student achievement They’re called upon to solve some of the most complex and multifaceted challenges of homeland security, healthcare and telecommunications using finely tuned skills in logic and computer programming. Assistant professor Istvan Jonyer is adviser to OSU’s Code Orange and Code Black teams of computer science students who are members of the local chapter of the Association for Computing Machinery. Both teams showed off their expertise this spring by placing first and fifth in state competition against other major universities including the University of Oklahoma and the University of Tulsa. Jonyer’s students also took 13th place in regional competition in Baton Rouge, La., in November. Each three-person team tackles problems ranging from searching for a missing boat at sea and triangulating the location of a faulty transmitter to computing golf handicaps, coding or decoding messages and processing satellite images. Groups are given five hours to work on the problems, sharing a single computer per team, says Jonyer, who teaches courses that are simulcast on the Stillwater and Tulsa campuses via compressed video. “During competition, the teams must first solve each problem conceptually and then create a computer program to solve the problem specifically,” says Jonyer, who selects students for the teams, helps them sharpen their skills and assigns practice problems before competition. “The problems could be mathematical in nature or they could be algorithmic. Solving them requires good problemsolving skills and good computer-programming skills.” Computer science majors are hired by all kinds of industries. In the telecommunications field, for example, they might work on networking and switching equipment or on the phones themselves. In the airline industry they might create software for flight simulators or ticket-booking systems, and in the military they might develop software for tanks and fighter jets. Jonyer’s research interest is in artificial intelligence, specifically in genetic programming and data mining. “I guess you could say computer science is a quiet skill,” he says. “Most people just expect their computer programs to work and don’t think about the people who make it happen.” Janet Varnum “Immersing yourself in a foreign culture in a foreign city where you know no one and your entire circle of comfort is removed provides an opportunity for self-exploration that is unparalleled,” says the theater major who is also acquiring a minor in German. After two years at OSU, Herbel decided to create a personalized internship for herself to strengthen her German language skills and obtain practical theater training. Instead of interning for college credit, she opted to take a year off from school to work in three German theaters. “I wrote emails to a multitude of theaters and opera houses in Germany, telling them who I was and asking if they had any internships available,” she says. “Of course, many of them yielded no response at all. But I finally did get offered a position at the German Opera in Berlin.” Herbel says the OSU theater faculty were helpful and supportive, especially Heidi Hoffer and Jeffrey Stephens, as well as her German professor John TeVelde. Now that she’s resumed her studies at OSU, she counts the German adventure as one of the highlights of her life. “The experiences I gained through work and travel have helped to break down some of my own mental limitations and to realize I can go anywhere and do and be anything I want to be,” she says. “It’s one thing to always be told that as a little kid, it’s another thing to actually realize it.” Herbel’s internship began in September 2004 at the German Opera in Berlin where she worked in the scene-painting shop preparing furniture and props for the shows. “I also got to do some projects that were just for me for my own experience. I tried my hand at marble imitation and also did a lot of drawing and painting.” While in Berlin, she set up two subsequent internships in Muenster, Germany, working for the Roland Theater in February and the Who ya gonna call? Computer scientists may well be the unsung heroes of modern society. A Staged Adventure Emily Herbel expected to learn the ins and outs of professional theater during an internship in Germany last year. What she didn’t expect was how much she would learn about herself. qFrom left, math student David Starner and computer science students Justin Smith, Max Hamilton, Eric Warren, Terry Sherman and Ashley Lux represented OSU at the regional competition of the Association for Computing Machinery last fall in Baton Rouge, La. Earlier, two different teams of OSU students won first and fifth place in state competition. courtesy Istvan Jonyer College of Arts and Sciences 22
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