We've come a long way.

Last week, we informed you of the beginning of DevFest, the “week-long application development experience” that has something to do with computers. Since the combination of get-rich-quick potential and Westside cookies was too much for Bwog to resist, technocrat chronicler Michael Menna was dispatched behind the Silicon Curtain of the Computer Science Department to report back. DevFest ends today, and be sure to check out the Demofest from 12 pm – 3 pm this afternoon in Davis Auditorium.

I was in Mudd looking for my assigned ADI-hosted event (that is, “Application Development Initiative”), wandering an unfamiliar sector of campus. A prospective film and economics major, my objective was not unlike the mission of a secret agent: dare to infiltrate an organization none of my kind had ever seen.

My informants had directed me to a checkpoint—the CS Lounge—where someone with swipe access would let me into the “24-Hour Hackathon.” Apparently, what sounded like an axe murderers’ gathering to me was the finale of a series of computer programming workshops ADI members called Dev Week, or Development Week.

When I found myself before the two monolithic silver doors garnished with “Computer Science” in block letters, my inside man Justin Hines opened the door and led me down a corridor to a dimly lit room where the only noise was an incessant clacking of fingers on keyboards. The glowing apple logos of 20, nay 30 Mac laptops sent me into panic mode. Who were these people? What were they planning? Why were there Cheetos in the corner?

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No more two to a desk

Sean Zimmermann reports from last night’s ESC meeting.

SEAS Dean Pena-Mora attended last night’s ESC meeting. The Dean began by thanking ESC for their letter in support of his administration, which the council sent to the Spectator last December. Pena-Mora pledged to “continue to ensure that you [all] have the best education experience that anyone could have.”

The Dean announced that a committee on undergraduate education (the same group that revamped Gateway last year), is looking into ways to make it easier for students within SEAS to take classes outside their major for credit. In general, SEAS is considered more restrictive than the college about classes can be taken outside your major track for credit.

In response to a question about class crowding, the Dean responded that this year the school has done a better job of pairing class sizes to specific classrooms, and, as a result, the crowding issues have been partially resolved. He commented that the hardest classes to accommodate are the 4000-level classes, which include both undergraduate and graduate students. He also said the school may have to discuss breaking the graduate and undergraduate students into separate classes, though he stressed that this is just one idea, and nothing has been decided.

Logan Donovan, ESC VP Policy, announced that the transfer student acceptance date is being moved up so that decisions are mailed out before final exams at other institutions. Logan explained that, as a transfer, she was accepted after her own finals at UVA ended, so she never had an opportunity to say goodbye to her friends at her old institution. She also announced that she is trying to institute a chat system for prospective transfer students to speak to current transfer students at Columbia.

Very close children via Wikimedia Commons

It seems like just yesterday that PrezBo anointed Feniosky Peña-Mora dean of SEAS. Back in 2009, that halcyon year, Feni was talked up by ‘Bo, wore a doofy tee shirt, and hell, even sat down with OldBwog. These days are a little less rosy—the Times, which first profiled the guy in ’09, has of late reported that the SEAS faculty is talking shit, saying he’s not a good dean. While we (the pinnacle of journalistic integrity, to be sure) won’t take a side, we will commit to standing by and making gratuitous observations of all sorts. Last semester we had fun examining why PrezBo is such a badass, so when a tipster alerted us to this story from Feni’s time at U of I, we decided to compare and contrast Peña-Mora, then and now, professor and dean, through the medium of photography. Conor Skelding reports from his couch.

• Hair. At U of I, Peña-Mora’s hair was unkempt, curly, and jet black; youthful and dorky and befitting of a civil engineer. Today, his ‘do is marked by a distinguished streak of gray, sandwiched by a closely cropped, conservative, black head of hair, more pepper than salt.
• Beard. A goatee is a bold choice. It’s also a signifier of a sort of youthful self-reliance—one that was later exchanged for a clean-shaven jawline that says “fundraiser-chic.”
  
• Eyes. Look at the former Feni’s hungry and challenging eyes—how they meet your gaze. They boast: “I do science! Give me science to do!” Today, his eyes are kinder—they invite, asking, “Will you help bring the best engineering and applied science students and faculty to Morningside Heights?”
• Lips. Here we see yet another shift from “challenge” to “invite.” Years ago, Feni’s lips were flat and even a bit self-satisfied; he had an inside joke, and it was with himself. But those coy lips would only grant you smile if you earned it. Now, look at Feni’s Low Library portrait: his lips are turned up slightly in a friendly half-smile. Even the smallest donation demonstration of goodwill will knock those puppies into a full-fledged grin.
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The leadership of SEAS Dean Feniosky Peña-Mora was brought under intense scrutiny in an article in The New York Times today. The story notes the numerous resignations of department heads since his arrival, citing frustration with his direction. This semester, two letters of no confidence in the Dean—signed by the majority of tenured faculty in SEAS—have been sent to University administrators. The most recent, circulated in October, asserted that “the morale of the faculty and their trust in Dean Peña-Mora are reaching an all-time low,” and that “a quick change in leadership” was needed. The entire letter, while sent to administrators in October, was uploaded to the Times website today. The primary source of dissatisfaction is Peña-Mora’s rapid expansion of the school, whose student body has swelled in size without providing any more space for research, or appropriate increases in faculty. According to the Times:

He arrived at a time when Columbia was determined to raise the profile of its engineering school, which includes bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degree programs. The school had fewer than 1,400 graduate students in 2005, more than 1,900 when the new dean took over, and 2,400 now. The faculty has also grown, but not as fast… Professors say that an effort to reshuffle the available space ignored their input and made matters worse.

More than anything, Peña-Mora was criticized for being unwilling to listen to criticism.

Among professors interviewed, nearly all of whom insisted on anonymity for fear of angering the administration, the most persistent criticism was that Dr. Peña-Mora simply did not listen.

“He’s a control freak, in my opinion,” said Van C. Mow, who said he stepped down as chairman of biomedical engineering because “I got tired of banging my head against the wall.”

Faculty have further suggested that the Dean’s hiring practices favor profits over academic interests. The faculty letter claimed that “candidates with impressive academic records and outstanding recommendations are discounted if their fields do not promise major funding for the school.”

Peña-Mora did not provide much comment, except to say that the culture at Columbia “takes some getting used to.” Interim Provost John Coatsworth conceded that the faculty had “perfectly legitimate concerns” and admitted that Peña-Mora had broken promises he made to them. Coatsworth does not believe these problems are sufficient grounds for dismissing the Dean.

The article also reiterates the Times’ pressing (and inexplicable) need to exploit the racial undertones of the story, suggesting that the only reason PrezBo is keeping him around is because Peña-Mora, who hails from the Dominican Republic, would be the third high-profile minority administrator to step down this year.

When Dr. Peña-Mora was hired, it was the third time in quick succession that the university had filled a high-ranking post with the first minority member to hold that job. That fact drew considerable attention, especially in light of Mr. Bollinger’s national reputation as an advocate of ethnic diversity and affirmative action.

The first two of those appointees, both African-Americans, have left in the last six months: Claude M. Steele, who was provost, departed in June to become dean of Stanford University’s School of Education, and Michele M. Moody-Adams, the dean of Columbia College, quit her administrative post in frustration as school began but remains on the faculty. Some professors speculate that Mr. Bollinger is standing by Dr. Peña-Mora in part out of fear of criticism from minority communities.

Coatsworth dismissed such claims as insulting to those involved, and Peña-Mora declined to comment on the issue.

Columbia (not pictured) keeps pace with the front runners

You may remember that Columbia is one of the participants in Mayor Bloomberg’s much-publicized competition for the construction of a new science and engineering campus (or two!) somewhere within New York. According to DNA info, Bloomberg recently hinted that of the original seven applications, four have made it past the first cut—though he quickly and mysteriously told the media “that’s-not-what-I-meant-but-maybe-sort-of-could-be-true-anyway.”

Whatever you make of the Mayor’s waffling, the president of ESC, Nate Levick, SEAS ’12, spoke with Brian Wagner, who is working on an article on the Bloomberg competition for the upcoming issue of The Blue & White. He confirmed that we’re still in the race: ”recently the Dean [Pena-Mora] informed me that the CU proposal has indeed made it to the ‘short list’ of candidates for the award.” This is exciting news for Columbia and would indicate that, if Bloomberg does indeed select two proposals, we’ve got a 50% chance of winning (you don’t even need to be in SEAS to do that math).

The Mayor is due to announce his decision in January. Be sure to check out the article in the December issue of The Blue & White for the full story on Columbia’s proposal and how we stack up against the competition.

Inane metaphor via Wikimedia

Go home, Prof. Jackson. Your fancy book learning doesn't mean anything around here.

A flustered, out of breath, and out of place student runs into Carleton (Engineering cafeteria) and runs up to a group of engineering students:

CC: WHERE IS THE TA ROOM?

SEAS: …could you be a little more specific?

CC: I’m sorry, I’m a history major!

Charming southern gentleman via History Dept.

The seas can be rough sometimes

Over the summer, Bwog shed a silent tear when the acronym for Columbia Engineering was changed from “SEAS to “CE.” All hope seemed lost when the powers that be drilled the inferior acronym into our youngest minds. But the tides turn for the better! A tipster forwarded us the following email this morning from Margaret Kelly, the Executive Director of Communications of… SEAS (feels so good just to use it again). Emphasis is theirs:

Dear Columbia Engineering Senior Staff Members,

Following a number of rounds of discussion with senior staff and exchanges with students and alumni, the dean has decided that the preferred acronym for our School, when abbreviated as a series of letters, should be SEAS. This means that there should be no further references to CE or EN as identifiers of our students or alumni.

Our logo is cobranded with the University, and we will continue to use Columbia Engineering as the preferred identifying name of our School in any written context, as short-hand for the legal name of the School.

Our School logo bears the full name of the school (The Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science). In all communications from the School, there must be, somewhere on the first page, recognition that The Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science is the official name of the School, as well as indicating the identifying name of the School as Columbia Engineering.

When using the full name of the School, please remember that, despite any style guide to the contrary, we must honor the donor’s preference and ALWAYS capitalize the “T” in The Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science.

I hope that this e-mail serves to clarify usage of the School’s name and abbreviation. Please share this with members of your staff so that, going forward, we are all using the same nomenclature for the School.

If you have any questions about implementing these new guidelines, please feel free to contact me.

Thanks,

Margaret

The email gives no reason for this sudden change, although some have been speculating “CE” could potentially conflict with the School of Continuing Education, which is abbreviated “SCE” (and soon to be “PAX”), but is still found on the web at http://ce.columbia.edu/. We just think that the dean ran out of “CE” puns.

Perfect storm of metaphors via Wikimedia Commons

“CE” and not “SEAS,” and they are now taking a Gateway course that is a radically different from what their older peers endured. Learn all about it below!”>

A new Gateway course, based on engineering principles from the nine departments in SEAS, rises from the ashes of the old, based on the tears of freshmen

Every graduating glass goes through an experience that is uniquely theirs, but it seems like the Engineering Class of 2015 is pioneering an uncanny amount of firsts. Their school was introduced to them as “CE” and not “SEAS,” and they are now taking a Gateway course that is a radically different from what their older peers endured. Learn all about it below!

As we reported last semester, the required first year engineering course, commonly referred to as “Gateway,” is undergoing major modification starting this fall. Plans were set in motion last spring when the committee in charge of Gateway decided to scrap the old curriculum and asked Electrical Engineering Professor David Vallancourt and Mechanical Engineering Professor Fred Stolfi to head and design a brand new course. Vallancourt told Bwog that there was an “abrupt transition from the old group to the new group” and said people associated with the old Gateway courses played no role in the creation of the new one. He added, “No one associated with the course previously had any input into what it is now. Pretty much there was a clean break, and the Gateway Steering Committee was handed a blank slate to create this course from scratch.”

The Lecture

Gateway this fall has a wholly new structure, thanks to Vallancourt. All enrolled students attend a two-hour long lecture every Friday (à la Frontiers), which introduces different aspects and fields of engineering to the freshpeople. Don’t call it a “survey course” though: there’s no one week dedicated to Civil Engineering, and another to Mechanical Engineering. Instead (and, we think, ingeniously), each weekly lecture will examine a particular SI unit (time, mass, etc.) and how to apply these to various disciplines.

Professor Vallancourt is striving to keep these lectures “exciting [and] immediate” and give “examples that aren’t toy examples” by incorporating as many demonstrations and real-life scenarios as possible. The new course will focus more on actual problem-solving, and the introduction of mathematical principles. In addition to these technical lectures, there will be four nontechnical guest lectures during the semester. It is confirmed that Damon Horowitz, the Director of Engineering at Google (!) will address entrepreneurship, and Engineering Dean Peña-Mora (!!) will tackle project management.

Read about projects and more after the jump

“SEAS” is no more. It really is “CE” now. After meeting many bright enthusiastic new faces yesterday at the publications meet and greet, we felt a little pang in our hearts when we got home and had a chance to look through some of our sign-up sheet. Guess it’s best to get ‘em while they’re still young:

Z.Y. Fu, the Chinese businessman and philanthropist who donated generously to Columbia University over the past 20 years, passed away yesterday.

In 1990, Mr. Fu began his philanthropy by endowing a chair of applied mathematics at the Engineering school, where his brother-in-law taught as a professor. Three years later, he endowed a scholarship fund for Chinese students at the College and the Engineering school. His most famous donation came in 1997, when his philanthropic foundation gave Columbia’s Engineering school $26 million to, in his words, “ensure that Columbia will continue to grow in strength as an international leader in science and technology.” The school was soon renamed the Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Sciences in his honor.

Mr. Fu also got to experience life as a student at Columbia. In 1991, he took a class to improve his English at the School of General Studies. Reportedly, he “had lots of fun and liked it enormously.”

We respectfully remember Mr. Fu’s generosity and send our condolences to his family.

Having being directed all around campus yesterday by Public Safety officers and people in ponchos concerned Bwog did not have a press pass, Intrepid Underclassmen Peter Sterne finally found the press section and settled in to watch the commencement of SEAS Class Day. After a procession of old alums, professors, and administrators, KevSho took the stage, asked Prezbo for permission, and kicked off the festivities.

The first to speak was the president of SEAS 2011, Amanda Tan. Both she and valedictorian Norases Vesdapunt drew on their experiences as international students trying to fit in at Columbia. While Tan delivered heartwarming anecdotes, such as her “first immigrant holiday—Thanksgiving—spent with the family of a fellow Columbia engineer,” Vesdapunt spiced up his speech with jokes. Before coming to Columbia, he recalled, he underwent a crash-course in American culture, learning, among other things, the real meaning of “3rd base.” Once he got to Columbia, he fit it just fine, though he did have to explain to some of his peers that his home nation of Thailand is not the same place as Taiwan!

The keynote speaker, Ralph Izzo, MS ’79 PhD ’81, and current head of a company involved in green energy tech, spoke about the importance of engineering knowledge in the world. He recalled his fondest memories of Columbia, “sitting with friends around an old coffee table solving the world’s problems.” Unfortunately, he admitted, he never actually succeeded in fixing the world, which means there are still plenty of problems—chief among them the development of clean and sustainable energy—left for the Class of 2011 to solve.

Dean Feniosky Peña-Mora started his speech by making the newly minted engineers stand up and thank their families and professors, including two visiting professors from Italy nicknamed “the fancy ones” in honor of their eccentric (to American eyes, at least) graduation robes. He then moved on to advice, telling the grads they should strive to use their specialized knowledge to contribute to their communities, no matter how small their contributions may seem. Alluding to chaos theory and the idea that a butterfly flapping its wings can lead to a hurricane on the other side of the world, Peña-Mora told the Class of 2011 to “go forth, flap your wings, and make us proud!”

PrezBo, the only non-engineer to speak, began by thanking “Dean Feni” and lamenting that “I wish I knew what you know.” He went on to explain that most of the world’s problems require technological solutions, and hence engineers. But he cautioned that these “problems are not just technical problems; they’re also human problems.” If only there was an educational program that combined the technical knowledge of engineering with the humanism of the liberal arts—oh, right.

Perhaps the most interesting speech came from Joshua Gaspard, the designated “grad student speaker” who is receiving his second MA at Columbia after getting an undergrad degree at West Point. Gaspard said Columbians would change the world, and predicted that the Class of 2011 includes someone who will cure cancer, someone who will develop a clean and sustainable form of energy, and someone who will develop a financial program and make billions of dollars. “But all joking aside,” he argued, “99% of you will have no global impact on the world.” Unexpectedly, the graduates erupted in uproarious, and perhaps nervous, laughter. Taken aback, Gaspard explained that while most graduates will not make world-changing discoveries, they will have real impacts on the thousands of individuals in their neighborhoods who will rely on them to better their lives. It was a nuanced point, and one that the audience seemed to appreciate.

Finally, it was time to read off the names of the graduating undergrad and grad students, which Bwog estimates numbered about 1,200 and took a half-hour. Afterward, it was time for “Stand, Columbia,” “Roar Lion Roar,” and snacks on Hamilton Lawn. Unfortunately, Bwog did not see any Jell-O shots this year, but we did spot some adorable Blue-and-White cookies.

Congrats to the Class of 2011!

Photos by Hans Hyttinen

More good news to spread today! SEAS ’11, here is your valedictorian and salutatorian:

Valedictorian: Norases Vesdapunt

Salutatorian: Michael Wang

Norases is a Computer Science major and has plans to attend grad school at Stanford. Michael is an Applied Physics and Applied Math major. Congrats to you both!

Sean Zimmermann reports:

Since 1994, first-year Columbia engineers have taken Gateway Lab, formally “ENGI E1102: Design fundamentals using the advanced computer technologies.” But starting next year with the Class of 2015, Gateway will cease to exist in its current form.

Bwog has learned that starting in Fall 2011, instead of Gateway, freshmen engineers will take a survey course covering all the engineering disciplines. Under one possible plan, instructors would give weekly engineering departmental presentations and teach basic engineering skills, like interpretation of experimental data. The new course would potentially include lab work and reserve a single week for studying engineering management. But one thing is for sure: the new course will be led by the beloved David Vallancourt of Electrical Engineering and Fred Stolfi of Mechanical Engineering; Jack McGourty and Promiti Dutta, the previous instructors and pioneers of the Gateway curriculum, will no longer direct the class.

The curriculum and specific details for the course are still being drafted, but this change has officially been cleared by administration officials. Professor Vallancourt told Bwog, “One of our most important guiding principles is to focus on exciting the incoming students about real engineering. We will try as best we can to make this course fun, informative, and useful in subsequent engineering studies.”

We have not received information about whether this decision to restructure such a pivotal aspect of the freshman engineering curriculum has been clearly presented to accepted SEAS ‘15ers, who have until May 1 to decide if they want to come to Columbia.

Bwog will continue updating this story as we learn more.

Update, 4/27 10:25 pm: After contacting the Office of the Dean, the following statement was released to Bwog by the Dean. The Dean’s Office emphasizes how the plan outlined above is only one option currently being considered, and people familiar with this possible solution reiterate that it is not intended to merely be a “light” survey course.

As part of our regular process of evaluation for every class, we have been looking at the Gateway class, assessing input from students, alumni of the class, and from faculty involved to ensure the course curriculum fits the needs of today’s and tomorrow’s engineers and is consistent with our educational philosophy. As we refine the course content to meet these needs, we will build on the pillars of Gateway, its socially responsible engineering and applied science projects and rigorous pedagogy integrating the engineering fundamentals with a project-based, hands-on experience that will enable our students to lead the way in developing solutions to the challenges society will ask them to address in their career.

Consulting-bound engineers can breathe easy! ESC clarified SEAS students weren’t able to register for certain Economics classes because of a “programming error in the registrar’s office.” The Economics Department and registrar have been notified of the problem and hope it will be resolved soon. Susan Elmes, Director of Undergraduate Studies for the Economics Department, notes that Corporate Finance and two other classes (TBA) will only be open to SEAS Students during the August registration period. SEAS students are allowed to register for all other classes except Lit Hum and CC.

Columbia just never seems to be satisfied with their Web presence. The SEAS site recently got refreshed— by our count the fourth redesign of this year. (For those keeping score, first came Cubmail, followed by the main page, and then Barnard.) Talk about vanity/ vigilance! The SEAS site was actually revamped just 18 months ago.

In this particular pecking order, SEAS may come last, but certainly not least: the new SEAS website seems to be an improvement over the old one. The placement of links to the SEAS Bulletin and Columbia Directory are more prominent, and when compared with the old one, the new Engineering logo is more consistent with the visual style of the other Columbia schools’ logos. Still, it adopts the curious drop-down menu system similar to the Barnard website, and there are some broken links. Womp.