September 8, 2009

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IN THE NEWS
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NW fiber optic cuts can disrupt but fix is fast
Fiber optic cable is generally reliable and can carry millions of phone conversations, Internet downloads and YouTube videos at the same time. But just one careless or misplaced lunge with a backhoe shovel can cut off entire towns from phone service or their connection to the Web, as happened recently in a corner of Oregon and Washington state. Tom Plant, an Oregon State University engineering professor and expert in optical electronics, says repairs to fiber optic lines can be made quickly because a break is easy to locate with light signals if it's not already obvious, and repairs are simple with the right tools. KGW

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OPPORTUNITIES
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The Corvallis City Clubs third year will initiate the season on September 14th with a discussion of the impact of Oregon State University with the Prosperity through Innovation efforts. Over the last decade, several changes have been made to the landscape of how Universities are able to engage with Intellectual property, including the creation of the Oregon Venture Fund, the ability for Universities to take equity in companies who spin out of the university and the support for Entrepreneurial Sabbaticals, allowing faculty to participate in business startups. This City Club program will explore some of the experiences with the commercialization of university research and innovation. Register Here

Prosperity through Innovation: exploring the process
Wayne Embree and Dr. Terri Fiez
September 14, 2009
11:45 1:30pm
First Presbyterian Church, 8th and Monroe, Corvallis

Austin Entrepreneurship Program Idea Challenge
November 10, 6-7:30 p.m., Kelley Engineering 1003. The Idea Challenge is an opportunity to pitch your business idea or come hear other students pitch their ideas to a panel of experts. Find out if your idea has what it takes to go forward. Great preparation for the 2010 Enterprise Challenge where the possible prize money totals $17,500. Winners of the Idea challenge will receive $50 and will be paired with a mentor to prepare for The Enterprise Challenge to be held on April 16, 2010. For further information or to enter, contact Mary McKillop at mary.mckillop@bus.oregonstate.edu.

Austin Entrepreneurship Program Building Your Own Business Plan Series runs from October 6 - January 19. The “Building Your Own Business Plan” Series and the “Idea Challenge” are designed to give students who are potentially interested in commercializing their senior projects assistance in doing so. Details

TRANSFER STUDENT PANEL – NEED VOLUNTEERS!
On Friday, September 18, 2009, the College of Engineering will be hosting a Drive-In conference for our regional community college partners. Attendees will include advisors, faculty, and administrators from our primary transfer institutions. At 1:30 p.m. we will have a “transfer student panel” where I am looking for students to share their experiences transferring to OSU (challenges, what you felt prepared for, what you didn’t, etc.). If you are in Corvallis at that time and willing to help, please email Brett.McFarlane@oregonstate.edu. Lunch and a COE T-shirt will be provided to all panelists.

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SCHOLARSHIPS/FELLOWSHIPS
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Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship Program
Spring 2010 & Summer 2010 Application Open – Deadline: October 6, 2009
The Gilman International Scholarship Program is pleased to announce the opening of the Spring 2010 online application and the launch of a pilot summer award cycle for students participating in Summer 2010 study abroad programs. A limited number of summer awards will be available to students majoring in a Science, Technology, Engineering or Math field who meet the program's standard eligibility criteria listed below.

• Enrolled as an undergraduate student at a two or four-year U.S. Institution
• United States citizen
• Receiving a Federal Pell Grant at the time of application or during the term of study abroad
• Participating in a study abroad program that is no less than 4 weeks and no more than an academic year
• Receiving academic credit
• Study in any country not currently under a U.S. State Department Travel Warning or Cuba

The Naval Research Laboratory / Naval Surface Warfare Center sponsors a Postdoctoral Fellowship Program at a number of Naval R D centers and laboratories. The program is designed to significantly increase the involvement of creative and highly trained scientists and engineers from academia and industry to scientific and technical areas of interest and relevance to the Navy. Current research interests focus on such areas as computer science, artificial intelligence, plasma physics, acoustics, radar, fluid dynamics, chemistry, materials science, optical sciences, condensed matter and radiation sciences, electronics science, environmental sciences, marine geosciences, remote sensing, oceanography, marine meteorology, space technology, and space sciences. Details

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JOBS
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Did you know that you can subscribe to the EECS Jobs List that will send you e-mail when new jobs are posted? Internships and even a few on-campus jobs get advertised there as well. Subscribe here.

Don't forget to check out the AfterCollege job site, tailored especially for our EECS students.

• Computer Associates
  Intern (Redwood City, CA South San Francisco, CA); Principal Consultant (Plano, TX Houston, TX); Software Architect - Introscope Development (South San Francisco, CA)
• National Security Agency
  RF / Wireless Communications Engineer (Fort George G. Meade, MD)
• Cybercoders.com
  Software Developer - C# - SQL - SDLC - finance (Seattle, WA); Software Developer - C# - SQL - SDLC - finance (Seattle, WA)

STUDENT GRADER needed fall, winter, and spring terms for CS 195 and CS 295 web authoring courses. If you have 5 to 10 hours available each week (starting week 2 of the term), have an excellent work ethic, and have experience working with XHTML, PHP, JavaScript, and MySQL, please contact pam.vanlonden@oregonstate.edu via email. Include a list of links to your web site work, describe your skill level, and note what hours you are available during week 2 through 11 of Fall term.

Software and Hardware Development Internships, Microsoft. Details

• Program Manager (PM). As a Program Manager intern, you’ll get to help drive the technical vision, design and implementation of next-generation software solutions. You’ll transform the product vision into elegant designs that will ultimately turn into products used by Microsoft customers. The PM intern helps manage feature sets throughout the product lifecycle, and you’ll have the chance to see your design through to completion. You’ll also work directly with other key team members including Software Development Engineers and Software Development Engineers in Test. Program Managers are advocates for end-users, so your passion for anticipating customer needs and creating outside-the-box solutions for them will really help you shine in this role.
• Software Development Engineer (SDE). This internship is where the fun begins for code gurus like you. As a hands-on Software Development Engineer intern, you’ll learn how to make decisions about design and feature implementation, using your mastery of technical tools to help make a product vision a reality. If you would like to write code and design efficient data structures and algorithms to develop next-generation applications or operating systems, listen up. This internship shows you how SDEs bring products to life by working with Program Managers to ensure strong design and Software Development Engineers in Test to ensure quality through testing. Ultimately for the SDE, it’s your code that turns concepts into new technologies and services.
• Software Development Engineer in Test (SDET). As an intern Software Development Engineer in Test (SDET), you’ll own it, break it, fix it, and own it again. You’ll ensure a product’s quality by making sure it performs as users expect it to. Part of the fun is how creative you can be devising ways to manipulate, crush, and sabotage software into submission—while creating innovative testing technologies along the way.

Software and Hardware Development Full Time Positions, Microsoft. Details

• Program Manager (PM). As a Program Manager, you’ll drive the technical vision, design and implementation of next-generation software solutions. You’ll transform the product vision into elegant designs that will ultimately turn into products used by Microsoft customers. Managing feature sets throughout the product lifecycle, you’ll have the chance to see your design through to completion. You’ll also work directly with other key team members including Software Development Engineers and Software Development Engineers in Test. Program Managers are advocates for end-users, so your passion for anticipating customer needs and creating outside-the-box solutions for them will really help you shine in this role. As a Program Manager you will have the ability to lead within a product’s life cycle using evangelism, empathy, and negotiation to define and deliver results. You will also be responsible for authoring technical specifications, including envisaged usage cases, customer scenarios, and prioritized requirements lists.
• Software Development Engineer (SDE). This is where the fun begins for code gurus like you. As a hands-on Software Development Engineer, you’ll make decisions about design and feature implementation, using your mastery of technical tools to make a product vision a reality. If you like to write code and design efficient data structures and algorithms to develop next-generation applications or operating systems, this is the position for you. As an SDE, you’ll bring products to life by working with Program Managers to ensure strong design and Software Development Engineers in Test to ensure quality through testing. Ultimately for the SDE, it’s your code that turns concepts into new technologies and services.
• Software Development Engineer in Test (SDET). As a Software Development Engineer in Test (SDET), you’ll own it, break it, fix it, and own it again. You’ll ensure a product’s quality by making sure it performs as users expect it to. Part of the fun is how creative you can be devising ways to manipulate, crush, and sabotage software into submission—while creating innovative testing technologies along the way.
  

Student Electronics Technician/Programmer. Two companies out at the BEC (Corvallis Business Enterprise Center) by the Corvallis airport are looking for a part-time student electronics technician to work 10-15 hrs/wk. Details

Research Experience for Undergraduates in Computational Sustainability
Professors Dietterich and Wong are looking for two undergraduate CS students interested in an NSF-sponsored REU studying the application of computer science to problems of ecological science and biosphere management. Our primary focus is on applying machine learning methods to predict the distribution of multiple plant and animal species. We are also studying methods for managing forests in Eastern Oregon to minimize catastrophic fires while also providing sustainable habitat for diverse species, sustainable harvest of wood products, and (possibly) carbon sequestration. Interested students should send an email message to tgd@eecs.oregonstate.edu and wong@eecs.oregonstate.edu with your resume, a copy of your transcript, and the contact information for two references.

C++ Programming for Insect Identification
The BugID project (http://web.engr.oregonstate.edu/~tgd/bugid/) seeks an undergraduate CS major to join our cross-disciplinary team of mechanical engineers, computer scientists, and entomologists. We are developing computer vision algorithms and robotic hardware to revolutionize the identification and classification of bugs (actual arthropods -- not their software namesakes). Knowledge of C++ and significant programming experience are desired. The project will involve extending and improving our C++ program that controls a robotic microscope + camera setup to capture images. You will gain experience interfacing with robots and cameras, as well as experience with computer vision and machine learning algorithms. Interested students should contact Professor Dietterich (tgd@eecs.oregonstate.edu).

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