Computer Science

The board understands the great difficulty that the Department of Computer Science must go through to provide these well-administered courses to so many students. However, we believe that even if COS 217 and COS 226 are to become no-P/D/F/ courses, the P/D/F option should at least remain for COS 126.

The computer science department will implement a no-pass/D/fail policy for COS 126, 217 and 226 beginning in fall 2013. This policy change follows a dramatic increase in the number of computer science concentrators and rising enrollment in introductory courses.

Bill Zeller, a fifth-year graduate student in the computer science department, died Wednesday night at age 27 as a result of injuries from a suicide attempt.

Zeller was found in his University apartment by Public Safety officers at about 6 a.m. Sunday, shortly after he attempted to take his own life. Brain damage due to oxygen deprivation left Zeller in a coma at University Medical Center at Princeton until the evening of Jan. 5, when he was removed from life support.

Smartphone applications that cater to Princetonians, such as Fountainhop and Scoop, now have another competitor: MYMapp. MYMapp is an iPhone application created by Matthew Salesi ’11, Michele Capece ’11 and Yu-Han Hsu ’11. The application “grabs” all the events currently listed on Point and runs them through a process that accurately extracts information about each event’s location, Salesi said.

There’s an art and even some science to creating good user interfaces. One of the simplest rules is to enlist potential users as victims and get their frank opinions before the design is frozen.  Our world is full of gadgets and systems like my GPS that have focused on elaborate “features,” apparently at the expense of this basic step.