Computer Science encompasses both the theoretical and the practical aspects of the study of computers and algorithmic processes. Students majoring in computer science at Oberlin are prepared both for further graduate studies in the discipline and also for careers in the industries and businesses that actively recruit computer scientists with a liberal arts background. Computer Science at Oberlin is taught within the context of a liberal arts degree, with emphasis on the lasting principles of the discipline rather than on specific training in particular tools and techniques. The CS Department stresses the fundamentals of computer science while maintaining a highly current and relevant curriculum utilizing state-of-the-art methodologies and tools. More detailed information about the Computer Science major and minor and a complete list of courses can be found in the course catalog.
Welcome to OCCS
May 6th, 2010
2010 Five Colleges of Ohio Summer Science Research Symposium
July 30th, 2010
On July 23, 2010, three CS students (along with their research advisors) travelled down to Ohio Wesleyan University to present their summer research as part of the 2010 Five Colleges of Ohio Summer Science Research Symposium.
L to R in front are the student presenters Garrett Robinson, Jason Kimmel, and Becky Punch. Back row has the faculty advisors Ben Kuperman, Rich Salter, and John Donaldson.
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CSMC Tshirts 2009-2010 Order by Fri May 21.
May 19th, 2010
CSMS has designed tshirts that will be yellow with hunter green print
OCCS 2009 – 2010will be centered on the front
on the back it will read:
You know you’re a CS major if…
You think flip-flops belong in DLSim not on feet.
You’ve written 15 programs to calculate the Fibonacci numbers.
You consider recursion an alternative lifestyle.
You know more languages than an UN employee.
You sometimes write “the downstairs lab” as a permanent address.
Divide and conquer doesn’t sound like a military strategy.
O(n^3) and O(135n^3 + 3000n+ 1828537) look identical
*int {} (*float) is clearly a pointer to a function taking a float pointer and returning a pointer to an array of intergers.
You close your eyes and see public static void man ( String args { } )
Scheme is just another word for a lot of parens
The cost will be $8.00
To order email Jackie.Fortino@oberlin.edu with your size by Friday 5/21/2010.
The shirts should be in by May 28 , if you are gone by then they can be picked up in the Fall.
The Making of Semi-Conducted * Hunter McCurry Tues May 11
May 10th, 2010
Hunter McCurry will be giving a lecture on the making of Semi-Conducted, my quartet and video piece. A very short video excerpt of the piece is posted here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eCT4wpvXmmc
The lecture will be *Tuesday May 11* at 5:15 in TIMARA Studio 2. I will be pairing up with fellow TIMARA major Gabe Stewart who will be talking about his project visualizing and sonifying GPI (General Progress Indicator) data for Northeast Ohio. Each of our lectures will be under 30 minutes.
(This) Tuesday, May 11th
5:15 pm – 6:15 pm
TIMARA Studio 2
Beyond simply a description of the piece, the lecture should also
serve as an introduction to a new open-source piece of software called
Field, a coding environment for making digital art. This software is a hybrid of several paradigms: coding (it is written in Python), visual programming (like Max/MSP), and drawing (like Photoshop, Flash). Even if you can’t make it to the lecture, I strongly encourage you to check it out! It has great potential:
Fault Tolerance in Distributed Systems: Can We Scale to Cloud Computing?
April 8th, 2010
Tom Bressoud, Denison University
Monday April 12, 2010
Computer Science will host Professor Tom Bressoud from Denison University.
The Talk will be held in King 221 at 4:30 Refreshments will be served at 4:00 in King 223.
Fault Tolerance in Distributed Systems: Can we Scale to Cloud Computing?
Distributed systems is a subfield of computer science wherein an application or service is modeled as a collection of independently executing processes, cooperating toward a common goal and communicating with each other across some medium (i.e. a network or shared memory). Fault-tolerance is an area of study that recognizes that computer hardware and software fail and, for many application domains, the failure of a component resulting in a failure of the entire system is simply unacceptable. So the goal of fault-tolerant systems is to continue to provide correct operation despite the occurrence of component failures.
When we look at the intersection of fault tolerance and distributed systems, the problem becomes even more difficult. The distribution of processes increases uncertainty, including basic questions such as “knowing” that a component has failed. And as we scale our distributed systems, we, by definition, increase the number of independent components, and thus can linearly increase the arrival rate of failures.
This talk will explore these issues and look at the scalability issue of fault tolerance in cluster systems and will compare the traditional fault tolerance technique of checkpointing with some newly popular models for cluster-parallel applications — MapReduce, used by Google, and Dryad by Microsoft — each vying for dominance in the currently “hot” area of Cloud Computing.
Prospective Majors Meeting Wed April 7 4:30
April 5th, 2010
Interested in Becoming A Computer Science Major. Attend our informational meeting on Wed April 7 4:30-5:30 inKing 223. If you are unable to attend feel free to contact any Computer Science Professor for additional details.
Refreshments will be served.