July 2021 - Gradstudents - mailman.cs.vt.edu

VT COVID-19 vaccination requirements
by Cliff Shaffer 03 Aug '21

03 Aug '21

A critical issue for faculty and students hoping to return to something more like "normal" this Fall semester is the COVID-19 vaccination status for the on-campus population. VT is mandating that generally students should be vaccinated, with various exceptions, and that vaccination status be verified. There is a *lot* of fine print associated with this. Information is available at: https://ready.vt.edu/vaccinations.html This includes information for incoming international students who might have difficulty with access to a WHO-recognized vaccine dose. Please look through this information carefully. If you are vaccinated and have not already done so, please upload proof of vaccination. -- Dr. Cliff Shaffer Professor and Associate Department Head for Graduate Studies Department of Computer Science Phone: (540) 231-4354 Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA 24061 WWW: www.cs.vt.edu/~shaffer

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New Graduate Student Services Office on Blacksburg Campus
by Trey Mayo 29 Jul '21

29 Jul '21

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Fwd: Startup Hokies - graduate student hourly wage opportunities
by Cliff Shaffer 28 Jul '21

28 Jul '21

FYI. ---------- Forwarded message --------- From: Sean J Collins <sxcollin(a)vt.edu> Date: Wed, Jul 28, 2021 at 1:57 PM Subject: Startup Hokies - graduate student hourly wage opportunities To: Derick Maggard <dmaggard(a)vt.edu>, Childers, Diane <dianesc1(a)vt.edu> Colleagues, We are hiring several graduate student workers in support of our new programmatic space downtown (North Main St, above PKs) for the fall and spring semesters. The "Startup Hokies Ambassador" positions are designed to be fun, high-impact and hands on with student entrepreneurs. We need your help to get the word out to graduate students who are looking for wage positions, as well as other colleagues who run graduate programs. Please see live posting in Hand Shake # 5074762. Let me know if you have any questions. Thanks in advance! -Sean & team -- Sean Collins Director Apex Center for Entrepreneurs Virginia Tech, Pamplin College of Business p: *540-231-1328 *| e: seancollins(a)vt.edu | w: apex.vt.edu Follow the Apex Center: Twitter <https://twitter.com/ApexCenterVT> | Facebook <https://www.facebook.com/ApexCenterVT/> I LinkedIn <https://www.linkedin.com/company/64288690/> | Instagram <https://www.instagram.com/apexcentervt/> -- Dr. Cliff Shaffer Professor and Associate Department Head for Graduate Studies Department of Computer Science Phone: (540) 231-4354 Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA 24061 WWW: www.cs.vt.edu/~shaffer

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Fwd: PhD student position - Remote Sensing
by Edward Fox 27 Jul '21

27 Jul '21

Hi! I have worked with Dr. Escobar on a number of projects involving computing. If looking for a GRA, please consider the opportunity mentioned below. Good luck! ---------- Forwarded message --------- From: Luis E. Escobar <escobar1(a)vt.edu> Date: Tue, Jul 27, 2021 at 8:44 PM Subject: PhD student position - Remote Sensing ... Dear all, I received funding to study the habitat of the bog turtle, an endangered species in Virginia, using satellite-derived data. Please share the file attached with students interested in pursuing a Ph.D. in spatial analysis and ecology. Thanks, Luis Luis E. Escobar, PhD Assistant Professor Department of Fish and Wildlife Conservation Virginia Tech https://fishwild.vt.edu/faculty/escobar.html Phone: 540-232-8454 Email: escobar1(a)vt.edu

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CS|SOURCE - EMPLOYER JOB POSTINGS AND EVENTS
by Julia Costello 26 Jul '21

26 Jul '21

CS|SOURCE - EMPLOYER JOB POSTINGS AND EVENTS View the following job opportunities. For available positions, click <https://career.vt.edu/job-search/Handshake.html> Handshake. OPPORTUNITY 1 Click <https://capitalone.eightfold.ai/events/open?domain=capitalone.com> https://capitalone.eightfold.ai/events/open?domain=capitalone.com to check out upcoming events from Capital One, beginning tomorrow, July 23. OPPORTUNITY 2 Dominion Energy will host a virtual Careers in Diversity Student Conference on October 5-7. Application deadline is August 31. Flyer attached. Julia Costello Strategic Partnership Coordinator Virginia Tech | College of Engineering | Department of Computer Science 2202 Kraft Drive | Blacksburg, VA 24060 Email: <mailto:juliapc7@cs.vt.edu> juliapc7(a)cs.vt.edu Stay up-to-date on CS|Source job and event opportunities <https://cs.vt.edu/cs-source.html> CS|Source Website | <https://www.cs-source.cs.vt.edu/> CS|Source Portal | <https://twitter.com/vt_CS_Source> CS|Source on Twitter

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CS|SOURCE - EMPLOYER JOB POSTINGS AND EVENTS
by Julia Costello 21 Jul '21

21 Jul '21

CS|SOURCE - EMPLOYER JOB POSTINGS AND EVENTS View the following job opportunities. For other available positions, click <https://career.vt.edu/job-search/Handshake.html> Handshake. OPPORTUNITY 1 VTES is looking for an Engineering or Computer Science adjacent student to fill an internship position for the upcoming semester. Click Handshake posting at: <https://app.joinhandshake.com/jobs/4957663> https://app.joinhandshake.com/jobs/4957663. OPPORTUNITY 2 Bank of America 2022 summer internship programs are now open. Flyer attached. Julia Costello Strategic Partnership Coordinator Virginia Tech | College of Engineering | Department of Computer Science 2202 Kraft Drive | Blacksburg, VA 24060 Email: <mailto:juliapc7@cs.vt.edu> juliapc7(a)cs.vt.edu Stay up-to-date on CS|Source job and event opportunities <https://cs.vt.edu/cs-source.html> CS|Source Website | <https://www.cs-source.cs.vt.edu/> CS|Source Portal | <https://twitter.com/vt_CS_Source> CS|Source on Twitter

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invitation to Aarathi (RT) Raghuraman's MS thesis defense on Thursday
by Lenwood S. Heath 21 Jul '21

21 Jul '21

Good morning, all! You are cordially invited to attend Aarathi's MS thesis defense tomorrow, July 22, at 2:00 PM. While the defense will be in 3160A Torgersen, you may also join through Zoom: https://virginiatech.zoom.us/j/88690481911 I especially encourage my own students to attend. Details follow. Title: Predicting Mutational Pathways of Influenza A H1N1 Virus using Q-learning Abstract: Influenza is a seasonal viral disease affecting over 1 billion people annually around the globe, as reported by the World Health Organization (WHO). The influenza virus has been around for decades causing multiple pandemics and encouraging researchers to perform extensive analysis of its evolutionary patterns. Current research uses phylogenetic trees as the basis to guide population genetics and other phenotypic characteristics when describing the evolution of the influenza genome. Phylogenetic trees are one form of representing the evolutionary trends of sequenced genomes, but that do not capture the multidimensional complexity of mutational pathways. We suggest representing antigenic drifts within influenza A/H1N1 hemagglutinin (HA) protein as a graph, G = (V, E), where V is the set of vertices representing each possible sequence and E is the set of edges representing single amino acid substitutions. Each transition is characterized by a Malthusian fitness model incorporating the genetic adaptation, vaccine similarity, and historical epidemiological response using mortality as the metric where available. Applying reinforcement learning with the vertices as states, edges as actions, and fitness as the reward, we learn the high likelihood mutational pathways and optimal policy, without exploring the entire space of the graph, G. Our average predicted versus actual sequence distance of 3.6±1.2 amino acids indicates that our novel approach of using naive Q-learning can assist with influenza strain predictions, thus improving vaccine selection for future disease seasons. Biography: Aarathi (RT) Raghuraman is a Masters student in computer science at Virginia Tech. She completed her Bachelors in Computer Science from Virginia Tech in 2017 and worked in industry as a data scientist for 2 years. During her years in industry, she worked on a variety of machine learning applications in transportation and logistics including neural networks for a recommendation engine. Her career goal of applying machine learning to biomedical engineering problems brought her back to pursue research in bioinformatics. During her MS degree, she worked full time as a GTA for the Center for Enhancing Engineering Diversity where she taught freshman professional development courses. She will continue her journey as a data scientist at LexisNexis in Raleigh, North Carolina, post-defense. -- Lenwood S. Heath Professor 1160 Torgersen Hall Office phone: (540) 231-4352 Department of Computer Science Cell phone: (540) 392-6672 Virginia Tech FAX: (540) 231-6075 Blacksburg, VA 24061-0106 Email: heath(a)vt.edu WEB: http://people.cs.vt.edu/~heath/ -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Message and signature (c)2021 Lenwood S. Heath All rights reserved --------------------------------------------------------------------------

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Update - Second Registration Window for Fall 2021 - August 2nd through August 27th with start time
by Trey Mayo 20 Jul '21

20 Jul '21

The Web Add/Drop Period for the Fall 2021 semester opens Monday, August 2nd *at 8 p.m. ET (yes, in the evening)* and runs through Friday, August 27th in HokieSpa <http://hokiespa.vt.edu>. The points below will help you with navigating this process. What does this mean? It means that you will have the opportunity to register for your fall 2021 courses. We encourage you to register as early as possible in this window, to improve your chances of getting the classes that you want for the fall term. When do Fall 2021 classes begin? Fall 2021 classes will begin on Monday, August 23rd. What other registration-related deadlines (e.g., last day to add or drop and to avoid tuition penalties) should I know about the fall term? Please see the Academic Calendar <https://www.registrar.vt.edu/dates-deadlines/academic-calendar/2021-2022.ht…> on the Office of the University Registrar’s page for all important registration-related deadlines. You will also eventually find the tuition and fee schedule for fall 2021 on the Bursar’s website <http://bursar.vt.edu>. Please note that the last day to drop a class without tuition penalty is Monday, August 23, the first day of classes. I see there are sections of the same course offered at Blacksburg and the National Capital Region? Does it matter which one I sign up for since they’re all VT? Yes, it very much does matter, even if they are often the same course offering given by the same instructor. You should sign up for sections associated with the campus that you enrolled at. Please be sure to review the Timetable of Classes <https://onecampus.vt.edu/launch-task/all/timetable?terms=timetable> closely when registering for classes. Make sure that you select the right campus on the top menu when you are looking at the schedule. Do not choose Falls Church campus. Northern Virginia students must select NCR. For in-person (face to face) or hybrid classes: Blacksburg students should sign up for classes listed for the Blacksburg campus. National Capital Region (NCR) students should sign up for classes listed for the National Capital Region (NCR). Often the same exact course is available at both campuses but there are TWO separate CRNs (Course Registration Number). You MUST register for the CRN corresponding to your home campus. Depending on the location of the instructor, the actual course is offered at one campus and is broadcast via Zoom to the other campus. Please do not try to register for a CRN at a campus that you do not attend, as you will get a campus restriction error. For online classes (synchronous or asynchronous): Any student may sign up for a virtual campus course. What do I do if a class I want/need is already full? Please fill out this form <https://virginiatech.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_6ShepdPgWRo3vlI> to have your request reviewed. You will be notified at a later date of the outcome. We appreciate your patience during this process. We will not consider such requests until at least August 2. What if I am an accelerated undergraduate student? Unfortunately, you will not be able to register for graduate level classes on your own in HokieSpa during this window. To register for graduate level classes, please fill out this form <https://virginiatech.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_6ShepdPgWRo3vlI> to have your registration processed. We will process these requests as we get them. What if I get a major restriction error? Then you must have the course force-added for you. If it is not a CS course, then you must ask the department that is offering the class, we cannot add you. For CS courses, we will consider such requests starting August 2nd. What if I get a campus restriction error? Are you sure you are registering for the right campus and the right CRN? Remember, you MUST register for the CRN corresponding to your home campus. What if I [still] get a campus restriction error, even if I am trying to register for a course on my campus? Then it could be that there is some problem with your records that you need to get fixed. Please check Hokie Spa, and contact the Registrar’s office at registrar(a)vt.edu <regsitrar(a)vt.edu> or (540) 231-6252. What if I want to register for a 4000 level course? CS undergraduate courses must be force-added using the undergraduate force-add process <https://cs.vt.edu/Undergraduate/ForceAdd.html>. What if I want to register for a cognate course? CS does not own these courses, so any force-add requests must go to the home department. What if the course has a prerequisite listed on the timetable? You should ask the instructor of the course if your background prepares you to take it. Please note that if the prerequisite is CS5044, then all CSA majors already have this prerequisite. What if there is a hold on my account? Then we can’t add you to the course either. You have to get the hold removed. As always, should you need assistance or have any questions, please contact your respective Graduate Coordinator below: - M.Eng. - all students - Samantha Pipkin (samanthap(a)vt.edu) - M.S./Ph.D. students - NCR campus - Roxanne Paul (roxpaul(a)vt.edu) - M.S./Ph.D. students - Blacksburg campus - Sharon Kinder-Potter ( skpotter(a)vt.edu)

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CS|SOURCE - EMPLOYER JOB POSTINGS AND EVENTS
by Julia Costello 19 Jul '21

19 Jul '21

CS|SOURCE - EMPLOYER JOB POSTINGS AND EVENTS View the following job opportunity. For more available positions, click <https://career.vt.edu/job-search/Handshake.html> Handshake. OPPORTUNITY 1 NAVSEA Warfare Center to host virtual career fair July 22, 1-5pm. Register at <https://www.careereco.com/events/NAVSEA> https://www.careereco.com/events/NAVSEA. Internships and journey-level computer/cyber positions available at Dahlgren and Dam Neck locations. Contact NSWCDD's Recruitment Program Manager, Brooke Bowler at <mailto:brooke.bowler@navy.mil> brooke.bowler(a)navy.mil. Julia Costello Strategic Partnership Coordinator Virginia Tech | College of Engineering | Department of Computer Science 2202 Kraft Drive | Blacksburg, VA 24060 Email: <mailto:juliapc7@cs.vt.edu> juliapc7(a)cs.vt.edu Stay up-to-date on CS|Source job and event opportunities <https://cs.vt.edu/cs-source.html> CS|Source Website | <https://www.cs-source.cs.vt.edu/> CS|Source Portal | <https://twitter.com/vt_CS_Source> CS|Source on Twitter

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Fwd: Call for Submissions: Women-in-HPC workshop at SC'21
by Kirk Cameron 16 Jul '21

16 Jul '21

FYI. ****** Call for lightning talks: DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSIONS: September 8th, 2021 AOE **Women in HPC at SC21: Diversifying the HPC Community and Engaging Male Allies* Sunday, 14th November, 9AM – 5:30PM CST https://womeninhpc.org/events/sc-2021-workshop Call for Participation The 12th annual international Women in HPC workshop will be held in conjunction with the Supercomputing conference (SC21), at St. Louis, MO, USA. Once again Women in HPC, our advocates, allies, supporters, and anyone interested in improving diversity across the HPC community is welcome to join us to discuss the challenges the community faces. Activities will bring together women and male allies from across the international HPC and extended community, provide opportunities to network, showcase the work of inspiring women, and discuss how we can all work towards improving the under-representation of women in supercomputing. Previous Women in HPC workshops at SC have been great successes, with over 150 attendees in the past year, and many submissions from early/mid-career women in the past two years. As part of the workshop, we invite submissions from women to present their research in the HPC, AI, ML domain to the HPC community as a short/lightning talk. This is a great opportunity to interact with leading experts and employers across the HPC community from both academia and industry and discuss your work with them. We encourage women who are in their ‘early career’ (i.e. pursuing a graduate degree or within five years of graduation) to participate, however this opportunity is open to help everyone who feels they may benefit from presenting their work, irrespective of career stage. Each submission will be reviewed by a committee and authors shall receive 2-4 sets of review comments as feedback along with instructions needed to prepare for the talk and associate materials prior to the workshop. Submissions for the talks are comprised of a two-page submission with preliminary results, in any areas including but not limited to: - High performance computing - Data science - Machine learning/AI - Big data - Languages and runtimes - Algorithms Authors will be expected to give a short lightning talk (5 minutes) at the workshop. Benefit of Participating: - Networking: build your HPC network, meet peers and potential employers - Advice and mentoring: Receive expert advice and mentorship to help prepare for your presentation, including slides, how to structure a lightning talk for effective communication and how to make the most of the networking time afterwards. Submission All submitted abstracts should emphasize the computational aspects of the work, such as the facilities used, the challenges that HPC, ML/AI can help address and any additional research highlights etc. As an author you will have the opportunity to share your work with the workshop audience in a brief ‘elevator pitch’ talk. Depending on whether the SC workshops are held in person or online this year, all authors should be prepared, if accepted, to submit a 5-6 minute video presentation by October 7th, 2021. To submit your extended abstract (2 page) please prepare the following and submit via the SC21 Linklings submission site – make sure your choose ‘SC21 Workshop: Women in HPC’: Author/presenter information (For all authors): - First and last name - Current institution(s) - Short biography (max 300 words) - Company/institution - Photograph for website publicity. Lightning talk information - Title - Two-page submission with extended abstract (up to 500 words) and preliminary results Please use the standard fonts/formatting in the ACM conference proceedings template (https://www.acm.org/publications/proceedings-template). Submissions should be a maximum of two (2) pages, not including references. Important Dates Submission Deadline: September 8th, 2021 Notification of acceptance: October 1st, 2021 Camera Ready: October 7th, 2021 Workshop Committee: Workshop Chair: Mariam Umar, Intel Workshop Co-Chair: Jo Adegbola, Amazon Web Services Workshop Vice Chair: Misbah Mubarak, Amazon Web Services -Mariam -- -kwc

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