• October 5, 2020
    Fake flights, real career skills
    Computer science students create software to power pilot simulations
    Screen Image from the Paragalactic Space Flight Experience Before high-tech flight simulators teach pilots how to fly, someone has to teach the simulators how to simulate.

    That's a skill computer science faculty member Alex Redei is sharing with Central Michigan University students who will be the computer professionals of the future.

    "We're using all the same tools used in industry," Redei said. "We're doing interesting research that solves real problems and contributes positively to society."

    The action plays out in a large open lab in the Engineering Technology Building. Powerful motors drive two life-size simulators through climbs, turns, dives and even barrel rolls. Video screens surround "pilots" enclosed in the windowless cockpits and show the results of their actions at the controls.

    Redei and his team of one graduate and four undergraduate students develop software that sends pilots-in-training soaring on virtual flights.

    Read the rest of this story here
  • April 30, 2019
    Computer science major wins at National Conference
    Student's app scores at Google Hackathon
    Daniel BarajasDaniel Barajas, a sophomore from Aurora, Illinois, majoring in Computer Science scored Google Hackathon honors at this year’s 45th annual National Convention for the National Society of Black Engineers in Detroit.

    Barajas’ app, designed to help relieve stress and anxiety, nabbed him 2nd place along with a load of swag from Google.

    Other members of CMU’s NSBE Chapter also fared pretty well, racking up internships and interviews from: General Electric, Ford, Rockwell Automation, Chrysler, and the Lear Corporation.


  • April 10, 2019
    Bound for Belgium
    Computer science major secures competitive study abroad position
    Dorien Smith in JapanFueled by a passion for travel, Dorien Smith, a junior from Sterling Heights, Michigan, majoring in Computer Science and minoring in mathematics, was investigating possible study abroad possibilities for this coming summer semester.

    “CMU makes it pretty easy to study abroad, they do a great of job of trying to push their students to go beyond the regular coursework,” he said.

    “I studied abroad the summer of 2017 in Japan, I really liked going somewhere completely different from what you’re used to. I wanted to have another internship this summer and I wanted to go somewhere abroad at least one more time before I graduate.”

    After meeting with a study abroad advisor, Smith learned about the International Association for the Exchange of Students for Technical Experience Association. IAESTE is a non-profit association that brings together over 4000 students, 3000 employers, and 1000 academic institutions for professional internships abroad, social and intercultural programs, and international networking in over 80 countries worldwide.

    With only 50-75 internships available worldwide each year, the competition for a position is intense.

    “They told me it was pretty rigorous, and I was like…all right, I’ll try it,” Smith said.

    Smith took his chances and sent his resume to the IAESTE. “They asked me to come in for an interview, then suddenly I was told that I had been nominated for a position.”

    Smith was placed in a position with Inmanta, a technology and solutions provider in the telecommunications industry, based in Belgium.

    “They have this virtual lab system that they use to test products before they push them out to the customers so I’ll be doing some work on their virtual lab environment, basically software engineering on a controlled computational space,” said Smith. “When I worked on campus we had a rudimentary version of that through our Active Directory, it’s pretty much just like a virtual computer inside of a network, conceptually it’s all the same so I’m going to be programming on that.”

    “My goal is job experience and to make the connections to allow me to do something like this indefinitely.”
  • March 25, 2019
    Computer Science students bring home awards from computing conference
    Computer Science students at Midwest Collegiate Computing ConferenceA group of CMU Computer Science majors recently brought home a handful of awards from the Midwest Collegiate Computing Conference, held this year at Cornerstone University in Grand Rapids.

    A joint venture between area business and educators passionate about encouraging Information Technology & Information Systems skills at the collegiate level, the MWC3 conference’s goal is to provide students a competitive learning environment in which to improve their skills while networking with local businesses.

    • Paul Cappaert, a Computer Science & Mathematics senior from Dekalb, Illinois, won 1st place in Java Development along with Rohith Kamisetty 
    • Kenneth Hall, a Computer Science Junior from Bangor, Main, won 1st place in IBM’s Master the Mainframe and 2nd place in Java Development 
    • Rohith Kamisetty, a Computer Science senior from Anantapur, India, won 1st place in Java Development along with Paul Cappaert 
    • Javarri Little, a Computer Science Junior from Detroit, Michigan, won 1st place in System Analysis and 2nd place in Cyber Securty along with Zach Hayward 
    • Zach Hayward, an Information Technology senior from Kingsley, Michigan, won 1st place in System Analysis and 2nd place in Cyber Security along with Javarri Little 
    • Nathan Rossow, a Computer Science Senior from Saint Johns, Michigan, won 2nd place in Java Development and 2nd place in IBM’s Master the Mainframe.

    Students compete in a wide range of knowledge and skills including: Database Design, Java Development, Network Design, Office Competition, Visual Studio, Python, Cyber Security, Project Management, and Master the Mainframe

    Congratulations!
  • December 4, 2018
    Driving digital disruption at CMU
    Global business software leader looks to CMU to help speed innovation
    Faculty and staff touring Ford plantInnovation. Digital disruption. To some people, they're little more than business buzzwords. But for faculty and students in a new project that crosses department lines at Central Michigan University, they represent a new mission: to lead thinking for business worldwide. Earlier this year, enterprise resource planning software company SAP selected Central and 10 other universities to serve as a Next-Gen Chapter. Additionally, CMU was designated as a SAP Next-Gen Lab. As an industry leader, SAP's name often is used as a synonym for the ERP software that integrates an organization's accounting, purchasing, production, human resources and other business functions. CMU and other universities use SAP to teach business processes.

    Read the rest of this story here
  • October 24, 2018
    This headline was not hacked
    CMU students in cybersecurity learn how to keep networks safe
    cyber security graphicCentral Michigan University student Josh Marzic wants you to know he is not a hacker. At least, not anymore. In high school, he would look for ways to get around blocks in his school's computer system. It wasn't exactly hacking, he said, but he enjoyed looking for weaknesses he and his friends could exploit. Now, as president of the CMU Cyber Security Club, a registered student organization, the junior computer science major from Delton, Michigan, is helping other students learn how hackers can break into systems and how to keep them out.

    Read the rest of this story here
  • October 16, 2018
    In memoriam: Michael Stinson
    Computer science prof taught at CMU for 30 years, mentor for IT student organization
    Mike StinsonMichael Stinson, 70, who taught in the Department of Computer Science at Central Michigan University for 30 years, died at his home in Mount Pleasant on Monday, Oct. 15. The well-liked professor among faculty and students is an alum of CMU, having received his bachelor’s degree in mathematics in 1971. He later received his Master of Science in probability/statistics and Master of Arts in mathematics from Michigan State University and earned his doctoral degree in computer science in 1988 from Louisiana State University. He was an active faculty member, having served on the Pascal Standards programming language committee and as faculty advisor for the Association of Information Technology Professionals student organization, where he developed many friendships among students as he encouraged them to immerse themselves in the field of information technology. “He was always looking for ways to improve student learning and went above and beyond to help students,” said Patrick Kinnicutt, computer science department chair in the College of Science and Engineering. One of his students, senior DaRon Turner, said: “Listening to his views was like listening to your grandfather pass down wisdom, and his office was a home for many who wanted to do homework or just chill out.” Funeral arrangements are pending.

    Read the rest of this story here
  • April 2, 2018
    Computer with a key diference
    Faculty-student team creates system for people with physical disabilities
    student uses fist to type without a keyboardWhen you walk into any coffee shop, college library or office, you see fingers flying across computer keyboards. But what if you don't have fingers, or can't use the ones you have? How do you communicate? How do you fit in? That's the issue Central Michigan University computer science faculty member Tony Morelli and graduate assistant Taylor Ripke, of McBain, Michigan, are tackling. They're refining a computer system that has a projected image in place of a keyboard and a monitor that doubles as a camera.

    Read the rest of this story here
  • April 30, 2017
    Student sparks enthusiasm for video game development on campus
    Starting her freshman year at Central Michigan University, Molly Rossman knew she was interested in video game design. The Midland senior grew up playing Nintendo 64 games such as Super Smash Bros and Pokémon Stadium with her father. The artist went to college in 2013, striving to break into the industry with her drawings and designs. There is no video game design program at CMU, so Rossman developed her own path. Her ambition drove her to work with advisers and faculty to personalize her curriculum. In her freshman year, she collaborated with Tony Morelli, a computer science professor, to establish the Game Development and Design Club that teaches other interested students how to make games.

    Read the rest of this story here
  • January 9, 2017
    University professors design educational hybrid video/board game using HP Sprout
    HP announced its user-friendly Sprout 3D Capture Stage scanner back in 2015, and the Sprout Pro was released about a year ago. While HP was busy unveiling the Sprout Pro G2 at CES 2017 this week, two creative and thoughtful educators from Central M​ichigan University have been busy using the platform to reinvent how ecological management is taught in the classroom, by designing an innovative hybrid video/board game. The two-player game, called Rangers vs. Planners, teaches students the value of effective eco-planning.

    Read the rest of this story here
  • October 26, 2016
    In search of the great hack
    CMU alumni from GM host company's first university hackathon
    More than 20 Central Michigan University students carrying game remotes, drones, robots and handcrafted 3-D printers gathered with a few CMU alumni from General Motors​ for the automotive company's first university hackathon. ​ A hackathon is a...

    Read the rest of this story here
  • April 27, 2016
    Gaming from Atari to Xbox
    CMU students learn about video games in 40-hour gaming marathon
    On a recent weekend, Central Michigan University gamers geeked out to a span of 40 years of video games they played over the course of 40 consecutive hours. The gaming marathon started with a game from 1977 named Combat, and at around 8 a.m. the next morning as students – surrounded by empty cans of Mountain Dew and pizza boxes – were in the early 1990s playing Super Mario World. Surrounded by monitors broadcasting the games in an active learning classroom, students learned about video game design through the years as they played all of their favorite childhood games.

    Read the rest of this story here
  • November 13, 2015
    Virtual reality to help the visually impaired regain vision
    The words "virtual reality" traditionally bring images of large science fiction helmets and scenes from The Matrix. However, CMU Assistant Professor of Compute Science Anthony Morelli is finding other ways to put the technology to use helping those with disabilities.

    Read the rest of this story here
  • August 4, 2015
    Amazon web services research grant awarded to Patrick Seeling
    Amazon, Inc. awarded Assistant Professor Dr. Patrick Seeling with the Department of Computer Science at Central Michigan University an Amazon Web Services (AWS) Research Grant.

    Amazon Web Services is a collection of remote computing services that together make up a cloud computing platform, offered over the Internet by Amazon, Inc. The award allows for $3900 in credits to Amazon’s cloud computer server environment at multiple locations worldwide.

    For multiple years, Dr. Seeling and Troy Johnson, who is currently finishing his MS in Computer Science, investigated the characteristics of the world wide web and how browsers on desktop or mobile devices access web pages and their contents. Their research led to several publications, including one in the third ranked publication in telecommunications (based on ISI Impact factor 2014): T. A. Johnson and P. Seeling, "Desktop and Mobile Web Page Comparison: Characteristics, Trends, and Implications,” IEEE Communications Magazine, vol. 52, iss. 9, pp. 144-151, 2014.

    Access to the AWS cloud will allow Dr. Seeling and Troy Johnson to investigate how today’s mobile devices access the world wide web and where performance is wasted because servers are non-optimal configured and content is downloaded too often, wasting network capacities and cellular plan data caps next to the limited energy found in mobile devices.
  • April 20, 2015
    Virtual to reality video games to help teach disabled children cognitive skills
    Video games could change the lives of children with intellectual disabilities as students and professors work together to create a safer way to teach kids functional skills like crossing the street.

    Read the rest of this story here