<p><i>by Calum T. Dalek</i>. The University of Waterloo Computer Science Club and AMD's OpenCL programming competition comes to a close, as the contest ends at midnight and prizes are awarded! Open submissions will be judged, so make sure to come out and watch.
</p>
</short>
<abstract>
<p>The University of Waterloo Computer Science Club and AMD's <ahref="http://csclub.uwaterloo.ca/opencl">OpenCL programming competition</a> comes to a close, as the contest ends at midnight and prizes are awarded! Open submissions will be judged, so make sure to come out and watch.
<p><i>by Calum T. Dalek</i>. Join the Computer Science Club and PhysClub every Wednesday evening for the rest of the term for our five screenings of the classic 1964 Messenger Lecture Series by Richard Feynman in PHY 150. Dinner provided!
</p>
</short>
<abstract>
<p>The Physics Club and the Computer Science Club are proud to present the 1964 Feynman Messenger Lecture Series in PHY 150 on Wednesday evenings at 5:30 PM. The screenings will be taking place as follows (please note times and dates):</p>
<ul>
<li><b>Feb. 29, 5:30-6:30 PM:</b><i>Law of Gravitation: An Example of Physical Law</i></li>
<li><b>Mar. 7, 5:30-7:30 PM:</b><i>The Relation of Mathematics and Physics</i> and <i>The Great Conservation Principles</i> (double feature)</li>
<li><b>Mar. 14, 5:30-6:30 PM:</b><i>Symmetry in Physical Law</i></li>
<li><b>Mar. 21, 5:30-7:30 PM:</b><i>The Distinction of Past and Future</i> and <i>Probability and Uncertainty: The Quantum Mechanical View</i> (double feature)</li>
<li><b>Mar. 28, 5:30-6:30 PM:</b><i>Seeking New Laws</i></li>
</ul>
<p>Dinner will be provided, so come on out, relax in the comfy PHY 150 theatre, and enjoy. Hope to see you there!</p>
<short><p><i>by Calum T. Dalek</i>. The University of Waterloo Computer Science Club and AMD are running an OpenCL programming competition. If you're interested in writing massively parallel software on the OpenCL platform, come out and join us for our introductory code party!</p></short>
<abstract><p>The University of Waterloo Computer Science Club and AMD are running an <ahref="http://csclub.uwaterloo.ca/opencl">OpenCL programming competition.</a> If you're interested in writing massively parallel software on the OpenCL platform, come out and join us for our introductory code party!</p>
<short><p><i>by Calum T. Dalek</i>. New to the Unix computing environment? If you seek an introduction, look no further. We will be holding a series of tutorials on using Unix, beginning with Unix 101 this upcoming Thursday. Topics that will be covered include basic interaction with the shell and the motivations behind using it, and an introduction to compilation. You'll have to learn this stuff in CS 246 anyways, so why not get a head start!</p></short>
<abstract><p>New to the Unix computing environment? If you seek an introduction, look no further. We will be holding a series of tutorials on using Unix, beginning with Unix 101 this upcoming Thursday. Topics that will be covered include basic interaction with the shell and the motivations behind using it, and an introduction to compilation. You'll have to learn this stuff in CS 246 anyways, so why not get a head start!</p>
<p>If you're interested in attending, make sure you can log into the Macs on the third floor, or show up to the CSC office (MC 3036) 20 minutes early for some help. If you're already familiar with these topics, don't hesitate to come to Unix 102, planned to be held after Reading Week.</p>
<short><p><i>by Victor Fan</i>. Join Victor Fan for his talk, intended for all second-year math students with a solid first-year background. Even if you are a first-year or a seasoned veteran, you will probably still take home something new, so please come out to enjoy the talk! Refreshments will be served.</p></short>
<abstract><p>Are you interested in algorithms? What is an algorithm anyway? We will discuss two or three neat problems with very elegant answers. Some of these answers are actually fast, and some will result in a proof that the problem is NP-complete. (What does that mean?) We will also discuss the motivating thoughts that led us to the solutions.</p>
<p>Join Victor Fan for his talk, intended for all second-year math students with a solid first-year background. Even if you are a first-year or a seasoned veteran, you will probably still take home something new, so please come out to enjoy the talk! Refreshments will be served.</p></abstract>
<eventitemdate="2012-01-27"time="6:30 PM"room="Math CnD"title="Code Party 0">
<short><p><i>by Calum T. Dalek</i>. The Computer Science Club is running the first code party of the term! Come join us and hack on open source software, your own projects, or whatever comes up. Everyone is welcome; please bring your friends. There will be foodstuffs and sugary drinks available for your hacking pleasure.</p></short>
<abstract><p>The Computer Science Club is running the first code party of the term! Come join us and hack on open source software, your own projects, or whatever comes up. Everyone is welcome; please bring your friends. There will be foodstuffs and sugary drinks available for your hacking pleasure.</p></abstract>
<eventitemdate="2011-11-18"time="7:00 PM"room="Comfy Lounge"title="CSC Open Data Code Party">
<short><p><i>by Calum T. Dalek</i>. The Computer Science Club is teaming up with the UW Open Data Initiative to bring you our third code party of the term! Everyone is welcome; please bring your friends. There will be foodstuffs and sugary drinks available for your hacking pleasure.</p></short>
<abstract><p> We're teaming up with the UW Open Data Initiative to host our next code party on Friday, November 18 at 7PM in the MC Comfy Lounge.</p>
<p>As always, you're welcome to work on your own projects, but we'll be hacking on some open data related projects:
<ol>
<li>Design and build UW APIs.</li>
We're looking for API design experts to bring scalable API designs to the party. At the party, we'll work on implementing these designs. The APIs that you build will be used by everyone to access the university data made available by the Open Data Initiative.
<li>Applications using university data that is currently available.</li>
</ol>
</p>
<p>If you'd like to discuss your ideas for these proposed projects, check out the newsgroup, uw.csc</p></abstract>
<short><p><i>by Calum T. Dalek</i>. The Computer Science Club has a limited number of tickets available for the <ahref="http://designourtomorrow.com/">Design Our Tomorrow Conference</a> at the University of Toronto on Saturday, November 12, 10:00 - 16:30. See event information for ticket details.</p></short>
The Computer Science Club has tickets available for the Design Our Tomorrow Conference at the University of Toronto on Saturday, November 12, 10:00 - 16:30, and would like to invite you to attend. The DOT Conference is a TED-style event geared towards students in high school, undergraduate, and graduate studies. The goal of the event is to inspire young people to create, innovate, better themselves, and in the process, better the world. The conference is free for students and is valued at $500 a ticket for non-students. For more details about the conference, visit <ahref="http://designourtomorrow.com/">http://designourtomorrow.com/</a>.</p>
<p>Tickets have been reserved for the CSC, and transportation to the conference has been funded by the David R. Cheriton School of Computer Science; a $5 deposit is required to secure a seat on the bus, which will be refunded to attendees upon departure. To sign up, visit the CSC office at MC 3036/3037 with exact change. You will need to provide your full name, e-mail, and student ID number. Please note that students who have already registered for the conference *should not* try to register through the CSC. For more details, visit the CSC website at <ahref="http://csclub.uwaterloo.ca/">http://csclub.uwaterloo.ca/</a>.</p>
<p>This event is not restricted to CSC members—any student is free to attend. Tickets are very limited, so please sign up as soon as possible.</p>
<p>On the morning of November 12, attendees should meet in front of the Davis Center at 7:30 am. The bus will be leaving promptly at 8:00 am, so please arrive no later than 7:30 so we can process refunds and depart on time.</p>
<short><p><i>by Calum T. Dalek</i>. The next installment in the CS Club's popular Unix tutorials UNIX 102 introduces powerful text editing tools for programming and document formatting.
</p></short>
<abstract><p>Unix 102 is a follow up to Unix 101, requiring basic knowledge of the shell. If you missed Unix 101 but still know your way around you should be fine. Topics covered include: "real" editors, text processing, navigating a multiuser Unix environment, standard tools, and more. If you aren't interested or feel comfortable with these tasks, watch out for Unix 103 and 104 to get more depth in power programming tools on Unix.</p></abstract>
</eventitem>
<eventitemdate="2011-10-21"time="7 PM"room="Comfy Lounge"title="Code Party 2">
<short>
<p><i>by Calum T. Dalek</i>. The Computer Science Club is having our second code party of the term! Everyone is welcome; please bring your friends. There will be foodstuffs and sugary drinks available for your hacking pleasure.</p>
</short>
<abstract>
<p>
The Computer Science Club is having our second code party of the term! Everyone is welcome; please bring your friends. There will be foodstuffs and sugary drinks available for your hacking pleasure.
<p><i>by Ehsan Akhgari</i>. Veteran Mozilla engineer Ehsan Akhgari will present a talk on the internals of web browsers. The material will range from the fundamentals of content rendering to the latest innovations in browser design. Click on the talk title for a full abstract.</p>
</short>
<abstract>
<p>
Web browsers have evolved. From their humble beginnings as simple HTML
rendering engines they have grown and evolved into rich application
platforms. This talk will start with the fundamentals: how a browser
creates an on-screen representation of the resources downloaded from
the network. (Boring, right? But we have to start somewhere.) From
there we'll get into the really exciting stuff: the latest innovations
in Web browsers and how those innovations enable — even encourage —
developers to build more complex applications than ever before. You'll
see real-world examples of people building technologies on top of
these "simple rendering engines" that seemed impossible a short time
ago.
Bio of the speaker:
Ehsan Akhgari has contributed to the Mozilla project for more than 5
years. He has worked on various parts of Firefox, including the user
interface and the rendering engine. He originally implemented Private
Browsing in Firefox. Right now he's focusing on the editor component
<eventitemdate="2011-09-30"time="7 PM"room="Comfy Lounge"title="Code Party 1">
<short>
<p><i>by Calum T. Dalek</i>. The Computer Science Club is having our first code party of the term! The theme for this code party will be collaborative development. We'll present several ideas of small projects to work on for the unexperienced. Everyone is welcome; please bring your friends! There will be foodstuffs and sugary drinks available for your hacking pleasure.</p>
</short>
<abstract>
<p>
The Computer Science Club is having our first code party of the term! The theme for this code party will be collaborative development. We'll present several ideas of small projects to work on for the unexperienced. Everyone is welcome; please bring your friends! There will be foodstuffs and sugary drinks available for your hacking pleasure.
</p>
<p>
There will be 4 more code parties this term.
</p>
</abstract>
</eventitem>
<eventitemdate="2011-09-29"edate="2011-09-29"time="4:00 PM"etime="5:30 PM"room="MC 3004"title="UNIX 101: An Introduction to the Shell">
<short>
<p><i>by Calum T. Dalek</i>. New to Unix? No problem, we'll teach you to power use circles around your friends!</p>
</short>
<abstract>
<p>Unix 101 is the first in a series of tutorials on using Unix. This tutorial will present an introduction to the Unix shell environment, both on the student servers and on other Unix environments. Topics covered include: using the shell, both basic interaction and more advanced topics like scripting and job control, the filesystem and manipulating it, and secure shell. If you feel you're already familiar with these topics, don't hesitate to come to Unix 102 to learn about documents, editing, and other related tasks, or watch out for Unix 103, 104, and 201 that get much more in depth with power tools and software authoring on Unix. </p>
<short><p><i>by Stanley Khaing</i>. What are the requirements for obtaining a patent? Should software be patentable?</p></short>
<abstract>
<p>Stanley Khaing is a lawyer from Waterloo whose areas of practice are software and high technology. He will be discussing software patents. In particular, he will be addressing the following questions:</p>
<ul>
<li>What are the requirements for obtaining a patent?</li>
<eventitemdate="2011-02-17"time="07:00 PM"room="MC2017"title="A Smorgasbord of Perl Talks">
<short><p><i>by KW Perl Mongers</i>. These talks are intended for programmers who are curious about the Swiss Army Chainsaw of languages, Perl.</p></short>
<abstract>
<p>Tyler Slijboom will present:</p>
<ul>
<li>Prototyping in Perl,</li>
<li>Perl Default Variables,</li>
<li>HOWTO on OO Programming, and</li>
<li>HOWTO on Installing and Using Modules from CPAN</li>
<eventitemdate="2011-02-09"time="04:30 PM"room="MC3003"title="UNIX 103: Version Control Systems">
<short><p><i>by Calum T. Dalek</i>. In this long-awaited third installment of the popular Unix Tutorials the friendly experts of the CSC will teach you the simple art of version control.
</p></short>
<abstract><p>You will learn the purpose and use of two different Version Control Systems (git and subversion). This tutorial will advise you in the discipline of managing the source code of your projects and enable you to quickly learn new Version Control Systems in the work place -- a skill that is much sought after by employers.</p></abstract>
<short><p><i>by Calum T. Dalek</i>. Come one, come all to the Code Party happening in the Comfy Lounge this Friday. The event starts at 7:00PM and will run through the night.</p></short>
<abstract><p>Why sleep when you could be hacking on $your_favourite_project or doing $something_classy in great company? Join us for a night of coding and comraderie! Food and caffeine will be provided.</p></abstract>
<short><p><i>by Calum T. Dalek</i>. The next installment in the CS Club's popular Unix tutorials UNIX 102 introduces powerful text editing tools for programming and document formatting.
<abstract><p>Unix 102 is a follow up to Unix 101, requiring basic knowledge of the shell. If you missed Unix 101 but still know your way around you should be fine. Topics covered include: "real" editors, document typesetting with LaTeX (great for assignments!), bulk editing, spellchecking, and printing in the student environment and elsewhere. If you aren't interested or feel comfortable with these tasks, watch out for Unix 103 and 104 to get more depth in power programming tools on Unix.</p></abstract>
<eventitemdate="2010-11-17"time="04:30 PM"room="MC4061"title="Mathematics and aesthetics in maze design">
<short><p><i>by Dr. Craig S. Kaplan</i>. In this talk, I discuss the role of the computer in the process of designing mazes. I present some well known algorithms for maze construction, and more recent research that attempts to novel mazes with non-trivial mathematical or aesthetic properties.
</p></short>
<abstract><p>For thousands of years, mazes and labyrinths have played
an important role in human culture and myth. Today, solving
mazes is a popular pastime, whether with pencil on paper
or by navigating through a cornfield.
</p><p>The construction of compelling mazes encompasses a variety of
challenges in mathematics, algorithm design, and aesthetics.
The maze should be visually attractive, but it should also be
an engaging puzzle. Master designers balance these two goals
with wonderful results.
</p><p>In this talk, I discuss the role of the computer in the process
of designing mazes. I present some well known algorithms for
maze construction, and more recent research that attempts to
novel mazes with non-trivial mathematical or aesthetic properties.
If you would like to come along, please come by the office and sign up. The cost for the trip is $2 per member.
The bus will be leaving from the Davis Center (DC) Saturday Nov. 13 at NOON (some people may have been told 1pm, this is an error). Please show up a few minutes early so we may
<short><p>Come join the CSC for a night of code, music with only 8 bits, and comradarie. We will be in the C&D Lounge from 7pm until 7am working on personal projects, open source projects, and whatever else comes to mind. If you're interested in getting involved in free/open source development, some members will be on hand to guide you through the process.
</p></short>
<abstract><p>Come join the CSC for a night of code, music with only 8 bits, and comradarie. We will be
in the C&D Lounge from 7pm until 7am working on personal projects, open source projects, and
whatever else comes to mind. If you're interested in getting involved in free/open source development,
some members will be on hand to guide you through the process.
<eventitemdate="2010-10-26"time="04:30 PM"room="MC4040"title="Analysis of randomized algorithms via the probabilistic method">
<short><p>In this talk, we will give a few examples that illustrate the basic method and show how it can be used to prove the existence of objects with desirable combinatorial properties as well as produce them in expected polynomial time via randomized algorithms. Our main goal will be to present a very slick proof from 1995 due to Spencer on the performance of a randomized greedy algorithm for a set-packing problem. Spencer, for seemingly no reason, introduces a time variable into his greedy algorithm and treats set-packing as a Poisson process. Then, like magic, he is able to show that his greedy algorithm is very likely to produce a good result using basic properties of expected value.
</p></short>
<abstract><p>The probabilistic method is an extremely powerful tool in combinatorics that can be
used to prove many surprising results. The idea is the following: to prove that an
object with a certain property exists, we define a distribution of possible objects
and use show that, among objects in the distribution, the property holds with
non-zero probability. The key is that by using the tools and techniques of
probability theory, we can vastly simplify proofs that would otherwise require very
complicated combinatorial arguments.
</p><p>As a technique, the probabilistic method developed rapidly during the latter half of
the 20th century due to the efforts of mathematicians like Paul Erdős and increasing
interest in the role of randomness in theoretical computer science. In essence, the
probabilistic method allows us to determine how good a randomized algorithm's output
is likely to be. Possibly applications range from graph property testing to
computational geometry, circuit complexity theory, game theory, and even statistical
physics.
</p><p>In this talk, we will give a few examples that illustrate the basic method and show
how it can be used to prove the existence of objects with desirable combinatorial
properties as well as produce them in expected polynomial time via randomized
algorithms. Our main goal will be to present a very slick proof from 1995 due to
Spencer on the performance of a randomized greedy algorithm for a set-packing
problem. Spencer, for seemingly no reason, introduces a time variable into his
greedy algorithm and treats set-packing as a Poisson process. Then, like magic,
he is able to show that his greedy algorithm is very likely to produce a good
result using basic properties of expected value.
</p><p>Properties of Poisson and Binomial distributions will be applied, but I'll remind
everyone of the needed background for the benefit of those who might be a bit rusty.
Stat 230 will be more than enough. Big O notation will be used, but not excessively.
<short><p>This installment in the CS Club's popular Unix tutorials UNIX 102 introduces powerful text editing tools for programming and document formatting.
</p></short>
<abstract><p>Unix 102 is a follow up to Unix 101, requiring basic knowledge of the shell.
If you missed Unix101 but still know your way around you should be fine.
Topics covered include: "real" editors, document typesetting with LaTeX
(great for assignments!), bulk editing, spellchecking, and printing in the
<short><p>Unix 103 will cover version control systems and how to use them to manage your projects. Unix 101 would be helpful, but all that is needed is basic knowledge of the Unix command line (how to enter commands).
</p></short>
<abstract><p>Unix 103 will cover version control systems and how to use them to manage
your projects. Unix 101 would be helpful, but all that is needed is basic
knowledge of the Unix command line (how to enter commands).
<short><p><i>By Dr. Chris Eliasmith</i>. Theoretical neuroscience is a new discipline focused on constructing mathematical models of brain function. It has made significant headway in understanding aspects of the neural code. However, past work has largely focused on small numbers of neurons, and so the underlying representations are often simple. In this talk I demonstrate how the ideas underlying these simple forms of representation can underwrite a representational hierarchy that scales to support sophisticated, structure-sensitive representations.
<short><p><i>By Ian Seyler, Return to Infinity</i>. BareMetal is a new 64-bit OS for x86-64 based computers. The OS is written entirely in Assembly, while applications can be written in Assembly or C/C++. High Performance Computing is the main target application.
<abstract><p><i>By Ian Seyler, Return to Infinity</i>. BareMetal is a new 64-bit OS for x86-64 based computers. The OS is written entirely in Assembly,
<eventitemdate="2010-09-28"time="04:30 PM"room="MC4061"title="A Brief Introduction to Video Encoding">
<short><p><i>By Peter Barfuss</i>. In this talk, I will go over the concepts used in video encoding (such as motion estimation/compensation, inter- and intra- frame prediction, quantization and entropy encoding), and then demonstrate these concepts and algorithms in use in the MPEG-2 and the H.264 video codecs. In addition, some clever optimization tricks using SIMD/vectorization will be covered, assuming sufficient time to cover these topics.
</p></short>
<abstract><p><i>By Peter Barfuss</i>. With the recent introduction of digital TV and the widespread success
of video sharing websites such as youtube, it is clear that the task
of lossily compressing video with good quality has become important.
Similarly, the complex algorithms involved require high amounts of
optimization in order to run fast, another important requirement for
any video codec that aims to be widely used/adopted.
</p><p>In this talk, I
will go over the concepts used in video encoding (such as motion
estimation/compensation, inter- and intra- frame prediction,
quantization and entropy encoding), and then demonstrate these
concepts and algorithms in use in the MPEG-2 and the H.264 video
codecs. In addition, some clever optimization tricks using
SIMD/vectorization will be covered, assuming sufficient time to cover
<eventitemdate="2010-09-23"time="04:30 PM"room="DC1301 (The Fishbowl)"title="Calling all CS Frosh">
<short><p>Come meet and greet your professors, advisors, and the heads of the school. Talk to the CSC executive and other upper year students about CS at Waterloo. Free food and beverages will also be available, so there is really no excuse to miss this.
</p></short>
<abstract><p>Come meet and greet your professors, advisors, and the heads of the school.
Talk to the CSC executive and other upper year students about CS at Waterloo.
Free food and beverages will also be available, so there is really no excuse
<short><p>Need to use the Unix environment for a course, want to overcome your fears of the command line, or just curious? Attend the first installment in the CSC's popular series of Unix tutorials to learn the basics of the shell and how to navigate the unix environment. By the end of the hands on workshop you will be able to work efficiently from the command line and power-use circles around your friends.
<eventitemdate="2010-09-22"time="06:00 PM"room="MC4045"title="Cooking for Geeks">
<short><p>The CSC is happy to be hosting Jeff Potter, author of "Cooking for Geeks" for a presentation on the finer arts of food science. Jeff's book has been featured on NPR, BBC and his presentations have wowed audiences of hackers & foodies alike. We're happy to have Jeff joining us for a hands on demonstration.
</p></short>
<abstract><p>The CSC is happy to be hosting Jeff Potter, author of "Cooking for Geeks" for a presentation on the finer arts of food science.
Jeff's book has been featured on NPR, BBC and his presentations have wowed audiences of hackers & foodies alike.
We're happy to have Jeff joining us for a hands on demonstration.
</p><p>But you don't have to take our word for it... here's what Jeff has to say:
</p><p>Hi! I'm Jeff Potter, author of Cooking for Geeks (O'Reilly Media, 2010), and I'm doing a "D.I.Y. Book Tour" to talk
about my just-released book. I'll talk about the food science behind what makes things yummy, giving you a quick
primer on how to go into the kitchen and have a fun time turning out a good meal.
Depending upon the space, I’ll also bring along some equipment or food that we can experiment with, and give you a chance to play with stuff and pester me with questions.
</p><p>If you have a copy of the book, bring it! I’ll happily sign it.
<short><p>The last talk in the CS10 series will be presented by Jordan Saunders, in which he will discuss methods for processing brush-based constructive solid geometry.
</p></short>
<abstract><p>For some would-be graphics programmers, the biggest barrier-to-entry is getting data to render. This is why there exist so
many terrain renderers: by virtue of the fact that rendering height-fields tends to give pretty pictures from next to no
"created" information. However, it becomes more difficult when programmers want to do indoor rendering (in the style of the
Quake and Unreal games). Ripping map information from the Quake games is possible (and fairly simple), but their tool-chain
is fairly clumsy from the point of view of adding a conversion utility.
