I-FOCUS-CS Biweekly Mettings Schedule
Our biweekly meetingss encompassed dynamic sessions, fostering a supportive community for scholars. Discussions ranged from general matters and semester planning to engaging external evaluators and encouraging active participation in technical groups. Students gained valuable insights through faculty interviews, career development presentations, and resume workshops. Former scholars shared experiences, contributing to a diverse pool of knowledge. Our ongoing commitment aims to provide continuous support, inspiration, and practical guidance, emphasizing the significance of education and community within the NSF-funded I-FOCUS-CS scholarship program.
Fall 2023
Location: ONLINETime: Saturday 10-11am
-
Oct 28, 2023: We discussed general matters and outlined plans for Fall 2023. We extended an invitation to our external evaluator, Dr. Kurt Steuck, to meet with scholars. Each scholar introduced themselves during the session, and students were encouraged to participate in ACM groups and attend various technical talks on campus.
-
Nov 11, 2023: Students were tasked with interviewing faculty members regarding graduate school and faculty mentoring. We thoroughly examined the results and the insights gained by the students. Additionally, I conducted a presentation on career development and resume writing. Subsequently, students were instructed to prepare their resumes accordingly for review during our upcoming meeting.
-
Nov 25, 2023: coming soon
-
Dec 9, 2023: coming soon
Spring 2023
Location: ONLINETime: Monday 3-4pm
-
Jan-Feb , 2023: Students had interviews with the external evaluator.
-
March 21, 2022: I-FOCUS scholarship program hosted a special event featuring three former scholars Derek Cox, Ian Solis, Garrett Lyssy. Current students had the opportunity to ask the speakers about their experiences, challenges, and advice. The former scholars shared their insights and provided guidance on topics ranging from academic success to career development.
Overall, the event was a great success and provided valuable insights for the current scholars. It was an inspiring reminder of the impact the scholarship program can have on the lives of its recipients, and a testament to the importance of education and community support. We look forward to hosting similar events in the future to continue to provide support and inspiration for our scholarship recipients.
.
-
April 4, 2022: A former I-FOCUS-CS scholar, Tiffany, shared valuable insights on navigating the internship and job search process. She stressed the importance of regularly updating resumes, strategic networking, and proactive pursuit of research opportunities. Tiffany advocated for tailored job applications, consistent coding practice, and the use of productivity tools like Notion to stay organized. Emphasizing the dynamic nature of the tech industry, she encouraged continuous exploration of opportunities even after securing an offer. Tiffany's advice included planning breaks to avoid burnout.
.
-
April 18, 2022: I extended an invitation to the current I-FOCUS-CS scholars to join the MS presentation delivered by Christian, a former member of the I-FOCUS-CS program from 2018 to 2022, who is currently pursuing his MS at UTSA. Following his technical presentation, Christian shared insightful perspectives on effectively navigating both graduate school and the job search process with an MM degree. Additionally, he highlighted how the Master's program contributed to his in-depth mastery of various topics, providing a valuable comparison to his undergraduate education.
.
Fall 2022
Location: ONLINETime: Tuesdays 5-6pm
-
Oct 3, 2022: First meeting, we discussed general issues, and made plans for the Fall 2022. Invited our external evaluator Dr. Kurt Steuck to meet with scholars. We asked students to introduce themselves and share their summer experiences.
-
Oct 17, 2022: Students attended campus wide career workshops with Google, Meta, and others
-
Oct 31, 2022: Resume workshop, and reviewed students resumes lively discussions about Dos/Don’ts.
-
Nov 14, 2022: Faculty Mentoring – grad school – interview with faculty. Students shared what they learned from pther faculty about gradute school.
-
Nov 28, 2022: We talked about job search strategies and expereinces.
Spring 2022
Location: ONLINETime: Monday 3-4pm
-
Jan-Feb , 2022: Students had interviews with the external evaluator.
-
March 23, 2022: Undergrad research experience presentation on Venomous Species Identification using CNN by Jason
-
May 25, 2022: Undergrad research experience presentation on
Katie Lynne Kalthoff and Jose Morales (students) : Petya/NotPetya
Kassie Garcia (student) : E-Commerce Website: Hug With Mug Coffee company
Ian Solis (student) : Random Univariate Polynomial Experiment
Fall 2021
Location: ONLINETime: Tuesdays 5-6pm
-
Sept 22, 2021: We allowed students to share their status and summer experiences 6 students did internship one did summer research. Some students already received offers other are looking for jobs. Most are interested in industry and like to consider grad school as part-time student if the company pays tuition.
-
Oct 20, 2021: Students interviewed faculty about grad school and faculty mentoring. We discussed these results and what students learned.
-
Nov 17, 2021: Students discussed whtat they learned in ACM meetings and some other academic talks at university.
Spring 2021
Location: ONLINETime: Tuesdays 5-6pm
-
Jan-Feb , 2021: Students had interviews with the external evaluator.
-
March 25, 2021: We discussed curriculum issues and how to improve CS curriculum.
-
April 8, 2021: We presented how to write good resumes. We also reviewed some student’s resumes and gave them feedback to improve.
-
April 22, 2021 : Keegan, a former I-FOCUS-CS scholar, joined the meeting and shared his industry experience along with job search tips.
-
May 6, 2021: Information about how to search for internship and jobs.
Fall 2020
Location: ONLINETime: Tuesdays 5-6pm
-
Sept 22, 2020: First meeting, we discussed general issues, and made plans for the Fall 2020.
-
Oct 6, 2020: We taledk about general issues and updates.
-
Oct 20, 2020: Undergraduate research opportunities and experiences by Christian Bargraser
-
Nov 3, 2020: Internship opportunities and experiences by students
-
Nov 17, 2020: BS --> Grad School, MS with and without thesis, and PhD (academia …) by Dr. Korkmaz
Spring 2020
Location: ONLINETime: Tuesdays 5-6pm
-
April 7, 2020: Due to COVID-19, We start meeting online. We discussed the challanges and opportunities. We discussed tutoring and summer support options.
-
April 21, 2020: Resume review and guidlines to prepare better resumes.
-
May 5, 2020: Undergrad research information and discussion. Encorage students to attend ACM meetings.
Fall 2019
Location: NPB 4.140Time: Tuesdays 5-6pm
- Sept 19, 2019: First meeting. We discussed our vision and mission. Students introduced themself and talked about their summer activities. We worked on tutor assignment schedule
- Oct 3, 2019: We worked on a few data structure problem and specifcally on pointers.
- Oct 17, 2019: Keegan Knisely (senior student and tutor) discussed his internship experience and gave tips for internship search. We then solved problems on dynamic memory allocation in data structures.
- Oct 31, 2019: Students were provided sample resumes to work on their resumes. We reviewed resumes and gave feedback. We solved questions on binary search trees in data strctures.
- Nov 14, 2019: : Larry Clark (Co-PI) gave more information on resume writing and career planning.
- Dec 5, 2019: Last Meeting for the Fall. We discussed the activities that we did and made plans for the next semester. I shared survey results click here for the presentation (pdf).
Spring 2019
Location: NPB 4.140Time: Tuesdays 4-5pm
- January 29, 2019: First meeting. We discussed possible activities and decided to have guided advanced programming sessions where one senior/junior student is supervising 2-3 freshmen/sophomore. As the first problem, we worked on how to generate the coordinates of NxM hexagons in 2-d space.
- Feb 12, 2019: Second meeting. We worked on how to print a given number in an LCD display-style using s “-” signs for the horizontal segments and s “|” signs for the vertical ones .
- Feb 26, 2019: Third meeting. We solved two problems (WERTYU and Jolly Jumpers) from Programming Challenges by Skiena.
- Spring Break
- March 26, 2019: Fourth meeting. How to remove all the characters other than digits from a string using both array and pointer notations.
- April 9, 2019: Fifth meeting. How to perform various set operations (e.g., intersection, uniion, difference) when the sets are given as linked lists.
- April 23, 2019: Sixth (last) meeting. I gave a presentation about our accomplishments. Executive Advisory Committee (EAC) is invited.
Fall 2018
Location: NPB 4.140Time: Tuesdays 4-5pm
- Aug 28, 2018: First meeting. We discussed our vision and mission. Students introduced themself and met with other peers and tutors. We completed tutor assignment schedule
- Sept 11, 2018: Joshua Greene presented some useful information based on a book called "How To Become a Straight-A Student" by Cal Newport. Click here for the presentation (pdf).
- Sept 25, 2018: Victoria Miller, M.A. visited us from UTSA Tomás Rivera Center Academic Success Coaching Program. She give a presentation on Time Management and Effective Exam Prep. Click here for the presentation (pdf).
- Oct 9, 2018: Dr. Sean Kelly, Dean of UTSA Honors College, will visit us and provide more information about Honors College. We will also discuss faculty mentoring and assign faculty mentors.
- Oct 23, 2018: Dr. Ravi Sandhu, Executive Director and Chief Scientist of Institute for Cyber Security (ICS), is invited as a guest speaker.
- Nov 6, 2018: TBD
- Nov 27, 2018: Last Meeting for the Fall. We discussed the activities that we did. I shared Learning Tips based on a book called Make it Stick:... Click here for the presentation (pdf). Students shared their thoughts about the college life. We also discussed JumpStart program and other activities for Spring 2019.