Director's Note:
Welcome to a new academic year. If you are a student returning to classes, I hope you enjoyed your summer and are renewed and ready to be successful this semester. If you are new to our program, welcome. We wish all of you the best. As always, we commit to providing you with a rigorous and challenging curriculum that will enrich your learning and preparation for whatever your goals are. As faculty, we also commit to providing the support and encouragement to help you succeed. Once again this year, we have added several new faculty members who enhance and strengthen our program. I am personally proud of the diversity we have added, especially to the diversity in backgrounds of academic disciplines and experiences. This will greatly enrich your education and understanding of difficult problems you will face. You may notice a much larger number of students studying computing this year. The number of graduate computing students has doubled from one year ago, especially in the number of international students and the countries they come from. I encourage all of you to engage with and challenge each other. To our alumni, we are very proud of what we witness in your careers and hope that we have been a part of that success. Please reach out to us to reengage with students and faculty so that you may help us remain relevant and resourceful. To our employers, we commit to partnering with you in preparing our students for the rapidly changing landscape they face so they are able to contribute to solving problems and improving the societies and communities they interact with. I wish you all the best in your courses and engagement as we grow and learn together.
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Undergraduate News:
The School of Computing undergraduate programs serve students across computer science, cybersecurity, information systems, information technology, data science, computer engineering and health care information systems. As programs expand and industry practices change, we continually monitor our offerings to prepare our students for their careers. In early 2022, the faculty met and voted to change CIS 162 and CIS 163 to Python beginning with the 2022/2023 school year. Python presents a simpler initial syntax to build computational thinking and initial programming skills. Furthermore, Python’s applicability spans all SoC majors (CS, IS, IT, Cybersecurity, and Data Science) and minors. Fall 2022 will see the first roll-out of Python in CIS 162 with fall CIS 163 sections remaining in Java. CIS 163 will follow in Winter 2023. The staggered deployment allows students who have already taken CIS 162 in Java to finish their two-course intro sequence in the same language. We are excited by the change and look forward to welcoming our newest Lakers into the School of Computing this fall!
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Graduate News:“Happy New Year”, as our former university president used to say, and welcome to a new academic year at GVSU and the School of Computing. My name is Robert Adams, and I am the Associate Director for Graduate Programs and Life-Long Learning for the School of Computing. As most of you are aware, we’ve experienced unprecedented growth in all our graduate programs this year. It seems to be a good time to pursue graduate work in computing! But as many of you are aware, this dramatic growth has caused more than a few pressure points, especially with regards to class sizes. I’m not sure we’ve ever experienced the number of override requests that we've processed in the last few months.
If you haven’t registered for your Winter 2023 classes, the time is now to get enrolled. We have openings in courses across all our graduate programs. However, GVSU’s philosophy has always been to make sure students enroll in classes in which we think they have a fair chance of success. Many of you are bringing academic and industry experiences with you that may allow us to override course prerequisites. But having those conversations take time, and time is of the essence. So, if you are in need of a course or two to fill out your schedule, email the Graduate Program Director for your specific program today. Include your gnumber and your technical experience. If you haven’t done so already, fill out brief the survey at https://gvsu.co1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_71eg5AQA3gqiHUa that asks a few basic questions about your technical skills. This information will help us to determine which courses are right for you, and help you build a schedule for the Winter. Best of luck in the upcoming semester.
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New Faculty:
As we start the new academic year, we would like to welcome and introduce the new faculty. School of Computing gained 6 new faculty members who will push our program further with their knowledge.
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Dr. Zachary DeBruine
Teaching: CIS 635 - Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining
Education: Ph.D. in Bioinformatics and B.S. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
Experience: Research interests intersect biology and computer science, focusing on high performance to analyze big biological data.
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dr. Alexander Lalejini
Teaching: CIS 635 - Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining and CIS 160 - Learn to Code in Python
Education: Dual Ph.D. in Computer Science and Ecology, Evolutionary Biology, and Behavior and B.S. in Computer Science
Experience: A postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Michigan in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
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Mr. Anthony LangleyTeaching: CIS 150 - Introduction to Computing and CIS 162 - Computer Science I
Education: Dual M.S. in Computer Information Systems, B.A. in Comparative Religion and Psychology, and M.A. in Comparative Religion
Experience: Taught at Albion College and Grand Rapids Community College and focuses primarily on web and mobile computing
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Dr. Catherine Molloseau
Teaching: CIS 101 - Thriving in our Digital World, CIS 159 - Java Programming for Engineers, and CIS 231 - Problem Solving Using Spreadsheets
Education: Ph.D. and M.S. in Material Science and Engineering and B.S. in Metallurgical Engineering
Experience: Practiced as a senior process engineer and high school STEM teacher
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Dr. Suhila Sawesi
Teaching: CIS 340 - Health Care Information Systems and CIS 661 - Introduction to Health and Bioinformatics
Education: Post Doctoral Fellow in Cancer Epigenetics and Public Health and Community Medicine, Ph.D. in Biomedical and Health Informatics, M.S. in Pharmacoepidemiology, and B.S. in Pharmacy
Experience: Created models for sharing and reusing biomedical information, designed information systems for healthcare providers and consumers, and analyzed molecular changes
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Dr. Sara sutton
Teaching: CIS 231 - Problem Solving Using Spreadsheets and CIS 358 - Information Assurance
Education: Ph.D. in Computer Science and Informatics, M.S. in Computer Science and Information Systems, and B.S. in Computer Science
Experience: Research focused on foundational data science, taught computer science, and industrial experience as an application developer
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Important Dates:August 28: Campus Life Night
August 29: First Day of Classes
September 2: Drop Deadline for 100% Refund
September 4-5: Labor Day Recess
October 23-25: Fall Break
Check out our computing organizations on our website at Get Involved! To see how you can get involved!
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