Syllabus ~ Freshmen Seminar ~ CSE 291
147 Communication Arts Building

10:20-11:10 am
Instructors

Dr. Laurie Dillon, 3115 Engineering Building

517-353-5573, ldillon@cse.msu.edu

Office Hours: By Appointment

Teresa Isela VanderSloot, 3201 Engineering Building

517-353-5455, Iselava1@cse.msu.edu

Office Hours: M/W/TH 1:30 – 4:00

Course Website: http://www.cse.msu.edu/~cse291/

Course Objectives:

□ Explore various career options in the field of computing

□ Encourage personal, academic and career development

□ Orient students to MSU and the CSE major

□ Network with other CSE students

Course Requirements / Grades

Course Fee: $10

This will pay for the Myer Briggs Type Indicator test.

Attendance is mandatory.  Students are allowed two absences.  Three unexcused absences will result in a failing grade. We ask for your utmost respect and consideration for our guest presenters, by arriving to class at least 5 minutes early.

Attendance ( 20 points)

Participation (20 points)- Peer Mentors will be assisting you to orient to MSU and the CSE department; points will be awarded for your participation

Resume (10 points)

Attend a resume workshop sponsored by Career Services and Placement. Develop a polished copy of your resume. Visit the following website: www.egr.csp.msu.edu

Networking Exercise(2 individuals to a team) (10 points)

Option 1: Track the career path of a computer science graduate and/or computer science professional who has been employed for over 10 years. Prepare a chronological timeline of their career, with detailed description of various milestones in their career.

Option 2: Identify three computer science graduates and/or computer professionals, each of whom pursued different careers. Prepare a description of their career when they started and at the five year point.

Dream Job (10 points)

Write a one page paper on your Dream Job and make adjustments based on what you have learned about this particular job by taking a closer look at: www.bls.gov/oco/, or other sources.

ALICE project ( 30 points)

This project will introduce you to the basics of programming. It will teach the beginnings of event driven programming as well as object oriented design. Alice is a visual programming environment where the program is designed by manipulating objects and dragging methods and events into the order they should be performed. Like all programming languages though, it only does what it’s told to do. Clear project guidelines and expectations will be given at a later date.

COURSE CALENDAR

September 1: Course overview, meet peer mentors

September 8: Keron Greene, Time Management, Alice Project ( Peer Mentors)

September 15: Ford, Adam Haas, Information Technology, Ford Motor Company

September 22: Crowe Chizek, Kevin Ohl, Project Executive Partner, Crowe Chizek

September 29: Motorola, Kabe VanderBaan, Senior Research Engineer

October 6: Class Time

October 13: General Mills, Vandy Johnson, Senior Director, Information Systems Operations

October 20: Dr. Colbry, Visiting Faculty

October 27: Class Time

November 3: IBM, Louise Hemmond-Wilson, Product Manager

November 10: Toro Company, Mike Drazan, Vice President & CIO

November 17 Class Time

December 1: Class Time

December 8: Class Time