CS Graduate Student Survival Guide

Originally this guide was targeted at new Purdue Computer Science graduate students. Since its creation, it has expanded to also be helpful for returning graduate students and perspective students. The guide provides information about the department, Purdue, the Lafayette area, Indiana, and surrounding states.

Be warned that the information in this guide is not complete and not guaranteed to be correct. If you are not sure about something, do not be afraid to ask a fellow student or to e-mail the CS Graduate Student Board (gsb@cs.purdue.edu). If you would like something added or changed in the Guide, please e-mail the GSB.

This document is not intended to describe departmental and school policies and is not a publication of the Department of Computer Sciences nor the School of Science. As the regulations constantly change, it is always best to check with the Graduate School Office (YONG 170), the Computer Science Graduate Office (LWSN 1137), and the Dean of Students Office (SCHL 230).

This guide has a long and distinguished history, dating back to 1979 when a CS Graduate Guide was founded by Dave Schrader, Eric Dittert, and Bob Brown. Through hard research, diligent work, and ideas stolen from similar guides at other schools, they created an impressively useful document for generations of new students. For a time, it was shared with the EE department, who made additional improvements. Since then, the Graduate Guide has survived countless ordeals, including conversion from the old CDC machines to VAXen and Sequents, departments moving to new buildings, major surgery (both additions and removals) to all sections, and finally, in 1993, conversion to LaTeX. In the Summer of 2007, the guide was ported to the GSB wiki.

The list of people who have helped over the years is far too long to list in its entirety, but includes many students, professors, and department secretaries. Some of the people who have contributed the most in recent years include:

• Nate Andrysco
• Ethan Blanton
• Marina Blanton
• Abhinav Jain
• Chris Mayfield
• Paul Rosen
• Andy Scharlott
• Abhilasha Spantzel
• Lukasz Ziarek

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• Indiana Basics
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• Other Places of Interest

If you do not have any housing by the first week of the semester, run, do not walk, to the Dean of Students Office in Schleman Hall to obtain the Off Campus Housing listing and advice on obtaining a place to live. They have a copy that you can look at in the office, or you can buy a copy to take with you for a small sum. If you have access to a computer, then you can also search for off campus housing through Purdue's Student Services INFOrmation online.

To access SSINFO, visit http://www.ssinfo.purdue.edu/. The Off Campus Housing section is located in the “General” part of the main menu. Also check the Exponent, the Journal and Courier, and http://www.boilerapartments.com for housing ads and roommate classifieds. If you're an international student, you may want to contact ISS and/or your country's student organization for help.

Assuming that you already have obtained housing for your first term but are interested in other options for the future, we can make the following observations on the housing situation:

• The on-campus housing problem is quite acute.
• The dorms are always filled.
• Grad students often live in one of the Grad Houses or in Purdue Village.

Despite their labels, the Young and Hawkins Grad Houses contain both undergraduates and grad students. The only requirement to be a resident is to be 21 years of age or older. If you wish to live in Purdue Village (PV), you should apply ASAP. Purdue Village, which used to be only for married students (and sometimes is still called Married Student Housing), does allow single students. Spots in PV tend to fill up fast.

There are a numerous student apartment complexes all around campus and many old houses that have been divided into multiple living units. The apartments right around campus tend to be leased in January and February for the following fall semester, so start your search early in the spring for your fall housing. In addition, if you have a group of friends that you can live with, you can usually find an older house for rent if you check the classifieds. One other resource available to grad students is the Purdue Research Foundation (PRF), which has many old houses around campus for rent. Unfortunately for undergrads, PRF will only rent to faculty and grad students.

Apartments within walking distance of campus tend to be quite expensive but if you have transportation, there are numerous apartment complexes all over the Lafayette area that are quite reasonable. If you don't have a car, you can see if the bus line runs nearby. Of course, you always run a risk if you depend heavily on the buses. One more thing to consider when deciding on off-campus housing is related to restrictions on obtaining parking permits. The University will not sell you a parking permit if you live too close to campus. If you plan on driving to campus, make sure you live far enough away to get a university parking permit.

If you are moving into an apartment or house, you will probably need to hook up some utilities. When you sign a lease, check with the landlord to see what utilities are not included in the rent. Then a few days before you move in to your new domicile, call the utility companies to hook up the necessary utilities. Many of the utility companies will demand a deposit for new service if you did not have an account with them previously.

The City of West Lafayette provides curb-side service for recycling and garbage pickup only for houses with four units or less. If you live in a complex or house with more than four units then a private contractor must be hired for garbage disposal. Labeled bins are provided for anyone wishing to drop-off recyclable materials at 705 S. River Road. There are also bins for recyclable materials around Purdue Village. For more information please call the Street Department at 775-5242.

There are a number of bookstores around campus that will be happy to take your life savings in exchange for a text book. University Book Store's main location is across the street from the Union at 360 W. State Street. University Bookstore is the original home of Purdue Pete. The Book Store used Purdue Pete for their logo, and the University later adopted him as the Purdue Mascot. University Book Store also has a smaller branch across from Mackey Arena at 720 Northwestern Avenue. Follett's Bookstore has three locations, 1400 W. State Street in Purdue West, 308 W. State Street in The Village, and 714 Northwestern Avenue across from Lambert Fieldhouse.

Text books are sometimes held on reserve in the Undergrad Library or the Math Library. A few CS text books are also available in the ACM/UPE CS Student Library located in the Undergraduate Resource Center, CS G14. Also check the newsgroup purdue.forsale.books for text books.

Parking at Purdue can be a nightmare. Public parking near campus is in very short supply, and permit parking isn't much better. The largest public parking lot is behind the Stadium, quite a hike from the CS building. A, B, and C parking permits allow you to park on campus. A and B parking permits are for faculty and three-quarter time staff only, so students are normally limited to C parking permits.

A C parking permit allows you to park in C parking places, which are marked by red signs. Unfortunately, the C parking places are generally not close to the CS building with most of the C parking in a lot off State Street by the dorms. To obtain a C parking permit, you must prove that you live more than 1.5 miles from campus (what they call walking distance). A C permit costs roughly $60.

C Garage permits are also availible. These allow you to park at the top of a specific parking garage. Wood St., Marsteller St., and Grant St. garages have CG permits availible. The cost for one is $200.

Parking permit stickers are are sold at the Campus Visitor's Center on the first floor of the Northwestern Avenue Parking Garage, which is across the street from the MSEE Building. You need to take your driver's license and a copy of your lease with you.

If you drive but don't buy a permit, there is public street parking near the building on some of the side streets. However, these spaces are generally all gone by 8:30 am daily and most have a 3 hour time limit, for two reasons:

1. Many folks forget about this time limit, and their vehicles become easy prey for West Lafayette police who roam about with ticket pads armed and ready.
2. The pointless shuffling of vehicles from one parking spot to another amuses the neighborhood children.

Note that cars are time-stamped with a swatch of chalk on one of the rear tires so that the time they've been parked in one spot is known, and, therefore, the time that they're eligible for ticketing is known. Also note that the chalk comes off rather easily (especially when water is applied from a spray bottle, hint, hint). Parking at night is no problem. All A, B, and C spots are open after 5 pm and on weekends. Also, never park in a 24 hour reserved spot; you will be ticketed and towed.

Residence hall parking permits are available to people living in Grad Houses or the Dorms. Stop by the Grad House or Dorm main office to inquire about permits, and check early since the number of residence hall permits is limited. One final note for students living in Purdue Village, you should stop by the PV office on Nimitz Drive after obtaining your Purdue permit in order to get a PV permit. It's free and allows you to park your car near your apartment.

This section presents, roughly, a day-by-day outline of some of what you should do in your first week on campus. See the sections following for more detailed information.

Select courses you want to take if you have not already done so. Fill out a registration form (available in LWSN 1137) and get your advisor's signature on it. Ask Amy Ingram (LWSN 1137) to check it. Take your completed form to the Registrar's Office (basement of Hovde).

Go to Room 130 in the Purdue Memorial Union to get your student ID card. You might want to start a Boiler Express account. This account makes your PUID a campus debit card. Boiler Express is accepted at most eateries and other places on campus.

• If you are athletic, go to the Recreational Sports Center and get a locker (see the section on the RSC later in this guide).
• If you have a Purdue University or department assistantship or a fellowship, get to know Candace Walters in LWSN 2116H by picking up your keys. Then wait for your staff I.D. card to appear in your mailbox with your first pay stub. This card is not the same as your student I.D., and it is good for a 10% discount at the bookstores. If you can't wait for the I.D. card, ask for a letter of authentication from Amy Ingram in LWSN 1137, and take it to the University Bookstore on the corner of State and Grant to get a book discount card.
• Pick up free documents about various things around Purdue, available in the police station (on traffic regulations), from the Dean of Students Office in Schleman Hall 207, on the shelves in the middle of the main hallway of Stewart Center, and at the information desk in the main entrance of the Memorial Union (of particular interest here may be the CityBus schedules, if you plan to use public transportation).
• If you are an International Student, you should have gone through the orientation for International Students. If not, report to the ISS in Schleman Hall 136 as soon as possible.
• If you dont have a career account yet, visit http://www.purdue.edu/securepurdue/careeraccount/ for information on how to get one. You need this account for access to Information Technology at Purdue's Computer Labs and for your @purdue.edu email address, and hence you should get it as soon as possible.

During your first few weeks here at Purdue, you'll encounter many new acronyms and buzzwords. Here is a list of those used most frequently.

• ACM - Association for Computing Machinery. An international organization for computer scientists. Locally, ACM refers to the student ACM chapter which performs numerous services for the students.
• BOSO - Business Office for Student Organizations. This is the office that handles the money and some other matters related to official student organizations such as ACM and UPE. Hopefully, you will not have to deal with them unless you are an officer in a student organization in campus.
• Co-Rec - See RSC.
• ECN - Engineering Computer Network. ECN is the name given to the extensive network of machines maintained by the engineering school.
• ITaP - Information Technology at Purdue; this is the university group that operates and maintains the main university computer system.
• LAEB - Liberal Arts and Education Building. This is an old name for the large building to the south of the CS building, which is now called Beering Hall. Many people still call it LAEB, which can be confusing as this is not somthing you will find on any map. All buildings in the Purdue Campus have esoteric acronyms assigned to them, and by which they are referred to. Consult the map and list at the end of this guide for the complete reference.
• PMU - Purdue Memorial Union. The building next to Stewart Center. See the section about it on page .
• PUCC - Purdue University Computing Center. PUCC is the former name for ITaP; again, you will still see this acronym in use from time to time.
• RSC - Recreational Sports Center. This is one of Purdue's main sports facilities, where you can go practice a large number of sports and physical activities. In 1998 it was officially renamed the Recreational Sports Center, but many people still call it the Co-Rec.
• UPE - Upsilon Pi Epsilon. It is the international Computer Sciences Honor organization, whose objectives are to recognize and promote scholastic achievement and original investigation in the computer sciences. There is a UPE chapter at Purdue. Membership is by invitation only.

During the 1996-1997 school term, General Telephone (GTE) installed a new, modern telephone system. That is what the building across University Ave. from Beering was built for. The new phone system is all digital, and allows computers to attach to the campus backbone from any office. The new system officially went on-line during the 1996 spring semester.

To call another number on campus, dial just the last 5 digits.

To call an off-campus number, dial 7, then dial the number.

If you want to place a long distance call , you first dial 7 + 0 + area code + number. You will be given an opportunity to enter a calling card number. If you want to make a collect call or bill the call to a third party, hit 0 to get an AT&T operator.

Toll-free calls can be made from any phone on campus by dialing 7-1-800-xxx-xxxx or 7-1-888-xxx-xxxx.

Should you need information, you can talk to Purdue information by dialing 0. From off-campus, Purdue information is 494-4600.

For emergencies, dial 911 from any campus phone.

To place a three-way call, briefly touch the cradle switch on your phone (hanging up the phone for under a second) or press the flash button if your phone has one. You can then dial your third party and touch the cradle switch again to have all three parties on the line. Due to this, when hanging up the phone between calls, you must hang it up for at least two seconds.

Call 911 for all emergencies.

Call 911 for all emergencies

• Purdue University Student Health Center (PUSH)
  • 49-46995
  • http://www.purdue.edu/PUSH

• Home Hospital
  • 2400 South Street, Lafayette
  • 447-6811

• Saint Elizabeth Hospital
  • 1501 Hartford Street, Lafayette
  • 423-6011

• Purdue University
  • 494-8221

• West Lafayette
  • 463-3535

• Lafayette
  • 742-4045

• Tippecanoe County Sheriff's Department
  • 423-9388

• Lafayette Crisis Center
  • 1244 North 15th Street, Lafayette
  • 742-0244 (Available 24 hours)

• Planned Parenthood of Tecumseh Area
  • 103 Northwestern Avenue, West Lafayette
  • 742-7281

• Rape Hotline
  • 427-RAPE (7273) (Available 24 hours)

In case you didn't know, Purdue's CS department is the oldest in the country, formally authorized in October 1962. Dr. Sam Conte was the first department head, serving until July 1979, when Dr. Peter Denning took over. Dr. Denning took a position with NASA in June, 1983 at which point Dr. John Rice became department head. After 13 years of distinguished service, Dr. Rice stepped down and returned to teaching. He was succeeded by Dr. Ahmed Sameh who came aboard during the 1996-1997 academic school year. Dr. Susanne Hambrusch, was appointed in the year 2002 and held the position until the summer of 2007. At that point in time Aditya Mathur took over as department head.

We are also one of the largest and most highly-rated departments in the country. This year the department has about 150 graduate students, about 45 faculty, and more than 600 undergraduate majors.

The CS department was originally located in the Math building. In 1985, the CS department moved into a building all to itself. This building was formerly the Memorial Gymnasium. (The Memorial is to a group of Purdue students and alumni who died in a train wreck while traveling to a game). It has been completely renovated to hold us. During the renovation it was rumored that a swimming pool would be left in the basement, but this idea was apparently dropped. Finally, in the fall of 2006, the department moved into our new location, the Lawson Computer Science Building.

On March 28, 2003, we celebrated the 40th anniversary of the Purdue Computer Science Department. It was a wonderful event, from recounting the early history of computing and the Computer Science Department, to recollections of people and the good times we had, to a look into what the future holds. For more details and interesting facts please refer to http://www2.cs.purdue.edu/40th/default.htm.

Part of the reason that the department is highly-regarded is that the faculty are active in research, publication, and service to the CS community. It would take pages to describe all the current research projects. Therefore, for reference, the department Annual Reports (which can be found online at http://www.cs.purdue.edu/AnnualReports/) contain a summary of current projects.

There is a research project for anyone here. There are research centers and institutes specializing in particular topics, a complete list of which is given at http://www.cs.purdue.edu/research/centers/. A brief decription of the centers is given as follows: The Center for Education and Research in Information Assurance and Security (CERIAS) is currently viewed as one of the world's leading centers for research and education in areas of information security that are crucial to the protection of critical computing and communication infrastructure. CERIAS is unique among such national centers in its multidisciplinary approach to the problems, ranging from purely technical issues (e.g., intrusion detection, network security, etc) to ethical, legal, educational, communicational, linguistic, and economic issues, and the subtle interactions and dependencies among them. CERIAS evolved from the COAST (Computer Operations, Audit, and Security Technologies) lab in 1999, which was a multiple project computer security research laboratory in Purdue's computer science department. For more information please refer to http://www.cerias.purdue.edu/. Software Engineering Research Center (SERC) is part of the National Science Foundation's Industry/University Cooperative Research Center program. SERC is devoted to software technology, more specifically, investigating the development and assessment of tools and methods for improving productivity and software quality throughout the life cycle. The SERC research program has been structured to improve the management of the software engineering process, the productivity of software engineers, and the quality of software engineering products. SERC began operation in October, 1986. For more information please refer to http://www.cs.purdue.edu/research/serc.html The Indiana Center for Database Systems (ICDS) takes an interdisciplinary approach to solving practical problems in a wide variety of database systems and their applications. Research activities and projects in the center include multimedia databases, data mining, data streaming and sensors, database security and privacy, knowledge bases and web services. The research is applied to areas in digital government, life sciences, healthcare, and defense. A characteristic of the research in the center is that it is practical research, system oriented and high quality. Resources in the center include powerful computing and storage servers. The center infrastructure was enhanced through many grants from several agencies to build a database research infrastructure. For more information please refer to http://www.cs.purdue.edu/icds/.

A complete list of all projects and their areas is given at http://www.cs.purdue.edu/graduate_program/projects.htm. Some of them are as follows:

The SoftLab project focuses on the creation of environments, tools and infrastructure needed for building virtual laboratories for Computational Science and Engineering.

The Computer Graphics and Visualization Lab located in CS 151 and CS 115 specializes in 3d reconstructions from 2d images, model camera, simulation of September 11 attacks, distance learning and related work

The goal of the Network Algorithms and Analysis Laboratory (NAAL) at Purdue is to identify and solve key modeling and algorithmic problems arising in real-world networks including ad hoc networks (especially sensor and P2P networks), the Internet and WWW, biological networks, and social networks.

Current research projects include random graph-theoretic approach for protein structure determination, random geometric graph models and algorithms with applications to sensor networks, local distributed algorithms for resource-constrained networks, and models and algorithms for problems arising in Internet and WWW. For more information please refer to http://www.cs.purdue.edu/naal/.

You can find detailed information about research going on in the department at http://www.cs.purdue.edu/research.html.

First, look at the list of courses being offered on the CS Department web site, http://www.cs.purdue.edu/academic_programs/courses/. If you are a first-year masters students, you will face many choices of classes. The choices for a first-year Ph.D. student are somewhat restricted. Talk to second or third year graduate students. The best place to get information about a course and a professor is from someone who has taken the course, and not neccessarily your advisor or professors in the department. This is probably the most important step in the registration process.

Most people find it best to select courses so that their workload is balanced among various types of work: reading, programming, theory, mathematics (calculus, real analysis, linear algebra), etc. Taking two heavy programming courses together is a lot of work, three can be suicidal.

There is also the number of course hours to consider. Typical and maximum course loads are shown below. Keep in mind that what is said to be “typical” below may be a lighter or heavier load than what is right for you. If you are a masters candidate, how much of a rush you are in to complete your degree will also be a factor. Taking the maximum number of credit hours in your first semester, however, is probably a recipe for disaster.

• fellowship or self-supported 9 - 12 hours typical, 18 hours maximum
• quarter-time assistantship 6 - 12 hours typical, 15 hours maximum
• half-time assistantship (most TAs) 6 - 9 hours typical, 12 hours maximum
• half-time research assistantship (most RAs) less than 18 hours, at least 6 hours thesis work
• full-time research assistantship less than 18 hours, at least 12 hours thesis work

A graduate student is classified as a full-time student if he or she is registered for 6 credit hours when funded by an assistantship or 9 credit hours when funded by a fellowship. Masters students need (eventually) to complete 10 three-credit courses, or 8 three-credit courses with a thesis, for their degrees. One of CS 502 or CS 565, one of CS 503 or CS 536, and one of CS 580 or CS 584 are required; the others are chosen by the student. You should get an idea of the courses you might like to take now, but don't bother trying to work out a schedule more than a semester in advance–the actual scheduling of courses (regardless of what the course descriptions say) is quite variable. There are also “topics” courses that are offered each semester, some of which you might find interesting. A 590 topics course is directed study for students who wish to undertake individual reading and study on approved topics. A general topics course is worth three credit hours and at most 2 three-credit 590 courses can be used towards satisfying MS degree requirements. It usually takes three to four semesters to complete the work for a Masters degree.

Ph.D. students should schedule carefully to be sure that, by the end of the third semester in the department, they will have passed at least one Qualifying Course Examination in each of these four boxes:

Course Advice: plan on taking three courses in each of your first two semesters, chosen from the required list above. Taking three (rather than four) courses a semester will allow you to concentrate on passing the four qualifiers. Also remember to try and balance the types of course work for each semester, as we described earlier.

Qualifier Advice: even MS students should plan on taking qualifying exams. Should you later decide to switch the the Ph.D. program, having the qualifiers completed will make the transition much easier.

Financial Advice: note that late registration or late fee remission can result in a hefty financial penalty (about $200). Make sure to get some sort of schedule in place and your fees paid by the time the first scheduling deadline comes around (typically right at the beginning of the semester). This fine can be assessed even if you don't actually owe money if your schedule is not confirmed, so make sure you finalize your schedule on SSINFO.

More information on the courses can be found at http://www.cs.purdue.edu/graduate_program/curriculum/

About The Different Courses…
The following section contains descriptions of CS courses that are offered on the graduate level in our department. It does not include courses offered by other departments (i.e. MATH, EE, STAT, MGMT) that are also available to obtain graduate credit in the M.S. and Ph.D. programs in CS. For transferring credit check with your academic advisor, or with Dr. Gorman.

As there are substantial differences among the courses offered in regard to the amount and type of work for assignments, projects, in-class presentations, term papers, and exams, we are presenting a table that shows the major differences among these courses. The info given is mostly drawn from a survey among grad students in our department in Spring 1993, although some additions have been made for courses which were not included in the 1993 survey. Although some of the courses have changed over the years, this list will give you a rough idea of the type of workload to expect. However, course contents and workload depend considerably on the professor who teaches the course. The same number of programming assignments for two courses does not necessarily indicate a comparable effort in writing the code. Therefore, nothing presented here should be taken literally, only as an outline. Do not be afraid to talk to the professor who will teach the course and ask him more detailed information. Not all courses are offered every semester. Check with the bulletin board across from CS 172, or http://www.cs.purdue.edu/acad-info/. Furthermore, it is not our purpose to show you a way to a degree at Purdue with the least possible effort, but to give you the chance to balance your course load for each semester according to your interests and degree program requirements.

The official prerequisites listed on the course pages are not completely accurate in terms of what you really need. The survey disclosed that unstated prerequisites for nearly every course, except theory courses, are a good understanding of the C programming language, the UNIX Operating System, and the X Window System. It is not absolutely necessary to know these to do well in every course, but knowing them can greatly increase your efficiency. A comment nearly everyone made at some point was: ``The course is hard and requires lots of work…but in the end it's worth it.'' So, you can look forward to a lot of pain during the semester, and a very good feeling afterwards.

The course-request forms are on the table in front of Amy Ingram in LWSN 1137, along with some instructions for filling out the top portion. Add the courses you want, get the form signed by your advisor, and take the form back to LWSN 1137. Amy Ingram will either keep of all it and take care of your registration (this happens before semester begins), or keep the yellow copy and instruct you to take the white copy to the registrar (This happens during the semester). Dr. Gorman sends reminders regarding important scheduling dates and process every semester.

The Registrar’s Office is in the lowest level of Hovde Hall, Room 45. Take your white copy and wait in line, doing what the signs tell you to do. Your requests will be typed into the University’s computer system on the spot, but the actual registration is an overnight batch job. Your course schedule and invoice can be picked up the next day at the same place.

Once you have your invoice, you can pay (in cash) at the Bursar’s Office teller windows, or (by check) at the Bursar’s drop box.

The schedule you pick up may not have all the courses you requested. Over-full courses and other problems may not be detected when your request is typed in, but only when the overnight registration job runs. If you are requesting very popular courses, it can be a good idea to include second choices on your original course request. If you didn’t do that, you can submit another request form to add other classes. You will have another overnight wait to get your revised schedule and invoice.

If you decide to add or drop a course after your registration, you must fill out an “ADD/DROP” form (the very same form you used to register), available in room LWSN 1137. Depending on when you do this, you may need your advisor’s signature and/or instructor’s signature. Directions are on the back of the form.

If you are paying for your education with some loan money, there is an additional step or two to the process, at least involving the infamous Window M in Hovde. This is where you sign your loan check(s) and have your account with the University credited. You may now be able to arrange direct deposit and avoid standing in line for checks. Ask questions at the information desk in the lower level of Hovde if things aren’t obvious when it comes time to show the money

The basic requirements for getting a Ph.D. at Purdue are fairly straightforward. This section is a quick overview of what needs to be done to satisfy those requirements. For more information, we suggest talking to older grad students (we've all been through at least part of this stuff) and professors. In a nutshell, you begin by satisfying the English proficiency requirements if you are not a native speaker of English. You do the requisite number of courses, taking care to do the proper core courses. You pass the quals, find an advisor, dream up a problem, take a prelim, solve the problem, undergo a public defense, wear a black robe with a blue hood, have your photograph taken with assorted luminaries at the Hall of Music, and then ride into the blue yonder. Allow us to elaborate…

The phrase “core courses” used to refer to seven specific courses every Ph.D. candidate was required to take. Starting with the Fall of 1999, you get some latitude in choosing those seven courses. They will be the four you choose for your qualifying course examinations, which already cover four different areas, plus three more eligible courses that you choose. At least one of these must be in another area, so that your seven core courses represent at least five areas. The only official list of eligible courses is the one at http://www.cs.purdue.edu/grad-info/gradinfo/qual.html. You should try to take these courses as early in your grad student career as possible, to prepare for the qualifying exams.

These are the exams that decide if you are capable of doing a Ph.D., or at least so the department claims. The format has recently been revised, so some older graduate students may not be completely familiar with the new process. Dr. Gorman is a definitive source for information. The Qualifying Exams (usually known as Qual 1s) are tests taken in addition to a core course's final examination (it may be a separate exam, or additional problems on the final examination). You must pass these exams in four courses, in the first three semesters of your graduate work (so at least four of the courses you take in your first three semesters must be qual courses).

The exams are usually graded within two weeks. The Graduate Committee then meets in a smoke-filled room, studies the entrails of a farm herbivore (or uses another equally scientific, inscrutable, and never really disclosed method) and decides who passes. The last step is sometimes delayed, resulting in extra secretion of HCl in the duodenum of the candidates. Usually, a student will pass or fail outright, but sometimes students are asked to take an additional oral or written exam in one of the areas they were weak in. There is no set percentage of students that pass.

The key to passing Qual 1s is studying. Hard. The best way to study is to do lots of problems, and then do some more. When you get tired of this and want to take a break, do some MORE problems. Repeat this the last two months of a course. The best source of problems is old qualifiers, copies of which (back to about 1987) can be obtained from Amy Ingram (CS 102) and in the Math Library on the 3rd floor of Math Building. Some old grad students have pre-worked sets of old qualifiers and other tests (midterms and finals). There are now reading lists available for all of the classes; see Amy Ingram for these.

Following the Qual 1s, you will have two semesters to pass the second stage Qualifying Exam, or Qual 2. The Qual 2 is currently an oral examination, for which you will be asked to read a number of important papers in your chosen area of research and then discuss their finer points with a committee of examining professors. Qual 2s seem to be a widely varying and often unique experience, so you might want to talk to a few post-Qual students and your advisor to get a feel for what to expect in your area. If you pass quals, you've leaped the highest hurdle on the way to that coveted sheepskin.

After passing Quals, get a thesis advisor (if you don't already have one). This will be the person overseeing your research while you work on your dissertation. In other words, a thesis advisor is a combination friend, co-worker, guru, and mother/father figure. He or she will therefore be one of the more important people in your life for the next couple of years, so choose carefully. Desirable traits in an advisor include:

• Easy for you to get along with
• Interested in the same area(s) you are
• Will not be leaving in the next couple of years (that you can tell)
• Can supervise your work closely (if you like that)
• Won't pressure you (if you want it that way)
• (Optional) Has grant money to support you

Usually, you talk to several professors in your area before making a decision. It is possible to change advisors after making your decision, but it is not generally recommended because it tends to add a year to the time you spend here. Once you have an advisor, your next job is to form the rest of your advisory committee. These will be the people who read your thesis, point out flaws, and eventually decide whether you have done Ph.D.-caliber work. As such, they are important people in your education. You and your advisor find (at least) two other professors interested in your area to be on this committee, one of which should be a senior faculty member. About the time you are doing this, you should also file a Plan of Study, an official document telling the administration what classes you have taken, what courses you plan to take, your area of interest, and other vital information. See Amy Ingram for the form. Normally, you should find an advisor and file the plan of study by the end of the semester after you pass Quals. The plan must include at least five more courses (in addition to the core seven) that are not independent studies or seminars.

Now that you've demonstrated your aptitude at passing hard tests, and thus qualified yourself for research work, you have to thrash about, reading landmark papers from your area, trying to find a thesis topic. This is probably the second most difficult step in the process (the most difficult is, of course, passing Quals). Remember that your goal at this point is to find a topic that you can learn to do research on; that's what the degree process is about. The topic doesn't have to be earth-shattering; in fact, you'll probably get out much more quickly if it isn't. Save the good stuff for when you're on your own trying to get grants and such. Also, consider that by the time you get done with your thesis, you will be eating, sleeping, living and breathing your topic. Try to pick something that you can survive becoming incredibly intimate with for 12 to 24 months; also, by the time you're done, you'll probably be burned out on the topic, so pick something you won't regret not working on for some time after you've graduated.

Once you've figured out exactly what it is that you're going to research, take your Preliminary Examination (usually known as Prelims). The party line on this exam is that it tests the student's competence in a research area and readiness for research on some specific problem. In practice, it is a public thesis proposal, given so that your committee can see what you've been up to, where you're headed, and give constructive criticism. The Graduate Committee will appoint one extra member to your advisory committee for this exam, presumably to keep everyone honest. Usually, this is given about one year after Quals, after you get your first results on your thesis topic. Note, however, that the official rule is that Prelims must be taken by the end of the third semester following the one in which the student passes the qualifying exam and at least two semesters before the examination on the dissertation.

Now, work like crazy, trying to prove whatever it is that you're trying to prove. Build, measure, tear down, read, build some more, and conclude. Write it all down in a nice form; we'll call that your dissertation. Hope no one else is doing exactly the same thing at another university; if they are, and manage to publish their results before you, even by one week, you're probably out of luck, and have to start all over again on a new topic. Get your committee to agree that they like your dissertation. Then you have to make it satisfy the department's rules for Thesis Format, which define what a CS dissertation must look like, dealing with margins, figures, captions, etc. This used to be set by the University, but recently control has been given to each department. You can find the rules in http://www.cs.purdue.edu/acad-info/thesis.format. Fortunately, there are macro packages for LATEX (the most-used typesetting system in the department) that do most of the nitty-gritty stuff for you. There may also be a format file for Word for Windows, if for some incomprehensible reason you want to subject yourself to that. Finally, schedule a final defense. This is a public oral exam before your committee and anyone else that cares to come; it is where you present what you've done for the past few years. It's also the last chance for people to pick your work apart and point out flaws; if there are some major ones, you may have to go back and cover them and schedule another defense (ouch). Hopefully, your committee will have pointed them out before the defense, so you have all the answers right at your fingertips. If you've done all your work, this should be a breeze.

Most people are funded by either a Teaching Assistantship (TA), a Research Assistantship (RA), or a Fellowship. Some people have sources of funding outside of these three types, but it is uncommon. To be considered a “full-time” student, you must register a certain amount of hours depending on your type of funding. TAs and RAs need to have 6 credit hours, while Fellows need 9. Being considered a full-time student has many benefits that include your ability to receive student health insurance, government loans, etc.

Most students enter the department with this type of funding. If you are going to be a teaching assistant, you are probably wondering just what your duties will be. Your teaching assignment will probably fit into one of the following three categories:

• A recitation instructor teaches recitation sections which normally consist of 20-30 students. The class will also have other lecture sections that are taught by the professor in charge of the course.
• A lab instructor teaches lab sections which normally consist of 15-25 students. The class will also have other lecture sections that are taught by the professor in charge of the course.
• A grader grades assignments, projects, and possibly exams for a course that is taught by a professor or another TA.

It is very rare that a teaching assistant is the sole instructor for a course, but it has happened in the past. Teaching assignments are often not finalized until the week before classes begin. If you did not receive your teaching assignment before arriving at Purdue, see Amy Ingram or Dr. Gorman in LWSN 1137 to pick up your teaching assistant packet. Once you have learned your assignment, contact the supervisor of the course as soon as possible. Also, all new teaching assistants must attend ``training sessions'' during the week before classes. These sessions will explain nearly everything you need to know about being a TA.

As a TA, you will be responsible for holding office hours, usually at least three hours a week. If your office hours schedule looks like a typical class schedule (e.g., MWF 1:30-2:30), you risk shutting out students who happen to have a class in that slot. It is much better to make your office hours schedule somewhat irregular. You also will be responsible for maintaining your grades. Most people use Doug Comer's grader program, which is available on the CS network. If you are financially supported by the department (TA, RA, grader) and need supplies for your work, they can be obtained in the mail room, LWSN 1151. The secretaries maintain a supply of paper, transparencies, manila folders, tape, pens, and pencils for instructors' and researchers' use. You may also get a copy of the text for the course that you are teaching from Amy Ingram in LWSN 1137.

Depending on your temperament, teaching can either be great fun or a terrible burden. On the positive side, you get paid for the work, you get to meet a lot of new people, and you get to see your students learning and share in their learning process. On the negative side, your students constantly pester you for information and answers, especially before an exam or the due date of a big project. Also, be assured that students will not confine requests for assistance to your office hours. If you have any problems with your assignment, see the course supervisor or Dr. Gorman.

These are given to you by a professor who has procurred funding from, typically, an outside source such as a government agency (e.g. NSF) or a corporation. Ideally, your RA will support work that interests you and work that will contribute toward your Master's or Ph.D. thesis.

Links to fellowship resources

The Computer Sciences Department has lots of machines; most of them you cannot and will not be using, unless you are involved with a particular project or with the facilities staff. In general, undergrad accounts are on lore, grad students’ and secretaries’ accounts are on ector, while faculty accounts are on arthur. Accounts on the main CS machines are available to faculty, Ph.D. students who have passed qualifiers and are doing research, and students engaged in writing software for the CS machines (often as a CS590 or CS690 independent study course). Because the machines all run NFS (Network File System), files on any machine can be read from any other, so accounts on all machines are roughly equivalent except for response times. The exception to this is the ugrad (undergrad) group which is all accounts on lore and the machines in CS G56, which can only access each other. All graduate students get accounts on ector.cs. Workstations are divided among the various research project labs and faculty offices. In general, a workstation in a lab belongs to the project there and is not available to students not connected with the project. (Workstations in the XINU lab are used for CS503 and CS636 classes.)

If you’re interested in finding out more, talk to Ron Castongia (the computing facilities manager). If you’re interested in actually working with the hardware, your best bet is probably to get involved with the project that owns the machine. For more information regarding the facilities please efer to http://www.cs.purdue.edu/help/CSWelcome/.

The Facilities Staff is responsible for the continued smooth operation of the Department’s equipment. This includes just about anything and everything; it certainly deals with software problems and administrative details. Ron Castongia, the computing facilities manager, is the fearless leader of this merry band. His office is in CS 207. There are two real systems administrators (that is to say, they are full-time University staff): Dan Trinkle and Steve Plite. Dan and Steve live in room 264 of the CS building when they’re not running around putting out fires. Candace Walters is in charge of creating accounts. We also have two full-time hardware technicians, who fix hardware not supported by ITaP or a vendor. They go by the names of Mike Matuliak and Brian Board. They do not get involved with software support, but they are always available for questions and problems concerning machines and printers in the CS department. They inhabit Room 279. There is also a group of people in charge of maintaining non-Unix (Windows and Macintosh) machines. The full time windows care takers are Kip Granson and Nathan Heck, who live in Room 271 and Room 275. Finally, Nick Hirschberg is the department’s web master. He is also in Room 264. The staff will do all they can to help you use the system more efficiently, but sometimes you won’t be able to find any of them! In this case, your best bet is to try to find a fellow student who’s been around for a while, or just ask the person at the terminal next to you. If this doesn’t help, just type trouble at a UNIX prompt to file a trouble report (which can be used for any system related problem or question). In general, everyone tries to be as helpful as possible; it’s just that some people are better informed than others.

ITaP (Information Technology at Purdue) serves the entire university community (excluding administration). This includes Krannert (business school), CPT (computer technology), Computer Sciences, and other divisions of the University. ITaP provides many varieties of computer systems, and administers several public computer labs. You might also have access to mentor.cc, a SparcServer for doing course work in CS courses. The other SparcServer, expert.cc, is now reserved for personal accounts.

For more in-depth information, check the schedule of ITaP short courses. These courses are taught by ITaP staff members and run one to six sessions. Usually they are given in the evening to avoid conflicts with classes or other activities. These courses give you a chance to ask specific questions and increase your knowledge about certain topics. Schedules appear in the ITaP Newsletter and are posted on various bulletin boards. For more information about courses, please visit http://http://www.itap.purdue.edu/training/index.cfm.

Another very important computing resource at Purdue is the Engineering Computing Network (ECN). The ECN serves the Schools of Engineering with computing facilities. Since a lot of collaboration occurs between CS and the Engineering departments, you will probably at some point work with machines that belong to the ECN.

The Computer Science Graduate Student Board is the liason between the department administration and its graduate students. The Graduate Student Board (aka GSB) is also affiliated with the Purdue Graduate Student Government. The board organizes technical talks, pizza parties, summer picnics, bowling nights, movie nights, participates in the graduate and undergraduate committees, and the faculty search process. To learn more about the Graduate Student Board, visit http://www.cs.purdue.edu/gsb.

The International Association for Computing Machinery is an international professional and educational organization dedicated to advancing the art, science, engineering, and application of information technology. The local chapter is open to all Purdue students interested in the field of Computer Science. The goal of the local student chapter is to aid and support student academic, professional, and social development.

ACM supports a number of developmental activities as well as social events throughout the year. ACM sponsors the orientation program for graduate students, the Computer Science fall picnic, programming contests, monthly pizza parties, and guest lecturers. ACM also compiles and distributes the Computer Science Resume Book.

2004 TopCoder Open winner Tomek Czajka, volunteered to teach undergraduate students the tricks of winning programming contests. Tomek opened his bag of programming secrets Thursday, February 24, 2005 to anyone who wanted to join. He will continue to teach undergraduates how to code under time constraints, with the long term goal of these training sessions being to have fun and to train a team of two for the ACM International Collegiate Programming Contest. Be sure to catch a training session to learn from a champ. Email czajkat@cs.purdue.edu to receive an account to be added to the mailing list.

Early in the fall semester, ACM invites Computer Science students to submit resumes which are compiled into a book. The Resume Book is distributed to any company willing to donate a nominal sum. Last year over 100 students participated and over 60 companies donated. The Resume Book sale is ACM's main fund raiser and a great way for students to distribute their resumes to potential employers.

Dr. Tim Korb is the ACM faculty advisor, and the joint ACM/UPE office is located in CS G47. ACM is always looking for new members with new ideas. Stop by the Fall ACM Callout to see what is planned for the school year or drop by the office. To learn more about Purdue ACM, visit http://www.cs.purdue.edu/acm.

The Computer Science Women's Network (CSWN) is an organization at Purdue University consisting of people (both students and staff) who are dedicated to helping women in the field of computer science. The leadership team that organizes most activities is made up of female students who want to reach out and help all of the women in CS.

CSWN organizes different activities meant to encourage young women to meet one another and also learn more about their chosen field of study. These activities range from picnics to technical talks to helping students find tutors if they are needed. Their goal is to encourage women in computer science to stay in the field and prosper. For information, contact the faculty advisor, Barbara Clark (clark@science.purdue.edu) or look at the CSWN web site (http://www.cs.purdue.edu/cswn).

Upsilon Pi Epsilon is an honor society founded in 1967 to recognize scholarship and professionalism in the Computing Sciences. The Purdue chapter of UPE was established in 1992. The local chapter of UPE sponsors a number of activites, including the annual CS Awards Banquet. One of the goals of the local chapter of UPE is to foster communication and the exchange of information within the Computer Science community at Purdue.

Membership is by invitation only, based on scholarly and professional accomplishments in the Computer Sciences. Candidates for membership must also meet minimum GPA and course hours requirements. In the spring semester, qualified juniors, seniors, and graduate students are invited to join. Receiving an offer of membership is quite an honor.

Dr. Samuel Wagstaff is the UPE faculty advisor, and the joint ACM/UPE office is located in CS G47. To learn more about the local UPE chapter, visit http://www.cs.purdue.edu/upe.

The undergraduate student board is the liason between undergraduate students and the department administration. For more information, visit http://www.cs.purdue.edu/usb.

Purdue is the home of Tomek Czajka - the top coder. Tomek has started training classes for ACM regional programming contests. Traditionally, our team has done fairly well at this contest. Top teams at the Regional Contest are invited to compete in the Nationals. Since the Nationals started around 1980, Purdue has been there eight times, taking second place three times. The team is made up of three programmers, plus an alternate, and usually consists of both graduate and undergraduate students. The object of the game is to write programs which solve some number of problems (correctly) as quickly as possible. Programming languages are limited to a subset of FORTRAN, Pascal, and C/C++. Rules and format vary from year to year. If you love writing quick-and-dirty code, working under unrealistic deadlines, and tearing your hair out, this is your kind of contest. Please mail Tomek at czajkat@cs for more information.

Some of the biggest names in computing will visit Purdue while you are here. Some of the visitors are big-names-to-be. When they visit, you want to attend these talks. Some will be boring, some will be incomprehensible, but they will give you a view of computing and current research that you probably can't get any other way. You might even get an idea for a research topic from the talk.

The current faculty sometimes give talks, including CS590 and CS690 seminars. Again, this is a good way to get exposure to some interesting research and faculty here at Purdue. Although you may wonder about it sometimes, the CS faculty here at Purdue is one of the best in the country. Take advantage of your time here to hear what they think is interesting.

If you are planning on getting a Ph.D. here, you probably also want to attend Ph.D. prelim and defense talks by other students. This is the best way to find out what is expected for a Ph.D. degree, and to see what kinds of topics are of current interest. It is also a good way to get some insight into potential advisors.

If a faculty search is on for the year, there will be lots of faculty candidate talks in the spring semester. Attendance at these talks is beneficial both to you and the department. The department takes into consideration feedback from students when making a hiring decision, so please attend these talks and give your feedback to a GSB representative after candidate-student meetings which will be announced at least a week in advance.

In approximate order of appearance, the big departmental social functions are:

• Deparment BBQ - In the beginning of the fall semester the department organizes a barbecue on the CS lawns in front of the CS building to welcome and socialize with old and new CS faculty, graduate students, and staff. There is a variety of food and games like frisbee and badminton. For date and time please refer to the CS calendar at http://www.cs.purdue.edu/calendar/.
• Employee Appreciation Social - a semi-formal affair not to be missed, although it does not happen every year. This is about the only time that you can see faculty members swinging to the music. There is general merriment, and yes, dinner!
• Awards Banquet - held in April for recognizing the many achievements and contributions of members of the CS Department. The Outstanding Freshman, Sophomore, Junior, and Senior Awards and the Outstanding Instructor, Teaching Assistant and Staff Member Awards are presented and a great buffet is consumed. An invited distinguished speaker completes the evening with a (usually) very interesting talk.

Starting with the 2006-2007 school year, the department funded a weekly social hour. Each week a new host, either a an organization, research lab, or CS administrative office, bought food and beverage for everybody to enjoy while they mingled. These occur on Friday at 3 PM.

The GSB hosts numerous events for graduate students each year. These include pizza socials, bowling, BBQs, and Q&As with faculty (over topics like getting an academic job, whats going on in the department, etc.).

link to gsb events page

The following article, “Look at Purdue” by Arthur Utay, appeared several years back in the Exponent and is reprinted with the Exponent's and the author's permission.

Purdue University, located in West Lafayette, 60 miles northwest of Indianapolis, is a school renowned for its academics - and conservatism.

The academics of this “land-grant”, public institution are well-known, with strong departments in engineering, agriculture, pharmacy and veterinary science. Especially respected are the engineering schools, which are continually highly ranked and heavily recruited by industry; and the agriculture school which advises and consults numerous agencies in government and industry, in addition to performing basic research to improve farm technology. Courses at the upper class levels in most curricula are taught by professors. Freshman lectures are led by professors and are often accompanied by smaller “recitations” taught by teaching assistants.

The campus is ideally suited for half the student population of 30,000 it now supports. The strain on facilities necessitates the class day to stretch from 7:30 a.m. to 5:20 p.m. during the week, with Saturday classes from 7:30 a.m. to 12:20 p.m. Night classes also exist for some courses as do night exams for freshman and some upper class courses.

The student body is 75 percent “home-grown” Hoosiers, with the remainder composed of students representing all 50 states and 37 foreign countries. The ratio of guys to girls has been approaching unity in recent years with a current proportion of about 1.5:1. With all the diversity of the student body, however, the attitude here is one of general apathy towards campus, national, and international issues.

Almost half the student body lives off campus, with the dorms housing about 12,000 students, and the Greek and Co-Op systems sheltering under 5000 students.

Of the three housing options, the residence halls are the least admired. Purdue still has restricted visitation hours for men and women in its dorm system, with men allowed in women's living areas (and vice versa) only between the hours of 12:30 to 11:30 p.m. Monday through Thursday. The weekend hours are extended to 1:30 a.m. on Friday and Saturday, with a corresponding rollback of the morning hours to 10:30 a.m. on Saturday and Sunday.

Visitation is heavily enforced on the female side by matrons who guard the entrances after hours, and by the counseling staff which “writes up” offenders. Sanctions against the offenders by the dorm or Dean of Students may result.

Seven of the thirteen dorms are co-ed; however, this means only that meals are eaten with members of the opposite sex. Living areas for males and females are in separate buildings.

The administration has fought successfully against open-visitation proposals, claiming alumni support and academic integrity as reasons to maintain the status quo.

Greek life is big on campus - at least for Greeks. Many sororities are as strict as the dorms, but fraternities are largely unsupervised. Forty seven frats and twenty five sororities have houses here, and a general animosity between dormies and Greeks exists, as can be evidenced by the annual scuffles on the opinion page of the Purdue Exponent.

Off-campus housing is popular, although some of the older sections of West Lafayette have been termed ``slums'' by locals. Even with declining (sic) enrollments, off-campus housing is tight, and apartment hunting season begins around spring break. Usually the lease goes for 12 months starting from June or August. If you don't plan on being on campus during summer time, subleasing apartments is a popular trend.

No “college town” atmosphere exists here, as the land around the University is almost exclusively residential with only a few eateries at opposite ends of the campus. About six miles away, on the U.S. 52 bypass, almost every national franchise is available, as are a few places a half mile east of the campus on the “Levee.”

There are a few bars and alcohol stores in West Lafayette area, though a recent crackdown on underage drinking has resulted in the only under-21 drinkers being those with false IDs. Parties are mostly off-campus or at frats since restrictions against alcohol consumption are rarely, if ever, enforced. Some parties happen in dorms, but only behind closed doors so as not to attract the attention of the counseling staff.

Drug busts occur whenever authorities are aware of their (sic) presence, regardless of location. Dormies are especially vulnerable due to the presence of counselors.

Frequent concert appearances by top name groups draw many students, as do numerous films shown on campus each week. Students are fanatical supporters of Boilermaker football and basketball teams, selling out almost every home game. Grand Prix, an annual go-cart race is a popular student attraction, as are the evangelists who entertain students on the malls when the weather becomes warm.

Editor's note: Total enrollment on the West Lafayette campus, as of fall 2003, is close to 39,000, with 59 percent male and 41 percent female students, who come from 50 states and 126 foreign countries. 59 percent of undergraduates in West Lafayette campus are from Indiana. 35 percent of all students live in the 15 on-campus housing units; 18 percent of the undergraduate students are members of the 50 fraternities and 28 sororities on campus. The visiting hours in the dorms have been extended to more reasonable times. Apartment hunting season now starts in winter, right at the beginning of the spring semester.

As the story goes, when other college teams met the Purdue football squad they were in awe of the size of the Purdue players. Believing that no man of academic ability could be so enormous, rivals were sure that the Purdue team was made up of workers from the old Lafayette Boiler Factory. Hence, Purdue was the victim of many insulting names, one of which was “Boilermakers.”

Other tellers of this tale (probably Purdue opponents) state that the team members actually were boilermakers and not students. Do not believe them. Purdue, being a famous agricultural school, attracted many farm boys who were typically large, healthy, and powerful.

Many Boilermaker alumni have distinguished themselves in one way or another. A few of them are Neil Armstrong, Birch Bayh, Earl Butz, Eugene Cernan, Len Dawson, Bob Griese, Durwood Kirby, Chris Schenkel, Orville Reddenbacher, Roger Chaffee, Virgil Grissom, Abe Gibron, John Wooden, Hank Stram, and Herbert Brown.

Sports have always been big at Purdue, gaining the support of students and nearby residents alike. As a member of the Big Ten football league, Purdue went to the Rose Bowl in 1967 and beat Southern California 14-13. In 1978 the Boilermakers went to the Peach Bowl and beat Georgia Tech 41-21. In 1979 they went to the Astro-Bluebonnet Bowl and beat Tennessee 27-22. The 1980 Liberty Bowl saw Purdue squeak by Missouri, 28-25. Then Purdue suffered three straight losing seasons, before an impressive 1984 season, which ended in a 27-24 loss to Virginia in the Peach Bowl. The team then languished in obscurity until the arrival of coach Joe Tiller. Tiller's Boilermakers have now played–and won–the Alamo Bowl two years running, returning pride to the hearts of fans everywhere. As of 1999, the men's basketball team has shared six Big Ten championships in the last 16 seasons. Three of them came from 1994, 1995, and 1996! The 1987-88 season was the sixth straight year the team won 20 or more games and qualified for NCAA tournament action. Not to be left behind, the women's basketball team was national champion in 1998! If you want current Boilermaker sports info, visit http://www.purduesports.com.

Although Purdue offers no music performance degrees, 650 students participate in various band ensembles for credit each year. The “All-American” Marching Band is one of the largest university bands in the Big 10 and the nation with 320 members. Highlights of that band include the World's Largest Drum (Built in 1921) and the Golden Girl (A tradition since 1954). The Department of Bands also boasts two to four concert bands each semester and three jazz bands, as well as a 100-member symphony orchestra and the university's pep bands.

The present Purdue seal was adopted in 1974. The griffin head sits on a 3-sectioned shield which represents the 3 educational thrusts of Purdue: science, technology, and agriculture. The lines representing the griffin's mane are for the 5 campuses: West Lafayette, IUPU Fort Wayne, North Central, Calumet, and IUPU Indianapolis.

The Purdue Mascot is the Boilermaker Special V, the locomotive which can be seen around campus primarily before home football games.

Purdue is one of 68 land-grant colleges established with the Morrill Act, an act signed by President Abe Lincoln by which the federal government offered to turn over public lands to any state which would use the land to maintain a college for the study of agriculture and the mechanical arts. The Indiana General Assembly accepted $150,000 from John Purdue and $50,000 from Tippecanoe County. In 1874 classes began at Purdue University with 6 instructors and 39 students.

The West Lafayette campus, including housing areas, recreation areas, the airport, and service areas, covers 2,307 acres. Additional lands away from West Lafayette are used for agriculture and recreation.

The Edward C. Elliott Hall of Music (seating 6,077, it is considered the largest and best-equipped theatre of any educational institution in the world), the Loeb Playhouse (seating 1,052), the Experimental Theatre, the Memorial Union, Stewart Center, Slayter Center, Ross-Ade Stadium (capacity 67,861), and Mackey Arena (seats 14,123) make Purdue a cultural and recreational center for northwestern Indiana.

The Purdue Radio Station is WBAA 920AM or 101.3FM, “The Fine Arts & Information Center on Your Radio Dial;” available online at www.wbaa.org.

The Purdue Airport, established in 1930, was the first university-owned airport in the country.

The Tippecanoe County morgue is in Lynn Hall on the south edge of campus.

The School of Veterinary Medicine provides veterinary services to the public and has even treated the lions at the zoo. They will care for injured strays when people bring them in.

Where most faculty, students, and research labs are located. The adminstrative staff for the CS department is located here. The basement houses the TA offices and computer labs for students. Including the basement, there are 5 floors (though most people will never enter the top floor). The 3rd floor has a balcony that overlooks University St. and 3rd St.

The main computer science building until Lawson was completed in Fall 2006. Even though other departments have taken over much of the space, a few labs and faculty still remain in this building.

With the addition of the Computer Science building, very little of our department remains in good ol' “Math-Sci.” A brief tour of the building, starting from the basement (remember, there are two basements, but the elevators are only on the south side) and moving skyward, follows:

• Basement: There are graduate student offices and, more importantly, there is an ITaP lab which is open 24 hours. The lab has Windows boxes, Mac computers, and Sun workstations. Additionally, the basement floor has machines which dispense milk, pop, coffee, candy (beware, the chocolate bars are often gooey) and various munchies.
• Ground: More student offices.
• Main Floor: There's a mailbox in the south (elevator) side of the building. MATH 175 on the other side is often used for colloquia. Basically, the main floor is a large wind-tunnel, called the “breezeway.”
• 2nd Floor: This has mostly offices that deal with undergrads (in particular, counseling).
• 3rd Floor: Math Library. It is accessible only from the elevator (south) side of the building. This can be a good place to hide, as there are numerous study carrels and desks. It is sometimes a good place to go for meetings on projects. Additionally, the library has a couple of copy machines (5 cents per sheet).
• 4th Floor: The fourth floor hosts the Indiana Center for Database Systems (ICDS) with faculty and student offices.
• 5th Floor: Presently inhabited by statisticians and mathematicians.
• 8th Floor: Main math offices. Sometimes you also need to go there to obtain a key to your office.
• 9th Floor: Offices of the Dean of the School of Science, his staff, and Women in Science Program (WISP) staff.
• 10th Floor: Reachable only through the stairs, this is a mysterious place to which few venture.

Until a few years ago, the Recitation (REC) building, directly east of MATH, was only of interest if you had a class there. Starting from the Fall of 1999, however, the second floor of REC is home to the Center for Education and Research in Information Assurance and Security (CERIAS, pronounced like “serious”). CERIAS grew out of the COAST laboratory in Computer Science, but with its current Center status is able to have a much larger multidisciplinary reach, although it still has very strong connections with CS. Several CS faculty and staff members as well as grad students have offices there. So if you are interested in matters related to security, healthy paranoia and being a white hat, make sure you visit there.

Schleman and Hovde Halls are the main student services and administration buildings. There are a number of major administrative attractions in these two buildings including:

• The Registrar's Office - Hovde
• The Bursar's Office - Hovde
• The Dean of Students Office - Schleman
• The Admissions Office - Schleman
• Registration Headquarters - Schleman
• International Student Services - Schleman
• Business Office of Student Organizations - Schleman
• Office of Space Management and Academic Scheduling - 4th floor of the Engineering Administration Building (ENAD 402)

The Memorial Union (in memory of Purdue alums killed in wars) was built back when it was stylish and economically feasible to incorporate a good deal of wood in finishing the interior of a building. The varnished woodwork, solid wood tables and chairs, and stone and wood floors are a refreshing change from the plastic, concrete, veneer and linoleum which surrounds you in most places. Also featured are lots of old moldy plaques commemorating people who would otherwise be forgotten, and a 3-D model of the campus (a must for visiting parents).

Functionally, the predominant features of the Union are eating places, meeting places (various ballrooms and lounges), and sleeping places (the “Union Club” hotel rooms for convention attendees, visiting parents, etc.). For details about the eating places, see the section about on-campus dining. Other useful facilities in the PMU include:

• The Student ID Card Office - west end of the main floor, room 130. They also handle BoilerExpress in that office.
• Check Cashing Service - east end of the main floor; $50.00 limit and $.100 charge per check.
• BoilerCopyMaker - a pretty well-equipped copy center is in Room 157 of the Union. Purdue has an agreement with Microsoft that allows Purdue students, faculty and staff to buy Microsoft software for $5. See http://www.purdue.edu/MSCA/ for more information.
• PEFCU Branch - a branch of Purdue Employees Federal Credit Union is located in the west wing of the main floor.
• STA Travel Office - west wing of the building, on the ground floor, where you may find discount student tickets for domestic and international travel.

The Purdue Memorial Union also possesses facilities for a number of entertainment and recreation activities:

• television lounges on the ground and first floors
• an art gallery on the first floor
• bowling lanes in the basement
• pool tables underground between PMU and Stewart Center
• video arcade on the ground floor

From here it is possible to walk through tunnels and buildings all the way to either Grad House without going outside, as well as to either of the three parking garages, Marsteller Street (across from Hawkins Grad House), Wood Street (across from Young Grad House), or Grant Street (across from the Union). The main attractions of the Stewart Center are:

• Fowler Hall, on the first floor, an auditorium equipped for movie screenings
• Loeb Playhouse, the Purdue Experimental Theatre
• An Art Gallery, off the west foyer on the first floor
• HSSE library, on the first floor, see the section on libraries for details
• An ITaP Lab, first floor, often very crowded
• ITaP Customer Service Center, on the ground floor, room G68, phone 49-44000; a first and single point of contact for support with many ITaP services
• Audio-Visual Center, ground floor
• Candy Stand, main floor, sells candy to rot your teeth, paperbacks to rot your mind, and practically every magazine you've ever heard of plus hundreds more that you've never heard of
• Envision Center, on the ground floor level between Steward Center and PMU, the center for data perceptualization, see also http://www.envision.purdue.edu

The Center for Career Opportunities is located on the main floor on the east side of the north end of the east hall of the Stewart Center (and you thought directions had to be clear!). They provide helpful advice free of charge to everyone regardless of their career interests or visa status. You can register with CCO on CCO Express at https://www.cco.purdue.edu/student/CCOExpress.shtml. Details relating to corporate interviewing on campus and job vacancy postings are found there along with some pretty good job search help videos. More than 600 companies show up at the CCO every year to hire both internship candidates and graduating students. They also conduct quite a few workshops including ones that target graduate students.

The Purdue Library System is dispersed throughout many buildings on campus which can make locating a particular book very difficult. Fortunately, their web-based catalog can direct you to the right location if you remember to check it before you leave home. There are over a dozen different libraries spread around campus including:

• HSSE Library in Stewart Center
• Undergraduate Library adjacent to Stewart Center
• Mathematical Sciences Library in the Math Building
• Potter Engineering Library in Potter Center
• Chemistry Library in Brown Laboratory
• Krannert Management Library in the Krannert Building

Notable items in the Humanities, Social Sciences, and Education (HSSE) Library include the complete, out-of-date card catalog for all the university's libraries, the Interlibrary Loan Service, several photocopiers, and a complete collection of all Masters and Ph.D. theses written at Purdue. The latter are kept in a steel vault 700 feet underground, guarded by rabid reference librarians. At the reference desk you may obtain in-library use of one (a dissertation, not a reference librarian) by posting your life as security for its return.

There is also a lab, called Digital Learning Collaboratory, at the lower level of the library from which you can check out nice digital equipment, including digital cameras and video cameras and laptops, with a student ID. Information about the lab is also available online at http://dlc.purdue.edu.

The Undergraduate Library, just south of Stewart Center, is oriented toward freshman and sophomore students but there are useful items for all students. You may want to check out the comfortable vending lounge. Notable items in ``Undergrad'' are Purdue's film library, a 24 hour lounge/study room, and the Independent Study Center. One can also find popular reading materials (i.e. paperbacks, magazines, American and foreign newspapers) and a lot more photocopy machines in this building. Also, in recent years, the undergraduate library has been open 24 hours during dead and finals week, so it is a good place to hide/study/sleep during that period.

The Mathematical Sciences Library occupies the third floor of the Math Science building and serves the Mathematics, Statistics, and Computer Sciences departments. One large room is a reading room for Math graduate students and faculty and has a fair amount of blackboard space, as well as coffee and cookies every day from 3-4 pm (though rumor has it, this is for math majors only). There are several smaller study rooms in the back with smaller amounts of blackboard space. There are two photocopy machines near the main desk. As for holdings, the collection of CS journals is quite good and includes Computing Reviews, many conference proceedings are available but may be hard to find, and copies of most Math, Stat, and CS dissertations from Purdue are kept in the grad/faculty room. Many CS books must be requested at the desk because they have been prone to mysterious disappearance. The organization of this library is usually not obvious to the uninitiated, but the staff are quite friendly, so don't hesitate to ask at the desk for help in locating materials.

The Engineering Library is housed in the Potter Engineering Center, which is just east of the building with the big smokestack. It features numerous copies of all the IEEE Transactions, MIT PhD dissertations, and a sensor which beeps at you if you try to exit with an unchecked-out book.

The Krannert Library takes up the second and third floors of the Krannert Building. In the Corporate Records Room you can read all about how your favorite corporation is doing. It is also a great place to learn more about companies before interviews.

Purdue University Libraries online provides access to the Purdue Libraries' on-line catalog, media catalog, bibliographic databases, and access to Indiana and Big 10 catalogs. You can access it at http://www.lib.purdue.edu.

In addition, Purdue has university-wide online subscription to the ACM and IEEE digital libraries (http://www.acm.org/dl and http://ieeexpert.ieee.org, respectively), and also recently subscribed to the LNCS digital archive (www.springer.de/comp/lncs/). Publications from all of these digital archives are accessible from the purdue.edu domain.

Yes, all of African-Americans, Hispanic, and International Students have found homes near or on campus which they have made into cultural centers.

The Black Cultural Center is a place where the Black Experience in America can be explored, celebrated, and shared. Located on 3rd Street, about a block west from the CS building. The BCC sponsors:

• a combination sitting and African Art Exhibit room with background music from the black station in Chicago
• several Performing Arts Ensembles which consist of students and community members, including The Black Voices of Inspiration
• a library focusing on African-American poetry, fiction, and the social sciences
• prominent scholars, speakers, performing artists, and Purdue alumni who are brought to Purdue to enhance cultural diversity
• cultural sensitivity workshops

The BCC also offers a number of interesting courses related to African American studies. To learn more about the BCC, visit http://www.purdue.edu/BCC.

The International Center was founded in 1971 to enrich the cultural diversity in the Greater Lafayette area. The center is located at 523 Russell Street. The Center provides free ESL classes, foreign language instruction and conversation groups, meeting facilities for foreign student organizations, cultural presentations, and international dinner series. For more information about the center, visit the International Students Association's web page at http://www.intlctr.org or call 743-4353.

The Latino Cultural Center was established in 2003, is a place to gather, learn, share, and support Latino cultures. The LCC serves as the home base for Latino students, faculty and staff members, and student organizations, fostering a welcoming environment for all Purdue students. The center hosts a variety of educational and social events throughout the year, which include lectures, picnics, and dances. The center is located at South Campus Courts Complex. Additional information about the center can be obtained on their website http://www.purdue.edu/LCC/ or by phone 49-42530.

The Office of International Students and Scholars in located in Schleman Hall. ISS is a division of International Programs and offers many services that are useful to foreign students. ISS is the expert resource for the University in the areas of F-1, J-1, and H-1B rules and regulations. The office, SCHL 136, is open between 8:00 am and 5:00 pm each weekday, and if you are an international student, you will be visiting every now and then. They are nice folks, even though they may appear a bit harried when you first encounter them around orientation time. To learn more about ISS, visit http://www.iss.purdue.edu.

The ISS has assembled a handbook for international students which contains a lot of useful information about getting along here at Purdue. The 2002 edition can be found at http://www.iss.purdue.edu/resources/docs/Immigr