Winter 2023 Retention Program

The Computer Science Department will be hosting a series of professional development workshops to increase program retention. The workshops will run from January 9th to 27th, followed by a showcase at the beginning of March where students exhibit team projects. The proposed workshops aim to equip students with the skills they need to succeed in summer internships and contribute to retention. The training program is in response to the feedback from the employers who hired our students for the Summer 2022 internships.

A total of four training workshops are planned, which are: Web Technologies, Mobile App Development, Python for AI/ML, and Problem-Solving skills. Below is a list of the proposed training workshops.

Topic

Duration

Date

Time

Facilitator

Web Design

3 Days

01/09/2023-01/11/2023

10m- 4pm

Calvin & Joseph

Mobile App Development

2 Days

01/12/2023-01/13/2023

10am- 4pm

Emmanuel Crown

Problem Solving

5 Days

01/16/2023-01/20/2023

10am- 4pm

Dr. Shandilya

Python-For ML/AI

10 Days

01/9/2023-01/20/2023

5pm- 8pm

Yao Haokpati

Web Design

2 Days

01/23/2023-01/24/2023

10m- 4pm

Calvin & Joseph

Mobile App Development

2 Days

01/26/2023-01/27/2023

10am- 4pm

Emmanuel Crown

*Mobile App Development

1 Day

02/03/2023

10am- 4pm

Emmanuel Crown

Workshop Abstract and Instructors’ Bios

Web Development

Through this workshop, we will explore the basics of React and web design and progress to practicing more advanced techniques and best practices as the workshop goes. There will be an introduction to Web Development, where the building blocks of a website will be discussed. In addition, HTML, CSS, and JavaScript will be taught. Hands-on exercises and interactive activities will also keep students engaged and enable them to gain a deeper understanding of the material discussed. It is anticipated that by the end of the class, each student will understand how to create a simple web page using React and will be ready to continue building on it!

Instructors Bio

Joseph Keller II

Meet Joseph Keller II, a senior computer science student at Bowie State University. With a passion for technology and programming, Joseph has made a name for himself in the computer science department for his exceptional skills and dedication to his studies. He has a great interest in programming languages such as C++ and JavaScript and has been honing his skills in these languages throughout his college career. Joseph is known for his ability to write efficient, clean, and well-organized code, making him a valuable asset to any team. Outside of the classroom, Joseph is actively involved in various computer science-related organizations and clubs on campus and is a mentor to underclassmen. Joseph is well-positioned to excel in the computer science industry after graduation with his strong academic performance, technical expertise, and leadership abilities.

Calvin Caleb Amiolemen

Hi there! My name is Calvin Caleb Amiolemen, and I am a Software Engineering major at Bowie State University focusing on cyber security. I have been fortunate enough to have gained valuable experience in the IT field, which has helped me to develop my skills and knowledge.

I worked as a technical support specialist at Bowie State University for over a year, where I gained hands-on IT experience. After that, I worked as a front-end engineer for a startup company for a short period before finally landing my dream job as a security engineer at Cvent, where I have worked for the past four months.I am comfortable working with various programming languages such as Python, C++, JavaScript, HTML, and CSS. I began my programming journey with a basic calculator project using C++, and progressed to making a virtual environment using Vizard and Python, a to-do mobile app with Adal, and eventually, websites.

One of my proudest achievements was venturing into AI and creating a self-driving car with a neural network and Java Script. I also developed an object detection program using Python, and an autonomous camera that can detect and identify objects in both English and the user's native language, including their pronunciation. My passion for cyber security led me to participate in various competitions such as Hive Storm and NCL, where I have been able to showcase my skills and learn from other experts in the field. I am also a two-time semi-finalist in the Bulldog Competition and a Bulldog Private Scholar for BGE (Baltimore Gas and Electric Company).Representing my school at the Steven Hoyeers Conference at Bowie State and being invited to the Vice President's speech at Bowie State University are some of my proudest moments. I am excited about my future in the software engineering field, and I am determined to make a significant impact.

Problem Solving-Java

The course gives the foundational training on problem solving using programming. The language of choice for exercises is Java. What is a problem? How to formulate a problem? What is meant by solving a problem? What is programming? What is language? What are the relationships between reality, mathematics, natural language and programming language? What is the relationship between computer, algorithm and programming? What is computer science and its role in solving problems? What are the scope and limitations of solving problems using programming? What problems cannot be solved using programming? What problems cannot be solved efficiently? What are the steps and best practices that are used to solve problems using programming? We shall use multiple examples from daily life to construct problems in the class with the involvement of trainee teams. Those problems will be then solved by teams using best practices. Then those solutions will be tested, debugged if needed by teams on different input data sets. In the end we shall do some interesting team projects. The course will be very intense work for 6 hours in the classroom whole day. The basic constructs used in most of the programming languages like, i/o, basic data structures for variables and constants, control structures for decisions, arrays, iterations are covered.

There will be another similar course which will introduce OOPS and further refinement in problem solving in summer, for which this course would act as a topical precursor.

Instructor’s Bio

Dr. Vivek Shandilya is assistant professor in the department of computer science and the director of SOPSS Lab in Bowie State University. He got his bachelor’s degree in Electronics and Communication Engineering from Bangalore University, MS and PhD in Computer Science from University of Memphis. His work involves investigating and establishing the structures in the interaction of intelligent agents with conflicting & mutually unknown motivations in stochastic systems. This problem manifests in optimization & security situations of computational, biological, and socio-economic systems. His current projects are related to cyber security, recommendation systems and security of cloud and IOT in healthcare applications. The ongoing projects are in the fields of Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Internet of Things and Cyber Security.

Python For AI/ML

During this course you will learn the basics of Python programming such as variables, inputs, outputs, control statements, and functions as well as machine learning tools such as Pandas, Numpy for numerical analysis, Matliplotlip and Seaborn for visualization. Using Sklearn Machine Learning algorithms such as Logistic Regression, Support Vector Machine (SVM), Decision Tree, KNN, and more, students will be able to learn and implement these algorithms using public datasets. By the end of the course, each participant will be expected to find and implement his/her own unique dataset as well as apply the toughest machine learning model as a final project.

Instructor’s Bio

Yao Houkpati received an M.A. degree in Urban Sociology from the University of Lome, Togo in 2008. He also earned a M.A degree in Computational Social Science from George Mason University, VA, USA in 2018. He is currently pursuing a D.S. degree in computer science at Bowie State University, MD, USA. He currently works as an adjunct professor at Bowie State University. MD. His research interest includes Machine Learning, Deep Learning, Cloud Computing, Cybersecurity, and Agent-Based Modeling.

Mobile App Development

We will discuss mobile development in this course with the following topics; Ways of building mobile apps, Introduction to React Native, Basic App (My Goals App) Debugging React Native Apps, Deeper Look into Component & Layout (Mini Game App), Adaptive User Interfaces (Adapt to platform & device Size), React Native Navigation with React Navigation (MEALS APP) , State Management with Redux & Context API, The Expense Tracker App, Handling User Input, User Authentication, Use native device feature eg camera and Publishing your app.