No Search Engine Required: Pitt’s Computer Science Day Brings in Top Companies

PITTSBURGH—Self-folding strollers and mind-controlled bicycles are just two of the many projects that will be on display at the University of Pittsburgh’s 13th Annual Computer Science Day held at noon on Friday, March 22, in Pitt’s Sennott Square building, 210 S. Bouquet St., Oakland and in Pitt’s O’Hara Student Center, 4024 O’Hara Street, Oakland. Festivities are free and open to the public.

The event, sponsored by the Department of Computer Science, is a day, “where educators, students, alumni, and industry gather for a day of computing science, computing business, and computing fun,” said Tasha Isenberg, outreach coordinator for the department.

The day’s events are as follows.

Industry Marketplace
Poster Exhibit and Competition
12-2 p.m., Sennott Square, 5th and 6th Floors
The day begins with a marketplace display of companies, including well-known Google and Internal Business Machines Corporation (IBM) as well as Pittsburgh start-ups like Deeplocal—a technology group that helps design and develop products for other companies—and 4 Moms Inc.—a company that creates youth-focused products using robotic technologies. Participants can circulate through the marketplace to learn and discover how these companies implement computer science into their work.

Debate: “Are Search Engines Closing Our Minds?”
2-3 p.m., O’Hara Student Center

Student Showcase and Award Presentations
3:15-4:15 p.m., Sennott Square, Room 5317
This event will include a student showcase where computer science majors will display projects they have been working on. The winners of the poster, research, digital media, and business idea competitions being held this year will also be announced as well as the Outstanding Computer Science Award for both graduate and undergraduate students. 

Later in the evening, a networking reception will be held for the involved companies, alumni, graduate students, and faculty. Appetizers and beverages will be provided. 

Visit http://www.cs.pitt.edu/events/CSDay/2013 for a full schedule of events. For more information or to register for the networking portion later in the day, contact Tasha Isenberg at 412-624-8422 or tasha@cs.pitt.edu.

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3/19/13/mab/cjhm

(Written by Danielle Cameron)