This blog is no longer maintained

Please visit http://web.cecs.pdx.edu/~gcouncil/site/.

Going to Conferences - How to Pay For It

A little known secret around the Computer Science department is that it is quite easy for grad students to attend conferences, and have someone else pay for it. As a grad student who's been around a few years, let me tell you how...

The most common way to fund a conference trip is to get money from your research grant. For instance, I've worked on the now-completed Multiview project for 3 years, and it has reliably funded my travel.

Another common way to fund a conference trip is to get some funding as a student volunteer. For instance, at the International Conference on Software Engineering, if you volunteer for around 20 hours, you get free lodging, lunches, and registration for the conference, which would otherwise run you about $1000. Plus, you can typically get into some otherwise very expensive tutorials for free. I volunteer whenever possible, and have done it about 8 times. Check with your conference to see if they have such a program, and what they'll cover.

Conferences sometimes have scholarships available as well. For instance, Foundations of Software Engineering has the CAPS program, which awarded me enough for a plane ticket and conference registration. Again, check to see if your conference has such a program.

I know of two good grants from PSU that fund conference travel. One is the Marie Brown travel award. Personally, I have found this award typically allocates small amounts (between $100 and $200), but is also quite painless to apply for and receive. The other grant is the AAA travel grant, which is a bit more work to fill out and fulfil the requirements for, but also awards more money. And a reliable source tells me that AAA currently has more money than they have applicants, which should increase your chances of getting funded. I have received money from both of these grants twice each.

The CS department itself has been known to occasionally provide reimbursement for conferences. My understanding is that there is no official procedure for applying, so ask your advisor if this is a possibility.

Two pieces of advice for successfully applying for this money, whatever the source:

1. It's always best if you have some piece of work to present at the conference. If you don't have a full conference paper, a poster or a demonstration at the conference will often suffice, and not always difficult to accepted.
2. Organizations that give you money like to see that they won't be the only ones funding your travel. So, try to apply for multiple sources of funding.

Finally, two tips for reducing expenses:

1. Share a hotel room.
   
2. Don't stay at the conference hotel; find a cheaper one.

Now, go to that conference and make us proud!

Fall 2008 Quarterly Research Meeting

Summer 2008 Quarterly Research Meeting - Pictures!

MCECS Student Fees - Part II

Above is where your MCECS student fees go. On November 19 at 10AM (during Bagel Monday) in the fishbowl, you'll have a chance to have your questions answered by Jennifer Chambers. If you are unable to attend, you can leave questions or comments below, and we will try to pass them on.

Fall Research Town Hall Meeting

Hello everyone!

The Computer Science Graduate Student Council is happy to sponsor the
Fall Research Town Hall meeting, November 2, Unitus 209, 12:00 pm. We will be sponsoring lunch :-)

As we did last summer, it would be great to have the various research
groups give a summary of their recent activities -- so this may be an
excellent opportunity to talk about any new grants or projects you may have. We're looking for a couple minute recap of recent news about your research, so no need to prepare a presentation.
In addition to status reports, Wu-Chi will address all attendees and
tell us what's going on in the department.

If you are a faculty member and would like to report the news from your research group, please send an email to Wu-chi.

We have to finish by 12:55, as Dan Brown (not to be confused with the other Dan Brown) has his Thesis Proposal at 13:00.

Cheers,

CSGSC

MCECS Student Fees - Where Does It Go?

As a Portland State student, I pay a certain amount of money in tuition and fees (such as for health services and campus computers). Additionally, as an MCECS student, I pay a "FEAS Enginr Study Resource Fee." Over the last two years, each quarter I've paid $35 per credit, for a total of $315 per quarter. What is this money and where does it go?

Unfortunately, no official account of this fee seems to exist. So today I spoke to Jennifer Chambers, MCECS Chief Accounting and Budgetary Officer about this fee. Below is the information gleaned from that conversation.

In the past, the fee has been allocated in two broad categories - one fixed and one variable.

Fees allocated towards the fixed category have been relatively constant in the past and will continue to be in the future. In the fixed category, the fee pays for the 3 core services. The first is the Computer Action Team (CAT), whose budget is about 75% covered by the fee. The rest of the CAT budget is paid for by Portland State from various sources, including research monies. The second pays for space in the Fourth Avenue Building, which is leased, including both lab and classroom space. The third item is student services on the first floor of the Engineering Building, including career services and administration of scholarship money.

The variable category is less well defined. Essentially, it acts as an overflow, where money goes that is not allocated to the fixed category. In the past, this money has been spent by individual MCECS departments on a need basis, such as for staff positions and equipment. Starting 2007-2008, the money will likely be split up amongst the 5 MCECS departments, although what proportion goes to what department is not yet defined. This money will go into each departments' general budgets.

During the 2005-2006 school year, the total amount of money collected through the fee was about $900,000 and during 2006-2007 it was about $870,000. The amount collected next year will depend on how many students take MCECS classes.

The question of what is the exact breakdown of the fee remains. The answer should be available in the middle of next term, and I shall relay it to you here.

Durian Last Thursday - Pictures!

Here are some pictures from our Durian Last Thursday after-event.














Chuan-kai discusses something not-computer related; Tom wants more mango.
















Deen expertly slices jack fruit.
















Juncao and Yan eagerly await the unveiling of the durian.
















Emerson prepares to eat a big, slimy hunk of durian.























Tom enjoys his first bite of durian.























Ralf takes a spoonful.


















Deen enjoys both the taste and smell!
















Candy, upset at the very notion of voluntary durian consumption, refuses to come back indoors. Akshay feigns agreement.

Bagel Mondays: a Schedule for Spring 2007

April 2
April 16
April 30
May 14
(No Bagel Monday May 28, Memorial Day)
June 11

Notes on Graphic Design Workshop

During the Poster Design Workshop, Andrea and Aaron gave us some good resources to use when designing our posters:

http://www.visualcomplexity.com/vc/

http://www.soe.uoguelph.ca/webfiles/agalvez/poster/

http://www.worqx.com/color/color_wheel.htm

http://www.digital-web.com/articles/principles_of_design/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graphic_design

http://www.ideastraining.com/PDFs/TypographyBasics.pdf

Good typefaces to use:

Gill Sans, Helvetica, Garamond, Adobe Jensen, Palantino, Grotesque, Frutiger, Meta, Trade Gothic, Universe.

Campus Resources:

Instructional Development Support Center - Excellent poster printing, at a good price (about a dollar per linear inch, up to 44" tall)

Graphic Design Center - Consulting / design help at $25 per hour

A few notes from the presentation:

Introduction
rhythm and balance
(dominance) proportion
unity

Color
complement colors work well together

active range (warm) jumps out
passive range (cold) recedes back
purple & yellow-green are neutral

vibrating boundary effect using complement colors
(makes text hard to read, but works better for shapes)

Type
Makes your poster sophisticated (or not)
Serif -- good for body text
Sans Serif -- good for headings, visible from a longer distance

Display fonts -- usually for crazy advertising, not serious -- don't use
Gil Sans, Classical Helvetica

Effective Poster Design
Grid
Whitespace, negative space, resting space

Poster Design Workshop

We'll be hosting a poster design workshop at 2 in the afternoon in the Microsoft Innovation Center on Monday the 12th. Andrea Brandtner and Aaron Perkins from the Graphic Design Center (http://www.gdc.pdx.edu/) will come and tell us what makes a successful poster from a graphic design perspective. They will present some general techniques for effective information presentation and critique a few computer science posters from this department.

Graduate students and faculty are encouraged to attend. I have noticed that computer scientists generally know what should go on their conference poster, sometimes know how much to put on it, but rarely know how to make it attractive (myself included). This workshop will give us some pointers.

When the workshop is complete, we'll post some notes here.

Bagel Mondays: a Schedule for Winter 2007

January 8
January 22
February 5
February 19
March 5
March 19

Bagel Mondays: a Schedule

Bagel Mondays are scheduled for the following dates in the FAB Fishbowl:

10/16/2006
10/30/2006
11/13/2006
11/27/2006
12/4/2006

Membership

All full-time and part-time students at the graduate level in the Computer Science Department at Portland State University are members of the Computer Science Graduate Student Council (CSGSC). To receive more information about us and our events or to keep in touch with other members, feel free to join our mailing list.

Purpose

The Computer Science Graduate Students' Council at Portland State University is an organization for the graduate students in the Computer Science Department. Its primary function is to promote a feeling of community among the graduate students by organizing and sponsoring social and educational events. It also serves as a bridge between Computer Science faculty and the graduate student body. All Computer Science graduate students are members of the Graduate Council. The degree of participation is an individual decision, and can range from never attending a single Graduate Council event to suggesting new events and even helping to coordinate them.