Blogging Friday

instead of Thursday because I totally forgot on Thursday!

I really enjoyed the Digital Gallery talk last night with Joe McKay which is why I totally forgot to blog yesterday.

And Wednesday Ivan Seidenberg visited with the Seidenberg Scholars and with the Computer Club at the downtown NY campus.

We held the UPE induction on Monday evening and it was a pleasure to see the new members of the chapter as well as to meet their families.

I hope everyone's semester is underway, and that you are all working hard and making your studies priority number one, regardless of what else is going on in your lives. I do know how hard it is to work and go to school, as some of you are, because I earned my MBA and my PhD while working full time. Make sure that you make your education a priority; work will always be there but school won't!

Some of you are probably getting ready for midterms. Study hard, get a good night's sleep and remember to breathe during the exam.

See you on campus and in cyberspace.

Lots going on!

I hope your semester is going well. Some of you might be getting ready for midterm exams or projects. Study/work hard and I wish you good luck.

Some things going on that might interest some of you:

• Monday at the Graduate Center at 5 PM we are inducting students into Upsilon Pi Epsilon, the international honor society for the computing and information disciplines. Congratulations to all of you who are being inducted-you can be proud of your academic achievements.
  

• Mr. Ivan Seidenberg, chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Verizon Communications for whom our School is named, will be meeting with the Computer Club at the New York campus on Wednesday during common hour.

• The Digital Gallery will be hosting Joe McKay on Thursday evening, with a reception to follow. The current exhibit, The Aesthetics of Gaming, is an excellent example of the kinds of interdisciplinary activities that we are pleased to promote. Professors Frank Marchese and Jillian McDonald co-curate. Please plan to join us at 6 PM on Thursday at 163 William Street.

As always, I look forward to meeting as many of you as I can. If you see me on a campus, please introduce yourself. If you are not on campus but join us in cyberspace, please send me an e-mail and let me know something about you!

The Aesthetics of Gaming

At the New York city campus, at 163 William Street, the Seidenberg School and Dyson College collaborate on the Digital Gallery, co-curated by Dr. Frank Marchese and Dr. Jillian McDonald.

The latest exhibit, which opened on February 10, is entitle The Aesthetics of Gaming. The artist Joe McKay will speak publicly about his work on Thurs Feb 26, 5:00 pm, followed by a reception at 6:00 pm. This is a free event, open to the public. I look forward to seeing you; bring your friends, too.

The Semester is Under Way

I hope your classes are going well, and that the weather hasn't interfered too much with the beginning of the semester.

If you have had a class canceled due to the weather, please make sure to find out when and how it will be made up. Contact your professor.

Many thanks to Staci Burke, a student in our graduate program, and Mirkeya Cappellan, a graduate of our graduate program and a student in our DPS program, for participating in the NY Computer Club's meeting to discuss the Grace Hopper Conference. Grace Hopper was a computing pioneer and one of the developers of the programming language COBOL. The Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology has held a conference for women in technology each year since 2004. We have been lucky enough to be able to sponsor some attendees; Mirkeya attended in 2007 and Staci attended in 2008.

I hope that each of you will consider joining a professional organization. The ACM, the oldest professional computing organization, has student memberships available. Professional organizations provide a way to stay current, to meet others in the profession, and can help keep you learning and growing all during your professional career. Other organizations that you might find interesting are the IEEE, DSI, AIS and INFORMS. You can find information about any of these at their websites; ask your professors which organizations they might recommend. I belong to the ACM, the IEEE Computer Society, AIS and INFORMS. I have also been a member of DSI in the past.

Have a great week, keep the momentum of the beginning of the semester going. Feel free to comment on this post or to email me at cknapp@pace.edu with questions/comments/compliments/complaints.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Comments

I asked you to comment but the comments feature apparently isn't working.

Blogger is working on this (and thanks to Professor Richard Kline who pointed this out!).

How's the semester so far?

Whether you are joining us for an on-line class, or seeing us face-to-face, I hope your semester got off to a good start.

You might be interested in seeing what President Obama's plans for education are - the stimulus plan provides more money for Pell Grants.

Here's a quote from The New York Times article that I've linked to above:

"In higher education, the bill would increase spending on Pell Grants, the most important federal student aid program, to $27 billion from about $19 billion this year.

“It’s a very good idea to increase Pell Grants in the stimulus,” said Terry Hartle, a senior vice president for public affairs at the American Council on Education, which represents colleges and universities."

You might also want to look at the White House's Education Agenda.

Best of luck as the semester begins-I love beginnings, and I hope you do too.

Welcome to Dean Knapp's Blog!

And welcome to the Seidenberg School of Computer Science and Information Systems. Welcome back to the spring 2009 semester, and if this is your first semester with us, please drop by my office and introduce yourself.

I will be blogging every Thursday and welcome your suggestions for announcements, your compliments and your concerns. Email me directly at cknapp@pace.edu and I'll be sure to respond.

What kinds of things would you like me to blog about?

I look forward to hearing from each of you.