2008 CSE Day Invitation Letter
February 22nd , 2008
Dear Computer Science Teacher:
The Computer Science and Engineering Department at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln is pleased to accounce that CSE Day 2008 will be held on Friday, April 18th. We offer this event each year to promote computer science and engineering, and to encourage high school students to consider a major in one of those fields. We are inviting you and students from your school who might be involved or interested in computer science to come and participate. Based on comments and suggestions from previous years, we are continuing to modify and improve the day's events and registration process, so please read this letter carefully.
CSE Day is scheduled from 8:00am-3:00pm with on-site registration and check-in starting at 7:30am. The first main event of the day is the programming contest. This two and one-half hour contest is modeled after the Association for Computing Machinery's annual collegiate programming contest. Teams of three students attempt to solve several programming problems which range in difficulty from very easy to nearly impossible. The team with the most problems solved is declared the winner (with ties broken by assessed time).
We are very excited to announce the continuation of the design competition we introduced last year. This is intended for students with little or no background in programming, but an interest in computer science. The objective of this contest is to provide an opportunity for our participants to exhibit their artistic ability and imagination. Each team of 2 or 3 members will develop a presentation of their design solution to a technology related "problem" that will be announced after the registration period begins. Each team will have about one month to complete the design which can be done on any medium (e.g. computer, paper, etc.) Judging will occur in paralleled with the programming contest (9:30 to 12:00 pm) with teams presenting their design and answering judges' questions.
Each member of the top two teams for the programming contest and the design contest will receive a scholarship if they choose to attend UNL and declare a major in computer science or computer engineering. First place team members will receive $1000 and second place $500, payable in two installments their first year at UNL and renewable for up to four consecutive years based on performance and other criteria. The schools of the top three teams of each contest will receive plaques and the coaches a gift certificate. In addition, there will be t-shirts, software, and other prizes for the team members and schools of at least the top 8 teams. The programming will be done on PCs provided by the University, and must be done in the Windows environment. Information on compilers and IDE;s will be available on-line soon. All registered teams will receive exclusive memberships to the Academic Alliance Program that provided free licenses for many major Microsoft Products.
Following the contests, lunch will be served in the nearby Kaufmann Center, home of the J. D. Edwards Honors Program. In the afternoon, we will host a student panel, discussing issues such as making the adjustment to college, being successes in landing jobs with highly prominent companies - Microsoft, National Instrument, and Google to name a few. This is a great opportunity for your students to hear about the college experience and get answers to the questions that may help prepare them for successful careers.
We will accept up to 25 teams of three students for the programming contest. You are encouraged to register as many teams as you'd like, however, only one team will be guaranteed entry to the contest. following the conclusion of the registration period, if there are additional spaces available, more teams for your school will then be accepted. For the design contest, we will limit your school to one team of three students accompanied by one teacher-coach (can be the same as for the programming contest). The deadline for both contest registrations is April 9th, 2008, although we suggest you apply as soon as possible, as teams will be accepted on a first-come, first-served basis. There is a $25.00 registration fee per team to partially defray the cost of lunch, payable on the day of the contest.
We will be offering housing on Thursday and Friday nights for a limited number of teams who are traveling from a distance. After you have registered, you will need to contact Jodi Holt (jholt@cse.unl.edu) to get more details and make arrangements.
Advance registration for CSE Day will be done on-line at http://cse.unl.edu/cseday starting Friday, February 22nd. If help is needed, please contact one of the coordinators listed below. Also, be sure to remember the account names and passwords that you will generate because the teams will need it during the contest. If you change team members, please do so on the on-line system no later than Wednesday, April 16th. Subsequent changes will need to be submitted to the Contest Director.
Please pass this information on to other teachers in your school, if applicable. If you have questions please contact:
| CSE Day Contest Director | or | CSE Faculty Advisor |
| Jodi Holt | Dr. Witawas (Witty) Srisa-an | |
| (402)472-3079 | (402)472-5004 | |
| jholt@cse.unl.edu | witty@cse.unl.edu |
Sincerely,
Jodi Holt
CSE Day Contest Director
Enclosures
Avery Hall / P.O. Box 880115 / Lincoln, NE 68588-0115 / (402)472-2402 / FAX (402)472-7767 / http://cse.unl.edu
