I write as my maternity leave is drawing to a close. My child will start with a full-time nanny during the first full week of August, so that I have time to prepare for the start of classes in the last week of August. I am writing this while traveling to and from my first professional meeting since the birth of my child – and also the first time I’ve been apart from my child for more than a few hours. Continue reading
After just three semesters with the CS faculty at full strength, I was on maternity leave this spring, and one of us will be on sabbatical each of the next six semesters. You may wonder how we are managing these leaves as a department.
First and foremost, I am pleased to announce that Rohan Loveland will be joining us as a visiting assistant professor for the 2018-19 academic year. Dr. Loveland earned his Ph.D. in Engineering at Oxford University. He comes to us from Los Alamos National Labs and Dynafit via an adjunct professorship at New Mexico State University. He looks forward to teaching a course on Machine Learning at Whitman in spring 2019.
More of the story below!
Last Wednesday we celebrated the third annual Pledge of the Computing Professional at Whitman College, with our first two computer science majors, three computer science minors, and an independent major.
The Pledge is a rite-of-passage ceremony for computer science students and others who intend a career in computing. Inspired by the Order of the Engineer, a pin and a certificate serve to remind alumni of their moral and ethical responsibility as a skilled professional.
Continue reading
Pre-registration for Fall 2018 concluded a week ago. Our enrollments are strong once again, with all courses nearly filling or overfilling.
| Number | Title | Enrolled | Women:Men | Waitlist |
| CS 167-A,B | Intro. Computational Problem Solving | 42/60 | 1:1 | 5 |
| CS/Math 220 | Discrete Math & Functional Programming | 34/24 | 1:2.5 | |
| CS 267 | Human-Computer Interaction | 23/20 | 1:3 | 25 |
| CS 270 | Data Structures | 19/24 | 1:3 | 3 |
| CS 310 | Computer Systems Programming | 18/20 | 1:5 | |
| CS 320 | Theory of Computation | 19/20 | ** | |
| CS/Math 350 | Mathematical Modeling & Numerical Methods | 0 enrolled as a CS course | ||
| CS 495 | Capstone Project | 16/16 | 1:7 | |
Long story short: I was pregnant during the fall semester, my daughter Gwendolyn was born in early December, and I am on maternity leave this semester. We’re both doing very well.
I’ve been meaning to write this post since October, which should say something. For those who have been wondering why I haven’t been writing much, this is why.
This is a fairly personal post. Those mainly interested in the development of the CS program should look for a future post on managing my maternity leave and upcoming research leaves. Continue reading
Pre-registration for Spring 2018 concluded on Tuesday night. Our enrollments remain strong, with all sections except the senior capstone project nearly full or overfull:
| Number | Title | Enrolled | Women:Men | Waitlist |
| CS 167-A,B | Intro. Computational Problem Solving | 59/60 | 1:3 | 16 |
| CS 210 | Computer Systems Fundamentals | 24/24 | 1:4 | 4 |
| CS 270 | Data Structures | 28/24 | 3:4 | 4 |
| CS 300 | ST: Software Engineering | 23/24 | ** | 0 |
| CS 301 / Math 373 | ST: Cryptography | 0 enrolled as a CS course | ||
| CS 320 | Theory of Computation | 15/20 | 1:4 | 0 |
| CS 327 | Algorithm Design & Analysis | 18/20 | 1:3 | 0 |
| CS 351 | Artificial Intelligence | 24/16 | 1:4 | 4 |
| CS 496/7/8 | Capstone Project | 3/16 | 1:2 | |
This post shares some of the diversity of our students’ summer experiences—a very important part of a computer science student’s education. I’ve gathered short reflections from a few students and linked to the blogs of a few more. This first draft represents two summer research experiences (one at Whitman and one at a large research university) and two internships (one closely associated with Whitman and one not). Continue reading
During her visit to Whitman this spring, Terian Koscik (Grinnell ‘12) invited students to participate in Code for Good, “an annual event based out of the Portland area where Python programmers from all over the globe get together for a long weekend to build projects that help our communities.” Three Whitman students ultimately participated, including my summer research student Andrew Harvey ‘20, our new CS 167 mentor Missy Gerlach ‘19, and the very enthusiastic Nathaniel Larson ‘19. The three of them have agreed to contribute to a joint guest post about their experiences. First they will give an overview of the event, and then each will share their biggest highlights and takeaways. Continue reading
It’s the first week of classes and time for an update on enrollments. In short, Whitman CS courses are enrolled at full capacity this fall. Continue reading
This was my second summer of participating in Whitman’s student-faculty summer research program. Below I share my stories of two projects that were quite different in their content and their material circumstances.
Counting From Zero 