Condolences to the Nelson Family

I am sad to report that one of our alumni, Dana A. Nelson Jr. passed away a few days ago. Dana graduated in August, 1999 with a degree in SET.

He is survived by his wife Linda (who had worked in the OIT Library) and his son Dana A. Nelson III, also a SET alumni. Our thoughts and prayers are with the Nelson family.

Article in Oregonian on Intel Interns

There is an interesting article in the Oregonian about an internship program for Freshmen based upon an interview with our very own SET alumni and a great supporter of our department and OIT, Tavish Ledesma from Intel.

This summer there are TWO interns from the CSET department who were hired by Tavish as part of this new pilot program he initiated. You can read the entire article here: http://www.oregonlive.com/beaverton/index.ssf/2011/07/intel_and_nike_interns_face_off_in_first_cross-company_sport_challenge.html

Hope you are all having a great summer!

Commencement Ceremony Pictures - 2011

If you want to see some really nice high quality pictures of some of our graduates from this years commencement check out the link below on Flickr:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/oregontech/sets/72157626837000969/show/

Johnny Su - make sure you notice the last picture :-)

Enjoy!

Welcome New Students

Welcome to the 19 new students that registered for classes in our department this past Friday. They join the other 13 new and transfer students who registered two weeks earlier at the first ROAD event of the summer.

We look forward to seeing you all in a couple more months. Hope you are enjoying the summer!

Congratulations to Jim Long - Professor Jim Long

Please join us in congratulating Jim Long on his recent, well deserved promotion to full Professor!

Immediate opening for a software intern in Southern Oregon (Grants Pass)

Today I spent some time visiting with a number of key managers and developers at a company in Grants Pass called Pharmacy Computer Services, Inc.. They are doing some exciting things in relation to Web based applications, cloud computing, HCI, testing, etc. If you happen to live in the Grants Pass area and are interested in working THIS SUMMER in an exciting company of about 30 employees please let me (randal.albert@oit.edu) know ASAP and I will provide you with some additional information and a contact name. After visiting with them about our program it appears it would best if you had completed at least the sophomore year of the SET program and had taken CST 236 - Software Systems Testing.

If you have already graduated and are looking for full-time work or would like to return to southern Oregon they would love to talk with you too. I will visit with Jan Goodyear in our career center early next week and she too will be able to provide you with some additional information.

We hope you all have a safe and enjoyable 4th of July!

The Oregon Tech Foundation SUMMER Scholarship Application

If you are not currently receiving an Oregon Tech Foundation scholarship and have not been awarded one for the 2011-12 academic year you are invited to apply during the summer process. This online application allows you to apply for up to ten scholarships with one application.

· Application opens: June 27, 2011

· Application deadline: July 9, 2011 at 11:59 p.m.

Bookmark the application now! www.oit.edu/otfscholars

If you have any questions about the scholarship applications contact the OIT Financial Aid Office at 541.885.1280 or dollars@oit.edu.

Good luck!

FYI for our winter term HCI students (and others) - Kinect SDK info

The information below was provided to me by Randy Guthrie, Microsoft Platform Strategy Advisor - Academics, about the Kinect SDK.

Natural User Interface Leaps Forward with Release of Kinect for Windows SDK Beta

As astute readers of this blog will recall, back in April we reported on the progress of the non-commercial Kinect for Windows Software Development Kit (SDK), offering tantalizing descriptions of its capabilities and inviting you to follow its progress on a dedicated website. Well, I’m pleased to announce that the wait is over: the Kinect for Windows SDK beta was released on June 16, 2011, enabling the next phase of bringing natural user interfaces (NUI) to the PC.

Designed to empower developers, academic researchers, and enthusiasts to explore new ideas and create rich applications, the Kinect for Windows SDK beta, which works with Windows 7, enables human motion tracking, voice recognition, and depth sensing on PCs. The SDK includes drivers, rich APIs for raw sensor streams and natural user interfaces, installation documents, and resource materials. It provides Kinect capabilities to developers who build applications with C++, C#, or Visual Basic by using Microsoft Visual Studio 2010. SDK features include:

• Raw Sensor Streams: Access to raw data streams from the depth sensor, color camera sensor, and four-element microphone array allows developers to build upon the low-level streams that are generated by the Kinect sensor.
• Skeletal Tracking: The capability to track the skeleton image of one or two people moving within the Kinect field of view makes it easy to create gesture-driven applications.
• Advanced Audio Capabilities: Audio processing capabilities include sophisticated acoustic noise suppression and echo cancellation, beam formation to identify the current sound source, and integration with the Windows speech recognition API.
• Sample Code and Documentation: The SDK contains more than 100 pages of technical documentation. In addition to built-in help files, the documentation includes detailed walkthroughs for most samples provided with the SDK.
• Easy Installation: The SDK quickly installs in a standard way for Windows, requires no complex configuration, and the complete installer size is smaller than 100 MB. Developers can get up and running in just a few minutes with a standard standalone Kinect sensor unit (widely available at retail outlets).

Just prior to this general release, we hosted a select group of researchers and enthusiasts at a 24-hour coding marathon here on our Redmond, Washington, campus. These developers were encouraged to build applications in areas of interest to them, including everything from gaming and entertainment to healthcare, science, and education. Their projects are being broadcast on Channel 9 Live on June 16, and can be viewed on demand after the fact. Highlights can be found on Microsoft News Center.

As Anoop Gupta, a distinguished scientist at Microsoft Research stated, “The Kinect for Windows SDK beta from Microsoft Research opens up a world of possibilities for developers to unleash the power of Kinect technology on PCs. We are just at the beginning of Microsoft’s long-term vision for how people will interact with technology more naturally and intuitively.”

All I can add is a question: What are you waiting for? Click on over to the SDK download site, and start building those NUI applications. The SDK is free for development of non-commercial applications, and the only boundaries are those set by your own imagination!

—Tony Hey, Corporate Vice President, Microsoft Research Connections

Learn More

• Download the Kinect for Windows SDK beta
• Microsoft News Center
• Channel 9 Live
• MIXing It Up: the Kinect for Windows SDK blog
• Kinect for Windows SDK beta on Microsoft Research

Your Grades now available AND C++ is the clear winner in Google language tests

Grades are ready


FYI Google has released a report suggesting that C++ is the best-performing programming language in the market.

Read more: http://www.computing.co.uk/ctg/news/2076322/-winner-google-language-tests#ixzz1PSElW1ou


Hello summer!

Congratulations Graduating Seniors!

Best wishes and good luck to this years graduates. We will miss you!

Congratulations to Kim and Brad

Congratulations to Kim Carestia and Bradley Smith on their wedding yesterday!

Senior Picnic - this Saturday at Professor Metzler's House

Remember that the Senior Picnic is this SATURDAY at high noon at Don's house. Please see Chef Phong or Don for a copy of a map to Don's place.

Goodbye WEEK #10! Good luck to you all on your final exams!