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Spring 2014 Software Engineering Professional Programs Newsletter
Spring 2014Software Engineering Professional Programs Newsletter
Contents
3 Message from the Director
4 International Collaborations Feature: Innopolis University
6 Other International Collaborations
7 The Cave: New and Improved
8 Student Projects
10 Faculty and Staff News
12 2013 Alumni Speakers
13 The James E. Tomayko Scholarship:
Recognizing Excellence and Dedication
14 Honors and Commendations
15 Our Most Valued Asset
16 2013 Alumni Gatherings
18 Save the Date: 2013 Alumni Gatherings
19 The 25th is Coming!
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Message From The DirectorDear Software Engineering Alumni,
I hope that this newsletter finds you happy, healthy, and prosperous in every way. The start of the New Year is time to reflect upon another remarkable year for the Master of Software Engineering Professional Programs. Though we remain committed to our vision of ongoing improvement at both the local and global levels, this year has been ripe with a number of extraordinary new developments.
In mid-August, fourteen MSIT-SE sponsored students arrived as part of a new partnership between Carnegie Mellon and Innopolis University in Kazan, Russia. A new university, Innopolis was founded as the first university in Russia explicitly committed to advancing the field of information technology. MSE will partner with Innopolis to provide the new university with its graduate software engineering curriculum.
Our professional program’s space on 300 S. Craig in Pittsburgh underwent another redesign throughout the summer. With the goal of providing a more flexible and inviting space for the students, the Cave layout was re-worked to allow for easy reconfiguration as our programs continue to grow and evolve.
But our continued growth is contingent upon a number of factors, not the least of which is a robust, engaged alumni community. There are a number of opportunities for you to support our efforts as we work to cultivate future leaders in information technology. If I may, I’d like to suggest two very easy ways in which you can strengthen our community:
Stay in touch: One of the simplest things you can do is ensure that your alumni record is kept up to date. Knowing where you reside, what you’re doing professionally, who you are working with, and how we can best keep in contact with you is critical in many ways. It means that we are able to keep you updated and informed on program news and alumni happenings. It allows us to connect you with current students who may be interested in your organization. And it advances our ability to better understand the state of industry through corporate outreach. If you haven’t already done so, please register or login to the CMU Online Community and update your information via the “Account Data” link in the top right of the screen.
Continue the conversation: Taking part in alumni groups on Facebook and LinkedIn is a terrific way to foster a stronger sense of community. Here you can start and take part in rich conversations pertaining to all aspects of software engineering, network and share employment opportunities, or catch up with peers, faculty, and staff. Additionally, take the connections offline and consider attending one of our regional alumni gatherings. In spring 2014, events will be hosted in San Francisco, Boston, New York City, Pittsburgh, and Seattle. These casual events are an excellent opportunity to form lasting personal and professional connections with other program alumni in your area. Details on these events can be found later in this edition, or at the alumni page of our website.
Finally, I’d like to take this opportunity to announce that the Masters of Software Engineering Professional Programs is nearing its 25th anniversary. The program is in the early planning stages for a reunion celebration in Pittsburgh in the spring of 2015. Stay tuned for details on what I know will be a memorable gathering of our entire community and I hope you will join us.
On behalf of the Master of Software Engineering Professional Programs faculty, administrators, and staff, I send to you and your families my warmest wishes for a rewarding new year.
Best regards,
David GarlanDirector, Professional Programs in Software Engineering
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INNOPOLIS UNIVERSITY, RUSSIA For the 2013 academic year, the MSE program wel-comed fourteen Russian MSIT-SE students to Carnegie Mellon Pittsburgh. The students are all sponsored by the programs’ newest international collaboration, Innopolis University near the Russian city of Kazan, Tartarstan. The newly-created uni-versity, the first of its kind in Russia, is dedicated to producing visionary leaders in information technology. And this pilot group of students, with a variety of professional backgrounds and expe-rience levels, are the first envoys from this exciting partnership between the Software Engineering Professional Programs and Innopolis University.
Under the directorship of Dr. David Garlan, collaborative dual-degree programs in software engineering began over ten years ago, starting with a partnership between Carnegie Mellon and one of the leading IT universities in Korea, Information and Communications University (now the Korean Advanced Institute of Science and Technology). “I’d like to think we pioneered the practice” Dr. Garlan says. The model is one that ensures that the same high-quality education that many have come to expect of CMU. Dr. Garlan continues,
“Typically, what you find with international collaborative degrees is that either the students are awarded credit for courses taken at their home institution, or the institution they are partnering with in the US will send faculty to live and teach abroad. We wanted to do something a little different. So, we pioneered a method by which we train faculty from our partner institution here in Pittsburgh so that they can deliver the courses ‘the CMU way’ once they return to their home institution. Students will often begin their pro-gram with these CMU trained faculty on site in their home country prior to doing a semester in residence in Pittsburgh. By so doing, the program quality remains consistently high.”
Originally an experiment to explore the possibility of high-quality dual degrees, the program blossomed into collaborations which are, in Dr. Garlan’s words, “truly program enriching.” Complimenting on-campus and distance- delivery programs, collaborative dual-degree programs allow us to extend the reach of our program by seeding education programs in oth-er countries, often those that don’t have Masters level education in software engineering. “These institutions come to us because they want to rapidly field high-quality Masters programs,” Dr. Garlan says. “We are able to provide them with an advanced
starting point from which to establish such programs in a way that, on their own, may have taken significantly longer.” Dr. Alexander Tormasov, Rector of Innopolis Univeristy, echoes the same objective when asked what he finds most exciting about the partnership.
“The new collaborative partnership between CMU and Innopolis University is providing vast opportunities for combining the strongest aspects of both educational systems in one point of application. CMU is globally known for preparing specialists in the sphere of Software Engineering. Innopolis University is, however, in the very beginning stag-es. We are building Innopolis from scratch – so it is a unique opportunity to quickly put into practice the most advanced educational concepts.”
Additionally, partner programs bring in a number of gifted students, both professionally and culturally, Dr. Garlan points out. “By partnering with highly selective institutions we are able to attract the very best students from among our partners’ already highly qualified student population. These students, when they come to CMU in a cohort, tend to bring a critical mass of cultural identity, esprit-de-corps, and new ideas that enrich the program as a whole.”
The Innopolis collaboration, in particular offers an exciting new opportunity for the programs and for CMU. The newly minted university will serve as a key component in the strategic development of the Innopolis urban project, dubbed the “Future IT capital of Russia”. To be completed by May 2014, the core Special Economic zone of the project will serve as the community core and will be dedicated to fostering innovation and growth in the Russian IT sector. And, at the center of this technopark will be Innopolis University. “Although we aren’t broadly involved with all aspects of the Innopolis project, our connection to the software engineering Masters’ program and Russian industry through Innopolis University is an exciting new challenge and opportunity. We have the chance here to help fashion many practices there that don’t have a lot of legacy restrictions” Dr. Garlan says.
Although the details of collaboration have not yet been decided, this first year of the partnership will see those 14 Innopolis students completing Masters of Information Technol-ogy in Software Engineering degrees on-campus from Fall 2013 to Summer 2014. Already, they have made a positive impression.
International Collaborations
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“They come to the program with formal training in mathematics and sciences that is extremely strong. Moreover, they are a diverse, lively, and outgoing group. They are engaged in class, and I think they have added new energy to the Cave this year,” Dr. Garlan says.
And the students themselves couldn’t be any more excited for the opportunity to participate in this groundbreaking project. “I am extremely honored to be part of the Innopolis project,” say first semester student, Konstantin Urysov. “Innopolis could change the entire Russian approach to higher education, espe-cially in information technology. Right now, when you graduate from a university with a degree in computer science or a similar field, you have a great deal of theoretical knowledge but little practical experience in applying it.” Since the learning-by-doing method that the Software Engineering programs at CMU developed are going to be the basis for software engineering education at Innopolis, Konstantin suggests this could spark a change among the other Russian universities to take up a more “applied approach.”
So, whether it is the possibility of further extending the programs’ international reach, the chance to help define a new approach to software engineering education in Russia, or simply the opportunity to connect with an new set of students and en-rich the programmatic culture, we could not be more excited to be taking part in this monumental undertaking by our friends at Innopolis. We look forward to a long and prosperous relationship together; and to keeping you, our alumni, up-to-date regarding it.
Innopolis University in partnership with Carnegie Mellon University, has opened faculty positions in Computer Science:
MSc Program:- Assistant/Associate Professor (Hybrid Teaching/Tenure Track Position)- Full Professor/Department Chair- Teaching Track Position [Non-Tenure]
BSc Program:- Faculty members, Department of Computer Science
For details please visit: http://innopolis.ru/en/university/careers/
MSIT-SE students from our newest collaborative partner, Innopolis University, pose for a photo shortly after arriving in Pittsburgh.
Pictured: (Left to Right) Ulyana Skladchikova, Alexandr Naumchev (and wife), Anastasia Timoshenko, Denis Anisimov, Artur Gaifutdonov, Kirill Sevastyanenko, Nikita Chepanov, Yury Chernushenko, Konstantin Urysov.
Conceptual rendering of the future Innopolis University campus outside of Kazan, Tartarstan. Innopolis will be the first university in Russia with an explicit focus on computer science, international education, and entrepreneurship.
Courtesy of Innopolis University
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International Partnerships
AJOU UNIVERSITYWe are currently exploring a partnership with Ajou University in Suwon, South Korea. Ajou University, one of South Korea’s preeminent higher educational institutions in Engineering and Information Technology, recently christened its new Graduate School of Software and hopes to capitalize on CMU’s Software Engineering Professional Program expertise in the training of software development leaders. With the goal of producing human-centered, secure and real-time embedded systems software professionals, the collaboration may see up to 35 Ajou students and faculty members taking part in intensive coursework on campus in Pittsburgh during the summer of 2014.
Bulgaria
EUROPEAN SOFTWARE INSTITUTE CENTER EASTERN EUROPE (ESI CEE)Since concluding their on-campus faculty training during the fall of 2011 and spring of 2012, ESI faculty have been hard at work implementing software engineering curricula under license from CMU. Faculty trained on-site with Dr. Jim Herbsleb on how to deliver the core course, Methods: Deciding What to Design, as well as with Dr. Garlan and Professor Anthony Lattanze on Architectures for Software Systems. Since their return to Bulgaria, the courses have been met with rave reviews. George Sharkov, Director of ESI CEE, and program faculty from Sofia University, Dr. Kalinka Kaloyanova, point out that the Software Engineering Management Program (SEMP) which grew from the courseware has proven quite popular in its pilot stages, with over 50 students having completed courses.
South Korea
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The Cave: New and Improved
This past August, the student work space at 300 South Craig St (affec-tionately known as “The Cave”) was reconfigured to accommodate the changing student and team needs. Although “light and airy” may not be words an alum might attribute to what they remember of the Cave, the new and improved layout indeed fits that description.
Working to create an environment that more accurately reflects the makeup of the current student body and their utilization of the space, the program partnered with Franklin Interiors on a new concept. “There was a lot of work that needed to go into the project. We wanted to recycle as much of the existing furniture as we could, yet knew we needed to invest in infrastructure modifications to meet the changing student needs. Franklin worked with us to make it happen.” said faculty member, Dave Root.
The changes were well -received by students, faculty, and staff. Fourth semester MSE, Wolfgang Englen Mora, points to the utilization of the space as the most marked improvement, “All of the spaces are being used now, especially along the back wall. It was desolate before; nobody sat back there. Now that the whole room is much brighter and you don’t need to compete for space, people are using the Cave around the clock. All around, it is a much better place in which to work.”
Student ProjectsMSE Projects 2013
CostCo – Integrated Shopping ExperienceShubhansha Agrawal, Kevin Crane, NohSam Park, Mario Riveros Trujillo, Azamat SamiyevTeam members developed a mobile application to enrich the shopping experience. The application made use of wifi access points; onboard barcode scanning; QR code generation; and custom, real-time, household shopping lists which map customer locations to required goods in order to create a more immersive and intuitive shopping experience.
Nutrimmune Technologies – Internet Enabled Signal Generator for Light Therapy ResearchWolfgang Englen Mora, Hee Soo Kim, Sankha PathakTeam members designed and implemented a support system and prototype device on the Raspberry Pi platform to generate light at precise frequencies for light therapy research.
NICTA – Preventing Mixed Race ConditionsSakshi Dhawan, Mingjie Liu, Javier Santisteban Rosemberg, and Aigerim SametkhanovaTeam members implemented a low-overhead approach for avoiding mixed version race conditions in application upgrade roll-out by identifying versions in HTTP messages and reconfiguring load balancers to be version-aware.
SSN MSIT-SE Projects 2013
Common Roots – Community Micro-Foundation Mobile ApplicationAparna Kunjithapatham, Vathul Murali, and Preethi SahayarajTeam members developed a social-media driven iOS mobile application to facilitate the creation, financial support, and management of Common Roots’ numerous user-generated “micro-foundations”.
Four Screens Film Festival – Online Digital Film Festival Web PlatformNidarchana Gunasekar, Venkatakrishnan Jayapal, and Karthick NagarajanTeam members designed and built a website to support interactive crowd-sourcing of films by emerging filmmakers through streaming media and to provide a social hub for critics, consumers, and independent film creators.
Giftcards.com – Automated Fraud Detection SystemVenkatesh Sakamuri, Vaishnavi Venkatesan, Siddharth Teotia, and Shankar SubramanianTeam members developed a customized decision management system utilizing self-learning system logic to identify and evaluate relative risk in pre-paid gift card transactions.
Teach For America – Automated Interview Scheduling SystemSidhartha Mani, Vijayesh Mukudan, and Hem Vignesh NageswaranTeam members built an automated interview scheduling system that utilizes a heuristics-based algorithm to generate optimized travel logistics for candidates based on mutual availability and travel preferences.
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MSIT-SE Projects 2013
Rywinder – Semantic Photo Association Social Media SystemApoorvi Jain, Tyler Badorrek, and Hemant PatidarTeam members developed a social media system to support the semantic association of photos through collaborative tagging and geo-location.
John Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory – C-Code Dynamic and Static Analysis Toolset Maosong Fu, Aadish Kotwal, and Yue LiuTeam members further developed a tool set to facilitate the static and dynamic analysis of ‘C’ source code. This tool set could be used to power applications to identify bugs prior to compiling, as well as at run-time, and to enforce security policies.
Cobot – Remote Telepresence Functonality RefinementUpsham Dawra and Sindhu SatishTeam members improved the user interface for remote users of an advanced telepresence robot, CoBot, by providing more facilities to control the CoBot through the existing web interface, as well as by refining the UI to improve contextual spatial awareness.
Robert Bosch LLC – New Proofs of RetrievabilityPooja Desai, Jie Dai, and Rucha ShintreTeam members implemented proofs of retrievability (POR) in order to validate results on cloud storage systems before working with Bosch research collaborators to develop and implement improved POR schemes.
MSIT-ESE Projects 2013
Robert Bosch LLC – Internet of Things/Cognitive Assistance Systems for CarsChidambaram Bhat, Parth Mehta, Pengcheng Tang, and Jiahan WangTeam members developed an architecture that will enable a computer-vision based platform to provide users safety information while operating a motor vehicle. Additionally, the team conducted an exploration of features that would enhance driver perception/vision during driving.
Robert Bosch LLC – Indoor Navigation ApplicationIshan Pande, Priyank Desai, and Yisong WuTeam members leveraged the power of “cloudlets” by building an application for indoor navigation utilizing a computer vision based solution to test infrastructure concepts, as well as to compare computationally intensive and interactive mobile applications on the cloud versus cloudlets.
Project sponsorship is a great way to remain involved with the programs. If you or your organization may be interested in sponsoring an MSE Studio project or MSIT Practicum Project, please contact Matt Bass ([email protected]).
Student Projects
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Faculty and Staff News
Dr. David Garlan was recently elected as a Fellow of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) for “contributions to the development of software architecture as a discipline in software engineering”. The ACM Fellow is the organization’s most pres-tigious award; with less than 1% of ACM members receiving the honor. ACM Fellows are recognized for their significant and lasting contributions to computing, informa-tion technology, and service to the wider computing community.
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We are happy to announce that Dr. Nancy Mead, Principal Researcher at CERT Secure Software and Systems and Adjunct Professor of Software Engineering at Carnegie Mellon, was selected as the newest SEI Fellow by the Software Engineering Institute. As one of the highest honors that the SEI bestows, SEI Fellows provide leadership and counsel to the Institute in support of its continued success.
Currently a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers, Inc. (IEEE) and the IEEE Computer Society, as well as a Distinguished Member of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), Nancy has made numerous contributions to the field of software engineering. In addition to her ongoing work with CERT’s Survivability Systems Analysis to better assess survivability properties in systems, she recently developed an elective course in software assurance for the MSE programs. She generously shares her expertise both in the classroom and has been a highly- valued member of the MSE community.
MSE faculty, Dr. Eduardo Miranda, was featured this year in an interview on the enterprise software development site, InfoQ.com. The article, Interview with Edu-ardo Miranda about Estimating and Planning Agile Projects, discusses the need for planning, various agile methodologies, the impact of agile on project management efforts, and the evolving role of managers involved in agile projects.
Additionally, Dr. Miranda contributed a chapter to the newly published textbook, Introduction to Combinatorial Testing. The chapter, “Test Parameter Analysis”, addresses issues faced by those conducting combinatorial testing, such as defining test parameters and selecting parameter values. The textbook was co-authored and edited by D. Richard Kuhn and Raghu Kacker of the National Institute of Standards and Technology, sponsors of an AY13-14 MSE Studio project related to automation of combinatorial testing.
Faculty and Staff News
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Phyllis Lewis, the program’s former program manager and historic “Mom”, provides an update on her days since retirement from the university in 2003.
“Retirement has been good to me and to my husband, Roger, who retired from his third “career” at the end of 2011. Fortunately we’ve been relatively healthy; only minor aches and pains. Being retired has given us the ability to travel and indulge in some of our other hobbies. I’ve had time to devote to my passion of collecting an-
tiques and building up my antique business. I enjoy the hunt for that next “treasure”--- cleaning, restoring, displaying and selling. And I’ve become a more or less serious gardener and joined our local garden club. It’s nice to be able to participate in their local beautification efforts. Then there’s my Red Hat group – a fun bunch of ladies. It’s a challenge to keep up with all the great hats!”
In addition to spending more time with their family, Phyllis and Roger traveled to Argentina, Slovakia, England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales, and France “It’s been great having more time with our grandchildren, watching them grow from babies into teenagers and young adults. We can participate more in their activities, travel to see their sporting events, school plays, band concerts, and college visits. It’s good to just be there – to talk with them, provide transport and advice, to meet for lunch, or just to spend a day together, not only with our grandchildren, but also our children. To paraphrase Chico Escuela (Garrett Morris on Saturday Night Live), ‘Retirement…been berry berry good…to me’”.
Professor Travis Breaux, MSE faculty and lead on the Methods: Deciding What to Design core course, has developed a new course for spring. Engineering Privacy in Software is a core course for the MSIT-Privacy Engineering program and will be open to Software Engineering students as well. Professor Breaux hopes that students will leave this course with a better understanding of how to “integrate privacy into the software development lifecycle, and how, and when, to interface with relevant stakeholders, including legal, marketing and other developers so as to align software designs with relevant privacy laws and business practices.”
Formal Analysis of Privacy Requirements Specifications for Multi-Tier Applications, a paper written by Professor Breaux and Ashwini Rao, PhD student in Software Engineer-
ing, was nominated for a best paper award by the 2013 IEEE International Conference on Requirements Engineering held in Rio de Janeiro. The paper placed in the top 5% of all conference submissions to the conference and introduces critical terminology for the development of legally compliant software systems, as well as a methodology for acquir-ing, representing, and analyzing phenomena in legal documents, the most prevalent source of legal requirements for such systems.
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2013 Alumni SpeakersThis past year, several alumni returned for professional development engagements and invited talks. The talks included information sessions on their companies, presentations pertaining to technical challenges in their particular domains, recruiting events, and shared discourse on best practices and takeaways from the program.
Jack Chen (MSE ’11) spoke last spring on how what he learned during the MSE program facilitated his rapid rise within Amazon Web Services from Software Development Engineer to Development Manager. He shared with the audience an overview of Amazon’s team structure and career tracks, along with advice on how best to prepare for technical interviews during the job search.
Peter Foldes (MSE ’11) addressed students in September on behalf of his organization, Turn. Peter talked about the real-time advertisement bidding and analytics work that Turn does within the cloud marketing space. Explaining the technical challenges and technologies with which he works; Peter entertained questions pertaining to employment with Turn, and conducted onsite interviews.
Laura Glendenning (MSE ‘10) returned in September for the Technical Opportunities Conference (TOC), recruiting on behalf of Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab. She dropped by for an informal talk that focused on the ways in which she facilitates research being done at JHU APL. She highlighted the courses, lessons, and principles that she learned during her time in the MSE that she finds applicable in her professional work.
Ashwin Gayash (MSIT-SE ‘08) also visited in September as part of the TOC, presenting on work being done at Cisco Systems. Taking a wider view of the organization, Ashwin talked to students about the evolution of the company over the years, the various divisions within Cisco, and the impact of the products they develop.
Ammar Alrashed (MSE ‘12) returned in September with a recruiting team from Informatica to give a short, informal Q&A session on his company, team, and experiences, and to interview students prior to the opening of the TOC.
Ryan Miller (MSE ‘08) returned to the Cave for a presentation in late-September on the Boston-based startup for which he works, Percipio Media. Together with the company’s CEO and CMU alumnus, Fred Goff, they delivered a talk on the startup culture, Boston IT scene, and the work Percipio does in the digital advertising space.
César Montes de Oca Vázquez (MSE ‘00) presented a session in late-October entitled “Building a $60M Company: Lessons I Learned in the MSE”. Cesar shared his experience on co-founding Quarksoft, one of Mexico’s most successful software development companies, using the principles and lessons learned at Carnegie Mellon; specifically PSP/TSP and Software Architecture.
Cesar Montes de Oca Vasquez (center) after his October pre-sentation. Also pictured are fellow MSE alumni Jorge Dias (left) and Wolfgang Englen Mora (right). Both Diaz and Englen were sponsored by Vasquez’s company, Quarksoft.
We invite all of our alumni to return and share your insights. Whether you are interested in recruiting students, sharing your experiences in industry, or talking about your insights and take-aways from your time here, we would be delighted to help you do so.
If interested, contact Josh Quicksall, Student-Alumni Relations Coordinator, by email: [email protected].
The James E. Tomayko ScholarshipRecognizing Excellence and Dedication
As we are all too aware, the cost to attend Carnegie Mellon is substantial. And, without financial assistance, many highly-qualified students are either unable to attend or put under significant financial strain as they pursue graduate studies. For those who do accept admission offers, the pres-sure to excel is foremost, and recognizing their extraordinary effort becomes essential.
For these reasons, a scholarship was established in 2006 by Jack Tomayko in remembrance of his brother, the much-beloved MSE program founder and long-time director, James E. “Coach” Tomayko. Since then, the James E. Tomayko Scholarship has served to enrich the program by recognizing, through tuition assistance, exceptional students who embody the foundational principles put forth by Coach – hard work, intellectual curiosity, leadership, community mindedness, and an overarching sense of commitment to the program.
One past recipient of the Tomayko Scholarship is Akeel Laila. A 2009 graduate of the MSIT-ESE program, Akeel came to CMU via our partner institution, the SSN School for Advanced Software Engineering, in Chennai, India. Recognizing the need in industry for highly technical, well-practiced engineers, Akeel sought out a program where he could broaden his exposure to embedded technologies while also acquiring a better under-standing of approaches to sound software engineering. But when he began searching for graduate programs, the cost was a significant factor. The SSN-CMU program, due to the excel-lence of each institution and SSN’s generous offer of partial tuition assistance, quickly distinguished itself as the obvious top-pick.
From the outset, Akeel’s tireless work ethic, inquisitive disposition, and commitment to both his own success as well as the success of those around him set him apart. “Regardless of the environment or circumstances, I gave my full attention and effort to everything I did. I wanted, and deliberately tried, to get the most out of my time while here in the program,” Akeel says. Akeel’s academic advisor, Tony Lattanze, echos those sentiments. “It’s commonplace that, when you find people around here, they are really smart – there are tons of them; it’s Carnegie Mellon! But it’s hard to find one who is smart, humble, an absolute monster when it comes to doing things the right way, and who has a rock-solid work ethic. Akeel has all four of those things. And that’s what I look for in a Tomayko Scholarship recipient.”
When he found out that his hard work and commit-ment were being recognized, Akeel was delighted. “It felt fantastic. When it first came to my attention that I was going to get a letter of commendation, I was pretty excited to be noticed in that way.” Still, the financial constraints of full-time study weighed on him. “I was living on an extremely tight budget. So while the letter meant a great deal to me, when I was told by Dr. Garlan that I was going to be awarded this scholarship, I was blown away. The recognition and commendation of the work I put forth, coupled with the financial relief the scholarship provided, reassured me that it was all worth it. It was clear that the program recognized my effort, and appreciated it enough to reward me for it.” Perhaps more than the personal validation for his hard work, Akeel felt that the scholarship benefited the community as a whole. “The scholarship really did a great deal to strength-en my spirits and allow me to finish strong. But more than that, it was a great honor for all of the students from the SSN partner program to have one of their own recognized.”
After the program, that very same drive and commit-ment to excellence that earned him the Tomayko Scholarship have allowed Akeel to excel in his career. Working first for Human Network Labs, Akeel took a position with Kulicke & Soffa in 2010. Now a Senior Software Engineer, Akeel points out that the skills he acquired in software architecture, communications, estimation, and embedded systems de-sign continue to serve him well in his work on next-gener-ation software to drive Kulicke & Soffa’s line of wire bonders.
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For those considering making a gift in support of the Software Engineering Professional programs, Dr. Garlan notes: “In general, masters’ students across the university are not provided financial assistance. So this scholarship is one of the few funding support vehicles for giving more op-portunities to students who otherwise couldn’t be here, or would otherwise be faced with significant financial burden. At the same time, it serves as a lasting remembrance of the contributions that Coach made to the program, to the stu-dents, and to the MSE community.” And, of course, one of those contributions was unquestionably Coach’s selfless dedication to the Software Engineering community at CMU. To that end, Akeel would also like those who may be considering a gift to know that, “The scholarship is a great way to recognize students who are making the effort to not just get the most out of the program but also those who are looking to give back to their peers and the program as a whole. This is a great way of rewarding students’ hard work and dedication to the program.”
2013 Honors and Commendations
“The scholarship is a great way to recognize students who are making the effort to not just get the most out of the program but also those who are looking to give back to their peers and the program as a whole.”
The Coach Award Last year the program awarded MSE student Tharanga Gamaethige (MSE 2012) with the annual Coach Award. The Coach Award, named for the late James “Coach” Tomayko, is given each year to the individual, Studio team, or faculty/mentor whose work throughout the year most embodies Coach’s values in the areas of teaching, team performance, and mentoring. Tharanga’s extraordinary performance in the program, positive outlook, outstanding leadership characteristics, and team oriented focus made him not only an outstanding student but a role model for other MSE and MSIT students during his time in the program. We wish to congraluate and thank Tharanga once again for his effort and dedication!
The James E. Tomayko Scholarship The 2013 James E. Tomayko Scholarship was awarded in December to first semester MSIT-SE student, Sammy Mudede. Originally hailing from Zimbabwe, Sammy comes to CMU from Huston-Tillotson University in Austin, TX where he was involved in Beta Kappa Chi Hon-orary Society, the National Society for Black Engineers, as well as internships with Boston Scientific Corporation and The University of Texas at Austin.
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Tomayko contd.
Your contributions are vital to the ongoing success of the program. Your support can be demonstrated in a number of ways including sponsorship of student projects, mentorship, guest lecturing, student recruitment, professional development opportunities, and contributions for student scholarships or the MSE Endowment.
The two gifts funds that directly benefit the Software Engineering Profession Programs are:
How to GiveIf you would like to make a gift in remembrance of Coach Tomayko’s lasting legacy, or in support of extraordinary software engineering students such as Akeel and Tharanga, the steps below can make that happen.
1. Visit CMU’s online giving site: www.cmu.edu/campaign/ways/online.html
2. Specify “Other” in the Designation drop-down menu.
3. In the “Preferred Designation” field, enter either “James Tomayko Scholarship” or “MSE Endowment”.
Many companies have matching gift programs that further contribute to their employee’s philanthropic interests.
To find out if your employer has such a program, we invite you to visit the matching gifts website at: http://www.matchinggifts.com/cmu
The James E. Tomayko ScholarshipNamed in honor of our late program director and beloved teacher, Jim “Coach” Tomayko, the Tomayko scholar-ship is awarded annually to one or two outstanding software engineering master’s students. The scholarship is a valuable tool that allows the program to both recognize exemplary performance and to retain strong students who may be in need of financial support.
Masters of Software Engineering Program Endowment FundAs a program-wide endowment, this discretionary fund supports a wide range of programmatic needs, including special projects, new program initiatives, as well as professional development opportunities for both students and faculty.
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Our Most Valued Asset
2013 Regional Alumni Gatherings
We’d like to thank everyone who turned out for the various regional alumni gatherings throughout spring 2013. More than 70 alumni reconnected at events in Seattle, New York City, San Francisco, and Pittsburgh. The regional gatherings are a terrific opportunity to catch up with old classmates; make new, local connections; and enjoy a few hours together over good food and drink. Whether you are new to the area, a long-time resident, attended last year, or couldn’t make it, please do join us in spring 2014.
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March 29
Alumni Gatherings 2014save tHe date!
SEATTLEjune 21
nycMay 31
San Franciso
PittsburghMay 17
bostonapril 26
Come join us for a relaxed evening of reconnecting with old classmates, meeting new friends, networking, food, and drink. For more information on time and location, stay tuned to our alumni page as well as our groups on Facebook and LinkedIn.
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Next year marks the 25th anniversary of the software engineering master’s programs at Carnegie Mellon. We’re commemorating this milestone in spring of 2015 when alumni, guests, and friends of the program will gather in Pittsburgh to celebrate a quarter century of software engineering excellence.
While we are in the preliminary planning stages, stay tuned to our website as well as the alumni groups on Facebook and LinkedIn for more details and the final date.
We can’t wait to see you there!
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The 25th is Coming!
In the spring of 2010, over one hundred members of the MSE community came together for a two-day reunion to celebrate twenty years of software engineering at CMU. In addition to talks by alumni on their reflections and work since graduation, guests enjoyed a casual evening at Engine House 25.
Keep in touCH
The program recently modified the way in which it collects and stores your alumni information. Earlier this year, we partnered with the Carnegie Mellon Alumni Association to streamline services at one primary location, the central CMU alumni database.
This unified resource allows us to communicate with you more effectively, eliminates the need for you to update your information at two separate locations, and provides the same functionality as our former stand-alone MSE alumni database. You can still access and edit your contact information, share professional updates, and search for classmates. Additionally, the Alumni Association’s Online Directory allows you to comprehensively (and confiden-tially) update your record with the university while publically sharing only those information fields you find appro-priate.
If you haven’t done so recently, please take a minute to register or login at the CMU Online Community and update your information via the “Account Data” link, found in the top right section of the screen.
And don’t forget to join the conversation on our alumni Facebook and LinkedIn groups!
We’re Social! Stay connected with us via our alumni groups on
Facebook and LinkedIn.
Drop us a lineNew contact information? Good news to share? Feedback for the program?
Send us an [email protected]
Masters of Software Engineering Professional Programs300 South Craig StreetPittsburgh, PA 15213
