Congratulations to the School of Computing and Engineering’s (SCE) two ACM student teams who competed at the 20th Annual Consortium for Computing Sciences in Colleges (CCSC) Central Plains Conference programming contest at Westminster College in Fulton, MO on April 4-5, 2014. Continue reading
Tag Archives: Brian Hare
SCE Hosts Women in Technology Panel
A panel discussion about women in technology was hosted at SCE on Wednesday, July 17. SCE faculty Brian Hare helped to organize the event and computer science undergraduate Sarah Withee served on the panel. About 20 people attended the panel discussion which was organized by The Nerdery, a Minneapolis-based interactive software company with a presence in Kansas City. The screening of the documentary film, “She++” helped to define the issues and was then followed by an open forum. Continue reading
Brian Hare Presents Poster at ACM SIGCSE Conference
Brian Hare, SCE Assistant Teaching Professor of Computer Science, presented his poster entitled “Classroom interventions to reduce failure in CS1” at ACM’s Special Interest Group for Computer Science Education (SIGCSE) conference. He presented data based on three consecutive semesters’ experience with peer mentoring and course support in CS 101 and its effects on reducing the withdrawal & failure rate. His results found that Intensive support definitely helped many students get better grades but didn’t affect the number of people dropping or failing the course. The biggest predictor of dropping or failing the course was being employed full time while also taking 12 or more credit hours. The significance of the work is that students often find that successfully completing their first semester at college is often one of the biggest hurdles they face. Finding ways to help students be more successful in courses that traditionally challenge freshman students pursuing a STEM degree, can lay the groundwork for future successes and can help prevent students from getting bogged down or behind schedule their freshman year. The SIGCSE conference, held March 6-9 in Denver, Colorado, attracted just over 3000 attendees from all over the world. There were over 150 papers, 11 panel discussions, twenty workshops before and during the conference, and over thirty exhibits associated with the SIGCSE conference.
Professor Brian Hare Discusses Voting Online With 41 Action NEWS
We just might be ready to try online voting in 2020. SCE Teaching Professor Brian Hare discussed with 41 Action NEWS the various hurdles that must be cleared to make online voting an option. Until online voting applications can keep your vote secret, verify the voter’s eligibility to vote, prevent voters from being intimated to vote in a certain way and guarantee the count is accurate, online voting cannot be considered as an option. With this in mind, Professor Brian Hare thought the technology might be ready by 2020 for some trial runs.
SCE hosts Python Programming Language Workshop for Beginners
PythonKC is a local group of enthusiasts for the Python programming language. On Friday and Saturday June 22-23, PythonKC held a Beginners Python Workshop in 302 Flarsheim. About 20 people attended the install-fest Friday night and 45 attended the Saturday workshop. Attendees were about evenly divided between experienced/professional developers interested in learning a new language, and beginners learning the basics of programming. The youngest participant was 9, he wants to learn Python so he can write games. Attendees worked on several projects, including a word game, basic graphics programming, using Python to retrieve Twitter messages, and basic Web programming. Lunch was provided by the generosity of the Python Software Foundation. More information about PythonKC can be found at http://www.meetup.com/pythonKC . Python founder Andrew Schoen and members Juan Gomez and Brian Hare helped organize the event. Brian is a SCE Assistant Teaching Professor in SCE’s Department of Computer Science Electrical Engineering.
Brian Hare & Jerry Richardson are 2012 SCE Good Teaching Award Recipients!
Two SCE faculty members were honored with 2012 Good Teaching Awards at the SCE Spring Awards Ceremony on April 26, 2012. They are Brian Hare, Assistant Teaching Professor in the Computer Science Electrical Engineering (CSEE) Department, and Dr. Jerry Richardson, Associate Professor in the Civil and Mechanical Engineering (CME) Department. Each year two faculty from SCE, one from CME and one from CSEE, are selected for a Good Teaching Award by the School’s graduating seniors.
The awards are well deserved. The CSEE Department Chair advised, “Brian Hare often receives comments from students like, ‘the best teacher I have taken a class from at UMKC,’ ‘excellent instructor’ and ‘my favorite teacher at UMKC.’ Brian’s devotion to his profession is highly commendable. He is very deserving of the CSEE Good Teaching Award.” According to the CME department chair, “Dr. Richardson has a true passion for teaching. His teaching ability and dedication are well known and have been highly respected throughout his career at UMKC.” This is the 3rd time since the establishment in 1993 of the Engineering Good Teaching award that Dr. Richardson has won the award!
SCE gratefully acknowledges the SCE Alumni Association Board for their support of the Good Teaching Awards. The SCE AA Board established an endowed fund to support the Engineering Good Teaching award and works each year with the dean to review the SCE students’ nominations and ratify recipients.
Outstanding Students & Teams honored at SCE’s Spring Awards
SCE honored our outstanding students and student teams at the UMKC SCE Spring Awards Reception held on April 26, 2012. Outstanding student awards were announced for a junior, senior, masters and I.Ph.D student in each of SCE’s degree programs. Outstanding students are selected by their department’s faculty. Selection is based on GPA and the student’s contributions in terms of participation and leadership in SCE student organizations and teams. Student competition teams receiving awards included the ASCE Steel Bridge Team who earned first place at the 2012 regional competition, the ACM Programming Team who won 3rd place at the 2012 Central Plains Conference Programming Competition, the IEEE Robotics Team who won 4th place in circuit design at their regional competition and the SAE Baja Buggy Team who qualified for the next competition level. Congratulations to the all our Spring Award recipients!
Also honored were Good Teaching Award Recipients Jerry Richardson of SCE’s Civil and Mechanical Engineering Department and Brian Hare of SCE’s Computer Science Electrical Engineering Department for their excellence in teaching.
