UCLA Computer Science Department
Alumni Advisory Board
Spring 2015 Meeting
Thursday, June 4, 2015
6:30pm-8:30pm
Faculty Center, Sierra Room
Attendees
Board Members: Alfonso Cardenas, Milos Ercegovac, Tim Ford (via Skype), Bill Goodin, Jacquelyn Leong (via Skype), Andrew Louie, Jens Palsberg, Lolo Penedo, David Smallberg, Ben Zamanzadeh
Guests: Laurie Leyden
Student Leaders: Kelly O’Malley (ACM), Christina Yang (UPE)
Department Update – Jens Palsberg, Chair
Please see attached PowerPoint presentation.
Three new faculty members have joined this year in the areas of machine learning and human genetics. He anticipates that these areas will become Department strengths.
Approximately 100 more first-year CS and CSE students will be enrolling this fall than in past years. This mirrors the trend at other universities, and will stretch department resources.
The Department sent six female second-year students to the Grace Hopper Celebration in Phoenix last October; and they were all thrilled with the experience. The Department plans to send 20 female students to the conference this October in Houston. It costs approximately $1000 per student; so donations from alumni and industry would be welcome.
Prof. Mario Gerla will become Department chair on July 1; and Prof. Jayathi Murthy will become Dean on January 1.
Student group presentations:
ACM: Created a program for non-CS majors called init, which is designed to expose them to computer science concepts. Held several tech workshops and company tours. Started an ACM Speaker Series (first speaker was Leonard Kleinrock, second speakers were Tim Ford and James Anhalt). Held a Women in CS Speaker Series. Started a mentorship program to help lower division women in CS. Started the UCLA Chapter of ACM-W, with Prof. Miryung Kim as the Faculty Advisor. Three students traveled to Marrakech, Morocco, to compete in the ACM International Collegiate Programming Contest (ICPC). The finished 22nd overall and 6th in North America. ACM and UPE will collaborate with HKN and IEEE on two career fairs for start-up companies this fall and winter.
UPE: Inducted 60 new members this year. Focused heavily on mentorship, career preparation, and tutoring. Held workshops to introduce younger students, many of which aren’t in HSSEAS, to what the CS major is like, as well as guided these students to creating their resumes and finding their first internships. Career development chairs have held many interview prep sessions, where they have gone through typical problems found in software engineering interviews, and as always, the tutoring chairs have been doing a fantastic job preparing students for the lower division midterms. Created a new position of Alumni Outreach Chair, and looking to build connections with alumni next year, hopefully through a dinner or panel.
Past Events:
The Honors-Affiliate Mixer was held on the evening of January 20, which was the same day as the CS Affiliate Internship/Career Fair (afternoon). The afternoon career fair filled 4760 to capacity. The Honors-Affiliate Mixer was also well attended in the Rice Room. The feedback from the UPE members is that this event would be more effective in the fall rather than the winter, since most UPE members already have summer or full-time jobs by the start of winter quarter.
The Entrepreneur Panel was be held on February 17. Eytan Elbaz again organized the panel and served as moderator. Approximately 75 graduate students attended; and the questions and interest from the audience was very strong.
Phone calls to admitted high school students were conducted in late March and early April. Alumni and current students reached as many as time permitted. More than 20 alumni and nearly all ACM and UPE officers made the calls.
Open House was held on Sunday, April 12; and several Board members participated, and helped us convince the admitted students to choose UCLA. This year the morning event for all admitted engineering students and their parents was held in Pauley Pavilion, and Francis Nickels was the alumni speaker.
We believe that the calls to the seniors and the presentations at Open House helped to increase the number of seniors who accepted their offer to attend UCLA this fall.
Mission Statement and Bylaws:
The Board members present reviewed the wording changes made to the Mission and Bylaws. These changes were primarily to clarify some inconsistencies and to add some new information regarding how Board members can help the Department. We are grateful to Lorraine Fesq for her comments and suggestions. In order to implement the changes, I request that each Board member respond to this email with his or her concurrence with the changes or disagreement with the changes.
Other Items:
Alfonso Cardenas asked each Board member to make sure that his or her information on the website is correct, https://dev2.cs.seas.ucla.edu/people/alumni/alumni-advisory-board/alumni-advisory-board-members.
Regarding inviting faculty members to speak at Board meetings, the members felt that it would reduce the time available for socializing and discussion, now that we only meet twice a year.
Board membership:
Mike Parker has resigned from the Board due to work commitments. We will be seeking new members for the Board.