Report on Undergraduate Forum of Feb. 9, 2012

The CSE Undergraduate Studies Committee (UGSC) organized the annual undergraduate forum on Feb. 9, '12 in KH 190. The forum started at about 5:30 pm and continued till about 7:00 pm, with most students staying on till near the end. The summary below tries to describe the main points that were made during the discussions.

Students:

Iqbal Hasnan, sophomore

Michelle Rush, junion

Duy Bui,

Sebastian Eifrid, freshman

Kevin Daines, senior

Jacob Peddicord, junion

Andrew Buelow, junior

Fandi Peng, sophomore

Darren Ng, freshman

Michael Schoenberg, senior

Nicholas Markopoulos, freshman

Matt Smith , senior

Zach Wein, freshman

Ming Feng Han, freshman

Everly Okorji, junior

Sam Randolph, sophomore

Caleb Brooks, sophomore

Faculty: Rick Parent, Rajiv Ramnath, Neelam Soundarajan, Bruce Weide

Advising staff: Peg Steele, Nikki Strader

Systems staff: Michael Compton, Shaun Rowland

1. Everyone in the room briefly introduced themselves.

2. The major topic of discussion concerned the looming transition to semesters.
   • General information: Much important information about the transition to semesters is available via a number of links in the web page at: http://www.cse.ohio-state.edu/ugrad/semConversion.shtml. Students are urged to go through all of that information carefully. Any questions or comments should be directed to one of the advisors in the CSE Advising Office (DL 374).

   • Individualized transition plan: Each student should have, working with one of the advisors in the CSE Advising Office, come up with an individualized transition plan that takes account of the courses he/she has completed (or will complete) under quarters, and plans out the courses to be taken under semesters to meet all program requirements. Any student who has not done so should send mail to ugadvising AT cse.ohio-state.edu and make arrangements to do so as soon as possible. Freshmen who are CSE pre-majors and took the Engineering Survey class in Au '11 did this as part of that class so do not need to meet with an advisor about this.

   • CSE courses: Syllabi for (almost) all CSE semester courses have been finalized and are available at: http://coe-portal.cse.ohio-state.edu/pdf-exports/CSE/. That page lists, for each course, the closest quarter equivalent, the course title, the number of credit hours, prerequisites, and exclusions. A single .pdf file version of all of the syllabi is available via a link at the top of the page; also available is a "course bulletin" version (that omits the detailed syllabus but contains a 25-word (or less) description) via another link at the top of the page.

     One peculiarity of the semester courses is that some courses have dual numbers. For example, 3231 and 5231 are the same course (Software engineering techniques); similarly, 3241 and 5241 are both the same course (Introduction to database systems). One difference between the 3000-level numbers and the corresponding 5000-level number for the same course is that the former are 3 credit-hours while the latter are 2 cr-hrs. The purpose of this scheme is to allow graduate students who did not take these courses as part of their undergraduate programs and are not allowed to register for 3000-level courses will still be able to take the course by registering for the 5000-level course. But the difference in credit hour means that these graduate students will not be able to get as many credit hours for these courses as undergraduate students in the courses (since the courses are intended for undergraduate students); put differently, graduate students will get less credit (2 hours instead of 3) for the same work as undergraduate students. The bottomline, as far as BS-CSE, BS-CIS, and BA-CIS students are concerned is to make sure to register for the 3000-level number course in such cases, not the 5000-level number.

     Most of the courses have been approved at all levels of the university. However, some of the prerequisites information has been incorrectly transcribed in the Registrar's database. Hence students should refer to the above page for accurate information about prerequistes. (We are working with the Registrar's Office to get the information in the Registrar's database corrected.) Any questions or comments about the courses, including prerequisites, exclusions etc. should be emailed to Bruce Weide (weide AT cse.ohio-state.edu) and/or Neelam Soundarajan (neelam AT cse.ohio-state.edu).

   • Specific courses: Some specific courses were briefly discussed:
     • Systems I: CSE 2421, Systems I, is the replacement for CSE 360. However, 2421 will also include in-depth discussion of programming in C, especially the use of pointers. Hence current students who have completed both 360 and CSE 459.21 (C programming) will get credit for 2421. Any student who has completed (or expects to complete, by the end of Spring '12) CSE 360 but has not taken CSE 459.21, is urged to take 459.21 in Spring. For students who expect to take courses during the Summer '12 semester, there will be a one-time offering of a special course that will be equivalent to 459.21 for this purpose. Any student with credit for 360 but who does not complete 459.21 by Spring '12 and also does not take the special one-time offering in Summer '12 will be required to take the 2-credit CSE 2451, Advanced C programming, course in order to get credit for Systems I. (The additional credit hour, in this case, will be counted toward the student's technical electives.)
     • Project courses: Students will be required to take one of the project courses. Currently, three courses are planned, CSE 3901, 3902, and 3903. The project course is a replacement for CSE 560. As in 560, the main component of each of these courses is an extensive team project including suitable documentation, etc. The difference is in the domain of the project, these being web apps, GUI interface systems, and system software respectively for 3901, 3902, and 3903. Thus 3903 will be quite similar to CSE 560. Students who have taken CSE 560 should not take 3903; but they may take one of the other two and count it as a tech elective. In general, students have to take at least one of the project courses; and may take a second one to be counted as an elective.
     • Graphics courses: There were some questions about the computer graphics courses. Rick Parent has set up a useful site that contains detailed information about the courses being planned. Students interested in graphics should consult that page.
     • Capstone design courses: Students will be required to take one of the capstone design courses. Currently, five courses are planned, CSE 5911 through 5915. 5911 (Software applications) is the replacement for CSE 758+762; 5912 is the replacement for 786 (Game design); 5913 is the replacement for 682 (Animation); 5914 is the replacement for 731 (Knowledge-based systems); 5915 is the replacement for 772 (Information systems). Students may take more than one capstone design course, with the additional courses counting as tech electives.
     • One-credit prog. lang. courses: CSE 4251 through 4255 are 1-cr courses on individual languages such as Perl, Lisp etc. These are replacements for the current 549.xx courses (except there won't be courses on C (because C will be dealt with extensively in CSE 2421) or Java (because Java will be used in CSE 2221 and 2231)). Students may take any of these as tech electives but will not be required to take any (unlike under quarters where one of the 459.xx courses is required to be taken).

   • Program requirements: The program requirements under semesters was briefly discussed. One important change/clarification has to do with the replacement for Math 366/566. The original plan was to have the Math Dept. create a new course, Math 2566, tailored to the needs of CIS/CSE majors. But after extensive discussions, it was decided that Math 3345 (which is the replacement for Math 345), Foundations of higher mathematics, would be a suitable course. Hence BS-CIS and BS-CSE majors will be required to take Math 3345 (not 2566). Math 3345 has (or will have) as prerequisite, the third calculus course or the second calculus course (Math 1152/1172) and CSE 2321 (Foundations I); further, Math 3345 will be a corequisite for CSE 2331 (Foundations II). Students should be able to take Math 3345 in their third semester.
     The transition plan is as follows. The quarter-courses involved are Math 366, 566, and CSE 680; the semester-courses are Math 3345, CSE 2321 and 2331. BS-CIS and BS-CSE majors who have completed only Math 366 do not need to take Math 3345; they will have to take CSE 2321 and 2331. Majors who have completed Math 366 and 566 do not need to take Math 3345 or CSE 2321; they will have to take CSE 2331. Majors who have completed Math 366, 566, and CSE 680 do not need to take any of Math 3345, CSE 2321 or 2331. (ECE Computer option students are currently required to take Math 366; after the transition, they will be required to take CSE 2321. For these students, the transition plan is that if they have completed Math 366, they will not have to take CSE 2321.)

3. Scholarships: Scholarship applications were, at the time of the Forum, due very shortly; the due date is now past. See this page for details.

4. Results of accreditation of BS-CSE program: The site visit for the ABET accreditation evaluation of the BS-CSE program took place in October. The visiting team seemed satisfied with the program and we expect the program's accreditation to be extended for the full six year term. Final results will be known sometime during summer '12.

5. Job market: The job market for recent CSE and CIS graduates seems to be excellent. Students reported receiving multiple job offers from top companies. Starting salaries seem to range from 45k - 55k and beyond. (Students who are looking for jobs and/or internships should register with the Engineering Career Services and take advantage of the services that ECS provides.

6. Enrollment management: The demand for the CIS and CSE majors has been going up quite a bit over the last several years; and all indications are that it will continue to go up given that the job prospects for CS seem very good. Unfortunately, our faculty resources have not gone up in proportion to the increase in the number of majors. As a result, a large number of our courses are at full capacity and we need to take action to ensure that majors don't get closed out of their required and/or elective courses. The Undergraduate Studies Committee had extensive discussions about this problem and recommended, to the CSE faculty, that our previously approved GPA-based policy for admission of pre-major students to the CIS and CSE majors be reinstituted. Based on current demand for the programs, the minimum GPA requirement for admission of pre-major students to the major should be 2.5. This requirement will go into effect starting with pre-majors who apply for admission to the major in Spring 2013; this should provide adequate time for all current pre-majors to enter the major before the new requirement goes into effect. Further, the GPA requirement will be recalculated early winter of each year, based on the most recent estimates of the demand for the major programs; and the revised GPA requirement will go into effect for the following year. The CSE faculty approved this in early December. All current pre-majors have been informed of this policy electronically. Incoming students with interest in CIS/CSE will be informed of the requirement when they join the university.

7. Software tools: There was a brief discussion of software tools (for group work) used especially in CSE 560. A few students had encountered difficulties using the tools and could not get dependable assistance from the grader/instructor. Michael Compton suggested sending a help request (to help@cse) in such situations.