CS Day offers fun, job opportunities

Each year, more high school, undergraduate and graduate students attend Pitt’s annual… Each year, more high school, undergraduate and graduate students attend Pitt’s annual Computer Science Day, turning the originally simple fair of fun and competitions into a place where students can meet prospective employers and even find jobs.

More than 200 students attended the Feb. 23 event in Sennott Square, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. It included a scavenger hunt, representatives from more than 30 companies, a public debate and poster, video/graphic and T-shirt design competitions.

“Each year it gets bigger and bigger,” Nancy Kreuzer, the event coordinator, said. “We wanted to do something more to bring in high school students and make them familiar with the computer science department and also to allow industry a chance to let the college students know about their companies and how they hire.”

Kreuzer said it is not a job fair, but some companies come with job openings and are looking for students. If a student is hired, many come back the next year to help spread the word about the fair and their company.

Carol Nichols was one former student who got a job through last year’s Computer Science Day.

“We got resumes today and are currently looking for people to hire,” Nichols, a software engineer for Vivisimo, said. “It’s a good way for people to know what companies are in the area and for the companies to find students.”

One of the biggest events of the day was the Net neutrality debate, which was also presented as a live Webcast. Two experts in the field, Art Brodsky, the communications director of Public Knowledge, and Hal Singer, the President of Criterion Enterprises, were flown in from Washington, D.C., to speak about the possibility of free Internet coming to an end.

Students loved the competitions, especially the video competition at the end of the day, which included videos ranging from the hilarious to the high-tech. Nathan Good, a sophomore computer science major, won the top award for his mock rap video, “Where are all the girls?” He danced with six friends and rapped about computer science and why there are so few women in the department. The video can now be seen on YouTube.com.

The opposite side of the spectrum was Joe Cavanaugh, who made the runner-up video. He spoke about computer graphics while showing the students a program that he had been working on since September. Throughout his presentation he displayed the computer-generated world that he created, complete with realistic trees, changing light and a castle.

“It takes about five to six hours a week of programming,” he said. “I play video games a lot, and I wanted to learn how to program them. The Computer Science Day gave me the opportunity to show my video, meet companies and for people to learn more about the department.”

The prizes for the contests included $200 gift certificates to the University bookstore and iPod Shuffles given during the awards ceremony. Winners were chosen in part by a panel of judges and by the students, who helped vote for the poster contest and whose cheering at each of the videos was rated to see which was the most popular.

“We do this for our students and faculty, so that the department gets closer together,” Rami Melhem, the chairman of the computer science department, said. “We want to project an image to the outside world about what we offer and to the industry to get to know our students.”