Past Activities

Saturday, October 6, 2007 10:30am - 12:00  Landing Your First High-Tech Job

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Come get some important and vital pointers to landing your first job in the high-tech market. Hear 5 managers and executives with high-tech expertise talk on:
      Interview Expectations
      Answering the tough technical questions
      Tips for the high-tech resume
      Other suggestions on being successful in the technical interview
Click on the Title for a flyer with more details!

Wednesday October 4, 2006  Emerging Trends and Challenges in Information Security
Join us on October 4 as we welcome Chris Davis, CISA, CISSP of ForeScout Technologies for an in-depth look into the top ten most interesting emerging trends and challenges in information security. Mr. Davis has worked in information security for many years, having held positions with Cisco, E-Forensics, Microsoft, and Texas Instruments, and having worked on projects for Gartner, Harvard, SANS, Center for Information Security, BlackHat, Department of Homeland Security, International Auditors Association, and 3GSM. His topics of discussion will include:
    - security domains
    - hacker culture and organized crime
    - fighting off malicious behavior
    - investigations - what we know about you
    - interrogations - why you will fail
    - controlling network access
    - and much more!
The discussion will be held in Caruth 214 from 1:00 to 2:00 PM. We look forward to seeing everyone there!

Tuesday November 14, 2006  HD DVD & Blu-Ray: What's the Big Deal?
Join us on November 14 as we hear Dr. Scott Douglas from the Electrical Engineering Department of SMU speak on HD DBD vs Blu-Ray technologies.
     Overview of the Presentation: Over the past several years, DVDs (Digital Versatile Discs) quickly replaced videotape as the consumer medium of choice for movies in the home.  Today, consumer electronics companies are gearing up to deliver new generations of shiny discs that promise to give you high-definition video and studio-quality sound, along with increased interactivity and special features.  Already in electronics stores today, both of these formats will soon be playable on video game consoles and add-ons that are coming out this holiday season.  Do these new formats deliver on their promises?  Are they really the wave of the future?  This talk will discuss the similarities of and differences between the two new video disc formats, the players that play them, and their associated video game platforms and players from both a software and a hardware perspective.  High definition interactive content from a commercially-available player will be demonstrated.

The talk will be held in Huitt-Zollars Pavilion of the Embrey Engineering Building from 7:00 - 8:00 pm.

After the Presentation: Following the talk we will have an Xbox night where we will network a couple Xbox machines together and have some fun

Wednesday August 30, 2006  Back to School General Meeting & Xbox Night
It's the start of another school year, and ACM@SMU is ready to get things kicked off right. On Wednesday August 30 we will hold our first general meeting for the fall 2006 semester at 6:30 in room 307 of the SIC. This will be a meeting to discuss our current plans for the year, including more Xbox nights, speakers, programming competitions, and local industry tours. We welcome anyone to join us at this meeting, and especially those who would enjoy helping plan/host any of these events.
At 7:30 following the meeting, we will host one of our traditional Xbox nights. Bring your friends and enjoy a night of video games played on our projector screens. Most likely, plenty of Halo will be played, but bring any game you want and come for plenty of fun and some good friendly competition.

April 8, 2006  The 2nd Annual Metroplex Programming Competition
SMU's ACM chapter will be hosting a multi-university programming competition on April 8. Teams of three will be allowed to participate with one computer per team, and universities may bring as many teams as desired as long as there is enough space. Four hours will be allowed for the teams to complete as many programming problems as they can. Submissions will be accepted in Java, C, and C++.

Registration will held from 10:30AM to 11:30AM, with the competition beginning at 12:00PM.
Teams will have time to become familiar with the equipment any time between 10:30AM and 12:00PM. Apple will be giving a presentation from 4:00 to 4:45 and an awards ceremony will be held at 4:45PM to recognize to competitors.

Food and drinks will be provided throughout the competition.

Prizes will include a commemorative trophy and iPod Nanos for the first-place team.

November 7, 2005  Apple Xcode Presentation
On Monday, November 7, Apple will be in Caruth 205 at 3PM to talk about their Xcode development environment. We'll look at and demonstrate software development on Mac OS X. From its open source UNIX core and command-line tools such as the gcc compiler, up through the Xcode development environment, AppleScript, Automator Objective-C, C++ and Java, Mac OS X provides a rich environment and a great collection of prewritten objects and frameworks to speed your development efforts. Come and see how rich the environment is and how quickly you can leverage the work Apple has already done in your own projects. Following the presentation, you will be able to try out Xcode 2.1 in Rm. 240 of Umphrey Lee.

October 1, 2005  Coding Challenge
Looking to exercise your 1337 programming skills? Well, we've got just the thing for you! On October 1, we will hold our local Coding Challenge to find out who's the best at SMU. The event will take place from 12 noon to 3PM and will consist of solving 6 problems. You are welcome to code in C, C++ or Java, and programs will be graded based on accuracy and time of submission. The competition is open to ALL SMU students, so whether you're just starting your first semester, or you've been in the graduate program longer than you care to remember, we'd love to have you come and participate. The top three participants will be allowed to represent SMU as a team at the Regional Competition later this fall in Louisiana. Make sure you register for your chance to participate!

September 29, 2005  Thursday Xbox Night
So you've finished your first round of tests for the semester, and you're looking for a way to celebrate. What better way than to join us for another Xbox Night, hosted by SMU's own ACM chapter. We'd love to have you stop by room 315 of the SIC (Science Information Center) on Thursday, September 29. The games will begin around 8:00PM and will continue until we get kicked out of there.

August 25, 2005  BACK TO SCHOOL XBOX NIGHT!!!
Are you dreading coming back to school, or are you looking forward to seeing your friends again and making some new ones? Either way, you can't miss out on the Back to School Xbox Night, hosted by SMU's own ACM. Not only will this be a great time to relax and have a good time before school kicks off again, but this is also the best time to get involved in the many events ACM is planning for the rest of the year. We've got plans take tours of local cutting edge technology corporations, bring in awesome guest speakers, attend and host various programming competitions (specifically hosting a high school competition), and have more parties like this one! If any of this sounds interesting to you, we'd love to have you stop by room 315 of the SIC (Science Information Center) on Thursday, August 25. The games will begin around 8:00PM and will continue until we get kicked out of there. We'll even have prizes for those interested in playing. We look forward to seeing everyone there and kicking off a spectacular school year.

April 9, 2005  First Annual Metroplex Programming Competition
On April 9, 2005, Southern Methodist University held the First Annual Metroplex Programming Competition. Eleven teams from SMU, TCU, UTA, and UNT participated in the four hour contest, in which teams of three members hudled around a single computer to try to solve six programming challeges. The problems ranged from counting permutations to solving simultaneous equations to the classic Traveling Salesman problem. Teams "Base 13" from SMU and "UTA 2" from the University of Texas at Arlington earned second and third places, respectively, while "Well Defined" from the University of North Texas took the grand prize with each team member receiving a 1GB iPod Shuffle. The University of North Texas also took home the "Best Performing School" Award. The competition was a huge success and was enjoyed by all who participated. Information about the event is available for viewing at this time, and more information (including judging data, judges solutions, complete results, and more) will be posted as it becomes available.

Results from the 2004 ACM South Central USA Programming Contest
During the weekend of November 5-6, Steven Fratus, Allen Rohner, Toby Huskinson, David Lively, Joey Wood, and Michael Pierce travelled to Louisiana State University to compete in the South Central Regional meet of the ACM International Collegiate Programming Contest. Pictures from the trip are posted for your viewing pleasure.

September 20, 2004 - General Meeting of the SMU ACM Student Organization at 6:30 in Junkins Room 113. Free Food!!. Agenda itmes include:
    - Election of Officers for the year
    - Discussion of the HACS (Help a CSE Student) - a mentoring program in the CSE department
    - Second Annual SMU Coding Challenge - an on-campus programming competition
    - Social Events/Parties Brainstorming!

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The contents of this Web site are the sole responsibility of ACM at SMU and do not necessarily represent the opinions or policies of Southern Methodist University. The administrator of this site is Austin Click who may be contacted at aclick@smu.edu.