Information Technology and Web Science at RPI

Hello Everyone! Tonight is my final night in upstate NY before leaving my friends and family to go work for Cisco in Morrisville, NC. People keep asking me if I am scared or nervous and the answer is both yes, and no. Of course I am excited about the opportunity to work for one of the best companies in the country if not the world. But I'm finding it hard to leave behind my entire family even if its for only 9 months. Of course I will be back to visit in February and perhaps a few more times. I really hope you all get a chance to read about my current adventures in this country and learn some information about what going on CO-OP is really like. I am open to all questions and invite you to email me with said questions. I wish everybody a happy new year, and when I get my website up and running there will be even more to see! Have a great day everybody!! Warm Regards, Tim Mumford

Congratulations to our MS in IT students that are graduating this December!  We are so proud of your accomplishments during your time here at RPI and look forward to keeping in touch with you in your professional careers.  Good luck! Stephanie Ardizzone Hithika Chhaochharia Christopher DeJong Rajashree Deka Rohan Dhruva William Gill Yiyi Jiang Samuel Johnson Arun Praka Lakshmi Narayanan Sumitra Madhav Fred Osoro Kathyayani Prasad Janani Ranganathan Himanshu Sharma Ankit Srivastava Han Wang Di Wu Minjun Yang

The use of SymTrend in the study of Asperger's, autism, neurological disorders and brain injury recovery A talk by : Minna Levine Date/Time : Wednesday, November 9th, 2011 - 5:00pm-6:00 PM   Location: WINSLOW 1140             Page :  http://tw.rpi.edu/web/ event/talk/MinnaLevine-2011- 11-09 Abstract Dr. Minna Levine, President of  SymTrend, Inc.  will describe SymTrend and provide examples of research projects that have used the system with teens with Aspergers, children with lower functioning autism in substantially separate classrooms, teens who self-injure, and adults with neurological disorders/brain injury. SymTrend  is a web and mobile platform for creating and implementing data collection and guidance applications. Its development was funded in part by three STTRs from NIMH. It can be used by professionals and families to record behavioral observations and evaluate the impact of interventions. It has a site license with an authoring tool with which researchers can develop

Hello everyone, Do you have leadership potential? Last Spring, the Social Media Club @Rensselaer, an educational chapter of the largest social media organization in the world, launched on campus. Its founders, Diego Regules and Travis Cano (ITWS Seniors), most significant contribution to the community was achieved through the Social Media Forum, to which more than 100 people attended. Since Travis and Diego will graduate in December, they're currently looking for pro-active students looking to take responsibility in managing the club. They will transfer all their know-how, along with access to all of our platforms to any student (or group of students) that demonstrate a clear interest in learning about social media and possess some leadership acumen.    This Rensselaer Union-recognized club is flexible enough and open to allow any social media leader to take it in the direction she/he decides! Everything's in place already for someone else to lead the club: contacts in Capi

The Center for Career and Professional Development website has Rensselaer's salary data posted by school and degree.  A survey of the graduating Class of 2011 found that the ITWS degree ranks as the 3rd highest average salary and the highest low end starting salary !  Check out the data for yourself:  http://rpi.edu/dept/cdc/students/jobsearch/offers/2011_Accepted_Salaries_%20%282%29.pdf This is great news for all of our current students, especially graduating students that are looking for full time employment.  Good luck with the job and internship searches!   

The Founders Award of Excellence was established in 1994 to honor students who embody qualities of creativity, discovery, leadership, and the values of pride and responsibility at Rensselaer.  Students nominated should demonstrate: Strong academic performance. Candidates should be in the top 10% of their respective class. Pride and responsibility in all aspects of his or her life at Rensselaer. Outstanding leadership skills exhibiting discretion, judgment, and well-rounded regard for the opinions of others. Originality and imagination that may be evidenced by the potential to solve problems and possess skills to promote new ideas and theories in his/her field of study.  Congratulations to the 2011 ITWS Founders Awards recipients! Joseph Dougherty - Co-Term Andrew Karnani - Class of 2013 Kristin Shumway - Graduate Student Ankit Srivastava - Graduate Student Han Wang - Graduate Student Students were presented with the award at the 18th Annual Honor's Convocation hel

Last night's ITWS alumni panel was a great success!  Thank you again to all the alumni who made the trip to RPI to share their work experiences since graduating, you all had great stories and advice.  Approximately 65 ITWS students made it to the event and asked some wonderful questions.   Many of the students took the time to meet individually with the alumni after the Q&A session ended.  As we all learned last night, networking is key to a successful career before and after graduation. Photo highlights below.  All the photos can be found here . Dan Emaelaf, Yanan Li, Jason Reed, Emily McDonnell, Sara Petry, Tim Banker, and Pooja Daswani Rao made the trip back to RPI for the ITWS Alumni Panel on October 19, 2011 Alumni speak to a full room of ITWS students Kevin Ung asks a question Networking with Alumni Networking with Alumni

Tomorrow, Wednesday October 19, 2011 ITWS will be hosting it's annual alumni panel from 6-8pm in the Russell Sage Dining Hall.  Don't miss this opportunity to connect with ITWS alumni and learn about their careers after RPI.  There will be a Question and Answer session, so come prepared with questions for the alumni.   A few of the alumni will be collecting resumes at tomorrow's event. Panelist are:   Tim Banker Tim graduated in 2006 with a BS in IT with a concentration in Web Technologies.    He is now working as the Digital Strategy Lead at The Hartford Financial Services group working on creating a multi-year digital roadmap to provide e-servicing capabilities and ensuring the best customer experience. *  Recruiting event, accepting resumes Dan Emaelaf Dan graduated in 2002 with a BS in Management. He has been working at GE for 9 years and is currently an Information Technology Quality Black Belt working to apply Six Sigma quality methodology to Information Technolo

Have you stopped by the ITWS Laboratory recently?   Comfy couches make a great place to work on group homework, rest between classes, or have a snack before class.   There are twelve 22" monitors set up for student use.  Give those tired eyes a break from staring at your laptop screen.      Snacks, coffee, soda, and juice are available in the lab for purchase.  Best prices on campus!  There is also a microwave, refrigerator, and water cooler.  Come in between classes, to study, work on group projects, or to socialize with other ITWS students. What students and faculty are saying about the lab. " The Information Technology and Web Science (ITWS) Lab has become a "satellite home base" where I can feel like I am at home. I often find myself going there in-between classes or at the latest hours in the night. It is the place where I, as well as many others, go to get work done. The space enables ITWS students to communicate and collaborate across

Hello Everyone, My name is Catherine Hastings and I am the freshman ITWS representative on the ITWS leadership board. As some of you are aware, we have a great lab space in the upstairs of the Lally Building. It has a bunch of monitors, a few couches and some great inexpensive snacks! I too am in the Intro to ITWS class and as you all know it is a project based class. A great way to get work done and to learn more about any given subject is to work with your peers. For this reason, I am proposing that we have ITWS study hours on Wednesday nights from 8-10. Obviously these are not required, but it’s a great way to meet more people in our class and work to help each other with our ITWS projects or new concepts. This will be student run and feel free to come in and out and show up whenever. I look forward to seeing you all starting this Wednesday, October 5 from 8-10 (or sometime in between then) to study IT and work together on labs and new concepts. I can’t wait to utilize the wonder

Check out the very interesting New York Times article about Gerwin Schalk's research.  Gerwin is an alumni from the Master's in IT  program here at RPI. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/18/magazine/the-cyborg-in-us-all.html

The career fair is right around the corner!  Need help with your resume?  Does it need a tune-up?   The ITWS Honor Society Gamma Nu Eta (GNH) is excited to present a Resume Workshop.  Members of GNH and professors will be available to help critique, give pointers and discuss what you should or shouldn't have on your resume.  Students will also be giving brief presentations about navigating the career fair and discussing some of the companies they have worked for.   When: Tuesday, September 27, 2011 Time: 4-6pm Where: Lally 102 Refreshments will be served! See you there in a week.

"The 60 Second Sell" is an exciting two day work shop hosted by the Archer Center and the ITWS department.  The 60 Second Sell is a technique developed to assist people in perfecting their ability to present themselves effectively.  This skill is crucial for a professional because of the need to clearly articulate one's own strengths and abilities at any given moment.  The 60 Second Sell allows you to sum up who you are, make a good first impression, and demonstrate what you have to offer.   Dates:  Tuesday September 13, 2011 and Tuesday September 20, 2011 Time: 4:00 - 6:00 pm Location:  Lally Hall Room 102 Refreshments will be served at both sessions! RSVP Required.   Limited seats available so reserve your spot early!

Welcome back to campus for the Fall 2011 semester at RPI.  We would like to especially welcome the ITWS Class of 2015 to RPI!  Good luck with your first semester of college.   We held our annual ITWS Welcome Back Picnic on Tuesday September 6, 2011 and had a great turnout!  Due to rain we had to move the picnic indoors this year, but we all squeezed in and everyone had a great time. Photos from the event! Students enjoying their indoor picnic. ITWS Faculty and Staff Burgers, hot dogs, fruit salad, veggie burgers, yum! Graduate and undergraduates mingle at the event.

Read Jim Hendler's newest blog post: http://gigaom.com/2011/08/14/are-we-the-web/ What are your thoughts on this topic?

Business Day To Share Grievances, Microblogging the Frustrations of Flight By JAMES HENDLER Published: August 1, 2011 A computer scientist vents with fellow fliers over Twitter and learns to keep a paper backup for smartphone boarding passes. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/02/business/microblogging-the-frustrations-of-flight-frequent-flier.html

Alex Bulazel, a sophomore in the ITWS program, is spending the summer in Washington, DC working as an intern for Congress.  Alex has been attending  a variety of interesting information technology-related meetings and hearings .  At a recent Oversight and Government Reform Committee Subcommittee on Technology, Information Policy, Intergovernmental Relations and Procurement Reform hearing entitled "Transparency and Federal Management IT Systems" Alex got to meet and and have an interesting conversation with Vivek Kundra .  Vivek Kundra is the first Chief Information Officer of the United States.  Very exciting!  He is enjoying his summer and is learning a great deal about the inner workings of Congress.    Alex with Vivek Kundra in Washington, DC

Elsevier/Tetherless World Health and Life Sciences Hackathon When: Monday, June 27, 2011 9:00 AM - Tue , June 28, 2011 4:00 PM Where: Pat's Barn Rensselaer Technology Park See: http://tw.rpi.edu/web/event/TWCElsevierHackathonJune2011 Description: Create apps; Win Prizes! The Tetherless World Constellation (RPI) and Elsevier's SciVerse Developer Network are hosting a 24-hour Health & Life Sciences Semantic Web Hackathon 27-28 June 2011 at Pat's Barn on the campus of the Rensselaer Technology Park. Participants will compete to develop apps using linked data from TWC and other sources, web APIs from Elsevier SciVerse, and visualization and other resources from around the Web. Register at: http://twcsciverse2011.eventbrite.com/ Contact: John S. Erickson, Ph.D. http://tw.rpi.edu Topical Areas: Conferences , Workshops Tags: Conferences, Training, Workshops, Conferences_Meetings

Congratulations to the graduating class of 2011!   We had a fabulous dinner on Friday May 27th to celebrate the graduation of 19 Graduate students, 3 Co-Terminal students, and 29 Undergraduate students.  The next morning, the students gathered together for the commencement ceremony, it was a beautiful clear and warm day!     Professor Huges speaks to the graduates Group photo at the graduation dinner   ITWS Undergraduates ITWS Master's See all the photos here . Good luck graduates and keep in touch!

This semester Gamma Nu Eta, the ITWS Honor Society, decided to volunteer their time to refurbish and install new computers for a local non-profit charity based out of Troy, NY.  They meet twice during the semester to reformat and install new software on nine (9) computers.  Special thanks to Joe Dougherty for taking extra time to lead the committee for this project.   Last Thursday, May 12, 2011, four GNH members took a trip down to the Unity House Sunshine Program School Building to drop off the refurbished computers loaded with educational software.  These computers were placed into the classrooms and will be used to teach children basic computer skills, and with the assistance of the educational software will help the children learn other basic skills.   Tyler Wilkin, Rebecca Camara, Ivette Alfonso, Joe Dougherty, and Lindsey Poirier in front of the Unity House Sunshine Program Building.   Ivette Alfonso, Child Care Program Manager for the Sunshine Program met us and directed

Below is the Capstone Team presentation for the Albany Crime Analysis Center project.  This team created the Crime Information Distribution Network Portal and gave a wonderful presentation about the project.    Congratulations Stephanie Ardizzone, Fred Osoro, Kathyayani Prasad, and Chad Ruhle!  

ITWS students Matt Heffler, Brian Heller, Tom Rozanski and Joe Dougherty entered into the 2011 New York Business Plan Competition  at the end of March. Their proposal was for Fire Department Solutions, a non-profit business to develop and sell management software and related services to fire departments; their software was created with support from the Rensselaer Center for Open-source Software .  On April 28th they presented their project at the College of Nanoscale Science & Engineering in Albany in the Services/Non-Profit category.  They had several meetings with Professors Miner, Hughes, and Kuruzovich regarding their slides and presentation content and found this extremely helpful.  The team came in second place for their category and won a cash prize!  Congratulations! Matt, Joe and Brian with their award.   RPI's Press Release: Four Student Teams From Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Win Cash Prizes In New York State Business Plan Competition Six stude

Capstone Team 4 made an excellent presentation on their project "Exoplanet Modeling Explorer" for California Planet Search .  Congratulations Brian Wang, Samuel Johnson, Amanda Hunt, and Yiyi Jiang!  

Good afternoon ITWS! The time has come to hold elections for Student Leadership.  The candidates are all listed below with a brief paragraph about why they would like to run for their chosen office.  Please email me your three selections (1 - President, 2 - VP, 3 - Class Rep) by midnight on Tuesday May 10th.  Good luck to all the candidates. Happy voting! Lessa Shear President Andrew Karnani: For the past two years I have been a part of the ITWS student leadership.  These two years have seen significant changes to the department from the name, to the creation of a new lab space for all of us to use.  I have greatly enjoyed my time on student leadership and have learned a lot.  I hope to have the opportunity to continue to serve this amazing department for another year. David Molik: I would like to become your IT President. I want to give back to the community that has nurtured me as I matured a college student. The IT Department has seen to my needs as a student and I want to