This February, several Computer Science students, accompanied by CSSE Department Chair, Professor Ling Zheng, attended the WECode Conference in Cambridge Massachusetts. WECode (Women Engineers Code) is an annual event organized by undergraduate women at Harvard University. This conference, an initiative of Harvard Women in CS (harvardwics.com), is the largest student-run Women in Computer Science conference in the United States. WECode’s goal is to cultivate the next generation of technical leaders, foster a network and community among collegiate engineers, and promote more female representation in the technical industry.
Two Undergraduates: Mar Elbanna and Estania Blanc-Doblas and Graduate student, Gnanika Yalamanchili, from Monmouth’s Computer Science program were given the opportunity to apply and attend this 2-day event where students, speakers, and industry professionals gathered to support women thrive in the technology industries.
“I had the chance to meet knowledgeable mentors who were eager to guide and support those with a genuine interest in learning. I also connected with fellow students, Harvard attendees, and industry professionals, which reinforced how important networking is for growth and future opportunities.” Gnanika Yalamanchili, MU CS Graduate Student
Mar Elbanna, a senior CS student explained, “The speakers invited were down-to-earth and very willing to share their experience and struggles in the industry. I learned a lot about the interview process and the state of the current job market for computer science and software engineering fields. As attendees were able to interact with the speakers through questions, many fears regarding AI and similar topics were addressed.”
Gananika and Claire Williams, guest speaker and former Deputy Team Principal of Williams Formula One Racing teamYalamanchili, Elbanna and Blanc-Doblas at the WECode Conference
The Department of Computer Science and Software Engineering held their annual High School Hawk Hack on Friday, Feb. 7. Fifty students from ten New Jersey high schools participated. The event is run by the student-led club of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers/ Association for Computing Machinery, (IEEE/ACM) and Professor Rolf Kamp, who is the club advisor. Please see the following Outlook article (written by Gillian DeStefano) for a detailed account of the event.
The Department of Mathematics celebrated Pi Day early this year on Tuesday, March 13. It also happened to be International Women in Mathematics Day. It was very fitting that the two speakers represented the next generation of women in mathematics. Miriam Abecasis (Monmouth University) and Willow Denker (Binghamton University) shared the results of their ongoing research with Professor Gallagher. Following the talks, students and faculty had pies and participated in raffles in the Math Learning Center.
Monmouth MEBP major Diedrik Boonman and Faculty member Jason Adolf are part of a team that recently published an article highlighting the initial 2021 discovery and subsequent examination in 2023 of a non-native sea anemone species. This marks the first record of the sea anemone Antinia Equina found on the Mid-Atlantic Coast of the United States. These animals were found in multiple sites on man-made rocky structures of the beaches of Monmouth County, New Jersey, on the Mid-Atlantic Coast of the United States. Student Dietrik Boonman is the first author on the article. The image below shows the anemone with tentacles extended (a-e) and tentacles contracted (f-j). More details can be found in the article published in the Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom found here.
On the evening of January 27, the School of Science welcomed guest speaker Dr. Robin Leichenko, Distinguished Professor and Dean of Social & Behavioral Sciences at Rutgers University, for the first Climate Teach-In of 2025. Dr. Leichenko spoke to the three spheres of sustainability: the practical, personal, and political dimensions of sustainable transformation. Her research at Rutgers University on the “cChallenge” encourages students to make a sustainable commitment in their lives for 30 days, an activity that the audience of more than 60 students and teachers could benefit from replicating in their own lives and classrooms. As evidenced in questionnaires and surveys, students make practical changes in their lives toward a more sustainable lifestyle, leading to personal and even political transformations as they communicate their thoughts, experiences, and results with others. This research demonstrated the need to provide space and opportunities in our classrooms where students can put their sustainable knowledge into practice and the ripple effect this has in their own lives and communities. This study began before the COVID pandemic and continued into its inception, resulting in elevated awareness on the intersections of climate change, public health, and sustainable transformations for those participants.
Dr. Leichenko clarified that “Transformations are possible and are underway,” and that a significant part of that is in scaling transformation—making small changes that add up. Using a case study in promoting cycling trails in rural areas, Leichenko expanded on how these spheres become relevant in our communities. Cycling infrastructure is a great example for how successful efforts in scaling transformation can benefit a community, it’s economy, and the people within it so long as it reflects and depends on the communities’ input for development. The most effective transformations, as Leichenko explained, have to prioritize members in those local communities who are closest to the issue.
The event concluded with a Q&A session on Dr. Leichenko’s research, her experience as a Distinguished Professor and Dean at Rutgers, and her observations on sustainable initiatives on campus and in student’s lives.
Employee head shot: Torrey Gallagher, MathematicsComputer Science and Software Engineering Professor Weihao Qu.Laura Turner, Mathematics department, head shot. November 10, 2021.
Three professors receive equity and inclusion teaching awards
At the November School of Science faculty meeting Drs. Torrey Gallagher, Weihao Qu and Laura Turner received awards for their innovations in teaching that promote equity and inclusion. The awards were made in two categories innovations to Assessment and for innovations involving the entire syllabus. Innovations that stemmed from published strategies that promote equity and inclusion of persons underrepresented in each field or with evidence of success in the classroom were required.
Dr. Qu’s project entitled “Secure Database Design – ensuring student interest” won in the category of Assessment. Dr. Qu states “The key renovation is to provide students opportunities to pick up what they are most interested (or comfortable) into the assessment of their performance of the courses. This is inspired by the concept of Universal Design for Learning(UDL) and Classroom Assessment Techniques(CATs)[ from the inclusive STEM online course.” Instead of giving students in CS/SE 450 a standard examinations Dr. Qu asked students to designed their own database in a competition that satisfied the course requirements. Dr. Qu reported high student learning as assessed by the database design and a later quiz, as well as higher student participation and satisfaction.
In the category of Improvements to Entire Syllabi, Drs. Gallagher and Turner were both recognized.
Dr. Gallagher’s submission “Skeletal Outlines for Better Outcomes in Math 117” provided skeletal outlines of course content for every class meeting of Math 117 (quantitative Analysis for Business I) in the Spring semester 2024. These skeletal outlines included a review exercise to begin each class meeting, theoretical sections with few blanks for student work and all crucial theoretical points typed out at least once, carefully scaffolded examples, building from mostly typed out to mostly blank, when applicable, problem-solving strategies for word problems were also scaffolded. The rationale for these outlines was the combination of poor student note taking and the reliance of the course on algorithms, the combination did not make for strong student outcomes. After using the outlines, Dr. Gallagher observed that both the average and median grades rose in his class from the prior year where no outlines were provided and that students found the outlines “very helpful”.
Dr. Laura Turner’s “Course Curriculum Revisions: exposing students to diverse voices in MA 325 (History of Mathematics)” Dr. Turner chose to focus on the importance of representation in Mathematics and to assign a scaffolded series of assignments beginning with picture a mathematician” and proceeding through a series of assignments, including written and graphic works where students not only highlighted mathematicians from historically underrepresented groups but critiqued the works of others for completeness and biases. The rationale for this revision is “while many view mathematics as apolitical and objective, research on the history of the subject contains many examples to the contrary. Moreover, MA 325 is largely populated by students who will become mathematics teachers, and their exposure to these subjects is critical not only to their own growth and development but also those of their future students. An understanding of the state of the discipline and how we find our places within it is also vital to anyone who seeks to practice mathematics within academia, industry, business, or government.” Selected graphic works are reproduced below.
CSSE students Omar Ahmed and Andrew Catapano recently received the 2024 Upsilon Pi Epsilon (UPE) Scholarship Award. Omar is a senior Computer Science student actively involved on campus, serving as a Peer Mentor for the School of Science, a Mathematics Tutor, and a PAL for Chemistry and Biology courses. Andrew is a graduate computer science student who, as an undergraduate, won the Academic Excellence Award from the CSSE department last year and serves as the Vice President of the eSports Club and is a member of Monmouth’s IEEE/ACM Club, where he assisted in successfully organizing the high school programming competition in Spring 2024.
The Upsilon Pi Epsilon Association (UPE) is the only international honor society for the computing and information disciplines, with chapters in more than 300 colleges and universities in North America and overseas. The mission of the Kappa Chapter of Upsilon Pi Epsilon at Monmouth University is to recognize academic excellence in the computing and information disciplines at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. Membership in UPE is primarily based on the academic records of students pursuing degrees in the computing and information disciplines.
