Comp Science, Engineering Conference to Showcase Student Research
Science and Technology

Comp Science, Engineering Conference to Showcase Student Research

  • 26 March 2013
  • 2 min read

On April 13, computer science and engineering students from colleges and universities across Texas and Oklahoma will meet at Midwestern State University's Bolin Science Hall for a day featuring their research projects and presentations. High school students have been invited to observe the event.

The 17th Annual North Texas Area Student Conference (NTASC) is a one-day event sponsored by the Department of Computer Science and chaired by computer science professor Dr. Ranette Halverson. What sets the conference apart from traditional events is that the focus is placed on the presentation of papers and projects by the students themselves, graduate and undergraduate, relating to their experiences in computing and engineering. Presentations will include individual or team projects, research efforts, and major classroom assignments.

The conference is an opportunity for students and faculty to share ideas and experiences while participating in a professional conference at no fee. For high school students, the conference provides a firsthand look at college-level projects in computer science and engineering-related fields and a preview of what they can expect while pursuing a university degree. Last year, 136 college and high school students from across the region attended the conference.

This year's keynote speaker is Jeremy McAnally of GitHub. After more than 10 years as a consultant and developer, McAnally joined GitHub in 2012 as the 71st employee. He has published several books on software development with Ruby and JavaScript and has presented talks and workshops in a wide variety of venues. All MSU students, faculty, and staff are invited to the keynote address at 9 a.m. in Bolin 100.

GitHub was founded in 2008 and is based in San Francisco. Git is an open source, distributed version control system designed by Linus Torvalds, the developer of Linux, whose goal was to create a system allowing cooperative code sharing designed specifically for speed and efficiency. GitHub provides a user interface for Git and offers public and private Git repositories to facilitate collaborative development of software.

For more information, call (940) 397-4702.