Computer Science Colloquium

Careers in Computing How to Prepare and What to Expect

Wednesday November 16 at 3:30pm to 4:30pm in MSCS 206 (Q&A afterwards) pdf

by Dennis J. Frailey

Many college students concentrate on getting a job instead of preparing for a career. In a rapidly changing field like computing, this can lead to frequent job changes, burnout and dissatisfaction. Furthermore, today we hear a lot about outsourcing and some wonder whether there will be computing careers in the future. This talk is based on the premise that the jobs will certainly change over time but there will be computing careers for a long time. Dr. Frailey shows how to prepare for a life-long career in computing, covering such topics as where the opportunities are, what it’s like to work in the computing field in a large, professionally run computing organization, how the field of computing has changed over the years, how it is likely to change in the future, and what hasn’t changed. The talk also addresses what employers look for when hiring people in the computing field and what it takes to have a successful career.

Bio:

Dennis is a recently retired Principal Fellow at Raytheon Company in Plano, Texas. He still teaches software engineering and computer science as an Adjunct Professor of Computer Science and Computer Engineering at Southern Methodist University (SMU). At Raytheon, Dennis was a leader in software engineering improvement as well as a specialist in software measurement and cycle time reduction. He was also an instructor in several internal Raytheon courses for project managers and software managers and in past assignments served as a software project manager, computer architect, operating system designer, compiler designer, and speechwriter for company executives. Dennis previously worked at Texas Instruments, the Ford Motor Company, and as a tenured, Associate Professor at SMU where he helped start both the computer science and software engineering programs. Professionally, Dennis is a member of the IEEE Computer Society Board of Governors, vice-chair of the IEEE-CS Education Activities Board, chair of the Industry Advisory Board to the Texas Board of Professional Engineers, author of the software management portion of SWEBOK – the Guide to the Software Engineering Body of Knowledge, and an ABET accreditation evaluator in computer science, computer engineering and software engineering. Previously he was a member of the Computer Science Accreditation board of directors, ACM national vice president, ACM regional representative, chair of the Purdue University ACM student chapter, and Chair of the Dallas Association for Software Engineering Excellence. He holds an MS and PhD in computer science (Purdue) and a BS in mathematics (Notre Dame). He was born in Tulsa.

Tentative Schedule

12:00pm: Lunch with students in MSCS 214

1:00pm: Meeting with faculty and students in MSCS 237

3:15pm: Walk to lecture room and prepare for lecture

3:30pm: Lecture

4:30pm: Q&A

6:00pm: Dinner