pleased that the number of student posters continues to
grow as well.
Our
late-afternoon poster session and reception in
Next
spring the CCSCNE conference returns to
David Hemmendinger and Scott McElfresh
CCSCNE-2004 Conference Co-chairs
2004 Conference Committee Chairs
Conference Chairs
David
Hemmendinger,
hemmendd@athena.union.edu
Scott
McElfresh,
scottm@cs.cmu.edu
Papers
Chairs
Larry D'Antonio,
ldant@ramapo.edu
Dale
Fish,
dfish1@worcester.edu
Michael
Gousie,
mgousie@wheatonma.edu
Undergraduate
Posters Chair
Brad Richards,
richards@cs.vassar.edu
Panels/Tutorials/Workshops Chairs
Jim Teresco,
terescoj@cs.williams.edu
Duane Bailey,
Speakers
Chair
David Levine,
St.
Bonaventure University
dlevine@cs.sbu.edu
Publicity Chair
Frank Ford,
fpford@providence.edu
Vendors Chairs
Bill Taffe,
wjt@mail.plymouth.edu
Hemant Pendharkar,
HPendharkar@worcester.edu
Programming
Contest Chairs
Frank Ford,
fpford@providence.edu
Chris Fernandes,
fernandc@union.edu
Local
Arrangements Chair
Linda Almstead,
almsteal@union.edu
PROGRAMMING CONTEST.....................................................................................................
Programming Contest Problems
Breakfast..................................................................................................................................
Computers Available for Teams to
Practice.......................................................................
Initial Meeting and Presentation of the
Problems............................................................
Contest Time.................................................................................................................................
Luncheon for Teams.................................................................................................................... Noon-12:45
p.m.
REGISTRATION.............................................................................................................................
Olin 110
PRE-CONFERENCE WORKSHOPS................................................................................................ 9:00
a.m.
- Noon
Daniel D. McCracken, City
Bioinformatics Basics
for Computer Scientists
Paul Tymann, Rochester Institute of Technology, NY
Gary Skuse, Rochester Institute of Technology, NY
Rajendra Raj, Rochester Institute
of Technology
Although the
workshops are free and open to all, potential attendees must pre-register by
contacting workshops@ccscne.org. As
attendance will be limited, attendees will be notified that they have been
admitted. Location will be emailed to
registrants.
VENDOR
DISPLAYS...................................................................................................................
Olin Rotunda
and Olin 110
WELCOME.......................................................................................................................................
Reamer Center
Greetings from
David
Hemmendinger, Conference Co-chair,
PLENARY
SESSION I....................................................................................................................
Engaging
Computing: Involving K-12 and Undergraduate Students
Fred Martin, University of Massachusetts Lowell
Reamer Campus Center
BREAK.............................................................................................................................................
Olin Rotunda and Olin 110
CONCURRENT
SESSION
Session 1A: Panel: The Role of Digital Logic in the Computer Science Curriculum
Mark Hoffman,
Richard Connelly,
Michael
Gousie,
Haldun
Hadimioglu,
Lubomir
Ivanov,
Session 1B: Papers:
Curriculum Enrichment
Numerical Error in an Ethics Course
M. Dee Medley,
Web
Development Group: an Enterprising
Campus Based Internship Program for CS Majors
Joan Peckham, Trent Batson,
May we have class outside?
Implementing Service-Learning in a CS1 Curriculum
J.
Brian Adams, Erica Runkles, Franklin &
Session 1C: Papers: Java and UML
MicroSpaces: A Compact JavaSpaces Alternative for Teaching
Net-Centric Computing in Java
Ron Coleman,
Anil Bhardwaj,
Sachin Batra,
Gary Finke,
Albert Delucca,
Anthony Sofia,
Michael Jutt,
Dr. J vs. the Bird: Java IDE’s One-on-one
Michael Olan,
On Tool Selection for Illustrating the Use of UML in System
Development
Harold Smith,
Session 1D: Tutorial:
Java - an Eventful Approach
Andrea
Danyluk,
Kim Bruce,
Tom Murtagh,
BREAK..............................................................................................................................................
Olin Rotunda
and Olin 110
CONCURRENT
SESSION
Session 2A: Panel: National Science Foundation Funding for
Computer Science Projects
Steve Cunningham, National Science
Foundation, VA
Session 2B: Papers:
Courses for Non-Majors
Content
& Laboratories for a Computer Science Course for Non-Majors in the 21st
Century
Barbara Zimmerman,
Software
Product Proposals in a Computer Science Course for Non-Majors
Session 2C: Papers: Algorithms
Introducing
Data Mining
Richard Connelly,
A
Grading Dilemma or the Abyss between Sorting and the Knapsack Problem
Robert
McGrail, Tracey Baldwin McGrail,
Session 2D: Panel
Using Resources from the Web in Computer Science Courses
Amruth Kumar, Ramapo
Frank Ford,
Deborah Knox, The
Linda Wilkens,
Richard Wyatt,
STUDENT
POSTERS/SOCIAL HOUR.......................................................................................
Nott
Memorial
BANQUET........................................................................................................................................
Reamer Campus Center
Winners of the Programming Contest and Student Poster Session will be announced at the banquet.
CONTINENTAL BREAKFAST....................................................................................................
Olin Rotunda
and Olin 110
REGISTRATION.......................................................................................................................... .8:00
a.m.-
Olin 110
VENDOR
DISPLAYS...................................................................................................................
Olin Rotunda
and Olin 110
CONCURRENT
SESSION
Session 3A: Panel: Emerging Areas in Undergraduate Computer
Science Education
Amruth Kumar, Ramapo
Lawrence D’Antonio, Ramapo
Kathleen Harmeyer, Community College of
Michael Olan,
Brad Richards,
Rose
Linda Wilkens,
Session 3B:
Papers:
Team Projects throughout the Curriculum: Course Management, Teaching Initiatives, and
Outreach
Debra Smarkusky,
Harold Smith, III,
Together is Better: Strengthening the Confidence of Women in
Computer Science via a Learning Community
Lucia Dettori,
Gian Mario Besana,
Integrating Tools and Resources: a Case Study in Building
Educational Groupware for Collaborative Programming
John Langton,
Timothy Hickey,
Richard Alterman,
Session 3C: Papers: Issues
Across the Curriculum
Steganography May Increase Learning Everywhere
James Ryder,
Testing Across the Curriculum - Square One!
Chuck Leska,
Integrating Security Across the Computer Science Curriculum
Linda Null,
Session 3D: Papers:
Programming Languages and Tools
Virtual Pet: an Exercise in XML & XSLT
Jeanine Meyer,
Programming Language Concepts and Perl
Chuck Liang,
Automated Laboratory Artifact Production
James Heliotis, Rochester Institute of
Technology, NY
PLENARY
SESSION II..............................................................................................................
The
mathematics of programming and why we should teach it
David Gries, Associate Dean of
Engineering,
BREAK.........................................................................................................................................
Olin Rotunda and Olin 110
CONCURRENT SESSION
Session 4A: Papers: Architecture
and Hardware
An FPGA-Based Digital Logic Lab for Computer Organization and
Architecture
Mark Hoffman,
Designing and Testing a Control Unit
Pierre von Kaenel,
A Hardware/Software Simulator to Unify Courses in the Computer
Science Curriculum
John Mallozzi,
Session 4B: Papers:
Pedagogy
Infusing Active Learning into Introductory Programming Courses
Keith Whittington, Rochester Institute of
Technology, NY
Does an Online Course Work in Computer Science?
Robert McCloud, Sacred
Instant Messaging and Course Diaries
Matthew Burke, St. Mary’s
Session 4C: Tutorial: ITGuru – A Powerful Network Simulation
Environment for Teaching and
Research
Victor Clincy,
LUNCH............................................................................................................................................
Reamer
Campus Center
Winners of the best paper awards to the luncheon.
MEMBERSHIP
MEETING.............................................................................................................
410 Reamer Campus Center
BOARD
MEETING..........................................................................................................................
410 Reamer Campus Center
STUDENT POSTERS
Friday,
Nott Memorial
Adapting Bayesian Statistical Spam Filters
to the Server Side
Sara Sinclair,
Advisor: Scott Anderson
Addressing Fear of Heights through Virtual
Reality
Chia-Li Chang, Benjamin Insler,
Advisor: Bridget Baird
American Kestrels GIS Research Project
Scott Morrison,
Advisor: Sari Hou
Analysis of Difference of Primes
Scott McCarthy,
Advisor: Hemant Pendharkar
Application of Artificial Intelligence to Chess Playing
Jason Cook,
Advisor: Chris Fernandes
Application of Learned User Context to
Improve Web Search Results
Jessie Burger, Aaron Archer
Waterman, Mark Strohmaier, The
Advisor: Ursula Wolz
Autocorrelation and FourierAnalysis for
Detecting Periodic Cell Potentials in a Simulated Inhibitory Neural Network
Robert Rohrkemper,
Advisor: Peter Erdi
BioInformatics: Searching for Primers
Ryan Menzer,
Advisor: Chris Fernandes
Basis Function Expansion for Coupled
Integral Equations in Quantum Field Theory
Jason Slaunwhite,
Advisor: David Hemmendinger
Cache Conscious Dynamic Memory Allocation
Christopher Cyll,
Advisor: Duane Bailey
Calculating Web Page Trustworthiness by Exploring Communities on the Web
Mirena Chausheva,
Advisor: Panagiotis Metaxas
Cellular Tic Tac Au-Toe-Mata
Mark Schiebel,
Advisor: David Hemmendinger
Constructing a Theoretical Machines Website
Brenda Aldine, Darlene Banta,
Advisor: Jack Beidler
The
Stephen Gewand, Greta Heissenberger, St. Bonaventure University
Advisor: Steven Andrianoff
Creating a Video Device Application
Kevin Septor,
Advisor: Dale Skrien
Designing and Implementing a User-Focused
Web Based Database System
Rachel Noiseux,
Advisor: Clare Congdon
DNA-based Computation
Kai Chen,
Advisor: Duane Bailey
Dynamic Sampling with Governed Neural
Networks
Jeremy
Stober, Matt Fiedler, Evan Moses,
Advisor: Lisa Meeden
Earth’s Tides Simulation
Craig Brubaker,
Advisor: David Hemmendinger
Evolving Fuzzy Sets
Brian Oduor,
Advisor: Andrey Anev
Experiences of Using Rational Rose/Visio for
UML Modeling in an undergraduate Software Engineering Course: A student
Perspective
Darynn Flango, Aydaen Lynch, Robert
Smith, Matthew Lang,
Advisor: Rose Shumba
favGene v2.0 – A Perl and MySQL system for
exploring a set of favorite genes
Steve Benz, Robert Grossman,
Advisor: Mark LeBlanc
Front-end for a RETAIN Function
Melissa Chavez,
Advisor: Chris Fernandes
Genealogy Database for
Andrew Beers, Stephen Browarny,
Slippery
Advisor: Deborah Whitfield
A
Genetic Algorithms Approach to Learning Communication and Coordination in
Simulated Robots
Chris Sotzing,
Advisor: Clare Congdon
A Geometric Model for Simulating Chinese
Brush Painting
Ross Girshick,
Advisor: Timothy Hickey
GIS in Hazard Mitigation
Seth Dunn,
Advisor: Sari Hou
“GraceNote” Fair-Use Jukebox
Will MacMillan,
Advisor: Chris Fernandes
Graphical
Implementation of Huffman and Arithmetic Coders
James Keeler, SUNY Fredonia
Advisor: Ziya Arnavut
Graphically Representing Artificial Intelligence with Maya Programming
Kyle Horan,
Advisor: Linda Wilkens
Haptic and Audio Correlation in User
Interfaces
Advisor: Bridget Baird
Image-Based Search Engine
Michael Marcus,
Advisor: Harold Smith
Investigation of Online Interactive Systems
Gray Robert, St. Mary’s
Advisor: Simon Read
An Investigation of the Efficient Generation
and Applications of Random Programs
Jue Wang,
Advisor: Franklyn Turbak
Investigating WEB Dynamics
Joy Kamunyori,
Advisor: Brad Richards
Looking At You: Computer Generated
Graphical-Human Interaction
Giselle
Isner,
Advisor: Damian Lyons
Mathematical Models Governing Dynamic
User-Driven Resource Allocation
Michael Massimi, Eric Tarn, The
Advisor: Ursula Wolz
Overhead Camera Implementation for Robot
Colony
Vimal
Advisor: Gary Parker
The Politics of Free: Open Source Software
in Government
Brian Donorfio,
Real Time Constructive Solid Geometry
Rendering Using 3D Texture Mapping
Genevieve Herres, SUNY Geneseo
Advisor: Douglas Baldwin
Robot Colony
Ramona Georgescu,
Advisor: Gary Parker
Search Engines
Glen Harmon,
Advisor: Adrien Ionescu
A Simulation of Quantum Logic Gates and
Qubits Using Ruby
Jennifer Carini,
Advisor: Marc Smith
A Software Simulation of an AES-Equipped
802.11x Wireless Network
Matthew Grayson,
Advisor: Takunari Miyazaki
Teaching Wireless Networking with Limited
Resources
Benjamin Stull,
Advisor: Brad Richards
Training a Multi-Layer Feedforward Neural
Network to Play Othello Using the Backpropogation Algorithm and Reinforcement
Learning
Rich Bateman, Hofstra Univesity
Advisor: Simona Doboli
Using a Genetic Algorithm to Break Alberti
Cipher
William Servos,
Advisor: Ralph Morelli
Using Logical Views and Dialogue to Answer
Locally-Expressed Distributed Queries
Nikhil Srivastava,
Advisor: Chris Fernandes
Verification of Feature-based LTAGs
Bruce
Shtelmakher,
Advisor: Valerie Barr
Virtual Chat World (VCW)
Jonathan Kelly, Jennifer Skibitsky,
Advisor: Ingrid Russell
Visual Expectations: A Cognitive Model of
Fuzzy Decision Making
Advisor: Clare Congdon
Viva La BrickOS
Michael Martelli, Jr., Chris
Hundersmarck, Charles Mancinelli,
Advisor: Bi Yaodong
Hotel Information
There is a block of rooms reserved Thurs-Sat at the Holiday Inn in Schenectady, a short
two-block walk to campus.
Holiday Inn –
100 Nott Terrace
(518) 393-4141
The conference rate is: $89.95. The code to get this rate is CCSCNE. The deadline for this is two weeks before the conference. The Holiday Inn has a small number of rollout beds ($10 extra). Supplies are limited though (10-12). There are no rates for triples. If participants use all the rooms blocked, Holiday Inn cannot add to the block but they will still honor the $89.95 rate.
There is a block of 20 rooms reserved Thurs-Sat at the Days Inn in Schenectady at a rate of $69/night. The Days Inn has a small number of rollout beds ($10 extra).
Days Inn –
167 Nott Terrace
(518)370-3297
Further hotel information is available at http://www.union.edu/Visitor_Center/lodging.php.
Directions to
A map of the campus is available at http://www.union.edu/Map/. (These directions refer to locations on that map.)
From the south: Take the NY Thruway to exit 25;
From the east: Take I-90, which becomes the NY Thruway at the intersection with I-87, about 6 miles west of Albany (follow Buffalo signs), and get off the Thruway at exit 25 (one exit).
Continuing from both south and east:
At exit 25, get on I-890 and go west to exit 5 (Broadway). (Ignore the
directions to a slower route to
From the west: Take the NY Thruway to
Exit 26. Take I-890 east to exit 4 (
From the north: Take I-87 to Exit
6 (Route 7 westbound). Follow Route7 to
Parking: After turning onto
On campus: From the east side of the parking lot, walk south on Terrace Lane past a row of college buildings, then turn left onto North Lane, continue past the row of buildings, past Reamer Campus Center, and toward Olin Hall, which has a small telescope dome on it. Registration is to the left after you enter Olin.
From the hotels, enter the campus at the gate at the end of Nott Terrace, walk along Terrace Lane to the open quadrangle, then diagonally to the right, past the 16-sided Nott Memorial, and on toward Reamer Campus Center. Turn right at Reamer and find Olin straight ahead.
From the airport: The Holiday Inn runs
a shuttle bus,
Information on
Plenary Speakers
PLENARY
SESSION I....................................................................................................... Friday
Engaging Computing: Makin' It
Real for Kids and Undergrads
Fred Martin, University of Massachusetts Lowell
Reamer Campus Center
Abstract: Engaging Computing makes computation real for students of all ages. Rather than operating on abstract data, software programs can use physical sensors for input, and drive lamps, motors, and sound as
output. Computing is at the heart of projects that engage with the world.
With recent easy-to-use hardware and software, these ideas are now readily accessible to kids as young as 8 years. Let's go beyond calling this robotics, mechatronics, or real-time control. Not everyone will be an engineer, but a lot of people would enjoy "doing engineering" themselves.
We like students to create something they care about. When students design and implement their own project ideas, they are immersed in the iterative process of bringing their ideas into reality. This affective engagement greatly contributes to their learning, and is a crucial part of "engaging computing."
I will present a number of projects, technologies, and educational settings that invite students from elementary school on up to explore these ideas: elementary schoolers making interactive jewelry, middle
schoolers making animatronic characters, high schoolers building contest robots, and undergrads making ambient displays.
Short Bio: Dr. Fred
Martin is an Assistant Professor in the Computer Science department at the
Previously, Fred was a research scientist at the MIT Media Laboratory, where he developed a series of educational robotics materials, and laid the foundation for the LEGO Mindstorms Robotics Invention System which was launched in 1998. Fred co-founded the MIT Autonomous Robot Design Competition, which draws 150 students annually, and inspired similar contests at colleges and universities worldwide.
Fred also contributes to Gleason Research, a robotics
company he co-founded with his wife Wanda Gleason, and has consulted on a
variety of educational projects in the
PLENARY
SESSION II........................................................................................... Saturday,
The
mathematics of programming and why we should teach it
David Gries, Associate Dean of
Engineering,
Abstract: Much of
the work on program correctness and how it could influence programming was
developed in the 1970's. Nevertheless, first-semester texts and even
second-semester texts on programming don't touch the topic, or pay only lip
service to it. The students, the CS curriculum, and the field lose out because
of this. We produce inefficient hackers, who can't see the beauty in well-done,
disciplined programming. CS already has its field of Computational Complexity;
we should be teaching Computational Simplicity. In this lecture, we will
try to show how correctness concerns can be integrated into our courses and the
effect that the integration has.
Short bio: A
native of
Workshop Information
Daniel D. McCracken,
Abstract: Human-Computer
Interaction is a recognized field in the CS curriculum, as of Computing
Curricula 2001. But what is it? Can you teach it without a formal background in
the subject? This workshop addresses both questions, through a combination of
lecture/demonstrations, group exercises, and discussion of how to fit HCI into an
already-crowded CS curriculum. Each participant may request a copy of User-Centered Website Development: A
Human-Computer Interaction Approach, by Dan McCracken and Rosalee Wolfe (
Short Bio: Daniel D.
McCracken is an author, a former president of the Association for Computing
Machinery (ACM), and Professor of Computer Sciences at the
Bioinformatics Basics for Computer Scientists
Paul Tymann, Rochester Institute of Technology, NY
Gary Skuse, Rochester Institute of Technology, NY
Rajendra Raj, Rochester Institute of Technology
Abstract: This workshop is designed to introduce computer science educators to the emerging field of bioinformatics. The workshop will include an overview of basic biological concepts, including fundamental structures such as cells, genes, proteins, and chromosomes along with higher-level concepts of genomes and proteomes. Some important algorithms for bioinformatics analysis will be introduced, in particular, those related to sequence assembly and gene prediction. The workshop will conclude with a discussion of bioinformatics resources for educators, including on-line software, databases, and course and laboratory materials and exercises.
Short bios:
Paul Tymann is an Associate Professor in the Department of Computer Science at the Rochester Institute of Technology. For the past four years he has been responsible for the first year programming sequence at RIT and has been involved in the development of the Bioinformatics program at RIT. He is currently a Visiting Scientist in the Functional Genomics laboratory in Department of Environmental Medicine at the University of Rochester Medical Center. He recently completed writing a textbook for the second computer science course titled “Modern Software Development”. His research interests include operating systems, networking, parallel and distributed computing, and bioinformatics.
Gary Skuse is
Director of Bioinformatics in the Department of Biological Sciences at the
Rochester Institute of Technology. He
also provides consulting services for a number of local, national, and
international clients in the areas of human genetics, biotechnology and
information management. Dr. Skuse, a
native of
Rajendra Raj is
an Associate Professor in the Department of Computer Science at the Rochester
Institute of Technology. Dr. Raj has worked in the areas of distributed
computing and very large databases. His interests in Bioinformatics lie in all
aspects of biological data: modeling, representation, storage, retrieval, and
integration. Before joining RIT, Dr. Raj was Vice President at Morgan Stanley
& Co., where he led the development of several generations of transactional
persistent object infrastructures for distributed financial applications. Dr.
Raj was previously an Assistant Professor at SUNY Oswego. He received his Ph.D.
in Computer Science and Engineering from the
To register for the conference: Please
use the /cgi-bin/regform.pl">-->registration form. Early registration fees apply only to forms received by April 1st.
To register for the Programming Contest: Before going to the registration link below, please read the following information.
The contest is open to all colleges and universities. Each team consists of at most three
undergraduate students. The contest will
be held on Friday, April 23, from 9:00 to noon as part of the CCSCNE-2004 at
Union College in Schenectady, NY. Teams
should plan to arrive by
The programming languages for the contest are C++, C, and Java. The platforms are Windows XP and Linux Red Hat 9.0. The IDE for Linux will be g++ command-line interface for C++ (and therefore C) users and the latest version of BlueJ (currently 1.3.5) and the latest non-beta version of the JDK (currently 1.4.2) for the Java users. The Windows users will have Visual Studio 6.0 (not .NET) for C++ (and C) and the same Java IDEs as in the Linux setup above.
Teams should report to Olin 110 on the morning of the contest.
The entry fee for the contest is $50. This covers the continental breakfast and lunch for the contestants and their advisor. The team members must register for the conference at the student rate. If you do not know who will be on the team, please wait to register the members until you know.
Please note the
following about second teams:
The number of
teams that can be accommodated in the programming contest is limited. Teams should register early. We will allocate one slot per school until
March 3 or until we run out of room, whichever comes first. After March 3, any available slots will be
allocated to those schools that requested a second team in the order of their
requests. We can not accept schools that
register after March 3. When registering
a team, DO NOT SEND MONEY FOR A SECOND TEAM UNTIL YOU HAVE BEEN NOTIFIED THAT
THERE IS ROOM FOR A SECOND TEAM.