Almagest
The Department of Mathematics and Computer Science is launching a bi-weekly newsletter called The Almagest (pronounced Al'ma jest), and we thought we'd begin by explaining the name we've chosen. Around 150 A.D. Ptolemy compiled a vast work on astronomy and mathematics, which was originally called the Mathematical Syntaxis. The book was such an important and significant work that there arose the custom of calling it the Almagest, which means "the greatest." Now, we don't believe for a minute that our newsletter will be the greatest of all time, but how could we pass up an opportunity to use such a great name? We hope you'll enjoy our newsletter, and we trust you'll become a regular reader.
Almagest Archive
Almagest Volume 3 No. 12 (PDF)
Posted: Tue, April 20th, 2010 at 4:53PM
Chad Jenkins receives PECASE Award
Dr. Chad Jenkins, a 1996 Alma alum, has been selected as one of the recipients of the
Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE)
for his research on the development of methods for autonomous robot
control and perception. His work advances the idea that robot control
and computational perception are better learned from human
demonstration rather than by explicit computer programming.
The PECASE program recognizes outstanding scientists and engineers who, early in their careers, show exceptional potential for leadership at the frontiers of knowledge. This Presidential Award is the highest honor bestowed by the United States Government on scientists and engineers beginning their independent careers.
While at Alma, Chad majored in Computer Science and Mathematics. He received his Ph.D in Computer Science from University of Southern California in 2003 and has been an Assistant Professor of Computer Science at Brown University since 2004. Read another version of this story. Read all the CS Notes and News.
Posted: Tue, November 6th, 2007 at 2:51PM
Akron-Fairgrove Wins Challenge
In its first ever appearance in the Alma College Robotics Challenge, Akron-Fairgrove High School swept both first and second places! Pictured at right are the members of the first place team. Check out the photo album for this year's contest..
The Robotics Challenge is an invitational high school robotics
tournament
using the Lego Mindstorms Robotics Platform. Teams construct robots
which compete against each other in an attempt to gather eggs and
return
them to their nest. The Fifth Annual Alma College Robotics
Challenge will be coming up in the spring of 2008. Read more on our contest webpage,
or contact Dr. Myles McNally for information
on how your high school could participate.
Posted: Tue, April 3rd, 2007 at 5:08PM
CS Majors Win Best Poster Award
Undergraduate student researchers
Stu Bachner ('06), Rosemary Dutka ('06), and Ben Tidman ('06) won the
best poster award at the 10th annual Consortium for Computing Science
Midwest Meeting, held September 23-24 at Millikin University.
Their poster was entitled Designing Effective Algorithm Visualizations,
and outlined the results of their summer research experiences over the
previous two summers. This work was supported by the National
Science Foundation. Dr. Myles McNally was the faculty advisor.
Read more about Computer Science undergraduate research at Alma.
Posted: Mon, September 26th, 2005 at 2:10PM
Alma Hosts NSF MindStorms Workshop
Alma
College hosted a wokshop on
using Lego MindStorms throughout the undergraduate computer science
curriculum this past June. Twenty-three faculty from all over the
country attended the three day workshop, which focused on the
curriculum materials being developed under a National Science
Foundation grant. The faculty for the workshop were Myles McNally
(Alma College) and Pamela Lawhead (University of Mississippi)
with Alma student Josh Borgerding ('06) assisting. Go to the website for the project.
Posted: Fri, July 1st, 2005 at 1:41PM
