Category: Seminars

The College of Computing Department of Computer Science invites girls in grades six through 10 to join a virtual workshop in which participants will explore, design, and program web pages and data analysis programs, while tracing how data flows through our daily lives.

The free workshop will take place Monday through Friday, from 2:00 to 4:00 p.m., July 13 through August 14, via online Zoom meeting. Space is limited, so register by July 7. Prior programming experience is not necessary.

Workshop presenters are third year Computer Science undergraduate Sarah Larkin-Driscoll (pictured above), and second-year Computer Science student Miriam Eikenberry-Ureel (pictured below). Email aspire-l@mtu.edu with questions.

Workshop Description

Why do people collect data? How is data collected? What kinds of things can you learn from data? What is wrong with the chart on this flyer? Join us on Zoom to learn about data collection and privacy while building your own website, designing a poll, analyzing collected data, and learning about cryptography.

In the Code Ninjas workshop participants answer these questions while they:

• Build their own websites
• Explore how to set and remove cookies
• Design a survey and learn how polling agencies choose what questions to ask
• Write a program to analyze a data set and present a summary
• Learn about data privacy laws
• Learn about cryptography and write secret code
• Learn about opportunities and careers in data science, web development, and other computing fields
• Meet other girls interested in computing

Class Schedule

Week 1: Basics of Data, HTML, & Cookies
Week 2: Data Collection
Week 3: Data Analysis
Week 4: Data Storage & Encryption
Week 5: Project Week

Workshop Sponsors

The Code Ninjas Workshop is sponsored by an AspireIT grant from the National Center for Women & Information Technology (NCWIT), and facilitated by the Michigan Tech Department of Computer Science.

To help faculty prepare for Flex Fall, IDEA Hub and the William G. Jackson Center for Teaching and Learning have organized a series of events, each including Flex Fall Q&A sessions and discussions about teaching.

Click the below links to register and receive a Google calendar invitation and the Zoom link. Questions? Email margaret@mtu.edu.

Session #2: Wednesday, June 17, 3:00 – 4:30 pm. Online Teaching Showcase
Teaching, Q&A: 3 – 3:30 pm; Teaching Showcase, Discussion: 3:30-4:30 pm)

Session #3, Wednesday, June 24, 3-5 pm: Develop Innovative Solutions
(Teaching, Q&A: 3 – 3:30 pm, Design Thinking Workshop: Develop Innovative Solutions: 3:30 – 5 pm)

Session #4: Wednesday, July 1, 3 to 5 pm: Prototype Your Innovative Solutions
(Teaching, Q&A: 3 to 3:30 pm; Design Thinking Workshop–Prototype Your Innovative Solutions: 3:30 – 5 pm)

Read the full story in Monday’s Tech Today.

The Graduate Student Government (GSG) Professional Development Committee has organized a free webinar series in Computer Programming, which begins Tuesday, July 14, 2020.

July 14: “Introduction to Machine Learning with Python,” by Timothy Havens (CC)

July 15: “Managing Data” (Data Mining)” by MS Data Science candidate Sneha Nimmagadda

July 16: “Introduction to Deep Learning,” by Timothy Havens (CC)

Seats are not limited, but participants are asked to register so webinar organizers know how many attendees to expect.

Find more information, including links to register and join Zoom meetings, visit the GSG website.

The International Graduate Student Communication and Culture Center (IGSC3) is hosting a weekly Conversation Circle on Thursdays at 10:00 a.m. through June 26, 2020.

The aim of the conversation circles is to give international students opportunities to practice conversational English in an informal setting.

International students will discuss a range of topics selected by IGSC3 coaches, as well as students. Topics often include American culture, popular culture, travel, and history.

The meetings will be hosted through an online Zoom meeting. Sign up to participate here.

All GenCyber 2020 summer programs will be deferred to 2021 due to the impact of the COVID-19 virus.

For a listing of those programs who are receiving funding to host a camp, please see gen-cyber.com.

For updates and questions regarding specific camps and/or outreach activities, please contact the host institution using the information found on gen-cyber.com.

Please direct questions about the Michigan Tech GenCyber program to gencyber@mtu.edu.

The College of Computing has announced the addition of a bachelor of science in Mechatronics to its degree programs, beginning in Fall 2020, pending Michigan Tech Board of Trustees and state of Michigan approval.

A multi-disciplinary field at the intersection of mechanics, electronics, and computing, Mechatronics is the science of receiving, processing, and transmitting sensory data for the advanced control of external devices.

More details about this exciting new BS degree program will be shared soon. In the meantime, learn more about Mechatronics at Michigan Tech using the links below.

What is Mechatronics
MS in Mechatronics
Mechatronics Certificate

And check out this video, which was filmed in the Mechatronics lab at Michigan Tech.

Play – STEM Students Specialize in Mechatronics

The College of Computing’s Department of Applied Computing invites the campus community to lecture by MERET faculty candidate Dr. Sidike Paheding, Friday, April 10, 2020, at 3:30 p.m., via an online Zoom meeting. The title of Paheding’s lecture is, “Machine Learning in Multiscale and Multimodal Remote Sensing: From Ground to UAV with a stop at Satellite through Different Sensors.”

Link to the Zoom meeting here.

Paheding is currently a visiting assistant professor in the ECE department at Purdue University Northwest. His research interests cover a variety of topics in image/video processing, machine learning, deep learning, computer vision, and remote sensing.

 Abstract: Remote sensing data provide timely, non-destructive, instantaneous estimates of the earth’s surface over a large area, and has been accepted as a valuable tool for agriculture, weather, forestry, defense, biodiversity, etc. In recent years, machine learning for remote sensing has gained significant momentum due to advances in algorithm development, computing power, sensor systems, and data availability.

In his talk, Paheding will discuss the potential applications of machine learning in remote sensing from the aspects of different scales and modalities. Research topics such as multimodal data fusion and machine learning for yield prediction, plant phenotyping, augmented reality and heterogeneous agricultural landscape mapping will be covered.

Paheding earned his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering at the University of South Alabama, Mobile, and University of Dayton, Ohio, respectively. He was a postdoctoral research associate and and assistant research professor in the Remote Sensing Lab at Saint Louis University from 2017 to 2019, prior to joining Purdue University Northwest.

He has advised students at the undergraduate, master’s, and doctoral levels, and authored or co-authored close to 100 research articles, including in several top peer-review journal papers.

He is an associate editor of the Springer journal Signal, Image, and Video Processing, a guest editor/reviewer for a number of reputed journals, and he has served on international conference committees. He is an invited member of Tau Beta Pi (Engineering Honor Society). 

The College of Computing Department of Applied Computing invites the campus community to a lecture by faculty candidate Saleem Ashraf on, April 7, 2020, at p.m., via an online Zoom meeting.

Dr. Ashraf is currently an assistant professor of mechatronics engineering in the ECE department at Sultan Qaboos University, Oman. He received his Ph.D. and MSc. degrees in mechatronics engineering from DeMontfort University, UK, in 2006 and 2003, respectively, and his BSc. in electrical and computer engineering from Philadelphia University, Pa., in 2000.

Ashraf’s research interests are unified under the theme, “developing real-time smart controllers for different engineering systems,” and his research investigates electromechanical, electro-pneumatic, and piezoelectric based systems. 

Advancements in field of unmanned vehicle system, artificial intelligence, and computer vision have empowered the integration of solutions that would potentially automate many processes. 

Ashraf’s seminar presents his research experience in the field of smart and vision-based unmanned vehicle systems, and how this technology has been employed to solve real-life problems in Oman.

The talk will present a selection of Ashraf’s fundamental research work focused on the modeling and control of long-stroke piezoelectric actuators, which are being used widely in micro positioning systems. He will also share his experience in the establishment of the “Embedded & Interconnected Vision Systems” (EIVS) lab. 

The second part of Ashraf’s talk will cover his teaching experience, including philosophy, courses, new courses, extracurricular activities, and practical projects. He will present his methodology in supervising multi-disciplinary final year projects with some examples of completed projects. Finally, Ashraf will discuss his ideas about how he can contribute to the Michigan Tech curriculum at all levels, undergraduate and graduate.

Ashraf has been awarded external research grants totaling more than $450K, and three internal grants totaling $58K; he attributes his success in this regard to his development of excellent relations with local industry and the Omani research council (TRC). The common aim of these research projects is to develop vision-based unmanned vehicles to solve real life problems such as oil spill in seawater. 

He has published more than 45 peer-reviewed papers in reputable journals and at international conferences. He is one of the founders of the “Embedded & Interconnected Vision Systems” (EIVS) lab at Sultan Qaboos University, which was inaugurated this March and funded by BP Oman. The lab hosts equipment for Embedded Vision Systems, Artificial Intelligence (UVS / Robotics), and IoT.

The College of Computing’s Department of Applied Computing invites the campus community to a lecture by faculty candidate Kahlid Miah on Friday, April 3, 2020, at 3:30 p.m., via an online Zoom meeting. The title of Miah’s lecture is, “Fiber-Optic Distributed Sensing Technology: Applications and Challenges.”

Link to the Zoom meeting here.

Dr. Miah is currently a visiting faculty member in the ECE department at Indiana University – Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI). He received his Ph.D. and M.S. in electrical engineering from University of Texas at Austin, and a B.S. in aerospace engineering, also from Indiana University. His research interests are in computational geophysics, signal and image processing, instrumentation, and fiber-optic distributed sensing system development.

Lecture Abstract: In distributed fiber-optic sensing systems, a fiber-optic cable itself acts as an array of sensors, allowing users to detect and monitor multiple physical parameters such as temperature, vibration and strain with fine spatial resolution over a long sensing distance. There are many applications, especially in geophysical, geotechnical, and mining engineering where simultaneous multiparameter measurements are essential. Data deluge, difficulty in multicomponent measurements, and poor sensor-medium coupling are key challenges, and thus provide opportunities for future research and development.  

Dr. Miah’s past teaching and research experience includes a faculty position in the Geophysical Engineering department at Montana Technological University. He has held a postdoctoral research position at University of Alberta and a visiting fellowship position at the Geological Survey of Canada. He has also worked as a process engineer for a semiconductor equipment manufacturer in Austin, Tex.

Note: The College of Computing Department of Applied Computing is a new administrative unit replacing the CMH Division; its official start date is July 1, 2020. Applied Computing academic programs include Computer Network and System Administration (CNSA), Cybersecurity, Electrical Engineering Technology (EET), Health Informatics, and Mechatronics.