Internet Resource Guide: Penn State Undergraduate Computer Science Jonas Wang July 4, 2016 English 202c technical Writing

1. 
   Preface
   
   1. 
      Contents of Guide ------------------------------------------------- 3
      
   2. 
      Intended Audience ------------------------------------------------ 3
      
   3. 
      Assumptions ------------------------------------------------------- 3
      
   4. 
      Organization ------------------------------------------------------- 3
      
   5. 
      Tips for Using the Guide ----------------------------------------- 4
      

2. 
   Professional Organization
   
   1. 
      Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) --------------- 5
      
   2. 
      IEEE Computer Society (IEEECS) ----------------------------- 6
      
   3. 
      Association for Women in Computing (AWC) --------------- 7
      

3. 
   Conferences
   
   1. 
      European Symposium on Research in Computer Security (ESORICS) ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 8
      

4. 
   Research Materials
   
   1. 
      Research Guide for Computer Science and Engineering ---- 9
      
   2. 
      IEEE Xplore Digital Library ----------------------------------- 10
      
   3. 
      IEEE/ACM Transactions on Networking -------------------- 11
      

5. 
   Useful Internet Sites
   
   1. 
      Stack Overflow -------------------------------------------------- 12
      
   2. 
      Glassdoor --------------------------------------------------------- 13
      
   3. 
      Treehouse --------------------------------------------------------- 14
      
   4. 
      Hacker News ----------------------------------------------------- 15
      

6. 
   Relate Articles
   
   1. 
      Group Projects: Woman and Men Can Work Together in the Computer Science Realm. -------------------------------------------- 16
      
   2. 
      Why Tech Degrees Are Not Putting More Blacks and Hispanics into Tech Jobs --------------------------------------------- 17
      

7. 
   References
   

This internet resource guide is a compilation of online resources that are useful for undergraduates studying computer science at Pennsylvania State University. This guide contains various information about professional organizations and conferences in computer science, information on how to look for scholarly articles using Penn State library, important websites about homework help, learning programming, career information, and tech news and two articles about computer science students.

This guide is intended for Penn State computer science students and potential student who are interested in the computer science program at Penn State. This guide is created to help students look for more information outside of the classroom. In addition, users can find information on internships, scholarship, resume and networking.

It is assumed that the reader has a basic understanding of differences between computer science and computer engineering and the reader is one of the target audiences.

This guide consists of six different sections: Professional Organizations, Conferences, Research Materials, Useful Internet Sites, Relate Articles and References. The “Professional Organizations” section contains information about ACM, IEEECS and AWS. The “Conferences” section gives detail on ESORICS. The “Research Materials” is useful for learning how to look for researches related to computer science. The “Useful Internet Sites” provides more information in the computer science field. The “Relate Articles” contains two articles that discuss important issues related to computer sciences. The last section, “references”, contains a list of resources this guide has refered.

Use the table of contents to easily locate each particular resource. Read the description and tips of each resource to have a understanding how to use the resource.

This website is the home page for the Association for Computer Machinery. ACM, the world’s largest educational and scientific computing society, delivers resources that advance computing as a science and a profession. Although the site mainly targets at professional audiences, it also covers topics like career development, professional networking and code of ethics that could be useful for undergraduate computer science students.

ACM also provides access to the ACM Digital Library (DL), a comprehensive and expanding database of literature and detailed bibliographic resources for computing professionals from a wide range of publishers. This could be a useful resource for undergraduate students that are interested in doing research. ACM Learning Center (LC) is a great place to for undergraduate students to learn a variety of top skill sets and in-demand vendor certifications. ACM’s mentoring program matches professional mentors to students. This could be helpful for students without work experience to gain some real-world insights about the industry.

Tips:

• 
  Having the membership of ACM will grant you complete access to the Digital Library and discounts and special offers.
  
• 
  Whenever searching publication in Digital Library, use the downloads count and citation count to estimate the popularity of a specific publication.
  
• 
  ACM also provides mobile apps on iOS, android and windows for more convenient access to their content.
  

IEEE Computer Society is a professional society of IEEE. Its purpose and scope is to advance the theory, practice, and application of computer and information processing science and technology and the professional standing of its members. The large portion of the site is related to professional field, but undergraduate students can also find useful information related to internship, research publications, and conferences. IEEE Computer Society Digital Library (CSDL) is also a great place to find leading magazines in computing and leading transactions in cloud computing, machine intelligence, mobile computing and dozens of other technologies.

Under the “Volunteer & Governance” tap there is a section called “Student Activities” which contains a subsection called “Scholarship and Awards” including information about scholarships that are available to students of computer science and engineering. Using the “Job Board” page is a great way to connect to employers and look for internships. Each job post has information relate to the employer, requirement, job description and its application deadline.

Tips:

• 
  Student must belong to IEE to join Computer Society, but new students can get 50% discount.
  
• 
  Although IEECS doesn’t offer mobile app, it’s good to know the website is mobile friendly.
  

The AWC is one of the first professional organizations for women in computing. AWC is dedicated to promoting the advancement of women in the computing professions. Female undergraduate students can find information related to mentorship, job opportunities and scholarships.

The AWC local chapter at Penn State also has useful and practical information for female undergraduate students. Under the “Calendar” tap, it displays the meeting time and scheduled events during the school years. Information like mentorship and scholarships are also available on the page.

Tips:

• 
  Utilize the export feature on the “Calendar” page to put the scheduled events and meeting into a personal google calendar.
  
• 
  Sign up the Penn State chapter simply by filling email address and names into the “Join Us” page.
  

Computer security is concerned with the protection of information in environments where there is a possibility of intrusion or malicious action. The aim of ESORICS is to further the progress of research in computer security by establishing a European forum for bringing together researchers in this area, by promoting the exchange of ideas with system developers and by encouraging links with researchers in related areas. The Symposium started in 1990 and has been held in several European countries, attracting a wide international audience from both the academic and industrial communities.

The website contains various information about the conference. Interested students can find out topics of interest and the important dates about the paper submission using the “Call for Papers” section. There is also information about commute under the “Travel Info” section.

Tips:

• 
  The Student Registration does not include attendance at the Workshop or Conference Dinner. The ESORICS Reception on September 27 is included.
  

This research guide is a great source of information for undergraduate students of computer science and engineering and even students who wants to know more computer science and engineering. This computer science and engineering guide provides links to information on all topics related to computer science and computer engineering in relevant databases, journals, conference proceedings, technical reports, websites, professional societies, etc.

The left hand side of the page contains a list of the most important topic for the major. For example, Understanding the Basics, Finding Articles and Database, Finding Books, Professional Organizations, etc. It’s recommended to go through the “Research Tips” page to learn how to look for information effectively before doing the research.

Tips:

• 
  Use research data management toolkit, a list of library services including self-help information and who to contact in the Libraries for additional assistance.
  
• 
  Use the “ASK A LIBRARIAN” button to ask for help.
  
• 
  Use the to the top button to navigate to the top of the page.
  

The IEEE Xplore digital library is a powerful resource for discovery of and access to scientific and technical content published by the IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) and its publishing partners. IEEE Xplore provides web access to more than three-million full-text documents from some of the world's most highly cited publications in electrical engineering, computer science and electronics. The database is intended for both students and professionals.

Use the drop down menu bar called “BROWSE” to reveal a list of content categories. They are books, conference publications, course, journal and standards. There are mainly three ways to search contents. The first one is to basic search that provides a wide range of contents related to the search term. The second one can provide better search results if the author is given and is the best to locate a specific author’s publications. The third search method provides a more refined searching options, but it best for searching with the title of a specific publication. In additional, advance search and other option search are also provided for easy search.

Tips:

• 
  Sign in with a psu account to get full access to the database.
  
• 
  Clicking on each of five different categories of contents, a reader can view a list of the most recent articles and a list of the most popular articles.
  

The IEEE/ACM Transactions on Networking provides scholarly research results derived from theoretical or experimental exploration of the area of communication/computer networking. The journal covers all sorts of information transport networks over all sorts of physical layer technologies, both wireline (all kinds of guided media: e.g., copper, optical) and wireless (e.g., radio-frequency, acoustic (e.g., underwater), infra-red), or hybrids of these. Although the intended audiences of this journal are professionals, Penn State undergraduate students who are currently taking network security could find the information on this journal are particular helpful. Using the “popular” tab can easily locate popular contents if a view is not looking for specific content.

• 
  Sign in with a psu account to get full access to the journal.
  
• 
  Use the article influence score to estimate the popularity of the article.
  

Stack Overflow is a website serves as a platform for users to ask and answer questions on a wide range of topics in computer programming. This site is all about getting answers. It's not a discussion forum. There's no chit-chat. Good answers are voted up and rise to the top. The best answers show up first so that they are always easy to find. The person who asked can mark one answer as "accepted". The site focus on questions about an actual problem a user has faced instead of questions of broader nature. All questions are tagged with their subject areas for easy search.

Stack Overflow is known for finding quick answer to a specific problem. Undergraduate students could find this sites particular useful when they struggle with coding problems. If a question has not existed, a user has the option to post a question with related tags and there are experts from the globe would like to give you their insights on the question.

Tips:

• 
  A user’s reputation score goes up when others vote up his/her questions, answers and edits.
  
• 
  As a user earn reputation, the user will unlock new privileges like the ability to vote, comment, and even edit other people's posts.
  
• 
  Asking a similar question too many times will decrease a user’s reputation and may lose the privilege to ask questions.
  

Glassdoor is the fastest growing jobs and recruiting site. It holds a growing database of more than 8 million company reviews, CEO approval ratings, salary reports, interview reviews and questions, benefits reviews, office photos and more. Unlike other jobs sites, all of this information is entirely shared by those who know a company best — the employees. Add to that millions of the latest jobs — no other site allows you to see which employers are hiring, what it's really like to work or interview there according to employees, and how much you could earn. Glassdoor is also available via its mobile app on iOS and Android platforms.

The student page is a free resource customized to meet the specific needs of today’s students, allowing them to find and research the latest internships, entry-level jobs and salaries, career tips and more.

Tips:

• 
  By signing up using a valid student email address, a user will get unlimited access for 12 months.
  

Treehouse is an online technology school that offers beginner to advanced courses in web design, web development, mobile development and game development taught by a team of expert teachers. Its courses are aimed at beginners looking to learn coding skills for a career in the tech industry. The Treehouse learning program includes videos combined with interactive quizzes and code challenges. Treehouse Tracks are guided curricula, composed of courses that train students in large topic areas. Treehouse Organizations is designed to assist businesses, organizations, schools and community programs in technology training. Companies including Simple and LivingSocial currently use Treehouse to recruit new employees based on their progress and achievements on Treehouse.

As the computer science program at Penn State has a strong focus on theory and discrete math, most of computer science courses do not spend enough time teaching students about programming languages. Undergraduate students may find Treehouse particularly useful in learning new programming languages.

Tips:

• 
  Post questions on the discussion forum to ask for help
  
• 
  As Treehouse provides its own webIDE for learning, using Chrome browser is highly recommended for best performance.
  
• 
  Always check the published date of a course before taking it. There might be a newer version if the course is too old.
  

Hacker News is a community started by Paul Graham for sharing "Anything that good hackers would find interesting.” That includes more than hacking and startups. This is the place where all other hackers come to get and post the news. It features a simple interface that contains a list of popular posts. There is no down-vote option. A post can be either up-voted or not voted. Therefore, the most popular posts will always stay the top.

Although this site is mainly related to sharing news, student can also to use the “job” tap to look for jobs posted on the site.

Tips:

• 
  Use a site like http://hnpickup.appspot.com/ to figure out the right time to post so that it will be shown on the front page.
  

The paper describes how group projects in the undergraduate level can educate men and women about each other, encourage women to continue in the computer science curriculum and reinforce women's role in the computer science realm. In today's society it is important for graduates of the computer science programs to be able to interact with colleagues effectively and professionally. Group projects encourage interaction and mandate that they work as a team to finish the activity and receive their grade. The concepts discussed in the paper were implemented in multiple software engineering courses and a data structure course. The paper provides examples of classroom reaction and techniques that were used in these classes. No student was ever the “token” in a group. Each student had strengths and weaknesses and when the groups were formed correctly, the results were a well-rounded and a productive team. Creating the groups was a key factor and a major component

• 
  Sign up with psu account before using the link.
  

The article first uses data to show there are many more black and Hispanic students majoring in computer science and engineering than work in tech jobs. Then the author explains the reason like the fact that black and Hispanic students are underrepresented in computer science and engineering, while Asian students are overrepresented, the fact that less black and Hispanic students are interested in going to tech companies when they heard about the low percentage of population of their races, etc.

• 
  Use comment section to see other people’s thoughts and share your opinion
  

1. 
   "About the ACM Organization." About the ACM Organization. N.p., n.d. Web. 05 July 2016.
   
2. 
   "About IEEE Computer Society • IEEE Computer Society." About IEEE Computer Society • IEEE Computer Society. N.p., n.d. Web. 05 July 2016.
   
3. 
   "ESORICS 2016 - Welcome." ESORICS 2016 - Welcome. N.p., n.d. Web. 05 July 2016.
   
4. 
   "Penn State University Libraries." Getting Started with Programming (Understanding the Basics). N.p., n.d. Web. 05 July 2016.
   
5. 
   "IEEE/ACM Transactions on Networking." IEEE Xplore: - (About Journal). N.p., n.d. Web. 05 July 2016.
   
6. 
   "About - Stack Overflow." - Stack Overflow. N.p., n.d. Web. 05 July 2016.
   
7. 
   Polack-Wahl, J.a. "Group Projects: Woman and Men Can Work Together in the Computer Science Realm." 1999 International Symposium on Technology and Society - Women and Technology: Historical, Societal, and Professional Perspectives. Proceedings. Networking the World (Cat. No.99CH37005) (n.d.): n. pag. Web.
   
8. 
   Bui, Quoctrung, and Claire Cain Miller. "Why Tech Degrees Are Not Putting More Blacks and Hispanics Into Tech Jobs." The New York Times. The New York Times, 2016. Web. 05 July 2016.