The Department of Computer Science, in the College of Arts and Sciences at Appalachian State University, held a graduation celebration on Friday, December 14, 2018 for 16 students (one graduate and 15 undergraduate students) completing degrees in the program. The ceremony was a celebration of these students’ achievements with their families, friends and faculty.
Evangeline Luciano from Kill Devil Hills was one of the first recipients of the ECRS Computer Science Innovation and Entrepreneurship scholarship. She received a $4,000 scholarship plus $500 a year for educational and research materials. The program included weekly seminars, study groups for core classes, mentoring and tutoring, a leadership workshop series, peer mentoring and an internship opportunity at ECRS. ECRS is a local business and an industry-leading solutions provider with the CATAPULT® system, a unified point of sale platform.
Jonathan (Chase) Costner from Vale is the last of the McKinney Scholars. The McKinney Innovation Scholarship in Computational and Physical Sciences provided a student in a STEM discipline with a $7,000 scholarship a year. McKinney Scholars participated in weekly STEM seminars as a part of the interdisciplinary McKinney Math and Science Cohort, as well as had additional opportunities for collaboration and research.
Cristian Gulisano from Chapel Hill was a member of Team Sunergy, Appalachian’s Solar Vehicle Team. The team was established in the fall of 2013 and made up of graduate and undergraduate students from a diverse range of departments including Computer Science. Gulisano has been on the team for over two years and has participated as the Telemetry Lead for the last six months.
Jesse Cochran from Cornelius received the Department Outstanding Senior Award. Cochran was chosen because of his outstanding performance in his course work, as well as his service as a Teaching Assistant for several courses in the department. He was an active member of the Appalachian Society for Computing, Informatics and Innovation (ASCII) club, helped organize several AppHack events, and participated in an Association for Computing Machinery – International Collegiate Programming Contest (ACM ICPC). During his undergraduate studies he took several graduate courses and earned some of the highest grades in these courses. Cochran will begin a job at Microsoft in Seattle, W.A. shortly after graduation.
Erin Stein from Wilkesboro and Grayson Fenwick from Todd received the Department Leadership Award. Stein is past president of the Women in Computing Club and an AppHack event organizer. She completed an internship at SAS, a computer software company in Cary, N.C. where she had the opportunity to work on database migration and removal, present her project at an intern expo and moderate a Women in Technology panel. Stein was also a Computer Science Honors student.
Fenwick was past president of the ASCII Club and he has also been an AppHack Organizer. He completed an internship at Fidelity Investments during his academic studies. Fenwick worked with the National Science Foundation Research Experiences for Teachers (NSF RET) project in the Media Lab, located in the Department of Computer Science and helped with several of its workshops for high school teachers from across N.C. He too was a Computer Science Honors student.
AppHack is an annual, 24-hour long code festival held at Appalachian. It is part of a shared effort to increase tech entrepreneurship, tech savviness and code literacy worldwide. At Apphack, teams of students get involved in the software development process spanning design, development and marketing disciplines. There are several products that have come from such events that are currently in use for everyday purposes. AppHack is hosted as a joint operation between the Women in Computer Science club (WICS), and the Appalachian Society for Computing, Informatics and Innovation (ASCII).
For more about the Department of Computer Science, visit: https://compsci.appstate.edu. For more about scholarship opportunities in the College and the Department, visit: https://cas.appstate.edu/students/scholarships.
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About the Department of Computer Science
Appalachian’s Department of Computer Science provides a rigorous, high-quality education that prepares students for the computing industry or graduate education. It offers a Bachelor of Science degree in computer science, which is accredited by the Computing Accreditation Commission of ABET, and a Master of Science degree in computer science. Learn more at https://compsci.appstate.edu.
The Department of Computer Science graduate and undergraduate students honored at the departmental graduation celebration fall 2018. Front row left to right: Kevin Hu, Eric Cambel, Courtney Dixon, Erin Stein, and Dean Specht Second row left to right: Dr. Tashakkori, Francis Boadu, Braxton Coats, Cristian Gulisano, Chase Costner, Evangeline Luciano, and Owen Dowell Last Row left to right: Sebastian Collins and Jarod Moore.
The Department of Computer Science graduate and undergraduate students honored at the departmental graduation celebration fall 2018. Front row left to right: Kevin Hu, Eric Cambel, Courtney Dixon, Erin Stein, and Dean Specht Second row left to right: Dr. Tashakkori, Francis Boadu, Braxton Coats, Cristian Gulisano, Chase Costner, Evangeline Luciano, and Owen Dowell Last Row left to right: Sebastian Collins and Jarod Moore.